Rudilambert

It is in us as persons that the nature of God is revealed. A scriptural episode is not a record of an historical event but a parabolic revelation of truth. To see Jesus or David as an historical character is to see truth tempered to the weakness of our souls. The minute you see them as characters in history you are not seeing what they represent. We’ll take any episode of scripture, but any, and show you where it unfolds within you. The title of the 54th Psalm is “And David is in hiding within us.” The King James Version translates it “And David is hiding with us”; the Revised Standard Version translates it “And David is in hiding among us.” But the word is within us…that’s where he’s hiding. That is where every character is hiding. So when we say that “All that you behold, though it appears without, it is within, in your Imagination, of which this world of mortality is but a shadow” , I mean that literally, the whole vast drama unfolds within us. So Jesus, David, Abraham, Moses, all are but personifications of these eternal states. We encounter them as we are moving towards the ultimate which is the awakening of God in us.727 ¶1

If the poet Browning had not experienced this, he never could have written the poem Saul, or the one on Paracelsus for that matter. But in Saul he tells a story in the 16th chapter of the Book of 1st Samuel that David cured Saul of the evil spirit which had come upon him sent from the Lord. Well, we see right away who Saul is, if we know scripture. Saul represents humanity, the human being as described in the 4th chapter of the Book of Daniel: And the watcher said, “Hew down the tree and cut off the branches, strip its leaves, and scatter its fruit. But leave the stump” . And now it turns from a tree into a person, “Let him be watered with the dew from heaven, and let him move with the beasts of the earth” . Let him now be taken from the human state: “Take from him the mind of man and give him the mind of a beast; and let seven times pass over him until he knows that the Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom he will, even to the lowliest among men.” So here we have not the mind of man but the mind of a beast…and that was Saul. Saul went insane…did not remember who he was and was violent. David cured him of his insanity and then David tells him of the coming of Messiah.727 ¶2

David said to Saul, “O Saul, it shall be a face like my face that receives thee, a man like unto me thou shalt love and be loved by forever. A hand like this hand shall open the gates of new life unto thee; see the Christ stand” . He’s standing before him. Now, you think this is an episode in the pages of history. No. This is a drama that takes place in man, this insane being looking for an external savior as man does, and one day this that never walked the face of the earth…but he knows for all revelation has the mood of certainty about it…there is no uncertainty in revelation. Then David stands before you, and you who one moment before were insane in a way…for you didn’t know who you were and that’s certainly a form of insanity, a man who doesn’t know who he is, a form of amnesia any way. So Saul did not know. And suddenly that which had no flesh and blood stands before him as a being of flesh and blood and speaks to him and he to this being. And he now sees the real relationship and the revelation as to who he is. But now, who is he? He is no longer Saul. Saul has been turned into Paul. For the name was changed from Saul into Paul.727 ¶3

Paul now makes the statement, “Henceforth we regard no one from the human point of view; even though we once regarded Christ from a human point of view, we regard him thus no longer” . For, he was trained in the belief of an external historical past of Israel, and to him David was the king of kings. And now, as God reveals his son in him…as he said, “It pleased God to reveal his son in me and now I do not discuss it with flesh and blood.” What man believing as he formerly believed could understand what he is talking about, when he himself knew that he tormented anyone who did not accept the historicity of the revelation of the Old Testament? Now he can no longer believe in any historical character of either Old…and there was no New, the New was not yet written…but they’re discussing a Messiah and now he knows who Messiah really is. Now he knows who the Lord Jesus really is. So now he sees the Lord…that is, not what the world believes to be Jesus…but he sees himself as that Lord and what the world believes to be Jesus. But he sees himself as that Lord…and what the world believes to be a man who was a mighty king is his son, his begotten son . And it wasn’t flesh and blood at all, for this happened in the Spirit. And “When it pleased God to reveal his son in me, I discussed it not with flesh and blood” .727 ¶4

So here, to see Jesus or Abraham or Moses or Jacob or any of the characters as flesh and blood external to yourself in the pages of history is to see truth tempered to the weakness of your soul. Because most of us until the revelation takes place are unable, ordinarily we are, to stand the force of that light of revelation. There is nothing more difficult in the world than to give up a fixed idea, especially concerning religion or politics. You are born into a certain religious group and you do not know why you are born there. You are taught it as your mother taught it, and then you go to a school and they confirm what your mother said, that these are fixed characters who lived in time and space and who left behind them a record of their physical existence…and it isn’t so at all. These are all revelations of an eternal drama that is in man and man’s real being is his own wonderful human Imagination.727 ¶5

So they say, “But don’t you believe, Neville, that there was a man called Jesus?” That’s the one thing I get from my family in Barbados, “But you do believe that, don’t you?” I said, “Are you putting words in my mouth? No. I do not.” I did believe it, may I tell you. I formerly believed it as you now believe it. I can no longer believe in the historicity of any character of scripture, for I encountered them as states, personified yes. But the last one which is Jesus Christ himself, he comes right out of your very being and you are that state. When you are brought to the very end of the road, you yourself are Jesus. Well then, who is the Christ? Surely he is…no, the son is the anointed, the one who was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellow men. Well, who is he?—that is David. David in the Spirit calls him “my Father.” That is scripture and not in the flesh, for time if you take it chronologically separated these two events by 1,000 years. Yet you find the whole thing is contemporary, it is not something of the past; that God is contemporaneous with us. Now, this very moment he is my very being, my reality, and that is Jesus, that is the Lord. But if he is a father, as we are told in scripture, “Holy Father, keep them in thy name, that thou hast given unto me; that they may be one, even as we are one” , it’s interchangeable, the father-son relationship, they are one. At one moment in scripture as you read it he is speaking as the son; another moment in the same chapter he is speaking as the father. Then he jumps back without giving any warning to that of the son. And man is confused…they think it’s simply one being of flesh and blood. It’s an inter-relationship of father-son, they are one.727 ¶6

A lady who is here tonight wrote me this letter this week. She said, “In my vision I saw a table and at the table sat a man and his son, a young son, and I knew without uncertainty I was that son”—now this is a lady speaking—“that I was that son and I was that father. I also knew that that father and son were one, and I was that one.” Now, the same lady in another vision of the same period said, “A friend of mine” (who is here tonight) “Louise Roach in the vision called to me in a very loud voice and told me that I was pregnant, bringing forth the Son of God.” She said, “At the moment I was embarrassed, because a huge crowd was present and she is proclaiming my pregnancy bringing forth the Son of God.” Well, she is bringing forth the Son of God, and who brings forth the Son of God but God. “Born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” . So she is that being who is the Jesus of scripture bringing forth God.727 ¶7

And because God is a father as we just heard, “Holy Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me” . So the last gift of God to man is himself; and if he’s God the Father and gives himself to me then he gave me his Son. He sent his Son into me calling “Father.” He sent the spirit of his Son into my heart crying “Father” . Well, if he calls me Father, then I am God the Father. And if God the Father is the Lord Jesus, then that Christ is simply the anointed one, and the one he anointed was David: “Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee” .727 ¶8

Now this, I tell you, is a great shock. It’s a frightful shock to those of us who were raised in the Christian faith. It’s also a shock to those who were raised in the Jewish faith, for there’s no more historicity of the characters of the Old Testament than there is of the characters of the New. These are the eternal states through which man passes from darkness to light, and when he comes to the end he is that state personified, and that state is himself, and it’s God the Father. So David is in hiding within us. Now who told him this? We are told it is the Ziphites. Well, the Ziphite in scripture is of the tribe of Judah. If you read the genealogy, the only son of Jacob mentioned in the genealogy is Judah. So this now brings it to David. David now has been notified that Saul has been notified that he is hiding within us. Now the insane man can’t follow this. If he’s hiding within you, where do I look for him? Wait and he’ll come out. At a moment in time there is an explosion, a real explosion; and it is that that releases David who is hiding within you. For, this is told to Saul.727 ¶9

And we are the insane of Daniel. We are the ones…look at the world today…if we aren’t insane when we murder each other. Look at what is taking place in the world. Getting the better of the seeming other and there is no other. For the prayer is that they be one as we are one, and yet we don’t realize that we are one. Not a thing in this world can bring you to that realization but the revelation of the Son to the Father. For when you tell me, as this lady has told me in her adumbration, that she had been seen by one who is here all the time as being pregnant, bringing forth the Son of God, I know she is. I also know you are! You may not be as near to the actual birth, but you are bringing forth the Son of God.727 ¶10

Three other ladies in this audience tonight…and one wrote me this. She is sleeping on a little, I would say, couch in the home of a friend…in other words away from her own home. And there she sees a babe and the babe…there’s a blanket there. At the moment that she’s about to pick the babe up, this little infant and it’s a boy, the door raps…someone is knocking at the door. So she answers the door, holding the new child in her arms to her chest. When the door is opened it’s her daughter who is there, and she’s embarrassed that this little child is in the nude, because she has a friend with her. She says, “Mother, put something on your baby”—she called it “your” baby—“because there is someone here.” Well, it was a friend of the mother’s, too, that she met about a year ago. So the man came in and patted the infant on its back and said, “What a beautiful, wonderful looking babe that you have there.” Then she went back and began to cover the baby with a blanket, with the swaddling cloth, when she woke. That’s a wonderful adumbration, a forecasting of the event. Then she will know what the real event as recorded in scripture truly is concerning the birth of God.727 ¶11

Then another one…it was her sister’s child, and she took the child up, and the child fell for a moment. She picked it up; it wasn’t injured, just a little scratched. But it was this lovely boy. And then she realized her sister said, “Give me back the child” and “the child’s face turned into that of a cherub, from the little infant into the actual face of a cherub and smiled at me. Then I said, ‘I cannot give this back, it is mine’” and with that she held it knowing the child was really hers. Now that is an adumbration…all these are foreshadowings.727 ¶12

Now, these ladies who wrote me these letters are mothers, they have their own children. The last one has five children; one has two. One speaks of a child “her daughter” was at the door. How many others? At least she is a mother…all these are people who have the physical children here. But this is a spiritual child. The whole Bible from beginning to end is a supernatural document where man treats it as an historical fact, and it isn’t. So to see Jesus…and I don’t care who you are, whether you be the highest in the Christian faith today, the head of all the bodies on earth, and you believe that Jesus is an historical character, it’s because you have not yet the strength to see the brilliant light of the revelation of truth, you can’t stand it. I know when it came to me I can’t tell you how the things fell within me.727 ¶13

But we are told, all the buildings will fall in the end, and these structures are the structures of the mind by which we live. The belief in the historicity of Jesus is a structure; the belief in the historicity of the Bible is a structure. You see all these buildings, aren’t they beautiful! You see them externalized as churches, cathedrals of the world. Now they will all fall…in the last days they will all fall, and you will have that experience. You will see all these buildings within you actually fall. Then from the ashes of these buildings will rise that which is permanent, for now you are not living by any external object in the world. It’s all within you and everything has to be unfolded within you.727 ¶14

When you are told that he went into the garden and here he said, “I will give you a sign” and he gave him a sign as to which one is the secret, and he said, “I will kiss him.” So he comes in and goes right up to one and kisses him, and then departs. You are told that in the 14th chapter of the Book of Mark. When you read it you think here is an episode, a record of some historical past. It isn’t, it is actually something you’re going to experience, and you’ll see how this whole drama is now, it’s contemporaneous with us now…for I have had that experience. I am teaching the Word of God and telling them of the experiences that I have had, therefore, I am the Word that went out. I sent it out from myself, clothed myself in flesh, so the Word became flesh and dwelt within me, and all that it implied unfolded within me. As I am telling this now one departs. No sooner had he departed than I knew he is revealing what I am teaching. Then one enters. Well, the one who enters fulfills the 14th of Mark, “This is a sign that I give you…the one I kiss” . Do not hurt him, treat him kindly, but don’t let him go. If this is the truth, don’t let the truth go, for this is the truth I’m going to kiss. So he comes in and kisses me, and then extends his arms in adoration like a cross. Well, the word Judah is simply “to pray with extended arm.” And it was he who kissed me, who then embraced me, severed the sleeve and revealed the arm of the Lord fulfilling scripture. “And who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” . Well, now it was revealed.727 ¶15

This is simply the symbol of power, the creative power of God, that’s all. But it is so all-together beautiful in imagery, and the image is all perfect because you fulfill it in its perfect symbolism. So here was the man, this beautiful being about forty, gloriously dressed, and he did everything scripture tells you he would do when he comes and kisses the one who has the secret. That’s the one who has the secret…hold him and treat him gently; do not let him go but let everything else go. All that you formerly believed let it go, but don’t let that go. That is the word of truth, and these are the words of scripture. I can’t tell anyone prior to the actual experience what a blow it is to one who has to give up, or at least struggle to give up, his belief in the historicity of scripture.727 ¶16

When I first came here back in 1945, I was invited to come out and tell my story of the Bible. The head of the organization—I won’t mention his name and you know the organization, there are maybe 100 across the country now. They’ve grown quite rapidly and they’re quite successful in their numbers. The very first night that I arrived I’m going to address all of his graduates, and there were about, I dare say, four to five hundred of them. He didn’t give me one minute…I’m taking the platform right away because I’m late, the plane was late. But I was taken to a late dinner party, and so I couldn’t arrive there until about five minutes before eight, and I’m supposed to be on the platform at eight. He takes me aside and in that little short interval of time he tells me I must not speak on the non-historicity of the Bible to his people, because he believes in the historicity and teaches it and I must not in any way disturb his people. I thanked him. I said, I’m your guest tonight so I will abide by your decision, but beginning tomorrow when I’m speaking, don’t tell me what to say. No one can tell me what to say! Again, I’m quoting scripture, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge.” For I cannot but speak of what I have seen and heard, and I know it is not historically true—it is truer than that, it’s eternally true. And these records are forever, and one day you will experience it. Even though you call yourself the dean of this institute, not in my eyes are you any dean concerning the Word of God, because you do not know it. Then I had to take the platform and go on, and naturally change what I had to say, and speak to them on an entirely different level. I couldn’t that night as his guest speak on the truth as I had experienced it. For at least I had experienced it based upon its law, but I was getting glimpses of it, that it was not historically sound, that this episode recorded in scripture was not a record of some historical fact; it was something entirely different. It was simply a revelation of truth, which would stun the man if he had the strength to stand it.727 ¶17

But, may I tell you, when it happens to you, when you actually experience it, it’s perfectly all right and there is no uncertainty, none. There may be a little uncertainty up unto the moment of experiencing the truth, because you will hear it from one you trust and you would like to believe all that he tells you. Certain things seem a little bit too much and you take it under consideration. But when it happens to you everything goes out, because you know now it is the truth. So, you take all the stories, every one, and they are true…but not as they are recorded. They were not writing history as we understand history. It is not secular history; it is divine or sacred history and this is forever. So you can’t speak of it as something in the past or something to come…it is. The climax has been reached and it is always being reached in the moment of time.727 ¶18

So, the Jesus of scripture is seated right here tonight in you. And his Son bearing witness of his fatherhood is seated right here, and hiding in you. Read the 54th Psalm, and they said unto Saul, “David is in hiding within us.” Well, how would the insane man ever know that? How would he find out if he’s hiding within me, where would he look? How do I go about looking for him if he’s hiding within me? Wait! He’ll come out. He will come out one day when some explosion takes place within you, and when he comes out he is standing. That’s why I say Browning must have had the experience, because the symbolism that he uses is actually perfect: “See the Christ stand” and he’s standing. And here, David is standing, so “See the Christ stand.” The word Christ means “Messiah.” He goes to Saul to explain the coming of Messiah and then he tells Saul, “It shall be a face like my face, a man like unto me. This is the one that you’re going to love and he will love you forever.” That relationship between you when he stands before you is one of infinite love and it is forever. A man just like me, he’s telling him. He’s telling you he is Messiah; therefore, he is the Christ, he is the anointed of the Lord. Then he said, “The hand just like this hand will open the door of new life to you.” Now he comes to a point, he said, “See the Christ stand” and he’s standing before him . But that man could not take it. Those who read Browning say isn’t that a lovely thing and pass right on, because it is in conflict with what they have fixed in their mind’s eye concerning the historical Jesus. They think Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is God. Jesus is the Lord, the Creator of it all. But he is a father, and the final revelation of God to man is the fatherhood of God.727 ¶19

The final gift of God to man is the gift of himself. So if he gives me himself, he can’t take back one little bit. He gives me all and in giving me all, he gave me his Son. Is it in scripture? Yes, “And he has sent his Son into my heart crying Father” . He is calling me Father. Well then, when he calls me Father, I will know who I am. As he stands before me and I see him and hear him, I know who I am. Until then I do not know. I’m confused…I’ve heard it this way and I’ve heard it that way. And you have to disturb people. You never go into a place and disturb them, but from a platform like this you ask for it, perfectly all right. But to come to your home and then to volunteer this information would be silly, because you simply are out of order. You are taking your pearls and throwing it before those who are not yet qualified to receive it. So leave them alone and don’t disturb them. But you who know it and you’re called upon to voice what you know then voice it, tell it. You, who are moved to really teach it, go and teach it. Don’t modify it! As Paul said, “Take the words, the true words of the pattern that I have given you. Do not change them.” He tells Timothy, “Hold fast the pattern of the true words which you heard from me” and he calls it “my gospel.” Well, here was one who was very proud of the fact that he was born a Jew. He said, “I was born of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Pharisee of the Pharisees” . And then the whole thing unfolded within him and he realized the non-historicity of his own great book, and therefore that whatever came out of it would be equally un-historical but equally true. All these are the states through which man passes.727 ¶20

So do not be disturbed when you read in scripture Moses said this and Abraham said that and it’s beautifully painted in words. Take it, accept it. You will one day experience all these states. You’ll experience the state of Abraham and know what faith really is when you see it personified. When you look into his face and see that being leaning against a tree, and wound around that tree is a serpent, the serpent with a human face, the serpent with the wisest of expression on its face. As you’re told in Genesis, he was the wisest of all the creatures that God had made. You see that wisdom personified in the form of a serpent. And you see in Abraham’s eyes looking not into the distance but into time. He is staring into time. As you’re told in Galatians, “And the scriptures, made known unto Abraham before”…he was given a preview of the end of time. Before it actually began to appear in man, Abraham was shown the end. So when you look at him, he’s focused not only in the distance but the distance is the distance of time. The tree under which he stands is just like the human brain, just a wonderful oak, all the knotty, gnarly oak…every little thing is like some part of the human brain. You look at it and you know where you stand in scripture: you are seeing the beginning now of the great journey. Wisdom is present in the form of a serpent; faith is present in the form of Abraham.727 ¶21

Then you see his name was changed from Abram, which is “exalted father” to Abraham, which is “father of the multitudes.” Well, how did they change it? By putting one letter into the name and that’s the fifth letter, which is “grace”. That is the letter He, which is the symbol of grace. So grace is put into the name so that God will now give to his creation the work of his hand; all the gifts, all the things you could ever conceive of he gives them now to his creation; and the final gift is the gift of himself. So he puts the gift of grace into the name of the father of the multitudes and then the journey starts.727 ¶22

So here, when you read it, try to bear in mind, and it may be difficult at first, that you’re dealing with infinite states and they are eternal states. Jesus…it doesn’t take anything from you when you say that Jesus is a state. You are Jesus when you find the Christ. When you find the Christ, which is the anointed of the Lord, you find David; and he’ll call you Father as he called him Father. “In the spirit he called me Lord, how then can I be his son?” . Now these are interchangeable terms, father and son. As you read it, without giving you any notice he becomes the son speaking, then he becomes the father speaking, because they are one: “I and my Father are one” . “He who sees me”—he’s speaking now as son—“when you see me you see the Father”; but one moment before he’s speaking as the son. So keep it in mind as you read scripture.727 ¶23

But I’ll tell you, if you’ll accept what I told you this night, it will make it so much easier for you; so much easier to completely accept the responsibility that should go with every being who knows this truth. You don’t pass the buck. You simply know exactly what as the Lord you can do and imagining does create reality. You can, because that is the real you, and that is Jesus and that is the Lord, you can imagine anything and then sustain it in faith. As you walk in the faith of what you have imagined is so, it will become so. If not this moment, it will become so. Just walk in the assumption that it is done because you have imagined it, and having imagined it, it will become a fact. That I do know. So take anything, take a challenge and then do it.727 ¶24

As I was telling a lady tonight…we were discussing one little venture that she’s started…I reminded her that back in 1943 when I came out of the Army I was looking for an apartment and I found one. I told my wife before what I was going to pay for it, a rental. It was a duplex, a lovely duplex in the heart of Manhattan. When I came home that night I told her I found it, it’s a lovely one, and I committed myself to it. She said, “What are you paying?” Well, I was paying more than I told her I was going to pay. She said to me, “Well that’s not demonstrating this principle, is it? Because you’re paying that much more, a third more than you said that you were going to pay.” Well, I paid the month of September and October. Went downstairs to pay my month of November to the manager and he said to me, “Mr. Goddard, I have an apology to make. An authority from the city came in and looked over my books, and discovered that the apartment that you have I had formerly rented it for less than what you are now paying.” He told me what he had rented it for…and it was to the dollar what I said I was going to pay. He was notified that it’s retroactive and “now you cannot receive this money from Mr. Goddard. Not only you can’t receive it, but it must go back to the first month that he came in.” So he told me, “Take your check upstairs and tear it up and bring me a new check.” So it took me three months of faithfulness to what I said I was going to pay. Even though I was paying more, I didn’t. I got it all back at the beginning of my third month, the whole thing came back. I committed myself in my Imagination as to what I was going to pay, and I went looking.727 ¶25

Because I was going to pay more in his eyes he gave me all kinds of things he would not have given me if I paid him what the former tenant did. First of all, he said, “You pick out the wallpaper”; I picked out the wallpaper. “Pick out all the colors you want.” I said that I have a lot of books, so I want you to build in a lovely bookshelf for me, the whole wall for my books…“All right.” He did everything I wanted because he thought on a long term lease he is going to get a third more than he got from the previous tenant. Then he discovered that he didn’t get one penny more, but he put all these things in and he couldn’t undo them. So had I gone in there and gotten my place for the amount of money I said I was going to pay, he would not have built the bookcase for me, he would not have given me my wallpaper, he would not have painted the entire place. Well, he painted it to specification, exactly what my wife wanted in the colors and the paper, everything just as we wanted it. The bookcase was perfect and took care of all my books. I get it and then the whole thing went back to the first day of September. And we were there almost fourteen years.727 ¶26

So I tell you, it doesn’t fail if you are faithful. So, what can I say when I’m confronted with a negation of it? My wife had every right to say “but you didn’t demonstrate it.” She had every right to say that, because she knew that I was paying more than I told her I would pay. So I paid it willingly, and paid the second month, and went down with my check for the third month to be confronted with this wonderful gift. So I tell you, don’t give up! Set your goal high, set it high. Assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled, and then sleep on it. Persist in it! And if you persist in it, not a thing in this world can rob you of that thing that you’ve assumed that you have.727 ¶27

But the most important thing is what I told you earlier in the meeting, that which is housed within you is God’s plan of redemption, and he only redeems himself. He came down into the world and housed himself in man, and now he’s going to discover who he is in man, for it is in us as persons that the nature of God is revealed. Now let us go into the Silence. Now are there any questions, please?727 ¶28

So all of these births are foreshadowings, but the real birth comes from above. He said, “You must be born from above” . The Greek word is “Anothin” translated “again.” People have misconstrued it to mean “reincarnation.” It doesn’t mean that. For when it appears elsewhere in the Bible…for instance, it appears at the trial. He stands before a man who is now judge of mortal men, and he would not speak to him. He says, “So you will not answer me. Do you not know that I have the power to free you and the power to crucify you?” And now he answers, he said, “You have no power over me were it not given to you from above” . The word “from above” is Anothin. Yet when it appears in the 3rd chapter of John, it’s translated “again.” When it appears in the 1st of Peter, it’s translated “anew”: “We are born anew through the resurrection of Jesus from the grave, from the dead.” But the word is “Anothin” and it means “from God, from above.” So he makes the statement: “I am from above, you are from below; you are of this world, I am not of this world” . He’s a completely supernatural being, for God is and that’s God speaking…but you don’t know it yet. You will one day know that you are the God of scripture, that you are the Jesus of scripture. He is the only reality. So, far from not believing in Jesus, I want to meet the man or woman in this world who believes in Jesus more than I do. But I see no one after the flesh; I do not see him as a character in history 2,000 years ago. To me he is more than contemporary for the simple reason his Son called me Father…and there aren’t two Lords and there aren’t two sons.727 ¶33

Then comes the challenge: Well, if that is so, why don’t you command these stones to be made bread? Why don’t you throw yourself down? Is it not written he gives his angels power to support you? Why don’t you get down and worship me and I’ll give you the world? And to all of these, “Get behind me, doubter” . So everyone will put you to the test. You make a statement that imagining creates reality and one fella on radio one night…he’s a professor of psychology in an eastern college…and he said to me, “Turn that yellow pencil into red.” So I said to him quite innocently, “You are fulfilling scripture.” He said, “In what way?” I said, “There will come in that day, in the last day, scoffers scoffing, saying ‘Where is the promise of his coming?’ and so you are the scoffer.” He turned red. He turned red, not the pencil, because he told all of his students to listen in…he was going to take this man over. We had one of these long marathon nights, six hours on radio without breaks. We ourselves had a break at midnight or about one in the morning, with a few sandwiches and some black coffee. But we went on at midnight and came off at six in the morning. We had one little interval…there was constant talk and the phones ringing, people bringing in all kinds of questions and challenges. So he told his class to listen and he was going to take this thing over. He didn’t want to go back and face them and explain why I called him a scoffer, but he will.727 ¶34

You don’t have a portfolio of $100 billion and tell me you aren’t in business. That’s what our estimate in this country alone is of our churches. I didn’t make it up; I read it in Life magazine and in Time magazine and in the New York Times and the L. A. Times, who quoted the source which was Life who made the survey. The Catholic Church came in with the majority. They had forty-odd billion dollars in America, not the world. The Protestants came behind with a little over thirty billion, and the Jews came with a little over eleven billion, and then other denominations were not considered one or the other. It comes close to 100 billion dollars that is tax-exempt. That’s why I pay…every dollar that I take in here I pay tax on it, as though I’m selling merchandise. I have nothing that I can call or say now this is religion. I’m not a minister, I’m not a priest, I’m not ordained. I’ve been offered all kinds, but I said no, I don’t want to be ordained…I was sent of God…what on earth could you give me? You couldn’t send me, God sent me. So I pay on every nickel that comes in here. My books are so I have no exemptions, and they aren’t exempt, I pay taxes. I don’t care, let them keep it, but don’t tell me that’s religion. They’re in business and what a big business! I don’t care what they do with it. But when they start going into competition with people who are paying taxes—and I don’t mean me, I mean these regular businesses—I think the line should be drawn somewhere. But I’m not here to go into politics. I’m here to tell you what I know from my own experience. So when God has revealed himself in me, what can I tell you but what was revealed. So his Word is there, written down by men from supernatural experiences which they did not understand; then comes the living Word who interprets the written Word. Good night.727 ¶37

Tonight’s subject is: The Man Within. This “Man Within” is Jesus Christ, the image of God, called in Scripture, “The Son of God.” Now, unless this Christ in us is raised to ever higher and higher levels, then God cannot fulfill His purpose. Now, listen to these words carefully, from “A Little Boy Lost” by William Blake. He said: Nought loves another as itself, Nor venerates another so; Nor is it possible to Thought A greater than itself to know. “And Father, how can I love you Or any of my brothers more? I love you like the little bird That picks up crumbs around the door.” If God wants me to know Him as He is, He will have to raise me to the level of His own being. I must become God to know God. If He would have me to venerate Him, He has to raise me to the level of Himself. If He would have me love Him, then He would have to bring me up to the level of God – and we are told: God is love. So, I could not possibly know God, love God, and venerate God unless I am God. If He leaves me as I am, like the little bird around the door, well, that’s the only love I can show for God. That’s the only respect I can have for Him. So, there’s a man in man that is God, and that one has to be raised to the level of God, for God becomes man, that man may become God.704 ¶1

Now, here we are told we are destined in love to be His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will. So the office of Christ, in the Gospel, is that men may become the sons of God through grace, by union with Him who is the Son of God by nature. This is spoken of in Scripture as rebirth – not reincarnation, rebirth – a higher level and a still higher level. We have the discussion, taking place in the third chapter of the book of John. It’s introduced out of the nowhere. Nothing leads up to it. He suddenly turns to a member of the Sanhedrin, the highest body in the Hebrew world, and he said to him, “You must be born again.” The word translated “again” or “anew” means literally “from above.” Unless you are born from above, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God; and he heard it wondered, How can I, a man – an old man, once more reenter my mother’s womb and be born again? And He said, “You a master of Israel, and yet you do not know that unless you are born from above, you cannot see the Kingdom of God?” It is not explained, and when you hear it – and I have heard ministers and priests and rabbis discuss it, and they say, “Well, you mean, it’s a change of attitude” – a change of this – a change of that. May I tell you? It is literally true! You are born from above. I speak from experience. I am not speculating; I am not theorizing.704 ¶2

I had no idea this thing was so literally true, that man contains within himself this seed that is Christ. He is called the Word of God, and the Word is called the seed. There are three stages in the history of a seed: there is the sowing, there is the dying, and then there is the quickening. The seed is sown upon man. Man hears it with faith, and then it’s planted – it’s sown. Man goes through the fires of hell in this world here, and that is the dying. A seed must fall into the ground and die before it is made alive. If it does not die, it remains alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much. This is the great mystery of life through death. So, the seed falls: it’s sown. Then it dies, and then it’s raised; it’s quickened. And this is the seed called the Word of God that is Jesus Christ. It’s actually in man.704 ¶3

So, you’ve heard the story of God, you’ve heard the story of the Gospel. You either accept or you reject, but unnumbered chances will be given you to hear it and to accept it, because you must accept it eventually, that God’s purpose be fulfilled. So, everyone will one day completely accept it; and the acceptance will then, in him, prove that he can be raised from the level where he accepted it up to the level where the seed will take him, which is God Himself. So, God becomes man, that man may become God.704 ¶4

Now, here I have told it in my own way. Everyone will tell it as he himself experiences it. With different people it appears differently, as everything else does in this world. Now, here is one from the south, in L.A. – how it came in his case. I’m very eager to get everyone to share with me their visions and their dreams, because God speaks to man through the medium of the dream, and unveils Himself through the medium of a vision. One finds himself at the base of a great tree, and then a winding road leading up; and here, at the top of this winding road is an enormous dog, and the dog is barking at him, but he knows the dog can’t injure him and will not, because he is held by his friend. The friend has no outline of a man, but there’s a radiant light – a fiery light, and he knows it’s his friend in the vision. The man takes the dog on the leash and brings him down and passes this man who is at the base of the tree. When he gets beyond, he looses the dog, but he himself returns to the man at the base of the tree and fuses with him. This radiant fiery being enters him and becomes him; and then he, still not quite sure of the dog, moves like lightning up this winding pathway; and when he arrives at the very top, he says, “At last I’m in the top room.” The dog comes up and licks his face, and then he wakes.704 ¶5

This is also told us by a great poet, Francis Thompson, called “The Hound of Heaven.” I chased [fled ] him down the nights and down the years, Down through the arches of the years Through the labyrinthine ways of my mind. And he paints this fantastic picture of the Hound, the pursuit of God. And when he comes to the end of the poem, he now takes a rest, and the Voice beside him speaks, and he says: “Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest, I am He Whom thou seekest! Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.”704 ¶6

Now, you and I are seeking God, and we go into unnumbered blind alleys. We think we can find Him through diet, through meditation, through joining a certain “-ism”, through doing this, that and the other. All these are the blind alleys, for the One we are seeking is within. “Unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” I can tell you from now to the end of time that when you say, “I am,” that is God and there never was another and never will be another; but can I persuade you? Can I persuade you to stop looking on the outside for what is within – that Man Within, which is I Am? I can talk from now to the end of time in the hope that I will get you at least to try it; but I can’t say that I’ve succeeded. You, and you alone – like my friend who had this vision. He’s been coming for years. This happened here recently. He suddenly began to actually accept the fact that it really is within, and what seemed to come from without did penetrate him, and abides now within him. So the friend took up the place within himself. I call you “Friend.” And, now, he’s no longer a servant, seeking on the outside, now he’s found Him on the inside.704 ¶7

So, here this man, this Man Within that we speak of as Jesus Christ – can only be born from above if I am joined in supernatural union to Him Who is the Son of God by nature. So, when I stood in His presence, it’s an actual union; and don’t be embarrassed – we’re all adults. It’s not a sexual union; you feel no sexual act, but the most fantastic sexual act in the world is like as nothing compared to the ecstasy of the embrace of the Son of God when He embraces you. When you stand in His presence, and He asks you the simplest question in the world: to name the greatest thing in the world, and whether you knew it prior to that moment or not, you are going to answer automatically, for you are fulfilling Scripture. And you are going to say, “Faith, hope and love, these three; but the greatest of these is Love.” At that moment, He embraces you, and you fuse– you actually become one body – one spirit. At that moment, you have had union with the Risen Lord.704 ¶8

Now, the seed that I contain within myself bears my image. Find the appropriate soil in which to plant it, and it will grow into the likeness of myself from which it was taken. You take a sucker from a plant; try to take it from the plant. It participates in the life of the plant, but you take it from the plant and transplant it; it becomes in its turn the parent. So the seed of God is planted in man, and that seed is called Jesus Christ. It bears the express image of His person. So the seed comes to the Womb, which is man. By “man,” I mean generic man. It comes in the form of a story, which is the story of the Gospel, which is the story of God. He desires to raise us to the level where we can appreciate Him, where we can venerate Him, where we can understand Him; but I can’t understand Him on my present level, as He ought to be understood. For, to go back to the poem: “Nought loves another as itself.” I can’t. I could sacrifice myself tonight for some one. I would willingly, for my daughter, my wife, my friends. At my age, what does it matter? If I was given no choice but, “either your life or her life,” – no, I don’t think I could hesitate for a second to say, “Well, take this.” But it doesn’t mean because I gave my life to save my wife or my daughter or my friend that I really truly, in the depths of my soul, loved them more than I do myself. “Nought loves another as itself, Nor venerates another so, Nor is it possible to Thought A greater than itself to know: And Father, how can I love you Or any of my brothers more?” (– how can I?) “I love you like the little bird That picks up crumbs around the door.”704 ¶9

You want to venerate You? Well, then, raise me. If You want me to really understand You and know You? Well, then, raise me to the level of Your own Being. Then I can really love you, because I can’t love anything in this fabulous world as I love myself. If we are big enough to admit it, we’ll admit it. If you say, “Oh, no, I love God more than I love myself,” then define Him for me. And you’ll give me some monstrous thing that I know full well you couldn’t possibly love. You are going to paint something that is not God at all, for God reveals Himself to man within as his own wonderful I-Am-ness. “Go and tell them I AM has sent me unto you. That’s my name forever, and by this name I shall be known throughout all generations.” Well, have you found Him truly as “I Am”? I tell you, the day will come you will find Him just as I Am. And His son will stand before you and call you “father.” And when the son calls you “father,” and you know the truth of this relationship, then you have found God.704 ¶10

So, there is no other god. So, He sets up in the beginning that which, when it appears in you, reveals to you that you and the One you call God are one. Until it happens, you will not know truly that you are God. And you will know the truth of the visions of these men like a Blake and a Thompson, and you will not be cynical about it – you won’t question it; you will admit it.704 ¶11

Now, you dwell upon it. Do you think it’s possible for “Thought a greater than itself to know”? Can it? Do you really believe that you – the individual here this night – that you could venerate someone more than the thing that you really are? That it’s possible to love another more than to love self? I tell you, when you dwell upon it and you are brutally frank with yourself and honest, your answer is: “No, I can’t.”704 ¶12

Well, now, I admit that there is a Presence that created it all, and I am, relative to this Presence, like the little bird around the door. But I would like to know Him. I’d like to know Him so I can show my appreciation and my love. Well, then, raise me. Raise me up to Your level, that I may know You as You are. Raise me up to Your level, that I may venerate You as You ought to be venerated. Raise me up, that I may love You as you ought to be loved.704 ¶13

And, so, He has a plan. God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, and destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will. “Through Jesus Christ,” – well, now, that’s the seed. He tells us that this is the Word of God, and the Word is the seed, and the seed is planted on man; but man becomes the soil to receive that seed, and he receives it; and then it dies – it dies in him. He walks the earth wondering, Where is the one that I’m supposed to find? And suddenly it erupts within Him, and that moment of eruption, no one knows when it’s going to happen. It’s like a woman taken at the very last moment – she doesn’t know it, and suddenly she gives birth. And man is then “born from above.” From that moment on, you see everything differently. You see God in an entirely different light – no longer on the outside. You’ve found Him, and you’ve found Him within, and you can tell others, and there are a few among the others that you speak to who will call you mad or call you blasphemous. It doesn’t really matter to you. You only hope they will accept Him. They may turn from you and say, “He’s the most arrogant person I’ve ever met.” It’s perfectly all right, because when you have the experience, you know in your heart that they are going to have it, too.704 ¶14

And when they have it, you’ll be far removed from them in time and space, but eventually you will meet. There will be no bragging, no boasting because you preceded them into the Kingdom, because in the Kingdom they are all equal. So, when they come, they come as brothers; and then you will know the words: “Nought loves a brother more.” When he comes, because he’s had the same experience that he has found God, and he has found himself in finding God, and you’ve found yourself in finding God, then you are one. And you know the words of John: “And I dwell in them, and they dwell in me, and we are one, Father, as you and I are one. And may they know that You have sent me, and love them as Thou lovest me.” Only one.704 ¶15

So, here, this Man Within – you actually feel Him, and you find Him, although you are clothed thereafter in the same garment of flesh, and you answer to the name they all know you by. So, they call you John, and you respond. But you know in your heart of hearts who you really are, but in the world of Caesar you bear a name, and the name is John or the name is Mary, or any other name, and to that name you respond. But within yourself, having had the experience, you know who you are! And those who come to you, you know they couldn’t possibly come unless the Father within you called them. And, so, you are calling one after one after one because they are all beginning to awake when they are coming to you. For if you have awakened, then those whom you are calling are on the verge of waking!704 ¶16

So, I can say number down in L.A. that dozens and dozens are having the experience of the birth from above. Every Monday and Friday are my two nights, and in that audience dozens are having it, but they have it differently, as they have everything else differently. We all are unique in this world, though the birth is the same; but when it takes place, the symbolism alters somewhat. The imagery changes somewhat. But it’s all towards the awakening and the unfolding of the God- Within-Us. So, when we are told, “Christ in you is the hope of glory,” it’s an actual fact – when I speak of Christ in you as the hope of glory.704 ¶17

Now, in Scripture, when I tell ministers and rabbis and priests the story, they look at me as though to say, “What on earth did you ever study?” “Where is your theology?” “Did you go to any college to study it?” “Well, I never heard that in school when I studied theology!” Well, as far as I’m concerned, it is not something I studied in a book. I never heard it from a man, never read it in a book. It was by revelation. If it doesn’t fit what you have heard, I would ask you to consider it anyway, because you have heard it from a man. How do you know what you heard from man was revelation? Could it not be the traditions of men where men sat down to conceive and compose what they consider a workable philosophy of life, and this they considered the right thing, and then they gave it out as vision. But it isn’t a vision at all. I am telling you what I’ve actually had by revelation. By “revelation,” I mean God unveiling Himself in me as me.704 ¶18

And, so, when I tell you that Jesus Christ is God the Father, you will say, “No, he is God the Son.” I’m telling you, He is God the Father. And as God the Father, He has to have a son, for He would not be a father without a son. Then you say, “But Jesus Christ has no son. He is the Son of God.” And I tell you – He is God Himself. And God being a father, He has to have a son. Now, I’ll tell you who His son is. And this always startles them. His son is David. David of Biblical fame, that’s the son of the Lord Jesus Christ. They’d go through the ceiling, they are so afraid of what I’m talking about. Then I turn to Scripture and say, now to whom are these words addressed? They are taken from the Second Psalm. “And David said, I will tell of the decree of the Lord. He said unto me, Thou art my son. Today I have begotten thee.” Do you want to know where you’ll find it? In the Second Psalm, the 7th verse, there you’ll find it, written one thousand years B.C. Here is a blueprint of what man is going to experience, for the whole story is the story of Christ. So, the whole thing is foretold until the time is fulfilled when God begins to awake within man. Well, if God is a father, then show me his son. It’s stated in the Second Psalm who His son must be when he appears to reveal God to man – and he appears in man.704 ¶19

Now, in the books of Luke and Matthew there was no reason to bring it up if you read the chapter carefully. Take the 29th chapter of the book of Luke, or the 22nd of the book of Matthew; and here they are discussing something entirely different. The Sadducees said to him, “Master, Moses in the law said that if a man marries and dies leaving no offspring, and he has a brother, the brother should marry the widow and raise up offspring for the brother. Now, there were seven brothers. One married. The first married, and he died leaving no offspring. The second took her; he died, leaving no offspring. Then the third took her, and eventually all married her, and finally all dies, and then she died, and there was no offspring. Tell me, whose wife is she in the resurrection?”704 ¶20

Now, the question was asked by the Sadducees. We are told, the Sadducees were of the ancient world what the modern agnostic or atheist, or the extreme scientist who is looking for tangible proof of the existence of God, or something in man that could survive cremation. You cremate the body, and you see it turn to dust. What on earth could survive that? So, the mind who entertains that thought is called the Sadducee in Scripture. Not believing in the resurrection, he asks the question, and this is the answer: “The sons of this age marry, and they are given in marriage, but those who are accounted worthy to attain to That Age and to the Resurrection from the dead, they neither marry, nor are they given in marriage, for they can die no more. They are now sons of the resurrection, therefore sons of God,” – implying until that takes place in man, man, as he appears to die isn’t really dead. He is restored to life to continue the journey, and he dies again; restored, continues the journey, and dies again; not reincarnation – not what the world talks about reincarnation, but simply restoration, continuing in a body just like this, just as before, in a world, terrestrial just like this, aging just as we do here, making our departure from that world as we do here, but that world is part of this world. He only speaks of two ages. So, my world here does not terminate at the point where my senses cease to register it. So, I meet someone at this very moment. They drop dead, I go to their funeral; I see the dust. They give me a little urn. She was turned into little ashes. But I can’t touch her now, I can’t talk to her, I can’t see her; but that world does not end. It doesn’t terminate at that point in time where my senses cease to register it. She is restored in a body just as before, new – not a baby, but new – young, not a thing missing. It’s unaccountably new! She continues her journey, and she marries, as she did here and she lives her life there as she lived it here; and she matures and grows old, and she dies there as she died here, to find herself restored once more to continue the journey, just as before, no loss of identity. Then comes this moment in time where man is “born from above.” As he is born from above, he goes through the series of events leading up to the discovery of the Fatherhood of God, which is himself! Then he departs this age forever; he no longer is restored to life. When men call him “dead,” he has entered the Kingdom of God, and his body is not the body of flesh and blood, for it cannot enter the Kingdom of God. That body is the body of Glory, his immortal body that cannot die. Everyone has that body, awaiting the discovery of the Fatherhood of God, and he discovers it within himself when God’s Son calls him, “Father.”704 ¶21

Now, after the discussion with the Sadducees, he brings up a point, and it’s not at all related to the chapter, either the 22nd of Matthew or the 20th of Luke, where you find the story. After he answers the Sadducees, he then asks the question: “What think ye of the Christ? Whose son is he?” For tradition had it that he was the son of David; so they answered, “The son of David.” Then he comes back and says, “Why, then, did David in the spirit call him, Lord? If David thus calls him, My Lord, how can he be David’s son?” so he discounts the fact that he is David’s son. He doesn’t tell them, but he does tell them, David called him, My Lord. Well, the ancient son always spoke of his father as “my lord,” – always referred to his father as “my lord.” So, he is telling you in his own wonderful mystical way who David is relative to him. David is his son! That is set up in the beginning in the Second Psalm, David calls him, “Father.” The 89th Psalm makes the statement: “I have found David,” and “He has cried unto me, Thou art my father, my God and the Rock of my salvation.” Now, these are mysteries, but the mysteries of Scripture are not matters to be kept secret. They are truths that are mysterious in character. So, when you read it and you take it as secular history you’ll never get the point. Read it carefully, dwell upon it, and try to understand, “What is he trying to get at in this point?” Well, he is trying to reveal who he is. He tells now in the book of John when someone said to him – Philip said to him, “Master,” – or, he calls him “Lord,” – he said, “Show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” He said, “I have been so long with you, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How, then, can you say, Show us the Father?” He tells you he’s the Father. In spite of that, after two thousand years of theology – which is not really theology in the true sense of the word, which is the knowledge of God, for what the world would imply – it is nothing more than the traditions of men. Man has a certain set concept of what God ought to have done, and he teaches it as theology, ordaining people, and out they go to continue the lie. For it’s not based upon the truth of Scripture.704 ¶22

Some lady came to me once, about six weeks ago. At the end of the meeting she came forward. She said, “I will take your theories under consideration.” I said, “Well, thank you very much.” Then she said to me, “You know, I’m an ordained minister.” I said, “That’s very nice.” She said, “Are you ordained?” I said, “Not by man, no. Undoubtedly you were ordained by a man, weren’t you?” She said, “By a minister.” “Well, was he a man?” “Oh, yes.” “Well, then, he was a man, and you call him a minister. Well, all right, he was a minister, and he’s a man. Let me tell you, they are not theories. You say you will take my theories under consideration. I speak from experience. I’m not speculating. I’m not theorizing.”704 ¶23

I am telling you what I know from experience; and that which a man knows from experience he knows more thoroughly than he knows anything else in this world, or than he can know that same thing in any other way. Now, you’ve heard me tonight, and you call it a theory. You can’t deny that you heard it; therefore, you can say, well I know what he said; but you know it as hearsay. You don’t know it from experience. The day will come; you will know what I’m saying to be true, because you will know it from experience. Until you have experienced it, it is still only to you theory – something that someone said, and it’s hearsay. So, you are going to go home and take it under consideration. Well, you go and take it under consideration. Now, one day in God’s infinite mercy, He will unveil Himself within you; and you will find that you, in spite of your present sex, will be God the Father. And it will not embarrass you. Although you now wear the garment of a woman, you will find that you are really The Eternal Man is God—God is man—and I know this from experience, for when you stand in the presence of Infinite Love, it is Man.704 ¶24

He wants me to know Him? All right, raise me as that same Man. Don’t leave me on the level of the bird, where I can only see You through the eyes of the bird and be satisfied with the crumbs – not knowing that He will throw the crumbs out, that you were grateful to get the crumbs – I’m not even grateful for them. I take them, because they are, and you gave me the appetite as a man to eat them; so I ate them, but I do not know where they came from, and I’m not concerned. I’m a bird. So, we go into the field, and we reap our harvest; and we don’t even know how it came into being. If we planted a little corn, we have an ear of corn. We do not know the mystery behind the growth of the corn; and so I cannot know You until You raise me to His level Who grew the corn, and then I will know. Until then, I am simply the bird “feeding on the crumbs around the door.” “For nought can know, and – Nought loves another as itself, Or venerates another so, Nor is it possible for Thought A greater than itself to know.” So, Father, You want me to know YOU? Lift me up.704 ¶25

Well, He has made a plan. The plan is contained in what He calls Jesus Christ. He has made known unto me the purpose – His purpose – which is set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time. Well, if Christ is in us, then the plan is in us! For He said He set forth the plan in Christ for the fullness of time. So, when that time comes, then it erupts and the shell is broken, and all that is contained in the plan comes forward in a first-person present-tense experience, and then we know who we are.704 ¶26

Man has nothing left but to tell it, and he will find some eager to hear and others who turn a deaf ear, but it doesn’t really matter. Then it doesn’t matter after that when we depart this life. Whether we go this moment or ten years from now, it doesn’t really matter. We feel like Paul: “I wish I could, moment after moment, depart,” said he. “I desire to depart and be with Christ. That’s far, far better; but, for your sake, it is better that I remain, and tell you of the Word of God.” But he desired to depart. Having fulfilled Scripture, what else can you do? There’s not a thing in this world for man to do but to fulfill Scripture – not to build on the sands of time, for all things vanish, but to fulfill Scripture. So, when Scripture is fulfilled in matter. In the fullness of time, who don’t turn their backs upon it will eagerly seek it, and then it will come. Someone else will carry on, and, they will plant the seed and they will pick it up.704 ¶27

So, here, this Man Within is the same man spoken of in Scripture that carries the plan of God – the pattern, and that is Christ Jesus. “Christ in us is the hope of glory.” And, so, he contains the pattern. He is the pattern man. Paul, in his letter to Timothy said, “Hold fast the pattern of the true word which you heard from me,” for he told the story as he himself experienced it; as he stated in Galatians, and said, “If any man changes one word of it, let him be accursed, for this is not something I composed; this wasn’t taught it by a man. It came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.”704 ¶28

So, I am telling you who you really are. You are God, keyed low – to the level of the bird feeding on crumbs; but within you is a pattern, and that pattern is contained in the seed of God, and that seed is Jesus Christ. It is as much the seed of God, in the true sense of the word, as my sperm contains my image. And finding the proper womb in which to place it, my image will come out and be projected on the screen of space.704 ¶29

But God found in us the proper womb, and He buried through Jesus Christ His pattern. So, I say it is His purpose, His office, to actually turn men into sons of God by grace, through union with Him who is the Son of God by nature.704 ¶30

Now, here is the perfect seed of God, called Jesus Christ. Buried in me, it sort of takes a graft; and like the little sucker of the plant, although it lives upon the tree, until detached, and partakes of the life of the tree, when once detached and transplanted, it becomes in its turn the parent. So, he takes his seed and transplants it, engrafts it into man; and then that transplant in its good time becomes the parent, and the parent is God the Father; and, therefore, the same son that called Him “Father,” must call me “father.” Then I will know that I am He; and there is no other way of knowing it. “No one knows who the Father is but the Son, and no one knows who the Son is but the Father.” Well, if no one in this world knows who the son is but the Father, then show me my son. Show me my Father, and when He comes, I’m He! So, the Old Testament ends upon the note: “If a son honors his father, and I am a father, where is my honor?” In other words, where is my son? You read that in the first chapter of the last book of the Old Testament, the book of Malachi. “Where is my son?”704 ¶31

Now, you turn over the pages, and the New Testament gives the answer, for here is the Son and he comes; but the whole book is a sealed book – completely sealed, and no one knew how to break the seal, for it’s broken from within, it’s not broken from without.704 ¶32

So this Being of whom I speak, which is the Being of whom you have heard time and time again as something external to yourself, is really the seed of God, the sperm God planted in you. Therefore, if Mary carries the sperm of God to bear this Heavenly creature, then you must be Mary! For, you’re carrying the sperm of God.704 ¶33

So, in this very body – I don’t mean this body of flesh and blood, but in that Something-Within, I bear, and have borne, the Son of God. He came out and stood before me and called me, “Father.”704 ¶34

Now, let us go into the Silence. Good.704 ¶35

Now, are there any questions, please?704 ¶36

Any other questions, please?704 ¶39

Any other questions? We have plenty of time.704 ¶42

Any other questions, please?704 ¶45

May I suggest that my last book – it’s called “Resurrection,” – that you read that book? I’ve told it just as it happened to me. I told it in the third person most of the time because I thought that people would accept it more readily than if I told it in the first person. I could have told the entire thing in the first person present; I only told snatches of it in the first person. But I told it in the third person, that a man picking it up for the first time, not knowing me, would be more – I would say – amenable to the story if he read it in the third person. But I wish you would read it. It’s the true story of Christmas – of the Resurrection – of the discovery of the Fatherhood of God – of the ascent of the Son of Man into Heaven, as it actually takes place. I’ve told it from my own personal experience. Well, until tomorrow night, thank you.704 ¶50

Footnote: THE HOUND OF HEAVEN Francis Thompson I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind; and in the midst of tears I hid from Him, and under running laughter. Up vistaed hopes I sped; And shot, precipitated, Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears, From those strong Feet that followed, followed after. But with unhurrying chase, And unperturbèd pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, They beat—and a Voice beat More instant than the Feet— ‘All things betray thee, who betrayest Me’. I pleaded, outlaw-wise, By many a hearted casement, curtained red, Trellised with intertwining charities; (For, though I knew His love Who followed, Yet was I sore adread Lest, having Him, I must have naught beside.) But, if one little casement parted wide, The gust of His approach would clash it to: Fear wist not to evade, as Love wist to pursue. Across the margent of the world I fled, And troubled the gold gateway of the stars, Smiting for shelter on their clanged bars; Fretted to dulcet jars And silvern chatter the pale ports o’ the moon. I said to Dawn: Be sudden—to Eve: Be soon; With thy young skiey blossom heap me over From this tremendous Lover— Float thy vague veil about me, lest He see! I tempted all His servitors, but to find My own betrayal in their constancy, In faith to Him their fickleness to me, Their traitorous trueness, and their loyal deceit. To all swift things for swiftness did I sue; Clung to the whistling mane of every wind. But whether they swept, smoothly fleet, The long savannahs of the blue; Or, whether, Thunder-driven, They clanged his chariot ‘thwart a heaven, Plashy with flying lightnings round the spurn o’ their feet:— Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue. Still with unhurrying chase, And unperturbed pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, Came on the following Feet, And a Voice above their beat— ‘Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me.’ I sought no more after that which I strayed In face of man or maid; But still within the little children’s eyes Seems something, something that replies, They at least are for me, surely for me! I turned me to them very wistfully; But just as their young eyes grew sudden fair With dawning answers there, Their angel plucked them from me by the hair. Come then, ye other children, Nature’s—share With me’ (said I) ‘your delicate fellowship; Let me greet you lip to lip, Let me twine with you caresses, Wantoning With our Lady-Mother’s vagrant tresses, Banqueting With her in her wind-walled palace, Underneath her azured dais, Quaffing, as your taintless way is, From a chalice Lucent-weeping out of the dayspring.’ So it was done: I in their delicate fellowship was one— Drew the bolt of Nature’s secrecies. I knew all the swift importings On the wilful face of skies; I knew how the clouds arise Spumèd of the wild sea-snortings; All that’s born or dies Rose and drooped with; made them shapers Of mine own moods, or wailful divine; With them joyed and was bereaven. I was heavy with the even, When she lit her glimmering tapers Round the day’s dead sanctities. I laughed in the morning’s eyes. I triumphed and I saddened with all weather, Heaven and I wept together, And its sweet tears were salt with mortal mine: Against the red throb of its sunset-heart I laid my own to beat, And share commingling heat; But not by that, by that, was eased my human smart. In vain my tears were wet on Heaven’s grey cheek. For ah! we know not what each other says, These things and I; in sound I speak— Their sound is but their stir, they speak by silences. Nature, poor stepdame, cannot slake my drouth; Let her, if she would owe me, Drop yon blue bosom-veil of sky, and show me The breasts o’ her tenderness: Never did any milk of hers once bless My thirsting mouth. Nigh and nigh draws the chase, With unperturbed pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy; And past those noisèd Feet A voice comes yet more fleet— ‘Lo! naught contents thee, who content’st not Me.’ Naked I wait Thy love’s uplifted stroke! My harness piece by piece Thou has hewn from me, And smitten me to my knee; I am defenceless utterly. I slept, methinks, and woke, And, slowly gazing, find me stripped in sleep. In the rash lustihead of my young powers, I shook the pillaring hours And pulled my life upon me; grimed with smears, I stand amidst the dust o’ the mounded years— My mangled youth lies dead beneath the heap. My days have crackled and gone up in smoke, Have puffed and burst as sun-starts on a stream. Yea, faileth now even dream The dreamer, and the lute the lutanist; Even the linked fantasies, in whose blossomy twist I swung the earth a trinket at my wrist, Are yielding; cords of all too weak account For earth with heavy griefs so overplussed. Ah! is Thy love indeed A weed, albeit an amarinthine weed, Suffering no flowers except its own to mount? Ah! must— Designer infinite!— Ah! must Thou char the wood ere Thou canst limn with it? My freshness spent its wavering shower i’ the dust; And now my heart is as a broken fount, Wherein tear-drippings stagnate, spilt down ever From the dank thoughts that shiver Upon the sighful branches of my mind. Such is; what is to be? The pulp so bitter, how shall taste the rind? I dimly guess what Time in mists confounds; Yet ever and anon a trumpet sounds From the hid battlements of Eternity; Those shaken mists a space unsettle, then Round the half-glimpsed turrets slowly wash again. But not ere him who summoneth I first have seen, enwound With glooming robes purpureal, cypress-crowned; His name I know and what his trumpet saith. Whether man’s heart or life it be which yields Thee harvest, must Thy harvest-fields Be dunged with rotten death? Now of that long pursuit Comes on at hand the bruit; That Voice is round me like a bursting sea: ‘And is thy earth so marred, Shattered in shard on shard? Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest Me! ‘Strange, piteous, futile thing! Wherefore should any set thee love apart? Seeing none but I makes much of naught’ (He said), ‘And human love needs human meriting: How hast thou merited— Of all man’s clotted clay the dingiest clot? Alack, thou knowest not How little worthy of any love thou art! Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee, Save Me, save only Me? All which I took from thee I did but take, Not for thy harms, But just that thou might’st seek it in My arms. All which thy child’s mistake Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home: Rise, clasp My hand, and come!’ Halts by me that footfall: Is my gloom, after all, Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly? ‘Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest, I am He Whom thou seekest! Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.’704 ¶51

Tonight, the subject is our real belief. And I really want this series to be the most productive that we’ve ever had. And by that, I mean I want everyone present to really have a goal, a noble goal, and realize it, realize it before we close in May. May I tell you, you can realize it. I mean that seriously. So, what do I mean by our real beliefs? Our real beliefs are what we live by. Real belief and knowing are one. What a man really believes is just as though he knows it. It’s tantamount to knowing. So, when I tell you believe, I call it faith, I call it belief, it is not complete until it becomes experience. One must experience it and then they know it. Now you will hear the same thing tonight. Everyone present will hear exactly the same thing, but no two will hear it in the same depth. Some will hear it on the surface, others will hear it below the surface, and others will hear it down in the very depths of their being. It’s where you hear it. As we are told, “The Word came to them as it did to us, but it did not profit them because it was not mixed with faith in those who heard it.” They heard it and rejected it, but they heard it. It came in and went out. It did not receive acceptance by those who heard it and so they instantly rejected it. Tonight, I hope you will not reject what I’m here to tell you, but that’s your choice, you’re free. You will accept it or reject it.671 ¶1

But I tell you, if I get through tonight and you apply it, because you are the operant power, I can tell you that it doesn’t operate itself. If this very moment I ask you to think of a friend, just think of a friend. And now hear him tell you something lovely, something lovely about himself, about a mutual friend or about you, just hear it. Do you believe that that actually took place? You may say, “Well, I imagined it, but it didn’t really take place.” I will tell you the day will come, and I hope now, that when you imagine a state before you have external confirmation of that state, to you it is as though you heard it externally. You know it. That this internal act is equal to the external confirmation of that act. You get to that point because the difference between God and man is measured only in terms of this imaginative power.671 ¶2

If I were to speak of the power that is God, as we are told in Scripture, is revealed constantly as power, sheer, third chapter, fourth, fifth, and sixth verses of the book of Exodus, sheer power. Moses stands in the presence of power, but it’s creative power. And the distance between God and man are measured by simply power. On this level, if I’m in the service of my being, only this is real and what my senses allow. But if I go deeper into my own being, moving ever towards the core of my being who is God, then my imaginative act becomes externalized. Quickly externalized as I go deeper and deeper. On the surface, it seems to take an interval of time, if I believe. If I don’t believe it, it never comes into some external form at all, never. Yet I’m living in a world, not understanding it, not knowing what it’s all about.671 ¶3

So, really the story that I want to tell you is trying to ask you, and plead with you to buy your religion wholesale, go to the maker, go to the source. Don’t buy it in retail from some man in between. No one in between you and the source. You go right into the depth and buy your religion wholesale. By going to the source, which is your own wonderful human imagination, your own Iamness, that’s God.671 ¶4

The story we told you last Tuesday of one whose name was Eddie. Eddie had the identical experience to the one recorded in the book of Exodus. When he heard, “do not come up here”; read the words, the words are, “do not come here.” Read it in the book of Exodus, the fourth, fifth, and sixth verses of the third chapter of Exodus. And the Lord said unto Moses, “Do not come here.” And then Moses hid his face, not in shame, but in fear; he was afraid to look at God. So, Eddie saw the symbol of God and he ran, he was scared too. The identical story. What did he hear? The revelation of God’s name, I am. He first heard it, I am, no one in sight. Then it repeated itself so loudly, he thought it came from above. He looked up thinking it was some machine, maybe some helicopter with a PA system is broadcasting the name, I am. There was not a thing in sight. And then the third, don’t come up here. Being curious, he did go up there to the hill to confront a rattlesnake. Fortunately, it was not coiled to spring. It was simply a four-foot-long snake, all stretched out: the symbol of the creative power of God.671 ¶5

But it scared him. It scares man that man actually sees what really is in himself, that he’s solely responsible for everything that’s taking place in his will, solely responsible. It scares him. It’s too much. Until he goes deeper and deeper and hears the same word of truth but hears it in depth and then he assumes full responsibility for all that is taking place within him.671 ¶6

So tonight, let me share with you a few stories. Seven years ago, a lady, she’s not here tonight, she’s now on a new job and is taken away for a while. But when she heard it, that imagining creates reality, she said to herself, “Well, if that is so, I would like to go to Egypt.” She had no money. She’s never been a lady of means, always working, small sums of money, could never accumulate what it would take to make the trip. And so, the usual story, she told her dream, she didn’t keep it to herself, she told it, nothing wrong in it.671 ¶7

If you really believe it, you can tell it. As you’re told in the Scripture, “Go, tell no man, but show John, show the world.” Well, that’s if you don’t tell man before—will man believe you after the event? He may question your honesty. But if you tell him before the event, then he is assured because actually, you have a witness to the fact, that you did tell him before the event. So that is also in Scripture. And now I will tell you before it takes place that when it does take place, you may believe; but that is courage in the depth of the soul, where one knows the imaginal act is in effect at the very moment of the act, though not yet seen by the outer man. But not everyone has that courage and that faith in the imaginal act.671 ¶8

So, she told it and naturally her friends criticized her. It is stupid to go to that man, you waste your money. It’s not religion. What is it? He’s telling you that an assumption, though false, if persisted in will harden into fact—but that’s stupid. It doesn’t make sense. To them, a true judgment must conform to the external fact to which it relates. So, if I say, well, isn’t this a lovely dog, and there is no dog to bear witness to my judgment, my judgment is false. So that’s what they gathered from what she told them that I am teaching. And so, the whole thing is insane; it’s stupid.671 ¶9

Well, the years went on, it’s been seven years now, and this is what happened this past week. She got a job, she’s a nurse. And so, the job moves around. She goes from home to home where the need is there. And so, she found herself in the environment or the neighborhood of a friend she had not seen or contacted in a year. She had exchanged a birthday card and a Christmas greeting with a little note on the card, but no telephone call and no other contact. Finding herself in the neighborhood, she calls her. When this friend heard her voice on the wire, she said, “Oh Jen, you can have it, you can have it.” She said, “All right, all right, I’ll take it. What is it?” And then this is the story. There was a party, a pre-Lenten party at the hotel, Hilton, some Mardi Gras by a Catholic society, the Joseph and Mary society. There were door prizes. The major prize was a thirty-day trip, first-class, all expenses paid, and stopping along the way at the Hilton hotels in the Near East. And Egypt is part of the setup. The lady and her family had spent several months last year abroad and had no desire this year to go abroad again. In fact, they’ve already arranged to go to New York City for the World’s Fair, which opens in April. So, a trip abroad is out. Furthermore, this ticket, this door ticket only accepts one person, not a group, not a family. So that was what her friend said to her, she would give her. Jen said, “All right, I’ll take it.” And then called me up to tell me the story. Delayed seemingly seven years, she still now has her ticket, if she wants it, to the Near East where Egypt is included. And she goes, first-class, all expenses paid, everything paid—because she believed. Maybe in the interval, her faith wavered, maybe she justified it by saying, “Maybe I don’t want it.” Or in some strange way, try to explain it away. But it still, in its own good time, came to the surface.671 ¶10

I’ll ask you not to throw your dreams away and feel that they are impossible, a realization in this strange drab world of external facts. Every dream can come true if I can get through to you that your imagination is God, and that your imaginable act when you think of a friend carrying on the conversation, that is Jesus Christ in action. Examine yourselves to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourself. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? If he is in you, then who is he? He is your own imagining. God is your imagination. God in action is imagining. And God in action is Christ. Christ as defined in Scripture is the power and the wisdom of God. So, I tell you, everyone can realize if you really believe in Jesus Christ.671 ¶11

One billion will say they believe in Jesus Christ and cross themselves before a piece of wood or a piece of marble or clay or something other than a living God. And they’ve been kneeling before these external icons. Here is the king of Greece, who just died. And they brought what they considered a holy icon for the man who has died. In the eyes of God, a king is just like a servant. They do not differ. One’s love for one is not greater than his love for another. To what extent have they heard the word of God and believed; so, he’s dying, they’ll bring a holy icon. It didn’t work, just saw the little icon, and so he makes his exit like any other person in the world.671 ¶12

I hope that everyone here will find the real Jesus Christ. The real Jesus Christ is your own wonderful human imagining. That’s God in action. The real God is your own wonderful, lovely imagination. When you say I am, that’s God.671 ¶13

Now let me share with you that which was given to me this past week by a gentleman who is here tonight. He’s written the most glorious stories. I hope he keeps it up because they’re exciting. I share them with those who came home since I received his letters and I will share them with you tonight. He’s a writer. He writes for TV. He started three years ago on this show that has been running for three years and he writes every third of four scripts. He said when I started my price was $2,500 a script. And in two years, my agent got it up to $3,000 a script. Then a year ago, last Christmas, my mother came west, came from the east to visit us, and I told her what I receive for a script, $3,000 a script. And she said, well, I always assumed that you got $3,500 a script. She wasn’t all impressed with $3,000. And then he tried to explain to her that as far as he knew, there was no writer in the field, solo writer, who got more than he did. He was getting $3,000 a script. She was not impressed. Didn’t disturb her at all. She still said that as far as she was concerned, it was worth $3,500 a script.671 ¶14

Well, two months later, the agent was called by the studio for a contract, a renewal of the contract for the next year of writing. Before that thing, he would go over to the studio, he would have to discuss it with the writer. And so, he explained to the writer, he didn’t think that they should ask for more. They moved it from $2,500 a script to $3,000 a script, and you shouldn’t price yourself out of the business by asking for more. And so, the writer agreed. It was a nice, friendly relationship between himself and the producer. So why ask for more and get out of the business? So, it was agreed. The very next day after this agreement, a conference was held to discuss stories, a story conference. And so, the producer said to the writer, “Have you come to an agreement with the contract for the next year?” And he said, “Yes, I’m going to sign.” He said, “Have you asked for more money?” He said, “No.” “Did you ask for more?” He said, “But you are always complaining about the budget, it isn’t big enough, and now you are telling me to ask for more.” He said, “You ask for more money.” Again, he said, “I don’t want to price myself out of the business.” He said, “You tell your agent to ask for more.” So, when he went back, he called his agent. And when he told the agent to ask for more money, the agent thought he had too many cocktails for lunch. So, he said, “No, I will give you the source.” And he told him what had been told to him that very day at the conference. So, the agent now armed with this information that the very producer had recommended an increase. So, he called up the business office of the studio and asked for more. And they simply blew their top, they screamed. And then very generously, they said, forget it as though you didn’t even ask for it, so that the nice relationship between the producer and the writer can go on as it has for the past three years. But the agent knowing the source was adamant. And so, when he came out of that office, he came out with a contract for $3,500 a script.671 ¶15

So said the writer in his letter to me, “My mother merely assumed that I was getting $3,500 a script. And so, her assumption went behind the backs of all of us, producers, everyone, and bore fruit.” So, then he said, “I called her up and I told her what I was getting a script now. And then she started to seriously study your books.” And he said, “A problem, a very great burden had been with her for twenty-five years, a most distressing problem, which I will tell you about at some future date. But may I tell you, last Friday, it was completely swept out of her life. And now a confession is in order. When I first heard you, I couldn’t understand you. And then I began to be afraid that I was going mad because I could understand you.” Then he said, “I will explain that later.” So, I am waiting equally for that explanation.671 ¶16

But we are told in the book of John, “He has a devil. He is mad. Why listen to him?” You have your Bibles. That’s the 10th chapter, the 20th verse of the book of John. That is the chapter where he said, “I and my father are one.” He had just gotten through in the previous or the eighth chapter by saying, “I know my father, my father is he whom you called God, but I know my father and you know not your God.” And for this, they stoned him, stoned him with the little facts of life. That’s the stone of Scripture. When you throw the facts at a man, when the man dares to assume what reason denies, what his senses deny, then you who will not go along with his depth, you’ll throw the stones or the facts of life at it to deny the reality of what he’s claiming by a more imaginal act.671 ¶17

And so, he had just gotten through making these bold assertions—“That I and my father are one. And my father is he whom you call God, but I know my father and he knows not your God.” And so, this story, he said, “I didn’t understand you. And then I began to fear a form of madness because I could understand you”—for this is, it takes you into an entirely different world for reason on this surface, over the mind, doesn’t really prevail, that you really believe in the reality of what inwardly you are doing. And then it comes to the surface if you don’t tell it before, and you tell it afterwards, they will question your honesty. If you take them into your confidence and tell it before, if you have enough faith, go about your business, if you don’t, they will plague you and throw the stones at you. And every time they meet you, they’ll say, “Well, where is it? You said you’re going to have a certain home, a certain job, a certain sum of money. Where is it?” And so, they are always throwing the stones at you or the facts of life.671 ¶18

Now, here is something and you listen to it carefully. It’s a long letter, and he’s bringing out certain points that might have escaped you, for here what we are trying to do is to find out all the little facets of the greatest secret in the world: the secret of imagining. For as Fawcett said, the secret of imagining is the greatest of all problems to the solution of which all should aspire for supreme power, supreme wisdom, and supreme delight lie in the solution of this far-off problem. This great mystery. And he has found some light on it.671 ¶19

So, if I can recall, it’s a long letter, typewritten four pages, but I will give you some of the highlights of it: So, when I met my producer three years ago, he was a very subdued and reserved sort of a gentleman. Reserved, he says, would be the right word to use to describe him, very reserved. So, unlike the volatile enthusiasm of whom I formerly worked, he was very reserved. In fact, he couldn’t express the superlative in any way. In fact, his greatest praise was the word, good. So, you brought in the script and he would accept the script and his highest praise was good. Well, I thought I’m going to change this. So, I lay on the bed and I heard him say to me, great, just great. Now I hadn’t started on the script. I had just given him a script and he pronounced the script, good. I am now doing this about the next script. And I heard him distinctly. I went over and over in my study or set up as it were. So, I heard him inwardly pronounce the new script as great, just great. And while I am lying there, the phone rings, I haven’t started the script. The phone is ringing and it’s the producer. And he is telling me that the script that he had formerly pronounced good was great, just great. Well, he said, he threw me a curve because that’s not what I was expecting, it was about the new script, which I hadn’t even started. So, he not only threw me this curve, but someone had their lines crossed.671 ¶20

So, right there, I kept on now working on the new, I would say, line for him to use, and I change it from great, just great to terrific. And so here I am. I only heard one word, it is terrific. Well, I submitted a script and that’s exactly the word he used when he said to me, it’s terrific. And with the same enthusiasm that matched my imagining. Now I said to myself, two months later, every script I presented within two months, it was either great, just great, or terrific. It didn’t go back to good anymore.671 ¶21

So, I said, now, I’m going to experiment again. So, this time I’m going to make him say absolutely sensational. So, I heard him say absolutely sensational. Then he says to me, what the hell if you’re praising yourself why not get the best? So, I am doing it to myself anyway. So, why be modest about it? I am doing the whole thing because he’s only echoing it. So, I said, absolutely sensational. So, I finished the script, took the script into him and he pronounced it good. He said, I almost fell out of the chair. It was not the role that I had written for him. And he said, do you know how authors hate adlibbing? You know what that means in the theatrical world when the author writes a play and some actor thinks he knows more than the author and he changes the script and he adlibs, or maybe he forgets his lines. And if he’s smart enough, he can throw a few words in, and he adlibs. But no matter how smart he thinks he is, he doesn’t flatter the author. The author feels, he knows better than any actor, what should be there at that moment. And so, he said in his letter, you know how authors hate adlibbing. So, what could I do? The script had to be cut. So, he gave me back the script to cut a certain portion of it. I took the script home, did all the cutting, and then mailed it to him. And I mailed it as a petulant child. I didn’t even revise what he had said. But the very next day he calls and he said to me on the wire, it’s absolutely sensational.671 ¶22

Now this is the point I want you to pay strict attention to. He said, you know, my experience with the producer disturbed me, greatly disturbed me; to hear or to occasionally think about this, isn’t so bad. By that, he meant you hear that all that you behold, though, it appears without, it is within, in your imagination of which this world of mortality is but a shadow. Well, to hear that and to occasionally think about it, isn’t too bad, but when it seeps in, and takes hold of you, and goes deeper, you realize that it’s true, that that producer who is so important in the production of this great series, who is spending its fortunes, he has it to spend, that is, he allows it. He knows what he’s doing. He’s been successful for thirty-three years. And yet he had to actually utter the word that this writer is writing for him. And when he met him, he was so reserved, he never used any superlatives, and could never bring himself to praise a thing beyond the word, good. And he raised him from good to great, just great, terrific, absolutely sensational. That’s an enormous accomplishment in anyone’s vocabulary when he began as a most reserved party. So, when the individual writer now sees what he did with a man, he said, you know, it distressed me. It distressed me for the simple reason, I had to remake my world only as I remake myself. Only as I could remake myself, could I in any way remake the world, and what an undertaking.671 ¶23

But if I found a solution, I will not now think of myself X number of years into the future. I am painting a portrait of myself and portraits are not painted by one stroke with a brush. And so, I am taking it easily. I start with the little things in my life, the little things, and I change them to make them conform to the portrait of the being I am painting of myself. I started with a simple thing. We have a cat, or we had a cat, and it simply clawed up the entire rug. All the rugs were simply pieces of felt, all torn up. And so, we delayed buying a new rug. Really, said he, we were hoping that she would die. After all, she was fifteen years old and she seemed determined to outlive Methuselah. But because she still was very healthy and she didn’t die, we bought the new rug and right away, she started all over again to tear up the rug. And for two days, I said something must be done in my imagination. I had proved it with the producer. So, I went to work in my imagination and saw this cat in the backyard tearing up a mat that we had in the backyard for just such a purpose. On the third day, she was out in that backyard, clawing the mat until the day she died, she never once tore up our rug.671 ¶24

Here is the destructive power in the world, saved in the imagination of man. If someone heard that story and didn’t believe it, they could this night have a cat in their house and they will say, oh, that was just coincidence, in his case, it wouldn’t work here, so I’m not even going to try it, that borders on madness, and no one wants to be mad. In fact, to say that you were once put away is like leprosy. They don’t want that. That you were once committed to some asylum, to go to a hospital because you had a pain and you needed an operation, that’s allowed today because everyone has them. But not everyone is put away for some mental, I would say, side issue. And so, in his case, he did it. The average person would’ve heard it and who would believe that in their own home, they too, could make the dog or the cat or the bird or anything else conform to an imaginable act.671 ¶25

Well, having done this, now he sees the power within him. He’s not going to go all out, he knows he’s done it. He has tangible proof that he’s done it. And from now on, he said, he’s going to actually be faithful to what he has found within himself. He’s found, Christ. The day is coming, he will actually stand in the presence of infinite love. But before he stands in the presence of infinite love, he presents himself first as infinite might. And throughout the Bible, you can’t find any basis to deny it, it is might, it’s power and authority. From beginning to end, when he presents himself, it’s sheer might, sheer power, until one day, man will see that this power on this level and in many levels below resolves itself into infinite love, and it’s man. And it’s the being that you’re moving toward, and it’s God the Father. So here, in his own case, it scared him or rather it depressed him to think that such power was in man, and yet it’s no other place. It’s only in man because the power of which we speak, the greatest power in the world, really the only power, is your own wonderful human imagination.671 ¶26

Now, the lady whose story I told first, Jen. Jen said that this present job of hers, this little boy came home from school, and the high winds we’ve been having took the aerial down and flattened it. It’s still on the ground, she said. And so, she tried the TV and there was no TV. She tried it and tried it and there was no TV. The little boy came home and she said, oh Lord, he’s going to be so disappointed because he’s back from school, and he wants to see the TV. So, he goes straight to the TV. He turns it on. He saw the aerial flattened. Then he put his two hands on the top of the machine and just put them there. And she said to him, you know, there’s going to be no picture; he said, oh yes, there will be. That does it. And she said, what does it? He said my imagination. I just imagined it, it’ll do it. He came back, got in front of the picture with Jen, and here comes this beautiful picture. Now, Jen couldn’t do it. And yet she knows this principle, but she’s an adult now. We become adulterated as we grow in this world. The little child could actually believe that that power in his hand was all his imagination. It’ll do it. And Jen told me over the telephone because she’s working, she can’t come here now, that the little boy only put his hands on it and swore that there would come a picture, and the picture came to Jen’s amazement, but not to the boy’s. He sat and looked at it and Jen sat there bewildered. The one who has the thing now to go to Egypt.671 ¶27

Now to come back to the gentleman’s story, he said, I saw an ad of a Swiss record changer, and so I went over to my electronics dealer and I told him that I would like one. He said they aren’t in the country and they will be possibly a few weeks before they get here. But we have eleven orders so far. Would you like to order one? He said, yes, I’d like to order one. So, he ordered one. So, he said at the end of the month, he received a bill for $375 for the changer, while he hadn’t received the instrument, so he called up the office and they apologized. They said that the girl mistook the order for a sale. And so, we have bad news for you, said the girl, it will not be here for three or four months, but they corrected their mistake, it was not a bill. It was simply an order that they had misinterpreted.671 ¶28

He then said to himself, I will now look around the house and spent three days instead of writing to see where he is going to put the outlet for this machine. And when he decided where he’d put it, he called the electricians and had them bore a hole through the wall to put in the cable for this changer. Now he said, I will need a stand for it. So, he went out, looking for a stand, went to all the places, and one salesman said, what kind of a machine have you? Because you don’t like these stands. So, he told the nature of the machine. And the man said, if you have one, it’s a miracle because there aren’t any in the country. And there won’t be here for three or four months, which was only confirmed in what the agency said. He said, oh, I can’t find the stand, I will design one. So, he designed the stand and had it made. When the stand came, and he placed it where he intended to place the machine, he said to himself, I will now see the machine in there, which he did.671 ¶29

Now, he said, now that I have the machine it is the only fair to pay the bill. So, he sat down and wrote the check out and sent the check off to the electronic firm for $375 in full for his machine. Two days after this, they called him to say, we have your record changer. He wondered why there were twelve of them on the list. The man only received four in his shipment of an order of twelve. And this friend who wrote me the letter said, well, it could be that I sent my check in advance because I paid for what to me was before me in my imagination. It could be that, on the other hand I’m not asking questions, why he gave me the first one in and why he jumped me from twelve to number one. However, I have the machine, and now my next problem is this: It’s a very delicate, complicated, sly, tricky thing. And so, I am now trying to imagine myself smart enough to operate it.671 ¶30

So that is the story of using your imagination. I say faith, as we are told, we understand that by faith, the world was framed by the word of God, but you know who God is now, your own wonderful Iamness, that’s God. He’s framing his world but it takes faith to hear it. Without faith, it won’t work. To hear it mixed with faith, it will work. If you sit down as he did, he said, I lay on the bed, you can sit right here and carry on this inner, mental conversation from premises of fulfilled desire, for thinking follows the tracks laid down in one’s own inner conversations. You control the nature of the conversation and see to it that it’s not an argument, it’s simply from wishes fulfilled, regardless of the nature of that wish, you carry it on the inside.671 ¶31

Some are better at the video, they can see better, they can hear, but I find hearing so very, very easy, and I am not a musician. So, you don’t have to be musically inclined to really hear. I appreciate music, but I don’t play. And I don’t understand music in the true sense of the word, I simply appreciate it. Yet, I can hear it vividly, a man’s voice as he speaks for one second, let me get the tone, then put upon that tone any word I want to hear, and I hear it as though he were here.671 ¶32

Now how long it takes for what I have heard him say to come to pass, I don’t know. As we tell you in that story of the book of Habakkuk: “The vision has its own appointed hour.” “It ripens, it will flower. If it be long, then wait, for it is sure, and it will not be late.” So, one seed grows overnight. Another seed takes a month. Another seed takes a year as in birth, a boy, a child comes to this world nine months, but a chicken comes out in twenty-one days. And so, everything has a different interval of time between conception and birth in this world. So, what determines the nature of an interval, I don’t know. But have faith that it is sure and it will not for its own sake be late, not for its own nature will it be late. So, if a child comes out in nine months, it isn’t late for a child. If a chicken comes out in twenty-one days, it’s not late or early for a chicken. That’s the interval of time between that moment when it was fertilized and properly nested and then the moment of breaking the shell and hatching.671 ¶33

So here in our case apply it. And you will, in the next few months, I’m only here for three months, not yet three months. And you’ll be able to tell me the most fantastic stories in the world because you couldn’t start from anything more behind the eight ball. You meet a conservative gentleman who would never beyond, well, the wildest dream, go outside and exclaim something is really, absolutely sensational. It’s all against his nature. A thing is good, that’s good enough. You’re being well paid for it. You’ve got $2,500 and you’ve got $3,000 for a script. And every three weeks you’re bringing one in because it’s a half-hour’s show. It runs weekly. So, every three weeks, you’re getting a check for $3,000. Now you’re getting $3,500. And yet the man I’m quite sure like all writers, he is not contracted to write only and only for that, if he has time outside of writing these scripts, there are other outlets for his talents as a writer. He’s not confined to that. And therefore, the man who is not given to exploding, he made him explode and raised him gradually to great, just great, terrific, and then the final explosion. And he said in this letter is the warmest and the friend is the relationship between us.671 ¶34

So, I ask you to do the same thing. I don’t care what it is in this world, know what you want, conceive a scene implying the fulfillment of that dream, and then inwardly carry on these mental conversations from the premise of the fulfilled desire. If you can see at the same time that you hear like a TV set, all right, put them together, it’s better. But if you can really visualize, and not many can visualize, you will find the audio very, very simple. But when you begin to visualize, may I tell you, it’s the most thrilling thing in the world, to be able to actually see just like this, to be in a dream awake. It’s like being in a dream, only awake.671 ¶35

And so, then you take it and return to this level where it hasn’t taken place, you have no fears, you have no doubts. The whole world could collapse. You know you saw it. You’re still seeing it in your mind’s eye now. But you actually saw it and you heard it. And so, it must come to pass. You saw it and you heard it. And so, you meet someone who is passing through sheer hell and they ask of you anything, still in your world, sing them out and hear them tell you that they have what they sought, just as though they have it. And then let it go. Don’t raise a finger to make it so. Don’t get in the phone and call a friend to ask the friend to intercede, to help you out. Don’t do a thing. Just simply believe in the reality of your imaginal act. Because if you go to the end, then you can’t concern yourself with the means to that end. That will deny the end by any means that you would even entertain to aid the growth of it because you went beyond the pregnancy right into birth. And so, you saw it and you heard it. Now leave it alone and let it work. And may I tell you, it will work.671 ¶36

And then you will find God, and when you come to the final grand, I would say the last stretch, the final stretch, when you’re going home now, really going home, leaving behind you, this world, this age altogether. They will come one after the other, the most fantastic mystical experiences where everything said of Jesus Christ you will experience and you will know beyond all doubt who Jesus Christ really is. That he truly is supernaturally born. Born out of a skull of a man. How he discovers the fatherhood of God. And how he ascends into Heaven and everything said of him happens to you. And so, you know how true the story is, how altogether fantastically wonderful Scripture is when one experiences it.671 ¶37

And so, I ask you to join with me in testing this greatest of all mysteries. Put it to the test. Start with something simple. The average person would have a destructive animal like the cat wouldn’t consider that a simple problem. And yet in 48 hours, it was resolved. But one point he made when the man told him, he used the words, he expressed himself when he said to me, terrific. He expressed it with the enthusiasm that matched my imagining. The world is the only response, infinite response, it’s an echo. And the whole vast world only echoes. And so, what echoed in this case, when he said, terrific, you can see what the writer’s imaginal act was. He actually caught a mood that was really forceful. So, then the word terrific came through, it wasn’t simply, “Oh, I think it’s terrific.” He exploded with terrific to equal the emotional state of the man who made him say terrific.671 ¶38

So, catch it and feel it and use your imagination as a great actor would. He has to put himself into the part and play it. And to the degree that he feels it, he gets beyond the footlights. If he doesn’t identify himself with the character that he’s trying to depict, he never gets over. He has to become the character. And so, this one became the character of hearing the actor whose lines he wrote. And the actor was given a line to say, you said, terrific, and I’ll listen carefully because you’ve got to say it and I am directing it. I don’t want any little terrific. I want you to really give it. And so, I will now give you the mood that I want you to adopt. And so, he gives them to him and the word comes through exactly to match his imaginal act.671 ¶39

And his use of words fascinates me because not everyone understands the baseball language. When he said he threw me a curve, something entirely different. It wasn’t what I expected. That was less the script that you read, he said and pronounced, good. I don’t want that. I want you to pronounce this new statement and say that it is really great. Great. Just great. Of the new script, I haven’t even started the new script. I used my word, but you sort of predated it. You went back in time and called it the other script, and then the man comes back and actually calls it. But after he changed the word from that to terrific. That’s really discovering how you use your imagination. But if you don’t and you think, “well, it’s just on this level,” you will never get off.671 ¶40

But I want everyone here to really believe it and try it. If I take from you this night, if you’re here for the first time and I’ve taken off, shaken your belief in a personal God outside of yourself, a personal savior outside of yourself, I don’t apologize because I know it is true what I’ve told you. I am not theorizing. I’m speaking from experience. And so, when I take this platform and tell you that I know the reality that is God. I wouldn’t care what the whole world would say about it. When they say, “You don’t mean that God truly stood before you or you stood before him and you looked into the face of man.” I say, yes, I did, and it is man. I am is spirit but it needs man its perfect form to really express anything in this world. So, it assumes the form of man. So, when you see I am in form, the form is man.671 ¶41

Just like the little girl who told her grandma, “You know what? I went up last night in my dream, right up to the sun. And you know what? He has a face. And you know what? He has hands and he has feet. And you know what? The ocean, the big ocean talked to the sun. And you know what? The sun came down to the earth. And you know what? He has legs and he can walk. And he walked right over to me and kissed me on the cheek, and it was hot. Now, isn’t that a silly, silly dream, Grandma?” But it’s true. There is nothing but God and God is man. And so, when Blake was asked, when you see the sun, do you see a big round guinea? He said, no. A host of angels claimed holy, holy, holy. He drew him as man. It’s nothing but man because man and God are one. God is man.671 ¶42

So, I ask you to take what I’ve given you this night, take it home and you try it. It costs you nothing, only the effort and the little time that you will spend in doing it. But bear in mind, when you do it, believe it. Because the words are, “The word was spoken to them just as it was to us. But it did not profit them because they did not receive it with faith, those who heard it.” And so, when you do it tonight, do it knowing that that in itself is a creative act, that imaginal act, and be faithful to it. Though faith does not give substance to that imaginal act, that unseen reality. Faith is loyalty to unseen reality. You simply are loyal to it. You made a pledge, all right, now you’re loyal to the unseen reality. Questions, please. Yes, sir?671 ¶43

Questioner: [...] Neville: No. The three tests are quotes from the book of Deuteronomy. And man in this world, the only devil in this world are the facts of life, the doubts of man. If you could take it, personify doubt, and give doubt a voice to speak, it would throw at you all the facts of life that would be in conflict with your dream, that the dream in itself was the reality before wearing a form. And so, doubt is telling you, “Well, if you think you can do all these things, then cast yourself down. For he has given the angels power to lift you up …”671 ¶44

We’re told in Paul’s letter to the Romans that this world in which we live is a world of sorrow, and he gives us the reasons for it…and what a glorious end it produces. He said, “I consider that the sufferings of present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed in us. The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was made subject unto futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected him in hope; for the creation will be set free from its bondage to decay, and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.” So here, the redemption of the entire universe depends upon the revealing of the sons of God. And here we are buried in this world…we are the sons and we do not know it. It is our revealing of ourselves when we unveil who we are, and to the degree that we are all unveiled is the entire world redeemed. It did not subject itself; we subjected ourselves. No one took away our lives. We laid it down ourselves, for we have the power to lay it down and the power to take it up again. So we came in for a purpose, and the whole vast world was subjected not by its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope that we who deliberately became what we are would one day rise from it, and then redeem the whole vast world, and set it free from this bondage to decay.606 ¶1

Now, your connection with the “plan of redemption” which is called in scripture Jesus Christ can be told in this manner. It is like a visible history compressed within a few years and a history that is continuously unfolding throughout the ages, a history that we call the history of salvation. At a moment in time they come together and unite into one person, and that is the Son of God…that is the unveiling of the being that you really are.606 ¶2

They come together condensed into a few years. What is 6,000 years against a background of eternity? So there is a history, divine history completely finished. You and I departed from that world of eternity and came here for a divine purpose and we go through human history. And here the real humanity, your real humanity, and the true divinity of Jesus Christ unite and become one person. Now, I’ll show you how it happens.606 ¶3

Think for a moment of Jesus Christ as divine history. Read it in the gospel that is divine history. It is not secular history; it’s divine history. When this history begins to be experienced by you who are in the world of human history, you will know the time has come. You will know that you are at the end. You will have it. I’ll show you how they tell it in scripture, and then link it with the most wonderful experience that I will share with you tonight that a friend of ours, I would say, gave me this past week. She’s not here tonight, but I will tell it.606 ¶4

Well here, we’ll turn to the story of the raising of Lazarus. This is divine history. You’ll see how the evangelist by the name of John…no one knows who John is, for he’s an anonymous person. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are unknown; they’re not historical characters. Who they were, who wrote it, no one knows, but they took the source material and then they wrote it in their own way. So they took events that were separated in time and rolled them into one dramatic scene that seemingly took place at one grand moment as an experience when they were really separated in time. But that’s their privilege, that’s their right as evangelists to take these widely separated events and fuse them into one grand dramatic scene. So we’ll see now what is told in the 11th chapter of John.606 ¶5

It starts off by saying that the one that you love…so he’s stated right away to be one loved and he’s loved by the Lord Jesus Christ. He is made aware of the fact that the one that you loved is dead, so he delays his journey even though he heard that he was dead. When he comes in, the sister of the dead man meets him and tells him, “If you had not left us my brother would not have died.” He inquires, “Where is he buried?” and they brought him to the tomb where there was a stone over the tomb where he was buried. He was buried in a cave. Then he gave the command to remove the stone and Martha said to him, Martha the sister, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead for four days.” Prior to that, he said, “I am the resurrection. Do you believe this?” She answered indirectly in this manner, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world”. Now you listen carefully, “He who is coming” therefore, where are you addressing the being? If I said to you, yes I believe that you are and I tell you what I think you are, will I continue in this world to say you are coming into it? So where is the conversation taking place? “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world.” He doesn’t respond. He gives the command to remove the stone. Then she tells that he has been dead for four days and by this time—the King James Version uses the stronger expression “by this time he stinketh.” In the Revised Standard Version, they say, “By this time there would be an odor.” It should be stronger than that…but nevertheless, there would be an odor. He commanded them to remove the stone and the man who was dead hearing the voice, for he said, “Lazarus, come out!” came out, bound hands and feet and his head covered with a napkin. Then he commanded them to loose him and let him go…unbind him and let him go.606 ¶6

Now, you read that and you will think it is secular history. No, John took events separated in time in divine history and wove them into this one grand experience. I will give you my experience. He took the first event, which is resurrection, and then he took that last event, which is the descent of the Holy Spirit in bodily form as a dove, and he wove it into one grand complex picture as taking place at one moment…yet they are separated in time by three and a half years.606 ¶7

Now let me give you my experience. After my resurrection and birth from above—for they are inseparable, you cannot separate these two aspects of this wonderful experience. They happen the same moment like two sides of a coin. So, we are born from above through the resurrection of Jesus Christ within us…that comes first. Now, John takes the resurrection and he’s going to raise someone, and then he ties it in with the last event. Unless you’ve had the experience or you know someone who has had the experience, you could not see it. No scholar that I’ve ever read—I have so many books at home on the Bible, exegesis after exegesis, and no one touches it—no one touches it. They can’t get it because you cannot in any way discover truth through some logical process. Truth is revealed; it is not logically proved, it proves itself.606 ¶8

So here, the very last event in my own case was the descent of the Holy Spirit resting upon me in bodily form as a dove and remaining upon me, smothering me with love, kissing me all over my head and my face and my neck. Here it descends and remains. But prior to the descent, or as it is descending, a woman on my left—that’s Martha—and she said to me, “They avoid man because man gives off such an offensive odor. But he loves you and to demonstrate his love for you he penetrated the ring of offense so that he may show his love for you.” So here, the identical thing: an offensive odor. Not just an odor…there are pleasant odors…but “by this time there will be an odor.” That doesn’t quite reveal the intensity of the disgust that they feel towards the world into which the sons of God have descended. Everything here decays, but everything decays. There isn’t a thing in the world, no matter how long it seems to live, it decays. Whether it be an animate or inanimate object it vanishes from the world…it decays. And death has a peculiar odor; it is the generative organs in a state of decay. I have on many occasions turned in the morning to my wife and I would say, “You know, this morning at four, so-and-so died” because of the odor, and I associated it instantly with that individual. The phone would ring during the day to tell me that my friend or my mother, my father, my so-and-so died…and give me the hour of departure. It’s associated with the decay of the creative power of God. This whole vast world is built upon it.606 ¶9

And so, in my case when the dove descended upon me it was a woman, not a man, who said to me, “He loves you.” That’s all that I told when I told the story in Resurrection, but she went beyond that, she said, “They avoid man, because man gives off such an offensive odor.” He stinks in this world of decay, and to avoid it they don’t come. But at that moment in time there will be contact between the two histories: the human history that is compressed within a few years, what, 6,000 years, and the eternal history of salvation. Then when they touch they create within that touch one new person instead of two…yet you do not lose your identity. I am myself and yet I am the being that touched me, and that being is Jesus Christ. It is the Pattern Man, the Eternal Man, the Heavenly Man.606 ¶10

So therefore you leave this world eventually. Soon after that moment you’ll take off this garment and take it off for the last time. Then you will come into your heavenly inheritance which you cannot now fully appreciate while you are still wearing the garment. But when you take it off, you will see it in its entirety. What is your inheritance? The heavenly garment that is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ that creates anything at will. Its wish becomes an objective reality. That is the power that you are inheriting, with a body to fully appreciate it.606 ¶11

Now here the creation waits for such contacts for the unveiling of these sons, for the creation has been subjected to futility. It was not subjected by its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in the hope of the revealing of his sons…and all of us are the sons. Whether you be a woman or a man, you are the son of God.606 ¶12

Now let me share with you what came to me this past week. About three years ago in a vision I gave her my eyes. In the vision she was told she was the incurrent witness. An incurrent witness is one who gives passage to a current moving within—and the kingdom of heaven is within—when you see reality. When you give something in Spirit, the one to whom you give it receives it in its fullness; but you retain the gift and the gift is enlarged by reason of the gift. I give you anything…I not only give it and you really receive it, but I retain the gift and it grows beyond what it was at the moment that I gave it. That is the peculiar thing that takes place within man. So she has the capacity to see reality coming from within.606 ¶13

She said, “I found myself in a group of people”—and it’s a vision—“I felt unlike anything I ever felt before, and coming out of the blue were bolts of light coming directly at me. I must confess I felt a little bit afraid. I was a bit startled and a bit frightened. Then suddenly I began to feel what I had never felt before, a power, a strange, strange power. In this power I felt I could have stilled the universe. I could have made everything stand still. I felt so powerful. Before me stood a man dressed in black, and he was the personification of something that humanity, including myself, but humanity has feared through the ages. He was the embodiment of everything that would be something to fear. And then my memory began to return and I knew that he came into being when I lost my memory. He was there, but as my memory returned he was now on the very verge of demise, and he knew it. My memory had not completely returned but enough to bring him to an end, and that he knew. He didn’t want to lose his power which was a power usurped from me when I lost my memory.”606 ¶14

Here, he was dressed in black. There is a rabbinical legend that Satan, who was the personification of human frailty, man’s doubts, all of man’s weaknesses, is always dressed in black silk. Here is a personification of a being that man called Satan, who is only the personification of man’s doubt, man’s unbelief, man’s frailty.606 ¶15

Now, as memory returns and this is the memory that came back to her, she knew without any uncertainty that “I am”—speaking of herself now—“I am Paul and I am Jesus Christ. It didn’t seem strange,” she said to me, “that I am a man, totally a man.” To those who are not familiar with this lady, she’s a young lady, a mother of two and now pregnant expecting her third in the not distant future…very much a woman. She said, “I was totally man and I am Paul—not a Paul but the Paul—and I am Jesus Christ, and I have all the power that I formerly had minus that much memory that is not yet returned. My power seemed to have struck him and he fell back on his elbows. He looked at me as though he was boring holes through me with these peculiar piercing, fiery eyes, trying to find some weak spot where he could once more recapture a bit of the power that he knew that he took from me when I fell asleep and forgot who I am. As he actually tried—I could feel him almost burning through me—I knew and he knew it was hopeless, for my memory was returning.”606 ¶16

“Then he said to me, ‘You don’t remember when you met me, do you?’ and for that moment I said, ‘No, I don’t.’ That would be technically true, I don’t, but something flashed through my mind like an ancient dream that I had forgotten to record. What flashed through my mind was a tree and a man standing beneath the tree; and he was that man beneath the tree who told me to eat of it. And I knew, the whole thing then began to come back, it was that that put me into my forgetfulness and I dreamed the dream of life. He became the most real thing in my world, causing all the things that have ever happened to me and yet it was myself…for he was the power. And now I am going to redeem that power, for it has to return to me. It can’t be lost and it can’t be simply dissipated in space, for I am the only power. I am Paul and I am Jesus Christ.”606 ¶17

So here is Paul. Who is Paul? His name was Saul and Saul means “to ask for.” Paul is “the little one.” Paul was blinded by the truth when, as Saul, destroying everything and being moved by this personified hate in his world, he touched the eternal story; and the union of the two transformed him from Saul into Paul. Paul is simply the redeemed man who knows he is man and yet he knows he is the Lord Jesus Christ. So everyone is destined to become aware of being Paul and still at the same time Jesus Christ. That is the story of scripture.606 ¶18

So, we take the events in the history, the divine history of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then we tell it in the form of a gospel. We take liberties as poets do and they take events widely separated in time, fuse them into a complex picture as though they’re all taking place now at this moment. They don’t tell you that is what they did…they leave you to discover it. Because you can’t take something as great as this and spell it out so that a child in kindergarten can understand it. As Blake said, “That which can be told to the idiot’s understanding isn’t worth my care.”606 ¶19

The ancients discovered that what was not too explicit was best fitted for instruction, and so they wrote the story of the gospel, the story of the Bible. They took events which could only be revealed; they cannot be discovered by logic. You can sit down from now ‘til the ends of time and you’re not going to discover it. I haven’t found one book written by a brilliant mind—who has not had the experience, mind you—who knows what it’s all about. He’s going to change the entire world and set it up on a new foundation and make everything just right. He hasn’t any idea what he is talking about. For truth is revealed; it is not logically discovered. It proves itself…so you don’t have to go out to prove it.606 ¶20

I am telling you what I have experienced based upon divine history. You will experience it, and you will experience it in the manner that I have told you. I really need not take the time to give you the chronological order, for the evangelists did not do it. None of them followed the chronological order. They took, for their own reasons, these events that are all true in themselves, completely true, and they wove them into a new story, and told it just as it should have been told, possibly, because “truth embodied in a tale shall enter in at lowly doors.” Man finds it difficult to accept bare truths. He finds it easier to take thoughts put into pictures.606 ¶21

So you take these individual experiences and put them into pictures and the individual now picks up his book and reads it and he thinks, “Now isn’t that a mighty act, a man was raised from the dead.”606 ¶22

He wasn’t resuscitated…we have that every day in our world. In the summer days there isn’t a beach where crowds go that we do not have a dozen or more where someone’s looked upon as dead, but there are trained men to bring them back to life, revive them by mouth to mouth resuscitation and they come back. They weren’t dead, but they would have died if they were not revived.606 ¶23

Well, this is not resuscitation. They use the word “four days” because it was common practice in those days, and still today there are certain groups who will keep the body three days and then cremate it on the fourth day. Right here in our state in Oceanside there is an ism known as the Rosicrucians and they have an international setup. Not the one in San Jose, the one in Oceanside, called the Heindel group, and they keep their dead three days in a cool room. If he doesn’t revive, they cremate him on the fourth day. Well, that’s not new. This is something as old as civilization. They firmly believed that the soul hovered over the body in the hope of reviving it for three days, and if it didn’t revive then they departed permanently. That was their concept. And so, in keeping with that concept when it was written 2,000 years ago, she said to him that he has been dead four days—meaning there is no hope of resuscitation. Then by this time decay has set in and decay will produce a stench. Then he commands him to come forth.606 ¶24

No one was in any little tomb on the earth; this was an adumbration. This is a foreshadowing in a not altogether conclusive and immediately evident way of what you one day will experience. You will experience not here, but you will experience it in divine history. You will come back and you will ponder the experience. You’ve touched the garment, you’ve touched the robe. For this history unfolds forever and forever. It’s not like the human history that begins and ends; this is eternal history, the history of salvation. And the minute you touch it and these things begin to unfold within you, you know you are one with the body of the Lord Jesus Christ and this union will produce one person, a new man. You will be not Saul batting your head up against all things in the world; you will be Paul and you will be at the same time Jesus Christ. You will actually know “I am Paul” and you’ll know at the same time “I am Jesus Christ.” And all the things that happened in this world that we frowned upon with our little moral codes are so natural and so right in the heavenly world. It didn’t seem strange to her that she was a man, and yet in this world she is so much a woman, so much a woman, yet there she is man and she knew she was man.606 ¶25

Now listen to the words as told us in the end of John. John has two endings. The real ending is the 20th chapter, while the 21st is an epilogue. So in the 20th chapter the unknown author makes this statement, “Jesus did many other signs”—they’re all signs in John, never calls them a miracle—“Jesus did many other signs, that are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is Christ, the Son of God, and believing have life in his name.”606 ¶26

There are numberless things that you’re going to experience related to that eternal history that are not written, but these that he wrote down seem to be what everyone experiences within a given period of time. Those that I have given you came within that definite period of time, yet before and after I still have these experiences all related to divine history because I can find their parallel in the Old Testament. So after the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove I had other experiences concerning the Old Testament, where it all came back like a memory returning…that the whole drama was played out completely before we descended and lost our memory. We are only remembering. Within our memory as it comes back a certain section of time in this little area of the world it happens. But it happens outside of the region that you can take any friend and share that experience with him. You can tell it, but you can’t share it, because it doesn’t take place in anything known to man.606 ¶27

So here, her experience is perfectly marvelous. It’s true. She is, by actual experience tonight, Paul and she is Jesus Christ. Here, every moment of her time she is very much a woman. Yes, she can be jealous of her husband, she can be envious…just like any woman in this world who is in love with her family. Not that I think for one moment that he has ever given her reason for doubt, but, nevertheless, she is so given that she can do it. Very much a woman…and yet tonight she knows she is Paul and she is Jesus Christ.606 ¶28

But this is not reincarnation. Paul is only the personification of everyone who has been transformed from what was Saul into what is Paul. And it was Paul, under the name of Saul, who was persecuting this divine history. It was called “The Way.” When he heard the words, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” He said, “Who art thou, Lord?” He said, “Jesus, whom thou persecutest.” Where was it? It wasn’t here. Here I hear the story and I turn away from it completely, turn my back on it, and refuse to accept it. That’s persecution: I deny him. Well, that’s what everyone in this world does at some time, some moment in time he does it. Then comes the fullness of time when it suddenly erupts within him and he is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he goes through the entire divine history and it all unfolds within him.606 ¶29

So who would have thought that simple little statement in the 11th chapter of John, “By this time he stinketh”…you will think, well, after all, that’s some little comment made by a woman in this world about a dead brother who had died four days before. But it hasn’t a thing to do with that. When the woman turns to you and tells you that the Holy Spirit avoids man because man stinketh, you will know what section of the gospel you are now re-enacting. For he speaks of the Holy Spirit who descends upon you and now he comes in the form of a dove and here he remains upon you. So now you know this is he: the one on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain that is he. That’s the chosen one, that’s the elect, and so one more son of God has been unveiled. And to that degree the groans of the world…for creation is groaning and waiting eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. All the revealed sons in the end form one and that one is God the Father. It takes all the sons to form the Father.606 ¶30

So, there’s no book in the world comparable to it. Everything else is commentary. I don’t care what it is, it’s all commentary. This is truth, not discovered by any logical process but revealed. Who on earth would have thought that that simple little statement made that he stinketh, or there would be an odor, had any significance to it? Here, everyone is going to hear that same word coming from a woman. A man didn’t tell it to me, it was a woman…that was the Martha of scripture. Here she stood on my left and said in a very commanding voice…she knew exactly what she was talking about…“They avoid man because man gives off the most offensive odor.” If you could only put that qualifying state to it…not just say an odor, but the most offensive odor, then you would know exactly what the King James translators meant when they said, “He stinketh.”606 ¶31

Because every man stinks and the whole vast world gives off the most horrible odor to those watchers in eternity who watch eagerly waiting for the “stir” so that they may come down to redeem the one that is but the externalization of themselves. For these are the sons in eternity waiting for this to simply stir. The minute we in this world touch the eternal garment, then virtue goes out and then we are healed. And then we begin to move from this world into the world of eternity. Then we tell it.606 ¶32

You come back and you tell it, just as it happened to you, and try to show through scripture that the story is true. Some will believe what you say from what you’ve done and others will disbelieve it, and it doesn’t really matter. They will never disprove it. Let them remain because their time has not yet come. Everyone eventually will be redeemed and everyone will have the same experience.606 ¶33

But the story is told…there is no reason to retell it. I can tell you as I’ve done over the years in the chronological manner in which it happened to me. But whether it is a chronologically true story or simply the individual’s experiences woven beautifully by the poet, for these were poets who wrote the gospels. As someone once said to me, I think it was Huxley, “There are three kinds of writing: there is journalism, there is literature and there is scripture.” The greatest writers of the world considered the giants in literature can’t write scripture. He himself admitted “No I couldn’t write scripture.” It’s something entirely different.606 ¶34

The journalists, you wouldn’t call them men of letters, but they write beautifully and excitingly in our papers and magazines. But they certainly would not be considered the mental giants in the use of words as to real literature. On the other hand, those who write literature, great literature, couldn’t write scripture. If you really understood scripture as it is written, I’m quite sure the whole thing was poetry. But our translators couldn’t quite get the measure of it and bring it into its poetical form. For it is poetry…it is truly inspired. Even if it is not measured as you would measure a poem, when you read it no one can tell me he isn’t moved by it, because it is speaking to something in the depths of one’s soul. So don’t treat it as literature…it is not literature.606 ¶35

I saw in today’s paper some ex-nun, was a nun for ten years, and now she’s teaching at, I think, UCLA, some class in religion. Or it’s a branch of UCLA…I think it’s Irvine or some other college, but it’s part of UCLA. She said what an enormous class that she has, but she treats it as literature. Well, if you want to, but that’s not religion. It certainly is not history for there was no place on the face of this earth where a man was buried for four days having been proven dead who rose from the grave. Yet you have been buried for thousands of years and you don’t know you are, and yet the watchers in eternity receive from you, multiplied the by billions of us, a stench beyond the wildest dream of man. If you’ve ever gone to Chicago and gone near the stockyards, you know what a horrible odor that is. Well, multiply that by the whole vast world. Not one small area in Chicago but the whole world, and the stench is beyond the wildest dream of man. That is the stench of humanity. But the love is so great he penetrates the ring of offense to demonstrate his love for that chosen one on whom he will now descend and remain. They will ascend together. He is now a transformed person, and he is Paul, the transformed being, and he is Jesus Christ. Then they go back together…two that are really one.606 ¶36

So when you read it in the future, don’t discount the simplest little thing about it. I tell you that you will experience it…just what I told you tonight…and you will know that Lazarus is not something on the outside. The word simply means “God has helped.” No man can redeem himself, God has helped. Yet there are numberless schools teaching self-realization, self-development. If you don’t do so-and-so then so-and-so will happen, and they give you all these little things for you to do and promise you self-salvation. Well, if you want to believe that, you’ll believe it only through the help of those who teach you. The only help that they get from it is to take from you the money that you’ve paid for having heard it…for they can’t deliver the goods.606 ¶37

This comes through grace, grace and still more grace: “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” So let no one fool you that by doing certain things you are going to be saved. You will be saved not by anything that you did other than to “Set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Hear the story. Don’t reject it, believe it. And then really set your hope that it will come in the not distant future. That hope that you have set firmly believing in the story without doing anything on the outside will materialize in your world. You will share it with others. Not every one will believe you. And even if others believe that you did have the experience they will discount it as a nice, sweet, wonderful dream. Not having had any similar experience they will call it just a dream or hallucination. It’s so easy to simply shake it off if you don’t know what is being said. That goes from the highest to the lowest, so don’t expect because a man is intelligent that he really understands what you’re talking about when you get off into these depths.606 ¶38

I know that from my own personal experience from trying to share it with men who consider themselves very able. They have their Ph.Ds and they’re so brilliant in their own mind’s eye, and they write tomes about each other. All must be Ph.Ds and so anything below that isn’t worth their consideration. They shake off their ignorance by telling you, well, it’s an hallucination. They’ll go home, possibly, and burst their little brains trying to find out something about it, but they couldn’t confess to you that they didn’t know. So they’re very proud of the fact that they are agnostics. I read here recently that someone in a very humorous vein said, “The man who prides himself on agnosticism is only confessing that he’s an ignoramus as stated in the Latin. For ignoramus is “we do not know.” So the agnostic is “we do not know,” so he prides himself on agnosticism which is only a confession in Greek for the Latin “ignoramus.””606 ¶39

Well now, you tell that to someone and he will slap you in the face because he is a Ph.D. But having once heard what it means, I reserve my feeling about it. It’s a very humorous…and yet people spend seven years to get it and therefore let them have it, and let them indulge themselves in the belief that they differ because they spent seven years to get the Ph.D. What they have to commit to memory… volumes and volumes that tomorrow will be disproved. In fact, when they start to do it they must commit to memory volumes that have already been disproved. But unless they have a good memory for such nonsense they won’t get their Ph.D., and unless they get their Ph.D. they can’t get a better job in our universities. It goes over and over…all this nonsense.606 ¶40

But the truth of which I speak is not acquired in universities; it is revealed. You cannot bring any logic to it, it doesn’t make sense yet it is the eternally true story. So it’s the wedding between a visible history compressed into a few years and the eternal history of salvation. When they meet, they then create a new being, a new being in one person. So you are Paul and you are Jesus Christ. So her story is perfect just as she experienced it.606 ¶41

Now let us go into the Silence.606 ¶42

Now are there any questions, please?606 ¶43

Here we are on the verge of the great mystery, the mystery of Christmas. These words are put into his mouth, that is, simply a man just as we are, one in whom the great story unfolded. His words were enigmatic. And the evangelists in writing the gospels kept that great mystery as it was told. So tonight, we will take a few of his words and try to explain them. We go now to the 17th chapter of the Book of John, the 11th and 12th verses. Here is one speaking now and he is communing with himself; and the depth of himself which has been revealed to himself is God the Father. He has discovered the Father…which everyone is destined to discover. He’s addressing the Father and he makes the statement which John records: “And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given to me, that they may be one, even as we are one” .501 ¶1

The only name in the world that can truly bind us together and make us one is Father. When you and I discover that we really are the Father, then we know what this whole great mystery of life really is. Now he goes on and makes this statement, he said, “I have guarded them and none is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled” .501 ¶2

I haven’t read in any book that I have, or in any lecture that I have heard or any discussion with anyone that comes near this great mystery. They see it as secular history and it is not. “None is lost but the son of perdition.” Well, who is he? All the scholars claim it is one called Judas. Hasn’t a thing to do with that. If you want to get close to it, read the 18th Psalm, which is repeated in the 22nd chapter of 2nd Samuel. Read it tonight when you go home. Well, that 22nd chapter of 2nd Samuel is a complete repeat of the 18th Psalm. It’s a hymn in praise of the one who saved him from death and destruction. Perdition simply means “death and destruction.” David sings out the praise to the Lord who saved him from death and destruction. Hasn’t a thing to do with any Judas the son of perdition.501 ¶3

Now, let us take these enigmatic words and show you. A story is told that is the strangest story ever told which is in the gospel. Who then is the son of perdition? The one who hears it and rejects it. Any man who refuses to accept the Christian revelation is the antichrist, the son of perdition. Now, what are we told in the New Testament concerning it? Read it in 2nd Thessalonians, the 2nd chapter: “And the lawless one, the son of perdition, will be revealed and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth, and he will be destroyed by his appearing and his coming” . So I tell you the story as I personally have experienced it. Some will say no to that, and others will say yes. Those who say no to it are the antichrist, the son of perdition. They will not be destroyed. It’s the state of consciousness in which they dwell that will be destroyed…for it will happen in them. For “None have I lost but the son of perdition.” So no individual will be destroyed. How could he be when he is a Son of God? But he falls into these states. So he falls into the state known as the son of perdition, who completely denies that this incredible story is true. But, when it awakens within him and becomes true, then he has no leg to stand upon but to admit the experience.501 ¶4

So, if I tell you the most incredible story in the world and you say, “Oh, that’s silly, that’s stupid,” it’s alright. I am confident that it’s going to happen and you will have the experience of it. When you experience it, then what does it matter what you’ve said before? What does it matter what others coming after you who experience it have said or will say? When you are confronted with the experience, what does it matter? So everyone in the world will be saved and the only thing that is lost is the son of perdition…that state of consciousness in which the individual lived at that moment when he heard the story and could not accept it. To him it was stupid, it was silly, and he completely rejected it. That is the son of perdition. It hasn’t a thing to do with any Judas.501 ¶5

Judas was the one who betrayed the Lord. Well, no one in the world could ever betray me but myself, for no one knows my secrets but myself, but no one. Judas is Judah. Judah is the one named in the genealogy of Jesus…the lion’s whelp. None of the others were mentioned, just simply, “And Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers.” They are not mentioned. It’s simply Judah, the one who knew the secret. He told the secret. So it hasn’t a thing to do with any individual man. No man can be destroyed, because every child born of woman is a son of God, and it takes all the sons of God to make God, as told us in the 32nd chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy, “And he has put bounds to the people according to the number of the sons of God” . So no child in this world could be born who is not an emanation of a son of God, and it takes all the sons to form God. For the word translated God, which is Elohim, is a plural word. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” that’s Elohim. And God, Elohim, said “Let us make man in our image.” And the gods came down and buried themselves in humanity . But not one could be born of woman who is not occupied by a son of God, and not one son of God can be lost. “I have lost no one but the son of perdition” and perdition is only that state of consciousness that rejects and denies this Christian revelation.501 ¶6

So you say, “Can’t be! How can a man be consumed before your eyes, turned into dust, and yet survive?” No, that is simple, may I tell you, that’s easy. It’s not that of which he speaks…for all things are restored to life. Everything is restored to life, even the little flower that I discard cannot really cease to be. All things are restored by the seed of contemplative thought…that’s only restoration. But I’m not speaking of restoration; I’m speaking of resurrection where the Son is resurrected. Not the body that he wears in the world…that’s always restored. But he who occupies it, who goes through the world of death, he is awakened from the great dream of death. And when he is awakened, then come the signs.501 ¶7

Now, Jesus calls himself “The Son of man.” He speaks of himself as a Son of man. He also speaks of himself of that which is to come. When the Son of man comes, will he find faith upon earth? So he speaks of himself in the future: “when he comes.” He’s always coming and awakening in man, for God is awakening in man. So here, this great mystery called Christmas is simply the beginning of the signs: “And now this shall be a sign unto you” . We are told that many will reject it. Read the 2nd chapter of Luke…it’s a sign that many will reject. It is for the fall and the rising of many in Israel. When Simeon took the little child into his arms and then he said, “It’s a sign for the fall and the rising of many in Israel”…that out of many hearts will come these thoughts, some will reject it and some will accept it. So I’ll tell the story and some hearing it will say no to that, and some will say yes to it. But even those who say no, who throw themselves into the state of the son of perdition, will find that Jesus will rise in them as their very being, and rising in them he will slay by the breath of his mouth, breath of what mouth? By the Word of God, for the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. And, the Word cannot return void, it must accomplish itself and fulfill itself in that for which it was sent. So the Word goes out and the whole gospel is the Word of God.501 ¶8

Now, this is the Word of God: God actually became you that you may become God. He sent himself as sons into the world; then he raises his sons as himself the Father. When all return they are not sons, they are God the Father. “When you see me, you have seen the Father,” said he. Don’t look beyond that. When you see me is to know me. You will not see him outside of yourself…not in eternity. If anyone should say, “Come, look, there he is,” or “Here he is,” do not believe it. If anyone ever tells you, “Come, let us go, I know where he is,” go no place. You’ll never find him outside of yourself and he will rise within you.501 ¶9

There’s only one way you’ll ever know him: when God’s Son—which is the sum total of all the experiences of humanity, all of their experiences, fused together into a single being personified before you—stands before you and calls you Father. When he stands before you, you know exactly who he is…he is David. “I have found in David a man after my own heart, who will do all my will” . He is the son of Jesse and Jesse means “I AM.” So man is in search of himself who is God the Father. And there is no other God, no other Father. And the whole comes in this wonderful experience that everyone will have.501 ¶10

So though you have said in the past and maybe tonight you say, “It’s an incredible story and I can’t believe it,” you are in that state of consciousness which is only called the son of perdition. It’s the state that is destroyed by the breath of his mouth by his Word unfolding in you. So when his Word unfolds in you, you have not a leg to stand upon; you cannot deny what has happened. So although you denied it prior to the eruption of the Word in you, after it erupts within you and all that is said of Jesus Christ in scripture you have experienced, and you know you are he, then you can’t deny it. So the son of perdition is the only one that is slain, the only one that is lost. It’s part of the play.501 ¶11

Everyone in the world, call him by any name, is already saved, for the simple reason it has already happened. It has happened. And when it happened once, it would happen for all, for he is one. “That I in them and they in me…Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me” . What is the name?—Father. And I have kept them in the name that thou gavest me. I told them that they are the Father and they’re moving toward the discovery of it. Well, some didn’t believe it. But, “Father, I guarded them, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled.” The scripture is thy Word. I told them thy Word as I experienced it. I interpreted to them thy Word. And Father, they heard it, and some rejected it and some believed it.501 ¶12

In spite of those who rejected it, may I say, they cannot themselves die for they are my brothers. We came down together and all of us became fragmented.501 ¶13

In this morning’s L. A. Times…I do not know if you read it, maybe you still have the paper at home…but the Book Review, it was one of the many poems of Robert Graves…and it was the first one. He printed about five or six of them, but this one little verse…and my heart leapt within me. These are the words if I recall it correctly, “ Hold fast with both hands to that royal love which alone, as we know, certainly restores fragmentation into true unity.” What a revelation! The great poets are the ones who see so clearly and those who have the capacity to use words as Robert Graves has to say it so beautifully. “Hold fast with both hands to that royal love which alone, as we know, certainly restores fragmentation into true unity.” Here is the fragmented one. The whole vast world is one fragmented.501 ¶14

Regardless of the pigment of the skin, the race, the nation, whatever it is, this is the fragmented rock That I saw in my experience back in 1934 when sitting alone in my little room…for that was the deep of the Depression, 1934, and I was a dancer, and people could not afford to buy anything, far less pay to be entertained by a dancer. So I lived in a basement apartment on 75th Street in New York City. I, too, did not know where the next was coming from. I didn’t despair; I sat in the Silence, not thinking of anything in particular…just simply with my eyes shut as in sleep, but I was certainly not asleep. I was very wide awake, but my eyes were closed. Then these golden lovely clouds—they always come if I close my eyes and for just one little moment meditate; my whole head, all the dark convolutions of the brain grow luminous. And it’s all gold…golden liquid light comes out of the head and surrounds me. Then it just pulses and pulses and goes off. But the whole head is enveloped in golden liquid light. So, as I contemplated this, suddenly before my eyes, my inner eyes, for the eyes were shut, came a quartz. It could have been, what, sixteen, twenty inches in diameter, but just a quartz, this rock. As I looked at it, it fragmented. In some strange way the whole thing broke and fragmented itself into numberless parts. Then the whole thing gathered itself together into a human form, seated in the lotus posture. As I looked at it, I’m looking at myself…but a self that in my wildest dreams I could never believe I could ever attain to that perfection. What majesty of face! What beauty of features! You couldn’t conceive of this face that you now see ever attaining to that beauty. That was perfect. Here it is in deep meditation and I’m looking at myself. As I looked, the whole thing is alive. It wasn’t a piece of clay; it was alive. A living, living statue right before me and it’s myself. As I looked, it began to glow and it increased in luminosity and reached the intensity of the sun. Then it exploded. And then I awoke seated in my chair in my little basement apartment.501 ¶15

Then I turned to scripture: “Of the Rock that begot you, you are unmindful and of the God who gave you birth you are unaware.” Read it in the 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy . Then we read in the 10th chapter of 1st Corinthians, “And they drank from the Rock that followed them: and the Rock was Christ” . So then you’re told Christ is within you, that Rock that never fails. So the imagery was perfect.501 ¶16

Here, I sat perfectly still not contemplating anything in particular. Because the market broke in 1929 and everything went to pieces, and there were seventeen million of us unemployed. We then only had a population of maybe 130 million. Today we have 204 million…but then we only had 130 million maximum. There were seventeen million by the confession of the government. The chances are there were many more and these were the breadwinners. They were completely unemployed. They couldn’t turn any place to find a loaf of bread. Our bins were filled to overflowing. We couldn’t pay the taxes on these bursting bins, but how to give it away, how to distribute it? And so, in 1934 I had already gone through five years of this Depression. So I certainly wasn’t thinking of anything in particular…this almost became a state of mind.501 ¶17

So I sat perfectly still, as I did daily, and simply turned my attention within my brain and contemplated within. And as always happens the clouds begin to appear and all the dark convolutions grow luminous, and the whole thing is moving in [...] golden liquid light. Then comes this rock…the perfect imagery of scripture: “And the Rock was Christ.” He formed himself into me…me as the perfect being. I looked at myself and could hardly believe that I could ever in eternity attain that perfection…and yet I’m looking at myself. So I tell you, everyone is destined to have these experiences. The words are enigmatic. Luckily for us those who wrote the story and told it so beautifully in the gospels kept the mystery in the words and didn’t try to explain it in detail to anyone. Let those who deny it, alright, let them deny it, but even though they deny it they’re not lost. For, not a thing is lost but the son of perdition and the son of perdition is simply the belief in destruction, the belief in death.501 ¶18

As everyone seeing their friends depart this world have to admit to themselves that things do die. We came down into the world and everything dies here…and yet I tell you nothing dies. Everything in the outer world returns by the seed of contemplative thought. But that is not the mystery of Christmas. The mystery of Christmas is that which is housed within us is that which appears to die. And that which is housed within us is God himself, and he’s dreaming this dream of death which we call the dream of life. One day he will awaken; he awakens within us. Then there is a definite series of events that he goes through.501 ¶19

This is the series…we call it beginning with Christmas…but it doesn’t begin with Christmas. It takes place the same night. It begins with the resurrection: he awakens within his own skull, which is the tomb where God is buried. Man awakens within his skull from a long, long dream. No one knows how long. Certain poets like Blake say 6,000 years, but I do not know. I have not had that experience to tell you that I can confirm it as he said 6,000 years. But it was an awful long dream.501 ¶20

Then I awoke within my skull. I had no idea that I was asleep within my skull. I always thought I slept on my bed, and that I was fully awake, and I was wearing a body. That night I discovered I had been asleep these unnumbered years in my skull. When I awoke, the skull was completely sealed. Yet I had an innate knowledge what to do and I pushed the base of my skull and something gave…a hole opened. I squeezed myself out. Just as a child comes out of its mother’s womb, I came out of that tomb. The tomb was the womb of God where God himself had entered. I saw no one, there was no companion. I alone came out. Then the imagery of scripture, as told you in the 2nd chapter of the Book of Luke, surrounded me. That is, a little child wrapped in swaddling clothes which is a sign. And I held this little child in my arms and with the most endearing manner I asked him, “How is my sweetheart?” He smiled a heavenly smile, and the scene dissolved. There were three witnesses to the event. For they were told, “Go hurriedly into Bethlehem and you will find a sign, which is a sign that a savior was born on this day” .501 ¶21

For God is the savior of the world and there is no other savior. As told us in the 43rd and 45th chapters of Isaiah: “I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your savior; and beside me there is no savior” . And that savior, his name is I AM. So when I awoke, if anyone had asked me anything I would have said, “Well, I am the one who just awoke.” That is the only being who just awoke. It is God. As told us in the psalms, “Rouse thyself! Why sleepest thou, O Lord?” . It is God who sleeps and dreams the dream of life in the world of death, who animates the whole thing, until one day he awakes within the tomb where he first entered; and that tomb is the skull of man. So that is called the birth, which we now celebrate on the 25th day of this month.501 ¶22

Then comes that great revelation where God knows who he is. He has no way of ever knowing who he is unless his Son stands before him and calls him “Father.” The Son is David; and David is the sum total of all the generations of men and all of their experiences fused into a single being and personified before the one he’s about to reveal as God the Father. So I am the father of David and you are the father of David. If you have not yet encountered him, may I tell you, you will. Then you will know what Graves said today in his poem which I quoted. Because, only in this dream manner will you know true unity. For if I am the father of your son, and if one you know other than the speaker is the father of our son, are we not one father? So in the end, are we not told there’s “only one body, one Lord, one Spirit, one God and Father of all” . So all are coming towards the one body that fell and was fragmented, and the fragmentation is humanity. So all these are the sons of God all being collected and brought back into that unity, that true unity that is God the Father. So you are God the Father. And having played all the parts—the good, the bad and the indifferent—then you are gathered together. And that moment in time when you confront him, these are the signs of the end; for Christianity is based upon the affirmation that a series of events happened in which God revealed himself in action for the salvation of his sons. He brought all the sons back, and in the bringing them back he gave all the sons himself. In the end there is only God the Father. It takes all the sons to form God the Father.501 ¶23

So, all these things when you read them it takes one who has experienced it to explain the Old Testament. Who on earth would ever have believed that when we are told in the 3rd chapter of John—for he calls himself the Son of man: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up” . He likens himself to a serpent, and who would have thought for one moment that the Son of man is just like that fiery serpent? And that you go up, just as he described it, in spiral form right into heaven, where heaven is within you as you’re told in the Book of Luke, “The kingdom of heaven is within you” . So you go up into yourself, having split the entire body from top to bottom. “For the curtain of the temple”—and “We are the temple of the living God”—“was split from top to bottom” . Then the Son of man, like a serpent, rose into that heavenly state, and when he rose into it, it reverberated like thunder. Exactly that…the imagery is perfect!501 ¶24

Who would have thought for one moment that when the Holy Spirit descends, it descends always in bodily form as a dove? It does…right upon you. It so loves you, the Holy Spirit, because you have finished the work that you yourself planned to do. For you and I agreed to dream in concert before we descended and became fragmented. We were a unity, a brotherhood of one; and then came that fragmentation in this world, and each became a seeming separate being at war with one another…and there is no other. Because eventually he is God the Father and his son is your son…so, really, he cannot be another. So, “Hold fast with both hands to that royal love which alone, as we know, certainly restores fragmentation into true unity.”501 ¶25

Well, I can’t tell you how my heart jumped this morning when I read it. If you haven’t discarded your paper, you’ll find it in the Book Review in today’s L. A. Times. They are all lovely…there are about five or six that he quoted…but this one…and Graves has been such a difficult poet to read because his words, too, are enigmatic, no question about it. Well, this seemed so clearly stated for those who have had the experience. Maybe others will pass it off and think, “Oh, what stupid things to have said.” So beautifully said, but oh so deeply said.501 ¶26

So, one stands before you and he speaks of being here and he tells you he is to come. He is the Son of man; then he tells you the Son of man will come. “And when the Son of man comes, will he find faith upon the earth?” . So he’s always coming. And one in whom he comes, when he awakens, he turns to his immediate circle and he wonders if anyone will trust him, anyone will have faith in him.501 ¶27

Because the story of Christ is that he is a winebibber and a glutton, a man of the world who loves harlots and tax collectors, and all the sinners of the world. He’s a friend of sinners. So someone meets you and they know that you, too, like a good dinner, and you do like a good bottle of wine and you do like a few good Martinis. Well, that is not in their popular concept of what Jesus ought to be, what the Son of God is, so right away you’re scratched out. You’re no earthly good and you’re an imposter.501 ¶28

So he tells them exactly not to go any other place than where they are. Don’t go here, don’t go there. If anyone tell you, “Come, I have found him,” go no place, because he can’t come from any place but within you, because he is buried within you. Every year you find these coming out, the false prophets claiming that they are it…and let us go and see him. When you see him he is just like you. “It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him” . Why? We shall see him just as he is, and we shall be like him. So, have you seen his face? If it’s not just like you, raised to the nth degree of perfection, you haven’t seen him.501 ¶29

“He is the Rock…and the Rock was Christ. We have forgotten the Rock that begot us and we are unmindful of the God that gave us birth” . That Rock was fragmented and all the world round about you is yourself pushed out. You fought against the shadows believing it came from a seeming other and there is no other. It’s only yourself; there is no other in the world. Housed within the seeming other which is yourself pushed out and you being the only God, housed in that is the only God. In that will awake all that awoke within you.501 ¶30

In the end, we all will know each other…no loss of identity. Even though I am God the Father and I tell you you are God the Father, there is no loss of identity. For all the identity of persons—and certainly not in eternity will you be other than the individualized being that you are—there is this strange, peculiar discontinuity of earthly form. You do not wear the earthly form, but you wear the earthly face raised to the degree of perfection…but not the earthly form. So let no one try to describe to you what that heavenly form is like. Face yes. Human voice yes. Human hands yes. But do not go beyond that, because they cannot describe it. It is power, it is wisdom, but above all things it is love. You can’t describe the human form divine which is love. It is all love…the whole thing is love.501 ¶31

So everyone in the universe will arrive at the mystery that we are now about to celebrate called Christmas. You will see that it is not some little day that took place once and for all 2,000 years ago; it is always taking place. For, this is simply the coming of God, awakening within man, for he is in man. Were he not now in man, man could not dream. So he actually slays the son of perdition by the breath of his mouth and destroys him by his appearing and his coming.501 ¶32

What could anyone tonight who stood before me—take the arch atheist of the world, by whatever name he calls himself—and I tell him the story that I’ve told you, and he thinks I should be put away, that I am insane. But I know that love conquers all; and the day will come that every word that I have said to you tonight is true, and therefore because it is true he will experience it. There will be no crowing. No, no crowing “I told you so” but a welcome that my lost brother has returned. No crowing whatsoever that he who today will say, “You’re stupid, you should be put away, you’re insane, and therefore some menace to society”…let him go on.501 ¶33

Love…that royal love as spoken by Robert Graves, “Hold fast to that royal love which alone…” there is no other. So, he within you has emanated the garment that you’re wearing. He has emanated it and he cleaves to it. You in turn cleave to him. And you will one day begin to love only one being. And this is one being, but he’s pushed out in every being. You’ll see him reflected in all beings. So hold to him!501 ¶34

What’s his name? I AM. But some other name? Yes, he is the Father. But before they know him as Father, tell them his name: his name is I AM. One day they will love him, why? Because “He first loved them” . He loved his emanation and he will cleave to the emanation, and they will become one. When they become actually one, he awakes, wearing that individualized face that is perfect.501 ¶35

And so I tell you I know it! I will meet you in eternity and I will know you. But for all the identity of persons, there will be a discontinuity of form, a form that is glorious beyond the wildest dream of man. The form is all power, it’s all wisdom, but above all things, it is all love. We purposely descended into this world to accomplish this end.501 ¶36

Now I hope that when you get together on Christmas Day to celebrate the day with your family, which we will, that you will remember what it really means. Everyone present, though they laugh at the idea, nevertheless, know that everyone present and the whole vast world will one day have this experience, and they will awaken to being God the Father. Know that everyone will awaken, and because there’s only one Father, he is one with the whole vast world.501 ¶37

And the brothers will return and the brothers in returning will be God the Father. For it was the one being’s pleasure and will be to give all his sons himself. So when all return, they are God himself.501 ¶38

Now let us go into the Silence.501 ¶39

Are there any questions, please? Well, if there aren’t any questions, may this great event take place in you before we meet again. Good night.501 ¶40

Our premise is that imagining creates reality. If this is true, then imagining fulfills itself in what our life becomes. Although I have changed the words, what I have said is not new. You’ll find it in the Bible: “Whatever you desire, believe that you have received it, and you will.” That goes back 2,000 years. I could take you back another 600 years into Jeremiah to show you the same theme, the same principle. So tonight, we’ll try to not prove it to you but to explain it.448 ¶1

Until these words become part of your normal, natural currency of thought, then you will not act upon it. They must become so much a part of you it’s like breathing. So you can’t turn to the left or the right; you can’t praise or blame anyone. If you start in life behind the eight-ball, it doesn’t really matter whether you start there or start in a palace, whether you start as a poor little child or a very rich child, your life must actually externalize what you are imagining. If you don’t know this principle, you can reproduce your environment, and if that’s an unpleasant environment, reproduce it forever and forever, for you will feed your Imagination upon what the senses dictate. But if you know the principle, you can ignore the present, and if the principle is true, well then, you can go all out and simply not accept the “facts of life” as the things on which you should feed in this world.448 ¶2

Now, we do not observe imagining as we do objects. We are the reality which is named imagining…if you simply dwell upon it. No, I don’t observe it until I become one who is awake. Then I will go along with Fawcett and Fawcett said, “God”—that’s the name he gives to the causal power of the universe—“God, the Creator, is like pure imagining in ourselves. He works in the depths of our soul, underlying all of our faculties, including perception, but he streams into our surface mind least disguised in the form of productive fancy.”448 ¶3

So here, I can then observe him. If I sit quietly, and then suddenly I catch myself and say to myself as I have said to others, “A penny for your thoughts. What are you now imagining?” Well then, if I am honest with myself, it may be unpleasant. But if I am honest I know if that imaginal act caused in me some motor state…because an idea that is only an idea that is not felt produces nothing. It must be felt, it must produce motor elements. So if I catch myself and I’m combative, that’s a motor element. If I am now being congratulated or I am congratulating, that’s a motor element. If I catch myself in these moments, I know what’s going to happen in my world; unless, of course, I arrest it and revise that moment. But most of us aren’t even aware of what we are doing, and so I can almost say that we do not observe the Creator. We can catch him as he streams into the surface mind least disguised in the form of productive fancy. So, if I know what I am doing while I ride the bus, drive the car, sit at home, stand at a bar, and someone is actually, well, talking to a friend and I overhear what they’re saying, and I instantly react; but if as I react it’s not just an idea but I’m reacting and I’m moving on the inside, then wait. It has to then fulfill itself in what my life must become. This is our principle.448 ¶4

It sets every man free if he is willing to assume the responsibility, because whether he assumes it or not, it’s working anyway. And so in the end, you don’t sympathize, you simply tell the story. So that in the very end you don’t condemn them, you know that it’s an unpleasant thing they’re going through, but you can tell them of a principle and let this principle work out in their lives if they accept it.448 ¶5

Now, we’re living in a Christian world, a Christian-Jewish world. The average person you will encounter in America is either a Christian or a Jew. There would be no Christians unless there were Jews; for Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism, it’s the climax. And so, you ask anyone in this world what I’ve asked you now, “Do you believe that imagining creates reality?” the chances are that you would get a negative response. They couldn’t believe for a moment, and yet they will tell you, “I am a Christian.” Well, if I am a Christian, then I should accept the premise that imagining does create reality. But it’s new to them. It hasn’t as yet been repeated often enough for them to actually make it a part of their thinking. But if you take them back into scripture and you read it for them in their words…but even if you read it for them in their words, they don’t really see it. They will accept it on the surface, but they don’t really believe it.448 ¶6

Last night, for instance, I have never heard Billy Graham. I have read what he has said in little magazines and I have read it in newspapers. And so I thought, well now, he’s speaking on the second coming of Christ, I’ll turn him on. It’s such a reasonable hour, 7:30; it’s prime time, it’s a local station, channel five, it’s a good, clear picture, so I will turn him on. When I turned this on, I’m amazed. Here were thousands and thousands of people listening…a thousand members in the choir…and one song where he invited all the audience to stand and sing, and the title of it was, and they repeated the words over and over, “Oh, How I Love Jesus.” Then came Billy Graham speaking on the second coming. I don’t want to be critical, but he hasn’t the slightest concept of Jesus, far less the second coming. Here are thousands of people and they’re talking about how they love Jesus…you can’t love something that you don’t know. They must first discover Jesus before they could love him. They don’t know Jesus.448 ¶7

And then at the very end comes the usual appeal. “I’m going to give you this book, just this book, you haven’t asked for it, and this is an interpretation of this book of the Bible and that book of the Bible” as he interprets it. “Just this book…and all you have to do is send in to Billy Graham, Minneapolis and then Minnesota, that’s a simple address, that’s all you do. But, said he, this program that we’re putting on here in Pittsburgh is costing us $500,000 and we don’t have that sort of money. So if you are listening and you’re alone, please send in a contribution. If you’re listening and you’re not alone, then take up a collection among all who are listening and send it in.” And here comes the pitch, and this goes on night after night in a city like this for one solid week.448 ¶8

And he didn’t say one word about any second coming. He said, “If he should come now, just imagine, there would be no more cancer, there’d be no more heart failures, and none of you could die. His heaven is made up of flesh and blood…bodies in excrementitious states…yes, we’d have to have bathrooms in heaven. Can you imagine that! We’d have to. Of course, he’d make them of gold and make them of something that doesn’t corrode, but you’d have to have bathrooms if you’re still in a body that’s excrementitious. So you’d have to take in food even if it was given to you…don’t earn it…it’s given to you, so you have to assimilate it and what you can’t assimilate you have to expel, and to expel it unless you lose all sense of shame you’d have to have a bathroom. Well, on the other hand, if you don’t have any sense of shame, well then, you revert to the animal world. We all become healthy, wonderful animals…no heart failure, no cancer. And here he’s talking…I wondered is this 1968, is this the man who when he goes to the Vatican the pope receives him? On the other hand, he is equally silly concerning the mystery of Christ, so what does it matter if I call it a pope? Then he goes to the White House and he’s entertained for lunch or dinner and he is a grand, wonderful being…with not one concept of the mystery of Christ.448 ¶9

Now, tonight we will pull this right down to the earth and show you what I really mean when I tell you that you can be exactly what you want to be in this world. If you’re feeling like the devil…and I have felt like the devil, I mean physically, in the last couple of months. Now I am over it, but I couldn’t get over the fact that when I felt like hell I still was responsible for the hell in which I found myself. It wasn’t in my thyroid, it wasn’t in my heart, it wasn’t in this. If it was and they pinpointed it, I was the cause of whatever they discovered in the heart, I don’t care what it is. They put me through every test known in the book, so I had to go back and get his report. And yesterday, he said to me, “Neville, you are a dilemma.” Know what a dilemma is? A dilemma is simply that I have an argument with you and I give you two or more alternatives, I give them all to you. You choose any one you want and whatever you choose and you start on that assumption, your conclusion will be wrong no matter what it is. That’s a dilemma. And so I said, “Have you stopped beating your wife? Take either one you want.” So you can choose anything…that’s a dilemma.448 ¶10

So I went back to him after all these tests and he said, “You are a dilemma. Your blood shows one thing and the actual test on the electrical (whatever it is) shows the exact opposite, exact opposite.” What he was confirming was what in my heart I know, that if I don’t find in the depths of my soul the cause of the phenomena of my life, it is still there. I’m not going to find it in any thyroid or any heart or any liver or any kidney or anything outside of myself. That I know! Well, are we big enough to face the ultimate rather than admit it can be a secondary cause? For a secondary cause would be the thyroid, the secondary cause would be the kidney, or any organ of my body when I am wearing a body. So I put myself into this body that limits me, but I am the operant power of this body, and it cannot become causal. I am the cause, and it only reflects that which I am entertaining in my Imagination. I must not justify it. I must not excuse myself in any way…on the other hand not condemn myself. So there it is. You don’t feel well. Well now, you better get out of it. Don’t start looking in any part of your body for it; you aren’t going to find it. So you love someone and they force you through love to make all these tests. And so to please the one you love, you make all the tests. Then you come home and she says, “Now what’s wrong?” and you say, “I’m a dilemma.” And so, I’m a dilemma.448 ¶11

So here, I ask you to take the same full responsibility upon your shoulders and not pass the buck to the left or the right, not to anyone, not to an organ, not to anything in this world. You can be the being that you want to be if you will take this premise that imagining creates reality. If imagining creates reality, then I must be all Imagination just as the poet said. And if the cause of all phenomena is God, well then, God is all Imagination. And because I can imagine, then God the great Creator must be like pure imagining in myself. I can see that. But now I must test it, I must put it to the test. It’s all well and good to say it in words, but this is all new. You mean I have that responsibility? That I can by actually imagining myself what at the moment reason denies, my senses deny, everything denies actually fulfill it and bring it to pass? Well, if the premise is right yes, I will say to that yes.448 ¶12

Now, let me share with you a few wonderful letters that came this week. A lady writes, “My car needed repairs, so I stopped in, they examined it, and they said it will cost you sixty-two dollars.” When I signed the credit slip, I imagined I signed a check, no credit, I signed the check. And I never sign a check unless there is money in the bank to cover that check. This was in July. August went by, September went by, and no bill from the repair…yet I have my car. In September, a man stopped by and asked me to list his house. He wanted to sell it and was very eager to sell it. I told him that I’m not in the business anymore, but I recommended my former employer and told him to go and see him. So he went over…undoubtedly he did, I didn’t follow through, he went over. In October I received a call from my former employer saying I had a referral commission waiting for me, a check. So I went over and I got a check for sixty-eight dollars, six dollars more than the amount of my car repair.” Here it came, pressed down, shaken together and running over…in keeping with the story in the 6th of Luke, that is, like the granary when you buy grain and he shakes it all together and then he presses it down, and then it runs over. This is part of the ancient world where you had a big pocket and when you bought it, you shook it down and you pressed it down until it ran over and that’s how full…like the baker’s dozen. They always give you an extra bun when you buy twelve, and call it a baker’s dozen. Well here, she got six dollars more.448 ¶13

And then she said, “Here, in the beginning of September our neighbor came down with a heart attack and he was taken to the hospital and his wife had to be there constantly. They have a little boy, John, who lives in our house all day long anyway. He and our son were playmates and they were inseparable. So we thought, well, now we’ll take him in and all he’d do that he didn’t do before would be to have breakfast and dinner and sleep. So at the end of five weeks the father came out and then the mother came over to see me and she said, ‘Now what do I owe you?’ I said, ‘Owe? Why nothing…a haircut, maybe a dollar here, ten cents there, maybe a quarter there…it wouldn’t come to five dollars, so forget it.’” Then kiddingly she said to this lady, “Of course, if at any time in the future you have an old hundred dollar bill tucked in your purse and you don’t know what to do with it and you have no need to spend because you don’t need anything, well then, you could willingly pass it over.” She said, “That’s exactly what my husband and I agreed on to give you” and from her purse she took a hundred dollar bill and gave it. “Now,” she said, “the story is this. Before this happened, my husband and I decided that we would have a certain chair reupholstered. We called the upholsterer, he came on in and brought his materials, and we both agreed on the same pattern. He took the chair out and brought it back, it’s beautiful; and we love sitting in the chair and enjoy every moment of time that we look at it. But it was eighty-seven dollars. This $100 bill paid off the eighty-seven dollars and gave us again another thirteen dollars…pressed down, shaken together, and running over.”448 ¶14

Now, this story in the 6th of Luke comes after he tells you, “Forgive and you shall be forgiven.” In other words, if you apply this principle towards the seeming other—for there is no other in the world—and so as you begin to really use it towards the good of another, like Job when he forgot himself in his love of friends and prayed for his friends, his own captivity was lifted. All that he seemingly had lost was returned a hundred-fold. Everything that he had lost came back but multiplied a hundred-fold. So as you spend one minute thinking of another and representing the other to yourself as you would like them to be and persuading yourself of the reality of this imaginal act, you are actually forgiving the other for what he seemed to have been to himself and to his friends. You are putting him now in an entirely different state, so you’re substituting your concept of him, which is a noble concept, for the concept that he held of himself. That’s forgiveness. Forgiveness tests the individual’s ability to enter into and partake of the nature of the opposite. If I said to you, as a priest will say to someone, “I forgive you, my dear, go and sin no more,” but when he passes you on the street and he remembers what you confessed, he hasn’t forgiven. You have to completely rub it out, completely, by putting something in its place so you don’t see the other. If the present Mrs. Onassis is always seen as Mrs. Kennedy, then in the eyes of the one who sees her as Mrs. Kennedy and not Mrs. Onassis he hasn’t forgotten. It’s still the old pattern. She has to completely lose herself in the new affection, the new love, whatever it is, call it by any name. So you have to completely see it, so much that when you see it thereafter that’s all that you see and not the former state. If you always see the former state, you are tending to pull him back or pull her back into that former state. There are only states in the world.448 ¶15

Now here is another one. My friend went to Pittsburgh this summer and visited her usual friends, and her friend, Betty (she grew up as a child with Betty) they discussed this, and Betty loves all that Jan told her. Last summer, she expressed a desire to have a new organ. She wanted a Baldwin. The one she’d been playing for six years she was tired of. In fact, it was an economy model when she got it and regretted purchasing it since the day she bought it. Jan told her what to do…“As you sit down to play this that you don’t like imagine it is the one you like, it’s a Baldwin, the best you can buy and you can afford it, even though you don’t have a nickel in the bank. You have nothing in the bank but you have the new organ.” And so, she began to apply what Jan told her, which is only reminding her of what she knew, for she knew it, because Jan had told her in previous years and wrote her and called her. So it was all exposure in the past, but now a reminder. She began to apply what Jan told her…she sat at the organ and began to play.448 ¶16

Now, her father departed this world last January and she received $4,500. But her home needed repairs, so she spent the $4,500 in repairing the house. Then came a torrential rain and revealed that the roof really should have been replaced, for there were leaks in it. But, that rain that came, when she called in the roofer and asked, the roofer did not give the estimate for a while. He held up the estimate which was $1,700. In the meanwhile, she got a check for $3,500 from her father’s estate…an unexpected $3,500. She said, “Now I’ll go right down immediately to the Baldwin people and pick out my Baldwin.” She went down and she picked out a $5,000 organ. The man said to her, “Let me show you the ad that we’re now getting out, it will soon break and it’ll all be displayed pretty soon, and the one you’ve picked out for $5,000 when it goes on sale will be $4,000. $1,000 we will give you on the present old organ, therefore, it will be $3,000.” So she sat down and wrote the check for $3,000. On the day that it was installed, then comes the estimate from the roofer, $1,700, and she said, “Oh, why didn’t he give me that estimate before I bought the Baldwin because it’s important that I have a new roof.” So then she thumbed through my book The Law and The Promise, in which there are forty case histories, but she found not one that would in any way aid her. So she called Jan and Jan said to her, “There’s only one principle. There are forty there but it doesn’t matter if there are sixty or 1,000 or one, it would make no difference. It’s a principle.”448 ¶17

Then Jan told her the story that I have told you time and again (it’s not in my books) of a lady in New York City. This lady, Ann, lived up at the Ansonia at 73rd and Broadway and she’s a member of the oldest profession in the world, a lady of the evening. She came to my meetings when time allowed. So this day in question, I met her at Broadway and 73rd, and she said to me, “Neville, I want to ask you something.” “All right, Ann what is it?” She said, “I walked by a hat store and I saw this perfectly wonderful hat advertised for seventeen-fifty. Well, I so fell in love with it I applied your principle, so I took the hat in my Imagination and put it on. I walked up Broadway feeling that I was wearing the hat. On my way back, I wouldn’t look into the window to be disillusioned, so I kept the hat on my head in my Imagination. When I went home, still not to be disillusioned I took it off without looking into the mirror and put it up on top of the shelf, and then I retired. Well, the next morning the old hat is still there, but at least I had the pleasure of maybe an hour and a half of wakefulness wearing the hat. Now, ten days later I still haven’t the hat. A friend of mine called me up and said, ‘Ann, are you busy?’ I said no. ‘Well, I’d like to see you.’ And so, Ann went up to see this friend and the friend said, “I have something to give you. I do not know what possessed me, but I bought a hat and when I came home and tried it on, I wondered, you must have been insane! I wouldn’t wear that hat to a dog fight.” So she brought out the hat…not a hat, the hat…and she said, “Ann, I think it would look lovely on you!” and gave Ann the hat.” So Ann said to me, “Why didn’t God give me the money to buy the hat instead of giving it to me in the way that he gave it to me, through this friend?” I said, “Do you feel obligated?” She said no. I said, “Now look, I know exactly your work and we are adults, we can talk friend to friend. What price hat do you usually buy?” Now this is before the 2nd World War and if you can’t go back that far, may I tell you hats sold for two dollars, two-fifty, two-seventy-five and three dollars, and there were millions of hats at three dollars. She said, “Well, I would go sometimes as high as five.” I said, “Did you ever buy a seventeen dollar hat?” She said no. I said, “All right, do you owe any rent?” She said, “You’re too nosy.” I said, “I’m just curious, do you owe any rent?” She said, “Yes I owe two weeks rent.” I said, “Then you owe just about thirty-five dollars, don’t you?” She said, “Exactly thirty-five dollars.” I said, “Now if you looked down and you found a hundred dollar bill while you’re admiring the hat, not having ever bought a hat that expensive, would you have bought the hat?” I said, I’ll answer for you, no! You would not have bought the hat. You would have gone back to the Ansonia, paid down thirty-five dollars, and possibly you would have paid a week or two weeks in advance to feel free. That’s what you would have done…and you would not have the hat. Now tell me, Ann, how much money must God give you to get you to buy a seventeen dollar hat? If he gave you a thousand, you’re not in the habit of buying seventeen-dollar hats, so you’d have kept the thousand. So God knows best how to give you that hat. So he gave it to you, what are you quarreling about?448 ¶18

And my friend Jan said to her, “Now that’s the story…how much money must he give you to get you to buy the organ? You regret now having spent $3,000 for the organ, because now you have the need of a new roof, and that’s $1,700. Apply the same principle toward the new roof that you did towards the organ, and it will not fail you.” So that was that story. Here is a principle. She taught her how to do it and then within a matter of moments she forgot the source of the phenomena of life. Within a moment she is confronted with the need of a new roof and forgot the principle that gave her the organ. Then reason comes in and says, “After all, it came from your father’s estate and that may be the last from the estate; that may be the closing of the book.” Reason will do it every moment of time, and then take from you this divine gift: That whatever you imagined that you possess, you will possess if you are faithful to the thing assumed. That’s the law.448 ¶19

Now a lady writes me—and this is a different one—after having told what she saw here in this room of ours after the meditation of about a week ago. It is perfectly heavenly…I won’t go into it. But she said, “That night I had a dream. I was in a huge, big what seemed to be a department store, and I found myself in the company of a very close, dear friend. The friend said to me, ‘I will watch your purse for you while you go and pick out the dress that you want.’ Well, I went through all kinds of dresses and I came upon a little rack of four dresses. They were cheap wool skirts, but lovely velvet blouses, and I wondered what designer would take such wonderful material and put it with such horrible skirts.” Well, that is all irrelevant; that is not the single jet of truth in the dream. This is it: “After shopping around, a woman came and pushed me away and she was very rude. I then went back and my friend is gone and the purse is gone. A paper bag is there, but I never thought for one moment the purse is there. So I went to the saleslady and I told the saleslady of the loss of my purse. The lady said, ‘Go back to where you left it…it may be wrapped in paper.’” So she went back and there in the brown bag was her purse. She said, “I do not care if the money is missing, and I had thirty dollars in it, but I don’t want to lose my personal papers because that’s my identity. I wouldn’t know who I am without these papers. So I went back and I found the purse and I took it to the saleslady and I opened it up in her presence. Well, the thirty dollars is gone. All my identification was there minus one little card, and I wondered what on earth did they find in taking that card, for they can’t use it, my name is on it, and that card mentions the fact that I am an ordained Unity minister.”448 ¶20

That is the central jet of truth in your dream, my dear. You have transcended…the thirty pieces of silver are very significant: the price paid for Truth. Thirty pieces and you don’t keep for what you buy…if I buy something I then give something for it. Thirty pieces were given, so thirty pieces were taken. You found the truth and transcended any ordination in this world, as nice as Unity is. All these groups are lovely groups playing their parts on certain levels of consciousness. But you are so far beyond anything that man has made. For Unity, Christian Science, Catholicism, Episcopalism and all these isms are man-made doctrine; they’re not based upon vision. Unity certainly is not based upon vision, neither is Christian Science, nor are any of these little isms. They play their parts on the level where they’re found. You, in the dream, you are told you have paid the price for Truth; for Christ is what one buys for Truth for thirty pieces of silver, and that was taken from you. The mere fact that it was taken from the purse is what you paid for it; and, therefore, the little card giving you your past, I would say, level of consciousness has been taken, too. You’re no longer an ordained minister; you have transcended this level all together and this is your level. When you’ve found him you pay for him…you bought him. So your dream is perfectly marvelous, and that which preceded it with this wonderful lake of crystal water, and then these unnumbered white birds taking flight, and you could feel the coolness of the morning air caused by the wings of the birds…all in this room. I think it’s perfectly marvelous! So thank you.448 ¶21

So here, may I tell you, you have within yourself the power to create anything in this world. Let things be as they are. Let people be what they want to be. And you have your goals. It doesn’t matter what has happened in your world, it doesn’t matter what the world tells you where you started; start from where you are. In you is the power of the universe; his name is I AM, and that is the Lord Christ Jesus. But you’ll never know it unless you test it.448 ¶22

So we are told in the 13th chapter of 2nd Corinthians, “Come test yourself and see. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in thee?” Well, if that challenge is given to any man, if he has any red blood in him he will take the challenge…I mean, if anyone challenged me with don’t I realize that Christ is in me? I wasn’t taught he was in me. My mother didn’t teach me that and Sunday school didn’t teach me that, and when I went to church as a young man, a young boy in Barbados, they didn’t teach me that. He was always on the outside, always some place in space other than myself.448 ¶23

And so I had to find him and when I found him I found that he is creative, that he creates in me, and my life is simply the fulfillment of my own imaginal acts. I haven’t always been wise in my choice of what I would imagine. I have imagined the most unlovely things in this world and I have reaped them. I became the fulfillment of what I was imagining, for imagining is always fulfilling its imaginal state, always. Then I began to be more alert to catch him in the process. I discovered that I could catch him: He would stream into my mind least disguised—but he’s disguised, but least disguised—in the form of my dream, my daydream, and then I’d catch him. Then when I could remember what dreams I entertained when I caught him and they were motive dreams, motive in the sense of motion, were these things making me move, well then, I knew what to expect, unless I revised it. If they were not unpleasant I didn’t revise them, and when I least expected it they came into being in my world.448 ¶24

So don’t envy anyone in this world. If this man tonight has his $500 million and a girl that possibly the whole vast social world would like to have married if they could afford that marriage, so he has her. And when you read all this nonsense in the papers that he’s a little man, only five-five, so what? All that’s envy! So he’s only five-five and he’s swarthy and he’s this and he’s that, so that’s his dream…a dream realized in his own case and it’s her dream too. I’ve always said it, I will continue to say it, Blake is perfectly right. He has a wonderful picture and he said, “More, more is the cry of the fool. Less than all is not enough.” And so in scripture we have these words, “All thine are mine and mine are thine,” not some of yours. You inherit God! God is your possession, so whatever God is if I inherit him then it’s all mine…so less than all is not enough and more, more is the cry of the fool. They are asking for more and more, and may I tell you, as long as one wants more, he never has enough.448 ¶25

So her income is estimated at some fabulous thing from a trust fund or trust funds of twenty-million dollars, so one paper said. Well, if you had twenty million dollars, you would think certainly that’s enough, but you can adjust yourself to a way of life where it isn’t enough, it just isn’t enough. Let the demands made upon you from charities, for this and the other plus the fact that you’re a fashion plate and you like being a fashion plate, you like being named as the best dressed of the ten best dressed in the world. If you like that, it’s going to cost you a fortune. But if you like it, it takes money to gratify that. Well, what’s wrong with it? I personally have no desire to be numbered among any externally well dressed. I hope I’m internally well dressed and I hope the light is blinding. I hope that garment is so powerful that they can’t stand in its presence unless they are qualified to stand there. Well, if I modify it to suit the level on which they stand, that they may see the being that I represent that I am…but certainly not on the outside.448 ¶26

So I tell you that imagining creates reality. Believe it! It is true! So again when Fawcett said that “The secret of imagining is the greatest of all problems to the solution of which the mystic aspires; for supreme power, supreme wisdom, and supreme delight lie in the far off solution of this mystery,” he knew what he was talking about. Actually the old boy knew what he was talking about. A friend of mine sent him my book and called his attention to the chapter on revision. He also sent another copy to one who was a physicist in one of the great universities of the world. The physicist wrote back the most scathing report on the book: “It’s not scientifically provable and therefore this whole thing is just trash, not worthy of any part of his library.” But, the old gentleman who was a philosopher by profession, who taught at the Oxford University, he was then in his 90s, wrote back the sweetest letter. He said, “I can only say that Neville, whoever he is I don’t know, but I read the chapter and this chapter on revision he could only have received from the Brothers, no one but the divine society could have dictated this chapter.” Now here was the old boy filled with praise for a chapter, while the scientist ridiculed it beyond measure because it is something beyond his ken, he can’t grasp it. You go into the laboratory and you put it together and so that’s that. One day he, too, will sit in this place where the doctor that I saw yesterday and he, too, will say, “You’re a dilemma.”448 ¶27

And then you’ll say to him, “Spell it for me”…chances are he may not even be able to spell it…“Well then, define it for me.” I give you all these assumptions. The blood says one thing, the thyroid man said another, that one said another. And if you take any premise, take it, you have a choice, all your conclusions are going to be wrong, because this is opposed to that. So this as an assumption will come to a different conclusion; that as an assumption will come to a different conclusion. And who is the riddle…the one who is the dilemma. But he knows, whether he finds it or not, all I can say to him is I feel a hundred percent better, much better, and you’ve done nothing. No medication change whatsoever…done nothing…and I feel so much better. So I can only say, it all is within me, whatever it is. Whether I pinpointed it or not, what does it matter? I feel better and will go blindly on until that moment in time when he says, “Now look, let’s go” and let them put it back in the dust, feed a plant with it.448 ¶28

So I ask you to take it seriously, and don’t limit yourself by anything that is happening in your world now, no matter what it is. You want to be this…well, it’s what you want not what the other thinks you should want…what do you want in this world? Well now, conceive a scene that would imply that you have it, persuade yourself that you have it, and then walk blindly on in that assumption as though it were true. May I tell you, it will come to pass; it will not fail you if you dare to assume that you are the man, the woman that you want to be, and persist in that assumption. That assumption will harden into fact.448 ¶29

Now you may say, “But, I knew someone who had that assumption and she died or he died and it wasn’t realized.” Death does not terminate life; the world does not cease to be at that moment in time when my senses cease to register it. I am restored, the world is restored, and I continue my journey. My dreams unrealized here will be realized there, because I can’t stop it. Imagining is creating reality.448 ¶30

As my sister-in-law said to me when I said there is marriage in the next world too. So you find yourself dead here, but you’re not dead, you’re alive and young and beautiful and altogether wonderful. Lawrence, my brother, was dying; he was making his exit from this world, and she in a very light vein said “I don’t want to go now, but do you think that Lawrence will be waiting for me and we’ll get married again?” Well, I was off in a light vein, too, and I said, “God is merciful, infinitely merciful!” So, let it go at that and you give any interpretation you want to what I have said. But just imagine, two people fighting through life like cats and dogs all on the show in one sense, and they want to perpetuate it? No, God is merciful, really is, and so you’ve had it. You’d have to be a stupid idiot to repeat it, to continue the nonsense until that moment in time when you’re resurrected. After resurrection there is no giving or taking in marriage; you’re above the organization of sex…a way beyond it.”448 ¶31

Now let us go into the Silence. Are there any questions, please? Well, if there aren’t any, until Monday. Thank you.448 ¶32

Tonight’s subject will be on conception, both on this level and the highest level. The Bible is a vision from beginning to end. We use words like Jesus, we use words like Moses, Abraham and Isaac, but it’s a vision, the whole thing is a vision. So you will understand what I mean when I will say “Jesus said”…for when I speak of Jesus I’m speaking of you, but you raised to the level where you could make the same bold statement. And Jesus’ declaration that he was the fulfillment of scripture required a spiritual maturity of which most who heard his claim were not capable of understanding. He was the fulfillment of scripture. The purpose of life is to fulfill scripture. Now tonight we’re going to speak of conception, which leads towards the fulfillment of scripture. But it casts its shadow in this world, and in this world we can use the same technique to realize our objectives in this world of Caesar. There’s only one Spirit in this world; the Spirit of man and the Spirit of God are one and the same.419 ¶1

Now here, we come to the first great conception, the conception of God. It’s told, really, in the Old Testament, but that is a foreshadowing. You would never use it as a parallel to this story in the Book of Luke. In the first chapter of Luke, the angel of the Lord speaks to Mary and tells her, “Fear not, for you have found favor with God. And you shall conceive and bear a son, and call his name Jesus.” And she wonders, “How is this thing possible since I do not have a husband?” or as it is translated in other books, “I know not a man.” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” . Well, here he explains the theory of supernatural conception: The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Well, the phrase “come upon you” and the word “overshadow” are the same thing by definition. It means “a superimposition, to be superimposed upon something leaving your imprint, leaving your seal.”419 ¶2

Now in the 33rd chapter of the Book of Exodus, there’s a story told concerning…where the Lord is speaking to Moses and he said, “I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and cover you with my hand, and when my glory passes by I will remove my hand, and then you will see my back” . “You cannot see my glory; you’ll see my back.” Well, he puts him in the cleft of a rock. Now, when you read that you wouldn’t think it’s the parallel of the story of the angel and Mary, but it’s the identical story. Only the one in the Old Testament is an adumbration, it’s a foreshadowing in a not altogether conclusive or immediately evident way. He’s on a rock, a cleft of a rock. The word “cleft” by definition in Hebrew means “to bore, to penetrate, to pierce, a quarry.” “I will cover you with my hand.” The word “to cover” means specifically “copulation.” Here is a creative act. Just as in the New Testament “he will overshadow you” means a superimposition of oneself upon a being. It’s a creative act.419 ¶3

Now to illustrate it, let me share with you an experience of a friend who is here tonight. On the 5th of March, only a few days ago, just about a week ago, this was her experience. “I found myself awake within a dream, fully awake as I am here, but I knew it was a dream, yet I am awake within the dream. I am in a huge room. It was brilliantly lit, sterile…it was so bright and yet there was a sense of sterility about it. I knew it to be a morgue. I was flat on my back on a slab. To my left were many girls each on a slab and they appeared to be dead. There was a physician present and there was a nurse. The nurse had very black hair. I knew that the physician had union with all of these girls to my left, and they were dead, yet he had union with all of them. And I knew I was next. Then came through the door this vivacious young girl and took the slab next to me on the right, and I said to her ‘Where’s the physician’s wife?’ She said, ‘She’s asleep in the next room.’ With this, the nurse smiled and as she smiled I recognized who she was. She was wearing a wig that was not her hair. She doesn’t have that black hair, but that was a wig. As she smiled, I knew she was the physician’s wife”…because this lady knows both the physician and his wife in this world. “Then said this vivacious young girl to my right, ‘If you don’t want him, I’ll take him!’” Then she said, “I sat up and I was angry, I said, ‘Oh no, it is my turn and I’ll take him, and I’m ready and willing and able.’ Then union took place and she said to herself, ‘Why, he is like a stallion. How does he do it?’ And with that here is the end of the vision.”419 ¶4

You may think it doesn’t have meaning. It has tremendous meaning! May I tell you, in order to understand what God is saying to man…for he speaks to man in vision, in dream…here is vision because she was awake within the dream. “I’ll make myself known unto you in vision, I’ll speak with you in a dream” . It’s difficult to tell man that God is man. His creative power is personalized as man. Anyone raised from the dead and incorporated into the body of God is Jesus Christ; for Jesus Christ is the power of God, the creative power of God, and the wisdom of God…and he is about creating.419 ¶5

Here, all of them were dead to the left, or they appeared dead, yet he had union with them. All things are possible to God: by burying himself, his creative power, in them he turned death into sleep, and sleep into wakefulness, and wakefulness into resurrection. She said, “There were only four of us who were awake—the doctor, his wife, myself and this vivacious girl.” So here to her left were all these who were already on the slabs…as Moses was on the rock and the cleft. It means “to bore, to pierce, to penetrate, a quarry,” as though they were simply made of marble. This is the world of death and God sends his creative power into the world of death, and penetrates the dead, and then they conceive; and proving to themselves that they have conceived by God, they bear his child. “You shall conceive and bear and call him Jesus.” The word Jesus is Jehovah, the same thing; Joshua, Jesus, Jehovah, the same root in Hebrew, because the word means “salvation.” So if the child to be born of you shall be called holy, the Son of God, if he’s the Son of God, well then, God must have fathered him. Can’t be the Son of God were he not fathered by God. When you are raised from this world of death, you are used—not everyone is—you are used as his creative power to impregnate the dead and bring them out as God. It seems insane on a certain level, but I am telling you what I know.419 ¶6

So, just as God impregnates the dead and brings it out, on this level you can impregnate a state that is dead until you enter it. So, “If the spectator would only enter into the image in his Imagination, approaching it on his fiery chariot of imaginative power…” . So I think of what I would like to be. Well, it’s dead until I penetrate it. An egg is dead until the sperm penetrates it. It can be there forever and it means nothing until the sperm actually penetrates that egg. So here is the egg, whether it be an human egg or the egg of the chicken the sperm must penetrate it. When it penetrates it and occupies it, it fertilizes it. When it becomes fertile, well then, in its own given time it breaks the shell and out comes whatever that was that was the sperm that penetrated it. So you penetrate a state by simply assuming that you are now the being that you would like to be. If you dare to assume that you are that which you would like to be so that you think from it instead of thinking of it, you are in that state. You’ve penetrated it.419 ¶7

Now, just in this world it’s still the great mystery of all time. We know how to go to the moon, we’ve put cameras on the moon, we’ve done all these marvelous things, but to this day no one knows how that sperm can enter the surface of an egg without leaving a hole in the surface of that egg. There was no hole before it penetrated and there was no hole after it penetrated. To this day no matter what man knows concerning all the mysteries round about him, he can’t understand how this could penetrate the egg and leave no hole either before or after; for there was no hole before and none after it penetrated.419 ¶8

Well, your Imagination is that sperm. You do not have to open doors to get into room if you enter in Imagination. Take an entire room and have it sealed, hermetically sealed, what can stop you in your Imagination from assuming that you’re in it? So you are in it and you dwell in it and you look at the world from it. If you dwell in it and then feel what you must feel in all acts, you must feel relief. Of all the pleasures of the world relief is the most keenly felt. So when you enter into a state, remain there until satisfaction is yours, until there is relief, because of all the pleasures of the world, relief is the most keenly felt. That means that you have expelled the germ— call it the germ, it’s the sperm—right into the state.419 ¶9

Now, he covered him with his hand. The hand means “creative power.” He sits at the right hand, the power of God. So he covers it with his hand—“to cover” is copulation—and so he covers him with this creative power of his. But then he removes the power. You don’t have to remain in that state. You’ve gone in and fertilized it, and you return now to your home where you slept the night before or slept five minutes before. But you did go in and you fertilized it, and then you remove the hand. Now, you only see the back of God. Why didn’t you see the face? Only a few see the face. The lady who wrote this letter, she saw the face…she was awake. All the others to her left were [...] dead. They were totally unaware of what had happened to them. So when the child is born, it will come suddenly upon them and they have no knowledge that they had ever conceived. But they have conceived because God never fails in his penetration. And so all will bring forth the child who is called the Son of God, which is a symbol of the birth of the individual who brings the child forward. She, on the other hand, who wrote the letter was awake when union took place, so she knows when it took place.419 ¶10

Now I’ll tell her from my own experience, put it in your Bible against the 35th verse of the Book of Luke, the 1st chapter, and mark it down, “On this day I conceived of the Holy Spirit!” It’ll take you thirty years. Should you drop dead now it’s not going to stop the conception, for you’ll find yourself clothed in a body just like your present body, young, new, wonderful, not a thing missing. But you were not conceived physically; this was in your soul. Your soul is “God’s emanation, his wife ’til the sleep of death is past.” So that’s when you conceived…on the 5th day of March, and from my own experience it took thirty years. So we are told in scripture, “He began his ministry when he was about thirty years of age” .419 ¶11

So everyone is fulfilling scripture, everyone is Jesus Christ. He comes only to fulfill scripture. He foretold what he would do: He comes in, takes upon himself the limitations of man, the limit of contraction, the limit of opacity, and then he fulfills scripture. It doesn’t matter what he does, whether he’s a mason, a carpenter, a lawyer, a banker, a billionaire or a pauper…that is irrelevant. Is he fulfilling scripture? For only as he fulfills scripture does he depart from this world of Caesar into that world called the kingdom of heaven, and that is scripture. So it is God playing all the parts; he foretold it and he becomes it and then he plays it. So the whole thing is vision from beginning to end; it is not secular history. There is nothing in the Bible concerning history as you and I understand history in this world. These characters did not live as you and I live in this world. These are eternal states through which you and I, the immortal being called God, we pass through these states. As we pass through these states we realize we are only fulfilling scripture.419 ¶12

So the story as told in the 33rd chapter of Exodus was a foreshadowing of that which is fulfilled in the first chapter of Luke. Here it is told in a clear manner. So the angel explains to her the theory of spiritual or supernatural conception. It was told in the 33rd chapter of Exodus, but it wasn’t told in such a manner that one could understand it as they read it. You take a good dictionary, the Hebrew dictionary, and look up the words and you see “he covered him with his hand” and then you look up the word “cover” to see what it actually signifies—and that is the one definition that is primary—it means “copulation.” But I know in my own case, when a man stands in the presence of the risen God, it’s an embrace, and the embrace fuses the two…and that’s for man. In woman…all the people were women save the physician in this vision of my friend. So in the other setup, it was simply women and it takes place in a way that is normal in this world…but it’s not physical…it’s in the soul. And he buries himself which is the power of God in all. She said, “Why, he’s like a stallion. How does he do it?” Because he is the creative power of God and he is used for the purpose to bury the image of God, which is the seed within him, in everyone. And they all seem to be dead. But God awakens the dead. So in scripture you’re told, “Arise, awake, you sleeper and rise from the dead” —so it has equated the dead and the sleeper. They were so asleep they seemed to her to be all dead, but she knew he had had union with all of them, she was next, and there would be the next and the next. That was the part that he was sent in to play. Not on this level, for he couldn’t play it on this level. That’s why he was reversed; his energies were turned up into regeneration. He plays it in the world beyond, in a remote area of the soul of man. But the same technique that applies there, which is piercing or penetrating, applies here in realizing objectives.419 ¶13

Now, my friend Benny on the 20th day of October had the birth of the child. Last night Benny called me. Well, I had two friends I hadn’t seen in I would say at least three years, and one needed help greatly and I invited them to dinner. So we just sat down to dinner when Benny called to tell me that he’s had the experience of David. And it came on the very day that I foretold him that it would happen, on the very day, the 6th of March. So I said, “Benny, I cannot see you, but you must write it out for me in detail.” But before he’s written it out…because he’s here tonight and he hasn’t yet given it to me…whether he has it with him or not I do not know…but this is what I gathered, because I left the dinner table to come to the phone to speak to Benny. He said, “I fell asleep and I’m invited to a party. Here I am at a party and there are children around and the parents of the children. Then suddenly the parents put on their hats and coats and they are departing, and they said to me, ‘You become the sitter and you take care of the children.’ Well, I thought to myself, ‘Isn’t that the strangest thing for a host to do, to invite me to a party and then leave and leave me with the children. At that moment, David comes through, a lad of about fourteen years of age. I knew he was David and he knew I was his father; and then he looked me in the eye and he said to me, ‘I know that our Father will never leave us.’ And then it ended”…again, fulfillment of scripture.419 ¶14

See, God does not imitate, he doesn’t repeat himself. In each case, the same story takes on a uniqueness so that it is never duplicated. In scripture I know, “I go unto my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” So here comes the plural…he turned and said that “I know our Father will never leave us.” That earthly father left, but the spiritual Father will never leave us. So he has promised to write it for me and he’s here tonight. I want it in detail, because it happened on the very day that I told that if it followed the same pattern, the chronological pattern that mine followed, it should come around the 6th.419 ¶15

Now I’ll prophesy for him, the next one will come on the 8th of July. Then you will be split from top to bottom and you will ascend in serpentine form into heaven. That’s when it will happen. Just as I told you on the 20th of October that this will happen on the 6th of March and it did, I now tell you on the 8th of July it will happen. I will still be in the city but I will not be here. I’ll be in the city and you can tell me.419 ¶16

So I tell you we are only here to fulfill scripture. I don’t care what you do in this world. Suppose you sat in the White House tonight, it’s nothing compared to having the birth. Supposing you are the President of our great country exercising this enormous power in the world of Caesar, that is nothing compared to what you have experienced! You have fulfilled scripture, two of the major of the four that must take place: birth from above, then comes David who calls you Father. David is God’s only Son and he calls you Father, therefore, you are God. Not a thing in this world could ever convince you that you are God unless God’s Son calls you Father. Then will come the splitting of the body from top to bottom, and you will ascend it like a serpent right into heaven. Then later on, two years and nine months later, you will have the descent of the dove. It cannot fail. This is taking place in the world. And so what does it matter what the individual accomplishes in the outer world of Caesar when they must, no matter what they are now, go through this? Who knows what furnaces they must go through before the birth of the child? No one knows.419 ¶17

But I can say to my friend who wrote the letter, you make a note of it. You may depart this world before thirty years, but you will not falter. So many here…as in Benny’s case he has no…he’s only thirty years old…so he has no memory of the conception. I know that many have no memory of the conception, because they might be sound asleep when the conception took place. But they didn’t choose; they were chosen. “You didn’t choose me; I chose you” . She did say in her letter she knew that everyone was there through desire, they desired to be there. It seemed that way to her. But no, “No one chooses me,” saith the Lord, “I have chosen you. No man cometh unto me save my Father calls him…and I and my Father are one” . Who can tell the secret of that elective love when one is pulled out and called? And you cannot resist it. May I tell you, when you are called you don’t volunteer; you are drafted and you are drawn into that state. It takes place.419 ¶18

Now to tell this in a vast audience would be the height of insanity. “What is he talking about?” I tell you, you either interpret everything in this world as symbols or simply reject it as illusions. Everything in this world is a symbol. Your dreams, your visions and the experiences here in this world, it’s all symbolism. You either accept it and interpret it as symbols when it takes place in your world or completely reject it as illusions. For there’s nothing but God and God is your own wonderful human Imagination. There’s nothing but God. There’s only one Spirit in the world and this one wonderful universe. The being that maintains it all is the being that maintains you, individually, in this world, same being. There is no other. “Man is all Imagination and God is Man, and exists in us and we in him” . “The eternal body of man is the Imagination, that is, God himself” .419 ¶19

Now, all things are possible to God. So, just as you penetrate the dead, and make it conceive, and awaken it from the dead into a living state to prove that it can actually express your impregnation because it brings forth your child; so if he brings forth, or she brings forth the Son of God, well then, God must have fathered it. It can’t be the Son of God unless God was father. And yet, she was totally unaware that she had conceived. But in this case of the one who wrote the letter she was aware. She was awake within the dream, which is marvelous, perfectly marvelous. You just write it down. Whether you depart this world before the thirty years or not makes no difference, you will not lose the child. Unlike the children here where there could be a miscarriage, you will not lose the child.419 ¶20

So if this physician was used in that part to sire all these, on this level he is totally unaware of it, totally unaware of it. He is used and God is infinitely merciful and shuts off the knowledge of such performances. He sleeps soundly. I’m quite sure that doctor sleeps an unconscious eight hours, but he was busy in what he was doing, for he is the creative power of God. As she said in her letter, “I must confess I thoroughly enjoyed it.” And he is totally unaware, that physician, of the joy that was yours, but there, undoubtedly, he was not; but he was shut out in this world.419 ¶21

I have books at home, Sex Symbolism in the Bible, and these great scholars when they come upon such passages they turn in disgust and think the whole thing is just simply pornography. Well, if you read it through that level, yes it is. Because God is a creator and he creates. Every child born of woman is God creating. He is the Creator. The whole vast thing is that. But when he brings you forward from above, he is then the reversed energy, and the energy now springs from above, when in this world it springs from below. It’s in generation and then it moves into regeneration.419 ¶22

Now, come back to this level. For those who are here for the first time, this is how we go about realizing an objective. Think of what you want in this world. That’s only a state. It could be health, it could be wealth, it could be fame, it could be anything in this world…just think of it. Now that is just like an egg: It has all that is necessary but one thing, it has to be penetrated, it has to be fertilized. Until the sperm penetrates it and fertilizes it, it cannot break the shell and become what the world calls a reality in this world.419 ¶23

So I stand here before you and suppose I desired, say, to be in San Francisco…it’s 500 miles north of here. I would assume that I am in San Francisco. I think I know that city fairly well, but I don’t have to know a city well in order to imagine a state. But here, I know it well…I’ve lived in so many of the hotels for a month at a time, sometimes two months at a time. So I put myself in a familiar place, say, I’m on Union Square or I’m in the St. Francis, and I would just sit in that lobby or sit in my room that I know so well and think of the world; and I would see it all related to where I’m assuming that I am. While I’m in it I would feel a sense of relief, of satisfaction, that I wanted to be here and I am here. As I would do that and release myself in that state, I have released the necessary sperm or energy in that state, which is like an egg. I return here to Los Angeles, but I have gone and prepared the place.419 ¶24

And now I will move across a bridge of incidents or some series of events that will compel me to move from here to fulfill what I have done and I’ll go to San Francisco. I may have no desire to go, but I will move under compulsion to go and do it. I will have to. For I go first and prepare the place, occupy it, and then return to where I was. And even though I might resist the going I can’t stop it, I created it! I will move across this bridge of incidents that will be thrown up for me. Things will compel me to leave here and go there, and I will actually fulfill what I have done. I created it; I must fulfill it.419 ¶25

Now, you do this with everything in this world. Look upon everything that is an objective, a desire, as an egg and the thrill of penetrating that egg and occupying it. Actually move right into it, dwell in it, and view the world from it—don’t think of it, view the world from it. As you view the world from it, you’re in it. Well now, release yourself in that state; feel the satisfaction that is yours. May I tell you from my own personal experience, there’s no power in this world that can stop you from realizing it, not even yourself. You may regret that you did it, but you’re going to fulfill it anyway. Learn your lesson and try in the future not to do things you don’t want to experience. But you’re going to do it.419 ¶26

So everything in this world is waiting for you to penetrate it—which is called in Exodus “the cleft rock.” He puts him into a cleft rock and the word cleft means “to pierce, to bore, to penetrate, a quarry” as though the whole thing was dead. A quarry is something that only stone and marble comes from it, and so it’s just as dead as that. So you think it couldn’t be. You go right into it, but you penetrate it, occupy it, view the world from it, and feel the relief of being in it and the satisfaction of accomplishment and you’ve done it. That is a creative act on this level, just as my friend saw the creative act on another level.419 ¶27

It frightens people even to think of that, because the moralists have the strangest concepts of God. I wonder what they think, a man and woman who love each other if they are apart from their so-called holy concept of God. When two people love each other and they are devoted, whether they be husband and wife or not…they love each other and that consummation of that love, is that something apart from God? No, may I tell you. I wish the whole vast world could read Blake and see what he thinks of the so-called moral virtues of those who distort the vision of Jerusalem, this wonderful being of liberty.419 ¶28

So in everything you want in this world, go right into it. Don’t ask anyone’s permission. Can you occupy a state? Go into it! Would you know what the feeling would be like if it were true? How would it feel if it were true? How would it feel if I…and I name it? And then suddenly…how many people today are in Vietnam either because they wanted to or they were afraid of it and their fears came upon them? They put themselves right into the state.419 ¶29

My son went through the last, the Second World War, and he read a little book concerning Guadalcanal and he fell in love with the peculiar headdresses of the natives, where the tops were all yellow from the sun and yet black, black hair below this burnt top…and these peculiar headdresses. He told me himself. Well, at the age of seventeen he volunteered, right after Pearl Harbor, and he was one of the first ashore in Guadalcanal. He actually put himself into that state by reading a book and falling in love with the pictures. Now, he didn’t enjoy the experience of Guadalcanal, but he asked for it. He did it. It doesn’t happen by accident. These things all happen in this world because you and I are setting them in motion, and we either do it wittingly or unwittingly.419 ¶30

So tonight, I want to share my thrill with all of you in Benny’s wonderful experience of David, and then in this lady’s experience of being sired. And I promise her it will take the thirty years…but what is thirty years in eternity? What is thirty years to bring forth the Christ child? And so, may everyone have it! He doesn’t have only one stallion, may I tell you, he has a wonderful stable. Each is his great creative power, but he can only use the resurrected—those that he has raised from the dead, those who have been turned around from generation into regeneration. He selects them and sends them. Not because they volunteer to be sent; they are sent under command. They didn’t volunteer. They are sent out to play the part of the creative power of God.419 ¶31

Well, believe me, God is man. The World will not believe that God is man. “Thou art a man, God is no more, thy own humanity learn to adore” . Everything in this world is man. This morning in vision, must have been about three, three-thirty in the morning, I saw this perfectly lovely six-story building, stark white, with a little brown trimming. As I’m looking at it, suddenly it becomes man…everything is man…the whole thing becomes the human face. It didn’t lose its outside contour but it’s man. All the mountains, the rivers, the valleys, everything is man, because there’s nothing but God and God is man. So you move into a river and suddenly, if you are awake, it suddenly becomes a person. It’s man. You commune with it as man to man. Move into a mountain and suddenly it becomes man. For, it was a perfectly handsome man this morning, and yet one moment before as I looked at it, it was only a six-story building. Then suddenly, here is man and we communed as friends, friend to friend. So you walk into all these areas of the world and everything is God, and there’s nothing but God and God is man.419 ¶32

Now let us go into the Silence. Are there any questions?419 ¶33

Tonight’s subject, beyond the mystery of “The Name of Judah”…possibly the most misunderstood character in the drama of salvation. We call the name Judas, but Judas and Judah are one and the same. In biblical opinion, biblical thought, a name, the name of a man reveals his character. Its full significance is apparent only in the light of its consummation, which when the name is manifested, truly manifested, is manifested in him who is the Word made flesh. And then the full significance of the name is understood.368 ¶1

So here we take the name Judah, Judas. It is spelt Yod He Vau Daleth He. The divine name is Yod He Vau He. You and I call it the Lord. We call it I AM. Well, here we have in Judas the name Yod He Vau, then we have Daleth and then we have He. So we do have the divine name, but inserted into the name is Daleth, whose significance is a door, the symbol is a door, the fourth letter of the alphabet. We hear the central figure of the New Testament declaring, “I am the door.” Here, we find it inserted into again the name, meaning I AM.368 ¶2

Now, he’s called, Judas is called, the betrayer. He betrayed the Lord Christ Jesus. The dictionary defines the word betrayer as “the revealer, one who makes known or one who delivers into the hands of the enemy.” This one is called the Word of God and the Word of God is called the truth, and his name is called the truth, the Word of God. “Thy Word is truth.” So the one who reveals the truth, betrays him. He betrays the truth. Those who do not understand or recoil from the truth are the enemies of the truth, although they know it not. So the whole vast world who would recoil from the truth are the enemies of the truth.368 ¶3

Now, here the name of God…who could reveal the secret of God but God himself? No one could reveal my secret but myself. I could let you into certain things in my world, take you into my confidence, but, really, my inmost thoughts, who knows my thoughts but myself? So if anyone could reveal God—well, Christ is the Lord—it would have to be God himself. He who dips with me into the dish…well, who can dip with me but myself?368 ¶4

Now this drama unfolds in us, may I tell you. The Word of God is planted in man, in every being in this world. And all the blows of life simply stir it, agitate it, it takes root and it begins to unfold. The drama as first told in the Old Testament and explained in the New in the life of Jesus Christ unfolds in the individual, with the individual cast in the central role. He is the star, the being that is being revealed to himself.368 ¶5

Now let me share with you an experience of mine that took place a year ago this month. I’ve told it here before, but not everyone was present. It took place on the 10th day of October, 1966. I am in a room, say, thirty square…maybe not quite thirty square, but say thirty square. We’re all dressed in ancient robes. I am discussing the word of God, teaching the word of God. We’re all seated on the ground. Facing me were, say, twelve men, dressed as I was dressed in the ancient robes. At a certain point in the instruction one rose quickly and left the room. The very moment he left the room I knew he was going to tell the authorities what he had heard. As he left, a tall handsome man, beautifully robed in the most costly robe—a man, say, forty, six-feet-four in height, straight as an arrow, entered and walked hurriedly to the end of the room, turned at right angles, walked to the end of the room, turned at right angles and walked to the center, turned and came down the middle. I was seated facing these. But when he entered, at the very moment he entered we all rose and then stood perfectly still while he made his quick motion towards me. As he came towards me, he turned and faced me, and then he hammered into my shoulder a wooden peg. I could feel every blow as it went into my shoulder. Then he took a sharp instrument and with one circular motion he severed the sleeve of my robe, pulled it off, and discarded it. When he did that, he extended his arms as straight as a cross, he looked like a cross. And then he embraced me and he kissed me on the right side of my neck, and I kissed him on the right side of his neck. While we were embraced and the scene is fading, I’m looking at the bluest of blue, a light, light blue, which was the discarded sleeve, my robe. And that was it.368 ¶6

Now, let me turn to the 14th chapter, the gospel of Mark. You can read it, the 41st to the 45th verses of the 14th chapter of Mark. “The hour has come”—and you will notice in all of this everything is on time—“the hour has come; the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.” That’s what the central character states. Then comes statements of the evangelists, speaking now of the one who entered. He had given them a sign that the one that he shall kiss is the man. Seize him and lead him out safely. Then comes the finale of the drama, lead him out safely. And now, he repeats the story of the betrayer that his hour had come. This is a true, true story that unfolds in man, and every man has the word buried in him. Then that word breaks the shell and begins to expand, like the Tree of Life.368 ¶7

And may I tell you, Judas is not the one that departed and told the story; Judas is the revealer. No one knew who he was, this one that entered. For the betrayer is going to enter quickly, as you are told, and when he comes he will go up to him right away. In other words, he goes right up. Now, there is no hesitation when he enters, he goes straight to the one, and he kisses him. As you’re told in the drama, he goes right up, he doesn’t wait, doesn’t hesitate. And he walked as fast as a soldier on a rapid march. Here he goes straight up and he simply embraces you, calls you Master. The word master is the same word translated as the Lord, as the one of authority.368 ¶8

The first thing that he does, he fulfills in that moment the 22nd chapter and the 53rd chapters of the Book of Isaiah. He hammers the peg upon your shoulder, that wooden peg on which all the authority is given to you. For he hangs upon you complete authority over all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all of the world…hangs it upon you. Then, at the end, the peg falls and you’re relieved of the burden of running it. So you’ve been chosen at that moment to play that part in a section of time following your departure from here. Then comes the 53rd chapter, “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” . He reveals the arm, the right arm, the arm of power. We have it here symbolized in the Mass. You can’t say the Mass with the left hand, you do it with the right. There was a cardinal here who developed some kind of a clot in his right arm on his way to Rome and the Ecumenical Conference and they had to amputate the right arm. He was a very fine man, a wonderful cardinal, and he got special permission from the Pope to conduct it with the left. In other words, this is all symbolism on this level. You only conduct it with the right hand. So he severs the sleeve that hides the arm of the Lord, which is all symbolism, beautiful, beautiful figures.368 ¶9

So, here in this world, I tell you the whole drama is true, perfectly true. So who are the enemies?—those who recoil from the revelation of the truth. I tell you your own wonderful human Imagination is God. That is the truth. Tonight, one billion who believe they believe in Christ would recoil from that statement. And they do not know they are the enemies of Christ. They are the enemies of the truth, for Christ is the truth. So Christ in man is his own wonderful human Imagination. Those who cannot accept it and will not accept it, who recoil from him, they would tear you apart. But they don’t. For he said, the betrayer said, “Seize him, but lead him away safely.” He doesn’t care. He only reveals. Those to whom he reveals the truth would destroy him.368 ¶10

But, he disguises. He finds the truth. He finds the embodiment of it, the personification of truth, and simply embraces him with extended arms. Now, the word Judah means “celebrated; the celebrant; the one who officiates at the great Eucharist.” It means “the hand of power.” It means “to revere, to worship with extended hands”…just exactly what he did, complete extension of the hands. He simply came forward, dressed in the most wonderful clothes. He was the sovereign conducting now the Eucharist, putting into the shoulder that which would hold the burden of Israel, and then embracing you after extending his arms and betraying you with a kiss. He reveals you to yourself who you are.368 ¶11

So all these characters they are known only as they are manifested in him who is the Word made flesh. So the Word is buried in man. The Word unfolds and as it unfolds that eternal story buried in man takes on flesh, takes on form and reveals to man who the man really is. The man is revealed to himself as Christ the Lord; therefore, the whole vast world misunderstanding the story has condemned the revealer throughout the years. And everyone who reveals the truth is condemned. So, the revealer of the truth is in man. When man arrives at a certain point, then like a leaf coming out of a tree or the fruit coming out, he appears. He’s only known in his full significance when he’s actually made manifest in the man who is really the Word made flesh. So every name has its significance.368 ¶12

Here, a lady writes me a story—and these are simply touching on the power that will be exercised tomorrow by everyone in the world. These are powers…tasting of the powers of the age to be. She said, “The year was 1965 and the month was May. It was two in the afternoon and I was lying on the floor. I said to myself, ‘If I wanted to I could get out of my body’ and then, automatically, I wanted to. And instantly I was viewing a scene, some country scene. Here to my left a horse drawn carriage with two people in it. It’s a dirt road, unpaved. It was almost covered with a dust about six inches on the sides and the center multiple varying impressions made on this dust; but the dust at least six inches on the sides of the unpaved road. To my right were people. I saw three abreast facing the carriage, one just a little behind. This unpaved road lined with trees, but they were not moving. They were in the act of motion but they were not moving. And here, I saw these, everything…she didn’t say they were frozen, but she said they were inactive. “They were in the process of motion but they couldn’t move. And I knew that it was my presence that made them inactive and I also knew that when I withdrew from the scene, they would become animated. While I was present they were inactive, but when I withdrew from the scene they would be animated. Suddenly I found myself back on the floor and I said to myself, ‘I was there and I was awake, completely awake. I was there, but where was I? And a voice within me said, ‘Paris 1778.’” She said the ladies were dressed in long skirts to their ankles. Men and women wore hats. And these ladies wore these long skirts around their ankles; and they were in blue, lovely shades of blue, the lightest of blue, the bluest of blue, with a brilliance or a luster added to it. The voice said, ‘Paris 1778.’”368 ¶13

Now, if you tell that to one who has not had a similar experience, he would say, what does it mean? May I tell you, this whole thing is a play. It hasn’t passed away at all, any more than the first act of any play has ceased to be. It is being reenacted over and over and over. And man is totally unaware of the fact he is in a play. The garments are dead and someone animates him until that Word of God buried in man hatches out. As it hatches out of this permanent play, he comes out and he’s born just as you’re told Christ was born in the gospels. “Unless you be born from above, you cannot inherit the kingdom of God” . So man must be born from above, therefore, come out of this world. And it seems so alive to us, doesn’t it? Yet, it is all dead. And those who are having these experiences are tasting of the powers of the age to come…when finally we all come out, one by one, to unite into a single being who is God. Here, in one being he buried himself, the one, in all and his buried self is called the Word. It’s his plot, his plan of salvation.368 ¶14

So here, Judah—which was in the genealogy the son of Jacob—“And Jacob’s son was Judah.” He had Judah and his brothers. It didn’t say Reuben, Laban, didn’t say any of the others, and “Judah and his brothers.” And the word Judah and the word Judas and the word Jude and the word Thaddaeus are one and the same in scripture; meaning, simply, “the celebrant; the celebrated; the power of God; the hand of God; the creative hand of God.” It begins with a Yod…Yod, which means “hand, the hand that is a creative hand, the powerful hand.” Then comes the He and then the Vau. Then comes He in this word a Daleth, a door. “I am the door. Anyone who enters by me is saved.”368 ¶15

You can only come through this one door; there is no other door. And so he comes up, he embraces you, betrays you. But to betray you is to reveal you to yourself as the being you really are. And he reveals you as the one whom he has just actually nailed into your shoulder that peg on which all the burdens, all the responsibilities, and the authority of running it hangs for awhile. It will be taken off and then passed to another. All must exercise the right to run it, to run this wheel that is moving over and over. We are all passing through the same scene over and over and over again.368 ¶16

So just as this lady saw this scene in the year 1778…I can tell you, from my own experience, I have come into places just like this. As I entered I knew if I arrested an activity in my own Imagination, everything would stand still. Well, I did and it all stood still. And yet, they were just like you. Go into a restaurant and the restaurant, everything is in order, people being served. I arrested the activity and no one could be served and no one could continue eating, everything was simply still. When I released it they all continued on their course as they intended. The one drinking soup finished the soup. The waiter coming in or the waitress coming in continued the action to serve second courses and everything continued.368 ¶17

You go to a play, you see that wonderful play, the end is already written, but you don’t know it. You’re carried away with the entire action and you see it and you love it, you weep, you laugh, you resent, you do all the things, all the emotions are played upon you by the unfolding actions. And so, you don’t realize while you’re in it that it is a play.368 ¶18

Well here, God is buried in his pre-determined play, all things exist, all things. And man, simply, who is God that is buried in this play and goes through from the cradle to the grave, and goes through and through and through until finally the Word buried in man awakens. As it awakens, he is extracted from the play. As told us in the Psalms, to the Lord God belongs this redemption from death, this salvation from death, no one else. He simply awakens in us. He doesn’t pull me from the outside.368 ¶19

Every character in scripture is in me: All things exist in the human Imagination…and human Imagination is the divine body. And so, buried in me is that plot, that plan, called the Word of God, which was with God and is God. And God is buried in me. It takes all of these strange and horrible things of the world to shift, agitate, to get it in motion to start to awaken. Then it awakens in us. And then all these characters come to play their part relative to us.368 ¶20

So when he comes, we are told, the Son of man is betrayed. But he tells you the Son of man is Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and the Son of God and God are one. So he tells you what is now being betrayed or revealed: he reveals you. As he reveals you he makes known to you and delivers you into the hands of the enemy. For you can’t stop it, you’re going to tell it. And those will recoil who hear it. As they recoil, they are the enemies of the truth. For you have experienced it! And so, they are the enemies of the truth. And the truth is the Word of God, and the Word of God and God are one. So they recoil from it, but they know it not. So, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.” When they attack the revelation of truth, it’s because they do not know. So the whole thing unfolds within us. There is nothing but God unfolding within us.368 ¶21

So I tell you that your own wonderful human Imagination is God. You can take it from there and test it this night, just test it. Imagine a state as though it were true. Believe in the reality of Christ who is your own wonderful human Imagination. Believe that all things are possible to him. Then just go about your business and see how quickly it comes to pass in your world in a way that no one knows.368 ¶22

The end is the unfoldment in man of scripture, but in that interval you and I are free to choose what we want to do. Maybe [...] a certain freedom as actors are. You’ve seen Hamlet, as I have maybe a dozen times, different actors playing the part, and no two interpret Hamlet alike. They differ in their interpretation. That’s their choice, that’s their privilege. So, you are playing a part and you can change it. You can change it and play it differently, but you will not go outside of the framework of God. Because God’s framework is in you, that is the play, that when it unfolds it unfolds in you. The outer part doesn’t really matter.368 ¶23

So this little thing goes on forever…just as this lady saw a scene in 1778 in Paris. When this thing drops, when I take it off and you burn it and dissolve it, you can’t destroy the interval that it walked this earth. And so someone will come upon the scene, reanimate it, or keep it still as she did, and see the scene. This never passes away. But there is something buried in all who are present in this scene that is the gospel, the Word of God. That Word is buried in man and then will slowly unfold. As you and I, the immortal you, cannot die, I cannot go to eternal death in that which cannot die. And so, the immortal self is your own wonderful human Imagination. It can never die. I don’t care what you do to the body, how you rub it out. If you dissolve it and just turn it into ashes, here is this little dust, it cannot die. Nothing dies in God’s world. He is the God of the living. So everything remains forever and forever and forever.368 ¶24

But something in this, as Blake so beautifully said in his Vision of the Last Judgment, “Eternity exists and all things in eternity independent of Creation, which was an act of mercy.” So the whole vast world is simply a part of the structure of the eternal world; but buried in it is that act of mercy, when he buries himself in it all and extracts himself so that he expands beyond what he was when he buried himself in it. These little forms remain. Nothing passes away. Unless in the end, which is not my vision, that he decides to bring the whole vast thing to an end, having extracted his whole being. So you are told in scripture nothing is lost. “It is not the will of my Father of all that he has given me that anything be lost,” as you read it in the 6th chapter of John: “Nothing of all that he has given me, nothing shall be lost, and I’ll raise it up at the last day” . He gave me every character in scripture, he gave you every character in scripture, and you’ll raise it up at the last day, because God, the infinite God, is buried in you.368 ¶25

You dwell upon it. Take my word for it. I’m telling you what I know from experience. I can see that whole thing unfold in my mind’s eye now, and everything said in scripture. “Rise!” said he. We’re all seated on the floor and he said, “Rise! Let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand.” And the minute he entered the door…the authority that he bore! And we rise and stand at attention while he makes the quick motion across the room and comes straight before you. Well, he is Yod He Vau Daleth He…here is God himself, now transferring the power to the one that he now is going to kiss and betray. And while you are embraced, there the whole thing comes to an end.368 ¶26

So we have condemned a man called Judas, and Judas is the eternal character who reveals God in man to the man in whom he dwells. So we go back to Blake, “Why stand we here trembling around calling on God for help, and not ourselves, in whom God dwells?” . So, turn on the outside and call on a God for help and not ourselves in whom he dwells? So he simply turned to self in whom he dwells. And you’ll see the whole thing unfold within you. As I told you earlier, it wasn’t painful when he put that wooden peg into my shoulder. He hammered it in. I felt the impact but there was no pain. So then he makes the statement, “Seize him and take him away safely.”368 ¶27

Now, when Pilate said, “Where do you come from?” and Jesus did not answer, Pilate said to him, “So you will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above; therefore he who delivers me into your hands has the greater sin” . Here is the play, on this level. You could do nothing were it not part of the play, given from above. So he thought in his blind state he could exercise the power to release or to crucify. He said, “You could do nothing were it not given to you from above.” So man has to be born from above to get that same power that he may see the whole play that goes over and over and over. And it all takes place within us.368 ¶28

So from beginning to end the story is true, every word of it is true. I can tell you, as I stand before you the whole drama has been fulfilled in me. And yet I am the same man that I have known since I was a boy, the same Neville. I think of my mother as I thought of her when I was a child. She’s just as dear and tender to my father. They’ve gone from this world, but they’re not gone, really, not to me they aren’t gone. My brothers, my sister, all of my family, they’re all just as tender…my friends. So, I’m not a different person because of this. So there is no loss of identity, and yet the whole thing said of him I have experienced.368 ¶29

And I can tell you that this one of whom I speak is your own wonderful human Imagination. All things exist in the human Imagination, but all things. And it’s buried in you…it simply unfolds in you as you go through this. Not knowing who you are, you imagine all kinds of things and these are the blows, horrible blows. You need not encounter them, but if you don’t know who you are and you are the enemy of Christ, you will recoil from what I am telling you and then you will not apply it. You’d rather not hear it, and go to church, and go to mass and do this, and give all the little things, light a candle, and feel now that’s it… because he is a devil who’ll make that statement.368 ¶30

In fact, I have people writing me letters and it’s really amusing. They say, “Your name is not Neville, you are a devil.” “You say Goddard is your last name?” and they have all kinds of things…they’re twisting the whole thing together. It’s amusing them, writing me reams and it’s really fun. And this one letter up in San Francisco who is always sending these things along. He sends huge, big things, piles of it. It’s amusing. I know one day he will simply awaken and all that he did will be completely forgotten and not brought into mind any more, completely forgotten. But he’s in a battle with himself, he’s struggling with himself, because he can’t believe that his own wonderful human Imagination is God…and the one who does it and reveals it to the sinner.368 ¶31

The betrayer betrays Christ to the sinner. The sinner is one who is missing the mark in life. That’s all that the word sin means “to miss the mark.” And so, you tell the sinners of the world who is the cause of the phenomena of life and why he’s missing it, and he resents you because he’s going to turn to his external Christ and pray to some God that doesn’t exist. He can’t believe that God is within him…that his own wonderful human Imagination is God and the only God. That he so loved us he became us that we may be as he is. And, they can’t accept that, so they try to tear you apart. But he doesn’t do it physically, for the story is, “lead him away safely.” So you are safely taken away, out of the reach of the violence. They simply leave your world. That’s what happens. They do not hurt. They just simply depart, because they cannot accept the truth.368 ¶32

So when truth is revealed the majority run from it. It’s not what they expected. They always wanted some external God to serve. And any external God is going to enslave you. I don’t care what he looks like. Whether he be the most beautiful thing in the world, he will enslave you if you follow him. Follow no external being in this world. That goes for all teachers, all priests, all popes, all doctors, all everything. The minute that you follow them as something external that is your great leader, he will enslave you. That is in the Book of Samuel, the 8th chapter of 1st Samuel. Find him within you or you will never find him. And when you find him within you, here the whole story is unfolding within you.368 ¶33

Could I have gone to sleep and conjured that drama? Could I have conjured a room where thirteen of us are clothed in the ancient robes, seated on the ground, and then one departs and I knew intuitively the nature of why he is departing, he’s going to reveal what he’s heard? As he reveals what he’s heard, now the real betrayer will enter. For only one who has reached that point could tell it, and so now he comes in. Who comes in?—Judas. Judas comes in and does exactly what you’re told in the 14th chapter of Mark. He comes in and he walks rapidly up to him and says, “Master!” and kisses him, just as you’re told in the Book of Mark. He comes in, in the same manner, and the minute he enters, you rise. What are the words in the mouth of Jesus? He said, “Rise, let us be going, for my betrayer is at hand.” Then comes the symbol. He’s given them a sign…this is only a sign…he’s given them a sign: “The one I shall kiss is the man; seize him and lead him away safely” .368 ¶34

You aren’t going to be crucified; crucifixion is over, the crucifixion is completely over. There is no second crucifixion. It’s simply resurrection now, one after the other, resurrected. But no more crucifixion…that whole thing is over. And may I tell you from my own personal experience, in that mystical crucifixion it was infinite joy! Ecstasy! When I tell you what it means to be nailed upon this cross, far from pain, pain nothing. You’re giving up the most heavenly being that you are, a world of vortices, and you nail yourself deliberately upon this.368 ¶35

Now, in the New Testament there’s only one suicide, Judas. There is another but it is implied, in the 10th chapter of John. In the 10th chapter of John, it is stated, “No one takes away my life, I lay it down myself. I have the power to lay it down and the power to take it again. And I and the Father are one” . So no one has taken my life from me. So when Judas commits suicide, as we are told in scripture, you go back to Blake, “Unless I die thou canst not live, but if I die I shall arise again and thou with me. Wouldst thou love one who had never died for thee or ever die for one who had not died for thee? And if God giveth not himself to man, man could not exist.”368 ¶36

So God dies. He actually…because he is his own Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word is God” . So he becomes me. And his Word is buried in all. The Word contains his plan of salvation: How we reach the limit of contraction here and then burst it and expand, and then there is no limit to expansion. As he begins to burst it and to expand, the drama, as told in scripture as the story of Jesus Christ, unfolds within the man in whom the seed bursts. And that is the story. Everyone will have it, and you will know that you’ve lost not one.368 ¶37

So you can’t lose Judas. Although the world thinks that he was the son of perdition, as told us in the 17th of John. “Of all that thou hast given me I have lost none but the son of perdition.” Well, the son of perdition simply means “the belief in loss.” I can’t lose any. I’ll go back tonight and see the year 2000 and it’s still taking place, arrest it, look at it, reanimate it, let it go. Go back to the year 1778 and see the scene that my friend saw…or another scene. Because in that same year, [...] of the scenes were taken. All these are taking place in this fabulous world of ours, as something in us that is God is awakening. It awakes and comes out, and when we come out we are God the Father.368 ¶38

So in the end, when he manifests the last name—all these are names that he has manifested—the last name we find it in the 17th of John: “Holy Father, keep them in thy name that thou gavest to me, that we may be one and they one” . Keep them in thy name…the very name thou gavest me, for he addresses him now, “Holy Father.” Well, that same name is given him; well then, the name is going to be given you. Keep you in that name that they may be one as we are one. And so, the name Father is given to you. Not just a name but the true fatherhood of God, because God’s only begotten Son, David, calls you Father. And then you have the holy name. And at a certain point then the same one that came to me will come to you and nail upon your shoulder that wooden peg and then sever that sleeve, and tear it off, and reveal the arm of God. The same words, “But who will believe our report? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” But it will be…and then you will know and you will tell it. You can’t restrain the impulse to tell it. “If I say I will not mention his name any more, then there is within me as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot” .368 ¶39

So I can’t restrain the impulse to talk about it while I still wear the garment of flesh, because I know it’s the truth. So you tell it and many will recoil. Don’t be surprised if they do. In my own family I haven’t had one member, save the one who’s departed, who showed any interest in what I have written or what I teach…only the one who departed this world a year ago last August [...].368 ¶40

Here, Judas, the most maligned character in the New Testament, the only one who committed suicide. And may I tell you there is no condemnation of suicide in scripture. In the Old Testament we have Saul who committed it and his armor bearer committed it. Only four characters mentioned who committed suicide in the Old, only one in the New. And it’s not condemned. There is no condemnation, because the Lord himself said, “I take away my own life and no one takes it from me.” So there’s no condemnation of suicide in scripture, in spite of what the churches teach, when they will not bury the suicide in what they call holy ground. Of all the nonsense in the world! And so, they simply must go elsewhere because of that act…because the average person does not have the impulse to. No matter how they do it, it’s still not condemned. For in the end all committed it.368 ¶41

Because in the beginning God did it: “No one took away my life, I laid it down myself. I have the power to lay it down and the power to take it up again.” He becomes as I am that I may be as he is. And who would have thought reading that story as taught that it took place 2,000 years ago and it’s contemporary. The drama is unfolding in us. Every word of it is true, even to the little points like “Rise, and let us be going” and you all rise at the entrance. He comes straight to you, not moving around, looking over the place. He comes straight to you and then performs this act in fulfillment of scripture, stretches his arms out, proving he is Judah—it means “extended hands”—embraces you and kisses you. That was a sign that he had given them prior to his entrance. And when he kisses you, you in turn kiss him. For the word also means “thanksgiving.” It means “thanks,” the word Judah; the word Thaddeus is thanks, the same word. And so, you thank him that you have received the Lord’s favor, because that’s what grace is. Grace is simply God’s favor, unearned, unmerited, unwarranted.368 ¶42

But he’s given you now the power of running, controlling this wheel when you depart from this. And you will do it, because then the power and the wisdom to do it is yours. No mistakes.368 ¶43

Now let us go into the Silence.368 ¶44

Tonight’s subject is “The Primal Wish.” And, really, I am so thrilled that you are here tonight. You listen carefully to what I will tell you concerning the primal wish. You read it in the very first chapter of Genesis. God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” That’s the primal wish. And as Shakespeare said, “It has been taught us from the primal state that he which is was wished until he were.” Now this is tonight’s subject. We’re making an image, said God. Scripture teaches us that the image of the invisible God is Christ, as you read it in Paul’s one letter to Colossians, “Christ…the image of the invisible God.” In his letter to Corinthians, he speaks of him as the likeness of God, completing this primal wish, the image and the likeness of God. He goes on to tell us, “My little children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ be formed in you.” The image and the likeness of God must be formed in man. Well, God is invisible. He will never know who he is until God’s Son can identify his Father. And he can’t identify the invisible; he has to see the face of his Father. So when the image is formed in man, God’s only Son appears and calls him Father.183 ¶1

Now, let me share with you that which was given to me a few days ago by a dear friend of mine. And you listen carefully to the symbolism in his letter to me. I’ll bring it out from scripture. He said, “It was war time. I found myself in a dilapidated farmhouse somewhere in [...], and through the window a huge cliff covered with vines, and from it came the bullets of the enemy. They were shooting at me and I was shooting at them. They intended to kill me and I intended to kill them. Then I went into the front room and there to my surprise all the soldiers of my squad were happy, and just about to go out through the front door. I warned them that they would be shot. They told me the enemy was gone. And I said, ‘My God, did I shoot them all?’ As we walked through the door, they all turned into you. And then you led me to the back of this house and to my surprise what was this cliff covered with vines from which the enemy shot at me and I at them, is now this enormous plain of wheat being harvested. In this plain, there were many who gaily harvested the wheat. I looked to the side and here was a mountain of harvested wheat. Then I said to you, ‘What are they doing?’ and you said to me, ‘They are doing the same thing today that they did this time a year ago.’ And I sensed a lapse in memory and so I said to you, ‘How long have I been here?’ You said to me, ‘Two years.’ In this I sensed symbolism, and so I asked you, ‘Did I learn anything?’ You nodded and you said, ‘Yes, how to move, and discipline.’ Then I walked back into the house and it had turned into a palace, and I was led to my quarters.”183 ¶2

Now you have a dream like that and you will think what a strange interesting dream. But you are told in the Book of Numbers, “God speaks to man through the medium of dream.” Well, here is the story. I tell you, you aren’t here by accident, not one of you. Everyone is moving towards the fulfillment of that initial wish, the primal wish: Let us make man in our image and give him dominion over everything in the world; things on the earth, below the earth, under water, below the water, and in the heavens and beyond. Infinite power is his after the image is formed in him, for the image is the image of the invisible God. And there’s nothing but God.183 ¶3

So here, two years you’ve been here. Two is conflict; it’s difference, it’s enmity. The wall must be broken down, that wall of hostility between the two, and they become one. God cleaves and cleaves to his emanation, his wife, ‘til the sleep of death is past. He cleaves to it until they become one. When they become one, that wall of hostility has disappeared and they are one; there is no enmity. But in that interval…not two years (365 days to a year) but two is the important thing. So, while it lasted he had enemies. All the enemies are within him…or they were, I should say. And when the wall is broken down and he goes to the front room and moves through the door, and all of his soldiers forming his squad transform themselves, and they became me. And then I took him to the back of the house.183 ¶4

Now, read the 10th chapter of John. It’s the story of the door…and they didn’t understand him. Then, said he, “I am the door.” Those who will come through any other way are thieves and robbers. There is no other way in, but that which I have told you from experience. Listen carefully to my testimony. It’s the only way in; there is no other way. My sheep hear my voice and they know me. He knew me when soldiers, just soldiers, are transformed into me. He knew me, he knew my voice; for he asked me questions and he knew exactly who was answering. He said, “I am the door”…and there is no other door into the kingdom. And any attempt to come in by any other way makes you a thief and a robber. And the two years, that’s years of conflict.183 ¶5

So here, in this 10th chapter he tells you, I lead you into an abundant life. So he takes his sheep, called all by name, and brings them into life more abundantly when the conflict is over, all within himself. For it was not a cliff covered with vines from which the enemy shot him…the mountains are all within himself. As Blake said, “Great things happen when men and mountains meet.” And the only mountains Blake ever climbed were the mountains of his own skull. These were the mountains. And here the harvest is on. What are they doing now? Just what they were doing this time last year…goes on and on and on, forever and forever until the wall is broken down and there is no division between you and he who is forming you into his image. When he forms you into his image, then his Son can see him, because to look into the face of Christ is to see God, and Christ is the image of the invisible God. Christ is the very God, for I and my Father are one now.183 ¶6

But God cannot be seen, being invisible, unless he has the image formed. And so his Son cannot find him unless he has an image, for he’s invisible. So, let us make man in our image that we may be seen by our Son. So the Son comes, but he can’t see you if you’re invisible; he can only see you if you have a face. And Jesus Christ is God the Father. Jesus is the invisible God; Christ is the image that he wears. He is forming the image. And when the image is formed, Jesus, who is Jehovah, who is the Lord, can be seen then by his Son.183 ¶7

Here we find the door. We find the shepherd who led him into the back and showed him where instead of being at war there’s an abundant life. A field covered in the most glorious glow. He said, “A golden glow covered the entire scene, both the harvested wheat, a mountain of it, and that which is being harvested.” And so, it took a long, long time to harvest that mountain and it was all done in the conflict. Because he wondered, “What are they doing?” “Because I knew the war was still on, because I could hear it in the distance. It seemed so far off. But I heard in the distance the heavy guns, and it seemed to come from another country, but the war was still on. So, during the harvest the war is still on, and then he wakes and he goes through the only door. When he goes through the door, he finds that all who were his protectors, his squad, his soldiers, forming themselves into me. And I lead him to the back.183 ¶8

And then he asks me these three questions. The questions are quite simple and the answers simple. What are they doing? What they were doing this time last year. And he sensed in this a certain sign of amnesia, forgetfulness. How long have I been here? Two years. Have I learned anything? Yes, you have learned how to move. The first creative act in the Bible: “And God moved upon the very face of the waters.” You learned how to move. Move in what sense?—to move from my present state, which is the conflict, into the state that I desire. When I move into the state desired, I only say, “Let it be. Let there be light. Come, illuminate it. Let there be light.” He learned how to move and he learned discipline.183 ¶9

So the very first creative act recorded in scripture: “And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” As he moved, God said, “Let there be that into which I have moved”; for everything is here, but I have to move. And if I’m going to be his image, I must imitate him. I must imitate this process and learn the art of moving. How to move from one state in which I’m fixed—the conflict is on, the war is on—and to move from it into a state, and rest in it, saying, “Let it be!” and it comes into being. For the first thing, “Let there be light,” and there was light…no question about it. So I move from one state into another when I learn the art of moving.183 ¶10

And so, he said to me, “Did I learn anything?” I nodded and said, “Yes, you learned how to move, and discipline.” Well, discipline is simply becoming completely discriminating. Doesn’t matter what state is being discussed, what state is now broadcast, what state is in the paper tomorrow morning, all of these things are only states. But I learned how to move. I moved from one state into the state desired and there I remained, saying, Let it be! And the state becomes luminous, becomes real in my world.183 ¶11

So I can’t tell you my thrill when I got it. Because I know who I am, I know how I’ve been sent, and sent what to do, to lead my sheep out; for they’re all myself, anyway. I hope I know them all by name and they know me by name and they follow no other shepherd. That’s the story, in the 10th of John.183 ¶12

Now having received this…first of all, another one in the same letter…he said, “Now this morning (it only came a few days ago), he said, ‘This morning, it was a shock. I was dreaming I was on my bed and I reached up with my hand and I was feeling the top of my head. The left side was normal. As I moved over and felt…well, the right side was at least one inch higher than the left side. I pressed down on it to discover that my skull had been split, split wide open. So in my dream I called out to my wife, “Now I know why I’ve been feeling this way. I cracked my skull.” And then I was wondering how long I would be in the hospital. As I wondered about the time spent in the hospital, I woke.’”183 ¶13

Then said he, “I’ve never felt more peaceful than I feel now and it started at that moment that I felt the cracked skull. From that moment until now I have never felt more peaceful, as though there is a peculiar reversal of feeling in my life. Instead of being a three-dimensional sense-man using a fourth-dimensional power, I am now identified with a fourth-dimensional power using a three-dimensional sense-man as an instrument. ‘And now,’ he said, ‘I know that Blake expressed it more beautifully, but after all, it does seem to me that you can’t quite [...] as Blake, “For hatching ripe he cracked his skull.”’” If you’re not familiar with Blake, Blake indicates a parallel statement, and Blake, “For hatching ripe he breaks the shell.” So that shell is the skull. But he said it was not as poetic as Blake when he expressed it.183 ¶14

And so, in his wonderful way he always has in ending his letters with a humorous note. Whenever the Brothers speak to me they’re always, in the most serious manner, they’re always humorous, most humorous! For when I meet this infinite body of awakened men, whenever they tell me anything, they always tell it in the most humorous manner. You can tell it from their expression, and yet they’re so serious. Yet, it’s always a humorous note. The other night they said to me, “Go, go and write your own concise, condensed paper,” and there was a smile on the face of all of them as they were telling me.183 ¶15

Well, it so happens that my publisher said to me a few weeks ago that the printing of a book today is prohibitive in a hard cover. He has many copies of mine that are out of print and they all retailed at three dollars. And so he mentioned four of them; he said, “Now these four, would you mind, would you have any objection if I brought out the four under paper cover and sell all under one cover for four dollars, instead of [...] under hard cover for three dollars each?” I said, “None whatsoever.” So that night I thought I’d write a last chapter, something entirely different. So I began to dwell upon this last chapter when this night I was one with the Brothers. I mean the Elohim, the gods, and they said quite humorously but in a very serious manner, “Go write your condensed, concentrated paper.” But [...] they said it, they could have been kidding as my brothers, my earthly brothers, kid me, when they speak of anything that I do in the same intimate family tone. So I finished about 6,000 words and called it “Resurrection: A confession of faith in terms of experience.” Telling exactly in detail, all parallels of scripture, what I have experienced, which I know these who spoke to me have experienced. Those who wrote the gospels, they were only relating their own experiences, so I’m telling you exactly what they told that they had experienced. But they tell it in that way.183 ¶16

Sunday morning, in my experiences outside as it were, I was lecturing as I am to you now, but in a more intimate manner. Not standing on a platform, just talking among intimate friends, explaining the Word of God. And I had occasion to look at my watch, it wasn’t on my hand, it was somewhere on a table. I looked at my watch—the same one I’m wearing now; I could recognize the watch—and it registered four ten. Well, I kept on explaining the Word of God and it seemed to me at least an hour in the passage of time. Then I looked again, and instead of being an hour later it still is four ten. I said to myself, “Well, my watch has stopped.” Then, from then I went into a deeper sleep with no memory beyond that until I woke bringing back this to consciousness.183 ¶17

Well, in that experience God speaks to me through the medium of dream. The outstanding thing in that experience is simply four ten. And what I told them, I told them what I’m telling you, it was simply a discussion of the Word of God, interpreting the Word of God. But, four ten, well, what is four ten? You can look up all the commentaries of the world and every great scholar, and they will never understand the four ten. I have so many commentaries at home; they’re so far afield.183 ¶18

But every word in scripture, that is, in the Hebrew tongue, every letter has its numerical value, as well as its symbolic value. Well, the fourth letter is Daleth, and it has the numerical value of four, and it has a symbolic value of a door. The tenth letter is Yod; its numerical value is ten; its symbolical value is the creative hand of God, the hand of the Director, the hand of the Creator, the first letter in the sacred name of Yod He Vau He, which we pronounce Jehovah, which is Jesus. Same initials we find in Hebrew.183 ¶19

So here, in this vision, it’s the last watch. It’s four ten A.M. The 90th Psalm tells us, “A thousand years in thy sight is but as a watch in the night.” There are only six watches to the twenty-four-hour day. The day is broken down into the day and then the night. Three watches of the day, of equal hours, three watches in the night. Starts at six and it goes to ten, ten to two, from two to six; then from six to ten, ten to two, from two to six.183 ¶20

So this was the morning. I knew this was A.M. from the very start, the atmosphere and the darkness and here is my last watch. And it was four ten. You reach the point of being the door and the creative hand of God. That’s what it means. You are now the door, the shepherd and the creative hand of God. Hasn’t a thing to do with all the commentaries, as they do not have the vision. They do not know it. It’s the last of the watch. It can’t be long delayed when the garment is removed and removed permanently, the garment of sin and death, and join those who now humorously will tell me when I make a mistake just to do so and so. And I communicate with them, and they very humorously said, “Go on and write your nice condensed and concise paper.”183 ¶21

To join that same body who contemplate on death (this world). As we’re told in the works of Blake when he said, “I behold the visions of my deadly sleep of six thousand years.” If a watch is a thousand years and there are six watches to a twenty-four-hour day, a watch is a thousand years. “I behold the visions of my deadly sleep of six thousand years, dazzling around thy skirts like a serpent of precious stones and gold. I know it is my Self, O my Divine Creator and Redeemer.” So here, the watch is over; it’s the last of the watch. For if it were the first watch of the day, it would not be the door…certainly not the creative arm of God. It’s the last watch, it’s four ten in the morning, and that’s the last watch of the day.183 ¶22

When that is over, you’re playing then the part, for a season, of that creative power and the wisdom of God. So I must bring those who he gave me out of this world into the fold of an abundant life. You bring them one by one, and you know them all by name, and they know me by name. You bring every one into the fold—from a conflict where everything is shooting—into a field that is aglow, a golden glow as far as the eye can see. And they’re all harvesting. “So I bring you into life more abundant,” says the gospel of John. And here is this mountain of already harvested wheat, and yet they’re still harvesting. That’s how vast the harvest is.183 ¶23

And then, we all go one by one through that one door that leads to [...]. So this primal wish is simply unfolding in man, as told us in Galatians. “My little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you.” It must be. He will remain in labor until every one that was given him is brought out with the image completed and perfect, and brought through the door into the abundant life. When they reentered what was formerly a dilapidated farmhouse in the world of war and conflict, it’s now transformed into a palace and they are led into their quarters. And this is this fantastic play, in which all of us are in this.183 ¶24

So the important story tonight, he learned how to move in this conflict, because man in a conflict, if he could only move he wouldn’t see it. And so I said to him when he said, “What, did I learn anything?” I nodded and said, “Yes, you learned how to move and discipline.” No matter where you are in this world…you could be in the most frightful state in this world, if you know how to move. God’s first creative act is to move upon the face of the waters and then to let it be. And then wherever he is, it becomes luminous and it simply reveals a state in which he has placed himself. He moved upon the face of the waters. So, he learned how to move.183 ¶25

And so tonight if you have any dream in this world, if you learn how to move…I’ve been trying through the years to show you how to move, by bringing into your mind’s eye a scene which would imply that you have moved from where you were to where you would like to be. For were you now the person that you would like to be, you couldn’t see the world as you saw it prior to this motion, you couldn’t. Motion can be detected only by a change of position relative to another state. Unless there is some fixed form of reference against which the mover moves, he doesn’t know that he moves. If I move with the speed of light but everything moves with me, I haven’t moved. If we all move together, I might just as well [...] in the whole vast function. But if I can just simply let it be and I move relative to it, then I can by looking at it and seeing a change in position relative to it, I know I’ve moved. But there is no way of detecting that I have moved unless I have a fixed frame of reference against which I move.183 ¶26

So I start from here and I see all the pictures here and you, and all of a sudden I feel I’m moving, and I find myself in feeling there. Well, then when I look, it’s not the same room. I see everything differently; it’s a different angle. Well, now in my mind’s eye…my friends know me for what I am…my weaknesses, my limitations, whatever I am. If I’m a friend I will share it with them, and they will share their limitations with me. Well, all of a sudden, I want to move from that state. And then I move inwardly, it’s all an inward motion. And I move using the same frame of reference; but now I’m seeing that differently, and they see me differently. They see me not as they formerly saw me, one that they pitied, the one now that if they are friends they will rejoice with me, and if they are not they will hate me… whatever they are relative to me. Those who are not fond of me would envy the state into which I have moved, and those who are fond of me and love me sincerely will rejoice with me. So I move, and look at the fixed frame of reference for confirmation of my motion.183 ¶27

So he learned how to move…after he became disciplined in the two years of war. The two years, may I tell you, last for quite a while. It was a long, long conflict, and then he learned how to move. Unless he forgets it, he doesn’t have to remain one second in any state today that displeases him, for he’s learned how to move. So he can move from one state into another state. And there are infinite states in this world. Man moves into these states either consciously or unconsciously; he falls into them knowingly or unknowingly. But, whether he does it knowingly or unknowingly, he must reap the fruit of the state into which he’s entered. That’s the law.183 ¶28

So here, in this wonderful experience…and he told it in longhand from three assembled pages, [...]. It was a fantastic experience of his. The conflict, yes, it begins with the conflict, and then all that would protect him, his soldiers, his squad, the entire squad, and then they [...], and they want to go through the front door. There’s only one door. He warns them they’ll be shot and he questions them, and they said the enemy had all gone, they’re gone. He said, “I killed them all”…and instantly as they walked through, the entire squad, the whole company, twos became one man, and I am he. They could not see the conflict. And then beyond the door…I led him around to the back, and to his surprise, not a cliff covered with vines from which the enemy shoots but an infinite field of wheat in harvest, with many women gaily harvesting the wheat, and a mountain of harvested wheat, all in this golden tone.183 ¶29

Then he sensed there’s something strange here, there must be. Well, when he asked the question, “What are they doing?” Well, they’re doing the same thing now that they did this time last year. A wheel within a wheel within a wheel, all over and over and over it goes on. And now he knows I must have had a lapse of memory, some loss of memory: How long have I been here? Two years. Now he senses a certain symbolism in that answer, and he’s going to ask a question, “Did I learn anything?” I nodded and said, “Yes, you learned how to move, that’s the important part.” After all this conflict, this horrible conflict, war within himself where he could not move out of one state, and everything is shooting at him. He gets poorer and poorer and he makes every effort to get out of it, and everything is crowding in on him, but the whole vast world is crowding in on him. And everyone is his enemy. No matter who he is, he is shooting at him. And he’s shooting at them; he rubs them all out, all competition. And then, he comes out and he who was trying all the time to lead him out now takes all his protectors and he becomes the one who is invisible to him, until now. He’s formed the image, and then you see it, the entire picture. And instead of being a conflict, an enormous field of ripe wheat, bathed in a golden glow. And he learned how to move.183 ¶30

So I tell you tonight, learn how to move. The motion is not difficult, may I tell you. But don’t go from place to place. Into whatever house you go, you’re told in scripture, there remain until I come. Don’t go from house to house; into whatever house you enter there remain. And so I go into the house of affluence. Well, it hasn’t yet appeared. But I did enter the house of affluence. If I remain there, I’m saying, let there be light. Come illuminate it…make it real. Make it visible to me first and to all of my world. If I know how to move and remain faithful to that motion, my whole vast world will reflect it. And no power in the world can stop it. Man is set free by learning how to move, and he learned discipline at the same time.183 ¶31

Now, I look at the same watch…I’m quite sure it is not four ten by mortal time. But it was four ten Sunday morning where it was brought to me so vividly that I am that door and that creative hand of God. Now, let us go into the Silence.183 ¶32

Concerning the Law, I can only acquaint you with the Law and leave you to your choice and its risk; but we have Scripture for it . . to tell it, regardless of what they do with the Law. In the 18th chapter of the Book of Matthew you read these words: “If any two of you agree on earth about any request that you must make, that request will be granted by my Heavenly Father.” Find two who agree, and that request will be granted. Well, can you conceive of something greater? If two agree on earth concerning any request . . it doesn’t have to be good, it doesn’t have to be this, that or the other, but any request . . “that you must make, that request will be granted by my Heavenly Father.” Here we are told the greatest secret in the world concerning the human imagination. We are told that: “With God, all things are possible.” Then we are told: “All things are possible to him who believes”; so he equates God with the human imagination: that God is the human imagination, and all things are possible to the human imagination.176 ¶1

Now, a friend of mine called me today, and I tell you the story that you may see. It’s entirely up to you. I’m quite sure that she was perfectly innocent in the wonderful work that she did. She has exercised this talent of hers which she has learned, as you have, from this platform; and she has done a remarkable job in the world of Caesar in dollars and cents. But one has to learn something outside of this and govern everything by Love. Everything must be governed by Love. Everything must be governed by Love. She was quite concerned, and really quite disturbed. She said, “Neville, what have I done? Have I done something that is wrong? A neighbor of mine . . a male neighbor . . asked me if I would play back his record for him.”176 ¶2

Now let me explain to you what she means by this. She has a very keen ear. If you speak to her . . make a sentence, and then you stop, she can hear you as distinctly as anyone could ever hear you. If you put it on a record, what she is hearing is just as accurate as that recorded record. So, she wants you to make a statement in a positive manner, like the great Professor who said: “I have a lavish, steady, dependable income, consistent with integrity and mutual benefit.” This he said long before he had a nickel, and he persuaded himself of the reality of what he was hearing. So, she wants you to put it into a positive statement just like that . . “but tell me what you want.”176 ¶3

Well, the neighbor wanted to be free of a disturbing element in the neighborhood, which was also a neighbor . . a couple with three children. So she heard him distinctly say that he was free of this disturbance, that they were gone. Her ability to hear distinctly is so keen and wonderful that she heard him affirm what he had affirmed. In a matter of days the parents were killed on the highway, leaving three children: two little ones and a demented boy in his early teens. So she wondered, What did I do?176 ¶4

I tried to persuade her, “You did nothing that was wrong. You simply exercised a principle. The lad who asked of you, . . did you ask him anything concerning his motive behind it all?” Well, she didn’t ask that. But I say, whatever you do, do it in love. She is completely exonerated as far as I am concerned. She simply applied the principle. So I tell you, I acquaint you with a principle and leave you to your choice and its risk.176 ¶5

She is fantastic in hearing what she wants to hear in the world of Caesar; but may I tell you? You can go beyond that and take it into the world of Promise. If someone can say to you, “I have a lavish, steady, dependable income, consistent with integrity and mutual benefit,” and your ear is so sensitive that you can hear exactly what the other one says . . there are two witnesses now. “If two agree on earth about any request that they might make, that request will be granted by my Heavenly Father.” Well now, that’s a request. It doesn’t limit it there. Could I say to you, I have had the experience? I have had the experience of which he speaks, the experience of the resurrection and the birth from above, the experience of the discovery of the Fatherhood of God, the experience of the ascent into the heavenly sphere; and can you hear with me that? Because what I said before was as much a lie based upon this level as the other; and so I am telling you now of another level. Can you find agreement on this level where I will tell you, as I have told you on this level, that my neighbors are gone, and now I am free of that disturbance, and you heard it with me; you heard my voice? You listen to my voice. And then, having heard my voice distinctly, you now . . in my absence . . you hear my voice actually state what you heard it state physically. And here are two agreeing: you heard the voice, and now you have heard this. Now, can you go into another level and have someone who really sincerely desires to have this spiritual experience of the Promise as that lad wanted to be free of a disturbing neighbor?176 ¶6

So, the parents are dead; they’ve been killed in some freeway accident. Now you may say, Did she do it? No, she didn’t do it. She had only heard, . . may I tell you? We are one body. There’s only one spirit, only one lord, only one God and Father of all. “All things, by a law divine, In one another’s being mingle.” We are only one! So, if these two parents are now gone from the world, leaving behind little children . . two little tots in their swing, . . they are totally unaware that their parents are gone; and the other one, the early teens . . he’s a little bit demented, and he’s not quite aware of what has happened.176 ¶7

So, I say to you, I am telling you of a principle . . a Law that cannot fail. You don’t have to do anything on the outside, and you don’t even need another one. You can say to yourself, and then listen; the two could be within yourself. It need not be someone as sensitive as she is to the human voice. She has been trained that way. She was in the telephone business for quite a while as the head of her department on long-distance calls, and she knew voice after voice after voice. And she could actually register that voice. So, she knew these voices. Before you could even announce who you are, she knew who you were because she knew the voice. She has been so trained to hear sound; and so, you come to her.176 ¶8

She asks you simply, “State it in a bold, positive manner what you have,” which is really what you hope to have. “I hope to have it,” . . don’t state it as a hope. State it as a fact, because we are living in an imaginal world. This world is one’s own imagination “pushed out.” The whole vast world is all imagination; that all these so-called objective realities were simply first imagined, and then they become what you and I call “realities.” So, “All things are possible to him who believes”; and “With God all things are possible.” Therefore, the human imagination is equated with God! God and the human imagination are one.176 ¶9

Now tonight she is faced with this. I tried to persuade her today that she didn’t do a thing that was wrong. You are telling a principle; you are exercising a law, but not until man is incorporated into the Body of Love will he actually be able to exercise this Power where he can stop time and then start time. Because, what horrors he would do in the world! Their two parents are gone? All right, so they are gone. They go all the time anyway. But here, a little man who wanted freedom from the disturbance of what he called a disturbing neighbor . . three little children playing all the time, and it disturbed him; so he didn’t want that. She didn’t ask reasons beyond; she simply got his request, which was perfectly all right, perfectly normal, because she is a delightful, lovely lady . . a lady who would not, for one moment, hurt anyone; but her whole interest has been on the world of Caesar: getting security, dollars and cents. The Promise does not interest her. As far as I am concerned, it has not interested her. I can’t see any interest in the Promise when I talk to her; but I can see a great interest in the Law, and she has discovered the Law, and she works it beautifully.176 ¶10

There is another friend of mine back in the east, and the Promise means nothing to her, but the Law does, and she has made millions . . but millions. When you own buildings on 57th Street between Fifth and Sixth you are “in the money.” When you have businesses all over the world, you are in big business, and that’s her business; and she started with not one penny in this world when she first heard me, but she believed what I told her. She believed that imagining creates reality, as I am telling you now it does. It does create reality.176 ¶11

So here, treat it, may I tell you? . . and I plead with you . . treat it lovingly. If someone asks of you this night to hear good news for them, certainly hear it; but try to find out something behind the reason why they are asking it of you, that you may do it in a loving way. That whole family could have been removed without the destruction of the parents. It could have been removed in a thousand little ways, but it was removed in that manner. So, I tell you, your own wonderful human imagination is the only cause of the phenomena of life. There is no other power! That is the God spoken of in Scripture! That is the only God . . your own wonderful human imagination.176 ¶12

Do you know what you want tonight? All right. Don’t minimize it. It doesn’t matter how big it is, state it; and then listen in your own wonderful manner to your own voice for that matter. Or, tell a friend without his knowledge; you can hear a friend of yours tell you that he heard the good news about you. You know what you want. You actually write it out in your mind’s eye, and then have a friend whose voice you know well . . and listen to his voice as he is confirming that you have it. These are the two who agree. You don’t need another’s voice in the sense that you let him come into your world, as she did, and have him first state what he wants. The Professor didn’t do that. He did it all within himself. He said, “I have a lavish, steady, dependable income, consistent with integrity and mutual benefit.” He didn’t ask another to state that; he did it unto himself, and he became the two.176 ¶13

So, I don’t need any other to do it. If I have a desire to help you, or to help anyone, all I need do is simply to imagine that I have heard them; then I actually hear them tell me what I wish they would tell me. Then there are two: this one that I am hearing and I, the one who is listening and hearing; and these two agree. If two agree in testimony, then it is conclusive; and because imagining creates reality, it must externalize itself in my world. “The whole vast world is only the imaginal act ‘pushed out.’” And so, we are told: “With God, all things are possible,” and “All things are possible to him who believes.” Well, am I not equating God with the believing one? And the believing one, isn’t that one’s own human imagination? That’s all that it is.176 ¶14

Well, you put it to the test, and you can go to any extreme in this world. There is no limit set upon this Principle . . but none whatsoever. I can’t find one limit in Scripture, whether it be a violent thing or a lovely, pleasant thing, there is no limit. “I kill, I make alive; I wound, I heal; I do all things, and none can deliver out of my hand.” As I am told in the 32d chapter of Deuteronomy. “There is none that can deliver out of my hand.” And I do everything; “I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal.” So, you be the judge.176 ¶15

I am telling you from my own personal experience that only when you are incorporated into the Body of Love will you exercise the Power that can stop and release time. If you could stop time without love, what a horror you could create in this world! But you will not for one moment exercise that Power until you are first incorporated into the Body of Love. So, I say to this lady . . she’s not here tonight; a friend of hers is here tonight who will see her, . . she did not do one thing that was wrong. She simply accepted a person’s request, and she heard it distinctly; and in a matter of days they are gone . . rubbed out, leaving behind three little children.176 ¶16

Now, I tell you, if we were not one, it would be entirely different; but it was only done to herself, because: “All things, by a law divine, In one another’s being mingle.” We are all one. And the day will come that everyone will know it. That’s what I’ve been trying night after night to convince everyone who is here: that you, one day, will discover that you are actually, literally God the Father! The central theme of the Christian faith is the Fatherhood of God. That’s the central theme. And one day you will discover from your own experience that you are God the Father; and there is no power in the world that can persuade you that you are until a son . . and because He is Father, there must be a son, and it is His Son who stands before you and calls you “Father.” Here in Scripture you are told: “If the son sets you free, you are free indeed.” And people wonder: What on earth is that all about? “If the son sets you free, you are free indeed.”176 ¶17

A demented king stands and he looks at the head of the “enemy of Israel,” and he wonders, Who is the father of the man who brought that head here? The king’s name is Saul, and he’s insane; and he asks his lieutenant, “Abner, whose son is that youth?” And Abner said, “As your soul liveth, O King, I cannot tell.” He said, “Inquire whose son the stripling is.” No one knows; so the stripling . . the young lad . . comes holding the head of the giant in his hand; and the king said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” And he said, “I am the son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite,” . . because the king had sworn to set the father . . not the son . . to set the father of the man who destroyed the enemy of Israel free. And he destroyed the enemy of Israel.176 ¶18

He would not put on the garment of the king. He took it off. He only carried five stones with him. They weren’t five stones. It’s all beautiful imagery. “Five” is simply “grace.” The number “five” is grace; and grace is God’s gift of Himself to man. So, he took only the grace of God, the gift of God. “Grace” is equated with the power of God. “For my grace is sufficient unto thee, and my power is made perfect in weakness.” So, you are the little weak one. You go forward, and you have my grace . . you have my power, . . not five little stones as told in the story. Here is God’s gift of Himself to man; so he stands before him, and the king does not understand who is standing before him. He is suffering from amnesia. The “king” is everyone in this world. He didn’t recognize his own son.176 ¶19

Paul’s first name was Saul, and Saul was converted into Paul. When he was Saul, he went out to destroy the entire story as he heard it; and then he heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” And then he answered, “Who are you, Lord?” “I AM He whom thou persecutest. I AM the Lord.” And then he changed his name from Saul to Paul. The whole vast world is Saul. He looks into the face of his own son and he cannot recognize him because he is actually suffering from amnesia. Then comes a complete return of memory, and he remembers he has promised to set the father free of the man who destroys the enemy of Israel. And so, memory returns, and he is the Father, and he is set free! “No one can set me free but the Son that I have forgotten.” So, my Son returns, and all of a sudden I am set free! This is the story of Scripture.176 ¶20

The day will come, you will actually see Him. He will be the one who is standing before you. You will recognize Him. You will know Him to be your son: and knowing your Scripture that He is the son . . the only son of God . . and that he’s your son, then you know Who-You-Are. You are God Himself, limited for a little while in a garment of flesh and blood to tell the story to encourage others who are still in the demented state of Saul.176 ¶21

Now, to go back to the story, if she could hear that which was not true and then it becomes true, why limit it to the world of Caesar? . . of getting rid of a neighbor? Why limit it to the dollars and cents of making a fortune? Why not take it into the Promise, and have someone within your own Self say, “I have experienced the Promise, . . I have actually experienced the Resurrection, and the birth from above, and the discovery of David, and the ascent of myself into heaven, and the descent of the dove,” and then listen as though you actually heard it? If you can’t do it that way, then take a friend, and hear the friend say to you, “I heard that you,” . . and then let that friend’s voice be the voice that you are hearing, and you are reveling in what the friend is saying concerning what you have experienced; and have the two agree. “If two agree in testimony, then it is conclusive.” So, do not limit it to the world of Caesar.176 ¶22

So, when she called today at 10:00 this morning, my heart went out to her because she was quite disturbed . . frightfully disturbed . . with the thought, What have I done? For really, she would not kill . . well, a butterfly. That’s the kind of a lady that she is. She wouldn’t hurt anyone. She wanted money; she has money. She really wanted that beyond all things, but she has it now. She got it, and for the rest of her earthly days that’s done. It is all in trust, and she has it. I would ask her to go outside of that now. If she could only become hungry for It, as she was hungry for money.176 ¶23

But do not dwell upon what has happened concerning the death of these two people. Forget it. They have gone from this little world, but they are still in a world just like this; and as far as the little children are concerned, they will be taken care of. They will grow into this wonderful world of ours, and everything will be perfect. But I am telling you, your own wonderful human imagination is creating all the realities of your world. All the objective things in the world are but the outpouring of our imaginal acts.176 ¶24

That’s what Yeats meant when he said: “I will never be certain that it was not some woman treading in the wine-press who started the subtle change in men’s minds, or that it was not some little shepherd boy lighting up his eyes for one moment before this little power ran upon its way.” He was dreaming of being a hero, and he simply . . in his own strange way . . dreamt of violence, because today it seems that man feels only if he were a hero in a military sense that he really is a hero. He must be this, that or the other in some fantastic manner. But he does it, and then he is influencing the entire world, because we are all one. “All things, by a law divine, In one another’s being mingle.” We are all actually one. So, if I stand here now and lose myself in an imaginal act, I am influencing the entire world . . influencing everyone who can be used to aid me in the objectification of what I am imagining.176 ¶25

So, do it lovingly. Whatever you do, do lovingly, . . I don’t care what it is. And if you are ever in doubt, do the loving thing, which is called by the simple, simple term the “Golden Rule.” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” So, if you are ever in doubt, use that as your rule, and you can’t go wrong; and then the day will come that you and I will meet “on high.”176 ¶26

Then you will be able to understand Scripture. Here’s the one who said, “I AM from above, and you are from below. I AM not of this world; you are of this world.” Do you think one man is talking to men? No; it is one Being speaking to Himself. Here is the “outer man” called Neville who came into the world first. This is the “Esau” of Scripture. And then after that, comes another one, . . my own wonderful human imagination; and that’s the “Jacob.” This is the “twin” that comes into the world. They aren’t two separate little boys. This is the story; this is an adumbration of that which comes later into the New Testament; that the one who could say, “I AM from above and you are from below; you are of this world; I AM not of this world.” So the Being that is speaking is your own wonderful human imagination that in Scripture is called “Jesus Christ.” And the “thing below” is the body that you are “wearing,” and that is “of this world.”176 ¶27

Now, you are anchored here. I will show you how I need not be anchored here, because these two, as we are told in Scripture: “In thy limbs lie nations twain, rival races from their birth; one the mastery shall gain, the younger o’er the older reign.” That’s from the 25th chapter of the Book of Genesis . Now we are told in the first book of Corinthians, the 15th chapter, that the “Second Man” is the Lord from Heaven. So, the second one who is mentioned in Genesis as Jacob, who became Israel as he wrestled successfully with the Lord, . . his name was changed from Jacob to Israel; he is that “Second Man.” He came second; Esau came first.176 ¶28

Well, this is the “Esau”; and it’s limited to its senses. It can only accept as true what the senses dictate . . what reason allows. But there is something outside . . far beyond this, which is the “Second Man,” and he is the Lord from Heaven. He is called in Scripture the Lord Jesus Christ.176 ¶29

So I stand here. I only accept as real what my senses now dictate . . the room; but I don’t want to be here. Is there something in me that could dominate this little man that insists that this is the only reality? Well, certainly! It’s my own wonderful human imagination! Can I, while standing here, assume that I am elsewhere and see the world from that elsewhere-ness, and “see” it as I am now seeing this from this platform? I can do it. Well, if I do it, what would happen? I’ll go there. Man, not knowing that, he is tied to his little body “Esau” morning, noon and night. He never gets away from it. But these rivals within man . . the second one eventually will become superior. They are rival races from their birth; yet that younger one is destined to be the master; and the younger, which is the second, is the Lord from Heaven. And he will actually dominate when he comes awake within this wonderful story that is Scripture. And that second one is your own wonderful human imagination.176 ¶30

So, I will stand here, and reason denies it, my senses deny it; my pocketbook will not allow it, and my time will not allow it, but I want to go elsewhere. Everything in this world tells me I can’t go. Well, where would I go? I know exactly where I would go. Well now, let me in my imagination go. I don’t travel; I bring “there” here, and “here” vanishes. I take “there” and make it “here”; and I take “then” and make it “now.” And with my eyes closed to this world, I simply envelop myself in my wish fulfilled, and see the world as I would see it if it were physically true. And when it seems to take on all the tones of reality and all the sensory vividness of reality, then I open my eyes; and this world returns.176 ¶31

That’s what we are told in the Book of Genesis. Esau came back from the hunt, and as he came back Jacob vanished; but his father Isaac said, “Even though he deceived me into believing he was you, I cannot take away my blessing. I gave him my blessing. I gave him your birthright. I cannot take it back. I gave him the right of birth to come into this world and be as real as you seemingly are. So, now you must vanish, and he must take it even though he deceived me.” It was a self-deception. I deceived myself into believing that I am what one moment before reason denied and my senses denied. Try it! And if it proves itself in performance, does it really matter what the world thinks?176 ¶32

You see, we are dealing with the most fantastic mystery in the world, . . the mystery of imagining. That’s what Fawcett said: “The secret of imagining is the greatest of all problems, to the solution of which every man should aspire, for supreme power, supreme wisdom, supreme delight lie in the far-off solution of this mystery,” . . because you are actually solving the problem of God. If you can solve the problem of imagining, you are solving the problem of God!176 ¶33

So, even though you make a mistake and people are injured, like tonight two are dead; no regrets. They are awake in a world just like this to continue their journey, and the three will be taken care of. So, I do not stand in judgment, and no one should stand in judgment of what she did. She exercised a Law that she heard. She heard it from me. I only ask you: when you hear it, mix it with love. Never do unto another what you would not want them to do unto you . . never do it. So ask, why do you want the neighbors to go? All right, they will go in their own wonderful way. They may want to go without violence. They will want to go and you hear it in that way. So, make them rearrange their words to fit a pattern of love. Then you hear that, too; and it will all come to pass. Let us go into the Silence.176 ¶34