Persistent Assumption

[...] of the world and we think of the great men and women who are publicized in the world, and many of them are all-together wonderful. We speak of the great poets, the scientists, the business men, all these powers in the world, and we think there must be something different about them. May I tell you, there’s not a thing different about them. I want to convince you this night, if I can, that this inspiration that we think the poets have, the scientists, the great businessmen, is not an influx of a spirit that is different. It’s not different from the individual’s own wonderful human Imagination because there’s nothing greater. So, there’s no greater influx of spirit into a Blake, into a Shakespeare, into an Einstein, into you, than your own wonderful human Imagination, for there is nothing greater. There is only one Spirit in man and the universe: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one”.423 ¶1

In a little conversation that Blake had with his friend Crabb Robinson, Robinson asked him what he thought of the divinity of Christ. He answered, “Christ is the only God, but so am I and so are you.” Now don’t forget it! When you think of Christ you make him something bigger than yourself, something greater than yourself. Blake said, “Christ is the only God, but so am I.” If Christ is the only God and so am I, I make myself one with him. Then he turns to Crabb Robinson and he said, “So are you.” So don’t forget it. If you forget this, you make yourself less than the one. You can’t be less than the one…there’s only one. There’s only God in this world. There’s nothing but God, and God is your own wonderful human Imagination, that is God.423 ¶2

Now tonight let us put it to the extreme test. If God is the only reality, you can’t have two, not two Gods, and he is my own wonderful human Imagination, and all things are possible to God, all right, how would I go about proving it? For, I’m called upon to test him. I would dare to assume that I am the man that I would like to be. At the moment reason denies it, my senses deny it, but I would dare to assume that I am it.423 ¶3

Now, what am I told in scripture that I should do? Well, listen to it carefully. The story is told in scripture of the necessity of persistence because we are keyed low. The same God, the God that created the universe and sustains it by his creative power is the God that is sitting right here in these chairs tonight. But here for a divine purpose the same God is keyed low. So when I bring about a change in my world then I’m called upon in scripture to be persistent, because I see this world and everything that I’ve assumed is denied by the things round about me. Now listen to these stories as told in scripture.423 ¶4

A man came at the midnight hour to his friend and he said, “A friend has called and I have no bread. Would you just let me have three loaves of bread?” and the one who opened the upstairs window said to him, “It is midnight and my children are asleep in bed. I cannot come down and give you what you want.” The story as told us in the Book of Luke is this: He would not come down, but because of this man’s importunity he came down and gave him all that he needed. Well, the word translated importunity means “brazen impudence.” He would not take no for an answer. I don’t ask you as an individual and I don’t ask any outside God as an individual, I’m asking myself “Bring this thing to pass.” That’s what I’m actually saying because I’m speaking to the only God. There’s only God! If God is my own wonderful human Imagination, to whom am I going to turn? Well, it doesn’t respond. Well, I don’t take no for and answer. So within my own being I am assuming that I have received exactly what I need. Now the story is, even though it was midnight and he was in bed with his children, he came down and gave him what he needed. You do not take no for an answer!423 ¶5

Because there is no other may I tell you. I don’t care if a Shakespeare, of whom you say ‘My God, isn’t he marvelous!’ and he is, and the Blakes of the world, and they’re marvelous, and the Einsteins and they’re marvelous—bur the God of an Einstein does not differ from the God of your own wonderful human Imagination. There’s only God…there can’t be two. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord, our God, the Lord is one.” It is not a dual God, one God. So your own wonderful human Imagination is this God. And you are not less than any being in this world. But you have to be persistent.423 ¶6

When Benny came home last Saturday night, he said, “Neville, have you forgotten my vision where I was talking to someone and you came into the picture. This one said to you…and he asked a very simple question, ‘Tell us the story of Jesus’…you automatically said, ‘The story of Jesus is persistent assumption.’” Persistent assumption—that’s the story, for Jesus means “salvation.” Well, if persistent assumption is the story of Jesus, I must dare to assume that I am what I want to be and I must continue in the assumption that I am until that which I have assumed is objectively realized. That is the story of Jesus.423 ¶7

For, if I am one with any being in this world and he is great and she is great and I am not, yet we are one, well, what is “fragmented being” when there is only one? I tell you that one is your own wonderful human Imagination. And don’t let anyone in this world tell you that an Einstein or a Shakespeare is greater because of some influx of a spirit of greater validity than your own wonderful human Imagination, because there is no greater. Your Imagination is God and there is no other God. There can be no other greater being than your own wonderful human Imagination.423 ¶8

Now you begin to imagine. Well now, I will say I have assumed that I am the man that I want to be, I am still assuming that I am he, and I will continue to assume that I am he until that which I have assumed is objectively realized, as told us in the 8th chapter of John, “Unless you believe that I am he…”. Now when you read it you think—as you were taught by the churches of the world—that another greater than yourself is speaking. It is not another greater than you speaking telling you that unless you believe that he is it. It is yourself speaking. There’s only God and because God is one and you can’t get away from the oneness, don’t think of another. So these words must be accepted in the first-person, present-tense. So, “Unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins”…you’ll miss the mark. I must believe that I am the man that I want to be. If I do not believe that I am that very being so that I can say I am he, well then, I will continue in what I formerly believed myself to be. This is the story of scripture.423 ¶9

So we are all one. Everyone here…you and I are one…because there can’t be two. On this level for a purpose we are fragmented. But I am sent to tell you that we are not really many, we are one. The word Elohim is a compound unity, one made up of others. So here it seems to be others, but you and I are not really two, three, four, or many. We are one in the most intimate manner that you have ever known, without loss of identity. So I ask you this night to simply dwell upon it and simply try it…just try it. It will never in eternity fail you.423 ¶10

Here is a letter; it came to me this past week. She said in her letter, “I was awakened by the laughter of my husband. He was laughing, the sweetest laughter I have ever heard. Just a laugh and I’ve never heard him laugh like this. So I woke and here he is laughing a peculiar wonderful laughter. I said to myself, ‘Well, he’s undoubtedly dreaming something that’s altogether wonderful.’ Then next morning he said to me, ‘I had the loveliest dream last night. I dreamt that you were telling me it’s so easy to believe that I am God.’” Well, I’m going to tell him—he’s here tonight alone, she isn’t here—tell her and you two read it, the 126th Psalm. There’s your answer…only six verses. That was the laughter of God. She said, “I heard the voice coming from within me saying, ‘You’ve just heard the laughter of God.’” Well, read the 126th Psalm when all return to Zion. Those who were left, all left, and they all are brought back into Zion. And here you hear the laughter of God. So she heard him laugh in a way that she had never heard before, and she never heard this kind of laughter. She said to herself, ‘He’s undoubtedly having a wonderful dream,’ and the next day he said to her, ‘Well, I had a dream last night and in my dream you were telling me that it’s so easy to believe that I am God.’”423 ¶11

So I tell you, you try it. This thing doesn’t fail. There is only God. You are not something less than God…there is only God. And you and I are on this level for purposes beyond the wildest dream of men. We are keyed low, but we are called upon to make the effort to rise from this level. So we do it in a business sense, in a scientific sense, in an objective sense. So we begin to express this talent, which is what?—our own wonderful human Imagination which is God. There’s nothing but God. So I am called upon to assume that I am what I want to be: “For an assumption, though false, if persisted in will harden into fact.” As Blake said it, “If the fool would persist in his folly, he would become wise.” So I say, ‘But you can’t be’; forget it, it can be. There’s nothing that is impossible to God. So don’t say that something cannot be, I don’t care what it is.423 ¶12

When we see someone in the world and he’s a fabulously wealthy person, well, so what! Do you think for one second some influx of Spirit that differs from the being that you are possessed him to make it? No, he either did it wittingly or unwittingly, may I tell you. But you can do it knowingly. If he does it unknowingly [...] is yourself, and he loses it tonight, he may not know how to recover it. I’m asking you, without having anything, to do it knowingly. So should you tomorrow fall into another state and you remember this story, you simply come back and simply bring it back into your world as you want it, and multiply it, and live graciously.423 ¶13

For, there’s only one God. You can’t conceive of, well, you can conceive of a second God, but it is a stupid concept because there is no other God. When the world thinks of numberless gods that’s stupid. There’s only one God and that God is your own wonderful human Imagination. The day will come that you’ll prove it; you’ll actually witness the one God. He sets himself up at the very beginning. And this God has only one Son. When you awaken and that son calls you Father, and therefore you are the father of the only Son of God, well then, you know that you are the only God. Then another one comes and another one comes and eventually all come and they see the same Son, and the same Son calls them Father. Therefore, everyone is the same God the Father, and there aren’t two!423 ¶14

Forget all the pigments of skin. All of this is part of the play…to put me into an olive skin, and one in a black, black skin, and one in a white, white skin and one in a red skin…and it makes it appear as though we differ; and, therefore, because we differ, there must be different gods. Yet all will have that same Son. That one Son will call all, regardless of sex, Father, proving that there’s only one God. And the purpose behind it all is simply to create an expansion of this creative power. So here, we are scattered, fragmented into numberless parts and then all gathered together into one God, one Father.423 ¶15

I’m going to ask you all to try it, really try it. Because if you really prove it on this level, may I tell you, you will never forget it, and you will be sustained by this level…and then all of a sudden you will be born from above. I can’t tell you when…that is a secret hidden from one here. If you tell me when you were born from above then I can tell you all the other events that will follow and when they are going to happen. I’ll tell you that because I recorded it. But the actual birth from above remains a secret; it comes like a thief in the night.423 ¶16

But when it comes, you are born from above and you are God. You actually are God. Now, to prove that you are, you can create. Create in this simple, simple way: What would it be like if it were true? Just, what would it be like? How would I feel if…and then you name it. How would I feel if she or he were as I would like them to be? And so, you would like something lovely to happen to them and then you feel it. Now, can you persist in that assumption? I have imagined it so to be, I am still imagining it so to be, and I will continue to imagine that these things are as I have imagined them to be until it is realized. Can I do that? Well, if I can, they will conform to it.423 ¶17

Must I get their permission? I don’t need their permission if we are one…that’s what I want for them. I don’t need their consent if it is something I would like for myself. Always ask yourself, would I like it for myself if they reject it? And they can reject it…take it on this level…if they should reject it, would I willingly accept it? If I gave you a million dollars and you wouldn’t take it, would I be willing to receive it again? I would….well then, give it in that way. May I tell you, you can do it. You don’t have one nickel in the bank and maybe you don’t have a bank account, but you can do it, because there’s no one but yourself. There’s only God in this world: God is I AM…there’s nothing but God.423 ¶18

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God the Lord is one”…the greatest confession of faith that man could ever make. Read it in the 6th chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy, I think it’s the 4th verse. But, oh, what a confession of faith! “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God the Lord is one.” Not two, not a dozen, just one. Well, if he’s one, what is one in the world? When I say “I am” that’s one; if I say “we are” that’s multiple. But I AM, and that is his name. Don’t forget it.423 ¶19

Therefore, if I am, even though now something is happening, I’m not receiving from some superior being—there is no superior being other than myself—the inspiration for anything I write. If I sit down and write something that is all trivial or something that is altogether marvelous, it doesn’t come from some other being who inspires me, because there is no greater being. There can’t be another being. Well, I sit down to write, and I’m in the mood, from my own being it is coming out and I’m writing. But to say some other being is possessing me and they are taking over, nonsense! No other being…there can be no other being. So the poets, the Shakespears, the Blakes, the great writers of the world, or any writer in the world, he doesn’t have any being influencing him, moving in some peculiar spiritual influx that is greater than himself. It can’t be. There is no one greater than himself. So when someone tells me “I was under the influence of something other than myself that came from the outside, forget it! There isn’t anyone. It’s all coming from the depth of your own soul.423 ¶20

So all of a sudden…you’re in advertising and you’re sitting and you’re wondering what does my customer need and all of a sudden from the depth of your own soul it comes, what you’re going to say to promote that product. It isn’t some influx of a spirit other than yourself, can’t be because there’s nothing greater than yourself. There is no other God. There’s only one God. So you sit and you’re communing with self as told you in the Psalms, “Commune with your own soul.” Well, you can sit on the chair or on your bed and commune with your own soul, and be at peace, and all of a sudden the thing begins to flow from within. Because there’s only one God, everything unfolds from within you and there’s nothing but God.423 ¶21

In the end you and I and the whole vast world of billions will be re-gathered into one body, and oh, what a joy! One fell purposely into this fragmented world of seeming others, and fighting seeming others, and the horror was in oneself. That a man’s, really, his enemies are of his own household, meaning himself. He’s fighting with himself, not knowing that everything in this world is himself. All of a sudden he realizes there is no other, just himself. Then he knows it and he tells everyone in his world in the hope that he can convince himself, because it’s himself that he’s talking to, if there’s only one God, only one being. Then he rises within himself; he once more coalesces into the one being. And knowing in the depths of his being everyone is going to be coalesced into the same being, and oh what a joy when all are raised into the one being that was that being before the fall. The fall was a deliberate fall for the expansion of his power. I could only expand my creative power by falling into this limitation and overcoming it. There’s no other way to do it.423 ¶22

As I fell I fragmented my being. I saw it so clearly in my visions. The being that fragmented was myself. I saw it. I saw this whole rock fragmented, then all gathered together. When I looked, I’m looking at myself…a glowing being, like the sun glowing. I’ve never known that I could…this little thing talking to you now, where every part of the body…at my age naturally it gets older and parts disappear…yet I’m looking at this being sitting in a lotus posture and this fantastic beauty. I could hardly believe I could ever in eternity equal that beauty, and yet I’m looking at myself. Here this is his meditated world, fragmented and when it was all put back together, I’m looking at myself. I can’t tell you my thrill when I looked at him. It was first a rock and then the rock became fragmented. Then the rock was gathered together, but instead of being a rock it’s now a being, human being, sitting in the lotus posture meditating, and this glorious, beautiful being. I can’t describe the beauty of that man and I’m looking at myself. How could I ever be described as a man called Neville with such beauty? And yet I’m looking at myself—such majesty, such strength of character, such power, all woven into one being sitting in the lotus posture and it glows and glows like a sun. When it reaches the intensity of power, it explodes. And then I awakened here sitting in my apartment on 75th Street in New York City.423 ¶23

So I’m telling you what I know, what I’ve seen, what I’ve experienced. Well, that is true of everyone. You…there’s a being in you that’s meditating you. And the being in you and the being in me and the being in all, woven together, form that being that is the ultimate God. That being is perfect. May I tell you, I don’t care what you’ve gone through—you could lose your eyes, lose your hands, lose your feet, be dishonored in this world—but that being that is meditating you is the most glorious being that you could ever conceive. You’ve never known such beauty. Oh, you can go to all the beauty parlors in the world and they’ll bring one out and say, oh, isn’t that lovely. May I tell you, it’s as nothing compared to this living being that is meditating you. That living being, everyone’s living being, all united into one being forms the God that fell and fragmented himself. Each fragment was perfect and each fragment was the Father of the one meditating that one.423 ¶24

So I tell you, try it here on this level. There is nothing in this world but God. This greatest of all confessions, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God the Lord is one”…that there aren’t two of us, not really in the true sense of the word. But you take my word and test it here on this level in the world of Caesar. You want a better future? Alright, dare to take this statement and try it and try it for one week: I assume that I am the one that I want to be, I am still assuming that I am it, and I will continue to assume that I am it until that which I have assumed is objectively realized. And don’t give it any time on this level. Just bear down on it and dare to sleep in that assumption just as though it were true. Don’t give it any time.423 ¶25

There is a time limit in what God, your own wonderful Father who is in the depth of your own being dreaming you, he has that time limit…but on this level should not be the length of time. You’re told in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ”; all right, that will take its own good time. You will be brought to the same perfection of the being who is dreaming you. It is God dreaming himself into a greater imagery of himself, that’s all that it is; and you are the dreamer and the dream. You’re not another, you are the dreamer and the dream. “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” You find that in the 1st chapter, 6th verse of Philippians. So you are the dreamer dreaming yourself in the image of yourself. That’s perfectly all right.423 ¶26

But while you are here, then take it in the world of Caesar and bring about these changes in your world for yourself and for those that you love. Eventually you’ll love all. But if you don’t love all now, do it at least for those that you do love. Actually assume it and dare to tell yourself, I have assumed it, I am still assuming it, I will continue to assume it until what I have assumed and am now assuming is perfectly realized.423 ¶27

For you are told, “Unless you believe that I am he, you die in your sins”. Is another talking to me?—no. I’m saying to myself, unless I believe I am the being I want to be, I die in my sins, I miss the mark. It’s not another talking to me; there’s only one God, can’t be two, and so unless I believe that I am that man that I want to be, then I remain the man that I don’t want to be, and therefore I die in my sins. That’s the story as told us in the 8th chapter of the Book of John.423 ¶28

It’s not another being telling me I must believe in him. Believe in what? I’m not called upon to believe in any other being, for any other being is a false god. There’s only one God, so to believe in another, I don’t care who the other appears to be, to believe in someone who calls himself the head of some great religious body, whether it be Roman Catholicism, whether it be call Protestantism, whether it be called Judaism, and to believe he is the great leader? Well, that’s a false god. Unless I believe that I am he, I die in my sins. But I don’t die unless I believe that someone is talking to me who tells me that unless I believe that he is something…nonsense! It’s all stupid. I don’t believe that anyone else is. I must believe that God actually became me that I may become God. His name is I AM, so unless I believe that I am the man that I want to be then I remain not being that man and therefore die in my frustrations and die in my sins.423 ¶29

So here, I tell you to try it. It may seem difficult, but it will not be difficult if you dare to go out on a limb and try it. You are this being; there is only God, nothing but God. Let no one tell you he is better than you are. There is no one in this world greater than you are. If anyone dares to tell you that he is, turn your back on him and walk away. I don’t care who he is or she is or they are. There is no one your superior because you are God, and there is nothing but God in this world. God became you that you may become God.423 ¶30

So I admire the great inspired poets, I do. I take Shakespeare and I read him and isn’t he marvelous. I take Blake. I can’t follow the arguments of an Einstein, no. But here are inspired men, all of them, the Shakespeares, the Blakes, the Einsteins, and all the great painters of the world. But let no one tell you that these inspired men had some influx of Spirit that in any way whatsoever was greater than their own wonderful human Imagination, because there is nothing greater than their own human Imagination. It didn’t come from something outside of themselves; it was their own Imagination awakening. And that same Imagination is yours, because there’s only one Spirit, there aren’t two spirits. So the Spirit of man is one with the Spirit of the universe that sustains the whole vast world, that’s the one Spirit. So let no one tell for one moment there is another Spirit, there is no other Spirit.423 ¶31

So tonight when you go home…in fact before you go, start it right here, and this lovely wonderful feeling…I can’t tell you what a joy it is to sleep in the assumption, in the hearing that I am he. Well, what comes in the course of the night, what does it matter? When you slip into the deep, you come hurtling through all kind of things between that depth of consciousness from this level and then waking. And in that one short interval you can have numberless crazy little dreams between the hurtling back from unconsciousness to this level. And you give importance to the little dream based upon the surface as you’re coming through. But you don’t know what depths you have reached in what is unconscious relative to this level. So let no one frighten you, you are an immortal being who cannot die, you just cannot die.423 ¶32

If someone today has arrived at a certain point where it is simply before you did, it doesn’t matter. He or she, they’re no better because they got there first. There is no first…everyone is coming into that level. When all—and if they don’t all come in, may I tell you, it isn’t finished—when all come in the whole race is over. And what a rejoicing among all who form the one body! We are that body, “that one Spirit, that one body, that one Lord, that one God and Father of all.” There is nothing but God the Father. Everyone will prove to himself by the vision that he is God the Father, and he does not resent anyone else being God the Father. How could he?423 ¶33

When Benny came home on Saturday, I can’t tell you my thrill. Here is Benny and put us together…our pigments are just as opposite as they could be, and we are the same father of the same child. I said, “Benny, tell me, what did he look like?” because we have fun together. It’s not because we have Martinis together, that comes regardless, not because of any Martinis, and I said, “Benny, what did he look like?” He said, “Neville, he was the sweetest, blondest, blue-eyed blond, fair skinned lad, and here is my son, and he’s calling me Father, and I knew I’m his father. I so loved him, I didn’t care if the others left me, left me with all these children, they are all my children anyway. I thought I was the father of all of them, but here was my special one, here was David.”423 ¶34

That’s the same David that is my son. Now he is the father of my son, well, if he is the father of my son, are we not one? We are one. But on the surface, this strange peculiar thing where we fight each other, because he is of a very, very dark skin and I am of an olive skin, and then people think by that we’re different, and it isn’t! In the depth of our souls we are one, because God is one [...]. God is made up of the many, but God is one. When he tells me exactly how it happened the thrill that is mine to see that he and I are one and he has the same child. That was the symbol of his birth from above.423 ¶35

So, may I tell you, go home and on this level of Caesar apply this principle. Cushion yourself against the normal blows of the world. It’s only natural you want to be cushioned…you have a wife, a husband, children, friends, who cannot cushion themselves, because they don’t believe it. Well then, love them to the point where you want to cushion them regardless of whether they believe it or not. So they can’t believe it, all right, then you cushion them anyway because you love them and you want to leave them enough money to give them a cushion. You aren’t going to stop the depth of their own being from giving them blows; but you did your part in so loving them that you want to leave them a cushion. So you leave them a cushion in the world of Caesar, you leave them a little money. That’s a cushion in this world. So what would it feel like if I could leave to those I so love, say, a hundred thousand, two hundred thousand dollars? What would it feel like to depart this night just as though it meant nothing and just leave them a quarter-million, knowing that tomorrow they may lose the whole thing, it doesn’t really matter. You did your part. You cushioned them for a moment.423 ¶36

Because, the depth of their own being—which is your own depth—will simply give them certain experiences to awaken them to the point where they are part of the one and only begotten Son of God. For, all are searching for that one Son to reveal to them the cause of the phenomena, and the cause is a father. Well, the Father is oneself. Then one discovers that Lord, I am, the only cause of the things that are happening to me in this world; there is not a thing in this world that has ever happened to me that I didn’t cause it. Well, what a responsibility! You mean I caused all the nonsense? Yes I did. You mean all the stupid things that happened to me, the blows? Yes. Well then, let’s stop it, this peculiar silliness in my world and then start. And then tell everyone else.423 ¶37

Well, you can cushion those that are closest to you in the hope that they will accept it. But may I tell you, Bible must be fulfilled and the prophet has no believers in his own home. Those closest to him, they don’t believe. You must go into a foreign land to be believed. But those who really know you intimately, they don’t believe him. That’s fulfillment of scripture: “And his own brothers did not believe him.”423 ¶38

Benny said to my daughter last Saturday night, “Well, I finally have seen you. Now tell me, of all your father’s books which one do you like the best?” and she said to Benny, “I haven’t read them.” Oh, she read the little one dedicated to her, but a prophet is without honor in his own home. So I don’t expect my daughter to actually read it and think anything more because I am her father. In the intimacy of a family life, you see all the weaknesses of family life. So Benny said quite innocently, “Tell me, of all the books of your father, and he’s written twelve of them, which one do you like the best?” and she confessed, “Well, I haven’t read them.” So, a prophet has no honor in his own home.423 ¶39

But may I tell you, whether she would ever read them or not, it makes no difference to me. She still in my eyes is a darling! I loved her before she was born. I saw her before she came into the world and she told me her name, so I named her after what she told me her name was. So it would make no difference to me if she ever read one word that I have ever written. She doesn’t come to my meetings. I don’t think she has ever attended one. But time will prove to her that what I am saying to you is all true. And one day she will find herself the father of David; therefore, instead of being my daughter, she will be myself. Because if she is the father of David and I am the father of David, then she and I are one. And she is not then my daughter, for we are the father of David.423 ¶40

All I can do is simply tell it just as it happened to me, and try to encourage everyone in this world to believe it. There is no other vision. So when people say there must be another vision, another way, there is no other way. The only way to God is through his Son, and his Son David of biblical fame will reveal you as God the Father.423 ¶41

Meanwhile, in the world of Caesar, you take it here. You want to be successful…and don’t give it a long time…dare this night to assume that you are the one you want to be, so you can say, I have assumed that I am it, I am still assuming I am it, and I will continue to assume that I am he—whether male or female use that pronoun anyway, I am he—until that which I have assumed is objectively realized. Now let us go into the Silence. * * *423 ¶42