How Interpret Scripture

Tonight, we will show you how to interpret scripture. In the 10th chapter of the Book of Hebrews, the unknown author tells us that when Christ came into the world he said, “I have come to do thy will, O Lord, for in the roll of the book it is written of me.”844 ¶1

Now, this passage which is taken from the 40th chapter of the Book of Psalms is not found on the lips of Jesus Christ in the four gospels. But that doesn’t matter. He claims that “the entire book is all about him, and beginning with Moses and the law and the prophets and the psalms, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”844 ¶2

Now, you will find this method of interpretation the key that unlocks the most inmost of revelation. I take any story and then put myself right in the center: It’s all about me. So I find the central figure, then I am that figure whether it be a female or a male.844 ¶3

Here we turn to the 25th chapter of the Book of Genesis: “And the Lord said to her (meaning Rebecca), ‘Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples, born of you, shall be divided; one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger.” And we hear in the last book of the Old Testament, the Book of Malachi, these words: “Esau I have hated but Jacob I love.” Now, here is the voice of God who is called Love stating that there is one that he hates and that is Esau, and one that he loves which is Jacob.844 ¶4

You put yourself into the center and try to find out who are these that I have brought forth; for I am told that I bring them forth from my womb; they are housed within me. And one to heaven doth aspire and one to earth doth cling; and the one that clings to earth I hate and the one that aspires to heaven I love. Who are they?—two beings that lived thousands of years ago?—no. The entire Bible is divine history, it is not secular history. To try to find anyone in the world that resembles this one or that one, or that he was born here or that he lived there, it’s all silly. Scholars still insist on trying to find the birthplace or the burial place of these characters of scripture, and they are all housed within man, every one.844 ¶5

But God speaks to man through the medium of vision. Now every dream is both egocentric and protean. Protean means that the dreamer plays all the parts, whether it be female, male or the animal. If he plays the part…if he sees in his dream a dog, a lion, a monster, he plays all the parts.844 ¶6

Well then, let me share with you an experience of many years ago. It’s almost…well, back in the early thirties. I suddenly found myself confronted with these two characters, one the most glorious, divine woman that eyes could ever set upon, she was above, a beautiful angelic being; and here below is this monstrous thing covered in hair. It looked like an orangutan, but it could speak in a guttural manner. And so, I looked at it and this, in a guttural voice, looked up to this heavenly creature and said, “She is my mommy.” Well, I knew that she did not give birth to this monster, and so I struck it, and it gloated. It loved violence, in fact, it fed on violence. So I pummeled it, and as I beat it, it simply grew in strength. It loved and simply thrived on violence.844 ¶7

Then from the depths of my own being I realized that these were my creations; here is my monstrous being, the embodiment and personification. I say personification because it spoke with a human voice, but it looked like an animal completely covered in hair, like an Esau. Here, as I looked at it I realized that this was the embodiment of all of my misspent energies, everything I ever did that was unlovely simply went into it. When it took on form and a voice, it could whisper, and unseen by me it could be one that influenced my decisions in order to feed it. And so it thrived only on violence, and so any violent act was simply feeding it, and it grew that way.844 ¶8

Then, without turning to anyone, for I was simply alone, the center, and I realized that these two were my offspring. This woman should live forever, the noble embodiment of every ideal that I have ever entertained, every good that I have ever done, everything that was lovely it embodied. And everything that was unlovely this embodied and I realized it had no right to existence, but none whatsoever. It was claiming existence by claiming that it was the offspring of the heavenly being. So if it is the offspring of the heavenly being, it in itself exists. I knew it should not exist, and yet it had no power of its own and that I gave it existence.844 ¶9

But now I pledged myself that if it took me eternity I would redeem him. If it took me eternity I would redeem this monstrous thing, for, really, it had no right to existence and it wasn’t its fault. I was the cause of this seeming independent existence, for it seemed detached and completely free of my perception of it. As I pledged myself to redeem it, before my eyes the whole thing melted. It just simply reduced in size and the energy that went into it and sustained it came back to me who gave it. Not a thing was lost, the whole thing returned to me, and everything came back to me that I had put there. The whole thing not only dissolved but it left no trace of ever having been present. The only trace of that monstrous thing was my memory of it. As today I can bring it back in memory, but it has no existence outside of myself as it was simply embodied energy.844 ¶10

Therefore, who was it? Is not Christ the creative power of God? And is not Christ the bearer of all the sins of the world…allowing man to use and misuse Christ? Well then, who was the one that misused? It is my own creative power, and Christ is the creative power of God. It was revealing in its own way who created it; and only God could have created it, and only God could have redeemed it.844 ¶11

Now listen to these words, the last words on the cross as given to us in the Book of Luke, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.” Now that’s the 31st Psalm . And the whole thing is this as he tells us, “In the volume of the book it is written of me.” These are the last words on the lips of the crucified Christ, as recorded in the 23rd chapter of the Book of Luke. Well here, if I complete the thought (for that’s only a portion of the verse), “Father, into thy hand I commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.” So here we find God the user of the power redeeming what was misused that the power shall not be lost, not in eternity. When confronted and he sees it never should have existence, independent existence, he then simply redeems it. And redemption was simply a pledge by itself, for it couldn’t pledge with another…there is no other, simply itself. It simply returned all that power to itself. I have never felt so strong in my life when at that moment that infinite power that was embodied in this misshapen, monstrous creature returned to me who gave it for a moment in time independent existence. Then the glorious one simply glowed like the sun.844 ¶12

Now here, we are told in the 13th chapter of the Book of Revelation: “And the beast was given a voice to utter blasphemies against God, against God’s name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven”. Here he speaks to this heavenly creature and now takes her name in vain. He blasphemes the name by declaring himself to exist independently of all when he does not. So a voice was given to him that he could utter blasphemy. Well, the blasphemy is to claim divine right, for we are told in the 10th of John that he was accused of blasphemy because he dared to claim himself the Son of God. So here, the heavenly being, as we are told in the 13th chapter, that the dwelling place of God happens to be those who dwell in heaven, so that the entire redeemed society forms the body of God. She personified that redeemed society; therefore, it was the dwelling place of God which is God. And so, he was taking the name in vain.844 ¶13

No here, we’ll take…to show you how dreams are interpreted. One came yesterday, or was it today, I think it was today, he said, “In my dream I am standing on the sidewalk and a man comes by and he’s happy, he’s laughing, he’s singing, and he’s dancing and swinging a white stick. As he passes by I turn to watch him, for a voice said to me prior to his appearance, ‘We will get him this time. He has been gone too long.’ Then the man appears and these words are ringing in my ears ‘We’ll get him this time…he’s been gone too long.’ So I turned to watch this one, and as I watched him he walked up three or four flights onto a brilliantly lit stage. Then as he is there on the stage, suddenly the scenery and the props begin to move, and I heard what sounded like the shutting, just a terrific shutting of an iron gate. And then a voice screamed within me (it was the same voice speaking), ‘Your deception is at an end! Your deception is at an end!’” Now, said he in an afterthought, “On reflection, Neville, the one that walked by who was singing and who was laughing and seemed so happy seemed like you. I don’t want to add anything to it, but he who was clanged behind a cell door, with the door shut against him, it seemed as though he resembled you.” And he wondered what to make of it.844 ¶14

Well, on the surface, in the world of Caesar you would think that I am the deceiver, and now that I am behind bars his deception is over. That’s what a normal, natural interpretation anyone would give it if you give it in the world of Caesar.844 ¶15

Well now, let me quote scripture, “The creature was made subject unto futility, not willingly but by reason of the will of him who subjected him in hope; that the creature would be set free from this bondage to decay, and obtain the glorious liberty of the sons of God.” So you do not believe…or man looking around this world will say I’m not deceived. But every child born of woman is deceived. Here we are in a world of deception…everything here deceives you. Now if I in your vision—bear in mind the dream is egocentric, you played all the parts—if in the dream the part that you saw, the gay, happy, laughing, singing one, resembled the one who was instrumental in telling the story to you to get you to the point of acceptance of the story of redemption, well then, you are on your way to leaving behind you the world of deception. No longer will it deceive you if you accept it. As we are told, “The good news preached to us was preached to them” (it was the same news) “but it did not benefit them because it was not received in faith when they heard it.” So the same thing is heard and many hear it and a few will accept it. If perchance you by your much coming have accepted it as a way of life and you will take it regardless of what you hear to the contrary and decide to live by it, then you will find yourself being freed from the world of deception. Not the deceiver called Neville, because many if I say something in conflict with the traditions of men, then they will call that deceiving, and they don’t want any part of it. Well, you can take it on that level if you want to, but I say you have been set free from this dream, from the world of deception…no longer accepting the things that the whole vast world has accepted and still does accept and they live by it. They live by, well, the power of money. They think that’s the most important thing in the world, and if it’s proper to be socially prominent in order to get by to be it, and they play the game of deception and they live in the world of deception.844 ¶16

So if a gay, happy spirit moves by having told you good news, for good news is a gay state. He tells you the story of redemption, the story of salvation that does not depend upon trying to be good, trying to acquire merit, not trying to be something in the eyes of others but simply to accept the story. That is all you are called upon to do…to accept it. Do you believe it? Well, if you believe it, live by it and go your way. Don’t try to acquire merit in order to enter heaven, for the acceptance of the story will take you right in. When the time has fully come, you will go right in, for the whole thing will unfold within you and you will leave this world of deception.844 ¶17

Here, another one came and this one is concerning a little lamb. He said, “I found myself in what seemed to be an ancient world…it seemed like an ancient, ancient world. There were throngs of people, but it seemed three men in particular were at my side. Then I looked down and here is this little lamb. Then I looked at it, I picked it up, and I said, ‘It is my baby.’ They looked at me with a frown on their faces, and then they smiled, and that was it. I simply awoke.”844 ¶18

Well, here is an adumbration, a foreshadowing, for the lamb is the symbol of God. It begins in the very beginning of Genesis: “Father, I see the wood, I see the fire, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And Abraham answered, “God will provide himself the lamb, my son.” God is the lamb. It’s only a symbol of this great sacrifice. Now, we are told in the same 13th of Revelation that everyone whose name is not written in that Book of Life of the lamb which was slain and his name written before the foundation of the world—he has to be written there before the foundation of the world—or he can’t get in. Well, everyone is written there before the foundation of the world. But you are a dual being. The one that can’t get in is the outer you because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, so that is not written; but the inner you, that’s written. It was there before the foundation of the world. This is not the result of some emergency thinking on the part of God: The plan of salvation came before creation. The whole thing was a plot, a plan to expand his own being. So here, the little lamb was simply an adumbration of the little child, for it is the same thing. So his vision puts him very, very close to the experience.844 ¶19

Now, another one came today. He said, “I did my home work as it were. I sat in my living room and went through an imaginal scene that was personal, something that I want to achieve in this world of Caesar. When I satisfied myself with the feeling that it was accomplished, I simply basked in the feeling for awhile, just simply bathed in it. Then, while I was in it I retained the feeling and suddenly I find myself now a ball of light, a small ball of light, at the top of my head. But below stretching into infinity is an abyss. And this ball of light can go in any direction all over this infinite abyss. I am not only the ball that can move in the abyss. I am the abyss…I am both. Then suddenly I as the ball and I as this enormous infinite abyss begin to contract, and we are contracting and contracting, and finally we are all contracted in my skull. Now I am concerned…I feel I am going to burst which seems the opposite of what we think of here, because expansion would be bursting, not contracting. But here, I’m contracting, and I’m entertaining the thought, well, I’ll burst! So to stop it, I opened my eyes in this world and broke it.”844 ¶20

Well then, he also saw that no matter what he sees in the outer world, though it appears without, it is within. And the whole thing originates where?—in heaven and heaven is right within your skull . That’s where the drama unfolds, that’s where he’s buried, and that’s where he dreams the whole vast world round about him. So he had the most marvelous experience…knowing the truth of Blake’s vision 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.”844 ¶21

Then he said, “I wonder if the ladies and gentlemen who come to the meetings have taught their children and grandchildren this art of revision. I taught it to my son who is now seven, but I told it to him when he was five. He had quite a serious accident and he bled profusely. Naturally I was concerned. I called the doctor and explained to him exactly what was happening, how he was bleeding. But first I told my son to go over the entire scene but not to bring in the scene where he was injured or hurt, for he was crying. And so, ‘If you omit that, well then, you have not a thing to cry about.’ So he went over the scene and he stopped crying. The doctor said to just wash it, put bandages on it but make them loose, and send him right back out to play again. So, he said, “I did and there was no crying and it quickly stopped bleeding. From then on…after all, boys are boys and they play and as they play they get hurt. Well, since that day he simply stops no matter what happens to him and he revises the scene omitting the injured part.” “Now,” he said, “my wife plays tennis and she really smashed that ankle of hers; it was a severe break. And so she revised it, I revised it, and when the doctor took it, he only put a rubber, not a cast, just a rubber over it, and she could continue her housework. She didn’t play tennis for awhile, but she did all the normal things. The doctor was amazed that she could stand on it, that the thing healed so rapidly and so perfectly by a complete revision.”844 ¶22

So he asked me to say to you, “If you have children, no matter how early you start them, you start them to practice the art of revision. It will become a habit and so if they injure themselves, instead of begging for your sympathy, they will simply go over the whole scene, omitting the injured part, and not seeing that as part of the thing that happened, and their tears will suddenly stop flowing.” He said, “In my household it works!” So I give it to you as he gave it to me.844 ¶23

Well here, in the interpretation of scripture you simply take any passage at all, but always put yourself as the individual right in the center. You are the center of scripture: “In the volume of the book it is written about me.” Now don’t think of some Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago: “Christ in you is the hope of glory.” So that’s the Christ of whom the scriptures speak, and that Christ…everything in the Bible is written of that Christ. When you come to any passage—a man, a woman or a crowd—find the central figure and you are it. And now go all about it. So you’re the Abraham when it comes to Abraham as the center; you are Sarah when it comes to Sarah as the center; you are Rebecca if she is the center, and the whole thing is all about you. You will find this provides the key that will unlock the most difficult passage of scripture. Don’t give up…just dwell upon it…and you’ll find it working this way.844 ¶24

And then your visions will come and throw great light upon it, like my vision of these two figures. Now one was female and one was male. One was this monstrous thing that should not really have any existence. And now how do I put him out? I loved him. I pledged myself to redeem him, and, may I tell you, I never felt before or since a compassion comparable to that, because it should not exist. It had no right to be brought into being and I was the cause of it; therefore, I pledged myself if it took me eternity that I would redeem it. At that very moment of my pledge—it didn’t take time at all—the whole thing dissolved. It got smaller and smaller and it didn’t leave one little mark even to suggest it once existed. It left no mark whatsoever as though it was ever present, but all the energies came back to me. I misspent them and they returned to me to be used now wisely and not to be misspent anymore.844 ¶25

So everyone one day will confront the two…and you will know who Rebecca really is. You won’t change your sex, but you will know you gave birth to these two. These are the two nations that are in your womb and these two peoples that are born of you one is stronger than the other, and the elder shall serve the younger.844 ¶26

Well, the first act of man recorded in scripture is a violent act: “And Cain killed Abel.” So he came first, the violence came first; it’s the outer man. So Esau comes into the world first and Jacob comes second. The word Jacob means “the supplanter, he takes the place of.” Esau disappears because he must be redeemed. There’s no reason to redeem Jacob because you love him and you, being love, keep alive the thing that you love.844 ¶27

So this radiation or this emanation of you which is your dwelling place—for we are told, “He not only opened his mouth to utter blasphemies against the name of God, but against his dwelling,” and then it states, “…that is, those who dwell in heaven.” So heaven is simply made up of the redeemed. The redeemed form one body and that one body is the dwelling place of God. So everyone lifted up and redeemed will be incorporated into that one body…a body of beauty, a body of glory. And he would dare to claim that it gave birth to him, therefore, claiming by that self-existence he is taking the name in vain. He does not have any existence outside of the one who caused him to come into being through his misuse of the creative power of God, which creative power is called in scripture, Jesus. So “Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.”844 ¶28

Well, if it’s misused and it can’t be lost, then it must take on form. It takes form and it’s that monstrous hairy beast that one day will confront you and you will see him, and you will know now in the depths of your soul you are the cause of his misfortune. He has no right to live, no right to existence; but you can’t kill him. So you are told in that same 13th, “Who can prevail against the beast?” Because again we are warned in the gospels, “Do not resist anyone who is evil.” Well now, if you take that in the world of Caesar that wouldn’t make any sense at all. But the one who is evil in the world of Caesar is evil because in you is that evil one that you created. And he whispers in your ear all that is necessary to feed him, and only violence can feed him. So you’re told, do not resist him. If I beat him, he thrives on it. When I pummeled him, he gloated, he just loved it. He grew before my face in stature because of the beating; I was feeding him by violence. So don’t resist the evil one. Then what will I do with it? Redeem him!844 ¶29

Well, then I pledged myself to redeem him. And I meant it…these were not idle words, because I was not saying it for the benefit of another, I was saying it to myself and myself alone. As I pledged myself to redeem him, he melted, just got smaller and smaller before my face, and all the energies came back to me, they didn’t pass through, they came back to me. I felt like a giant from sheer redeemed power, the power of my misused moments in time.844 ¶30

So you can take any part of scripture and simply put yourself in the center of it, for you are the center of scripture. There is no other being; there’s only God and you are he. God is one, he isn’t two. So as you read it, no matter what the word…if it says the Lord, well you are the Lord, God, you are the God. No matter what character it is, the center one, you are that one. And you go through your entire book and the whole thing begins to unfold within you.844 ¶31

Then will come that moment in time when the entire drama as recorded in the gospels concerning Jesus Christ erupts within you, and everything said of him you experience. You don’t hear words telling you that you are; you experience it in the first-person, present-tense experience. You are Jesus Christ in the most literal sense in the world.844 ¶32

But if you haven’t had the experience, you will hesitate. But do not turn…and I say to my friend who wrote me the letter, do not turn back now. It’s your privilege to turn back. You could meet someone tomorrow and he would say, “You fell for that nonsense, and so if you fell for that nonsense then you are not redeemed.” And they can scare you into going back into the traditions of men. Like this thing that is taking place in the world today, this attempt to scare someone into a return to what? To an empty, empty shell; for the life has long gone out of it. They haven’t the slightest concept of the mystery of Christ. Yet they can dress themselves in all the robes of the world…that will not endow them with understanding, for they are men without vision. So don’t be afraid. When you have received the vision as you did, your deceiving days are over. This is the end of your days of deception.844 ¶33

So, the world is a world of deception. “The creature was made subject unto futility, not willingly, but by reason of the will of him who subjected the creature.” But he did it in hope that “The creature would obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God; but in doing this, he would free himself from this bondage to decay.” Well, doesn’t everything here decay? So man piles up a billion dollars and he has three score and ten years to enjoy it, and to simply strut with all his power. To find tomorrow his little soul is called, and he passes through the gate men call death to find himself restored to life in an environment best suited for the work yet to be done in him. So he doesn’t really die; he passes through. Those who can’t follow him, to them he died, but to himself he hasn’t died. He’s only restored to life, to find himself in a young garment, oh, twenty, in a world…it may not be the year 1968 if he drops now. He could find himself in the year 3,000, in the year 1,000.844 ¶34

For it’s a closed book; the whole thing is over, the thing is finished, and the climax has already been reached. That the real purpose of life is to have that climax which is called the awakening of God’s image in us. That has already been brought to its fullness, but it has to be brought in everyone, so everyone eventually will awaken in the image of the one.844 ¶35

Now here, you take anything tonight, I don’t care what portion of scripture, just open it up at any part, and as you read it, find that central figure and you are it. Now, what are they saying about you when you bore the name called Abraham? What are they saying when you bore the name so-and-so? Well then, read it carefully and you will find the whole thing unfolding within you, and after the real drama unfolds within you and you put your head on the pillow, you slip from this age into an entirely different age, a really different age. You do not enter that borderland, the land of dreams; you go beyond the land of dreams. You’re in an entirely different world, still tied here and you know it and you’ve got to come back day after day.844 ¶36

Now, many of you have had visions recently of my departure. Well, they are symbolical because all of these dreams can be interpreted on different levels. On this level, I would have long been gone by your dreams, but it still is in this.844 ¶37

For instance, here’s one that came this week. Now she said, “You do with it as you will, because you told me not to interpret the dream, just give it to you just as it came. Well, here is one, I am listening to you, you’re on the stage and you’re talking on the law, and suddenly you leave your garment on the stage. It’s perfectly still and it’s lifeless. There is no life in it and there is a quietness and a silence that you could cut it’s so silent…and you leave. Then you return and you found it so difficult to re-enter that garment, but you did succeed in getting back into it. Then you rushed through what you had to say. It was the most profound things that you said concerning the law. But you also said, or rather, I interpreted your thoughts as you were speaking, that you could not leave certain people who were listening to you now and before their eyes depart, so you had to finish what you were going to say. But you knew this was the very last lecture that you were going to give. For these were the signs you were waiting for, and the signs have come, and now that the signs have come you will depart. But you can’t depart before their eyes because they couldn’t take it. So then you rushed through what you had to say. You said it all but you simply rushed through. And as you did so, then you left. But you knew you would never return again.”844 ¶38

Well, on this level, may I tell you, without any stupidness behind it—for I have so many things here that I love, my wife, my children, my family, my circle of friends, all—yet may I tell you I wish it were true that your vision could be on this level. But you saw, based upon the interpretation I gave the gentleman behind you, what yours is. It has come to the end, because you conjured me in your vision, and I am the one in the outer world who introduced you to this law of God that works. Well, you’ve heard it, and as far as you are concerned, there is little if anything I can tell you concerning the law.844 ¶39

So the book is practically, you may say, closed upon it; and he has departed from that aspect in teaching you. What can he tell you concerning the law? You know how to operate it. What can he add to it that he hasn’t already said? So that book concerning the law—and you stressed in your letter it was a lecture on the law, it wasn’t on the Promise but on the law.844 ¶40

So all I can now say to you would be aspects of the Promise. Certainly I have told the Promise in four major scenes, and even written it out in a little chapter that I call Resurrection. Going over that today, I noticed that the book was copyrighted in 1966. It was in 1966 on the 10th of October that I had the experience of talking to twelve men and one rose, departed quickly, and told the authorities what he had just heard. And he was the one who nailed me with his wooden peg to hang upon me the responsibility, what responsibility?—to tell it. That was what was nailed upon me, to tell it as it has never been told before (that we have any written record of it), but to so completely tell it that when I depart there is a record of how God unfolds himself in man. I have told it as clearly and as simply as I am capable of telling it in that chapter on resurrection. So the work is finished. Therefore, he came in and stripped off my tunic and severed the sleeve and exposed the arm of God, which is in the 22nd chapter of Isaiah, also in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah: “And who would believe our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” For the right arm is simply the power of God. And so he gave me the power, having unfolded within me the entire drama of Christ, then the power to record it and tell it in my way.844 ¶41

So that tomorrow, the unborn tomorrow, can read it, and then wean themselves from these traditions of men that try to force upon man the belief that unless he makes a tremendous effort to acquire merit he can’t get into the kingdom of heaven…when the kingdom is entered simply by hearing the story of salvation, believing it, and going your way, playing a perfectly normal, natural part in the world of Caesar.844 ¶42

You are married, well then, you have an obligation. You have a wife to support and if you have children, children to support. That’s your obligation to life in this world of Caesar, so you play it normally. And if you are in business, you become as good a business man as you are capable of becoming. That’s the normal thing. You need never see the inside of a church. You’re just simply a normal man or a normal woman, and you live it normally.844 ¶43

But you have heard the story and without turning to others to ask them anything about it, you have locked it within your own heart, and you live by it. You ponder it…when you go to bed at night you dwell upon it. If you have a moment in the course of a day, you dwell upon the mystery of redemption. You firmly believe it, and one day when you least expect it the whole thing erupts within you and you know it’s true because you have experienced it. Then you speak from experience thereafter and not from hearsay. Until you actually know it from experience, you can still believe it, but it’s hearsay. Then comes that moment in time when you know it because you have experienced it.844 ¶44

So you take tonight’s theme and turn to any passage in scripture, put yourself as the individual right in the center, and then wait. It will come. The whole thing will come to you and the whole thing will unfold as to its meaning.844 ¶45

When it comes to a dream, bear in mind that a dream is egocentric and protean. Protean is simply from the word Proteus, that legendary god of the sea in the service of Neptune, and he could assume any shape in the world in the service of his lord. He could assume the shape of a fish or the shape of a female or a male or both. So he did anything if it served his lord.844 ¶46

So the dreamer is God and in that dream God can assume any part. He is the author of the dream and he plays all the parts; he is the actor in all the dreams. So if you dream of me, well, I could mean something to you by reason of the fact that I am a teacher of the Word of God…you could see me in that light. But bear in mind you are playing it, you are conjuring it, and the whole thing is yourself made visible to you, and it’s teaching you a lesson. So put yourself in the center. Yes, you are the dreamer and the whole thing unfolds within you.844 ¶47

Now, one day…I am quite sure that this meeting of the monster on the threshold of consciousness was not a unique experience. It’s going to be shared with everyone…for unseen by mortal eye he follows you morning, noon and night. In fact, he is attached to you, but you can’t quite see it. Because, when you dissolve him by your compassion, by your love, then he returns to you, he doesn’t evaporate into space. The whole thing came out of you; the whole thing returns to you. I can’t tell you the thrill when you have redeemed that being.844 ¶48

And so, the words are put upon his mouth too in the last cry at the end of the journey. For it comes at the end of the journey, and remember, all eschatology is symbolic…eschatology is simply “the doctrine of the last things.” So at the very end of the journey you will find these symbols coming into your world…when he declares, “Into thy hands I commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.”844 ¶49

He said he would, and so God in his dream, in his slumber, misused his own power; and therefore God is the only redeemer, and so God redeems him. He can’t leave him as that monstrous thing in the world; he has to redeem him, and he redeems him. That is the last cry on the cross.844 ¶50

Now let us go into the Silence.844 ¶51

* * * Now are there any questions? We have time.844 ¶52

Well, if there are no questions, see you the next time. Thank you.844 ¶53