Immortal Man

I think you’ll find this a very practical night. I must incorporate certain things that I might have missed through the years. I tell you this because a very dear friend of ours — he’s not here tonight. He just — had he known that I was closing on the last leg tonight, which is tonight rather than the last Friday of the month, he would have been here. But he said, “I’m greatly disturbed over something you said just about two weeks ago,” and that is about the ranks, the heavenly ranks, the heavenly ranks, and he said, “I will not give up my divine right, my power, to anyone. I will not make others little that I may seem to myself superior.” I said I might have misunderstood you, and I wish you would answer this from your platform, and I will get a tape from someone and hear your answer to my question. For I spoke of the ranks, the spiritual ranks.1092 ¶1

I will not retract one word. He failed to see the difference between the individual and the state in which that individual was for that moment. There’s a vast difference between states and the immortal you. The immortal man is God. Man is all imagination. And God is man, and exists in us and we in him. The eternal body of man is the imagination, and that is God himself. God is playing all the parts. God alone acts and is in existing beings or men. There is only one actor in the world. There is only one author. It is God. And that God of whom I speak is your own wonderful human imagination. That is the operant power in the world. If I speak of your God, the chances are you will think of an existent someone outside of yourself. But if I speak of your imagination, I am certain you will think only of yourself. For that is the God of whom I speak. Playing all the parts.1092 ¶2

And the lowest part is the multiple tongues. We’re not linguists, but we’re all speaking our language — two hundred million of us — and find it difficult to understand each other, because we are moving towards a prejudice, a superstition, a fixed idea. And so we may say anything, but we have to get through that barrier, even though we are talking the same language, using the same English tongue. So here, let me start with a quote from the eighth chapter of Nehemiah. “And they read from the law of God, with interpretation, and the people understood the reading.” They read it with interpretation and the people understood the reading. Paul claims in his letter — the first letter to the Corinthians, you’ll find it in the 14th chapter — “I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may instruct others, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.” Five words just to instruct others. Well, that has been my hope since I started teaching back in 1938 — to make it so clear that there is no misunderstanding.1092 ¶3

Let me state it clearly now. The spiritual states of the soul are eternal. You do not change them. You pass through them like a traveler. And you start at the very lowest, the tongues, the confusion of tongues called Babel in scripture, where we do not understand each other and so we war over strange confusions. The second one is the administrator, the organizer — you organize the confused states for personal gain, that is the second. And then Paul goes up to eight. He finds the last one, the apostle. Now, the one who played the part in the very lowest is still the same one who is going to play it when he is called as an apostle. I’m sent to tell the true story. The same being. Do not identify with the state called the apostle. While he is in it, he is going to play that part, but he is not that. He is the immortal self, which is the same one seated right here in everyone who is here. So the judge and the one that he is judging are both played by the same being, and that being the world calls God. But they do not know he is the only actor in the world. Only one actor. God only acts and is in existing beings or men.1092 ¶4

You and I, learning how to create — we create states to deliver others forevermore. But what we can make we can unmake, so we do not make permanent states. We create a state and take a fragment of what he was expressing and put it into the state that we create for him. So, tell me what you want. All right, you named it clearly. It’s up to me now to create the state and put you in that state. What would it be like if he were now what I wish he were? I try to persuade myself that you are that being. To the degree that I am self-persuaded that you are, I have put you in that state. And in that state, while I am faithful to it and you are in it, you are going to externalize the contents of that state. But what I made, I can unmake. I cannot unmake the eternal states. These eternal states are all within the human imagination. They culminate in redemption, and redemption is preceded by apostleship. That’s when you are called, and the word apostle means one who is sent.1092 ¶5

So I am finding myself in a state where I’m called. The night I was called, back in 1929, I had no idea I had arrived at that state. But here I am, called into the presence of infinite love, and it’s man. Having answered his question correctly, that love was the greatest thing in the world. He embraced me and we fused and became one body, one spirit. For he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with the Lord. At that moment it was not enough to be called and to be incorporated into the body of God, but to be sent on a mission. And I did not know that mission until it unfolded itself within me, and it took thirty years. Thirty years later, suddenly it erupted within me, and the entire story of Jesus unfolded itself within me, casting me in the central role of the story. And then I knew who I am. Then I knew who the one called Jesus of the story is. He is the culminating point of God in man. So when man actually completes the journey and comes to the fullness of it all, he discovers he is the one he’s been seeking all through his journey. But he comes to that at the very end.1092 ¶6

So do not let him brag. Do not let him boast that he is an apostle. Apostle is a permanent state. He is infinitely greater than all the states. He created these, and they are permanent within man, within the human imagination. But when he arrives at that state, it’s the last of the journey. And then he awakens and he knows who he is. And these experiences give him the certainty that he is God. He reads now the word that he read when he was a child. And before he could read it, his mother read it to him. And then he went to school and he read it in school. And when he could read for himself, he picked up the book. He couldn’t quite understand it, but he read it. Now he reads it as something entirely different. He knows the book is all about himself. It’s not about any being but God. And he’s found God within himself. And he is God. But that God of whom I speak is your own wonderful human imagination.1092 ¶7

Now tonight, to show you how easy this thing is — it’s based purely upon motion. The first creative act in Scripture that is recorded: “And the Spirit of the Lord moved.” He moved. Well, the Spirit of the Lord is in man. Do you not realize that ye are the temple of the living God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you, as we are told? He dwells in me — where? As my own wonderful human imagination. Now I go back to see how he first created. He created by emotion.1092 ¶8

I move from one state into another state. If it is a state desired, then I have a sense of relief when I get into the state desired. If tonight I was up against it financially, and then suddenly I came into a fortune, what would be the outstanding feeling that I would have? Would it not be relief? So I insist, of all the pleasures that man could ever experience in this world, relief is the most keenly felt. The child is late. You say, be home at ten o’clock. So, ten o’clock, eleven o’clock, twelve o’clock, and there is no child. You think you are in control. You love her dearly and you think you’re in control. Oh yes, I can control my mind, my imagination, it’s easy. But then comes eleven, and there is no child. And internally you conjure a thousand and one things that could happen. Then you hear the little knock on the door, or the key in the door, and she comes through the door. What is your emotion? One of relief. Just one of relief. So of all the pleasures of the world, relief is the most keenly felt. It comes in the creative act. Relief — call it by another name if you will — but it is relief at that moment of explosion.1092 ¶9

But the same thing is true when I move into a state. What would the feeling be like if it were true? And I work myself into that state as though it is true. If I am in that state I can suppress — I have the sense of relief because I’ve done it. Now what do I do after that? Nothing. Remain in the state. It has its own appointed hour, and it ripens, and it’s going to flower. Don’t be concerned, you’re in the state. Now let it unfold itself in its own wonderful natural way, past finding out. So I move myself into a state. I don’t remain in the state that I want to leave behind me and push a button and think something is going to happen. I move. I move from one state into another state.1092 ¶10

But these states I am creating — I do not consciously move in these spiritual states. They are automatically determined by my journey in this world, so no one can sit down and conjure the spiritual state; if you think he is going to, he’s only kidding himself.1092 ¶11

These happen automatically as man, who is God, moves through these eternal spiritual states, completely marked out in the twelfth chapter of the book of 1 Corinthians. And you are not going to change them. So I say to my friend, when he hears this, I do not intend to set myself up as someone who is other than you, better than you. I have reached a state called the apostle. I was called and incorporated into the body of the living God. He is a living God. He is not the God of the dead. Nothing dies in God, everything is alive. Today millions went to the cemeteries. They aren’t there. That’s an organized big business, completely organized on the fears of people. That’s not where anyone goes. You drop now — all right, maybe they’ll put you away tomorrow, maybe in a week from now — but at that very moment you are restored to life, in a world just like this, real just like this, and the unfinished work you’re going to finish it. No one is going to fail, because God is the operant power, and God is that individual’s human imagination, and he’s moving towards self-redemption, and he goes through these states. Infinite states.1092 ¶12

But you and I, we’re intelligent enough to create a state. So someone comes to you and says, “You know, I do not know exactly what I want, but I don’t like what I have.” All right, let him tell you what he has. Well, you wouldn’t like it either, if you listen carefully. No, I wouldn’t like that either. Well, let us reason together. What would you like? Would you like this? Would you like that? And then he comes upon something he would like. Well, then, if you are a friend of his, you create a state to deliver your friend from his former state.1092 ¶13

And so you see him in that state. Well, how do you do it? Bring before your mind’s eye your friend, and have your friend with a nice big smile on his face, and have him actually thanking you for what you did for him. Now the thing has not happened yet, but you go beyond the present moment, and you are appropriating now subjectively the objective hope. You hope he will stand before you objectively with a smile on his face, and you hope you’re going to hear his words. And the words you’re going to hear is, “Oh, thank you so much. It worked just like a charm. You know, when I saw you the last time, I was up against it. Today, it’s simply rolling and rolling in my direction. Everything is perfect.” That’s what you want to hear for a friend. Well, now you hear that. So if you’re hearing that, you move him out of his former state into the state that you have now created for him. Do this and you cannot fail.1092 ¶14

So prayer is not petition. Prayer is giving thanks. You don’t get on your knees and petition any being outside of yourself. There is no intermediary between yourself and self. You need no priest. You need no so-called healer. You need nothing on the outside. It’s all within self. What would the feeling be like if it were true? With that, I catch that feeling, and then I work myself into that state. What would it be like? All right, I know what it would be like. Well, feel it, and keep on feeling it, and keep on feeling it, until all of a sudden, you’re relieved. There’s a release within you. And then it’s done. You can’t do it a second time. It’s done.1092 ¶15

So I say, I’m looking at the world from a spot. At every moment in time, I’m always viewing the world from a place. That place could be from a financial position in my world. It could be from a physical position in my world. It could be, you name it. I’m looking from a certain state, and I’m seeing confirmation of that state by what I am seeing. Now, how will I know that I have moved? Well, it’s a very simple test to know that I have moved. Unless there is a fixed frame of reference, no one will know that something moved. If I started moving from here to the end of the room, and everything started moving with me at the same time, I have no reference to prove that I have moved. Motion can be detected only by a change of position relative to a fixed object. It must be fixed relative to me, that I may know that I have moved. But all my friends know where I am, who I am, what I am. If I desire a change, my friends, my fixed reference, they should know it. So I don’t ask anything of them. I simply assume that I have changed. But if I have changed, then I have a fixed reference — the faces of my friends. Now let me conjure them in my mind’s eye, and let me look at them. Do they see me as a changed person? Or are they still seeing the one who would like to be changed? Are they congratulating me on my change? Well, then I’ve changed. I saw it reflected in their faces. I heard it in their voices. I saw a change on their faces, which change revealed to me that they noticed in me a change. That’s what I want. Now, that proved that I moved.1092 ¶16

Nobody saw me move physically. I’m still seated in the same chair. But I moved. And so the whole thing is based upon motion. It’s a psychological motion. We’re living in a world of imagination, and this whole vast out-pictured world was first imagined. There is nothing you see here that wasn’t first imagined. And yet, close as he is, you still can’t find him. Why? Why can’t I find him as something objective? Because he is the reality I call imagination. I see the fruits of my imaginal acts, but I do not see the actor as I see the outpouring of his activity, for he is the reality I call imagination — that is God. That’s the one. When you completely awaken you’re going to know that’s what man basically is hungering for: the awakening of imagination, which is the awakening of God within him. That is the only God of which the Bible speaks. There is no other God.1092 ¶17

“I will go down to the potter’s house.” And I went down to the potter’s house, as the Lord said to me. And there he was working at his wheel, and the vessel in his hand was spoiled. But he didn’t discard it. He reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. Now that’s the 18th chapter of Jeremiah, which word Jeremiah means “Jehovah will rise.” He’ll rise, all right. He’ll rise in you as you, because he is you. There’s no one else to awaken but God, and God is your own wonderful human imagination. And the word potter in Hebrew means imagination. It means to determine. That’s what the word actually means by definition in Strong’s Biblical Concordance — it means the potter, which means imagination. So I go down to imagination’s place, where he’s working at his wheel. What potter? My own imagination. “What are you doing, Neville?” “Well, I’m just spending a few minutes here, there, and...” “Well, then, it’s spoiled. You will admit what you are doing isn’t quite what you want done. Don’t discard it. Rework it.”1092 ¶18

Reworked, up against it — will he be satisfied, say, with X number of dollars? No, don’t limit it. Put no limit upon the power of belief. Can you believe that he doesn’t have that pressure on him anymore, that he’s above it, that it is something behind him? Well, put him in that state. It doesn’t cost you any more to put him in that state than to put him in a little modified state. You didn’t pay anything for it. “Come, eat and drink without price. Buy wine, buy milk without money.” It didn’t cost you a penny to do it, so why modify it? Why make it little for him? It’s not exactly what he would want for himself — it’s better than what he has. But you want something bigger than that for him. And there is no limit.1092 ¶19

When you meet people of great wealth in this world, and you’ll judge them because they have money, just talk to them for a little while. Money hasn’t altered their other states. They’re just as stupid as they were before. In fact, I’ve gone to parties where this one was a millionaire, that’s a millionaire, that’s so-and-so, and then the lady would point out another one: “See that one? Oh, she’s not just rich, she’s stinking rich” — in her language that meant multiple millions. And if you walk out of that place — I’m speaking of a club, I will not mention the name, a club in New York City, a ladies’ club — they’re all multimillionaires. Walk out on the street, but don’t leave, just walk out and stay there. And then watch them come out after their big heavy lunches and their three or four martinis or whatever it is, and watch them. And if you didn’t know these are members of that club with all the millions in the world, you would say to yourself, “Poor souls.” You would think maybe they came out, they’re cleaning up after the guests left. That’s exactly what they look like. But they feel they don’t have to put on anything because they’re above it all.1092 ¶20

My father would say, when they were coming — and they were very, very rich, and he ran his store, and when they all became very, very, later, with a fabulous wealth — he would turn to one of us and he would say, “You know, God is really merciful. Suppose she didn’t have money.” He never completed the thought. He left it for us to use our imagination. “Suppose she didn’t have money” — she’s a merciful goddess, he would say, and then you go on dwelling upon what your father did not complete; he wanted you to complete it.1092 ¶21

So I tell you, prayer will be answered. All prayers are answered if you know how to pray. And to pray is not to beg. You don’t petition. You give thanks. Well, you aren’t going to give thanks to something that isn’t, but you must actually believe in God, as you are told: he who comes to God must first believe that he exists, and that he rewards those who seek him. But you must first believe that he exists. Read that in the 11th chapter, the 6th verse of Hebrews: all who will come to God must first believe that he exists. Well, I know he exists. I hope that everyone here knows he does exist. But as Blake said, “Why stand we here trembling around, calling on God for help, and not ourselves, in whom God dwells?” So why turn on the outside to call upon a God when he dwells in me? For he dwells in me as my imagination. So I will commune with my own imagination until I am satisfied that it is done. And you get into the habit of feeling that it’s done — the feeling of relief. And then you go about your business and let it take its own course. It will take its course and it will come out perfectly.1092 ¶22

So you don’t beg anyone. You don’t petition anyone. And it has nothing to do with so-called holiness. That is such an abused word. “He is a holy man.” May I tell you, if anyone introduces you to a person as a very holy man, turn and run. They’ll fleece you. And I’m not fooling. They come over here from India and all — you see them on the TV. Next thing you know, they’re getting $500 for a special course on people who have more money than brains. They pay all that. Then off to India he goes with his multiple fortunes that he’s simply taken from those who aren’t given to thinking. So money doesn’t care who owns it. So they have it, and so they’ll give it out to anyone who is called a holy man. Well, I have had my experience with these so-called holy men.1092 ¶23

One little fellow, you all know him, you saw him on TV, and some reporter asked him, “Why do you advertise so much? You’re always advertising, building up your own little personality, and Jesus never did.” And in the little high-pitched voice of his, he started laughing. He said, “That’s why it took him so long.” Well, I mean, after all, you sit down in your living room and you turn your little set on to listen to that nonsense. But people do it, and they pay him for it.1092 ¶24

Now here, may I tell you, you have everything that it takes to be the man, to be the woman that you want to be. Don’t pass them up. You’re right here this very night. Know what you want to be. Be definite. When you know exactly what you want to be, don’t ask anyone if it’s possible. You simply feel that you are it. What would the feeling be like if it were true? Would my wife, my husband, my friends know it? Let them know it — not verbally. Let them know it all in your imagination. Let them see you as they would have to see you if it were true. Just let them see you. And go to sleep in that assumption. For I know from my own experience that an assumption, though denied by my senses and therefore called by the world false, if persisted in, will harden into facts. That I do know. An assumption, the same simple little assumption — if you will persist in it, it will harden into facts. That is a law.1092 ¶25

How else would you interpret this statement from the 11th chapter of the book of Mark: “Whatsoever ye ask in prayer, believe that ye receive it, and ye shall have it.” How are you going to interpret that? Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and you will. No limit is placed upon the power of belief. It doesn’t even say it has to be good for you. It leaves you entirely free to make your choice and take the risk, because when you reap that state, you’re also going to reap the consequences of that state. So take your choice, but also be willing to take the consequences of the state.1092 ¶26

And you could go through life just simply knowing the states. You see a person in the gutter today, he need not be in the gutter forever. Take him out of the gutter in your mind’s eye. Here was a friend of mine, Freedom Barry, that I sent to San Francisco to teach this law. He hasn’t had the experience of the promise, so he can’t teach the promise, but he teaches the law. Before he opened, he saw a man crossing the street while he was airing his little dog. The man came over. First of all, he passed nice complimentary thoughts about the dog, which Freedom enjoyed, and then he said, “Could you let me have a little money?” And Freedom said, “I’m sorry, but I do not have any money.” A gentleman evidently, and he went his way. And Freedom, before he made one step, he remained right there on that sidewalk and saw that man gainfully employed. He said to Freedom he hadn’t worked, he was out of work. And Freedom saw him gainfully employed and felt the thrill of his employment.1092 ¶27

A month later, Freedom is out walking the little dog, and this man crosses the street, comes over to Freedom, and he said, “I don’t suppose you remember me?” And Freedom said, “Oh yes I do, very well.” He said, “Well, I want to thank you for not giving me money one month ago when I asked you. Had you given it to me, I’d be asking you for money today. But I got so mad with myself, to be placed in that position, to ask a total stranger for money, I went home determined I am going to get a job.” He didn’t know what Freedom had done, but Freedom did that which pushed him out of that state of asking for money into a state of earning it. He went out the very next day after he met Freedom and got himself a job that paid well. He said, “I’m on the job that I got the day after I asked you for money. I’m still on it, and there is room for growth in that job, and I’m sticking with the job. So again, thank you for not giving me the money.” If Freedom had done what most people would do — would have walked away and said, “No, I don’t have any money for you,” or “I don’t have money,” without explaining why — but Freedom did something about it. He put the man in an entirely different state. And having put him in a different state, the man got a job the very next day.1092 ¶28

So I say to anyone, you can try it. Don’t pass the buck, and help everyone in this world. You create states to deliver individuals evermore — these are states that you create, and you can drop them. But the other states of which I spoke earlier, the spiritual states of the soul, are forever, and no one is going to change them.1092 ¶29

But to make myself clear: when you are in the final state, the apostle, it doesn’t mean you’re better than you yourself when you’re in that multitude of confusion, for God was playing that as he’s playing the state of the apostle. But God is above all states, and are God, so you’re not an apostle forever — you play that, and that’s the final part of the journey, and you come out redeemed. When you hit that state and you know that you are the apostle, because you’re sent, and the apostle is one who is sent — it’s only then you know you’ve been chosen for a definite reason, and you’re sent to tell what’s going to happen to you. Well then, thirty years later, in my case, it happened to me that I could then speak with authority. I was not quoting anyone. I was not in any way speculating or theorizing. So when I tell you David is the Christ, I speak from authority, from experience, and therefore I speak with authority. When I tell you he is the only son, which is a resultant state of the journey you made through those eternal spiritual states — and when you hit the last one, you are born.1092 ¶30

Listen to these words. In the King James Version, and Moffatt’s Version, and others that I have at home, it’s correctly translated. The Revised Standard Version, the New English Version have added a word that confuses the entirety. This is now the 8th chapter, the 11th verse of Romans: “If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us, he will also raise Christ.” Two entirely different ones. But if you say “also raise Jesus Christ,” you’re going to confuse the entire thing. So the King James Version leaves off the word Jesus when it comes to the second raising, which is Christ. And it happens just like that. Jesus comes first. It’s the I Am of man — that’s the Father. He is awakened first. Five months later, then comes David. A hundred and thirty-nine days after, the Father awakens within the sepulcher. Then comes an explosion — a hundred and thirty-nine days later, and then David stands before you. He is the resultant state.1092 ¶31

Now, when you read the Bible in the future, and I hope you all will, always bear in mind the characters mentioned there and depicted there are not individuals as you and I are. They are states of consciousness, from Adam to the very end. These are all states of consciousness. So the name signifies the state, if you know the meaning of the name. But do not think when you use the word Abraham you’re speaking of a man. As when I speak of Bill, Bill is a man, he’s an individual. It’s God wearing that mask called Bill. But when I speak of Abraham, that’s a state of consciousness. But when you meet these states of consciousness in vision, they are personified, and you see a man, but it is not man as you are man. All these are contained within the human imagination. So when you encounter Abraham, well, you’re going to see a man, and you know he’s Abraham. When you encounter David, you meet a youth, an eternal youth, but it’s a resultant state. You are above all states. You are God.1092 ¶32

Every being in this world is God, and God is one. “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” And never get away from that. That is fundamental. The minute you have two gods, you’re going to get confusion. Two will become four, and four eight, and eight sixteen, and you’ll get confusion in the world. Only one God. And that God is named forever, and forever is I Am. That’s the being. So when you awaken within the sepulcher, you know who awoke — I. You say, “I. I Am.” There’s no one present, just yourself, and you come out without the help of anyone. And then comes the imagery of scripture that surrounds you, bearing witness to the truth of the story. But you are cast from then on in the central role. And so everything unfolds within the imagination of man, and that is God.1092 ¶33

As you leave here, go out knowing you have the power and the right to become the man, to become the woman that you want to be, without hurting any person in this world. You don’t need to hurt anyone to gain anything in this world. You go out and play your part fully, and let no one pull any rank, for all ranks are only states of consciousness. The king and the one who is amusing him, the court jester, are both played by the same being, and that being is unseen by the two masks — the mask of the king and the mask of the court jester. For behind the mask is God, and God is simply I Am. So one plays the part of the court jester and one plays the part of the king, and we honor the mask and bow before the king, and that court jester may be nearer to apostleship. Do not judge by appearances, as you are told.1092 ¶34

When they saw this giant of a man stand before him, Samuel thought, well, certainly he is the Lord’s chosen. For the Lord said to Samuel, “Go down to the house of Jesse, for I have chosen one of his sons to be king of Israel.” And when the first son came in he was a majestic creature, and Samuel said to himself, “Surely he is the Lord’s choice.” And the Lord said, “I have rejected him. The Lord sees not what man sees; man sees the outward appearance, but the Lord sees the heart.” Then he brought the second, and he brought the third, and finally he brought the last, which was David, and David was tending the flocks. Now this is all a story — you must extract the meaning from that story.1092 ¶35

So he brings the little one in. He was just a youth. And as he came in, no one thought for one moment he would be the one. And the boy came to the prophet Samuel. “Rise and anoint him. This is he.” And in the midst of his brothers Samuel anointed him with the holy oil, and then the spirit of God came upon him mightily from that day forward, never left him. Therefore he never lost the battle — the victorious one, David. So in the end he stands before you, for he played all the battles. You were the Lord of Lords with him, but you didn’t know it. And he is the Father’s only son. And then he stands before you, and he is your son. And then, and then only, do you know you are God the Father. You gain all the assurance that you need when you see David, for he is God’s son and he is your son; therefore you must be God. And that’s the story.1092 ¶36

Now, this being our last night, I suppose we go into the silence and give you ample time for questions if you have any. Good. Harry, I didn’t see this, but I could have used it an hour ago. I didn’t see it. I would have — and regretted it, too. Now, are there any questions, please?1092 ¶37