Tonight’s subject is: Test Him and See. In the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians, the very last chapter, the 13th, he calls upon all of us . . for, he is addressing us. Although it was written two thousand years ago, he really addresses everyone in the world who will read the letter; and he said: “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” Well, if every Christian in the world were brutally honest with himself, he would answer, “No, I do not realize it. I think of Christ as something on the outside.” That’s what the Christian would say . . “and you tell me He is in me.” I am called upon to test myself: “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” Well, if Jesus Christ is in me, where is He? For I am told that “all things are possible to Him”. I am told that by Him “all things were made”, “and without Him was not anything made that was made.” Well, if the Being who created and sustains the universe is in me, I want to find it. I should devote all my life to the discovery of that Being who occupies me, who created and sustains the universe, to whom all things are possible. Well, I’ll tell you who He is. He’s your own wonderful, human Imagination! Your own wonderful Imagination is the Divine Body of the Lord Jesus.574 ¶1

Well, now, test Him and see, because He creates everything. There isn’t a thing in this world that wasn’t first imagined. Name it! Everything in the world that is now proven as something that is factual was once only imagined. You mean, my imagination is the Lord Jesus? Yes, your imagination is the Lord Jesus; but He’s dreaming. He is dreaming this world. He is dreaming that He is you; and, as you, He is dreaming whatever you experience in this world. I don’t care what it is . . good, bad, or indifferent, He is suffering with you, for He is dreaming the dream of your life. He laid Himself down within you to dream; and as He dreams, He dreams that He is you. And whatever you think you are, that is what Jesus-in-you, who is the Lord forever, is dreaming! And when He wakes, He is you! And you are the Lord Jesus. This is the great mystery of all!574 ¶2

I have many a time stretched out on a bed or reclined on a chair and begun to see what I should not see. I saw what reason would deny that I could possibly see; yet I couldn’t deny that I am seeing it. I could no more deny the evidence of this experience than I could the evidence of my senses at any other moment in time . . I couldn’t. And then my imagination . . call it imagination, call it consciousness . . it follows the thinker. I am seeing what I should not see; and then I step into the world that I am seeing, and it is real . . just like this, and I am real to myself, and the people are real, everything is real . . just like this. Then I return to the place where I knew I was when I began to see it. I return, and yet I am still seeing it. I step into it again. I return . . oh, maybe a dozen or more times, and then I decided to venture, regardless of consequences. No matter what happens, I will go, not only into what I am seeing, but I am going to stay there and really explore. And my consciousness steps into what I am seeing, and it’s a world just like this! Real, solid, and I am solid, and I walk out and I meet people, and they see me but I know exactly what I am doing. I know where that thing began! My body is on a bed. I know exactly where that bed is, it’s in Beverly Hills, on El Camino. I know the number, I know everything . . I know exactly where it is. And, yet, here I am in a world like this, and it isn’t this world, and yet it is this world. And, then, I say to these ladies, “Ladies, this is a dream. This whole thing is a dream.” And they looked at me, as anyone present here tonight would look at me if I told you right now . . and I can, may I tell you . . that this is a dream! If I told you right now, “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a dream,” you would think, “Why did I come here tonight? This man is insane; he’s mad!” Well, that’s what they felt: that I was mad, and they got as far away from me as they possibly could down the corridor. There they walked as far as they could, looking at me suspiciously; and I am looking at these two lovely . . gracious ladies, as you are . . no desire to hurt, only to tell them this whole thing is a dream! And when they got beyond and felt safe, they almost ran down the corridor . . a beautiful, beautiful interior of a plush, plush hotel. And there I stood, shut out in a dream. I knew exactly where I laid my body down in Beverly Hills on a street called El Camino. I knew it was a double bed, and my wife was right next to me, and here I am, standing erect in a place more lit than this, far more plush than this . . luminous, and I am shut out; and I have unfinished business in this world that you and I now know. A child not yet educated . . a child just entering high school, a wife, and I had not yet prepared to cushion the blow if I should depart now. What would they do for . . well, money in the immediate future, for I haven’t yet prepared to cushion their life beyond my departure. And here I am standing, and there is no way back to Beverly Hills, and that world is just like this. Then I remembered what I did years before, when I had a similar experience and it was all based upon feeling; and I could touch something, and I held what I touched and made myself awake. So, as I held it, I said, “Come on! Wake up!” and I woke, holding the object that I imagined, which was in this world. And that’s how I awoke. I remembered that, so, then, I said to myself, while standing perfectly erect, “I will now imagine that my head is on a pillow. It’s in Beverly Hills, in my room on El Camino,” and I could feel the pillow. And, then when I could feel that pillow, I felt myself back . . not in a vertical state, but in a horizontal state, but I couldn’t open my eyes. I was cataleptic. The body was dead. I was alive within a body that I could not move; the thing was completely cataleptic. Then in about . . oh, maybe a half-minute, I could move the little finger, and then move the hand, then push it out and I could feel the warmth of my wife’s body. Then I knew I was back. I still couldn’t open my eyes. And, then, maybe in another half-minute, I made a tremendous effort, and the eyes came open, and here are all the familiar objects in the room: the bureau, pictures on the walls . . the normal, natural things that I had left behind, and I knew that I had entered a world, just like this, and I entered it from a state that the world would call a dream. When I came back, I could only conclude that this world where I am now, on the bed . . touching the woman who is my wife, the mother of my daughter, and this, too, is a dream, but I can’t remember where I laid that body down when I began to dream this dream. I couldn’t remember where that body was, for that was the original body that started this dream, and the other was only a dream within a dream.574 ¶3

Well, then, I began to experiment, as I did prior to that. If my imagination is Jesus Christ, as taught in Scripture; and if by Him all things were made, “and without him was not anything made that was made”, well, then, I can take the challenge that Paul gave us: “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to the faith. Test yourself” . . not the other . . “Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” Well, if He is in me, then He is the one who stepped into that world and returned into this world, and in this world He’s dreaming this, and can He modify this dream? I began to experiment, and I began to imagine that I am what reason denies, what my senses deny, and I became it in this world! I began to teach it to others, and I told others to do it in a simple way, like a dream. You start with a dream; and you conceive a scene, which, if true, would imply the fulfillment of your dream in this world; that the potency of that thing is all in what it is implying. Just try it. Bring before your mind’s eye a scene, friends, and have the friends congratulating you on your good fortune; and you accepted it just as though it were true, and then drop it. And, then, let it happen in this world. Let it happen. Then I repeated it and repeated it and repeated it, and taught it; and those who believed me, who tried it, proved it.574 ¶4

Then I found who He was. I found that really the God of the universe is in man, and man is his own wonderful, human imagination! That man’s imagination is the Eternal Body of the Lord that is called Jesus. That is Jesus. He’s crucified on this body, on your body, on Humanity. The day will come that He will awake from this dream, but in this world He is dreaming. He is dreaming that He is you! And the day will come that He will awake from that dream, strangely enough not leaving you behind detached, but He will awake and you are He! “Unless I die,” said He, “Thou canst not live.” “But if I die, I shall arise again, and thou with me.” He will not leave you behind. He actually became humanity, that humanity might become God! That’s the story and it’s not talk; but I am telling you what I know from my own wonderful human experience. I have done it time and again, gone right into a world just like this, and nothing dies. Tonight when someone appears to die, they will only close a section of the Eternal Book that they are dreaming. They simply close it, and you call them dead. They are not dead! They are in a world just like this, and they are solid. They are terrestrial; the world is terrestrial. How? They are unaccountably new. I cannot explain to you how it happens, any more than I can explain to you how tonight when I go to bed and sleep and dream, that I am real to myself in my dream, and I am real to those who see me. I am clothed; yet, the body is on the bed. And I sleep, and have for the last forty-odd years, in the nude. I go to bed, and find myself clothed the way I am now. Where is the clothing? Where is the body? The body is on the bed, but that dream is real; and when I awake within the dream, it’s just like this . . just like this. So, this is as much of a dream as the dream in which I have awakened, and not one friend of mine has ever died. I see them, and they are solidly real, and unaccountably new . . not little children, but new . . no need of false teeth, no need of glasses, no need of anything. They are new. But eventually they have these things because they grow old there, too. They age there and die when they come to the end of that section of the Book of Life. Then they awaken to find they are reading another chapter, and they continue the Book of Life, and we are dreaming the Dream of Life.574 ¶5

In the end, we will awaken from the Dream of Life, knowing that everyone eventually will do it; but while we are in this world, we can modify the dream.574 ¶6

If I know I’m dreaming, I can change it. So, someone comes into my world, and he’s unemployed, yet he needs money; he has a family to support. He needs money to buy all the things that a family needs; and I’m dreaming that. Well, I’ll change that dream! I will see him as gainfully employed and happy in his family, and everything is, as it ought to be. So, I changed the script. I have the power to change it, and he conforms to my change, and he works. Now, I can’t see you now unless you penetrate my brain. Everything that I perceive, I perceive only because it as an object in space is penetrating my brain. So, at once, you exist, not only in me, by penetration, but you exist as an object occupying a place in space independent of my perception of you; but you do exist simultaneously in me, because you have penetrated my brain, you also exist as something occupying space in the surrounding world. Now, must I wait for you to change, to change in me? Or, can I change in me what I see there, and make the change take place there? Well, try it. This is the test. If Christ is in us . . well, then, do I wait for objects in space to change for it to change in me, or can I change it in me, for you are penetrating my brain or I couldn’t perceive you? Well, I’ll change that which penetrates my brain, and it is one with that which is in space, because if you should change it would change in me. Well, now, if I change you in me, I could change you in the other world. Then I try it, and it works. I try changing in me what others appear to be. It was not lovely, and they requested a change, they felt they couldn’t bring it about, and turned to me. All right, so if He is in me, and all things are created by Him, “and without Him is not a thing made that is made”, well, then, I will change it. So, in my mind’s eye I represented him, or them, to myself as I would like to see them and as they would like to see themselves, and then I did nothing, beyond simply changing them in me, and persuading myself of the reality of the change; and then they conformed to it.574 ¶7

Well, if they conformed to it, then I have found Him! “For all things are made by Him, and without Him is not anything made that is made.” So, “examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” Read it in the 13th chapter of II Corinthians.574 ¶8

And there’s no more glorious end than in that chapter, the greatest benediction that you could ever read: “And may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” That’s how he ends that letter. Have you ever heard a more glorious benediction? “…be with you all.” What? “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Well, grace means a gift unmerited, unearned, unwarranted, a complete, wonderful gift that no one could ever earn . . the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ! Then he comes to the love of God. I can’t conceive of that, it’s infinite. He is infinite in His love, and, then, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, making us all one. That’s the benediction.574 ¶9

But that challenge in the 4th verse, when he asks you if you do not realize that God . . he calls Him “Jesus Christ”: “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” Well, you ask that of the Christians of the world, and if they were brutally honest, they would tell you, “No, I don’t realize it.” But, now, test it; and when you test it, you find Him. And after you find Him through testing, I’ll make you a promise; you are going to have the experience of Jesus Christ. And everything said of Him in the Bible, you are going to have it in a first-person, singular, present-tense experience; and you will know that you are the Lord Jesus Christ! That God actually became us, that we may become God! That is the story.574 ¶10

So, when, sitting on a chair or lying on a bed . . and it’s happened to me so often . . I see a world that is so real, and I shouldn’t see that world . . because if I am seeing what I ought to see, I should see the walls, the picture that I know, the things . . the objects that I know that are in this room . . and I am not seeing these things at all. I am seeing an entirely different world, and then something moves within me, and my consciousness follows my vision, and I step into the world that I am seeing. I enter it. And then I remain in it long enough to have it close upon me, and this world is completely shut out. Yet, that world is as real as this world, and I find myself moving in that world . . I stroll. And it’s just as real as this world!574 ¶11

Now, last night a friend of mine, who is here tonight, having heard this story of mine a little while back . . he told me of an experience of his, and it really was a thrilling experience. I am going to ask him to take the platform and tell you what was told him when he sat at a bar on a hot summer’s day. I am going to ask him to keep it down just to the essentials, not to embellish it and not to attempt to interpret it . . just to tell you what was told him by one who had this experience. Verne, will you take the platform?574 ¶12

Verne: I have been coming to Neville’s lectures four or five years in San Francisco, and I live about 55 or 57 miles down the Peninsula. It was last summer just before Neville came to San Francisco that I had been taking some material to the Post Office about 5:00 o’clock in the evening, and was returning to my home through the business district, and I saw the door of a barroom open. It was a very hot day, and I thought, “Oh, on an afternoon like this, a nice thing I could have right now in my experience would be a cold bottle of beer.” So, I parked my car and went into this bar. I noticed that it had been redecorated. I had been in this place before, but not for several months. There was new leather paneling all around the walls with metal studs. There were new stools, and the floor was all redone. It was very attractive and a very pleasant place to be. And the bar had been modified a little bit to make it rather “L” shaped. I noticed that every seat was taken, except for the far end where the small leg of the “L” would be. So I went down there to find myself a seat, and there were two stools; but the one I could not occupy because there was an ashtray there that had a cigarette in it, and there was a glass. Someone was occupying that stool, so I took the only one that I could, which was next to the wall, wondering who might be in the seat next to mine. In a few moments a man came back from the lavatory and sat down beside me. He was about five feet seven, clean cut, shaven, coal dark hair, and rather solidly built . . a pleasant-looking person. But it’s not my custom to seek for companionship in bars, and I had no desire to conduct a conversation with him, but he wanted to talk to me. I was not rude to him, but I answered everything that he said in monosyllables, to sort of indicate that I’d rather conduct my affairs by myself, but he insisted on speaking to me, and he wanted to know if I was an engineer because I live in that part of the Peninsula where there are a lot of electronics industry. I said, “No, I am not an engineer.” “Well, what do you do?” he asked. I said, “I happen to be a writer”; and the fact that I was a writer triggered something in him. He had been down to that portion of California where old treasures are reputed to be, and some months ago he had found some old, Spanish coins, and he had written an article about these coins which had been published in a magazine. He brought that out because he thought it would be of interest to me, which it was, and then we got to talking a little bit more, and he said, “You know, that’s the part of the United States where many of these people go that are interested in unidentified flying objects. Do you believe in those things?” I had to say that I didn’t have any feeling one way or the other about it because I had had no experience with them, but I said, “I can tell you something of interest if you are interested in that sort of thing. I was the Personnel Officer with the United States Air Force in 1952 at a large radar station in Wisconsin, near the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and we had the radarscope working 24 hours a day, picking things out of the sky, as part of our surveillance over the Canadian border.” I said, “Our men used to pass on weather reports to commercial airliners because they would pick up advance notice of these things.” And I said, “One night they clocked some object in the earth’s atmosphere that was going at an enormous rate of speed . . nine thousand miles an hour, or something like that, and then it stopped with no curve or anything and just took off in another direction.” I said, “That is the limit of my experience with unidentified flying objects. We made a photographic impression of what appeared on the radarscope and sent it to Washington and that’s the last I heard of it.” Our conversation came to a halt at that moment, and then he said, “You know when I was in the war, I was a Marine and I was in the Pacific Theater, and I was wounded in the leg there and was taken to a hospital in Japan. And one night while I was on this hospital bed in Japan, I had a dream. And all of a sudden,” he said, “I awoke in this dream, and I found myself in a large beautiful ballroom, and there were many couples who were dancing to some very stately music, and it must have been something like a French court or a European royal family of some kind, because,” he said, “it was very ornate, and it was very stately.” He said, “All the women were wearing hoop skirts, long hoop skirts, powdered wigs that came down to their shoulders, and the men were wearing knee breaches with silver buckles on their shoes; and I am dancing with this woman, and I am trying to tell her that I am having a dream on a hospital bed in Japan and she was part of my dream, as all of the dancers were, and she wouldn’t accept what I was saying. She said to me, ‘Oh, you’ve had too much to drink out of the punch bowl; so I think maybe we should step out of this dance and go over there and have one more glass to get you straightened out.’ So, they broke away from the other dancers and he, protestingly, went along with her, trying to tell her that he believed he was sincere in what he was telling her, and she wouldn’t accept it, and he began to get a little bit loud about it, and finally it was noticed by other dancers and some of the men broke away and came over to see what all the trouble was about. She told them, “This man is out of his mind and is insisting that this is a dream, that we are all dream figures”’ and he insisted on it. He said, “At that point they began to move in on me as though they were going to overpower me and shackle me, because I was creating such a ruckus.” And then he said, “Pfff, it was like smoke, and it all disappeared, and I was back on my bed in Japan.” It was then that I told him Neville’s story, and I thought his eyes were going to fall out of his head because he had not heard of this experience from anyone else.574 ¶13

Neville: Thank you, Verne; thank you. Thank you very much. Now, here you’ve heard it from one who was told it at a bar. If I said you are all figures in my dream, you would think me completely insane, and yet I will not retract one word. You are dreaming me, and I am dreaming you; and we are dreaming this scene to be, and while we are in it, in the world of Caesar, we can modify the dream and change it and make it conform to a better dream than the script that we are reading. But the day will come, you will awaken from the dream of life, and when you awaken, you are the Lord Jesus Christ! This is the story that I am trying to get over to everyone in the world. So, you condemn no one, for what you are seeing is all part of your dream.574 ¶14

Now, test it and see. But you are told in this 13th chapter: Test yourself. You don’t test the other. You test yourself, and the other is a part of your dream; so you can’t appeal to him. You appeal to yourself! If he is in your dream and he’s not doing what you’d like him to do . . he’s unemployed and he’s a burden on society, well, then, employ him. See him gainfully employed, making far more than he ever dreamed that he could ever make, and let him go. He will conform to your modified dream. See the other, and the other one wants to be . . I don’t care what he wants. If they want to be socially prominent, if they want to be this, that or the other, what does it matter in the dream? So, he wants to be something very important. Does it take anything from you? No, you are the dreamer. The dreamer in man is God.574 ¶15

Now, there are three ancient manuscripts concerning the beginning of the Bible. They are known only by letters. We speak of the “J” manuscript, the “E” manuscript and the “P” manuscript. Scholars do not know who they are. They are all attributed to a mythological figure called Moses. But nevertheless, in the book of Genesis it is only “J”, “E” and “P”; and they have named it Jehovah, Elohim, and the Priestly; but the “E” manuscript begins with the 15th chapter of the book of Genesis. It doesn’t mention the first fourteen chapters; it has not a thing to say about the so-called creation and the flood. It begins with Abraham, before his name was Abraham, when his name was Abram. That’s the 15th chapter, and in this chapter he asks for a son. He said, “I have no son. Why can’t you give me a son? And the son born in my household of a slave will be my heir.” And the LORD said to him, “He will not be your heir; your own son will be your heir.” Then the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Abram, and Abram slept. Now, not a thing is said that he ever awoke! Abram slept, and the LORD said to him, “You will be slaves for four hundred years; and when you come out, you will have an abundance beyond what you have prior to the deep sleep that falls upon you, and you will suffer. You will be a slave during this sleep.” This is the 15th chapter of Genesis.574 ¶16

May I tell you? You are the Abram spoken of. The “four hundred” doesn’t mean four hundred years, as we would measure time. Four hundred is the numerical value of the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which is tav; and the symbolical value of that is a cross. The “cross” is this [indicating physical body] body. This is the cross, the tav . . the four hundred that you wear; and until you take it off finally, at the very last you are enslaved. You are enslaved by the cross that you wear. You perform all of its functions. No matter how powerful you are . . you cannot pay anyone or command anyone to perform for you the normal, natural functions of this cross. You must assimilate and eliminate, and do everything that this body demands; and you cannot turn it over to someone else to do it for you, no matter who you are. So, this is the slave body that Abraham wears; and when he comes out of this dream, he will be enhanced a hundredfold. Whatever the creative power you possessed prior to your descent into this garment, it will be enhanced a hundredfold; whatever the wisdom that you possessed prior to the descent, a hundredfold.574 ¶17

So, this is God, and God alone who is playing all the parts. Here we have a play, and you and I will not avoid the play. We read it and we play it. Now, to play a part, a good actor must, to some extent, feel the part that he is playing, and to the best of his ability identify himself with the character that he is playing. He must do that. So, God is not pretending that He is you; He had to completely forget His infinite power and take on the limitations of you, in order to play “you” as you ought to be played. So, God is not pretending that He is man. He became man! He became man, that man may become God! That’s the only way that God could actually extend His own Being . . His wonderful Being.574 ¶18

So, you are the God of Scripture. You are the God of the universe. You were the God that created the heavens and sustains the heavens for a divine purpose; and when the play is over, and we all awake from the dream, we knew each other, for you and I have known each other as brothers before we descended. I knew you and loved you beyond the wildest dreams that man could ever think of . . a love so dear, so tender, that not a thing on earth could ever compare to it. That’s how we loved each other. And you and I agreed to dream in concert, and not to break the dream until it was over. And when the whole thing is over . . and may I tell you, it is over, not collectively, but it is over one by one because you are so unique, you can’t be replaced. Not one person in Eternity can take your place in the Risen Body of the Living God! Not one. It would be a catastrophe beyond redemption if you could be lost. You can’t be lost. You must return as a living stone in the living body of the Risen Lord. And by living stone, I mean a Being way beyond the wildest dream of anyone here on earth. And when we meet in that Living Body, we will remember the Being that we loved before we descended, as told us in the 82nd Psalm: “I say, ‘you are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you shall die like men, and fall as one man, O ye princes.”574 ¶19

So, we actually fell as one man, and became diversified in these garments of flesh and blood, wearing different pigments: some wearing white bodies, yellow bodies, black bodies: and behind the mask of these bodies is God . . not less than the other one. Not one because of the pigment of the skin is less or greater. It’s all God! There’s nothing but God. I wouldn’t want to be greater than the one I loved before the fall, and I will not be. All will be one. We ventured into this world of death, and we will come out of it, and return to the world of life . . the eternal world. This is the most marvelous venture in the world, but while you wear the mask, we can’t quite see it.574 ¶20

Now, I am telling you this tonight, not from speculation. I am not theorizing; I am not speculating. I have experienced Scripture. Everything said in the Gospels concerning Jesus Christ, I have experienced, from the Crucifixion straight through to the descent of the Holy Spirit in bodily form as a dove! The ascension, the discovery of the Fatherhood of God . . all these I have experienced in a first-person, singular, present-tense experience. And, yet, while I wear the garment to tell the story, I must still continue the sufferings that the garment imposes upon me. It gets old, and it gets older and it gets older, it gets weaker, and I have to bear it. I must bear this cross to the very end. Well, as Paul said in the 8th chapter of his letter to the Romans: “I consider that the sufferings of the present time aren’t worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us at the Revelation of Jesus Christ.” When Christ reveals Himself in us as us, what does it matter what we have suffered through the play? But I cannot stop the suffering as the body gets older and decays; but this time I am taking it off for the last time, not to be restored any more, but to completely leave it behind, and then to return to the One Body that is gathering one by one by one all into the Risen Lord.574 ¶21

I’m already part of the Risen Body, but I was sent to tell this story; and tell it, I must; and tell it, I will. And if it offends someone, if it disturbs someone, it doesn’t make any difference to me; I still must tell it. If someone becomes completely self-publicized and is distorting the mystery of Christ, I must protest the distortion of this great mystery of God. They set themselves apart as though they were elected to tell a story of a moral issue, and that one is no god, and that one. That isn’t so at all! There isn’t one in Eternity that will remain unredeemed; and the part he is playing was essential to the whole, for “all things work for good for those who love the LORD.”574 ¶22

We are told: “You didn’t sell me into slavery,” when the brothers confessed they had sold him into slavery. He said, “No, it was the LORD; it was the LORD’s will. You were instruments used to sell me into slavery; but He knew my innate wisdom, my innate know-how to interpret the signs of the time and so I interpreted the signs of the times to save civilization.” “So a famine was coming upon the world. Without my knowledge of the Pharaoh’s dream, then we would not have lived. So, He allowed you to sell me into slavery, that I may be in contact with Pharaoh and read his dream for him and prove it true, and then become equal with Pharaoh in the running of civilization.” So the brothers thought that they had sold him. So, you think you have injured someone. Time will prove you didn’t at all. It was part of the unfolding drama, part of the play.574 ¶23

This whole thing is a play. I have seen it so clearly, and I can’t tell you the thrill when you sit comfortably in a chair thinking of not a thing in particular . . not dwelling on anything, and suddenly you aren’t seeing the interior of your living room. I know the interior of my living room backwards. I have a lovely library, comfortable chairs; it’s a homey life. It’s not for show. My wife and I live in a place that I call home. So, if anyone comes to our place, we make them feel at home; it is restful. And my books are used; they are not for show. The chairs, the furniture . . everything is usable. We have not a thing for display . . lovely pieces . . some beautiful pieces, but no one comes every year, as they do in L.A. . . I suppose they do it here, too . . to take the value of your furniture, and they estimate the value, and you pay so much of it. Well, they will come into my place, and here I have a beautiful library, but they are all used books. So that’s discounted right away. We have some lovely old pieces that came from my wife’s mother’s estate. Well, that’s several generations; and it’s old to them, therefore it has no value, and I wouldn’t dare tell them, but anyone who knows the value of these things, as I have had them come in and say, “Will you take three thousand for that?” “Will you take two thousand for that?” . . but to the one who is sent over to value the things, they wouldn’t give them room in their place, because they are old pieces. But, to us, they are not only old but they are lovely, and they are functional. Everything in our house is functional.574 ¶24

So, I will sit in a chair, and then suddenly I am not seeing what I ought to see, and sometimes I will take the venture and step into what I see. Consciousness follows vision, and I step into the vision and explore a world just as real as this. You find people who the world would call “dead”; they aren’t dead at all! Solidly real in a world that is terrestrial, trees grow, and they wax and they wane and they die. People grow, they wax, they wane, they die; and yet they do not die. All things are restored. You’re reading a play, and you are playing the part that you are reading; and the day will come you will awaken from it all. And when you awaken, you are the one who created it.574 ¶25

The Old Testament is the portrait; the New is the reality. The day is coming that you will realize within yourself the reality. You will compare it to the portrait, and you will see certain things in that portrait that you could change . . and you could at any point . . certain things you would add that the portrait did not catch, certain things you would delete, for you are the reality. I’ll tell you, the story is true. It is not chronologically accurate, but it is true. Every bit of it is true. I could tell it in a more chronological, accurate way than it is told in the Gospel, telling it from my own personal experience; but it is good enough to be left just as it is, for when you, the reality, unveil yourself, you will compare it to the portrait . . and you will know it’s your portrait; and you will say of it, “It’s an excellent likeness, but it’s not the reality.”574 ¶26

Now, let us go into the Silence.574 ¶27

Good! Now, first before we take the questions: Verne, thank you. I enjoyed every moment of it; and do me a favor, and write it for me. I like to hear these stories and then have a record of it, that I may share it with those when I go back south. So, if I have it in written form, I can share it. So, thank you. Now are there any questions, please?574 ¶28

Oh, by the way, I’ve been forgetting it night after night. I use your name and address only to let you know when I’m in the City. I don’t offer you anything for sale, I don’t try to sell you anything; I do not appeal for any money. When I come to the City, I let you know if you are on my mailing list. There’s only one friend of mine in this area to whom I have given my list, and I recommend him one thousand per cent; and if you are on my list, you will be on his list, because he teaches what I teach. And his name is Freedom Barry. So, you will hear from him, but he’s not going to sell you anything. He’s not going to sell you anything, appeal for any money; he will simply tell you where he is and how many days he’ll be here. But I do not use your name and address for any other purpose; so you can feel free to give it to me if you would like to have me send you a notice the next time I come to the City.574 ¶39

Tonight is “The Mystery of Grace.” Grace is so unlike what man is taught to believe. Grace is God’s gift to man, a gift that is unmerited, unearned. It is not man’s due, it is not conferred as a reward, it’s a free gift by God to man. We are saved by grace. We are told that God chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Before the physical creation he chose us, chose all that you see in this world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons through Christ Jesus, according to the purpose of his will. Therefore, no one in eternity can stop that purpose from coming to its fullness. God himself is present in the historical struggle directing the course of human history toward his own end.508 ¶1

Now we are given different gifts, all varied endowments that you and I bring. And we are able to bring it because we received it as a gift to the corporate life of the body of the risen Lord. They are called gifts of grace. The greatest of these gifts—far outstripping more spectacular gifts such as tongues—is love. Just imagine you face an audience of a thousand, no two speak the same tongue, they cannot communicate…and you address an audience of a thousand who cannot communicate and each hears you in their own tongue wherein they were born, as told us in the 2nd chapter of Acts. Each present of the thousand hears you in their own tongue wherein they were born. That’s a spectacular gift. But the gift of love is God’s gift of himself, for God is love; for all the other gifts are attributes of God and they are essential to the corporate life of the risen Lord. But when God gives you love, he gives you himself…for God is love. Power, wisdom, all these are attributes of God. The gift of prophecy, even that of the apostle, all these are attributes of God and all these, wonderful as they are and essential to the body of the risen Lord, are attributes. But when God gives you love, he has actually given you himself.508 ¶2

Now let me share with you the experience I had in 1929. I certainly did not expect it, and to this moment I feel unworthy of the gift. I felt then as I feel now not equipped to express that gift. Nevertheless, I was taken in spirit into the divine council, the assembly of the gods. I was taken first to the recording angel and there she checked off my name written in the book of life. Then I was taken before the risen Lord and he asked a simple question, asked me to name the greatest thing in the world. I quoted from the works of Paul, the 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians, “Faith, hope and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.” With that the risen Lord embraced me, we became one body, we became one Spirit. It was not the Lord and the speaker; I became the one body of the Lord, the one Spirit of the Lord, I became the Lord. Then I was commanded, ill-equipped as I was and still am, to tell the story. I came out and my room was filled with light. There was no reason for it. There was no light lit in my room, no moonlight, just radiant light. It did not subside for the longest while. It seemed to have no source…it was simply light in the wee hours of the morning. So here, I stood in the presence of the risen Lord and he gave me himself; for he was infinite love when he embraced me. As he embraced me, I felt an ecstasy that I’ve never known before or since. For that return awaits me after I take off this little garment and return to that. For I have it only at rare intervals when I do my work at night in the region beyond dreams.508 ¶3

So that was a gift—unearned, unwarranted, unmerited. It remains the Father’s secret why he gave me that gift. There are other gifts, the gift of the miracle worker, a spectacular gift; the gift of the apostle, it’s a glorious gift. It ranks so high in all the gifts it comes first in the list as Paul makes out the list. And it is a glorious gift because as you’re sent, the sender and the one sent are one. But the gift of love is God’s gift of his very self to the one that he embraces when he is wearing the human form divine which is all love. I cannot tell anyone why, I do not know. I only know that was the gift that he gave me.508 ¶4

All the other gifts are attributes of God and they are essential to the corporate life of the body of the risen Lord. So when the whole that he chose before the world was—and he chose it in him and destined it in love according to the purpose of his will; no one can stop it—that body will rise completely, each endowed with that special gift of grace.508 ¶5

God treats us as if we were innocent, as if we were righteous, as if we were without guilt. In spite of what all the churches will tell you concerning condemnation…not to God. There is no one in this world that is guilty in the eyes of God. We are all innocent in the eyes of God and I don’t care what the individual has ever done. That is God’s love for man. He chose us in him before the world was and this whole vast universe is only a theater for God to manifest his power and his love, making of us sons. All sons but each endowed with different gifts to serve God and radiate his glory in the life of that corporate body when we all play our part within it. So no matter if you got the smallest gift, it is still beyond the wildest dream of mortal man, for that gift has to be exercised in the body of the risen Lord.508 ¶6

Now, while we are here we are called upon to do something. Not that we are going to earn it; the gift was ours and it was before the world was. But we are in the world of Caesar called upon to watch our thoughts, to watch our words, whether they are expressed audibly or simply entertained. I have stressed this through the years that I have been telling you.508 ¶7

I received a letter yesterday from a friend of mine (she’s here). She said, “Now this goes back…the dream only took place a few days ago…but the dream takes me back to when I was married, that is before I met you, because my husband has departed this world and he departed before I met you…yet as I go back in my experience I was married. All the friends I knew were of that era, and I said to a friend something that was an idle, oh, uncalled for remark. It was idle, it might have been mischievous, but I said it innocently. Then the room that was dark suddenly the corner lit, and there were two that she to whom I spoke told it. They in turn told it to four, and four to eight, eight to sixteen, sixteen to thirty-two, and finally the room seems crowded. I would estimate it to be 300. They were all aware of what they had heard and how they heard it, and here we had 300 in the room filled with a malice and an anger and violence all directed towards me based upon my idle remark. I realized then what we do unwittingly when we entertain a thought or express a thought. We think, oh, what does it matter? And here I saw the room crowded with animosity directed towards me that I myself had set in motion.”508 ¶8

Well, the Book of James speaks of it. But in Jerusalem Blake makes the statement, “Oh, what have I said, what have I done, O all powerful human words.” So I think I can stifle it. I entertain the thought and it’s an unlovely thought of someone…maybe someone I do not even know. You read it in the paper and you react, and you’ve told it, and a corner of your room is lit and two are hearing it. The two repeat it…all directed now towards you. And you wonder why certain things happen in your world. This animosity you yourself created because “All that you behold, though it appears without, it is within, in your Imagination of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.” So I start it in my Imagination, an idle, thoughtless word, and I said it to a friend and the friend repeated it to two, two to four, four to eight, and so on. So here in our world we must be careful what thoughts we entertain, and I tell you, because imagining creates reality. You could entertain any lovely thought in this world that has no support on the outside—your reason denies it, your senses deny it, but you can entertain it as though it were true. And that is just as true as the most factual thing in this world. Something that is now in your world unlovely and it’s factual you can now in your mind’s eye entertain a contrary thought concerning it and persuade yourself of the reality of what you are now entertaining. Two will hear it, and four will hear it, and eight and they will look at you differently because of this change of attitude in you. But here, after years the same God in us is the God in her and revealed to her the truth of scripture, for it is beautifully told in the Book of James. It’s beautifully told in Galatians, it’s told in the gospels, concerning the word that man entertains. So if I don’t take hold of what I am thinking, well then, the world will reflect it and they will show me by their animosity what I actually have been doing. And it’s all within me; it’s not on the outside at all.508 ¶9

So here, after years these gifts of grace…we are saved by grace. So let no one frighten you, you are saved, for you were chosen in God before the physical creation was brought into being. It’s not an afterthought. This is not some emergency thinking on the part of God. You were chosen in God before the foundation of the world, and he never saw you in any other light than the innocent one. It is God and God himself who puts you through the paces as we are told in the 11th chapter of the Book of Romans, “He has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all.” So that none may boast, that none may brag. So you have a billion, don’t brag. You have nothing, don’t be remorseful. So you think you are perfect in the eyes of the world, don’t boast. You’ve not a thing to boast about. If there is anything to boast about, boast that you were chosen; and you were chosen before the foundation of the world, and you were chosen to play a specific part in the corporate life of the body of the risen Lord.508 ¶10

The first great act of grace, the supreme act, was incarnation. For you and I were helpless. “And when you were helpless,” said Paul—I think it’s the 5th chapter of Romans—“Christ died for the ungodly.” He hadn’t yet become us…God became man at a certain point in time that man may become God. So here we are the scattered. We were chosen and then we are scattered. And this universally diffused individuality is diffused in us. Paul, who uses the word “grace” more than all the other books of the Bible put together made this statement and I think it’s the clearest definition of the meaning of the word as Paul expressed it. You’ll find it in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians, the 8th chapter, the 9th verse: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor that by his poverty you might become rich.” Now he drives this thought home in another letter to the Philippians and in this he makes the statement: “Jesus Christ, who was in the form of God, emptied himself and took upon himself the form of a slave and was born in the likeness of man…and being formed in human form he became obedient unto death, even death upon the cross.” The cross and the only cross on which he is crucified is man. This is the cross. This is the supreme act of grace when he actually became me that I may become as he is.508 ¶11

So, all are destined to become sons of God through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the pattern man, the perfect pattern, and the only way to the Father. There is no other way. He is the pattern man and were that pattern not in you, you’d never find the Father. Even though you’re endowed with a different gift, nevertheless, you will be taken to the Father and you will know the Father. If you do not know him as yourself, you will still know the Father. If you have the gift of tongues, the gift of the miracle worker, the gift of the teacher, the healer, the prophet, all these are glorious gifts, you will still by this pattern in you be led to the Father. “For I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes unto the Father, except by me.” You follow this pattern and the pattern will unfold within you and take you to the Father.508 ¶12

Now, I received a letter today from a lady who is here tonight. She said, “My husband gets up and he’s on the go and at four in the morning he’s off to work. So on the morning of the 8th of this month I said goodbye to him and then went back to sleep. I addressed the brothers, I said, ‘Oh brothers, please, please take me to the Father. I’m so tired of being here, take me to the Father.’ And then I heard female voices, all laughing in a friendly lovely manner and they seemed to tuck me in. Then I saw three of them, although I knew my physical eyes were shut, I saw three of them. One came over, embraced me and kissed me and tucked me in. I said again, ‘Please take me to the Father.’ Again this one said yes and she kissed me and I began to float. I found myself in this marvelous golden mansion, and I knew it was my Father’s house. Then I saw the human form, golden form, seated on this golden, well, it could have been a throne…but he was seated and his body was golden. I could only get to the shoulder, and then with a supreme effort I raised my eyes…they were spiritual eyes, for I knew my lids were shut…and I saw your face. I knew that you were the Father. I said, ‘It’s Neville. But of course, he is one with the Father.’”508 ¶13

May I tell you, the Father is a hero wearing billions of faces…that’s the Father. You follow that pattern, which is the pattern laid down in scripture as the life of Jesus Christ, and when it unfolds within you, you are he. And he who sees me has seen the Father, for I and my Father are one. So when that pattern erupts and unfolds within you, you are the Father, whether mortal man believes it or not. But there are those who still walk the earth who will have the experience of this lady and who will know beyond all doubt from her own wonderful mystical experience that what I tell you is true. The Father became us that we may become the Father. The one to whom he gave himself by the embrace of love is destined to be the Father. The body he wears is the same body that embraced him, the body of love. For love is the human form divine.508 ¶14

She saw the symbolism of the golden mansion. It need not be a golden mansion; that’s what she saw. But she did see a being that she knows and respects in this world, a being that’s quite limited, limited as Paul was limited. Paul cried out three times…he appealed to have the thorn removed from him. Well, the thorn need not be something physical as many have speculated it could be his feeling of inadequacy, that’s his thorn, the feeling of being not properly equipped for the job at hand. And the voice replied, “My grace is sufficient for thee; my power is made perfect in weakness.” So you are weak, you’re inadequate in the eyes of yourself and therefore, naturally, the world. Well, “my power is sufficient for your weakness,” and so he did not remove the thorn, the thorn being Paul’s feeling of being inadequate.508 ¶15

How often I’ve felt the lack of a formal education. How often I’ve been asked, “Well, what is your college background?” and I’ve never once made any claim other than the truth. I never went to college and I never graduated from high school. In a group of men and women who treasure degrees out of the world of Caesar it was quite a confession and a feeling of inadequacy in their presence. Yet I knew I had experienced in the world of Caesar that which if I told them they would not understand. They would turn aside and smile as one a little bit demented, a little bit off. Yet I knew I stood in the presence of the risen Lord who embraced me, that there is such a thing as a book called The Book of Life where names are recorded as told us in the 12th chapter of the Book of Daniel. When the seventy returned and they were so proud that by their power they had cast out all the devils, he said, “It would be far better if you rejoiced because your names are written in heaven; not to rejoice that you cast out demons but that your names are written in heaven.”508 ¶16

For, there is such a ledger, where in the book…it’s the Book of Life. Well, the Father has life in himself and the one written in it will have life in himself. So the moment he embraces you and you become one with him, he transfers to you all that is his. So he has life in himself and you the son become one with life in yourself—no longer an automaton, an animated being moved from without—but now a life-giving Spirit. One that is truly wearing the garment of love which is not seen by mortal eye in this world, but you know it and you feel it constantly. When you sleep at night you know what you are about to wear the moment the eyes shut in what the world calls sleep.508 ¶17

So grace is God’s gift to man. Not one child born of woman will be exempt of grace, for by grace we are saved. We are incapable of saving ourselves, no man is wise enough, strong enough…we are helpless beings in the world of Caesar. While you are yet helpless, Christ died for the ungodly. His death was the incarnation; his incarnation is your breath. It was not always so, but since the moment of the incarnation, the universally diffused individuality that is the Cosmic Christ, and now he shares his gifts with all as he had predetermined before that the world was. It will not be an afterthought when you receive the gift.508 ¶18

There are those here this night who have received gifts…one, the incurrent witness, where the eyes are “open inwardly into the world of thought, into eternity, ever expanding on the bosom of God, the human Imagination.” That’s a glorious gift, that’s a gift of prophecy, for it sees as present what is still future. That is the gift of the prophet. It comes second in the list of gifts as described in Paul’s letters to the Corinthians: the apostle first, the prophet second. So, the incurrent eye witness is the gift of the prophet. She sits here this night and she has that gift. It’s a fantastic gift. Others will have the gift of the teacher, the gift of the healer, the gift of the helper, the gift of the administrator, for that’s essential, the gift of tongues, the gift of faith, the gift of hope.508 ¶19

I have no power to decide any gift for anyone…that rests entirely with the risen Lord. So to whom he will give the gift of love that is his secret. I only know when I was called in ’29 then I felt unworthy and today I still feel unworthy in the world of Caesar to have received the greatest of all gifts, for there is no greater gift than the gift of God himself. For all other gifts are attributes of God and therefore eternal, but love is God himself. God is love.508 ¶20

So I tell you what I have this night from my own personal experience: No one will be lost. No one will be unredeemed. No one has ever been other than holy and blameless in the eyes of God. He has never seen anyone other than the innocent, other than the guiltless…I don’t care what they have done. Man sees them guilty, man judges, man condemns, but not God. He sees nothing to condemn, for he committed us and consigned us to disobedience.508 ¶21

If you ever thought other than that…you could keep all the commandments externally and break every one internally. When he comes into the world he interprets the Commandments psychologically and no man can ever tell me he has kept the Commandments psychologically. “’Thou shalt not commit adultery’ you have heard it said’…said he, “…but I say to you any man who looks on a woman lustfully has already committed the act of adultery with her” . Let the man rise who has not; let him cast the stone if he has not. Who has not coveted, who has not in his mind’s eye stolen? If he didn’t have the courage to steal outwardly, who did not entertain the thought but restrained the impulse because he didn’t have the courage thinking of consequences? So every Commandment has been broken by man, and God made it so that he may have mercy upon all.508 ¶22

So everyone in the end is justified. Paul equates justification with grace. So in his letter to the Romans, the 8th chapter, “And those whom he foreknew…” Well, if he chose me in him before the foundation of the world, then he knew me to have chosen me as he knew you to have chosen you. So he starts, “Those whom he foreknew he predestined to the conformed to the image of his son. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified” . Well, justification is divine acquittal. So everyone is destined to be completely acquitted of anything and everything that he has ever done in this world. There will be no suffering for him. In spite of what others may wish for him, God does not, for he played the part.508 ¶23

Now, to go back into the Old Testament into Genesis for it…when all the brothers begged forgiveness and got on their knees and bowed before Joseph, he made them rise. He said, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good . Therefore, it was not you who sold me into slavery but God. It wasn’t any person other than God. He sold me into slavery using you as the medium through whom he could carry me into slavery, that I with my gift of prophesy, my gift to interpret vision, would interpret Pharaoh’s vision and save civilization from starvation. So I interpreted his vision and began to save the wheat and save the corn and save everything that could be saved and built barns…knowing in seven years after this abundance there would be seven years of nothing. You’ll even forget there ever was abundance. So you sold me into slavery that I with my gift of grace, the gift to see and understand what I see mentally—for he was called the dreamer who could interpret dreams, interpret visions.”508 ¶24

He interpreted the vision of Pharaoh and then told Pharaoh exactly what it meant. Pharaoh gave him the order to start building the barns and taking x-number of percentages of all things grown and building for the future that would have nothing. It came to pass just as he interpreted it. So in spite of the brothers feeling that they were guilty, God didn’t see them guilty at all. God used them, knowing the weaknesses of the heart, of the flesh, he could use them through envy to dispose of a brother that they envied. So God didn’t see them as guilty… that they were justified.508 ¶25

And after justification comes glorification. So in the 17th chapter of John, when the work is done, when he has brought to climax the sacred history of Israel, he brought it to climax and complete fulfillment, he said, “I have finished the work thou gavest me to do. Now Father return unto me the glory that was mine, the glory that I had with thee before that the world was” . He was one with the Father and emptied himself of his glory, of his divine form, and took upon himself the form of man, a slave, and then became obedient unto death as we all are obedient unto death. Then came the sacred history of Israel erupting within him. And so he brought that sacred history of Israel to climax and fulfillment within himself and the work was completed. Now he asks only to return to the glory that was his that he gave up to come into the world of slaves to lift them all to his level.508 ¶26

So may I tell you, you are saved! And I wouldn’t care what the world will tell you, I don’t care what you have done, what you may still have to do; you have been saved by grace…not by any effort on your own part. But you have been saved. The gift will appear and you will know the part you will play in the corporate life of the body of the risen Lord, for every gift is essential to that living body. So do not envy anyone who has a different kind of a gift.508 ¶27

But if one has the gift of love, which is God himself, he will be seen by those who really are seeking the Father. If they know him, they’ll see his face on the body of love. They’ll see it and interpret it in their own way…a golden body, a radiant body. The body that I saw was a glorious, radiant body of love. You can’t describe it, it was simply all love. There’s no way to describe that risen form other than love. There’s not one word that you entertain in the presence of the risen Lord but love. So when asked to name the greatest thing, it was automatic. You could name faith and hope, but you knew you’re looking at the greatest thing in the world, it is right before you and it’s love. Then he embraces you and you fuse. I can’t quite describe how two people become one, but we became one without loss of identity. I was still aware that I am who I am, and yet I wore the garment of love, and I became one with the Spirit of the Lord, one with God the Father.508 ¶28

Then I was commissioned and sent out of that assembly, and told “Time to act!” No more preparation is necessary, time to act. Inadequate as you are, unprepared as you are, unequipped as you are: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness. So you go, be ashamed of nothing. I have chosen you to be my messenger and I’ve sent you.”508 ¶29

So here, another gift he gave me was that of the apostle. He gave me himself, but having sent me…the word apostle means “one who is sent.” So the command as he sent me was, “You are now my apostle to tell my story to everyone who will hear it. And those who I call to you will come and no one will stop them. No one can come unless my Father calls them.” And the ones who my Father called in no way can I cast off…and only those that he calls. It’s a most selective thing in the world, for he is restoring his fallen body, but lifting it up to a higher and higher level of being. This fall of God was deliberate for a creative purpose.508 ¶30

So then the fallen form, scattered as it is, is restored and everyone is brought back into the one body, the one Spirit, the one Lord, the one God and Father of all. All are raised by means of the fall, therefore, all are justified and all are glorified.508 ¶31

So this glorious thing called grace, which today we cheapen so much, the Greek word that is translated grace is “charis” and we use it now that he has charisma. Some firm brought out a perfume and called the perfume Charisma. This is such a sacred word in scripture; c-h-a-r-i-s, that is the root of the word. In fact, that is the word that is translated “grace.” Hasn’t a thing to do with perfume, hasn’t a thing to do with some individual’s out-going personality. So, certainly he has a lovely personality and so he’s out-going and they say he has charisma. But that one doesn’t have charisma. They go around judging each other. Hasn’t a thing to do with God’s grace.508 ¶32

God’s gifts differ from these little things that men see and all these gifts are true gifts. One day you will be in the one body where all these gifts are exercised. Which one you individually will receive I do not now. I only know I received the gift of love, and therefore with the gift of love which is God himself I would automatically have all his attributes. So all the others below the level of God himself which are attributes I would have to have. If they’re not exercised now—there’s no reason for the exercise of them here, but when I shed this for the last time I will be exercising all the gifts, for I received the gift of love.508 ¶33

Now let us go into the Silence.508 ¶34

Tonight’s subject is “The Mystery of Imagination.” I could have titled it “The Mystery of God, the Mystery of Man, the Mystery of Christ.” It would have been the same thing.506 ¶1

But I took for tonight the use of the word Imagination—it would not offend. But these three are interchangeable words. So here, I imagine as do you. We cannot imagine differently. All the differences lie in content. And so, we ask the little question “Who am I?” and our response to that question determines content…and there we differ.506 ¶2

The whole vast world differs based upon their response to that enormous question, which we find in scripture. Who am I? I could tell you that you are God. You wouldn’t believe it. You can read it in scripture: “Be still and know that I am God.” You’ll read it in the 46th Psalm, but you won’t believe it. If I told you that you are Christ, you might be offended; you may have some external concept of a being and you call him Christ. When I say that you do imagine, that wouldn’t offend you because you know we do imagine. And you may not believe for one moment that this power of imagining is the power of God, but, nevertheless, you do imagine. That wouldn’t offend anybody.506 ¶3

So tonight we’ll take…first of all, we’ll start with Blake’s Jerusalem. Now Blake claimed this entire poem was dictated by the Spirit of Prophesy or the Savior of the world. He said, “Morning after morning, when I return I’ve found the spirit of the Savior spreading his beams of love over me and dictating the words of this mild song.” And in this he said, “Babel mocks, saying there is no God nor Son of God, that thou, O Human Imagination, O Divine Body, art all a delusion; but I know thee, O Lord, when thou arisest upon my weary eyes, even in this dungeon and this iron mill…for thou also sufferest with me.” And then the Divine Voice replied: “Fear not! Lo, I am with thee always, only believe in me, that I have power to raise from death thy Brother who sleepeth in Albion” .506 ¶4

Now could you honestly believe to that point that you would say, “But I know thee, O Lord” meaning your own wonderful human Imagination, no other being, your Imagination, the eternal you. Could you say with him that “Man is all Imagination and God is man and he in us and we in him. The Eternal Body of man is the Imagination and that is God himself” . Could you believe it?506 ¶5

Well now, let us show you. We’re told in scripture that all things were made through Christ and without him was not anything made that was made, but all things, good, bad and indifferent (Jn. 1:2). Now who made this?506 ¶6

The year is 1951—my brother-in-law because he is married to my wife’s sister—called and asked if I would see him that evening…it was very important. He knew that we were sailing for Barbados in about two weeks and he wanted to see me before we sailed. So he came home and this was his problem. First, I’ll give you his background. He graduated from Harvard and then remained on and took the business course at Harvard, Harvard Business School’s graduate course. Came out of college and went straight into the bank, the Bank of New York. Well, as you know banks have different departments and some departments do not advance rapidly. He was in the Trust Dept. That is almost a service; that is not a money making section of the bank. So he was in the Trust Dept. and after eighteen years he concluded that traveling as he’s traveling now at the bank he couldn’t see how he could possibly put his two children through college. He went through college and his wife went through Smith, and he couldn’t see how he could possibly put these two children through college. They were bright, desired to go to college but with that fixed salary he couldn’t see how he could do it. So he went to the president and the manager of the bank and explained the facts of life. They in turn reminded him that that department did not allow any further increases in salary, that eventually someone would resign or someone would retire, someone would leave the bank, or they may die. In that event, he would be promoted, but without this, he had to remain and move forward just as they all do in banks. They made it very, very clear to him that if he didn’t like it he could quit. Now he said, “That’s my problem.”506 ¶7

I said, “All right.” First of all, I’ll tell you he was at that time and still is the head usher of a very prominent 5th Avenue church, the Church of the Ascension. He was on the financial board because he was a banker and could advise them on how to invest their funds and to raise funds. But he couldn’t find any comfort in an interview with his minister. The minister didn’t know what to say to him, how to solve this problem. I said to Sam, “You know Sam that I’m leaving in a couple of weeks and we’ll be gone for about three months. Will you do this? I assure you it will work. It will not fail you if you do it. You are the operant power, it doesn’t operate itself. I can tell you from now to the ends of time, but if you don’t operate it by becoming the operant power, it won’t work. But if you actually do what I’m going to ask you to do, I tell you that it will work.” Well, he said, “Tell me.” I said, “When you go to bed tonight—I don’t mean tomorrow night or the next night—I mean tonight and every night thereafter, you feel as though you had the most heavenly day in business, that you invested fantastic funds.” By the by, I must tell you that I asked him, “What would you like to do?” Well, he said, “I’m trained to invest funds. I know the money market. I would like to handle the funds of a great foundation like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, the Rockefellers or the Fords. That’s the kind of a thing I would like.” I said, alright, as you sleep tonight you feel this is the most heavenly day, the most wonderful day! What a portfolio and what I did with it, this enormous sum of money that you invested, and feel that you’ve never known such a wonderful day in your business. He started that night.506 ¶8

We sailed to Barbados and returned three months later. As is our custom, that very first day they always came home for dinner. So the wife came first and we had a round of drinks and she said, “Let’s wait for Sam. I want Sam to be here before we have any drinks.” I said, “All right, we’ll wait for Sam.” So Sam came in straight from the bank and when he came in I made a round of Martinis, and Sam rose and said, “Dear, did you tell them?” She said, “No, it’s your story. I want you to tell them.” Well, this is the story.506 ¶9

Being a member of the financial board of the church this meeting was held two weeks after we sailed. At the end of the meeting when they came to the sidewalk this man who handles all the funds of the Rockefeller brothers, not the Rockefeller Foundation, it’s something entirely different, the five brothers and their sisters and then their wives and children. The fund runs well in excess of a billion dollars…it’s just their private funds. The man said, “Sam, I’ve been thinking of this for the last couple of weeks.” Right on the heels of Sam beginning to put this into practice he entertains the thought and said to Sam, “Would you consider quitting the bank? I know you have to lose all the seniority, lose all that you’ve built up in the bank, I can’t give you that. I’ll start you at a much, much bigger salary and guarantee you an increase in salary every year. But what an opportunity! Here you have a portfolio well in excess of a billion dollars, and I’m asking you to quit the bank and join me and help me with the Rockefeller money.” He said, “I can’t say yes to it now, but I’ll go home and discuss it with my wife.” Well, they agreed that it was quite a challenge…and so they would do it.506 ¶10

The bank was thrilled beyond measure that the Rockefellers would see in one of their men that they trained one with that ability, and they were just all smiles, all love. When one broke forth they almost offered him to quit. Now they’re thrilled beyond measure because he could throw some business in their direction, handling one portfolio one day, $394 million. At the same time, a $4,000 investment…some grandchild just got an A or B or something in school, and he was given $4,000. He had to take that $4,000 and be just as careful with that investment as the $394 million that he was one day switching in a certain portfolio. Well, that was Sam.506 ¶11

I wrote a book a year later 1952 in which I told this story. I did it without Sam’s consent or knowledge. Knowing the story I wrote the story myself and simply signed his initials. As is my custom, I bring out a new book and I always give Sam a copy. Sam took the book and he saw his story. Now he’s entranced, mind you, in this. He still is a powerhouse in his church. He knows exactly what he did and he knows how it works…but that book was hidden. When I called on Sam the next time there was no discussion of this theory and the book was not available. All my other books were put away. You couldn’t find one of my books in Sam’s house today, because to him this is irrational. Some friend of his in the social world may come to his apartment and see a book, and [...] by the title, or take it from the library, see Sam’s story in the book, and that would embarrass him. He’s very prominent in his own mind’s eye in the social world and in the banking world and these worlds.506 ¶12

So he denied I introduced him to Christ. He goes to church every Sunday morning, is the head usher…doesn’t know Christ. I introduced him to Christ and proved to him the existence of Christ in him. For all things are made by Christ and without him is not anything made that is made. And who made it? He dared to imagine himself returning from a job where everything was perfect, just as he wanted it. In two weeks the offer came out of the blue. The man began to entertain the thought of suggesting it to Sam soon after Sam began to go to bed night after night imagining that he had such a job. Now he buries the evidence: The old, old story, “he denies the ladder by which he did ascend.” Oh no, that’s not…so I introduced him to Christ, he met Christ and did not recognize him, and did what you’re told in scripture, he denied him. He rejected Christ although he goes every Sunday and ushers them down the aisle. There he is in his cutaway, leading in that manner.506 ¶13

Now, I’ll tell you the story in scripture that is related to it. “He who is not with me is against me” . There is no room for neutrality, none whatsoever, in this conflict. You are either with me or against me. Now, he makes that bold statement and then it seems irrelevant what follows. And this is what he states in the Book of Luke, the 11th chapter: “When an evil spirit, an unclean spirit goes out of a man, it wanders through waterless places seeking rest; and finding none it says, ‘I’ll return to the house from which I came.’ When he comes to the house he finds it swept and put in order . He goes and gets seven other spirits more evil than itself; and they come and they enter and dwell in that house; and the last state of that man is worse than the first” . “Now a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you and blessed the breasts you sucked.’ He replied, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!’”506 ¶14

Here is a man brought into the very presence of the only creative power in the world, his own wonderful human Imagination, his eternal being, who is Christ Jesus in him. He tests him and proves his creative power to the full satisfaction. He tests him and Christ proved himself in performance, and then he buries the evidence. He wants no part of it, none whatsoever; it isn’t socially prominent. It will do nothing for him in the social world to have that story heard concerning him. So, having turned his back upon Christ, he’ll be confronted tomorrow, next year…I use the word loosely…and he will forget what he did to get the job with the Rockefellers.506 ¶15

He held it for eight years and then his boss quit, and as is the custom when the new boss came in he brought his own personnel so Sam was out. But because of eight years’ service in that capacity, he was offered all kinds of jobs and he took a junior partnership in a brokerage house. So now he’s a partner in a brokerage house doing remarkably well…a man my age, in fact, the same month in the same year. We never discuss this principle at all. He wants his own archaic concept of a man he calls Jesus Christ. He doesn’t want a living Christ within himself that is his own wonderful human Imagination. He doesn’t want that, no, he wants something that is historical, something that happened 2,000 years ago, and that to him is Christ.506 ¶16

I introduce you to Christ. I can’t make that [...]. It is customary that you reject him. I can tell you it’s not the easiest thing in the world having once been trained in an orthodox manner to believe in an eternal Christ to suddenly find that he’s your own wonderful human Imagination; that this is the eternal you, the immortal you, the one that cannot die, and the one that you can put to the test every moment of time.506 ¶17

So when Blake said, “Thou also sufferest with me although I do not behold thee” you never behold him as another. He will one day through a series of events reveal himself as you. Because these events are only related to Christ Jesus and only as these events are experienced by you and you are cast in the central role will you know who you are. So you never see him as another as told us in scripture: “It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall know him because we shall be like him” . So when he appears, I am he. So you’ll know by a series of events which you will experience who you really are. Until then, you will know him, but you will not behold him because you don’t behold him. He is God the Father and you can only behold him in the face of his Son. You beholding the Son, knowing the Son is your son, then you know who you are…that you are God the Father. But long before you know and behold yourself as God the Father, you can know him.506 ¶18

So I can bring you this night as I have…I’ve brought you this night and introduced you to Jesus Christ. You can call him Jesus Christ, I do. You can call him, as Blake in Jerusalem calls him, the Lord: “But I know thee, O Lord, when thou arisest upon my weary eyes.”506 ¶19

Here yesterday morning, Sunday morning, I returned after a full night of instruction to ethnic groups. When I was addressing Negroes, I was a Negro, as black as the ace of spades, and I’m talking to Negroes. When I addressed the Oriental, I was an Oriental. When I addressed the Caucasian, I was a Caucasian. And yet I am not white, yellow or black; I am Spirit. But to be seen, I had to wear the form of man and wear a pigment acceptable to those I addressed, so here I am, black as the ace of spades speaking to Negroes, and then I am a blond speaking to Caucasians, and again I am the Oriental speaking to Orientals. I came back as gently upon the eyelids as Blake in that 60th Plate tells us: “I know thee, O Lord, when thou arisest upon my weary eyes.” I could actually feel the contact upon this dungeon, this iron mill. And then I spent maybe five minutes just reveling in all that I knew I brought back and what I had done, and then I got up and went about my chores for the day.506 ¶20

So these words are not idle words with Blake. One day you’ll experience them. One day you’ll awaken from the dream of life, and you’ll know that you are God the Father. You will know it by a set series of events. You can’t alter them, don’t try to change them, they will actually unfold in you. They will erupt like a flower erupting on the bush, and the whole thing will reveal you as the being that you’ve been seeking throughout the ages, the being called Jesus Christ or God the Father.506 ¶21

But it does not offend man when you speak of the human Imagination, because all admit they do imagine. They may never be that courageous to identify their own wonderful human Imagination with God, but I tell you the day will come when you’ll be forced to identify him and actually interchange a term…that God and your own wonderful human Imagination are one and the same, they’re not two. You put it to the test. Well, all right, you put it to the test. You know what you want? Well, dare this night to assume that you have it, and sleep in the assumption that you have it, and that assumption will slowly harden into fact. That will harden into fact just as Sam’s hardened into fact.506 ¶22

For God is emerging in the direct line of descent from us. When we read the genealogy of Christ that is a direct line of descent from us. Slowly, painfully but surely he is weaving himself on us. And who is he? Your wonderful human Imagination, my wonderful human Imagination, that’s the immortal you that comes out, comes right out of this strange, wonderful line of descent. When it comes out, it’s not anything that you see here; it’s an immortal being, a body that is altogether different. You are then Spirit, “For flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” . So that which comes out can inherit the kingdom of God, but this cannot, for this is a corruptible body, this is a body that is excrementitious. I certainly don’t want a body of this nature forever of bondage and slavery. For here is a body that no matter how much I have in this world, I could have all the wealth in the world, and I cannot command any slave of mine to perform the normal functions of this body for me, I’ve got to do them all by myself. No money in the world can buy that service. The man who wears such a body has to perform the normal natural functions of that body all by himself or simply give it up. If he ceases to perform them, well then, it means his exit from this world, for he can’t command anyone to perform them for him.506 ¶23

So these bodies are certainly not bodies that you think of that you’d want to have throughout eternity. For the body you’ll have, the immortal body is your own wonderful human Imagination. And you can’t describe it. It is Spirit. It’s a protean being and by that I mean it can assume any shape as I did all through Saturday night. I woke on Sunday morning knowing that I’d played the part of the Caucasian, the Oriental and the Negro teaching the word of God. I was just that body; that was the mask that I wore, and was received by these ethnic groups as their teacher clothed in a garment just like theirs. But the being that was masked by the body, no one saw him, for that one was Spirit, pure Spirit.506 ¶24

Now, a friend of mine wrote me this letter. He says, “I came back from a vast, vast section of space and time, and for one short interval I encountered a fish, and the fish was standing erect on its tail. In what you would call a hand, its flipper, its right flipper or the right fin, it held a fishing rod, and it looked at me so intently. It conveyed the thought to me, ‘I never lose a man that I go after…I catch everyone that I see.’ Then I had a flash that it was all past history, as though through the ages he had been fishing for me and I had been [...] the hound of heaven. I had been running, running, running away, but he was infinitely patient, and he the great fish would one day catch him.”506 ¶25

Well, this being who wrote the letter, I must tell him that the fish has always been the symbol of Jesus Christ. To this day, you will find it on the crown of the pope, the sign of Pisces, always on the crown of the pope. The “great fish” he is called. So a protean being…it was he clothed as the fish speaking to himself; for he really is in search of self, not in search of another. Everyone is in search of self and that self is God the Father. That being that appeared before him clothed as the fish symbolized what he is searching for. But he got the impression: no matter how he tries to escape, he will never escape this one; he will always get him. So in the end you get him. And I would say from this vision he isn’t far from being caught.506 ¶26

Now a lady wrote. She said, “You were supposed to close on Friday the 30th,” and she sent this lovely Christmas card from both she and her husband, she said, “On Thursday morning on the 19th I heard your voice distinctly and you were calling to everyone who comes to your meetings on Mondays and Fridays telling them not to come on Friday the 20th for you would not be there. You kept on calling to all the regulars and I was so impressed I went to the telephone and picked up that receiver to call. ‘You know,’ I said, ‘this is stupid. Neville will think me insane’ and I put down the receiver. I still heard the voice, I could not shut it out, and you were eager to call the regulars. Again I went to the telephone and again I restrained the impulse, thinking you might think me stupid. So again I didn’t do it. Just imagine my chagrin when I came on Friday and was told you would not be there, that you were unwell, that you had the flu. And so you didn’t come the closing night and I knew all day Thursday that you would not be there because I heard your voice calling all the regulars not to come.”506 ¶27

If you could only test and trust, completely trust this Inner Being. One day you will. One day you will trust it…you will need no phone. You will be so intuitive your every thought that radiates from a seeming other…for in the end you will know 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” .506 ¶28

So here, this mystery of imagining as Fawcett said, “It is the greatest of all problems to the solution of which the mystic aspires; for supreme power, supreme wisdom, supreme delight lie in the far off solution of this mystery.”506 ¶29

Now notice he uses three definitions, power, wisdom and delight, and these are the three defined in scripture that define Christ. Paul speaks of Christ as the power of God and the wisdom of God . In the 8th chapter of Proverbs they speak of Christ as the delight of God: “He was with him constantly, delighting before him always, delighting in the affairs of men” . “He who finds me finds life; he who misses me injures himself; all who hate me love death” .506 ¶30

So this that you heard this night, if it is denied by you or ignored, it’s because you’re in love with the world of death. Everything here dies…but everything in the world begins and ends, it all dies, but Christ lives forever! Those who hate him, it’s because they’re in love with death and they’ll build up enormous fortunes, bigger and bigger, and have to leave it behind them. They haven’t found a way yet of taking it. They’ll leave their little garment and leave their funds no matter what size it is, but this you can’t leave behind. If you find him here, you’ve found him, and death means nothing to you then, for you are one with what the world speaks of as Christ.506 ¶31

One day you will know him, you will have all the experiences recorded in scripture concerning Jesus Christ. You’ll be cast in the central role and then you will know beyond all doubt who you really are. You will have found him not as another; you will have found him as yourself. So some find him because they seek him; others find him because they’re brought to him by one who found him.506 ¶32

And so, some here this night you didn’t seek him but you’ve been exposed to him. You may not accept it. You may go out and think that’s blasphemy what that man said tonight, because it’s in conflict with your concept of what you think it ought to be. But I tell you from experience. I am not speculating, I am not theorizing, for I’m telling you I know what I know from experience. I have experienced the entire drama as recorded in scripture concerning Jesus Christ, from the resurrection, through the birth, up to the very descent of the dove, the grand baptism. So everything recorded and all the outstanding events of his life I have experienced while walking in this little mortal frame.506 ¶33

The frame is not exempt from all the bugs of the world. So a hundred million Americans got it, I was one of them. And so they burned and so did I…five days of intense fever where you melt…so you take off twelve pounds and you do it certainly the hard way. You can consume all the liquids of the world, weight still isn’t going to remain on you…off it goes. At the end of your little episode you’re weak, physically weak, and someone will say, “Well, if you are really the one that you claim and you’ve had all these experiences, then why?” They do not realize that “I do not consider the sufferings of the present time worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in me” . I am not exempt from anything that man is heir to, and man is heir to all the nonsense of the world. It’s all within us, I know.506 ¶34

So here this night, the mystery of Imagination is simply the mystery of your own being. It’s the mystery of God. The more you discover the workings of your own Imagination, the more you discover the secret of God. So don’t put it aside. When you go home tonight, be perfectly honest with yourself. Do you know what you want either for yourself or for another, do you really know? Well then, do what Sam did, persuade yourself that things are as you desire them to be. To the degree that you’re self-persuaded that they are so, to that degree they will become so and they will externalize themselves in your world. For these assumptions, though at the moment that I make them are denied by my senses, if persisted in, will harden into fact. So, before you say no to it, test it! When you prove it in performance, you have found Christ.506 ¶35

Now, do not do what my brother-in-law did; he buried the book, and forgot it. The same family…a friend of mine, who is now gone from this world, said to me, “Neville, wouldn’t you like me to put Vicki in the social register in New York City?” I said, “Certainly not.” Well, she said, “It’s the most marvelous thing for her.” I said, “Let Vicki make that decision. She’s a child now and so she can’t possibly make that decision and I might be doing her a great injustice.” So I said, “No, Helen, thank you very much. I presume you’re in it.” She said, “Well, when I was born I was registered in it and all my children, three of them, and my husband. My second husband, he came over, and I got him into it. So we’re all in the social register…my entire background. So it’s easy for me to get Vicki in the social register.” So I declined.506 ¶36

Well, casually I said it to Cynthia, Sam’s wife, I think a month later, and she said, “You think she would sponsor me?” I said, “Why not? I’ll ask her.” So I called Helen and said, “Helen, my sister-in-law, Bill’s sister, would like to be in the social register.” She said, “Certainly, Neville, I’ll get her in.”506 ¶37

That book is so prominently displayed in her living room that you can’t miss it. They leave it [...]. It’s all over the living room and quite casually open at the page. She loves that sort of life. Naturally, she’s not going to take the story which is the true story. For that thing in the social register isn’t true at all. Yes, that she graduated from Smith, that her husband graduated from Harvard, these are true. But I mean the phoniness surrounding the whole thing. But the story I told concerning his use of Christ, that’s the true story, and you’ll find it if the book is not out of print called The Power of Awareness. That’s where I tell this story.506 ¶38

So when you go to bed tonight, instead of just sleeping as you do normally, dare to assume things are as you desire them to be and try to catch the mood that would be your mood were it so. Try to catch the feeling of the wish fulfilled…and then sleep. Tomorrow night do the same thing. The next night do the same. And while you are sleeping, this immortal you will be pulling every wire in the world that is necessary to bring to birth your assumption.506 ¶39

Now let us go into the Silence. * * *506 ¶40