Tonight’s title is “What Must We Do?” This is asked in scripture, “What must we do to be doing the work of God?” and he answered, “This is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent.” It all starts with believing; you believe in him whom he has sent. Now, what must I do? Believe that a person called Jesus Christ lived? Just how would I go about believing in him and believing that God sent him? I simply read his story, read all that he tells, all the signs, and then see if I can believe it. For he tells us, “We speak what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not believe it. If I tell you earthly things and you do not believe it, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”806 ¶1

So what was the earthly thing that he told first? The earliest gospel is that of Mark, and the first words recorded of this central figure we find them, “Repent and believe in the gospel.” He encloses within his doctrine the message given to the prophet Jonah, who brought the one message: the message of repentance. So he takes that in, “Repent and believe in the gospel.” He knows that man did repent.806 ¶2

Well, man wants a sign. He calls this now an evil generation; he said, this is the generation, “it’s an evil generation, it seeks a sign, but no sign shall be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And as Jonah was a sign to the men of Nineveh, so will the Son of man be a sign to this generation. Well, what did he bring? He only brought the message of repentance, and people believed him. He tells us, now they won’t believe his message; because Jonah’s message, you could try it, and if you tried it it would work. The people of Nineveh tried it and saved not only themselves but their city. They repented, and they realized that a change of attitude would result in corresponding changes in the outer aspects of their lives. So he called them an evil generation, but what is an evil generation? An evil generation is simply an unrepentant generation, that’s all that it is. A man could always repent. If he could change his attitude towards life, he’d change his life; and therefore he could always save himself, or save the environment in which he finds himself by simply repenting. So we are told that they did repent and saved themselves and their city of Nineveh.806 ¶3

But he wonders who now will actually believe his story, for he brings the final revelation. And here he contrasts the unresponsiveness of the people of this generation to his greater revelation with that response that Jonah got to his lesser revelation.806 ¶4

So here we find, “What must I do?” Well, I could be tending bar tonight and really believe what he told me, and I’ll be doing the work of God. Or I could be sitting on the throne in the Vatican, and so busy with my vast portfolio I have no time to believe what is said and not be doing the work of God. So you can’t judge a man’s profession and think because of his profession—he’s a minister, a rabbi, a priest—that he is necessarily doing the work of God. To do the work of God is simply believe in him whom he has sent, and he tells you exactly in the signs. You believe in these signs, because I can’t reproduce them for you; they belong to the very depths of your soul. They belong in a region that is outside of the range of one’s rational mind, so you can’t bring them to the surface that anyone here could experience. You must wait on them.806 ¶5

In the meanwhile, you go and you tell the story of repentance, and play the part of a Jonah. I know in my own case I told it for twenty-one years before I could honestly say, “And now I am a witness to what I have seen.” The word seen means “experience.” I did not experience salvation, yet I was called and sent. And all that I could actually say I know this from experience. Know what? I know if I change my attitude towards a certain individual and persuade myself of the reality of this change of inner attitude, I would see the day that he will conform to this inner change in me. So I knew that from experience.806 ¶6

So when I took the platform on the 2nd day of February, 1938, here was an actual experience right at my door, my son. I had many before…but I hadn’t yet gone out and actually took that platform as a professional. Yes, I would be invited to a platform, always as the amateur. I was dancing, I went from city to city, and they knew of my interest; they gave me their platform. They’d come to my show, invite me to the platform, for some afternoon get-together. But even then I could tell of the story of Jonah, the story of repentance.806 ¶7

So this night in question I was speaking at Steinway Hall, my first night. I went to the door, and we almost opened the door together. Here was my son, a boy in his early teens, just about, well, he wasn’t yet thirteen. I made every effort that man could make. My mother made every effort, with financial inducement, to his mother to get him. Not one thing worked…and I knew exactly how to apply this law. So in the month of November I began to assume that he was actually living in my place, even to the point of putting my hand, my imaginary hand, on his head, and feeling his presence at the table, and feeling his presence in my place. And then the week I’m to open, I received a call from his mother saying to me quite casually, “My place isn’t big enough for two men, and your son although only twelve, he’s a man.” I went looking for him…in the meanwhile she had told him that I never wanted him and poisoned him over the years against me and my family. But I ignored it and simply assumed that he was home with me, living in my place.806 ¶8

So that very night as I was going out, his friend said I was over there day after day looking for him, and this whole thing was a lie that the mother had told him. So he packed up the little that he had and he arrived at my place as I was going out to give my first lecture. There he remained with me until he joined the Marines after Pearl Harbor. He remained with me through all of his many marriages. It’s only now that he is really on his own, at the age of forty-one.806 ¶9

So I know from experience. I could say “we speak what we know,” but I couldn’t then add “and bear witness to what I have seen.” I had not yet experienced salvation…not until ’59. So I started in ’38 and for twenty-one years I went across the country, all the major cities, telling the story that Jonah would tell. You know what you want in life? Assume that you have it. Fall asleep just as though you had it. Live as though you had it. Act as though you had it, and the world will conform to it. In a way you do not know and you haven’t the intelligence to devise the means necessary to produce it, the whole thing will become a fact, and project itself upon the screen of space for you, if you dare to apply this story of repentance…that you need not accept things if you are willing to repent.806 ¶10

Then came the visions, the series of visions. And that is what he brought and called the gospel, the most incredible story that man has ever heard! The story he tells us he meant to be taken literally and to be fulfilled literally. So when you say this is literally so, someone will say, “Oh, no, it couldn’t be.” That’s my problem as I go again across the country. If I go on TV panels or radio panels, if my associates or opponents are ministers, rabbis, priests, they’re my most vicious opponents because they can’t accept it literally. And then, I tell them I know it from experience, I bear witness to what I have experienced. I’m not theorizing, I’m not speculating.806 ¶11

This burgher of which he speaks when he tells us what I’ve just quoted in the 3rd chapter of John, he’s speaking now to a member of the Sanhedrin, the highest order of the Jewish faith. And Nicodemus cannot understand how a man can be born from above. He intends that Nicodemus accept it literally. This birth is not from below, from the womb of woman; it’s from above, from the skull of man. When he tells you, that as Moses lifted up that serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, he means that literally and to be fulfilled literally. You actually are lifted up in the same serpentine manner. Every statement he makes concerning these signs…there aren’t too many signs…all told there are four majestic signs. Two are divided into two parts, making it six all told, that’s all. These six signs are literally experienced by the individual; they’re not things on the outside. Everyone will have it.806 ¶12

Now why do I say everyone will have it? Well now, let me share with you the experience. You’re told in scripture, “I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…and beside me there is no savior.” Is that true? Is that literally true, that my creator and my savior are one? Yes. But more than that, I say “I am,” don’t I? He said, “That’s my name, my name forever, and thus am I to be known throughout all generations.” Well, you can’t stop me from knowing that I am. Is that his name? Well, then I must be one with the creator and the redeemer. Is that literally true? Am I self-begotten? Do I save and redeem myself? Yes. There is only God; there is nothing but God. Can this be taken literally? Is it fulfilled literally? I say yes.806 ¶13

The day will come when the third sign of which he speaks appears, and he gives it to us as the splitting of the temple. When you see at the base of that split body that is yours…and you see the golden liquid light that is truly life itself—and the life is in the blood, it’s alive, it’s liquid—as you look at it you are saying in the depth of your soul, I know I am it. But you don’t stop there, you have the impulse to say, “O, my divine creator and redeemer.” And then you fuse with it. You fuse with what? With your very self that is life, and you know it is the creator, and you know it is the redeemer, and yet one. And up you go, the Son of man, in the form of a serpent. So you know it literally, and you can say, I now bear witness to what I have seen, and what I have seen I have experienced.806 ¶14

So you can truly say, yes, I am self-begotten. I did this for a purpose, contracted myself to the limit that is called man, and brought about this contraction, the limit of opacity, the limit of contraction. Then after spending a time, a time interval of a dream, a fantastic horrible dream, the dream of life, then you begin to break it as you would a womb. And you begin to expand, and then there’s no limit to expansion, no limit to the translucency as you begin to expand from this limited contracted being called man. Well, who did it? God himself did it. And who is this God? His only name is I AM. Well, who goes up? I am going up. Who beholds this? I am beholding it. Who felt himself being split? I went through the entire experience. And that’s his name. He doesn’t differ from the creator, and you know it. He doesn’t differ from the savior, from the redeemer, and you know it. There aren’t three, only one, and his name is one.806 ¶15

So here, what must I do to be doing it? Believe the story. What you do in the outer world that really is not important. So when they brought the first son, he said, “Surely that is he.” He was so majestic, so big, so wonderful looking, and the Lord said, “That’s not he, I have rejected him. Bring me the next.” They brought the next, and the next, and none of these were. “Are these all of your sons?” said he. “No, there’s one, but he’s with the flock.” “We will not be seated until he comes. Go and bring him.” So they bring him, “That’s he. Rise and anoint him.” Here was the youngest. Here was the one they put aside to take care of the flock, while these majestic ones came to be picked out by the prophet Samuel as the one that the Lord would announce as his choice. “I do not judge from appearances. I judge not as man judges. Man sees the outward appearance.” Whether it be your physical form or your social standing or your intellectual accomplishments or something of that nature, he doesn’t see that, he sees only the heart.806 ¶16

He sees what that one so far has experienced, and here he picks him out, this one that is buried in the mind of man, called Olam. Some put the letter Alem—Aleph, Lamed, Mem—the God of the Eternal One, or God the Eternal One. And so, is this the one? Yes. Buried in man? Yes. Is that literally true? Yes. He, too, comes out. He comes out and reveals you to yourself, and calls you “my Father.” He comes out…the great and second sign. So every one of these signs…he said, “Now go and tell it.”806 ¶17

So I took you this night, apart, and I will say, trust me, believe me, and I speak now from experience. This is going to happen to you, one night when you least expect it. I hope in the meanwhile you have been practicing the art of forgiveness, which is called repentance, changing yourself, changing the world, changing your friends, and making them conform to more idealistic states in your own mind’s eye; for they will ultimately conform to it if you remain faithful to your change of concept relative to them. They will change, so keep on practicing and practicing, called now, repentance. And when you least expect it these things will happen to you. And then you tell them.806 ¶18

You’re going to be born from above. And the story is this…this is the way in which you are going to be born. It will begin with a resurrection and then followed by a birth. Then will come your discovery of God’s only begotten Son, who will call you, Father. Then will come the great splitting of the temple and your ascent into heaven, knowing you are the redeemer and the creator. You are self-begotten and self-redeemed, and that very self is the creator and the redeemer. Then you will know the work is finished and this glorious thing is now consummated, it’s reached a climax, and it’s good and very good. The symbol of the Holy Spirit will seal it with kisses. He comes in the form of a dove. That’s literally true, and fulfilled literally. So you tell that story. What percentage will believe it? You can’t tell.806 ¶19

So Paul makes the statement, “I should like to depart and be with Christ, that is better by far. But for your sake and because of a better need I stay for awhile in the body.” Read it in the 1st chapter of Philippians. It is far better to depart and be with Christ, the creative power and the creative wisdom of God raised to the nth degree of creativity. For he is entitled to that now he is one with God. But he has to tell the story, and so he delays it, seemingly for awhile, to tell the story. He’s not satisfied with the number who accept it…he turns his back to find they turned away, too. He returns to a city to find they’ve gone elsewhere…become strict vegetarians now…they believe that’s the way of salvation. Or, they’ve become something else and something else, everything but believing the story.806 ¶20

All you have to do to do the work of God is to believe in him whom he has sent. If you sweep the streets and that’s what you really believe while you sweep, you are doing the work of God. If you owned the city and gave everything to charity thinking that is doing the work of God, you are far, far from the point. You’re only doing the work of God when you believe the story. And the story is incredible but so simple. It calls upon man to believe something entirely different from anything he could ever envision from this level. Will he believe that story? That’s all you’re asked upon to do the work of God.806 ¶21

The story of repentance…it’s easy. It takes training. It takes practice, daily practice. But it works. And Jonah found people who were responsive; they could believe it. One tried it and it worked, told another and it worked, and the city was saved. But you cannot prove this story of salvation, which is something so deep all you can do is believe it and then let it happen. Then become a voice telling others about it—that’s all you can do—in the hope that they will believe you, as they believed concerning repentance. For that makes the great appeal…the whole vast world.806 ¶22

You take someone, a child, and you play a game to save the family. That becomes Nineveh, the family, a family of five. The little child comes home and she brings a story of woe concerning the family…they are about to be dispossessed. And you say, “Megan, can you play a little game?” “Yes.” “Well now, this is what we’re going to do” and you construct a little scene, a few words where she is telling you a story that things are perfect at home, have enough to eat, rent’s paid, everything is perfect. She delights in the story as she tells it and you sit and revel with the child because it is so lovely, so altogether lovely, and they are saved.806 ¶23

The next day a friend from out of town calls, finds their predicament, and said to the mother, “Inez, let us forget it. Let us go to the park and get on a boat. I’ll take you. You have no money, but we’ll have a little fun for an hour.” So off they go rowing in Central Park. As they are coming ashore a boat is behind them. He’s not a good boats man. He comes with all of his might and she, to protect her boat, sticks her hand out and it’s crushed. Not injured seriously but crushed…there was a little blood. It’s an obvious injury. So the attendant comes over, examines the hand, takes her name, takes her address, sends her out an adjuster from the city. They’re insured against all these things. They’re not going to court, no suit, gave her $300 for her little injury. She hadn’t seen $300 in years. One time she was big in the theatrical world, she and her husband. They were dancers, went from one show to the other and then came the dive. And here was this little injury, twenty-four hours after we played a little game. She could play it with me and save her little Nineveh, saved the family. They were paying very small rent—I am going back to the Depression days, back in the 30s—and the five of them lived in a small, little unit and still only paid $40 a month, a walk-up, yes. But that story I know.806 ¶24

One exhausts the entire police force of New York City. Lost her furniture…can’t find the furniture. She and her two children went to Paris, leaving a maid behind to take care of her apartment. She returned with her children; there is no maid. The apartment is there but no furniture. She investigates. Nobody knows where the maid is or where the furniture is. She seeks the help of the police force, of the detectives of New York City. Calls in a private detective agency; they exhaust all of the suburbs. They can’t find where it is stored, if it is stored. One day she comes out of a bank on Madison Avenue, makes the wrong turn, and didn’t discover her mistake and she went a block. Then looking down at the pavement she spots a pair of very familiar ankles. She came slowly up to the face…it’s her maid. She held the maid and wouldn’t let her go until the maid took her in a taxi straight to where she had that furniture.806 ¶25

And this happened after she had exhausted all things, and then came home to see me. I said, “Have you forgotten? Don’t you know the principle? In the past, how often you worked it…and it worked, it always worked. What are you doing now?” “Well, I haven’t tried this. I tried the police force, the detective force and a private detective agency.” Well now, I said, “Sit quietly and put yourself among your furniture. You had a grand piano, you used to keep your son’s and your daughter’s picture framed on the piano. I recall that vividly. Well now, see it on the piano, and see it as near you as you are now to the piano, therefore, make it real, the whole thing all about you.” She did, and she lost herself in the reality of what she was imagining, and gave it all the tones of reality, gave it sensory vividness, the whole thing was real. And then she went out, and here came this little incident and she got her furniture back. No court case, no suing, all she wanted was her furniture.806 ¶26

A total stranger heard of me and came to ask to find a friend of hers, but it seemed the height of insanity when I told her what I would do. I would sit quietly and hear her tell me that she had found the friend, that’s all that I would do. And she would sit quietly and tell me she found the friend. She expected some magical something. So at the end of our little mental communion I bid her goodbye. She said, “That’s all?” “That’s all.” Well, she was so, well, disillusioned, for she thought she was going to see some fantastic thing take place in my room, and that’s all that she witnessed, something in the Silence, not believing me. But it worked. She took a friend to New Haven where she last heard from her friend. The friend had moved on to Boston. Went on to Boston, yes, they knew the friend, but she left no forwarding address, so she returned, disappointed, to New York City. Coming out of a department store on 14th Street, had she been five seconds earlier or five seconds later, she would have missed her, ran right into her. Then she went all the way to Boston via New Haven trying to find the friend.806 ¶27

So I say, repentance is only an inner change of attitude resulting in a corresponding change in the outer aspects of life. So you practice it until the story told you awakens within you. When you hear the story, believe it. All you’re called upon to do is to believe it…the most incredible story in the world…the story that I have been telling you since it happened to me back in ’59. So that is the message he brings to the world, expecting everyone to accept it literally…and it will be fulfilled literally. He doesn’t depart, though he wants to go now into that creative power and be one with it. As he is one with it he’s entitled to it. For all the signs took place in him, no more signs; but he delays it because of the need of those who are always departing, always turning back, always turning away.806 ¶28

So when he was asked, “What must we do?” this is all you do. Then he said, “I give you only the sign of the Son of man, and these are the signs of the Son of man.” But this is an evil generation…they wouldn’t even repent. For the evil generation is only the unrepentant generation, that’s all that it is. So how many men today as they succeed even remember how they did it? Now they are surrounded by all the things money can buy, they forget these mental attitudes that they adopted to rise to their present state. Completely forget it and turn their backs upon it, and completely ignore that very ladder by which they did ascend. [...] repentance. Everyone does it.806 ¶29

So here, as we are coming to a close, I thought I would give you, night after night, from now on, just things that would really fire you in some way to try it. It will prove itself here. And then I hope that you will believe me concerning the message of salvation, for that’s the important thing I bring now. For I was sent before I knew the message, the message of salvation; I was called and sent. But all that I knew from experience was that a change of attitude on my part would result in a change of behavior in the outer world. I saw it, I practiced it and it worked. And so, having seen it work, I could tell it from experience, but I knew nothing of the message of salvation. Not until that morning of the 20th of July, 1959. That’s when it began and it came to its climax on the morning of January 1st, 1963. So three and a half years later the thing was culminated; and I could say with Paul then, I should like to depart and be with Christ. That is better by far, but for your sake and for the need, the far better need, I will stay the morning. But from that morning on, I could…not only could have…but truly desired.806 ¶30

But that’s not for me to do, for we are told, “There’s a time to be born and a time to die.” And when the Psalmist asked, “Show me my end, O Lord, and the measure of my days,” he wouldn’t respond to that. Wouldn’t show him his end or the measure of his days, for no one knows the measure of his days, no one knows his end.806 ¶31

You can observe, like our friend Mike Quill tonight is now at the morgue. Just a few weeks ago when he was sentenced, he said–and I saw it on TV, here was a face filled with anger and filled with venom, speaking of the judge–he said, “May he drop dead in his black robes.” That night when he was taken to prison, he had a heart attack. Took him out, he was taken home this past week, and today he dropped dead—whether he was wearing his black robes or not, I don’t know. But here, as a man sows, so does he reap.806 ¶32

I tell you, in the end there aren’t others, there’s only one, and that one is God. God is the creator and God is the redeemer, and you are he. Actually, God became man, as you see it here now; and when he breaks it, the thing that became it simply expands back to what he was but beyond it. It’s his way of expansion, his way of growing…an ever-increasing illumination, that’s God. So I say everyone here is going to experience it because we are all one. This is a compound unity, one made up of others, but one.806 ¶33

So tonight you can take it, just like the little girl, and you can set your Nineveh free, if you believe it. It all starts with belief; given that, everything else follows. But how to go about believing? Well, these are the little secrets…the art of believing. If I would believe this night, then I would see the world differently. If what I want would change my world, then my world must be seen by me as I would see it after this thing takes place. So you don’t wait for it to take place, see it as though it were. I saw my little boy, set the table for him, put my hand on his head, felt his presence, and then she found someone. Only they lived in a small place, wasn’t big enough for two men. So I sought him a week…I couldn’t find him.806 ¶34

I told you a story here, in fact, I told it at Fred Bales years ago. A lady in my audience took great issue with me and complained to Fred that such a story should not be told from his platform. She missed the point completely. I told it to show everyone present that there is no condemnation in God: “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.” Because you are causing the behavior…if you know how to control your Imagination, you are actually causing the behavior of all the people you are meeting. You are in control.806 ¶35

When I wanted to get married to the girl who now bears my name, who is now the mother of our daughter, I had all of the entanglements in the world. My dancing partner notified my ex-wife who was not then ex; we had been separated for years but not divorced. Therefore we lived, as you know, in New York City, which has the most archaic rules concerning divorce in the world. And so here, I wasn’t divorced. She didn’t want me divorced, because she was living very well, and her boyfriend, out of my pocket. So why have him divorced? We’re living beautifully by taking his money. So she was notified to make yourself scarce, don’t be seen. Well, I know she left the city, or I was told she left the city, and everyone was very, very happy, they’re all very happy, that I am saddled now, can’t get divorced. My dancing partner and her boyfriend can live off of me, and the other can go her way.806 ¶36

So what I did, no one to be hurt, I simply assumed that I was happily and blissfully married to the girl who bears my name. I went to sleep for one solid week in that assumption, that there she slept and here I am, and I wouldn’t be this happy if it was at the expense of someone else. I couldn’t hurt someone else. So that’s all that I did.806 ¶37

And then the phone rang one morning and it’s the court. Asked me if I am the Neville who speaks publicly, and if so, they have a case coming up the following Tuesday and it would be to my interest to be in court. Well, I was sleepy, it was early in the morning, and I hung up wondering “What sort of thing is this? I’m not subpoenaed. I have done nothing to warrant this…so I won’t go.”806 ¶38

Tuesday came, around quarter of ten the phone rang, and here a voice on the wire, “Why aren’t you in court?” I thought, “What have I done, I have no reason to be in court?” “Well, we told you you should be here this morning, didn’t we?” I said, “Yes.” Then said she over the wire: “Your wife is on trial and maybe you can throw a little light on it. You’re not subpoenaed, no, you’ll not be put under any oath, no, but your presence might be helpful to the judge.” I was unshaven, I couldn’t…I simply threw some clothes on and grabbed a taxi and got to the court. When I got there, some attendant whispered to the judge, [...], said “He’s in the court.” So they asked me to stand, identify myself. Would I take the platform? So I took the platform and then they brought her in between these two policemen.806 ¶39

And so, the judge said, “Now, you’re not sworn in, but I think you can help me solve this case or bring in a decent judgment on it. Your wife is accused of shoplifting.” Then he asked me all the questions. “What’s your religion?” I said, “I’m Protestant.” “What’s your wife’s?” “Well, she was born a Catholic.” “Is that any difference in your way of living?” I said, “No, it made no difference whatsoever. We just were not compatible from the day we got married, and we’ve been not divorced, separated, well, for, I should say, fifteen years.” I then had my son three years.806 ¶40

And then he read out the charge and I said, “Well, your Honor, I have a son. I’m very proud of him, he lives with me. And if you must sentence her, you have the right as a judge to sentence and then suspend judgment. You can be merciful. So if you must sentence her, sentence her as the law demands, but then exercise your right as a judge and be merciful, for my son’s sake.” He accepted my recommendation; he sentenced her for six months, suspended it, and then dismissed it.806 ¶41

She met me on the outside, waited for me, and she said to me, “That was a very decent thing to do. Give me the papers.” I said, “I don’t have the papers with me, they’re at my home.” She said, “Well, I’m coming with you and you’re going to give me the papers.” So I took her in a taxi, we drove to my place, I got my papers…and this isn’t a legal thing to do, to serve your own papers, but I gave her the papers. Then I was granted my divorce in the city of New York.806 ¶42

So I told that story, saying that, “Who made her do what she did? I did.” I slept in the assumption that I was free and happily married, and the only way I could be would be to be divorced. She was told by my dancing partner to make herself scarce and she obeyed. They were all living off of me. And all of a sudden she finds herself doing something that she would not normally do. And so, what did it? What was that impulse?—my assumption. So who knows who is treading the winepress? So I told the story to tell people, don’t judge anyone. On the record she took the clothes. In the depths of the soul that is God I did.806 ¶43

Well, did I not write the script? Should you go to a play tonight and you don’t like what you see, don’t blame the actor. If there’s any blame, go to the author. He wrote the script. But he’s not there for you to condemn, so you throw eggs at the actor. You dislike the part he is playing, but the author made him play it. And the author doesn’t like anyone tampering with his script. Well, if the author here doesn’t like it, what do you think God likes? And so, when you go into the deep and you actually assume the end, and live in the end as though it were true, you set in motion all of these things. Then the actors come. She only played a part, and so playing her part she has to be forgiven.806 ¶44

So when I asked the judge to be merciful, he was merciful, he was kind. She was moved by my appeal and asked me for the papers. What other way could it be done? Yet I made every human effort to find her. I made every effort and not a thing could find her. Yet a total stranger calls me from the court, says “You’re a public figure and wouldn’t want this in the papers. The reporters are here every day to get anything upon someone who is a public figure and they’d love to get you in the paper. And so, I tell you, for your own sake be here in court that you can throw some light on this.” It was never in the papers; not one paper in the city carried it. It was simply dismissed.806 ¶45

So when I said I took the blame, this lady took issue and thought the story should not be told. Well, she didn’t understand. All you can say is, you don’t understand. Had you understood you would have understood the words, the words on the cross, “Forgive them; they know not what they do.” They’re moved by compulsion, but who is treading the winepress?806 ¶46

Now, here is a little thought in scripture. He’s on the cross and they all reviled him, as told us in the 15th chapter of the Book of Mark. Every one reviles him and someone shouts, “He saved others; himself he cannot save.” These are the words. That’s exactly what no man can do. Man saves himself by, and only by, saving his fellow men. So you hear it and you think you’re just going to escape? No, you tell the story. You tell it, that the message of salvation may be heard, understood, accepted, lived by, and then grows within them…because there is no other. If one is left behind, who do you think is left behind? You are, I am…for there is no other. So when the unthinking, the un-awakened cried out, “He saved others; himself he cannot save,” that is so far from the truth. For man saves himself by, and only by, the saving of his fellow men.806 ¶47

So you see someone in distress, apply the first thing quoted that he said: repentance. After that, if you can reach them, tell them the message of salvation. It’s incredible. It’s the most, well, far-fetched story ever told man. It wasn’t conceived by man. It is an eternal message, which is God’s way of redeeming himself, not another. There is no other. So now let us go into the Silence. * * *806 ¶48

We’re going to close the end of February, the last lecture night is the 25th. I can’t write Dr. Smith until it is official with me from Barbados. I’m waiting for some correspondence. It’s a crowded season and we wish to get there when the crowds have departed, so we are waiting for some kind of a green light as to when that date will be best. However, I am planning to close four weeks from tonight and I want to write Dr. Smith as soon as possible to let him know officially that it is so. I can’t tell him it will be so until I actually have this letter from Barbados. We want to leave just as soon after we close as we can, maybe a few days later. So, I am still planning to close on the 25th of February. We have exactly four weeks left or eight lectures. I will let him know…he has been very kind to me letting me have this place. So I will let him know just as soon as I hear from Barbados. But we are planning to close…806 ¶49

Tonight will be on the law. A very dear friend of mine will be leaving in, oh, maybe two weeks for London, then off to Russia, then off to the Orient. She has asked me to confine my thoughts for the next three lectures while she’ll be here to the law. And so, she’s very dear to me, and so for the next three lectures it will be on the law. I’m quite sure you can apply it this night and prove it in the immediate present. They really do not differ: God’s promise, God’s law. His promise, as we’re told in the 22nd chapter of Genesis, was made unto himself, for there was no one with whom he could swear, for he was all by himself. The same thing happens with the law. I can’t turn to another and swear to the other that I will be faithful to my image; I do it unto myself only from a lower level. God’s promise is fulfilling itself whether you or I know it or not. So his Promise is moving forward towards fulfillment. On this level, we call it the law. And so he said the Promise is unconditioned, because on this level we have not a thing to do with it. But the law on this level we have everything to do with it, and so it’s all conditioned. Do I believe it?805 ¶1

It’s all based upon a story. In the beginning was the story…that’s how the whole thing begins…“In the beginning was the Word.” The word doesn’t mean a little word. A word in scripture means a thought that is complete, that is understood; it’s a story. So in the beginning was the story, and the human characters are bound to come, for where the story is, there the characters gather. Don’t be concerned, they will come. So I tell myself a story. What story?—-the story I want to be true about myself. I want to be this, that or the other person, and then I tell myself the story. I need not be concerned as to who will come into my world to play this part, they’ll all come. They must come, because wherever the story is, there the characters gather also. So I stand here this night and think of the man that I would like to be, and then I tell myself the story as though it were true, just as though it were true.805 ¶2

Now, I must be as faithful to that story as the story God told me in the beginning of time. For he told me that he would take me through a fabulous world in which there would be slavery, horrors, all things; but in the end, he would bring me out, and he and I would be one, we would not be two . And I would be endowed with his creative power…that everything in this world that I desired I could create instantly. He told me that, but he didn’t pledge me to be faithful to it. He told me that that is his Promise to me. Now, here in this world, I’m called upon to be imitators: I must be an imitator of God as a dear child. Just as he told me that story, he told me to imitate him, so I must imitate him in this world, and tell myself the most glorious story and be as faithful to that story as he is to the story that he told me. For he told me he would not leave me, and he told me how I would bring forward in this world evidence of the fact that he is my husband. He told me that, and it is entirely up to God to be faithful to his story that he told me. In this world I must now be faithful to the story I’m going to tell myself.805 ¶3

For in the 22nd chapter of Genesis, he had no one with whom he could swear, so he swore by himself. So I should take no one into my confidence. I will swear by myself, and tell myself a story, and be as loyal to that unseen reality as he is loyal to that unseen reality that he told me.805 ¶4

Now, many years ago I would say 1948, in this city I met this perfectly lovely couple. He was a salesman, he sold drugs for an Eastern company, and he said to me, “Neville, I would like to do a bigger job than I am doing now.” I said, alright, what would you want? He said, “I would like a larger territory. I would like to be not just a salesman but to be employing salesmen. Have the territory for myself.” I said, alright, you really want that? “Yes!” Then let us now agree that you have it. So we constructed a scene which if true would imply that he had it. His wife agreed to it, she was all for it. So together we went into the Silence and saw him with his very large territory, where he was sales manager, employing, rather, he was given the right to employ and to fire, say, six or more salesmen in the area. In that year he was given that job and he became a sales manager in this area, and the area extended from San Diego up to this area. A year later, he moved up into the very end of our continent. He moved across into the entire what is called the Western States.805 ¶5

It also necessitated travelling, and he began to travel, which meant he was never at home. She blew her top. I reminded her of what we had agreed upon. It didn’t console her at all. He was now travelling all over and she was at home. He would come home on Friday night, off on Monday morning, seeing all these people. This very night he‘s in Rochester, New York. She called me yesterday: “He’ll be home tomorrow night late; he’s off again on Monday.” I said—I won’t mention her name because you may know her—“Don’t you know what you asked me years ago, what you and he agreed upon that we would do it? That here is a play, in the beginning was the play, it was the word, and all the human characters that are necessary to make that play real are bound to come. All you have to do is remain faithful to the play, that is it, and so they came, didn’t they? And now you are complaining. He has grown in stature, he has grown in his income, grown in everything. He’s maybe two years my senior. By the laws of that company he has to resign at the age of sixty-five. But I’m sixty so he must be sixty-two and so he has three more years to go, but he must resign. But he will resign at the price that he is making, and you’re standing in his way right now complaining because he’s out, and yet, when he was home seven days a week, you didn’t want that. You wanted something bigger for your husband, something better for your husband, and so we agreed upon it, didn’t we?”805 ¶6

Well, I can’t tell anyone in this world what’s going to happen after we construct the play. So we construct the play. In the beginning was the play…that is the story…and all the human characters are bound to come, because wherever the play is there all the characters gather. I don’t have to concern myself with anything in this world.805 ¶7

I have a brother, my second brother, who actually conceived a play and he saw it in his mind’s eye so clearly. Didn’t have a nickel, we had none, but he saw a sign which if true would imply that we as a family owned that structure, and that we were conducting business in it. My brother today is, in a really true sense of the word, he’s a lonely man. Because he’s become so powerful in the business world, the people that he knew so intimately before are afraid of him. He goes home, he’s all alone. He’s coming up here this week on business. He represents millions and millions, and it’s touched him in his own strange way because he actually grew into his picture. He’s weaned himself from his entire social world, because he’s a powerful business man in his area. Our President today, let no one tell you with all this bravado he is a very happy man…he’s a lonely man. People are afraid of him. He’s grown into his vision of what he wanted.805 ¶8

Everyone can grow into their vision if they will only actually believe the story. God told me a story in the beginning of time, and that story was he would so become me that I would become God. But he didn’t impose it upon me that I had to believe it, he swore it unto himself. I didn’t have to believe it—that’s unconditioned. But while I am passing through the horrors of the world, I must imitate God as a dear child and impose upon myself the same kind of a story, and believe it. Not take anyone into my confidence, simply take myself and believe it. So I must imagine that I am the man that I want to be. I’m not saying let the two of us believe it, for I could pass the buck and say, well now, you didn’t keep your faith with me, you didn’t believe it. So I could always pass it to someone else. No, you can’t pass it to anyone else, it’s all to one’s self…either I believe it or I don’t. For God believed it and he brought it forth in me. I’m speaking from experience. He brought forth his child in me. He did it! He began the good work in me; he brought it to completion by the birth of the child in me .805 ¶9

Now I, as a man, must assume that I am the man that I want to be, and not turn to anyone for assistance and say, well now, you aren’t helping me, you aren’t agreeing with me, you aren’t joining with me. I don’t need anyone to join with me. I must imitate God as a dear child. If I imitate him, I do exactly what he did, and he did it without the help of anyone; for God is one, and so I am one. And so I simply start with the story…in the beginning was the story.805 ¶10

So tonight, I would say, what is the story? You tell me what you would want in this world, I don’t care what it is, just paint it. The lady that you want to be…or what you want your husband to be…or what you want your child to be, that’s perfectly alright, it’s you. Don’t take the child into your confidence and say, “Now you and I will agree” and then if the child does not become what you want the child to be, you can say to the child, “You didn’t keep your bargain.” No, it’s not another, it’s all self; there is no other. So don’t pass bucks to anyone in this world; it’s all unto one’s self. So this is the law she will take to London, this is the law she will take to Russia, the law she will take to the Orient as she goes on the 23rd, that there is no other. This is conditioned only upon one’s self: Will I believe it?805 ¶11

Let me go back to a thought that came a few years ago from Robert Frost, he said, “The founding fathers did not believe in the future, they believed it in.” The greatest thing and the most creative thing in man is to believe a thing in.805 ¶12

Now, as I stand before you, we are told in scripture: “If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will speak to him in a dream, and make myself known unto him in a vision” . Well, a prophet is not a fortune teller, believe me. A prophet is not someone that you go to and say, “What is my tomorrow?” That’s no prophet. A prophet is one who interprets having heard the word of God. That’s all a prophet is. Jonah was no prophet in a modern sense of the word, for his prophecy of the disaster of Nineveh failed. Because he told them, “You do this or else” and they did what he told them, and there was no disaster. You’re told in the story he regretted that. But the Lord told him that’s exactly the message he had to send: If you repent, no disaster; if you don’t repent disaster. Well, they repented; there was no disaster. So a prophet in the true sense of the word simply hears the word of God, a message of God, and then communicates it to the world.805 ¶13

Well, I have heard that word time and time again, and I try every time that I hear it to reach anyone I’m telling. Well, here is one…and many of you present heard it a few years ago…one morning, early in the morning, I had this experience. I’m standing in an enormous mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York City and three generations are supposed to be present. One is invisible—-he is spoken of as “Grandfather.” There are two generations, the second and the third, and the second generation is telling the story of Grandfather. The second one tells this story, “Grandfather used to say while standing on an empty lot, ‘I remember when this was an empty lot’ and then he would paint a word picture of his desire for that lot, and paint it so vividly they saw exactly the structure that would stand upon it. But to him it was standing upon it, and they saw it as something present standing upon it.” Well, they told that story in my presence. Then I woke and found myself on my bed…it was around three in the morning. I got out and wrote it out on a big yellow page, the entire story. It was too early to remain up, so I went back to bed and re-dreamed the dream. This time, as I went into the same structure, instead of hearing someone tell the story I’m telling the story. I so absorbed the message of the faith of Grandfather, I told them that I was standing on an empty lot, and standing on it I would remember when it was an empty lot. Then I painted for them the word picture of my desire for that lot in such graphic manner that they all saw it as I painted it in words.805 ¶14

Now, in the 41st chapter of the Book of Genesis, Pharaoh has a dream and no magician can interpret it. So he calls upon Joseph and Joseph is made to hear the dream. This is the dream: “I stood on the banks of the Nile and out of the Nile came seven very fat cows, sleek and fat. Then came seven lean, scrawny cows and they ate up the seven fat cows. And yet, it might have been as though they hadn’t eaten, for they were just as scrawny and as thin as they were before. Then came seven ears of corn on one stalk, lovely blooming, luscious; and then came seven thin, as though they were scorched by the wind, and they ate up the seven fat ones. I asked my magicians to interpret and no one could. Then Joseph said, ‘This is the meaning of the dream. It’s one dream, though you had two dreams, it’s one dream. The seven fat cows and the seven luscious ears of corn are one; the seven thin cows and the seven thin ears of corn are one. You will have seven years of great plenty, seven years, and then seven years of famine so great people will forget they ever had abundance in this world. With seven years of famine you will not even remember there was ever a moment of plenty in the world.’ Then he told me what he would do, how he would save a portion of every year for the next seven years, so he would have a cushion against the seven lean years of famine.” Then, said he, and these are the words, “The doubling of the dream means that the thing has been fixed by God and God will shortly bring it to pass”…if the dream is doubled.805 ¶15

Well, that night my dream was doubled. I awoke, I wrote it out, retired, and re-dreamed the dream. Having re-dreamed the entire dream it is fixed as a law of God. And God reveals himself to man; if he’s the prophet, he reveals himself in vision and tells him, Go and tell it to the world. “For if I say I will not mention it, or speak any more in his name then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot” .805 ¶16

So I cannot contain within myself the vision, I must tell it. So the telling of it is this, you can stand here this night (this is the law) and say, “I remember when he or she or they were no one.” Wouldn’t that imply that they are someone else? You can look at someone in this world and say, “I remember when he had nothing.” Well, if I remember when he had nothing, I’m implying he has something today. I remember when he was unknown. If I remember when he was unknown, isn’t he now known? God told me this story, this is a vision, this is God’s word, a vision is his word. In the beginning of the Book of Obadiah (“the servant of the Lord, the servant of Jehovah”), “This is the vision of Obadiah. Thus sayeth the Lord” . He equates the vision with the [...] of Jehovah. So the vision is God’s word, and God’s word cannot return void. It is a law, you cannot break it. So he equates vision with the word of Jehovah…and I had the vision of Jehovah. Because it was a double vision it was affirmed the thing is true. So I tell you what was told me. You take anyone in this world and bring them into your mind’s eye and say to yourself, “I remember when you didn’t have a nickel. I remember when you couldn’t get a job. I remember when you were embarrassed because you were uneducated…when you were unwanted.” I remember when…that’s the story. And when you see it in your mind’s eye that would imply that they are not that anymore, would it not? Well, you try it this way, just try it.805 ¶17

Call upon everyone to try it. This is the law. So she can take it to London; so she can take it to her wonderful Oriental world where she’s going to study; take it as she passes through Russia and tell them the story. If she meets anyone in Russia who cannot get beyond first base because of the conditions or the setup under which they live, they don’t have to be restricted by any restriction in this world if they know this law. If they know the law, it doesn’t matter under what system I live. I can be the man, the woman that I want to be, if I know God’s law. It doesn’t matter where I live. So if they say, Today millions of us live under Communism, where you can’t breathe for yourself, you’re told how to do it. But you don’t have to if you know God’s law. Well, he revealed it to me. I found it so clearly. I became Grandfather, and standing on an empty lot I painted a word picture of my desire for that lot, and everyone saw it as something completed in the world. I didn’t construct it; I just painted it in words, and the whole thing… So I say, in the beginning was the story; and all the human characters are bound to come, for where the story is there the characters gather. I don’t care what the world will say.805 ¶18

When my brother had nothing and he saw that sign, a man that he knew casually the very day of the sale of that lot, the most desirable lot, he came in and said, “Vic, are you going to buy it?” He said, “With what?” “Well, I have money and I’ll buy it for you. I need no collateral; if you have none, give me your signature and your father’s signature, and on that little piece of paper you promise that you will pay me six percent on the investment, and reduce it over ten years so at the end of ten years the principle has been repaid. And over the ten years you will pay six percent on any principle that is left. So you start right away.” Vic said, “Alright.” And so here, a man out of nowhere, a human character comes in and buys it. We had no money and that day we owned the building, and that day we moved in. This fantastic story unfolded. And now, from that little beginning, he repaid it with his six percent interest. At the end of twenty-five years the man died, having put the money back into the business at four percent, because it was the best he could get. And then when he died he left my brother Victor—-he didn’t leave us as a family—-he left my brother Vic a hundred fifty thousand dollars in cash and many pieces of property, all kinds of things in the island, because he called him his best friend. That was Vic just simply telling himself a story.805 ¶19

So, in the beginning was the story…as you’re told in John, “In the beginning was the word,” but the word “word” means “meaning.” Well, a story must have meaning or it isn’t a story. So, in the beginning was the word or the story, and the story was with God, and the story was God. He became the story. So, imagining creates reality. That’s what I’m saying to my friend tonight. That is the foundation stone—imagining creates reality—and you start from there. And no power in this world can stop it, because you don’t need another to agree with you. Back to the 22nd chapter of Genesis, he swore by himself and asked us to imitate him as dear children. So he had no one when he swore to Abraham. He did not ask Abraham to join with him and make it possible; that was done. Now we in the world of Caesar, we don’t have to ask anyone to join with us to make it possible. We simply tell ourselves a story, and telling ourselves a story we believe in the reality of the unseen state. As we remain faithful to the unseen reality, it begins to call human characters into the world to externalize it. It all becomes projected and externalized within our world. This is the story of the law. So everyone is free if you really believe in God’s wonderful law.805 ¶20

The Promise I have told you night after night. It’s coming, no one can stop it, and no one will fail to realize it, because God didn’t take anyone into his confidence when he made the Promise. There was no one with whom he could swear and take into his confidence when he swore by himself. These are the words, “I swear unto myself this shall be” and so the Promise was made. The child is coming, whether you know it or not; and when the child comes you and He the begetter are one. Then you rise into an entirely different world completely subject to your imaginative power. But until we get there, we’re called upon to exercise the same power, keyed low on this level. And keyed low, we simply tell ourselves a story.805 ¶21

So there is nothing in this world that man can create more that is a greater thrill to him than to believe a thing in. Yes, our Founding Fathers did not believe in the future—-the mere passage of time isn’t going to do a thing—-they believed it in. He said, “What evidence had I that I could write a poem? I simply believed it.” That’s what the old man said, old Frost, “I simply believed it. There was no evidence that I could do it, but I believed it and I wrote it.” When he died, he was considered, along with Eliot, possibly the greatest in the century as a poet. And that’s what he said, “I simply believed it in.” There is no power in the world but simply believing. Well, were we not told that as the essence of belief in the 11th chapter, the 24th verse of the Book of Mark, “Whatever you desire, believe you have received it, and you will.” That’s the essence of it all: Whatever you desire, believe that you’ve received it and you will.805 ¶22

There’s a lady in this audience tonight. She wrote me the most wonderful letters, which I got last Tuesday, of these wonderful mystical experiences of hers. They’re fantastic, perfectly wonderful. But coming now to this level, she said, “Just before you left last May for the east, I told you that I was giving an exhibition of paintings at Disney in Burbank, the studio in Burbank. Soon after we agreed and you said to me, ‘All are sold, and it’s all based upon faith. They’re sold! Every one sold and all based upon faith.’ Well, you went east and soon thereafter they all began to be sold. Five months later because of the success of that exhibition, they called me for another display and I only had small, little paintings then, for I had sold the others. I only had little ones, but I sent them over, took them over. Within five days I sold six hundred dollars worth of my little paintings at this studio in Burbank, the Disney Studio, all upon what?—imagining.”805 ¶23

She’s an artist. Why should she work in her wonderful studio and not sell her work? Why should others not have the joy of looking at what she can create? I can’t paint, but I love paintings. In fact, I think my walls are too cluttered with the things that I have, all strung around, but every one thrills me. I can walk into them. I look at a painting at home, I can step right into it, [...] with it. I have one little lady who was always walking out of a picture…she never gets out because she’s always stuck there…but I go with her…walk right out of that painting of her, lovely old lady. My father-in-law who had the painting, he loved it, and because of his love I love it. I look at it, it’s a lovely thing, and I simply walk right into her and join her, walk with her right now. And so, all of these things are to exercise the Imagination. So all over my walls, and I don’t have so many walls, there’s always, in every little place, there’s an etching or a painting where it excites the mind. You look at it, contemplate it, and step right into it, become a part of it. There’s a beach scene; I sit on it. There’s another scene where there’s a lion on this desert area, sit next to him, feel him, and the whole thing becomes alive. The whole thing is alive because you are alive. You make everything alive in this world. These things shouldn’t be dead, these paintings, not if you really move into them…make them all alive.805 ¶24

So you take a play tonight…and I’m speaking for my friend and will be for the next two lectures all on the law. You tell your friends when you meet them that imagining creates reality—-don’t forget that—-and then you start from that premise. And so you conceive a lovely story, wonderful story, all about yourself or about someone that you love. Then you persuade yourself of the reality of this story. Don’t be concerned about the people who are going to play their parts to make it real; all the human characters will come right into it. They must come to it, for where this story is there they all gather, they must gather. So you simply concern yourself only with the story. “In the beginning was the word,” the story, and that story was with God, and the story was God. That’s the whole story…and then in this wonderful world of ours we unfold it…the whole thing comes to pass. Believe it! It is true, imagining does create reality.805 ¶25

And may I tell you what will happen? When this thing actually begins to become alive within you, and the child comes into this world, unknowingly the strangest things will happen to you that you do not understand. You’re exercising the most fantastic power in the world of which you are totally unaware, and will remain not completely unaware but unaware while you are still wearing this very heavy garment of flesh and blood. But you will do strange things, others will be aware of it, and you’ll have no knowledge that you did it. You know what you did, but you didn’t intend it that way. But peculiar things will happen in your world, strange things. I could tell you unnumbered things of which I am totally unaware that I was the cause of it, but I must have been, for it was all traced back to something that I did. But you’re blocked out from knowing the deliberate actions, you simply do it. I will now not violate a confidence because it was not said to me not to tell it, but here is one simple little story.805 ¶26

A man having had an experience of the nature that the speaker’s had and therefore the Messianic power is upon him now…can’t stop it. The Messianic power then becomes a part of you, makes you a free man to choose your own vocation. You can be a speaker as I am, or you could be a painter, a writer, a dress-designer, it’s entirely up to you to choose your vocation and the use you will make of this Messianic power. There’s no restriction on you after the birth of the child. There’s a power, a peculiar power that possesses you.805 ¶27

And so, you write one that you love dearly and they live away from here, thousands of miles away. You write a letter explaining a certain experience to one you really love, and you post it late, say, tonight. As you post it, you imagine you’re putting it on the desk of the one you love, just as you post it. The next day the phone rings and this one is asking you how this thing could have happened. “Because when you posted that letter, from the postmark on the outside and from your letter as you dated it, my office was closed. When I came to my office today the mail had not yet been delivered…and yet this letter was on my desk. How do you explain it?” And you have to confess being an honest person, I don’t know! I don’t know…I only know I posted it last night late. But as I did so, I put it on your desk, and before the mail was delivered. So the one who received it, the one to whom it was addressed asked the secretaries, “Do you know anything about this?” They all confessed, “No, we didn’t bring it in.” It wasn’t sent Special Delivery, it was sent ordinary Air Mail but posted late, sent to the East Coast…and here the letter is on the desk.805 ¶28

I can multiply that by the dozens. No one in this world could rationalize it, they can’t explain it. And he can’t explain it. He only now is coming and tasting of the power that is his from now on, the Messianic power. It’s almost the minute this event takes place in our life it is ours from then on, and no one can take it from us, forever and forever. But here we will do it unwittingly. Tomorrow we will do it reflectively, fully conscious of every act, and every act the outcome is predetermined. No doubts in the mind whatsoever. In this, it was done just unwittingly, but the power was there and the letter was on the desk. You tell that to anyone in this world, they’d say, “That’s insane! It just can’t be. There’s no possibility of that letter being posted late tonight to reach that destination in the east tomorrow before the mail is delivered, and before someone opens that door and enters the office.” But there was the letter. And I had the pleasure of reading the letter from the one who received it in complete amazement, asking for some explanation. So if it was told me, I believe him implicitly. But aside from the belief in him, which is one hundred percent, he confirmed it with a letter from the one who had received it, bewildered, can’t understand it. This is the power of which I speak which is the Messianic power.805 ¶29

So to come back to our premise tonight: Imagining creates reality. So what you imagine with faith—and if you remain as faithful to the imaginal act as God has and is remaining to his promise to you to make you himself—nothing is impossible. Now let us go into the Silence.805 ¶30

I hope it was a noble story that you told yourself, and if you are faithful to that story you just told yourself, it will come to pass. Let no one tell you you need any help from any one in this world. That story that you told yourself, remain faithful to it. Now are there any questions, please?805 ¶31

Tonight’s subject is “A Confession of Faith.” The Bible really is a confession of faith, a confession put in the form, I may say, of an anthology, for they are the collected sayings of one shepherd given through his servants the prophets over the centuries. But the book has been culled and culled, as you can see from the Apocrypha; for at one time they were all part of the canon of scripture. Before the 4th Century A.D. the epistles of Peter and the epistle to the Hebrews and the Book of Revelation they were not included in what is now our canon of scripture. But if you take it as it is today—and it has been in this form since the end of the 4th Century—it really is a confession of faith in the form of an anthology. But faith is not complete until it becomes experience. And so, we have a hymn of praise for faith given to us in the Book of Hebrews, where he took all the witnesses beginning with Abel and he came all the way through, all living by faith. They received the promises of God, but they did not receive the thing that was promised. There’s a vast difference between receiving the promise and receiving that which was promised.804 ¶1

The time was not completed for them to enter what we speak of this day as the new age or the kingdom of God. But he defines faith for us in the 11th chapter as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Then he tells us that the whole vast world was framed and created by the word of God.804 ¶2

The word of God is called “the truth” in scripture. The seal of God consists of the three letters in the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph, Mem and Tau. If you put them together they spell truth, Emeth. It’s the first, the middle and the last letter of the alphabet. So we are told in the Book of John, “I have taught them thy word. Thy word is truth” .804 ¶3

He comes only to bear witness to the word. His every act is simply foreshadowed in scripture. No one is concerned in the scripture as to whether one is a good carpenter or a poor carpenter, whether one is rich or poor, for scripture is something entirely different. It simply is God’s word and everyone is destined to experience scripture. And so, then faith becomes experience; faith is fulfilled in the experience of scripture.804 ¶4

Tonight we’ll take a statement from the Book of Hebrews and one from Luke. In Hebrews it’s the 12th chapter: “But now you’ve come into Mount Zion, the home of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem…where the assembly of the first-born are really now entered into heaven, and here you find the spirits of just men made perfect, here you find a judge who is God of all, and here you find Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking”— that’s in the 12th chapter of Hebrews .804 ¶5

The one speaking in this chapter is Jesus Christ, the risen Lord. There you find the entrance into the book of those who are raised from the dead, and they’re called the first-born of those who slept; there you find the spirits of just men made perfect; and we’re told it all takes place in the new Jerusalem in Mount Zion which is the home of the living God.804 ¶6

When you read it you wonder, “What is it trying to tell us?”804 ¶7

Well, let me share with you my experience. We go back now to the 12th chapter of Luke. Here we are told that everything in this world is forgiven but one—which is unbelievable because to a merciful God everything is possible and everything is forgivable—but we are told that the sin against the Holy Spirit is not forgiven; it is the eternal sin.804 ¶8

But it doesn’t leave us there, as Mark does, the 3rd chapter of Mark, when Mark makes that statement, Mark leaves us there and there is no out. But not Luke, Luke is more developed as to this mystery. And then Luke turns our attention to that one moment in eternity when it’s possible for man to sin against the Holy Ghost by adding the words, “And when they bring you before the synagogues, before the rulers, before the authorities, do not be anxious how or what you are to answer or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say” .804 ¶9

The very little word “ought” is your freedom to stand in the presence of the one who is speaking and refuse to make your confession of faith after having been supernaturally prompted what to say. For you are told what to say…not audibly…but in that very hour when you stand in his presence you are actually being prompted, supernaturally prompted what to say.804 ¶10

Now listen to it carefully, “Do not be anxious when you stand in his presence how or what you are to answer.” Well, if I am to answer, someone must have asked me a question. And so, do not be anxious how or what you are to answer or what you are to say. So having answered, I’m also going to make a statement: for while in that very hour the Holy Spirit will teach you what you ought to say. So when you stand in the presence of this one, defined for us so beautifully in the 12th of Hebrews, I can’t conceive of anyone not actually automatically answering the question that is asked you.804 ¶11

So this is what will happen to you. As you’re told, he was taken in spirit, just as you’re told in Isaiah he was taken in spirit; they all were taken in spirit, and you are taken in spirit. You have the sensation of a long, long journey, that’s the sensation, yet it’s completed only in a matter of moments. But you, if you would analyze the feeling, it’s a feeling of an infinite journey. And you are taken in spirit, you don’t see your [...], but you are brought into this heavenly council.804 ¶12

As you are told in the 82nd Psalm, “And God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment.” Well, who are the gods? The spirits of just men made perfect, they’re the gods. You are the gods.804 ¶13

And when you enter that society you meet men, and you’re brought into the presence of the one who you’re told not to refuse, the one who is speaking. You’re told that those who are born from above are now being enrolled. You will see the most glorious angelic being with an open book and a quill pen. Now, what is directed, I do not know. I only saw what I’m now describing. I saw this angelic being sitting at a desk with a quill pen, an open book, and here was motion.804 ¶14

What was recorded I do know. But you’re told in Hebrews that these are enrolled in heaven. Who are enrolled? Those who are called the first-born from the dead, those who are born from above, and they are enrolled. You actually see it.804 ¶15

Then you are brought before the one that is speaking now. You stand in the presence of the risen Christ, the Lord of hosts. You can’t describe him, save that he was encompassed in light, infinite light, but it’s man. The words of Blake may speak to your mind, Don’t humble yourself— if you humble yourself you humble me— for you too are man and God is no more.804 ¶16

You stand in the presence of man, infinite in love. That’s the one feeling that you feel coming from him, infinite love.804 ¶17

Then he asks you a very simple question, “What is the greatest thing in the world?” And maybe after that moment, in your conscious reasoning mind, you never fully understood it or even accepted it, but you don’t hesitate to answer. And you answer in the words of Paul, his 13th Corinthians, because he did for love what the writer of Hebrews did for faith. And so, he said, the greatest thing in the world is love: “Faith, hope and love, these three abide; but the greatest of these is love” .804 ¶18

That’s what you’re going to say. And as you say it, the risen Christ will embrace you; and from that moment on you wear his body. No mortal eye can see it but you are incorporated into the body of God, and you feel a joy and an ecstasy that you can’t describe in words.804 ¶19

Then from that, you are sent on your mission, for to be called is also to be sent. And as Paul said, “Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen the risen Christ? Have I not seen the Lord Jesus Christ?” . So to have seen him is to be qualified for apostleship. The word apostle simply means “to be sent, one who is sent.”804 ¶20

So as you are embraced and become one with God you are then sent to tell the story that all may hear it and then respond to it. That’s why it’s so very important that the testimony of Jesus should be heard by all, and then let them be the judge and respond to it. Reject it or accept it.804 ¶21

But I tell you, every word of scripture you’re going to experience. But you accept it first purely on faith, and you walk blindly led only by faith. You do not receive the promises until the end of a certain journey. But the door is open now and has been since the first one who was raised from the dead. Everyone is being called, called one by one, into that divine council; and while you are there you will encounter all of these things that are mentioned in the 12th chapter of the Book of Hebrews.804 ¶22

You will see the men. They are giants, not in height but giants in power. The first one that I saw was the embodiment of infinite might, but a man. I felt in his presence that if he desired he could destroy the earth. I felt he could destroy the universe. I felt the embodiment of infinite might in the presence of that man…and it is a man…the spirit of a just man made perfect. I met others. I met infinite love…that’s God himself. But, mercy was present, peace was present, all these attributes were present in the form of man. And I mingled with them and I moved among them—they’re all men, the spirits of just men made perfect. The children preceded that motion and they were simply perfectly heavenly children. So everything recorded that seems so silly on the surface you are going to experience. That’s why I can tell you from experience the book is true.804 ¶23

On this level of ours, you take the same faith that led the patriarchs and move it in our world to better the environment in which we live. Now what do we mean by living by faith? He said, they endured as seeing him who was invisible, that’s what they did.804 ¶24

Well, you and I endure as seeing that which at the moment is invisible. Seeing what?—the success that you see. When I walk by sight I go my way by the objects that my eye sees. If I leave here tonight and suddenly the streets are not what they were when I came in and the signs are rearranged or gone, or the buildings are gone, I am quite sure that we couldn’t find our way home. We must have some familiar objects, stable objects, to lead us that we see them by the eye. So I know my way when I walk by sight by objects that the eye sees.804 ¶25

When I walk by faith, I know my way by objects that only the mind sees. And so, when I want to walk by faith, I set up in my mind’s eye objects to lead me. The objects are the faces of the friends that I call my friends, who would sincerely rejoice with me if they learned of my good fortune. Then I let them know of it. I see the world as I want to see it, not as it is here to be seen.804 ¶26

So I rearrange the structure of the mind; and then I remain faithful to it—as the patriarchs remained faithful to their invisible being. For we are told in the 11th of Hebrews that Moses endured as seeing him who was invisible. He was told about him, as Job was. And Job said, “I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now, in the very end, my eye sees thee.” He was faithful to the end, and then he saw the being who predicted the moment in time that he would actually stand in his presence. And Job went through, as you know, the proverbial hell, but he was always faithful. He never once complained, but he did not feel for one moment that this pain that he endured was justified. And in spite of that he still believed in God. He believed in the Promise.804 ¶27

So the Promise is to all of us that God one day will give himself to us, individually. That’s called grace in scripture…and grace is God’s gift of himself to man. So when he embraces you he gave you himself. All that he had he gave you in that one moment that he embraced you. If he is the king of kings, he gives you that honor. If a king has a kingdom, he gave you the kingdom. So you will inherit with that embrace not only a presence but a kingdom. He doesn’t take back anything. He gives you his most precious possession: He gives you his only begotten son as your son. Not as your companion, to walk as a friend, but he gives you his only begotten son as your son. Therefore, he gave you fatherhood in that gift. He gives you everything that he has.804 ¶28

Now, you are sent into the world to encourage all to be faithful and endure as seeing him who at the moment is invisible. And to prove to them that you are on solid ground you explain to them the nature of faith, that faith is “the assurance of things and the conviction of things not seen.”804 ¶29

So I would put it in these words, faith is simply loyalty to unseen reality.804 ¶30

So you tell me what you want in this world and you name it. You want to be successful and you name what you mean by success. I’m not here to judge you, just to guide you, to tell you, well alright, if you really want to be successful, assume this very moment that at this moment now you are now what you want to be. Take the dream and wear it as you would a suit of clothes. Now, see the world as you would see it were it true. Now that’s the invisible you. Now you walk faithful to this invisible you.804 ¶31

But make it natural, wear it just as you would wear any apparel in the world, and as you wear it, it becomes more and more you, more and more natural. And you can tell it in your dreams. Your dreams will change, because your dreams will reflect the mood that really dominates you, because the dominant mood really spells out the individual. That mood to which man most often returns constitutes the man’s truest self. So if I return constantly in the course of a day to the mood of success, at the end of a couple of days it’s a natural thing. I don’t have to come back to it as often. Then, in a little while, I take it for granted. It’s the most normal, natural thing in the world thereafter.804 ¶32

Let me tell you a story of my brother, which I told a friend tonight. We started after a disastrous failure in a way back in l919…started from scratch with borrowed capital. When my brother and father, who were then partners together, owed the bank 5,000 dollars they were concerned, they were worried.804 ¶33

This past November in New York City, discussing with my brother Victor, I said, “Vic, what do you owe the bank?” Oh, he said, “I presume a million and a half.” I said, “You owe a million and a half?” “Yes, always owed a million and a half. That’s their money, their rent money, and our rent money to them. And so I need money to turn the wheels of industry. But today, owing them on every day of the year 1,500,000 dollars I’m not as concerned as I used to be when I owed them 5,000 dollars. No concern whatsoever.”804 ¶34

And it brought to mind a story, which is a very true story. He’s gone from this world now. He was mayor of Hamilton [...], a little island in the Indies. He started from scratch washing bottles in a little store. But they couldn’t import bottles all the time so if you brought your bottle back you got a penny for it; and he had to smell the bottles to see that you didn’t put kerosene in that bottle before you brought it back, for these bottles were used for rum. Well, he was a very ingenious lad and he rose to be the mayor of the town. He owned the biggest hotel and parts of other hotels.804 ¶35

So during this period that we called Prohibition in this world, there were nine indictments against him in this country, because he was running as much rum as would float the country into this land of ours, all on the eastern seaboard, had his own ships, had everything else. He bribed this mayor, bribed that mayor, and they all would come down and count the pieces that he brought ashore, because these mayors got two dollars a case, and they weren’t taking his count for it. They would come down and count the cases and each got their two dollars in cash per case. It ran into millions.804 ¶36

Well, he had to be financed too. And so he went to the local bank and he raised money to finance this project. The banker one day said to him, “Ronnie, did you know you owe me an awful lot of money.” He said, “Are you worried?” “Why, certainly I’m worried, because you owe me more money than we are capitalized for.” Well, he said, “You’re worried…there’s no need for both of us worrying.” He had one person worried so he didn’t worry, while Ronnie did all the money for him.804 ¶37

Now, Ronnie applied this unwittingly. He never saw failure. He couldn’t conceive of failure. He started, as I told you earlier, without one nickel in this world, but he lived in the assumption that things were right. And with nine indictments against him in this country the day that Prohibition went out this country tore the nine up and he was as welcome in this country as you are. For, he came and left as he wanted after they tore the nine indictments up; for they only belonged to that age of Prohibition.804 ¶38

So I tell you, faith—read it in the 11th chapter of the Book of Hebrews, “Things that you see were made from things that do not appear.” If one could only keep that in mind.804 ¶39

The success that you want is made from things that you do not know in this world. It is not made from your friends. Don’t depend upon one friend in this world. Don’t depend upon anyone, just…it’s all in you. The whole vast world is yourself pushed out, and so, if you know that the things seen were made from things that are not seen, then you will take off from there; and you will know that imagining and faith are the stuff out of which man fashions his world.804 ¶40

You can start wherever you are and fashion anything you want in this world. So when you walk by faith, you walk by objects only the mind sees. If you insist on walking in the natural way by sight, well, then you walk by objects that the eye sees. Your friends will see you as they now see you, and you’ll never get beyond it if you don’t dare to assume that you are other than what you seem to be. You must dare to assume it and be faithful to it, be loyal to this unseen reality, and then day in and day out it becomes more and more natural.804 ¶41

After awhile you will know what I’m talking about concerning proving it here on this level, and then be blessed with the proof on the depths of the soul.804 ¶42

But I can’t tell anyone what a thrill it is when you are taken in spirit into the divine society. Because you read it in a book, but you can’t believe, as most people can’t believe, that God is man. It’s a stumbling block. No matter when I speak or where I speak there’s always someone to challenge my right to say that God is a man. “You dare in this modern age of 1964, of nuclear energy, to say that God is man?”804 ¶43

Well, I’m speaking from experience. I stood in his presence. I can say exactly what Paul said, “Have I not seen the risen Christ? Am I not an apostle?” Did he not send me? I saw him, therefore, that was the qualification. And the words ringing in my ears then are still ringing in my ears, and the command was “Time to act!”804 ¶44

Therefore, if you say you believe this, then it’s time to act. Don’t say I believe it and not act. For, I’ll tell you, there’s not a thing in this world that tests one’s belief better than action. Action puts belief to the acid test. For if the belief isn’t strong enough to effect action then it can’t move anything in this world. So if I say I believe, then I will act upon it. I will not sleep this night in the assumption of being the man that I was today if I didn’t want to be that man. I would dare to assume that I am the man that I want to be, though at the moment everything denies it. If I don’t act that way, well then, my belief or my claim isn’t really great enough.804 ¶45

Now, people will say who know the Bible, “Did not James say that faith without works is dead?” Granted, he did say that, but he did not propose that we substitute works for faith. Works are the evidence of whether the faith we profess in this world is alive or dead. If it is alive, you’ll act; if it’s dead, you’ll simply give it lip service and do nothing about it.804 ¶46

You will say, “Imagining creates reality. It’s a lovely statement. It causes arguments if you’re at a social gathering.” And so, you can have that as some little thing as a toy. But I’m not speaking of a toy, I’m speaking of the force of creation in this world. It does create reality, but if I really believe it I will act upon it.804 ¶47

So when I was commanded to go and tell the story of Christ, the words in my ears that were ringing from the one who embodied infinite might were the words “Time to act.” And the words that preceded that, that have disturbed so many people, were the words “Down with the bluebloods” because we have a certain association of bluebloods that we think it means the socially prominent. Hasn’t a thing to do with that, because in heaven the only aristocracy is the aristocracy of the Spirit. Hasn’t a thing to do with flesh and blood, because no one can inherit the kingdom of heaven with flesh and blood; because God is Spirit but man; and you are Spirit, just as solidly real as you seemingly are here, but you are Spirit and you are man. You stand in the presence of man and you look around and there are only men.804 ¶48

So when you hear these words “Down with the bluebloods,” don’t think for one moment it means that you destroy any of the lovely fruits of this world…not a thing about it. The bluebloods is simply “church protocol.” You do not need them. Leave them alone. But you don’t need it; you don’t need any external worship, any external form of worship or ceremony or any outside creed. The whole thing comes from within.804 ¶49

So I have never gone out to disturb any group, I assure you, and yet these words were my command. And so, they came back in the late 1920s. I was not more than twenty-one or twenty-two when this happened. I have never been a disturbing influence in any group. I might disturb your mind as I go by you, but not if you’re satisfied with a certain thing. I never invite you to leave a certain church to come here, nor would I invite you to leave a certain group to come here. But the protocol being spoken of is simply church protocol—anything that is on the outside that you think in some strange way God is looking out on you and will accept that in lieu of acting.804 ¶50

No, he wants you to act. He wants you to create, for God is a creator; and his sons must be as creative as he. So we must create and create and still create again.804 ¶51

So, this is a confession of faith. And one day, I swear as I stand here, the joy is beyond measure when you are called. The night you are called you do not know; you haven’t the slightest idea. You go to sleep as you would sleep this night, not expecting anything, and suddenly you are picked up in Spirit and you are carried seemingly forever. Then you come into this grand, wonderful gathering of the gods. And when he holds you, because you’ve answered correctly, you did not sin against the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit prompted you by asking the question.804 ¶52

Now, I do not say that everyone will be asked the same question. But I do say, regardless of the nature of the question, the answer you will know, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. And because he teaches you what you ought to say, you’re prompted by some supernatural power which is the Holy Spirit, you will say it, and because the answer is correct, he will embrace you. The moment he embraces you, you fuse with God and you never become un-fused again. You’re one with God forever and forever. When you’re time is up here and this little flesh and blood garment is taken off, you awake there. And that is the being that you are. It seems incredible but it’s true.804 ¶53

And may I tell you, you don’t earn it. You don’t earn it, it is a gift, therefore, you’re going to get it. And secondly, don’t think that you’ve got to fit yourself to receive it, just act.804 ¶54

I’m quite sure that Ronnie, who violated all of our laws that we ourselves violated when he ran unnumbered cases of liquor into this country, he violated all the laws of this country, but there wasn’t an American who wasn’t violating the same law. Unless, naturally, you were an extreme “dry” and many of them were, but on the whole we did not want the Volstead Act. It was against the grain of the country. And so he simply fed America what they wanted and made millions doing it. But I am quite sure that in the presence of God he is not unclean because he did that, I’m quite sure. No one can tell me that they feel in their heart that they’re qualified to stand in his presence and be embraced by him, and be incorporated into his body as himself.804 ¶55

So I know today that fitness is the consequence not the condition of his grace. The minute you are embraced you are fitted. You weren’t fitted prior to that, yet you were called.804 ¶56

So man is called. And what is the secret of God’s elective love I do not know. But we are called in order, not in groups; we are called singly but in God’s own order. For he is building his new Jerusalem, building it out of these living stones that we are. And he…his body is that great Jerusalem, that creative power that can create anything in this world.804 ¶57

So to come back to that unforgivable sin, I can’t conceive of it. I can’t conceive of anything impossible to God. And a merciful being that God is, I can’t conceive of a thing that his mercy could not forgive. So we’re pointed to it, and Luke leads the way. Mark doesn’t. When Luke adds what he does to that statement, it throws light on it. So when you are brought before the synagogue, before the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious how or what you are to answer. Right away he tells you you’re going to be asked something. Don’t be anxious. Why? Because in that very hour the Holy Spirit will teach you what you ought to say. So he does give you the freedom of choice to say no, or refuse to speak, or give the wrong answer. Because you ought to say what you’ve been prompted to say, but you need not because you’re free.804 ¶58

So you are warned again in the 12th chapter of Hebrews, So when you stand before him, he who is speaking, do not refuse him . Don’t refuse him, the one who is speaking. Well, who is speaking? The previous verse tells you who is the one speaking: the risen Christ. You stand in his presence, he is the one asking the question, and you stand there, and you answer him, and then he incorporates you into his body.804 ¶59

So here you take it this night and take it in hope. As you’re told, “Put your hope fully on the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” It’s coming! Can’t stop it! Put all of your hope on that grace.804 ¶60

But in the meanwhile live by faith. Ask a friend “What do you want in this world?” and don’t raise a finger to make it so for him. Don’t call your friends and tell them to help him; you do it, do it in your mind’s eye. And if they are a thousand miles away or ten thousand miles away, still do it. They aren’t 10,000 miles away in your Imagination, they’re right here.804 ¶61

I get a call from Barbados, well, physically that would be 5,000 miles from here, but they’re not. I could talk to my sister as though she were here. I could talk to my father, who is gone, as though he were here. I talk to my mother. In fact, my memory of my mother has been quite a guide in much of my behavior. First of all, I don’t think that mother would approve, well, that stops me; because I know she isn’t dead, and I know she isn’t 5,000 miles away, and I know she’s as near as to me as my thought is to her. So, I know when I think of mother that her attitude towards my behavior guides me, because I know what she’d expect from her son.804 ¶62

She used to tell us when we were little children and the word Goddard had no meaning whatsoever in the island—no social standing, no financial standing, nothing, no intellectual standing—and when we were little tots and mother was raising us, we could ill-afford the little things that we had to have. If you did something that displeased her, mother would say, after she corrected us, “Have you forgotten that you are a Goddard?” Well, she shamed you that you forgot you were a Goddard. She made the name important. It had no importance whatsoever, had no significance, but you walked in the consciousness of being a Goddard. With the result having built that into your consciousness, they are the biggest business people in all the islands today. That is in all the…that’s nearly all the islands…definitely in Barbados, and now St. Lucia, and St. Vincent, and they are the tops as to name and industry. She made it important.804 ¶63

And quite often she didn’t have to go beyond shaming you, “Have you forgotten that you are a Goddard?” Try it with your children. Make your name, which they bear, an important name. And then actually you can spare the whip by simply recalling their memory to the fact that they have forgotten the importance of their parents and, therefore, the importance of themselves.804 ¶64

And so, if you treat those who are gone from this world as though they were here, and you respect their opinions, and know that they can see you as I see you now, then you would not do many things that, well, without that consciousness you would do.804 ¶65

Because I know that she would disapprove. I know my father would disapprove. I know that he had a certain attitude towards life that you could not criticize any woman in his presence. A man, yes, you could say what you want of a man, but he would not allow anyone of us to say anything that was not noble concerning a woman. He just wouldn’t stand for it. And that happened even when we were all grown men with our wives and children. He disapproved heartily of any criticism of woman. He always put woman on a pedestal. To the very day he made his exit, they were something different in his life. If something obviously was not right, he would rather not discuss it. No matter how obvious it was, he just wouldn’t discuss it. He built that into his mind’s eye.804 ¶66

And so, I say to everyone, try it. Walk by these internal guides, for we have guides. The internal guide is the same you use with the external guide of the eye. You walk home by objects that you know, and you walk to your objective in life by the inner object that you know. Along the way you’re going to meet this one that you know well and they will congratulate you on your good fortune, and as a friend you will accept it and be gracious about it. Then the next one will congratulate you and you will congratulate them because you want them to be equally progressive in this world.804 ¶67

We can take everyone in our circle and lift them up in the inner circle of the mind seeing them as we would like to see them. And may I tell you it will work.804 ¶68

If we have evidence for a thing, does it really matter what our critics say? It doesn’t really matter if we have evidence for it. So we can test God’s law. We can test the power of faith and when we test it and prove it, well, then we’ll live by it. If someone asks us what is the secret, you tell them. If they don’t ask us, well, we need not shout about it. But, if they ask we’ll tell them. They may not believe it, but you can tell them.804 ¶69

I know my father told me the very first day he heard me in New York City, we came home after the lecture in the morning and he said, “Boy, I agree with every thing you said this morning but one.” I said, “Alright, tell me. You are a success in life. In my eyes you’re a great success. So what is the one?” He said, “You told them this morning that when they meditate close the eye. No, don’t do that, just partly close it. Just close the lid but don’t completely close it, and then you can see better. You can see exactly what you want to see if you only partly close it. If you close it completely, then your mind wanders.”804 ¶70

And so, that was his advice to me. But I couldn’t laugh at my father for the simple reason he had proved it. He started without a nickel and his goal was success in this world. He had his own ideas concerning religion, concerning family life, and he held them up very high. But in business he started from scratch. When he was thirty-nine he could give us what he did, and when at eighty-five when he made his exit from this world had you come in the next day and offered to buy out the enterprises, you couldn’t come with less than five million and get even a carrot.804 ¶71

And he did that for us by simply not closing his eye. Every morning he would sit after breakfast and see exactly what he wanted for the day. He would carry on all of his transactions and bring them out successfully. Any contract he had pending for the day, he’d get it before he left home and saw the whole thing at the end.804 ¶72

Now, whether he did it unknowingly or someone told him, I don’t know. But I know in my own case, after my first lecture that he heard, he said to me, “Everything you said is true but one. Don’t tell them again to close the eye, just partly close it, and then they see exactly what they want to see and carry on conversations with that scene from the premise of exactly what they want in this world, and believe it.” He was a very faithful man to this belief.804 ¶73

So now, as we go into the Silence, I’ll close mine because I’ve grown accustomed to it. But try my father’s technique. I can close my eye and see exactly what I want to see. But maybe others are helped by his technique. As I say, I can’t laugh at him because he proved it. And if he had evidence for a thing, it doesn’t matter what others think. We will stick by what we know based upon experience.804 ¶74

Now let us go into the Silence.804 ¶75

Tonight’s subject is “The Clever Rascal.” This is taken from the 16th chapter of the Book of Luke. There’s a story told there of an unjust steward. There’s a very rich man who had a steward and charges were brought against the steward that he was wasting his man’s goods. So he called the steward and told him to turn in his stewardship, for he could no longer represent him. The steward went out and got all of the debtors and asked each in turn what they owed his master. “The first one said, ‘One hundred measures of oil.’ He said, ‘Sit down and write, quickly, fifty measure of oil.’ Then he said to the second, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said, ‘One hundred measures of wheat.’ ‘You sit down and you write eighty.’” And so, he falsified the entire record of his master, making friends for himself. For he felt, I am too weak to work and too proud to beg, and so by doing this I’ll make these friends of mine, so when I’m fired from my job they will know that they are in my debt. For I gave this one fifty percent of what he really owed, and that one twenty percent of what he owed; and so at least to this extent they are indebted to me. When his master heard what he had done, the master highly commended him for his prudence. Then he said to those to whom he told the story, ‘Make for yourself friends of the unrighteous mammon. For if you are not faithful to that unrighteous mammon, who will trust you when it comes to the real riches of the world?’”803 ¶1

Now, a parable has a central jet of truth and the outer story is secondary to its meaning, what it really tries to convey. He is not recommending the man who stole his master’s goods or falsified the master’s records; it’s a story. What is its meaning? That’s the important thing. And what are the real riches against the so-called riches of the unrighteous mammon? Well, the Encyclopedia Britannica defines for us the word righteous as “equitable, just, right thinking,” therefore “unrighteous” would be the opposite. It would not be just, it would be unjust. It would not be right thinking, just the opposite of right thinking.803 ¶2

Now, what is right thinking? If today I reflect on the activities of the day and I have a hundred percent recall, I would have a perfect record of what happened today. If I had a perfect recall, that when we had dinner, for instance, I should not only know what I ate but the order in which I ate it, the chronological order. Did I take this piece before that? Did I take a sip of coffee with the meal or after the meal? Everything in the day—the mail as I received it, as I opened it, not only as I opened it, my reactions to the mail—everything should be perfectly recalled if my memory is perfect and I have a hundred percent recall. So memory is the conservative aspect of imagining. So I recall the day; that is right thinking, that’s righteous mammon. But I don’t like what happened today, and I’m invited to emulate the unjust steward and simply recall the day and simply revise every little aspect of the day that does not conform to the day as I wish I had encountered. That is being unjust, that is right thinking. I am completely changing and modifying the whole day to make it conform to my wish fulfilled.803 ¶3

I am invited to emulate the behavior of the unjust steward; for if I do not do it in this way, if I am not faithful to this unrighteous mammon, who will trust me with that which is real in this world? Now, what is the “real” in this world?803 ¶4

He is telling us by that statement this whole vast world would be really unreal. But I am learning to cut my mental teeth and spiritual teeth on the unreality: Getting a home when I can’t afford it, increasing my income when seemingly I haven’t the talent, bringing in all kinds of things in my world. But this is a world that wears out; it wears out like a garment, and the whole vast world, including the stars, they are fading and dissolving just like smoke. But, there is a real world…and if I can’t be faithful in this world with unjust, unrighteous mammon who would entrust me with the real riches of the world?803 ¶5

Now, sixteen years ago I had an experience which I recorded in one of my books, called Awakened Imagination. I’ve only seen it once in print and it came after my experience. That is, it was printed thousands of years ago, 2,000 years ago, but I did not know of this book. It was given to me after I came out in print and I told my story. The book is The Apocryphal New Testament as Compiled by James and in it is a story told by Joseph, the father of Jesus Christ. As told in this story, Joseph had this strange experience the night of his birth, where everything stood still. The heavens stood still, the shepherds walking walked not, and the little lambs drinking drank not, and the water flowing flowed not, everything stood still. Then all of a sudden everything moved on in its course.803 ¶6

Well, that experience was mine sixteen years ago, when suddenly I slipped in time and went back in time, say, 200 years, and came upon a scene of a wonderful lovely gracious dining room. It was in the eastern section of this country. I could tell from their clothes, from the setting, everything was simply New England. Then, at that moment, I knew that if I could arrest within me an activity which I felt, that all that I now perceived within the focus of my vision would stand still, it would all freeze. And so, at that moment, I arrested it, and my head jelled, it became solid. At that moment, I, the perceiver, I was awake and I could change my attention, but within the focus of my vision everything froze. The diners who were dining dined not. One young lad, about twenty-two years old, bringing a spoon to his mouth froze, and he couldn’t move it one moment beyond where I froze him—father and mother on both sides, and his brother to my…his brother’s back to me, so the two boys and the father and mother. A waitress coming through the door and as she started walking she froze and she couldn’t move. A bird in flight, it froze. The little leaves falling, they froze. The grass waving with the wind, it froze. Everything froze. I examined the whole thing, it was all dead. The life was in me! And when I released that power within me, that life in me, then everything continued on its course. The boy completed his action of bringing the soup to his mouth. The waitress completed her action of walking to the table to bring the second course. The bird that was arrested in flight continued in its flight, and the leaves falling fell. Everything moved as it intended when I arrested the intention.803 ¶7

But across this country I am always asked, “Did the four diners and the waitress were they aware of being frozen?” But I have no way of telling, I couldn’t answer. I only know that I froze it in myself. I couldn’t tell whether these four and the waitress walking towards the table were aware that they were frozen, I didn’t know. From here to New York City and across the country—-I gave lectures in Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago and all over San Francisco, all the way down—I’ve told this story and someone would always ask that question. And I was unable from experience to answer and to tell that I know that they were dead. I thought they were all dead. I looked at them, they were dead. The bird should have fallen if our law of gravity is true. The bird should have fallen, for the bird in flight, if arrested, would fall to the ground. But it didn’t, it was simply arrested. Space was frozen; everything was frozen so it couldn’t fall. But I could not answer their question intelligently.803 ¶8

Well, this past week, a lady, who is present here tonight, told me this story. It only happened to her recently. She lives in the Palisades and she hears the ocean and can see the ocean. These are her words, she said, “Neville, I had this experience, but it was from the negative side of yours. You were the operant power, you stopped it. I didn’t stop it; I was on the negative side: I was stopped. Suddenly, someone or something turned me off and I was nothing but literally nothing.” She was aware, because she could not know she was nothing unless she was aware of being nothing. “They turned me off and I was nothing. There was no sound of the ocean, but nothing, everything was dead. Then whatever turned me off turned me on again and then everything became alive.” Now, that’s the power that I call the real riches of the world. So if you are not faithful to the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust you with the real riches of the world? You think about it.803 ¶9

If this very moment some tyrant in the world who wants to conquer, say, this marvelous land of ours and enslave it for their own personal gain, if they had such riches and did not have the heart of love, they could turn us off; and then that’s like simply wiping off the slate, wiping off the blackboard, and then rewriting the script as they would intend. Then, when they turned us on again our intentions would be completely changed, even if that intention was to walk willingly—and think we were initiating the urge to walk—into the ocean beyond our depth. We would think this is what we want to do, like the lemmings do. Do they not by the hundreds of thousands just move towards the ocean and all become, well, they all commit suicide? They do it year after year as they seemingly reproduce so many. Then suddenly they all start moving, these little animals, and move toward the ocean and all commit suicide. Who turned them off and then turned them on with a different intention? Instead of reproducing themselves, the slate was wiped clean, and then a new script was put on it, and then the lights turned on once more.803 ¶10

Now listen to the words, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” . In him was life, and the life was the light of men. We go now to the epistle, this is the 1st John—that is, I just quoted from the first chapter of John—we go now to the first epistle of John, “He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son has not life” . If you have the Son, you have eternal life in yourself. Life in yourself is the light in men, and you can turn it off and turn it on. But I doubt that anyone would ever have life in themselves until he’s embraced and fused with love, for what would he do to this fantastic world if he had life in himself not moved and guided by love?803 ¶11

Can you conceive what man could do…to turn off, as the lady was turned off and everything stood still? There was no ocean…she can hear it from her window from her home, she can see it from her home, but it was all still. There was no ocean. The ocean was simply frozen as though, well, a lake frozen. It was just simply still, the atmosphere still. And she said in her own words, “I was nothing, but literally nothing.” She was aware of being nothing. And then someone or something, whoever turned her off, turned her on again and suddenly she became someone, became something. Well, I had the positive side of that experience, so I can say to this lady you are on the verge of moving from that side to the positive side. You have to have the negative side first. It’s only God, the operant power, operating on himself; and it’s God, her own wonderful being, operating on himself in her. So it was he who turned off what he loves more than anything else in this world, his emanation, which is this lady. She is his emanation, his love, and he will not in eternity leave her until they cleave and become one flesh, one being. So he operates upon her and shows her the power that he intends one day to share with her when they become one. That power she will then exercise…and you will turn it off or turn it on. So then Blake said, “Eternity exists and all things in eternity, independent of creation, which was an act of mercy,” so now you put yourself into this mind, that everything is aware of being [...], but everything; and it is simply an act of mercy that now turns the light on, and animates it, activates it; and then through this activation brings out what he loves more than anything in the world. Brings out himself, his own emanation. Haven’t you seen these ships up in San Francisco—as you go from San Francisco and take a ride into Sacramento—and they’re all in mothballs? Hundreds and hundreds of ships deactivated, dead, completely dead. They could tomorrow if the order were given be activated and once more become alive. People would go aboard, [...], things would come aboard, all things begin to move, these ships, thousands of them all in mothballs.803 ¶12

Blake saw these and he called them “the halls of Los.” He implies that everything is now. The Bible tells us that, the 3rd chapter, the 15th verse, of the Book of Ecclesiastes: “That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God is seeking that which is lost, or which has gone astray.” What’s gone astray? He sent himself into the entire structure and he is extracting himself, his creative power. His creative power is called in scripture Christ Jesus. Christ is defined in scripture as the creative power and wisdom of God. It’s the wisdom of God .803 ¶13

Now, listen to this carefully, taken from the Book of Proverbs, the 8th chapter: “God created me at the beginning of his way, the first of his acts of old” . Before he brought forth the heavens, before he brought forth the earth, before he established anything, “I was beside him, like a little child” . Now, this little statement “like a little child,” the King James Version takes that same word, one single Hebrew word, and all scholars have put it into a phrase. “I was beside him, like a little child” is the Revised Standard Version. The King James Version takes that same word, a single word, and gives it this interpretation, “I was brought forth, I was brought forth by him.” Can you imagine that? Here, he doesn’t say what was brought forth, “I was brought forth by him.” The English Revised Version gives a still different interpretation of the single word. I’ll tell you what the word is, the single word that means “faith” which is called “Amen”—-Aleph, Mem Nun—is the word translated as “I was beside him, like a little child.” So you go to your Concordance and you look it up, and it says simply “faith, moving to the right hand of God.” Not “moved” to the right hand of God. What did he bring forth first of all in the world? He brought forth faith.803 ¶14

I encourage you to use the unrighteous mammon that is faith. As you exercise your right, your talent to rearrange and falsify the record of the day and make tomorrow conform to the falsified record of tonight—so tomorrow is not the record of today; it conforms to your falsified record— you can only do it by faith. And then, one day, he’ll be born. Who is born? Faith is born. He’s called Jesus Christ. Born of whom?—born of God. Well, did you give him birth? Yes I gave him birth. Well, then who am I? That’s what you ask yourself. So you’re told in the 3rd chapter, the 16th verse of the Book of Galatians that man must give birth to Christ, and that the promise was made unto Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say “offsprings” referring to many, but to offspring referring to one: “And to your offspring which is Christ.” So Christ is the creative power and the wisdom of God, summarized in one little thing called “Amen.” It stands beside him in the very beginning.803 ¶15

So, man is put into these wheels that are already completed. Everything is. “Eternity exists, and all things in eternity, independent of Creation which was an act of mercy” . So man is inserted into a wheel and there are wheels within wheels. And may I tell you, there is no moral order in this world, only an order of nature to which both man and beast are subjected. So let no one tell you there is a moral order in this world. We are subjected to futility, as told us in the 8th of Romans: “The creature was made subject unto futility, not willingly but by the will of him who subjected him in faith.” Why? He was subjected in hope that this creature that is so subjected will once more be extracted and be set free from this world of corruption, and become once more a child of God; the child being his creative power, where he increases his capacity to create by the experience of inserting himself in this world of futility.803 ¶16

So everything is. There isn’t a thing that is impossible to God because the whole thing is done. Every man in this world, no matter who he is, he could be any kind of a man he wants to be in the world because he is all that is his potential. He now can select the kind of a man that he would like to be; although at the moment when he selects the kind of man that he would like to be reason tells him that he could never be it. Forget what reason tells you and exercise faith, and become now faithful to the unrighteous mammon. Simply represent yourself to yourself as the man that you want to be, and be faithful to it.803 ¶17

Now let me tell you a little story. We have a pine tree in front of our house. The last two days the gusts of wind thirty, forty, fifty miles an hour…right…not more than, say, six feet from my eye, on a little branch, doves are nesting. Well, I’ve been watching them. A branch above is banging one of these two doves all through the day, from above. One from below is knocking the tree out… sometimes it goes up, seemingly five, six feet. But whoever is nesting is sitting on that nest in spite of the blows, and the other one, the mate whether it be male or female brings a worm and feeds the one on that nest. You would think the impulse of a bird when they get a worm is to swallow it. No, it has a mission. The mission is not to swallow but to bring it to the mate who is hatching out something.803 ¶18

This is a world for hatching. As it was revealed to me so clearly, the whole vast world is for hatching out: And you do it through faith. So she with all the blows or he with all the blows on its little head, and all the bouncing all over the place—-for these gusts have been fantastic in the last forty-eight hours—-it still hugs that little nest. Regardless of all the blows and all the wind, there it is in faith that what it is keeping warm is going to come out. Now in the Book of Habakkuk: “The vision has its own appointed hour; it ripens—it will flower. If it be long, then wait; for it is sure and it will not be late” . Not late for the idea. How long it takes a little dove to hatch out an egg, I don’t know. A chicken, alright, twenty-one days; a little sheep, five months; a horse, twelve months; a man, nine months. So we have different time intervals for hatching out, but “at length for hatching ripe he breaks the shell.”803 ¶19

So you hatch out. You’re the dove. You’re hatching out something, and if it doesn’t work by tomorrow, so what, regardless of the blows of the day. So this little beast, this little dove, here it is sitting on a nest and these terrific blows on top of it. I can see it, I look outside and here is the thing coming on the little bird, and then something comes from below, then its own little branch is flying all over the place. But it doesn’t leave that little purpose: Its purpose is to hatch out.803 ¶20

Well, we are the dove. We are this Holy Spirit that is God. We conceive an idea that seemingly is impossible, and so we too form our little nest. Our nest is simply to assume that we are what now we want to be, and we do assume it, that mentally we are seeing the fulfilled desire. See it reflected in the faces of our friends. See it reflected in society. See it reflected the whole vast world over. And regardless of the blows of the day, regardless of the gusts that come, the rumors that come, we simply hang on to what we are hatching out. Not a power in this world is going to stop it, it will come out! One after the other we bring them to this world of ours.803 ¶21

Then, if we are faithful with this unrighteous mammon, the day will come, we will receive the Son. He who has the Son has eternal life in himself; he who has not the Son has not eternal life. But let us first prove ourselves faithful with the unrighteous mammon. And then will come the day we’ll be given the power to stop and start what is forever; for all this is forever, all these are the characters of God’s world. You are not anything that you are now wearing; you are the wearer, the actor. “God only acts and is in all existing beings and men.” The actor is God. The costume…alright, call it Hamlet, call it Neville, call it John, call it any other name in this world, all these are the characters that God created. They’re almost…you could call them resultant states of his first creative act; and then he buried himself in these costumes and plays the parts. Let no one tell you there’s any moral order in this world. There’s only an order of nature to which the whole vast world of man and beast and birds and animals and everything else are subjected. They’re all subject to it.803 ¶22

Then he has to bring forth the first inkling which God brought forth and that is faith: “I’m the first of his acts of old…before he brought forth the universe I stood before him as a little child.” And the word translated “as a little child”—I stood beside him as a little child—is Amen. The Hebrew word Amen simply means “faith.” In its essence that’s Amen. So he brings it forth first, for by faith he created the universe. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” . “By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that the things that are seen were made from things that do not appear” …all from the invisible reality.803 ¶23

So, you simply single out the man, the woman that you want to be and assume that you are it, regardless of what the world will tell you. Then live faithful to this unrighteous mammon; because reason tells you that you are not and memory tells you that you’ve never experienced this, so you are falsifying the record. But we are encouraged to falsify the record. You read it carefully, the 16th chapter of the Book of Luke. And so, the rich man called his steward and highly commended him for what he had done by falsifying the record to make friends for himself of the unrighteous mammon. Well, the word steward originally meant “a ward of the sty,” in other words, a keeper of the pig. The pig has always been the symbol of the redeemer and the savior of the world, so the keeper of the savior of the world. Well, who is the savior of the world? We’re told in Isaiah, the 43rd chapter, “I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your savior…and besides me there is no savior” . So, if I am the keeper, if I am the steward of the sty, the steward of the mystery of God the savior of the world, and he tells me “I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel,” then I am the keeper of the savior; and he is my own I AM.803 ¶24

If all things are possible to God, now start on this level and then serve faithfully the unrighteous mammon. Just try it. Righteousness is right thinking; unrighteous is seemingly wrong thinking—I am not faithful to the record. But I will not be faithful to the record, I’ll change it. If I am faithful to the record, I am simply not competent forever and forever and forever. The purpose is to make me a creator like my Father, he creates. I can’t create if I can only observe automatically that which passes before me.803 ¶25

So, nothing passes away. The past hasn’t really passed. I slipped into it and having slipped into it 200 years ago, it is still taking place. The diners who dined 200 years ago are still at that very moment in time dining. This moment is taking place and will forever take place. It cannot pass away. This little building will go, you and I will make our exit from this world, but this moment in time is clothed as it is now clothed and cannot pass away. The building will go, certainly, bigger buildings will come here, and you and I will make our exit from the scene. But the scene is caught in time and that section of time is forever, and you can’t take it away.803 ¶26

Tomorrow in which we think we go it is taking place. It’s not going to be created; it is all done. Read it carefully in the 3rd chapter, the 15th verse of Ecclesiastes: “That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been. And there is nothing new under the sun.” It is all here, and you and I only become aware of increasing portions of that which already is. So, becoming aware of it [...] is simply, change it. I know it is taking place, and we are automatons until we practice this wonderful art of falsifying the record. I call it revision. The Bible doesn’t use the word revision, but I try to make it more understandable to our section as it were. They speak of it as repentance. Repentance is a radical change of attitude towards life, but a radical change.803 ¶27

Well, if today I reflect on the day and my recall is fairly good, if I recall the day and a portion of the day is not a very pleasant thing, well then, at the moment of recall change it. I’m saying to someone, “What do you owe my lord?” My lord is my own consciousness. “Well, I owe him so much.” “Well, then sit down quickly and modify it. You don’t owe him that much at all. Make it fifty percent.” “And how much do you owe, one hundred percent? Well, make it eighty percent.” There are certain things in my life that I can’t possibly change more than fifty. You meet a man with one foot missing, and you know in eternity he hasn’t a foot that is missing, but at the moment you can’t quite bring yourself to believe the foot is going to grow, so you can’t forgive him one hundred percent. But you can modify it and say, in spite of the handicap of a foot gone or an eye gone, he still can be successful and happy and in love and being loved in this world. So the absence of a foot doesn’t make any difference. So you can modify it to a certain degree.803 ¶28

There is not a thing in this world you can’t bring down to some degree. So in one case he gave it fifty percent; another case he only gave it twenty percent. But you can take everything in this world and to some degree improve it by lopping off some little portion of it, if only five percent.803 ¶29

And so, at the end of a day, take your day, bring it into your mind’s eye, try to get as perfect a recall as possible, and then play the part of the unjust steward. Then, forgive it, completely forgive it: that’s not so and so, so and so happened. And may I tell you, it works like a charm, just like a charm. Here’s a simple little thing.803 ¶30

My brothers are great humorists. I think they are. So they were late in sending me my check. I’m 5,000 miles away…so they say, “Oh well, Neville doesn’t care, forget it.” So after all it is my money. I have a portion of the stock. They should have held a board meeting five months ago, for the fiscal year closed the end of September of last year. So certainly after the closing of the businesses the end of September they should have decided what kind of dividends they’re going to pay. Well, they didn’t. They have all the money they need and they take it for granted I have all the money that I need, so “Forget him, he’s 5,000 miles away and he can’t complain. And if he does, so what does it matter, we are too remote to even respond to his complaint.” Then finally my brother Victor became aware, “Well, after all, we shouldn’t do this to Neville, so we will simply send him a check.” So he sent me a very lovely big check last Saturday, but he had to get his little humorous note into it. He dictates this letter to his secretary, mind you, of all the people in the world, and then here comes this letter with the check enclosed, and he said, “Because of your dire need I’m sending this check off to you,” this draft.803 ¶31

So a friend of mine only a week before (how God works)…only a week before a friend of mine who works for RCA, and he always puts into the mail, almost daily, some little thing that the salesmen bring him. It’s a choice little morsel. He mimeographs it or has it photographed, and then he makes multiple numbers of it and sends to his friends. Well, this one that he sent to me was a man standing at a bar with a huge big mug of ale, a bulbous nose, and no pants, and here he is, a picture of him with a big smile on his face, holding this huge thing in his hand, and no pants on him, and the caption of it is, “Good heavens! I’ve forgotten my wallet.” So I took this and I wrote my brother on this little note, a thank-you note, and told him he must be psychic. He must be psychic because I didn’t get my wallet, and now he’s filled it for me. See, all these little things…I never would have thought of such a thing, but my friend sent it only a week ago. Usually, you read it, you laugh and you tear it up and throw it away, but for some reason or other I kept it. I kept it as a little piece of paper on which I could answer my brother and thank him for filling my wallet for me.803 ¶32

So you see, let us falsify the record. This whole vast world is for one purpose: for hatching out. It’s for…really, this is educative darkness, and the purpose of life here in this world is simply to exercise our talent which is God, our own wonderful human Imagination, and simply learn the art of image making. The art of image making…you simply, well, what do I want in this world, not only for myself but for my friends? Well, they may not even want it, but you think it’s lovely, want it for them. If it’s a loving gift no one returns it. If the gift is unlovely, they should return it, and you who offered the gift will be stuck with it. But if it’s a loving gift and should they stupidly return it, you would not be unwilling to accept it, you the giver. Therefore, give only the loving things in this world.803 ¶33

And be just like the little dove that is now being pummeled from above and below and all over the place. But she and he are faithful. They’re being fed. Are we not told: Are you not more worthy and you are worth more than five sparrows…and not a sparrow falls but your Father knows it? Are you not of more value than the sparrows? Well, the little dove is being fed, whether it be the male or the female, they don’t get off the nest. Whoever is there the other one brings food and gives it, and they remain faithful to their purpose which is to warm and to hatch out that little egg. And of all the birds I know of the dove is the most careless in the making of a nest. They don’t make good nests. They almost drop the egg on a piece of leaf. They expect in some strange way…other birds will build a nest and do it beautifully, but not a dove. That’s why they use the symbol of a dove to descend upon man the one that he loves, the one who has his favor, and to smother him with kisses because he brought forth Jesus Christ. He brought forth the symbol of his faith, for Jesus Christ is faith— that is the word “Amen”—who stood beside him in the very beginning, because he couldn’t make a world without faith. “We understand that by faith the world was created by the word of God” so he had first to bring forth faith. And so, everyone must bring forth the child, the Christ child, and the Christ child is your faith. Therefore, when you are born from above, it is symbolized in the little infant wrapped in swaddling clothes which is Jesus Christ. You bring him forth, symbolizing your faith.803 ¶34

Now let us go into the Silence.803 ¶35

[...] the very platform right on this level of Caesar. The subject is concerning the making of things in this world. There is a Maker and we are called upon to test this Maker. That which appears as made points to an activity that does not appear. As we are told, “What we see was made out of things which do not appear” . Now, I am asked to test this principle. So in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he said, “Test yourselves”…first of all, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test” . So tonight we want to test this principle, for he tells us that “By him all things were made and without him was not anything made that was made” . And this presence that makes everything is within us. Now I must find him and put him to the test, for I’m called upon to test him. It didn’t say he makes only the good but everything—good, bad or indifferent. So I must now really test him, this presence. I tell you I have tested him and I know who he is. He is my own wonderful human Imagination. That is Jesus Christ…there never was another Christ. There never will be another…my own wonderful human Imagination. When I say “my” I’m speaking of all of us.798 ¶1

As Blake said, “I know of no other Christianity and of no other gospel than the liberty of both body and mind to exercise the divine art of Imagination. Imagination the eternal world into which we shall all go after these vegetable mortal bodies are no more.” And then he adds, “The apostles knew of no other gospel than this wonderful human Imagination that creates everything in this world.”798 ¶2

Now how does he create? John Stuart Mill defined causation in this manner: “Causation,” said he, “is the assemblage of phenomena which occurring some outer phenomena commences and begins to appear in this world.” To put it in our language, I would say, causation is the assemblage of imaginal states implying the fulfillment of what we desire. If now we can set it in motion, activating it, it will produce that which the assemblage implies. Its potency is in its implication.798 ¶3

Now, you and I are confronted every moment in time with a new problem. As H. G. Wells said, “All life throughout all the ages is nothing more than a continuing solution to a continuous synthetic problem.” You and I think if I only had x-number of dollars I could live for the rest of my earthly days comfortably. So I map the whole thing out. I think that’s going to do it…but it won’t do it. I have it all set, then comes something penetrating my wonderful setup, like inflation or the unforeseen, and it disturbs my wonderful [...] and makes me now conceive an imaginal solution to this continuous problem. I will not in eternity find a set state, not in this world. So I think if I had so much money I could live beautifully and then all of a sudden it doesn’t work, it doesn’t fit, because something penetrates it, inflation or this, that or the other, and all of sudden the whole thing is disturbed, forcing me now to use my Imagination, my creative power, to construct some imaginal solution to this new problem. This synthetic problem is defined in the dictionary as “the compiling of separate elements which produces a new form.” So something penetrates my form, and then it forces me with this new form to conceive a new solution to that form.798 ¶4

Now this is how we do it. I’m confronted with any problem I don’t care what it is. I look at the problem, I don’t duck it, I see it. Now, what is the solution to that problem? Suppose I were in jail, well, the solution would be to be out of jail and not [...], to have someone simply discharge me for reasons I need not know, but I am out of jail. I’m sleeping at home and I’m not listening to anyone knocking at the door to re-arrest me. If I were not in jail and I were free, where would I sleep? I would sleep at home. Well then, while in jail sleeping, I assume I am at home sleeping. I construct a scene implying the fulfillment of my desire. You say, “Well, will it work?” I know it works.798 ¶5

In San Francisco a few years ago this lady rose in the audience and she said, “My brother has been sentenced to six months hard labor in the Army. I don’t know what he did, but something he did and he is sentenced. He tells me he is innocent.” I said, “I’m not asking you whether he is innocent or not, what do you want?” She said, “I want him set free.” I said, “Were I you…would he come to your place if he were free?” “Oh yes he would. That’s exactly where he would come.” Well, she went home and she simply imagined she heard the doorbell ringing downstairs and she imagined that it was her brother. She rushed down the stairs, flung open the door, and here is her brother standing a free man. She did that until it took on all the tones of reality; it seemed so natural to her. One week later while seated upstairs the doorbell rang and she rushed downstairs, threw the door open and there’s her brother. I asked no question as to how, but he was discharged. Who brought this action or who discharged him I don’t know, but he was not running away from that prison. If they simply heard the case over again and found that they had faulted, I do not know. I only know she rose the following Sunday in my audience in San Francisco and told that story. In one week he was out and just as she had imagined.798 ¶6

Now if she didn’t know this principle, she would have remained at home and stewed and stewed for six months until he’d done the time and then he was out. I tell you, everyone, use your Imagination, for that is Jesus Christ and by him all things are made and without him there was not anything made that was made . You name one thing that wasn’t first imagined, just name it. Tell me something in this world. You might point to the mountains or to the earth, to the stars, but is Imagination limited to this level? Can’t you conceive of levels…and levels of Imagination? Your dream proves that and your visions certainly prove that. You go into divine imagining, same as human imagining only on higher levels. This whole vast world is sustained by divine imagining, and our imagining and divine imagining aren’t two but one. We are keyed low. So we are called upon to exercise this talent of ours, this power.798 ¶7

Now, faith is not complete until through experiment it becomes experience. That is, on this level you can experiment with the great promises of God, and God is your own wonderful human Imagination. You can on this level experiment with all that he tells you: “Whatever you desire, believe that you have it and you will.” You can experiment with that. So, faith is not complete until through experiment it becomes experience, and then you are on sure ground and you can walk safely.798 ¶8

If you know an unseen objective, something that’s seen differently, and then you constructed a certain scene, an assemblage of mental states which would imply the fulfillment of it; then you activated it…you entered into the very center of it and you imagined the whole thing is taking place, and you felt all the tones of reality concerning this, and then you close the book on it. Then it happens in a way you did not devise…it seemed to come into your world across a bridge of incidence that you did not rationalize. You didn’t construct the bridge. You simply had to walk across this bridge to the fulfillment of what you had done. After you’ve done it, repeat it, and then try it again, and it worked, well, then you are on sure ground. You know exactly what to do whenever you are confronted with any problem. You see the problem, you don’t duck, you look at it, and then you construct some imaginal scene which would imply the solution, the fulfillment. Having activated it, you simply drop it and let it come into this world. And it does! If you are so sure of that then you can tell it and share it with others.798 ¶9

But many of us, I speak now of the Christian faith, and it’s so fatally easy to make the acceptance of Christianity a substitute for living by it. So, I say I’m a Christian. All right, you say you’re a Christian. Tonight, in New York City alone there are one million on relief and I dare say that ninety percent of them will tell you if you ask them that they are Christians. So they accept the very word “I’m a Christian” but they do not know the beginning of Christianity.798 ¶10

For, I am told that Christ is not on the outside: “Do you not know that Jesus Christ is in you?” that’s what Paul challenges us with in that 13th chapter of 2nd Corinthians. If I say yes to that, then I can’t look for any Christ on the outside. I can’t go seeking anything, for I’m told in the Book of John that when he appears I am like him . Can I go looking for someone who really looks like me? When he appears I am like him. Well, I better start looking for him now and Paul tells us where to look for him: “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” Well, if he’s in me and he makes me and he makes all things, I’ve got to find what in me makes all things. Then I discover, why, it’s my Imagination.798 ¶11

That I imagined this…that when I was a boy I dreamt of leaving little Barbados, unschooled, with no background, and coming to America. Didn’t want to go to England, I didn’t want to go to any part of the world, I just wanted America. So when I was seventeen, I became so restless that my parents put me on the boat and put $600 in my pocket and sent me off to America, knowing, so they thought, I would come back after I spent the money. That would take me no time they thought, spend the 600 and come on back. Well, that’s forty-odd years ago…the year was 1922. Oh, I’ve gone back many a time on vacation, but certainly not to live. I’ve gone back time and again just to see the family and to have a nice vacation. But this I felt as a boy…I wanted it, so I began to dream I would live in America. When they came home I wanted to hear every American voice. Englishmen came, Frenchmen came, all kinds of people came, because it’s a little island with ships coming and going. But it was simply the Americans that fascinated me. And so, eventually through my fascination I had to come to America.798 ¶12

Can you become enamored over something I don’t care what it is? So you say, “Well, I would like to be” and you name it. Now, if you would become that then how would you see the world if it were true? Then in your Imagination begin to see the world as you would see it if it were true. If you do it in this manner, no power in the world can stop you from becoming it, but no power! Well, if it becomes true, haven’t you found Christ? Or the words of scripture are false: “By him all things were made and without him there was not anything made that was made.” Well, if that is true and I have found a Maker in me that produced a certain thing—I have done it numberless times; I’ve taught it to others and they have done it numberless times—haven’t we found him? Haven’t we found who Jesus Christ really is?798 ¶13

Now listen to the words, “Unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins” . This is not a man on the outside talking to you. This is something taking place in you: unless I believe that I am he I die in my sins. Oh, I know in the world of Caesar when one wears the garment of flesh even though they have completely experienced the entire drama of Christ, when they tell it, the world just simply puts their hands over their ears to shut out this blasphemy. Because they firmly believe that he is coming from without if he ever comes and that he came from without and died 2,000 years ago and that is an historical fact. They can’t believe in the true Jesus Christ, that when he comes to any individual he comes within that individual, unfolding the entire story as recorded in scripture. When the individual has the entire story recorded in him, or re-experiences in him, he knows who he is. There’s only one story and only one being plays the part and that is God.798 ¶14

“God alone acts and is in all existing beings or men” . Only God plays that part and that story is told in the gospel, which is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. So if the individual has the entire story unfolding within him and finds himself cast in the central role—that he is not a spectator observing the drama, he is the central actor, and God alone acts—then he knows who he is. Then he goes out and he tells it. But while he wears the garment of flesh they will not listen and they will say to him, “You have a devil. You must have a devil because you’re blaspheming the name of God.” He said, “My Father is he whom you call God and I know my Father and you know not your God.” He knew his origin and his destiny, and no one would believe him because he wore a garment of flesh. But he knew the entire story unfolding within him and the whole thing awakened within him. Those who heard it were not expecting that kind of revelation, so they simply would shut him out as one who blasphemed the name of God.798 ¶15

But here, within me I hear it: Unless I believe that I am he I will continue missing my mark in life, which means “sinning.” For “to sin” means “to miss the mark,” miss the goal. So I have a goal…if I don’t believe I am really the Maker, the Creator of all things, and I pray to another, I am missing the mark. So the words are, “Unless you believe that I am he, you die in your sins.” So anyone who will not believe…you go to bed tonight…you must assume that you are already what you want to be. That assumption, though at the moment is denied by you reason, denied by your senses and is false, if persisted in will harden into fact. This is how we create. I create and make something out of things that do not appear.798 ¶16

So I assume that I am…and to prove that I am it in my mind’s eye I bring a circle of friends to congratulate me and allow them to congratulate me on my good fortune. Then I sleep having received the congratulations of those who would empathize with me were it true. So they actually believe because they now congratulate me they have witnessed my good fortune. Then I sleep in that assumption. I wake tomorrow morning, I’m in the same environment, but I’ve set things in motion and now some bridge of incidence, some series of events will appear in my world which will compel me to move across that bridge up to the fulfillment of that which I have assumed.798 ¶17

Well, if it happens and I repeat it, and share it with another, the other tries it and it works, then what does it matter what the world thinks? I have found him and I have found the one the world worships as someone on the outside. They make pictures of him and it doesn’t resemble the Maker. You make a picture of Jesus Christ, hang it on the wall, bow before it, and it’s so unlike the artist who painted it or who wrote it, and it’s not that at all. “When he appears, we will be like him” . That’s what we are told in the first epistle of John: whenever he appears then I am just like him. So I know from my own experience when he appears the drama as told in scripture unfolds within me. You are the one playing the central part and only God acts. God alone acts and is in all existing beings and men, so he simply puts himself into the central part and unfolds the eternal drama in you; then you know that you are God.798 ¶18

Last year in San Francisco just before the first meeting (I gave ten lectures) and this lady came to me and she said, “You know, Dr. [...] died suddenly. He was sitting quietly and all of a sudden he dropped over and he was gone. I always thought that you and Dr. [...] were the greatest in the world teaching.” I said nothing. I didn’t know Dr. [...]. I saw him in book stores when I went into bookstores in New York City. I met him just casually, but I never once heard him speak. She sat in the audience and I started on the concept that man is God and God is man. “Man is all Imagination, and God is man, he exists in us and we in him; that the eternal body of man is the Imagination, and that is God himself” .798 ¶19

Then I told the story of a lady who is now departed this world, how she had this experience where she was in this enormous room with these huge pillars, alone, one chair in which she sat. Then she noticed a carriage, not drawn by a horse, self-propelled, and it came up. Then the door opened and I stepped out with a briefcase, wearing a cape. I came through this door into this enormous area and I began to proclaim the power of God, sheer power. And she said to herself, “Why that’s Neville and yet it is God. It’s Neville and it’s God…Neville and it’s God.” And then when I got through, without recognizing her I turned and then as though by appointment the carriage came back into sight and I stepped in and it vanished. Well, it so impressed her that she wrote me the letter and told me.798 ¶20

I simply told her that everyone is destined to discover that he is God, everyone in the world. There’s nothing but God. God conceived it. There was no one to play it and he played the whole thing himself like conceiving a glorious poem that exists only for the one who conceived it, the poet…it doesn’t exist for itself. But he so loved it he wants all the characters to exist for themselves and finding no one to play it he buries himself…he dies to all that he really is and takes on the limitations of the characters. Then he goes through all the tribulations and then slowly awakens in all the characters. Now he’s individualized but he is God. He is still Neville, the character in the play, but he is now God. He is still John, he is still Jim, he is still everyone, but he is God in the very end. This is the story.798 ¶21

Well, she wouldn’t come back after the meeting to greet me and never came back the other nine. She was so shocked, yet a few minutes before she is telling me I am the greatest in teaching the Truth. She hoped I would conform to her little concept of what Jesus is and what God is, and I didn’t. I came right out and boldly proclaimed that we were all God, but all are not yet aware of it, and that we become aware of it when the story as told in the gospels concerning Jesus Christ, who is buried in everyone, suddenly awakens in the individual. When he awakens, the story unfolds in that individual and that individual then knows that he is Jesus Christ.798 ¶22

For if Christ is in me, where is he? “Do you not realize,” said Paul, “that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless, indeed, you fail to meet the test” . So I take a test and prove him on this level. I want to go some place and I can’t afford the money, I can’t afford the time, and conditions around me deny that I can do it. So I put myself there any way, just as though I had made the trip, and I sleep in the assumption that I am where I would be if I made the trip. Then everything changes and compels the trip, the money comes, the time is allowed, everything comes and I make the trip. Then where is Jesus Christ? Was he not my Imagination? Well, that’s what scripture teaches.798 ¶23

But man has taken this wonderful story, personified it into one little being, and then has made of him a little icon so that all men bow before a little man-made god when the true God is your own wonderful human Imagination…that’s God. Now, if all things are made by him, and you can this night imagine something that is not now a fact, and persist in that imaginal act, and tomorrow it becomes fact, haven’t you found him? Well now, having found him don’t give him up. As you are told in the end of the drama, “Now that you have found me, let these men go, but don’t let me go.” At the very end of the drama they’re looking for him and no one knows him. One knows him and he betrays him. Well, to betray someone you must first know that one’s secret. I can’t betray you if I don’t know your secret. So the one who knows the secret betrays him and that one is himself. It’s self-revealed; he reveals himself. Unless God reveals himself, how would you know him? So he turns to all the others who did not know him and said, “Now that you have found me don’t let me go, but let all these go.” Let everything on the outside go, but don’t let me go.798 ¶24

The drama is within oneself. If I find him in myself, then don’t, no matter what argument the wise men of the world give me, don’t listen if it is in conflict with what I have found. I have found Christ and Christ is my own wonderful human Imagination. I may tomorrow forget it and be penetrated by the rumors of the world. Then suddenly the body collapses and I suffer the penetration because I am penetrated by something that disturbs the mold. I must then instantly re-establish my harmony by imagining what I would feel like if things were as I desired them to be to get back into that state. I can’t stop the penetration. I’m living in this wonderful, fabulous world.798 ¶25

As we brought out in the last lecture that to perceive you, you must first penetrate my brain; therefore, at once you are within me and at the same time without and independent of my perception. But you are within me. That’s enough for me. If you are within me, I don’t have to go searching for you. Everything penetrates me, like cities and mountains and rivers, everything, or I would not be aware of them. It must penetrate my brain for me to become aware of them. So at the moment of penetration it’s within you even though it still maintains a certain independence of my perception of it and it is without.798 ¶26

Now, if I will treat this inter-penetration seriously, oh what possibilities! I don’t need to go any place other than where I stand now to adjust myself to be elsewhere. For if I am all Imagination I must be wherever I am in Imagination. So someone penetrates me and I want to contact him, all right, I simply in my mind’s eye adjust myself to this communion that they’re here, not there. I make there here and then now, and then adjust myself within myself to everything that has ever penetrated me. For if God is within me, is there any place where God is not? There’s no place where he’s not. Then where would I go to be where I want to be? And so, if everything penetrates me, well then, I will simply single out that which has penetrated me and adjust myself to it.798 ¶27

Like tonight, if I want to be elsewhere in this world, I will adjust myself to that and put myself there through the feeling that I am that. How would I know I’m there? I view the world from there and I will see it as I would have to see it if I were there. How do I know I have moved? Motion can be detected only by a change of position relative to another object. So I’m standing here and as far as the world goes I haven’t moved, but in my mind’s eye I have moved because I now observe the world differently, and I see it as I would see it were I there…yet physically I’m still here. Everything is here because everything has penetrated me. So I simply by a mental adjustment, I adjust myself to being the man that I want to be.798 ¶28

Well, how will I know that I’ve made that motion? Have my friends look at me, and if they see me as they formerly saw me, I didn’t move. Try it again. If they now see me and I see it on their faces, the expression which implies they see in me the man that I’m assuming that I am, I’ve moved. I have moved from whatever I was to where I’m now assuming that I am. So let them look at me ‘til I see on their faces that which would imply to me that they see in me that which I’m assuming that I am.798 ¶29

Now, there’s no other way to tell that you’ve moved, for motion cannot be detected save by a change of position relative to another object. The motion of a single object is stupid. They couldn’t tell unless there is a frame of reference against which it moved. Well, I have a frame of reference. I have my friends in this world and they will know if anything happens to me. If tonight I drop dead, there will be a little motion, and one friend will call another friend, another friend, and finally dozens will know Neville died. So they will know.798 ¶30

If on the other hand something good happens to me, they’ll know it in the same way, that little chain reaction. One will call another and say, “You know what happened to Neville? He did so and so or so and so happened.” They’ll all know it. Now, let me bring into my mind’s eye a small circle of those who know me. I’m assuming now that I am what I want to be and then I assume that they’re looking at me, and they’re congratulating me, and they’re empathizing with me. Well then, at that moment having felt the reality of all that I’m doing I drop it. Now, if it comes to pass just as I have imagined it, haven’t I found Jesus Christ? If he does all things and not a thing in this world ever was made that he didn’t make and I made that, well, haven’t I found him? Who is he then? Is he not my Imagination? So I tell you that my Imagination, your Imagination, is Jesus Christ.798 ¶31

God became man that man may become God. And God is all Imagination, and becoming man, he’s man’s Imagination. So “Man is all Imagination and God is man, and exists in us and we in him. The eternal body of man is the Imagination that is God himself.” God alone acts; he’s the only actor in the entire world. So I can act the part of a fool, the perfect fool. I can act the part of a very poor man and play it beautifully. I can act the part of a rich man and play it. It all depends on what I want to be in this world. Not everyone wants to be rich…you may think they do, but no they don’t really. They want enough to live on and to live well, but not everyone is really moved to be rich. If they are moved to be rich and they don’t know this principle, they remain poor, because they’re looking to a God on the outside and trying to coerce him into doing something for them by acquiring merit. You can acquire all the merit in the world, you can be so good that the whole vast world will think you’re the best person in the world, and yet remain the being that you don’t want to be. You’ve got to know who you really are.798 ¶32

And no man really knows himself who does not know the revealer, and the revealer unveils himself within you as your very being. In my experiences, I never saw another one do it. I was not a spectator of another; I was the actor playing the part, the very part that is written up in the gospels as played by Jesus Christ. So you tell the story while you wear this little garment that decays…and they are simply shocked beyond measure. You seem to be so blasphemous when you make these bold, bold claims, and yet you can’t deny what happened to you. I could no more deny this than I could the simplest evidence of my senses. I know what I ate tonight and yet it is not as vivid in my Imagination as the experiences of playing the story in the gospels. If I now relive tonight’s dinner, why, it fades in color, in everything, compared to these dramatic events that took place in me many years ago. These are as though they’re taking place now, they are so vivid and so real.798 ¶33

So I say to everyone, the one who makes everything in your world is your own wonderful human Imagination. It may seem a cruel thing to say to one who is now experiencing something that he does not want that he made it, but I have to be honest with myself. I have suffered, I have gone through all kinds of physical pains, but I could not deny…even though I could point to something and say, “Well, I caught the flu.” So I caught the flu. Caught it where?—all within me. Read the paper that forty to fifty percent of the country, well that would run in to tens of millions of people, so I got it just like fifty million or maybe eighty million, I don’t know, and went through all the pains and all the fevers and all the heat, and dropped off twelve pounds (which I haven’t regained).798 ¶34

But I learned a lesson: I can’t deny that I am subject to everything that man is subject to, even though I have experienced the drama of Christ Jesus. The entire story unfolded within me, placing myself in the central character. Yet, in spite of that I have to go through everything, because I cannot point to any other cause other than my own Imagination, I can’t. The cause cannot come from without. I don’t care what it is. If I’m in pain tonight, the cause has to be traced back to me.798 ¶35

As we’re told in Galatians , “Be not deceived; God is not mocked”—and God is my own Imagination, so he isn’t mocked—“as a man sows so shall he reap.” “You see yonder hills, the sesamum was sesamum, the corn was corn, the silence and the darkness knew, and so is a man’s fate born” . So I can’t pass the buck. Anyone who comes to me, they tell me a story, I’ve got to go right back to the imaginal act in that being and try in some way to resolve it. So I tell you here, to go back to quote once more John Stuart Mill, “Causation is the assemblage…” and now I’ll quote it in our words, “the assemblage of mental states, which occurring produces that which the assemblage implies.”798 ¶36

So you create some assemblage of mental states implying you are what you want to be. Now you enter that state and you believe it…you become one with it. Perform all these inner acts just as though they were outer acts, and then watch it come to pass in this world. The whole thing will come to pass.798 ¶37

And don’t think you’ll ever find a stopping place in this world. If you live to be a thousand, you’ll never find that you have built one little mold that will endure unmoved, undisturbed forever, because you’re being penetrated morning, noon and night by everything in this world. So I think I now need to be perfectly harmonious for the rest of my days and tomorrow it is disturbed, forcing me to use my talent to construct an imaginal solution. Then having constructed an imaginal solution [...] it and then it’s resolved. But do not expect you’re going to find any permanent state between now and the end when you depart this world.798 ¶38

May I tell you, you aren’t departing it. You depart it relative to those who cannot follow you, but you haven’t departed it. You’ve entered another section of the same world and will continue to do so until that story as told in the gospel repeats itself in you. Because of his indwelling in you, it will be repeated, for that is the story of God being born in man and coming awake in man. Were he not in man, it could not be repeated; but he is in man as man’s own wonderful human imagination. So when you depart this world before you experience this story, don’t think that you are dead…dead only relative to those who can’t follow you. To yourself you are very much alive and once more made young—not a baby but young, about twenty—in a world best suited for the work yet to be done within you, until this thing erupts and unfolds within you.798 ¶39

After that, the next time you depart a section of time you leave this age altogether and enter an entirely new age, that age spoken of in scripture as “the kingdom of God.” Don’t try to visualize what it is because images of earth will not enter to help you at all. It’s something entirely different, a new life, a new being, a new body.798 ¶40

Now here, treat it seriously tonight, because it’s right down on this level, and you can prove it. Before we meet again you can prove it if you really believe it. We live by our beliefs…giving it lip service is not enough. Just as the whole vast world of Christians give lip service to Christianity and make that a substitute for living by it. It is not…it must become something alive within us. Do I really believe in Christ? Yes, I do. Well, do I know who he is? Yes, I do. Who is he?—my own wonderful human Imagination. Does he make everything in your world? Yes. Well then, test him and see. I will. Now, instead of saying I will and forget it, will I keep that always in mind so that when confronted with any problem I will simply construct an imaginal solution which would be the true solution of that problem, and then enter into that image and abide in it as though it were true? Well, I will…I’ll try to, try to always remember who the Maker is, for he makes things out of things that do not appear and he himself does not appear.798 ¶41

He’s like quicksilver. You can catch him best in a daydream. As Fawcett said, “Divine Imagining, which is God, is like pure imagining in ourselves. He lives in the very depths of our souls, underlying all of our faculties, including perception, but he streams into our surface mind least disguised in the form of productive fancy.” So in that form of creative fancy and suddenly I’m daydreaming I could catch him…that is God. For he who is dreaming that’s God. God is the dreamer. All dreams proceed from God, whether it be a day dream or a night dream and everything in this world was preceded by a dream, or call it an imaginal act.798 ¶42

So you take it seriously and test it. You are invited to test it. You who have a Bible (I hope you all have Bibles), it’s the 13th chapter of 2nd Corinthians, and you’ll find what I told you in the 5th verse. It’s a very short chapter, you can’t miss it: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” And it’s stated all through his letters that “Christ in you is the hope of glory” …not Christ in history. Well now, if he makes all things, then put him this night to the test. Now, let us go into the Silence. * * *798 ¶43

Those who experienced the Christian mystery are charged with the responsibility of telling others. The aim of their preaching is the awakening of faith in God. That is their purpose, for they have experienced God. But as Paul said, “How can men call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how can they hear unless there is a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!’ But not all have heeded the gospel.”797 ¶1

As Isaiah says, “Who, O Lord, has believed what we have heard? Who has believed what we have told them?” So faith comes from what is heard…and what is heard comes from the preaching of Christ.797 ¶2

Now Christ is the most misunderstood term in the world. When you hear the word Christ you think of a person outside of yourself, some being 2,000 years ago. That is not Christ.797 ¶3

I speak of the cosmic Christ who became humanity. He is buried in every child born of woman. God became man that man may become God. So when we hear the words, “How can men call upon him in whom they have not believed?” Well, you say to the average person in the world, which may be almost 100 percent, “Tell me, do you believe in God?” Maybe many of them would say yes to that question. And you ask them who is God and they will paint all kinds of word pictures of something other than themselves. So how can man call upon one in whom he has not believed? If I tell you the only God in the universe is your own wonderful human Imagination and when you say “I am” that is God. He’s encased in the limitation of your little garment. But that being when you say “I am” that’s God.797 ¶4

How can I call upon him in whom I have not believed? I don’t believe that I am he…I don’t believe in him. Well, how can I call upon him then? Then how can I actually believe in him of whom I have never heard? What preacher ever told you that your own wonderful human Imagination is God? They paint a word picture of a God outside of you and so you’ve never heard of the true God. And when someone comes and tells you of the true God, to you that is blasphemy, because you can’t believe for one moment that you are creating the conditions of your life. For God is the only causative power in the world and there is nothing but God.797 ¶5

So everything in the world is caused by God. God is the only reality, the only causative power in the world. So how on earth can I actually believe in him of whom I have never heard?797 ¶6

Well now, how can I hear of him unless there is a preacher and then how can there be a preacher unless he is sent?797 ¶7

You read in this morning’s paper that Peter’s throne is not his throne. That nonsense has been perpetuated for the last thousand years upon the gullible, the blind leaders of the blind. Here is man actually being told a thousand years ago this is the little throne upon which Peter sat. Now it’s a holy thing encased in something to protect it from decay, and now science comes and proves by their own knowledge of time that it’s only a thousand years old or 900 years old and here we are told that Peter lived 2,000 years ago. Now they have to take it out of its little cabinet and put it where it belongs. They should burn it! It was all nonsense to begin with, and it is still nonsense. And here, they perpetuate it. They’ll take it out and keep it as some holy relic when it was never any more than a piece of thing upon which some self-appointed nut sat. They call him by the name and they gave him some holy name of a pope-this and a pope-that, and a holy this, or of some emperor. Here now the whole thing has been completely revealed after one thousand years of nonsense.797 ¶8

What are we going to do when this whole thing is perpetuated and man does not want to hear the truth? He doesn’t want to assume the responsibility that he himself is responsible for everything that happens to him.797 ¶9

The only God in the world is your own wonderful human Imagination. That is God. But you look out upon a world and you think if God is my Imagination, I had not a thing to do with the creation of the world. You don’t know it yet. Because for a purpose not yet revealed to you by yourself, not by another God, God assumed the restriction and the limitation of his own creation. He became his created world so that he may expand beyond it, and expand a still greater world for even further expansion of himself. For God is an ever-expanding illumination. And he takes upon himself the limit of contraction called man, the limit of opacity called man that he may break the limit and expand. That’s the glory of it all.797 ¶10

So anyone who has experienced it cannot conceal from anyone what he has experienced. He is under an obligation to tell it. As Jeremiah said in the 20th chapter, “If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in this name,’ there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.” If tonight you paid me not to talk about it, well then, keep your money. I cannot stop talking about it. I must share my experience with others to encourage them to believe in God, but it is my responsibility to tell them who God is. Not to believe in God…for a billion people have different concepts of God…the little icons that someone…the little chair called Peter’s chair.797 ¶11

And when men take the characters of scripture and believe them to be characters of history, they are simply taking truth modified to the limitation of the weakness of the human soul. The characters of scripture are not characters of history; they are personifications of the aspects of the human mind, every one from Jesus down. Jesus is a personification of the fulfillment of the plan that you yourself set up in the very beginning of time. You planned it before the world was. The world came into being, and you and I came down into our own creation. And Jesus is the fulfillment of our plan.797 ¶12

So when we have fulfilled it and the whole story of Jesus unfolds within us, we’ve got to tell our brothers who are still sound asleep and wean them from this nonsense where year after year they are told of some external God to whom they must turn and pray…some external God to whom they must bow and pay homage to this being. And there is no external God. It is Christ in you that is the hope of glory. There is no other Christ. Christ is the plan of redemption and it is Christ in man. It is really a pattern, the pattern that was before that the world was, and that you and I actually agreed upon, and simply became what we created, knowing that there’s a pattern that we in the depth of our own being would one day fulfill.797 ¶13

Now, “Unless you believe,” said the pattern man, “that I am he, you die in your sins.” Put the little word “is” in this manner, “Unless you believe that I am (is) he, you die in your sins.” And they did not believe that he was speaking of the Father. Well, the Father is the cause. The Father is the cause of you and without a Father you couldn’t be. He was speaking of the Father and they did not understand that he was speaking of the Father when he said, “Unless you believe that I am is he.” So I tell you when you say “I am” that is the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no other Jesus Christ.797 ¶14

Well, how do I know that he is Jesus Christ? Read his story as told in the gospel, just read it. He was born from above and he said, “I am from above and you are from below; where I am going you cannot come, not now.” And they said, “What is he going to do…is he going to kill himself, for he said that where I am going you cannot come?” No, he is returning to his own being, for he has fulfilled scripture. He’s telling every being in the world, he’s only returning to the source of it all, and he is the source. There is no other source. It isn’t that you will not come, but you cannot come now. Not until here you have fulfilled what you and I agreed upon before that the world was, for you and I agreed to dream in concert and we will not break our pledge to each other. You and I came down from heaven; we are the ones who descended. We came down right into our own creation; and this is our creation, and we’re playing the parts. Everything in the world you and I created. Well, if I think of another God, I am sound asleep. So he who comes comes for one purpose, the one who is sent. By whom is he sent? He’s sent by himself: “He who sees me sees him who sent me.” Well, who is the one who sent you? The one you call God, but I call him Father. For I found him, and he and I are one.797 ¶15

So now we’re told the one who really broke through, his name is called Paul in scripture, and Paul spent his days from morning ‘til evening expounding the kingdom of heaven and trying to convince all with whom he spoke about Jesus. He turned to the Old Testament, for there was no gospel, he turned to the Old Testament and from the law of Moses and the prophets he tried to convince them about Jesus. Some were convinced by what he said while others disbelieved. But he welcomed everyone who came, and teaching Jesus Christ, and some believed and some disbelieved.797 ¶16

Well, that’s all that I can do. Having experienced exactly what he is talking about, all that I can tell you is what I have experienced…that Jesus Christ is the only reality…it is God the Father. Where is he? He is in you, in me. In what sense? Well, say “I am”…that’s Jesus Christ… there is no other Jesus Christ.797 ¶17

Well, how do I know that that is Jesus Christ? I’ll tell you how you will know. You will know in this manner. The day will come when some peculiar vibration will possess you. It’s called in scripture the wind: “The wind blows where it wills and you hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell whence it comes nor whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit.” Well, the wind will possess you. Your whole body will vibrate and you will awake. You will awake in the tomb where you buried yourself; because “No man took away my life, I laid it down myself. I have the power to lay I down, and the power to lift it up again.” And I laid it down within my own creation which is man: “For eternity exists and all things in eternity, independent of creation which was an act of mercy.” So man is part of the eternal structure of the creation of the universe, and I laid myself down within man, part of the eternal structure of the universe.797 ¶18

Now, what is this act of mercy? I would like to change the word “creation” to “re-creation.” It’s a transcending of my own creation. I come down into my own creation and by re-creating it I transcend it, and awaken myself from this body of death.797 ¶19

So one day you will actually awaken within your skull, and the symbolism of scripture concerning the birth of Jesus Christ will surround you. But it’s all about you, not another; you are Jesus Christ coming out of Golgotha, your own skull. And the little babe wrapped in swaddling clothes is right there. Those who witness your birth are there, but they can’t see you. Why? Because you’re Spirit, you’re God, for God is Spirit. They can’t see you who are God-begotten. You are self-begotten and you come out.797 ¶20

All the things told in scripture concerning Jesus Christ you are going to experience and then you will know who Jesus Christ is. It’s a pattern buried in man which one day will unfold in man, and man is the entire story of the Bible. It’s not about another, it’s all about you. The Bible is your own personal spiritual biography. That’s the story of Jesus Christ.797 ¶21

So let them talk about all these holy relics and all these little things. Let them do it. Forgive them for they don’t know what they’re doing. They are the blind leaders of the blind.797 ¶22

Now, someone said to me, “Is that all that you talk about?” I said, yes, I talk about Christ, always Christ. “But isn’t that limited? Doesn’t that become monotonous? Isn’t there some point where you exhaust it?” I said no, there is no end to the mystery, but no end to the mystery. I preach Christ always.797 ¶23

I preach him crucified on humanity; not on some little piece of wood in the Near East 2,000 years ago. There was never any man who was crucified in that manner. Yes, we have insane men like our Hitlers, our Stalins, and these people who will do it man to man. In our own land we have had men who will take innocent fellows and string them up on a tree and think they’re doing God’s business. Yes, we have these insane people. But that’s not the story of Christ. Christ became humanity that humanity may become God. And the one who came down and who became this was God.797 ¶24

See, “No one ascends into heaven but he who first descended from heaven, the Son of man.” The Son of man descended from heaven? Yes. Buried in you is that one who is going to come out of you, and coming out of you then he is the son of man. He is the one who descended from heaven and he’s the one who is God.797 ¶25

Listen to it carefully: “I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star.” Yes, I am the root, I am the father of David; and yet I am the offspring of David. So the father of David and the offspring of David are one and the same being. So here comes the grandfather and the grandson as one being, and as one being they are the father of David. David is the symbol of humanity, for humanity does the Father’s will. Everything in this world is doing the Father’s will. Say “I am,” that’s the Father. And whatever you are assuming that you are that you are going to do.797 ¶26

Now listen to these words in the Book of Samuel, “And the Lord said:—and he’s speaking now to the boy Samuel, and the word Samuel in Hebrew means “his name is God.” Sam-u-el, “his name is God.” So here, the boy Samuel is saying…and now he’s speaking because the Lord is speaking to him and these are the words, “Those who honor me I will honor and those who despise me they shall be lightly esteemed.”797 ¶27

Now you think of a being on the outside? No, your concept of yourself is either your honor or dishonor. You feel little when you meet someone, well then, you are dishonoring God. Have you ever met anyone in this world you thought more important than yourself? Oh, he’s richer, he’s bigger, he’s stronger, and he’s more handsome. He’s everything that you think you are not. But did you feel little in his presence because he had more money, that he was wiser, that he was stronger, or that he was better dressed? Then you are not honoring God because God’s name is I AM. And when you felt less-than you were not honoring God. So, he who honors me I will honor him and he who despises me then he shall be little esteemed.797 ¶28

Read it in 1st Samuel, the 2nd chapter, and I think it’s the 30th verse. You read it carefully. It’s the little boy Samuel who heard the voice coming seemingly from without. For he went to the old man, the prophet Eli, which means “my God,” and he thought “my God” was another. He went to another and he said, “Go back and dream again, my boy.” So he went back and he dreamed again…dreamed the same thing. Goes back to Eli: “Go back and dream again.” He’s still dreaming the same thing and when the dream is repeated it means that the Lord has spoken and it will shortly come to pass…and it did. He became the great prophet.797 ¶29

So here, the Samuel in us…I heard a voice say…the voice is speaking from within me. What did he say? “Those who honor me I will honor them, and those who despise me then they will be lightly esteemed.” You talk to anyone and they say I do so-and-so and they’re embarrassed of what they do? Well, if they are embarrassed because of the job that they have then they are despising the name of God which is I AM.797 ¶30

So someone asks you in some social gathering, “What do you do?” and because they have a Ph.D. they are so proud that they have a Ph.D.; and you have to confess, well, maybe you’re a busboy and you feel embarrassed. You say “I’m a busboy.” They are so proud that they’re a Ph.D. and so you feel little, then you’re despising the name of God by feeling that way. Don’t let anyone in this world make you feel little. Oh, they’ll try it, but they’ll only try it when you feel little. When you don’t feel little, it doesn’t matter what they are and who they are and where they are, when you don’t feel little no matter what you have—you have not a nickel in your pocket but you don’t feel little—you know who God is and God is your own wonderful human Imagination…that’s God. Well, you can’t be more than God! All right, so you’re God.797 ¶31

So you walk the earth…not in an arrogant way…no, you aren’t arrogant. But you don’t let anyone put you down.797 ¶32

See, I was born in a little island called Barbados. The island is just like a farm, a huge big farm. Everything is planted in order to produce a dollar. So we planted in sugar cane; and the products of sugar cane will be molasses, rum, and so on. So this is an interesting setup. From the time that I was a child we had no chemical fertilizers, none whatsoever; we only had the animal products to fertilize the fields and you and I know it is called manure. We gathered it all together, and then after about two years of gathering it, then we would simply scatter it to fertilize the fields. Do you know what we called it long before telephones were invented and radio and TVs? We called that broadcasting. Now is the time of broadcasting…which meant we took all the manure, the droppings of the animal and we broadcasted it. Well, isn’t that appropriate today of the broadcasting? It’s broadcasting. Long before there was such a thing as the telephone, we broadcasted. So, today you will drop your teeth, drop your hair, drop everything if you don’t buy this product. Well, isn’t that b.s.? Then from b.s. you go to M.S. and that’s more of the same thing, then Ph.D.…it’s piled high and deep. So that is the story.797 ¶33

Let no one in this world make you feel little. You are God. God is buried within you as your own wonderful human Imagination. That is God! There never was another God.797 ¶34

Now you’re invited to test it. Well, how do I test God? You’re told in the 13th chapter of 2nd Corinthians, “Come prove him and see. Test me and see. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” Well now, that’s quite a challenge. Well, if he’s in me, how do I test him? You tell me he is my Imagination and I tell you Imagination creates reality, because Jesus Christ is the creator of the world and therefore he creates reality. Well now, let me imagine that I am what at the moment reason tells me that I’m not, and my senses tell me that I am not. Can I believe that I am what they deny? For, the purpose of this preaching is to awaken faith in God and God is your own wonderful human Imagination. So it’s to awaken faith in your Imagination.797 ¶35

How on earth can I believe what at the moment everything is denying? Well, try it, just try it. Walk as though you are the man that you desire to be…asking no favors, asking no one anything. What would it feel like if it were true?797 ¶36

For that feeling is brought into scripture: “Come close, my son, that I may feel you.” Come close that I may feel you, for I am blind and I cannot see what I am assuming. So the father said, “Come close, my son.” His name was called Isaac. So Isaac said, “Come close” and Jacob came close. You find all through scripture the father is the blind one and the son is called, and as he is called he said, “Come that I may feel and touch you.” So when Jacob was calling his grandsons he said, “I’m blind, I can’t see.” He called and Joseph placed his sons before him, and he crossed his hands and put one hand on the head of one boy, one hand on the head of the other and reversed it, and then he justified his act. When Isaac did it to Jacob, he did the same thing, “Come close that I may feel you.” Well, in this what would the feeling be like if it were true? How would I feel now if I were the man that I want to be? Just what would it feel like?797 ¶37

Well now, feel that and believe in Jesus Christ. Well, who is Jesus Christ? Just what I did…he’s my Imagination. When I say “I am” that’s the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other Lord; there is no other Jesus Christ. Well now, is that really true, are all things possible to him? Yes, all things are possible…but it takes faith.797 ¶38

Listen to what I quoted earlier, “And it comes through faith, so hear it.” You must hear it, and then hearing with acceptance comes through faith. “How can men call upon him in whom they have not believed?” The average person does not believe in himself.797 ¶39

So when I wrote my book Your Faith is Your Fortune before I wrote the very first chapter I wrote one little line and I said, “Man’s faith in God is measured by his confidence in himself.” I can’t tell you what criticism I’ve had because of that statement, but it’s still there, I haven’t taken it out. For, my faith in God is measured by my confidence in myself because the self of man is God. And so I put it there and it’s still there. So, how can I call upon one in whom I do not believe…because, the average man does not believe in himself. He has faith in everyone but himself.797 ¶40

He says, oh, I’m working for a wonderful person. “You are, for whom?” “Mr. So-and-so. And you know what, today I had lunch in a certain restaurant and what do you think? I saw Mr. So-and-so dining.” And you ask him quite simply, “Did he pick up your check?” “No.” Then what on earth does it matter? So he dined there, and he paid for his dinner and you paid for yours and you’re impressed because he came to the same restaurant? No, that is the man’s mentality the world over.797 ¶41

And so, how can I call upon one in whom I do not believe? I don’t believe in myself, so how can I call upon him? And how can I believe in one of whom I have never heard? No one told you? No. And how can I hear unless there’s a preacher, and how can there be a preacher unless he’s sent? So the one who is sent is one who has experienced the mystery, and he doesn’t ask favors of anyone in this world.797 ¶42

What on earth should I ask the pope or the Cardinal of England or all these so-called leaders what to say? What on earth could they tell me after they’ve dethroned the little chair of Peter? They took out all the medals last year…you can’t pray anymore to St. Christopher because he doesn’t exist. He is no longer a saint, he doesn’t exist, but he did for hundreds of years and brought in millions of dollars to the church. So I tell you, you don’t owe anything to anyone, because God himself became you.797 ¶43

And as you’re seated here and you say “I am”—even though tonight you can’t pay rent and you haven’t eaten well today—the being who owns the whole vast universe, who created it and sustains it is within you. When you say “I am” that is his name. So when you say call upon his name, his name is I AM. You call with the name by saying “I am…” and then you put a title on it “I am free, I am wealthy, I am healthy”…you put something on it, because the name is I AM and he is the creative power of the universe…and there is no other God. None!797 ¶44

The story of Jesus Christ I personally, as I stand before you, I have experienced it in detail from beginning to end. So I know what I’m talking about; I am not theorizing. Christ in us is God’s plan of salvation and God in us is I AM. So when you have the experience, who’s having it, the other one? No, I am having it. So you experience the story of Jesus Christ in the first-person singular, present-tense experience. You don’t see another being born; you are the one who first resurrects and then who is born. The whole thing unfolds itself within you. I stand before you as a witness to it all. And I spend my last days like Paul testifying from morning to night. The phone rings, letters come, and I have to answer the letters, have to answer the phone. All that I’m talking about is testifying to the kingdom of God, and trying to convince every one who will listen to me about Jesus Christ. All that I use to persuade them is simply the Bible, the law of Moses and the prophets, and my own experience which is simply the interpretation of the law of Moses and the prophets. The fulfillment of the law and the prophets is Jesus Christ. He came only to fulfill scripture…that’s all that he came to do. He comes in us to fulfill scripture.797 ¶45

So let no one make you feel little for one moment. You don’t feel arrogant, no. I meet no one in this world that I do not respect.797 ¶46

I can‘t meet anyone…he shines my shoes in the barber shop, I respect him. He will come on, he’ll do all kinds of things, and he will sing and talk…to the annoyance of the boss-barber who thinks he should not be so intimate with the customer. But I’m talking to him all the time, enjoying his company, for he’s shining my shoes, so what? That’s God…I’m shining my own shoes in the being who’s shining my shoes. I respect him. So he has a wife to go home to; he has to take money home to pay the rent, to buy the food and to buy clothing. But because he plays that part, it doesn’t mean that he is less than. Others come in because they’re going to give him a quarter after he shines their shoes, and the boss-barber hopes you’ll come back…so what! That’s all the little business things.797 ¶47

But we’re all brothers. Behind all these masks we are brothers. I knew you before that the world was; and before that the world was we were one being and that one being is God. But we were made up of a brotherhood, infinite brothers. And in spite of the infinite number we all know each other individually, distinctly, in spite of the numbers. And we formed one being. We came down and became fragmented into our own creations. We’re going back and going back to the one being that we really are. That one being is God the Father…and you are God the Father. One day you’re going to know it.797 ¶48

Now let us go into the Silence. * * *797 ¶49

Before we take the questions, we’re closing two weeks from tonight on the 12th, Friday night, two weeks from tonight. We re-open on the 5th of January, Monday the 5th. I do not know whether I will send out notices or not, but make a note of it in the event I do not. I’ll definitely take an ad in the paper, but you may not read the paper. I’m reopening on the 5th of January and I’m only closed for three weeks. So I’m closing two weeks from tonight which is the 12th. Now are there any questions, please? No questions? The night is young…yes sir?797 ¶50

The very first symbol given us in the Bible is that of water. You find it in the 2nd verse, the 1st chapter of Genesis. Before his first creative act, we’re told that God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.” Before his first creative act, he moved upon the face of the waters. Water is a very precious symbol to me because of my first vision at the age of seven. But what is this water that he is speaking of? Here we are told in the 2nd chapter, 13th verse of Jeremiah, “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns, that hold no water.” So here, he now defines himself as living water. In the 4th chapter, the 10th verse of John we are told, “If you only knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” Here we find the same living water. He’s telling you he has the power to give you living water, which God defined as himself. So what is the living water? Here, you listen to it carefully, for now we have the truth. And this is in the Book of Proverbs, the 27th chapter, the 19th verse, “As in water face answers to face, so the mind of man reflects the man.” Now we see what the water is: as in water face answers to face, so the mind of man reflects the man, not the mind. The mind is but a reflector—it reflects the man, the operant power. He has living water.796 ¶1

Blake, of whom I am very fond and speak about all the time, his first vision was that of a tree of angels, at the age of eight or nine. So he came into the family, and he told his parents he’d just seen a tree full of angels. His father, to make him a sensible boy, prepared to give him a sound thrashing. Fortunately for Blake, his mother interceded and saved him. Maybe that’s what mothers are for, to protect us from our violent fathers. Nevertheless, he wasn’t thrashed, but the father wanted to make him a reasonable, sound, solid citizen; and he was seeing angels in a tree. That’s the earliest thought we have of Blake, of anything said about Blake, and the last thought is said about a neighbor woman who was present at his deathbed. Then she went home, and she told her relatives she had just been at the death not of a man but a blessed angel. That’s what Blake taught all his life: “We become what we behold.” And here a neighbor could say she saw the death not of a man but a blessed angel. No, he didn’t become it immediately. And undoubtedly there were unnumbered moments in his life in the seventy years that he lived where there were many, many an unangelic moment, if you read the story of Blake carefully; but in the end, he fulfilled what he beheld. All through his greatest poem, Jerusalem, that one thought permeates the entire hundred plates. “They become what they behold.” We do, every one of us.796 ¶2

And so what is your concept of yourself today? Is your concept truly what it ought to be? A child of God or a child of Mrs. Brown? Sweet and lovely as Mrs. Brown is, sweet and lovely as your parents are in this world, it can’t compare to the concept you could hold of yourself, which is “I am the child of God.” If that truly is your concept of yourself, and you look into the mirror of your mind and behold such a concept of self, it may not appear immediately in your world, but it will appear. For by this law, we become what we behold.796 ¶3

I know that when I was seven, my first vision was that of water. It used to frighten me. It happened once a month until I reached the age of puberty. I could always tell when it was coming because of that mood that would build up in me during the day. And it always repeated itself. I would become an infinite ocean, and yet I was a wave moving upon the breast of that ocean. During that interval of the night, I was both ocean and wave. And as wave, I was tossed into the air and then received back unto myself on the bosom of that ocean. It was a frightening experience. But the ocean was a very angry ocean, a turbulent ocean. And then it passed when I reached the age of puberty.796 ¶4

Then it was taken over by another concept of an ocean; and this time, the ocean was living water. That was when I was in my early twenties, maybe twenty or twenty-one, in the city of Larchmont, in New York City. This night in question, as I faded from this world, I became one with an immensity—I had no circumference—and it was all liquid golden light. But not an angry light, it was a soft, pulsing light. The whole thing was soft and pulsing, and I was it and there was nothing but. There was no wave now; there was integration, complete integration. I was one pulsing, living, golden liquid light. It lasted through the night. For when I woke in the morning, my book that I was reading was on my chest, a very big heavy book, proving that I had not turned in my sleep. I must have been in trance. I must have gone into some cataleptic state sometime in the early evening, for the bed was practically unmoved, untouched. The sun was up, and the reading lamp was still lit. So I must have had eight or nine hours of a deep catalepsy, in this infinite ocean of golden, pulsing, liquid light.796 ¶5

But now, the mirror took on a different form. In such a mirror, you could see what you want to see. In such a mirror, it’s not a broken image, as when I was a boy of seven; that was a broken image. I couldn’t see anything in such a mirror; it was too turbulent. But then came that moment in time when I truly sought him. As we are told in Jeremiah, “If you seek me with all your heart, I shall be found by you… and then I will restore your fortunes” . If you really seek me with all your heart, I’ll be found by you. Then all your fortunes that seem to have gone will all be restored. And so everyone can find him. Everyone will find him, when they’re thirsty to find him, for there’s a thirst that only an experience of God can quench. Nothing in the world can quench it but an experience of God.796 ¶6

So here tonight, this living water is your mind. You are not mind; you are God. God moves upon the face of the waters, and we are told in that 27th chapter, that 19th verse, which I just quoted, that as in water face answers face, so the mind of man reflects the man. And that man is a mind; the mind reflects the man. The man is God. God became man that man may become God. So when you look into the mind of self, what are you seeing yourself to be? Whatever you behold yourself to be, although it may not in the immediate present externalize itself in your world, if you are faithful to the vision, no power in this world can stop you from externalizing it within the world. But no power!796 ¶7

So in the words of Blake… and he was faithful to the divine vision in time of trouble. All the troubles of the world, the turbulent seas of the world, did not disturb the vision. He beheld the vision of an angel, a true angel. So they say he’s mad. I heard it here only recently. My wife said someone who came here asked one of the teachers in the city what he thought of Blake, and he replied, “Oh, well, that man was mad. He’s insane.”796 ¶8

Now, Blake had all of the attributes of insanity, all the assets of insanity, but none of its liabilities, none. Would we were all as mad as he was mad. If we were as mad as he, then we would see what he saw. He wasn’t mad. He actually saw the twofold vision. He saw the threefold vision. He saw the fourfold vision. The fourfold vision I will touch on Tuesday night, when I speak on the power, the wonder working power of attachment: for that’s the fourfold vision. But he was always twofold vision at all times. Nothing to him was simply what it appeared to the senses. A tree was not just a tree. That is what he called a single vision, Newton’s sleep, the sleep of the scientists, where, well, the moon is not a moon, the sun is only a sun, a burning body. To him it was simply angels proclaiming the glory of God. So he looked at a thistle—wasn’t only a thistle, “an old man gray.” No matter what he saw, he saw it doubly: everything had another image contained within it, until finally he could reach the fourfold vision, and that’s the perfect vision.796 ¶9

But here, when the mind you accept it not as some little thing that the outside world would train, just as a mirror; leave it just as a mirror, and you determine what you want to see yourself as you look into the mirror and conceive yourself to be one with God. And as you look into the mirror of your own mind, fully believing that you are he, like all mirrors, they won’t change the image, it will reflect it. And the day will come that you will be rewarded with actual experiences to prove to your own satisfaction that your image is true. You have all the experiences as recorded in scripture. For the mirror only reflects you. So if your concept of yourself is a little person, beaten, poor, and insecure, as you looked, you are going to get only confirmation of it.796 ¶10

Tonight you can give to yourself any gift in this world. If you only knew the gift of God and who it is, saying to you, “Give me a dream,” you would ask of him and he would give you living water. Not just water for which you would now thirst again but living water. If you really believe this is how it works, that you don’t need any being in this world, you have the mirror. Just steady it. As told in the 23rd Psalm, “He leads us beside still waters”—not stagnant water; it’s still and it can reflect. He restores my soul this way. So he leads me beside the still water. And so the mind is brought still. I’m not anxious, I’m not concerned, and I know if I look into my mind and see you as I would like to see you and convince myself and persuade myself of the reality of that image of you. I need do nothing to make it so; it becomes so. It unfolds in its own specified time, and then you conform to the image that I hold in my own mind’s eye concerning you.796 ¶11

So the mirror only reflects the concepts I hold in myself. Not you, it’s my concept of you that I should be faithful to. If I hold the most noble concept of you and others in my world, and I remain faithful to my vision, there’s no power in the world that can stop it from externalizing itself in my world.796 ¶12

So here, this symbol of water is really very, very close to me. For I go back in time, the very first… we recapitulate all the things said in scripture, and the first image is water, and my first vision was that of water. I can’t tell you how frightening it was until I reached the age of puberty, and then it vanished. Then it returned as I turned into my twenties, but this time the water was not turbulent. It was living, really living water. I was the only thing: I was it. And yet there was no world, there was nothing, just living, pulsing, glowing, golden light, infinite light. And then I knew, later on, that into this I could see anything that I wanted to see; and seeing it, no power in the world could stop it from coming to pass. And then because you’re not a wise man, you haven’t the scholastic background, you haven’t these things to support your claims, but no power can disturb it. For these experiences belong to a region that is much deeper and more real than that which the intellect inhabits. So all the arguments in the world that they throw up cannot disturb it, no matter what they tell you.796 ¶13

And so the eternal question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg”? And so it has shattered the minds of unnumbered people trying to figure out which came first. For reason tells us you couldn’t have a chicken unless you have an egg, and how could you have an egg unless you had a chicken? So which came first? The eternal problem. You can resolve it in no time with Imagination. That’s a foolish question and any attempt on the part of man to answer it is a foolish answer. They came from each other. I came from God, and God came from me. I’m just like the egg. And God, from himself I fell. He caused me to fall as the hen causes the egg to fall. That’s the end of the doctrine of the fall, no other fall. And then from that state I simply rose, like a chicken out of the egg. And that’s the end of the doctrine of evolution: I am one with the very being in whom I was before I fell from him. So we all fall, predetermined setup, as told us in the 1st chapter, the 4th verse of Ephesians, “And he chose me in himself before the foundation of the world.” Yes, he chose me in himself before the foundation of the world. And then when all things were prepared, just like a nest—for that’s what the world is, all these galaxies, just like a nest—he drops me. I fall upon God, right into the nest; and after incubation, I, by an effort within myself, come out. And so that eggshell is just like your skull. It’s sealed, just as your skull is sealed, and within it is all that was its seeming Creator, no more, no less. When it’s all complete, you will come out. When it comes out, you will be one with God, just like God, containing within itself the same power to beget itself and drop its own being into the galaxies and let gods appear. And so only Imagination can bridge that gap between, which came first, the chicken or the egg? No, they are one; they come from each other. As told us in the 3rd chapter, the 16th verse of Galatians: And so out of man comes Christ… “and your offspring who is Christ.” I know the whole vast world teaches something other than that.796 ¶14

But to me, religion begins in revelation, and then it falls into dogma, into ecclesiasticisms, into rituals, into all these outer things; and there remains bound. But that’s not the truth. The truth is vision. Tell the vision just as it was given to you. If it doesn’t make sense to those who hear it, tell it without distortion, tell it just as it came. If they don’t understand it, do not modify it that they may understand it. Tell it just as it came. And so this is exactly how it happened.796 ¶15

So just as you’re told, “We become what we behold,” I’m trying to encourage you to take an image this night. It may be that this image you will take tonight would need no more than, say, a day, a week, or a month to materialize. I do not know the interval of time. But take a lovely, noble concept of yourself where you are contributing to the world’s good. Where you really contribute and feel clean and wholesome in that contribution. What would it be like were it true? Well, now look into your mind’s eye and see yourself as that being who contributed. For you can conceive yourself as that being. If you can, look until actually you feel the thrill of being such a being. Now, in a way that no one knows it will hatch out because out of that very vision of yours will come all that it takes to externalize it in your world.796 ¶16

You can be anything in this world that you want to be if you know how to move upon the face of the waters, and the face of the waters is simply moving upon your own mind, that’s all. You don’t argue with anyone. You ask no one to help you. You simply look at your own being and conceive yourself to be the man, to be already that man or that woman that you want to be. And ask no one if it is possible. If it is wealth that you want, well then, let it be wealth. If it is recognition that you want, then let it be recognition. If it is an increase in talents that you’re now expressing, then an increase in talents. I don’t care what it is. Conceive yourself to be already the being that you would like to be, and conceiving it, look for confirmation.796 ¶17

Were there not a reflection in this world, no one would know what he looks like. So God creates a reflector right away. It’s a mind; it’s called water. But then it’s explained to us in Proverbs what he means by water, and he tells us, “As face in water answers itself, so the mind of man reflects the man” . Not reflects the mind but reflects the man. So what is that man to himself? Then look into his mind. As he looks into his own mind, you will see reflected in that mind—it’s only a mirror—what he is to himself, and by the law that all things become what they behold, he can’t help becoming such a man. He can’t help it!796 ¶18

So I tell you, dream nobly, dream the most idealistic states in the world, and then remain faithful to your dream, just as though it were true. And if you do, it’ll come to pass without the help of any being in the world. You don’t need it. You need no one to assist you—you’ll become exactly what you imagined yourself to be.796 ¶19

So this living water is not some strange thing that he’s going to give you. He’ll give you the message, that’s what he’s going to give you. He’ll tell you all about yourself. If you are thirsty to be other than what you are, ask of him—he’s within you—and tell him. He will give you living water, something so alive that it reflects exactly what you are. Nothing turbulent; I went through the turbulent state. Undoubtedly, that’s exactly what man in his earlier stage went through, where he couldn’t see anything reflected. He only saw confusion and turbulence. Then came that moment in his time when he could steady the mind, and the mind took on a living quality and became living water.796 ¶20

But you take primitive man: he can’t conceive that anything that he is doing is causative of things that are happening in his world. He can’t conceive because he can’t see any reflection in his mind; because the mind isn’t still, the mind is too turbulent. But when man controls that mind, he turns from that violent stormy sea, which I experienced as a boy of seven, into that living, pulsing but reflecting light where he sees himself as he looks into it. Because, looking into it, the strangest things happen.796 ¶21

One day, reading or contemplating a similar image that was in the book that I read that night when I fell asleep—for I was reading The Life of Buddha when this first happened to me. And then this night in question—not reading the book of Buddha but contemplating Buddha—as I did so, before my eyes came this huge big flint. And then without effort on my part, it broke into many small fragments, and then invisible hands molded it into the most beautiful meditating figure that was like a Buddha, meditating. As I came closer and looked at it, I was looking at myself. I was the thing that I’m contemplating. And the thrill that was mine! Here I saw this Eastern figure sitting in the same posture as you find a Buddha, the little statue of Buddha, made of this flint. As I looked at myself and saw I was the figure that I contemplated, it glowed and glowed and glowed. When it reached the intensity of light it exploded, and then I was back where I was before.796 ¶22

This mirror of the mind reflects perfectly what you do. And so I tell you, try it. Try it this night. Take a glorious concept of yourself; take it of a friend; take it of your father, your mother, and your child; and you remain faithful to the image you hold of them. Do it without their knowledge, do it without their consent, and just hold it in your mind’s eye until you can see it, see it clearly. You don’t have to do anything beyond that, just see it clearly in your mind’s eye, and then leave it. In a way that no one knows and you could not consciously devise the means to bring it to pass, it will come to pass.796 ¶23

Now, in the very end of the book, the 22nd chapter of Revelation, brings us back as it started the Book in Genesis. We were all invited to come, those who are thirsty, come and take it without price. Take what? Take this living water. So the entire sixty-six books are permeated with this living water. And when you come to the very last chapter, almost the last verse—it’s the 17th verse of the 22nd chapter of Revelation—once more he brings in the theme of this living water. So everyone is invited to come and drink without price, buy it without money, and take it.796 ¶24

Anyone who hears me this night, you have it, so it will cost you nothing to try it. You need no more than a determination to be something other than what you are and something great, something noble, something wonderful. Then, in your mind’s eye, see yourself as that person.796 ¶25

A nice way to see yourself as that is to bring a friend into your mind’s eye and have your friend by his expression and the sound of his voice and what he is saying confirm that he sees in you such a being. Let him see you, and then in your mind’s eye, see his expression, one of complete satisfaction if he’s a true friend, no envy on his part if he’s a real friend but pride on his face because he has you as his friend and he’s so proud of your accomplishments. If you want to add to it, carry on a mental conversation with him from the premise that he actually sees and approves of this you that you have become. That will tell you what you would see if you didn’t have that to reflect against your mind, what you would see in the depths as yourself. You will see the same being that he is seeing. So take a friend and use a friend to confirm that image of yourself.796 ¶26

And may I tell you, you will be surprised how it works. But you must want him. Even “he who seeks me with all his heart, he shall find me and I will restore all of his fortunes.”796 ¶27

But you must seek him. But all… I must really want him with all my heart. When I want him, but really want him, I’ll find him.796 ¶28

Then you have that enormous satisfaction that it doesn’t really matter if all the wise men in the world rose in opposition, it would make no difference whatsoever. You’re not speaking of this sphere. Not speaking of something you can see with a telescope or a microscope; it can’t be seen by any instrument made by man. It’s something entirely outside of the range of telescopes and microscopes. So you simply look right in and see it.796 ¶29

When you become it, reason will step in and try to justify it, and all the wise men will say, “But you know that it would have happened anyway. Look, you met so and so, and then he in turn introduced you to so and so, then you got the breaks. And because you got the breaks you’ll become it. But don’t expect someone else to do it.” And then they’ll always try to minimize the working of this wonderful power. But I tell you it never fails. It never fails.796 ¶30

Everyone is invited—the 55th chapter of Isaiah, the very 1st verse—“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the water,” but everyone. No limitations, not just those who are of a certain race or who belong to a certain tribe but everyone who thirsts, come to the water. And there’s no price to it. Come and take it without money, without price. So everyone is invited if he’s so thirsty to come to this water.796 ¶31

So throughout the entire sixty-six books, it’s permeated with this fantastic water, and the water is your own wonderful mind. The one who’s looking into it morning, noon, and night is the man that you really are—and that man is destined one day to awake to find himself God.796 ¶32

Yes, you fell, deliberately. God allowed you to fall, for the name Yod He Vau He, the verb He Vau He, [...], means “to fall” or, causatively, “to cause to fall”; or “to blow the wind” or, causatively, “to make the wind blow, or make it move.” And so it was God, for that’s his name, Yod He Vau He, who like the chicken allowed the egg to fall. But in that egg which was fertilized by God is himself; and then after incubation, it from within makes an effort—for the plan is all there—and breaks it. Then it rises as does a chicken, capable of the same creative power, the same creation, that that which seemingly brought it into being, one with God, its own begetter.796 ¶33

So tonight, if you have a concordance and you want to pursue it beyond the hour, just take it and take the word water, and go through chapter after chapter and see what is said of this wonderful water. First of all, the argument in the 4th chapter of John, the minute he tells of this water, “Well, how can you do it? You have no bucket, no rope, and the well is deep. You mean the water you would give us is greater water than I can get from this well that our forefather Jacob dug for us?” And he tells you, “With this water you thirst again. The water that I’ll give you will be a newer well of water, springing up into everlasting life. It will never change.” But she couldn’t quite understand him, and then he revealed who he is to her.796 ¶34

The first miracle performed in the gospel of John is turning water into wine; in other words, into living water. From a turbulent state, you turn it into something alive, a living water.796 ¶35

So we are told, in the first letter to Timothy, the fifth chapter, “Drink no more water; use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your many afflictions” . It hasn’t a thing to do with wine that you and I would enjoy with a good meal. But you stop simply absorbing what to do and you become a doer, and you do it. So stop drinking water: stop simply absorbing news morning, noon, and night as to what I should do to become what I would like to be; and then become a doer, and do it. So you turn water into wine. So the first miracle performed in the gospel of John, which is in the second chapter, he filled stone jars with water and drew forth not water this time but wine, living water. For that’s what wine is. It’s something alive. And so he turned it into something that is really living in the life of man.796 ¶36

So if anyone goes out of here tonight, using wine for your stomach’s sake and not simply absorbing the news, to hear what you heard this night and not do it, you are still drinking water. But if you go out and you never return here again because your pattern changes in the world and you go elsewhere, but you don’t forget what you heard, and not forgetting it you apply it, then you are drinking wine. You are putting it into practice no matter where you are in the world, and as you put it into practice, you’ll get the results to fulfill James’ statement to us, “Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself” . So become a doer, and a doer is to put into practice what you heard this night.796 ¶37

Start with a friend. Take any friend in your world who you think tonight could really be helped financially, socially, and physically. But can he be helped? You think he can be helped, well, then you help him. Bring him before your mind’s eye, represent him to yourself as he ought to be seen by the whole vast world, and you believe in the reality of that image of him. You’re moving like God upon the face of the waters, and you’re creating just as God created in the beginning. “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters… and then God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light” . But he did nothing until he moved upon the face of the water. So you can walk the street and move on the face of the water, ride the bus and do it, sit quietly and do it.796 ¶38

But still the mind. No matter what formerly he or she appeared to be, that’s a very disturbing thought if you must fight with it. No matter what they were, that’s like a stormy ocean if they aren’t pleasant, if things aren’t right for them. So you don’t try to do anything about it. You just bring them before your mind’s eye, as they ought to be seen by you and by the world and by themselves. And so you put that as the image to be reflected from this wonderful moving water, which is your own mind.796 ¶39

So you read it when you go home, “As in water face answers to face, so the mind of man reflects the man.” How can you get around that? The mind of man reflects the man. So a man is complaining that society is not kind to him, that the boss on the job is too cruel, and he’s not making enough money? He’s reflecting only the being that he conceives himself to be, and they in his world are only mirroring what he within himself has set up as a pattern. If he doesn’t like what is happening because they are only mirrors, well, then let him reshuffle the deck as it were and change the concept he holds of himself. Changing it, just let him be faithful.796 ¶40

For remember that interval of time, as told us in the Book of Habakkuk, that second chapter: “Every vision has its own appointed hour; it ripens; it will flower. If it seems long then wait; it is sure and it will not be late” . So every egg has a different interval of time in which to hatch out: that of a chicken, three weeks; that of some other bird, maybe a shorter interval; another bird, a longer interval. The same is true of the eggs that bring men into the world, and sheep and cattle into the world. There are intervals in time. And so your image tonight of a friend or yourself will have its own appointed hour, and if you are faithful to it and not addle it, it will ripen and it will flower.796 ¶41

So I invite you to try it. And then you will know this mystery of the water; for I’ve told you the Bible is a mystery not to be kept secret, but a matter that is really mysterious in character. There’s no reason to think for one moment that it should be held as a secret just for a few of us; tell it to anyone in this world.796 ¶42

But the Bible is not what as we’re told in that passage from Jeremiah, that 2nd chapter, when he said, “My people have committed two evils”—and then he states the first—“how they turned from him, the fountain of living water, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that hold no water” .796 ¶43

And these broken cisterns are simply all of the isms of the world, but all of them. They’re trying to get something out of this broken cistern and you can’t get it.796 ¶44

For the men who wrote our Bible… and no one knows the authors, no one. This one we quoted this night from Genesis, there isn’t a scholar worthy of the name who writes on this book that has any manuscript that is signed. There are three letters. One he speaks of as the J manuscript, the E manuscript, and the P manuscript; and that’s all they have to go by, completely unsigned. There is no identity to the authors. Who were they? How did they come into the world? Were they born as we were born? Did they really come as you and I came through the womb of woman? Or did they appear in our world, as I, one night many years ago, stepped into another world, without going through the womb of a woman in that world. I was just as real as this world, solidly real. And so stepping from my bed into that world and it wasn’t this earth, but a solid world just like this, with people clothed as you are clothed. And if anyone had arrested me there and compelled me to give a birth certificate or give an identification card that would be understood in that world, I could not have done it. So I was not there through any normal channel of physical birth. I returned here, without returning here in any known way.796 ¶45

So who is E and who is P and who is J? They give us symbols and letters, but we have no way of knowing who the author of Genesis is. As far back as we go, you can’t find any manuscript that these scholars would in any way catalog, save it’s the J manuscript, it’s an E manuscript, or it’s a P manuscript. So who are these fantastic authors?796 ¶46

Because if you treat it even as literature, you wouldn’t find anything greater than Genesis. And as far as vision goes, where would we find something greater? But who are the authors? Completely unknown to mortal mind. But there it stands, those fifty wonderful chapters. And the whole thing is permeated with water.796 ¶47

Our historians and teachers of the Bible try to convince us that water was such a precious item in the desert, so precious where this whole thing was laid, that’s why they made so much of water. Hasn’t a thing to do with that. Hasn’t a thing to do with it?796 ¶48

So he comes into the desert to water his flock and the well was there and covered and he rolled away the stone and watered the flock. After he watered the flock, then he rolled the stone back and covered the well, Jacob’s well. So we are the sheep of his pasture, are we not? And so we are watered by anyone who knows how to water it and to feed all the sheep until they are completely satisfied. And then it’s automatically rolled back.796 ¶49

When one comes behind you and reads that same chapter, it’s just like a closed book. He picks up the book, he turns to the 29th chapter of Gensis, he reads the story of the rolling away of the stone and the watering of the flocks, and he wonders, “What is it all about?” If someone knows how to roll away the stone and how to actually take that water of psychological meaning and give it to the world, after he’s done it automatically the stone is rolled back. The one who comes behind him who reads the same chapter can’t interpret it. It’s always a sealed well.796 ¶50

But tonight, you’ve heard it, and I think that you will try it.796 ¶51

So let me now clarify just in a few moments the water on which God moved—he said, “The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”—that water is your own mind. If tonight it’s too disturbed because you are too anxious, then that’s like a stormy sea, a turbulent sea. But wait a while; it will become quiet, still water. Still running, for it is alive, but still enough to reflect the being that you want to see. And then the way to see it is to assume that you are what you’d like to be. Having assumed it, look and see the world reflect that man that you are because they all see it. Having seen it reflected on the faces of your friends, drop it. Just drop it. And that’s the fall. That seed that came from you has its own appointed hour, and it will grow and come into this world.796 ¶52

So you try it.796 ¶53

And may I tell you, after it happens—for it will happen—then share with me your good news by telling me how it worked that I, in turn, may tell it from this platform and let us all be mutually encouraged by our faith. If it works for you—which it will—then you tell me what you did and how it worked, and then I, in turn, will tell it to everyone present. They, in turn, will be encouraged to go on and be as faithful to their visions as Blake was, in spite of all the things that he went through in the interval.796 ¶54

For his life, like the life of every great man, is really an allegory. Every person in the world, his life is really an allegory. People don’t quite realize it.796 ¶55

In Blake’s life… one of the outstanding things, this gentle, tender man who couldn’t hurt a fly, and returning to his garden one day, he saw a drunken soldier and took him bodily and led him down the road. Then the man brought action against him and accused him of insulting the king, which is a frightful offense in England, and it was more so then, in his day. This innocent man was accused because a drunken soldier wanted to get even. It was quite a trial in England.796 ¶56

And then you see this wonderful story, a soldier is always a symbol of authority and a garden is always creativity, and here his garden. He was selling his soul at that time to a man who wanted him to become a portrait painter, and he didn’t want any part of it. So Blake was selling his soul, his creativity, to this man who had money because doing this work, well, then his financial status would be eased somewhat. But he was selling his creative power, and so here, in his garden was the drunken man of authority. For the one who employed him had the authority and the power.796 ¶57

And then he broke it and refused not to make any portraits and not have one model in the world. He never used a model. He saw what he wanted to paint, as clearly as any model could ever be in this world.796 ¶58

When he wanted to draw the soul of a flea, he saw the soul of a flea, and it was man. For the flea is a blood-sucking insect, but men are also blood sucking. Those who employ without proper compensation, are they not taking the blood of others? They don’t care what happens to you when you go home. If you have a family of twelve and they’re not well fed, they don’t care once their profits are big enough. And if you saw them spiritually, just like fleas, for a flea is simply a blood-drinking insect. They are taking the blood of those without proper reward; they’re bloodsucking.796 ¶59

When Blake painted his wonderful flea, the soul of a flea, the ghost of a flea, you should see that monstrous thing, but it’s human. Everything is man in the world. And so the life of any great man, like a Blake, it’s an allegory.796 ¶60

So when he put his garden back in form, then the soldier went up. Blake won the case eventually. They all knew the man was perjuring himself. Blake would not say anything against the crown, and it was proven. But meanwhile, he just went through hell to prove it. But that was the turning point in his life, like the great allegory of his life.796 ¶61

But here, his first thought in the world, “a tree full of angels”; and the very last thought, “I was at the bedside this day not of a man when he died, I saw the death of a blessed angel.” So what he began as a vision, he fulfilled as a man: he saw an angel as a child, and he died as a blessed angel.796 ¶62

So tonight, you see a noble being. When you make your exit from this world, make your exit as it. But your true destiny is God, for we are one with God. He became you that you may become him. Now let us go into the Silence.796 ¶63

This past Wednesday I had occasion to go to an old Bible of mine and there I found two letters of my friend old Abdullah. I had long forgotten them, for they were given to me back in 1930 or ’31. They are now molding and falling apart. They were simply instructions on the Cabala. And the first portion of them would not interest you because it’s all very technical in Hebrew, but there are other portions of it that I know will interest you. And this is what he said in one: “Creatures are never guilty of the seeming wrongs they do. The Lord ordained all deeds, and he alone performs all that is performed.” That’s what it starts with. He accuses no one of evil, for all have fulfilled his command and performed his service. If there is evil, I the Lord alone am evil .795 ¶1

When you first read it on a certain level of awareness you are startled. It’s in conflict with everything that you hold dear. But he doesn’t stop there. He takes a very small, little passage of the Book of John, the 4th chapter of John, it’s a conversation between Jesus and the woman of Samaria, and he said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews” . And then he stops there. When you read it you wonder what it is all about.795 ¶2

Now listen to this grand old man’s interpretation of it. Yehudah…he translates Yehudah as Jew; we Anglicize the word Yehudah and call it Judah. Judah is spelled just as you would spell the Lord’s name, Yod He Vau He, only you insert a Daleth, the letter “d” into the word. Judah was the fourth son of Jacob; in all lists of the sons of Jacob he is given the position of fourth. In the genealogy of Jesus, that is, the one given us in the Book of Matthew, he is the fourth: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah and his brothers. He’s the fourth one mentioned and yet he’s the fourth of the twelve. In the New Testament, he is the first in rank of those who are sealed, as told us in the 7th chapter of Revelation . Here he is sealed, the first one to be sealed among those who are forever the redeemed. And this is what the word Yehudah means: “Salvation is from the Jews.” And you wonder, but what does it mean, a Jew born after the flesh of Abraham? No, the Jew born after the faith of Abraham that brings itself to the point where it is culminated in the promise fulfilled, the promise made to Abraham, the promise of the child . And these are the old the promise made to Abraham, the promise of the child .795 ¶3

And these are the old man’s words, he goes back and he quotes, “You worship what you do not know” and then he translates it in this manner: “You serve; you are blind to that which you serve. You do not know why you serve but you serve. We know what we serve, we know what we worship. We are the beholders of the eternal principle; we are the knowers of the little child. Yehudah stands for ‘the presence of his praise.’ The center of his presence is the mouth, or king; the king is the little child. All heaven obeys the little child; and all earth is compelled to manifest that which the heavens obey; and they obey only the voice of the little child. You must always forever think of the Christos as the little child.”795 ¶4

These are Ab’s words. I’d long forgotten that letter. I’ve had it now, say, thirty-four years in an old Bible that I rarely have occasion to refer to. Then you go back and you read the 8th chapter of the Book of Proverbs, and start at the 22nd verse and go through, say, to the 31st: “The Lord created me at the beginning of his way, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before he brought forth the earth. When he laid the foundations of the earth, I was beside him as a little child. I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the sons of men. He who finds me finds life; he who misses me injures himself; he who hates me loves death.”795 ¶5

Now, here is the personification of wisdom. The Hebrews took all abstract ideas and principles and personified them. So the first creation of God was wisdom, the first emanation. The verb “created” me can also be translated— and possibly has a far greater claim to the new definition of it rather than the old one “possessed” me. The King James Version said, “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his way”; the Revised Standard Version said, “The Lord created me.” But both are correct from this Hebrew verb. You can’t separate God’s creative power and his wisdom from himself…but it’s personified as a little child. Now he said, “He delights.” Well, he delights? If you read both the King James Version and the Revised Standard Version you would think that a little child was the source of delight. Not so in the Hebrew text. In the Hebrew text this “he delights” means that wisdom is the one who experiences the emotion of delight; the creative power is experiencing the emotion of delight. It’s all coming out of the Lord and the Lord is defined for us as “I AM.” That’s the source. But his creative power and his wisdom is that which experiences the emotion of delight; it is the little child.795 ¶6

So Ab said, Always think of the Christ as the little child. And we who are called Yehudah, we the Jews, said he, not by the accident of birth of the flesh but by the faith of Abraham; those who heard the promise, regardless of their racial background, those who heard it and remained faithful to it; and came forward in faith to all the horrors of the world, no condemnation, they were only doing God’s will; and came to the point where it was the little child which was promised. We are now the “knowers of the little child.” Everyone who is the knower of the little child, every one is numbered among those called “salvation from the Jews.” Everyone comes into that state because they know the little child. As Blake said, “The dead heard the voice of the child and began to awake from sleep. All things heard the voice of the child and began to awake to life.” The voice of the child? Yes, he is the very breath, as told us in Ecclesiastes , he is the breath of God and the breath of God makes man alive. Let him remove his breath from man and man dies. But, what is this breath? It’s called breath…breath is the wind. And the wind and Spirit are the same word in Hebrew, but the primary meaning of the word ruwach is really wind. So when they find the child, one said, “I didn’t hear a voice.” But you heard the wind, didn’t you? Well, that was the voice of the child. That was the voice of the child calling the dead from that eternal sleep. So if you heard the wind, you began to awake, and you awoke from what really was the sleep of death. And eventually all will hear the wind, which is the voice of the child, and all will awake to life.795 ¶7

Every word I’ve told you is true. You’ve been promised a child. You’re going to get that child. After you get the child which is born to you, another one is coming that’s something entirely different… and “a son is given.” These are the words, “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given” . Not the same thing. The child is born and you hold the child in your own hands; that child is born, a sign of your birth… it’s all about a birth. But the next one isn’t born; that was begotten of God and given to you when God decided to give you himself. It is God’s purpose to give man himself, as and given to you when God decided to give you himself It is God’s purpose to give man himself, as though there were no other in the world, just God and you. And to prove that he succeeded in his purpose which was to give you himself, if God is a father then he has a child. If he gave you himself, then you are the father of that child.795 ¶8

So the second part of this statement from the 9th chapter of Isaiah “unto us a son is given.” First a child is born, that comes first—because he can’t give you his son on this level, the son is Spirit. He can’t give it to flesh and blood, “for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” . To inherit the kingdom of God as God, you must be God the Father; kingdom of God” . To inherit the kingdom of God as God, you must be God the Father; and there is no way of knowing that you are God the Father unless you are also the father of his son. So, unto us a child is born to signify our birth in the land of Spirit, and to us is given a son. The child is born because it signifies our birth in heaven, in the world of Spirit; and then comes the gift, a son is given, and that son is David. “Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee” . This is the Lord speaking to a spiritual state called David. Then David comes as a gift. He gives you himself, and in giving you himself David has to appear in your world and call you Father. If he doesn’t call you Father, and it’s any other relationship, God did not give you himself; for God is the father of David. “Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee.” So David comes into the world, your world individually and calls you Father. Every one in this world is going to have that experience; then you will know the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. For if you are the father of my son then you and I are one. If I am the father of your son and your son is the same son that is my son, then who could deny the oneness of the two of us? The only way in the world that you’d ever know the oneness of God is through his Son.795 ¶9

So when I found this old paper falling apart—undoubtedly it was written on a very cheap piece of paper, all typed, and all broken up like this…handled it very gently… it’s been eleven years— and here he analyzes this wonderful, simple thing. But now I can understand it better having experienced in the last thirty-odd years since he gave it to me. So what is he saying, that the creatures are not blamed for any seeming wrong that they commit, what does he mean by it? When he gave it to me I didn’t have the experience, but now I know.795 ¶10

If you came into a place like this, but now it’s more animated than it is now, suppose they were dining or dancing, walking around, and all animated; and while you came in invisible to them–for you came in Spirit, you are awake— as you come into the place, you know that this animated world is animated only because of you. This whole vast moving world you are moving it. And to prove that you are moving it, you arrest an activity in yourself; and at that very moment that you arrest it in yourself everything freezes, but everything freezes. You observe them, you go over and you simply look at them closely, and they’re dead, all dead. Then you release it in yourself, and they become once more animated and continue to fulfill their intentions. Suppose you could change the intention…for it comes from above, they’re only fulfilling your service; they’re all under compulsion.795 ¶11

Now you know what the “mouth of God” is, for he spoke, and the mouth is the little child. The mouth or the king, and the king is the little child, the breath of God. And you know exactly what you did, you arrested an activity in your own being, and that arrestment was the taking back of your breath… and they died. How could you condemn any man in this world for what he’s doing when you are animating it all? You set the whole thing in motion when you are in Spirit. While you are here in the flesh, you too are subjected to your own command from above.795 ¶12

So if you come into the world to tell the story of your eternal principle, you are subjected to the same thing that you, from above, subject the whole world. That’s the price you pay for the expansion of your own creative power. There is only God in the world, nothing but God. God is playing all the parts; there is nothing but God. He plays the wise man’s part and the fool, the lover and the one who hates.795 ¶13

Now let us go back, “He who finds me finds life”—how to stop it and start it. “He who misses me injures himself’. He continues in the wheel and he’s hungry, and he hasn’t quite satisfied the hunger to find him. “He who hates me loves death”— look at the whole vast world and you can’t condemn them, they don’t know of the little child, they don’t know of the creative power of God called Christ Jesus, and they are in love with the world. They want to extend this little thing—they’re in pain– another day, another month, another year. They have two homes; they want four to feel more secure. They have a dozen suits; they want two to feel better dressed than the other. They go through life wanting more of death, for this world is dead and people don’t know it. I know it. I have seen it. I stopped it, I stopped it and started it, at sections, and I’ve done it more than once, so it was not a mistake the first time. So I know what he means by “He who finds me finds life.”795 ¶14

So the creative power of God is personified as a little child. Paul speaks of the creative power of God as Christ Jesus in the first chapter, the 24th verse of 1st Corinthians: “And to those who are called, both Jew and Greek, Jesus Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” So, the power of God is personified as Jesus Christ. But always think of Jesus Christ as the little child, always the little child who always delighted in the presence of his Father, and he was the one who always experienced the emotion of delight. The creative power experiences that. He’s not the source of it; he’s the one who experiences the emotion of delight.795 ¶15

When one comes to this realization and finds the little child signifying his own birth from above, thereafter he finds the son that is given. And then the son that is given reveals to him who he is, and he breaks the wheel of death. For this is the mystery of life through death: “Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much” . So, God became man in his creative power that man may become God , so all the commands are by God to God. Man as we see him in this world is part of the eternal structure of the universe.795 ¶16

This thing called Neville—and all of its phases from the time it appeared on the scene until that moment in time when it vanishes and ceases to be to those who are left at that moment in time has never passed away, and it was not really brought into being. It was always a part of the structure of the universe. I am animating it, as we are animating with the creative power, animating all of this in this world. I will leave it forever… it will still be part of the eternal structure of the universe, and unless animated, it remains dead in its every little aspect. The babe that nursed the mother, the little one reluctantly on his way to school, the little boy trying to find his way in life, the man, all of that, are simply garments that you animate. And the day will come, you and I, having gone through all the furnaces, experiencing this creative power that is God, will awake, and we are the creative power of God and one with God. Then we can say we are Yehudah. We’ve been saved, we’ve been salvaged from the world of death. Suddenly we all awaken, and God and his son, the creative power of himself, are one.795 ¶17

Then a new venture…a new play with the same characters, for they remain part of the eternal structure of the universe. We conceive an entirely different drama.795 ¶18

Now, tonight if you went to a play and you saw the actors, would you condemn them for the parts they play? If there’s any condemnation, is it not to be given to the author? Well, the author conceived the play. The author is God. And there was no one to animate the characters but God; and he had to actually pass through the experiences that he conceived. But all these things were dead. Believe me I have seen them dead, but everything.795 ¶19

And the day will come that everything we in our world have discovered concerning the great scientific discoveries of the world will not be so. Not a thing will be as we now see it.795 ¶20

Gravity… well, every child who goes to school has been taught what we believe gravity to be…there isn’t a child in the world… and they prove how true it is by not jumping off the top of the building: We know we’re going to fall to the floor. And yet, having arrested an activity within myself which made everything stand still, things that should fall didn’t fall. A bird in flight didn’t fall; it remained there stationery in space because in me it was arrested. So where is gravity? And tomorrow we’ll change all that today we’ve discovered, or think we’ve discovered, and rearrange the play so completely we can then take our creative power and with a rearrangement of the play, using the same characters, play a far greater play to expand beyond what we have expanded our creative power. And that is Jesus Christ.795 ¶21

So when he said, “We are Yehudah, the knowers of the little child. We are the beholders of the eternal principle, so we are Yehudah. And you worship what you do not know, because you do not know what you serve and why you serve, but you serve.” Man plays all these parts and he doesn’t know why he’s doing what he’s doing. He knows he started in the world by the actions of a power not his own. He was born physically certainly by the actions of powers not his own. And he finds himself in a family, he doesn’t know why. He finds himself moving through the world, he doesn’t know why. And all are serving this compulsion from above, which is spoken into being by the little child who is delighting in these experiences.795 ¶22

We are one day born above. We’ll hold the little child, the symbol of it, when we enter that creative world and start the whole thing; and we give the spoken word until every power can be exercised that is God and redeemed. For he’s only redeeming himself; leaving man just where he is as part of the eternal structure of the world. So in the end nothing is condemned: “Forgive them, Father; for they know not what they do” . They don’t know.795 ¶23

So the words at the end of the trial, “Do you not know that I have power to crucify you, and power to release you?” He said, “You have no power over me were it not given to you from above” . A man dares to say to Caesar’s representative that you have no power over me? He knew exactly what he was talking about, for this one said to the Samaritan, “We know what we worship; you do not know what you worship.” Caesar thought he knew, and Caesar’s arm, Pilate, thought he had the power either to release him or to crucify him; and he told him, “You have no power either to release me or to crucify me were it not given to you from above; therefore he who delivered me into your hands he has the greater sin”…if it be sin.795 ¶24

Because no one [...] it, it’s all a play. We stepped upon the stage well rehearsed to play the part we’re playing, to exercise this creative power that is personified in scripture as Jesus Christ. We were told it all before we started.795 ¶25

In that lovely poem The New House: “Now first as I shut the door I was alone in the new house and the wind began to moan. Old at once was the house and I was old. My ears were teased with the dread of what was foretold: nights of storm, days of mist without end, sad days when the sun shown in vain, old griefs and griefs not yet begun. All was foretold me, naught could I foresee; but I learned how the wind would sound after these things should be” .795 ¶26

After the whole thing is over you know the sound of that child…the wind…you hear it. So when the little child is found wrapped in swaddling clothes, and they hear the wind, they don’t suspect that the wind that they hear is the voice of God calling one from the grave. So he called me from the grave. I was buried in the sepulcher of my skull, and the wind came; he breathed upon me. And what a wind! All was foretold me, but while I’m playing the part I’m so lost in the part I cannot foresee it. Yet it was foretold me.795 ¶27

And the promise, the end, was foretold me: He would give me a child, and the child would signify my birth, though I am old.795 ¶28

For Abraham was old, he was a hundred years old, and he was told, “You will be now exiled for four hundred years.” Well, four hundred is the numerical value of the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and the symbol of that last letter is a cross; the letter is Tau.795 ¶29

So while I wear the cross of flesh and travel through this world exiled from my true home to expand the power that is mine, at the very end he will keep his promise exiled from my true home to expand the power that is mine, at the very end he will keep his promise and give me the child. And that will be my exit from the world of death. And so, I will come back having received his promise. And before he takes off the garment, the cross, he will give me himself, and that will be given to me in the form of his son. He will give me his son David as my son. Before he calls me back I will have full consciousness of the fact that I and my Father, whom men call God, are one, when it gives it to me here in the world of shadows by giving me David as my son. Then he rips the whole thing, so I will never occupy it again, tears it from top to bottom, this temple. Then he lifts me up in the form of a fiery, fiery serpent. Then he seals the bargain which he made with himself by descending upon me in bodily form as a dove, and smothers me with kisses, that I will know he has kept his promise and is satisfied with the journey now that is at its end.795 ¶30

But although anyone who has it longs to depart to be one with that creative power from on high rather than below being worked on, the need keeps one here still in the flesh. So you can tell it and tell it to those he sent to hear it. For everything is ordered, there’s nothing out of order. Not one person is here tonight that shouldn’t be here, and not one person is missing, not one. What is being said this night, this night had to be heard by those who heard it. He sent you as he sent me. Not a thing is out of order.795 ¶31

As Blake said in his risen state today: “Do not be intimidated by the horrors of the world. Everything is ordered and correct and must fulfill its destiny in order to attain perfection. Follow this course and you will receive from your own ego an even deeper perception of the eternal beauties of nature. You will also receive an ever increasing release from all that now seems to you so sad and terrible” .795 ¶32

On this level it is. Who would deny it? But believe me, it is ordered, everything is ordered, everything is correct. Now when you hear it for the first time you resent it, you resist it.795 ¶33

When I first met my old friend Ab …and Ab was adamant about it. And here, only last Wednesday, opening up an old Bible— I wanted to get that interpretation against my modern interpretation–and I went back to it, and here among the leaves were two letters from Ab. Undoubtedly, I have another two or three dozen letters buried somewhere in other books. Where they are I don’t know. But here, in rereading them, he takes the word itself “Cabala” and brings it down in its four wonderful states, and shows you what it really means. You and I have been taught that it really means “the unwritten mystery,” that which is the oral tradition, carried forward from generation to generation, orally–the father tells the son and the son tells his son, and so on, to keep this great mystery alive. For when he breaks it into its component parts in the Hebraic tongue, he shows you exactly how you arrive at the very name, and takes all of the characters of scripture, and they’re all personifications of eternal states. It was the habit of the Hebrew to take every abstract idea, every principle and personalize it. So he starts off with the great father Jacob, the father of the twelve, and shows these twelve as the grand twelve transparencies, the twelve crystals, the twelve stones that received the commandments— and all these he called the pneumana and this the phenomena. And no command is ever given to the phenomena; it’s under compulsion to do what it does. All commands are given to God in the pneumana and then that is expressed in this world of phenomena.795 ¶34

But here, you wouldn’t think this orthodox rabbi…for that’s really what he was all of his life until the revelation came, the visions came. A strict Jew in all that you would consider the orthodox Jew to do concerning diets, dress, everything, all the habits, and he speaks today of the little child. He couldn’t have done it unless the same thing happened to him that happened to Paul, who was also a very strict orthodox Jew. But you can’t resist the revelation when it happens. No matter what you are before, you have to go along with the tide after the revelation. So he could come and say, “We are now Yehudah…the same because we are the knowers of the little child.” Prior to that, you are simply persecuting everyone; everyone does because he was commanded to. No blame; that was the order from above, the part he had to play as it was written, as the play was written. And while he’s on his way to persecute comes the revelation of the little child. And from then on, your entire course changes and you move in an entirely different direction.795 ¶35

So tonight, to quote him again, “The creatures are not judged or condemned for the seeming wrongs they do, for the Lord himself ordained all deeds, and you move in an entirely different direction. So tonight, to quote him again, “The creatures are not judged or condemned for the seeming wrongs they do, for the Lord himself ordained all deeds, and judged or condemned for the seeming wrongs they do, for the Lord himself ordained all deeds, and the Lord himself performs all that is performed. And if there be evil, I the Lord alone am evil.”795 ¶36

Now let us go into the Silence and just set our hope fully upon the grace that is coming to us at this revelation of Jesus Christ, who must always be considered as the little child revelation of Jesus Christ, who must always be considered as the little child.795 ¶37

Well, tonight’s subject is “For Hatching.” There is a voice in man that if you listen to it and expect it, you will at rare intervals hear it. It’s the voice of authority and it never lies. Over the years I have heard this voice. It has never led me astray and everything that it prophesied has come to pass, but everything. So, in the Silence…and you are not concerned but you ask a question—it may come or it may not come that night—but you ask the question “What is the purpose of it all?” You do not question for one moment that God is, for you met God, you know God; you were embraced. But this was a moment of not I said concern, just in not even an idle moment, you ask the question “What is the purpose of it all?” and the voice answers in the depth of your soul, “For hatching.” For hatching what? For hatching everything in the world, like a huge big egg, but specifically for hatching God—God in man, brought to the surface as that man in whom he is buried. Like the old hymn of Isaac Watts: “Wrapped in the silence of the tomb the Great Redeemer lay, ’til the revolving skies bring the third, the appointed day.”793 ¶1

Now let me share with you an experience given me this week by a friend of mine, where he was brought to the third, the appointed day. For the purpose of life is to find God and God, when you find him, is God the Father, that’s God. “In many and various ways,” we’re told, “God spoke to our fathers through the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us through a Son”. If he spoke to us through a Son, then he’s Father. As we are told in the last book of the Old Testament, the Book of Malachi, “A son honors his father. If then I be a father, where is my honor?” says the Lord of hosts. Where is my son if I am a father? I have no way of knowing that I am a father unless there is a son to bear witness to the fact that I am his father. So, if a son honors his father and I be a father, where is my honor, where is my son? So here, “Wrapped in the silence of the tomb the Great Redeemer lay, and then the revolving skies bring forth the third, the appointed day.”793 ¶2

So this friend will allow me to tell you the story. And to give you just a little background, just a few words, he said, “My father died when I was eight, and my world was shattered. I felt an outsider. Every family in the neighborhood seemed to be a complete unit, but I felt an outsider, and I took this feeling with me into school. I was never once a part of the student body, always an outsider. When I left school I took the same feeling with me into business; and though I worked for very large companies and I served them well, and they were good to me, still I was never part of the company, I was always an outsider. This feeling of being an outsider drove me to the point of suicide, and this feeling also caused me to hurt those I loved dearly. Those I love most in this world I seemed to have hurt by the feeling of being an outsider.” “Well,” he said, “three months ago, the most authoritative voice, this thunderous voice, spoke from within me and the voice said, ‘I took away your father that you might find out who the Father is.’ Several weeks later, the voice repeated that sentence, ‘I took away your father that you might find out who the Father is.’ And then a few weeks later with even a greater authority and a still louder voice it spoke the same thing but it changed the pronoun.” This is the change, and listen to it carefully, “I took away my father that I might find out who the Father is.”793 ¶3

Everything is a plan. He said, “When I awoke, I reflected on my life, and I saw it, the entire life, in a beautiful light, as I’ve never seen my life before. Prior to that it was one of sadness, one of loneliness, one of chaos, one of confusion; and now I saw everything perfectly ordered, everything precisely ordered, everything done as it ought to be done, because I, for purposes known at the moment of my decision, I decided to impose upon myself that state. And so, I took away my father that I might find out who the Father is. For the outside father is but a symbol of authority, a symbol of power, and I had to find that power, that authority within myself. I knew I couldn’t find it on the outside, so I took away the outside symbol. I didn’t know it when it happened, I was but eight, and here, everything was ordered, everything was a plan that I may find in me the power and the authority represented by a father.”793 ¶4

You’re told in scripture in the 23rd chapter of the Book of Matthew, “Do not call anyone on earth father, for you have one Father, and he is in heaven”. In spite of this, we have organizations the world over who will simply promote people as teachers, as priests of the world, and first thing they want to be called is “father.” And they all accept it, from the top down they’re all called “father.” And yet we are told in this Book of Matthew, “Do not call anyone on earth father, for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.” In the same gospel we are told, “And heaven is within you.” From within you this Father will come, and when he comes you are he.793 ¶5

Now, what is this whole plan? We are told, “As I have planned it, so shall it be, and as I have purposed it, so shall it stand”. Purpose, in the strict sense, is “the deliberately conceived plan proposed for action, or to be realized in it.” A plan proposed for action, or else to be executed in it. And so, no one can stop the plan of God from coming to pass. Well, what is his plan? Listen to it carefully: “They shall have no inheritance; I am their inheritance: and you shall give them no possession in Israel; I am their possession”, the 44th chapter, the 28th verse of the Book of Ezekiel. That I inherit God, that God is my possession…that is the plan.793 ¶6

Now, he speaks of an anger—my friend used the words “chaos, loneliness,” all the things that you would associate with an angry God. It was not an angry God as he knows today. But the Bible speaks of anger: “And the anger of the Lord will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his mind. In the latter days you will understand it clearly,” here from the Book of Jeremiah, the 23rd chapter. And so, in the latter days you will understand it clearly. It cannot turn back until it executes and accomplishes the intents of its mind, and the intent is that you and I inherit God. Well, God is father. It was revealed clearly in the New Testament. It is mentioned in the Old but not revealed. In the New it is completely revealed. But man will not see it, or, at the moment, he feels himself unable to grasp it.793 ¶7

Now, let us go to the first book of the New Testament. “This is the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham”. That’s how the book begins. When you read it you wonder “What is it all about?” For if you read it, he’s supposed to be the son of Joseph, and David is supposed to be the son of Jesse, and Abraham the son of Terah. And here we find this opening wonderful dramatic statement: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Well, every rabbi would admit that if in the genealogy of Messiah you mention Abraham and David, these would be the high-water marks, no question about it. For all would concede that it was to Abraham and his seed that the promises of God were made, no doubt about it as you go back and read the promises. So here, on that they will agree—but Jesus Christ the son of David? It isn’t mentioned in scripture. Then what is it all about?793 ¶8

As I stand before you tonight, I am not theorizing, I speak from experience and I know this is true. But when man begins to awake, he first becomes his own father; and then he becomes his father’s father. To become my own father, David being my father, because I’m David, to become my father’s father, and if Abraham be his father, then I am Abraham, the father of the multitudes. Now, is this true? I tell you it is true. This genealogy is not physical; it’s all spiritual, the entire Bible is spiritual. Man not knowing that he tries to trace it in a physical line and it’s not a physical line. The whole thing is spiritual. Man had no idea that this was altogether true, that man would eventually inherit God. He would actually awake to find himself the being that he formerly worshipped as something on the outside, to discover it is himself. And there was no way in eternity that he could ever reveal it to himself save through a son. That no one knows, “No one has ever seen God; but the only begotten son in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known”. And you are taught to believe it was, and the Bible will tell you, that is, the priests will tell you that it was Jesus Christ. It isn’t so. They’ll tell you, yes, Jesus was his son. Every priest in the world, every minister I’ve ever met, if I ever have an argument with them it is because of this point. All I can say, “You haven’t had the experience.” When I quote scripture to them they stand confounded, but tradition is a powerful force and they can’t quite overcome their training.793 ¶9

So you say to them, listen to the words carefully, “You want to see the Father?” “For no one has ever seen the Father,” they’ll tell you. “Well, he who has seen me has seen the Father. How then can you say, ‘Show us the Father? I have been so long with you, Philip, and yet you want me to show you the Father? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How then can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” You quote that from the 14th chapter of the Book of John and they stand amazed. They can’t deny scripture, but reason cannot allow them to accept it. Here is the 14th chapter of the Book of John, now we go forward into the 16th chapter, “I have spoken to you in figures; the hour is coming I will no longer speak to you in figures but tell you plainly of the Father”. I have talked about the Father but from now on I will tell you plainly, said he, of the Father. Well, who is he? Listen to the words again, “I took away my father that I might find out who the Father is.”793 ¶10

When you come to the third, as the hymn brought forth, as the skies in their revolutions brought forth the third, the appointed day…what did they bring forth? Wrapped in the silence of the tomb was the Great Redeemer—and the tomb is the skull of man—completely wrapped in swaddling clothes, in the skull of man. When I first heard it years and years ago from my old friend Abdullah, he said, “Neville, never think of Christ save you think of him as a child”—people paint pictures of a matured man—-“Always think of Christ as the Christ child, always.” I couldn’t quite grasp it, didn’t quite understand it. These words have been told me by a Negro Jew, born in Ethiopia, of the Jewish faith. He knew more of Christianity than all the priests of the world. Just like Paul he was born a Jew, born of the tribe of Benjamin. “I’m a son of Abraham after the faith, but if you took it even physically” said he “I would still be after the flesh, but now I know the spirit.” And he said to me, The Christ child is always the child.793 ¶11

Now we turn to the 8th chapter of the Book of Proverbs and here is a child speaking: “I am the first of his works of old. Before he brought forth the heavens, I was beside him as a little child. I was daily his delight, and rejoiced in the works of men”. The little child, scholars say personify that, or rather, that is the personification of the wisdom and power of God. With that I do agree. It is the personification in the form of a little child of the power and wisdom of God. “I was daily his delight”…God delights in his creative power, personified as a little child, wrapped in swaddling clothes in the silence of the tomb; and the tomb is the skull of man. Comes that day in the life of a man, individual man, when suddenly he realizes I took away my father, my outside father that I might find out who the Father really is. The day comes he finds the Father. Well, if I am a father, then where is my honor, where is my son? And then the son comes and looks you right in the face and calls you Father. He calls you “my lord.” Well, “my lord” is an expression that every ancient boy used of his father. He always referred to his father as “my lord”, Adonay, always. And so David calls him “my Father.” So he asks the question, “What think ye of the Christ? Whose son is he?” And they answered, “The son of David”…for that’s traditional. He said, “Why then did David, in the Spirit, call him Lord? If David thus calls him Lord, how could he be David’s son? And no one asked him any other question”.793 ¶12

Here is the most glorious experience, and every child born of woman is moving toward this experience, for the end is to awaken as God. The end is to inherit God. Now the promises were made to all of us, but the promise made to us differs from obtaining the promise. You and I who received the promise, we are regarded as heirs because we received the promise; but it differs from obtaining the promise. When we receive the promise, then we have received what was promised. And that which was promised is God himself. In between receiving the promise and receiving that which was promised is the pilgrimage of man. He moves on this earth as a pilgrim for unnumbered years until he comes to the point where he receives the promise in its fullness…that which was promised. And what was promised?—-God. “They should have no inheritance; I am their inheritance: give them no possession in Israel; I am their possession.” You possess God in his fullness: you become God, you inherit God. God is father, so you will never know you have really inherited God unless God’s only begotten son stands before you and calls you “my lord.” And you know it beyond all doubt as he stands before you and calls you “my lord.” No doubt whatsoever when David stands there; and then you fulfill that portion of scripture, “Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee”.793 ¶13

So the journey is on, and this whole vast world of ours has but one purpose: for hatching. “At length, for hatching ripe he breaks the shell”. And when he breaks the shell, then out comes that which calls you Father. So I know from the depths of my soul that this voice has never lied to me, never. And so, “Why did you make it?” and then it replied, “For hatching, just for hatching”…for hatching out everything in this world. You can hatch out success, same world, hatch out failure. He allows you to hatch out anything in the world. But you will not thwart his purpose, which was to hatch out God. For God entered death’s door and laid down in the grave of man to share with man all of his visions of eternity; and then he comes out, and when he comes out you are he. You have no way of knowing that you are he were it not that his son calls you Father. So if his son calls me Father, then I am he. So I can say with the central figure, “I and my Father are one”.793 ¶14

This whole drama is a peculiar mystery. The mystery of Christ––you and I confront morning, noon and night as we read the Bible or hear it discussed—is no less a mystery today than it was in the day of the scribes. They couldn’t understand it either, as they were inspired to put it down. And so, the mystery that confronts us, the person of Jesus, is no less a mystery than it was then. If you and I come at it with our, I would say, prefabricated misconceptions we are no wit better off than they. They, too, have the same misconception: They are looking for a savior on the outside—as someone had a father which is a representative of power and authority on the outside. And “Call no man on earth father, for you have but one Father, and he is in heaven…and heaven is within you.” It isn’t that you deny fatherhood as a physical state. You love him dearly, more so than ever. You see the part he plays. You see him in a new light, as a brother. Well, brotherhood without fatherhood is impossible. But you see everyone, including your own earthly physical father, as brother. You see your own children as brother, you see everyone in the world as brother. But there could be no brotherhood without a fatherhood, couldn’t be. Any more than there could be a resurrection without death. How could you conceive of resurrection without death? So, “Wrapped in the silence of the tomb the Great Redeemer lay, ’til the revolving skies bring forth the third, the appointed day.”793 ¶15

So in his case, it was the third. Here, the first one, and the first one stated it in simple terms as though another spoke, “I took away your father that you might find out who the Father is.” That is, affirmed it, to fulfill the 41st of Genesis, where the dream or the voice repeats itself. If it doubles it, then it means that shortly it shall be brought to pass, the significance of it; and so, the second one was a repetition, word of word, of the first. But the third, the pronoun’s changed, “I” becomes now a different “I” altogether. The first, the “I” was another one speaking, but now, listen to the words, “I took away my father”…can’t be another one speaking now… “I took away my father that I might find out who the Father is.” Not that you might find out or he might find out, but that I might find out who the Father is. Then you see the whole thing in an entirely different light. To use his words, “I saw my entire life in a beautiful new light, that everything was ordered, everything was perfect. There was no confusion any more. That when my father made his exit from this sphere at my age of eight my world then was shattered. I know now that was my purpose in the beginning: to find my true Father. So that disappearance was all in order from my world. It drove me to the point of suicide and caused me to hurt those I loved best, and now on reflection, the whole thing was ordered.”793 ¶16

So, “As I planned it, so shall it be, as I have purposed, so shall it stand”. And the purpose, as we defined it earlier, is a deliberately conceived plan. You conceived it for its ultimate end, which is God the Father. That’s the plan of God to you and everyone in the world would inherit him. If I inherit God and God is one, and you inherit God and God is one, and we inherit God and God is one, then are we not one? So in the end, there is only one; therefore, there’s only one Son and that one Son is David. If I am his father, and you are his father, and we are his father, are we not the Father? So it’s a brotherhood and a fatherhood; one brotherhood, one fatherhood. This is the great mystery.793 ¶17

So Paul in his letter to Timothy, he said, “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of our religion”. He uses the word mystery no less than eighteen times. He knows it’s a mystery; and the world thinks that it’s a little secular history, and it isn’t. It’s the great mystery: Contained within us is this one who is wrapped in the silence of the tomb, the tomb being our skull, and he’s wrapped in the swaddling clothes…and here is Christ, who is God the Father. And so, when you come and you awake, you are Christ, and, therefore, God the Father. How will you know that you are? Well, you’ll ask the question “What do you think of Christ?” “Oh, he’s the son of David.” “Then why did David in Spirit call him Father, call him ‘my lord’? If David thus calls him ‘my lord,’ how could he be David’s son?” And you have the experience. You look into the mirror the next morning and the beard is still there to be shaved, you still have to wash this garment, you still have to feed it. And all that you were taught about Christ Jesus falls away. You see the garment that hides him now, for you had the experience. You know it’s not the outer garment of flesh, for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. But you had the experience of Spirit and you know who you are. So you shave it and you feed it, and you go through the day, the normal day, knowing that you’re going to fulfill scripture.793 ¶18

And they will say to you, “Well, if this happened to you, go and show yourself, certainly you want to display it.” Then you will say, after the words recorded in the 7th chapter of the Book of John, “For even his brothers did not believe in him”…his brothers did not believe in him. So they want him to become a magician and go out into the world and be magical, do fantastic things. And he knew in the depths of his soul if he did everything in the world that man could never do, they still would not believe. You can’t believe until it happens. You may take it on credit as it were, take it on approval. When I was a little boy we charged everything and sent it home on approval. And so, mother put the little shoes…and so if they didn’t fit you sent them back…but you took them on approval; you didn’t have to pay for them. So you put all your clothes on “on approval,” and at the end of the week, after you tried them all on, and either they didn’t look right or they didn’t feel right, mother would simply call the place where she had them sent “on approval,” and they sent and picked them up. How they survived, I don’t know. But that’s how we conducted business when I was a boy.793 ¶19

So what I tell you now, you may take home on approval and then send it back to me, reject it. For his brothers did not believe in him. And so, if he did a thousand things he knew that would not be convincing. They would ask for the thousand and one. So no matter what you did, neither the number nor the character of the signs that he performed convinced them to the point where they believed, where they accepted it, and became sons of the faith of Abraham. So I tell you from experience this is going to happen to you.793 ¶20

This morning, between 5:30 and quarter of six (and the gentleman is here tonight) as I was coming back from the depths of my soul I heard the voice, and the voice is speaking to this gentleman who is here tonight. The voice asked a question and his answer was, “I’m a student of Neville.” The voice said to him (I am like an eavesdropper), “If you are a student of Neville, you are far, far along the path of salvation,” and then I woke. It was quite dark, but the mornings are dark now, so I would say between 5:30 and quarter of six. So I can say to him what I heard the voice say.793 ¶21

What voice? I heard it, but it was the voice in the depths of my own being. For in the end, there is only one voice that speaks with authority, only one voice. If you know in the depths of your own soul all that you’ve had is recorded in scripture, and it goes back thousands of years, and you’re only fulfilling scripture—-“Scripture must be fulfilled in me”—and if everything recorded there you have experienced, then that is your voice. The day will come you will know it isn’t another, though you may have heard it from another. In this case, it came to him as another speaking with an authority. And so he knows that what I’m telling you is the truth. I’m not manufacturing it; this is not the product of emergency thinking. I’m not trying to in some way contrive it to tell you something. All this is simply what I have experienced.793 ¶22

And so, I know that all these characters of scripture are contained in us, every one. But the important ones…as stated in the very first verse, “This is the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” So man matures when he becomes his father’s father. The whole thing begins with Abraham. Are we not told that all the nations of the earth will bless themselves because you believed. Read it in the 22nd chapter of the Book of Genesis: Every one in the world will bless himself because Abraham believed. So he goes back to that state. And who was that “believing one” but God. The word Abraham means “the father of multitudes,” that’s what it really means. And so, you go right back. The father of Jesus Christ, David? Well, David calls him “my Father.” And then, David the son of Abraham? That is not analyzed in scripture, because you go right back to be the father of your father, and then you know who he is. It is God who willed himself to go into this fabulous world of death and bring back an experience that would expand him beyond what he was when he started the journey. Now you know who he is, that God actually imposed upon himself this limitation and started this journey, a predetermined journey, that not a thing in the world could in any way divert it or stop it. And at the very end he comes out, but he comes out expanded beyond what he was when he started the journey. So you and I are coming out, inheriting God, expanded beyond the wildest dream as we can conceive it here.793 ¶23

So this experience of my friend is a fantastic experience, really. “I took away your father”—-that’s the first—-“that you might find out who the Father is.” And after that was repeated and affirmed comes the change in pronoun, “I took away my father that I might find out who the Father is.” “Call no man on earth father”—so I took him away—“when you have but one Father and he is in heaven.” So if he’s in heaven and heaven is within me, I must find him. If I find him though I have no child on earth and I find Father, then show me the child. “For a son honors his father. If then I am a father, where is my honor?” So if I have found him, bring me that child; he’s got to call me Father, and I must know without any uncertainty that he really is my son. And may I tell you, you do not know anything in this world with the same assurance. You do not know any relationship…we trust our wives and we trust that our wives trust us…I mean, that is all taken on trust. So when we say, well, they have a little child, my father.in a humorous mood when he toasted a friend of his would always say, “Well, here’s to the man who rocks his child and rocks his child alone, for there’s many a man that rocks another man’s child and thinks he’s rocking his own.” But in this case you have no uncertainty when you see David. It is your son and there is no other father; and may I tell you, no mother, just you and your son. And you know it more surely than you know any relationship in this world. And so, everyone is destined to have that relationship, that experience. So he who has it fuses with me, for we are one. Everyone who has it fuses with me, without loss of identity. Therefore, in the end “the Lord is one and his name is one”.793 ¶24

So here, the voice said to me, and it has never lied, “It is for hatching” and the hatching is to bring forth God. Where, outside? No, can’t be brought forth on the outside; brought forth in you as you, that’s the hatching. Well, if he’s brought forth within me as me, this must be just like a big egg; and when the egg is broken I come out and I am he. So the whole world is for hatching.793 ¶25

But while we’re playing our parts in the world of Caesar, we can hatch out success, hatch out health, hatch out better relationships, hatch out anything. But first of all, you must want to. It starts with a desire, it starts with the urge. God’s imaginal dynamic is called “anger” in the Bible: “And the anger of the Lord will not turn back”. That’s the imaginal dynamic. You must lust for it, for God lusts to give himself to everyone, as though there were no other in the world, just God and you; and finally, only God, because you are God. That was the dynamic that could not turn back “until it had executed and accomplished the intents of his mind; in the latter days you will understand it clearly.” So the same urge…if you want to succeed in this world, you must have that same drive, that same desire in this world. A friend of mine gave me the paper yesterday the Observer, comes to us on Monday, and today she called to ask if I had seen, on the thirteenth page, a letter among the letters where Goldwater didn’t have the lust for power, and that no person ever sat in our White House who didn’t have that lust for power. You must have lust for power to sit in the body that represents the greatest power in the world, you must. If you have other things in your world, you don’t have that same lust.793 ¶26

So I’m not saying that you should have it, but if you wanted something in this world other than what you now enjoy, you must really want it. Don’t ask how, just really want it! And then if you really want it, this world is for hatching…it’ll hatch it out. You may not want it after you get it, but that’s alright. You can simply bring it to pass and then want something other than what you bring to pass. But you must want it. You start with a desire, with a lust. In fact, one of the words used to define the word “prayer” is lust, longing. It’s a longing and then a yielding to that after which you long. That’s how it’s defined. But regardless of what you bring to pass in this world, I assure you, from my own experience, God cannot fail in his purpose for you, and that purpose is that you inherit God. So, if you have to impose upon yourself at moments a sad experience or some other thing in this world, bear in mind that when it comes to you on that third day, the appointed day, when you hear who the Father really is, you’ll reflect upon your life and see it in a more beautiful light, and see it all is ordered, all is perfect, just as it ought to be, because of your predetermined goal. Now let us go into the Silence.793 ¶27

First of all, we’re closing a week from tonight, closing on the 15th instead of the 18th. The club needs this area for the annual party, which will be held on the 18th, so we’re closing a week from tonight, and reopening on the 5th day of January. So that will be also a Tuesday. I think it is, yes, a Tuesday. I will not be sending out notices to remind you, so bear it in mind. I will have a little ad in the L.A. Times, but I’m not sending out notices between now and then. So I will be open on the 5th day of January, the usual schedule, every Tuesday and Friday in this place. We’re closing a week from tonight, so we have but two lectures left, Friday and next Tuesday.793 ¶28

My friend Jack, who is bringing out my little pamphlet called He Breaks the Shell has promised it for next Friday. So, it’s just a little pamphlet the size of The Search, and so anyone who is coming may pick it up, it’s He Breaks the Shell. I have related my own personal experiences in these four mighty acts of God as he unveils his finished portrait. For “Let us make man in our image” was the primal wish, and not a thing will stop him from fulfilling that wish. When he’s fulfilled it, he unveils his image in four mighty acts, and so I have recorded the four mighty acts as I, personally, have experienced them. And, it’s a little pamphlet, just about the size of The Search, and he tells me he will have it next Friday. We really only have two days more, Friday, and then we close on Tuesday. But I know, in New York City I went through Hallmark’s new building on 5th Ave. and 56th St. It’s a beautiful building and marvelous cards. I saw many a card there for $2.50 and $3.00 and more…just a card.793 ¶29

Well, this is truly the story of God’s final work. It may not be told…in fact, I will confess it has not been told as a Shakespeare would tell it or a Blake would tell it. I am not equipped to tell it in that manner, but I have told it as clearly as I possibly can, without embellishment, and I haven’t added one thing to it or taken one thing from it. I’ve just told it just as it happened and tried to relate it to all of the passages of scripture. So I put a little subtitle to it A Lesson in Scripture. For all the things that happened to me I pointed to scripture where it [...] told me. So it will be here next Friday. I, personally, do not send Christmas cards, and I doubt that I would send cards a dollar fifty apiece; but, nevertheless, I can say I have seen cards in New York City, $2.50 and three dollars and more per card, and it’s not a message, just a beautiful, lovely arrangement as a card. That’s a hint to send it as a card, you see.793 ¶30

Are there any questions?793 ¶31