I’ve been dwelling on this subject all week, and I do hope I In the opening scene of Henry VIII, these words are put into the mouth of the Duke of Norfolk: “Order gave each thing view.” Now we will take a good concordance, say James Strong’s Concordance of the Bible. Every word as we have it in the King James translation is in that concordance, from the original manuscripts — the Old Testament from Hebrew and the New from the Greek. Every word is there, and its meaning. Not every word has the same Hebrew word or Greek word, so take nothing for granted — it was simply the choice of the translator. But you will find a little number, and look up the number in the back of the book, whether it be Hebrew or Greek, and see why they made that choice. So everything is there; it gives order to the book.1157 ¶1

Now here we have the Bible. The Old Testament, 39 books. And that is the root of the entire Bible. Without an Old Testament, there would be no New. The New is only the fulfillment, the expression of that Old. What is that Old — Christ? Just who is he? That question is asked in the book of John. “Who are you?” And he answers, “Even what I have told you from the beginning.” Is this a man speaking to one who is asking a question? He is the mystery. He is the secret of Scripture. “From the beginning” means it was given to you in your Scripture from the very beginning. “And I am he” — the very beginning, and I am he, the very one who was from the beginning, even from the beginning.1157 ¶2

Well now, who is he? If you receive a letter — all right, a letter conveys a certain message; a dream conveys a certain message. There is a single jet of truth in a vision, in a dream. There is a single jet of truth in those 39 books. And that jet of truth is God’s promise to man. That promise is the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what is contained but hidden in the Old Testament. That is what must be resurrected.1157 ¶3

It’s very rare. You do not resurrect it by being very, very wise and studying the words — it doesn’t come that way. There is a pattern in that book, where although the words of the 39 are gathered over the centuries — for it took centuries to accumulate the 39 books — they still form one book. It’s all one book. And although hundreds of years passed before we had the one book, it contains that central jet of truth. Now what is it? It is called in Scripture, Jesus Christ. It’s a pattern. When you know the pattern and you can’t find it through reason, for this is revealed truth. And revealed truth cannot be logically proven. It is simply revealed. And suddenly all these little pieces scattered in time are brought into a definite pattern in the one in whom it’s going to be revealed. And in that one, all these scattered over the centuries, brought into one definite pattern, unfold in him in the first person singular. Then he knows who Jesus Christ is. Jesus Christ is the pattern man that is buried in Scripture. And he, and he alone, resurrects that pattern. And he resurrects the pattern in himself. And only then does he know who Jesus Christ is. He knows now it’s not another coming from the outside and holding his hand and taking him towards the Father — for that pattern leads man towards the Father: “No one comes unto the Father except by me” — but this is the pattern speaking.1157 ¶4

When the pattern unfolds in a man, then that man knows himself to be God the Father. The whole thing unfolds within him. But it’s a pattern. So Jesus Christ is not a person on the outside of man. Jesus Christ is that secret hidden in Scripture. You can say it’s hidden in God, for God’s word is Scripture. And being buried in Scripture, then man suddenly, in the fullness of time, the pattern collects itself. And what seemed to be so scattered in time over the centuries forms itself into a composite that takes 1,260 days to unfold within the one in whom it erupts, as told in Scripture. It is sealed, and Daniel said, “I do not understand it.” And he said, “Seal the book, Daniel, until the time of the end. It will take a time, times, and half a time” — a year plus two years and a half a year, three and a half years, or 1,260 days. That’s what it will take, for the Hebraic year is 360 days. As told us then in Revelation, in the 12th chapter, the great mystery of the birth of the heavenly woman took 1,260 days.1157 ¶5

So the entire pattern gathers itself together, and you, in whom it unfolds, realizes the secret of Scripture — and you are the secret. It’s buried in Scripture, but you are there. So, in the volume of the book it is written about me — but who is speaking? It is said that the prophet spoke, and then in the New Testament it is quoted as though it is said of the Lord Jesus. Well, it is the Lord Jesus Christ, for he is the secret of Scripture. He is buried in Scripture, and so we are told in Hebrews, of whom was it said, “In the volume of the book it is all about me.” Well, it didn’t occur to me for one moment, born in the 20th century, that anything written prior to my own little birth here was related to me — say, what they said of my earthly father or my earthly mother or grandparents, but certainly not anything said away back in time. Could I ever for one moment believe that what was written in the 39 books of the Old Testament, where they take 4,000 years of the history of Israel, and then they take 300-odd years of the prophets writing of that Scripture, writing of the history — then they come into the prophecy for Israel — and tell me, in the 20th century, that in any way it was related to me? How could it be?1157 ¶6

And yet it happened in me. The entire pattern gathered itself together in me, and in 1,260 days it unfolded in me. And here I am now, fully conscious of the fact that I am the father of David, that David mentioned in those 39 books. I am fully conscious of the fact that it was of me that Moses wrote when he spoke of the fiery serpent rising up upon the great staff. It was of me that they wrote when that dove returned to the ark, and then Noah stretched out his hand — pardon me — and took him into the ark. That I am that ark, containing all things. All things are contained within me, and I am all imagination, and all things are contained within my imagination — so the ark contains all. I had no idea it was all about me.1157 ¶7

So, having resurrected that pattern, I long to transmit it and to tell it to everyone in the world. For it must be for this reason that I was sent, to experience the resurrection of that pattern. So I tell you who Jesus Christ really is. He is hidden in the Old Testament as the true pattern, the meaning of that — he is the direct and deliberate self-revelation of God the Father in the context of human life. He is the meaning of life. Without that, life has no meaning.1157 ¶8

So here is the context, here is the actual meaning of why we are here. So we go through hell in this world, and let no one tell you that we do not — no matter how you are born in this world, with all the silver spoons and the golden plates, you will go through hell. You will suffer pain. You will know want. You will know concupiscence. You will know all the things that the body is there to know. For you took upon yourself this body, and you experience all the things related to this world. But one day, the essence — it’s all called in Scripture Jesus Christ, the promise of God — you are going to experience. And you will experience it in the fullness. It will take you 1,260 days — for that pattern that took hundreds of years to be gathered together — suddenly all the related parts related to the promise will be actually gathered together, and then the promise will unfold within you.1157 ¶9

And the promise is the Lord Jesus Christ, that, as we are told in Galatians, was the promise made to Abraham. “And to your offspring” — he does not say offspring, referring to many, but referring to one, “and to your offspring, who is Christ.” So the Christ of Scripture — and you are told in Scripture, in the same book of Galatians, that the story is an allegory. That the story of Abraham and his son is an allegory. For an allegory is a story told as if it were true. Leave it to the one who hears the story to discover its fictitious character and discern its meaning, and either accept it or reject it. I ask you to accept it, for I have experienced it. This is no longer to me the myth the world talks about. This is reality, the only reason for being.1157 ¶10

I came into the world for one purpose, to fulfill Scripture. You came into the world for one purpose, to fulfill Scripture. You may think you came to have a lot of fun and make money and have a fortune. Well, they drop off one after the other. This past week, only about a half dozen who will leave behind them millions made their quick little exit from the world. One played 18 holes of golf in the morning, went to his hotel room and slept and didn’t wake. He was three-time governor in New York City. Ran twice for the highest office in our country. He didn’t make it, but he ran. Very impromptu, up to the very last moment. So he slept after his 18 holes of golf. Another one left $300 million. At the age of 54, he entertained our late — or rather not late, but our ex-President Johnson and his wife — the previous weekend in his Malaysia home in Florida. He only had 12 homes carried over the world; didn’t smoke — that the Lord blessed him with millions, which he did. He left a little personal estate of 30 million, but a business that has over 3 billion a year. His name was J.C. Penney — you know, J.C. Penney, my first employer in this country — but he left it behind him. So I tell you, the purpose is not to leave behind you your business of 300 million, or personal fortune of 300 million, or a record of being three-time governor of the state of New York, or any of these things. It is to fulfill Scripture.1157 ¶11

“I have come to fulfill Scripture,” said that pattern when it is awakened in a man. Scripture must be fulfilled indeed. But what is the Scripture? So you look at it and you wonder what is its meaning. There are 39 books, and so much of it seems so contradictory. And you read, and suddenly it erupts within you, and that which was written hundreds of years prior to this moment that this is written is all gathered together. It took all the centuries to write it, and then in one little moment of three and a half years the pieces fall into a pattern, and the pattern unfolds in you. And then you know who the Lord Jesus Christ is — that he’s not a man born of a woman in some miraculous way two thousand years ago. He is the secret of God, buried in God’s Word, in Scripture. And that Word must unfold itself in you. “My word that has gone forth from my mouth shall not return unto me void. It must return unto me, bringing with it that which I purpose.” It must. So it actually unfolds, and that is the word of all the centuries put into three and a half years.1157 ¶12

So I hope I can convey to you tonight the true meaning of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is that secret, that mystery, hidden in Scripture. It’s a pattern man, and that pattern man is man’s earthly escape from this world. “To the Lord our God belongs escape from death. I am the Lord your God; besides me there is no savior.” So God — and God himself is savior — he set up a pattern, and the pattern is called in Scripture Jesus Christ. And man has made a little icon of that pattern and stuck it on the wall. And then he bows before it and crosses himself for luck, and thinks that is going to save him. It’s not a thing on the outside. It’s a pattern. I am asking you to accept the pattern.1157 ¶13

So let me tell you the pattern in detail, as I have experienced it. For I took this pattern as I experienced it, and I told it in a book which I named Resurrection. There is one chapter that bears the title of the book, and that is my personal confession of faith, based upon my own personal experience of the resurrection of this pattern within me.1157 ¶14

It begins with your own awakening within your scarab — that’s how it begins. You’re completely sealed within that scarab when you awaken. But you have the innate wisdom to get out without the help of any being in this world. You know exactly what to do, where to push. And you know exactly what you know you should do. And you do. You come out. And then the wind, spoken of in Scripture, surrounds you — the unearthly wind that you read of, Pentecost, the storm wind that came to them all, that unearthly wind. And then the scene as described in Matthew and Luke concerning the birth of God surrounds you. All the imagery is there.1157 ¶15

And then comes another scene, and that other scene is when the Father now declares himself. And you don’t look upon anyone and call him Father, but the Father’s son stands before you and calls you Father. And you know he is your son, and he knows you are his father. So the Father reveals himself in you, in the only way that he could ever — through his son calling you Father — and you know he is your son.1157 ¶16

And anyone who saw the fiery serpent, he was cured. Cured of what? He was cured of slavery — he’s leaving Egypt and moving into the Promised Land. And anyone who could look upon that fiery serpent as it was lifted up, he was cured. And then that happens to you, and you realize what it means now to have that entire thing take place within you. You are that fiery serpent that rises within yourself into the heavenly spheres, and when you get there it reverberates.1157 ¶17

And now you know what it is to have the dove descend and remain upon you and smother you with love. For here he floats above you — actually floats, as you’re told in the story of the flood. Here is a flood, and the dove returns, and when you look up and you see him, he is simply floating, because he doesn’t move a wing. He makes no effort to remain above you; he simply floats. But the water is crystal clear, so you see him floating. And then you extend your hand, as if he said, know what is, and then he descends upon your hand, and you bring him to yourself. You are the ark; you contain all things, for all things exist within the human imagination. And he comes down, and he simply remains upon you, and he smothers you with love.1157 ¶18

In those three and a half years, these four majestic, fantastic, supernatural events take place. And that’s the essence of the Bible. It took centuries to bring it into this being, into this world, and record it. Here they’re recording a most violent history of the Israel, of the people of Israel. And then comes the prophets of the people of Israel. And then comes the prophet, bringing the promise. And here comes the promise. But no one understood it. And Daniel confessed, “I do not understand it. I heard, but I did not understand.” And he who stood close, in the linen clothes, he said to me, “Seal the book until the end.” You can’t break the seal now, but one will come — he is the Lamb of God — and when he comes, he’ll break the seal. In the fullness of time, the whole thing will break. And then that which is buried in you — for you are Scripture — unfolds within you.1157 ¶19

So when you hear the word Jesus, don’t think for one second some being on the outside. Jesus Christ is a pattern of salvation buried in you, and in the fullness of time you are going to experience that pattern, and the whole thing will awake within you.1157 ¶20

Let those who insist on having a personal Jesus on the outside have him — it’s perfectly all right. If they insist on it, let them have him. And so many still insist on having some little personal God on the outside. And they go on morning, noon, and night praying to a God that does not exist. But I tell you who he really is: he is a pattern, a pattern man buried. And no matter how erudite you are, you can study Scripture from now to the end of time and you can’t find him there. Yet he tells you, “You search the Scriptures because you think in them you have life.” And he tells you, “I am life eternal. I am the way, the truth, and the life.” But you can’t find me there. But you search, keep on searching the Scriptures. And they search morning, noon, and night, as they think they’re serving God.1157 ¶21

Now let me tell you a vision of my wife that happened years ago. She found herself in the clearing of a lovely grove of trees. At the end of the clearing was a man behind a table, and there were men around this one man, like an assembly. And then two women entered. Each carried a book. And one had a book, and the title of the book was, “The Credence of Belief and the Forgiveness of Sins, According to Judaism.” The other entered from the other side, and the title was, “The Credence of Belief and the Forgiveness of Sin, According to Christianity.” And both went up towards the man at that table, and each read from the book.1157 ¶22

And she said, “As I heard the reading, I was struck — I stood there dumbfounded, because until that moment I always thought it was so infinitely more difficult to be a Jew than to be a Christian. And suddenly, as they read from the — I realized how much more difficult it was to be a Christian than to be a Jew. One was keeping the external observations of law — that if I abided by the dietary rules, if I abided by all the external worships, that was perfect, no matter what I did personally. And the other, if I abided from within.”1157 ¶23

Well, I do not know very many Christians who really live the Christian life. They think going to church on Sunday morning, or saying Mass, or doing all these outer things, that that is all right. Yet that is not Christianity. Yet, “I have come not to abolish the law and the prophets, I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them.” He reinterprets the law in the light of his own experience of law and makes the whole thing imaginable. “You’ve heard it said, you shall not commit adultery, but I tell you that anyone who looks lustfully on a woman has already committed the act in his heart.” But what man has not violated that act, that law? Well, if that is Christianity, it’s infinitely more difficult to be a Christian than to be a Jew, if a Jew means restraining the impulse.1157 ¶24

So I didn’t do it. But I had the desire to do it. But I had the desire to do it. But the desire to do it, in the Christian concept, was as good as doing it — therefore the desire demands payment — but I refrained the impulse. Best if I didn’t do it, in the Jewish faith. But in the Christian faith, if I desire — I coveted what he had — I did it. Well, how much more difficult it is to be a Christian. I have to live by that golden rule and do unto others as I would have them do unto me, but do it inwardly — not by restraining the impulse, not even having the impulse, not even in reem.1157 ¶25

So she heard these two women read from the book, and the book had the same title, only with this difference — “According to Judaism,” “According to Christianity.” And so, according to Judaism, if I restrained the impulse, that was all right — I didn’t do it. According to Christianity, restraining the impulse wasn’t good enough. The impulse was the act — or rather, living in a world of imagination. And the imaginal act is fact. And it’s not receding into the past, it’s advancing into the future, and it’s going to confront me. And so I accept the Christian faith. Now, what a challenge.1157 ¶26

Now I tell you what you’re going to actually experience one day. You’re going to experience what I have told you tonight — who Jesus Christ really is. He’s not on the outside. He’s talking from that book, the Old Testament. He is trying to be born. He is trying to be resurrected. He is in the Old Testament. They’re looking for a Messiah to come from the outside and save a nation — he doesn’t come from the outside. He is buried in those 39 books, and that whole book is buried in us, and therefore he rises in us. And when we experience his resurrection, it is always in the first person singular — he rises in me, and I am he. So we are told, “You will die in your sins unless you believe I am he.” And so I must read it, try to find out who is he. Well, I am telling you, you can read it from now to the ends of time, and your great learning will not convince you that that is it. But I am telling you, from my own experience, who Jesus Christ is. Jesus Christ is the pattern man buried in you.1157 ¶27

You will find him confirmed in Scripture after he awakes in you, when he rises in you — as you — you go back into the Old Testament, for that’s where it is, and you will see confirmation. It was all there, but you couldn’t see it before. Therefore, you have now the external written witness, and you have the internal living witness — here you have the outside witness, and then the inside witness, having experienced it. Now, if two witnesses agree in testimony, it’s conclusive. You have the external witness of Scripture and the internal witness of the spirit, and having experienced it, you know who you are — you are the Lord Jesus Christ.1157 ¶28

So having experienced it, having raised that pattern within me, I long to transmit it and to tell it to everyone in the world, and ask everyone who will listen to me to hold fast to that faith, for it is true. Do not deviate, do not turn to the left or the right. Hold fast, and set your hope fully upon this, which is the coming of this pattern unfolding itself within you. May it unfold tonight. No one knows when. Let no one tell you they can tell you when — they do not know. It comes like a thief in the night. It comes suddenly. But it must first be preceded by believing. You must first hear the story, and you either accept or reject. Well then, set your hope fully upon this grace that is coming to you as the unveiling of Christ in you, not outside of you.1157 ¶29

So I hope tonight you have a clearer concept of who Jesus is than you ever had before. Because, trained as you and I have been trained in the belief in a personal external Jesus, when we hear the name we think of something on the outside, and we think of one who lived 2,000 years ago. We can’t feel that he is contemporary. We can’t feel that he is going to erupt in me, and then I will know who he is — because if he is God the Father, as he claims he is, “When you see me, you see the Father.” And if I’m a father, there must be a son. And what one called him father in Scripture? David did. He asked the question, “What think you of the Christ? Whose son is he?” And when they said, “The son of David,” he said, “Why then did David in the spirit call me my Lord?” Well, “my Lord” is an expression that every son used of his father — always referred to his father as “my Lord.” In the fulfillment of the 89th Psalm, “I have found David.” And he said unto me, “Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.”1157 ¶30

So he comes only to fulfill Scripture, and the only Scripture he could fulfill was the Old Testament, because the New was not written. He actually — by the fulfillment of the Old, they write the New. So who fulfilled it? The unknown men of the day. For we do not know to this day who — Matthew’s an anonymous name. The name Paul is not mentioned in any non-scriptural book of the first century. And yet he’s supposed to have been in jail in Rome, in all these different places, as he wrote his letters from prison — well, there would be a record, for we have records going back centuries before that. So he writes from prison, and where are the records? We have no record. And he isn’t mentioned in one book that is not non-Scripture — no historical, not a thing written about him. And yet, here we have Paul, the beginning of the Christian faith, in whom God unfolded himself. “When it pleased God to reveal himself in me, I conferred not with flesh and blood.” For what flesh and blood could ever extract from Scripture what happened in me?1157 ¶31

So Paul begins to explain to the Jew, for he said, “I am a Jew. I am of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Jew of Jews.” He knew his 39 books backward. And then he saw the pattern unfold within him. “And when it pleased God to reveal his son in me, I conferred not with flesh and blood.” And then he began to tell it. Well, who is Paul? Is that too unannounced, saying — certainly he’s not mentioned, and we have the records of everyone in prison here, and he was in prison, one after the other, many prisons, as described in the book of Acts and described in his own letters. But we do know that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are anonymous names — no one knows who they are.1157 ¶32

So who are the men in whom the pattern erupted, who then told the story — which is really not the birth of Christ, it’s the birth of Christianity, it’s the birth of the promise of God. If you think of it in that light you’ll see it differently — the birth of Christianity, rather than the birth of Christ, and you think of a man. No, it’s the birth of the new age. For it is the new age that was born when this pattern assembled itself and then erupted within man. And it’s erupting day after day after day.1157 ¶33

So I can say that God not only came — God himself — into human history in the person, that pattern called Jesus Christ, but he comes — he came, and he comes — into human history in the pattern, and unfolds himself within the one who is going to experience his coming. So do not look for him to come from without. Today, the very popular speakers all over this country, when they go on TV, they get an audience of millions of people, and they want to be still here when he comes, and go and shake his hand and tell him what good work they did for him. For they’ll wait in vain. They’ll wait to the ends of time and they won’t find him coming from without, for he comes from within.1157 ¶34

He said, “I am from above, and you are from below.” Above and within are the same in Scripture, and without and below are the same in Scripture. If he’s looking for him to come from without, he’s looking for something to come from below, and that is not where the pattern comes from. It comes from above, and it comes from within. It unfolds within. It comes so suddenly, no warning, but when it first appears you can mark it: 1,260 days. And then you linger, and you tell your story to those who will hear it. And if only one hears it with deep conviction, you planted it. But it doesn’t really matter — you’re gone. When you take off the garment, after you have experienced the resurrection of the pattern within you, you are in the new age, which is eternity, and there you are, one with the body of the living God. For there’s only one body, only one spirit, only one Lord, only one God and Father of all. And you are incorporating into that body of love forever and forever.1157 ¶35

But before you depart, you must share your experience with your brothers who are still searching the Scripture. And you will tell them exactly how it happens, and it comes in this manner. It doesn’t come as you’ve been taught that it’s going to come — you can look forever, it’s not going to come that way. So I am telling you what I know from experience. I am not theorizing, I am not speculating, I am not erudite. I never went to college. I never graduated from high school. So you cannot accuse me of being scholarly. As you are told in Scripture, “How does this man have such learning, seeing that he has no studies?” He has not studied, as told in the second chapter of the book of John, for the man in whom it erupted, whoever he was who first spoke, was a simple man. As told us in the fourth chapter of Daniel, “He will give it to whom he pleases, even to the lowliest of men.”1157 ¶36

So don’t look for him to come among those who are highly exalted and highly promoted by themselves, because all these enormously promoted beings are self-promoted. A man doesn’t go out and find others promoting him — he gathers the funds together and he promotes himself. Well, you can call it a political campaign or religious campaign or any other campaign. And then, even in that little world of theirs — in this morning’s paper, you might have read this — when the queen was accused of maintaining a certain castle, Sandringham, and someone said it has 360 rooms, she said, “Oh no, it’s just a little hideaway.” That’s not a castle, about it — it’s a little hideaway. “I’m quite sure it doesn’t have more than 150 rooms.” You see, you get to the point where you live in such a strange place, mentally, that you have no contact with the world of reality. None whatsoever. It’s like, “Let them eat cake.” If you have none whatsoever — it’s like, “Let them eat cake.” You need to have no bread; well, let them have cake. And then a few hours later, her head came off. “Let them eat cake.” Well, here she said, “What? Oh no, certainly it doesn’t have more than a rooms,” when the average person doesn’t have one.1157 ¶37

What I tell you is far greater, infinitely greater, that you experience the pattern unfolding within you, than if you own the earth — if you own the whole vast world, and everyone was subject to you, and everyone was subject to you to obey your command — you are still mortal and will depart, leaving your world. For this, you don’t depart — you enter eternity, the new age, incorporated into the body of the living God. And you only enter that by the unfolding of this pattern within you.1157 ¶38

I hope tonight I have brought to you a clearer picture of Jesus Christ than I have ever done before. It’s that pattern that is buried in those 39 books, which no one by searching could find, until it erupted in a man. And he, being familiar with the 39 books, he told them — that although it is scattered over the centuries, there is simply a meaning to it all. And the meaning is put into 1,260 days, as told us in the 12th chapter of Daniel and the 12th chapter of Revelation. And there the whole meaning is condensed. But it takes the scattered fragments from these centuries and puts them into a pattern. And together they give meaning, and this meaning now unfolds within you, and you are the promise that God made — he promised you a son, and the son he promised you was his own son. To give you not as a companion, but to give you as your son. And if he gave you his son as your son, then he gave you himself. That’s how God gives himself to you.1157 ¶39

Now let us go into the silence. Thank you. Good, good. Are there any questions, please? Any questions? Any questions? Well, may I remind you that we are approaching the day we call Easter, which is resurrection. I’m not trying to sell you a book, but I do not know of any record of the true resurrection that is in print comparable to my chapter on resurrection, where the book is titled Resurrection — for I have told you the story as I personally have experienced it. Others only talk about it as a being on the outside. And I’ve told you exactly how it happens.1157 ¶40

Today we shall think on “It Is Within.” We are told the kingdom of God is not coming as to be observed, nor do they say, “Lo, here it is,” or “There.” For the kingdom of God, it is within. Can we take this literally? I am a man of sheer faces. I see the room; everything I see seems completely independent of my perception of it. Is it really within me? When Blake said, “All that you behold, though it appears without, it is within, in your own imagination, of which that world of mortality is but a shadow” — is that true? Basically, in this vast, enormous world, is the human imagination the only thing big enough to contain the immensity of space? Then is the human imagination one with the presence we call God? I identify God with human imagination. Is one with the presence we call God? I identify God with human imagination. I mean, doing so, I close the gap between God and man. Now, if all things are possible to God, I should be able to test this theory. If God truly is my imagination, and all things are possible to him, I should be able to test it. And we are called to want to test it, to test yourself and see. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in thee? Unless, of course, you fail to meet the test. But how to meet the test? How should I go about making the test?1154 ¶1

Well, first of all, I’m going to ask of you what I’d ask any group I address. Paul wrote in his letter to the Galatians, “Let him who is taught share all good things with him who teaches.” Now Paul was not asking for any earthly goods that will keep one of them here. He was asking them to share with him the results of their experiments, but he, in turn, could take their stories and tell it to others to encourage their faith. So I’m going to ask you to test it, and then share with me the results of your testimony — not only that, your dreams, your visions. I would like to hear them, for that’s how God reveals himself to himself in man. We are told, “If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make myself known unto him in a vision. I will speak with him in a dream.”1154 ¶2

Now this is what a friend of mine did here recently. This man, I must tell you, is a very successful — I would say — businessman. He’s a writer, but he’s always busy writing for pictures, writing for TV, and his income is enormous. He never misses a meeting in L.A. And here recently he sent me this letter. He said, you’ve asked me to share with you any experience of mine, such as a vision, a dream, or my practical down-to-earth experiences in the application of this principle. More like a dream. Yet first of all, I must preface the dream — I could be better appreciated if I was familiar with Berkeley Square. This will be better if I was familiar with Berkeley Square, where the central character tries to convince the girl that he can move from one century to another, say the 20th century to the 18th century. And then he flattens it to some one river, and his destination is around the bend. His present is where he is, on the boat. His future is around the bend. His present is where he is, on the boat. His future is around the bend. But someone elevated above the earth, having a view of both sides of the river, would see the man’s future and his present as present. Where that man is going, and where he is, would be present to the one elevated.1154 ¶3

For he said: “My dream began in this manner. I was the observer from above. I looked down, and I saw infinite possibilities of man. You couldn’t conceive of a plot, whether you thought of a tragedy, or some glorious plot, some horrible thing, or some marvelous thing — but every conceivable plot that man could ever conceive, everyone was present, worked in the most minute detail. And strangely enough, they were all contained in a prone man. Here is the form of a prone man. Now, you should not ask me how infinite states of consciousness, infinite possibilities, could be limited by the form of a man, but there it was. I’m only telling you what I experienced. And I contemplated this. It was the deadest thing I had ever seen. And yet I shouldn’t use the word dead, because something that is dead suggests it must have lived a previous life, though it is now dead. So recently I even happened to think — I looked at it, and then I began to weep. On Sunset Boulevard, out at Ralph’s Supermarket, people were on the sidewalks, there were cars on the street, but everything was frozen. But everything was frozen, three-dimensional, but frozen. And I knew that I alone could animate them. As I knew that, I myself was frozen. I looked at myself, I looked at the others, all frozen. And I knew only as I became alive would they become alive. And so I took a step, and I seemed to pass through an invisible cliff. At that very moment of taking the step, everyone became alive, and began to move — the sound, the noise, the action, everything. And I knew there was something I was trying to remember. What is it I am trying to remember? I kept on walking. I must have gone a block. It seemed like a normal walk, the kind of walk I take every day. And everything is alive and independent of me. And then I remembered. As I remembered, I turned around and looked, and changed the focus of my attention, and placed it back above. And everything once more became frozen and lifeless.”1154 ¶4

From this exalted state, I remembered — I didn’t talk to them. And for some strange reason, I wanted to speak with people. And at that moment, I found myself in the very room where a party was in progress. But they were frozen. And as I entered, I was frozen. And I wondered, am I the host, am I the guest? They all seemed to know me, and I don’t know one of them. And for a moment I panicked, for I knew the body would come to an end and I didn’t know where to go. So I remembered — I completely forgot, one second before, as I became involved in the body. Then I’m trying to remember something. I remembered the Sunset Boulevard experience. Remembering that, and how I escaped from it, I walked over to a seat, a chair. I sat down and closed my eyes, and then I changed the focus of my attention once more, placed it not here, at the party, but above. I opened my eyes, and they’re all frozen. Every one is frozen. And then I felt myself once more above. At this exalted state, I looked away down, and here is myself, on a bed. And I heard what I considered a wonderful idea. Now I know I can change, move myself from its present state into the most desirable state that I would like to experience. And then I realized how impossible that would be. From this level I can’t change any state. These states are permanent. I would have to go down and identify myself with that being, and from that level, once more, play the game.1154 ¶5

And so, at that moment, I began to awake. I’m on my bed, and I have no knowledge of the dream. To me it’s 6:30 in the morning, and I can’t conceive that I’m a dream. I went to my library and started the tape recording of your last lecture, and something you said triggered the dream, and it all came back in detail, as I’ve just told you. Then I asked, had I seen it last night, or had I seen it long, long, long ago? I don’t know. But however long it thrilled me, and so I thought I’d share it.1154 ¶6

And at the very end, to make it a light matter, he said, I went to my doctor, and he congratulated me on my rapid physical recovery, and he asked me if I’d done something, or if so, to tell him all about it. So I said, I did it all in my imagination. I imagined I was in your office, and you were saying to me exactly what you said. And then I began to explain to him how imagination works, that imagination creates reality. He said to me, in an elderly, philosophical manner, “You know, my wife thinks things like that.” Wasn’t very flattering. But he said, this is a strange experience. We were out driving recently on Sunday afternoon, and the radio was tuned in to a ball game, and this man is coming to bat, and I dislike him. And I said to my wife, “He shouldn’t be in the big league. He can’t hit, he can’t catch, and he can’t run. What right has he playing in the big league?” And she said to me, “You shouldn’t think things like that. You should think nice things about him and see him doing wonderful things.” He said, “All right, I will. I will see him hit a home run.” He steps to the plate, and the first ball pitched, he belts it into the bleachers. And then said he to his wife, “I’ll never do that again — it’s too fast.”1154 ¶7

I must tell you the lecture that triggered the memory of his dream. For here we all are, seated in this room, and we think we are here and completely this. And what his dream signifies, we will not take to heart. And yet you’re the animating power of the universe. The whole vast world is moving around you because you identify with the present state. Well, the thing he began to recall was this.1154 ¶8

I found myself in a dream, but not knowing that it was a dream. I found myself on a crowded subway train in New York City. I was talking to my friend David, but the train was literally crowded to the gunnels. I heard the voice of the conductor saying, “Please, do not press against the doors — they may spring.” But the people couldn’t help it. But in spite of the crowd, I could see distinctly, and the ladies were more beautiful than the Japanese. They were all beautiful and beautifully garbed. And I turned to my friend David. I said, “David, how can I believe — how can you believe — that all we behold, though it appears without, it is within, in our imagination, and this whole vast world is simply a shadow?” How could these lovely ladies be in need — and the train? And the train was as long as the station allowed. He agreed he couldn’t possibly, on this level, accept it. Then the train stopped and we got off. Walked up the stairs to the plaza. Then he said to me, “You’re going by the post office, aren’t you?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “Do me a favor and post these letters for me.” I took the letters and said, “Are they properly stamped and addressed?” — casually, not because I was curious with his writing, just to see that they were properly stamped. I waved goodbye to him and turned in the direction of the post office, and he went the opposite direction, and I found myself waking.1154 ¶9

Were they not only me? So what conclusion can I reach? Objectivity and subjectivity are wholly determined for the individual by the level on which his consciousness is focused. On reflection, it’s subjective. When I was actually having the experience, it wasn’t subjective — it was objective. Only when I woke and reflected upon the experience did I refer to it as a subjective experience. This is now objective. Right now, you think of this room and the meeting — to you it will be a subjective experience, a memory image. So I say everything is truly within. Now you can test it. Says everything is truly within. Now you can test it. You take a dream, a daydream, or something you want for yourself, or something you want for another, and you represent to yourself a scene which truly implies the fulfillment of that dream. You like to do this, that, and the other, and so you construct a scene, any kind of a scene, that implies the fulfillment of your desire, and then, to the degree that you are self-persuaded of the reality of that imaginary act, it will become fact in your world. I could tell you a number of stories to support that claim. It’s not theory to me anymore — this is fact based upon experience.1154 ¶10

So when we are told in the Book of Luke, “the kingdom of God is within you,” you can take it literally. These garments that you and I wear are parts of the eternal structure of the universe. You are wearing the garment as an actor wears a costume. You are not the garment you wear. You are doing this for a purpose, a heavenly purpose, but you are not these garments. You are that being that my friend discovered who sees it from above, and to see this universe from above is so completely unlike what appears to be seen from this angle — it’s not this — is it at all? But you come down into this world of death for a purpose.1154 ¶11

Now, Blake made this observation, and he claims he did not write it from his conscious, reasoning mind, that the words were dictated by the spirit of love. Well, God is love. Therefore, if the spirit of love dict— for God is love, therefore, if the spirit of love dictated the words of “Jerusalem,” then is God dictated. And in this he said: those in great eternity who contemplate on love, or rather contemplate on death, say this — what seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be, even of torments, despair, and eternal death; but divine mercy steps beyond and redeems man in the body of Jesus. Now that’s something that man can grasp on this level, but I tell you it is true. To stand in the presence of the risen Christ and commune with him face to face and voice to voice, then to have love, his infinite love, embrace you — and as He embraces you, you fuse with Him, without loss of identity, no change in your identity, and yet you are one with the body of Christ. And then He sends you. And He can’t send you without himself, because you’re one with him. There’s no divorcement, no separation in that moment at all. So when he makes the statement, divine mercy steps beyond and redeems man in the body of Christ — so in my last little pamphlet, I made the statement that I made it from experience: that you and I are resurrected one by one to unite into a single man who is God.1154 ¶12

So here is a reflection that he saw in his dream. A man, prone, containing infinity, and the deadliest thing he’d ever seen. God places a limitation, and then takes upon himself that limitation, and reaches in this act the very limit of contraction, that he may then expand beyond what he was. He takes upon himself the limit of opacity, and then begins to expand, and there’s no limit to translucence, to transparency. This is the world called the world of death.1154 ¶13

But while we’re in it, and we ourselves are animating it, we can take any state we desire. There are an infinite number of states. You can be in a poor state or a wealthy state — you’re no better off as far as the height goes, because one is poor and one is wealthy, not with respect to your point of view. But while you’re in the world of Caesar, why not be comfortable? Why not take a state that cushions and comforts? And so you can take a state of affluence if you know what it would be like to be affluent. Assume that you are, and see the world as you would see it were it true. And then, once accepted, you leave the reality of that unseen imaginal act, and if you do, it will come to pass.1154 ¶14

Because the whole vast world really is within you. I don’t care what others will tell you — it’s all within you. I don’t care what others will tell you — it’s all within you. And anyone moving in your world knows because of you.1154 ¶15

William James made the statement that the greatest revolution in his time was the discovery that man, by changing the inner attitudes of his mind, could change the other aspects of his life. Now James belongs to our generation, yet he’s gone from the world, but he was the great educator of the 20th century, and he said the greatest revolution in his time was this discovery. Well, the great book of books, the Bible, makes that statement — not as James made it, but how would you interpret this: “Whatsoever you desire, believe that you have received it, and you will.” Isn’t that the one condition imposed upon me, or you, is to persuade self that we have it? How can I persuade myself when at the moment reason denies it and my senses deny it?1154 ¶16

But James said he could change the attitude of his mind. And there is nothing stopping you from changing your attitude towards the speaker — you may like him or dislike him. And if your dislike of him causes him to act to confirm your dislike, and you like that reaction, then keep it up. If you don’t like that reaction, you could change your attitude towards him, and he automatically and unknowingly would act in the way that you would like. And you can make any person in this world. So if I am that free, that I don’t have to get your permission to hold an opinion on you, then I can hold it regardless of you. And if I hold it and persuade myself of the reality of that opinion of you, and you conform to it, am I not free? I am free to entertain any thought, and if I am, and it produces results, well then I’m a free person, even in the world of Caesar.1154 ¶17

So here, I do hope that I have persuaded you that the whole vast world — for you seem so small and insignificant to yourself — the whole vast universe is breathing within you. And so you can take it this day and test it. You’re invited to test it. And so you can take it this day and test it. You’re invited to test it. And when you get the results, share it with me. Tell me about it. Write me a letter. Explain what you did and how it worked. And if you’re blessed this night with a vision, I would love to hear it, for God makes himself known to man in a vision, and he speaks with a man through a dream. Don’t try to interpret the dream — tell me just what happened. I’m afraid you’re not to attempt to interpret it.1154 ¶18

He told me exactly what happened, and my reaction that he was about to record triggered the memory of the dream. But of all his experiences, what lesson he was learning was this: I have forgotten, I must remember. If anyone could now persuade themselves, you’re trying to remember something — you lost the memory of it when you came this low in the scale, and you’re trying to remember. What he was trying to remember was that exalted position where he saw the whole thing as dead, when he came down into the body of death and completely forgot who he really was — that people are shocked when you tell them that we are Christ.1154 ¶19

All things run to their origins. If my origin is God, my aim must be God, as the poet said: “You see on the fields the sesamum was sesamum, the corn was corn, the silence and the darkness knew, and so is a man faithful.” If I believe what scientists tell me, that my origin is a worm, my end is a worm. If I believe in the Bible, and my origin is God, my end is God. And I don’t have to choose anymore. I know that from experience. I don’t have to speculate about the risen Christ. I don’t have to speculate about God being love. I stood in the presence of God, and he’s infinite love.1154 ¶20

I’m not bending my head when I say God is man. As Blake said, “Thou art a man, God is no more, thy own humanity learn to adore. God appears, and God is light, to those poor souls who dwell in night. But does a human form display to those who dwell in realms of day.” So here, you’re wearing the form of God. You are God. He gave you this name. And the name that he reveals to the whole past world, if you take it, is I Am. So that’s my name forever; it be known, I have been known by it throughout all generations.1154 ¶21

But we don’t stop there. We say, “I am John,” a poor John, an unknown John, an unwanted John. And these are the limitations and the restrictions we put upon the name of God. But if I would remember the name, I would know about the name, and only put upon it that which is noble, that which is free. And if I did it, I would walk in that type.1154 ¶22

So, do me a favor and try it. Try it, and I promise you from my own experience that you’ll get the results. You won’t have to hum to anyone in this world, but no one.1154 ¶23

Here’s a simple little story. Two weeks ago, just before I closed, I was about to close, and my wife said to me, “You know, here’s a little unfinished business. A friend of ours owes you some money. You’ve never asked him for it. You’ve never written. You’ve never mentioned it to anyone, but he owes you the money. You’re closing up for the entire summer, you’ll not be here until late fall. I don’t think it’s fair to him, fair to you, fair to me, that he continues indefinitely without ever mentioning the fact that he owes you the money.” I said, “All right, do you want the money?” She said, “Yes.” I said, “All right, I will do it my own way. I will not ask him for it. I will not write him for it. I will not phone him for it, but I will do it in my own way, of imagination.”1154 ¶24

So I imagined, first of all, he had the money — you can’t get it from someone who doesn’t have the money. So I first of all assumed he had it. Then I went beyond that — you can have the money and be unwilling to pay, you know; you may have millions and owe the grocery store and not pay. So I first of all saw him with money, lots of money. And then I saw him really eager to pay me. And then I received from him what he owed me. This I did on Wednesday.1154 ¶25

On Friday, the phone rang about 4:30. It was my friend. He said, “Are you busy tonight?” I said, “Yes, I’m actually — ” He said, “That’s right, it’s Friday night. Well, my wife and I will come to the meeting tonight.” I said, “It’s perfectly all right.” So we came to the meeting. After the meeting, he said, “You ride home with me, and Bill” — who’s my wife — “she’ll go home with the one who brought you.” So my wife went with him and his wife. So we went on to the parking lot, and he always drove an old jalopy, something falling apart, but I saw nothing like that in the lot. And he took me over towards this wonderful place, the new one, with everything in it that money could buy. Well, he drove me home. Our new car was under a thousand miles. Not a word was said on the way home about money. Not a word was said at home. The one who drove my wife and his wife home left about four to be — and then five minutes later, she opened her purse and said, “This is long, long overdue, but I think you’ll find it in order,” and handed me a check for $1,200. I never asked for it, never once in the five years he’s owed it to me have I breathed it, and she gave me $1,200.1154 ¶26

This is how it works. If you believe in the reality of your own wonderful imaginal acts — they came out of nowhere, and now he has money, things don’t rain for him. He’s completely out of debt and free of that feeling of owing friends money over so many, many years. So try it, and then share with me the results of your experiment.1154 ¶27

And now, I think I’m going to ask my friends, the ushers, to pass among you.1154 ¶28

Did you hear the question?1154 ¶29

Any other questions, please?1154 ¶32

Well, then let’s get off the dreams now.1154 ¶38

Any other questions?1154 ¶40

I’m just a little bit different tonight. But I feel the time has come for me to tell it. To be speaking of the Bible as though it was written, say, this year. And people will go to war over the interpretation of a word or the interpretation of a sentence. And here we have a book — speaking now of the New Testament — but the oldest known text of the New Testament has only recently been discovered. Well, 1929. And they are the letters of Paul. And they are not original. They are copies made in the 3rd century. No original autograph of any New Testament text is known by man today. We have copies, and we have copies of copies. But not since the third century have we found anything that resembles, or rather that could be claimed to be near the original. And when you think that prior to the invention of the printing press, which was in the 15th century, all these were copies, and so you had scribal errors. And you had editorial emendations. And editors are very quick with their pen to change, to alter a text. Although they were not present, they were not eyewitnesses, but they’ll make it conform to what they want. And so we have these editorial emendations, and we have the normal, natural, scribal errors.1152 ¶1

I know in my own case, my wife is a very well-educated girl, went to Smith College, and she wrote me when I was in the army, once a day anyway, and sometimes two or three times. I would always put them in my pocket and read them when I was alone, so I could decipher them. I have taken a letter of hers — it’s been written, say, five, six years — and it’s old, and I say to her, darling, read this for me. She can’t even read her own handwriting. Now that happened in this century. Those scribes are making copies. Well, scribes wrote copies, and we have — there are no two copies that really are identical, and we have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of copies, and we have translations mostly of the Latin Vulgate. And these were written in Hebrew and Aramaic. Translations into the Greek, but that’s one removed. And then from the Greek into Latin. And most of these copies are translations from the Latin, which could not properly express the thought of those who spoke and thought in the Hebraic tongue.1152 ¶2

Now, to get beyond what we have, to find what really was written — for tonight you’ll find this a little bit different. Here we are looking for the truth, trying to find out what is God’s intention for us. We are told in scripture, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me.” But no one — this one is made to say, “I came into the world to bear witness to the truth.” “And you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” We are told that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. We are told that “in him was life, and the life was the light of men.” So he makes the statement and puts them all together — that he is the true and living way: “I am the way and the truth and the life.” I’ll tell you from my own personal experience — and it’s not in scripture that you can see it, you can’t read it that way. As I’ve just told you, we do not have any original. I am quite sure if the original is ever found, you would have found the story that I have told in Revelation — if it is ever found — but we have none. As I said, the oldest manuscript is a copy made in the third century, and that’s only of the letters of Paul, not of the gospel.1152 ¶3

Now here, I’ll tell you from experience that truth is a fiery spiral stairway. What looks true on one level may not be true on the next higher level — entirely different on another level. Vision, a complete vision, must extend to include the vertical as well as the horizontal. We only think of the horizontal, and think of the relationship of parts to others. It must include all the different levels of true vision.1152 ¶4

Now let me take a statement which you’ll find most disturbing. It’s taken from the book of Revelation, the third chapter, the first verse: “I know your works, you have the name of being alive, and you are dead.” The very thought that a man can be dead without knowing that he is — that’s disturbing enough. But the possibility of man being dead while he was alive, that’s really startling. Without the experience that I have had, it just doesn’t make sense. But after you’ve experienced it, there’s not a thing in this world that looks as it looked prior to that experience. I meet friends of mine whose funerals I attended. They do not know that they did, because they’re not really — they are independent of my perception of them. They argue with me, and I can’t persuade them that I went to their funeral. I can tell on this level, my friends who know me: Do you know Jack? Oh yes, I knew him. Do you know that I attended his funeral? Oh yes, he died. So tell me the day, the month, the year. Well — he tells me that he didn’t. So on this level I know those who died, and I can’t persuade those who are not aware that they did depart, because they have not died — not to themselves. They’re very much alive and young and healthy and about their business, trying to make a dollar, trying to do all the things they tried here — the same person, no transforming power in death.1152 ¶5

And so, on one level, here you’re told: “you have the name of being alive, and you are dead.” So he did not believe that he had died. But just imagine the possibility of being dead while you were alive. That I have experienced. To come upon a scene just like this, and everything is so real and so alive. All the people are enjoying the moment. They’re dining, looking through this enormous window, a huge, big, glorious bay window. And here everything is animated — the leaves are falling, the grass is moving, the bird is flying, the diners are dining, the waitress is walking, and everyone is animated, and they’re all dining and having fun. But now I’m on a different level. They don’t see me. I’m seeing it from an entirely different level. “In him is life, and the life was the light of men” — that is the consciousness of man. And I stopped that activity within me, which was life, which made them appear to be alive. And they all froze. They were all dead. So they were dead while they were alive. They were not animated by anything — they thought the beating of their heart was because they ate proper food, or they were doing this and doing that and doing the other — and I knew at that moment that one of them lived outside of me. I knew that I was the light that animated those bodies, all of them. As I released the activity within me which I had arrested, they all continued to fulfill their intentions. I knew I could have changed the intention while I had them frozen, and when I released it — which is only an activity — they would have thought that they had initiated a change of heart, and they would have gone on to do what I had commanded, and it was not anything that they had originated. I didn’t change it. I simply allowed it to go on.1152 ¶6

So I know — this fiery spiral way, that is truth. For he said, I am the truth. He identifies himself with the Son of Man, and as the Son of Man is lifted up — but how is he lifted up? In the same manner that Moses lifted up that fiery serpent in the wilderness. It’s a spiral, fiery motion. It’s a stairway leading from the depths of generation into regeneration. And when you travel it, there is nothing in this world that really is what it appears to be. But here we are, as we think we are alive — and here I say, you have the name of being alive and you are dead. Those who go beyond into the world called the world of the dead — I would say ninety-nine percent of them do not know that they experienced the event that you and I called death, because they did not. Nothing dies. The little flower that I put in my lapel — all of a sudden it withers, at the end of the day it’s withered, and I take it out and I discard it. The flower that blooms once, blooms forever. Can’t die. Nothing can die.1152 ¶7

So how could it be told, if it had the intelligence to understand, that it died? It’s blooming. How can you say to something that is blooming that he died? How could I convince Jack that I came back from San Francisco — from Los Angeles, rather — and attended his funeral in Haverstraw, New York, and paid for his funeral and gave him a good Catholic funeral, because his sister demanded it? She didn’t pay for it, but she demanded that kind of a funeral. I would have cremated him and taken his ashes and thrown them away, but now she wanted a good Catholic funeral in holy ground. All right, I paid for it — he’s in holy ground. And the priest and all came by, and the sister got down and kissed that dead body — got down on her knees, never saw the man for years. They never spoke to each other. In fact, they disliked each other. On her knees, and she embraced her brother, she kissed that dead body. And I walked by, not stopping, because that’s not Jack. He discarded that little garment, as I will discard this suit one day. But he doesn’t know that he died. He shirked all obligations in this life. He refused to assume any responsibility, and he died just as he lived here — just a child. He died at the age of 50. I would say to Jack, here’s the money, take Vicky out to the park and show the monkeys and show the animals in the little zoo in Central Park. We lived on 50th Street and the park began at 59th. Take her in and show the things. I would walk down the street, he came on back. Many a time I saw this — took her into a little drug store, and he ordered up, say, a milkshake, chocolate milkshake, asked the man for straw. There was always two straws in one little container. He would break the thing out, give her one, he would take the other and play a game — see who can finish it first. Well, he drank the whole thing, give her one little straw. And little Vicky, about three years old, she with one straw, and this big man in his forties, and he is putting his mouth there and he’s drinking the whole thing. That’s Jack. He’s the same Jack. No transforming power in death whatsoever.1152 ¶8

So that statement in the third chapter is true. We haven’t found the original. If you ever find the original of this marvelous book, then a complete radical change must take place in this world concerning what man worships as Jesus and as the Christ. I have told my best, or the best that I can tell it, my own personal experience. That must be found in one of those original documents — the true Son of God: that resultant state that reveals God as your own wonderful being. And that is the Lord Jesus. No change of identity — you’re still the being that you are, but you are I AM. That’s the being that you really are. And that Son that comes to reveal you as God the Father is the eternal David — the resultant state of all your experiences as man. Just imagine this fabulous world. We wake in the morning, we see this man died or that one died, and so many were killed, so many were shot — and here they were dead anyway.1152 ¶9

Now it frightens people to entertain the thought, but you are an immortal being. You are on all the levels, but you are sung to sleep on this level, the level of generation. And when you awake on this level, you will have that fiery spiral stairway, and you’ll do it in the twinkle of an eye when you go up. And then you’ll have these experiences that nothing in your world, as you are saying, remains imperfect, because you are perfect. No matter where you go, everything is transformed instantly. You don’t work upon it. You do not think. You don’t raise one finger to make it perfect. You are perfect. And everything in your world is made perfect for everything. You can conceive the beauty that’s in store for you because of your beauty, because you’re glorified, and wherever you go everything is very perfect without its consent. That’s heaven. Heaven is simply the radiation of yourself. If you walk into hell, it turns into heaven, because you are perfect, and you’re wearing the immortal garment which is forever and forever.1152 ¶10

And so you have the name of being alive, and you’re dead. And I’ve read a number of comments on it, all these commentaries — not one understands what it’s all about, because they’re made without vision. And our Bible today is nothing more — you can’t find two copies preceding the invention of the printing press that are duplicates. They could be done in the same day, the same month, but by different scribes, and here — scribal errors, plus that habit of editors, and that editorial emendation which is always changing. You can’t get it alone; he has to take your script, and you are the eyewitness — no, he’s not going to take you as the eyewitness, he is going to become the eyewitness and tell you what you ought to have seen, what you ought to have heard, because he brings to that script his own prefabricated misconception of the theme, and you’re telling him exactly what happened to you. I’m quite sure that my present revelation, in my book called Resurrection, if put into the hands of any editor today, he would go right through the whole thing with his great pencil, because he knows David is not the Son of God — he’d turn the whole thing out. And he knows that the Father is not Jehovah, because the Father’s name to him is Jesse, and to him the word Jesse is simply a name, like his own name, which could be any other name. And all these names have peculiar, marvelous significance — it’s not a name like a little tag that you answer to because someone called the name; the name conveys the character of the wearer of that name. And so Jesse is simply Jehovah exists — it is the eternal I AM, and that’s the Father of David. And David is not just a little person — he is the eternal personification of the sum total of all the parts that the Father played. For God played all the parts. He’s playing all the parts.1152 ¶11

So the story I told the other night about this lady in the swimming pool — I’ve been waiting for confirmation of that experience, so it came this past week. When floating on her back, and suddenly she felt my presence — she didn’t see me, I could have made myself manifest to her, I could have appeared to her, but that would have spoiled the entire picture, she then would have seen two — she would have seen Neville and herself. But no, she felt that she was Neville. And yet she didn’t lose her own identity. So she felt, I am Neville, and yet I am Laura. I am the same being. And now, from now on, said she, I will no longer use the plural — not we were present, but I, for I am you. And then she floated, filled with wine, to overflowing with wine, which is the Spirit, as told in Scripture. He turned the water on which she was floating into wine, and she was filled with the wine of the Spirit, as she felt now my presence, and I am the very one who is floating, and yet she didn’t lose her identity. That’s what I tell you — when I depart, where would I go? I have no place to go but within — heaven, and heaven is within you. I can make myself visible if it is necessary, but there is no need for it. My presence will be there, for in the end only one being is returning from the entire story, and that is God. God plays all the parts, and in the end there is only God — nothing but God, and his Son, called in scripture Jesus Christ.1152 ¶12

Now, when these early ones were lost, I do not know. No one knows. We only know, if we are honest about it, that we cannot find them. And only as late as the year 1929 did we find the letters of Paul in one body, and there are copies — copies made in the 3rd century in Egypt — and that’s our oldest manuscript in the New Testament. And between that date and the beginning — when you think of Paul, scholars are agreed that he wrote his letters between the year 50 and 61 A.D., and that at his age he must have departed this world before the turn of the first century. Not a word is said concerning anything in the second century. And here are copies and copies of copies — it is all that we have to go by. And any two have such variations, and you can see why: normal, natural, scribal errors. I know I would make it — you get tired, in those days they didn’t have nice lights, and so you’re working under all kinds of handicaps while you make your copy. But fantastic variations. So we have hundreds of them. How to go through these numberless variations and find the truth. The truth can only be discovered if you find these originals, or if someone comes into this world sent to take the barnacles off and tell, by his own personal experience, what the story is all about. Well, I have told it to the best of my ability, and that the story told in scripture is all about you.1152 ¶13

The God of scripture, both Old and New Testament, is your own wonderful I AM. That God there is no other. God — his name forever and forever — that is the eternal being placed into the mind of man, and he brings with him the resultant state, and that resultant state is David. And when you’ve played all the parts and there are no other parts to play, you’ve reached the end, and then the brain explodes, if they were — and here he stands before you. And without any word — although he does call you Father — without the use of a word: I don’t need my daughter to come home and say, hello Father, to remind me that that’s the then girl that I said goodbye to the day before. As she comes through the door, whether she speaks to me or not, I know she is my daughter. So if David speaks or not, when you see him, you know he is your son. There is no doubt he is your son. And in his mind, you are his Father. And there is no uncertainty as to this relationship.1152 ¶14

So here I tell you, it’s in store for you. Everyone is going to experience it, and I can’t wait to hear confirmation after confirmation. And I am so thrilled with this experience of Laura’s, where she actually could feel the union, that unity of the two without loss of identity, for all the identity of person. Now, there is a radical discontinuity of form — that’s why that one form could house both, as we are told in his letter, Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: there is only one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, through all, and in all. So that one body allowed Laura to feel the unity, for I wear that body, and she at that moment she was wearing that body, or she could not have felt it. So it’s the one body in the end, without any loss of identity.1152 ¶15

That’s the mystery. How can we — billions of us in this world, and billions to come — and yet they’re all numbered? It’s not just a matter of numbers coming in. Everyone is numbered, as told us in the 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy. Read it in the 8th verse: He has set bounds to the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. Some translate the word sons of Israel, but the word Israel quite often in scripture is used of God. Or the word, if you break it down, Ish-ra-El, the man who rules as God — that is Israel. So man all of a sudden awakens, and he is God. And the only way he will ever know he is, is that resultant state who stands before him, and he knows who he is — he’s David. And he is his Father. And that is his son.1152 ¶16

So a form or anything on one level may not be true — true as it is on this level, it may not be true on the next higher level. For Jack, on one level, was my secretary, and the one who, in spite of his age, played with my little girl and would throw across the carpet — I thought he’d break her neck one day, because he treated her just as though they were the same age. He would sit down with me, and I would have martinis. He always didn’t like licking his head. But if it was free, he wanted it, so he took his martini. I would have two or three martinis before dinner. He wanted just as many as I did. He couldn’t hold them. But with it all, he wanted a huge big box of candy next to him, so I supplied him with candy — martinis and candy — and Vicky would come by and take one of his candies, and he pushed it right straight across the carpet. That was Jack. He couldn’t help it. That was his mind.1152 ¶17

So naturally, when I met him in the world — the world called the dead — there’s no dead, it’s a terrestrial world just like this — it didn’t take him any time to awaken in a young body in his twenties, but he is the same Jack, he hasn’t changed one iota. And then to tell Jack why he was here — it’s maddening — to tell him that he died and that I actually gave him a good funeral. But to tell him why he was here — do you know that you died? Can you imagine his reaction? Well, even the intelligent person of the world today, the brilliant minds of the red scholars — to tell them, you have the name of being alive and you’re dead, they’d laugh at you. Yet that’s the first verse of the third chapter of the book of Revelation. But until you have the vision and the actual experience, it doesn’t make sense.1152 ¶18

And yet I have seen room just like this on many occasions — I’ve done it. It’s fun to see it all animated and all alive and all carrying on this marvelous conversation, each trying to outdo the other one in bragging. And suddenly you know exactly what they’re doing, and you arrest — not them, leave them just alone — you arrest an activity in you, for in him is life, and the life was the light of men, the consciousness of men. So you arrest the life in you, the activity, and all of a sudden the light goes out in men. There’s no consciousness — they’re dead. You go over, you examine them, and everyone is as dead as though they’re made of clay or marble. Look at them — all — they can’t see you, because they’re dead, and even before you did it they couldn’t see you anyway, because you are on a higher level. You do it from a higher level, and on that level they can’t see you. Your spirit is more alive than anything in the world below you. And all of a sudden they all stand still. And then, to your own amusement, while they’re perfectly still and dead, you release the activity in you. As you release it, they all continue animated once more, continuing their lives, and they’re bragging. And that’s life.1152 ¶19

For in him is life, and the life was the light of men. So he came bringing truth. So they asked him the question concerning the truth. He said, for this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth. And then Pilate said, what is truth? And he was silent. How could you tell Pilate that he was dead? How could you tell the judge who was the extended arm of Caesar that he is dead? You couldn’t tell him that. Yet these words, as dictated in Revelation, are attributed to the risen Lord through his voice called John. And so he sends John to the churches, and the first church is Sardis. And these are the words given to Sardis, to the angel of Sardis: You have the reputation, you have the name of being alive, and you are dead.1152 ¶20

Now who is going to explain it? I have many, many commentaries at home. I have the grandfather of them all, called the Interpreter’s Bible — they are 12 volumes, 6 of the Old and 6 of the New, and 4 of dictionaries, and you can read that backwards, and they cannot throw any light on it, because it doesn’t make sense. How can you say to someone that there’s a possibility that a man is dead while he was alive? And that those who are dead are dead, and they do not know that they are dead — because I tell you, they’re not dead, but they died. And when I said to Jack, you know, Jack — no, you’re not dead, but you died — he said, oh, stupid Neville, I mean, I am not dead, but I died. How is that possible? I said, Jack, I went to your funeral and buried you, gave you a marvelous Catholic funeral.1152 ¶21

But I did persuade my sister-in-law, who, as a pillar of the Episcopal Church, could not understand my teaching. She still can’t. But since then, she has changed her attitude — it comes slowly, from the depth of her own being. Now she is willing to believe in immortality outside of the extension of herself to her children and grandchildren. Up until then she felt you could only have immortality through the bearing of children, and the children bearing children — but that you yourself know, you will live in your offspring. And when I said to her, you, a Christian, don’t you know the foundation of Christianity? The fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and life everlasting. And you’re going to take one of these and throw it away, called life everlasting? You don’t know Christianity, Al. Well, she just wouldn’t argue with me.1152 ¶22

But since then she is now — either because of advancing age, or she is now 70, or a change in some strange way — but it was that change that took place in the depth of her soul. So it’s coming up slowly, it takes time, and then suddenly it will all dawn within her, and one day she will be able to understand me. She came to two of my lectures, and I might as well have been speaking in Greek. She doesn’t understand me, but she’ll go to church every Sunday morning because it’s a thing to do. And so she’ll go and hear the man — couldn’t tell you what he said, which is not really important, because the Chancellor — he didn’t say anything anyway. Talked about getting involved, possibly, and doing this and doing that and doing the other — has nothing to do with religion.1152 ¶23

Involved is telling God’s purpose. Does he have a purpose? Well, he has a purpose, and he has made it known in Christ Jesus. That’s the pattern. It’s a pattern, man buried in man, and it has been unfolded in me. Well, I’m just telling exactly what happened to me. If one understands it all, well and good. If they don’t understand it, take it anyway and dwell upon it, because I tell you it is true. And the day will come — when I have written in my book, which I call Resurrection, when they find those old scripts, if they ever do, they’re going to find that story. But we have no script in the New Testament that is beyond the one just found in 1929, a copy made in the third century.1152 ¶24

Now, when you consider all these copies, and such discrepancies in the copies, and man makes it fit what he thinks it ought to be — I read here recently, in fact it is in the Interpreter’s Bible, our great college of Jesuits here, Loyola, and the founder of that college said that to be a good Jesuit — and therefore, he means, that’s the foundation of this Roman Catholic world — to be a good one, if the church tells you that a thing is black, when you know that it is white, to you it must be black. That’s the foundation. Don’t question the authority of the church. No matter how stupid the statement is, no matter how far afield it is of truth, if they say that is it, that is it, and you do not question.1152 ¶25

And here — this is a searching mind in this world, and you’re asking questions. When the vision first happened to me as a boy, I wondered, what on earth is it? Why am I — I am not qualified, I don’t have the attributes, I have nothing. And here I stood in the presence of these exalted beings, in the very presence of the risen Lord, and he embraced me because I answered correctly. But my answer was automatic — it came just as though I were prompted. I heard no voice, but I might just as well have been prompted, it came automatically. When he said, what is the greatest thing in the world, and I answered in the words of Paul: faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. And then the Ancient of Days embraced me, and we fused and became one body — just one body — yet I didn’t lose my identity, and I’m quite sure he didn’t lose his. But I was baptized at that moment. Death baptism — to enter into the body, to actually submerge oneself in the body. Now we have it here where you push them into the water, they’ve got to go right down into the water, they think that’s doing it. Many of them get dunked that way. I wasn’t dunked. I was simply embraced by infinite love — that was my baptism.1152 ¶26

And then I was sent into the world, wondering, what on earth am I going to talk about? I am not qualified, I do not have the educational background, I have no background to do what undoubtedly I am under compulsion to do. But in time the whole thing began to awake within me, and I was moved by compulsion to tell it. And my first night, I think six people came, and from then on it grew and grew and grew, as I grew in understanding of what it meant. But that was indelibly impressed upon my mind. I could — I can see it now, in my mind’s eye, I can see the recording angel before the book, looking at me, and then checking off my name — undoubtedly. But she didn’t speak, she simply looked, and then took that quill and checked it, as told in the 12th chapter of the book of Daniel. And then I came back into the presence of this Ancient of Days, and I could think of nothing but love, infinite love. And then he embraced me. Then I stood before infinite might, and it was he who said to me, time to act. And I was whirled out of that wonderful assembly back at one night, little babe, and the room filled with light, and for the longest while it didn’t subside. But what must I do? Time to act — what? I had no money, no name, no reputation, no education, and do what? But as time went on, it unfolded within, and then it began to erupt, and erupt, and erupt. So he selected me to do it.1152 ¶27

And when the time comes — I am quite sure, if it is ever discovered, if they ever find those scripts, they’re going to find my story in that book. For that’s the true story of the birth from above. You’re not born by a change of consciousness, as the world teaches, that you’re going to feel something different, and that’s your birth. No, it’s an actual birth from above. And the child is only a symbol of your birth. And you are born from above, which means from God. The word is anothen — it is from above, but it means from God. Those who are born of God are not born from below, which is of blood, or of the flesh, or of the will of man. But no, this is of God. And who is born? It’s an expansion of God, that’s all — his sons are expanding the One, for God — the One — is made up of all of his sons, and together they form God, and he’s granting to each God, each himself, the Father.1152 ¶28

So here, what is true on this level, or any level for that matter, may not be true on a still higher level. Everything here is completely independent, seemingly, of your perception of it, and they go their way without asking your permission, and they do all the things that they want to do, and they do not consult you at all. And the day will come, after you ascend that fiery stairway, that you are in control and you live in the same world, and you don’t ask them permission — you simply arrest them, arrest an activity in yourself, which is life, for as the Father has life in himself, he is granted a son also to have life in himself — and that’s the life, and the life is the light of men, the consciousness of men. And you simply arrest it, and it goes out — the light goes out, and there is no light in their eyes, no light in their body. They’re dead, just as dead as that table. You go and you look at them, and they’re made of clay, just like clay. And then you release the activity in you, and suddenly they all become alive, and they don’t even know there was an interval of time between that moment that you arrested them and the moment when you released them. And if you had arrested them for one million years, when you released it, they would start off at that moment and not know that a million years had passed — you would have no knowledge of it.1152 ¶29

But the startling one — to be alive and be dead, to die, and you’ll meet them one day, because this is going to happen to you, and you can’t persuade them that they’re dead. But that’s all right, because they’re not — they’re very much alive. So the thought that a man can be dead, not knowing that he is, that is a startling thought, but not compared to the possibility that a man is dead while he was alive. You develop on it. This may not seem practical to you tonight, but may I tell you, whatever is most profoundly spiritual is in reality most directly practical.1152 ¶30

If I told you that you are heirs to the universe, but you are completely unaware of it, would you believe it? Well, that is what Scripture teaches, that we are heirs to the universe. But we do not know it. That’s why we are here. So Paul tells us in his letter to the Galatians, the child is no better than a slave. Yet he owns the entire estate. He is under guardians and by the Father. So it is with us. When we were children, we were slaves to the elemental spirit of the universe. What does he mean by it?1150 ¶1

Well, he tells us quite clearly, if we read it together in a serious way, anyone who believes in anything outside of himself is enslaved by these elemental spirits. He calls it believing in what Christianity will tell us. As he said, I’m afraid I have labored over you in vain, for I noticed, as I passed, labored over you in vain. For I notice, as I pass by, that you observe days, and weeks, and months, and seasons, and years. I’m afraid I have labored over you in vain. Any outside ritual, whether it be a mass, the observation of a day, a month, a holy this, holy that, all this to him is simply being a slave of the elemental spirit.1150 ¶2

This story is told us in the parable of the prodigal son. When the second one returned, having spent all, the first son complained that “I’ve been with you always and you never gave me a kid,” and he said, “Son, you’re with me always and all that is mine is yours.” Then he tells him that it’s right that we should make merry and rejoice and be glad, because this thy brother was dead and he’s alive, he was lost and he is found.1150 ¶3

Do you know that story is our story? We were heirs to the whole vast universe, but like the first son we were unaware of it. The first son never left his father’s home. You and I were chosen in the beginning to leave, to become aware of our possession, and we go through hell to become aware of it. So you and I go through all the horrors of the world to awaken us to who we really are. And when we awaken, we are the Father.1150 ¶4

It’s the Father’s purpose to give himself to us, and while we were with the Father we did not know his purpose, he did not know our possession, so he could conceal it. He said, “I chose them in me before the foundation of the world,” and then we came down into this world and took upon ourselves these garments of flesh. The one who took it is the Son of God. He is crucified on these garments. And when he passes through the furnaces of affliction, he will awaken and know himself to be the Father. For it’s the Father’s purpose to give himself to his Son. And you and I are the sons of God. All of us, regardless of your sex, we are the sons.1150 ¶5

So when we pass through the furnaces, then in the fullness of time, he sends the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying, Father. Now who is this Son that he sends into our hearts crying, Father?1150 ¶6

Let me take you now into Scripture with me, for the purpose here for all of us is simply to fulfill His Word, which is Scripture. That’s the only purpose. I’ve come to fulfill Scripture. When He awakes within us, then He understands the Scripture, the Word. Now listen to this carefully. “Go to my servant David and say to David that when your days are fulfilled and you lay down with your father, I will raise up your son after you who will come forth from your body. I will be his father, and he shall be my son.”1150 ¶7

David is a symbol of humanity, the whole vast world of man. That’s David. So say to humanity, I will raise up from your body a son that will come forth from your body. If he comes forth from the body of man, then he must be the Son of Man. So Christ calls himself the Son of Man. Yet he is the Son of God.1150 ¶8

For the prophecy is, “I will raise up your son who shall come forth from your body, I the Lord will be his father, and he shall be my son.” The dreamer in you, and by that dreamer in you I mean your own wonderful human imagination, that is the Son of God. That is the Son of Man.1150 ¶9

One day he will awaken in you, and he will rise in you, and he will come forth from that body that is dead. We think it’s alive. I will tell you, when it happens to you, and you see that other which you come from, you look at it and to you it is dead. You are buried in it, and you are dreaming and animating this world. Through your dreams you dream this whole vast world in which you now live. And the day will come you will awaken within, and that will come up. If it comes out of man, then it’s the Son of Man. Yet the Lord said, I will be his father and he shall be my son. This one that comes up is one with the Father. And he makes the statement, I and my Father are one.1150 ¶10

In the end, he goes and says, “I am the root and the offspring of David.” David is humanity. Yet I am the root, the father of humanity. And I am also that which comes out of humanity. I will raise it myself out of humanity.1150 ¶11

Because the sons that came down formed God. The word God is a plural word, Elohim, made up of his sons. We are all the sons. But we were not aware of who we are and what we possess. So we came down a certain number, just a certain number, not an indefinite number, may I tell you, just a certain number. Every child born of woman is a son of God. The sons came down into the world, and he set a limit to the number, as we are told in the thirty-second chapter of the book of Deuteronomy: “And he fixed the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.”1150 ¶12

So in spite of all that we seem to do today to limit the offering of the world, it is all a play. It’s all done. Not one child could breathe but what that breath is but the Son of God. Everyone in the world is the Son of God. But he doesn’t know it. And he goes through all the fires of this world to awaken to the knowledge of who he really is. He is God. He didn’t know it, so he comes down into the world, and he goes through all these horrible things in the world and plays his part.1150 ¶13

But in the fullness of time, God sends forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying, Father. He calls. Who is it? It is the Son told of humanity, who is calling us Father, for we are the father of David, and yet we are the offspring, for we buried ourselves in humanity. We came out of humanity, therefore the Son of Man. And yet we are the father of humanity. And humanity, being symbolized by David, David stands before us and calls us Father.1150 ¶14

So here, when one complains, as the first one complains, he said, “Son, you are with me always and all that is mine is yours.” But he doesn’t know it. You own the universe, and if you don’t know it, you could die of want. For the want of one dollar. Because you can’t appropriate anything, because you think it isn’t yours. You think only what your senses dictate belongs to you. You think that only what reason allows, you could claim. You can’t for one moment bring yourself to believe that the whole thing is yours, and all you have to do is to appropriate it. It is yours.1150 ¶15

Now you’re told in Scripture, whatever you believe, if you really persuade yourself of the reality of what you are believing, you shall have it. “When you pray, believe that you have received, and you will.” All things are possible to God. Well, the average person would say yes to God, but not to me, because he’s not awake. He doesn’t know that he is God. And if the word God causes him to feel for one moment the existence of something external to himself, he has a false god.1150 ¶16

Why? Because God’s name forever and forever is I AM. “When I go to the people of Israel and I say to them, the God of your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, sent me, and they ask me, what is his name, what should I say? Say unto them, I AM. That is who I AM. Say to them, I AM hath sent me unto you. For this is my name forever, and by this name I shall be known throughout all generations.”1150 ¶17

Well, now if you hear the word God and you don’t think of I AM, you’ve got the wrong God. If you hear the word Jehovah and it doesn’t conjure within you the feeling of, well, I’m aware, then you’ve got the wrong God. All things are possible to God, yes, but if you think he’s on the outside, you’ve gone astray. If you know God, and the word God infinitely reminds you of who you are, and all things are possible to God, and all things are God, for then you appropriate it, you simply take it, you don’t owe anyone, it’s all yours.1150 ¶18

So you want a better job, you want a better position in this world, a better home, this, that, or the other, you simply assume that you have it. You dare to assume that you are in possession now of what you really want in this world. And if you dare to persist in that assumption, it will harden into fact. This is what Christianity is.1150 ¶19

What others teach is a never matter. But as Paul tells us, when we were children we were slaves to the elemental spirit, that simply means all external rituals in the world. When I stood in the presence of infinite love, and infinite love embraced and then sent me, and as he sent me, the words rang out, “Done with the blue blood,” and I didn’t understand what it meant. But I came out with this ringing in my ear, “Done with the blue blood,” to discover years later it meant church protocol. That’s all that it meant.1150 ¶20

Any external ritual that would enslave me, where I am threatened with a curse if I do not observe days, months, seasons, and years, if I do not observe the mass, if I do not observe all the things on the outside, including circumcision, including anything, if I believe in astrology as something that is actually dictating my life, an influence in my world, then I’ve got a false god. I must have but one God, only one God, and that one God is my own wonderful human imagination. That’s your God. Only one God, and that one God is my own wonderful human imagination. That’s your God. And there is no other God.1150 ¶21

Now put it to the test. He said, “Test me in this, if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing so great you have not room on earth to receive it.” Test me. But how do I test it? Well, what do I want? Then I assume that I have it and feel as I would feel if it were true. And then as I feel it, I live in that feeling, sleep in that feeling, and then I must have it in my world if this thing is true. But that’s what I have taught in Scripture. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? For the average person, if you say that to him, he does not realize Jesus Christ is in him. When he says, I AM, he does not believe for one moment that is Jesus Christ. He thinks I am a little tiny being called this, that, or the other. He doesn’t really believe he is the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you that your true identity is Jesus Christ. Until you believe it and put it to the test, then you don’t really believe it. Walk as though you were the Lord Jesus Christ, and may I tell you, you will act as the Lord Jesus Christ. And you will actually believe, for what? Well, at any moment that you are capable of doing anything in this world without raising a finger, you simply assume that things are as they are asked of you. Whatever is asked of you, you assume that it’s done. You feel the thrill as though they told you that it’s done. Just let it go that way. You’ll find all these lovely things unfolding within you.1150 ¶22

So, if you did not come out, and you did come out, you will be the first son complaining, because he now kills the fatted calf and brings the robe and the ring and puts shoes upon your feet because you returned from the journey. And he said, it’s good that we should rejoice and be merry, for this thy brother was dead and he’s alive. He’s alive to who he is. He was lost, but now he’s found. But the firstborn never left home, and therefore he has no awareness of his possessions. He doesn’t know what he’s found. But the first one never left home, and therefore he has no awareness of his possessions. He doesn’t know what he possesses.1150 ¶23

And if you had the whole vast universe that you did, but you don’t know it, well then what good would it be to you? You couldn’t appropriate any part of it. Yet you’re told in Scripture, “If I were hungry I would not tell thee, for the world is mine, and all that is. The cattle on a thousand hills are mine.” I would not stray and eat. But man is not aware that the whole thing is his, and he will not go beyond it. Yet he’s invited by Scripture to step out and test this law.1150 ¶24

For I tell you, you are the sons of God that came down into this world to become aware of who you are. You did not know it in the beginning. You had to come up and become slaves. Paul calls us slaves. We’re all slaves. We are slaves of the elemental spirit. Where I’m a slave when I think I’ve got to get up in the morning and go to mass. I’ve got to go to church. I’ve got to keep certain days of the year holy. I’ve got to do this, that, and the other. I’m a slave of it. I must say grace before dinner. As I sit down and say grace, it may be a lovely custom, but that can become a habit, and that can be an elemental spirit that actually enslaves. Anything on the outside, all rituals, and I was told the whole thing rang in my ear, “Done with the blue blood.” All church protocols. Anything that is man-made, done with it, and just simply live the most normal, wonderful life in the world.1150 ¶25

Now let me bring to your attention tonight a little thought. A friend of mine wrote me. I got the letter yesterday. He said, this thing has been haunting me for the last two weeks. God speaks to man through the medium of dreams, but we are past masters at misinterpreting dreams. And for two weeks I wrestled with myself because this thing is so, to me on this level, so unlovely. Here in dreams I had an affair with my stepdaughter, something I couldn’t dream of on this level, and she seemed to invite me into this act. I love her dearly as a stepdaughter, but certainly I never entertained that thought on this level, and yet it seemed there. Right now, he said, I admire her, I love her dearly, I love her great spiritual qualities, things I would like to have myself.1150 ¶26

Well, may I tell him, on these levels, which seem immoral from this level, they are not immoral at all. I ask you to go home and read the sixth chapter of 1 Corinthians. And read these words. “He who is joined to a harlot becomes one body with her, as it is written, the two shall become one flesh.” Then he goes on the very next verse. “He who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.”1150 ¶27

He takes the most graphic picture in the world, which is at the beginning of it all, to show you the greatest story ever told. Man, who is united to the Spirit through the Lord, becomes one spirit with Him. And He shows you this other story. He is in love with what He represents, what He stands for. He has incandescent eyes. He would love to have these eyes, love to be able to see into the world of eternity, into the world of thought, and see reality as against what this shadow world shows. And he actually touched her, he actually knew her, and it was completed. For one is actually receiving the gift of that which he believes the other to possess.1150 ¶28

When God embraced me, he was a father, he was love, he was power, he was wisdom. And as he embraced me and I fused with him, for then he transferred to me all that he is, that was his gift to me, that was his grace upon me. He gave me fatherhood. So in time his son stood before me and called me Father, he being the father of humanity, humanity being personified as a single being called David. David transformed and called himself. He, being loved by all beings, transformed itself into that, growing more and more into that form of love.1150 ¶29

So in his case he actually was drawn to one he admired for her spiritual qualities. And here a union took place. So she transferred to him what he sees in her as a spiritual quality. On this level, no, he would be completely annoyed with himself, even to entertain the thought. But you see, in the depths of one’s soul there’s nothing that is wrong, and all these things unfold within the being. So I can say to him, you’re blessed. Blessed because he is one that is blessed.1150 ¶30

And if she seems to be the one who drew you into the story, and you actually, you said, I actually felt right about there, yet on reflection I felt faint about it, I’ve got to get it off my chest, I’ve been resting for the last two weeks, now it must come to the surface and get it off, in the air. And so he tells me the film. I tell you that you are blessed.1150 ¶31

As I am used in my capacity today, in the same strange manner, as a man called Neville on this level, I’m totally unaware of these contacts, but in the depths of my soul, I know. On Wednesday morning, I tried to show a few of you, about four or five of you, something, and you would not even look. I saw the most glorious sky, the most heavenly blue, and these lovely streaks across the sky making them fantastic patterns. And you would not, or you could not, look at it. And here I’m trying to show you the garment that I wear, and you saw a book about the size of this little lectern, just about the size of this. You could only see it reflected on the flat surface of a book. And I’m trying to show you the difference between this cubic reality and that surface that depicts it, and how different this living, cubic reality is from that surface that only depicts it. But you would not look up. You either would not or could not look up. And this living garment occupied the entire sky, this heavenly blue, and then against the heavenly blue, streaks of transparent white clouds. But what a pattern. But it was not just a cloud. It was a living garment, a living garment. And I tried so hard to get you to look, but you would not look.1150 ¶32

So here, in this state, I tell him that he is blessed. Don’t be afraid or be ashamed to tell me any story of that nature, because it doesn’t mean what it seems to mean on this level. In the depth of your own being, all these things that seem here to be immoral are not immoral at all.1150 ¶33

When I embraced the Heavenly Father, or the other embraced me, that was union, that was baptism by the Holy Spirit, and it was an actual creative act. And then I was sent into the world to do what I am doing. A little water on your head, that’s not baptism, that’s only a shadow. That’s what you saw when you looked at the little book, to see reflected on the little figure the size of this what the whole vast sky will do. How could you do it?1150 ¶34

So I tell you, you and I came out, came down into this world, and assumed these garments of flesh and blood. These are the crosses that Christ bears. Christ is buried in us. And Christ must rise in us. And the only cross he ever wore is the cross of humanity, and this is his cross, and we are the grave. And he will rise in us. When he rises in us, not as another, he rises in us as ourselves. He actually rises as your own wonderful human being. And then you are completely transformed.1150 ¶35

Now they asked Paul, and Paul said, some will say to me, “How are the dead raised, and with what body do they come?” Paul only answers in this manner. He wears the body that is given to him by God. God gives him a body that he has chosen, but he doesn’t define the body and describe the body. May I tell you from my own experience, it’s a body of light. It seems a body of fire, fiery light in air. You don’t even touch the ground.1150 ¶36

But the thing that you really inherit, Paul is talking about, you inherit a body. He said we are heirs. If I’m an heir, I’m an heir to something. I’m going to inherit something. And he calls it the estate. But the estate is a body. That body in which you are clothed, when you are raised from the dead, makes everything perfect wherever you are. You inherit a body, and wherever you go, everything is perfect. Nothing can remain imperfect in your presence. So heaven is not a realm. Heaven is a body. You actually inherit the kingdom of heaven. You inherit a body.1150 ¶37

And if I came into hell, instantly hell is transformed into heaven. If I walked through the desert, they would all blossom. Instantly blossom. All the grains would turn into flowers, that so-called sand. If I walked through the petrified forest, these dead trees would burst into flowers, burst into blooms. Wherever you go, nothing remains imperfect. You could go into, as I did, among all the blind, the halt, the withered, the shrunken, and as I walked by everyone became perfect. The blind who had no eyes, eyes came out of nowhere and filled these empty sockets. Arms that were missing came back and filled the so-called missing area. And those who could not walk jumped, and those who could not speak spoke. And everything was made perfect as I simply walked by. And yet I did not raise one finger to do anything. It wasn’t even compassion on my part. I simply walked by, clothed in that garment. And that garment is perfect. And because it is perfect, nothing can remain imperfect in its presence. That’s what you’re going to inherit.1150 ¶38

But with what body do they come? The body that God has chosen for them. I tell you that body is perfect. I can only describe it as something that is altogether different, yet no loss of identity. I will know you in eternity. Yet you are transformed, and the body isn’t flesh and blood. It’s simply a living, pulsing, radiant body, a body of light. But it’s perfect. And as you walk by, among anyone, the minute you walk by, they’re transformed. They have to be perfect because you’re perfect. And if you made your vision into hell, hell ceases to be. As far as you’re concerned, it’s heaven. Everything is transformed wherever you go, and you do not raise a finger to make it so. It’s all done.1150 ¶39

So I tell you what is in store for you, and I’m speaking from experience. I know. I am not speculating. I am not theorizing. He rose in me, not as another, but he rose in me. He didn’t stand there, he rose in me. But how do I know he rose in me? For the same thing that is recorded in Scripture concerning him is now my experience. The same thing happened in me.1150 ¶40

Indeed, was it not said of him, when they went, that this event had taken place, you’ll find a little infant wrapped in swaddling clothes? Or they came, they didn’t see me, as you’re told in Scripture, the tomb was empty, the body was removed, but him they did not see. Why? Because you are spirit. But you are aware of all that is transpiring, all that is taking place.1150 ¶41

Did David not call him my Lord? For David called me my Lord. Did he not say the Son of Man must rise like a fiery serpent, in the same manner that Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness? For the same thing happened in me. And not a serpent rose, I was a serpent, a fiery serpent, that rose.1150 ¶42

Was it not said of him that the Holy Spirit would be seen in the form of a dove and remain upon him? What had happened in me, and when he came among the people, did they recognize him? No. Did they believe the story? They said no, it sounded like an idle tale, and they did not believe it. And then he says to them, O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have written concerning the Son of Man. And then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. They still did not recognize him. And then, as he walked, he wanted to go beyond, and they said, “Remain with us,” and he remained with them, and then suddenly their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he vanished out of their sight. And then he says to them, all that is written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled.1150 ¶43

So you’re here for one purpose, to fulfill God’s word, that you may become awake as to who you are. And when you come awake to who you are, you realize you are God himself, for it was his purpose in the beginning to give you himself. He couldn’t give you himself if you could not inherit him, unless he died. For God, God dies. “Unless I die, thou canst not live. But if I die, I shall arise again, and thou with me.” So he dies, and then you become God. So God lives, because you actually inherit God. So the whole vast world is simply God unfolding, with nothing but God in the world. Nothing but God.1150 ¶44

He is buried in you now, and he is dreaming the life that you are experiencing. And the day is going to come, and I hope soon, when he will awake within you. And may I tell you, when he awakes, oh, what an earthquake, what a quake, your whole head. You’ve experienced the last quake. Death is a little tiny shake compared to what’s going to happen in you. Your head will shake as you’ve never known an earthquake. And every bone you see in you is coming apart. But instead of coming apart, you find yourself waking. And you wake within the tomb of your own skull, and you’re all alone, and you come out. And it’s exactly what you do to get out, and you do it. You roll away the stone. All done by you. No one else rolls the stone away. You push, and the stone rolls away. And you come out of that garment.1150 ¶45

And then everything that is said in Scripture concerning Jesus Christ is taking place around you, and you are the invisible one observing the entire thing. Even the witnesses who come to witness what the angel says. “Go, and you’ll find the little infant wrapped in swaddling clothes.” And there’s the infant. And they call you by name, and they ask whose infant it is. So you know who was born, because you actually came out of that tomb.1150 ¶46

And then you tell it, tell it to those who are here to listen, because they are going to follow you in your footsteps. And you will not be better than they, because you preceded them, not for one moment are you better, because you can’t be better than God. So no one is better than another, because he precedes it in the order he called in his own order, and there’s no desire on your part to be better than anyone in the world, because we are all one. It’s only God, and God is one.1150 ¶47

So God became as we are, that we may be as God is. And to become as we are, we have to die, completely forget who we are, in becoming man. So I tell you, the stories, all the stories of Scripture are all about you. You were chosen in the beginning. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, as we are told in Ephesians. That was our cause.1150 ¶48

But he came down for a purpose. He didn’t know that we actually inherited the world. We were like the first son who remained and didn’t come out, and complained when something was given to another. And when the Father said, “Son, you’re with me always, and all that is mine is yours,” he still was not pacified, because he didn’t understand that it was all his.1150 ¶49

But you and I came out, and we go through hell. We are slaves in this world. Slaves to the body that we wear. I must feed it, clothe it, shelter it, and even if I’m out of a job, I still have to shelter it, clothe it, and feed it. I must not only assimilate the food, I must expel what I can’t assimilate, and I’m a slave of the body that I wear. If you analyze what man has to do to keep this thing going, this cross that he wears, well, it is really repulsive. If you actually take it into consideration and think what you have to do morning, noon, and night with this body, it is a very repulsive thing. And here I am a slave of it.1150 ¶50

And I remain a slave until I awaken within it and come out. And then a body has been prepared for me, and that body is perfect. And clothed in that body, I am no longer naked. Here we think we are very well clothed, with all the fashions of the world. We are called naked in Scripture until that body becomes our body, as you are told in the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians, the fifth chapter, the very first three verses. If you are not clothed in this, you are naked. No matter what fashion you wear, you’re naked in this. And one must have that heavenly garment, not made with hands, in order to be properly clothed.1150 ¶51

For one day you’ll get it. Everyone is going to get it. No one can fail, because God is doing it. And God will clothe himself as you in the garment that he chose for you.1150 ¶52

Now I am not saying that everyone is going to have the identical. No, I’m not saying that at all. I know I will know you. Because, when on the morning I called attention for five or six seconds to look up, you knew me. You heard me, and you could only look down and see the reflection of what I’m looking at, reflected on a page. I was trying to tell you how different the cubic reality that I’m observing is from the plain depiction of it, that you were observing on something the size of this. But you wouldn’t look up, or maybe you couldn’t look up, but I could only see that garment. It took in the entire sky, a heavenly blue as a background, and beautiful patterns made out of transparent white clouds. But you saw the reflection on a flat page. But the day will come, all will be clothed in these garments. And these are called the garments of glory. But Paul said, “I do not consider the sufferings of the present time worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. For the whole creation groans, waiting for the revealing of the sons of God.”1150 ¶53

Thank you very much. Tonight’s subject is the secret of imagining, that is really the secret of God, for God is Man and exists in us and we in him. The Eternal Body of man is the imagination, and that is God himself. So when we speak of The Secret of imagining, we are speaking of The Secret of God. So I will use the terms tonight in the order in which they are described in scripture. The Secret of imagining is the greatest of all problems, to the solution of which everyone should aspire. Now these are the terms that Paul uses in his description of Christ in his first letter to Corinthians: supreme power, supreme wisdom, supreme delight. They lie in the solution of this mystery, for Paul describes Christ as the power of God and the wisdom of God, and the Book of Proverbs describes Christ (called the Messiah there) as the Delight of God. So here, the supreme power is the discoverer of the great mystery of imagining. So tonight I hope I can add some light to this wonderful mystery, because if you find it, you’ve found the secret of God’s creative activity.1149 ¶1

We are told of so many writers having experienced it. Take our late president, Herbert Hoover. He said, “Human history, its many forms of government, its revolutions, its wars, and in fact the rise and fall of nations, could be written in terms of the rise and fall of ideas implanted in the minds of men.” Now here’s a man speaking who sat in our highest office in this world. If you could only control the imaginations of men—but who can control it when that is God himself? You are free to imagine anything in this world, and no power in the world can stop it if you persist in that imaginal activity. But we are not disciplined; we are diverted. Propaganda controls the motion of our imaginal activity. You read the morning paper, you turn on the radio, you turn on TV, and you’re diverted. If you could only imagine the state desired, go to the very end and dwell in the end as though it were true, and remain faithful to the end in a way that no one knows, it would objectify itself in your world, for objective reality is solely produced through imagining. That is God himself. So when I speak of imagining, I’m speaking of the creative power of God.1149 ¶2

I’m speaking of Christ, that is the creative power of God, that is the wisdom of God, that is the Delight of God. Man, not knowing that he thinks in terms of a person, not knowing that he himself is the first in whom God dwells, has to discover God within himself. When he discovers God within himself, he’s still a person, but he discovers God as his own wonderful human imagination. That is God. And he discovers, if he observes what he’s doing, that all of his imaginal activities do eventually become objective facts. But man’s memory is so faulty, he can’t quite relate his own imaginal activities to the harvest that he sees in his world that he’s compelled to reap.1149 ¶3

Here is a very so-called wise man, wise in the use of the English tongue. His books are almost in all the universities of the world. I know that in almost all the English libraries of the world. He’s gone from this world now. I knew him quite well; he was a sheer delight as a dinner companion. He changed his opinion in later years, yes. But back in the ’30s when he wrote Ends and Means, this is what he said, and this is all the substance. He said, “I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning. Consequently, I assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption.”1149 ¶4

He assumed it had none. But one night I came out of the Ebell Theatre, having given my lecture there, and I looked into the hills of Hollywood, and here the whole hill is aflame. Houses—how many? I think there were 40 burned that night. One of the 40 was Aldous Huxley, his home. In it he had these priceless manuscripts. He had manuscripts not published by D. H. Lawrence that were given to him by Lawrence. He had his own manuscripts, and a priceless library, plus lovely pieces of art that members of his family had done. He had so many intellectual giants in his family tree, both on the male side and the female side, and he fell heir to so many lovely things: pieces of sculpture, paintings, and these wonderful manuscripts. Everything went right down to ash. Not one thing was saved but the suit on his back.1149 ¶5

So he had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning, and he consequently assumed that it had none, and then had no difficulty in finding satisfying reasons for this assumption. That was plenty, and seemingly forgotten, but it was recorded in his book, written in the ’30s, called Ends and Means. He went about his business, changing his opinion from time to time, but that had to come to fruition. So, “Be not deceived,” said Paul, “for whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” Will you sow with your imaginal activity? Whatever man is imagining, that is what he is sowing. And when the time is right for its fulfillment, it comes to pass. And all that he held so dear in the latter days of his life turned into ash. It had no meaning. The world had no meaning to him. They were priceless then, and he intended to give them to one of our universities here on the West Coast, either USC or UCLA, for that’s what he told me. And then the whole thing collapsed, all turned to ash.1149 ¶6

Our whole vast world is what we are imaginatively pushed out, and there’s nothing but God, and God is your own wonderful human imagination. We are told in the Book of John, “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, and who believed in his name, he gave power to become sons of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Not a physical birth, not from the fashion of blood and flesh, but of God. God is your own wonderful human imagination. That’s where the birth takes place, from above, out of your own skull, out of your own wonderful human imagination.1149 ¶7

Now Jeremiah, whose name means ‘Jehovah will rise’. In this passage taken from the 18th chapter of Jeremiah, you will see that the Lord God Jehovah is your own wonderful human imagination. “And the Lord said to me”—this is just Jeremiah speaking in vision—“And the Lord said unto me, ‘Arise, go down to The Potter’s House, and there I will let you hear my word.’ So I went down to The Potter’s House, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel made of clay was spoiled in his hand. So he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the Potter to do.”1149 ¶8

Now, the word translated ‘Potter’ in the Biblical concordance is Imagination—“to form into a mold, to make a resolution, to determine.” Now in the book of Isaiah, the 64th chapter: “O Lord, Thou art our Potter; we are the work of thy hand.” The Lord is the Potter. So I go down to the Potter, and the Potter means imagination. Where do I go to see the Potter and what he’s doing? Do I not go into my imagination to see what I am doing, my resolutions, my determinations, what I have decided to make of myself? Being the Lord, and all things are possible to the Lord, do I have to take account of what is around me, where I was born, my background—my social, intellectual, financial, or any other background? No, not if all things are possible to God, and God is my imagination.1149 ¶9

So I will ask myself, “What am I imagining concerning myself, and concerning the things round about me?” If I believe for one moment you are responsible for my well-being, I transfer the power that belongs to God, which is myself, to you. If I believe for one moment that you could stop me in my progress towards the fulfillment of my desire, then I transfer it to that which is not God, for God is my own wonderful human imagination. So I will go down to The Potter’s House and see what he is doing.1149 ¶10

So I go down to The Potter’s House, and there he is working at his wheel, and the vessel in his hand was spoiled. The concept that I hold of myself is not that which I would like to be; it is spoiled. So I don’t throw it away. I don’t commit suicide. I don’t discard myself. I rework The Vessel. The very vessel that I held in my hand, I rework it into the entire different form that I resolve to be, the man that I want to be. That man now I assume that I am. And so, having assumed that I am it, I remain faithful to my assumption, and my assumption, in a way that no one knows, eventually objectifies itself and becomes an external fact in my life. And the world will say, “How lucky he is,” “How lucky,” not knowing that imagination (who is God) and faith are the stuff out of which the whole vast world is made.1149 ¶11

So in my imagination I simply assume that I am the man that I want to be. Having assumed it, I remain faithful to my assumption, knowing that the assumption, though false at the moment that I made the assumption, for it was denied by my senses, denied by reason, but if I persist in the assumption, it will harden into fact in a way that no one knows. I do not have to work out the means; it simply happens because the whole vast world is myself pushed out. And anyone who can aid the birth of that assumption will be compelled to aid the birth of that assumption. I don’t need to pull them one by one and say, “You play this part, and you play that part.” They all have to play the part that they must play to bring to birth that which I have assumed that I am, or for that matter, assume that another one is. If I so love another to be concerned and wish for that other something noble in this world, I do for the other what I’m doing for myself, because it is myself only pushed out, that’s all. For the whole vast world is within me, only the imagination of man is vast enough to contain the immensity of space.1149 ¶12

Now we are told in Scripture, “Wherever the sole of your foot will tread, the same I have given to you.” Listen to the tense: you haven’t entered the state as yet, but before you enter the state, it was already given. You have to go and appropriate it. It’s already given, for eternity exists and all things in eternity, independent of creation, which was an act of mercy. So the whole vast world of good, evil, exist. So I do not consider either the just or the wicked to be in supreme state, but to be every one of them states into which the soul may fall in its dream of Good and Evil.1149 ¶13

So it doesn’t really know what it’s doing. It falls into this by reading the paper, it falls into that by turning on the radio, it falls into this by listening to something else or a rumor or a friend bringing some news, and so it is moved from one state into another state. It may be a good state or an evil state. But imagination, may I tell you, waits upon us as indifferently and as swiftly when the will in us is evil as when it is good. “I create the good and the evil.” Listen to these words taken from Deuteronomy: “I, even I, am he. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal, and there is no God beside I know not any, and none can deliver out of my hand.” Read it in the 32nd of Deuteronomy; I think you’ll find at the 39th verse.1149 ¶14

Here, there’s nothing but God, and God is your own wonderful human imagination. Now you’re told, “Test me and say, ‘Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you, unless of course you fail to meet the test?’” Read it in the 13th of 2 Corinthians, the 5th verse. Jesus Christ is in you, and who is Jesus Christ? He is defined as the power of God and the wisdom of God—that in First Corinthians, 1st chapter, the 24th verse. There you will find the power of God is imagining. Imagination is God. God In Action is Christ, and Christ is your own being imagining. So what are you imagining? It’s going to come to pass. Let no one tell you that it will not. It will come to pass if you persist in the imaginal acts.1149 ¶15

Everything in this world is God made visible, and God is your own wonderful human imagination. That is God. So God is Man and exists in us and we in him. The Eternal Body of man is the imagination, and that is God himself. So in you dwells the creative power of God, which is imagining, and you can’t stop it. Whether you wake in this world or sleep tonight, you are imagining. The whole thing is simply all taking place within you. And the day will come that you will awake to the fact that you are God the Father, you who seem so little in this world, so insignificant. One day you will awake to know who you really are, and you are God the Father. And as God the Father, you must have a son, and his son is your son, and his son stands before you and calls you Father. I will tell you now who that son is.1149 ¶16

The son is David. David is the Messiah. David is the Christed one. Jesus is Jehovah, that is the Lord God Jehovah, and his name forever and forever is I AM. “That is my name forever and forever, and all generations must know me by this name.” He will first display himself not by that name. He will display himself as power, El Shaddai, God Almighty. But you’re not knowing him as he really is until you really see him as infinite love. Infinite love with all the horrors in the world, and he and he alone creates everything, and yet he’s infinite love. Yes, you’ll meet him one day. You’ll meet love, and love wears a human form, for God is Man and Man is God. So you will stand in the presence of God and his infinite love, and yet by him all things were made, and without him was not anything made that was made, because he waits on us as indifferently and as swiftly when the will in us is evil as when it is good. He created a tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, so you eat on it, and whatever you eat, you become quickly.1149 ¶17

And as far as the Lord is concerned, your imagination, it’s indifferent to him whether you eat the good or the evil, for these are infinite states that you eat, and you fall into these states, and you pay the price of the state that you ate. So be careful what you are imagining. I don’t care what the world will tell you that you should imagine. You can use your own discretion as to what you should imagine.1149 ¶18

When you go into a restaurant, you don’t say, “Bring me some food.” You say, “Bring me a menu,” and you select from the menu what you want. You don’t go into a store: “Bring me a suit.” “Bring me a dress.” You select from some wonderful display what you want. No matter what you buy, just a razor blade. They may have a sale on a certain blade and try to sell you oodles of them. You say, “No, I just want a certain blade. If you have it, I will buy it from you. If you don’t have it, I will go elsewhere.” You don’t buy the most insignificant thing in this world without being selective. You select everything in this world. I hope you do. When you picked your bride, you selected her among all the millions of the world. And when she selected her husband, she picked you among all the millions of the world. So you picked what you wanted. I hope you did.1149 ¶19

I know that’s what I did. The second time. I made a horrible mistake the first time, so did she in picking me. But the second time I picked her just as I wanted her, and it was perfect, and it’s worked out beautifully.1149 ¶20

So I say to everyone, be selective in everything you do in this world and imagine it. What would you want of life? Don’t say “how.” “What is it possible for me to have?” All things are possible to God. He puts no restraint; there is no limitation on the power of imagining. “Whoever believes that what he says will come to pass, it shall be done for him.” That’s what we are told. “Therefore, when you pray, believe that you have received it, and you will.” There is no limitation on that power, and that power is only your own wonderful human imagination.1149 ¶21

So don’t burn your house down years from now because you want the world to have no meaning. Stop that nonsense. Because when he wanted it more than anything in the world—for I knew his first wife, and I also knew the second wife—and the second wife got him the way those who have been coming to my meetings got many of their mates. She came to my meetings and she set her heart on Aldous. She told me herself and told him in my presence, “This is exactly how I met you, because I went to bed knowing, after your wife died and you were now a widower, that I am going to be your wife.” So she became his wife, and he simply gave up all the dark places where he lived, because he was practically blind, and his first wife, to protect his eyes, had all the curtains drawn. Everything was dark. He lived on King’s Road. When I first went there, I wondered, “Where am I? The whole thing is so dark.” All the lights were dim, little tiny lights. When he married the second time, she moved to the top of the hills of Hollywood, and everything was glass and light, nothing but, and he loved it. When he had everything moved in and was enjoying it, the whole thing collapsed to dust.1149 ¶22

This is how the Law acts. It’s not retribution. It’s simply showing you what you’ve done. Everything that happens to me is happening because I did it unto myself. I don’t care what it is, I cannot draw unto myself anything other than what I’m imagining in my own wonderful human imagination. So, “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked.” What God? My imagination. It was planted there, and he’s going to bring it to fulfillment because he is life. He’s going to give life to that which I simply planted. But all in its own good time. “Be patient. The vision has its own appointed hour. It ripens. It will flow. If it be long, you wait for it, for it is sure and it will not be late.” That’s in Habakkuk. You find that in our wonderful book of Habakkuk here. It will not be late.1149 ¶23

But every little planted seed has a different interval of time between the planting and its fulfillment. So today you assume a certain state of grandeur, of love, of kindness, whatever you want to be in this world. It has its own appointed hour, and then in time it will come to fruition, and you will reap it because you planted it. It’s all yours. And even if you should just go this very moment from this world, you haven’t left the world. You’ve left this as a section of time, but not the world. For you are restored to life in a body just like this, but young, unaccountably new, about 20, to continue the journey. And all the things you planted, you will be reaping. They all will come up because you planted them, and they cannot be reaped by another. You planted them, and they will come.1149 ¶24

For the world is not confined to three dimensions. This world of ours is complete, and it’s vast and it’s big in sections of time. You leave one section and you find yourself in another. And these events will come into your world, not a progression like, dropped today in 1970 to find yourself in 1970. You could drop in 1970 and find yourself in the year 3000, or the year 1000. Makes no difference whether you jump forward or jump back. All these things will come into your world, and you will find yourself quite at home, leaving here and finding yourself in the year 3000, or leaving here and finding yourself in the year 1000. And the world continues. You continue until He awakes within you.1149 ¶25

When He awakes within you, you are God the Father, and you know it only through one means: when His son calls you Father. For “no one knows who the son is except the father, and no one knows who the father is except the son.”1149 ¶26

So when you hear people telling you, “Oh, I know who Jesus Christ is,” you say, “You do? But who are they?” Well, they’re one. They would say, “Well, then, who is Jesus Christ?” “Do you know who he is?” A good Christian will tell you, “Well, yes, I know that he is the Son of God.” Then you can say to the good Christian who knows that Christ is the Son of God, “Then you must be God.” Because only the Father knows the Son, and if you know the Son, then you must know that you are the Father. You’ll startle him because of his ignorance. He doesn’t know. He couldn’t possibly know the Son unless he were the Father and fully conscious of being the Father.1149 ¶27

So when you know who you are, you will know who the Son is. But they come… it comes spontaneously and automatically at the same moment in time. You do not know you are God the Father until the Son stands before you, and then memory returns. And as memory returns, there is no uncertainty as to this relationship: “Here is my son. I simply had amnesia. I didn’t know. To all these senses, I had been dreaming, and I didn’t know.” Now here comes my son, and God awakes within you, and you are God the Father. While you are here in the world of Caesar, not knowing who you are, a Law is given to you, and that Law is what I’m talking about tonight.1149 ¶28

So how would I apply it? I must first have an objective. To reach my objective, I must know what I’m imagining, at least in the end. In the words of Robert Frost, just before he made his exit from this world, this is what he said: “Our founding fathers did not believe in the future. They believed it in.” The most creative thing in man is to believe a thing in.1149 ¶29

For you go to the end, remain in the end as though it were true, and if you remain faithful to the end, means will unfold to externalize their ends. So they did not believe in the future as we are taught in our schools, to believe that our founding fathers had an idea and then believed in the future. No, they believed it in. They dwelt in the end and wrought their wonder, and dwelt in the end. A complete break with the entire past. They were not lifting anything from other parts of the world. A complete different concept of democracy. The most difficult form of government in the world, but to this day, the best. Nothing comparable to it, but the most difficult. When everything is easy in a dictatorship: shooting. “Don’t believe in him? Shoot him.” Appropriate the power and then destroy all opposition. But not in democracy.1149 ¶30

When you and I can do what I’m doing now, I have the freedom to tell you what I’m telling you, and no one is going to arrest me for what I’m saying, in complete contradiction to what is being taught this day in the churches of our world. I am telling you that Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, and the man spoken of is you. You are the Christ who exercises his power wisely or unwisely. So you are crucifying him morning, noon, and night by your misuse of this power. These are the blows that you give to Christ. Every time that you exercise your imagination unlovingly on behalf of anyone in this world, you are abusing Christ, for you’re abusing the creative power of God. And then you are free to do it.1149 ¶31

I tell you, try it. You just take the most glorious concepts of yourself in this world, and having assumed that what I want to be, I don’t ask anyone for permission. You assume that you are it. Sleep in it just as though it were true, wake in it just as though it is true, and then go to work just as though it’s true, and you will find the whole vast world remolding itself in harmony with your assumption. When you reflect upon it, you are amazed at the bridge of incident that came into being, across which you moved to fulfill that state. You have no idea how this whole thing came into being. But that wonderful unfolding picture, as you reflect upon it, seems so natural. It seems so natural. You will say to yourself, “It would have happened anyway.” That’s how natural it happens. But it would not have happened in eternity had you not assumed the end and lived in the end just as though it were true.1149 ¶32

So the secret of imagining is to conjure in your wonderful Mind’s Eye a scene which would imply that you are the one that you want to be. Enact it in your imagination just as though it’s true. Give it all the tones of reality. Give it sense vividness, as taught us in the scriptures. “Come near, my son, that I may feel you. Your voice sounds like Jacob, but come close.” And Jacob comes close, and he felt the hair, which belonged to Esau, Esau being the external world. “You sound like Jacob, but you feel and you have the odor of my son Esau.” Then he pronounced a blessing upon him. And just as he gave him the blessing to be real in this world, then comes Esau and discovers the deception, that his subjective state had taken the place of the objective state. And the father said, “I blessed him. I cannot retake my blessing.” Even though he came through deception and deceived you, “I can’t take it. Can’t take it back.”1149 ¶33

So here is my Esau. My outer world is Esau, but I don’t like what I’m experiencing in the outer world. But I would like to continue in the outer world with a different experience. So I close my eyes to the obvious. I construct a scene which would imply that this is taking this position. It has supplanted this world. I’m no longer the man that I was. I am now the man that I always wanted to be. So I bring that into my mind’s eye, and I reenact it in my mind’s eye, and give it the tone of reality and give it sense vividness by putting my hand upon it and touching it. And then, when I’m thinking from this state now, having given it all that I can of reality, I open my eyes. It vanishes, and this returns. But I say to myself, “I gave it the right of birth.” Apologizing to you, but you must vanish now. My present state that I dislike must now vanish from my world, and the state that seemingly at the moment is unseen will come into being and take the place of the present outward world. For this is the story of Esau and Jacob. Jacob is the supplanter, the subjective inner State. And this is the outer state of Esau.1149 ¶34

Now here I am, thinking from this room. Here is an important point in the secret of imagining: I’m always thinking from a state. If I don’t like the state that I am seeing and that I’m experiencing, for then what state would I like to be in? Assume, conceive it in your mind’s eye, and assume it. Now view the world from that state. It’s all the difference in the world between thinking from a state and thinking of a state. I’m always thinking from. And most of the time we’re thinking of. Of is, at the moment, subjective. From is objective. I take the state I am thinking of and bring it into my consciousness now and think from it. As I think from it, I am clothing it in reality. I’m giving it the tones of reality.1149 ¶35

And when I open my eyes, it vanishes, just as you are told in Genesis that he vanished. “A minute ’til everyone returns.” And so the father says, “He deceived me, but I gave him the right of birth, and I cannot take it back.” So I give that state from which I view the world the right of birth, and it has to come to pass.1149 ¶36

These are the secrets of imagining, or the secrets of God. And the secret of God is Christ, and Christ is imagination. It’s the power of God, it’s the wisdom of God, but it takes a man to express the power of God, because God and man are one. He exists in me and I exist in God. The Eternal Body of God is your imagination. That actually is God himself.1149 ¶37

Now you take it and try it and put it to the extreme test. Don’t let anyone interfere with you. If you feel you are not at the moment strong enough to do it without discussion, be quiet. Don’t talk to anyone. Just do it. I could tell you a number of stories of those who never discussed it with others—not that discussion would have spoiled it, but they did not feel that others would understand and think them mentally a little bit off, and not wanting to feel that they were simply not within the norm of the stream of normal life. They simply held it to themselves, and everything that they imagined has come to pass.1149 ¶38

But strangely enough, people, not knowing the deeper secrets of scripture, when they bring into the world all the things that they have, they forget how they brought it in and try to protect it with outer things. They have all the things in the outer world to protect it now, when they brought the whole thing in by their own wonderful human imagination. So they will say, “I brought in all these millions into my world, and here I have them,” and then they start insuring it beyond measure, to protect it against fire, to protect it against robbery, to protect against that, when the whole thing came in without any help from anyone in the world. It just came because night after night and day after day they lived their life in imagination. And having lived it and brought it all to birth, now they’re going to protect it with the things of Caesar. And Caesar and his whole crowd are all as mad as hatters.1149 ¶39

Any man who, having brought it into birth, who then turns to the world of Caesar to protect it, is simply confessing he doesn’t really believe in Christ. Yet these of whom I speak, they will be told, “Yes, I’m a Christian.” “You’re a Christian, are you? Do you believe your imaginal acts are facts?” “Oh, no.” “Then you do not believe in Christ.” For he is the power of God, and God is your imagination. If you do not believe in God’s power, you do not believe in your own imagining, and his… your imagining is Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. So you do not know Christ. You only know a false Christ, something that the Ancients painted and perpetuated through the years. So they have some icons and they call that Christ.1149 ¶40

When you meet him, he’s just like you, for you are he. You are the being spoken of in scripture as the Lord Jesus Christ, but he sleeps. One day he must awake. When he awakes in you, you are the God the Father, for the secret of imagining is the greatest of all problems, to the solution of which everyone should aspire. Why? Because supreme power, supreme wisdom, supreme delight lie in the solution of this mystery. So when you actually solve this mystery, you have solved the secret of God’s creative power. You have found Christ. And you don’t find him unless you solve this mystery. And then when you find him and find the power of Christ, he unveils himself as you because his Son calls you Father, and then you know it beyond all doubt. You know who stands before you, and you know this infinite relationship between Father and Son.1149 ¶41

But I haven’t met anyone who wears the cloth who will accept it. They have not been taught it. They’re giving me the tradition. They tell me what they had heard in school. So they speak from theory, and I’m speaking from experience. I am not theorizing; I am not here to theorize. I am telling you what I know. My certainty is assured. I know because I have experienced it.1149 ¶42

When you go out tonight, believe it is God going through the door as you go through the door, not the little garment that you wear. That’s dust; it’ll return to dust. But I said earlier, if you follow me closely, “God is Man,” and I capitalize the word Man, “and exists in us.” That Man is the inner man that exists in this outer man. This is the Esau. There is an inner man, and that inner man is called in scripture Jacob. That’s his first name, and his name was changed to Israel. The word Israel means the man who rules as God. Not like a God, as God. As Israel, then he goes through and finally comes to complete fulfillment in the one known as Christ. That is the story. The outer man will return to the dust. The inner man is Immortal, and that inner man is your own wonderful human imagination, and that is God himself.1149 ¶43

Now when you go, trust in God. Trust in your own imagining. Imagine noble things, lovely things. I don’t care what the world will tell you what it looks like. You continue in your lovely concept of what it ought to be, but begin with self. Live in an all-wonderful, noble life. What’s wrong with being, you name it? I don’t care what you want in this world, how precious it may be in the eyes of others. They start being beyond your right or beyond your ability to achieve it. If you can simply assume that you have it, well then, let it be. It will be done for you, for ways and means will unfold that you will not consciously determine. You only determine the end. I dwell in the end, and living in the end, I create the means to the fulfillment of that end.1149 ¶44

Now let us go into the silence for a moment, and then we’ll have some questions.1149 ¶45

Good. Now, any questions, please? The subject next time will be: He is Dreaming Now. Now, do we have any questions?1149 ¶46

[Max Harrick Shenk, writer This is the question and answer segment following Neville Goddard’s lecture Job: Your Biography. The lecture itself is a brilliant dissection of this book of the Bible, but in the Q&A following the lecture, Neville tied the message of the book into his assertions that imagining creates reality. If Job is being tested by God, and should not question that test or justify his deeds, then how should he react? Neville answers the question definitively. I’ve done my best transcribing this; however, it’s an old, poor quality source recording, so some words were simply unintelligible; I’ve noted those in parentheses. All notes are in parentheses in bold italics. Also, the source audio ends abruptly, as does this transcript! You can listen to this entire lecture (one of my favorites!) via this YouTube video.]1147 ¶1

…Now I trust it is not in your future to be hurt– it’s my wish for you. But do remember what you heard tonight: that should you be hurt, don’t feel in any strange way that there’s a God of retribution. It’s only for your good that these things happen. As we are told in Job… If I washed myself with snow and cleansed my hands with lye, then thou cast me into the pit and my own clothes abhor me. So no matter how man tries to cleanse himself morally, and do all these things in order NOT to encounter the pit, if the pit is necessary to purify him, in order to be made perfect in the eyes of God, he will be thrown into the pit. You see it every day, and you wonder “Why? I knew him. He was so altogether nice and kind and tender. I knew the family. Why should it happen to them?” But that’s the story of Job.1147 ¶2

Now are there any questions, please? Surely there’s a question…1147 ¶3

Any other questions, please?1147 ¶8

Now tonight’s title is “Awake, O Sleeper.” You’ll find this in the 5th chapter of Ephesians: “Awake, o sleeper, and arise from the dead.”1139 ¶1

Now what person– rationally– would grasp it? See, the Bible is addressed to the imagination, which is spiritual sensation, and only but immediately to the understanding or “reason.” If you try to grasp it through reason, well, it doesn’t make sense.1139 ¶2

How could I speak to someone and tell him that he’s not only asleep, but he’s dead? I equate “sleep” with “death,” and tell a man that I’m addressing to “awake, you sleeper, and arise from the dead.” I am telling him he has entered a world of eternal death.1139 ¶3

But he doesn’t know it. I am telling him that he is dreaming his world into being. But he doesn’t know it… and maybe he doesn’t believe it. For he’s a rational being.1139 ¶4

In the Old Testament, in the 44th chapter of the book of Psalms, we read “Rouse thyself! Why sleepest thou, O Lord? Awake!” So it’s addressed to the Lord. All the commands of scripture are addressed to the Lord, and fulfilled by the Lord. There is nothing but the Lord. So we start on the greatest confession of faith that man has ever received through revelation. It’s called “The Hebrew’s Confession of Faith”… the Sh’ma: “Hear, O Israel. The Lord – our God- the Lord is one.” It’s a compound unity: one made up of others. For the word is Elohim: “the gods.” Now I will tell you I firmly believe in God. I don’t have to believe in God. For I stood in the presence of the risen Lord, who embraced me, and incorporated me into his one body. And from that moment, back in 1929, I am one with the body of the risen Lord. So here is the Lord– I don’t have to believe in it.1139 ¶5

But I tell you, using the word “belief,” I believe in God. I believe also that men are gods, and that collective man IS God.1139 ¶6

That we are the Gods spoken of in the 82nd Psalm, which, we are told, is the most difficult of all the Psalms for the scholars to unravel. If it ever had any meaning, they said, the meaning has long been lost. And this is what stumps them: it’s quoted in the 10th chapter of the book of John. But we go back to the origin, the 82nd Psalm: “And God has taken his place in the divine assembly; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment.” Now he speaks. “I say we are Gods… sons of the most high, all of them. Nevertheless”– now here comes the future prophesy now. All of this is a present fact. We are Gods. Now: “Sons of the most high.”1139 ¶7

Now: “Nevertheless, ye shall die as men, and fall as one man, o ye princes.” Here is a prophecy: “You will fall as one man.” Is the fall the result of disobedience, as we are taught? Is the fall something that is a punishment? I tell you it is not. The fall is a plan.1139 ¶8

It’s a pretext… an assumed appearance in order to conceal the real intention. The real intention is an expansion of further existence and ultimate birth. That’s the real intention.1139 ¶9

And the gods fell as one man. One man. He chose us in himself before the foundation of the world. And as one man fell, it fragmented itself into the unnumbered men of the world. We are the gods in disguise not recognizing our brotherhood… not recognizing ourselves.1139 ¶10

Now we’ll go to the beginning of Genesis, and take it from there: “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon man. And while he slept, he took from man a rib. And from that rib, he made a woman. And bringing a woman before man, man said ‘At last. Bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called “woman,” for she was taken out of man.’ Therefore man must leave father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Now through the eyes of reason, you discard it.1139 ¶11

It’s all a myth. It’s stupid. We know biologically that’s stupid.1139 ¶12

And may I tell you, it is true. But not as the world sees it. To understand it, you must have the vision. It must be revealed to you: that man has no body distinct from his soul. That called “body” is only a portion of soul discerned by the five senses, the chief inlet of soul in this world. This body is “Eve.” This is my emanation, my vegetated mortal wife. My emanation, yet my wife, till the sleep of death is over. This is Eve, whether it be male or female. Makes no difference. This is my emanation… the Jerusalem in every individual man.1139 ¶13

I am adjoined to you, and you to me, by our emanated portion, which is the Jerusalem in every man. And this “Jerusalem” is the Jerusalem below that bears sons into slavery. Everyone comes in wrapped in this garment, that is his emanated portion, and he is enslaved in this world of eternal death.1139 ¶14

There is another Jerusalem. The one who emanates is the Jerusalem from above. And that is the emanation of the Lord that is hidden from view. But it is one with this.1139 ¶15

This is my Eve. I become so much one with Eve that if you struck me tonight and cause me pain, I scream out “I AM in pain.” Well, what is His name by which all men must know Him forever and forever? “I am.” “Go to the people of Israel and tell them ‘I AM has sent you.’ That’s my name forever. Throughout all generations.” So when you strike this, I am so much a part of my “wife” to which I have cleaved, that, strike her and you strike me. For I said I AM in pain. I go on throughout, so take this from me. Destroy this temple, and I will in three days raise it up again. They said “What? In three days? And it took us 46 years to build it?”1139 ¶16

That’s how the mind of man thinks. They think only in terms of an external thing made with human hands… knowing not that he spoke of the temple of his body. “For know ye not that ye are the temple of the Lord, and that the spirit of God dwells in you?” That’s what Paul asked us in his letter to the Corinthians. That we are actually– this is the temple. He dwells in his wife, he cleaves to her. And they become one. So this is the only Eve of scripture. There never was another Eve. Every being born in this world, male or female… that is Eve. And the one who emanated it –that soul that emanated it– is the Man spoken of… it’s capitalized in the translation in scripture, in the second chapter of Genesis. That she came out of MAN and “man” is capitalized. Generic “man.”1139 ¶17

So when I fell, I fell in one body. And falling in one body, I entered my cave. And I met my saviour in the grave.1139 ¶18

And some find a female garment there. And some a male, woven with care. So I found a male garment. My wife found a female garment.1139 ¶19

But she is neither female and I am not male… we are MAN. For man in the resurrection is above the organization of sex. He is not a divided being. As we are told in Galatians: In Christ is neither male nor female. Neither bond nor free. Neither Greek nor Jew. Neither black nor white.1139 ¶20

We are simply above the whole organization in this world of eternal death. So when Blake speaks to us in his greatest work, “Jerusalem,” he first states the theme. Having stated the theme, he tells us it is of “the sleep of Ulro.” Well, “the sleep of Ulro” refers to life in this world as we know it.1139 ¶21

Right here, in this world. And this world seems to be of an ultimate endless state. There is no end to it. It goes on and on. It all just seems to us to have no purpose.1139 ¶22

For tonight, the richest man will die and leave it all behind him. And the poor man will die, he goes to the pauper’s grave, but at the end, given the same length of time, both turn into dust and bone. And you will dig out one grave and find you can’t tell who it is… it’s all nothing.1139 ¶23

It seems to have no purpose. And yet man has to enter this world, regardless of what he seems to achieve in this world, for the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of the Lord. No matter how wise he seems to be, it is stupid in the eyes of God. And the strength of man isn’t equal to the weakness of God.1139 ¶24

So let them strut across the stage and see all the things that they see… and it still is nothing. So it seems to be that here there is no end to futility. And there is no purpose.1139 ¶25

And yet man has to pass through it and awaken from it into eternal life. So he starts his theme, and he lays the theme out. He’s writing about this: of the sleep of Ulro. And of the passage through eternal death, and of the awakening to eternal life. Now he tells us, “This theme calls me night after night in sleep, and every morn awakes me at sunrise. Then I see the savior over me, spreading his beams of love, and dictating the words of this mild song.”1139 ¶26

That’s how he starts it. Now he starts the dictation, and he swears, in his letter to his friend Butts, that the whole thing came by immediate dictation. He said, “I did not write it. I can brag about it. I can praise it, because I dare not pretend to be anyone other than the secretary. The authors are in heaven.” And it’s the grandest poem that this world contains, for the spirit of truth dictated it, morning after morning as he woke, it was dictating twelve, sometimes twenty and sometimes thirty lines at a time. “And what now what seems to be the labor of a long life was produced without labor or study. And quite often against my will. But I had to take it down.” And he would rise and take it down. And his wife Katherine would rise with him, and sit in the silence while William recorded, and sometimes she’d hold his hand as he recorded, because he was simply completely possessed by the spirit as it wrote through him. And he’s writing down this greatest of all poems: “Jerusalem.” And this is how he starts it: Awake! awake O sleeper of the land of shadows, wake! Expand! I am in you and you in me, Mutual in love divine. That being in whom we were contained, that being who fell deliberately for a purpose: to expand beyond its glory. Because only by this contraction into the state called “death” could it expand.1139 ¶27

We have that told in the story of the parable of the seed. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much.” Here we have, in this little story of the grain of wheat, it is set forth, the mystery of life through death. If I want an extension of living, an extension of reality, an extension of existence, I must contract and die, and empty myself of my glory, which I had with the Lord before that the world was.1139 ¶28

And entering into one body, one body falls. And the world tells it as a mistake. It’s no mistake. It’s a plan. God planned everything as it has come out and as it will be consummated.1139 ¶29

And in the end, when the mask comes off, after you awake, you are enhanced beyond your wildest dream by reason of the passage through death. And you are awakening to eternal life. And when we all awake, we are the ones who knew each other more intimately than anyone on earth could ever know.1139 ¶30

How could I ever know– my wife and I think the same thoughts through the day. This very– there isn’t a day that I’ll voice something, she’s been thinking about it. She voices a thing, I’ve been thinking about it. But no matter how intimate our thoughts are, in the sharing, it can’t compare to the intimacy that is ours when these garments are taken off, and we are once more awakened into eternal life.1139 ¶31

So “Awake, o sleeper”… but you can’t really awake by doing anything that you are taught to do. May I tell you? They’ll tell you: “Don’t eat meat! You’ll awaken.” “Don’t go to that church. You’ll awaken.”1139 ¶32

“Don’t do so-and-so”… all the “don’ts.” You could do nothing and never awaken. You can do everything and not awaken. But may I tell you, that seems extravagant, and it is, because all will awaken. But not by any effort on their part while they’re here. You will awaken at the moment in time that it was predetermined that you would awaken. Whether you be shining shoes at the time, or whether you be employing a million people. Our government today undoubtedly has on its payroll millions of people, and the one who is given credit is our President. He is the head. And so, in a technical sense, he employs a million.1139 ¶33

And tonight the one shining his shoe could awaken and he falls sound asleep and continues to dream. But he cannot die.1139 ¶34

That’s the glorious part. This emanation –take it from me now, and in three days I’ll raise it up again. So this body of mine… shoot it if you will. Cut off its head. It’s my emanation.1139 ¶35

And therefore I, believing myself to be it, I will find myself in the immediate present, wearing the same body, only it will be new. No parts will be missing… no bridgework, no fillings of my teeth, no grey hair, no need to wear glasses, and no need to wear any aid in this world. I’ll be a young man, twenty years old, just as I snuff out this and you call it “dead,” I’ll be wearing a garment same as before– in a world, terrestrial, just like this –and continue the journey until I awake. But I can tell you: I have awakened. And so when I take this off –whenever it is taken off– I will no longer be in this world. For this world does not terminate at the point where our senses cease to register it. So when a man cannot follow those who are called “dead,” and he calls them “dead” only because of his limitation– he can’t follow it– but the one that you call “dead” isn’t dead to himself.1139 ¶36

He emanated the body that you knew –he emanates the same body. Same body! Beautiful! Enhanced beyond your wildest dreams. And he continues not even knowing that he’s gone through the door. Death is no more than leaving one room for another. In this same fabulous terrestrial world that is called in the mysteries “eternal death.” And from which man will one day awaken into eternal life. But having descended and entered the world of death, when he now awakens, he is expanded, and that was the purpose. There is no limit to expansion. God set a limit to contraction, to opacity, but not to translucence or expansion. And so we descended, not because of anything that we ever did that was wrong. Not one thing was wrong. And so if I emanate this body– which I did– destroy it when you will, I will, if I have not awakened, I’ll emanate the same body. And you cannot reach me. I may find myself tomorrow in a different section of time– not an extension of this, like 1969 or 1968… I may be in the year 3000. I may be in the year 1000. Whatever is best fitted for the work yet to be done in me in order to bring about the awakening and expansion into an extension of existence.1139 ¶37

So here is what we are. So just think of it. God made man in his own image, we are told. Male, female, made he them. And that’s the first chapter. The second changes it somewhat, and tells a different story, but it’s not a contradiction if you see it through imagination.1139 ¶38

Here he fashions him out of dust and breathes into his nostrils the breath of life, and he becomes a living soul. But his destiny is to become a lifegiving spirit… not just a living soul in an animated body. So the purpose of the fall of the sons of God is to transform them into an entirely different world: being lifegiving spirits. Animating bodies. Not being an animated body but animating the whole vast world around him. And closing it off at will, and starting it again. And that is our destiny.1139 ¶39

Now reason cannot grasp it, and every scholar, when he comes to this, the first thing– you can’t blame any man who has never had the vision. He said “It’s a myth!” Certainly it’s a myth.1139 ¶40

A rib out of my side? Take my body apart… no rib is missing. Take yours apart– unless you had one cut out for some operation on the lung. But if you have not lost a rib through operation, or as we suggest, with every man’s ribs, not one is missing.1139 ¶41

Yet we’re told in scripture one was taken out. But the word “rib”– do you know what it means? The Hebrew word is tsela. It means “a portion” literally of a person. The authors translating… they wanted to write the word quarta in Hebrew; you write tsela. We speak of the fourfold man. Four faces stood every man. It means “a side.” Well, the side may not be this side, or that side, or that side, or this side. It’s a portion. It’s trying to say a portion of the soul emanates. That’s what it’s trying to tell man.1139 ¶42

But if you don’t see it that way, and tsela only means a rib– literally a little rib– well, then it’s translated “a curve.” So because it means “a curve,” well, the curve of a man’s structure would be the rib. Well, if you want to write “rib,” yes. If you want to write a pane of wood, the flooring on the ground, it’s the same as tsela. It could be a piece of wood. But a piece, not the whole. A portion. And tsela is a portion of the soul that emanates. And when it emanates, then he from whom it emanates must leave everything and cleave to his emanation. And they become one flesh.1139 ¶43

Well, you’ll cleave to your emanation so much so that you identify yourself with it. And so if I ask you “who are you?” you give me your name. But you first say “I AM;” then you put a name on it. And if I strike that thing that you say you are, and I hurt it, well, then you say “well, I am in pain.” You call it by the name of God, and say “God is in pain.” You didn’t say “God is in pain;” you said “I am”; well, that’s his name. Is Tsela Gods came down to earth? So again let me repeat: I not only believe in God, because I stood in the presence of the risen God, but I believe that all men are Gods, and that collective man is God. So when you hurt man, you hurt God. And when you hurt man, you hurt yourself, because you are God.1139 ¶44

There is nothing but God. Only God in this world. And may I tell you– and this is not from speculation– God is love. In spite of the horrors of the world, God is love. For when you stand in his presence, you can’t feel anything but love. And when God embraces you, and you become one with God, you have never felt such ecstasy. Not in eternity. You can’t describe the joy, the ecstasy that is yours when you are embraced by the risen Lord. And from then on you are incorporated into the body of God, as we are told in the sixth chapter of the book of Romans: For he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Only one body, only one spirit, only one Lord, only one God and father of all. And you are that. So in the end, the one who commanded the fall for this fabulous purpose…you will awaken, and you were the one who commanded it! For he is father, and you will awaken right here in this world of death as the Father. And the only one that can reveal to you that you are the Father is God’s only begotten son, David, calling you “Father.” For David in the spirit calls Christ “Lord.”1139 ¶45

And the word Adonai is the name used for the Father. For in Hebrew they do not often use Jod hey vau hey because it’s a sacred name. And so they substitute Adonai for the word Jod hey vau hey. And so David in the spirit calls Christ Adonai: “my Lord.”1139 ¶46

And the words “my Father.” For every son spoke of his father as “my Lord,” fulfilling scripture. For the second Psalm is: And David said “I will tell of the decree of the Lord. He said unto me, ‘Thou art my son.1139 ¶47

Today I have begotten thee.’” And this David– the David, the only David in Biblical fame– will stand before you and call you “Father.” And then you know who you are. And this comes after you have been awakened from above, born from above, and then comes the son calling you “Father.” And then the entire drama unfolds within you. And you’ll know exactly who you are. That you are the one spoken of in scripture as the gods who gathered and we agreed then to dream in concert.1139 ¶48

So that when you and I see a building, we may see it differently. You may see it through the eyes of one who’d like to own it. I may see it through the eyes of one who admire it, with no feeling of possession. But we do see the same building, only we see it differently.1139 ¶49

So when we descended, we agreed to dream in concert. So while we walk this earth, we see the same streets, therefore we know the same number, and we can go wherever we want to go because we are dreaming in concert. But we are dreaming, my dears. This whole vast world is the dream of the gods who descended. But because we agreed to dream in concert, there is no confusion. Had we agreed to dream individually, and all play solo, this would be the wildest, maddest thing in the world. But we agreed to dream in concert.1139 ¶50

Now, may I tell you… when I invite you to go all-out, and to imagine that you are now the man, the woman that you want to be, some will tell you “that will lead to madness.” May I tell you it will not.1139 ¶51

The only thing that lead to madness would be to doubt it. The minute doubt sets in, and you would like to believe it, but reason tells you it isn’t true, and you begin to doubt, then descends what the world will call a mental division, certain madness. For doubt is the only devil in the world. That’s doubt. If you could go all out and believe it, and regardless of what the whole vast rational world will tell you, you won’t go mad.1139 ¶52

The whole thing will become a part of your dream world. You’ll bring it into– and fit it in without any difficulty– into the world.1139 ¶53

So someone born poor, very poor, he began to dream that he had wealth, and that he had fame. Well, at the moment, it would seem insane– his dream. But he persisted in his dream. But when the dream became true, and his fame was established, and his wealth established, it seemed perfectly natural to those not knowing his dream. So everyone is dreaming.1139 ¶54

But if you begin to doubt your dream, and still try to make it true, but doubting all the time, you’re heading towards a little breakup. But you will not break up if you go all out in your wonderful claim that you are what you desire to be. Because all things are possible to God. And the God spoken of is right where you are seated. That’s the God of whom the Bible speaks.1139 ¶55

So when the gods came down in the likeness of men… here they are. And some found a female garment there. And some a male, woven with care.1139 ¶56

And so God himself enters death’s door– this door, of death. Always with those who enter. And lays down in the grave with them, in visions of eternity, until they awake and see Jesus.1139 ¶57

And the linen clothes lying there which the female had woven for them. They seem to be woven in the womb of a woman, and they were. No question about it. But they were simply emanations of a soul… woven in the womb of a woman between a cooperation of a male-female. But the soul emanating is neither male nor female. But he emanates a male garment or a female garment.1139 ¶58

And wears it in this world of death. And take it off? Emanates it again. This time without the use of the womb of a woman. Doesn’t need it anymore. For we are told in the 9th chapter of Hebrews: For as it was appointed for all men to die once, and then comes the judgment. So Christ was offered once for the sins of many, and then he will appear a second time not concerning sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.1139 ¶59

Well, you’ve died already– forget the death! When you go before I go, it may be said of you that you died. I will hear the news that so-and-so died. You didn’t die at all. You already died. You only die once.1139 ¶60

When we fell, all in one body, that’s when we died. We left our heavenly home and the glory that was ours to come down and assume the limitations of the flesh, which is called that of a slave. And so we’ve already died– if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.1139 ¶61

So the death is over! Only once do you die. So though you go through the gate and men call you dead, you aren’t dead!1139 ¶62

You simply emanate the same body, only it’s young. It’s new! Twenty years old, nothing missing. Unaccountably new–you can’t explain it.1139 ¶63

And may I tell you, the majority who go through don’t even know they’ve gone through, and take the young body for granted. Just as we take everything in this world for granted. A miracle goes on all day long in my body. I eat tonight’s dinner, and it’s being converted, unknown to my conscious reasoning mind, into blood, to tissue, to bone.1139 ¶64

And no man on earth can make one drop of blood. Transplant a heart but he can’t grow one. Transplant all kinds of organs but he can’t grow one. He can’t make one drop of blood. They’ve been trying forever but they can’t make a drop of living blood. They can’t make one hair of the head.1139 ¶65

So they say, “Now, this man would have lived three weeks if he didn’t have the transplant!” So they give him the transplant, and he lived 18 days. That’s the first one, in South Africa. And suppose the other one does live… he will not live one hour beyond his span of time. As told us in the Sermon on the Mount: “Who by being anxious can add one hour to his span of life?” Man goes blindly on believing that he can do these things. And all that it’s doing is publicizing the surgeons and the medical world. It isn’t doing a thing to this being that you really are, for you are not anything he thinks you are.1139 ¶66

So I am dying… my poor old heart is gone, liver gone, all things gone, I should get out, and emanate something new, and wear it. And they’re going to put a new heart in me. They’re all hoping this night that someone will die suddenly (audience laughter) and then get their heart, so that the doctor can have the experiment. If they didn’t die suddenly leaving a good heart, they couldn’t use it, so let her be good and healthy when they die. Either kill her, or do something so they give the heart up. And they’re using that, and people are eating it up as though “Isn’t this marvelous? Isn’t this fantastic?” And the world goes blindly on in the world of sleep, not knowing who they are. So I tell you, you are the Adam made in the image of God that is the son of God. And out of you came your Eve, and Eve is the body that you are wearing. And you cleave to it, and you cleave to it so tightly that finally you become one flesh, so whenever it is hurt, you are hurt. And that is the Adam and Eve of scripture. Therefore it is not a myth. It does come out of you, but certainly not out of this little bone on my side called a rib. For the word tsela means “a portion.” That’s what it means. So man has no body distinct from his soul. That called “body” is a portion of soul discerned by the five senses, the chief inlets of soul in this age. That’s all that it is. You are a living soul, destined to become a life-giving spirit. And as you fall, you emanate a body, because you have to have a body to function in this world. And you can automatically do it. The minute you’re called “dead,” you’re not dead at all; you’re alive, and a body emanated out of your own being. Young… new… not one part missing. Nothing missing. If you had an arm missing, the arm is not missing. If you had all your limbs off, as many today have all these off after the war… they’re not missing. The whole thing is replaced. And when they’re replaced, he takes it for granted!1139 ¶67

I know. I meet them. I can’t persuade them that they’ve died. How can I tell a man who was alive, who’s talking to me, that you died?1139 ¶68

He laughs at you. “But I tell you that you’re sound asleep!” Wouldn’t you laugh at me? If I tell you “You’re not only sound asleep, but you’re dead”… well, now, you’d say, “Neville is mad.”1139 ¶69

Don’t go and hear him. That man is mad. He has a demon. But I have comfort. That’s what they said of the risen Christ in the tenth chapter of the Book of John.1139 ¶70

“Why listen to him? He’s dead! He’s mad! He has a demon.” And he said to them– what did he say?1139 ¶71

“Why do you stone me? For what good work? For no good work, but for your blasphemy. For you, being a man, claim that you are God.” Well, he said, “Is it not written in your law ‘I said ye are Gods’? If he calls you Gods to whom the word of God came, then why, when he who the father consecrated and sent into the world claims that he is the son of God, that you should say he blasphemed?” He doesn’t make a claim greater than the other. They don’t know they are the son of God. He’s only trying to awaken man that you are the sons who came down. He makes no claim that he is greater than.1139 ¶72

He said “I am going unto my father and your father. Go and tell my brethren. I am ascending unto my father and to your father… to my God and to your God.” He didn’t make a claim that his father differed from your father, or that his God differs from your God.1139 ¶73

But they couldn’t understand the mystery. They tried to get it right straight through the reasoning mind. And it isn’t– you can’t get it that way. The whole thing is spoken to the imagination, which is God. Man is all imagination. And God is man, and exists in us and we in him. The eternal body of man is the imagination. And that is God himself.1139 ¶74

Now let us go into the silence.1139 ¶75

Tonight’s subject is “The Pattern Man.” Paul, in his final letter to Timothy, -- when he felt that he was about to depart this world, he wrote Timothy, and he said: “Follow the pattern of the sound words which you have heard from me. Guard the truth which has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.” Paul’s Letters were written twenty-odd years before any other part of the New Testament. The earliest Gospel is Mark; that came twenty-odd years after the Letters of Paul. It was in Paul that the entire story unfolded itself. Paul said: “When it pleased God to reveal His Son in me, I did not confer with flesh and blood.” To whom would he turn? And he spent his last days, as told us in the Book of Acts, expounding the matter to them, “trying to convince them about Jesus, then from the law of Moses and from the prophets. And some were convinced by what he said, while others disbelieved.” He found the Pattern. Like every one, we are looking for a man, -- some strange being coming out of space to save humanity; and he was one of those who looked for a man. Then he found it was not a man, but a pattern that was buried in man; that God had prepared the way for His sons to return, and the “way” is buried in man as a pattern. When that pattern unfolded in man, then the one in whom it unfolds realized Who the Coming One really was.1138 ¶1

If you take the 39 books of the Old Testament; although they are written across the centuries, they form one book, and events that are widely separated in time are welded into a pattern, and that pattern unfolds within the individual, forming what we call in Scripture “Jesus.” Jesus, then, is the pattern. I call Jesus the Pattern Man. The first one to use the word “Jesus” is Paul. The first one to use the word “Christ” is Paul. He speaks of Jesus Christ. Well, “Jesus” has the same root as the word “Jehovah,” -- the Lord God Jehovah, the same root as that of Jesus; and the word “Messiah” and the word “Christ” are one and the same. So, when he speaks of Jesus Christ, he is speaking of the Lord God Jehovah and His Messiah.1138 ¶2

Now, where did he find it in the Old Testament? In the Second Book of Samuel, the 7th chapter, we read these words: “Go to my servant David, and say to David, ‘When your days are fulfilled, and you lie down with your fathers, --’” which is a euphemism for “Death” -- when you are dead and you are buried with your fathers, your forefathers, “‘I will raise up your son after you, who will come forth from your body, . . . I will be his father, and he shall be my son.’” Here He tells David that He is going to raise up a son that will come forth from his body, and that He the Lord will be the father of that boy. That son will call Him “Father.”1138 ¶3

Now, everyone was looking for the physical descent of someone called David, because they did not understand the great mystery of Scripture. David symbolizes Humanity. The whole vast world of man is symbolized as David, and he will raise up out of man That which will be the Son of God. Well, you are a man. I am a man. Regardless of our sex, generically we are all Man, whether you be male or female; so, I will raise up out of Man a son that will come forth from his body, but I will be his father, not the man out of which he is raised! I, the Lord, will be his father.1138 ¶4

Well, how on earth would you know this unless it happened to you? You can hear it from others, as they heard it from Paul, -- as you are hearing it from me.1138 ¶5

In the early church Paul was known as the Apostle, -- not just an apostle, but the Apostle, as though there were no others, because Paul -- whoever Paul was; but Paul is that state that everyone must reach. When he reaches that state called “Paul,” then it happens in him, and he is sent to tell it. So, he tells it, hoping to convince those who will listen to him, concerning this great mystery. “And some were convinced by what they heard, while others disbelieved.” He used Scripture to persuade them. He showed them in Scripture what he really meant. As it unfolded in him, then he took Scripture, and this is what it meant.1138 ¶6

For in me something was raised, but it wasn’t another; it was myself. I found myself buried in myself. When I rose in myself, I came out of this thing you call a man; so the son was raised out of man, which is David.1138 ¶7

Now, that which came out is my very Being! I came out. And then in time -- in the not-too-distant time after coming out, here I found Humanity personified as the David out of which I came. And Humanity then became my son, but I then was the Father. He simply raised up Himself out of Man. It was the Father who was buried in Man. He raises up out of Man Himself. So that man who was raised can say, “I and my Father are one.” So, “when you see Me, you see the Father,” for: “I and my Father are one.” We are not two. First there is a father and then a son, and then it is David. -- The whole of humanity personified will come out as David.1138 ¶8

So, the pattern is buried in man, and God has prepared the way through that pattern for Himself to return. It was God Who came down into humanity. It is God who actually became as we are, that we may be as He is, because it is God who is buried in man.1138 ¶9

Now you may say: “Will he suffer as I have suffered?” Well, we are told in Scripture: “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.” Well, someone said to me: “After all, he bore my disease, and he took upon himself my infirmities? It is I who suffer. I am suffering -- not any other.”1138 ¶10

And they repeated it: “I am suffering.” Well, who do you think God is? What is His name forever and forever? Is it not revealed in Scripture, “My name forever and forever is I AM”? And when you go to the people of the world, called Israel, and they ask you: “What is His name?” say to them: “I AM. That is who I AM. This is my name forever.” So, you say that you are suffering, and not God? You have a false god when you say, “I am suffering, but He is not.” Who is He? His name is I AM. He isn’t pretending that He is you. If He pretended that He is you, that would be God masquerading under a veil of flesh -- masquerading as a man. He’s not masquerading as a man; He became man -- actually became as you are, that you may be as He is.1138 ¶11

So, when He raises up His son through the body, it is you that He raises. And to show you that you are God, He has one more marvelous experience. There are four Mighty Experiences: The first one, He raises up in you as you. That one is simply one side of the coin. The same night that you awake within yourself is the night that you are “born from above.” As you are told in Scripture, “You cannot enter the kingdom of heaven unless you are born from above. You must be born again.” So, that is told you. So, the first night that you awake within yourself, that same night you are “born from above.”1138 ¶12

Then He unfolds in the next great drama which comes about 139 days later -- in my own case it did; so I would say approximately five months later this thing happens, when actually you realize what came out. He raised himself, because it is God. If God is a father, then God has a son. Then you find His son; and in finding His son as your son, -- now you know who He raised up. At first you are aware of being John, if your name is John. And that’s who came out. Then, five months later, when He raises up now His son and you are the father of that son, then you know who actually He raised. He raised Himself as you! So, there is only God buried in Humanity; therefore there can only be God to be raised. And if God is a father, He has to raise up His son; so the son is made to say in Scripture, “Thou wouldst not leave my soul in hell.” “Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.”1138 ¶13

So, here out of man comes the meaning of His promise: “I will raise up your son after you, when you lie down with your fathers.” I will be His father, and He shall be my son! So, when you are raised up, you think then: “Am I now the son?” No, not yet. You are the Father, but you do not know it yet; and then 139 days later another explosion of the mind, and this time He raises up the son. But He first raises Himself. You are the Self. Then He raises the son, and you are the father of that that He now raises. Therefore, you are God the Father!1138 ¶14

Every one is going to experience it! I don’t care what you have done or what you are planning to or what you are doing now; it’s irrelevant. You may have a dream that you are a billionaire, -- well, that is all right. It will all pass away. It means nothing. You may have the dream of being the greatest scientist in the world and bring something into the world completely unknown to man, and receive all the plaudits of the world. It will pass away. It means nothing.1138 ¶15

This is the only reality: God redeeming Himself. God ventured into death. This world is the world of death. Everything dies. It appears, it waxes, it wanes, and then it vanishes. Everything in this world comes in, grows, wanes, and disappears. But that which I am talking about is forever. Eternity came down into Time and buried itself in Time -- in man. And He is buried in man. Then in the fullness of time He redeems Himself through a pattern.1138 ¶16

So, Jesus of Scripture is the Pattern Man! The eternal pattern. There is no other way to the Father. He said, “I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life; no man cometh unto the Father, except by me.” There is no other way.1138 ¶17

So, when people tell me: “Can it be in this religion, or that religion, or the other religion, or in something other than this?” I reply: “There is no other. There is only one way to the Father, and that way is through this Pattern Man. And Jesus Christ is the Pattern buried in every man.”1138 ¶18

Well, Jesus is the Lord God Jehovah -- God the Father. And Christ is His Son, the Messiah called David. And David calls him “Father,” calls him, “My God,” calls him, “my Lord.” So, he said, “How did David call me? He called me in Spirit.” “Well, what did he call me? He called me, ‘my Lord.’” Read it in Scripture. “What think ye of me?” And they answered, “The son of David.” The son of David, -- “Then why did David In the spirit call me, ‘my Lord’? If David thus calls me, ‘my Lord,’ how can I be his son?”1138 ¶19

He is my son, and he symbolizes Humanity, for I, the Pattern Man, -- I am buried In every child born of woman, regardless of his race, regardless of his nationality, regardless of anything -- I am buried in every one.1138 ¶20

And in every one, in the fullness of time, I will rise, and will awaken in man as the man in whom I awaken. He will know it at that moment when I awaken in him; he will simply know that something happened. He will know that he came out of his own skull, which was to him a tomb. He came out of that skull, and he was “born from above”; but he is bewildered. He tries to tell others, and they have no ears to listen to him, for to them he has some strange hallucination. It’s not what they were looking for. “So, don’t bring me any nonsense,” they will say.1138 ¶21

Thus, he spent every day from morning to evening just simply expounding the matter to them, trying to testify to them concerning the Kingdom of God, trying to convince them concerning Jesus. Well, they never heard of Jesus, for the word “Jesus” came into the language only through Paul. But he knew “Jesus” meant “Jehovah.” He’s trying to convince them of the reality of this Self-existent Being called Jehovah. He named it “Jesus.” YOD HE YAU is the root of it. And then some were convinced by what he said, because he used Scripture. Well, the only Scripture he could have used in those days was the Old Testament, for there was no New Testament.1138 ¶22

The first books of the New Testament are the 13 Letters of Paul, and they preceded the next book of the New Testament by at least twenty-odd years, which is the Gospel of Mark. That book was written twenty-odd years after these Letters of Paul. And Paul’s first letter is Galatians. In Galatians he tells us, “When it pleased God to reveal His son in me --” The preposition is “in,” not “to,” -- but “in me.” “-- I did not confer with flesh and blood.” To whom could I turn? A Freudian? To one who studied with Jung or one who studied with Adler? What could they tell me? What on earth could any man in this world tell me if he is going to rationalize based upon his concept of Jung or Adler or Freud or any other doctor? They do not know.1138 ¶23

Well, here, the whole thing is buried in man. So, just imagine someone who knew his Old Testament backwards, he had committed it to memory, he knew it; a learned man was Paul. And then he studied and studied but couldn’t find it. He couldn’t find the answer as he studied it. But, then, it erupted within him. That tree had never yet borne fruit, and suddenly the Tree of Life began to unfold within him, and the fruit unfolded within him. Well, he is the Tree of Life, and he is bearing fruit, -- he is bearing a son; and the son is Humanity calling him “Father”.1138 ¶24

I say to you, what I’ve told you tonight and will continue to tell you to the ends of time, -- I see no other reason for my being here, other than to tell my experience. I was sent, as he was sent, -- whoever he was. He was called by the word “apostle” because he was sent. That is what the word “apostle” means; one who is sent. You don’t volunteer. You don’t do it for yourself. You can’t send yourself. You are sent. You are called and sent. So, to be called is also to be sent. I was called into that assembly and sent.1138 ¶25

At the moment, I did not know why I was sent. I only knew I was sent. Then came the experience thirty years later. That’s why I was sent, in preparation for the experience, that I simply may take the barnacles off this ship and set it once more straight, even though there are only a few to hear it.1138 ¶26

What does that matter? There were only a few who heard him, if you read Scripture carefully, -- just a few. At the end of his days, he spent the time in his own little home from morning till night; and those who would come, he simply took Scripture and showed them where what happened to him was foretold In Scripture.1138 ¶27

But no one reading Scripture could have seen it that way, for trained as they were, they were looking for a man -- some unique man to come from without, and were told that, by some miraculous, fantastic way, was the leader of men, and that he would save man, -- as Hitler said he would and as Stalin said he would, and Karl Marx said he would. They were all “outside” saviors. There is no “outside” savior. The Savior is within you. He is buried within you as a pattern; and when the pattern unfolds, it is not another unfolding, it is you unfolding. He unfolds in you as you. You are the one who finds himself awakening within your own grave, which is your skull. It is you who comes out of that skull like one being born. It is you who stands before Humanity personified as the son called David, and he calls you -- not another; he calls you “Father.”1138 ¶28

Then you read Scripture, and in Scripture David calls God “Father,” fulfilling what God said he would do. He said, “I will raise up your son after you. He shall come forth from your body. I will be his father, and you shall be my son” ; and then David is made to say: “I will tell of the decree of the Lord: he said unto me, ‘Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee.’” So, the whole thing unfolds, and you go back and read Scripture -- you have read it before. How on earth could any man ever have understood it until in the fullness of time it unfolded within him? When it unfolded in a man, that man knew what Scripture intended all along. Then you tell it to those who are still looking for some external savior, and they are still looking for him; so they turn their backs upon you, and they will not believe you.1138 ¶29

This is a repeated pattern over and over and over. Some believed -- a few believed, but others disbelieved. I’ll find that until the ends of my days.1138 ¶30

He returns to Timothy and tells Timothy to “follow the pattern of the sound words --.” He took the entire 39 books and events widely separated in time, and he brought them together to form the pattern. He found some in the early parts of Genesis, and then some in the Book of Samuel; then he found some in the Book of Psalms, in Jeremiah; he took these patterns and wove them together, and they all unfolded within him.1138 ¶31

There was a promise in the beginning. He found that in the early parts of Genesis. He promises a child -- a child that would prove something. That’s the son coming, just a son. Then he tells you: “Here’s another sign: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” That is in the Book of Exodus. And, then, that happens to you. “To me in this same manner?” Yes, it’s going to happen to you. It happened to me. Like a fiery serpent I was lifted up; and here is something that recorded it thousands of years ago. The whole thing is contemporary. It is an eternal drama that is taking place. One is drawn into that eternal drama, and then it unfolds within him.1138 ¶32

I like to repeat it in this manner: If you can conceive of an action -- a simple action that is forever taking place, like an eternal command, -- something to be done absolutely and continuously. It’s like -- well, the imperative passive mood; something that is done absolutely, but at the same time continuously, without reference to the completeness of the action or the incompleteness of the action, without reference to its duration, without reference to its repetition, without reference to its position in time. It is simply taking place in Eternity. And then you are drawn by this like a magnet; and as you are drawn into it -- because it is a simple act talked about in Scripture, the action unfolds within you, for it is already in you. You are drawn into it, and it unfolds within you. You are the one having the experience. You don’t see it as something on the outside. You are experiencing the action.1138 ¶33

And when the whole thing unfolds within you, you go back to Scripture, and then you see that this is what was said anyway. This is what was prophesied would happen, but you thought it was going to happen to another. I thought it happened two thousand years ago to one called Jesus. Now I see that Jesus is a pattern. Jesus is the Pattern Man buried in every man; and when that pattern unfolds in man, man is Jesus!1138 ¶34

Well, Jesus is the Lord, -- the Lord God Jehovah. So, there is no room for another god. There is only God. So, when asked, “What is the greatest commandment in the world?” he replied: “Hear, 0 Israel. The lord, our God, the Lord is one. There is no greater commandment.” You can’t have two gods -- only one. But one God becoming us unfolds in us, and we are that one God!1138 ¶35

So, in the end, we are all one; for if the same son calls you “Father” that called me “Father,” are we not one? You are not going to have another son. You are going to have the same son -- the identical son calling you, “Father.” Well, if he calls you, “Father,” and he really is your son, and he has already called me, “Father,” and I know he is my son; then you and I, though we differ in identity, -- we still are one. We simply are only one. “Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one.” There can’t be a second god, or other gods. But in the end, everyone in this world will form “one body, . . . one spirit, . . . one Lord, . . . one God and Father of all.”1138 ¶36

Now, this is far more important than to tell you how to make a million, which is a simple thing for you if you really want it and you are willing to give the time to it. Those who came here tonight, thinking that that would be part of tonight’s talk, -- then for your benefit, I will tell you a story. I have repeated it unnumbered times, but I will tell it again if you are here for that purpose:1138 ¶37

Your own wonderful human imagination is the being that I speak of when I speak of God. When I say, “God became as we are, that we may be as He is,” I am speaking of your imagination. And you cannot get away from your imagination. “And by Him all things were made, and without Him was not anything made that was made.” That’s your imagination.1138 ¶38

There isn’t a thing in this world that you see now and call it a fact that wasn’t first only imagined: the building; the clothes you wear; the chairs on which you are seated; this little mike; -- everything was first only imagined, and then executed.1138 ¶39

Well, if all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made, -- good, bad or indifferent, try to find some other maker than your own wonderful human imagination. Try to find it. You may say: “Edison did it” -- in his imagination; “Einstein did it” -- in his imagination. Show me one other instrument other than the human imagination that conceived anything in this world, and that is God. “If all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made,” then you conclude that He must be the human imagination. So, I tell you, your own wonderful human imagination is the God of Whom I speak! That is the Being that actually will awaken within you.1138 ¶40

But, now, to get things in this world, assume that you are. “All things are possible to Him.” Assume that you are the man that you want to be -- or the woman that you want to be. And, although at the moment of your assumption your reason and your senses deny it, if you dare to persist in that assumption as though it were true, that assumption -- in a way unknown to your rational, conscious mind -- will harden into fact. It knows how to actually build that series of events necessary to make it so in your world.1138 ¶41

If you really want to be what you call “secure”, -- say, in finances, dare to assume that you are secure, and live as though you were; sleep as though you were; and then it will happen in your world that will cause you to leave your present environment and move on into the state that you have assumed.1138 ¶42

If you wait for things to change before you dare to assume, you will wait forever. Circumstances cannot change of themselves. You change them by changing your concept of Self. To attempt to change the world before you change your own imaginal activity is to struggle against the very nature of things.1138 ¶43

Now, you say: “Well, I am reaping these things in my world, and I didn’t make them.” No, -- you have forgotten the blossom time. What you are now reaping is simply the fruit of some forgotten blossom time. You have a very faulty memory. We all have. We can’t remember when we set in motion what we are now reaping as a harvest; but everything in our world was once planted as an imaginal act, and it has not a physical cause, -- it has an imaginal cause. Every natural effect in this world has an imaginal cause, and not a natural cause. A natural cause only seems; it is the delusion of a faulty memory, because man cannot remember the blossom time when he actually set it in motion.1138 ¶44

If you will try that, then if you came tonight to hear something more practical, then that is the practical side of this teaching.1138 ¶45

But may I tell you, I consider that what is most profoundly spiritual is most directly practical. For, if you really give all your attention to this pattern, “and set your hope fully on this unveiling of The Christ you,” it will be far more profitable than seeking to become rich in the world. If this thing should only unfold within you, then the world is yours. You don’t have any desire for the fantastic claims that people make in this world.1138 ¶46

So, if you really give all your attention to the hope, as Peter said, -- “Set your hope fully upon the glory, upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” If Jesus Christ is already in me, as told me in the Letters of Paul, then I can only wait for the unveiling of that Jesus Christ within me. And this is the hope that makes it wisdom to go after the burdens of this long, dark night of time.1138 ¶47

So, you find yourself in pain, find yourself limited by some infirmity for a little while; bear in mind: “He took upon Himself our infirmities and bore our diseases.” And His name is I AM. So, when you say that I am doing it all by myself and He is not bearing it with me, remember: His name is I AM. And I AM, which is the real name of God, became as limited as you are, and now bears your infirmities and your diseases; and He does the suffering.1138 ¶48

But in the end, He will awaken in you as you, and you will be the Lord Jesus; and your son will bear witness of your fatherhood, and He is the Messiah in Scripture, as told us in Samuel and told us in the Psalms. And when you meet him, his name is David. You are the Lord Jesus, and David called you -- the Lord Jesus -- “my Father.” He calls you, “my Lord.” He calls you, “my God,” for that is the story of Scripture.1138 ¶49

Man has been completely educated out of it and he brings his prefabricated misconceptions of Scripture to a message of this nature. Well, it doesn’t dovetail with what he has been taught; therefore, he goes away saying, “I didn’t hear it,” or “I don’t care for it.”1138 ¶50

He still wants his external god to whom to pray; and if his prayers are not answered, then he will say to himself that God did not think it wise to grant his prayer, -- in spite of the fact that we are told whatever we ask for will be granted. He didn’t say if it was good for you; he just said you should ask for it, but he made this statement: “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and you will.” Read it in the 11th chapter of the Book of Mark. “Whatever you ask, believe that you have received it, and you will.” “If we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know we have obtained the request made of Him.” Read that in the First Epistle of John, the 5th chapter, 15th verse.1138 ¶51

These are statements made by the Awakened Man. Therefore, if the prayer is not answered, you are praying to a wrong god. But if you know that the God to Whom you pray is your own wonderful human imagination, then instead of begging, you appropriate. You appropriate the state; so I call it the subjective appropriation of the objective hope.1138 ¶52

What is my objective hope? Well, I appropriate it subjectively. I “go within” and I simply appropriate it. I simply assume the feeling of my wish fulfilled. I appropriate it; and if my wish fulfilled were true, how would I see the world in which I live? And then do everything to make me see it as I would see it if it were: see the people in my world as I would have to see them, and let them see me as they would be compelled to see me if what I am doing is an actual external fact. If they know me and I know them, and something happens in my life that becomes public knowledge, -- well, then, they would know it. Then let them see me as they would have to see me if it were true.1138 ¶53

So, the subjective appropriation of the objective hope is prayer. You don’t beg any one. Don’t ask anyone. You simply appropriate it.1138 ¶54

For, if He is in me, where would I go to ask Him? As we are told, “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” Then test yourselves to see if you really realize it. Put yourself to the test. If I say, “Jesus Christ,” and your mind jumps on the outside to something other than yourself, you have failed the test, for you are told: “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? -- unless, of course,” said he, “you fail to meet the test!” Well, you have just had the test. So, when I use the words, “Jesus Christ,” and something on the outside comes to you, you have failed the test, for Jesus Christ is in you.1138 ¶55

If I go to Him in my prayer, where would I go but to myself? He became as I am, that I may be as He is. He actually became me. He is in me as my own wonderful human imagination, for “by Him all things were made, and without Him was not anything made that was made,” so I go within and appropriate the state. So, the subjective appropriation of my objective hope is my prayer.1138 ¶56

And having appropriated it, I drop it, as I would the seed into the earth. The seed must fall into the earth and rot before it can be made alive. Well, just drop it, and then in its own good time it will come into harvest.1138 ¶57

It takes an interval of time between my appropriation and its fulfillment; so having done it, I drop it, and go about my “Father’s business” appropriating other states -- not only for myself, but for “myself pushed out,” which I call “others.” For, in the end, there is Only One.1138 ¶58

One day we will know that you and I are one, for you must be the same Being that I am, though we are individualized, and we will remain individualized. But you must be the Being that I am, because you are the Father of my son. How on earth could you be the Father of my son and not be as I AM?1138 ¶59

So, I will know you -- know you in Eternity as who you are, a friend; I will know you as my brother, but I will also know you as God. Every one, in the end, I will know as God -- the Only God, but I will know them as my brother and know them as my friend. All will be God.1138 ¶60

Not one will be lost, -- in spite of all that is said to the contrary. There is no hell waiting for you. There is only an infinite body of Love -- an infinite body of Perfection, which one day you will wear; and wearing it, nothing can remain in your presence that is imperfect. As you walk by -- as you glide by, everything will be molded in harmony with the perfection that is springing within you.1138 ¶61

You do not need a realm called Heaven. You are Heaven. The body you will wear will be perfect, and in it presence nothing can remain imperfect. And that’s Heaven! So, if you went into the hell of hells, it would be automatically and instantaneously transformed into Heaven.1138 ¶62

So, you don’t need love; all you need is the Body of the Risen Lord within you. And when He rises within you, that body is an infinite body of Love and Perfection.1138 ¶63

So, here the Pattern, I know from experience, is buried in man. It’s the way of escape from the world of death into the world of Eternity. And that Pattern was built into man before the foundation of the world.1138 ¶64

He prepared the way for His own escape; end when the time is fully come to depart this world, as Paul said, “The time for my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness,” and now Paul is about to depart.1138 ¶65

But in his departure he spends his time from morning to evening expounding the matter to them, trying to convince them about Jesus, trying to testify to the Kingdom of God, and using Scripture to support his argument -- both from the law of Moses and from the prophets. And some believed what he said and some disbelieved; and everyone who comes into this same state of consciousness where the Pattern unfolds within him is going to find the same crowd, some believing and some disbelieving, until one day it happens in them; and they too will be confronted with those who will believe them and disbelieve them.1138 ¶66

And it will go on and on until the end when all are redeemed.1138 ¶67

When all are redeemed, it is by the one Pattern; so I say there is no other way of redemption. When people tell me diets will do it or meditation will do it or this other -ism will do it, or some other savior, -- there is no other savior. The Savior is a Pattern, and the Pattern is in man, and it’s called in Scripture “Jesus.” There is no other way. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” “I am the resurrection and the life.” “No one comes to the Father, except by me.”1138 ¶68

The one speaking in these quotations is the Pattern Man, and until this Pattern unfolds in man, he remains in the world of death. Well, when it unfolds within him, he is that which unfolds within him. He is the Lord Jesus. Jesus is the Lord God Jehovah. And because He is the Father, there must be a son; and the son stands before him, which is the sum total of Humanity with all its experiences personified, and that infinite beauty is called David. He is the David of Biblical fame, and he calls you “Father.”1138 ¶69

Now let us go into the Silence.1138 ¶70

Last night after the meeting a lady asked me if I would touch on what I said earlier about who saw Him. He appeared first to Peter, and then to the Twelve, then to five hundred, and then to James, then to the Apostles, and finally to Paul. Well, I will touch it just briefly, for her sake.1138 ¶71

When He appears, it is simply the man in whom the Pattern has awakened. It is that man, whether you can him by a Biblical name or by any other name, -- anyone in whom the Pattern of Redemption awakes is that man called “Jesus.” But you may know him in this world as George or Peter or Neville, or any other name.1138 ¶72

I know in my own case they must now start. It has already started. Those who see me in spirit as the Being that I am claiming that I am -- I am claiming it only because it has happened in me. I am not speculating. I am not theorizing. The whole thing has unfolded itself in me.1138 ¶73

There is a gentleman here tonight whose wife had this experience this week and wrote me this letter. She says, “I had this wonderful experience where you gave this banquet. It was beautifully done and very formal. On your right sat one who seemed to have been, or should have been, an apostle. He was well dressed. I sat to your left. I knew the truth of what he was saying, but he was hysterical, because it struck him funnily. He told you that he had a dream that you were Jesus Christ, and then he started to laugh in a strange, disbelieving manner; and he kept on laughing as he repeated the dream that he had.”1138 ¶74

She said, “I knew that the dream that he had was true, and in spite of the fact that it was a dream, he didn’t think it true. He disbelieved it completely. But I knew it was true.”1138 ¶75

Well, that’s Scripture. She is a lady. In the end of the Book of Luke it is the woman who comes to the Apostles, and it is the woman who said, “He is risen,” and the apostles thought it an idle tale, and they did not believe it. There’s your story. She believed it, and she was not judged among the apostles. He was judged among the apostles, the man who sat at my right, the honored position at the table, and did not believe it.1138 ¶76

The apostles named in Scripture were not sent until after. They were told, “Remain in the city until you are imbued with power from above.” They had not yet received the gift of the Holy Spirit; so they could not be sent.1138 ¶77

So, they are coming. One after the other are coming to make that number. First He appears to Peter. Well, I told you who was Peter in my case -- a little girl 8 years old, Maylo. She was the one who saw the thing in detail. Then came others. Now they are gathering.1138 ¶78

No bragging about it. If it happened in me, it happened in me. There is not a thing I’ve done to warrant it. It’s Grace. It is a gift -- unwarranted, unearned. It is God’s gift. Grace is God’s gift of Himself to man which man did not earn. He did not merit it. It’s a gift. So, no one can brag.1138 ¶79

So, if it happened in me, which it has, I cannot brag; but I do know there must be witnesses to confirm that it did happen in me. And his wife -- he is sitting right here; his wife was one who actually witnessed it this past week.1138 ¶80

Are there any other questions, please?1138 ¶81