Y ou are told that God became man that man may become God. You may think you are the man that God, as another, became, but I tell you: you are the God who became man, that man may become you! Because my visions which parallel scripture are accurate, I can boldly say that what I have just told you is true. In the 82nd Psalm we are the speaker, speaking to ourselves, saying: “I say, ‘You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you will die like men and fall as one man, O princes.’” We are the sons of the Most High, and we and our creator are one. Although we are now in a world of men, we have been promised that posterity will serve us and tell of the Lord who wrought it. You and I actually became human, that humanity may become spirit – as we are! You are not a little worm that God became. You were God before you devised the grand experiment, knowing it was the only way that man could become as you are! Reverse your thinking: Think of yourself as God and you will have an entirely different feeling about becoming man.518 ¶1

Although certain passages of scripture are not understood on this level, their meaning will be revealed, for we made everything because we loved it. Then we became man (man/woman) to raise and glorify our creations. We had to completely forget our true being in order to assume our creation and raise it to our level. The 22nd Psalm begins with our cry of despair: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” but ends on this triumphant note: “Posterity will serve him; men will tell of the Lord to the coming generation and proclaim that he has wrought it to those that are yet unborn.” This is not referring to another generation, but to the gods who have not yet discovered they came down, assumed human nature, and then accomplished what they set out to do.518 ¶2

The drama begins with the crucifixion, when God has union with man. It ends with the resurrection, when God raises man to the level of himself. Everyone will be raised to that level, because we are the gods who came down. The 82nd Psalm begins: “God has taken his place in the divine society; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment, saying: ‘Ye are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you will die like men and fall as one man, O princes.’” Dying in order to become man, we have assumed man’s entire nature in order to raise man to the level of love, for in the end there is nothing but love. Look around and you will see what man has done, is doing, and is capable of doing and you will see the nature we took upon ourselves to raise it to the level of Infinite Love!518 ¶3

The crucifixion did not take place in the year 1 A.D., but in the beginning of time. The Bible begins, “In the beginning God.” The word translated God is Elohim, which is a compound unity of one made of many. We are the gods who created the heavens and the earth. Many years ago I relived that event by fulfilling the 42nd Psalm. Taken chronologically, this psalm appears to have happened in 1000 B.C., yet I remember when I became man. Hearing a voice in the depths of my soul proclaim I am God in the act of waking, I began to whirl in space and time. Then I felt myself being sucked into this crucifix. My hands were vortices, my feet vortices, my side a vortex and my head a vortex as I – life itself – became one with man. I was not man waiting for life; I was life which entered man. I took upon myself the cross that is man, to bear and raise it to the level of love. Everything – regardless of how horrible it seems to be – was made in love and must be raised to the level of love.518 ¶4

One hundred and thirty-nine days after I awoke and rose from my tomb, God’s only begotten son, David, revealed me as his father. I did not become the Father at that moment; I was always the Father, but came down and took upon myself the cross that is man, to raise him to the level of Fatherhood.518 ¶5

Now, in the 10th verse of the 22nd Psalm we read: “Deliver my life from the power of the dog.” In the King James Version the Hebrew word yachid is translated as “my darling”, and as “my life” in the Revised Standard Version. The word first appears in the 22nd chapter, the 2nd and 16th verses of Genesis, where it is translated as “my only son”. That is what the word yachid means in Hebrew. So we see that the psalmist was asking to deliver his only son from the power of the dog. And in the 16th Psalm, David speaks, saying: “Thou wouldst not leave my soul in hell.” Here the word translated “hell” means “uncovered; to disclose; to reveal; to take off the cover”. In other words, do not leave me uncovered, but reveal me, that I – in turn – may reveal you; for the father will never be known save through his son, who must be uncovered.518 ¶6

The night I kept my promise, I exploded, and my son – he who had been concealed – was set free to reveal me as God the Father. I did not become God the Father; I was always he. I had purposely buried my son with me while I played the part of man. And then I unveiled my son so that he could reveal me as God the Father.518 ¶7

The night I fulfilled the statement, deliver my only son from the power of the dog, I was possessed by a vision of two very handsome men standing at my side. They were about 40 years of age and were looking at my son – a lad about 12 or 13 – with lust beyond measure. Then I reminded them of David’s victory over Goliath, as I pointed to his severed head on a table before me. Leaning against an open door, my son was looking out on a pastoral scene, while I was seated at his right – in fulfillment of the statement: “Thou art at my right, so I shall always be saved.”518 ¶8

We are the gods who assumed human form. Now playing all the parts in the world, in time we will lift the part we are now playing up to our true self, who is God the Father. Before we descended, we were the Elohim who deliberately created the play; then we entered our creation to redeem it. Although this may seem arrogant, I know what I am talking about. Thomas Chancy, the editor of the Encyclopedia Biblica (which is one of the most scholarly of all the higher criticisms of the Bible) questioned how God could have taken his place in the divine assembly; yet I know that when we agreed to descend and dream in concert, the one made up of the many proclaimed: “I say, ‘You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you will die like men and fall as one man, O Princes.’” We are all princes, for we are the gods who made up the God who came down into mortal form, to raise these forms to the level of ourselves.518 ¶9

Man has completely reversed it. Today a prophetic book is all about mechanisms. More and better mechanics. Instead of plowing the field with a hoe, man now uses a tractor. Instead of a wheelbarrow, we use a missile to go to the moon. Man is making greater and greater mechanisms – but no one is telling of a Lordlier humanity! No one writes of that which came down into man and cannot return until he is born from above. No one is telling of this being who is going to rise out of his mortal skull and take man with him. Rather, they tell of greater and greater mechanisms. Yet I tell you: the eternal story is that I – the I AM – took on mortality. I am the god who now wears your mortal form. The union is so complete, I feel I am human, and I will take this human feeling with me back into the level of love.518 ¶10

We are the gods who came down in order to become individualized. What we will do tomorrow I do not know. Will we again descend into another element of the animal world? Or will it be the plant or mineral world we will redeem? We must redeem everything we have created, for we cannot leave anything unredeemed. So as Tennyson said in his poem called “The Plan”: “Be patient. Our playwright will show in some fifth act what this wild drama means.” I, the playwright of this wild drama, will not be satisfied just to redeem one section; the whole of creation must be redeemed. This has been quite a challenge, but God has wrought it as you are told in the end of this wonderful story. “Posterity will serve him and men will tell of the Lord to coming generations and proclaim that he has wrought it.”518 ¶11

You are infinitely greater than you think you are. You and I were together in eternity, which is everlastingly enduring. What cannot endure forever ceases to be! When God ceases to imagine something, it vanishes. But you and I are eternal beings who came down into time. As Blake said, “We build mansions in eternity in these ruins of time.” Not one thing that has ever happened, is happening, or will happen, is out of kilter. It is all in order.518 ¶12

Recently the Pope said that a man should not go against his conscience, but his conscience must be educated to conform to the doctrine of the church! Of all the nonsense in the world. Here is a man who sets himself up as the criterion of all that is right or wrong! Let us get back to scripture, for it hasn’t a thing to do with this outside world of death!518 ¶13

Now, in the beginning we created the bull, the mule, the harlot, the homosexual, and the lesbian. We made everything because we loved it. So why, at the end of the drama, should two men look upon my only begotten son with such lust? To fulfill the 20th verse of the 22nd Psalm: “Deliver my only son from the power of the dog.” – the power of the male temple harlot, for that is what the word “dog” means. Seeing the look of lust in their eyes, I reminded them of David’s victory over the giant whose head, completely severed from the body, was on a table before me. Everything is in order.518 ¶14

The men had to be there when I broke the tomb, for I could not leave my only son in this world of death. Rather, I will take him with me; for being a man after my heart, David has done all my will. My son played every part that I have played while wearing the part of man. I would not leave my loved one in this world of death, so I broke the grave and resurrected him. Having redeemed him, I now take him into my heavenly state where – without speech – we share in each other’s wisdom.518 ¶15

I urge you to condemn no one. No matter what he has ever done, you have done it, will do it, or are doing it now. Every part was created by the gods who came down and assumed human nature in order to play them all. That was our crucifixion.518 ¶16

I remember the night I led the procession to the house of God. I can still feel the ecstasy I knew as I became the six vortices – the Magen David, the great Star of David – and was sucked into and took upon myself the cross of man. Now, like Paul, I teach Christ as Imagination’s power and wisdom, crucified. Christ is now in you because he has already been unified with the body you wear. And you will remember who you really are when you reenact the drama of scripture.518 ¶17

If you really want to awaken, dwell upon what I have told you. I am not flattering you. You and I are the gods who came down. We are not less than we were before we came. We are greater for having descended and for redeeming this section of creation called man, but we cannot leave any section unredeemed. We have now proved that we can come into the world and overcome death, and we will redeem everything we created, in time.518 ¶18

We created every state and loved it at the time of creation. And we will play every state before the quiescence of it all – our eternal beloved being called David, calls us Father. And you will take him with you, for he is your only begotten son who revealed you to yourself.518 ¶19

David died and was buried, but you will not leave him in the world of death. You will break the shell with a terrific explosion as though the skull erupts, and David – who was buried there – is set free to reveal you to yourself. Then, in time, you will take him back into the heavenly sphere, the eternal, the everlastingly enduring state of the redeemed. Now let us go into the silence.518 ¶20

“I am the LORD and there is no other. I form light and create darkness. I make weal and create woe. I, the LORD, do all these things.” Then John tells us, “As He is, so are we in this world.” Although man is taught the God who creates the weal and the woe is someone other than himself, scripture tells us that as God is, so are we! The story of Jesus Christ, as well as all of the miracles recorded in the New Testament, are acted parables.517 ¶1

In the Book of Luke we find Jesus, now twelve years of age, going up to Jerusalem for the Passover. When the feast ended, his parents - thinking Jesus was in the caravan - did not seek him out until the day was past. After searching for him for three days, when they found him in the temple, his father said: “Son, how could you do this to us? Do you not realize we have been seeking you anxiously?” And Jesus replied: “How is it that you sought me? Do you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Here is Christ declaring God to be his father, while his parents, standing before him, do not understand.517 ¶2

If you are seeking the cause of the phenomena of your life among your kinsfolk, your acquaintances, or teachers, you will never find it; for you are God’s temple, and the spirit of God dwells in you. The cause of the phenomena of your life is not on the outside, but in your own wonderful human imagination. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? I tell you, the only place you will ever find him is within! The life of Jesus is a pattern which will unfold in you, an individual, when you discover yourself to be the cause of your life; for as He is, so are you in this world.517 ¶3

Our religious leaders teach Christ as someone on the outside who is different; who overcame, and is now living elsewhere; yet Christ in you is your hope of glory, for as He is, you are!517 ¶4

In his book, Luke tells the parable of Jesus, who - upon entering a boat with his disciples - falls asleep as they set sail. When a storm wind descended upon the lake they woke him, saying: “Master, we are perishing.” Then He rebuked the wind, and the raging waves became quiet, and there was a great calm. I tell you: the one who fell asleep caused the storm, and is the same being as the one who - upon awakening - quells it; for there is no other.517 ¶5

In this world Christ is asleep, and the wars, confusions, depressions, and horrors, appear because of his dreams. And the world will know no peace, happiness, wealth, or joy, until Christ awakes. If you are unaware of your imaginal activity, you are asleep relative to it. You could be dreaming noble, lovely dreams or ignoble ones; but whatever you dream, Christ will externalize.517 ¶6

Man is the ark of God in which Christ - God’s creative power - is contained. I am the ark of God, not a phantom of the earth and sea. I am the ship in which Christ sleeps as he dreams the storms of my life. And when He awakes, I will know calm and weal. Your own wonderful human imagination is Jesus Christ. Now individualized as John, Mary, Sam, or Sue, you are Christ’s outer projection, surrounded by woes and weals because of his dreams. God, as your imagination, can never be so far off as even to be near, for the nearness implies separation. Wherever you are, I am! To say: “I am” is near, is to claim God is another - but there is no other. You and God are one, for He is your wonderful human imagination!517 ¶7

A friend recently shared this vision with me. As he observed buildings, trees, and houses round about him, he realized they were caused by tiny magnetic seeds which were clustered about his feet. As he scraped them off, they instantly reformed themselves to produce automatic changes in his world. What a wonderful experience!517 ¶8

In the 40th Psalm we read: “He lifts me up from the pit, out of the miry bog, and places my feet upon the Rock.” Here we see the foot, the symbol of God’s creative power, is lifted up and placed upon the Rock - the human imagination! His vision is showing him that he has now become aware of the only causation, and has placed his creative power upon that Rock. In this 40th Psalm the statement is made: “In the volume of the book it is written about me.” My friend’s vision reveals that he has come to that point: that everything which appears magnified on the outside is caused by magnetic seeds around his feet.517 ¶9

This is true; for the world is nothing more than a magnified shadow, caused by the magnetic seed called Man. Although the world appears to be large and overpowering, its causation is the power observing it. Man is the ark of God and everything is contained within him. Asleep, the storms rage; but when man awakes, the stormy seas will be no more.517 ¶10

There is quite a difference between being awake to your imaginal activities and being asleep to them. Awake, you can trace the event taking place on the outside to an imaginal act; but asleep you will find someone or something on the outside to be its cause. But causation is within the one observing the effect. Causation is symbolized as the foot in the 40th and 69th Psalms, as well as in the 10th chapter of Romans. In the end, man will overcome and put all things under his foot. My friend saw the clusters of magnetic seeds around his feet. Although he tried to scrape them off, they reappeared. As Blake said: “The oak is cut down by the ax and the lamb is slain by the knife, but their forms eternal remain forever, returning by the seed of contemplative thought.”517 ¶11

Our world is the storm spoken of in the 8th chapter of Luke. Having entered our body, we have fallen asleep to our creative power. But when we discipline our mind, we quell the storms. The disciples of scripture are disciplined aspects of the mind. Once your five senses are so disciplined, you see, hear, taste, touch, and smell only what you desire, then you quell the storms of doubt and fear within you, for you know who you are. No longer will you seek the phenomena of life among your kinsfolk or acquaintances; for when you awaken, you find life in the temple.517 ¶12

The world is always looking for new teachers on the outside, when there is nothing there but shadows. Christ is not another. You are Christ, as he is your very self! You will find him, and when you do, you will know that you are God; for a series of events will unfold within you and you will bear witness to your own fatherhood.517 ¶13

I have often thought that the doctrine of the trinity should have been the doctrine of the being, for the trinity is difficult for man to grasp. It’s easier to speak of the doctrine of revealed Christianity as a unity, than as a trinity. When David stands before you as your son, there will be no more trinity. You and I are one when my son David calls you father! Then you will know that everyone in the world is that same being, as they will all have the same son. This is the great doctrine of the unity.517 ¶14

My old friend Ab always began his classes with the statement: “Praise be to that unity which is our unity.” He knew that although we are a diversity of faces, completely individualized, we are the same father of God’s one and only son, who will reveal himself to all, individually, thereby proving our unity of being.517 ¶15

Every scriptural miracle is an acted parable. It is imagination who enters the boat called man and falls asleep in order for the journey of life to begin. Then the financial, marital, physical storms arise according to man’s dreams. He could dream of something lovely and know healthy, happy storms. But if he does not know that the cause of the weal is his imaginal activity, he will continue to dwell in the storms of life until the disciples rouse him to remembrance.517 ¶16

Awake, you are aware of the thoughts you are creating every moment of time, and carry this awareness into your dream world. You will not falter, for - knowing the world you want to build and its cause - you will be constantly aware of what you are imagining. You will no longer seek your desires among things, but will turn within to find they are all waiting to be fulfilled in God’s temple.517 ¶17

Now, the numbers three and eight in scripture are always associated with resurrection. We are told that on the third day the earth rose up out of the deep, and in the Book of Exodus it is said that it came to pass on the eighth day. Luke tells us that when Jesus was twelve years of age, his parents searched three days before finding him in the temple, asking and answering his own questions. The number twelve is telling us that he had arrived at the point of creativity, that he has now resurrected and moved into the Father’s house, for when they found him he said: “Why do you seek me? Do you not know I must be in my Father’s house?” Having identified God as his Father, he goes on to claim: “I and my Father are one.”517 ¶18

Today, as in that day, men cannot believe that imagination is the cause of the phenomena of life. They will agree that an artist can imagine a lovely picture and bring it forth on canvas, but they cannot relate the same technique to a toothache. Yet there is only one cause! I, the Lord, am the cause and there is no other. Besides me there is no God. I form light and create darkness. I make weal and create woe. I, the Lord, am he who does all these things. You cannot blame anyone for your misfortune. You could claim a friend betrayed your trust, therein causing your misfortune; but your friend was not the cause; your dream prompted you to confide in your friend. Causation is not on the outside; it comes from within.517 ¶19

As you begin to awake, you discover there is only one God, who is your own wonderful human imagination. My friend saw tiny, magnetic seeds swirling around his feet, causing the outer world to appear so large. These seeds of contemplative thought are so tiny they are often ignored and even scraped off; but awareness causes them to reform themselves instantly to magnify their new formation in the outer world. If imagination’s seeds did not reform themselves, the outer world would vanish and leave not a trace behind; but they do, for the seeds are contained in man. You have the power to rearrange your thought-seeds to produce a different pattern in your outer world. This is done by a change of attitude. Think of the world as different, and as you do, you have scraped off the little magnetic seeds, thereby causing their rearrangement. This is the world in which we live.517 ¶20

Now, when imagination lifts us up from the pit and places our feet upon the Rock, we stand on our own feet. No longer will we stand upon the foot of another, giving the other either our praise or blame. We can, however, be gracious and kind and thank another for the role he played in our drama. But when we stand on our own feet, we realized that everything that happens - be it good, bad or indifferent - is because of our attitude towards life. Every person, place, or thing, is animated and rearranged from within; for as He is, so are we.517 ¶21

A good Christian would call that statement blasphemy; yet I am quoting the first epistle, the fourth chapter of the Book of John: “As he is, so are we in this world.” This thought follows on the heels of the definition of God as love. And because God is love, He will not change your imaginal act, but will allow it to be externalized. If God changed the act, there would be two of you: one who imagines, and one who changes the imaginal act. But, being all love, God instantly plays the parts designated in your imaginal acts and suffers with you because He is dreaming.517 ¶22

But one day Love will awaken within your skull. He will resurrect and you will begin the real drama, which is to discover your true identity. Coming out of your immortal skull, all of the imagery of scripture will surround you. The child and the witnesses will be there; but they will not see you, for you will be spirit. While witnessing your spiritual birth, they will speak of you and identify the child as yours, but you will be invisible to their mortal eye. As the great drama unfolds, it appears to take place externally; yet it is within, for you contain eternity within yourself.517 ¶23

If to you a storm is raging, remember, it is only raging because you are not aware of your imaginal activity. By disciplining your thoughts, you rise from the sleep of unawareness, and become aware of what you want to imagine. Then the world will change to conform to the change in you. The storm will subside and there will be a perfect calm. Do not look for God outside of the temple, for you are God’s temple, and the spirit of God dwells in you. Ask the average person where he thinks God’s temple is, and he will point to a synagogue, cathedral, or church; but God does not dwell in houses made with hands. God is spirit and dwells in his living temple!517 ¶24

Imagine - and God is acting. Believe in the reality of what you are now imagining! Rearrange those little clusters around the foot, and when they are fixed with feeling, relax in the knowledge that your outer world will conform to the new fixation. Although the world appears external, its reality is within, as you are its creative power, dreaming the world into being; for you are an immortal being, wearing a garment of mortality. One day you will awaken from this fantastic dream, to find yourself enhanced by having experienced the mystery of death.517 ¶25

I ask you now to take the challenge and change your thinking, although I know it is not an easy thing to do. I have known those who so enjoy hating another that they do not want to change. They seem to receive a certain pleasure out of hating and do not realize that they are only hating themselves.517 ¶26

I remember a man in New York City during the Second World War, who claimed he despised Roosevelt. Every morning when the man shaved, he would talk to himself in the mirror, imagining he was telling Roosevelt everything he disliked about him. The gentleman attended my meetings, and when I confronted him with his imaginal acts, he said: “I pay $10 to see a Broadway show which does not give me the joy I receive during that ten minutes in the morning.”517 ¶27

Well, this man created his own storm, for the venom that he spewed out every morning returned to him. He lost his New York City home, then went to Florida, where he lost everything there. I tried to tell him to awake, that he was sleeping and only dreaming that Roosevelt was the cause of his world. But he could not believe me. He came from a Germanic background and could not get over the fact that we were at war with Germany. He blamed Roosevelt, even though he knew Germany had declared war on us. He could not see the war as a bad dream, and he was confusing it, making the storm rage by the pleasure he received telling Roosevelt off as he shaved.517 ¶28

It’s entirely up to you what you think. If you want to hate someone, you can augment it through intensity and persistence. The same thing is true if you want to love someone; for your human imagination is the only God you will ever know, and he is in his temple - that temple you are!517 ¶29

The parents (meaning tradition) sought Jesus on the outside, but when they found him within, he said: “Do you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” but they could not understand. When I have told rabbis, preachers, and priests, that I have seen David of Biblical fame, they laugh. And when I go further and tell them that David called me father in fulfillment of the 89th Psalm which states: “I have found David, he has cried unto me, ‘Thou art my Father, my God and Rock of my salvation’”,they stand silent, unable to make the Bible their biography.517 ¶30

As long as you think the Bible is speaking of someone other than yourself, you will never understand it. The entire book, from beginning to end, is all about you, individually. You are the one who will find David. It is you he will call “My Father, my God and the Rock of my salvation.” David will literally stand before you as a young man just coming into adolescence. It is the same David who cried out in the Old Testament: “You will not leave me in the pit, in the miry bog.” And you do not. You awaken and, after three days, you find him in the temple and scripture is fulfilled.517 ¶31

I tell you: you are an immortal being whose autobiography is recorded in scripture. Having inspired the prophets of the Old Testament, you came into the world to fulfill their words in the New. As the universally diffused individuality, Christ is housed in every child born of woman, bringing him into the world by meditating him into being.517 ¶32

Take the story of my friend seriously. Think of your thoughts as magnetic seeds, invisible and miniature, and the world as bearing witness to their arrangement. And remember: all you need do is rearrange your power-filled thoughts, and you will produce a corresponding rearrangement in your outer world. Now let us go into the silence.517 ¶33

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now let us go into the Silence.508 ¶34

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you could only test and trust, completely trust this Inner Being. One day you will. One day you will trust it…you will need no phone. You will be so intuitive your every thought that radiates from a seeming other…for in the end you will know that “All that you behold, though it appears without it is within, in your Imagination of which this world of mortality is but a shadow” .506 ¶28

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the second letter of Peter, we are told that “He has granted unto us his precious and very great promises, that through these we may become partakers of the divine nature” . These precious and great promises can be recognized only as they are worked out in the life of an individual. These are the great and precious promises of God. Now tonight, let us take a good look at what is promised.500 ¶1

In Paul’s letter to the Romans (and Paul’s letters preceded the gospels) and here we read in these letters, “He is designated Son of God…through his resurrection from the dead” . In the same chapter he says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel: it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who has faith” . Here he identifies the gospel with Jesus Christ, so when you read the word Jesus Christ you could read the word gospel. So when we read now in the Sermon on the Mount: “Think not that I am come to abolish the law and the prophets; I am not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” . We could read, Think not that I, the gospel, came to abolish the torah of Moses or the promises of God through his prophets but to fulfill them. Can you substitute a person? Just take that out of your mind’s eye, a being coming into the world, and see a plan coming into the world, see a story, and it’s called the gospel. Can you see it being told you? And it’s the most incredible thing in the world. All it asks of you is to believe it; actually to believe it so that it may become the engrafted Word. That it may actually engraft itself upon you through your belief. It will save you—from what?—from this world of eternal death. It will awaken within you, and everything said in the gospel concerning a man, you will be the man. For the story takes a man to express it. It’s the story of the power of God that will raise the individual who hears it and accepts it, and will raise him from this eternal death into everlasting life. But he will not only be raised to that infinite state, he will partake of the divine nature: He will be God himself. That’s God’s story…for the word gospel which means “good news” is the gospel of God.500 ¶2

So here, when we are told that he is raised, who is raised? We are told Jesus Christ is raised. He is designated Son of God in power through his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. Then in the same chapter, the first chapter of Romans, he makes that statement, “I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for salvation for everyone who has faith.” So here, he equates one with the other. So one is a person…we speak of Jesus Christ and you think of a person. I speak of the gospel and you think of a book, you think of a story, and yet he tells us it is one.500 ¶3

If you could only believe for one moment it is a story that is being told to the world. The churches have taken it and personified it; and they should in a way, because it takes a man to express any attribute of God. And this is God’s story of “good news.” So you are the man, whether you be male or female, you are that individual who must first hear the story, consent to it, believe it, and allow it to engraft itself upon you. As it engrafts itself upon you through belief and you have faith in it, then one moment it erupts; and then the entire story as told in the gospel concerning a man called Jesus Christ unfolds in you and you are he, the redeemed. But now you are power, you are a creative power, one with the divine nature…no longer moving from side to side as we are in this world, not knowing what it’s all about.500 ¶4

When it happens to you, this is what you do, you say “I do not come to abolish the law and the prophets; I come to fulfill it.” It’s a story now completely erupting within you and you see the entire story differently. The first thing you say…when I say the first, I mean among the first…you spiritualize the Torah: “You have heard it said of old, ‘You should not commit adultery’ . But I say to you that any man who looks lustfully upon a woman has already committed the act of adultery in his heart with her” .500 ¶5

But don’t stop there, you take every statement of the Old Testament concerning a command and you spiritualize it. Now here is one, “You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk”…this in the 23rd chapter of Exodus . Now that statement taken literally has enslaved a large section of our world for 6,000 years. You go into an extremely orthodox Jewish home or go into a restaurant, a Kosher restaurant, or a delicatessen, and you could not have anyone there serve you any product that came from the cow, a dairy product, milk, butter, cheese, if at the same time you order meat. If you say to someone, having ordered a piece of meat in a sandwich, put a little butter on the bread for me, well, they’ll think you’re insane… “Not in this restaurant, not in this house!” You would not have milk served at the table in any orthodox Kosher home if you had meat served. That’s not on the table. You might today having had a new development called margarine made not from the product of the cow but made from the vegetable world, then they could serve that in lieu of butter. But you would not have anything from the dairy served when meat is served. “You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.” That’s a statement.500 ¶6

Now, when this story erupts in man, they see all the Commandments differently. Here is an interpretation of it. The kid like the lamb has always been used as a sacrificial animal. Everything in my world is my kid. I brought forth everything in my world, good, bad and indifferent, but everything. Now there are certain things in my world I would like to get rid of, just leave behind. I should sacrifice it…that’s the purpose of that kid. My attention keeps it alive. Well, milk keeps the child alive, so attention is the milk. So I pay attention to the unlovely parts of my world and I wrestle with it; I steep myself in it morning, noon and night; and I am boiled in it. If I continue paying attention to what I do not want, I keep it live in my world. I am called upon to sacrifice it, but not to boil it in its mother’s milk. Well, I am its parent, I gave it birth. The unlovely thing in my world I gave it birth. And so now as it erupts within the individual…the true meaning of these wonderful statements of the Old Testament…but they were all to be taken psychologically.500 ¶7

Man did not realize he was living in a psychological world, in a world of Imagination. So he takes only one statement, that which would fit every man in the world. For any man worthy of the name looked upon woman and unveiled her in his mind’s eye and had an affair with her in his mind’s eye and that was the act. Now, he restrained himself because of his training. He was trained differently…that you cannot do these things. Or he might have been restrained based upon fear. He contemplated the consequences of his act and he restrained the impulse. But here comes one in whom it erupted, and he took the law and interpreted the law psychologically. They never heard that before. They thought if I restrain the impulse, well then, that’s enough. I can go through life every morning, noon and night unveiling every woman in the world and having in my mind’s eye an affair, and that’s alright, because I didn’t perform the act. Now that restraint could have been based upon fear, based upon cowardice, based upon contemplating the consequences and he didn’t want to be embarrassed in the presence of society. Numberless things could have restrained him. But he is told it is not enough…you performed the act at the moment that you imagined it…that’s when you did it.500 ¶8

So here, you take all the commands, every one. Not only those that are in the ten, but the one I’ve just taken in the 23rd chapter of Exodus: “Do not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.” So all day long we are boiling the kid in the mother’s milk. We’re taking what we do not want in our world and paying all attention to it…that is the milk…and we are feeding it and keeping it alive. I should sacrifice that kid, which is the symbol of sacrifice, and take my attention away from it, and put it on something entirely different.500 ¶9

Now up to a point you and I are free to decide and to act, up to a point. The action is all imaginal. I decide now what I want to be and I name it. You decide you want to be the biggest in your profession or to be this, that and the other and you name it. Having made the decision, you only act mentally. It’s an imaginal act: You create the scene which would imply the fulfillment of that state, and you act it. At that moment you’re over; you do not devise the means to fulfill it, you simply act. At that moment then consequences take over and consequences then create a new situation which now demands from you, well, a new decision. Because, this is now a new challenge demanding of you a new situation, a new decision, a new act. And all you do is act. If you are honest with yourself, you will know after you have acted although you do play certain parts in the unfolding drama that you didn’t do a thing about devising the means. You meet this one automatically, this one by chance, this one so and so, and then it all adds up and what you acted upon comes to pass. The whole thing comes to pass.500 ¶10

But the minute it come to pass, then it confronts you with a new situation. Someone wants to be the biggest in the company, not knowing that it carries with it certain responsibilities. The minute he has assumed that he is now the head of the company he forgets the consequences of that position. But he acts upon it and he becomes the head. Then he is put aside as an individual and then that creates a new situation. And he who dreamed upon it never dreamed that when he got it he’d be confronted with all these problems upon which now he has to act. First he must decide and then act. He either resigns because he feels he can’t do it, or he believes he can do it. If he knows this law, he can do it because he will simply act as though he did it.500 ¶11

So he takes the law…he does not rub out the law. He said, “I did not come to abolish the law and the prophets. I came to fulfill them, not to abolish them.” So the plan is in the man, and that plan is not only to fulfill by reinterpreting the law of Moses, but he reinterprets the promise of the prophets. Because man was expecting a man to come to save him, and it isn’t a man who comes to save a man, it is a pattern, it is the gospel, it is the story. And the story is in man. He heard it and he believed it and that story is in man and then it erupts in man, and the entire drama concerning Jesus Christ unfolds in him. Outwardly he is the same man in the eyes of all of his friends and his relatives; and they will see a simple, simple man and wonder if he is mad because he is telling them what happened to him…that in him is Christ or the plan. But they thought Christ was a person, and Christ is the plan: “I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation for all who have faith.” Now he defines Christ as “the power of God.” Well, if Christ is the power of God as the same writer defines him in the first chapter of 1st Corinthians, now he defines him in the first chapter of Romans as “the gospel”—the gospel is “the power of God for salvation.”500 ¶12

So here is the story…so I can tell you a story, the most incredible story in the world. You can’t top the story of Christ…that a man dies and rises, that a man is crucified and then he rises, and now sits at the right hand of power. He now sits with the Creator of the world and is one with the Creator of the world! That he actually unfolded within himself all the [...] and all the promises. He has granted unto us his precious and very great promises that through these we may actually become one with the divine nature. Well, the divine nature is God. I become one with it, or like it, no, one with it. By actually accepting this story, he transforms or re-fashions my lowly body to be of one form with his glorious body…and you rise. Outwardly you’re the same being, and they know who you were. They think what you were you are, because they will not listen to what has happened within you. So you go to your little grave, and they will feel, alright, so another friend has gone and I miss him. They do not know the one who has gone while he walked among them. He has completely awakened from the dream of life. That he believed the story and it actually germinated within him, it erupted within him, and everything said in the story of a being unfolded in him and he was that Christ. But they didn’t recognize him. For Christ is not a little person who lived long since and is now remembered only by those who hear the story…no, he’s a contemporary. You believed it. I heard it and all of asudden when I least expected it I realized who he really is: He was a pattern. He was the pattern man; he was the semen of God, the germ of God, the seed of God. When I heard the story that was the Word and I was the land on which it fell because I heard it with acceptance . As I believed it, I received it and then the whole thing germinates within me and then suddenly it erupts.500 ¶13

So here, you and I are free, yes up to a point. In the world of Caesar we can prove the same law. In the world of Caesar now I’m free this very moment to make a decision. Even if I don’t decide, that’s a decision…not to decide tonight. But you can decide, you say “I want to be”…you name it. When you name it then you must act. You act upon it…but you don’t act physically, you act mentally. The whole drama is in your Imagination. And so, I will now decide what I want to be, and in my Imagination I will act. That’s all I can do…that’s as far as I can go…then consequences will take over. Right from that moment they take over, and they will create a new situation. That new situation will then confront me with a new challenge, and that new challenge will demand of me a response that means another decision and another act. I go on and on and on that way.500 ¶14

If I don’t know the principle behind the whole thing, when I bring my dream into being I think that’s it. Today, many a person would say “If I only had $5,000, oh, I’d feel so free!” So they get $5,000; that never satisfies, they want 50,000. So they get 50,000 and that isn’t good enough. Why?—because you always move up…or mostly.500 ¶15

So I can tell you of a friend of mine in New York City now. In the days of Vaudeville, he was an adagio dancer, strong, strapping…short fella but very strong. Then came the War and he was drafted. When he came out, he’d gone beyond the point where he could go back into the…and Vaudeville was gone anyway. He became a waiter, and he moved up to a maitre d’ in a nightspot in Greenwich Village. He began to come to my meetings and he heard what I am telling you. He said, “Now I’m going to apply it…if I could only have $5,000.” Well, in no time flat Victor got $5,000. The men came in, he was the maitre d’ and they gave him tips. Well, the market was rising, but don’t justify it that way. They gave him tips not only in dollars and cents because he gave them the best table and the best steak and this, that and the other, but they gave him tips on the market. In no time, Vic rose from his $5,000 that he got to $50,000, and finally Vic made a hundred thousand. He wasn’t satisfied…yet if he could only get $5,000 that would be all that he wanted…and Vic in no time got $100,000. At least it was right there; he could have sold and realized a hundred thousand.500 ¶16

The market went this way, and Vic went from $100,000 to $50,000. Then he got panicky. I said, “Have you forgotten the market…have you forgotten how this thing rose all in your consciousness?” So he went back and kept on again. But I can’t be there to remind him every second of time. When I go to New York he never misses a meeting, and there he is to be reminded. But must I call him and write him and ask how are things going? I can only tell the story: I tell you who Christ really is. Vic was born and raised in a very rigid Catholic Italian family and there’s still that conflict within him.500 ¶17

I can tell him from now ’til the ends of time that Christ is a pattern, Christ is the pattern man. You’re a man…you don’t want to unfold within you a monkey…it’s not a pattern monkey, it’s a pattern man. And God is man. He’s making man in his own image, raising man to a higher level; and Christ is really a pattern, the pattern man. It’s buried in you. And now, if you really believe it! Believe the story as true of you…the most incredible thing in the world. What’s incredible about it? Well, it’s this. It was God’s purpose to give himself to you, Vic, as though there were no other in the world. Just in the beginning God and you, and eventually when the gift was completed only you…that you are he. So whatever he was prior to his decision to give himself to you because he loves you, you must be when he completes the act of giving himself to you.500 ¶18

Now listen to this Vic: “O righteous Father, the world has not known thee, but I have known thee; and these believe that thou hast sent me. I have made known unto them thy name and I will continue to make it known that the love with which thou lovest me may be in them and I in them” . That is the story. Now, what was the name he revealed? He revealed the name as “Father.” He said, “O righteous Father”…he addressed him as “Father.” Now I have made known unto them thy name and I will make it known, that the love”—and this is so true when John wrote these words—“that the love with which thou lovest me”…for I stood in the presence of infinite love and he embraced me and incorporated me into his body so that we may be one. Then, because I am in you and if they become one with you then I am in them. These are the last two verses of the 17th chapter of John, the most glorious chapter when you read this wonderful prayer.500 ¶19

So Vic, believe that this is the Christ. The Christ is a pattern, it is a play, and one day you’ll be cast in the central role, the role of Christ. Well, he almost wanted to cross himself, because he was standing in the presence of something that was blaspheming at the moment, and yet he loves me. But these are shocks that come to man. You’re raised this way. If I told an orthodox Jew tonight that when you refuse to take a little milk when you want milk because you are eating a piece of meat, that that is simply an outer concept of the law; and the Lord judges not from the outer but only from the inner . That which goes into the belly does not defile; what proceeds out of the heart defiles. That I know and I am persuaded that there is nothing unclean in itself, but to anyone to whom a thing is unclean, to him it is unclean .500 ¶20

Tonight if I took these things literally, there would be few things that I really love that I could eat. I couldn’t take any shellfish, no shellfish if I took these things literally. I could never again have bouillabaisse. I could never have a clam chowder. But no shellfish or any fish without a scale like an eel. Well, that goes into a bouillabaisse. An oyster, I love an oyster. I love crab. I love lobster. These things are not allowed because they’re all taken literally. But you can take all the Commandments of scripture and if you spiritualize them, as we did this night concerning the boiling of the kid in its mother’s milk, you see an entirely different concept. But it took the eruption in man of that pattern to really understand what the prophet said, because they themselves did not understand the prophecy. As told us again in the works of Peter…that those who prophesied of the coming they inquired about it, but they were told that it was not for their time but for us…that we came into the time to understand, after the first eruption took place.500 ¶21

So he erupted in one. Who?—he, the pattern erupted, erupted in a second, a third, a fourth, and now it is taking place in the whole vast world. May everyone here, in the not distant future, have that pattern erupt within you. For the precious things of God, as you’re told, he’s granted unto us his precious and his very wonderful gifts to us, his promises. But I tell you, these precious and these very, very great promises cannot really be known until they’re actually experienced; until they act themselves out in the life of the individual person. When it happens in him, he knows there is no other Christ, there never was another Christ, that Christ is the gospel. “I am not ashamed of the gospel: it is the power of God for salvation.” The gospel is the power and you just said Christ was the power? And when I heard the word Christ, being trained and raised in a Christian home, I always thought of a person. So you say Christ is the power of God and now you tell me, the same writer, that the gospel is the power of God? You mean that Christ is the gospel? And he would say to me, “Yes, Christ is the gospel. That is the Christ, it’s the story, it’s the pattern, it’s the plan of salvation.”500 ¶22

And so the whole thing is contained within me if I heard it believing it. I must first hear it and when I hear it, do I believe it, have I completely accepted it? If I have accepted it, well then, he is within me. In the normal time of germination it will erupt and everything said of him in the gospels happens in me, and I am cast in the central role…I am the star, the central actor. The whole thing is unfolding within me as my very being.500 ¶23

But on the level of Caesar know this much, you can decide tonight and having made your decision you act. Having acted, you lose control at the very moment of acting, because circumstances will take over. They will take over and having taken over they’re going to create a new situation. That new situation will now confront you with a new challenge, and that challenge demands of you another decision and another act. So, you want to be the biggest businessman in the world or the biggest businessman in your community, and so you imagine that you are, and you act as though you were. You see friends seeing you as they would see you if you were. And then things happen…out of the nowhere people come with money…they do not know what to do with it. They do not have the talent or the desire to invest it, so they seek you out because they have confidence in you. You use their money and you become exactly what you have imagined that you are. But that’s not the end…more problems, more decisions. The minute you become that big then you can’t rest on your laurels, it means more and more decisions and more and more acts. But if you think you can rest, down you go…for this is life. So in the world of Caesar we can be anything we want. We first decide and then we act in Imagination; and then that’s the end as circumstances take over.500 ¶24

My brother Victor dreamed of being the biggest in the island. Well, he is the biggest, individually, but what headaches he has had since the beginning of his dream! None of his brothers know. Because I am not there constantly, we have a more intimate relationship when I go home, and he will tell me what he wouldn’t tell those that he sees every day. First of all, he trusts them and loves them as brothers, but he can’t trust them in business, because he feels they know nothing. As far as he is concerned if he actually voiced his opinion…“I won’t fire you from your very expensive jobs because you’re my brothers, but I could replace you tomorrow with a far greater brain…but they aren’t my brothers.” That’s what he would tell them…because I know he’s implied that to me…but they’re brothers.500 ¶25

And so I asked him one day, why don’t you give responsibility to my brother Cecil and to Fred and to Collin? He said, “I can’t. They’re not qualified to do it and I’ve done it so long before they came into the business, I don’t feel that they could do it. They’d lose the business.” So here, what problems after he made his dream come true! Because the thing is still growing, he has to keep on acting and let it grow, and act and then let it grow. But when circumstances take over, what nights he hasn’t slept!500 ¶26

A “good buy”…you get a cable from Australia, a ship is leaving, and it’s refrigerated. But you can’t get a refrigerated ship every day of life. There were so few many years ago, just one in, what, in hundreds. Well, coming that distance you couldn’t bring butter or meat unless you had a ship that was refrigerated. Well, suddenly in twenty-four hours he has to cable. If you can use fifty tons of butter or fifty tons of lamb, we have a buy. A fraction of a penny is the buy. A penny would be a fantastic buy, but say a half a penny in buying fifty tons. But they draw against you before the ship leaves the harbor of Australia, and it comes thousands of miles across the Pacific, through the Canal, into the Caribbean. Here, thousands of miles and therefore almost a month in coming. Well, they have your money before the ship leaves. Now where to move for a quarter of a million dollars, overnight, because it has to be paid out before the ship moves. He knows that when it arrives he will unload it at a great profit. It will take time, but the profit is there. But then you’re frozen and the mind is all a-sea. So he has lived that sort of a life. But he loves it. He likes dreaming noble dreams in business and then acting this way.500 ¶27

Now we love each other dearly and we have much in common; and yet so little in common when it comes to his passion in life which is business and my passion which is the Word of God. He thinks I am completely insane doing this with no returns when he gets such returns. But his returns are in the world of Caesar and he can’t take it with him; and my returns are in eternity and I take it with me. I don’t need any bank book when I leave here, because it is the power that you take with you…and here Christ is the power of God. Well, the gospel has completely awakened within me; I’ve experienced every aspect of the gospel. The gospel is described as “the power of God for salvation.” “I am not ashamed of the gospel,” said Paul, “It is the power of God for salvation for everyone who has faith.” Well, the whole gospel has awakened within me. You could take me now and actually let me tell you the story as I’ve tried to tell it and have tried to write it and that’s the story. Everything said in the story concerning his birth, with witnesses, with everything…where I can actually claim I am the Father because the Son called me Father…the only Son called me Father . So the entire story has unfolded within me and I take that with me. And the story is the power of God. So when I move from this little garment and take it off, I am the power of God. I am one with the nature that is the divine nature. But to Vic that doesn’t mean a thing. He will say to me, “Well, can you draw a check tonight and have it honored for x-number of thousands?” and I will say no. But you see he can. Well, I can’t blame him. He has had his dreams and he’s made them come true, so he has exercised this power on a certain level, on the level of Caesar. And I, fortunately, it erupted within me and exercises itself on an entirely different level.500 ¶28

So here tonight, let me tell you the story is true, true beyond the wildest dream of man. And when it erupts within you, you will spiritualize all the Commandments and they’ll make sense. You will not have to simply go along with any outside conformity; that you will not have to deny yourself this, that and the other at a table because you interpreted the law on a literal level in a certain manner. You will eat anything before you if it satisfies you.500 ¶29

When I was a strict vegetarian for seven years, I went to Toronto and my friend who was our host, I was in her home, and she could ill-afford the meal that she put down that night, a lovely salmon. She really didn’t have much, in fact she had little, but I was her son’s friend in New York City and he worked for the New York Times. This night I was her guest for ten days in her home in Toronto and she had this lovely salmon. Well, I had never had salmon in seven years. I hadn’t eaten fish, fowl, meat, not even eggs. I knew I could not offend her and I knew I had to violate my pledge this night. And my old friend Abdullah told me years ago when I saw him eating all these things and I was not, he said, “It would poison you if you ate it, because you have quibbles. But you see, I can eat everything because I have no quibbles. But since you have quibbles, it will poison you.” Well, I sat down…and this lovely salmon…and all the others ate it. There were about eight around the table, all came to meet me. We all sat down to eat. That night I was as sick as a pup. I brought up my boots, but no one else did. I was self-poisoned. I did not eat this thing in seven years and I violated my pledge to myself, and I was poisoned on the most wonderful piece of salmon, fresh salmon. They all enjoyed it.500 ¶30

Well, this is life. And so tonight, if any orthodox Jew ate a piece of pork and knew he was eating it, he would be just as sick as I was that night, because it’s all in conflict with what he believes. So this is life. But the thing itself didn’t hurt you. It’s the individual’s attitude toward it that hurts him. His attitude hurts him.500 ¶31

So he said, “I’m told that there’s nothing unclean in itself, but any man who sees anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.” You want that quote? It’s the 14th chapter, the 14th verse of Romans. It’s good to know that there’s not a thing in this world that is unclean in itself, but if you think it is, well then, you and your thoughts make it unclean. You go through life this way. And everything will be lovely if you spiritualize the Commandments…starting off with the one that he picked in the Sermon on the Mount that you will read in the 5th chapter of Matthew: “You’ve heard it said of old, ‘You should not commit adultery.’ But I tell you, anyone who looks lustfully upon a woman has already committed the act of adultery with her in his heart” . Well, no one thought of that…that was spiritualizing the Commandment. They thought only the physical act was the act; and he shows them it was the mental act that was causation not physical.500 ¶32

So if I do anything in my mind’s eye in my Imagination and get the thrill of having done it, like slapping someone in the face, if I do that and I feel it, well now, I’ve satisfied myself…as people will do that in their mind’s eye. They think, well, I didn’t do it physically, therefore they can’t arrest me. But now wait…that is causation. And then consequences will come into the world and create a new situation that you do not relate to that imaginal act. But that imaginal act caused the consequences and these in turn are now creating a new situation which will confront you with a new challenge, and you don’t relate the new challenge to that original act of yours when you did it, thinking yourself unseen, that no one sees me. Well, that is answered in the 8th chapter of Ezekiel. We think we’re all alone, the Lord doesn’t see us, he doesn’t care, and they went into the chambers of their mind and they performed the most beastly acts in their mind’s eye thinking they were unseen by anyone not knowing that the Lord sees all .500 ¶33

So here, you start on this level and then you move into the most incredible story in the world. You hear it and you believe it, you accept it, and now it’s grafted upon you…the engrafted Word. Then suddenly one day it erupts and you are the central figure and then you know who Jesus Christ is. You look into the mirror the next morning at the same being. You shave the same being. You have all the limitations. Your bank account hasn’t grown any bigger, there’s no bigger deposit, the bills are still coming in…and yet you are Jesus Christ. You are the Lord Jesus Christ who brought the whole vast world into being! And here you don’t have one penny more than you had the day before in your deposit, confronted with all the problems in the world. And yet the whole pattern unfolded within you. No one can see it and few will trust you to the point of believing it, because they are still conditioned by a personal Christ, and you are not he. It is another being, painted like the great artists have painted. So depending upon your racial background you’ll say, “Show me them all, because there are about forty-six of them. Let me pick out the one.” Because there are at least forty-six in the library in New York City, I’ve seen them. So which one would I pick, the blond fella or the brunette or the other one? Because all of these are supposed to be authentic pictures of Jesus Christ…but certainly you are not among them. And so, because you are not among them, don’t give me that.500 ¶34

I’ll pick one of these and hang him on the wall and still have an external Christ and know nothing of the true Christ that is buried within man as a pattern. It’s the story called the gospel which is called “the good news of God,” the “good news of redemption.” So this year, just a matter of two weeks away, one billion Christians will observe the day and know nothing of the mystery. That goes from the pope down, because he could not be saying what he is saying tonight that comes into the print giving his signature behind it and know the story. You could not be that deceitful.500 ¶35

So I will say, forgive him one hundred percent because he doesn’t know. He’s elected to that position just as Mr. Nixon is elected to his position…it’s a political position under the mask of religion. So it’s a powerful land. Mr. Nixon will represent 202 million of us. The pope represents 500 million Catholics. It’s a far bigger empire, and like all empires they have tremendous responsibilities in the world of Caesar. And so I say he doesn’t know. If he knew, he would not be there. He would be possibly in the same faith, but a great theologian buried away, unknown.500 ¶36

Now let us go into the Silence tonight. Make a decision first, and when we go into the Silence, let us act upon it. I will not tell you what you ought to desire. You know what you want most in this world. Well then, having decided what you really want, then in the Silence act upon it. Create the scene which would imply that really you have it or are it, either one. When you come out and you break that Silence, know that it’s coming to pass, because you will find circumstances molding themselves without your help, which will then confront you with another challenge. Now let us go. * * *500 ¶37

Well, if there aren’t any questions, until next time. Thank you.500 ¶38

Tonight’s subject is “The Heavenly Vision.” It is the most that can be asked or expected of a man that he be true to the vision he has seen. Paul, the greatest and possibly the most influential figure in the history of Christianity, was such a man. When brought in chains before the king he said, “Here I stand on trial for hope in the promise made by God to our fathers. Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?” . “O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision…and here I stand on trial, testifying and saying only what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass” . As he made his defense, Festus said, “Paul, you are mad; your great learning is turning you mad.” And Paul said, “I am not mad, but I am speaking the sober truth” . I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has wrought through me.493 ¶1

Now, we have to find what he means by Christ. He said, “Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God” . He had no little physical Christ: “From now on I regard no one from the human point of view; even though I once regarded Christ from a human point of view, I regard him thus no longer. So I have decided to know Jesus Christ and him crucified” . That’s all that he will know: “From now on, I will only know Jesus Christ and him crucified.” But Paul tells us we must bear in mind that this is a mystery. It’s a shocking mystery told so beautifully that unless you know or take the trouble to look up the words, taking nothing for granted, and looking up every word as you read it in scripture, you’re going to take it on the surface as one billion Christians have. We are supposed tonight to number a billion in the world. And if I used the word “crucified,” they would instantly see a man impaled upon a wooden cross, or maybe hanging on a tree; and that’s not what Paul meant. If you take a good concordance…I use James Strong’s Concordance…it’s exhaustive, every word in scripture is defined both in the Hebrew and the Greek. You will find this word only in the Greek. Here is the word…it’s made up of two words, the word “crucified.” The first is “union by association, companionship; completeness” and the second part of the word is “to extinguish passion,” so that is the purpose from the union.493 ¶2

He sees Christ as the creative power of God. Then he said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” . Yes, I was bought with a price, he said. It doesn’t say to whom it was paid. But he completes the thought, “You were bought for a price; so glorify God in your bodies” . The price paid is union with Christ, and he gave you himself in that union. So he will transform your body into a body of glory.493 ¶3

But it is a creative act. You’ll find it all through scripture, “Who touched me? Someone has touched me, for I perceive that power has gone forth from me” . Now, look up the word “touch” and you will see it is “to set on fire.” It again is a euphemism for “to lie with a woman.” Here, “Someone touched me”…it’s a creative act. We think, as we read the story, here is a crowd, and a man called the Son of God—as he claimed—and someone knowing after twelve years with an issue of blood if she could but touch the garment, she would be healed…so she touched…and you will think a woman in a crowd touched a man. Christ is not a man; Christ is the creative power of God, expressed yes through man, but not in this physical world. It’s expressed supernaturally, for his Father is Spirit and therefore he is Spirit. So you can’t separate Christ the power of God from God. God and his creative power are one, but it takes a man as an agent to express the power of God.493 ¶4

Now we’ll come to this statement: “They said to him, ‘Tell us the parable that you’ve just told, tell us the parable of the sower.’ He said to them, ‘He who sows the good seed, he is the Son of man’” . The field is the world. The good seed means “the Sons of God.” But they are planted by the Son of man. So when the Son of man comes, he impregnates those that he called. He does it spiritually. It’s the most ecstatic thing in the world, the act of crucifixion. Far from a power that is, say, painful…no it is not painful! There is nothing on earth comparable in ecstasy to the act…it’s something entirely different. It is a spiritual act where the individual is called…and you’re told, “Let everyone that is called there remain with God.” It could be a washer woman—don’t change the job. You could be a carpenter—no need to change the job afterwards and join a monastery, go into a nunnery. Remain just where you are—a housewife, a mother, a father, a businessman, a doctor. Whatever you are when you are called, each one, let him there remain with God, and lock within himself the memory of what has happened. Don’t broadcast it to the world for they won’t understand it. They will condemn you and condemn you time and time again for talking such nonsense, because to the world it’s all nonsense.493 ¶5

And yet, this is the way he raises the dead, for only Christ is raised from the dead. For Christ to be raised from the dead, he must penetrate man in whom then he will be raised, and that man in whom he has entered will be raised. So we are told, “We are born again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” . But to be raised from the dead I must first have him penetrate me. And so that union with Christ is the most ecstatic thing in the world. In good time you are raised from the dead while you walk this earth and it all takes place within your own wonderful human Imagination. You are raised, and through the raising you are born from above, and then the whole drama unfolds within you. What drama? The drama as depicted in the gospels of one called Jesus Christ. For if he penetrates you and leaves the seed and the seed is the image of God. For he is called the sperma in Greek and the sperma is the male sperm; but this is a spiritual sperm bearing the image of God. When it completes itself within you, you bear it (as Mary)…then you, not another, you are raised, you are born from above, you come out unfolding within you everything said of Christ in scripture. So he now produces Sons for the kingdom…he being the Son of man produces through these acts Sons for the kingdom of God. There are different functions…those chosen for the Son of man.493 ¶6

Now he asks a question, “Who do the people say that the Son of man is?” And they answered, “Some say John the Baptist come again, others Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said, “But whom do you say…who do you say that I am?” Now he identifies himself with the Son of man, for he first asks the question concerning the Son of man and they brought in a physical state. “But who do you say that I am?” Then Peter answered, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And he said, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” . So here, the drama unfolds within; no man could have told him, he had to experience it. So, in Paul’s case, as in Peter’s case, their seat of authority was not in scripture as a dead written code but in experienced scripture. He experienced it and therefore he could answer from the depth of his own experience, “Thou art the Christ.” He now identifies the Son of man with the I AM with Christ. So this is the power of God that simply impregnates the chosen one. Eventually all will be called, in good time, and all will be raised through the impregnation of the Son of man, who is Christ, who is God…can’t separate them.493 ¶7

Now I know on the surface it shocks people. If anyone read that as I have just explained it to you and read it in a book supposed to be edifying, to lift us in this world, you would simply close the book and say that it’s pornographic. And yet, from beginning to end the Bible is not pornographic; it’s dealing only with the creative power of God and that’s all that it is.493 ¶8

Now, on this level, you can take the same creative power and use it in the world of Caesar, for it is your own wonderful human Imagination. In the world of Caesar I can conjure a scene which would imply the fulfillment of my dream, and if I am faithful to that vision though I myself conjured it, as Paul was to the heavenly vision, it will come to pass in the same way that his came to pass. Only his came upon him like some great catastrophic earthquake. It came suddenly and it always comes that way. You do not expect it. You don’t go to bed expecting it, because you can’t conjure it, it simply happens. It happened suddenly. But I can take now a scene, a scene that would imply the fulfillment of my desire, and if I am faithful to this scene, as I should be faithful to the heavenly vision, this scene implying the fulfillment of my dream will project itself upon the screen of space and I will realize that which I desire. I have done it unnumbered times and I teach others to do it. You simply take a scene, a simple scene, not a complex scene, any scene which if true would imply that I have realized my objective in this world. So if someone would congratulate me because they heard of my good fortune, well then, allow them in my Imagination to congratulate me. Don’t duck…accept the congratulations…as I would if they came to me in the flesh and congratulated me. Then be faithful to that vision.493 ¶9

If I need a more complex scene like two people discussing that which has happened to me, then allow me to eavesdrop as though I overheard what they’re discussing, and what they discuss would imply that I have realized my objective. Now let me not forget that scene. That scene is a vision conjured in my own Imagination. If I carry with me what I have seen knowing what it implies, what it implies will come to pass. For, its potency is in its implication and not the scene itself…what it implies.493 ¶10

So here, in this wonderful story of the heavenly vision he saw the creative act of God. He saw individuals being raised as he was raised, and having been raised then singled out to play the part. For God needs man as an agent to express anything in this world. There isn’t an error but it needs a man to express it; there isn’t a truth but it needs man to express it. So anything in this world that has to expressed, it takes man as the agent to express it. So in the creative act of God it takes man. But not man here. This is a shadow world; everything here is reduced as though we are simply completely encased and insulated. So anything we think thrills us here is nothing compared to when this garment is taken off and you are Spirit and you are performing the act of God.493 ¶11

For, God remains invisible, but you glorify him. How do I glorify him? It is “glorify God in my body.” Well, we’re told that his image called Christ radiates the glory of God and is the express image of his person. Well, you radiate the glory of God and radiating it you impregnate…but it’s all done selectively, it isn’t done haphazardly.493 ¶12

The night I was called I had no idea that I would be called…the year was 1929…and here I am called and taken into the presence of the risen Christ. The words I thought…I used them automatically. But I thought these words as I read them in scripture prior to this moment were the words of Paul, only to discover that what we thought were the words of Paul were the words of God, before they were the words of Paul. Well, when he said, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has wrought in me,” therefore, these words that he spoke were the words of Christ.493 ¶13

So you’re taken into the presence of the risen Christ, the embodiment of this creative power, and all that you see is love, infinite love, there’s nothing but love. You can’t think of one thing in the world when you stand in his presence other than love. He asks you a simple question, “What is the greatest thing in the world?” You answer automatically, “Faith, hope and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” . At that moment he embraces you and you fuse…that is union if you be man. Here is a complete fusion with the risen Lord! And I can’t tell you the thrill when you are one with the spirit and body of the risen Lord.493 ¶14

Then, while you are there, something rings out in the heavens, a command, and then you are taken instantly before a being that seems to radiate infinite power, nothing but power. You do not feel compassion in it, you do not feel love in it; you just feel power, sheer power. He tells you, “Time to act!” He doesn’t move his lips, he thinks, but you hear words. As he thinks you hear the words he thinks, for his lips are not moving. His eyes are staring right upon yours. He actually looks into your eyes and you hear what he is thinking. You hear the most distinct words “Time to act!” Then you are propelled out of that divine assemblage and find yourself back in this little body that’s insulated. You, like Mary, ponder what has happened. You can’t quite unravel it.493 ¶15

Because at that age, when I was twenty-four in 1929, and I knew nothing of the mysteries, so I wondered what on earth has happened this night? Yet my room…there was no reason for it, no moonlight, no light from outside, it’s four in the morning, and my room is filled with light, an unearthly light that had no source that I knew of in this world and there it remained for the longest time. Just the whole room is flooded with light. Here I am on my bed awake, it’s four in the morning, with the memory of what just has happened. And I dwelt upon it and dwelt upon it and finally in good time the mystery unraveled itself within me.493 ¶16

That was the beginning, and thirty years later—as we are told, “And when he was about thirty years of age, he began his ministry” —thirty years later comes the resurrection within me and the birth from above. So that pregnancy took thirty years before it ripened and came to fulfillment in me.493 ¶17

So here, that vision I cannot…if you took me now before any person in this world that had the power to hurt, to be cruel in their hurting me, I would still have to be faithful to the vision. He could take me apart; I would still have to remain faithful to the vision, even in time of trouble, even in time of the hurt. So, Paul was faithful to the vision. He said, “O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” Well, the word Agrippa means “a wild horse tamer.” Here, the mind is symbolized as a horse in scripture and here is a wild mind; because Festus said, “Why, you are mad, Paul; your great learning is turning you mad.” He said, “I’m not mad; I’m speaking the sober truth.”493 ¶18

But it’s a shocking truth and they could not believe this is what God spoke to the prophets, because they had an entirely different interpretation of the promise he made to Abraham: That in his old age, in spite of his old age he would give him a son; when the womb had ceased to be after the way of woman, Sarah would conceive and bear. It’s all an allegory, a beautiful allegory as Paul tells us in his one letter to the Galatians. Well, if that is an allegory and that is the origin of all humanity, for he’s the father of multitudes, well then, all things must be an allegory, for all things run true to their origins. If the origin is an allegory, well, no matter how you bring it down, culminating in Jesus Christ, that too has to be. But it doesn’t mean it’s untrue. It is a great truth told in the form of an allegory. Now try to find out the fictitious character and discover its meaning. Then, when you find the meaning, hold onto it until vision either confirms it or causes you to modify it. It might cause you to modify it.493 ¶19

But bear in mind, it is an allegory: The two wives, the two sons, one born of a free woman, one born of a slave. Well, the free woman is called Sarah and the child born is called Isaac; therefore it is spiritually born, it’s not something of the flesh. And so, the whole vast story of scripture is a creative act. It begins that she in spite of age, he in spite of age, will be blessed with that which is a child of God. Well, if I am blessed with a child of God, begetting a Son of God, then I must be his bride. I must be his emanation yet his wife ’til the great sleep of death is past.493 ¶20

So here, in this wonderful story of his heavenly vision, he remained faithful, not wavering for one moment even though they tortured him. So they brought him time and again before some tribunal, because he too was a very learned man, one of the Pharisees. Born a Roman, but he was also a Jew, so he could claim whatever suited him. “I’m a Jew,” and when the Jews began to persecute him, “I’m a Roman.” Well, they could not take a Roman citizen and persecute him. So he had everything. But in spite of his great learning, when the vision possessed him he could not do other than simply talk about the vision. He was one used in the capacity of Christ…which is simply the one who expresses the creative power of God.493 ¶21

Having seen it, he wrote these lovely stories concerning the crucifixion. “I decided to know nothing whatever but Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Well, the average person sees a man impaled upon a cross, and it isn’t that at all. Here, it means union, union in order to really extinguish passion. Here, he’s filled…he’s now the sower planting seed, sowing seed, and he selects; it’s all very selective. The one selected need not and should not scream it from the housetops…any more than Mary in the 2nd chapter of Luke. When this was told her, what did she do? She locked it within her heart and pondered on these things, and she simply kept her secret until it was fulfilled. Not a little physical child being born, for that little child you meet in the mystery is only a sign of your own birth from above. But you couldn’t be born from above except through the resurrection of Christ within you. So that man is born again through the resurrection of Christ, and Christ has to be within him to rise within him. Only that which is now in me could rise within me; only that which descended can ascend. So the seed descends into man, and then when it matures, well then, Christ rises in man, and as he rises in man, man himself is born from above.493 ¶22

No, it doesn’t make sense on this level at all. For man, like the speaker, was taught by his mother, by the Sunday school teacher, a story, the Christian story and that he believed implicitly. Then came the night of the shock…for I still believed it up to that time. I heard it, I believed it, I never once questioned the historicity of Jesus Christ, never once questioned the physical reality of the being. Then to discover that Christ was the power of God buried in me, waiting for that moment in time, for the fullness of time, when it would explode within me and erupt and then I am he. So as we are told, “Unless you believe I am he, you die in your sins” . I didn’t see how literally true that was until the night he erupted within me to discover I am he. So, if I am he, well then, I do not know whether I will be singled, picked out to play the part until that moment in time when I was called to play that part. And it’s all done on a high spiritual plane; hasn’t a thing to do with this plane here at all, nothing. So let no one think it’s done here. If anyone has it here, that’s not it. If anyone thinks in terms of any physical act, that’s not it. It’s not here at all; it’s all done within man.493 ¶23

So here, “Who has touched me?” We go back into the Old Testament…and Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord, to discover afterward it was the Lord; and the Lord touched him on his thigh and the thigh shrank . Well now, go back and read the story carefully, and then do not take one word in that passage for granted. Take the word thigh and look it up, and you’ll be shocked when you see what is being revealed to man but in a beautiful, wonderful manner that will not shock the so-called good people of the world. They couldn’t stand it. What you just heard this night, if you’re here for the fist time, you may be shocked. If you’re not here for the first time, then you’re not shocked, for you’ve been trained gradually to receive it.493 ¶24

As he said, “I have told you earthly things and you wouldn’t receive it. If you will not receive the things I tell you of the earth, how will you receive the things that I tell you of heaven?” For what images will I use that…well, you can’t find images here to describe the heavenly state. So I can’t find any images here. You say, “Tell me what heaven is like?” But all you can say to that is, “Do you not know that eyes have not seen, nor ears heard, nor has it entered into the hearts of men, the things already prepared for those who love the Lord?” . So what image would one use from earth in order to describe things that cannot be seen by mortal eyes and that cannot be understood by the mortal mind? It can’t be done and so you have to be silent and therefore in the eyes of those who ask the question be ignorant. All they can say is he doesn’t know. Well, I can say you can’t find anything here.493 ¶25

If I tell you of the night of the union in the actual crucifixion, I couldn’t describe the ecstasy. I could not describe that moment. I can tell you of the throng that I led in procession to the house of God. I can tell you of the woman at my right who asked the question of the voice; for the voice came out of nowhere and said, “And God walks with them.” She said, “If God walks with us, where is he?” The voice replied, “At your side.” She took it literally and turned to her left—she could have turned to her right but she turned to her left—looked into my face and became hysterical. It struck her so funnily that she said, “What? Neville is God?” and the voice came back, and all heard it, “Yes, in the act of waking.” Then the voice spoke from within me and no one heard it but myself, and the voice said, “I laid myself down within you to sleep and as I slept I dreamed a dream. I dreamed…” and I knew exactly the end of the sentence “…he’s dreaming that he’s I.” I became so emotional at that moment I was sucked into this body on the bed…my hands were vortices, my head a vortex, my side a vortex, and the soles of my feet vortices. Here were six vortices. But I can’t tell you the ecstasy! Far from pain, it was just the extreme opposite of the most intense pain. If you can imagine such opposites, it was such ecstasy…as I simply came back into this body knowing the vision.493 ¶26

I have not been able to forget it. I shan’t forget it, for he is buried within me. And then because he was buried within me, in due time he rose within me, leaving me encased still in this insulated body until that moment in time when he calls me to return to the glory that was mine before he sent me. So my rank is then restored at the end…it could come tonight, it could come next year, it could come in years to come…when I do not know. I only know that when that moment comes, he calls and no power on earth can stop it. So I will answer the bell when it calls and I will simply return to the rank that was mine. I came to play just the part in this drama of man.493 ¶27

So here, the heavenly vision is the most glorious thing…what man really is! He’s destined to awake one day as God. He will awake one day as God, because God will select him prior to that moment of awakening, and he will have a mystical experience that will be sheer ecstasy. The proof of it and what will be the purpose of it will come later when he’s risen and when he’s born from above. Then if he is the teacher, the apostle, whatever he is, he will simply play his part until that moment in time when the insulation is taken off and men will speak of him as dead. But far from dead…he is in the kingdom. He has not gone through the little gate called death to find himself restored to a life similar to this in a world terrestrial, doing all the thing we do here.493 ¶28

That’s the normal passage of death, so everyone who dies finds himself there. If you’re 100, you find yourself there not born again through the womb of woman. No, you find yourself there a young man, a young girl, twenty years old. And there you marry and there you die just as you do here. There you slave just as you do here, and all the things you do here you do in that terrestrial world, for it’s a part of this world. It’s not another world; it is just like this world until that moment in time when Christ rises within you.493 ¶29

From that moment on you are a son of the resurrection and therefore you die no more. No more passages through the little gate called death. From that moment on you are in an entirely different age, with a body of glory, which was the price paid by Christ. He gave the money to no one: the price was the seed of God…that was the price, and you received it and that saves you because the seed was planted in you. For he was the sower and you were the field, and the purpose of planting in you that seed was so that you will become a son of the kingdom. It’s waiting for unnumbered sons, as promised to Abraham, more than the stars of the heavens, more than the sands of the sea. So in the end all will be saved.493 ¶30

But there are degrees in the kingdom as there are degrees on earth. Not everyone is an apostle, not everyone is a teacher, not everyone is a miracle worker. There are ranks as there are in the army. And so, the highest rank is the apostle…and that one is the one that he calls, selects and sends. When he sends him, he sends himself, for he who sees the sender or the thing sent or the one sent, also sees the sender. He said, “He who sees me sees him who sent me. If you knew me, you would know my Father, for I and my Father are one. Therefore, he who sees me has seen the Father” . For he is a father, planting the seed of the Father; therefore, the apostle is one not only who is sent, but he is sent in the name of the one who sends him. Therefore, the one who sent him is God. So he could say, “He who sees me sees him who sent me. He who sent me is God the Father; but I know my Father and ye know not your God.”493 ¶31

So the heavenly vision, if you ever have it, and the chances are many of you have had it…and all will have it…and when you have it, there is no torture in the world that can cause you to forget the heavenly vision. No matter what it is, you cannot turn aside from the vision. It will lead you.493 ¶32

So everything on earth remains as it is, but your values change. You have no desire to possess anything here, because you know you possess it all. King Agrippa had everything and possessed nothing; Paul had nothing and possessed everything. So what did he want when he possessed all? As told us in the 50th Psalm, “If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the earth is mine and all within it,” and so I would simply slay and eat, “for the cattle on a thousand hills is mine and all within in it” . It’s all mine, because mine are thine and thine are mine. So what could you give to one in whom Christ rose? When he knows, he doesn’t want to have things. He enjoyed things…he wants just enough to pay Caesar his taxes. “They’re Caesar’s? Well, give to Caesar what is Caesar’s”…but he has no boundless ambition to pile up things.493 ¶33

So tonight, if you have a concordance, and if you don’t but are serious about it, I suggest you either get one or one day go to the library and borrow it, and then take any passage and take not one word for granted. Simply look it up. It is James Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance. Every word in scripture, both the Old and New, is there with the original meaning. Because you know words change their meaning. So even in our modern day there are words today that you wouldn’t use, and yet my mother used them without any offense to anyone. Yet today because of the change of meaning we do not use the word. We simply omit it or take some other word. Yet when mother was raised as a girl, these words were perfectly normal in her day. Well, if in so short a period of time the meanings of words change, what would they over a period of 2,000 years? So those possibly who heard the word “crucify” understood what Paul meant when they read his letter, but coming down through the years when priesthoods organized the great truth, they changed the meaning of the word. We see now mentally, a man impaled.493 ¶34

So when he spoke to the Galatians, he said, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?” . You’re seeing a man of flesh? It was portrayed like a stage play, and man dramatizes the power of God, so he stepped upon the stage like a moving picture and here you see a man but know it is an allegory. Distinguish between what you are seeing and what it intends to tell you. And when you discover the fictitious character, well then, extract its meaning, and abide by the meaning. So it’s portrayed as crucified. It means by definition “union by association, companionship, completeness,” plus the second part of the word “to extinguish passion.” That was the purpose of the union. And then in that extinguishing of passion the seed is planted and that seed is the image of the living God. That is your redemption: Because you cannot be born from above, which is essential to enter the kingdom of God, unless first in you rises Jesus Christ. So he’s redeemed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Redeemed in what way? He is born from above, born anew it is said. So when man is born anew, it is because in him Christ rose; and Christ could not rise in you if he is not first in you. Nothing can emerge from man that wasn’t first submerged. So Christ has to descend. And that is a descent when the being who has already been raised and selected for that part plants the seed; that’s a descent of the image of God. “Nothing can ascend but that which first descended” . Now let us go into the Silence.493 ¶35

Tonight’s subject is “God Has a Purpose,” an infinite purpose, and no one will thwart it. But within the framework of his purpose, you and I could have unnumbered objectives, and no one, really, could thwart it if we really understand his law; the law that was given to us…how we, too, can realize these purposes. A purpose, in a strict sense, is a deliberately conceived plan proposing a certain action, or a plan to be executed within that action.492 ¶1

Now tonight let us take it first in the most simple way. Many months ago I asked a very simple question, “Why, why did you create the universe, just why?” I never doubted that there is a God, for I’ve stood in the presence of the Ancient of Days…but why? And the voice came from the very depth, “Hatching, just hatching.” So the very end of it all is hatching. Hatching what? He’s hatching out himself. Who by looking at a little worm, one of these little caterpillars, could ever predict his future as a painted butterfly? Who by looking at an egg, not knowing the contents, could predict the beauty of the peacock or maybe another beautiful, beautiful bird? Who by looking at man could predict Jesus Christ? Who in this world by looking at man could see that man is but the egg and out of man will come Jesus Christ? Not one will fail, for his purpose is that not one will be lost in all my holy mountain. But within the framework of his purpose, you and I can take the same technique and we cannot fail.492 ¶2

Now, it is for hatching. Well, we are not nesting correctly if we ever fall asleep in any nest other than the feeling of the wish fulfilled. For at night all the birds return to their nests. Through the day they have intervals upon that nest. You go out to make a living in the world of Caesar, and you may forget, and numberless things may happen that cause you to even forget for a moment that there is such a thing as a nest. But you must remember that there is on that nest that you built, as you prepared it or you conceived it, it’s a deliberate constructive plan on which you will sit.492 ¶3

As we are told in Habakkuk, “I will stand upon my watch and see what the Lord will say unto me, and what I will answer.” The next verse. Every seed, really, has its own appointed hour—for he’s telling us that all the visions, well, the vision is simply your little seed or your egg—“The vision has its own appointed hour; it ripens, it will flower. If it be long, then wait; for it is sure and it will not be late” . For, there are different time intervals for all the different eggs of the world. I may have an egg based upon a yearly income, or an egg based upon a weekly income, or a monthly income. If I take it over a long period of time, well, then wait. If the first day, week, month or even the first six months are slow but I am faithful to that egg which is a yearly income, at the end of the year I will look back upon the most fantastic year I’ve ever had. So in the course of a day I will fly from that nest and do all kinds of things and forget; but at night let me return to that nest and keep that seed warm, keep that egg warm.492 ¶4

And then do, as we’re told in Habakkuk, “I will stand upon my watch, and I will watch to see what the Lord will say unto me and what I will answer.” Well then, the Lord is simply the whole vast world pushed out, for the Lord is I AM. So I am sitting on this state and then I look upon my world, my world is myself fragmented, and that is what the Lord is saying unto me. When I think of my friends and see them mentally in my mind’s eye, what are they saying? Are they congratulating me? Am I accepting their praise graciously? Well, then I will now sit upon this nest and fall asleep in this assumption, in this state; for I am standing upon my watch and watching to see and to hear what the world (the Lord) will say unto me and what I will answer. What is my response when they say what they must say seeing me as their friend so successfully lifted up in this world?492 ¶5

So if you will do that, night after night, no power in the world can stop me from bringing forth from that egg—-which is simply my assumption—-all that it is implying…if I will do it. I may leave it and not really sit upon the egg. We have seen that in all the barnyards of the world, for eggs are dropped and no one thinks in terms of ever warming them or incubating the egg.492 ¶6

But you and I, if I know what purpose really means—purpose in the strict sense is a deliberately conceived plan proposed for action or executed in it. I plan a campaign. And that action…but not only the action, something must be executed in it. Why am I planning the campaign, to sell merchandise? I plan a campaign or plan the campaign of war, why?—that I may be victorious in this action. So I will execute this plan in the action that I have now proposed. Well, the action is simply this night I will stand upon my watch and watch to see what and hear what he will say unto me—and how I will answer, knowing in my heart that the vision has its own appointed hour, it ripens, it will flower; and if to me it seems long then let me wait, for it is sure and it will not be late. So I simply stand on my nest and go to sleep in that state. If in the course of a day I can’t come back to it too often, it wouldn’t addle. If I am faithful night after night, it will not addle.492 ¶7

Just before I came on the platform, not more than one minute before, my very dear friend, who is here this night, she said, about two years ago a friend of hers won what she called—-I have never heard of this award before until tonight—-it’s called a Lulu, it’s like an Oscar in the fashion world. And so, it is given to some lady in the fashion field, whether you be in department stores, TV, radio, well, any aspect of displaying your fashion. She said when the friend won it, “I’ll win one too.” She did it just as lightly as that. But she did something about it and tonight she brought it, it’s in her purse, this lovely Lulu. It’s a little statuette, a first prize for her work. Only recently has she joined the May Company, and so for the May Company she’s been doing all of their displays, all of their advertising, and she won the Lulu. Just did it naturally. And this is not just for this city, every state west of the Mississippi is within that picture of the Lulu.492 ¶8

So I tell you, sit upon your nest and let it hatch out. Everything comes out this way, but if you don’t have a definite objective, well, you can’t, so that you either succeed or that you fail.492 ¶9

But God has a purpose and his purpose is to bring forth from man Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is God himself. He’s bringing out of us Jesus Christ. He will not fail. As we are told, “As I have planned it, so shall it be; as I have purposed, so shall it stand” . And, “the anger of the Lord will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his mind. In the latter days you will understand it clearly” . In the latter days you will understand why you went through all the things in this world…because out of you is coming, actually coming, Jesus Christ. He could not emerge from man were he not actually present in man. So at this very moment he’s buried in every being in the world, and God is bringing him forth. When he brings him forth, he brings forth himself, and it’s you.492 ¶10

But while he is bringing him forth, he has given us his own talent: The talent of using our Imagination to create everything in this world.492 ¶11

A letter given me this past week from this young lad who is here tonight, he said, “I found myself in the high school, and my teacher—-my teacher was the Latin teacher, her name was Miss Divine—-and as I entered, there was an examination taking place. And so I sat, and on the board were two columns; there were twenty-one problems. On the right side there were from zero to ten, say, eleven problems; on the left side from eleven to twenty. Down in the middle of the column on the right side there were two words that I had to define. They were separated by a word which I couldn’t quite discern, but the two words were crucifixion and resurrection. The left hand column, there were from eleven to twenty, and I couldn’t discern the words save two, and the words were map and route.492 ¶12

And so, I took my paper, I began to define crucifixion; and I defined it by quoting the words of Paul from the 2nd chapter of Galatians: ‘I have been crucified with Christ; it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me’” . That’s how he put down the definition of crucifixion.492 ¶13

Then he discovered that his paper wasn’t big enough for all the answers, so he turned to Miss Divine—-bear in mind the name of this teacher, Divine—-so he turned to Miss Divine and asked her for permission to go and get a piece of paper. She said to him, “Go to my desk and get a piece of paper”. So he did. He came back with a larger sheet. On his way back, he realized that in his pockets were all the answers to all these questions on a smaller piece of paper. So he sat down and tried to transfer from the smaller piece of paper to the test paper all of the answers. And then, suddenly, the test was halted, and then all the test papers were collected.492 ¶14

Then Miss Divine began to read the answers as she got all these test papers together. And she turned first to the left hand column to the words map and route and she said: “Neville Goddard has the map and the correct route. If anyone wants the map and the correct route, let them go to Neville Goddard.” With that it was all dismissed, and then he took his papers and tore them up into shreds, and started towards the exit to throw them into the waste basket. She asked him for the papers. At first he said no, and then she glared at him, and with that he gave her these torn pieces of paper. Then with his books in his hands, towards the exit he walked out saying to himself, “I am expelled.”492 ¶15

Then, it was early in the morning, so he woke, wrote the whole thing down in detail as I’ve just told it to you, and then fell asleep. And this is the epilogue, the epilogue is marvelous. He heard a voice and the voice was the voice of the broadcaster, the announcer of the Angels, the baseball game. Bear in mind, they’re the Angels, not the Dodgers, they’re the Angels. And this [Don Wale?] said, “This is the fourth game that the Angels have played in the last twenty-four hours, and there are 400 people present.” The fourth game in twenty-four hours and there are 400 people present.492 ¶16

Well, 400 is the numerical value of the twenty-second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which is Tau, and it has the symbolical value of a cross. Remember, he defined only one word—he defined crucifixion. The 400 were present. So he defined the crucifixion in his test. And then, there were four games, that’s the fourth letter, which is Daleth, which is a door. He said, “I am the door. Anyone who comes through any other way other than through this door (and I am the door) is a thief and a robber” .492 ¶17

Twenty-four in the mystical Hebrew is a horse, it’s [...], and that is the mind. The whole thing is coming out of the mind of man. It’s the mind that man has to control. That is the horse, the unbridled beast that must be broken in by man and ridden by man himself. And so, he found the horse, told in the form of a number: in twenty-four hours. He found the door—-“I am the door”—-in the form of a number: four games. You wouldn’t play four games in twenty-four hours. And then there were 400 people present. They do get very, very small audiences, I grant you that, but not 400…they haven’t fallen that low. But bear in mind, they were Angels, they were not Yankees; not these, Angels. All of this is symbolism.492 ¶18

Well, what strikes me forcefully in the entire picture is not that Miss Divine—-there’s the name, she’s the teacher—-said that Neville Goddard has the map and the correct route…I love that in the picture. But what really to me is significant in the entire vision is his quote from Paul in the definition of the crucifixion. For when I stood in the presence of the Ancient of Days and he asked me, “What is the greatest thing in this world?” I, too, quoted Paul. I answered in the words of Paul, “Faith, hope and love, these three abide; but the greatest of these is love” . At that, infinite love embraced me, and I fused with him and became one forever with the body of God.492 ¶19

And I wonder, after his letter to me, do we all answer in the words of Paul? I’m asking a question. He shared with me his experience. I hope you will share with me your experience when a similar vision takes place with you, for I answered in the words of Paul and he answered in the words of Paul. He answered the one question, the crucifixion, and it came up in the epilogue, there were four hundred people present at the Angel game, and that’s the crucifixion.492 ¶20

And so, when you think the greatest figure in Christendom is Paul, really. Who has done for Christianity what Paul has done? You ask yourself a thousand times over, who then is the one who first awoke? Who is he that awoke? If we read the gospels, and the Evangelists are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, anonymous names, unknown, completely unknown; no one knows who they are, and then you ask yourself this question concerning this fantastic creature that is Paul (the little one). Paul means “little,” and he is the “little one.” Then he tells you that “I am a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.” Benjamin means “son of the right hand.” “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thee at my right hand until I make of thy enemies a footstool for thee” . You ask…all kinds of things go through the mind concerning who is this one that we call “the little one” that is Paul.492 ¶21

He never denied his faith. In fact, he insisted that his religion was not a new religion, it was the fulfillment of one as old as the faith of Abraham. He never gave up the Hebrew religion; he only saw the flower, the fulfillment of it. To him the whole thing was the unfolding of all that was prophesied and promised to Abraham. So, Christianity was simply the fulfillment of the faith of Abraham.492 ¶22

We have in the western world these three great religions, the religion of Islam which is complete kismet, fatality, complete. They call themselves…most of them are named, and there are 400,000,000 of them, Abdullah (slave of Allah, complete slave of Allah). Then comes this great rock, the Hebrew religion, and it begins with faith, Abraham. He believed the promise made by God, God would fulfill, and he was able to fulfill it, and the promise was an heir.492 ¶23

All the way through, the promise continues in changing form. “I will raise up after you a son that will come forth from your body. I will be his father and he shall be my son” . That’s the promise made to us: Raise up out of us a son that will be God’s son. God will be his father and that which he pulls out of us will be his son, something so unlike the form that we see here; and unlike the form called man as the butterfly is unlike the caterpillar; as unlike this glorious winged creature to the egg.492 ¶24

So we are told in Philippians: “Our country is in heaven, from which we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will reform and change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power by which he is able even to subject all things to himself” . The word translated “change to be like” means, literally, “to be of one form with him.” Actually, something is coming out of every being in this world that is Jesus Christ. And the form is that glorious form that is the form of God: “Return unto me the glory that was mine, the glory that I had with thee before that the world was” . So he gives man himself. He brings out of man, his egg, himself. He is hatching it out, and he is faithful.492 ¶25

All he’s asking of us that we be as faithful or try to be as faithful as we can to our modified desires as he is to his grand scheme, which is to bring forth out of man, himself. For, he’s bringing out of man, himself. No one’s going to fail because we aren’t doing it. But while he’s bringing it out, he’s asking us to take the talent that he gave us, while be are being turned over and over in this world, to take that talent and become what we want to be in this world. Do it for ourselves or do it for others. You can take any being in this world if you are faithful.492 ¶26

And the faithful time is when you have the unbroken few hours of the night, just as you are settling down to retire into the deep, and you know the day’s over, and you’re simply going to relax into some state. Take that moment and then stand upon your watch and view the world to see what the Lord is going to say unto you. The Lord, being the fragmented I AM, everything that you’re doing, you’re saying, “I am doing it.” So, that’s the Lord viewing his fragmented self. And see what it is saying to you, is it sympathizing? Get off that nest! Is it now with great empathy? Alright, good! Are they rejoicing with you, all of them, because of your good fortune? Stay on that nest, and go sound asleep viewing the world from your watchtower, knowing in your heart that what you are sitting on mentally has its own appointed hour. It is ripening and it will flower; and if to you because of your anxiety it seems long, you know you must wait, for what you’re doing is sure and it will not be late.492 ¶27

So we’re told that his promise is faithful and sure. These promises are not some little thing done because of some emergency; they were done of old, and they are faithful and sure we are told. Not something that suddenly, because of some plan in the world of man, that God is now instituting some emergency thinking. No, his plans are of old. Man is allowed all the freedom in the world to make all the mistakes in the world, perfectly alright. He will correct it. He doesn’t condemn man, he corrects man. He corrects all kinds of things but allows us within the framework of his purpose to do anything in this world that we desire. He doesn’t have the same code that man tries to impose upon man. He allows us quite a wide range of everything in this world.492 ¶28

So I say, God has a purpose and his purpose is to bring forth himself out of his egg called man. But while the egg called man is living in the world of Caesar, he allows it to use a certain talent; the talent is the gift he gave of himself which is man’s Imagination. Man can take his Imagination and create anything in this world.492 ¶29

You think of this story of the Lulu. For here is a lady who only recently started working for the May Company and how many artists must there be between the Mississippi and the West Coast who simply wanted that? This is a fist prize, this is not something down into the bottom of the barrel, this is the Lulu. I never heard of it until tonight, so she brought it in her purse and picked it up. It’s like an Oscar. It is an Oscar to those who are in her profession. And this covers the entire water front; this is not confined to department stores, it isn’t confined to TV or to radio or to moving pictures but to every aspect of the art world where ladies are involved in fashion. And she gets it! She’s only been there a few months and she gets it, because she wanted it…and she knows the principle; and the others who I think by her own confession will be equally talented, they didn’t know the principle. So they didn’t sit upon the nest and simply view it as she did. So she sat upon the nest.492 ¶30

So I say to every one of you, don’t get off that nest until it hatches out, and then go for a bigger nest and a still bigger nest. If anyone tells you that you shouldn’t want things, turn a deaf ear to them; completely turn a deaf ear to them. You’re not going to be enslaved by things if you know this principle. You’ll get things and be quite willing to drop them on the way. But you’ll simply test your talent. You’re exercising your talent; and a talent that isn’t exercised is like the limb that is not exercised, it atrophies, it does. And so, day after day you must take your dreams, your noble purposes, and simply settle down and nest them and simply bring them to pass in your world. Every one will hatch out, for we are told, “Not one is lost in all my holy mountain.”492 ¶31

Not one child born of woman will ever fail to bring forth what God has demanded; and God demands only one thing: “I will raise up out of you a son that will come forth from your body. I will be his father and he shall be my son.” That son will say of his father, “I and my Father are one,” because he is the creative power and wisdom of God . So when he comes forth, personified, he will say of the very power that drew him out of that body, “I am the power and wisdom of God . I am he.” You are he. And everyone will come out…not one will fail.492 ¶32

So I tell you, try it. Try it over and over and over…and don’t ever admit failure, don’t for one moment admit it. The most impossible thing in this world, still try it. For here, we will not accept paganism, we will start with Israel, that’s where the whole creative world starts, really, and it’s based upon faith. Christianity is the fulfillment. If an orthodox Jew will not believe that it happened, alright…he will eventually. At least he has the faith that it is going to happen. But I tell you that it has happened.492 ¶33

But I will go back now to that definition of my friend Tom with the crucifixion, and go to another aspect of it, which you find in the 6th chapter of Romans. He took his from the 2nd chapter of Galatians, but the 6th chapter of Roman: “If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” .492 ¶34

So now Paul, the same grand Paul, is now saying to his, what he calls “my son Timothy,” and he said: There are those who are teaching that the resurrection is past already. They are misleading the people and turning them from their faith . His condemnation of those who said it was past already, once and for all, is, well, you can’t quite describe the condemnation, uncompromising. It’s not past once and for all. It took place, it is taking place, and will continue to take place until everyone gives up that Son of God. It’s the Son of God in man that is buried that makes man alive. Were it not for the Son of God in man, then there would be no living being in this world.492 ¶35

So if I have been crucified with him, alright, I have enjoyed that death. I’m crucified with him, and in that crucifixion I have union with him. Now, certainly, I will also be united with him in a resurrection like his. Well, I can tell you from experience it has happened to me. So I know the joy of the union in my crucifixion with him, and I now experience the joy in my resurrection with him. It’s one. I do not differ from any child that walks the face of this earth. We’re all one.492 ¶36

I can’t share with you that body which he has transformed to be like his glorious body. I tried it once and didn’t quite succeed in revealing the glory of the body that is one…but she is not far off from seeing it for herself. But here, it’s the most fantastic glory…the joy of this body. Human face yes. I will recognize you?—certainly, forever and forever. But I can’t describe the glory of the body; it’s something entirely different. So we are subject to this humiliation of these bodies of blood, bodies of flesh…but not for long.492 ¶37

And so, if someone this night…like my friend Tom who has had this experience…and you will say “Well, why should he have it?” No one knows Tom’s background. No one knows how long he has been treading this winepress in this world. No one knows it. And so, if in many ways you may think he is young or even limited in expression, don’t! Because the minute it happens to one, limitations fall away. These things that seem so wonderful here that we acquired through labor will not be used, because it’s all then a creative power in operation. So don’t judge anyone.492 ¶38

And may I tell you, if perchance you should entertain such a thought, bear in mind the story of Job. Job’s story is the story of man. Here is the most cruel experiment ever performed on an innocent being, that which is performed on Job. Job in the very end didn’t condemn the Lord. He thought the Lord was justified in everything that he did. And then he turned from himself, for he felt sorry for himself, and he prayed for his friends, and as he prayed for his friends his own captivity was lifted . So turn from self to a friend and wish them well. Well, that’s really what love is, to wish a friend well, and sincerely wish him well.492 ¶39

May I tell you what will happen to you? You’ll simply bloom. Out of the nowhere things that are now hidden from you will come into view and they’re all yours by sincerely wishing a friend well. So when Job turned from himself and prayed for his friends his own captivity was lifted. So that is what we’re here to do. Turn to someone this night, I don’t care who he is, who she is, and see them in your mind’s eye in some blessed state. And feel the thrill that will be yours as a friend because they are what you’re now representing them to yourself as being.492 ¶40

Someone once said, and for years I had to agree with them and even to this day I would go along with them, that if someone is hurt, a thousand will rush in sympathy; and if some member of the neighborhood falls heir to a fantastic fortune, you don’t find the joy, you find envy. So we have so many words to express sympathy, compassion and all these things, but possibly only one which is not a good, not a good word in a sense because it isn’t known. You speak of empathy, how many people even know what the meaning of the word is when you use it? So it isn’t used. It’s used in cultured society among the educated. They know the meaning of the word but they don’t use it, because it’s not in use. They will use it in their writing and someone reading their works will rush to the dictionary for definition of the word, because we’re not given to rejoicing with those who have good fortune smile upon them.492 ¶41

In fact, one of the disciples whose name is only mentioned among the twelve, he’s not mentioned saying that he’s one of the twelve, is Thaddeus, and Thaddeus means “praise.” It’s so little exercised by man that there is no story of Thaddeus in the Bible. He’s only called. He is called…he has to be part of the awakened man, for the awakened man must have Thaddeus within him awake; but in the actual story he isn’t there. He’s only named among them, and he’s the tenth disciple, and the word is praise.492 ¶42

How many of us can rejoice when we hear of the good fortune of another? We wonder, “Why didn’t it happen to me?” That’s the reaction. You read in the morning’s paper someone won $150,000 with a two dollar bet, some daily double in Florida or someplace or down in Caliente, and instantly you say, “I wish I had it!” No one thinks of the joy in that household, that moment when he goes home to his family with a hundred thousand dollars in cash. We think, “Why didn’t I make it?” So really empathy is an empty word until it becomes so alive that we use it as frequently as we use sympathy. We can sympathize with one who lost his home because he had a hot tip and put the house down on the horse that didn’t come in. We can sympathize with his wife at home who must now give up the house, but we cannot rejoice with her when he comes home with the fortune. So Job rejoiced in the good fortune of his friends, and as he did so his own captivity was lifted.492 ¶43

So to come back to our theme which is God has a purpose. That end you can accept as Abraham accepted it. He heard the promise, he believed it, and then in spite of the hell of the 400 years in this land where he was a stranger, where he was a slave of slaves, he still remembered the promise. He believed the one who promised was capable of fulfilling that promise. And then, “He rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad” …and went through hell faithful to the promise made to him by God.492 ¶44

And so, you become that. I tell you he’s coming out of you, one that is completely glorified, and the body he wears is the body of God. Not some little tiny thing…something is coming out of all of us that is the most glorified thing in this world. It’s an immortal body and the body is the body of God.492 ¶45

But, before it comes out and you wear it and you are one of the immortals, while you are still telling the story and moving through the world of Caesar, use the same talent to play your own part of sitting on your nest. Night after night, take the most glorious idea. If you’re in business, augment it, double it, treble it. Let no one tell you that you’re too hungry, you’re too anxious, forget what they’re saying. You double it! You’re making x number of thousands a year, double it, you treble it, and test God and see if it doesn’t work.492 ¶46

And so, when you go to bed this night you sit on your nest of an income and you name it; and then stand upon your watch and see what God is saying to you. And God speaks to you through the faces of every person in this world that you contemplate. So you think of me, and you’ve just written me the most fantastic letter of your good fortune, and hear me tell it from the platform. So think of me this night telling from the platform your good fortune. Think of your mother, if you have one in this world or if not in this world—-she’s still in this world, you know, for the world is simply sections within sections—-so think of her. Don’t think because she’s not physically present she’s not aware of it. Think of her and let her see your good fortune. Let all of your friends see your good fortune. And go to bed sitting on that view of things, which view implies the fulfillment of your desire. And see how it comes to pass.492 ¶47

It may take twenty-four hours, some things hatch out in twenty-four hours, some things hatch out in a week, some things in a month, six months, a year. I do not know the time interval of your desire. But your desire, your mere wish is an egg, you laid it. Your wish…you laid an egg…I mean in the true creative sense, not in the theatrical sense. And so, you have an egg and then you simply sit upon your egg and bring it to pass. Let the whole thing come out in this fabulous world of yours.492 ¶48

Now let us go into the Silence * * *492 ¶49

This morning when I woke my mind was simply crowded with a single thought: The knowledge of God. For I had gone to bed dwelling on these two thoughts, one from Paul’s letters, his letter to the Corinthians, and one from the gospel of John. They parallel each other. And Paul said, “I could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ. So I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you could not take it.” Then to the gospel of John in the 16th chapter we read the words, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”489 ¶1

So with these thoughts in my mind, I slept, and coming back to the surface this morning the mind is crowded with the knowledge of God. Well, it’s not the easiest thing in the world to tell and not the easiest thing in the world to accept, but if you are a good student of scripture, you can search it and you will see how true it is. I know from experience that it is true.489 ¶2

You meet it first in the Book of Genesis, the 4th chapter. It begins, “And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain”…but that is not the completed thought. It is said that “Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain,” but the completed thought in that very first verse is that she did it with Jehovah.489 ¶3

Now the word “knew” is a euphemism for the marriage act, the creative act. We meet its parallel in the Book of Luke, and the angel said to her that she would have a child. Mary said to the angel, “How is this thing possible seeing that I know not a man?” Well here, we meet the same word “know”…we speak of it as know or knew or foreknowledge, foreknew, the same word and the same definitions given to us in both the Greek and Hebrew dictionaries. So here we are told that the one who performed the act was Jehovah.489 ¶4

Now, we meet the same word in different uses: “And this is eternal life, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent.” Well, Jesus Christ is defined as the creative power of God. But God being man his every attribute is personified…it takes a man to express everything in this world, whether it be evil or good, whether it be truth or error. Every error takes man as its agent, therefore, it is man. So here, when we encounter the creative power of God it’s personified, it is man. “So this is eternal life, to know thee, the only true God.”489 ¶5

Now, that “knowing thee” is the same word when Mary said, “How is it possible seeing that I know not a man?”…I haven’t had the creative act. So here, how can I know God? I must have the creative act with Jehovah, with the Lord. And when he awakens in one that is his creative power awake, sent into the world to perform not the physical act, for God is Spirit, he performs it spiritually. And in this creative act, they walk not knowing that they are pregnant, pregnant by God. And what do they bring forth? They can only bring forth his creative power personified which is himself as the Lord Jesus Christ.489 ¶6

So here, we find one who was with him all the time and he said, “Show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” He said, “I have been with you so long and yet you do not know me, Philip?” Well, the word “know” is the same word translated as I’ve just defined it for you, “the marriage act.” You’ve followed me and followed me, but you are not yet ready to receive me, followed and followed and you think you know the mysteries. You are of the inner circle, said he, but you haven’t known me.489 ¶7

So these are the things he could not tell…these are the mysteries. He said, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” It would come as a shock.489 ¶8

Now, the knowledge of God involves a surrender of the self. Not only the self surrenders, but there are variations of that surrender in the person that is known. Not everyone receives the imprint of God to the full extent. It’s like a temple and not every aspect has the same significance: So one receives it to a certain degree, one to another degree, and one to still another degree.489 ¶9

The one who can completely surrender to the full impression of the invisible Lord, that one has received the ultimate which is the apostleship, the highest order in the body of God…one that is qualified then to be sent and tell it from experience. Others will tell it from hearsay and that would be the prophets. Others will tell it and they will be then the teachers, others the healers, the miracle workers, and all these will tell the imprint based upon what has happened to them. And they are in conflict, not in conflict…but the one who comes as the apostle who will tell you, he stands in the very, I would say, in the shoes of the Lord; for he who sent me is with me, he never left me. That imprint was a complete submersion of self, a complete surrender of self.489 ¶10

And so, if someone comes after, and they’re not completely surrendered to that one being, it is a creative act; but the creative act on the highest level is an embrace and a complete fusion of the two, where one melts into the one who embraces him. So that person that is known becomes one with the knower. So when he’s sent he says, “I’m not alone, he who sent me is with me.” Below that level, he speaks of it…he sees it in a different way.489 ¶11

And so, on return this morning, the mind was simply overflowing with what is called the knowledge of God. And go and tell them whether they receive it or not, whether, and you’re not to judge anyone in this world, whether they’re qualified to believe it or not. And so the time has come for those who said, “You’re not yet ripe,” and others said, “I have things to show you, but you cannot bear them now.”489 ¶12

But I feel I am just like that story as told in Jeremiah, the 20th chapter, “If I say ‘I will not mention it or speak any more in his name, there is in my heart as it were set up a burning fire, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.” I can no more restrain the impulse when I wake in the morning and the mind is crowded with a common thought, that single thought, simply the knowledge of God.489 ¶13

So then you search scripture and you find the unnumbered words translated “knowledge” or “he knew.” Here is one from the 8th chapter of Romans, “Those whom he (meaning now God)…those whom he foreknew—that is, he had this intimacy before— then “he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.”489 ¶14

Now bear in mind, the Son as told us in Hebrews “reflects the glory of God and bears the very imprint, the very stamp of his nature, the express image of his person.” Well now, if this is what I am destined to do after he knows me…he said, “Those whom he predestined, he also called; and those whom he called, he also justified; and those whom he justified, he also glorified.” So that complete surrender of self would bring one to the point of complete glorification, which is simply reflecting the glory of God. He can’t see his face in any better way than that one that can glorify him.489 ¶15

So, it’s not the man of flesh, it’s something within man that I’m talking about. I’m not speaking of anything born of flesh. From the very beginning it was not spoken of flesh.489 ¶16

In the current issue of the Saturday Evening Post there’s a story by some supposedly great English anthropologist. He makes little of the Bible…the thing means nothing…it’s so stupid based upon what today’s anthropologists know about man and his beginnings, and all about man, it goes back unnumbered years. They take us back so far in what they think man was. And then they say that the Bible in teaching cosmology—the Bible does not teach cosmology, it doesn’t teach astrology, it doesn’t teach astronomy, it doesn’t teach biology, it doesn’t teach any of these things. It’s only concerned with one thing and that is God’s story, God’s plan of salvation, of redemption—that something comes out of this biological thing called man.489 ¶17

What comes out is the image of God, endowed with the creative power in itself. It’s not just something that is an animated body; it is a life-giving spirit. So as the Father has life in himself, he has given to that which he brings out, which is the image of himself, life in itself. So it can actually speak in the name of the Father…it is the Father…and goes out and begets itself. Begets itself in the sense that it can bring out of these so-called bodies, animated bodies, images of itself that are endowed with a life-giving spirit.489 ¶18

So, in spite of his wisdom—and he’s highly honored so I’m told as I read the story—but it hasn’t a thing to do with anthropology…whether this little body came out of the swamps as they say. And that I know it did not. I know that this little body is an eternal part of the eternal structure of the universe and it always was. Then it became animated by the Spirit of God and the whole thing is an animated form, and horrors beyond horrors could take place, and nothing could come out. But here comes a decision, “Let us make man in our image.”489 ¶19

Well, now comes the creative act. If I’m going to make man in my image, how did I make my son in my image, how did I make my daughter in my image, so that when you meet them, they’ll say, “Yes, they look like you”? It’s because I planted my seed, my germ, in that which was prepared to receive it, and after the fullness of time it came out bearing my image but endowed with a certain independence. Well now, that is just a shadow of what God does.489 ¶20

For Eve said, “I begot this child, this son, with Jehovah.” It begins, “Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived…and she said, ‘I have begotten a man with Jehovah.’” That’s the literal translation of the Hebrew. They have added into the Revised Standard Version of the Bible the little phrase which is not in the Hebrew, “with the help of.” That is not in the manuscript. She brought forth man, she begot man with Jehovah.489 ¶21

Jehovah is your own wonderful I-am-ness, that is the being, and it brings out its own image. So when you awake completely you are the creative power of God. And if you are completely yielding to the God so that you are the perfect image of him, then you can be sent; for the apostle is the one who bears the image of the one that impregnated him, and such impregnations are by an embrace.489 ¶22

Below that, may I tell you—and it shocks the world—when you are sent into the world to play the part of the creative power of God you could play it, although spiritually you play it, it is done as like the act on earth. But you know nothing of the physical side of it, it’s all spiritual. And yet it’s one in the same way that the marriage act is performed. So there are levels within levels of the body of God.489 ¶23

So those whom he foreknew, which means he actually impregnated, well then, he predestined. If a woman is impregnated tonight, she is predestined to bear the image of the one who impregnated her. That’s the simple way of putting it. And then those who are predestined are called, and those who are called are justified. Justification means a complete divine acquittal. No matter what that individual has ever done in this world, the most horrible thing he could ever have done, he is completely acquitted. That is justification…that is divine justification. He did it because he performed the will of God.489 ¶24

And at the end, then he who is justified is now glorified. To be glorified, as we are told. “Return unto me the glory that is mine, the glory which I had with thee before that the world was.” So here, I now reflect completely the glory of God—not as a little body of flesh, certainly not—and then I bear the express image of his person. I say “person” advisedly, for God is man. In spite of our anthropologists, in spite of all the scientists of the world who will think in terms of an impersonal force, God is man. The mystics know it, the great poets know it. “Thou art a man,” said Blake, “God is no more; thine own humanity learn to adore.”489 ¶25

And so you stand in the presence of the risen Lord; it is not some peculiar abstract, it is man. You stand in the presence of infinite love; and that’s the moment of knowing God. You know him as you look at him but, really, you are the one known, for he addresses you. And he is the author and he asks you a very simple question and you answer quite honestly, quite simply. At that he embraces you and that’s the moment of a divine impregnation…you become one with God. “He who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him” and you are with him .489 ¶26

At that moment he sends you, but he sends you through another personification of himself. He sends you through (in my case) the personification of himself that personified infinite might, and that was the one who sent me. He sent me and he was infinite might, and his words were, “Down with the bluebloods.” Not the social order of the world, for that’s all trivia in the eyes of God. Someone believes himself important because of a physical descent, it’s all nonsense. That someone is important because of great wealth, it’s all nonsense.489 ¶27

So all this is, but not that. It is simply all external rituals, all creeds, all ceremonies, everything that interferes with the individual’s direct access to God. So down with that! You don’t form an organization to go out and destroy it; you ignore it and things die for want of attention. Everything in this world dies for want of attention.489 ¶28

You get married and prior to marriage you attended, you brought flowers, you brought all kinds of gifts, and because you now have her you think you can drop these gifts. Well then, that romance simply goes and goes and finally it comes to an end. Each could kill each other, but they don’t know what to do. Rent must be paid, and it’s easier to live under one roof and then eat from the same table, and it goes that way…because the romance has gone out, because they think they can stop it. All right, so you stop it and the whole thing dissolves. If you keep it alive, the whole thing remains alive to the very end.489 ¶29

Here in our fabulous world God so loved you the individual—not you as a race, as a nation—you the individual that he actually gave himself to you in the most intimate, literal manner in the world: He becomes you and you become God.489 ¶30

Then, it seems strange, how can I tell it, how can you tell someone that even though I am one with God he could send me and still be with me…and yet be the risen Lord? That is something I cannot put into words. I can’t put them down into words that would make any sense to the rational mind. How could he embrace me and I’m completely fused with him like a drop of ink in a glass of water? How will I now extract it? And so he sends me…no loss of identity. I know exactly the being that embraced me. I know exactly what he looks like, and when I’m sent I feel like him. When I stand in the presence of the symbol of his eternal Son that bears witness of the fact that I am the Father, I feel like that Father, that same one that embraced me. No one can see it, for he’s invisible to all mortal eyes, yet I feel that presence.489 ¶31

Well now, how can a being embrace me so that I am completely fused with him, and then send me as an individual without loss of identity and that I can go and say he is with me? I feel him not as another; I feel him as myself. And yet I know that that risen Lord, though I am sent by him and that he didn’t leave me alone, he came with me, that I am he…and yet he, too, remains the risen Lord. How do you tell it? How can you convey that mood to anyone who will try to make it something rational? You can’t do it. I’ve tried and tried, but I can’t seem to get it over.489 ¶32

So, in this sense I have many things to say, but you cannot bear them now…and so he gave them milk. In my own case, I can’t wait for the morning to come after a vision to tell you exactly what happened to me, I can’t wait. So when someone will say to me, “Should you always throw these pearls before swine?” I say, “I don’t meet any swine. In spite of the fact that they’re all…that’s all part of scripture and you quoted scripture…I’ll throw it and if they can’t digest it, leave it, it won’t be lost. Not one thing will be lost. I’ll pick up all the scraps and put them back into the basket again.”489 ¶33

So I cannot become the critic and say who should hear what. How do I know? How do I know who in this audience tonight is willing to completely surrender to God? For knowledge of God always involves a surrender. And so, there are varieties of this surrendering; and so as I surrender, well now, that will determine to what extent I have surrendered and that will determine the part I will play in the body of God. For, it’s all one body at the end, one Lord, one God, one body, one Father of all, only one, and all are incorporated into that one.489 ¶34

So here, on waking this morning when it came through the crowded mind…and it’s quite early, about four thirty. So I got up at four thirty and went out and started a research of the words “know” and “knowledge.” And here, the whole thing is crowding into your mind once more as though you hadn’t really broken off where you were a moment before. You knew you were talking about it in some depths of your soul or height of your soul, for “above” and “within” are the same in scripture, just as “below” and “without” are the same. So, if this came from within or it came from above, I brought it into this world which is a world of “without-ness” as it were. But here, as I searched the scriptures to find passage after passage after passage…and you find what it is all about.489 ¶35

Here, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” . Well, that same word “know,” you wouldn’t think that would have a creative act implied in that sentence “You shall know the truth,” but keep on reading, “I am the truth.” So he brings you down to the personification of his Father…and “If you only knew me” he’s telling you. But how to tell it and not offend those in the world who are offended by such knowledge? It just shocks them, so how to tell it? If you know the truth, and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free, and I am the truth…he is telling you that you’ll know me one day in the most intimate manner in the world. And when you know me, I have left my imprint upon you, and I am the image of the invisible God. That’s what he’s saying.489 ¶36

When you receive it by a complete and utter abandonment of self, no restraint, utter surrender, well then, in due time, me in you, that being will come out; for I am in you, you are in the being that is speaking, and we are one. So if I really am the image of him and there is such a thing that is a complete and utter surrender…and I don’t do the calling. He within me called Father, he does the calling. There is no selecting on my part from this level, none whatsoever.489 ¶37

And yet I tell you from my own experience this is the most creative book in the world, but not based upon any science known to man, not based upon anything that man knows. And yet, if this is the only way to eternal life, what else is worth knowing? If you had all the wealth of the world and you were honored by all the men of the world, and you were the most handsome or the most beautiful and the strongest and everything—take all the things that are perfect concerning man, make a composite picture of it, and then you are that—but you will die, you’ll reach the end, and that’s the end of you, and that’s not eternal life. What would that amount to compared to knowing God, and in the knowing of God you’ve achieved eternal life?489 ¶38

“This is eternal life, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ” …which is a personification of his creative power. But God being man, when he comes who personifies his creative power?—it’s man. And so you meet man, but not on this level, you meet that being on a spiritual level. And you will find an automatic surrender, but on varying degrees of surrender. This, may I tell you, will even involve objects, for nothing will be left out of the temple. He will leave his imprint on objects, leave his imprint on man, but everything in the end will be God…and God being man, the whole will be man…but on different levels based upon that willingness to completely surrender. Many are unwilling, but they will still be brought into the temple playing their part based upon the degree of surrender.489 ¶39

So here, if you are serious about it, and I trust that you are, follow through with a concordance the word “to know” and take nothing for granted. You will find there are many words translated “to know” and they have different meanings. But when it comes to something like “to know God is eternal life,” well, you’ll think “If I could only know him…show me God…that’s knowing him,” it isn’t so at all. To know God is to have the most intimate relationship with God, so that he buries in you his seed, his germ, his image which is Jesus Christ.489 ¶40

As it’s buried in you, then you, as told in scripture, you are then his emanation, yet his wife, ’til the sleep of death is past. So this whole thing becomes his emanation and he falls in love with his emanation, and then he buries himself in it, as told us in the 54th of Isaiah, “Your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name” . So if my Maker is my husband, then I am his wife; and the Lord of hosts is my Maker’s name. Well, will I surrender? Will I completely give myself over as the perfect wife? Or will I be restrained in the act?489 ¶41

Well now, in my case, I seemed to have had no choice in the matter, for I was taken in spirit into his presence, and when he asked me to name the greatest thing in the world, without hesitation I said love. “Faith, hope and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” . And at that he embraced me and I completely fused with him, and wore for that interval the body of God, which was infinite love, nothing but love.489 ¶42

While in that oneness with God, without loss of identity, then comes the cry, “Down with the bluebloods.” And I found myself before God but this time clothed in infinite might. There seemed no compassion and the other was infinite love; this is without compassion, just sheer might. His words to me were, “Time to act”…and “God only acts and is in existing beings or men” . So time to act now—you’ve heard it and you witnessed it—now time to act.489 ¶43

So for thirty years I simply told the law, not the Promise for I did not know it. I had not yet brought the child to birth, which will bear witness to the fact I and my Father who men call God are one. For it takes the child to bear witness that I knew him; and if I bore the child then he is the Father. We are told in scripture he must leave all and cleave to his wife until they become one body. So he leaves all and cleaves to the one that he impregnates, and she brings forth his likeness, the infant child, the Christ child; and then she and he become one and he being the Father then you are the Father…not two sexes any more just one. You become one.489 ¶44

And so at first you were bearing the child, not even knowing that you were, and then you brought the child forth, and then there is a complete union of the two…and the two cease to be two and they become one. So he breaks down that partition that has made two, and in making two it made conflict. And now as the partition is removed, he’s one with the one that he so loved…and brought forth his image in the form of a sign .489 ¶45

So this is the mystery. May I tell you, the whole vast world could rise in opposition and it would make no difference, for this will live forever and all that took place this past week will become forgotten…not just history…because human history will all be rubbed out. Everything that man has ever accomplished in this world will prove itself in the end to be false, to be a lie. Take any great accomplishment today and then go forward in time and you’ll see that they’ll take it and they’ll have to modify it when man discovers something other than what he or she discovered. Then they go on further and what is now the last word becomes that which is not all together true, so they modify it. And in the end, the whole vast world will be completely rubbed out leaving no trace of ever having been present.489 ¶46

So the only thing that is really forever is what God is bringing out of humanity which is his image, which is himself. So in the end, there is only God, nothing but God. But if one wants in this world of Caesar more of the fruits of this world of Caesar, let him have it.489 ¶47

Eight years ago when Nixon ran against Kennedy, a friend of mine sent him a record of mine, and he wrote a very sweet letter to the lady who sent him the record and said he’s added it to his library…and he will have many moments of joy in listening to that record…that’s what he said. The lady gave me the letter and I kept it, I have it at home. Well, he lost, and then he lost two years later for the governorship of this state. And here, eight years later he comes back and his dream has flowered, has come true. I am quite sure that with his background of listening to the inner voice that the record which was The Law and the Promise sparked something in him.489 ¶48

One thing I stressed in it, the difference between thinking of what you want and thinking from it. When you think from it and sleep in it as though it were true, it becomes true, and you objectify it in the world…all the difference in the world. So he didn’t win by an enormous majority, barely sneaked through, but he’s in. He didn’t have an enormous number of electoral votes but enough to stop all questions. He still is, in spite of if he only had one vote as a majority, he still is in and here he is. I firmly believe that he has played it, and I believe having played it once he’s played it many times. I have that feeling about it. And having heard it, I believe he believes it. So with all the so-called pressures and all the things put against it—he lost and lost and lost—but he never gave up. So you may lose tonight, but don’t give up.489 ¶49

It’s a simple technique to get things in this world. When you know exactly what you want and you think of it, turn around and think from it. If you think from it, it’s all the difference in the world. I can think of what I want and remain thinking of it until I drop this body and still not get it. But let me think from it…and I’ll show you what I mean.489 ¶50

I think now of San Francisco…I’m thinking of it 500 miles to the north of me. I stand here. I know where I am. I’m in Los Angeles. I close my eyes to the obvious and I imagine that I am standing in San Francisco. Well, I have lived in so many hotels there I could pick out any one of a dozen. I know them intimately, their restaurants, their bars, their rooms, everything, because I use the hotel when I move into it. So I can put myself into any hotel where I’ve lived and then I think of Los Angeles. I don’t see it under me and around me; I see it to the south of me 500 miles. And so I think of … [a number of following sentences were lost due to a sound system failure]. [...] scientists if you’ve gone off your mind, he will tell you “Yes you have” because they want to hold things just right here in this world.489 ¶51

I once tried to help a friend of mine who was a very intelligent, wonderful man, when by this simple law I got out of the army. I was out in one week, after I began to assume it, honorably discharged. I wasn’t injured, I was a strong healthy person, I wasn’t injured yet I was honorably discharged. So I wrote him what I had done. He never answered my letter, because he thought the whole thing was insane. He came to my meetings in New York City, and one day he said to me, “You know, Neville, I just love to hear you, but do you know what I do when I listen to you? I put my feet right down into the carpet and I hold the side of the chair just to remind me of the reality and the profundity of things, because you simply take off into some dream world.”489 ¶52

Well, I went off into a dream world, yes, but it worked, and if it works what does it matter what others think? If I have evidence for a thing, does it matter what you or they or the whole vast world thinks? So I had evidence for it and I tried to share my experience with him. He would have none of it, so he remained in the army until the other millions were discharged together. So he could have had at least the experience of proving it. Well, if it didn’t work in his case, he could have thrown the whole thing through the window, but at least try it. Would not even answer my letter.489 ¶53

So I will say, not everyone who hears it will believe it, even though in the eyes of the world they seem very, very wise and profound. Paul realized the limitations of certain minds and said, “I give you milk, nothing solid, because you cannot now receive it” . Because you have to undo all the things you’ve done in your belief that you are wise. So all the things that you have piled up, and you’ve memorized volumes of things that are already disproved, but in order to pass to get your degrees, you have to memorize them and pass on this material that’s already been disproved. So this is naturally completely unsound and stupid in the eyes of the world. But I tell you, this works.489 ¶54

So when he said, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now,” it’s not that. That’s a simple thing. He tells that in the Book of Mark so simply, “Whatever you desire, believe that you received it, and you will” . That’s a simple thing, but when it comes to the other things, that he hesitated to say…it’s in the book but buried. So he said, “Search the scriptures for me. You’ll find me there, so search them” . He did not spell it out.489 ¶55

So when I came through this morning with this thing crowded into my mind…then I had to. You will find yourself having these experiences. Like a friend of mine (who is here tonight) said, “I came into your home as your guest, you and your wife. We were in the sun parlor and you were putting out strips of paper. Then suddenly there were unnumbered birds. They seemed by appearance to be wild birds…the chickadees and sparrows and all kinds of wild birds. But you fed them and strangely enough these birds were the tamest things that you could see. You could fondle them and play with them as you would a house cat. Here were these unnumbered birds, each in itself like a domestic bird. And then the dream ended. Has it any meaning, any significance?” he said.489 ¶56

It certainly has: Birds are ideas. You come into this room, and you know scripture. All right, you have ideas and they’re wild…you can’t understand them. They’re wild birds: What on earth does it mean when I am told this, that and the other? Well then, week after week and month after month and year after year these ideas become domesticated—you’ve grasped them, you understand them—and they are with you…they don’t take flight and fly away. So all these are now with this man; he actually understands them so when he picks up scripture it’s a different book.489 ¶57

As he walks the street, these ideas that formerly seemed wild, now he understands that wonderful beatitude “Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth” . Well, the word translated “meek” means “to be domesticated,” like a cat or an animal that once was wild and you caught it and brought it into a state of tameness. It doesn’t mean meek as we use the word meek, where a man falls on his belly and crawls before another. That being would never inherit the earth. But when one is self-disciplined so that the mind is brought under the control of the one who holds that mind, and he rides his own mind as you would a wonderful horse that is broken in, well then, that mind is called the “meek mind.”489 ¶58

So in his case, all these birds that should be wild could all be fondled, could all be played with and all loving. Yet, from the outside there were chickadees and sparrows. And you can’t get near the sparrow…it takes flight…but not these. So the ideas in scripture would be like sparrows, wild, wild birds. But then they’ve been brought into captivity in a loving way. So now he has an entirely different outlook on scripture, on the world. Instead of condemning and condemning as the world does, misinterpreting scripture, he doesn’t judge anyone.489 ¶59

Goes out and lets everyone be what it wants to be. So you want to be this, be it. Don’t interfere with my being what I want to be, but I grant you the right to be whatever you want to be…only don’t interfere with me. And so, we go through life that way granting everyone…so you want to be the ladies’ man? Go ahead and all good luck to you, and may you live long in your enjoyment; but don’t interfere with me. And so, that is what he has found out in coming here, that all these ideas that disturbed him when he first arrived, for he had a good background of Bible but it was not understood. Now he understands it.489 ¶60

So here, I shared with you this night what crowded the mind in the depths of my soul last night. So when I surfaced, it was still with me. Then I spent a goodly part of the day ferreting out all things related to that crowded mind when I woke, which was “What does it mean to know the Lord?” “Knowing the Lord” is a euphemism for the most intimate act with God so that you may bear his image…for you can’t bear his image in any other way. You are his emanation. But we’ve all gone after false gods and we will give ourselves to a false god…but here, “Come back to the only true God.”489 ¶61

Now when you go home, it’s not a long book, the Book of Hosea touches on the knowledge of God…that you’ve only known God, for I am the Lord and there is no other savior . So he tells that to those whom he addresses “You’ve only known…”—meaning the same word—“that intimate relationship with me, and now do not go after strange gods.” It’s always a temptation to turn to a strange god.489 ¶62

Every morning that temptation comes in the form of an ad, come and see this one, “He’s the wisest person in the world…he just spent five years in India, sitting in the silence, and now he’s going to pour it out for you.” And man is tempted to leave the only true God which is his own wonderful human Imagination. There is no other God! So anyone who comes telling you he is it or there it is, forget it.489 ¶63

Now let us go into the Silence. * * *489 ¶64

Now are there any questions, please?489 ¶65

Defining Christ as God’s power and wisdom, Paul makes this statement: “No other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Christ. If you build on it with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or stubble, your work will become manifest. It will be revealed by the day. If the work survives, you will receive a reward. If it is destroyed, you will suffer loss; but you yourself will be saved, but only as through fire.” Then he adds this thought: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you?” Paul was made an apostle for the purpose of laying the foundation of Jesus Christ. He did not commission himself as a physical man, but was drafted, called, and sent through an act of grace. When I was drafted, called, and sent, it was with the command: “Down with the bluebloods.” In other words, down with all church protocol, with anything that would interfere with the individual’s direct access to God.487 ¶1

There is only one foundation upon which to build. That foundation is I am, and there is no other! The temptation is always there to build upon other foundations. This morning I received a chain letter telling me that I would receive a great fortune if I would send twenty copies of the letter to friends. If I did not, something terrible would happen to me. After reading the stupid thing I threw it away. Had I accepted that letter, I would have been building on a foundation other than the one foundation, which is Christ.487 ¶2

In his infancy, man thinks everything outside of himself is the cause of the phenomena of life. Many believe in astrology. I must confess at one time I did also. Years ago I taught astrology to a dear friend who was a retired school teacher. Desiring to augment her retirement income, she became an astrologer.487 ¶3

One day I found her in tears. It seemed that she was sitting next to an open window when a breeze blew the papers, causing her to draw the chart of a man who was born ten years later than her customer. Not realising this, she convinced herself – and the man – that his business venture would be a success. The customer promised to wire her $100 if this were true. Norma saw in the chart what the man wanted to hear, and she believed her little hieroglyphics. That is all that mattered. She was self-persuaded, so the whole thing was done. This is based upon the foundation: “Whatever you desire, believe you have received it and you will.”487 ¶4

By this time I had outgrown my belief in monkey bones, astrology, teacup leaves, numerology, or anything outside of my own wonderful human imagination; for having tested myself, I knew that all things were possible to the imagination. Although I told Norma this, I could not console her. But that evening I was there when a Western Union messenger brought her a check for $100 from the man who had promised it. Even though Norma understood the truth of the one foundation, astrology brought her a small income, so she remained a professional astrologer until her death.487 ¶5

Norma is not alone. Many a minister, priest, or teacher, knows that what he teaches is not true; but he is not willing to stand on his own feet and believe in the one foundation. But I was sent with the words, down with the bluebloods, knowing I had to eliminate every intermediary between myself and my God – for he and I were one.487 ¶6

God is your own wonderful human imagination and there never was another. He actually took upon himself all of the limitations and weaknesses of the flesh that you – in turn – may discover who God is, believe in yourself, apply your belief, and awaken one day to the realisation that you are he in every sense of the word.487 ¶7

I was sent by the same being who sent Paul. I stood in the presence of the Risen Lord. I answered his question, and as we embraced we fused into one body. At that moment I was united to the Lord by becoming one spirit with him. Then I sent myself, so when you see me, you see the one who sent me, as I am never alone. You cannot see me with the mortal eye, for I am spirit, one with my spiritual sender. The same thing is true in this statement: “There is only one foundation, which is Jesus Christ, and besides me there is no other.”487 ¶8

Now, if to dream is to dwell in unreality, not known for such, what is life but one long, uninterrupted dream?487 ¶9

Many times I have gone to bed, closed my mortal eye, to see a room – vivid in every detail, yet unseen from my bedroom. While my body is stretched out on the bed, I have stepped into that room, which – upon entering – became three-dimensional to me. As I did, that world closed in around me and this world was shut out. My wife, my children, all that I know as real here, was but a dream – a memory image -compared to the world into which I had stepped.487 ¶10

One night in particular I stood in a hotel lobby. Remembering what I had done to get there, I tried to explain to two ladies that it was a dream. They became so frightened, I realized that I must return to my bed before they called the police and had me arrested. So I closed my eyes to the hotel lobby and opened them, thinking I would see the familiar bedroom where my physical body was, only to discover I was still standing in the lobby.487 ¶11

Then I realized that, although I had entered an entirely different world consciously, I did not know how to return. Although I knew of no road that would lead me back, I knew that feeling was the secret. So, while standing in a solidly real body, I imagined my head was on a pillow. I persisted until I knew I was there. Then I realised that my body was dead, that I was a living presence which had moved into it. It seemed like an eternity before I could move my little finger, my arm from the elbow down, and finally to feel the warmth of my wife’s body and know I had returned.487 ¶12

The world we enter at night is just as real as this one. Like this world, everything there contains within itself the capacity for symbolic significance. At the end of your day (or night) dream, try to interpret it symbolically, as there is only one foundation for your dreams; and that is your own wonderful human imagination.487 ¶13

A friend wrote telling of a dream which, although it seemed as though years separated the events, it took place in one night. At four different moments in time, he entered a very plush eating establishment in England, where he was recognised and greeted as royalty. Deciding to disguise himself, he entered the rear door, when the maitre d’ pointed to him and said to a waiter: “He really is the Lord.”487 ¶14

This experience is more than a dream; it is a memory of a previous experience which must now be interpreted on a different level. My friend has reached the point where his shadow world is recognizing him as the Lord. Only when he reaches the end of his journey, will confirmation come to bear witness to his true identity.487 ¶15

May I tell you all: it does not matter what part you play in this dream of life. What does matter is that you are destined to become the Lord. You could be playing the part of a thief, judge, prisoner, or warden; but one day you will awaken and know yourself to be the Lord.487 ¶16

Now, when you think of your dream of the night, it will appear to be an experience in a shadow world; but if you had awakened there you would have known its reality. If I had not deliberately stepped into the hotel, but unconsciously found myself there, I would have called it a dream; for an experience, knowingly executed, seems real – while those slipped into unknowingly seem unreal. Yet all unrealities, not known to be such, are real; for the reality of a dream does not differ from the reality of this world – for it, too, is a dream.487 ¶17

Let nothing come between you and that foundation of which Paul speaks and defines as the creative power of God and the wisdom of God, no matter what it may appear to be. Allow no one to come between you and God, for God is your own wonderful human imagination, and who can lead you there? Every moment of the day you are thinking. Be careful what you think, for your thoughts will be tested by fire, and if they survive you will receive a reward. Your thought (your imagination) is fireproof. But if you believe fulfillment is conditioned on a chain letter, another person, or going to church and praying to an unknown God, then something has come between you and the one foundation. Nothing must come between you and your imagination (thought), who is the Lord Jesus Christ.487 ¶18

Believe me. Make imagination your one solid foundation. Do this and you will enjoy a freedom you have not known before. It is a fantastic freedom! Just imagine and it’s done! Imagination is the only foundation. No other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Man has tried to lay other foundations in the many isms of the world. These are not Jesus Christ, for he is man’s I amness, man’s human imagination, and there is no other God. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, whose name forever and ever is I AM!487 ¶19

Accept awareness as your way of life, and you will find a freedom you have never known before. You will become aware of the fact that everyone and everything is yourself pushed out. You will awaken as God, the father of all life, to realise that although things appear to die they do not, for nothing dies in Christ.487 ¶20

I know in my own search I laid many foundations. I was taught to believe that eating meat was one, so for seven years I was a strict vegetarian. I was so good I was good for nothing. I didn’t eat meat. I didn’t smoke. I didn’t drink and I was a celibate. At my tender age I did not realize that my attempt to be the celibate came from my complete disgust in my first marriage, so when we separated I took the vow of celibacy. I was not physically prepared for it, as I was every inch a man, but fortunately the starvation diet of vegetable life aided my decision.487 ¶21

At that time I was a professional dancer. While traveling across the country I would go into a restaurant and order soup, provided there was no meat stock in it. Now, what restaurant worthy of the name would make a soup without meat stock? Well, I would believe the waiter and have a good meal once in a while. Then one day before leaving for Barbados, my friend Ab said to me: “You will die, but you will not surely die.” His prophecy proved to be true, for when I returned, I had died to everything I had not done for the previous seven years. He knew the time had come to break that spell within me. I do hope you don’t have to go through it.487 ¶22

There is only one foundation and no other foundation – be it diet or celibacy – can anyone lay, but that which is laid, which is the human imagination.487 ¶23

My friend, Norma knew that her hieroglyphics meant nothing; yet she could not give up the money she derived from her clientele. She had almost everyone in the Metropolitan Opera as a client. You see, just because one breaks into the artistic world, it does not mean that he is wise. He can be just as stupid as all outdoors. I have said to Norma: “You know I don’t believe in astronomy any more, but I do believe in my intuitive power. Tell me what the man wants and I will show you how to see it in the charts, that you may be self-persuaded. And when you are, where is the power of persuasion but in your imagination? It certainly isn’t in the chart!”487 ¶24

I urge you not to go to anyone on the outside. The desire you seek is housed within you. You can become self-persuaded of anything, and if you do, it will project itself on your screen of space. Take gold, the wisdom of revealed truth. Take silver, the knowledge which comes from experience, or the precious stones of noble and lovely thoughts; for fire will not destroy them.487 ¶25

When you are in doubt, do the loving thing. If you think something terrible is going to happen, rub it out of your mind. There is no plot to destroy you as an individual, race, or nation. It’s not in scripture! Causation is in the mind of the one who is self-persuaded; and there is no other cause, for the world is awareness pushed out.487 ¶26

You are not fated to become wise or foolish, rich or poor. It’s entirely up to you what you build on the only foundation. If you had wise parents and they told you that you could live in comfort and freedom, be honored and wanted, because of your contribution to the world, and you believed them, you would become it. Many parents compare their children to the neighbors’ child and find theirs wanting, thinking that is the way to jack them up; but it is not. Instead, they are made to feel little and unwanted. But if you make a child feel noble and important, he will become it.487 ¶27

In scripture, the one who claimed that his father was God and that he was one with his father, was accused of blasphemy; but he walked as though he were. If you would do the work of God, you must assume that you are he. You cannot do the work of one that you do not feel you are. You must claim your awareness is Jesus Christ in order to know who you really are.487 ¶28

I tell you the world you step into tonight when you put your head on a pillow is just as real as this one. Men claim it is a shadow and unreal, yet from these so-called dreams, they interpret their state of consciousness. How can anyone interpret that which is unreal? The reality of that world, as opposed to this one, is solely produced from the level upon which consciousness is focused. If you are thinking from that world it seems the only reality. Focus your attention on this level, however, and that world will seem unreal. So, objectivity and subjectivity are solely determined by the level of consciousness upon which the individual is focused.487 ¶29

I hope you will take me seriously, as there is no other foundation. You need not be born into a certain nation, race, or religious belief to experience your desire. You can become the lady or gentleman you want to be by standing on the only foundation. Many successful people had no social, financial, or political foundation to get them where they are. They simply believed in themselves. They imagined they were what they wanted to be by living as though they were. Then in a way no one could devise, their assumption externalised itself.487 ¶30

Most people, after externalising their desire, forget the ladder by which they did ascend. I hope you will not. You don’t need to brag, but if anyone should ask you how you achieved your goal, tell them how – in spite of any so-called worldly requirements – you believed you already were the person you wanted to be, and possessed the section of the world you wanted to possess. Do this, that you may encourage him to do the same.487 ¶31

Can you believe in this one and only foundation? If the word Jesus Christ offends you, use another. I love the word because I know its meaning. Jesus Christ is the power and the wisdom of God who is your own wonderful imagination.487 ¶32

Dare to assume that you have your desire. You may feel you do not have the wisdom to find the means to get it, but you do. If it takes one thousand or ten thousand people to play their parts to bring you into the embodiment of what you have assumed you are, they will play their parts, knowingly or unknowingly. You don’t have to be concerned as to who is going to aid you. Simply dare to assume you are what you want to be, and you will compel everyone to play their part to bring about your assumption.487 ¶33

That is life. Live so that your mind can store a past worthy of recall, because any section of your past that cannot stand the fire will suffer loss. Build nobly, for you will continue to be confronted with your past until God awakens within you.487 ¶34

When this glorious knowledge awakens and you realise you are the one spoken of in scripture, you will be thrilled beyond measure. I know! And I will tell you from experience that the Bible is your biography and you are destined to experience everything recorded there as one called Jesus Christ. There never was another. He has always been you!487 ¶35

You are the dwelling place of God and the spirit of God dwells in you. His dwelling place is holy. That place you are, therefore you must be God. How will you know this? By dying to your delusions. Every foundation, every belief other than the belief in yourself, is a delusion that must die; for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ, and that being you are! Now let us go into the silence.487 ¶36