Radio Talk, Station KECA, Los Angeles (July, 1951). The great mystic, William Blake, wrote almost two hundred years ago, “What seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be and is productive of the most dreadful consequences to those to whom it seems to be.” Now, at first, this mystical gem seems a bit involved, or at best to be a play on words; but it is nothing of the kind. Listen to it carefully. “What seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be.” That is certainly clear enough. It is a simple truth about the law of assumption, and a warning of the consequences of its misuse.1055 ¶1

The author of the Epistle to the Romans declared in the fourteenth chapter, “I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclearn.” We see by this that it is not superior insight but purblindness that reads into the greatness of men some littleness with which it chances to be familiar, for what seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be.1055 ¶2

Experiments recently conducted at two of our leading universities revealed this great truth about the law of assumption. They stated in their releases to the newspapers that after two thousand experiments they came to the conclusion that ‘What you see when you look at something depends not so much on what is there as on the assumption you make when you look. What you believe to be the real physical world is actually only an assumptive world.’1055 ¶3

In other words, you would not define your husband in the same way that you mother would. Yet, you are both defining the same person. Your particular relationship to a thing influences your feelings with respect to that thing and makes you see in it an element which is not there. If your feeling in the matter is a self-element, it can be cast out. If it is a permanent distinction in the state considered, it cannot be cast out. The thing to do is to try. If you can change your opinion of another, then what you now believe of him cannot be absolutely true, but relatively true.1055 ¶4

Men believe in the reality of the external world because they do not know how to focus and condense their powers to penetrate its thin crust. Strangely enough, it is not difficult to penetrate this view of the senses. To remove the veil of the senses, we do not employ great effort; the objective world vanishes as we turn our attention from it. We have only to concentrate on the state desired to mentally see it; but to give reality to it so that it will become an objective fact, we must focus our attention upon the desired state until it has all the sensory vividness and feeling of reality. When, through concentrated attention, our desire appears to possess the distinctness and feeling of reality, when the form of thought is as vivid as the form of nature, we have given it the right to become a visible fact in our lives.1055 ¶5

Each man must find the means best suited to his nature to control his attention and concentrate it on the desired state. I find for myself the best state to be one of meditation, a relaxed state akin to sleep, but a state in which I am still consciously in control of my imagination and capable of fixing my attention on a mental object.1055 ¶6

If it is difficult to control the direction of your attention while in this state akin to sleep, you may find gazing fixedly into an object very helpful. Do not look at its surface, but rather into and beyond any plain object such as a wall, a carpet or any object which possesses depth. Arrange it to return as little reflection as possible. Imagine, then, that in this depth you are seeing and hearing what you want to see and hear until your attention is exclusively occupied by the imagined state.1055 ¶7

At the end of your meditation, when you awake from your controlled waking dream, you feel as though you had returned from a great distance. The visible world which you had shut out returns to consciousness and, by its very presence, informs you that you have been self-deceived into believing that the object of your contemplation was real; but if you remain faithful to your vision, this sustained mental attitude will give reality to your visions and they will become visible concrete facts in your world.1055 ¶8

Define your highest ideal and concentrate your attention upon this ideal until you identify yourself with it. Assume the feeling of being it – the feeling that would be yours were you now embodying it in your world. This assumption, though now denied by your senses, “if persisted in” – will become a fact in your world.1055 ¶9

You will know when you have succeeded in fixing the desired state in consciousness simply by looking mentally at the people you know. This is a wonderful check on yourself as your mental conversations are more revealing than your physical conversations are. If, in your mental conversations with others, you talk with them as you formerly did, then you have not changed your concept of self, for all changes of concepts of self result in a changed relationship to the world.1055 ¶10

Remember what was said earlier, “What you see when you look at something depends not so much on what is there as on the assumption you make when you look.” Therefore, the assumption of the wish fulfilled should make you see the world mentally as you would physically were your assumption a physical fact.1055 ¶11

The spiritual man speaks to the natural man through the language of desire. The key to progress in life and to the fulfillment of dreams lies in the ready obedience to the voice. Unhesitating obedience to its voice is an immediate assumption of the wish fulfilled. To desire a state is to have it. As Pascal said, “You would not have sought me had you not already found me.” Man, by assuming the feeling of the wish fulfilled and then living and acting on this conviction, changes his future in harmony with his assumption.1055 ¶12

To “change his future” is the inalienable right of freedom loving individuals. There would be no progress in the world were it not for the divine discontent in man which urges him on to higher and higher levels of consciousness.1055 ¶13

I have chosen this subject so close to the hearts of us all – “Changing Your Future” -- for my message next Sunday morning. I am to have the great joy of speaking for Dr. Bailes while he is vacationing. The service will be held at 10:30 at the Fox Wilshire Theater on Wilshire Boulevard near La Cienega Boulevard. Since the right to change our future is our birthright as sons of God, let us accept its challenge and learn just how to do it.1055 ¶14

Again today, speaking of changing your future, I wish to stress the importance of a real transformation of self – not merely a slight alteration of circumstances which, in a matter of moments, will permit us to slip back into the old dissatisfied man.1055 ¶15

In your meditation, allow others to see you as they would see you were this new concept of self a concrete fact. You always seem to others the embodiment of the ideal you inspire. Therefore, in meditation, when you contemplate others, you must be seen by them mentally as you would be seen by them physically were your conception of yourself an objective fact. That is, in meditation, you imagine that they see you expressing this nobler man you desire to be.1055 ¶16

If you assume that you are what you want to be, your desire is fulfilled and, in fulfillment, all longing “to be” is neutralized. This, also, is an excellent check on yourself as to whether or not you have actually succeeded in changing self. You cannot continue desiring what has been realized. Rather, you are in a mood to give thanks for a gift received.1055 ¶17

Your desire is not something you labor to fulfill; it is recognizing something you already possess. It is assuming the feeling of being that which you desire to be. Believing and being are one. The conceiver and his conception are one. Therefore, that which you conceive yourself to be can never be so far off as even to be near, for nearness implies separation.1055 ¶18

“If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen. If you assume that you are that finer, nobler one you wish to be, you will see others as they are related to your high assumption.1055 ¶19

All enlightened men wish for the good of others. If it is the good of another you seek, you must use the same controlled contemplation. In meditation, you must represent the other to yourself as already being or having the greatness you desire for him.1055 ¶20

As for yourself, your desire for another must be an intense one. It is through desire that you rise above your present sphere and the road from longing to fulfillment is shortened as you experience in imagination all that you would experience in the flesh were you or your friend the embodiment of the desire you have for yourself or him.1055 ¶21

Experience has taught me that this is the perfect way to achieve my great goals for others as well as for myself. However, my own failures would convict me were I to imply that I have completely mastered the control of my attention. I can, however, with the ancient teacher say: “This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before – I press towards the mark for the prize.”1055 ¶22

Radio Talk 4, Station KECA, Los Angeles July, 1951. Many people tell me they cannot meditate. This seems to me a bit like saying they cannot play the piano after one attempt. Meditation, as in every art or expression, requires constant practice for perfect results. A truly great pianist, for instance, would feel he could not play his best if he missed one day of practice. If he missed a week or a month of practice he would know that even his most uninitiated audience would recognize his defects. So it is with meditation. If we practice daily with joy in this daily habit, we perfect it as an art.1053 ¶1

I find that those who complain of the difficulty in meditation do not make it a daily practice, but rather, wait until something pressing appears in their world and then, through an act of will, try to fix their attention on the desired state. But they do not know that meditation is the education of the will, for when will and imagination are in conflict, imagination invariably wins.1053 ¶2

The dictionaries define meditation as fixing one’s attention upon; as planning in the mind; as devising and looking forward; engaging in continuous and contemplative thought. A lot of nonsense has been written about meditation. Most books on the subject get the reader nowhere, for they do not explain the process of meditation. All that meditation amounts to is a controlled imagination and a well sustained attention.1053 ¶3

Simply hold the attention on a certain idea until it fills the mind and crowds all other ideas out of consciousness. The power of attention shows itself the sure guarantee of an inner force. We must concentrate on the idea to be realized, without permitting any distraction. This is the great secret of action. Should the attention wander, bring it back to the idea you wish to realize and do so again and again, until the attention becomes immobilized and undergoes an effortless fixation upon the idea presented to it. The idea must hold the attention, must fascinate it, so to speak.1053 ¶4

All meditation ends at last with the thinker, and he finds he is what he, himself, has conceived. The undisciplined man’s attention is the servant of his vision rather than its master. It is captured by the pressing rather than the important.1053 ¶5

In the act of meditation, as in the act of adoration, silence is our highest praise. Let us keep our silent sanctuaries, for in them the eternal perspectives are preserved.1053 ¶6

Day by day, week by week, year by year, at times where none through love or lesser intentions were allowed to interfere, I set myself to attain mastery over my attention and imagination. I sought out ways to make more securely my own, those magical lights that dawned and faded within me. I wished to evoke them at will and to be the master of my vision. I would strive to hold my attention on the activities of the day in unwavering concentration so that, not for one moment, would the concentration slacken. This is an exercise . . . a training for higher adventures of the soul.1053 ¶7

It is no light labor. The ploughman’s labor, working in the fields, is easier by far. Empires do not send legions, so swiftly to obstruct revolt, as all that is alive in us hurries along the nerve highways of the body to frustrate our meditative mood. The beautiful face of one we love glows before us to enchant us from our task. Old enmities and fears beleaguer us. If we are tempted down these vistas, we find, after an hour of musing, that we have been lured away. We have deserted our task and forgotten that fixity of attention we set out to achieve.1053 ¶8

What man is there who has complete control of his imagination and attention? A controlled imagination and steadied attention, firmly and repeatedly focused on the idea to be realized, is the beginning of all magical operations.1053 ¶9

If he persists through weeks and months, sooner or later, through meditation, he creates in himself a center of power. He will enter a path all may travel but on which few do journey. It is a path within himself where the feet first falter in shadow and darkness, but which later is made brilliant by an inner light.1053 ¶10

There is no need for special gifts or genius. It is not bestowed on any individual but won by persistence and practice of meditation. If he persists, the dark caverns of his brain will grow luminous and he will set out day after day for the hour of meditation as if to keep an appointment with a lover. When it comes, he rises within himself as a diver, too long under water, rises to breathe the air and see the light. In this meditative mood he experiences in imagination what he would experience in reality had he realized his goal, that he may in time become transformed into the image of his imagined state.1053 ¶11

The only test of religion, worth making, is whether it is trueborn; whether it springs from the deepest consciousness of the individual; whether it is the fruit of experience; or whether it is anything else whatever.1053 ¶12

This is my reason for speaking to you on my last Sunday in Los Angeles about The True Religious Attitude. What is your religious attitude? What is my religious attitude? I shall speak on this subject next Sunday morning at 10:30 as Dr. Bailes’ guest. The service will be held at the Fox Wilshire Theater on Wilshire Boulevard near La Cienega.1053 ¶13

I shall endeavor to show you that the methods of mental and spiritual knowledge are entirely different. For we know a thing mentally by looking at it from the outside, by comparing it with other things, by analyzing and defining it; whereas we can know a thing spiritually only by becoming it. We must be the thing itself and not merely talk about it or look at it. We must be in love if we are to know what love is. We must be God-like if we are to know what God is.1053 ¶14

Meditation, like sleep, is an entrance into the subconscious. “When you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father which is in secret and your Father which is in secret shall reward you openly.”1053 ¶15

Meditation is an illusion of sleep which diminishes the impression of the outer world and renders the mind more receptive to suggestion from within. The mind in meditation is in a state of relaxation akin to the feeling attained just before dropping off to sleep. This state is beautifully described by the poet, Keats, in his “Ode To A Nightingale.” It is said that as the poet sat in the garden and listened to the nightingale, he fell into a state which he described as “A drowsy numbness pains my senses as though of hemlock I had drunk.” Then after singing his ode to the nightingale, Keats asked himself this question, “Was it a vision or a waking dream? Fled is the music; do I wake or sleep?” Those are the words of one who has seen something with such vividness or reality that he wonders whether the evidence of his physical eyes can now be believed.1053 ¶16

Any kind of meditation in which we withdraw into ourselves, without making too much effort to think, is an outcropping of the subconscious. Think of the subconscious as a tide which ebbs and flows. In sleep, it is a flood tide, while at moments of full wakefulness, the tide is at its lowest ebb. Between these two extremes are any number of intermediary levels. When we are drowsy, dreamy, lulled in gentle reverie, the tide is high. The more wakeful and alert we become, the lower the tide sinks. The highest tide compatible with the conscious direction of our thoughts occurs just before we fall asleep and just after we wake.1053 ¶17

An easy way to create this passive state is to relax in a comfortable chair or on a bed. Close your eyes and imagine that you are sleepy, so sleepy, so very sleepy. Act precisely as though you were going to take a siesta. In so doing, you allow the subconscious tide to rise to sufficient height to make your particular assumption effective. When you first attempt this, you may find that all sorts of counter thoughts try to distract you, but if you persist, you will achieve a passive state.1053 ¶18

When this passive state is reached, think only on “things of good report” . . imagine that you are now expressing your highest ideal, not how you will express it, but simply feel here and now, that you are the noble one you desire to be. You are it now. Call your high ideal into being by imagining and feeling you are it now.1053 ¶19

I think all happiness depends on the energy to assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled, to assume the mask of some other, more perfect life. If we cannot imagine ourselves different from what we are and try to assume that second more desirable self, we cannot impose a discipline upon ourselves, though we may accept discipline from others.1053 ¶20

Meditation is an activity of the soul; it is an active virtue; and an active virtue, as distinguished from passive acceptance of a code, is theatrical. It is dramatic; it is the wearing of a mask.1053 ¶21

As your goal is accepted, you become totally indifferent to possible failure, for acceptance of the end wills the means to the end. When you emerge from the moment of meditation it is as though you were shown the happy end of a play in which you are the principal actor. Having witnessed the end in your meditation, regardless of any anticlimactic state you encounter, you remain calm and secure in the knowledge that the end has been perfectly defined.1053 ¶22

Creation is finished and what we call creativeness is really only a deeper receptiveness or keener susceptibility on our part, and this receptiveness is “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.” Through meditation, we awaken within ourselves a center of light, which will be to us a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.1053 ¶23

Tonight, just for a very short while, we’ll reopen on the 10th of January, same place, same time. Tonight, because we are closing, I thought I would give you a summary of what I try to tell you week after week, of God’s law and His promise. So we’ll start with the law. It’s the eternal principle: all things must bring forth after their kind. This is stated in the very first chapter of the book of Genesis, the law of the identity of kind. As long as the earth endures, there will be seedtime and harvest time. And here is the analogy of trees, the analogy of all things in the world that you and I can see. But the New Testament teaches us that we change not only the seed, we change ideas. “And be not deceived, God is not mocked. As a man sows, so shall he reap.” For you and I are in this world of educated darkness, learning to create. For we are God, but we do not know it yet. But God became as we are, that we may be as He is. For here we are learning to exercise our talents wisely, that the most great will still appear in our world to show us what he has done. No condemnation is simply a prayer to show the individual what he has done with his talent, whether he used it wisely or unrightly.1052 ¶1

Here you take the Lord. In your own wonderful human imagination all things exist. Everything you can conceive of is all within your own wonderful human imagination. And all that you behold, though it appears without, it is within, in your own wonderful human imagination, of which this world of mortality is but a shadow. Your whole vast world — you are within me, I am within you — the whole vast world is within your own wonderful human imagination. Now what do you do with it? How do you construct it? How do you simply rearrange the structure within you? For that will determine what you will encounter in this world. But it is an art. And like all art, you simply have to make every effort to discover how to practice it wisely. For this great secret of imagining is the greatest of all secrets that man could ever put his finger upon.1052 ¶2

Now here, let us take a few simple approaches to it. Suppose I wanted a better job, and I didn’t have — as the world would tell me, it only reflects my own doubts — that I am not qualified. For they can’t tell me anything other than what I am telling myself. So if I am in doubt, they will tell me that I am not qualified. I can’t get it. Or times are not right for it. Or things are difficult. Let me ignore, for the moment, what my reflection conveys. And then let me ask myself, what do I want? Because this is only telling me what I have done in the past. What do I want now? When I know exactly what I want, let me dare to assume that I am now the man that I want to be. And walk in the assumption that I am that man. If I dare to persist in that assumption, then the outer world will rearrange itself and reflect that within me that I have fixed, and it will become in the eyes of the world a fact, what we call the fact. The reality really is in my imagination and not in its actuality. The whole vast world seems so real, and we think that’s where the reality is, in its actuality. It’s not there. It’s in the imaginal act. And then we project it upon the screen of space.1052 ¶3

Now, there are numerous facets to this wonderful principle. Here I am looking now at this room, and you’re all real within this room. And yet my home is far more real to me than this room. I come here twice a week for one hour, and I live in my home almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so it’s far more real to me than this room. This is used by many people, and my home is used only by my little family, my wife and myself. Yet at this moment, it simply is a flat picture, and this is a cubic reality. Why is this the cubic reality that I know so little about, and that — that I know so much about — is only a flat surface? Because I am in this room now. If I am in the room, I give reality to the room, that when I leave it one hour from now, it also is a flat surface. I go home, and enter my home, and it is a cubic reality.1052 ¶4

Now here is the secret. Man is all imagination. And God is man, and exists in us and we in him. The eternal body of man is the imagination, and that is God himself. Being all imagination, I must be wherever I am in imagination. I am not anchored to this little body that I am wearing. I am wearing this body as I wear the suit of clothes. The day will come, the suit of clothes I will wear it out and discard it. I will wear out this little body and discard it. But my immortal self is my own wonderful human imagination. And I am not confined to the garment that I am wearing, that it may be seen in the world. I can sit down in a chair and assume that I am elsewhere. And if I dare to assume that I am elsewhere, I make it real and give it all the tones of reality, I am where I am assuming that I am. How would I know that I am there? Well, think of the world, that’s all I do. If I dare to assume that now this very moment I am in New York City, how do I know that I am there? You say that I am all imagination and I must be wherever I am in imagination. Well, how do I know that I am really there? Well, let me think of the world. Do I see Los Angeles around me? Am I standing on it? Well, then I am not in New York City. If I don’t see Los Angeles 3,000 miles to the west of me, I am not in New York City. For were I in New York City, I would have to see Los Angeles — one, or not one, three thousand miles to the west of me. For motion can be detected only by a change of position relative to objects. Well, now, if I feel that I’ve actually moved, well, then let me actually see it in my imagination relative to the former state.1052 ¶5

I do the same thing concerning going up in the social world, or the financial world, or the intellectual world. Today my friends know me for a certain person, as a certain person. Suppose I desire to transcend that person. Would they know me the day I transcend it, or in the not distant future after I transcend it? They would if they’re my friends — we’re in contact. I would be the same friend, but they would see me differently. Now let them see me differently. I dare to assume that I am now the man that I want to be, whether it be a financial gain or a social gain or any other kind of gain. My friends would know it. Well then, let them see me. All in my imagination — I rearrange the structure of the mind, and I fix it, as I fix it by sleeping in that assumption as though it were true. Well then, in time, if this principle is true, that all things must bring forth after their kind, I’m planting a new seed. That is the seed spoken of in scripture. I must not deceive myself because God in me, which is my own imagination, is not mocked. If I dare to assume that I am the man, that at the moment of the assumption reason is denying and my sense is denied, but I dare to assume and persist in that assumption, well then, if this principle is true, that all things come forth after their kind, then I shall produce the fruit of that seed.1052 ¶6

I have done it a number of times, so I tell you, I am speaking to you from experience. I do it not only for myself. I do it for my friends. I call you friends. There is no charge to it. Not one penny. Simply a friend would say to me, hear good news for me. Well, it takes a little time, practically no time, to hear good news for a friend. I take his request and then, to the best of my ability, I lift it to the state of vision so that I can actually feel him or hear him tell me that things are as he desired them to be when he spoke to me. This is the story of Job, that when he turned from his own little self and turned to his friends, his own captivity was lifted when he prayed for his friends. Well, I call you friends. You come here and you listen to the things that I have experienced concerning God’s law and God’s promise. To whom should you turn if you can’t make it work for yourself? But the one who is telling you. I never tire of hearing good news for people. So I can actually hear that you are what you want to be or that things are as you desire them to be. It costs nothing. Cost you not a nickel. And as far as time goes, that’s what my time is for.1052 ¶7

As the revelation came, you must stop spending your thoughts, your time and your money. Everything in life must be an investment. So I must invest my time. To sit down and hear that you’re telling me good things about yourself, that is a wise investment of my time. Now, how am I doing it? I’m doing it with my thought. That’s a wise investment of my thought. It is now symbolized in the earthly gain called money. There’s no money transacted between us, interchanged between us, but the money is the symbol of gain or security in this world. So I’ll take the thought. You voiced it. You said, let me hear, or you hear for me, that I am this, that, or the other. Then I simply sit quietly. It doesn’t take me long. It shouldn’t take anyone more than a matter of seconds to actually bring before your mind’s eye the individual who has asked something of you. And you simply work yourself to a certain state of intensity. And it doesn’t take time. I mean, well, it’s a time, I mean long time. I would say the maximum time would be, say, ten, not more than ten seconds, to bring someone before your mind’s eye and hear his voice clearly and feel the thrill that what he wanted, he has. And then you drop it. You don’t do it again. That is an actual creative act. At that moment, you planted a seed. Where? In your own wonderful imagination. You rearrange the structure of your mind and you planted that seed. Now, do you believe in God? Well, then if you believe in God, you believe in your own wonderful human imagination. You believe all things are possible to God, well then believe that all things are possible to your own wonderful human imagination. That imaginal act will now externalize itself in the world and she or he or they will bear witness to the truth of what you have done. That is God’s law.1052 ¶8

Now the vision has its own appointed hour. It ripens and it will flower. If it seems wrong to the one who asked it of you, don’t be concerned. Don’t let him disturb you. You simply wait. For it is sure and it will not be late. My old friend taught me that lesson vividly back in 1933. There was a deep depression in this land. Many of you are too young to remember it, but I am almost now 67. I went through the deep depression back in New York City. I was a dancer. And who would pay a dancer when they couldn’t eat? All the theaters were closed. I don’t think more than three theaters out of 50 were open in Times Square. So who wanted the dancer? I would have danced for anything for a meal. And no one wanted to pay a dancer. So what would I do? I wanted to go to my little island called Barbados. And I had no money, but I better say no money, I mean no money. Not just a little bit, but none. I said to my friend Abdullah, I would love to go to Barbados. He said to me, you are in Barbados. I said, I am in Barbados? He said, yes, you are now in Barbados. I didn’t quite understand what he was telling me. I learned it afterwards. He was telling me that if I want something, I must tell at that moment that I want it, assume that I have it. I want to go to Barbados, I am in Barbados. So: go to Barbados, I am in Barbados. So this night when I sleep, I sleep in Barbados. How? In my imagination. And how do I know I’m there? Think of New York City where physically I’m sleeping, and see it to my north, 2,000 miles northwest of where I am in Barbados.1052 ¶9

Well, the months went by and I didn’t see any evidence. So I said to him, you know, Ab, if I don’t make the next boat out, or no planes will fly — no commercial planes are flying in those days — I can’t go to Barbados. He said to me, who said you are going to Barbados? You are in Barbados. You can’t discuss how you are going to Barbados when you are already in Barbados. Then he walked straight to his room and slammed the door in my face, which was not an invitation to follow him. If you knew him, that’s how he taught me.1052 ¶10

I am asleep as though I am in Barbados. And when I went to bed, though in New York City, I had assumed that I am actually in Barbados, and see New York City not under me, but to the north of me, 2,000 miles. And I woke within 48 hours after that moment with my Ab, and under my door was a letter from my brother Victor. And in that letter he enclosed a small little draft, $50. He said, I have told the steamship company, the Furness Withy Company, to issue you a ticket and charge it to me. Now $50 is simply if you want some little thing, like a suit of clothes. In those days you could buy a suit for $12, a fairly decent suit. You could buy a pair of shoes for $3.50 or $4. But he said the $50 is just anything you may need to get aboard the ship. But sign the chits and I’ll meet the ship and pay all expenses, and I will pay all the tips. So it’s not for tips aboard the ship.1052 ¶11

I went down to the place and I told them what my letter said. I read my letter to them. They said, Mr. Goddard, we only have steerage from now on. But when we get to St. Thomas, the Virgin Islands, you may have first class because someone just embarks in St. Thomas. I accepted it. I went back to my friend Abdullah and I told him, Ab, it worked. I’m going on the 6th of December, but I have to go steerage until we hit St. Thomas, and then we go first class to Barbados. You know what he said to me? He said, who is talking of going to Barbados? You have gone to Barbados, and you went first class. Well, what are you going to do with a man like that? On the sixth, expecting I would go steerage to the Virgin Islands, the man said to me, Mr. Goddard, we have a nice surprise for you. We had a cancellation, and so now you’re going first class. He wasn’t surprised. I wouldn’t even call him to tell him, because he was not given that way. He was trying to teach me a lesson: you believe in God, believe in me also.1052 ¶12

Well, the one speaking is God — is the God in you, your own wonderful human imagination. If you say I believe in God, everyone here believes in God, but do you believe in your own wonderful human imagination as God? If the word God conveys the sense of an existing something outside of you, you have the wrong God. Because you are the temple of the living God. And the Spirit of God dwells in you. Test yourselves and see. Do you not believe that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless of course you fail to meet the test. Well, if he is in me, find out who he is and where he is. Well, I have found him to be my own wonderful human imagination. That’s the God in me. It’s the God in you. And may I tell you, he cannot fail. He will not fail.1052 ¶13

But here on this level, we are the operant power when it comes to the law. When it comes to the promise, that is coming regardless of the life we live in this world. Whether I be rich or poor, be the judge or the one being judged, the murderer or the victim, regardless of what part I play in this world, the promise is not conditioned. It is unconditioned. God promised to redeem himself when he became man. So my fitness for the kingdom of God is not the condition — when I’m making myself good, it is the consequence, not the condition, of his choice when he called me into the kingdom. So that no one frighten you that you’re doing things that’s going to stop you from entering the kingdom. It is not conditioned by anything you do in this world.1052 ¶14

The only condition is on the law. I can say that if I go in a certain direction, I will not come to certain things. If I dare to assume that I am what I want to be, and I am faithful to that assumption, it will come to pass. If I am not faithful to it, it will not come to pass. If I don’t assume that I am it, it will not come to pass. So I am the operant power when it comes to the law. But when it comes to the promise, that is coming regardless of what you do, where you are, or anything in this world. Everyone will be redeemed. But everyone.1052 ¶15

But here, when it comes to the law, spend all your time while you are here, because the other is working, is coming. So while you are here, take the law and try to understand it, and try to apply it wisely. Why not live well? Why not live graciously? Why not be a kind person, a generous person in the world? Why not be a gentleman? Why not be a lady? These are tremendous accomplishments for man and for woman in this world. So I say to everyone, while you are here, find out what the law is all about.1052 ¶16

Because you can’t deceive yourself, because the law will not allow you to. As you reap the things in this world, you may deny that you planted them. But it couldn’t happen by accident. So be not deceived, God is not mocked. For as a man sows, so shall he reap, and is reaping everything morning, noon, and night. I may not remember my sowing and deny the harvest that is mine, but it’s there and I’ve got to accept it. Let me now try to remember when did I plant this. Maybe I can’t bring it back. We have very short and faulty memories, and I can’t quite remember when I planted that seed. Why, the morning’s paper, as you read these horrible stories, would tell you when you planted it. You do not know the characters spoken of in the paper, yet you react. And that reaction was in itself the planting of the seed. You pass judgment on those that you read about. You read the gossip of the paper, and you’re passing judgment. And all of your imaginal reactions are planting seeds. Instead of spending your wonderful time and investing it, by say reading the Bible or reading a poem, read something that is altogether lovely. We spend our time on the paper, or the radio bulletin, or the TV, and all day long we are simply putting into our mind ideas that must come to harvest, and when they come, we deny that we planted them.1052 ¶17

But here, on this principle of the law, you can be what you want to be in this world. I don’t care what the world will tell you. You can start from scratch. And if you dare to assume that you are wanted in this world, you will be wanted. I am not a member of any club in the land. And yet, here I am an American citizen today by adoption. And yet, wonderful men and women in this land have never been allowed to enter certain clubs. I’m speaking of clubs I know well back in New York City. And yet I, a stranger, have gone as an honored guest to almost every one of them. Because I never barred myself. It never occurred to me that I didn’t have all the qualifications to enter as a guest. I have no desire to become a member. None. Yet I have gone to all of these clubs as a guest of those who were members. They came to my meeting and asked me for dinner, and they took me to the club. Or asked me for some other purpose to go to the club. So not a thing in me allowed me to be barred, because I didn’t bar myself. You can go any place in this world if you don’t put these barriers on yourself. It’s entirely up to you.1052 ¶18

God in you is your own wonderful being called your human imagination. In the four weeks that I’m gone, practice it morning, noon and night. And long before the four weeks, you should show the fruit. I’m serious about it. You should bear the fruit of planting now. Not everything takes a month. Not everything takes a year to grow. Some things come up overnight. And you can plant it now, this very moment, by daring to believe that you are what, at the moment, reason denies and your senses deny. And actually feel it. Give it the tones of reality. And then drop it. You don’t pick it up tomorrow morning to see if it’s growing. You accept it. And in its own good time, it comes to fruition in your world. That is the law.1052 ¶19

Now comes the promise. “In many and varied ways, God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken by his Son.” That’s the final and the perfect revelation of God to man. The man in whom he reveals his Son is called in scripture Jesus. So everyone in whom God reveals his Son is Jesus. And in the end there is Jesus only. For when the Son is revealed in man, that man is God. For the Son of God calling that man Father. There is no other way that you ever know that you are God the Father, save through his Son calling you Father. And when it happens, it will be so normal and so natural that it is as though memory has returned. He doesn’t give you his Son as a companion, as a friend. He gives you his Son as your son. So if his son calls me father, then I am the father that that son knows to be God. That is the story of the promise. It’s coming to everyone in the world. No one will fail. That son is David — David of biblical fame. And when he comes into your world, he calls you father, and you know it instantly as he calls you father. And that relationship is forever and forever.1052 ¶20

Now we are facing in two weeks’ time what is called Christmas. But people do not read the Bible carefully. Here is a little statement in the book of Luke which, undoubtedly, if they follow the usual pattern year after year, the Los Angeles Times will tell the story on their editorial page. They always print it, the entire story as told in Luke. Now here are these words. There was one called Simeon. And he had received a vision, a revelation from the Holy Spirit, that he would not see death until he had seen the Lord’s Christ. The Lord’s Christ — Lord, apostrophe: L-O-R-D, apostrophe S — the Lord’s Christ. Then what did he say? He found a child. And he came in spirit, and he found in spirit an infant, wrapped in swaddling clothes. And he took the little child up in his arms, and he said, Now Lord, let thy servant depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen the salvation of Israel. Now he makes a prophecy. It is for the fall and the rising of many in Israel. Some will reject it, and others will accept it. And here is the sign that on this day God was born. It’s the birth of God in man. And the sign that God is born in man is simply a little babe wrapped in swaddling clothes. And it is the Lord’s Christ.1052 ¶21

Well, Jesus is called the Lord in the Bible. No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if Jesus is the Lord, and we speak of the Lord’s Christ, it can’t be one and the same person. So the Christ is the offspring, the resultant state of this birth of God in man. For God is a father. And what is the sign that I am born as God? A babe wrapped in swaddling clothes. And then six months later he stands before me, not as an infant, but he stands before me as the eternal youth called David. The sum total of all the experiences of humanity, actually drawn into a single whole and personified, and there it is, David.1052 ¶22

This is the perpetual story that everyone one day will experience. I am telling you what I have experienced. I did not rationalize it. I’m not speculating. I’m not trying to set up some school of thought. I’m telling you what everyone is going to experience in this world. The day is coming, and I hope it, before I return — I’m coming back on the 10th of January, I hope — before I return. But many of you will be able to tell me I’ve experienced it. Because I know you’re going to experience it. You’ll actually experience what it is to be the Lord, and the Lord is Jesus. So we are told in scripture there is Jesus only, that I’ve come not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them. And then when their eyes were opened, the one who personified the law, Moses, disappeared. The one who personified the prophets, Elijah, he disappeared. And there was Jesus only. When the eye is opened and the transfigured being stands before you, he is Jesus only, and Jesus is the Lord God Jehovah. And he has a son. The son is humanity. But humanity gathered together into one single being is David. And David is his eternal son. And that’s what you are going to experience.1052 ¶23

That’s going to come regardless of whether you’re rich or poor. But in the world of Caesar, I find it easier to be able to meet the obligations imposed upon me by Caesar. There is a tax to be paid for Caesar. I must have the money that Caesar demands. I must meet my obligations to life here in the world of Caesar. Rent must be paid. Clothes must be bought. Food must be bought. Transportation. All these things I must find Caesar’s coin to pay for it. So I use the law for that purpose. I have no desire to be a millionaire, but I do desire the comforts that a nice steady flow of income allows, without the anxiety that must come to everyone when he can’t meet his obligations to life. So I use the law for that purpose, and the law for my friends who are in conditions that call for, I would say, the wise use of the law. And I call it praying.1052 ¶24

When I take you before my mind’s eye and see you as I would like to see you, the man that you would like to see yourself, if I assume that you are and I get the thrill that you are, I call that praying. I do not turn to any being on the outside and ask anything of any being on the outside. I do not get down on my knees and pray to any outside God. I do not repeat any of the words concerning a prayer. The people fashion some little prayer in words. None of that. I sit in a comfortable chair or recline on the bed and think of you. And I think of you. I simply think of you as I would like to see you. I work myself in a matter of seconds to a pitch where something goes out of me. It’s an actual feeling, like some energy goes out. It’s an actual creative act. And then I drop it at that moment. You don’t repeat the creative act after you reach the point of explosion. You’ve actually brought the point to explosion, and you drop it. And let that seed now grow in its own wonderful manner and externalize itself in the world. I call that the subjective appropriation of the objective hope. You tell me what you would like to be, that’s your hope. For now you’re my appropriation, subjectively, of your objective hope. It’s all that I do.1052 ¶25

I have in the audience tonight a lady whose story I told you about a month ago, or two months ago. She was here when I opened the first night, and I see her here tonight. She wrote me and thanked me for the exercise of my imagination on her behalf. And I told you her request at the time, before I left for San Francisco. That’s way back in June. Well, here she is tonight. I’m not going to point her out to anyone, so that no one will surround her and try to ask questions of her. But she is here. And she was the one who wrote to me in the letter, saying, would you please exercise your imagination lovingly on my behalf, and then told me her problem. As I read the letter, I was sitting in my big easy chair. I put the letter down, brought it before my mind’s eye, and did not for one moment hesitate until — it only took me about ten seconds, ten seconds — to actually hear her tell me that it had all happened. It was fresh in my mind’s eye, the request. And then I dropped it. I never thought one second after that concerning it. It was done. I got confirmation here after my opening day, which was back in October. October the 4th I opened. And a week or two weeks later she wrote me a letter. And she thanked me for exercising my imagination lovingly on her behalf. She did not itemize anything in the letter. She implied in that letter that things were as she desired them to be.1052 ¶26

I tell you, believe in God, as you are told in the 14th chapter of John: you believe in God, believe also in me. For I and my Father are one, and he who sees me sees the Father. He sent me into the world, and the sender and the sent are one. But in the world I seem to be inferior to myself, the sender, so I could also say, I and my Father are one, but my Father is greater than I. I am not inferior to my essential being, who is Father, but in the office of the sent, I am handicapped. And so I’m in the world of Caesar. But I know who I am. And I’m trying to tell you and everyone who will listen to me who you are.1052 ¶27

So believe in your own wonderful human imagination. And you can start tonight from where you are. And you will go as far as you want to go. Just as far. And you have no handicaps other than the handicaps you put upon yourself. If you believe that, because you have no background, socially, financially, intellectually, well then, that’s what you believe. And you place these things upon yourself. If you do not accept them as final, well then, they’re only barriers as long as you accept them. You don’t accept them, and you go about your business applying this eternal principle, that all things must bring forth after their kind. And you have the choice of the seed that you will plant. You can plant a good seed or a bad seed. It’s entirely up to you. But I would suggest you stop spending your thoughts, your time and your money, and start investing your thoughts, your time and your money. When you spend, you lay out without hope of return. When you invest, you expect a return on equity. And so you have the choice of seed. It’s entirely up to you. I will select to be this man, or that man, or the other man. And you envy no one. How could you envy anyone when you know who you are? How could you possibly envy any person in this world? He has a billion, let him have a billion. He wants two, let him have two.1052 ¶28

Only this past month, a man whose income is supposed to be in excess of five billion dollars — not million, billion — he was a young man, only 47 years of age, and yet he blew his brains out. 47. And for reasons not disclosed in the paper, he was from Sweden. And here was this huge banker, many, many generations back, and they built up this enormous fortune. He was the head of the family, with a private fortune in excess of five billion dollars. And then one day simply blew his brains out. So money did not in any way influence his decision to call it a day. So it’s not money.1052 ¶29

But if you want money, make it money. Don’t fall in love with money, but you need it in the world of Caesar. Then assume that it’s coming in a normal, natural way, without knowing from whom or where. You go to the end, and dwell in the end just as though it were true. And may I tell you, it will be true. But set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ within you. But Jesus Christ is the Lord and his Christ. Just Jesus Christ is the Lord and his Christ, that’s Jesus Christ, not one name as it were, but the Lord’s Christ would be David.1052 ¶30

And so let me close it with a little poem that Browning wrote concerning David, based upon — or he was inspired by — the 16th and 17th chapters of 1st Samuel. And here he has the insane king called Saul, and standing before Saul is the youth David. And David said to the king: “O Saul, a face like my face shall receive thee, and a man like to me thou shalt love and be loved by forever. A hand like this hand shall throw open the gates of new life to thee. See the Christ stand.” That’s David.1052 ¶31

And then, but who is he addressing? Humanity, who has forgotten who he is. That’s a form of insanity. It’s amnesia. We have forgotten that we are God. So we are so. And in that state we are called insane, demented. And the Christ stands before us, and he is David. “And a face like my face, said he, shall receive you. And a man like unto me, thou shalt love and be loved by forever. And a hand like this hand shall throw open the gates of new life to thee. See the Christ stand.” See the Christ stand.1052 ¶32

But may I tell you, when you see, and you will see, the Ancient of Days, you will be incorporated into his body. He will embrace you, and you will become one body, one spirit with the Ancient of Days. And I am not an artist to paint the picture, but when you see David, David is the image of the Ancient of Days, but he is eternal youth. And the Ancient of Days you cannot put age upon him. You cannot say he is this age or that age or any age. He is without age, and yet he is the Ancient of Days. That’s who David sees. That’s his father. He is the image of his father, only he is the eternal youth. And you, incorporated into the Ancient of Days, you are God the Father. And that’s why David recognizes you as his father. So he finds David, and David said unto him, “thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.” And he said to David, “thou art my son.”1052 ¶33

So here it is, perfect. You are — regardless of the pigment of your skin now, regardless of who you are now — you are destined to be awake one day as the Ancient of Days. And you will know it, and you’ll only know it if David appears. You will not know it in any other way. If you had all the power of the world to shatter the heavens, you still would not know your God. But how wise you became, you wouldn’t know your God. Not a thing in this world could convince you that you are God, but his son calling you father. Nothing in the world could ever convince you that you’re God, save his son. So no one knows who the son is except the father, and no one knows who the father is except the son, and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him. So no one knows the father save the son, who is in the bosom of the father — he has made him known.1052 ¶34

Radio Talk – Station KECA, Los Angeles (July, 1951). Have you ever had a prayer answered? What wouldn’t men give just to feel certain that when they pray, something definite would happen. For this reason, I would like to take a little time to see why it is that some prayers are answered and some apparently fall on dry ground.1050 ¶1

“When ye pray, believe that ye receive, and ye shall receive.” Believe that ye receive – is the condition imposed upon man. Unless we believe that we receive, our prayer will not be answered. A prayer – granted – implies that something is done in consequence of the prayer which otherwise would not have been done. Therefore, the one who prays is the spring of action – the directing mind – and the one who grants the prayer. Such responsibility man refuses to assume, for responsibility it seems, is mankind’s invisible nightmare.1050 ¶2

The whole natural world is built on law. Yet, between prayer and its answer we see no such relation. We feel that God may answer or ignore our prayer, that our prayer may hit the mark or may miss it. The mind is still unwilling to admit that God subjects Himself to His own laws. How many people believe that there is, between prayer and its answer, a relation of cause and effect?1050 ¶3

Let us take a look at the means employed to heal the ten lepers as related in the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke. The thing that strikes us in this story is the method that was used to raise their faith to the needful intensity. We are told that the ten lepers appealed to Jesus to “have mercy” on them – that is – to heal them. Jesus ordered them to go and show themselves to the priests, and “as they went, they were cleansed.” The Mosaic Law demanded that when a leper recovered from his disease he must show himself to the priest to obtain a certificate of restored health. Jesus imposed a test upon the lepers’ faith and supplied a means by which their faith could be raised to its full potency. If the lepers refused to go – they had no faith – and, therefore, could not be healed. But, if they obeyed Him, the full realization of what their journey implied would break upon their minds as they went and this dynamic thought would heal them. So, we read, “As they went, they were cleansed.”1050 ¶4

You, no doubt, often have heard the words of that inspiring old hymn – “Oh, what peace we often forfeit; oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.” I, myself, came to this conviction through experience, being led to brood upon the nature of prayer. I believe in the practice and philosophy of what men call prayer, but not everything that receives that name is really prayer.1050 ¶5

Prayer is the elevation of the mind to that which we seek. The very first word of correction is always “arise.” Always lift the mind to that which we seek. This is easily done by assuming the feeling of the wish fulfilled. How would you feel if your prayer were answered? Well, assume that feeling until you experience in imagination what you would experience in reality if your prayer were answered.1050 ¶6

Prayer means getting into action mentally. It means holding the attention upon the idea of the wish fulfilled until it fills the mind and crowds all other ideas out of the consciousness.1050 ¶7

This statement that prayer means getting into action mentally and holding the attention upon the idea of the wish fulfilled until it fills the mind and crowds all other ideas out of the consciousness, does not mean that prayer is a mental effort – an act of will. On the contrary, prayer is to be contrasted with an act of will. Prayer is a surrender. It means abandoning oneself to the feeling of the wish fulfilled. If prayer brings no response – there is something wrong with the prayer and the fault lies generally in too much effort. Serious confusion arises insofar as men identify the state of prayer with an act of will, instead of contrasting it with an act of will.1050 ¶8

The sovereign rule is to make no effort, and if this is observed, you will intuitively fall into the right attitude. Creativeness is not an act of will, but a deeper receptiveness – a keener susceptibility. The acceptance of the end – the acceptance of the answered prayer – finds the means for its realization. Feel yourself into the state of the answered prayer until the state fills the mind and crowds all other states out of your consciousness.1050 ¶9

What we must work for is not the development of the will, but the education of the imagination and the steadying of attention. Prayer succeeds by avoiding conflict. Prayer is, above all things, easy. Its greatest enemy is effort. The mighty surrenders itself fully only to that which is most gentle. The wealth of Heaven may not be seized by a strong will, but surrenders itself, a free gift, to the God-spent moment. Along the lines of least resistance travel spiritual as well as physical forces.1050 ¶10

We must act on the assumption that we already possess that which we desire, for all that we desire is already present within us. It only waits to be claimed. That it must be claimed is a necessary condition by which we realize our desires. Our prayers are answered if we assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled and continue in that assumption.1050 ¶11

One of the loveliest examples of an answered prayer I witnessed in my own living room. A very charming lady from out of town came to see me concerning prayer. As she had no one with whom to leave her eight-year old son, she brought him with her the time of our interview. Seemingly, he was engrossed in playing with a toy truck, but at the end of the interview with his mother he said, “Mr. Neville, I know how to pray now. I know what I want – a collie puppy – and I can imagine I am hugging him every night on my bed.”1050 ¶12

His mother explained to him and to me the impossibilities of his prayer, the cost of the puppy, their confined home, even his inability to care for the dog properly. The boy looked into his mother’s eyes and simply said, “But, Mother, I know how to pray now.” And he did.1050 ¶13

Two months later during a “Kindness to Animals Week” in his city, all the school children were required to write an essay on how they would love and care for a pet. You have guessed the answer. His essay, out of the five thousand submitted, won the prize, and that prize, presented by the mayor of the city to the lad – was a collie puppy. The boy truly assumed the feeling of his wish fulfilled, hugging and loving his puppy every night.1050 ¶14

Prayer is an act of Imaginative Love which is to be the subject of my message next Sunday morning at 10:30 at the Fox Wilshire Theater on Wilshire Boulevard near La Cienega. It is my desire, next Sunday, that I may explain to you, how you, like the young boy; can yield yourselves to the lovely images of your desires and persist in your prayer even though you, like the lad, are told that your desires are impossible.1050 ¶15

The necessity of persistence in prayer is shown us in the Bible. “Which of you,” asked Jesus, “shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him: Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine is come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him; and he from within shall answer and say, ‘Trouble me not; the door is now shut and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.’ I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will arise and give as many as he needeth.”1050 ¶16

The word translated as “importunity” means, literally, shameless impudence. We must persist until we succeed in imagining ourselves into the situation of the answered prayer. The secret of success is found in the word “perseverance.”1050 ¶17

The soul, imagining itself into the act, takes on the results of the act. Not imagining itself into the act, it is ever free from the result. Experience in imagination what you would experience in reality were you already what you want to be, and you will take on the result of that act. Do not experience in imagination what you want to experience in reality and you will ever be free of the result. “When ye pray, believe that ye receive, and ye shall receive.” One must persist until he reaches his friend on a higher level of consciousness. He must persist until his feeling of the wish fulfilled has all the sensory vividness of reality.1050 ¶18

Prayer is a controlled waking dream. If we are to pray successfully, we must steady our attention to observe the world as it would be seen by us were our prayer answered. Steadying attention makes no call upon any special faculty, but it does demand control of imagination. We must extend our senses – observe our changed relationship to our world and trust this observation. The new world is not there to grasp, but to sense, to touch. The best way to observe it is to be intensely aware of it.1050 ¶19

In other words, we can, by listening as though we heard and by looking as though we saw, actually hear voices and see scenes from within ourselves that are otherwise not audible or visible. With our attention focused on the state desired, the outer world crumbles and then the world – like music – by a new setting, turns all its discords into harmonies.1050 ¶20

Life is not a struggle but a surrender. Our prayers are answered by the powers we invoke, not by those we exert. So long as the eyes take notice, the soul is blind -- for the world that moves us is the one we imagine, not the world round about us.1050 ¶21

We must yield our whole being to the feeling of being the noble one we want to be. If anything is kept back, the prayer is vain. We often are deprived of our high goal by our effort to possess it. We are called upon to act on the assumption that we already are the man we would be. If we do this without effort – experiencing in imagination what we would experience in the flesh had we realized our goal, we shall find that we do, indeed, possess it.1050 ¶22

The healing touch is in our attitude. We need change nothing but our attitude towards it. Assume a virtue if you have it not, assume the feeling of your wish fulfilled. “Pray for my soul; more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”1050 ¶23

If truth could ever be told so that it is understood, it will be believed. It is my hope that I can make the truth of scripture so understandable you will believe it. But whether you do or not, one day you will; for scripture will fulfill itself in you and then you will understand it perfectly.1044 ¶1

Scripture speaks of two baptisms, baptism with the water of repentance, and baptism with the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us: “I baptize with the water of repentance, but there will come one after me who is mightier than I. He will baptize with the Holy Spirit.” Now, repentance means a radical change of attitude towards life. If you change your thinking, and things in your outer world change, then you have been baptized with the water of repentance.1044 ¶2

A friend recently shared these experiences with me saying, “I am in the computer business. Every year we hold a convention, and this year our company chose to demonstrate a million-dollar computer. It was delivered on a Friday, giving us three days to be ready for the show’s opening the following Tuesday. On Sunday we discovered that some of the parts were not functioning and others were missing.1044 ¶3

“Knowing that our subcontractors were scattered all over the nation, when I arrived Monday morning everyone was in a state of panic. Controlling my thoughts, I began to apply my imagination by claiming it was Tuesday morning and the computer was working perfectly. Then I checked the missing parts list and discovered that the company who manufactured the parts was located only fourteen miles from the Center. They delivered the parts that afternoon and by Tuesday morning the computer was functioning perfectly, just as I had imagined.1044 ¶4

“One day an old computer which had been stored in our warehouse for sometime, was sold. No one had checked to make sure it was operating properly, so on the day of the delivery I imagined everything was perfect. But as I checked it out, I discovered that two vital parts were missing and could not be found.1044 ¶5

“That afternoon the salesman came in, picked up a little package not more than ten feet from the computer and said, “Here are the parts.’ And he was right! Inside this little brown package were the missing parts that seemingly were not there before.”1044 ¶6

Here is a man who has been baptized with water by psychologically applying the truth! Truth first appears as a stone. That is when everything is done literally. The head of a bull is cut off, and sacrifices are made to a God on the outside. Water comes from the stone when the literal facts take on psychological meaning. Then the water turns into the wine of spiritual truth, through experience. One must see the whole vast world as a psychological drama.1044 ¶7

You may think you have never committed adultery, but the moment you lust after anything, the stage is set by your imaginal act. Restraining the impulse is not good enough. The moment you have the impulse to steal, the act is committed. The impulse to hurt is the act of hurting. You may be afraid to carry out any act, but when the impulse appears, the act is committed. Once you understand this, you will forgive all, for there is only one son (who you are), doing your Father’s will.1044 ¶8

In the third chapter of the book of Matthew, John states, “I baptize with the water of repentance.” Repentance tests your ability to enter into and partake of the nature of the opposite. When you see another in want, you repent by persuading yourself he is affluent. To the degree you can believe this truth you bathe in the baptismal prime waters. Only when you act and prove repentance, in performance, are you baptized in the true sense of the word.1044 ¶9

The baptism with the Holy Spirit is something entirely different. While living by the law of repentance, you will be called to unite into a single body, who is God. In the 12th chapter of 1st Corinthians we are told that, “By one spirit we are baptized into one body.”1044 ¶10

When this baptism happened to me, I had the sensation of being taken for a long, long journey. I found myself standing in front of the Risen Lord, who asked me the simple question: “What is the greatest thing in the world?” I answered as though promoted from some depth of my own being, saying, “Faith, hope and love. These three, but the greatest of these is love.” With these words, the Risen Lord embraced me and we became one being. No mortal eye can see the body of God I wear, but I feel it, for I wear it every moment of time.1044 ¶11

Now, when I tell my story some will resist me, for they are still filled with their own preconceived misconceptions of Christ. But I know that one day everyone will be embraced by this one spirit, thereby being baptized into the one body of Christ.1044 ¶12

My wife’s oldest sister is a darling. We love and respect each other, but she cannot believe what I teach. Although she believes in the Bible, and calls herself a good Christian, she could not believe me when I said she would not die. That even the little flower which blooms once blooms forever, for I am a God of the living, not the dead. Now, Alice would not believe me on this level, so I reached her on another level.1044 ¶13

In 1948, my secretary, Jack Butler, died quite suddenly. Six or seven months later, fully awake and aware of where I was and what I was doing, I visited Jack. Although he was 50 when he died here, he was a young man in his twenties, there. Standing beside me, Alice said, “You know, I still don’t believe what you teach,” and I replied, “How can you say that when you see Jack here?” “What does he have to do~ with it?” she asked and I replied, “Don’t you remember, Jack died in August of last year.” With that remark Alice’s face took on an expression of complete amazement. Knowing I was telling the truth, seeing Jack denied her belief in non-survival.1044 ¶14

Then Jack spoke saying, “Who’s dead?” and I said, “Jack, you are not dead, but you died. I gave you a good Catholic funeral and your body is buried in a Catholic cemetery.” “Oh,” he said, “You’re stupid. You say I”m not dead but I died. That can’t be.” Then I said to Alice, “Come over here,” and I placed my hand on Jack’s thigh and said, “See, my hand doesn’t go through his flesh. It’s solid. If I cut him right now he would bleed. He would hurt as you would hurt.” With this remark Jack took my hand and slapped it saying, “Get your hand off me,” just as he would do were he here.1044 ¶15

You see, there is no transforming power in death, and Jack did not know he had died. Not everyone knows of the transition. Some take years to discover it. Although Alice was with me at the time, she didn’t remember the incident. If she had, it would have taken on the form of a dream, to her. But, being fully awake, I know exactly what I am doing every moment of time. Today Alice believes in survival, although she doesn’t realize that that experience was the beginning of the subtle change in her.1044 ¶16

When you are sent, you will carry the message of the one who sent you. You will tell all who will listen that there is only one body, one spirit, one love who embraces and incorporates the individual into a single body who is the Lord Jesus Christ.1044 ¶17

In the meantime, as you test yourself, you are being baptized with the water of repentance. Always creating on this level, when you change your attitude and allow it to become fixed, your outer world will reflect your change. Then one day you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.1044 ¶18

“Among you stands one who you do not know. I, myself did not know him,” said John. “But I saw the Holy Spirit descend as a dove and remain on him. He who sent me said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.”‘1044 ¶19

The word “with” used here, is the preposition “in.” You are not sprinkled with water, but are incorporated into the Spirit of Love Himself; thereby being baptized in the Holy Spirit. At that moment you are no longer another, you are the body of Christ. He who is baptized into Christ puts on Christ and wears this body as his own. As scripture unfolds in you, you feel yourself to be the being who first called and incorporated you into his body. Then God’s only begotten son calls you father, and you understand the wonderful story of baptism.1044 ¶20

And when you tell it with understanding, some will believe you, while others will disbelieve. Perhaps, because of prejudice, the engrafting will not be accepted at the moment, but it will come.1044 ¶21

Now, if I dwell in you and the Father dwells in me, is not the Father in you? And if you are in me and I am in everyone, is not the Father in everyone? Are we not the same being? Will not the same infinite son call us father?1044 ¶22

Those who believe that Jesus Christ was a man who lived 2000 years ago cannot comprehend a cosmic Christ, dwelling in all, who is God the Father. But God, the Father of all life, is housed in every individual. And one day He will unveil Himself, not as another, but as the one in whom He reveals Himself!1044 ¶23

In D. H. Lawrence’s poem ‘The New Heavens and Earth,’ he said, “I was so weary of it all and when death came, I died, to discover I am in a body as of before, only with a newness beyond the knowledge of newness, and unaccountable.” This is true, for if you do not know that the story of life is psychological, you cannot account for its newness.1044 ¶24

My friend Jack died at fifty, looking much, much older. But when I saw him six or seven months later, Jack was a young man of twenty, in a body with a newness beyond the knowledge of newness. The decomposition of Jack’s body which he wore while here, had advanced by then, yet Jack did not know he had died.1044 ¶25

The body of a two-hundred pound friend can be turned into ash in the matter of an hour; yet when you meet him, he will not understand how he was renewed, for to him his body is solid and real. It breathes and grows old just as yours does here. It has problems there, as you do here; and if he doesn’t hear the story of baptism and awaken there, he will repeat the experience all over again.1044 ¶26

While here, Jack did not know the story of life was psychological, and he doesn’t know it there. He attended my meetings only because he was interested in meeting people. He refused to assume any obligation of society. He wouldn’t get married, but loved all the ladies and they all loved him. He still loves them all, and has yet to realize that life is psychological and ever renews itself by the seed of contemplative thought.1044 ¶27

Mr. Lawrence called his experience resurrection, but the word is restoration. He spoke of being restored to life with a newness beyond the knowledge of newness. This is true, for teeth or hair that are missing here are instantly renewed, but people do not stop to reflect upon this fact. They do not stop to realize that they were ninety when they died. That they didn’t go through the womb of a woman, yet are restored to life at the age of twenty. And, because life’s problems are upon them, they go blindly on trying to figure out how to pay the rent, eat, and care for their bodies’ needs just as you do here. They are in a terrestrial world, just like this one, but not in this section of time.1044 ¶28

But when you are resurrected, you are born into the one body of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is heaven! And when you leave this body of darkness and decay, you enter an entirely different world, wearing a body endowed with creative power. You will no longer wear the limitations of the flesh or have need for food as you understand it. The normal functions of this body no longer exist, as you will wear a body of radiant light – the body you wore before that the world was!1044 ¶29

Now let us go into the silence.1044 ¶30

transcript of vinyl record, side one (listen and read)1042 ¶1

It may seem incredible but it is true: the world in which we live is a world of imagination. In fact, life itself is an activity of imagining. All that we behold, though it appears without, it is within, in our imagination, of which this world of mortality is but a shadow. Nothing appears or continues in being by a power of its own. Events happen because comparatively stable imaginable activities created them. And they continue in being only as long as they receive such support. Therefore the secret of imagining is the greatest of all problems, to the solution of which everyone should aspire. For supreme power, supreme wisdom, and supreme joy lie in the solution of this great mystery.1042 ¶2

When man solves the mystery of imagining he will have discovered the secret of causation, and that is: imagining creates reality. Divine imagining and human imagining are not two powers at all but one. The valid distinction which exists between them lies not in the substance with which they operate, but in the degree of intensity of the operant power itself. Acting at high tension, an imaginable act is an immediate objective fact. Keyed low, an imaginable act is realized in a time process.1042 ¶3

Human history, with its forms of governments, its revolutions, its wars, and in fact the rise and fall of nations, could be written in terms of the imaginal activities of men and women. All imaginative men and women are forever casting forth enchantments, and all passive men and women, who have no powerful imaginative lives, are continually passing under the spell of their power. If imagination is the only thing that acts or is in existing beings or men, as Blake believed, then we should never be certain that it was not some woman treading in the wine press who began that subtle change in men’s minds. Or that the passion, because of which the earth has been drenched in blood, did not begin in the imagination of some shepherd boy lighting up his eye for a moment before it ran upon its way.1042 ¶4

The future is the imaginable activity of man in its creative march. Imagining is the creative power, not only of the poet, the artist, the actor, and orator, but of the scientist, the inventor, the merchant, and the artisan. Its abuse in unrestrained, unlovely image making is obvious. But its abuse in undue repression breeds a sterility, which robs a man of actual wealth of experience. Imagining novel solutions to ever more complex problems is far more noble than to restrain or kill out desire. Life is the continuing solution of a continuously synthetic problem.1042 ¶5

Imagining creates events. Our world, created out of men’s imagining, comprises unnumbered warring beliefs. Therefore there could never be a perfectly stable or static state. Today’s events are bound to disturb yesterday’s established order. Imaginative men and women invariably unsettle a preexisting peace of mind.1042 ¶6

Hold fast to your ideal in your imagination. Nothing can take it from you but your failure to persist in imagining the ideal realized. Imagine only such states that are of value or promise well. To attempt to change circumstances before we change our imag inal activity is to struggle against the very nature of things. There can be no outer change until there is first an imaginal change. Everything we do unaccompanied by an imaginal change is but futile readjustment of services. Imagining the wish fulfilled brings about a union with that state. And during that union we behave in keeping with our imaginal change. This shows us that an imaginal change will result in a change of behavior. However, our ordinary imaginal alterations, as we pass from one state to another, are not transformations. Because each of them is so rapidly succeeded by another in the reverse direction; but whenever one state grows so stable as to become our constant mood, our habitual attitude, then that habitual state defines our character and is a true transformation.1042 ¶7

Now let me call your attention to the design on the cover of this record. You will notice a man sitting on a park bench imagining himself to be in a home. This is the secret of those who lie in bed awake while they dream things true. They know how to live in their own dream house until, in fact, they do. Man, through the medium of a controlled waking dream, can predetermine his future. That imaginal activity, of living in the feeling of the wish fulfilled, leads man across a bridge of incident to the fulfillment of the dream. If we live in the dream, thinking from it and not of it, then the creative power of imagining will answer our adventurous fancy and the wish fulfilled will break in upon us and take us unawares.1042 ¶8

Man is all imagination; therefore man must be where he is in imagination, for his imagination is himself. To realize that imagination is not something tied to the senses, or enclosed within the spatial boundary of the body, is most important. Although man moves about in space by movement of his physical body he need not be so restricted. He can move by a change in what he’s aware of. However real the scene on which sight rests, man can gaze on one never before witnessed. He can always remove the mountain if it upsets his concept of what life ought to be. This ability to mentally move from things as they are to things as they ought to be is one of the most important discoveries that man can make. It reveals man as a center of imagining with powers of intervention, which enable him to alter the course of observed events, moving from success to success through a series of mental transformations of nature, of others, and himself.1042 ¶9

How does he do it? Self-abandonment. That is the secret. He has to abandon himself mentally to his wish fulfilled, in his love for that state, and in so doing live in the new state and no more in the old state. Now we can’t commit ourselves to what we do not love. So the secret of self-commission is faith plus love. Faith is believing what is incredible. We commit ourselves to the feeling of the wish fulfilled in faith that this act of self-commission will become a reality—and it will because imagining creates reality.1042 ¶10

Imagination is both conservative and transformative. It is conservative when it builds its world from images supplied by memory and the evidence of the senses. It is creatively transformative when it imagines things as they ought to be, building its world out of the generous dreams of fancy. In the procession of images, the ones that take precedence naturally are those of the senses. Nevertheless, a present sense impression is only an image; it does not differ in nature from a memory image or the image of a wish. What makes a present sense impression so objectively real is the individual’s imagination functioning in it and thinking from it. Whereas in a memory image or a wish, the individual’s imagina tion is not functioning in it or thinking from it but is functioning out of it and thinking of it. If the individual would enter into the image in his imagination, as the design on the cover of this record suggests, then would he know what it is to be creatively transformative, then would he realize his wish, and then he would be happy.1042 ¶11

Every image can be embodied, but unless man himself enters the image and thinks from it, it is incapable of birth. Therefore it is the height of folly to expect the wish to be realized by the mere passage of time. That which requires imaginative occupancy to produce its effect obviously cannot be affected without such occupancy. We cannot be in one image and not suffer the consequences of not being in another.1042 ¶12

Imagination is spiritual sensation. Enter the image of the wish fulfilled, then give it sensory vividness and tones of reality by mentally acting as you would act were it a physical fact. Now this is what I mean by spiritual sensation. Imagine that you are holding a rose in your hand. Smell it. Do you detect the odor of roses? Well, if the rose is not here why is its fragrance in the air? Through spiritual sensation—that is, through imaginal sight, sound, scent, taste, and touch—man can give to the image sensory vividness. If he does, all things will conspire to aid his harvesting. And on reflection he will see how subtle were the threads that led to his goal. He could never have devised the means which his imaginal activity used to fulfill itself.1042 ¶13

If man longs to escape from his present sense fixation, to transform his present life into a dream of what might well be, he has but to imagine that he’s already what he wants to be, and then feel the way he would expect to feel under such circumstances. Let him, like the make believe of a child, who is remaking the world after its own heart, create his world out of pure dreams of fancy. Let him mentally enter into his dream. Let him mentally do what he would actually do were it physically true. He will discover that dreams are realized not by the rich but by the imaginative. Nothing stands between man and the fulfillment of his dream but facts, and facts are the creations of imagining. If man changes his imagining he will change the facts.1042 ¶14

Man and his past are one continuous structure. This structure contains all of the facts which have been conserved and still operate below the threshold of his surface mind. For him, it is merely history. For him, it seems unalterable: a dead and firmly fixed past. But for itself it is living; it is part of the living age. We cannot leave behind us the mistakes of our past, for nothing disappears. Everything that has been is still in existence. The past still exists, and it gives and still gives its results. Man must go back in memory, seek for and destroy the causes of evil however far back they lie. This going into the past and replaying a scene of the past in imagination as it ought to have been played the first time, I call revision—and revision results in repeal. Changing our lives means changing the past. The causes of the present evil are the unrevised scenes of the past. The past and the present form the whole structure of man. It is carrying all of its contents with it. Any alteration of content will result in an alteration in the present and future. Live nobly, so that mind can store a past well worthy of recall. Should you fail to do so, remember, the first act of correction or cure is always: revise . If the past is re-created into the present, so will the revised past be re-created into the present. Or else the promise that “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow,” is a lie.1042 ¶15

The question may arise as to how by representing others to ourselves as better than they really were, or mentally rewriting a letter to make it conform to our wish, or by revising the scene of an accident, the interview with the employer, and so on, could change what seems to be the unalterable facts of the past—but remember my claims for imagining. Imagining creates reality. What it makes it can unmake. It is not only conservative, building a life from images supplied by memory; it is always creatively transformative, altering a theme already in being.1042 ¶16

The parable of the unjust steward gives the answer to this question. We can alter our world by means of a certain illegal practice, by means of a falsification of the facts; that is, by means of a certain intentional alteration of that which we have experienced. And all this is done in one’s own imagination. This is a form of falsehood, which is not only not condemned, but is actually approved in the gospel teaching. By means of such falsehood, a man destroys the causes of evil and acquires friends. And on the strength of this revision proves, judging by the high praise the unjust steward received from his master, that he is deserving of confidence.1042 ¶17

Because imagining creates reality we can carry revision to the extreme, and revise a scene that would be otherwise unforgivable. We learn to distinguish between man, who is all imagination, from those states into which he may enter. An unjust steward, looking at another’s distress, will represent the other to himself as he ought to be seen. Were he himself in need he would, like the man on the cover of this record, enter his dream house in his imagination and imagine what he would see, and how things would seem, and how people would act, after these things should be. Then in this state he would fall asleep feeling the way he would expect to feel under such circumstances. Would that all the Lord’s people were unjust stewards, mentally falsifying the facts of life to deliver individuals forever more. For the imaginal change goes forward until at length the altered pattern is realized on the heights of attainment. Our future is our imaginal activity in its creative march. Imagine better than the best you know.1042 ¶18

I accept literally the saying that all the world’s a stage, and I believe that God plays all the parts. The purpose of the play: to transform man, the created, into God, the creator. God loved man, his created, and became man in faith that this act of self-commission would transform man, the created, into God, the creator.1042 ¶19

The play begins with the crucifixion of God, on man as man, and ends with the resurrection of man as God. God becomes as we are that we may become as He is. God becomes man that man may become first a living being and secondly a life-giving spirit. I live, yet not I but God lives in me. And the life I know I live in the flesh I live by the faith of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. God took upon himself the form of man and became obedient unto death, even death on the cross of man, and is crucified on Golgotha, the skull of man. God himself enters death’s door—the human skull—and lays down in the grave of man to make man a living being. God’s mercy turned death into sleep, then began the prodigious and unthinkable metamorphosis of man: the transformation of man into God.1042 ¶20

No man unaided by the crucifixion of God could cross the threshold that admits to conscious life. But now we have union with God in his crucified self. He lives in us as our wonderful human imagination. Therefore, man is all imagination and God is man and exists in us and we in him. The eternal body of man is the imagination. That is God Himself. When he rises in us, we will be like him and he will be like us. Then all impossibilities will dissolve at the touch of exaltation, which his rising in us will impart to our nature.1042 ¶21

Here is the secret of the world: God died to give man life and to set man free. For however clearly God is aware of his creation, it does not follow that man, imaginatively created, is aware of God. To work this miracle God had to die then rise again as man. And none has ever expressed it so clearly as Blake. Blake says—or rather has Jesus say—“Unless I die, thou canst not live; but if I die I shall arise again and thou with me. Wouldest thou love one who never died for thee, or ever die for one who had not died for thee? And if God dieth not for man and giveth not himself eternally for man, man could not exist.”1042 ¶22

So God died. That is to say, God has freely given himself for man. Deliberately he has become man and has forgotten that he is God in the hope that man, thus created, will eventually rise as God. God has so completely offered his own self for man that he cries out on the cross of man, “My God! My God! Why hast thou forsaken me?” He has completely forgotten that he is God. But after God rises in one man, that man will say to his brothers: “Why stand we here trembling around calling on God for help and not ourselves in whom God dwells?”1042 ¶23

This first man that has been raised from the dead is known as Jesus, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For man, God died. Now by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. Jesus resurrects his dead father by becoming him. In Adam, the universal man, God sleeps. In Jesus, the individualized God, God wakes. In waking, man the created has become God the Creator and can truly say, “Before the world was, I Am.”1042 ¶24

Just as God in his love for man so completely identified himself with man that he forgot that he was God, so man in his love for God must so completely surrender himself to God that he lives the life of God and no longer that of man.1042 ¶25

God’s play, which transforms man into God, is revealed to us in the Bible. It is completely consistent in imagery and symbolism. The New Testament is hid in the Old Testament, and the Old is manifested in the New. The Bible is a vision. It is not a doctrine or a ritual. The Old Testament tells us of God’s promises, the New Testament tells us not how these promises were fulfilled but how they are fulfilled. The central theme of the Bible is the direct, individual, mystical experience of the birth of the child. That child of whom the prophet spoke: “To us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.”1042 ¶26

When the child is revealed to us, we see it, we experience it, and the response to this revelation can be stated in the words of Job: “I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee.” The story of the incarnation is not fable, allegory, or some carefully reasoned formula to enslave the minds of men, but mystical fact. It is a personal mystical experience of the birth of oneself out of one’s own skull, symbolized in that of a child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying on the floor.1042 ¶27

There is a distinction between hearing of this birth of a child from one’s own skull—a birth which no scientist or historian could ever possibly explain—and actually experiencing the birth, holding in your own hands and seeing with your own eyes this miraculous child: a child born from above, out of your own skull, a birth contrary to all the laws of nature.1042 ¶28

The event as it is recorded in the gospels actually takes place in man. But of that day or that hour when the time will come for the individual to be delivered, no one knows but the Father. Do not marvel that I say to you: you must be born from above. The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or wither it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit.1042 ¶29

This revelation in the Gospel of John is true. Here is my experience of this birth from above. Like Paul I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the actual mystical experience of being born from above. None can speak truly of this mystical birth from above but the one who has experienced it. I had no idea that this birth from above was literally true. For who before the experience could believe that the child—the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace—was inwoven in his own skull? Who, before the experience, would understand that his Maker is his Husband and the Lord of Hosts is His Name? Who would believe that the creator went in unto his own creation, man, and knew it to be himself and that this entrance into the skull of man—this union of God and man—resulted in the birth of a son out of the skull of man; which birth gave to that man eternal life and union with his creator forever? If I now tell what I experienced that night I do so not to impose my ideas on others but that I may give hope to those who, like Nicodemus, wonder how can a man be born when he is old? How can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? How can this be? Well, this is how it happened to me.1042 ¶30

A heavenly dream in which the arts flourished was suddenly interrupted by the most intense vibration centered at the base of my skull. Then a drama as real as those I experience when I am fully awake began to unfold. I felt myself within my skull trying to force my way out through its base. Something gave way and I felt myself move head downward through the base of my skull. I squeezed myself out, inch by inch. When I was almost out I held what I took to be the foot of the bed and pulled the remaining portion of me out of my skull. There on the floor I laid for a few seconds. Then I rose and looked at my body on the bed. It was lying on its back and tossing from side to side like one in recovery from a great ordeal.1042 ¶31

As I contemplated it, hoping that it would not fall off the bed, I became aware that the vibration which started the whole drama was not only in my head but now was also coming from the corner of the room. As I looked over to the corner I wondered if that vibration could be caused by a very high wind, a wind strong enough to vibrate the window. I could not believe that the vibration which I still felt within my head was related to that which seemed to be coming from the corner of the room.1042 ¶32

Looking back to the bed, I discovered that my body was gone but in its place sat my three oldest brothers. My oldest brother sat where the head was. My second and third brothers sat where the feet were. None seemed to be aware of me, although I was aware of them and could discern their thoughts. I suddenly became aware of the reality of my own invisibility. I noticed that they, too, were disturbed by the vibration coming from the corner of the room. My third brother was the most disturbed and went over to investigate the cause of the disturbance. His attention was attracted by something on the floor and looking down he announced, “It is Neville’s baby.” My other two brothers, in most incredulous voices, asked, “How can Neville have a baby?” My brother lifted the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid him on the bed. I, then, with my invisible hands lifted the babe and asked him, “How is my sweetheart?” He looked into my eyes and smiled, and I awoke in this world—to ponder this greatest of my many mystical experiences.1042 ¶33

One other vision I will tell because it bears out the truth of my assertion that the Bible is mystical fact—that everything written about the Promised Child is in the Law of Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalms, and it must be mystically experienced in the imagination of the individual. The child’s birth is a sign and a portent signaling the resurrection of the patriarchs in the imagination of him in whom the child is born.1042 ¶34

Six months after the birth of the child a vibration similar to the one which preceded his birth started in my head. This time its intensity was centered at the top of my head. Then came a sudden explosion and I found myself in a modestly furnished room. There, leaning against the side of an open door was my son David of Biblical fame. He was a lad about twelve years old. What struck me forcibly about him was the unusual beauty of his face and figure. He was—as he is described in the first book of Samuel—ruddy, with beautiful eyes and very handsome. Not for one moment did I feel myself to be anyone other than Neville. Yet, I knew that this lad David was my son, and he knew that I was his father. As I sat there contemplating the beauty of my son, the vision faded and I awoke.1042 ¶35

What conclusion can be reached from these mystical experiences? A chamber of man’s image, in man’s imagination, is engraved with every patriarch and character in the Old Testament, and that after the birth of a child out of the skull of man, signifying that man’s rebirth from above—there will begin the resurrection of the patriarchs. Each in his turn will be revealed as the son of the man who resurrects him. When all are resurrected from the dead, that man in whom they are resurrected will know himself to be of the Elohim: the God who became man that man may become God.1042 ¶36

We are told that because of an act of disobedience man fell, thereby separating himself from God. But scripture tells us that God consigned all men to disobedience that he may have mercy upon them. So we see: the fall was a deliberate act, a plan for expansion, for greater existence, and an ultimate birth.1040 ¶1

Scholars consider the 82nd Psalm as one of the most difficult of all the psalms to interpret, stating that although the idea may be perennial, its meaning has vanished. Here are a couple of verses from that psalm: The Lord speaks, saying: “I say, ‘You are gods, Sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you shall die like men and fall as one man, O princes.’ ” These words are addressed to every child born of woman regardless of race or nationality. I say to you right now, you are gods, Sons of the Most High, all of you! Evidently when these words were first spoken we were not men, otherwise the forecasting of our death like men would have no meaning. As a man, you know you will die; so what is being said here? First called a son of God, you were told of the grand experiment in the statement, you shall die like men. Here is the plot for expansion and an ultimate birth.1040 ¶2

But what were we prior to the fall? I cannot describe that body, but I will use scripture in the hope that you will use your imagination, although I urge you not to come to any definite conclusions. The fall, in symbolism, is associated with the serpent. As God’s wisest creature, he said to generic man (in the form of woman): “Did God say you would die?” and she answered: “Yes, if I ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Then he made this statement: “God knows you will not surely die, but your eyes will be opened and you will become like the gods, knowing good and evil.” The serpent has now become man!1040 ¶3

This serpent is described by Isaiah as the seraphim. Describing his vision, Isaiah said: “I beheld the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. Above him were the seraphim.” In Hebrew, the word means glorious celestial being, fiery serpent, noble one, prince.1040 ¶4

Our friend, Marta, departed this world on the 19th of July. Within a week after Marta’s departure, her friend who was with her when she died had this vision. She saw Marta, the same dear girl we all loved. She was in a cage, heart-shaped but inverted so that the base was wider than the top, with a line of division between the two sections. Marta was on one side, with an enormous serpent on the other, with rings of color from its tail to its head. Questioning her, Marta said: “How much longer will it be until we will become one?” Picking up a book, the lady read aloud: “After six thousand years, man and the serpent become one. You can tell the age of the serpent by the number of rings.” Approaching Marta, preparing to count the serpent’s rings, she said: “If Neville says it is so, it is so,” and awoke.1040 ¶5

Now, God speaks to man through the language of dream and makes himself known in vision. Here is a vision. My friend has come to the end of the road. She has completely finished the drama and the two are now becoming one. Think about it. What would you get if you blended man and the serpent? A glorious, fiery being which Isaiah described as having six wings - two covering the face, two the feet and two used for propulsion. You cannot describe the heavenly being you really are; yet you are gods, sons of the Most High, O princes. One being, containing all within himself, fell into division and resurrects into unity, into a holy temple of the Lord in whom you also are built in.1040 ¶6

The act of resurrection is God’s mightiest act, for he must awaken his sons, who deliberately fell into this world of decay and death. Dwell upon your true being, for although you have forgotten it, you are a son of God. You had to forget this truth in order to assume the limitations of this cross called man. But before this assumption, our one grand hope was for expansion and ultimate birth. Having fallen into division, we will return to a unity far greater than we knew prior to the descent.1040 ¶7

Without defining exactly what you look like, suppose you are now the being spoken of as the son of God. You certainly are not a man, because you must fall into man and die like men. Knowing that no man takes your life, you lay it down yourself. You have the power to lay it down and the power to lift it up again. You agreed to take upon yourself this garment of anatomy called man, which is filled to overflowing with passion. Now, believing yourself to be human, you have emptied yourself of your power and wisdom. You cannot restrain the impulse to act, even though you were told that if you entertained one concupiscent thought you would die.1040 ¶8

Can you now see that the drama is psychological and not physical? The moment you contemplate an act, it has been committed. Whether it is pleasant and you may be inclined to do it physically, or you restrain the impulse to act upon that which you are contemplating, the act is already done! “You have heard it said of old: ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ but I say to you that any man who looks upon a woman lustfully has already committed the act with her in his heart.” Here you see the whole drama put into a psychological frame.1040 ¶9

It is not good enough to restrain the impulse. You can’t even have it! God consigned you to disobedience by giving you a garment of passion and then telling you that if you entertained one concupiscent thought, you would die. There is not a thing you -as man - have ever done that God has seen something to be blamed in the act. And in the end, God in his infinite mercy will step beyond and arouse you. Having tasted what it is to be man in a world of death, you - a son of the Most High - will add what you have extracted from being man, to God’s glory.1040 ¶10

Before you fell into this world of men, you were infinitely greater than any man who ever walked the face of this earth. You have no ancestor comparable to the being you really are. Although you emptied yourself of your divine power and wisdom, it is still awaiting your return. And you will return expanded beyond the wildest dreams of what you were prior to the fall.1040 ¶11

One Man, containing all men, fell into division, and all men are gathered one by one and redeemed into the unity of the one Man who fell. “This structure is slowly built as a holy temple of the Lord in whom you also are built in.” Let no one tell you that you did anything wrong to cause your descent. It was because God challenged himself to literally die and overcome death. This you will know to be true when you begin to stir within yourself. Then your brain will become alive, and you will awaken in the tomb of your skull, from which you will come out.1040 ¶12

Now we are told: “He is designated son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead.” If you read scripture carefully, you will discover that the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes is not a birth, but a sign of the birth. And when it is said that Jesus was twelve years old, I ask you: twelve from what? Not from a little garment of flesh, but Jesus Christ is a wholly supernatural being. He is the son who fell when he wasn’t man to begin with. Jesus is the someone buried in you that is you! One day he will awaken and you will see others, but they will not see you, as you will be invisible to them. But you will know yourself to be sheer power and sheer wisdom.1040 ¶13

So resurrection is identified with birth, for at that moment you are designated son of God, with power by your resurrection from the dead. Man is born anew through the resurrection of the son of God, who died to give life to his little body which appears in the world. Regardless of your physical age, the moment you are called you are resurrected to experience your ultimate birth, which was the hope before the fall of the one Man who fell.1040 ¶14

Although this may seem too spiritual, I am telling you of your true background. You do not have any ancestor who is a son of God - you are! You have deliberately forgotten it for a little while, but no one here can come close to the nobility of the being you really are. You are the seraphim! A glorious flaming celestial being! The noble one! Even though our association with the serpent is one of fear, the seraphim are those who are around the throne of God.1040 ¶15

What we are dealing with here is creativity. Having eaten of the tree of good and evil, man judges, but God sees neither right nor wrong. Allowing man to do what he wills, God knows that man will be redeemed and return more glorious, more luminous, than before his descent. Let no one tell you that because of your disobedience you are separated from God, for your separation was both a tragedy and a triumph. A tragedy because you fell into death, and a triumph because you will rise into life everlasting.1040 ¶16

Now, every mystic sees the journey as one of six thousand years. Blake beheld the visions of his deadly sleep of six thousand years as dancing around his skirts like a serpent of precious stones and gold - which he knew to be himself. How can I describe my vision other than to say that when my body was split from top to bottom, I did not see a form, only golden, liquid light, which I knew to be myself. Then I fused with it and rose, just like a serpent, into my skull.1040 ¶17

Now, I know from experience that when you are born from above, you are designated son of God and given the power to raise the dead. “The dead will hear the voice of the son of God and rise. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the son also to have life in himself.” The son of man has the power of judgment on earth, but the son of God has the power to call his brothers out of their graves. No hydrogen bomb can raise the dead. It can kill them, but nothing can arouse them but this power. When it is applied to one who has been asleep for six thousand years, it will cause him to awake and rise from the grave of his own body, in which he has been sleeping all these years.1040 ¶18

Now I would like to tell you a little story. As a man called Neville, I was born into a large and very poor family. We had no educational, social, or financial background, but my mother was very wise. If she saw anything she thought unbecoming in her children she would say: “Have you forgotten that you are a Goddard?” (That was our surname.) We were too young to know anything about backgrounds, but the mere fact that mother said it, made us realize that we must have forgotten we were Goddards or we would not have done what we did. By the time we discovered that we had no background, the idea was so ingrained in us that we made the name important, with the result that the Goddards in Barbados today are the outstanding business people of the island.1040 ¶19

Year after year, our family-owned corporation does a gross of over $30 million and it grows and grows; yet it all started with mother saying: “Have you forgotten you are a Goddard?” You can take any little thought like that and make the tree of money grow for you in this world. Then just imagine what you could do if you go beyond this world of Caesar.1040 ¶20

You could imagine that the Elohim - a compound unity of one made up of the redeemed - has taken his place in the divine congregation. In the midst of the gods he pronounces judgment, saying: “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you: nevertheless, you shall die like men and fall as one man, O princes, O seraphim, O glorious celestial beings! You will empty yourself of your glory, your wisdom and your power and take upon yourself a garment of death and decay. Then, after a journey of horror for six thousand years, you will be restored having expanded your wisdom and your power by reason of your descent into decay and death.”1040 ¶21

So let no one tell you that you did anything which was wrong to be expelled and separated from the Father. Yours was a deliberate act for your expansion and ultimate birth. Now let us go into the silence.1040 ¶22

Although man develops more and more power on earth, it is like kindergarten, compared to the power that is his in the New Age.1038 ¶1

Christ within you as your hope of glory is the personification of this power. Knowing himself to be all power, Jesus turned to those who followed him, and said: “Wait in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” You are clothed with that power when the Holy Spirit, symbolized as a dove, descends upon you.1038 ¶2

Clothed with the power from on high, Jesus entered the synagogue, opened the Book of Isaiah to the 61st chapter, and read: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor and to release the captives.” Closing the book, he handed it to the attendant and said: “Today the scripture you have just heard has been fulfilled.” The Old Testament predicted the coming of the New Age, called the kingdom of God. By this statement, Jesus claimed to be its fulfillment, for when the dove descended he knew he was the Messiah, the embodiment of power and wisdom.1038 ¶3

When Pilate, the personification of logic and reason, asked: “Where are you from?” Jesus did not answer. But when he said: “Do you not know I have the power to release or crucify you?” Jesus replied: “You have no power over me unless it is given you from within.” In other words, if I do not give my power to you, you have none. In the above statement the word “anothen” is translated “from above,” but its true meaning is “from within.” This same word is used when Nicodemus is told: “Unless you are born from within, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.”1038 ¶4

The power from within is life-giving and entirely different from the power of this world. If you desired to physically leave this room, as an animated being I would have no power to hold you here. But as a life-giving spirit, I could hold and control your actions.1038 ¶5

As a life-giving spirit, I have entered a scene from within. Those who were present could not see me; yet I was so alive with power in myself, that I knew if I arrested it, everything I perceived would stand still. I did, and instantly everyone and everything was stilled. I examined them to discover that they were dead as though made out of clay. Then I released that power in myself, and everyone once more became animated, and continued to fulfill their intentions. Possessing no power in them, I did not release the power in them but in me.1038 ¶6

Only when you wear the Human Form Divine - which is the embodiment of love - will you exercise this power. It is never exercised here, for your power is too great. You could, by arresting an army, rearrange their intention, release them, and they would execute your instructions - even if it meant their death. But wisdom goes hand in hand with that power.1038 ¶7

Paul asks: “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? In the wisdom of God the world does not know God through wisdom. The foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” God cannot be found through studying scripture. He must be revealed! God either reveals himself to you, or you remain ignorant as to who he is.1038 ¶8

God first revealed himself to Moses as destructive power, saying: “I AM the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name I AM I did not make myself known to them.” The patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew only sheer power, but Moses knew God as I AM. Revealing himself as power, then as I AM, when God’s son calls you father, you will know who you really are. This is the wisdom of God as opposed to the wisdom of man.1038 ¶9

A friend of mine shared this vision with me. He said: “I am driving my car, when suddenly I am airborne, gliding over the treetops. Navigating the car by body-English, it rises as I lighten my body and descend with my body weight.1038 ¶10

“Suddenly I panic, and must have crashed because I lost consciousness and the next thing I knew I was in a humanoid body such as I have never seen. The outside was dead, beige dust like the coals of a fireplace, with two holes where the eyes should be.1038 ¶11

“I am not alone, there are others but they seem to be mindless water carriers. Asking a question of one, he pointed to a large boulder made of the same substance as my body. I climbed this rock and saw you, Neville, wearing a similar body. At your side was a mindless, brainless automaton.1038 ¶12

“We began to talk, and I opened my wallet to show you a card which implied I was a writer. The man at your side questioned you and you answered him very superficially, conveying to me with a look that the man was incapable of understanding anything. Then you and I were alone, and you said: ‘No one can deny you the next four reunions with God.’ I did not understand the words, but your manner implied they were very important and a joy permeated my being as I awoke.”1038 ¶13

These fleshly garments look like the garments he saw, when seen from a certain level. Paul tells us that the first man (Esau, Cain, etc.) is the man of dust, but the second man (Christ) is the man of heaven. These bodies of dust are moved by a power from within.1038 ¶14

Blake explained this so beautifully, when he said: “Those in great Eternity who contemplate on death (this world) say thus, ‘What seems to be is, to those to whom it seems to be, and is productive of the most dreadful consequences, to those to whom it seems to be, even of torment, despair and Eternal death. But Divine Mercy steps beyond and redeems Man in the body of Jesus.’”1038 ¶15

Every vision has a single jet of truth in it. My friend who had the vision is now being redeemed; because no one - but no one - can prevent him from experiencing the four reunions with God, at which time Divine Mercy redeems him in the body of Jesus. The first reunion is God’s birth from within. The second is the discovery of his son, David. This is followed by the third mighty reunion, when his spiritual body is split in two and God ascends like a spiral of lightening into heaven. And finally, the fourth act appears, as the Holy Spirit embodies the form of a dove to clothe him - as you - with power from on high.1038 ¶16

From that moment on, you are aware of an entirely different world. You will no longer be an animated body, but know yourself to be a life-giving spirit, moving through heavenly states, giving life and telling the eternal story. Having joined those in great eternity, you too will contemplate on those who sleep in death and know that what seems to be is - to those to whom it seems to be. You will not raise a finger to change their experiences, as you will know they are necessary in the world of Caesar.1038 ¶17

Having entered the New Age, where there is no time or space, you will discover that you are every place at the same time if you so desire, and that you are the creator of it all.1038 ¶18

You see, when you emptied yourself of your power and wisdom to take on the form of a slave in the world of time, it was at once a tragedy and yet a triumph. Just like a sucker, which breathes and feeds on its parent, knows tremendous tragedy when detached and planted separately -but it becomes the parent because of the separation. So your separation is a tragedy and yet a victory, for you do become aware of being God the Father because of it.1038 ¶19

The fall into decay and death was purposely planned. We are all awakening and returning to the awareness of being the one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all. Having fallen into division, we are gathered into the unity of being the one Father, enhanced by our experiences in this world of death.1038 ¶20

I can describe this power in words, but its true feeling must be experienced. One evening, while sitting in MacArthur Park, I watched a man walk by, stand on a corner, and light a cigarette. Then I arrested that power in me and the match remained lit, yet did not burn beyond the place it was only a moment before. The man, standing as a statue, appeared to be totally unaware of the lighted match, while the park took on the stillness of death. Then I released the power within me and watched the man blow out the match, throw it away, and continue to walk with the others. When you are clothed with the power from on high, you feel it, and these things happen to you.1038 ¶21

Because of his disbelief, man sees this power as foolishness. So Paul told the Corinthians: “Since in the wisdom of God man did not by wisdom know God, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach, to save those who believe.” All that you are called upon to do is to listen to the eternal story of salvation, and believe by responding to it. Then go about your business by using your power to cushion the blows of life; and when it pleases God, you will be saved.1038 ¶22

Although your power here is like a little firecracker compared to your real power, when you know what you want and believe you have it, your power of belief will make it so. Construct a scene which implies the fulfillment of your desire. Give it all of the sensory vividness you are capable of giving, and rest in the knowledge that its implication is the power to bring your desire into your world.1038 ¶23

You don’t have to be a brilliant scholar to use your creative power. In fact, the more brilliant you are, the less you are likely to try it. The so-called brilliant mind believes only in that which is physical and visible, and therefore does not believe a desire can be fulfilled by a simple imaginal act.1038 ¶24

But I know the power of imagining, for I have sat quietly in my chair in my living room, constructed a scene which implied the fulfillment of my desire, gave it all of the qualities of naturalness so that it felt right - and let it be. Then, just as I would drop a seed into the ground and wait for its maturity, my seed of desire matured and fulfilled itself in my world.1038 ¶25

Imagine whatever you desire. Believe you will receive it and go about your business in the world with patience and confidence, knowing your desire will erupt and become a reality. Use the law while you remain in the city waiting to be clothed with power from on high, for it will come.1038 ¶26

Believe me, for God’s pattern of salvation has unfolded in me. The divine drama has reached its climax. Only Caesar’s history continues, and every child born of woman is fulfilling it. Moving across the screen of space for thousands of years, man experiences moments of joy and sorrow, sadness and pain, until the dramatic story of Christ unfolds from within. It takes 1260 days from God’s first mighty act to the final one. Then, if the brothers decide it is your task to remain and tell the story, you will.1038 ¶27

Like Paul, I long to depart. I feel as though there is a thorn in my side and I pray to have it removed. But I will remain, knowing my grace is sufficient, for my power is made perfect in weakness.1038 ¶28

I recall the first night I met Abdullah. I had purposely delayed going to one of his meetings, because a man whose judgment I did not trust had insisted on my attendance. At the end of the meeting, Ab approached me and said: “Neville, you are six months late.” Startled, I questioned how he knew my name, when he said: “The brothers told me you would be here six months ago.” Then he added: “I will remain until you have received all that I must give you. Then I will depart.” He, too, may have longed to go, but he had to wait for me.1038 ¶29

If you are serious about the study of the Bible, read the eighth chapter of Proverbs. Begin with the 22nd verse, and as you go through to the end you will discover it is all about wisdom. Personified as a little child, wisdom says: “He who finds me, finds life and receives favor from the Lord. He who misses me injures himself. He who hates me loves death.” One day, finding life in yourself, you will hold wisdom in your arms and receive favor from the Lord. But if you would rather have more of the world of Caesar, you will hate the idea of the child, because you love death.1038 ¶30

The world and all of its conflict is essential to the work that is being done in you. But in the end, you will have these four wonderful reunions with God and find yourself in the kingdom of heaven. Your awakening and resurrection takes you from this world of death. The discovery of your Son, your ascent into heaven, and the descent of the Holy Spirit is your entrance into the New Age, where you wear the body of Christ, the power and the wisdom of God.1038 ¶31

Now let us go into the silence.1038 ¶32

W e are here in this world for one purpose and that is to fulfill God’s Word, which is scripture. Oh, you can accomplish miracles while you are here, but God sent you – his Word – into the world, saying: “My Word shall not return unto me void. It must accomplish that which I purposed and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” You are that Word, and you are destined to fulfill scripture.1033 ¶1

This past week a lady wrote me, saying: “Recently I have been having difficulty remembering my dreams, but this one was the most difficult I have ever encountered. I knew I had to surface to tell it to you, but it seemed like an endless depth of utter darkness from which I came. Holding onto the memory image of what I had experienced, I felt as though I were a diver who had plunged too deep and would never make the surface, but I did and this is my experience. ”1033 ¶2

I stood before Jerusalem’s gates. They were enormous wooden gates with high, high walls. I was so thrilled to be there, but my thrill quickly vanished when I realised that the gates were closed. Then I found myself on a high hill, clothed in a body of light, which radiated from me in all directions. In the distance I could see the whole of earth with its curvature, and felt as though I stood in some space ship and shed my light on all. I knew that if I so desired I could rearrange everything I saw, yet I also knew that everything was ordered and as it should be. Then I began this terrific struggle to return to my earthly body, for I wanted to share what I had experienced.”1033 ¶3

In a book called Looking at Modern Painting, there is a chapter on Max Beck, a modern symbolic artist. In it he said: “I awoke and yet continued dreaming, for I was William Blake, that noble emanation of English genius. Looking like some super-terrestrial patriarch, he waved friendly greetings and said to me, ‘Do not be intimidated by the horrors of the world. Everything is ordered and correct and must fulfill its destiny in order to attain perfection. Seek this path and you will receive from your own aid, a deeper perception of the eternal beauty of creation. And you will know an ever increasing release from that which now seems so sad and terrible.’”1033 ¶4

Just like William Blake, this lady knew that everything is ordered and perfect and as it should be for man to experience.1033 ¶5

Now let me share an experience of mine. When I was in my twenties I found myself in the presence of the most beautiful woman I could ever perceive, and a horrible, hairy monster which resembled an ape or a gorilla. The monster looked at the heavenly being and speaking in a guttural voice, he called her “mother.” Well, I lost my temper, and as I pummeled it the monster began to grow. Thriving on violence, I realised that this was my emanation. He was the embodiment of every evil thought I had ever had and all of my violent acts, while the heavenly woman represented every noble, kind deed I had ever committed. Looking from one to the other I vowed to myself (since there was no one present with whom I could make a contract) that if it took me eternity I would redeem this monster. As I made this commitment, the monster began to melt before my eyes. And as it dissolved, all of my misspent and misused energy that went into the shaping of this monster as I traveled the path of time, returned to me. Feeling like infinite power, I watched the radiant creature begin to glow like the sun as I awoke.1033 ¶6

Now let us take these two experiences from scripture. We are told in the 8th chapter of the Book of Mark, that when the blind man’s eye was opened, he said: “I see men as trees, walking.” And in the 4th chapter of the Book of Daniel, the king – while lying on his bed – had a vision of the tree of life, a tree which fed the world, housed the birds of the air, and sheltered the animals. Then a man appeared, saying: “Hew the tree down, cut off its branches, strip the leaves and scatter its fruit. But leave the stump of the roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron.” The pronoun is now changed to: “Let him be watered with the dew of heaven, let him make his abode with the beasts of the field. Let his mind be changed from that of a man and let the mind of a beast be given to him. Let seven times pass over him until he learns that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he wills.”1033 ¶7

In the creation of both the wonderful being and the monstrous one, I wore the heart and the mind of the beast, as we all do while covered with this animal body of flesh. I am the tree of life that was felled to become man. This lady experienced the tree of life, as she gave life to every object she looked upon. She saw that the gates of Jerusalem were locked, and she saw correctly, for there is only one way into the city of God called Jerusalem, and that is up the water shaft.1033 ¶8

In the 5th chapter of 2 Samuel we are told that David captured the city of Zion by moving up the water shaft, which he built from the outer, inward and up at the same time. Well, the only way you can ever build from the out, in and up at the same time is to build in a spiral. The city of God is entered only up the spiral ladder of your spine into your skull.1033 ¶9

Have you ever seen pictures of man with his skin off, exposing all of his veins, arteries, and nerves? That’s the tree of life, which is rooted in the brain and inverted. Having gone down into generation, you have taken your power there to generate sex and animate forms. The day will come when your creative power is resurrected and you enter the world of regeneration, to create without a divided image. Knowing yourself to be the creator of all life, in the resurrection you are above the organisation of sex.1033 ¶10

How many times during the history of the world have men done violence to themselves trying to bring this power about? Many of the early fathers of the Christian faith castrated themselves in the hope that they could produce it, but it happens only when you are turned around. In my own case, I felt myself being split in two from top to bottom. Then I saw that golden liquid light which had gone down into generation and knew it to be myself. Fusing with that which I beheld, I went up the water shaft in a serpentine motion and entered Jerusalem, the city of love, and no one can enter any other way.1033 ¶11

So she saw it perfectly. That was a foreshadowing of the power that is in store for her. We are told in the Book of Revelation: “I beheld the city of God, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Well, “Your maker is your husband, the Lord of Host is his name.”1033 ¶12

You are the maker of this beautiful creature, creating her out of every noble act that you have ever committed. She is your emanation, yet your wife, till the sleep of death is past. And you are the maker of this monstrous thing that is unseen until that moment in time when you reach the threshold and must wake the decision to redeem your misused energy or not. He is the embodiment of every unlovely, vile thing you have ever imagined. Feeding on violence, he whispers in your ear morning, noon, and night, urging you to violate everything you love. Thoughts you think are hidden, feed this monster and make him stronger and stronger.1033 ¶13

In the 8th chapter of the Book of Ezekiel we are told that they went into their chambers, saying: “No one sees me,” and they carve every abominable beast on the walls of the temple. All right, “I am the temple of the Living God.” I carve all these thoughts on the inside saying, “No one sees what I am doing,” but I am seeing and hearing it as I am doing it, and there is no other God besides me.1033 ¶14

Housed in you, God put upon himself the garment of an animal, the mind of an animal and the heart of an animal when the tree was felled. Man thinks the tree of life is going to be found on the outside, but it is not there. Blake said it so beautifully in his wonderful poem, “Sons of Experience, The Human Abstract”: “The Gods of the earth and sea, Sought thro’ Nature to find this Tree, But their search was all in vain: There grows one in the Human Brain.”1033 ¶15

Fifteen or sixteen years ago, in vision, I saw these wonderful men walking like stallions. Such magistery, with antlers coming out of their heads so high they disappeared into the sky. Then I saw a man who at that time was third in the government of England. (A very controversial figure, he disliked aristocracy, wealth, or anything that he considered noble. He tried to nationalise all industry, and in the trying he nearly broke England.) This man took a tree from the outside and put it on his head, stood on the highest hill, jumped, and fell flat. Getting up again, he climbed the hill, placed the tree on his head, jumped, and fell again. He was trying to wear the tree of life on the outside, trying to change the structure of the world by spending money, and not changing self.1033 ¶16

Just like someone covered with tar offering to help you clean the house, a man with unclean hands cannot make things clean! You cannot give another that which you do not have. As a nation we have just sent millions of dollars to nations, thinking we are going to change them, but change does not come that way. There is no power on the outside. The power that lifts you up so that you can remove mountains comes from within, and it doesn’t turn up until your spiritual body is split. Then and only then are you turned around, and the energy that went down into generation is turned up into regeneration.1033 ¶17

Castrating yourself or signing the vow of celibacy means nothing. You can be celibate from now to the ends of time, but you will dream of sex. You will end up with a cesspool for a mind and condemn every lovely girl and boy who go to the altar in marriage, and claim their offspring is sin. Of all the nonsense in the world! If that is true, then they – the offspring of a sinful act – are the embodiment of sin are they not? I tell you: you can’t bottle this energy. Sex is natural when your energy is turned down, but one day it will be turned up, and you will know a creative power greater than anything you could ever imagine while your imagination is divided.1033 ¶18

Believe me when I tell you: everyone must face their monster and their heavenly being, for no one is devoid of lovely thoughts. The love you felt for your mother when you were a child, or when you gave from the heart – these are the acts that go into making your lovely ideal. When a friend of mine died, Kathleen Norris wrote her husband, saying: “I have never known a more giving person. She never wrote me a letter but what she enclosed a recipe, a poem, a clipping from a paper, or a handkerchief. She never waited until Christmas to give in the hope she would receive as generous a gift (as most people do) but gave all through the year.”1033 ¶19

This lady has been feeding her heavenly being, and one day she, too, will face her monster just as you will, because you are the God who created it and what God has made he can unmake. God is not made and therefore cannot be unmade. He is the maker. He makes his new Jerusalem, his emanation yet his wife till the sleep of death is past, and he also makes his Hell through his mistaken use of energy.1033 ¶20

One day you will stop feeding it and vow to yourself that you will redeem it, even if it takes eternity. But it doesn’t take eternity; right before your eyes he gets smaller and as all of the energy that it embodied returns to you to now use wisely and lovingly.1033 ¶21

Any time you use your imagination lovingly on behalf of another, you are building your new Jerusalem, and one day she will descend attired as a bride. You are building her out of your noble thoughts; that’s why I say: “Live so that your mind can store a past worthy of recall, for the mind whose contents vanish suffers loss, though you yourself cannot be lost, but only as through fire will you awaken.”1033 ¶22

So I want to thank this lady for sharing her perfectly marvelous experience with me that I may share it with you. She saw the perfect vision, the beautiful imagery of Jerusalem. But the city is a bride, an emanation of beauty that returns to you to become one, making you infinitely greater because of that union. Having emanated both, when your misspent energy returns to you, you wear it, not as two but as one. Then leaving all, you will cleave to your emanation of beauty to become one being; thereby you are enhanced in beauty, enhanced in love, enhanced in wisdom and power by reason of your journey.1033 ¶23

So do no violence to these bodies of yours in the hope of entering Jerusalem. As Blake said: “I give you the end of a golden string, Only wind it into a ball: It will lead you in at Heaven’s gate, Built in Jerusalem’s wall.” The body you wear is not the gate. It is only the shadow. You must go to the center where the king dwells, for it is there that you know you are the king. Then all the blind and lame thoughts who kept you out while you struggled to find the truth, are destroyed.1033 ¶24

Man is the tree of life. I have seen them walking. One day a friend of mine in San Francisco who is an artist was waiting for me at the Palace Hotel. As I came through the door into the three to four storied lobby, she saw my 5’11” body as a stallion with antlers reaching up to the sky and drew a picture of them, even to the same suit I wore.1033 ¶25

Now, the lady whose vision I shared tonight saw them as radiations from every part of her body, but my artist friend saw them as antlers. They both saw that which is not of this world.1033 ¶26

Your ultimate goal is not to become a millionaire or to be famous, but to fulfill the Word of God. “My Word shall not return unto me void, but must accomplish that which I purpose and prosper in the Word who cut yourself down and left just the roots. You placed bands around you so that you would grow and reach the sky and the birds would come and nest. The tree of life is not in some little garden of God on the outside; you are that tree whose energies have gone down into generation. One day the power that you are will be regenerated, and your invested tree will stand erect and bear the fruit of life.1033 ¶27

Now let us go into the silence.1033 ¶28