The Bible is the most practical book in the world. In it we are told that one named Simon carried the cross behind Jesus. The word “Simon” means “to hear with understanding and consent to what is heard.” And Jesus is your own wonderful human imagination. The gospel tells what happens in the soul of Jesus. The events recorded there are seen and heard by none save but Him. Through these experiences He gains the certainty that He is not only the Son of God, but also God Himself. But when he tells his story few will accept it, as his experience of scripture differs greatly from its interpretation by the priests and rabbis. Simon, however, understands what he hears and, consenting to it, he carries the cross. We are told to “Bear ye one another’s burden and so fulfill the law of Christ.”1000 ¶1

Now, the law of Christ is described in the Sermon on the Mount. It is a psychological law, as Christ tells you in the 5th chapter of Matthew, saying: “You heard it said of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you, anyone who looks lustfully upon a woman has already committed the act with her in his heart.’” (The word “heart” and “soul” are synonymous in scripture.) When you are told in the 4th chapter of Psalms to “Commune with your own heart upon your bed,” are you not communing with yourself? And in that communion are you not told that the act is committed? I tell you: the law of Christ is imaginal and you carry His burden, for “Inasmuch as we do it to one of the least of these, we do it unto Him.”1000 ¶2

Paul, seeing the meaning of Christ, said: “From now on I regard no one from the human point of view. Even though I once regarded Christ from the human point of view, I regard him thus no longer.” Paul realised that Christ was the pattern of salvation buried in every child born of woman, and did not seek a little Christ, but the universal Cosmic Christ buried in all. There is only one Christ, so when you imagine, you are imagining Christ. Now, one who hears and believes this is called Simon. It is he who goes out and carries the cross by lifting the burden from the back of the one being who is carrying the entire cross; for every human is a cross, who collectively form the cross the Cosmic Christ bears.1000 ¶3

When one hears the story and believes it, he goes out to lift the weight of every cross. Seeing someone struggle to pay rent or buy food because he is financially embarrassed, Simon lifts his cross by seeing the man gainfully employed. He does this because he knows he is doing it only to himself, as there cannot be another. As a psychological act, he represents the other to himself as he would like to see that other, and to the degree he is self-persuaded that what he imagined is true, it will become true. Simon does not move a cross from one little point in space to another. He goes through life following Christ, as he bears the cross and lifts the weight of mankind.1000 ¶4

Many a man remains behind the 8-ball because no one ever thought he could be anything other than what he appears to be. Fortunately I had a mother who, at a tender age, took me aside and persuaded me that I was her favourite. She would say: “You will make mother very proud of you, won’t you?” and naturally I said: “Yes, mother.” I wore long white curls at the time, and she would curl my hair, run her finger up my curl, kiss me, and send me on my way – then call the next one to have his hair curled. Mother told the same story to each of us. It was only after we had all grown to manhood that we discovered what mother had done, but by that time she had accomplished her purpose. She didn’t expect us to make a fortune but to be one in whom she would be proud, and in our own separate spheres we all became successful in her eyes. Many a man is a failure today because no one ever believed he could be otherwise.1000 ¶5

So I say to you: if you believe that there is only one being and only one cross, you will lift the cross from a seeming other, and – as Simon – follow your imagination to its fulfillment. Every child born of woman is a cross, animated by Christ Jesus; so when you lift the burden from an infant or one of many years, you are doing it unto yourself. As you bear one another’s burdens you fulfill the law of Christ; for inasmuch as you do it to one of the least of these, you have done it unto me. If you believe me and put your belief into practice, you are bearing the cross. But if you are so engrossed in your own little world that you cannot see another as a projection of yourself, you do not believe me and will not become a Simon.1000 ¶6

Only as you believe and act, will you bear the cross as Simon, enter the temple in the Spirit, and – finding the child – take him up in your arms and say: “Lord, let now thy servant depart in peace according to thy Word, for my eyes have seen the salvation of God.” Called a little child in the Book of Luke, God’s creative power is symbolised as the unveiled arm in the Book of Isaiah. In this wonderful 53rd chapter of Isaiah, the prophet speaks of the unveiling of the arm of God as the salvation of the world. And when the prophecy is fulfilled it appears as though you are betrayed, but I ask you: what did Judas betray?1000 ¶7

He betrayed the messianic secret of Jesus and the place where he might be found. A secret must first be heard before it can be told. I have betrayed the messianic secret in my book called Resurrection, so I have played the part of Judas. Having experienced the part of Jesus, I have recorded my experiences so that anyone coming after I have gone from this sphere will know the secret. The messianic secret is unlike that which the priesthoods of the world believe. Jesus is not a little man who comes from without to save mankind. Jesus comes from within, for He is a pattern, which unfolds in and reveals the individual as the Son of God who is God. Knowing my scripture, when the visions came upon me I searched and found they dovetailed one another. I have shared my experiences with everyone who will listen; and those who hear them with understanding and accept them become Simon, who picks up the cross and eases the burden from the back of the Cosmic Christ.1000 ¶8

When you meet someone who is unemployed and take a moment to imagine him gainfully employed, you are Simon. Practice this art daily. Pick up your cross and set everyone free from what he seems to be. That is how you bear one another’s burden and so fulfill the law of Christ, which is all imaginal. If you hear this message with understanding you will go out and fulfill the law of Christ.1000 ¶9

If you do not understand me you may not agree, but I tell you: this is the most incredible story that can ever be told. You need not have a brilliant mind to accept it. In fact, the more brilliant your mind is, the less chance this concept will be believed, yet I tell you it is true. Everyone who accepts it will one day experience scripture within himself, for the gospel is nothing more than that which happened within the soul of Jesus, who is Jehovah, who is the Lord, in you. Jesus is your awareness of being, your I AM. It is He who hears the story and either accepts or rejects it. If you think of a man who lived two thousand years ago when I use the word “Jesus,” you will not see the Jesus in everyone; for Jesus is awareness, sound asleep and carrying a tremendous burden as His dream. If you will accept my story, Jesus will begin to awaken as you lift his burden and carry the cross behind your imagination. Simon is first seized, and then the cross is placed upon him as the individual who hears and understands and consents to what he has heard.1000 ¶10

If you really believe me you will not pass anyone without doing something to lift his burden. Taking up his cross, you will represent him to yourself as you would like to see him; and to the degree that you are self-persuaded, he will become it, even though he may never know what you did. Things will happen in his world and he will become what you conceived him to be, not knowing who did it, but who did it? Christ, for there is only Christ in the world. You can take no credit in the doing, because you are only doing it to yourself. As you represent another to yourself as you would like to see him, you are lifting his burden and fulfilling God’s law. And when your time is fulfilled you will enter the temple and find the sign of the birth of your creative power as a child wrapped in swaddling clothes. Then the arm of God, who creates everything, is unveiled in you and from that day on whatever you imagine will come to pass – I don’t care what it is.1000 ¶11

I ask you to dwell upon this thought and follow the pattern of Simon. Lift the burden of someone today, and maybe tomorrow you will be able to do it to two. Don’t let another remain carrying his burden, because there is no other. Lift his burden from yourself and follow Jesus Christ, your own wonderful human imagination.1000 ¶12

The dream of life begins with the call of Abraham, and comes to its climax and fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Everyone must and will experience that climax. Then the curtain will come down and you will leave this sphere to join the heavenly brotherhood, who contemplates this world of death saying: “What seems to be, is – to those to whom it seems to be.” Take that one little statement: what seems to be is to those to whom it seems to be. You can assume any state and persuade yourself that it is so, and it will become so. Torments, despair, and eternal death will also seem to be, “But Divine mercy steps beyond and redeems Man in the body of Jesus”; for in the end there is only one body, only one Lord, and you are that one Jesus Christ. You will wear that one Risen Body as your own and be the one Spirit that inhabits it. And you will know yourself to be that one Spirit who is the Lord of all. Today you are not aware of your true identity, but Paul made it very, very clear in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians, when he said: “If we have been united with Christ in a death like his, we certainly shall be united with him in a resurrection like his.” Do you see the difference in tense? We have already died with Christ, and we will live with him when God’s pattern of salvation erupts and the gospel unfolds within us individually.1000 ¶13

Now, whenever I tell my story there are always those who – knowing me by my physical origin – do not know me by reason of my spiritual birth. Seeing only the outside man called Neville, they judge from appearances and claim I am blaspheming by making these bold claims. But a few will believe me and become Simon by lifting the burden and transforming the lives of those he meets, no matter that it may seem to be. If you want more money, better health, or the state of marriage, Simon simply hears your desire as granted, then goes his way believing that what he has heard is now a physical fact which will confront you in the near future. He never seeks your thanks, but knows your desire must come into being; for he has lifted your burden upon his shoulder and believes in his own wonderful human imagination.1000 ¶14

When you hear and believe in God’s pattern of salvation, you are believing in Jesus. Everyone contains that pattern – therefore everyone is Jesus. Leave no one distressed. Do not give from your pocket, but give them every desire of their heart from your imagination. You could give money from now until the ends of time, and not give of yourself! Only when you imagine for another are you truly giving of yourself; and as you believe in the reality of what you have imagined, are you lifting the burden you are called upon to do, thereby fulfilling the law of God. When you feel the joy of having done it, don’t wait for the phone to ring; simply go your way and lift the burden from another, and then another.1000 ¶15

An artist friend recently told me about some work he had done for a friend, but had not been paid according to their verbal agreement. After our discussion I heard my friend tell me the debt was paid. That was all I did. Last night he told me that, seemingly out of the blue, the man came to his house and gave him a check for the full amount agreed upon. Now I will say to him that check will be multiplied over and over again, for there are many artists needing your talent to improve theirs.1000 ¶16

Don’t say something cannot be done, for the minute you do, you are placing a limit upon yourself. And don’t limit your friend because of his financial, social, or intellectual background. That’s a heavy cross for him to bear. Rather, lift his cross and set him free.1000 ¶17

We live in a world of horrors, but as Blake said: “Don’t be intimidated by the horrors of the world. All is ordered and correct and must fulfill its destiny in order to attain perfection. Follow this pattern and you will receive from your own ego a deeper insight into the eternal beauties of reality. You will also receive an even deeper release from all that now seems so sad and terrible.” When you know this truth, you will lift the burden of all those you meet, for you will know that regardless of the pigment of his skin, the tongue in which he speaks, his belief, or nationality – you and he are one, for God is one. The great Sh’ma of the Hebrew confession of faith: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one,” will take on new meaning. If God is one, there cannot be another; so in the end you and I will be the same father of the same son.1000 ¶18

I have been sent to convey that one thought to the world. I have taught it through the spoken word and recorded it in my book, Resurrection, that God’s true son is David. I have now completed the work I was sent to do.1000 ¶19

The priests do not know the mystery. They are men without vision, reading a book they do not understand. To my mother, a priest was a wise man who could not be contradicted. I never argued with my mother about that, but I knew she was wrong. As a boy I had visions and knew the priests did not know what they were talking about; but mother could not understand how her little, uneducated boy could challenge that which she considered the wise men, because they could speak Latin and read Greek. But I knew their knowledge came from study, while my wisdom came from vision. Having matured, I have been called and sent to reveal the true Son of God who unifies humanity. We will all know that one son to be our own son, for he will reveal each one of us as God the Father. Jesus Christ in you is God the Father, and David (in you) is His son. The day will come when David will awaken in you, rise in you, and call you Father, giving you a certainty which cannot be denied. Maybe from what you have heard tonight you may change your belief, but you will never know the certainty of Fatherhood until you see David as your son. And when everyone sees David as his son, are we not the one Father?1000 ¶20

Tonight I urge you to play the part of Simon. If you do, you will not be neglecting but helping yourself; for as told us in the story of Job, as he prayed for his friends his own captivity was lifted. While locked in his own desire to free himself of his physical, social, and financial problems, Job forgot himself and prayed for his friends, and in so doing all that he had lost returned to him one hundred fold. As you pray for your friends you will discover your own captivity is lifted; your cross becomes lighter and lighter until finally you are light itself. So take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Ask for no thanks or financial gain in the doing; just know the joy of lifting the cross, for it is being lifted from your own shoulders.1000 ¶21

When I hear that a man’s needs have been provided for and he has become self-persuaded, it is true and it becomes true. I never tell him what I did. I simply revel in the joy and satisfaction of seeing this law of Christ fulfill itself. It never fails when put into practice. Believe in the reality of your own imaginal acts, for faith is loyalty to unseen reality. Have faith in your imaginal act. Although unseen by the outer world as an external fact, your loyalty to its unseen reality will cause the unseen to become seen by the world.1000 ¶22

This is the practical side of this night. You and I can lift the cross from our own shoulders; for as I lift your cross I am lifting mine, and in a way I do not know the burden is lifted from me. Everyone you meet is yourself made visible, for there is nothing but yourself in the world. As you read these passages I have quoted tonight, pull them together and you will have a beautiful mosaic. Remember, when you do it to one of the least of these you have done it unto me, the one the world is seeking. You may see me as an insignificant little man, but I am Christ, the Lord God Jehovah. Lift my burden for even the most insignificant other, and go your way.1000 ¶23

You may not recognise your harvest, as you may not remember the favour you granted another many years ago. Seeing him healthy and financially secure today you may forget what you did, and maybe even he will have forgotten he ever asked your help – but what does it matter? The burden has been lifted. Go forward and play the part of Simon, and the day when you least expect it you will find the symbol of your creative power as a child wrapped in swaddling clothes. And then the 53rd chapter of Isaiah will be fulfilled, as your arm of God is revealed.1000 ¶24

When scripture unfolds within you, you will know a thrill that is beyond ecstasy. Then you will no longer see scripture as secular history. You will know from experience that the story is supernatural, and has nothing to do with history as we understand it. The events spoken of by the apostles did not take place on earth, but in the soul of man as he walks the earth. I have shared with you that which took place in my soul in the hope that I will find a few who will believe me to the point of putting my words into practice. I have unveiled myself to those who believe, and now they are beginning to be unveiled – while the rabbis and the priests who see me as an impostor remain veiled. Even to this day, when Moses is read the veil is on their minds. I pray for all of them because they are blinded to the truth by their refusal to accept any change in their fixed belief.1000 ¶25

I have come to do one thing: to make clear to the entire world who the true Son of God is who will unify the world. Jesus Christ is God the Father and his son is David. When David calls you Father, you will know you are Jesus Christ, the Lord. If I am God the Father, who is my son? David. I tell you, David is not a physical being. It is in Spirit that he calls you Father, and scripture is fulfilled. Everyone will be called Father by the one being who is David, and if he calls you Father and he calls me Father, are we not the same being? Are we not the one God and Father of all? I tell you, without loss of your individual identity, you will know that you and I are one.1000 ¶26

Now let us go into the silence.1000 ¶27

Tonight’s subject is: “Whom God Has Afflicted.” “Whom God has afflicted for Secret Ends, He comforts and Heals and calls them Friends.” In the 1 19th Psalm it says: “This my comfort in my affliction That thy promise gives me life. Before I was afflicted I went astray; But now I keep thy word. It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I might learn thy statutes.” And then we are told in the book of Job, the 36th chapter: “He delivers the afflicted by their affliction, And opens their ear by adversity.” Now, whom does He do it to? To what Being is He doing it?997 ¶1

Well, let us turn to Scripture. The book of Genesis is the “seed” plot of the entire Bible. It is all there, but it is an adumbration. It’s a foreshadowing in a not altogether conclusive or immediately evident way, but it is all in Genesis. And the book begins in this manner: “In the beginning God, ...” and then it ends in this manner: “... in a coffin in Egypt.” “In the beginning God” - “in a coffin in Egypt.” The story is all about God. Everything in the world is God. I am looking only at God masked as I look at you. Behind that mask is God! And the whole thing is done by God to Himself.997 ¶2

So here, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Thy word.” It’s my own word that I pronounced before I came down into this world of “death.” Here is a vision that might aid the understanding of this mystery. She is not here tonight; she gave me the letter last lecture night. She said, “I had this vision. I was Infinite Spirit, and I knew I was Infinite Spirit. There was nothing but my Self. And I desired to go out into the world, although seemingly there was no other place - no ‘world,’ yet I desired to go out into the world, but I knew I had to have form to be seen, to communicate, and I made for myself a box - a long, elongated box - of wood. And then suddenly there was absolute darkness. You can’t conceive of the blackness and the restriction - a complete restriction, as though you could not concentrate or bring oneself to any greater point of restriction than that moment, as I found myself in the box. That was the cause of the blackness and the restriction and the contraction.997 ¶3

“The box could see, it could hear, it could speak, it could move; it could do everything that I willed it to do. And then came that moment in time when I desired to leave it. It came the end. I had experienced what it was to see and to think and to hear in this world of ‘death.’ And then I found myself looking down on what I thought to be my bed. I thought a body was on it, but I couldn’t quite see it because of the crowd around the body. On three sides of the bed were people looking down, bending over; and then one said, ‘She is dead.’ And I thought, ‘Dead? Why that’s impossible! It cannot die. It has never lived! Only when I occupied it - when I was in it - did it seem to live. But it cannot die.’ So they said, ‘The box is dead.’ Why, the box has never been alive - only as I occupied it. Only as I entered into that box did it become seemingly alive. And the shock was so great that I awoke.”997 ¶4

It’s a marvelous vision. We are “wearing” this “box.” Now, the box, in Hebrew - the word translated “box” also means “ark.” It means, also, a “coffin.” So, “In the beginning God,... in a coffin in Egypt.” I am the first and the last, the beginning and the end. So, God actually became man for a purpose beyond the wildest dream of the “box” in which God is now residing. He reached the limit of contraction by becoming man, that He may expand beyond the wildest dream of Himself prior to the contraction. It is a constant expansion of The One Being that is God. And you are that Being!997 ¶5

We are Elohim. We are the gods that came down and assumed the limitation of man, and it is an affliction. But He afflicts Himself! “Thou also sufferest with me, although I behold Thee not... ...And then the Voice answers ... Fear not! Lo, I am with you always, even to the ends of time. Only believe that I have power to raise from death Thy Brother who sleeps in Albion” - in Universal Humanity. So, buried in every one of us is God. His name is I AM, forever and forever. But how will I know that I will awake?997 ¶6

He has arranged the entire return to Himself. He prepared the way for Himself to return, and that way is described in Scripture. It is told beautifully in the Old Testament; but, again, it’s an adumbration. It’s a rough sketch. The New Testament explains it, but man sees it in a strange light. He thinks it is secular history, and it’s not secular history. The whole thing is divine history. You take the story of Jesus Christ. It’s not something taking place here on earth. It didn’t take place here. It took place within man - an entirely different sphere.997 ¶7

Now, let us go back. The story of Job is the story of every man in the world. If you are familiar with the story, he was innocent; he did nothing that really should have caused the horrors that descended upon Job. Read it carefully. But in the last chapter, Job is made to say, “I have heard of Thee with the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees Thee.” And then God, not only forgave him - He couldn’t forgive him; he did nothing that was wrong, but God multiplied his gifts on earth - doubled them. Then all of his brothers and his sisters, and all of those who knew him before came to sympathize with him - they ate bread with him in his house - “for all the evil that God had brought upon him.” These are the words of the 42nd chapter of Job.997 ¶8

Now, the word “Job” means, “Where is my father?” Where is the cause of the phenomena of life? Where is the source of it all? That’s the Father. That is the search of every person in the world. He may not know it, but he is looking for the source - for the cause - for the Father - of the phenomena of life. That’s Job. In the end, he sees Him. Whom does he see?997 ¶9

There is only one way you’ll ever know the Father. You’ll not in Eternity - I can stand here from now to the ends of time, and I could not persuade you to the point of conviction until you have the experience. In the Old Testament, you are told that God is a father, and He singles out one person and calls that one His son. If that one is His son and that one stands before you at the end of your journey, and then memory returns - for it’s only God returning in memory, for we are the gods forming the God, and if in the beginning there was a fatherhood that is God - and fatherhood implies a sonship somewhere - and if that son stands before you, and then suddenly memory returns and you know he is your son, and he knows you are his father, in the fulfillment of Scripture, then - and only then - do you know Who-You-Are.997 ¶10

I could tell you from now to the ends of time that you are God. You aren’t going to believe me. You will say, “If I am God, why can’t I do this, that and the other?” You do not know the purpose behind the affliction - the contraction that you imposed upon yourself. You did nothing that was wrong to bring about this contraction. It was deliberate on our part! We agreed in concert to dream the Dream of Life and to come down into the world of “death” and experience “death,” for we couldn’t in the world of Life - we couldn’t in the world of Light and Infinite Power. We had to contract ourselves to experience “death,” and so we did.997 ¶11

Humanity, as we see it, is part of the eternal structure of the Universe. It’s part of the structure. We actually came down into the part of the structure called “Man” and entered Man, and Man is “death.” And we turn “death” into sleep and dream the Dream of Life. “Infinite Mercy turned Death into Sleep, And then arose the Sexes to work and to weep.” Here we are multiplying this form that is man, but you are not the form that you are “wearing.” We are not this garment. You are God! Everyone in the world is the Immortal God! But this experience is essential for an expansion, and there is no limit to expansion. There’s a limit only to contraction. So, we took the limit of contraction upon ourselves and became man. So, her vision was perfect. She saw that box - an elongated box.997 ¶12

Now let us take the word “temple” in Scripture. First of all, the word “box” or the word as she saw it, an elongated thing called a “box,” which is the coffin, is “aron.” That is the Hebrew word for it, “aron.” Now here comes the word that we translate as the word “temple” or “tabernacle.” It also means a “grave.” So, when I read in Scripture, “Do you not realize that you are the temple of the Living God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you,” I could say, “Do you not realize you are the grave of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you” - the grave? and one day He will awaken in the grave, and one day He will resurrect from that grave, and He will come out of the restrictions that He has imposed upon Himself, for the word is “grave.” The “temple of God” is Man, as we are told in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, his 3rd chapter, 16th verse, of I Corinthians. “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you?”997 ¶13

And the Spirit of God and the name of God are one, and His name is I AM. Can you put “I AM” aside from yourself? You can’t stand apart and observe I AM; therefore, you cannot see God. You cannot see God as you do objects in space, for you are the Reality called God. But you can know God when His Son stands before you, and you know that you are looking into the eyes and the face of your son. Well, that son is David of Biblical fame. Then you will know the words, “I have found David, and he has cried unto me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my Salvation.” Then you will know these words - and the words are put into the mouth of David, “And the Lord said unto me, Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee.” So here you are seen in the relationship of Father-Son, and only as this is actually experienced by the individual does he really know Who-He-Is.997 ¶14

Until then, he is worshiping a false god; he’s worshiping something outside of Self, and there is no one outside of Self to whom you should turn. As Blake said: “... Why stand we here trembling around, Calling on God for help, and not ourselves, in whom God dwells?” He dwells in us as our own wonderful human imagination. That is God! “Babel mocks, saying There is no God or Son of God: That Thou, O Human Imagination,... art all A delusion; but I know Thee, O Lord,” - “I know Thee when Thou arisest upon My weary eyes, even in this dungeon” - in this strange, mortal form “Thou sufferest with me, although I behold Thee not.” No, I can’t see. How can I behold that Reality that I am as an object other than what I am? I can behold objects round about me, but I am the Reality beholding objects. So, how can I behold it?997 ¶15

How do I know Who-I-Am? I will know Who-I-Am only when my son appears before me, and calls me “Father.” I suffered from amnesia when I came down into this world of “death” as you are suffering from amnesia - total amnesia, and you’ve forgotten your Divine Being. You are God! There is nothing in the Universe but God. There’s no room for any being but God.997 ¶16

Back in 1926, in Larchmont in New York, I retired early because I was a guest of the Manager. It was a club - a private club. It was a Saturday night. In those days we had Prohibition; there was no alcohol, but you could always get it. People got it, and this was given over to the children - that is, the kids in 1920 and so on, and they had such wild bands. But the manager of the club - I was his guest; he said, “I don’t think it would be quite the thing to do, as my guest, to mingle with the members and the guests of the members.” Well, I accepted that restraint, and so I went to bed. In 1926 I was only 21 years of age, and I was a professional dancer. I would have loved to have gone out on that dance floor and spend the entire evening dancing; but, no, protocol would not allow it.997 ¶17

And I did a thing that I rarely do, if ever. I read in bed. I took a book; it was a book on the life of Buddha. I turned on the little night lamp on the bed and started to read the book. At what hour I fell asleep, I do not know, but I must have gone out quickly into a deep, deep trance, for when I awoke in the morning - and that music was going all through the night until about 3:00 in the morning, so I was told. I didn’t hear anything, but when I awoke in the morning, the book was on my chest - hadn’t turned in the interval; the light was still on, and the sun was up, and it was 9:00 in the morning. I fell into a deep, deep trance, and in that trance I was Infinite Light. There was no universe beyond me - no stars, no sun, nothing. I was Infinite Light; there was no circumference. I was the “Light of the World.” And by “world,” I did not mean the world measured by the sun and the planets around it. I mean Infinity - pulsing, living, liquid light. And then I awoke, and here was this thing on my chest, and I returned to the contraction of the little body called “Neville.”997 ¶18

So, I know when Scripture teaches, “I am the light of the world,” it’s a true revelation. I also know when it teaches that “God is Infinite Love,” that that is a true revelation. And in spite of all the afflictions that you and I suffer - and others suffer and will continue to suffer - there is a Love behind it all.997 ¶19

Now listen to these words, “No greater love hath any man than this, that he lay down his life for a friend. Though I call you Friends, I no longer call you slaves, for a slave does not know what his master is doing, but I call you Friends, for I have told you everything that I have known from my Father.”997 ¶20

Now we go to the poet Blake, and these words are put into the mouth of the one who just made that statement, and he said: “Fear not. . . . Unless I die, thou canst not live; But if I die I shall arise again and thou with me ... Wouldst thou love one who never died For thee, or ever die for one who never died for thee? And if God dieth not for man and giveth not himself Eternally for Man, Man could not exist.”997 ¶21

So, God dies. He dies by actually giving up the Being that He is, emptying Himself of all that is Him, and taking upon Himself the form of a slave - the form of that “box,” that coffin, and enters that box, and His name is I AM, but He doesn’t stop there in the box. He calls it by a name. He says, “I am Jim,” “I am Neville,” “I am Dora,” “I am Ida,” “I am This,” and so we go beyond His real name, which is I AM, and we put a little tag on it, and we become so identified with the little mask that we are “wearing” that we don’t realize Who-We-Are. And in that interval we are suffering from total amnesia.997 ¶22

And one day, in the fullness of time, He awakes, and He had plotted the entire thing before He started. He had prepared the way for His sons to return, for the Father is made up of the sons. The word “Elohim” is a plural word, which means “God” in the plural sense. But put together, it is the Lord. It is Yod-He-Vav-He, but it’s all the names in the world - everyone in the world. Put them all together, and they form The One God - the one Lord. So, He has prepared the way for all of His sons to return, but this time, when they return, they are God the Father! It’s a complete transformation of the sons into the Father.997 ¶23

And then a new - what is the new adventure? I do not know. Another grand adventure beyond this. When this comes to an end, and the curtain comes down upon it and we all are One, we are no longer sons of the Father; we are the Father. That is the purpose of sending all of His sons, which make Himself into the world of “death.” And then we come out, and we are God the Father because we are the father of the Lord’s only begotten son. And humanity, as far as I am concerned - the forms remain the eternal structure of the Universe. You are not the mask that you are “wearing.” You are God!997 ¶24

For, “Whom God has afflicted for secret ends, He comforts and He heals, and He calls them Friends.” “Before I was afflicted I went astray; But now I keep Thy word And this is my comfort in my affliction that thy promise gives me life.”997 ¶25

Well, the fundamental Promise in Scripture is the promise made to Abraham, “I will give you a son.” It doesn’t state that it is God’s son; it is implied that it is His son. The name is Isaac, meaning, “he laughs.” And when that infant is presented to you, he breaks into this heavenly smile - he laughs - a most unusual, heavenly smile as you hold him in your arms - that infant child. And then the next one is the Son, and he is the youth. He is David. So, the fundamental Promise is the promise made to Abraham, and that was the promise of a son.997 ¶26

Now you and I, if you knew how old you are, you would say, “It’s impossible.” The bodies you “wear” may still be capable of siring or bearing a child, but you are not the body that you are “wearing.” You are eternal. If you knew your age - and you can’t measure your age because you have no beginning; you would say if you actually could know how long you have been on the journey, “How is it possible for one so old to have a child?” But the “child” is part of the “play” - part of the drama that’s recorded in Scripture.997 ¶27

And the day will come, everything said of Jesus Christ you are going to experience in a first-person present-tense experience, and you will know who Jesus Christ is, because everything said of him is going to happen to you. And you will go through the entire story, and then you’ll know who Jesus is. You need not tell it to the world. You need not. You could tell it in the written form. If you are tempted to tell it, you’ll get the same rebuff that you find in Scripture, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” When he came unto his own, they said, “The man is mad. Why listen to him? He has a demon and is mad.”997 ¶28

Anyone who will tell you what I’ve told you this night in a larger crowd where they are not geared to this way of thinking would think me entirely mad, to tell you that you in this Century - bom in the 20th Century - that you are actually the father of God’s only begotten son, and that son is not of flesh and blood. Read the story carefully. He came in spirit when he called him “my lord.” And he said to him, “How can I be his son when he, in spirit called me ‘my lord’?” Not in the flesh - this is not something that takes place in the flesh. While you walk the world in the garment of flesh, it takes place in you, but in a region completely remote from this world.997 ¶29

If I told you at this very moment that you are not altogether sitting in the place where you seem to be before my eyes - you are an infinite being - but how to describe it? How to tell you that at this very moment, while you seem to be all put together and collected in a thought and listening to me, that you are not all here? It doesn’t make sense. Yet I tell you that you are not. You are an Infinite Being.997 ¶30

I do believe those who come here are not far from that moment in time when the drama completely erupts within them, and they will prove that everything I’ve told you is true - everything that I’ve told you, for I’m not speculating. I am telling you what I have experienced, and the story of Scripture is a true story. The Hebraic -Christian faith is the fundamental faith, and all the other little -isms that will lead you astray - forget it! This is the fundamental faith.997 ¶31

Now let us go into the silence.997 ¶32

The body of scripture is the Word of God, which every child born of woman must hear, assimilate, understand, and fully accept. This belief will cause the Word to erupt within him, and as he experiences God’s Word, he discovers who he really is. The Book of John begins: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God: all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. He was in the world, the world was made by him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home and his own people received him not.” Now in the Book of Jeremiah he tells us: “Thy words were found and I ate them, and thy words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.” What was it that Jeremiah ate? The Word. And what is the Word? What did Jeremiah discover to be the truth concerning God? He discovered that God was the human imagination.989 ¶1

Blake tells this story in a simple way in his “Songs of Innocence” as: THE LAMB Little Lamb who made thee Dost thou know who made thee? He is called by thy name, For he calls himself a Lamb: He is meek and he is mild, He became a little child: I a child and thou a lamb, We are called by his name. Little Lamb God bless thee. Little Lamb God bless thee. Although this appears to be a nursery rhyme, Blake is telling a most profound truth: “I a child, and thou a lamb, we are called by his name.” In this poem, Blake is repeating the same story as recorded in the 15th chapter, the 16th verse of Jeremiah, telling us all that the human imagination is the God of scripture.989 ¶2

Listen carefully to this statement by Blake: “Babel (the world with its multiple tongues) mocks saying there is no God or Son of God, That thou, O Human Imagination, O Divine Body, art all a delusion. But I know thee, O Lord, when thou ariseth upon my weary eyes even in this dungeon, this iron mill. For thou also sufferest with me although I behold thee not.” Then the Divine Voice replied: “Fear not! Lo, I am with thee always. Only believe in me that I have power to raise from death Thy brother who Sleepeth in Albion: fear not, O trembling shade.”989 ¶3

The prophet Jeremiah (which means “Jehovah will rise”) is telling us in his 15th chapter that we are called the Lord God of hosts. Man is destined to discover that he is the Lord God of hosts, even though he now wears a garment of flesh and is restrained. Restricted by all the weaknesses and limitations of the flesh, the body you wear decays – but it is not you. It is a mask that you, the Lord God of hosts, is wearing. One day you will know this from experience; and then – no matter what the world will say – you will know the truth, and in that knowing you will be set free.989 ¶4

I have experienced scripture. Even though I continue to wear this garment, which is slowly wearing out and must one day be discarded, I will no longer be restored into another garment similar to this one as I will depart this sphere altogether to become one with the body which was mine before that the world was; and wherever that body is, there is heaven. There is no realm called heaven. You are in heaven by reason of the fact that you wear the body which has awakened within you. It is the imaginative body, and wherever it goes is heaven. Not a thing can remain imperfect in its presence. If you go into hell, instantly (not over a period of time, but instantly) hell is transformed into heaven.989 ¶5

Now, what did Jeremiah mean when he said: “Thy words were found and I ate them”? How can one eat words? One year when I was in Barbados, I visited a mental institution with my brother, Lawrence, who was the doctor there. As we walked down the hall I could hardly believe my eyes, as I saw men tear pages out of the Bible and eat them. They were taking Jeremiah’s statement literally.989 ¶6

But the prophets were inspired and wrote what they heard and saw; yet our early church fathers added to their words in order to conform to the church’s traditions and conventions, completely changing the picture. Let me give you a couple of examples.989 ¶7

The 3rd chapter of the Book of John tells of a conversation between one called Nicodemus – a master of what is considered right concerning God – and one who had experienced God and claimed: “When you see me you see the Father, for I am the Father.” It is he who makes this statement: “Unless you are born from above you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” Then Nicodemus questioned: “How can one who is old once more enter into his mother’s womb and be born?” The answer is recorded in the 5th verse as: “Truly, truly I say unto you, unless you are born of water and the spirit you cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Here we find the words “water and” are not in the original script. They have been added by the early fathers of the church to support their tradition of baptising a child with water.989 ¶8

In the 8th verse, the Lord continues, saying: “The wind blows where it wills and you hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell whence it comes and whether it goes, so it is with everyone who is born of the spirit.” Here the word “water” is not used, and the spirit is likened to the wind. So, as the spirit (wind) moves where it wills, you will hear its sound, but you will not be able to tell whence it comes or whither it goes. This is true with everyone who is born of the spirit.989 ¶9

My mother came to this country when my little boy was two and a half years old, and one of the first questions she asked was if he had been baptised. When she learned he had not, she was shocked, and said: “Suppose he dies. Then he can’t go to heaven.” Mother was struck by the words “water and spirit,” and to her it meant baptism by water; but water hasn’t a thing to do with it. The word was added, as it brings in quite a good income. Although the fathers do not charge for the little ceremony, it is expected that something be given for the event. This is one of the many little indulgences of our churches.989 ¶10

I know, however, from having been born from above, that the wind is correct and the water is false. I heard the wind. It was in my head, but seemed to come from without. I knew not whence it came and whether it went. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit, and it hasn’t a thing to do with water.989 ¶11

Although water and blood are symbols of birth, the statement in the 34th verse of the 19th chapter of John: “When his side was pierced, out came water and blood,” the word “water” was added. Remember, the body of scripture is the Word and the Word is God. The Word is to be eaten by assimilation, and what cannot be assimilated (like the physical world) must be rejected or eliminated.989 ¶12

Starting with the 51st verse of the 6th chapter of John, eliminate the second half of the 51st verse right through the 58th verse, then go into the 59th: “I am the bread that came down from heaven. He who eats my body will live forever. This he said in the synagogue.” In between these nine verses you will find the words which support the holy communion, all added by the early fathers to support the traditions of the church. I have mentioned only a few verses, but I could take you through the entire Bible and show you many places where the words were changed to make them conform to the traditions of the church.989 ¶13

When my mother insisted that my son be baptised, I took him down to an Episcopal minister, where he put a little water on his head. The only thing that happened during that ceremony was that my son got his head wet. It certainly did nothing for him spiritually. But, in spite of the warnings mentioned at the end of Proverbs: “Let no one add to or take from the word of the prophecies of this book,” and Revelation, regarding the adding to or taking away from the words of the book, our early fathers did not heed them. Rather they tried to make the words conform to their traditions and conventions.989 ¶14

The Book of John has many mighty I AM statements: “I Am the light of the world; I AM the bread of life; I AM the door: I AM the way,” but at no time did he ever say, “I AM the convention, or I AM the tradition;” yet, to support the traditions of the church, the early fathers added to the word of God.989 ¶15

I tell you: behind the mask you wear is the only God. Divine Imagination reproduced himself in you as your human imagination; and because Divine Imagination contains all, everything is contained in the human imagination. One day you will awaken to this fact and discover that the world is yourself pushed out, just as the world is God pushed out. As this knowledge awakens in you, you begin to expand in the bosom of Divine Imagination, for you – human imagination and God, Divine Imagination – are one creator. You are eating the body of God as you hear the word. Now assimilate it by dwelling upon it.989 ¶16

Nehemiah tells us: “They read from the word of God with interpretation and gave the meaning so the people understood that which was read.” As you dwell upon God’s word, its meaning will be revealed to you from within. The New Testament is only the fulfillment of the Old. Identifying the word with the bread of life, John is telling us he has fulfilled the statement in Jeremiah: “Your words were found and I ate them and they became a joy to me and the delight of my heart, for I am called by thy name, O Lord, God of hosts.”989 ¶17

Unable to pay rent, buy clothes, or feed your family because of the limitations of the body you now wear, you may find it difficult to believe that you are the Lord God of hosts – but you are. No one imposed this limitation on you; you did it all by yourself. You have the power to lay it down and the power to lift it up again. You did it in order to expand your power and your wisdom, for your journey is one of constant expansion and you could not expand unless you first contracted. You have to reach the limit of contraction and opacity called Man, before you can break the shell to discover your true identity which is contained within that shell (body) you have been wearing. Then you – the God who created the world – will begin to expand beyond what you were when you decided to contract in order to expand.989 ¶18

Everyone will succeed. Not one will fail! Today you may be satisfied with your earnings and the place in which you live in your contracted form; but one day you will eat (experience) the word of God and expand to the awareness of knowing, “I am He.” This will happen only when the hunger for such an experience comes upon you, as told us in the Book of Amos: “I will send a famine upon the land. It will not be a hunger for bread, or a thirst for water, but for the hearing of the word of God.”989 ¶19

The average person is not interested in hearing revealed truth. Yesterday I read a sermon in the paper where the minister said that religion should be rooted in reason. What nonsense! Religion is revealed truth. How could the story of the birth from above be explained logically? How could one like Nicodemus, born from the womb of woman and approaching the grave, be born from above logically? The world thinks “above” is out there – but it is within. You came “out” by being born from below. Only by being born from “within” can you enter the kingdom of heaven. That withinness is from above, and that aboveness is the skull of Man. That’s where the spiritual birth takes place and there is no water present.989 ¶20

If it pleases your family to have the little child baptised, do it; but baptism with water hasn’t a thing to do with entering heaven, for this world does not terminate at the point where your senses cease to register it. When someone dies here, it is because they have departed from the body they are now wearing, but they are still in a terrestrial world just like this one. Everyone is instantly restored to a terrestrial life until they are born from within (from above); then they are restored no more, for they are sons of God who now know themselves to be one with God.989 ¶21

Jeremiah discovered that Jehovah was his own wonderful human imagination. I know this to be true, for he has risen in me, and I now wear the garment in which he rose. It was mine before that the world was. Then I took it off to come into this garment of flesh. While wearing it, all impossibilities are dissolved, as the touch of exaltation which arises in me imparts to my nature; and wherever I go, clothed in that form, is heaven. Blake identified the human imagination with the divine body of the Lord Jesus Christ, saying: “Babel mocks saying there is no God or son of God, but thou, O human imagination, O divine body art all a delusion, but I know thee, O Lord.”989 ¶22

Knowing exactly what he had experienced and how he traveled across the bridge of incident which led him back into this mundane state called the waking world, he knew – when he opened his weary eyes – that he had returned. But in that realm, whatever he imagined happened; and he knew the power of the creator. He knew that all things were made by imagination, and without imagination was not anything made that was made. If you awake in a dream and know exactly who is imagining it, you can control your dream. The same thing is true in this world. Become aware that it, too, is a dream. Awake! Remember who is imagining it, and control your day. Then one day you will completely awake to find yourself in that body which is the Lord Jesus Christ, to know that everything is your imagination pushed out.989 ¶23

The restriction you imposed upon yourself when you came here was for the purpose of expansion, for you could not expand until you first reached the limit of contraction and opacity called man. There are those who tonight will deny my words, but I know the truth of which I speak. When my mother told me of the word of God I believed her; but now I know the word of God from experience. My knowledge is not rooted in reason; it is revealed truth, and when truth is revealed, it is because God has unveiled himself in the individual. Truth cannot be proved logically. It must be experienced to be known; and when it is shared, some will believe and some will deny it.989 ¶24

So when you read Blake’s “Songs of Innocence,” remember: Blake is telling a profound truth in the language of the child that it may be kept alive. Because it is so beautifully told, his words will live forever: “Little Lamb who made thee Dost thou know who made thee? He is called by thy name, For he calls himself a Lamb: He is meek and he is mild, He became a little child: I a child and thou a lamb, We are called by his name. Little Lamb God bless thee. Little Lamb God bless thee.” In this simple poem Blake is sharing Jeremiah’s experience as recorded in his 15th chapter, the 16th verse. The lamb is a symbol.989 ¶25

We took our own life when we entered this world, as we are the universal humanity which Blake calls Albion. We all fell into individuality and diversity. As the one Man gathers himself together, we will all rise, one by one, back into the same one Man who is God the Father. Everyone will be gathered, for the body will not be complete until all are redeemed. You and I are the gods contained in the one God. The Hebrew word “Elohim” is sometimes translated singular and other times plural, as in the great confession of faith of the Hebrew: “Hear O Israel, the Lord (singular) our God (plural), the Lord (singular) is One.” One Lord became numberless gods who are now being gathered back into the one Lord.989 ¶26

It is my hope that I can take from you the things that have been added to scripture, because they confuse the mind. Forget the word “water.” You are not born of water and the spirit. Yours is a spiritual birth, and no physical baptism has anything to do with it. If it pleases the family, baptise your child; but don’t think that because someone put a little water on its head that it had a spiritual experience, because it did not. Everyone will, however, experience the real baptism, when he will stand in the presence of the Risen Lord, to be embraced into his body of love.989 ¶27

Then he is sent to experience God’s Word, for “My Word cannot return unto me void, but must accomplish that for which I sent it, and prosper in the thing for which it was sent,” and God’s Word is Himself. Penetrating your brain and annexing your body, God – now believing himself to be you – is going through the afflictions of the world as you until he awakens, in you. Then you will see the world as nothing more than yourself pushed out. And if you don’t like what you see, you change it within yourself by changing your attitude towards it. As your attitude changes, so does your world, for everything is within you. Then, one day, you will awaken to enter into and become one with the garment that was yours before the world was – to be one of the watchers from above, contemplating the world of death and eagerly awaiting the return of all your brothers.989 ¶28

You and I were before that the world was. We still are, but we do not recognise one another. And when this world ceases to be, we will all be enhanced by reason of the experience of coming here and conquering death.989 ¶29

What I am telling you, I know from experience. I am not speculating or theorising. In the world of Caesar I am weak and limited; but I know what I have experienced and I cannot deny them. I know exactly what I had for dinner this night. I cannot deny the food I ate, any more than I can deny the visions I have had revealing my true nature – and I know that everyone is going to have them. When, I do not know. The day and hour remain the secret of the Father in you, for he will not awaken until he has accomplished his purpose. Having sent himself into the world clothed as you, when he awakens, you are the Lord God Almighty – but still restricted until you take off this fleshly garment of the actor, hang it up, and depart this stage forever.989 ¶30

But while we are here, we are given a law whereby, through its operation, we may know who God is. The law is simple. It is stated many ways, one of which is: “As a man sows, so shall he reap.” As you imagine you are the man (the woman) you would like to be, you are sowing that imaginal thought in your mind. To the degree that you are faithful to that assumption, you will reap its fruit in your world; but first you must know what you want. You may not desire the wealth of a Rockefeller or the fame of a Richard Burton. I certainly have no desire for that kind of money or fame; but if someone tells me they really want it, I will pray for him that he has it.989 ¶31

Everything here is fading and will one day vanish; but the immortal you who does not function in this world, will live forever. Everything you have ever accomplished here will disappear, leaving not a trace behind; but the being of whom I speak is perfect, and functions in a realm of perfection. There can be no blind, no deaf, no halt, no limitation whatsoever in that realm; rather, as you glide by, everything is transformed into the perfection that you know yourself to be. That is heaven. Heaven is not a locality but a body, a character, which – as it moves in the universe – it transforms everything into the perfection it knows itself to be. That then becomes the realm for the time, until it is left for anyone else to occupy, as it moves on to perfection elsewhere.989 ¶32

When you read the Book of John, don’t think of eating the body of a physical man or the pages of the Bible but the Word of God, which – having heard it with interpretation – you eat it by dwelling upon it through the act of assimilation. You cannot grasp it all at once. Certain portions you may not be able to digest, so reject it for a while. Eventually you will eat the entire loaf as my friend saw it, as alive, pouring forth blood.989 ¶33

The beautiful imagery she saw in her vision is telling her that she has completely accepted the truth, and knows that all things spring from her own wonderful human imagination. She has eaten my body and drunk my blood through her acceptance. Now she knows she doesn’t have to go to church to have a little wafer and drink a sip of wine to eat the body of God. Rather, she knows she is doing it by accepting the fact that imagining creates reality. She may falter in proving it in the testing, but she has completely accepted it. That’s why the symbol came to her in a vision which she can always fall back upon.989 ¶34

Now she knows that she cannot pass the buck by blaming her husband or her children, but must turn to self and say: “No man takes my power from me, I lay it down myself. And no one comes to me save my Father calls him, for he and I are one.” Someone may be a rascal and take from you what is yours; but when you know that imagining creates reality, you will acknowledge that no one could come into your life unless you called him. And he could not have taken from you unless you – by your attitude towards life – had allowed it. The world is yourself pushed out, and you either control it or you don’t.989 ¶35

That’s the story of scripture. There is no other God other than your own wonderful human imagination. If, when you speak of Jesus Christ, you mentally bow your head (if not physically) do the same thing when you think of your imagination, for that is he. Imagination is the Word of God who is God Himself. The world was created, is supported, and sustained, by your own wonderful human imagination. Change your imagining! Believe the change into being and you will live in a wonderful world of life.989 ¶36

Now let us go into the silence.989 ¶37

Now let me share with you a story I read two weeks ago in the New York Times, the magazine section. It was written by one who was imprisoned on the island of Amorgos in the Aegean Sea. He was a Greek imprisoned by the present regime that has taken over Greece, the generals. He was under house arrest and he was watched twenty-four hours a day. He was allowed to leave the house for a restaurant and by doctor’s orders to go for a certain walk after he had signed in at 6 PM with the police. Every morning at nine he had to sign in at the police and at 6 PM to return and sign in. Then he could go for a walk. These are his words, he said, “I began to imagine the scene in the village of horror the day after I escaped.” Then he imagined, “The elderly would be drinking coffee at nine in the morning, and then the cobbler would have opened up his doors for business, and then the scent of fresh bread would come straining through the windows of the bakery. By 9:30, because I had not registered, they would inquire of the one who had always sat in the public square dressed as a civilian looking at my apartment, and he would tell them that he had not seen me…I had not come upon my balcony. By 10:00 they would come to investigate themselves and then they would knock down the door. Then by 10:30 it would be, well, the news would scattered abroad and all would know that I was not there. Throughout the day the villagers would pass in their silent way, secretly but in a knowing way look one to the other that he isn’t here. That night they would gather in secret around their little shortwave radios listening for news from abroad of my escape. And so, I began to imagine that scene. The scene that gave me the greatest happiness was the scene when they all would know that I had escaped.”987 ¶1

Well, it came to pass, and he wrote his letter. His name is George Mylonos. It was on the 26th day of October, this last month that that letter appeared in the New York Times magazine, the Sunday issue. It all began in his Imagination. He was there for 409 days. At first it was only a dream, only a daydream. Then in the end he began to really do something about it. Now he told a story—which I will question because he wants to save the other prisoners on the other islands, also on the mainland—concerning exactly how he did it. Oh yes, there were physical means, but the means came into being as a result of his imaginal activity. To attempt to change circumstances before you change your imaginal activity is to struggle against the very nature of things.987 ¶2

For this world in which we live is a world of Imagination. You are all Imagination and God, your reality, is all Imagination. Divine Imagination has reproduced himself in the human Imagination; therefore, all things exist in the human Imagination for all things exist in Divine Imagination. Is it really true? Well, test it! He did.987 ¶3

I wonder how many people who read it only two weeks ago would relate his escape to his imaginal act? They would read the letter, but what percentage of them would read the letter anyway? Because the New York Times weighs pounds…it’s about that thick…and so you would spend the whole day and not cover it, depending upon your interest. Well, how many would even see it? But here, this simple letter occupying not more than a page—it’s on three pages, but only one column to a page, so put together it would only take up one page. How many would read it? And of those who read it, what percentage would relate his imaginal act to his escape? And that’s exactly how he escaped.987 ¶4

Now you don’t have to be a prisoner on Amorgos. You could be a prisoner financially or socially. You could be a prisoner in a thousand ways, physically in health. Now, will you do the same thing that he did and imagine the scene that would take place the day after your escape? The day after it is heard that you do not have what you thought you had and others heard that you had; the day after you are not financially embarrassed and that you have all that it takes to live graciously. The day after…and you just mention anything in this world. Always go to the end; the end is where we begin. In my end is my beginning.987 ¶5

So I go to the end…the day after my escape. Then I imagine the scene that would take place. He thought, “Well now, the elders would be having coffee at nine, the cobbler would be opening up his doors at nine. Then the odor of the bread, the fresh-baked bread would be coming through the windows of the bakery. By 9:30 they would notice I had not signed in. By ten o’clock the police would call to ask that plainclothes man who always sat in the square looking up at my apartment, and he would say ‘I didn’t see him and he did not come on his balcony today.’ By ten they would investigate and getting no response they would break down the door. Then the villagers would know it…and that was my greatest thrill!” That’s where he started, letting the villagers know it in his mind’s eye. This is all in his Imagination.987 ¶6

Now, you have friends…or if you don’t have friends, which would be a horrible thing if you didn’t…but you do have friends, and your friends know your present position in this world, the conditions that surround you. Maybe they’re pleasant and you’d like to perpetuate them. But maybe they are not pleasant, maybe they are not exactly as you would like them to be. You start with letting your friends know—not verbally, not outwardly—all in your Imagination. You see them seeing you as they would have to see you if things were as you desire them to be. You start there, the day after they know that things are just as you want them to be and then you let them see it. In your mind’s eye they are seeing it and you start there. Then ways will open that you do not devise. No one knows how it’s going to happen, but in a way that no one knows it will unfold and you will fulfill it. You’ll walk across a series of events, some bridge of incidents that you did not consciously devise which will take you from where you are in prison to your freedom whatever that end is…whether it be health, wealth, or in his case, an actual physical escape from a life imprisonment.987 ¶7

Because, as long as the present regime reigns in Greece, these political prisoners would be under house arrest.987 ¶8

So here, you can verify it. I read it and I now share it with you. It’s the 26th day of October in the Magazine section of the N. Y. Times. I think, if my memory serves me correctly, it begins on the 16th page. So it’s not long. It’s a very thick magazine because all these issues especially now coming into the fall when all things are being sold for Christmas, and the magazine is now three times its size and the paper is three times its size. But I get it every week and it comes on Wednesday. And here, a man, a simple man, political prisoner of the current regime, wondered what it would be like if these things were true.987 ¶9

So I tell you, “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.” When this God awakes within man, that man in whom he awakes is clothed with everything said of God in the scripture. It is said of God that he is the light of the world; it is said of God that he is love; it is said of him that he is the power of the universe and the wisdom of the universe. May I tell you, when you awake (and you will) you’ll be clothed with power and wisdom and light and love. And those who have eyes that are open into the inner worlds, open into the eternal worlds of thought, into eternity, will see you clothed as God. There is only God in this world.987 ¶10

So God is begetting himself: Divine Imagination is reproducing himself in human Imagination. And when he reproduces himself in the human Imagination, that being in whom he is reproduced awakens and he is clothed as God himself is clothed. When you see him, you’ll see him clothed in light, in love, in power, in wisdom. Everything said of God in the Bible will be said of you by the one who sees you. But if the eye is not open, they do not see you and they only see the little garment that you wear with all the weaknesses of that garment, all the limitations of that garment. You will wear it in a world that is limited not quite fully inheriting what you really are while you’re still tied to this. For your heavenly inheritance is not completely actualized, not fully realized by you while you’re still in the world of flesh and blood and tied to a garment of flesh and blood.987 ¶11

But at night when you sleep and you are detached, you are in the world of eternity. And those who have eyes will see you functioning in that world. You are fully conscious of what you are doing. But when you return you come back through a quick series of events, strange little things that pull you back to this waking surface of the mind. And then you continue to tell your story. Tell it over and over in the hope that all that hear it will believe it. But one day they will believe it, because one day they will all experience it. Everyone will experience it and not one in eternity will fail.987 ¶12

Let no one tell you that anyone is going to fail. They can’t fail for the whole thing is reproduced in us. There’s no abracadabra about it. You don’t earn it, it simply awakens within you in good time.987 ¶13

So here, he started by simply imagining what the villages would do.987 ¶14

And can you put yourself into that place? Here, under house arrest because you’re for the king, the legitimate ruler of the island of the place of Greece. And then came the junta; the generals who had their own ambitions, their own desires, and so they ousted the king, sent him off to Italy, him and his family. Then they took over and imprisoned all opposition.987 ¶15

They’re all intelligent, brilliant minds, and they were all under house arrest as they are today. If they only would see the secret of the story, not the means by which he escaped.987 ¶16

Because God is infinite in his creative power and he doesn’t have to duplicate the means: “I have ways and means ye know not of; my ways are past finding out”. So don’t try to duplicate the means; the means are not your concern.987 ¶17

But the technique is our concern, so listen only to his technique. Because what he said happened I question…because he is saving others who are going to read his letter and they are all tuned into the fact that he has escaped from the island of Amorgos. He is now in Europe, a free man, who undoubtedly will be given asylum in this country and tell his story to the world maybe in a book form. But forget the story of the means…that does not interest us. Give me principle! What did he do? The means follows the principle, and what he did, he simply imagined a scene which would imply the fulfillment of his dream.987 ¶18

I create a scene in my mind’s eye, but the scene must imply the end, not the means. “So I see faces and they’re all my friends and they’re all gathered around the little shortwave radios, and they do it in secret because these are outlawed. They must not listen to outside areas, only what they pump into their controlled press and controlled radio, but not the shortwave that would bring in the outside world to tell me what happened. So they’re all gathered together quietly, secretly, and they’re listening and here comes the news from France, from Italy, from America, saying that George so-and-so has escaped the island of Amorgos. That’s all that he wants. And the thing that thrilled him the most was when that news came through.987 ¶19

Not the elderly people drinking coffee…that happens every day; not the odor that comes from the bakery, that happens every day; not the cobbler opening up his shop at nine in the morning, that happens every day. But this: ‘they all know that I have escaped…that doesn’t happen every day, for I have been there for 409 days.’” But this day is different and that gave him the thrill of his life!987 ¶20

So I tell you, start now…don’t delay it. Start now to create the scene which if true would imply the fulfillment of your dream. And there is no power in the world that can stop it!987 ¶21

Because our Lord is Father, and our Father is our potter, and we are all the clay in his hand. So, “‘Arise, and go down to the potter’s house,’ said the Lord to the prophet Jeremiah ‘and there I will let you hear my words.’ So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the thing in his hand he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand. But he didn’t discard it, he reworked it into another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to do”.987 ¶22

FROM THE PRISONER OF AMORGOS. To the Editor: While I was still in exile on the island of Amorgos, I sought to imagine the scene in the little village of Hora the morning after I escaped. On the square below my house, the elders would be having coffee. The cobbler would have opened his doors. Through the baker’s windows you would smell the fresh bread. By 9:30 many villagers would have noticed that I was half an hour late to sign in at the police station. By 10 the police would have sent for the plainclothes informer who usually sits in the middle of square under a tree bearing the ironic emblem, “Long live the nation.” He would say he had not seen me, that I had not appeared on my balcony. They would probably debate whether or not to send for me, and in another half an hour they would surely be at the house, knocking at first in order not to give themselves away if they should find I had innocently overslept, then beating down the door as the truth dawned on them. Within a few moments the whole village would know. I think that was what I enjoyed imagining most— the villagers exchanging silent, knowing glances all day, then, that night, gathering secretly around their short-wave radios.987 ¶23

For most of my first year on Amorgos, my escape was simply a dream. Gradually, I began to formulate a plan, and finally that plan became a reality.987 ¶24

The New York Times had something to do with that, for Nicholas Gage’s article, “The Prisoner of Amorgos”, contributed to my final decision to make the attempt. I had given him that interview because I thought it was high time that attention should be called to those of us Greeks who have been dispersed all over the country, living in forlorn little villages, subjected to the ordeal of isolation and constant police surveillance. I believed we would stay in exile as long as the junta stayed in power, and I felt it necessary to strike back—on behalf of all of us—with the only means at my disposal.987 ¶25

At the same time, I was under no illusions as to what countermeasures the regime would take against me. My mail was censored, but it still provided a link—however tenuous—with the outside world. In addition, I was allowed to receive books and newspapers, and, although I had not been specifically granted permission, I listened to the short-wave radio. All these privileges could be denied. But most important of all, the burden of my isolation had been lightened by visits of members of my family. If these were cut off, my isolation would be complete.987 ¶26

That was why I was certain, as soon as it was confirmed by the Nicholas Gage interview, that I had to escape from Amorgos some time in September, or not at all.987 ¶27

The plan was my own, and I formulated it in cooperation with Greek associates working on my behalf, both within the country and abroad. The main problem was that I was constantly observed by the police or their informants, and after dusk there were two or three people watching my house in shifts.987 ¶28

But I thought that habitual actions would be the best camouflage. My doctor had suggested that I take long walks, and I had acquired the habit of doing so on the barren footpaths around the village. The police were understandably loathe to follow me, if, for no other reason, in order not to show that they were so concerned. They would simply see me off and wait for me to return, and, in the meantime, they would be content to ask a passing villager the direction in which I had gone.987 ¶29

Near the village of Hora, where I lived, the south coast of Amorgos is a sheer, almost solid piece of rock, dropping over 1,000 feet to the sea. From one point along the top of this cliff, some two miles from the village, you can see a small cove — almost the only cleft in the impenetrable coast — where a launch might possibly be put ashore. It took me about 45 minutes to reach the cliff, where another footpath lead down to the sea. I never dared try it for fear of arousing suspicion, but I calculated that it would take me at least half an hour to make my way down.987 ¶30

If I left for my walk just after my 6 o’clock sign-in, as I did every evening in the summer, I could arrive at the shore at roughly 7:15. At about the same time, about the same, a motor yacht with out lights could draw in under the cover of darkness and lower a boat.987 ¶31

My part of the plan depended only on me, and no one on the island was involved in it. But the others working on my behalf had to find a boat with a captain and a group of non-Greeks to pose as tourists on an Aegean holiday. This led to unforeseen eventualities, because the person who put them in touch with the owner of the boat turned out to be an Italian journalist.987 ¶32

We had hoped to keep all of the details of the escape secret, not only to protect the people who were involved in it, but also to leave the way open for others to escape. Imagine the effect on the authorities if they should know nothing, if I should simply be there one day and gone the next, to reappear some time later in Western Europe. Imagine the effect on the morale of the other exiles. If it could be done once and the details kept secret, then it could be done again. Suppose exiles began disappearing off the Greek islands one by one. From the point of view of resistance to the junta, the effect would be devastating.987 ¶33

In any case, I am grateful to my Italian friends, for they came along without motive or self-interest and with implicit faith in the direction of my Greek associate. He treated them strictly according to the rules of clandestine activity, and they did not know either his name or mine until we were already out of Greece.987 ¶34

For my part, when I received the signal that the plan was in operation, I did not know what arrangements had been made. When the boat arrived finally, I more or less expected the Greek to be aboard, but as to who the others would be, or even what language they would speak, I had not the faintest idea.987 ¶35

By that time, it was a race between the appearance of Gage’s article and the appearance of the boat. To make matters more difficult, I did not have any way of knowing how either one was progressing.987 ¶36

I knew the article had not appeared on Sunday, Sept. 14, because I had contact with the outside world after that date and I would have heard about it. As the next Sunday approached, the days became ever more crucial. By the next Saturday, I was speculating wildly. If the article were to appear the next day, perhaps I still had a few days to go. Perhaps the consul general in New York, George Vranopoulos, who had the reputation of being the junta’s watchdog on the American community, might be out of town. Perhaps, after all, he did not read The New York Times Magazine and would not see the article until someone mentioned it. At that point, I was relying on bureaucratic inefficiency.987 ¶37

The danger was not only that increased restrictions might be imposed and that I might be prevented from taking a walk. I might simply be taken for interrogation to the police headquarters in Santorini and thus miss the rendezvous when the boat arrived.987 ¶38

The following week, I waited each morning to overhear the villagers talking about the arrival of a yacht in the port below. By this time, I was waking up every morning hoping I would not sleep in Amorgos the following night.987 ¶39

Finally, to my horror, on Saturday, Sept. 27, I heard “The Prisoner of Amorgos” on the Paris radio. Now I had no doubt that the Greek authorities were aware of it. I only wondered what had taken them so long to act. Perhaps the order was already sent to the main headquarters in Santorini and would shortly be relayed to Amorgos.987 ¶40

From that day on I could not present myself at the police station to sign the register without apprehension, and I was thankful when the officer at his desk did not lift his head to greet me.987 ¶41

When the day arrived, it almost took me by surprise. On the morning of Oct. 2, I heard no one talking about a yacht. I was even a little late for the rendezvous. It was after 1 o’clock when I walked into the little tavern where I had eaten every mid-day meal since coming to Amorgos over a year before. The tourists were sitting at a table in the middle of the room, three young men and a young lady with long blond hair. We hardly exchanged a glance. I suppose they recognized me from photographs they had seen. I recognized them because, according to our plan, one of them was holding a book with a black jacket.987 ¶42

The title, in bright red lettering, which I knew before reading it, was “The Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson.” There was not a word exchanged between us.987 ¶43

I ate quickly and went home to put my house in order. I had rehearsed the next few hours so often, I hardly had to think.987 ¶44

Before 6 o’clock I signed the police register for the 409th consecutive day, and then set out for my evening walk. After dark the police could see the light in my house, and they probably assumed I had returned by another path. At about 7:20, I stepped aboard the motor yacht and we were under way.987 ¶45

GEORGE MYLONAS.987 ¶46

Eschatology is the doctrine of the last days. It is the dramatic end of human history and the beginning of eternal salvation. When you, an individual, arrive at that point in time, human history and the appearance of the Son or man (who is God) come together. This will happen in you after the tribulation of human experience, and of that day and hour only the Father in you knows.985 ¶1

Although God the Father appears to be another, He is your very Self, as His spirit is in you. Were this not so, you could not commune with Him or He with you. He tells us to: “Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth. Bring them all who are called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” You were created for God’s glory. His glory will not be given to another, therefore you must be the one who created you. This you will know when you experience eschatology. It comes at the end of human tribulation, when all of the parts have been played. Therefore envy no one, the part they are paying, for you have either played it already or you will play it, for you cannot come to this dramatic end until you have played all of the parts, and of that day only the Father within you knows.985 ¶2

Eschatology was predicted and was fulfilled in vision. Always bear in mind that all of the stories recorded in scripture are visions. The Book of Isaiah begins: “This is the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos.” He tells you it is a vision and the sixty-six chapters do not deny it, modify it, or in any way contradict his words. We speak of the visions of Obadiah, the visions of Ezekiel, and are told that: “The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.” These are all visions, not secular history at all. In the 42nd chapter of Isaiah, we read: “Behold, the former things have come to pass and new I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.” A literal rendering of the first part of that verse could be: “The former things, behold they have come, but man will not believe the individual who experienced them.”985 ¶3

Jesus Christ is not a man. He has revealed himself in me and will reveal himself in all even though the world is looking for something entirely different. The visions of the prophets will unfold in individual man when he enters the state called Paul. And when you enter that state, your mystical experiences will reveal the end of your tribulation of human experience and your entry into the kingdom of God. The entire eschatology of the Old Testament is the coming of Jehovah. He came, but - expecting a physical person to come from without, they would not believe him. But Jehovah comes only to fulfill what He had predicted through his prophets, saying: “Behold the former things have come and are here now.” The former predictions of the prophets become your experiences of the one who fulfills scripture, for man fulfills the prophecy of himself in the last days.985 ¶4

God, prophesying what he would do through his prophets, entered into the limitation of and took upon himself the restriction of man. The power and wisdom to create emptied himself of all that was his and, taking upon himself the form of a slave, was born in the likeness of man. Spirit became obedient unto death, even death upon the cross of man. And when an individual man told the story of how the prophecies unfolded in him, no one would believe his story.985 ¶5

So today we still have that fundamental rock called Israel. Their calendar year is now approaching 6,000, because to them He has not come. It is only when eschatology comes to the individual does his BC turn into A.D. The Jew will date their letters as the year 1969 because it is part of the world of Caesar, but believing Jehovah has not yet come, in his faith, the Jew keeps alive the long passage of time. But Jehovah comes in an entirely different way. He inspired the prophets to record the visions the individual will experience, personally.985 ¶6

Now if God - being Spirit - is known in a vision, what must you do to experience Him? You must reenact the drama within yourself! The resurrection takes place within. The birth foretold to Abraham takes place within. The three who bear witness to the birth are not seen approaching, but suddenly appear within. And the story of the serpent in the wilderness is fulfilled within when you become the serpent and ascend into heaven as the Lord God Jehovah.985 ¶7

Who would have thought - I know I didn’t - that the story recorded in the 22nd and 53rd chapters of Isaiah would be experienced in one night? Remember: when the prophets recorded their visions they were written out, but not paragraphed or made into chapter form. In fact, they were not even punctuated and often one word flowed into the other. It is man who has taken the manuscript and given it punctuation, verses, paragraphs, and chapters. In the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, the question is asked: “Who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”985 ¶8

One night in vision I found myself in a room much like this one. I was seated on the floor facing twelve men, explaining the word of God when one quickly rose quickly and departed. As he left, I intuitively knew he was going to tell the authorities what he had heard. Then a tall, handsome man about 6’4” tall, dressed in costly robes, entered. Because of his importance we all rose and stood at attention as he walked straight as an arrow to the end of the room, turned right, walked to the end, turned right again and came down the center to confront me. Taking a mallet and a wooden peg, he hammered the peg into my right shoulder. I felt every blow, yet it was not painful. Then he took a sharp instrument and with one quick, circular motion he severed my sleeve, tore it off and discarding it, he stretched out his arms forming the cross, embraced me, and kissed me on the right side of my neck as I - in turn - kissed him on the right side of his neck. And as the vision faded I saw the severed sleeve. It was a lovely shade of baby blue. His robe was costly, but mine was the priceless robe of light, light blue.985 ¶9

So now I know whom I have believed, for that night the arm of the Lord was revealed in me, and the 53rd chapter of Isaiah was fulfilled as well as the 22nd chapter of Isaiah. In this chapter we are told that he puts a peg into the shoulder of the one he has chosen, and on that peg all of the burdens of Israel are hung until the peg is broken. Then the utensils of the temple fall, for he has played his part.985 ¶10

Eschatology will never be understood as long as you look for someone on the outside to fulfill it. It an only be understood when you, personally experience it. Then you will tell your experiences to those who will listen, and some will believe you while others will disbelieve.985 ¶11

Eschatology is not the end of the world, as people believe. This past year a crowd left California and moved to Georgia and parts east, believing an earthquake would suddenly appear which would completely inundate us, and for the first time in recorded history, the east experienced an earthquake which shook twelve states. What does it matter if an earthquake comes when there is no death? The individual who seems to die, in truth is restored to life in a 20-year old body to continue life in the environment best suited for the work still to be done in him. Cast in a role he has not yet played, he will continue life as we know it here, until he has played all of the tribulations of human experience. Then and only then will he arrive at eschatology - the day of the Lord - and only the Father knows when that day will appear.985 ¶12

I don’t care who you are - you are destined to experience eschatology, for it was God’s purpose to give himself to you and God is able to fulfill his purpose. He created you to radiate his glory and be the express image of his person. You cannot stop God from fulfilling his purpose, but you will not arrive at that moment called eschatology until you have played all the parts - be they good, bad, or indifferent.985 ¶13

So I say, envy no one. It doesn’t matter what they have done, are doing, or will do; do not envy or pity anyone, for you have either already played that part, or you will. The Bible records every conceivable evil in the world that man could do to man and describes it openly. And you have played, or will play, every part before the last days come upon you, and in that day, events of scripture will unfold in you in a dramatic form imaginable. You will be possessed and find yourself the center of the entire Bible. As scripture reveals itself in you, you will discover from experience that you are the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you share your experience with others, they will question how a little nonentity who suffers and has nothing the world he would brag about could dare to make this bold assumption. They will think of you as blaspheming God, just as they accused him, claiming he blasphemed by stating, “I and my Father are one, that when you see me you have seen the Father; that if you really knew me, you would know my Father also, but you know neither me nor my Father, for my Father is playing the part that I am.”985 ¶14

And then one night in vision, I fulfilled the 42nd Psalm. That night, in vision I found myself leading an enormous crowd in gay procession to the house of God as a voice rang out: “And God walks with them.” A woman at my side asked the voice: “If God walks with us, where is he?” and the voice replied: “At your side.” Turning to her left she looked into my face and, laughing hysterically said, “What, Neville is God?” and the voice replied, “Yes, in the act of waking.” Then the voice spoke in the depths of my soul, saying: “I laid myself down within you to sleep and as I slept I dreamed a dream. I dreamed...” and, knowing exactly what he was going to say, I became so excited I actually nailed myself upon this body in the same manner tradition tells us he was nailed upon the cross, but it was not a painful experience. Six vortices, each an ecstatic, joyful feeling, hold me here. Now I know that no man took (or takes) my life, for I lay it down myself. I know I have the power to lay it down and the power to take it up again; for I, God the Father, deliberately took upon myself this limitation upon myself. When I heard the voice that night say: “I laid myself down within you to sleep, and as I slept I dreamed a dream,” I knew he was telling me that he was I and when the dream is over and he awakes I would be He, radiating His glory and bearing the express image of His person.985 ¶15

This is not for me alone, but for all. Listen to the words: “The glory that thou gavest me I would give to them that they may be one even as we are one.” I have told you of the glory that is now mine, thereby giving you the glory that we may be one. I in you and thou in me, that we may be made perfectly one. I have made God’s name known to you and I will make it known that the love by which I am loved may be in you. Not less love, but the same love, so that the whole may become one love!985 ¶16

In the end everyone will experience the whole Bible and tell it as I am telling it now. A few will believe but the majority will not. That’s all right, for all of the tribulations of human experience must be fulfilled, with no omissions. Today you may be one of the so-called beautiful people, possessing inherited wealth. You may be one of the ten best dressed women and spend a quarter of a million dollars on clothes to create the part you are playing. But tomorrow, even if you haven’t played it, you may play the part of a scrub woman, for every part must be played before you can arrive at eschatology. Having played every part as recorded in scripture, when I aw a man betray me I knew I had played the part of the betrayer, for I have fulfilled scripture. Everyone must play it all, if not on this stage, then on another, for when you leave this set on the stage of life, although you are no longer seen by the audience here, you are not dead, but have entered another stage in the great theater called life, to continue the work that is still to be done in you, until all of the parts in the play have been played.985 ¶17

Eschatology is not the end of the earth, but the end of human history and the beginning of eternal salvation. It is the abrupt cleavage between this world and the transcendental world of God. It is your entrance into an entirely different world where you radiate God’s glory which you create by your very being, for you are now the Father. God the Father created you to radiate his glory and bear the express image of His person in that world. I cannot describe it because there are no images on earth to aid me. Life there is entirely different from this one, for there you are not some little pygmy, but God Himself, completely equipped to do it all!985 ¶18

So if you condemn someone, the chances are you have not played the part he is playing, but will play it tomorrow, for condemnation simply moves you closer to the fulfillment of what you have condemned. Let no one judge you and don’t judge another, for you know too much now. It is my hope you have played all the parts and that tonight your eschatology will come.985 ¶19

Sacred history has been brought to its climax, and fulfilled in Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ in you is the one who does it. Addressing God as “O righteous Father,” he said: “I in them and thou in me.” Now, if God the Father is in me, and I am in you, is He not in you also? Yes, God the Father is in you and Christ, his God’s creative power, is in you as the pattern man who must fulfill scripture. The plan was made for, and erupts in Christ - the Christ in you. He is your hope of glory, for you are the one spoken of as Abraham. In the state called Abraham the promise was made that you would have a child. So what part are you playing then the child appears?985 ¶20

Abraham looked up to see three men standing before him. He thought they were messengers of the Lord for he did not realize he was the Lord himself. It is said he did not see them approaching. They came so suddenly. And when the prophecy is fulfilled your attention is diverted for a few seconds by an unearthly wind, and when you look back those that you did not see approaching are sitting where your body was, for your body is now gone. The body has been removed because you only wore it for a little while, but while you wore it something happened in you.985 ¶21

Now a lady wrote this past week, saying: “In my dream I was shoveling dirt. Although it seemed as though I was digging in the earth, I knew I was digging in my own brain.” That’s a lovely vision and a true one. Everything takes place in the brain - the earth, for man is made up of the dust of the earth, so her vision was perfect. She was digging in her own brain. For she is on the verge, although I cannot tell her the day or the hour, for only the Father in her knows.985 ¶22

If you will read the Book of John - which differs somewhat from the synoptics, you will discover that John pinpoints the day the vision will occur, stating that the birth, followed by the resurrection, will take place between 6:00 P.M. on Sunday and 6:00 P.M. on Monday. That is when it happened in me. I went to bed on Sunday evening about 11:00 P.M. and awoke, was born from above, and resurrected at 4:00 A.M. on Monday morning. You will follow the same pattern. Having entered the world before the coming of Jehovah, you entered the world from B.C. And when it happens your world turns into the year of the Lord, A.D.985 ¶23

The Old Testament is crowded with eschatology - the coming of Jehovah. He came but was not recognized because it was not what people expected. But He is coming in your world and you are going to fulfill scripture. When you realize you are the central character of the Bible, you are going to feel so wonderful. I cannot tell you the thrill that is in store for you when you experience everything written there. Even though it has happened to others, scripture is all about you, because in the end there is no other. In that day, you will know that I dwell in them and thou in me, and we, all gathered together are perfect in that one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all.985 ¶24

You will not have a different son from the speaker. We have the same son. When I tell this to priests, rabbis and ministers, they throw up their hands in holy horror and claim I have taken all of their religion from them. What they have been taught is true on a certain level of awareness, but I am speaking from experience. I have experienced scripture. I know it is true, but it is not what the world teaches. Jesus Christ is God the Father and Jesus Christ is in you. One day you will find out that you are God the father and because you are you will produce a son to bear witness to that fact. Now no one knows who God the Father is, except his son who comes into your world to reveal you to yourself. And when he appears you don’t have to ask him who he is; the minute you see him you know exactly who he is and he knows who you are. There is no uncertainty as to this relationship. To know that you are God the Father, yet while you remain here in the world of Caesar you will continue to wear the little garment that suffers, as all garments do. But after you have experienced eschatology and leave this little garment behind, you will no longer be restored to life, for you will have come to the end of human history.985 ¶25

In the Book of Acts it is said that Paul remained at home, talking from morning to night about the word of God and the kingdom of heaven. It does not say how Paul departed, in spite of tradition where they claim he was a martyr. Paul was not murdered. The word “martyr” means “witness”. He was a witness, yes, a witness to the truth of God’s word, for the word is true, and someone had to witness it. So when it happens to you, you will tell it. You may not speak from the platform, as I do, but you will tell it. You can’t restrain the impulse as we are told in Jeremiah: “If I say I will not mention him or speak any more in his name, there is in my heart, as it were, a burning fire and I am tired of holding it in and I cannot.” It’s simply something within you and you cannot stop telling your story. You will be compelled to make known unto them God’s name and the love by which you are loved, that that same love may be in them.985 ¶26

Now, Jesus Christ does not stand before himself and call himself Father. God’s only begotten son, David, stands before Jesus Christ in you, and calls you father as he called me Father. Then you will know we are the same Jesus Christ. I can say to every one of you: you are going to have this experience and know from experience who you really are. There are not a lot of Jesus Christ’s running around. There is only God the Father. If I am the father of God’s only begotten Son as told me in the 2nd Psalm and you have the same experience, then you and I are the same Father. And if the whole world has the same experience - and they will - then we are the one God and Father of all, are we not? So John’s prayer is that all will become one as he has become one Father.985 ¶27

And he speaks of the glory recorded in Isaiah, saying: “The glory thou gavest me, I have given them.” God didn’t keep a little glory for himself and share the rest. It’s the same glory, because there cannot be another. So in the end there is only one God, only one Lord, only one Father, and only one Son and you will be the Father of that son, as I know I am the Father of that one and only son. This is eschatology - the arrival of the end of the tribulation of human experience and the beginning of eternal salvation.985 ¶28

And, although you may not remember, you had to have played every part in this world to arrive at the fulfillment of scripture. The blind man, the deaf man, the poor man, the rich man, the beggar, the thief, the murderer, the betrayer, the betrayed - you name it and scripture has mentioned it. You can’t name one vile or evil state that is not described openly in scripture. And you have played them all, or you will. I think you who come here have played them all or you would not be this constant. You would find something far more interesting tonight, raining as it is, than to be here. So in the not distant future you will be fulfilling scripture and experiencing the thrill of the events s they happen.985 ¶29

Today we watched the inauguration of a new president. It was a marvelous production, but it pales into insignificance compared to the dramatic quality that possesses you when scripture unfolds within you. Can you imagine waking and coming out of your skull as one coming out of a womb? Then five months later finding your son who calls you Father? These two different events are recorded in the 9th chapter of Isaiah as: “To us a child is born; to us a son is given.” The child appears to bear witness to your birth, and the son is given to witness your Fatherhood. You may think the child and the son are the same, but they are not. They signify two dramatic events within you.985 ¶30

I am sure our new president felt thrilled to be sworn in by our chief justice, but the thrill you will experience when scripture unfolds within you is far greater, for these experiences belong to the transcendental world of God, and not to this mortal world of history. Can you imagine the thrill that possesses you when, like a fiery serpent, you ascend into heaven and it reverberates like thunder? Having played that part of one in generation, you are regenerated and all that you have ever done is forgiven.985 ¶31

I have shared my visions of the last days with you. They will come, but only after you have experienced all the trials and tribulations of human experience. Don’t try to remember them, for God, in his infinite mercy has hidden the memory from you for a purpose and in the end it is all washed away anyway. “Though your sins are as scarlet they shall be as white as snow,” so it really doesn’t matter. But I urge you to condemn no one, for you have played the part he (or she) is now playing or you will play it. It’s a horrible play, but in the end when eschatology unfolds within you, you will understand the meaning behind it all. Now let us go into the silence.985 ¶32

We have been talking about God’s law and God’s promise. God’s law is conditional. You cannot be in one state and not suffer the consequences of not being in another state, and you and I are free to imagine any state in the world, and imagining that state we can occupy it. Occupying the state, we fertilize it; having fertilized it, it has its own appointed hour for fulfillment. “Every vision has its own appointed hour; it will flower; if it seems long, wait for it - it is sure and it will not be late.” Some things will grow overnight, and some things will grow in a week, then in three weeks, and then in a month, and some things will take years. It could be a problem over which we seem to have no control. We have told you the story here, where on one occasion it took five years, but oh! the joy of reaping the fruit then. It was the relationship of a mother and son-in-law. I have told you unnumbered stories where it took intervals of time, but it doesn’t matter, if we apply the principle.984 ¶1

Now today if you read in the headlines: “England denies union with Europe,” and you may be inclined to resent De Gaulle - restrain your resentment. I was born and raised a Britisher, born under the Union Jack. All my family are still living under the Union Jack. I am very proud I was born with that background, a rugged, rugged background of Scotch, English, and Irish. My forefathers were from Cornwall, that rugged English setup. I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. They were adventurers when they ventured and re-adventured across all the seas of the world. Nothing could be more clear than my background.984 ¶2

Last Sunday in the English paper, there came a little note, held in the secret archives of the British foreign office for forty-three years. It was dated, May 1, 1920, not yet made public to anyone, but conceived by the British minds in the Foreign Office. They conceived it and wrote it. De Gaulle didn’t write it, no Frenchman wrote it - they wrote it, but they didn’t think it wise to make it public on the first day of May, 1920, which was only a matter of a year after that frightful First World War, when England’s flower of manhood was slaughtered in the trenches. The universities were empty and all the brains of England went down. Then came the Second World War and after four weeks, France collapsed, collapsed like a little paper doll. And England - and England alone - held until America came in, but she held it alone, or today there would be no France. There would only be a unified Germany under Hitler. We know that. And so today you are inclined to judge too harshly, for his attitude, the one who made it possible for today to have a France.984 ¶3

Let me quote now from this memorandum, dated May 1, 1920: “We must not insist now or in the future on the friendship of France. Nothing can alter the fundamental fact that they do not like us in France and never will...” I am quoting accurately: “And they never will, except for the advantages of the French people as they can extract them from the English.”984 ¶4

Now a Frenchman didn’t write that. Englishmen wrote that from the Foreign Office, which is like our State Department, for they determine foreign policy. That was considered judgment of the brains of England of 1920, and it took forty-three years to hatch out.984 ¶5

So having read it in the English press printed last Sunday, and requoted here in Monday morning paper, I can only give praise to the Lord God that he is completely impersonal. It doesn’t matter whether he is an Englishman, Frenchman, American, or Russian - it is only law. If that is what they believe, that is what they are reaping: the law of identical harvest. They believed it and checked it in the secret archives of the Foreign Office, and then forty-three years later out comes the opposition - when you would think (judged by human levels) that anything in this world that France would have done, would be to welcome with open arms England, who made it possible for there still to be a France today. But England planted the seed and planted it firmly and it was watered over the years.984 ¶6

And then comes one - God never forgets, he can’t forget, he watches all, he sees all; nothing is hidden from God, he sees exactly what you are doing. “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, every man in his room of pictures?” We think that no one sees us. I say: nothing is hidden from God. If it had not been printed in the English papers on Sunday, you and I would not know that some English group had planted it.984 ¶7

I am an American by adoption, but I cannot rub out my love of England. All the physical blood that flows through me comes from Scotland, England, and Ireland. A little bit of Holland Dutch got in from my mother’s side, for they were rugged individualists too, living on dykes (living on water, really). But though physically I would like to resent it, I am happy I saw it. I knew that somewhere the seed had been planted, for you can’t have something grow in this world and not have a root from which it springs.984 ¶8

So I ask you: knowing this law (for those who did it, know nothing of this law which you know, which is the law of falsification of the record) - had they known the scriptures as you know them: the story of the unjust steward, keeper of the pigs, and the pig is the symbol of Christ. I have told you my vision of the pig. I found him and then came the growing of the pig, but I hadn’t fed it as well as I should have fed him in the interval of discovery, and when I saw the same pig years later I found it . . . What did I find? I found that imagination creates reality, and in the interval of that discovery that imagination creates reality, I forgot it, so he was not well fed.984 ¶9

But I always remembered that imagining creates reality. No matter what you tell me in fact, I would actually change the fact, for truth depends not upon fact, but upon the intensity of imagining. The real record is my memory. Functioning on this level, it takes a little while to persuade ourselves when reason denies it and our senses deny it. Were we functioning on higher levels, everything would be immediately subject to our imaginative power. On this level it takes a little while, and so it takes persistence, it takes patience, it takes diligence. These are the things we pay, the price we pay for the fruits we are seeking to reap in this world.984 ¶10

Here we always bear in mind the distinction between states and the occupant of the state. You are an immortal being occupying a state. That state may be poverty, wealth, health, sickness; it may be to be known in this world or to be unknown - but they are only states. You are neither known or unknown - you are immortal; you are neither rich or poor - these do not really define you at all. You can assume that you are, and to the degree that you are persuaded you are, you bear the fruit of that state - but you are neither rich or poor. You are immortal, destined eventually to inherit the whole vast universe, for it is God’s purpose to give you himself as though there were no other in the world, just God and you - and not even God and you - just God, and you are he. That is the purpose.984 ¶11

Listen to these words: “Holy Father, Keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” The name he gave me is his name, and he is addressed as, “Holy Father.” How could he give me the name of “father” - “Holy Father” - unless at the same time he gives me the Son who makes me a father? I can’t be a father and have no son. There must be a son to bear witness of my fatherhood. So he gives me his Son, his only begotten Son, and in doing this he gives me fatherhood. The “Holy Father keep them” (those who shall be brought to that level) “in thy name,” is the name that he gives me - the same name, your name, you give to me. What is the name? The name is “father.” And he does it in the most marvelous way: he presents his only begotten son and no one tells you who he is. You know who he is, and you know he is your son, and you know that he is not only your son, but he knows you are his father.984 ¶12

At that very moment you inherit the glory that is the Father; but the glory of this heavenly inheritance - which is the whole vast universe - cannot become actual, or at least not fully realized in the individual, as long as he is in this physical garment. But when he takes it off for the last time after that experience, automatically he is one with God the Father: “That they may be one, even as we are one.” And that is every child’s destiny in the world.984 ¶13

But you pass through all kinds of trials and tribulations, and he gives us a law - a law by which we may live wisely and happily. As we are told: “Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the Lord, for in all that he does he prospers.” Not in a few little things, but in everything that he does he prospers - if he knows.984 ¶14

Were you sitting in that cabinet forty-three years ago when this decision was brought in and typed and filed, if you knew what you know today and you sat there, you would say to the gentlemen: “I know gentlemen, these are the facts based upon reason.” It is like they hate, as you hate the man who feeds you, because you are embarrassed to be fed, so after a while you are waiting to get even. You don’t want to be fed, and so when he keeps on feeding you, you feel yourself a slave. As a slave feels his power, he wants to cut the throat of the one who fed him. That’s automatic.984 ¶15

So if you were there you would have said: “Gentlemen these are the facts, but let us now modify the facts, let us falsify the record and rewrite that memorandum, and let us persuade ourselves that they love us, that we can one day become a unified body - all of us - regardless of the differences of tongues, and let us file that report.” Maybe they would not have done it, but one individual in that group would have done it in his mind’s eye.984 ¶16

But they didn’t know what you know. As we are told: “The wise men of old, the prophets and the kings would have given anything to have heard the things that you have heard and to see the things you have seen, and they did not.” And so in our State Department - or the Foreign Office of England, or in the foreign office of any power in the world - they are not hearing what you are hearing. This doesn’t make sense to them; they must be rational beings and play the game as they played it for unnumbered centuries, with all the mistakes and replaying all the silly things all over again. I tell you: don’t forget it, because God doesn’t forget it, and we create by our imaginal acts.984 ¶17

What are you tonight imagining? I don’t care what it is; one day you are going to be shocked beyond your wildest dreams when you see the other side. Like the story of “Lazarus laughs.” He returns from the dead and all the values were changed, and the rich were poor, and the poor were not poor. All the values on this side were completely reversed on that side and everything was changed when Lazarus returned, and he laughed at some things we are doing here. So I tell you: don’t forget God’s law, for “Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the Lord, for in all that he does he prospers.”984 ¶18

Now tonight you take it, though everything in the world denies it. Reason denies it, your friends will deny it, and you dare to assume you are the man - already the man, already the woman - you would like to be, and that things are already what you would like them to be. And as you dare to assume that you are, and you walk in that assumption just as though it were true, in a way that no one knows you will be led across a series of events toward the fulfillment of that assumption, and no power in the world can stop it if you are persistent in that assumption. Believe that imagining creates reality. “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will.” Just as simple as that - but how to believe that I receive it? If at this very moment I believe that I have received what today I deny, I would look at the world differently. I wouldn’t see it prior to that fulfillment. I would now mentally look at the world, and I should see it as I would see it, were it true that I have become the man I want to be. I would commune with my wife, my daughter, my friends, from that assumption, and though no physical thing in the world could force me, I still should persist in the belief it is done, and carry on that assumption, and sleep in the belief that it has taken place just as though it were true. And if I do, may I tell you: I know from experience it will come true on this level.984 ¶19

It is already true the very moment I believe it; at that moment is the creative act. But man’s memory is very short and he doesn’t remember the act, so when he reaps the harvest he denies that it is his. He didn’t plant it, and yet we have a law established in the very beginning called the law of “identical harvest.” “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” Everything will bear according to its nature; it cannot bring forth other than its nature. That which ye sow ye reap. See yonder fields! The seasum was seasum, the corn Was corn. The Silence and the Darkness knew! So is man’s fate born. So when I reap these things in the world, I may deny it and try to argue my way out of it, but it confronts me and there it is. It would not have been brought into the world were it not planted as it was planted, because there it is, there’s the fruit.984 ¶20

And so if today I am unwanted by the world, sometime in the past I must have felt very sorry for myself and felt unwanted. I feel they should really want me, because I had been so kind to them in the past. After all my kindness, this is what they do. Then I feel a reaction, then I feel unwanted. That’s what nations do, individuals do, families do - don’t you do it! Do God’s law. God’s law is no respecter of persons. He doesn’t care whether you are an American or Russian or Chinese or African. He made all and he is sunk in all and the same law operates in all.984 ¶21

We are all one and eventually we will all awake, and our name will be one and our name will be “father” - “Holy Father” - looking at our own beloved son, and his name is David, the only begotten son and there he is and you are his father. And if I am his father and you are his father, then we are one. If the whole vast world becomes the father of the only begotten son, then we are one - though we are individualized.984 ¶22

May I tell you from my own visions: you haven’t the slightest concept of what is in store for you - the beauty, the joy that is yours. You are not this. If you want any comfort or any slight vision, read the 1st and 8th chapters of Ezekiel. You get a glimpse of what is in store for you, for the being spoken of there implies it is God - the only God - is you. And for all the identity of your person, your face will be glorified beyond your wildest dreams. We will be glorified; nothing will be left impermanent. I will recognize you and you will recognize me. But - for all this identity of person, there will be a radical discontinuity of form.984 ¶23

The vision of Ezekiel saw a glimpse of it. As he describes it: “Then I beheld, and, lo, a form that had the appearance of a man; below what appeared to be his loins it was fire.” I’ve seen it - it is a fire - a glorious burning, liquid, golden light. “And above his loins it was like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming bronze.” He’s right - no stomach, no need for any of this; you now know, for you are life in yourself. You don’t need any cure from outside yourself. You are a life-giving being - a seraphim - that is your destiny. Everyone is destined to be that being, though human in face, human in hands, human in feet, but nothing else. You are a fiery being. You differ as much from what you appear to be now as the butterfly from the caterpillar, and yet out of the caterpillar comes the butterfly. Out of this will come the being you are destined to be, but not until you are made perfect and all these things we are going through. It takes all of it to hatch us out, as it were.984 ¶24

But you apply the law. I was reading today that in the day of Coolidge (which goes back into the twenties) there were eight men who met in Chicago. They had a greater wealth among the eight of them than the national income from taxation of this country. Within eight years, seven of them either died in poverty, or were in prison, or committed suicide. Seven of the eight. Their names were not mentioned, but together they controlled greater wealth than our national tax produced, and yet within eight years seven had made dishonorable exits from the world - suicide, prison, and right into the dregs of poverty.984 ¶25

Don’t you do that! Know this law and use God’s law wisely, hurting no one in the world, just assuming you are the man you want to be, just as though it were true. Your friends will argue with you, but you don’t argue back. Let them argue if they want, but you persist in the assumption that things are as they ought to be and go about your business, telling to others what you want to. In fact if you are inwardly convinced of it, you can’t restrain the impulse to share it with others.984 ¶26

As Lord Lindsley said to a group of ministers once: “You ministers are making a mistake. In your pulpits you are arguing for Christianity and no one wants to hear your arguments. You ought to be witnesses. Does this thing work? Then share it with the rest of us.” That’s what I have been trying to tell you: how it works.984 ¶27

When it comes to the promise, I share it with my visions. You can’t misuse it, for that is unconditional. The law—yes, you can produce the results, because that is conditional. You get into a state, remain in a state, and it produces a result. When it comes to God’s promise you cannot produce it; God gives it to you, it’s grace, it’s unconditional. And may I tell you: all that is said in the scriptures of Jesus Christ, one day will be said of you. It’s the model of every child born of woman - everyone will play that part. Don’t be concerned - the crucifixion is over. Don’t think you are moving towards that disastrous end - it’s over. Listen to the words: “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” So the death is over; the resurrection takes place individually, one by one. Don’t be concerned about the cruel end - that is over. Let your hope be fully placed upon that gift, then you are resurrected from the grave - for you are going to be, every one will be.984 ¶28

In the meanwhile play fully and grant to everyone the good he asks of you, without putting your hand in your pocket. Grant it by an imaginal act on your part. Try to be as faithful as you can to that imaginal act; believe in the creativity of that imaginal act, and as you do it, they will all become the embodiment of what they asked of you.984 ¶29

Bear in mind what we told you earlier. These great nations led by wise men did not hear what you are hearing, and if they heard it they didn’t have ears to hear it, because they didn’t act upon it. They were convinced they were unwanted, and then, in time - all visions having their own appointed hour - that vision flowered, and today they are reaping the fruit of a seed they themselves planted forty-three years ago. But don’t be carried away tonight when you read the headlines or listen to the radio, that the ungrateful Frenchman did so and so; they had no choice in the matter whatsoever, if you know this law. He was pushed up to play the part he is playing because England planted the seed they planted.984 ¶30

They could tonight plant another seed, and be so welcome tomorrow that they would simply embarrass the French to offer. It could be, if they only knew how to plant the seed. They could plant a seed of being welcome and wanted in that wonderful body of men, because they are wonderful. They have all given so much to the world. The French have, the Germans have, the Danes - all of them. There isn’t one in that huge combine that haven’t given so much to the world. And so they could with open arms bring them all in, and they could make a bigger world.984 ¶31

But someone has to plant the seed, and I am glad that someone printed that in the “Los Angeles Times.” It came out only the day before in the English “Times” and I quoted it accurately. It not only said that this would not be changed - it was fundamental, a fundamental fact they were unwanted, unwelcome - but they would always be. That’s a stupid concept. There is nothing “always.” The only thing that is eternal and always, is that you will get God’s gift - which is himself. Outside of that there is nothing fatalistic in God’s world. The only fatalistic thing is given to us so clearly stated in the Book of Romans when he calls us one by one: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.”984 ¶32

So we are foreknown and predestined, predestined and called, called and glorified, glorified and then justified. That is the only predestination that I can find. Yes, there are other passages, but that hasn’t a thing to do with you being rich. You aren’t predestined to be rich and you aren’t predestined to be poor, to be known or to be unknown - that is your choice. But when it comes to the other, that is God’s predestined gift. He’s going to give you himself. God is determined to give us - all of us - himself, as though there were no other in the world. Just God in you and God in me, and then just God - individualized. And not in eternity will we be absorbed into a God, losing our individuality - never. I am individualized, you are individualized, and we tend forever toward greater and greater individualization - and yet, God.984 ¶33

Now let us go in to the silence.984 ¶34

Listen carefully to this story. It is taken from the first chapter, the third verse of the book of Joshua. Here it is: “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you.” Do you believe it? Well, I know it’s true. I have proven it. And this story is meant not for the outer you. It’s meant for the inner you. Most men aren’t even aware that there is an inner you—a real you. In the New Testament it’s put in this manner: “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned.” We are told the first man, that is the outer man, is of the earth; the inner man, the second man, is the Lord from heaven.983 ¶1

Now this book from which I’ve read the quote is the book of Joshua. The word Jesus is the Greek form of the word Joshua; they are identical in meaning. They mean literally the same. And all the promises of the Bible are addressed to that inner man, that second man, that is the Lord from heaven. Not the outer man. The outer man is limited to the essence of his senses. He is limited to what they will allow, to what they dictate. But the inner man has no limitations: “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, the same give I unto thee.”983 ¶2

Now let me show you how it’s done. For I was confronted with what seemed at the time to be an enormous problem, an impassable barrier between myself and my objective. I hadn’t seen my family in Barbados for the entire war years. So, the first ship out of New York City to sail for the Indies after the war was over, I sailed with my little family to Barbados. We took a boat that took us to Trinidad, and from there we flew to Barbados. On arrival my brother asked me when I intended to return to America. For this was 30 January, and after returning home after so many years I would like to remain until maybe the end of April and return around the first of May.983 ¶3

Then he said to me, “Of course, you arranged for your return while you were in America.” I said, “No, I didn’t.” He said, “Neville, how could you have left America—that is the capital of the world, everything goes on there, especially in New York City, and if any passage could be arranged, certainly it should have been done in New York City. Do you realize that there are literally thousands, tens of thousands of people, waiting all through the islands for passage to America? And little Barbados has nothing to offer. There are only two ships that fly the waters: one sails out of Boston carrying 120 passengers, and one sails out of New York carrying only 60. And I am told that all space, all available space, is already committed, right through the month of September. And here it is January. Not only the space is committed, but there are actually thousands of people on a waiting list. If you put your name down with your family of three, you are at the bottom of the list—it will take two years to get out of here.”983 ¶4

I didn’t tell him what I’m telling you now. I didn’t wish to disturb him. Because he didn’t know or was not familiar with this technique. I made no effort to book passage; I simply put my name on the bottom of the list. But I wasn’t concerned. It was January, and I am in Barbados for vacation, so I do not need to be concerned and spoil my vacation for lack of passage. I wanted to get back to New York City around the first of May. So this is what I did based upon this knowledge. At the very end of March, I saw the ship that sailed for New York leaving the bay. I had a good mental picture of what she looked like, a small one. So that day as I returned to my hotel after lunch I sat in a nice easy chair in my room, and this is what I did.983 ¶5

I knew that if the inner man could perform an act then the outer man would be compelled to duplicate it. For whenever the action of the inner self corresponds to the action that the outer self must take to appease desire, that desire must be realized. So I made as lifelike and vivid a representation as possible of what I would see and what I would do and what I would hear were I physically present on that ship.983 ¶6

Well, I knew one thing that I would have to do if I sailed. In Barbados there is no deep-water harbor, that is, not as yet. So all passengers must take a small little ship from the harbor, and move off maybe a mile or three-quarters-of-a-mile to sea; then your little ship is latched alongside of the big ship and a gangplank is lowered and you walk up the gangplank. That’s one act I would have to perform if I sailed on that boat. I could perform it as a visitor, but the emotions of someone who actually lived there differed from the emotions of someone who was only visiting.983 ¶7

So, I had to adopt a sort of mixed emotion; for it was a peculiar sort of scene: I was leaving a very wonderful and large family behind that I had not seen in six years, although I was returning to a home that I loved in New York City. I was happy to get back, or to be sailing, but I was sad at sailing—that sort of feeling that mixed together joy and woe. As the prophet said: “Joy and woe are woven fine, a garment for the soul divine.” So I knew exactly what he meant: the experience of mixing these two emotions into something that was a sweet, sweet sorrow.983 ¶8

So, with my picture in my mind of what I would have to do, I sat in a chair like I am sitting here. I first induced a dream state, and the reason for that is this: We are told in the book of Job, “In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, in slumberings upon the bed, then He opens up the ears of men and sealeth their instruction.”983 ¶9

Well, I knew the one who would sealeth was within me, for God is in man, not on the outside of man. God is in you. So the one in me would have to be my own wonderful I-Am-ness. That’s the God in man, man’s consciousness. And that inner man is his son, his only lovely begotten son, which is my imagination.983 ¶10

Well, sitting in that chair I induced a drowsy state—that dreamy, drowsy state that borders upon sleep. But you induce it only to a certain step; if you carry it too far you go to sleep. And then you lose the control of the direction of your attention. That’s something you must always maintain, and it must be under your control, not the control of another. So I had to induce it but only to a certain point, and just before I slept I arrested that state.983 ¶11

You may say that consciousness is likened to an ocean or to a tide. It ebbs and it flows. The ebb tide is the very moment when my critical faculties are being exercised; I know exactly where I am seated in the studio and what I am doing. That is not the state of the flow tide, when I do not know what I am doing, which is the unconsciousness of sleep. But between these two extremes—of the flow tide of unconsciousness of sleep and the ebb tide when all the critical faculties are being exercised—there are any number of intermediary states between these two extremes. I wanted a state that borders upon sleep.983 ¶12

So because I’m thinking of a tide, I recall now that the high tide lifts a man easily off the bars of the senses, where he has so long been stranded. So I was stranded upon my senses, for they told me I couldn’t get out of the island. All that I heard my brother tell me, my father tell me—they confirmed my senses. For here I am stranded on the bar of my senses. But I knew I could lift myself off of what they knew, and what my outer man knew, what my critical faculty knew, and actually sail away to my place in New York City.983 ¶13

So all I wanted to do was to perform an act that would actually imply that I was there. With that clearly in my mind, I took myself into the easy chair and induced the drowsy state, and just before I lost control of the direction of my attention I started the action in my imagination. And this was what I worked out: I felt that if I walked up the gangplank and it seemed to me real, and then on the top of that ship holding the rail I could look back at the little town of Bridgetown and have that feeling of sadness—and yet a sweet sadness because I was happy that I was sailing.983 ¶14

So I assumed I stepped off onto the gangplank, and then step after step right up the entire gangplank, making it as natural and as real as I possibly could. I gave every step all the solidity that I could muster—all the sensory vividness that I could actually bring to play upon that action. When I got to the part of the imaginary stairway, which is the gangplank, I became aware that I had wandered from my task. For I had set myself a task to walk up the gangplank, while holding the gangplank. Then I found myself completely gone. I was not on a ship. When I became aware that I had simply floated away from my objective, I brought myself back to the very first step on that gangplank.983 ¶15

And there I went over and over again. I did it over and over and over until that action took on the tones of reality. When it seemed to me normal and naturally real, I then felt that I was actually performing it in the right way. So I kept on doing it and then I went sound asleep in the act of walking up the gangplank.983 ¶16

This was on a Thursday afternoon, I would say about 2:30 to 3. The next morning, Friday at 10:35, the Alcoa Steamship Company called me and offered me passage on the next sailing, which was the twenty-first day of April, putting me back in New York City on the first of May. And so I know from my own personal experience that this thing is true. That “every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, the same give I unto you.”983 ¶17

If you could now conceive of what you would do were you in possession of what you want to be in this world, and then having conceived it so that it’s clear to you, a vivid representation of exactly what you would see and do, well then do it. Do it over and over until it seems to you real. And while you are doing it in that dreamy, drowsy state, allow yourself to slip into the deeper sleep in the act of doing it.983 ¶18

When you wake the next day or five minutes later—in my case I woke maybe a half-an-hour later—I was inwardly rehearsed in what would take place. All the people who played their parts, the steamship agent, and all the people who did it on the ship, they were bystanders in my dream. I made my dream so real, and because of their physical presence they became related to my dream. And because they’re related to it, they were drawn into my drama and had to play their parts. I didn’t think of the captain’s name or the steward’s name or any person on the ship who might be sailing as a passenger. I didn’t concern myself with how it would happen. I knew it would have to happen. And in less than twenty-four hours I had confirmation of my passage as I sought.983 ¶19

As an outer man seeking I couldn’t find, but the inner man can find. This is based upon the simple principle that whenever the action of the inner man corresponds to the action that the outer man must take to, I would say, realize his dream or to appease his hunger, that must be done in the outer world. I know it.983 ¶20

So when I returned to New York City I told my experience to my audiences at Town Hall. A man present said to himself, he didn’t say it to me, he said to himself, “I’m going to disprove this principle. I’m going to do it tonight,” and this is what he did: He hadn’t climbed a ladder in years; there was no occasion for it. But that night, because he hadn’t climbed one in years, he thought he would do that, for there was no occasion for climbing a ladder. So he sat in his easy chair, and he took this imaginary ladder, and up he climbed the ladder. He did it over and over, climbing the ladder until he went sound asleep in the act of climbing up a ladder. Four days later, he visited a friend he hadn’t seen in years. And she asked him, as a gentleman, if he wouldn’t mind climbing a ladder and rearranging a picture beyond her reach. He didn’t realize what action took place until he was on the very top of the ladder and saw the evidence. When it dawned upon him that he had proven the principle he became so emotional he almost fell off.983 ¶21

Now don’t you try to disprove it. Don’t climb a little ladder in doubt. If you hope to disprove, you will prove it. Rather, put yourself into some big, noble state, be a wonderful man, a wonderful woman, whoever you are. Be noble. Construct a little drama which implies the fulfillment of your dream. And then do it over and over and over, and make it natural. And I promise you, “Wherever the sole of your foot shall tread, the same give I unto you outwardly.”983 ¶22

Now after a moment from my sponsor I’ll be back with an incident that is by far the most interesting case history I could tell you this day.983 ¶23

As I told you, if an action is needed you must turn to the inner man and the inner man must do it. I told the story you just heard in San Francisco. A blind girl was in my audience. And she was faced with a problem. Although blind, she was earning a wonderful, wonderful income. But there recently came the rerouting of the buses and she found herself spending two-and-a-half hours one way on three buses. For being blind, I tell you now, when I say blind, her eyes are removed; there are little plastic eyes when you look into her eyes—they had to remove them years and years ago. So, in her predicament, getting off one bus she must wait and hope that someone is passing by and, seeing her limitations, can help her across the street. So she crossed herself and after two weeks she could not make it in less than two-and-a-half hours. And in previous days when she had only one bus to take she made it in fifteen minutes.983 ¶24

So, that night this is what she did. She sat in her living room and she first of all investigated what it would cost by taxi. That was completely out of the question. She thought in terms of giving up her apartment. But all the things that she thought of rapidly, she couldn’t put into effect. She came to the conclusion that going from her place to the place she worked in a car was the only solution. She couldn’t afford a chauffeur and she couldn’t drive, for she was blind. But a car seemed to her the only solution.983 ¶25

So this is what she did. Sitting in her living room in a nice easy chair, she assumed that she was seated on the front seat of a car. She felt that the person next to her was a man. Then she felt the rhythm of the car. Then she could smell the gasoline. Then she felt the car move. She felt it stop for what she thought would be a red light. Then she felt the car move on. She finally came to the end of her imaginary journey. She turned to her companion and said, “Thank you very much, sir.” To which he replied, “The pleasure is all mine.” She got out of that car and then she imagined she heard the door click, as she slammed in her imagination the door of the car. And then she walked up the plank leading to her office. The next night she did it all over again. She did it until it seemed to her that she was actually in a car; she could actually see herself in a car and riding the streets of San Francisco, stopping in front of her office building, getting out, thanking her driver, and then making her way up the ramp.983 ¶26

The second night, right after she had done it and given it the tones of reality, her companion read her the evening paper. And there in the evening paper was the picture of a man who was interested in blind people. Having read the article, she thought she would call him. She looked his name up in the telephone directory, and found his name and called him. He said he was interested in the blind, as said in the paper, but this was no time or place to call him. If she would write him a long, detailed letter of the nature of her problem he would take it under consideration. She sat down and wrote him a letter and explained her problem—simply a problem of transportation.983 ¶27

Next day when he got the letter he simply read it and put it in his pocket. On his way home he stopped in at a place where he stops every day before returning to his home. And that happened to be a bar. He stopped in at a bar. He knew the proprietor and had his little martini, or whatever he had, and while he was there he was prompted to tell the blind girl’s story. Having told the story, a total stranger, who was a salesman for some liquor house, overhead the story. And he said, “Well, I make a good living and I do nothing for this community. Here is a girl who not only is taking herself off the backs of taxpayers, but in her letter she states that she is training nine other blind people to earn their own living. Here this girl, who should be supported by the taxpayers, earns her own living and she’s taught nine others to earn their living; and I, who earn a wonderful living, I do nothing for our community. I will drive that girl to work.” The man who received the letter said, “If you, a total stranger, will drive her to work, I, who am interested in the blind and make it my job, I will then take her home.” And that was the bargain.983 ¶28

Now that’s almost three years ago. I saw that girl just about six months ago and she told me that it has not failed one day of a five-day week. Five days a week, one gentleman picks her up and takes her to her work and one takes her from work to home. And here is the strange part. The very first morning that she drove with one of these men, she turned to him as she got out of the car, and she said, “Thank you very much, sir,” to which he replied, “The pleasure is all mine.” The identical words that she in her imagination had used to make the scene seem natural were used the very first day. Now, it was twice she did it—on the third day she was being driven to work.983 ¶29

I say to you if she can do it, and if the speaker can do it, you can do it. I have done it a number of times and I teach others to do it. It is a simple, simple technique. You must learn to believe in the inner man and the reality of what is to you at the moment an invisible realm. This invisible world is not really unreal; it’s the most real world imaginable. And the inner man related to it is a far more real being than the outer personality that you cling to and think so much of in this world. Trust. These things will never fail. Whenever the action of the inner you corresponds to the action that the outer you must take to appease your desire, that desire will be realized.983 ¶30

For this whole wonderful world of ours is nothing more than the appeasement of hunger; that’s why we built it. We made it to satisfy our longing. You have some intense longing, some wonderful hunger in this world. It may be for a job, it may be an increase of income, it may be some wonderful, harmonious relationship in a home that is now strained. No matter what it is, construct a little act, this action inside, that your dream has been realized, then take that action and inwardly do it over and over and over until it takes on the tones of reality. When to you it seems natural, then you may sleep.983 ¶31

But I do believe in that sleeping during the action. In some strange way it seems to hasten the interval between the doing and the realization of it. Of course, you don’t have to sleep. But I have found from experience that if I can fall asleep while I am performing the action—the action that implies the fulfillment of my dream—that I quickly collapse the time. In Barbados, it took me less than one day to have passage on a ship, although the ship was not sailing for another twenty-one days. Still, I knew I was going to sail on that ship. I had tangible proof; I had the passage in my possession. This girl took maybe two days. Although she was driven on the third day, she really only did it two nights: two nights sitting in her living room she assumed she was in a car; she could smell the gasoline; she took all of her attention and hallucinated it—you can hallucinate sights, smell, touch.983 ¶32

I can take my hand now, place it on this book, and assume that I am fondling something that is not here to be seen by anyone. And so lose myself in it that to me it seems natural. If I do it until it seems natural, and sleep while I’m doing it, do you not think it will become my posession? That’s how everyone should live and will eventually live in this world.983 ¶33

So instead of going out and simply getting things that are not yours or I would say stealing in order to survive, you don’t steal to survive with this technique—you die in order to live. You let go of the things that you conceptualize, just drop them, and you simply inwardly see yourself into another state. And seeing yourself right into the situation of your fulfilled desire you sleep in that state.983 ¶34

And so you know the wisdom of the word: “In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, in slumberings upon the bed, then he openeth the ears of men and sealeth their instructions.” We are rehearsed at night in the part that we are playing when we open our eyes in this outer world. And all that we will do, we do under compulsion. For this inner motion is the force by which the outer event is brought to bear.983 ¶35

If you know it, then don’t just know it—do it. For if you do it, I promise you, you will get the result. But you must apply it. Application is important. Everyone in this world must learn to live by their imagination. And only as you live by imagination can you truly be said to live at all.983 ¶36

Now here in this book of mine, Awakened Imagination, you will find that case history of the blind girl. Read it and apply it. And become the man, the woman that you want to be. You can be anything in this world that you want to be; if you know these wonderful promises, accept them and then test them. You’re invited to test them. “Come prove me now and see if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing so great, there is not room on earth to receive it.” You can conceive of the impossible state—impossible to the inner man. All things are possible to the inner man.983 ¶37

Now I’ll be back in just a moment with just a thought for today. Today is to be reminded that every place that the sole of your footsteps tread upon has been given unto you. Goodbye and thank you.983 ¶38

For the benefit of those who were not present last Sunday, just let me give you a quick summary of the thought expressed here. We claimed that the world was a manifestation of consciousness, that the individual’s environment, circumstances and conditions of life were only the out picturing of the particular state of consciousness in which that individual abides. Therefore, the individual sees whatever he is by virtue of the state of consciousness from which he views the world. Any attempt to change the outer world before he changes the inner structure of his mind, is to labour in vain. Everything happens by order. Those who help or hinder us, whether they know it or not, are the servants of that law, which constantly shapes outward circumstances in harmony with our inner nature.980 ¶1

We asked you last Sunday to distinguish between the individual identity and the state the occupy. The individual identity is the Son of God. It is that I speak of you or to you, or speak of myself, I mean really our imagination. That is permanent. It fuses with state and believes itself to be the state with which it is fused, but at every moment of time it is free to choose the state with which it will be identified.980 ¶2

And that brings us to today’s subject, “Changing the Feeling of I”, and I hope I will not get the same reaction that is recorded in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. For we are told that when this was given to the world they all left him, leaving just a handful behind. For when he told them there was no one to change but self, they said this is a hard, hard teaching. It’s a hard thing. Who can hear it? For he said, “No man cometh unto me save I call him.” And then it’s recorded when he repeated it three times they left him, never again to walk with him.980 ¶3

And he turned to the few who remained and asked them, “Would you also go?” And they answered and said, “To whom would we go ? You have the word of eternal life. ‘I In other words, it’s so much easier when I can blame another for my misfortune, but now that I am told that no man cometh unto me save I call him, that I am the sole architect of my fortunes and misfortunes, it’s a difficult saying, and so it’s recorded “It’s a hard saying. Who can hear it? Who can grasp it? And who will believe it?”980 ¶4

And so he said, “And now I sanctify myself that they also be sanctified through the truth, for if this is the truth, then there is no one to change, no one to make whole, no one to purify but self.” And so we start with the “I” .980 ¶5

Most of us are totally unaware of the self that we really cherish. We have never taken one good look at the self, so we don’t know this self, for the “I” has neither face, form nor figure, but it does mold itself into structure by all that it consents to, all that it believes, and few of us know really what we do believe. We have no idea of the unnumbered superstitions and prejudices that go to mold this inner, formless “I” into a form which is then projected as a man’s environment, as the conditions of life.980 ¶6

So here, read it carefully when you go home, “No man cometh unto me save I call him. You didn’t choose me; I have chosen you. No man can take away my life; I lay it down myself. There is no power to take from me anything that is part of the inner arrangement of my mind. All that you gave me I have kept and none is lost save the son of perdition or the belief in God, and because nothing can be lost but the belief in loss, I will not now assume loss of anything you have given me that is good. And so I sanctify myself that they be sanctified through the truth”.980 ¶7

And now, how do we go about changing the “I”. First of all, we must discover the “I” and we do this by an uncritical observation of self. This will reveal a self that will shock you. You will be altogether, I wouldn’t say afraid, but ashamed to admit you’ve ever known such a lowly creature. And had it been God Himself who drew near in this despicable form, you would have denied him a thousand times before a single cock would crow. You couldn’t believe that this is the self that you’ve carried around and protected and excused and justified. Then you start changing this self after, by an uncritical observation, you make the discovery of that self. For the acceptance of self is the essence of the moral problem of the world. It is the epitome of a true outlook on life, for it is the sole cause of everything you observe. Your description of the world is a confession of the self that you do not know. You describe another, you describe society, you describe anything, and your description of the thing you observe reveals to one who knows this law the being you really are. So you must first accept that self. When that self is accepted, then you can start to change.980 ¶8

It’s so much easier to take the virtues of the Gospel and apply them as the word of life, to love the enemy, to bless those who curse us, and to feed the hungry. But when man discovers the being to be fed, the being to be clothed, the being to be sheltered, the greatest enemy of all is that self, then he is ashamed, completely ashamed that that is the being, for it was easier to share with another something that I possess, to take an extra coat and give it to another, but when I know the truth it’s not that. I start with the self, having discovered, and start with change of that self.980 ¶9

Now, let me tell you a story. A few years ago in this city I was giving a series of lectures down near that lake – I can’t even recall the name of the lake but it was some Parkview Manor was the place where I spoke, and in that audience was a gentleman who sought an audience before the meeting. And we went across the street into the little park there, and he said to me that he had an insoluble problem. I said, “There is no such thing as an insoluble problem. “But”, he said, “you do not know my problem. It’s not a state of health, I assure you; it is look at the skin that I wear” . I said, “What’s wrong with it; it looks lovely to me”. He said, “Look at the pigment of my skin. I, by the accident of birth, am now discriminated against. The opportunities for progress in this world are denied me just because of the accident of birth, that I was born a coloured man. Opportunities for advancement in every field, neighborhoods that I would like to live in and raise a family I couldn’t move in, where I would like to open up a business I couldn’t move into that area.”980 ¶10

Then I told him my own personal experience, that I came to this country. Well, I didn’t have that problem but I was a foreigner in the midst of all Americans. I didn’t find it difficult. “Yet”, as he reminded me, “but that’s not my problem, Neville. Others have come here speaking with an accent, but they haven’t my skin, and I was born an American” .980 ¶11

Then I told him an experience of mine in New York City. If I were called upon to name a man that I would consider my teacher, I would name Abdullah. I studied with that gentleman for five years. He had the same colour skin, the same pigment as this gentleman. He would never allow anyone to refer to him as a coloured man. He was very proud of being a negro, didn’t want any modification of what God had made him.980 ¶12

He turned to me and he said, “Have you ever seen a picture of the Sphinx?” I said, “Yes”. He said, “It embodies the four fixed quarters of the universe. You have the lion, the eagle, the bull and man. And here is man that is the head. The crown of that creature called the Sphinx, which still defies man’s knowledge to unriddle it, was crowned with a human head. And look carefully at the head, Neville, and you will see whoever modeled that head must have been a negro. Whoever modeled it had the face of a negro and if that still defies man’s ability to unravel it, I am very proud that I am a negro.”980 ¶13

I have seen scientists, doctors, lawyers, bankers, from every walk of life seek an audience with old Abdullah, and everyone Who came thought themselves honoured to be admitted to his home and to receive an interview. If he was ever invited out, and he was, he was always the honoured guest. He said, “Neville, you must first start with self. Find self, don’t be ashamed ever of the being you are. Discover it and start the changing of that self”.980 ¶14

Well, I told this gentleman exactly what Abdullah had taught me, that there was no cause outside of the arrangement of his own mind. If he was discriminated against, it was not because of the pigment of his skin, though he showed me signs as large as all outdoors denying him access to a certain area. The sign is there only because in the minds of some men such patterns are formed and they draw unto themselves what now they would condemn; that there is no power outside the mind of man to do anything to man, and he by the arrangement of his own mind, by consenting to these restrictions in his cradle and being conditioned slowly through his youth, waking into manhood believing himself set upon would have to be set upon, but “no man cometh unto me save I call him”.980 ¶15

So then someone comes to condemn or to praise. They couldn’t come unless I call them. Not a man called Neville, but that secret being that is not called Neville. The secret being that is the sum total of all of my beliefs, all of the things that I consent to, that form a pattern ofstructure, that secret being draws unto itself things in harmony with itself.980 ¶16

Well, that man went away and wrestled with himself. He couldn’t believe everything I told him, not that night, but last Sunday morning in the lobby, he came forward and we renewed the friendship. He took me next door to show me the fruit of this teaching. He said, “Neville, it took me almost three years to really overcome that fixed idea that I, by the accident of birth, would be a secondary citizen, but I overcame it. Now here is my office on Wilshire Boulevard. I picked this one not because it was the only one offered; four equally wonderful spots were offered me. I took this one because it had greater telephone facilities, but the others were equally good. Now here is my office. Now you couldn’t judge my income from this office, lovely as it is. Everything is nice about it, but, Neville, this year I will net a quarter of a million dollars”.980 ¶17

Well in America that is still a fabulous sum of money. It would be staggering in any other part of the world, but even in fabulous America a man to net a quarter of a million is really up in the very highest of brackets. And that was the man that a few years ago told me the whole vast world was against him by reason of the accident of birth. He knows now he is what he is by virtue of the state of consciousness with which he is identified, and the choice is his to go back to the restrictions of his childhood when he believed the story or to continue in the freedom that he has found.980 ¶18

So you and I can be anything in this world we desire to be if we will clearly define our aim in life and constantly occupy that aim. It must be habitual. The concept we hold of self that is noble must not be put on just for a moment and taken off when we leave this church. We feel free here; we feel that we have something in common, that’s why we are here, but are we going to wear the noble concept we now hold of self when we go through the door and enter that bus, or are we going to return to the restrictions that were ours prior to coming here?980 ¶19

The choice is ours and the hardest lesson to learn is that there is no one in this world that can be drawn into your world unless you, and you alone, call him. So do not do what they did thousands of years ago, for that is the beginning of the secession of the great truth. So we are told they turned away from it, never again to walk with it, and the few who remained didn’t like it either, but where would they go if this is the word of eternal truth? Not that it’s true for this day and age, but if this is the law of being, and in all the dimensions of my being it holds good, if this is eternally true, then let me learn the lesson now, though I wrestle with myself as he did for three years.980 ¶20

So, the changing of the feeling of “I” is a selective thing because unnumbered states are infinite states, but the “I” is not the state. The “I” believes itself to be the state when it enters and fuses with it, so he was presented with a state and without the faculty of discrimination in his youth, he fused with the state and believed these restrictions were true, and it took him three years to disentangle the “I” from these fixed ideas with which he had lived for so many years. Now you may take only a moment or you, too, may take your three years. I can’t tell you how long it’s going to take you, but I’ll tell you this much. It can be measured by the feeling of naturalness. You can wear a feeling until it’s natural. The moment the feeling becomes natural, it will begin to bear fruit within your world.980 ¶21

So I told this story at a small gathering here in the city, and not very many asked questions about it, but three people asked, “But he must have had money before. He must have known the right people. He must in some way have had some substance to start it, because how can you go out to loan a hundred million dollars and call that a real fact of being that you have that to loan and tell me you didn’t have some one who had it or you, yourself, didn’t have it”.980 ¶22

I did not ask the gentleman about the individual facts of the case. I went into the office, I saw it, I didn’t look at his books; he volunteered this information, and gave me the figure of a quarter of a million net for the year. I have not checked or in any way verified the statement; I believe it implicitly.980 ¶23

But I will not go along with those who believe that unless you have certain things to start with you can’t apply this law. You can start now from scratch and choose the being you want to be. You aren’t going to change the pigment of your skin but you will find your accent or the pigment of skin or your so-called racial background will not be a hindrance, for if a man is ever hindered it can only be the state of consciousness in which he abides that hinders him. Man is freed or constrained by reason of the state of mind in which he persists.980 ¶24

If you persist in it, well, then I will say, “persist in it”, but I warn you no one cares and that is an awful blow when a man discovers that no one, no one but himself really cares. So we find ourselves weeping with ourselves in the hope of getting others to weep with us. And what an awful shock when the day arrives we discover that no one really ever cared. They will give us some little listening ear for a moment just as they were passing by, but they really didn’t care. When we make that discovery we shake ourselves out of it and boldly appropriate the gift our Father gave us before that the world was.980 ¶25

So let me show you the gift. You’ve read your Lord’s Prayer possibly daily, but you read it as a prayer from a translation of a translation which does not reveal the sense of the evangelist. The real translation, you will find in Farrar Fenton’s work where in the original it is written in the imperative passive mood, which is like a standing order, a thing to be done absolutely and continuously. So that you can look now upon your universe as one vast inter-knit machinery where all things happen. There isn’t a thing to become; all things are taking place, so it is written in this manner, “Thy will must be being done. Thy kingdom must be being restored.” It is the only way you could express it if you would express the imperative passive mood. But from the Latin from which our translation was made there is no first aorist of the imperative passive mood. So we have it in the way we have it but it does not reveal the intent of the mysteries.980 ¶26

If you will see all things are now, you don’t become, you simply select the state that you would occupy. Occupying it you seem to become but it is already a fact, every aspect of that state in its most minute detail. It’s worked out and taking place. You by occupying the state seem to go through the action of unfolding that state, but the state is completely finished and taking place. So now you can choose the being you want to be and by choosing a being other than what you are now expressing you start the change of the feeling of “I”.980 ¶27

Now, how will I know that I have changed the feeling of “I”? By beginning first with an uncritical observation of my reactions to life and then noticing my reactions when I think I am identified with my choice. If I assume that I am the man that I want to be, let me observe my reactions. If they are as they were, I have not identified myself with my choice, for my reactions are automatic and so if I am changed I would automatically change my reactions to life. So the changing of the feeling of “I” results in a change of reaction, which change of reaction is a change of environment and behavior.980 ¶28

But let me warn you now. A little alteration of mood is not a transformation; it’s not a real change of consciousness. Because as I change my mood for the moment it can quickly and rapidly be, I would say, replaced by another mood in the reverse direction. When I say that I was changed, as that gentleman changed his mood, his basic mood, his state of consciousness, it means that having assumed that I am what the moment denied, what my reason denied, that I remain in that state long enough to make that state stable. So that all of my energies are flowing from that state. I am no longer thinking of that state. I am thinking from that state. So that wherever a state grows so stable as to definitely expel all of its rivals, then that central, habitual state of consciousness from which I think defines my character and is really a true transformation or change of consciousness.980 ¶29

Whenever I reach that state of stability, watch my world mold itself then in harmony with this inner change. And men will come into my world, people will come to aid and they will think they are initiating the urge to help. They are playing only their part. They must do what they do because I have done what I did. Having moved from one state into the other. I have altered my relationship relative to the world round about, and that changed relationship compels a change in behavior relative to my world. So they have to act differently toward me.980 ¶30

So in changing the “I”, you start with desire, which we will unfold and elaborate on tomorrow night. For it starts with desire. Desire is the spring of action, for you must want to be other than what you are. We fail because we do not fall in love enough with an idea. We aren’t, I would say, moved enough to want to be other than what we are. If I could get you to be completely in love with some state to the point where it haunted the mind, I could almost prophesy that you would in the not distant future externaliSe that state within your world. And the reason we fail we aren’t hungry enough to change. For either we do not know the law or we haven’t the urge or the hunger to really bring about the change. For the changing of the feeling of “I” results in the change of reaction, which change of reaction results in a change of world.980 ¶31

If you like your world and you are complacent about it, you haven’t started on the road of the mysteries, for the very first beatitude appeals to one who is not complacent. “Blessed are the poor in spirit”. You must be poor in spirit, not complacent, not satisfied. The man who thinks that by reason of birth, the religion that he inherited at birth, is good enough for me, that he is not dissatisfied, he is not, I would say, moved. That being is complacent and therefore he is not poor in spirit; he is very rich in spirit. Theirs is not the kingdom of God. For if I could stir you, make you dissatisfied with self, then you will recognise that self and set about to change it. For the only field of activity for man is within himself and on himself. You do not work on the other. The day you change self, that day you change your world.980 ¶32

Now I see my time is going to its quick end. And so in the remaining minute I have left here, let me not urge you, because if you come to the meeting tomorrow night not really hungry, you wouldn’t benefit, but I do hope that many of you are there. Even if you are stirred to the point of trying to, I would say, disprove what I told you, I would accept that challenge for in the attempt to disprove it, I know if you were sincere in your attempt, you would prove it. So I hope many of you will come and take this feast with us.980 ¶33

We are here in the city at the Ebell for 15 nights, Monday thru Friday, as Mr. Smith told you, for three consecutive weeks. If you can’t take all, and I do hope many of you will take all, then pick out the title s that appeal to you. Tomorrow night to me is basic; it is the importance of defining an aim in this world, having a goal, for without an aim you are aimless. And you were warned in the Book, or I would say, in the Epistle of James that “the double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let not such a man believe that he shall receive anything of the Lord; for he is like a wave that is driven and tossed by the wind.” That man never reaches his goal.980 ¶34

So you must have an aim, and tomorrow night we will show you the importance of defining desire. There are certain schools who teach you to kill out desire; we teach you to intensify desire and show you the reason for such teaching, show you what the Bible teaches about desire.980 ¶35

And now we will come to the help that many of you have asked for today. Those who were not here on Sunday, let me remind you it is a very simple technique. As I told you on Sunday, any time that you exercise your imagination, and do it lovingly on behalf of another, you are mediating God to man. So we sit quietly and we simply become imitators of our Father. And He called the world into being by being the thing he would call. And so we sit and we listen as though we heard someone congratulating us on having found what we seek. So we go to the end of the matter and we listen just as though we heard, and we look as though we saw, and we try in this manner to feel ourselves right into the situation of our answered prayer, and there we wait in the silence just for about two minutes, and so they will lower the lights to aid you.980 ¶36

And let me remind you, if you want to clear your throat, please do so. If you want to shift your position in the chair, do so. Feel as though you are alone at home, because if you don’t and you try not to disturb the neighbour, you will not be able to exercise your imagination on behalf of anyone. So now I will take the chair and just simply listen attentively, just as though you heard. I’ll make you this promise – the day you are very still in mind and really become attentive, you will hear as coming from without what really you are whispering from within yourself.980 ¶37

As you have heard, this morning’s subject is “Awakened Imagination.” It is my theme for the entire series of nineteen lectures. Everything is geared towards the awakening of the imagination. I doubt if there is any subject on which clear thinking is more rare than the imagination. The word itself is made to serve all kinds of ideas. Many of them directly opposed to one another. But here this morning I hope to convince you that this is the redeeming power in man. This is the power spoken of in the Bible as the Second Man. “the Lord from Heaven.” This is the same power personified for us as a man called Christ Jesus. In the ancient text it was called Jacob, and there are numberless names in the Bible all leading up and culminating in the grand flower called Christ Jesus. It may startle you to identify the central figure of the Gospels as human imagination, but I am quite sure before the series is over, you will be convinced that this what the ancients intended that we should know, but man has misread the Gospels as history and biography and cosmology, and so completely has gone asleep as to the power within himself.979 ¶1

Now this morning I have brought you the means by which this mighty power in us may be awakened. I call it the art of revision. I take my day and I review it in my mind’s eye. I start with the first incident in the morning. I go through the day; when I come to any scene in my unfolding day that displeased me, or if it didn’t displease me if it was not as perfect as I thought it could have been, I stop right there and I revise it. I re-write it, and after I have re-written it so that it conforms to the ideal I wished I had experienced, then I experience that in my imagination as though I had experienced it in the flesh. I do it over and over until it takes on the tone of reality, and experience convinces me that that moment that I have revised and relived will not recede into my past. It will advance into my future to confront me as I have revised it. If I do not revise it, these moments, because they never recede and they always advance, will advance to confront me perpetuating that strange, unlovely incident. But if I refuse to allow the sun to descend upon my wrath, so that at the end of a day I never accept as final the facts of the day, no matter how factual they are, I never accept them, and revising it I repeal the day and bring about corresponding changes in my outer world.979 ¶2

Now, not only will this art of revision accomplish my every objective, but as I begin to revise the day it fulfills its great purpose and its great purpose is to awaken in me the being that men call Christ Jesus, that I call my wonderful human imagination, and when it awakens it is the eye of God and it turns inward into the world of thought and there I see that what formerly I believed to exist on the outside really exists within myself. No matter what it is, I then discover that the whole of Creation is rooted in me and ends in me as I am rooted in and end in God. And from that moment on I find my real purpose in life and my real purpose is simply to do the will of Him that sent me, and the will of Him that sent me is this --that of all that he has given me I shall lose nothing but raise it up again. And what did he give me? He gave me every experience in my life. He gave me you. Every man, woman and child that I meet is a gift to me from my Father, but they fell in me because of my attitude towards society, because of my attitude towards myself. When I begin to awaken and the eye opens and I see the whole is myself made visible, I then must fulfill my real purpose, which is the will of Him that sent me, and the Will is to raise up those that I allowed in my ignorance when I slept to descend within me. Then starts the real art of revision; to be the man, regardless of your impressions of that man, regardless of the facts of the case that are all staring you in the face, it is your duty when you become awakened to lift him up within yourself and you will discover that he was never the cause of your displeasure. When you look at him and you are displeased, look within and you will find the source of the displeasure. It did not originate there.979 ¶3

Now let me give you a case history to illustrate this point. I know a few of you were at the banquet and maybe a few of you heard me last Thursday on T. V. but I doubt in this audience of say twenty-three or twenty-four hundred of us, that more than say a hundred and fifty heard it, and even if you heard it you can hear it time and time again for it is this, that if you hear it will cause you to act upon it because as I told you, and I think I did last Sunday, but if I didn’t let me tell you now; if you attended the entire nineteen and you became saturated with all that I have to tell you, so that you had all the knowledge you think it takes to achieve your objectives, and you did not apply what you received, it would avail you nothing; but a little knowledge which you carry out in action, you will find to be far more profitable than much knowledge which you neglect to carry out in action. So by repeating this case history this morning, though say a hundred or two hundred of you have heard it, it will help you to remember you must do something about it.979 ¶4

This past May in New York City, there sat a lady who had been coming for years and I made a simple observation that people must become doers of the word and not mere hearers only. For if a man only hears it and never applies what he hears, he will never really prove or disprove what he has heard; and then I told the story of a lady who had only heard me three or four times and how she transformed the life of another, and this lady hearing what one who came only three times and this miracle took place in her life, she went home determined that she would really apply what she had heard over the years, and this is what she did.979 ¶5

Two years before, after a violent quarrel, she was ordered out of her son’s home by her daughter-in-law. Her son said, “Mother, you need no proof from me that I love you: it’s obvious: I think I have proven that every day of my life, but if that is Mary’s decision, and I regret it, it must be my decision, for I love Mary and we live in the same house and it is our house: it is our little family, and I am sorry she feels this way about it, but you know these little things that culminate in an explosion as took place today. If that is her decision, it is mine.” That was two years ago. She went home and she realized that night after night for over two years she had allowed the sun to descend upon her wrath. She thought of this wonderful family that she loved and felt herself ostracized from it, expelled from the home of her son. She did nothing about revising it and yet I had been talking revision to my New York audience for the past year.979 ¶6

This is what she did now. She knew the morning’s mail brought nothing. This was a Wednesday night. There had been no correspondence in two years. She had sent her grandson at least a dozen gifts in the two years. Not one was ever acknowledged. She knew they had been received for she had insured many of them; so she sat down that night and mentally wrote herself two letters--one from her daughter-in-law, expressing a great kindness for her, saying that she had been missed in the home and asking her when she was coming to see them; then she wrote one from her grandson in which he said, “Grandmother, I love you.” Then came a little expression of thanks for the last birthday present, which was in April, and then came a feeling of sadness rather because he hadn’t seen her and begging her to come and see him soon. These two short notes she memorized and then, as she was about to sleep, she took her imaginary hands and held these letters and she read them mentally to herself until they woke in her the feeling of joy because she had heard from her family; that she was wanted once more. She read these letters over and over feeling the joy that was hers because she had received them and fell asleep in her project.979 ¶7

For seven nights this lady read these two letters. On the morning of the eighth day she received the letter. On the inside there were two letters--one from her grandson and one from her daughter-in-law. These letters were identical with the letters she had mentally written to herself seven days before. Where was the estrangement? Where was the conflict? Where was the source of the displeasure that was like a running sore over two years? When man’s eye is opened he realizes all that he beholds, though it appears without, it is within--within one’s own imagination, of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.979 ¶8

She gave me permission to tell that story. When I told it, and we came to the period of questions and answers, there was a strange reaction from that crowd. They wondered what joy life would hold for any of us if we had to write our own letters; if we had to do everything to ourselves that seemingly is done in joy; that seemingly is spontaneous coming from another; but I don’t want to write myself a love letter from my wife, or my sweetheart or my friend. I want that one to feel this way towards me and to express it unknown to me that I may receive a surprise in life.979 ¶9

Well, I am not denying that sleeping man firmly believes that is the way things happen. When a man awakes he realizes that everything he encounters is apart of himself, and what he does not now comprehend, he knows, because the eye is opened, that it is related by affinity to some as yet unrealized force in his own being; that he wrote it but he has forgotten it, that he slapped himself in the face but he has forgotten it; that within himself he started the entire unfolding drama, and he looks out upon a world, and it seems strange to him, because most of us in our sleep are totally unaware of what we are doing from within ourselves.979 ¶10

What that lady did, every man and woman in this audience today can do. It will not take you years to prove it; what I tell you now may startle you; it may seem to be bordering on insanity for the insane believe in the reality of subjective states and the sane man only believes in what the senses will allow, what they will dictate, and I’m going to tell you when you begin to awake, you assert the supremacy of imagination and you put all things in subjection to it. You never again bow before the dictates of facts and accept life on the basis of the world without. To you, Truth is not confined by facts but by the intensity of your imagination.979 ¶11

So here we find the embodiment of Truth, which I say is human imagination, standing in the world drama before the embodiment of reason personified as Pontius Pilate. And he is given the authority to question truth and they ask him, “What is the truth?” and Truth remains silent. He refuses to justify any action of his; he refuses to justify anything that was done to him, for he knows no man cometh unto me save I call him: no man takes away my life, I lay it down myself. You didn’t choose me, I have chosen you. For here is Truth seeing nothing hereafter in pure objectivity, but seeing everything subjectively related to himself and he the source of all the actions that take place within his world; so Truth remains absolutely silent and says nothing when reason questions him concerning the true definition of Truth.979 ¶12

Because when the eye opens it knows that what is an idea to sleeping man is a fact to the awakened imagination, an objective fact, not an idea. I entertain the idea of a friend and I make some wonderful concept of him in my mind’s eye and when I sleep it seems to be a wish, it seems to be the longing of my heart, but purely subjective, just an idea. And the eye within me opens, and he stands before me embodying the quality that I desired in my sleep to see him express. So what is an idea to sleeping man, the unawakened imagination, is an objective reality to awakened imagination.979 ¶13

Now, this exercise calls for, I would say, the active, voluntary use of imagination as against the passive, involuntary acceptance of appearances. We never accept as true and as final anything unless it conforms to the ideal we desire to embody within our world, and we do exactly what the grandmother did. But now we start it and we do it daily. You may get your results tomorrow; it may come the day after; it may come in a week, but I assure you they will come.979 ¶14

You do not need some strange laboratory, like our scientists, to prove or disprove this theory. Here in 1905 a young man startled the scientific world with his equation that no one could even test. It is said not six men lived who could understand his equation. It was 14 years later before Lord Rutherford could devise the means to test that equation and he found that it was true, not 100%, because he did not have the means at his hand to really give it a complete test. It was another 14 years before further tests could be made. And you know the results of that equation that Einstein gave us in 1905. For today man, not knowing the power of his own imagination, stands startled at the results of that unlocking of energy. But he was the man who said, and I put it in the first page of my new book--“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” That was Albert Einstein. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For if man accepts as final the facts that evidence bears witness to, he will never exercise this God-given means of redemption, which is his imagination.979 ¶15

Now I’m going to ask you to test this: you will not take the three weeks that I am here to prove it or disprove it, but the knowledge of it cannot prove itself, only the application of that knowledge can prove it or disprove it. I know from experience you cannot disprove it.979 ¶16

Take an objective, take a job, take some conversation with your boss, take an increase in salary. You say well, the job doesn’t allow it, or maybe the Union will not allow it. I don’t care what doesn’t allow it. Yesterday morning’s mail brought me one, where, in San Francisco, this captain, a pilot, and he writes me that I saw him backstage after one of my meetings, and there he said, “But Neville, you are up against a stone wall. I am a trained pilot; I have gone all over the world, all over the seven seas; I’m a good pilot and I love the sea, not a thing in this world I want to do but go to sea; yet they restrict me to certain waters because of seniority. No matter what argument I give them the Union is adamant and they have closed the book on my request.”979 ¶17

I said, “I don’t care what they have done, you are transferring the power that rightfully belongs to God, which is your own imagination, to the shadow you cast upon the screen of space. So here, we are in this room; need it remain a room? Can’t you use your imagination to call this abridge? This is now a bridge and I am a guest on the bridge of your ship, and you are not in waters restricted by the Union; you are in waters that you desire to sail your ship. Now close your eyes and feel the rhythm of the ocean and feel with me and commune with me and tell me of your joy in first proving this principle. And secondly in being at sea where you want to be.”979 ¶18

He is now in Vancouver on a ship bringing a load of lumber down to Panama. He has a complete list that will take him through the year what this man has to do. He is going into waters legitimately that the Union said he could not go. This doesn’t dispense with unions, but it does not put anyone in our place--no one, kings, queens, presidents, generals, we take no one and enthrone him and put him beyond the power that rightfully belongs to God.979 ¶19

So I will not violate the law but things will open that I will never devise. I will sit in the silence and within myself I will revise the picture. I will hear the very man who told me “No, and that’s final” and hear him tell me yes, and a door opens. I don’t have to go and pull strings or pull any wires whatsoever. I call upon this wonderful power within myself, which man has forgotten completely because he personified it and called it another man, even though it is a glorious picture of a man but that is not the man: the real man is not in some other world. When religion speaks, if it’s a real religion, it speaks not of another world; it speaks of another man that is latent but unborn in every man that has attunement with another world of meaning, so that man sat and he tuned in with another world of meaning and brought into being a power that he allowed to go to sleep because he read the laws of man too well. He accepted as final the dictate of facts for they read him the by-laws, they read him the laws of the Union. And here today he is flying the ocean as he wants to do it.979 ¶20

The grandmother is no longer locked out from the home she loved, but she is in communion, but she was locked out by herself for two years. And he was locked out by himself for well over 18 months, and burning up day after day allowing the sun to descend upon his wrath when he had the power within himself and the key to unlock every door in the world.979 ¶21

I say to each and everyone of you I wouldn’t take from you your outer comfort, your religion, for all these things are like toys for sleeping man, but I come to awaken within you that which when it awakes it sees an entirely different world. It sees a world that no man when he sleeps could ever see, and then he starts to raise within himself every being that God gave him; and may I tell you God gave you every man that walks the face of the earth. He also gave it for this purpose that nothing is to be discarded. Everyone in the world must be redeemed and your individual life is the process by which this redemption is brought to pass.979 ¶22

So we don’t discard because the thing is unpleasant, we revise it; revising it we repeal it, and as we repeal it it projects itself on the screen of space bearing witness to the power within us, which is our wonderful human imagination. And I say human advisedly--some would have me say the word divine. The very word itself means nothing to man. He has pushed it off from himself completely and divorced himself from the thing that he now bows before and calls by other names. I say human imagination. As Blake said, “Rivers, mountains, cities, villages all are human.” When the eye opens you see them in your own bosom, in your own wonderful bosom they all exist, they are rooted there. Don’t let them fall and remain fallen; lift them up for the will of my Father is this, that of all that he has given me I should lose nothing but raise it up again, and I raise it up every time I revise my concept of another and make him conform to the ideal image I myself would like to express in this world. When I do unto him what I would love the world to do unto me, and see in me I am lifting him up.979 ¶23

And may I tell you what happens to that man when he does it? First of all, he is already turned around within himself. He no longer sees the world in pure objectivity, but the whole world subjectively related to himself, and hang it upon himself. As he lifts it up, do you know he blooms within himself. When this eye of mine was first opened I beheld man as the prophet saw him. I saw him as a tree walking: some were only like little antlers of a stag, others were majestic in their foliage, and all that were really awake were in full bloom. These are the trees in the garden of God.979 ¶24

As told us in the old ancient way of revision in the 61st chapter of the Book of Isaiah---“Go and give beauty for ashes, go and give joy for mourning, give the spirit of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may become trees of righteousness, plantings to the glory of God.” That is what every man must do, that’s revision. I see ash when the business is gone; you can’t redeem it, you can’t lift it up, conditions are bad and the thing has turned to ash. Put beauty in its place; see customers, healthy customers, healthy in finances, healthy in the attitude towards you, healthy in every sense of the word. See them loving to shop with you if you are a shopkeeper; if you are a factory worker, don’t see anything laying you off, lift it up, put beauty in the place of ash, for that would be ash if you were laid off with a family to feed. If someone is mourning, put joy in the place of mourning; if someone is heavy of spirit, put the spirit of praise in place of the spirit of heaviness, and as you do this and revise the day you turn around, and turning around you turn up, and all the energies that went down when you were sound asleep and really blind now turn up and you become a tree of righteousness, a planting to the glory of God.979 ¶25

For I have seen them walking this wonderful earth, which is really the Garden; we have shut ourselves out by our concept of self and we have turned down.979 ¶26

As told us in the Book of Daniel, we were once this glorious tree and it was felled to the very base, and what formerly sheltered the nations and fed the nations and comforted the bird and gave some comfort to the animals from the sun of the day, of the heat of the day; and suddenly some voice said from within, “Let it lie, let it remain as it is, but do not disturb the roots; I will water it with the dew of heaven and as I water it with the dew of heaven, it will once more grow again, but this time it will consciously grow, it will know what it really is and who it is. In its past it was majestic but it had no conscious knowledge of its majesty, and I felled it--that was the descent of man. And now, he will once more spring from within himself and he will be a tree walking, a glorious, wonderful tree.”979 ¶27

Now to those who are sound asleep this may seem to you too startling: this may be just as startling as Einstein’s equation was; that was startling too. But I tell you I’ve seen it and I see it--men are destined to be trees in the garden of God. They are planted on earth for a purpose and they don’t always remain men, they are transformed as they turn in and turn up.979 ¶28

This is the true meaning of the transfiguration. There is a complete metamorphosis taking place like the grub into the butterfly. You don’t remain what you appear to be when man is asleep, and there is no more glorious picture in the world than to see this living animated human being, for every branch within him is represented by an extension of himself called another, and when he lifts the other up that branch not only comes into leafage but it blossoms and the living human blossoms that blossom upon the tree of man who awakens.979 ¶29

So that’s my message for you this year; I’ll give it to you to stir into being that which sleeps in you, for the son of God sleeps in man and the only purpose of being is to awaken him. So it is not to awaken this, nice as it appears to be, but this man of sense--is only a casing: it is called the first man, but the first shall be last and the last shall be first.979 ¶30

So that which comes into being second, like Jacob coming second from his mother’s womb, he takes precedence over his brother Esau who came first. Esau was the one like this, he was made of skin and hair, and Jacob was made a smooth skinned lad, but that one that comes second suddenly becomes the lord of all the nations and that one sleeps in every man born of woman, and it is the duty of a teacher or a true religion to awaken that man, not to talk of another world, not to make promises to be fulfilled beyond the grave, but to tell him as he awakens now he is in heaven and the kingdom is come now, this day, on earth.979 ¶31

For as he awakens he revises his day and he repeals his day and projects a more beautiful picture onto the screen of space.979 ¶32