Neville mentions a woman friend of his who went on a diet of seeds fit only for parrots.

An artist friend in San Francisco, waiting for Neville in the lobby of the Palace Hotel, saw him come through the door as a stallion with antlers reaching to the sky and drew the picture, down to the suit he was wearing.

A woman friend wrote Neville a letter this week describing how, after failing to change others, she worked on her own freedom and then had a recurring vision of her body stretched out like a cross, chained and locked to the ground, until she rose out of it and the body sank into the earth; on the morning of 14 February she also saw a serpent shedding its skin and a white and a black serpent becoming one, and a voice told her it was the fulfillment of scripture, to be found "in the eighth of" John or Luke.

A woman present in the audience had an experience in which she saw Neville standing at the foot of her bed, then sitting on it; he sank backwards into her body, covered her with his left hand, was instantly upon her, she had an ecstatic climax and he vanished — she then fell to her knees; he had explained at the previous lecture that this was an impregnation.

A dear friend of Neville's, absent that night, sent word that he was disturbed by what Neville had said two weeks earlier about the heavenly ranks, insisting he would not give up his divine right to anyone, and asked Neville to answer him from the platform so he could hear it on tape.

Neville recounts seeing a small, high-voiced guru on television being asked by a reporter why he advertised so much when Jesus never did, and answering with a laugh, 'That's why it took him so long.'

Neville tells of his friend Freedom Barry, whom he sent to San Francisco to teach the law: a man out of work asked him for money while he was walking his dog, and Freedom, having none to give, stood on the sidewalk and saw the man gainfully employed — a month later the man crossed the street to thank him for not giving him money, saying he had been so angry with himself that he went home determined to get a job and had one the very next day.

A woman who is in the audience wrote him a letter this week describing a dream in which he showed her how to move in and out of his own skull - which felt pliable, like a lamb's skull - and in which he reassured her that Bill, his wife, was fine.

A wealthy friend back east telephoned him from New York two days ago to boast of a $10,500 tax refund; she is a descendant of the Adams presidents, named her third son Adams, and corrected Neville when he called the boy Adam; her fortune came from her ex-husband, grandson of an Episcopal bishop of New York State who left $11 million.

A friend wrote to him today: she took Jonathan Livingston Seagull into hospital where she had two discs removed, reread and almost memorised its third chapter, and the surgeons could not understand why she had none of the pain expected after such an operation.

Victor Goddard managed only one year of college before the family could not afford to keep him there and brought him home, but he knew how to dream; his father could sum a long column of figures at a glance.

Joseph Burleigh, born poor and Jewish in Odessa and orphaned of his mother at eight, imagined the bank teller making a mistake in his favour; when the mistake came the next day he wrestled with himself all night, kept the money, bought slacks and shoes and ate his fill, and learned that dreams come true.

Neville repeatedly asked Joseph Burleigh to give a friend in need money — often a thousand dollars — and Burleigh always gave it, interest-free, returning any six percent that was sent back to him.

Neville's father and brother Victor practised waking dreams, and today the family are at the top of the financial world in Barbados, with even the government consulting Victor before making great financial moves.

A woman friend of Neville's, present in the audience, told him how at a big party she gave, the honoured guest wore a golden crown identical to the one on a small onyx figurine of hers; the guest gave her the crown, it shrank to ring size, and when placed on the figurine it fitted exactly, so she could not tell whose crown was whose.