3. RELAXATION...Wheels of Truth

3. RELAXATION...Wheels of Truth

----------------------------------------------

“Be still and know that I am God.”

-------------------------------------------------

We must realize that the cause underlying most failures to effectual prayer is muddled thinking and lack of emotional control.

The important thing to observe is that we find the same law operative in the magnetic attraction of impulses of fear, jealousy, anger, and despair (which are responsible for most of the failures and frustrations in life) as we find in the ineffable emotion of love which results in good. A single principle, an identical force, lies underneath accomplishment or failure.

Fear begets inescapable tribulation. It is the manifestation which alone differs according to the mood of the individual. All disease has its origin in emotional frustration. Man is the product of his emotions and moods.

The tendency is to project blame on another for unfortunate circumstances, stressing heredity, environment or lack of opportunity. This attitude of mind sometimes acts as a temporary hypodermic to bolster lagging morale, but it does not get rid of the causes of suffering and afflictions.

The world is a mirror reflecting our predominant mental attitude, and is constantly showing us ourselves. We do not always like what we see; neither do we take the initiative and proceed to change the picture. If we indulge in negative tendencies we soon come face to face with conditions of a similar vibration. “Like attracts like.” This is the perfect working of the immutable law of cause and effect. We consistently deny that everything depends on cause, and with stupendous blindness seek to change the effect. A streak of jealousy aroused in us, will indubitably attract situations involving other jealous people either in the home, at business or in our social world. Quite often we hear people say that the one thing they dislike most is jealousy in others. If we watch their reactions, we find the fault is in themselves. What we think or feel finds its affinity in our external world and finds its likeness.

The lesson to be learned is—we must take the beam out of our own eye by self-study and self-examination; eventually we shall not discern even the mote in our brother’s eye. When we see faults in others, let us look inside ourselves, for there we shall find (if we look with unbiased examination) them hidden in a corner of our own thoughts.

Frustration and an inferiority complex are, as a rule, due to frustrated vanity. If we constantly fail and our efforts meet a stone wall, we must look within and see why. It may have the appearance of important circumstances. To affect a change of circumstances, there must be a change of consciousness, a consciousness dominated by the spirit of success. In order to succeed we must have the confidence of success, erasing from the mind every discordant thought. It is our mood, the intensity of sustained faith which impresses itself on the subjective mind. The barrier to success is when we allow our personal ego to draw a boundary around our consciousness.

It is good also to ask ourselves if we are simply seeking recognition and applause for ourselves, or are we sincerely interested in what we are attempting for its own sake. Do we want only to feather our own nest, or do we want to serve humanity? Do we want to be an Emerson, a Lincoln who loved humanity, or do we seek self-aggrandizement and personal glory? Shall we give a lasting message of Truth, or shall we condition it to crowds of people? If we have something to offer it will be used, except we stand in its way. Vacillation, wavering and the so called mercurial ups and downs result from a lack of an inner objective or ideal. Often a person says, “I am going around in circles.” He hopes some one will come along eventually and show him the way. He lacks stability and does not know if he would only become still and listen to the Inner Voice, it would speak to him and guide him. “Speak Lord, Thy servant heareth.”

In the Scriptures (Genesis, chapters 1 and 2) we are given both the formula and the mode for bringing to birth the living manifestation of our archetypal ideal: “And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind.’ . . . ‘And God saw that it was good.’” . . . “And God said, ‘Let us make man in our own image after our likeness.’”. . . “Then the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.”

“Breathed into” or “in-breathed.” If this “breathing into” can create one manifestation, it can by virtue of its power, create another. Therefore we shall prescribe a rhythmic breathing exercise to overcome nervous tension and induce relaxation.

At first, until it becomes natural, it is well to perform the exercise sitting erect or lying down on a flat surface. There can be no accomplishment where there is tension. Effortless effort is the maxim for all spiritual progress which is the prerequisite of all earthly achievement.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

EXERCISE

(1) Your chest, neck and head should be held in as straight a line as possible.

(2) Then inhale through the nostrils, mentally counting six pulse-throbs.

(3) Hold breath during three counts.

(4) Exhale through the nostrils during six counts.

(5) Hold lungs empty during three counts.

(6) Repeat as often as desired as no slightest discomfort is felt.

After a little practice the rhythm will be perfectly established without necessity of mentally counting. When this is achieved all tenseness and effort will disappear and complete relaxation results.

Later you can execute this exercise with perfect ease while walking, each step a rhythmic unit of count. However, in the beginning, especially for city dwellers where there is the continued interruption of traffic crossings and congestions, it is better to confine the exercise to the sitting or lying down posture.

In addition to the physical reaction of this rhythmic breathing, there is a spiritual response. With each inhalation, you may impregnate your subconscious with whatever suggestion you wish. It is important to remember that ‘suggestions’ should be practised simultaneously with the inbreathing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This chapter is written primarily for beginners and for those students who have not learned the fine art of relaxation and repose, which is akin to sleep. The latter is really a device intended to induce the auto hypnotic state which is most ideal for impressing the subconscious. For example: if you are gloomy or deponent, as you in-breathe, orally or mentally say “I am happy.” and FEEL it; smile. This exercise may be repeated twenty-four, or a hundred times at one time and repeated as often as you like.

When we learn to breathe rhythmically, its effect on the nervous system is such that all tension is dissolved. All of us know that from a physiological standpoint, deep diaphragmatic breathing is very beneficial in promoting bodily well-being. The sensation of well-being, which always follows the drawing of a deep breath favors the acceptance of any new suggestion. During these breathing exercises we should visualize ourselves as we long to be—full of vigor and health. The regular rhythm of breathing brings about a stimulus analogous to that exerted by every rhythm, such as for example, music or dance forms which have a soothing, lulling influence. This rhythm tends to immobilize the attention and induce relaxation. Many students find the suggestive value of respiratory exercise a great boon. To cite a case—An elderly lady who suffered from asthma for many years, completely cured herself by the following exercise: She sat down quietly in her arm chair and began to breathe slowly, and with each inhalation she would silently affirm, “I am all health.” She would keep this up for from ten to fifteen minutes morning and evening and sometimes at noon. In two weeks time she was completely cured.

Man is a pulsating, rhythmic being. Our bodies are as much subject to rhythmic laws as is everything else in the universe. The ancients said, “Every atom in space dances to the rhythm of the gods.” The universe (one verse) is simply one note or tone in God, but there is an infinite number of tones or rates of vibration within the One. Everything that we see is vibrating and nothing is in absolute rest in nature;—only God or the Sphinx is motionless. Nature is the birth or activity of God;—the One manifesting Himself in countless ways. The moment forms appear in the world, they begin to change, and from them appear other forms, and so on ad infinitum. Forms are simply appearances; they come and go; and likewise the body of man is constantly changing.

There is almost a complete change in the chemistry of the body in a matter of minutes; so much so that scarcely one atom or electron composing your body will be present a few months hence. All is vibration, and constant change pervades the universe. The beating of your heart follows a certain rhythm; so also does the ebb and flow of the tide. In breathing, therefore, it is important to get into the mental mood of rhythm, such as the counting employed in music.

For the individual who finds it difficult to relax and immobilize his attention it is well to isolate himself in a room where there will be no disturbance. It is important that you get into a rhythm until you feel the vibration throughout your whole body. Now look at a blue light, preferably a reading lamp with a blue bulb, 3O or 40 watt, placed about ten inches from the eyes. Look directly at the bulb. This has an auto hypnotic influence and induces profound relaxation. When the eyes are tired out, close them, but do not go to sleep. Maintain conscious control of your thoughts. There must be no sense of strain as immobilization of the attention must be carried out with the minimum of voluntary effort. Form a clear mental outline of your ideal, of what you desire, and then feel the reality of it. There must be one-pointedness of thought. Dwell on the fact that you now are the being you long to be, or that you have that which you long to have. Dwell on the thought with confident expectancy. After a week or ten days discontinue use of the blue light, as it is only a physical adjuvant, and we must not become slaves to physical props of any kind. We must begin to induce the happy, relaxed state by the mental image we have. Failure is due to lack of faith. The law NEVER fails.

-------------------------------------------------------

Wheels of Truth, Dr. Joseph Murphy

2. TUNING IN...Wheels of Truth

2. TUNING IN...Wheels of Truth

-------------------------------------------------------

“I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.”

“And now, 0 Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” (JOHN 17:4-5)

“Before the world was I AM, before Abraham was I AM, when all things cease to be I AM.”

“That they all may be one as Thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.” (JOHN 17:21)

--------------------------------------------------------------

Man has finished the work when he realizes that all men are within him. Man is like the line; it begins as a series of dots. The point has no dimensions; the point becomes a line—our first dimension. The line bends; we now have two dimensions. The space or plane is not conscious of the line. The surface moves through space in a dimension not contained within itself and becomes a cube. This is our third dimension. The cube is not conscious of sides; each side sees another as separate from itself. When the side becomes one with the cube, it no longer sees other sides, as the cube is only conscious of being a cube and not conscious of sides.

God is not conscious of Catholics, Jews, Protestants, Buddhists. He only hears and sees in secret; therefore we know Him only when we touch Him in the Silence through feeling. We must become conscious of being one with God—then we will not and cannot see another. We are garments of the One Being moving through the illusion of time and space. All stars, planets, suns—all things—are extensions in space of the Space-less Being or Formless Awareness within man. Therefore, if the primal essence of man is God, He is everywhere in mind and there is no place He is not.

This life is the illusion of time and space based on sense-belief. When we meditate on the Truth we will do away with all worldly values, all possessions. All these things will cease to have value. We give value to temporal objects pertaining to time as opposed to eternity because they seem to remain solid or fixed, such as our bank account, our jewelry, our homes. We believe our home will be there when we return to it and we find our beliefs confirmed.

In the future, when man develops the use of his mind (it is a scientific statement of fact that the great majority of mankind today does not use one-tenth of his mind capacity) he will be capable of collapsing time and space. Then, for example, a man living in New York can instantaneously be in San Francisco or any other part of the world. No means of conveyance will be necessary. Incredulous as this may seem, it has, through the ages been accomplished by the adepts. Did not Jesus walk on the waters and come through closed doors; translate his body at will and appear to his disciples at will? He was not conditioned by time or space or the laws of gravitation.

Man will change the atomic weights and structure of any substance. For example, he will be able instantaneously to change the atomic weight of a piano and cause it to go through the eye of a needle and then cause it to assume its former shape. “All things are possible to him that believeth.” All things, not some things. “Glorify thou Me.”

Man comes from the Absolute, and he goes back to the Absolute when he remembers who he is and dies to all beliefs and superstitions of the world. When someone dies, he lives on in you, the reader. That state of consciousness is within you. God dreamed Himself to be man; now we must awaken and go back to the Glory which was ours before the world was. All the elements and minerals we speak of are modifications of light, simply congealed energy or extensions of man’s thoughts.

We say certain races and tribes are savage, yet these primitive people can send telepathic messages without radio or wires. They bring rain at will; they melt snow with energy from the body. We believe hot water is the way to melt snow in front of our door. We don’t believe. We like to believe, we want to believe, but we really don’t believe. When we believe we can melt snow by heat from our body in the same manner that we can make a telephone call; then we will not feel it robbery to do the works of God.

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” You, the reader, are the heart and center of all mankind. You are the center of your world, and it revolves like a wheel around you; but you are the exact center of the wheel. As you think and feel, so will your world be. 

The greatest commandment is: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is One.” We must not divide the One and see elements, people, seas, and continents. We must not split the One.

Remember it was said, “What manner of man is this whom the winds and the seas obey?” All the storms and strife of the world are within man’s consciousness.

We must refrain from lighting candles;—people believe the power is in the candle or ceremony or ritual. They do not realize it is all a matter of belief.

There is only “one man” in the world; therefore, there is “no other” to hurt—only yourself. All treatment is to oneself also; all love to oneself. “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Thy neighbor is yourself. If you get a call from a friend, and he is in trouble, you are not aware of that trouble until he brings it to your attention. So you go within and hear good news for him. (If your finger hurts, it is a warning, and you then give it your attention.) There is one subjective Being, one God, and He is the Father of all and the Kingdom of Heaven is within you; therefore if you impress a conviction in your consciousness, then that conviction must become objectified in the other; the other must change because you have changed your concept. If we begin to change our concept of people and things, then our world will change.

When we really convince ourselves instead of talking about it, that we are contained in God, and God and man are one, then we will feel it not robbery to do the works of God. “He made himself equal with God and found it not robbery to do the works of God.” We must convince ourselves by sustained belief that we are of God and that nothing is impossible to us on that level of consciousness, and so condition ourselves that when we ask a thing we shall know, “It is finished.” Then we become as Isaac, blind to the evidence of the senses, we bless by touching and feeling the reality of the ideal sought.

------------------------------------------------------------

Wheels of Truth, Dr. Joseph Murphy

1. THE SPHINX...The Wheels of Truth

 1. THE SPHINX...The Wheels of Truth

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

“As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man and the face of a lion on the right side; and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle”

(EZEKIEL 1:10)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

In order to manifest, there was an emanation from the Absolute into two streams of consciousness called Father and Mother. The Mother is often referred to as the great sea of substance or light in which the Father reflected Himself. The word “mare,” or “sea,” is sometimes called “the Virgin Mary.” The first step therefore in manifestation was the One Being becoming both masculine and feminine.

Man has a conscious (male) and subconscious (female) mind—simply two phases of the one universal consciousness specialized or individualized.

It would seem confusing to refer to God as Mind, except we clarify what we mean by Mind. The subjective mind of man is the God in man. The conscious mind reasons, analyzes, and investigates. In other words our conscious mind is constantly changing, and God changes not; “He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Consequently, that which changes cannot truly be termed God. To presuppose investigation of something is to deny the One Being of Omniscience and Boundless Intelligence. It is true, of course, that all is God; nevertheless we find it necessary for purposes of clarification to distinguish between the two phases of consciousness. Mentation or ideation is, therefore, no part of the functions of the subjective mind of man. All things in the world were made by the self-contemplation of Spirit, as there is only Spirit. Spirit may be termed the highest degree of matter,—and matter the lowest degree of Spirit. To put it in a more simple way, all things in the world, such as all the elements, suns, stars, seas, trees, ad infinitum are simply different degrees of condensation of the Light Limitless. “I am the light of the world.” There is nothing but light, sometimes referred to by scientists as a sea of scintillating energy forever turning and twisting on itself. We look into space and it seems empty, but this radiant light, or energy, is forever turning, twirling, rotating on itself.

The ancients referred to God as a Circle, having neither beginning nor end. He is without face, form, or figure, boundless, timeless, space-less, infinite, soundless, sometimes referred to as the Silent One— motionless. He desires to express Himself, and this results in motion, or activity, therefore, the original velocity or seat of perpetual motion flows from consciousness or God, and all other vibrations or motions in the Universe are simply modifications of the one original motion.

Let us look at this matter in a very simple way. God becomes man by conceiving Himself to be man. “The world not made but begotten.” The word “begotten” means acquired by being; therefore, strictly speaking, nothing is made or created; it is simply God becoming all things He ideated in the incorporeal state. In the first chapter of Genesis, we read of the incorporeal man, or God, or Adam (all three mean the same thing, as there is only man, nothing but man) feeling Himself to be all things, (earth, herb, grass, trees, fish of the sea, fowl of the air, seas, stars, suns, and moons) and yet, nothing in particular, desired to express, or particularize Himself. In the first chapter of Genesis, is set forth the story of man who was in paradise—a desire-less state. “Thou hast been in Eden and the Ruby was thy covering,” and desiring to express Himself, He ideated a world of suns, moons, stars, seas, continents, and all things contained therein.

Those simply were ideas, or archetypes, and were not objectified on the screen of space until after He became man, or limited by desires. Man is both conditioned and unconditioned; the unconditioned state is God, or the Absolute; the conditioned state is God defining Himself as that man. Man is God limiting himself by conceiving himself as man; the Timeless One is now conceiving in time; the Boundless One now conceives boundaries and limitations; the Space-less One conceives in space. Man has forgotten the whole world is his and he fights over one-quarter of an acre.

In the second chapter of Genesis, man appears first and all things mentioned in the first chapter follow, as they were only thoughts of man in the first place. The earth is here for man to walk on, and exists because man dreamt it into being. “What is man that thou art mindful of him?” God’s mind is full of man; there is nothing but man, and all things are the extensions of the one man.

When man decides he no longer needs furs for his wife, all the fur bearing animals will disappear. In the near future all men will begin to eat synthetic meat; consequently, all cattle, sheep, ad infinitum, will gradually become extinct. The dinosaurs of old have disappeared; their skeletons may be seen in the museums of the world. The reason for their disappearance is man no longer had any use for them, moreover he no longer had traits or characteristics resembling these ferocious animals. When the sly, cunning, deceptive states die out in man, the fox will disappear. This is true of all animals as they are simply extensions in space of the moods of man.

In the ancient Greek myth, the Sphinx propounded to all comers the riddle of man, and those who could not answer the riddle died. The riddle was, “What walks on four legs, on two legs, and on three legs?” The ancient answer was supposed to be, “Man, because he crawls on hands and feet as a baby, walks erect on two feet until such time as he uses a cane or crutch to help him when he gets very old and feeble.” This explanation is not the correct one. The inner meaning is as follows: Most of the human race is still walking on four legs, which means that we are worldly minded, catering to our passions and appetites and have forgotten the laws of life and the way of the spirit. The four-footed animal is the sensual man who lives to eat and enjoy the pleasures of the flesh. It also means the five-sense man, who walks the earth believing what he sees, and thinks his security rests in the accumulation of riches and things of the world. He is the type of man who has forgotten to lay up treasures in heaven by feasting on the mood of peace and happiness within, thereby establishing the kingdom of heaven on earth. Only a few are walking erect who have discarded the animal nature; but of those who have matured, who have become of age, only a very small minority walk the earth bearing all their weight on the crutch of intuition, or the Christ within. “Come unto me all ye that labor, and I will give you rest; my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

The Sphinx is man’s unconditioned consciousness, the unconditioned awareness within man. This is the center or Sphinx around which all revolves—it remains unmoved while the wheel of personalities ceaselessly turns beneath him. The Sphinx is the synthesis of the four animals of Ezekiel mentioned at the beginning of this chapter which are both male and female, as was the Absolute before He emanated Himself into Father and Mother, for the purpose of manifestation. Within you, the reader, the Universe came into being. Within you the Universe is established. Within you the Universe passes away. Man is dual; he is both God and man. God is unmodified consciousness or formless awareness. This unmodified consciousness now becomes modified by becoming man. Man himself is the projection of the beliefs embodied in his own consciousness. In the same manner as the wave of the ocean is a projection of the contents of the ocean, and the wave goes back to the deep from whence it came; likewise, ultimately man goes back to the great deep and becomes one with the All. When man awakens from the dream, or illusion of separation, he will find it “not robbery to do the works of God” though in the form of man. He will find he is God—the only Being there is, and that he had been dreaming a non-eternal dream.

The vision spoken of in the first chapter of Ezekiel, representing the four Sacred Animals and the Wheel within Wheels, is explained as follows: The dot “Yod,” is the first circle. A point is dimensionless— this represents God, or unconditioned consciousness in man—the space-less, formless awareness. The next circle is the creative world. The third circle is the formative world, and the fourth circle is the physical world as we see it. The four animals also represent the four letters in the name Jehovah, “I.H.V.H.,” the name by which all things are created. The first letter, Yod, represents the Eagle or Scorpio. The Eagle is a bird which soars above the storm and tempest, where skies are blue and clear. Move-over, the eagle looks directly into the sun and is not blinded. The eagle represents man’s awareness of the fact that the seat of Causation and Omnipotence is within him. The next letter, Heh, is man’s capacity to conceive his vision or ideal, symbolized by the lion. It represents man’s desire. The third letter, Vau, represents a nail, or the cementing of a fixed state. This letter is represented by the Angel, or Aquarius; —the latter means meditation, or feasting on the reality of the state desired. It is actualizing the idea in consciousness; in other words, it is the feeling of being what you long to be, and the feeling of doing what you long to do. The final letter, Heh, symbolized by the Bull, is the manifest state, or the objectification of that which was subjectively felt within.

To sum it up, the four animals mentioned are the perfect formula for prayer. The practice of this method will cause you to realize the most cherished desire of your heart. First you realize that your own consciousness is God Almighty, the seat of Omnipotence, thereby giving complete recognition to the power within. The second step is your new conception of yourself,—your desire, or goal in life—or whatever you wish to be or do. The third step, is the feeling which unites consciousness desiring, with the thing desired. The fourth step, is the physical manifestation of that which was felt in the unseen, or within-ness, of yourself.

We can take a lesson from nature. The seed, the soil, the creative essence, result in the tree, or plant, or fruit, as the case may be. Another example of the eternal trinity by which all things are created is hydrogen and oxygen plus the electric spark uniting the two, and the resultant product—water.

There are four stages to the unfoldment of all ideas. Suppose, for instance, that your main desire in life is to be a great musician who will bring happiness to thousands or millions. Ask yourself this simple question, “Can I now feel the naturalness of being the great musician?” Enter into the mood of joy of actually being the musician now. You can do this by shutting out all evidence of the senses and silently contemplating the reality of the state desired. As you meditate in this manner you will find that the time comes when this state is fixed in consciousness and all the necessary qualities and attributes will be resurrected, as they were always within you in the first place.

Everything we see around us is in a process of change—a constant flux pervades nature. The formed is constantly returning to the Formless; therefore that which changes cannot be real, as God changes not. “He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.” We see the illusion and believe it to be the Real, but in essence the latter is invisible. To “see” the Real is to become one with it. We are here for no other purpose than to grow and in the growing discover and awaken to the true Self.

All our thoughts should be circles or bands of love. “They knew not that I healed them. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love.” In order to form this perfect circle, we must think in harmony with the One, the Beautiful and the Good. This is sometimes referred to as being “in tune with the Infinite.” We are not compelled to love, but we have freedom to love. Love is spontaneous and joyous, and we have the ability to give or withhold it. There is no compulsion to love. However, there would be no joy unless we knew the opposite. How could you experience joy unless you had known sorrow? If we are compelled to love, that would not be love, as love must be freely bestowed. Someone may feign love due to necessity or a sense of dependency, but this is not love. God expresses Himself as Life, Love, Beauty, Order, Symmetry, and Proportion. When our thoughts are in tune with the Infinite, they form a perfect circle or circuit and return to us, pressed down shaken together, and running over. When our thoughts are negative, as when for example we indulge in criticism, cynicism, jealousy, or feeling sorry for ourselves or another, we are not in tune with the Infinite; consequently, there is no polarity; the circle of good is not formed. The dynamo has stopped.

As Truth students, we must realize that every lack, limitation, or adverse circumstance is the result of negative moods entertained by us, which portray weaknesses in us, and as you know, weakness is simply absence of power. It comes from nowhere; it is nothing. The remedy is to realize that the seat of Omnipotence is within you, and by quietly stilling the mind, we realize gently that all power and energy necessary to overcome any situation, be it what it may, are ours now. This is the silent inner knowing of the mystic who is humble before God and proud before man. We come out of meditation as a live wire charged with sufficient power to melt away all discord, dissolve all hate, and dry all tears.

Jesus goes from Galilee to Judea and from Judea to Galilee. This is simply the union of the conscious and subconscious mind in feeling. The idea held in the conscious mind (Jesus) can be dropped into Judea, or subconscious mind, by feeling the reality of it. The subconscious mind gives form, to the impression made on it in ways we know not. Thus is all manifestation. When our desire or ideal appears on the screen of space, this is the return of Jesus to Galilee. The latter means we are now consciously aware of the objectification of our desire. This journey on the map closely resembles a perfect circle, symbolizing simply the eternal wheel of the Law. A battery is formed by connecting opposite poles of zinc and copper, causing a circuit which generates energy. This identical process is repeated when we meditate. Our thought must be charged with energy, or emotionalized by love. In other words we must become one with our ideal by feeling the reality of the state desired within ourselves. This is the polarization of thought, or the wheel within wheels.

So we begin to pray scientifically and discover our power by touching the Reality within; we go from glory to glory until finally we die to all the beliefs and limitations of the world and go back to paradise. “Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God, and the Ruby was thy covering.” We must learn to shut our ears to the confusion of the world which surrounds us. Let us open the inner hearing and aspire earnestly. He speaks to man, “Speak, Lord, Thy servant heareth.” That urge which sends us in search of Him is our search for the Self within—our true Self, or Christ. Forever we are bound to the One. We are wheels within the One wheel—the motionless wheel. What is a day, or a month, or a year, or a lifetime, or a thousand lifetimes? Time ceases for those who turn within to the Wisdom, the Power, and the Glory. The quest will be forgotten when we have reached the Goal. Deep within us is something that reminds us of our origin and urges us back to it. Our mission and purpose in this life is to cherish, enlarge, and glorify this memory, to follow sincerely the inner impulse until that spark grows by cultivation into a light and fills us, and we identify ourselves with it.

We can begin now to become one with the All, by practicing daily the perfect relationship between the conscious and the subconscious. We are told that Eve, the subconscious of man was taken from the rib while he slept. This, of course, as everyone knows is an allegory. The meaning is obviously as follows: It is during sleep that the subconscious emerges. She comes forth from his rib. The symbiology of the ribs is protective, as the ribs protect the vital organs of the body. This merely portrays the protective nature of the subconscious. During sleep Eve takes the office of instructor. The subconscious feeds the body; it carries on the internal process of which the conscious mind is wholly unaware. It is said that Eve was made subject to him for good or evil. Our subconscious was perfect in the beginning, but we have defiled it, and in the same way that we have degraded and abused it, we can purify it by our thoughts and moods. “Subservient was she to be to her husband all the days of her life.” At night she talks back to man and takes charge, and according to his mood prior to falling asleep either enjoys (if his thoughts are of the good and the beautiful) or he has unpleasant experiences, particularly if he has gone to sleep in a turbulent mood. In this latter case Eve is simply pointing out to him that he has mismanaged things. She also instructs and guides him and says what she pleases.

Man must learn to have only the most exalted ideal and enthrone peace and happiness as his predominant mood, and by sustaining this state of consciousness, he will weed his garden and then therein only lovely flowers will grow. Effectual prayer will change all the doubts, fears, and other negative states that may be lurking in the subconscious due to past errors and superstitions. Man must become the perfect lover and give all attention and devotion to his subconscious instead of to his conscious mind. He must not get confused and mix them, but must learn to tell them apart. If we will still the mind and enter into the feeling of love and peace, forgiving all men by casting any burden of resentment on the Christ within, we are then free. In this meditative mood of peace and joy, we can incline our ear to Eve and she will speak with an inner assurance, or by what is known as the still small voice of intuition. She will tell us where to go, what to do, and will truly be a lamp unto our feet. She may warn us in a dream by showing us the end. For example, if you have a fear of a disease, she may dramatize your mood by a dream showing you in the hospital attended by doctors and nurses. Now there is no such thing as an inexorable fate and the dream mentioned can easily be explained. The subconscious reasons deductively only and deduces a conclusion from the fear of disease, entertained by the individual, and she dramatizes this fear in a dream. Now man can change the dream and completely neutralize the fear by a counter suggestion of perfect health given to the subconscious. He can either enter into the mood that perfect health is his now and feel the joy of radiant health and peace, or in a meditative, relaxed mood, he can suggest with conviction one word, “Health” just prior to going to sleep and keep on repeating it until he falls asleep.

Unfathomed and unfathomable is the great deep of the interior Being. In this No-thing the Eternal will of God arises and then the Nothing comes forth as Something. This is the eternal wheel of the law.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Wheels of Truth,

Dr. Joseph Murphy

I haven’t kept up with psychology since the death of Jung

I haven’t kept up with psychology since the death of Jung

I haven’t kept up with psychology since the death of Jung

---------------------------------------------------------------

I haven’t kept up with psychology since the death of Jung, but I’d say that Jung was such a person: one grounded in eternity and moving in the field of time. Jean and I had tea for an hour-and-a-half with Dr. and Mrs. Jung at Bollingen, his place at Lake Zurich. It was a lovely occasion. Since he was editing some of the German posthuma of Zimmer and I had done my work on the English, we had no trouble saying hello and enjoying things together without any anxiety of understanding. When we were about to leave Jung said, “So, you’re going to India. Well, let me tell you the meaning of OM.

“When I was in Africa a group of us went for a little hike. Presently, we knew we were lost. Then we looked around and saw all these boys with things in their noses, standing on one leg, supporting themselves with spears. Nobody knew how to talk to anybody else. We had no knowledge of their language. It was a tense moment. We all just sat down and kept looking at each other. When everybody felt that everything was okay—”it’s okay, these are good people, they’re perfectly okay”—what do I hear? ‘OM...OM...OM...’

“Then, the next year I was in India with a group of scientists, and if there’s one variety of the human species that is not susceptible to awe, this is it. We went up to Darjeeling, to Tiger Hill, which is a wonderful experience. You are awakened early in the morning about a half hour before sunrise and driven in the chilly morning air to a lofty ridge. And it’s dark. When the sun rises, you see before you millions of square miles of Himalayan peaks breaking into rainbow colors. What did I hear from the scientists? ’OM...OM...OM...’ OM is the sound nature makes when it’s pleased with itself.”

That’s an example of the kind of playful conversation that we had. He was a beautiful man, and Jean said that he had beautiful eyes.

Jung found out in 1909 that myth and dream were linked, but it has been well known in India forever. It is implicit in the syllable OM, or A-U-M.

According to the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad, the world of the state of waking consciousness is to be identified with the letter A of the syllable AUM; that of dream consciousness (heaven and hell, that is to say) with the letter U; and deep sleep (the state of the mystical union of the knower and the known, God and his world, brooding the seeds and energies of creation: which is the state symbolized in the center of the mandala) with M. The soul is to be propelled both by and from this syllable AUM into the silence beyond and all around it: the silence out of which it rises and back into which it goes when pronounced—slowly and rhythmically ...as AUM—AUM—AUM. 

If you want to hear AUM, just cover your ears and you’ll hear it. Of course, what you are hearing is the blood in the capillaries, but it’s AUM: Ah—waking consciousness; ou—dream consciousness; and then, mmm—the realm of deep, dreamless sleep. AUM is the sound of the radiance of God. This is the most mysterious and important thing to understand, but once you get the idea, it’s very simple.

“The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost secret recesses of the soul, opening into that cosmic night which was psyche long before there was any ego-consciousness, and which will remain psyche no matter how far our ego-consciousness may extend. For all ego- consciousness is isolated: because it separates and discriminates, it knows only particulars, and it sees only what can be related to the ego. Its essence is limitation, even though it reach to the farthest nebulae among the stars. All consciousness separates; but in dreams we put on the likeness of that more universal, truer, more eternal man dwelling in the darkness of primordial night. There he is still the whole, and the whole is in him, indistinguishable from nature and bare of all egohood. “It is from these all-uniting depths that the dream arises, be it never so childish, grotesque, or immoral. So flowerlike is it in its candor and veracity that it makes us blush for the deceitfulness of our lives.”— Jung

The secret of dreams is that subject and object are the same. The object is self-luminous, fluent in form, multivalent in its meanings. It’s your dream, the manifestation of your will, and yet you are surprised by it. This is the relationship of ego-consciousness to the unconscious. Ego-consciousness has to learn about the unconscious, and dreams are the vocabulary of the unconscious speaking to the conscious mind. Yet, in dreams and in visions, subject and object are the same.

Dream, vision, God—God is a luminous vision. The image of God is equivalent to the dream vision. So your God is an aspect of yourself, just as your dream image is. That’s what is meant by the Hindu saying, nādevo devam arcayet, “by none but a god shall a god be worshiped.” Your god is a manifestation of your own level of consciousness. All of the heavens and all of the hells are within you. This understanding is just taken for granted in India, so we are in the realm of myth.

Write down your dreams. They are your myths.

Now, this consciousness is unconscious, but the body is conscious; there is consciousness still there. The heart is beating, the blood is running through the body. If you are cold you will pull the blanket up over you; if you are hot you will push the blanket down. I recall a cartoon in a magazine of a husband and wife in bed. He has all the covers over him, and he’s dreaming about watching a hula dancer on a South Sea isle. She’s freezing and thinks of herself in an Eskimo igloo. The body is conscious.

The point is that consciousness itself is below this level of darkness, beyond dream consciousness. In one of the Upaniṣads there is a saying: “We go into that brahman world every night, but, alas, we are asleep.” The goal of yoga is to go into that realm awake. If you do, you will have arrived at pure, unmitigated, undifferentiated consciousness. Not consciousness of any thing, because you are not on levels A or U, but consciousness per se. Since all of our words relate either to things or to a relationship of things—whether things of waking or visions of dream—there are no words for this experience. All that can be said about it is silence.

Silence is the proper vocabulary of this realization. The Buddha is called Shakyamuni. The word muni means “the silent one,” and Shakya is his family name, so he is the silent one of the Shakya clan. This is why Zimmer said that the best things can’t be told—there are no words for this realization. And when you utter words in order to refer the mind to it, the danger is that the words will trap you and you won’t go through. So, for anyone lecturing, there’s a not very comfortable saying: “He who speaks, does not know. He who knows, does not speak.” That’s the final word.

The point is that this AUM heard in silence informs all things. All things are manifestations of it. Now you are inward turned. The secret to having a spiritual life as you move in the world is to hear the AUM in all things all the time. If you do, everything is transformed. You no longer have to go anywhere to find your fulfillment and achievement and the treasure that you seek. It is here. It is everywhere.

Clearly the occurrence of such visions over the whole in-habited earth requires no explanation in terms either of racial or of cultural diffusion. The problem is, rather, psychological: of that depth of the unconscious where, to quote the words of C. G. Jung, “man is no longer a distinct individual, but his mind widens out and merges into the mind of mankind—not the conscious mind, but the unconscious mind of mankind, where we are all the same.”

-----------------------------------------------------------

Reflections on the Art of Living,

Joseph Campbell

Edited by Diane K. Osbon

A Movement of Mind

A Movement of Mind

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the 33rd chapter of the Book of Job we are told that God speaks to man in two ways, but man does not perceive them. It is said: "In a dream, in a vision of the night when deep sleep falls upon men while they slumber on their beds, he opens the ears of men and seals their instructions." Tell that to a psychiatrist and, because he separates the dreamer from God, he will tell you that all dreams come from the individual dreamer and not from God. But I tell you: God‘s eternal name is I AM, and if I asked who is dreaming the dream would the individual not say, "I AM?" And are we not told that that is God‘s name forever and ever? 

You cannot separate the dreamer from God, and all dreams proceed from Him. Some are simple and need no interpretation, while others are revealed in a symbolic language and need an interpreter, as told us in the story of Joseph. His true identity is revealed when he looked into the faces of those who had had a dream and saw they were disturbed, for he said: "Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dream." Then he interpreted the dreams of the butler, the baker, and even Pharaoh himself, and they all came to pass just as he had said they would. Now, if only God can interpret a dream, why tell Joseph? Because he is a personification of God. His name was changed from Joseph (meaning "salvation") to Joshua, which means "Jehovah is salvation." 

Now back in 1954, I awoke from a dream hearing these words: "You do not move in waking any more than you move on your bed in sleep. It is all a movement of mind. The intensity is determined by the strength of the vortex you create, which is just like a whirlwind with a center of perfect stillness. You only believe that you are moving when you are awake, as you think you move in sleep." Well, I am a rational being and reason could not accept that statement, but I wrote it down and placed it in my Bible to await further revelation. 

Psychiatrists would say this message came from myself. I will not deny that, but I do know that it came from a depth of my own being which my rational mind does not reach. Today our three astronauts returned from a trip of half a million miles. You and I came here tonight in our cars, and throughout my lifetime I have traveled all over the world in ships and planes. And like Blake, in my dreams "I have traveled through a land of men, a land of men and women, too. And heard and seen such dreadful things as cold earth wanderers never knew." We have all traveled, yet I know what I heard and wrote down. I know that I have traveled in my dreams and yet I know I have not physically left my room, for when I awoke in the morning I was still on the bed upon which I fell asleep. So I ask you: is this waking state no more than a dream? Is there a dreamer in the depths of my being who looks upon this world as a dream, just as I who . . having gone to a little lower of the dream at night . . awake to find I haven‘t left my bed at dawn? 

Paul tells us that "We are born anew through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." I remember that night, for I felt myself waking from a deep, deep sleep, feeling a vibration which, although centered in my head, it seemed to be coming from without. Then I awoke within the sepulcher . . the skull . . in which I was buried, to come out to find all of the symbolism of the Christian mystery surrounding me. I saw the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and the three witnesses to the event. Although unseen, as I was spirit, the witnesses spoke of me as the father of the child . . the sign that my savior was born, fulfilling scripture: "This shall be a sign unto you, you shall find a child wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." That night I awoke from a far deeper level of my being to find the symbolism of my waking from the dream of life, just as day after day I wake from the dream of the night. So, could it be that the revelation I heard back in 1954 is literally true? Reason questions it, reason doubts it, and reason rejects it. So if the vision is true then reason is rejecting Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ defines himself as the truth, saying: "I AM the truth..." If the revelation is true, and reason rejects it, is not reason Satan, the doubting one? 

This statement cannot be logically proved. Its truth must be experienced. I had completely forgotten it until I discovered my note today while looking in my Interpreter‘s Bible, and there it was . . the note I wrote on the 28th day of November 1954: "You do not move in waking any more than you move on your bed in sleep. It is all a movement of mind. The intensity is determined by the strength of the vortex you create, which is just like a whirlwind with a center of perfect stillness. You only believe that you are moving when you are awake, as you think you move in sleep." 

Scripture speaks of two ages: this age of darkness and decay, and that age of light and eternal life. This age is one of motion and violence, turbulence and storms, as the dreamer in men is sound asleep and does not know that he is God. In the 44th Psalm, however, he is urged to "Rouse thyself, why sleepest thou, O Lord. Awake! Do not cast us off forever." While occupying his dream God has the sensation of travel, motion and violence; but when he awakes he will find himself in the sepulcher, the skull of Man, where he deliberately laid himself down to sleep and was buried. God crucified himself on the cross of man and is dreaming this dream of life so that man may become God. 

Now I want to clarify a few points. In the Book of John this statement is made: "His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, neither does his word abide in you because you do not believe him whom he has sent." Many of you have completely accepted the fact that I have been sent. You believe me when I tell you that I stood in the presence of the Risen Lord, who embraced me and I became one with. Having been incorporated into the body of Love, Almighty God sent me to tell my experience. Having accepted my words, many of you have had a sexual experience with me, in vision, and have interpreted this to be a physical experience on this level; but it is not, as this is a shadow world. Your acceptance brought about this union, yet I . . the speaker . . am totally unaware of it. The true story of Christ which I have brought you has now been made alive in you. It will erupt in time and your experience of scripture will be identical to mine. 

The males who have completely accepted my words will not experience a sexual act, but an embrace. Wearing the body of the Risen Lord, who is Infinite Love and with whom I AM now one, you will see my face. You will be asked to name the greatest thing in the world and, as though divinely inspired, you will quote the words of Paul saying: "Faith, hope, and love; these three, but the greatest of these is love." I will embrace you, and you will fuse with the one body of the Risen Lord, and he who is united with the Lord becomes one Spirit with him. 

All of these are symbols, telling you that, having believed him whom he sent, you will hear his voice and see his form as his word is now abiding in you. It‘s a complete break with the past, as told us in the first words the Risen Lord spoke in the Book of Mark: "Repent and believe in the gospel." The gospel is the good news that man is not lost; that scripture is not secular history, but divine history, which was plotted and planned before we came out from the Father and came into the world to enter our own creation and play all the parts. 

It is God who awakes in you. One man, containing all, fell into diversity as told us in the 82nd Psalm: "I say, ‗You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you shall die like men, and fall as one man, O princes."‘ (I have quoted the Revised Standard Version in the marginal setup which is the true translation of the Hebrew.) It takes all the sons who fell, to form God the Father; so we are gathered together one by one into that same body which fell into humanity. And from humanity, God extracts himself individually because we are all so unique. No one can be duplicated or lost, because God is buried in all and God is redeeming himself. 

Today I watched the exciting touchdown of the astronauts who had traveled to the moon and back. Then I reread what I had written back in 1954: "You do not move in waking any more than you do on your bed in sleep." Now, reason could not accept that statement. I saw the astronauts return. We have a record of their journey of a half-million miles, yet they did not move? Well, I must confess that I have traveled in my dreams, as I am sure you have; yet we always wake on our bed in the morning, do we not? Could there be a dreamer far deeper than the one who is dreaming this seeming waking state? And when he awakes from the dream of life, would he not look upon it as you look upon the dream of the night? I know that when I awoke from within, I realized that I had been there for unnumbered centuries, dreaming violence, love, hate, concupiscence, and pain . . dreaming everything to be real, just as I did in any dream. I awoke to discover that I had been in that skull for centuries, dreaming I was a man walking the earth, dying, being restored to life to die again. This I continued to do until that moment in time when I awoke in Golgotha, the sepulcher where I was buried in the beginning of time. That‘s my Calvary. 

I seem to move here. I get up and shave in the morning, bathe, eat, make an effort to earn a dollar to pay the rent, and do all sorts of things; yet it‘s all a dream, a dream with a purpose. God limited himself to the limit of contraction and opacity called man and began to dream this world into being. Now believing himself to be you, you can dream noble dreams or ignoble ones. I urge you to dream noble dreams, because when you know you are the dreamer you can make all of your dreams come true. 

A dream is a very fluid state. Knowing what you want to dream, bring your inner circle of friends before your mind‘s eye and allow them to see you as you want to be seen. When you are self-persuaded this is now a fact, relax in the vision‘s gestation period. There is an interval of time between impregnation and birth. Having seen the expressions on their faces and heard the sound of their voices, break the spell and wait for that impregnation to take place in the world of dreams, while you live in the world of Caesar awaiting its coming. 

I have told you that the story of Jesus Christ has unfolded itself within me. What I shared with you tonight is not recorded in scripture; but in the very last verse of the 21st chapter of John he makes this statement: "Many other things Jesus did which are not recorded here. Were every one of them to be written, the world itself could not contain the books." There was no need to record the words which were revealed to me; so it does fit in with the very last verse of the epilogue of John, for John ends on the 20th verse and the 21st is the epilogue. All of these things happened and many more, but only these were recorded that you may believe. 

Thank you for sharing your visions with me, as they are showing me that you have completely accepted the story as I have told it. I have shared with you the true story of Jesus Christ. Over the centuries, barnacles have gathered around the ship. Men, in the interest of their own doctrines, have added to the scriptures. In spite of the warning not to add to or take from the words of the prophecies of the Bible, men have added to, to support their own traditions and conventions. When the original text was written, the one who had the vision simply recorded it. He did not understand it, but wrote it down, as I did, knowing that a greater revelation would come. 

I could not understand what I heard in 1954; but in 1959 I knew its truth, for I awoke from a profound dream to discover that I was not on my bed, but in my skull and completely alone. I came out of my skull to find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and the witnesses to the event. Seeing the babe, they witnessed the sign of my spiritual birth, but they could not see me as having been born of the spirit. I AM Spirit, while they, not yet born of the spirit, are flesh. I didn‘t bring forth a little baby; the child is but a sign that God is born. Having begotten himself, he brings forth that which he buried in humanity, for God is redeeming himself, as there is only God in the universe. 

The Bible hasn‘t a thing to do with any morals as the pulpits teach. It makes no attempt to change the world, as it is a schoolhouse. You don‘t turn a schoolroom into a home. This is a school of educated darkness, where we travel towards the light. Scripture does not attempt to change things; rather it urges all to "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar‘s." 

To try to make this world a nice, sweet little place in which all are happy and have enough to eat and drink is fine, but that hasn‘t a thing to do with the mystery of Christ. Were there no struggle, no effort would be made to awaken from the dream of life. Rather, the sleeper would fall deeper into sleep. So, let them march along telling the world how to become good and kind. It‘s all nonsense, for as long as man wears the garment of the animal he must express it. Taking from himself the heart and mind of Love, God took upon himself the body, heart, and mind of the animal, as told us in the 4th chapter of Daniel. This is an animal world, but while in this world of violence Jesus Christ awakes to discover it was only a dream. Were it not that Jesus Christ was in you, you could not breathe, for your very breath is his life. 

The day will come when you will awake to know this to be true; for David, the sum total of all of the experiences you have had in your dream of being man, will stand before you and call you ―Father‖. Then you will fulfill the 89th Psalm knowing, "I have found David. He has cried unto me, ‗Thou art my Father, my God and the Rock of my salvation.‘ ―Having played all the parts of Man, humanity, fused into a single youth, reveals your Godhood. 

As the Father, you will know that your son has always done your will; for you will have found in David, the son of Jesse (I AM) one who has done all your will. You, the Father, dreamed it and you, the son. played all the parts. And when the play is over you awake to come out of Golgotha to be born from above. Peter tells us: "We are born anew through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." While the world worships him as someone coming from without, you will find him rising from within . . not as another, but as your very Self, the dreamer of life. 

The great poet, Shelley, saw it so clearly when he said: "He has awakened from the dream of life. ‗Tis we who, lost in stormy visions, keep with phantoms an unprofitable strife." That‘s what the world is doing, fighting self-created phantoms. The world is yourself pushed out and you are in conflict with yourself until that day when an unearthly wind possesses you and you awake in your skull with the consuming desire to get out. With your innate knowledge, you will push the base of your skull and something will move. Then you will come out just as a child comes out of the womb of a woman; but this time you are being born, not from below, but from above . . from the skull of Self. The word "anothin" is translated "from above." When Pilate said: "Do you not know that I have the power to crucify you or the power to set you free," the Risen Lord replied: "You have no power over me unless it were given to you from above." Here is the same word "anothin." The power to kill or make alive comes from within. Everything is taking place from within. 

Having fallen into a profound sleep, you are the Lord Jesus Christ, dreaming the dream of life. And because there is only one Being, everyone will awaken as Jesus, for everything else will vanish and leave Jesus only. And no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Wind. When that wind possesses you, you awake within yourself. Only then will you know you are the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let us go into the Silence. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Neville Goddard Lecture, Nov 24, 1969

25 May Neville Goddard Lectures: “The Secret of Causatiion”

25 May Neville Goddard Lectures: “The Secret of Causatiion”

by Neville Goddard 12/5/69

THE SECRET OF CAUSATION by Neville Goddard 12/5/69 “T he secret of imagining is the greatest of all problems, to the solution of which every man should aspire; for supreme power, supreme wisdom, and supreme delight, lie in the solution of this great mystery.” Imagination is the Jesus Christ of scripture, and when you solve the great mystery of imagining, you will have found the cause of the phenomena of life. Imagination is called “Jehovah” in the Old Testament and “Jesus” in the New, but they are one and the same being. Divine Imagination, containing all, reproduces itself in the human imagination; therefore, all things exist in the human imagination. When you solve the problem of imagining, you will have found Jesus Christ, the secret of causation.

Let me share with you two experiences which came to me this past week. The first lady said: “Returning from a wonderful cruise recently, I checked my baggage at La Guardia Airport, bound for Chicago, where I expected to spend a few days with friends. Arriving in Chicago, I discovered that the bag which contained most of my clothes and all of the presents I had bought for my friends and relatives – as well as a locket I had had made from the engagement and wedding band my late husband had given me – was missing. I immediately reported the loss to the airline, but when I arrived in California there was still no trace of it.

” A week later I received a letter saying that the bag could not be located, and my first reaction was to curse the airline for their negligence; but then I remembered that imagining creates reality. I tried to reconstruct the letter, but when I couldn’t feel its words were true, I began to assume that the bag had arrived at the house. I lifted it up on the bed, opened it, put my clothes away, as well as the gifts which were there. I did this every night and during the day, when I would notice my thoughts going astray.

“When the grandchildren would ask about their presents, I told them that they were on their way, as I never admitted to anyone that the bag was lost. How could I, if I believe what I had imagined? Six weeks later I received a letter from the airline saying: `If you do not pick up your bag within five days, you will be charged storage.’ I picked up the bag to find everything there, and put them all away, just as I had imagined doing.” Then the lady added this thought: “Love’s labor is never lost. Everything in that bag was loved, and I knew that if this principle was true, it would prove itself in the testing – and it did.”

I can’t thank her enough for sharing this experience with me, that I, in turn, may share it with you. Everything is created by the human imagination. There is no other God. You can use your imagination wisely and create a heaven here on earth, or use it foolishly and create the world’s havoc; but there is only one power, called the Lord God Jehovah in the Old Testament, and Jesus Christ in the New.

This lady’s first impulse was to curse the person who stupidly lost the bag. Then, remembering what she had heard, she tried to revise the letter. When that didn’t seem natural, she asked herself what she would do if the bag was now in her possession. Assuming it was there, she did everything she would do if it was a physical fact – and six weeks later it was.

That is what I mean by imagining creating reality, for an assumption is faith; and without faith it is impossible to please your own wonderful human imagination. Divine Imagination, containing all, reproduces itself in human imagination; therefore, the human imagination contains all. The world is the human imagination pushed out. Not knowing this, man cheats himself, murders himself, declares war against himself, and does all sorts of evil against himself; but do not let yourself be intimidated by the horror of the world. Leave it alone, for it is only the misuse of the power exercised by sleeping mankind.

Now, another lady shared this experience with me: She found herself in a neighbour’s kitchen, filled with men and women dressed as Mennonites. (You all know what the Mennonite look like. Originating in Zurich, Switzerland in the year 1525, they moved into Germany, France, Belgium, and Holland, to finally arrive in this country in the 17th century. Now numbering around 150,000 to 200,000, they continue to dress and live in the same fashion they did when they arrived here 300 years ago. Here is a fixed belief which has perpetuated itself year after year.)

The neighbour’s second husband had mistreated her, so the Mennonites killed him. Although she tried to tell them that it was wrong to take the life of another, as far as they were concerned it was the right thing to do. He had joined their society and knew their laws, which stated that if a man mistreated a woman, he was to be killed. No matter what argument she used, she could not persuade them that what they had done was wrong.

In the 16th chapter of the Book of Proverbs you will read: “All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but God weighs the heart. God has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.” Believing in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, they felt no remorse or guilt for their actions, for in their eyes it was perfect.

Suddenly a limousine appeared and men dressed in black and carrying machine guns entered the house. As she watched, the leader, pointing his gun at the lady, ordered the others to search the house. Then the lady awoke, not to find herself on her bed, but standing in the room of her dream. Suddenly realising that she was awake in her dream and the action was taking place within her, she stopped the activity, which allowed her to see anyone as alive and independent of her perception, and they all froze.

(As Blake said, “All that you behold, though it appears without, it is within, in your human imagination of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.”)

Turning to the leader she said: “You don’t want to kill her, you love her and she loves you.” Then turning to the woman she said, “You love him and he loves you.” Allowing them to obey her will, she stood back and watched, as the man put his gun down and – with outstretched arms – moved to embrace the woman. Turning to go into the kitchen and release the animation there, her alarm caused her to awaken to this level of her dream.

This world is just as much a dream as that one, but man is sound asleep and does not know that he is dreaming. No one will sentence a man for dreaming he killed another; rather they will try to analyse it for him, and most of our so-called experts on dreams are past masters of misinterpretation. They do not realise the great mystery surrounding us. I tell you: the whole vast world is the individual dreamer pushed out, and the conflict is within himself, and not on the outside.

This lady’s drama began as something taking place on the outside, and seemingly independent of her perception of it. Then she awoke to an activity within her, which was animating and making alive all that she perceived. Arresting it, everyone became frozen, like statues. She changed their intentions, then watched as they were reanimated once more – but now bewildered, because of the radical change in them which took place in her.

Scripture calls this repentance, or metanoia, which means “a radical change of mind.” When ideas change, so do your intentions and attitude towards life. The story is told, that at his trial, the Risen Christ said to the symbol of the authority of this world: “You have no power over me, were it not given you from above.” This world is a drama which has been set in motion based upon your attitude from above. Functioning from above, this lady is tasting of the power of the age to come.

In the 10th chapter of Luke, the story is told of seventy disciples, who – having been sent out into the world – returned thrilled beyond measure, and said: “Lord, even the demons were subject to us in your name.” Then he said: “I saw Satan fall from heaven. Nevertheless, rejoice not that the spirits are subject to you, but that your names are written in heaven.” I say to her, rejoice not that you have tasted of this power, but rejoice because your name is written in heaven. This is infinitely greater than demonstrating your power in this world.

Now, Luke does not speak of seventy individuals which were sent out, but the numerical value of the Hebrew letter ayin, whose symbolic value is the eye. This is not the outside eye, but the incurrent eye, which sees inward into the world of thought. You have the incurrent eye, nevertheless rejoice – not because the spirit was subject unto you, but because your name is written in heaven. One day when you are called into that assemblage, you will see that there is such a record, and your name is written in heaven.

This may seem stupid to the intelligent mind. That is because they are sound asleep. This Manson boy, now on trial for the murders recently committed by his group, fell into a power of which he is totally unaware. Many who became his slaves were simple people, some cultured. One had attended college for three years.

His power, exercised without love, resulted in a horrible experience; but she exercised her power in love, saying: “You don’t want to kill her. You love her and she loves you.” She released the man from his violent state by the power of love. This world is every bit as much a dream as that world, and you, its dreamer, are God learning to exercise your powerful imagination, in love.

You can take this message on either level. Use it as my friend did, when she would not accept the fact that her luggage was missing, or test your power from above. Scripture claims that: Whatever you desire, if you will believe you already have it, you will.

Refusing to believe her luggage was missing, my friend fulfilled her desire by placing it on the bed, removing its contents, and putting them away. This she did every night for five weeks, and then one day she received a notice saying that if she did not pick up her luggage within five days she would be charged storage!

I can’t thank her enough for sharing this experience with me, that I may share it with you to encourage you to control your human imagination; for if you would steer a true course toward a certain goal in life, you must ever be aware of the end that you are shaping by your imaginal activity, and not allow doubt to enter for one moment. When you know what you want, you must think from your belief in its possession, morning, noon, and night. If you do, no power can stop its appearance, because you are the dreamer of your dream, pushing yourself out, shaping your world by your imaginal activities.

Your own wonderful human imagination is the Jehovah and Jesus of scripture. The words mean: “Jehovah is salvation, or Jehovah saves.” In the 3rd chapter of Exodus, Jehovah revealed his name as I am. You are not John or Mary, but simply I am. In the 4th chapter of the Book of Genesis we are told that when Abel (the 2nd son) was killed, Eve bore Seth, a son to take Abel’s place. Seth then had a son called Enosh, “And from that day on, men began to call upon the name of God.” (Remember, in the lady’s dream the second husband was killed.)

Now, the words “call upon” literally mean “call with.” It is nonsense to say: “In the name of Jesus; in the name of God; or in the name of Jehovah.” If you say: “In the name of Jesus Christ,” you do not feel anything. But when you call with the name, you say: I am unpacking the suitcase. I am hanging the clothes in the closet. I am putting the presents away. I am arresting the activity within and silencing those who stand before me. I am saying: “You love her and she loves you.'” That’s calling with the name of God. And from that moment on, men began to call with the name of God.

If you really believe me, you will prove my words in the testing. The two ladies have proved it and shared their experiences with me. I can’t tell you my thrill when I know that you have heard me to the point of applying my words. One who is the incurrent eyewitness took it into the depth and saw into eternity. The other knows the truth, and believes it on this level of her being. From this level she brought her luggage back with all of its contents in place, while the other went into a deeper level of her being to discover that there was nothing on the outside but herself.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Neville Goddard Lecture, 1969