Counting the Cost

Tonight’s subject is “Counting the Cost.” In the gospel of Luke, the fourteenth chapter, he asks a certain question, “Which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether you have enough to complete it?” (verse 28). So you and I are called upon to count the cost. It’s not in dollars and cents. That’s not the coin that you use. God counted the cost when he decided to transform us into himself. It’s a frightening cost! Because, God actually became us; he didn’t pretend to become a slave, he became one. As we are told in Philippians: “Jesus Christ, who, though in the form of God, emptied himself, taking upon himself the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men” (2:5).

He actually took upon himself the form of a slave and this mightier self that is our self who is Jesus Christ, is your own wonderful human Imagination. Completely emptied himself and assumed the form of a slave, and now he serves us in the capacity of a slave. A slave does not question the order given by his master, he only obeys. For today he serves us as indifferently and as quickly when our will is evil as when it is good. I can conjure in a second, a split second, the most horrible picture or the most wonderful loving picture, and he does it. He is my own wonderful human Imagination, who gave up his primal form, his prenatal wholeness, and took upon himself the form of a slave, which is my own wonderful human Imagination that serves me in this capacity.

Now tonight, I want to take it on this level, this level of Caesar, and show you how on this level we do the same thing. Just as he gave up everything to become me to transform me into himself, so that I may wear the form of God and wear that primal form that is eternal, so today I give up, too, certain things. But I must count the cost. Well, how would I go about counting the cost if I wanted to be other than what reason tells me that I am? Well, this is how I do it. First, I must know what I want to be, and then I conjure in my mind’s eye a certain imagery which imagery implies the fulfillment of my dream. And then, this is where I now count the cost. Do I have the necessary persistency, the necessary faithfulness, the necessary power that in spite of all things to the contrary I will persist? Do I have these virtues? Am I willing to start with what I have in the hope that it really is enough to build the tower? For the word translated tower means “a simple watch-tower.” As we are told in Habakkuk: “And now I will stand, and watch, and take my station upon the tower; and I will look forth to see what he will say unto me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. The Lord answered me and said, ‘Write the vision; make it plain upon tablets that he may run who reads it.’” And then comes the promise, “For the vision has its own appointed hour; it ripens; it will flower. If it be long, then wait; for it is sure, and it will not be late.” Here you find these three verses of 2nd Habakkuk (:2, 3). This is the tower spoken of in this Book of Luke, “I will stand upon my tower.”

So I bring before my mind’s eye a certain imagery. I bring you, my friend, and hear you discussing each other and your discussion is all about my good fortune. I listen as though I actually heard you say what I want everyone to say. I listen and persuade myself I’m actually hearing it. And then have I now the courage, in spite of tomorrow when everything denies it? Have I the persistency? Have I the faithfulness? By faithfulness I mean loyalty to this unseen reality. So here, it is unseen, but to me it’s real. I’m seeing it vividly in my mind’s eye, but it hasn’t yet objectified itself upon the screen of three-dimensional space so that you may share it with me. Well, can I remain faithful? Can I remain loyal to this unseen reality until it becomes something I can share with the world? Have I that coin?

So the coin I use is not the coin of Caesar, it’s the coin of God. He knew exactly the price he had to pay when he decided to transform me into himself, for he had to grant me all the freedom in the world to make mistakes. He had to become my slave and wait upon me just as swiftly when my will was evil as when my will is good. He couldn’t discriminate and say you shouldn’t do it. He has to wait upon me and let me make all the mistakes in the world as he slowly transforms me into his form, that I, too, may bear the form of God. So just as Jesus Christ, who, though he was in the form of God, emptied himself and then took upon himself the form of a slave, and was born in the likeness of a man. Not a man 2,000 years ago, you are the man in which Jesus Christ is born. Every child born of woman is Jesus Christ, born in the likeness of man. And now in the depth of that soul is one’s own wonderful human Imagination, which is Jesus Christ, a slave of that man.

And he takes the part of the slave in the true sense of the word: he only obeys. He doesn’t suggest anything in this world, only obeys your wonderful vision and he will in the twinkle of an eye conjure up the most horrible animalisms in the world and lust at the call of your desire. And the same one does it that will conjure to me, if I so desire, the most loving thing in the world, the same being, not another being. There’s only one God and that God is Jesus Christ. Forming us from what we are into what he was when he gave himself up to become us—and that is God himself.

So here is a story. Last month in New York City this lady came to me, she brought her husband—nice looking chap, tall, fine, handsome looking fellow. She said, “Do you recall my story of last year? I was at my wit’s end, and I told you my husband, who I consider a very fine lawyer, he graduated from one of our greatest universities, and here at his age, he was then only forty, he was only earning eighty-seven dollars a week in a very large law firm. I asked you if I could apply this technique for him, without his consent, without his knowledge, because, trained as he is in the legal world, he could not conceive of the rational side of this picture at all. It made no sense whatsoever to him. So could I, without his knowledge, without his consent, use this technique to increase his income? And I asked you if I could take it and double it. You said to me, ‘Double it? Treble it! Make it three times or make it more than that. A man trained as he is trained—years at a great university, at the age of forty, only making eighty-seven dollars a week? Why that’s insane. Treble it!’” Well, she said, “Now I want you to meet my husband.” So I met her husband. She said, “He’s now making $300.00 a week. Now, this is what I want, Neville, I want him to be a judge.” I said all right, does he want to be a judge? So I said to him, “Would you like to be a judge?” He said, “Yes. I think I would be a very good judge. I have all the qualifications and I think I’d be a good judge.”

I said now to her, I said, “Now you did it, he didn’t do it. He didn’t have a thing to do with this $300.00 a week. It simply came over the year to him and now he is earning $300.00 a week. But you paid the price. You were very vigilant, you were persistent, you were faithful to the vision concerning your husband. Now, I’m telling not to him, I’m telling to you. Now that you are making $300 a week, don’t you have someone who helps you out with cooking the meals, or maybe serving the dinner in your apartment, or cleaning the house?” She said yes. I said, “All right, from now on, you only think of your husband as a judge. And so now you say to your servant, take a certain product to your husband, say, a glass of water, a cup of tea, or whatever it is, you refer to him as the judge. Take this to the judge or ‘Would you please take to the judge an ashtray.’ Whatever it is you want to send to your husband, he is the judge. He is not just your husband, Mr. So and so, ___(??), he’s earned the right to be called Judge and you refer to him as Judge. When I come back here in May next year I want him on the bench as judge.” And do you know he’s going to be judge if she will pay the price. If she is persistent, if she is faithful to that vision, referring always in her mind’s eye, that even in her dream, she refers to him as “the judge.”

I have a brother who is a doctor and from the day he was married—and I give his wife one hundred percent credit for this—she always referred to him as “the doctor.” She never once spoke to anyone in her household—she has a full complement of servants; there are five in the house and three in the yard—but anyone who had to take anything to my brother Lawrence, when his wife suggested it, “You take this to ‘the doctor’ or ‘the doctor’ wants this done or ‘the doctor’ wants that done.” Then she has two sons who are doctors, and she discriminates between her husband “the doctor” and her two sons that she calls them by name, Dr. Michael and Dr. Robert. But they are not “the doctor.” In her mind’s eye her husband, my brother Lawrence, is “the doctor.” Today in Barbados he is the most prominent doctor, he has the biggest practice, many doctors working for him, and a clinic with thirty beds. And so, he’s the most busy doctor in the island of Barbados.

I go back to my sister-in-law Doris’ concept, which people laughed at when she started. For when he came out of McGill as a young doctor, in her mind’s eye he was “the doctor” and always referred to him as “the doctor.” And Lawrence grew and grew and grew in the world of medicine. So I said to her, from now on he has to be “the judge.” “You take this to ‘the judge’.” There’s only one judge in your mind’s eye in your household and that is your husband. You take it. Not only is he earning $300.00 a week, but the dignity that would go with his new position and increased funds and responsibility.

Another one came from Baltimore and he said, “Do you not remember my problem, Neville? My problem was money. Well, I want to tell you I am making four times what I made a few years ago when you and I discussed my problem. I think I can say from the actual evidence I was vigilant, I was faithful. Today I am making this four times more and making it more effortlessly than I did when I made my bit of money when it was really my problem.”

Now, this is the price you and I pay. Causation is mental; it is not physical. Causation is the assemblage of mental states which occurring creates that which the assemblage implies. You can put it down. That’s exactly what causation is: it’s the assemblage of mental states which occurring creates that which the assemblage implies. So I create a scene… and so I have a servant in my house and I’m saying to the servant, “Take this to ‘the judge’.” Here is one image, a servant; another image, something I’m giving to her; and then another image, a man. I refer to him as “the judge.” So here is the assemblage of mental states which occurring creates that which the assemblage implies.

What does this imply? He’s not a judge at that present moment in time, but what is that conversation implying? It implies he is a judge. I’m asking to take this to ‘the judge’, and so, she takes it to the judge. Then I must be persistent, I must be vigilant, I must be faithful, I must be courageous. Regardless of tomorrow’s denial, I must be courageous and still live in this state. And when the day comes, I cannot predict it, I cannot tell you how it’s going to happen, but they will see in him the man they want to be judge. Some party, a ___(??) party, either the Democratic party or the Republican party or someone, they’re going to see in him the man they want to be a judge, and he will have no choice in the matter. Because one woman unknown to the party sat in a certain mood and she was faithful to that mood, and then they had to see him as she always saw him, she saw him as the judge.

Well, this is how this fabulous law works. My brothers came to New York City last month and stayed two weeks with us. We got a suite of rooms on our floor at the hotel, so we were in constant contact. I bought a dozen shows for them, that is, seats to go to a dozen shows, all in two weeks. But there was one thing my brother Lawrence wanted; above all things he wanted to see Aida, the opera. He loves music, he appreciates music, he understands music. My brother Victor had never seen an opera, so anything would be exciting to him. But Lawrence wanted to actually see and hear Aida. This year they’ve changed the format of Aida, the same music but new costumes, new scenery, and new format. And it’s a sellout. You can’t get near Aida in New York City now. In fact, in New York City all the operas are sold out, anyway. But when it comes to this present presentation of Aida, well, it’s just like asking for a ___(??). Just can’t get near the place.

Well, he wanted to see Aida. So, I said, All right, you’re going to Aida. Went down to the Metropolitan Opera, the four of us, my wife, my two brothers and myself. We got there around 11:30 in the morning and there were two long lines, two windows serving this entire crowd. They always sell ten seats in advance at the Met, that is, ten operas. Not the same opera, but the next ten performances are always sold in advance. So I got into one line—it’s a very long line—and then the other line was maybe five or six shorter. But my line wasn’t moving. It was simply a static line because the one up front was asking a thousand questions: “Can I see from this one, can I hear correctly, and are these good seats for the money I’m paying?” Well, the man was very kind and very considerate and he answered her very gently, but it wasn’t moving. I saw this line began to move, so I broke line and just went over to this, and got at the very end of it. It moved rapidly down toward the teller.

When I got to the teller I was the second now in line. The man in front of me bought two seats for some opera, which opera I don’t know, but the two seats were two little pink seats and they were stuffed in an envelope and just about to be pushed to him. At this very moment, just as the man is pushing the seats to him, a tall man about six foot five or six foot six stuck his hand over my head from my side, and he registered this man’s attention and called his attention to the side. So the teller looked up this way and began to answer the man’s question. At this moment, this man took the two seats and pushed some bills under the window, and started toward the door. The man thanked him after the questions were answered, and then the teller looked back and he sees four one-dollar bills. So he said, “What is all this?” And the man is now almost to the street. So he looks through the window, and he calls out, “Mister!” and the man doesn’t respond. “Mister!” he calls a second and third time. He doesn’t respond. So I turned around and said, “Sir!” At that he stopped. I said, “You! You come right back here.” So he did that. So he came right back, came in front of me and the man said, “What have you done here? These are four one-dollar bills.” He said, “I gave you twenty.” He said, “Oh, no you didn’t.” He said, “I gave you twenty.” I said, “Oh, no you didn’t. You only gave him exactly what is there, because I was standing here and saw exactly what you did. Whatever that is that’s all you gave him, you gave him no more, because I was standing here.” He looked at me this way but did nothing. He just simply looked. And then he opened up his wallet. I could see a bunch of ones in the side of the wallet and a twenty-dollar bill tucked in the side.

So then he said to the man, “I gave you twenty dollars.” The man said, “You didn’t.” Closed the other window, he came around, “You heard the man. He said that he was standing next to you and he saw exactly what you did, so that’s what you did.” So the man now takes his four dollars back, puts the twenty dollars into the window, and then says, “When will you discover your mistake?” The teller said, “I didn’t make a mistake.” He said, “When will you discover you have more in your cash box than you should have? Tonight?” and the teller said, “No, not tonight.” He said, “When?” He said, “The end of the season.” Could he argue with him? And they all loved that. This whole thing is unfolding just as I’m telling you, all by one’s wonderful human Imagination. So when I stepped forward, after the man takes his seats and leaves, and then I said, “What is that horseshoe ___(??) right over the orchestra? I want it right over the orchestra and I want two seats in the center for Aida next Tuesday night.” He said, “Well, that horseshoe ___(??) is called the Grand Tier.” I said, All right, then I will take two in the center of the Grand Tier for Tuesday. He didn’t hesitate a second. He pulled the two seats out, and I got my two seats.

This is how the law works. I could not have plotted that. In that line was one in the state of a thief. No one’s a thief, no one is honest, no one is this—they’re only states. And so, here in a line, and the line is broken. There’s no one in that line that’s in the state of a thief, but in this line there’s one that will play the thief. I am determined I’m going to get two seats for my brothers. And so, this line is frozen, this begins to move, and the depths of my soul moved me from this line, right here, next to the thief, the one who’s in the state of the thief. For he and the tall fellow were working together, the tall one waiting at the door for him. And so, when this one paid the twenty dollars, took his four dollars back and his tickets, at the end the two began to talk, the very one who diverted the teller’s attention. It was all a set up job. These were states. He wanted to defraud the man of sixteen dollars. I was not in the state of the thief, and walking down, my Deep Being put me right behind him, so that I could say, “You didn’t do it at all” and protest this attempt to steal sixteen dollars.

The teller now seeing that I protected him and saved him sixteen dollars gave me two house seats. These are reserved always for the VIPs, people who come at the last moment, like a president, or a governor, or some so-called great, important person. They are always kept back to the last moment to be sold only to VIPs. But having served him faithfully and saving him sixteen dollars, he didn’t wait for one second to pull the two out, and I got my two for Aida. And it’s a sellout; the sign is up “Sold Out.” You can’t get it. I never saw the sign. I just got right behind, in this wonderful drama, a thief and protested. And so, the wonderful words of Lincoln, “To remain silent when we should protest makes cowards of us all.” And I have never once felt like being a coward. I’d rather die in the attempt to be what I would call the decent person than to be a coward by being silent when it’s so obvious the man is trying to steal sixteen dollars.

And so, this is how this wonderful law works. You don’t have to worry about how it’s going to work. You must count the cost, are you willing to pay the price? And the price is simply your own vigilance, your own faithfulness, your own persistency, your own courage. Are you going to pay the price using this coin? Then your dreams will come true. I don’t care what the dream is. So you want something that can’t be obtained? It doesn’t matter what the world says: “Sold Out” means nothing. Hasn’t a thing to do with it. You just get into the line, and the line isn’t moving? All right, the depth of your soul will move you out of this line to this line. But not just this line, he put me behind the very one who is plotting and planning his little scheme to get sixteen dollars. And you are going to protest, because you haven’t ___(??) him. Puts you right behind him, and so right as he said, “I gave you twenty dollars,” you automatically say, “You didn’t. I was standing right there, didn’t do it at all.” And so he’s taken by surprise, he looks at me, but can’t raise a finger to slap you, can’t hurt you. You know exactly what you saw and you do it.

So this is how this law works. Are you willing to count the cost? “For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first discuss and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” Will you tonight count the cost and say I will complete it? Tomorrow will deny it, reason denies it, my senses deny it, but I will complete it. I will persist in feeling that which if true implies the fulfillment of my dream. And if you do it, no power in this world can stop you from realizing your dream, but no power. Because causation is mental, it is not physical. And so I know, just as this lady, without the consent of her husband, raised his salary from his eighty-seven dollars a week to over $300.00 a week, she will raise him from his present position in his present office to judgeship in the city of New York.

And the other chap, who is a Kennedy, he’s now earning many times what formerly he earned. He can go beyond it. As I said, “You have a daughter just about ready for college and I know if you want to send her to a private college you’re going to have to think in terms of not less than $5,000 a year. And so, you think in terms of an extra five or ten thousand dollars a year.” You say that is selfish? Forget it! It’s all part of your own wonderful Imagination. If you can imagine yourself earning x-number of dollars, and you are persistent, and you believe it, and sleep as though it were true, in a way you do not know, and no one could devise the means by which it will become a fact, it will become a fact. If you are persistent. If you are courageous. If you view yourself as such a person. This is how it works.

And so, he actually—from the depths of my soul he waits upon me just as indifferently and as swiftly when I am evil as when I am good. Let no one tell you that he only sells the good. No, ___(??) both for good and evil. “I kill, I make alive; I wound, I heal; I create the good, I create the evil” (Deuteronomy 32:39). But you are invited to choose the good, to choose the blessing, but we aren’t compelled; and he who serves as our slave will serve us just as swiftly when the will is evil as when it is good. So let no one tell you he is not your slave. “Jesus Christ, who, though in the form of God… emptied himself, taking upon himself the form of a slave, and was born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7). And so, as you’re seated here now, the slave, your slave that will make everything for you is your own wonderful human Imagination. That’s Jesus Christ. He’s actually buried in you and will form anything in this world, if you will pay the price. Sit down and count the cost, are you willing to be that persistent? Are you willing to stand upon your tower and actually watch faithfully? For you’re building a tower and the tower is only a watchtower; and I will watch and watch faithfully until what I am seeing comes to pass.

So we are told the vision—what vision? your vision, my vision—it has its own appointed hour; it ripens, it will flower. If it be long, then wait; for it is sure and it will not be late. So, you know exactly what you want in this world, either for yourself or for another. This lady did not consult her husband. She said he’s too rational, he’s trained in the legal world and the mind is trained rationally. And so you couldn’t possibly explain to him that this could work. So don’t explain it to him. You bear his name and you want him to succeed because his success is your success, well, then do it. And so, I go back one year later, and then he is brought, not reluctantly this time, he’s brought, introduced to me, and he did not blush when I said to him, in her presence, “Do you really want to be a judge?” And he didn’t say timidly, he said yes, quite openly. “Yes, I would like to be a judge. I think I’d make a good judge.” Then I ___(??) and I addressed him as judge. Then I told her exactly what to do, and when she does it, he will be a judge.

So do you know what you want to do? Maybe you will not bear a title like professor or doctor, where someone could refer to you as that. Doesn’t matter. You conjure in your mind’s eye a certain scene which if true would imply a certain fulfillment in your life. Well then, see the scene and enter into that scene just as though it’s taking place now, and persist in it, and that scene will come to pass and give birth to what the scene is implying.

So, causation is the assemblage of mental states which occurring creates that which the assemblage implies. You can put it down and dwell upon it. That’s how this law works. Because I tell you these stories, you could not for all the money in the world have bought the two seats. I paid no more than the twenty dollars for the two seats. That’s exactly what they were selling for, twenty dollars. I didn’t go to some scalper. I didn’t go to some agent. I went straight to the box office. And here in the depth of my soul, because I knew exactly what I wanted, I wanted my brothers Lawrence and Victor to see Aida—and so I went straight to the box office, and he puts me right behind one who is in a state of a thief and causes him to act. And then causes me to act in such a way that the teller is grateful for my defense of his honesty, and gives me the seats.

Now, the man wasn’t a thief. He may play the part of a thief for the rest of his days, but no one is a thief. He’s in the state. When you are in the state of a thief, you can’t do anything else but steal. You can’t do it. They’re only states, infinite states. So Blake said, “I do not consider the just or the wicked to be in a supreme state, but to be every one of them states of the sleep which the soul may fall into in its deadly dreams of good and evil.” (A Vision of the Last Judgment, pages 91 and 92) And so, he fell into a state, and that state was to get the better of other people all through his life. He will continue to do it until he gets out of that state. Either he gets out by his own efforts or someone who will love him enough to get him out of that state. If he has a wife or a mother or a friend who knows the kind of a state that he dwells in and would like to see him out of that state, making just as much money but this time honestly, they can get him out of that state. He is only in a state.

All things are states. That’s why in the end you can say, “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.” So if I’m only expressing a state, then don’t condemn me. It’s a state, and the states are permanent and men move through these states. Not knowing they are only states, they express the state that they are in. And so, if I return constantly to one state, you can call me by the name of that state. If I’m always stealing, I’m expressing the state of stealing. But if I live in it constantly, it’s perfectly all right to call me a thief because I’m so identified with that state. So the state to which I most often return constitutes my truest self. But no matter how often I’ve been in the state of stealing I could get out of it, get out of it permanently, and never fall into it again.

So everyone is at every time in his life just in a state. Now get out of the state that is not productive. If you aren’t pulling your own weight in this world, that’s embarrassing. Now construct a scene where you are not only pulling your own weight, more than yours. Actually feel it and see a scene implying that you’re doing it. Let’s have a scene ___(??) when—that was one of my visions—“I remember when.” That vision came to me so vividly a few years ago where I found myself in a scene and the scene is giving me the most fantastic story to tell the world. The story is this. I found myself in an enormous mansion and there were three generations present, grandfather, and then the other two generations. The two were now enjoying this great, fantastic estate brought in because of grandfather’s vision. They would say—and I was taken in Spirit into this mansion—and they would say, “Grandfather would stand upon a lot and while standing upon an empty lot he would say, ‘I remember when this was an empty lot.’ And then he would paint a word picture of his desire for that lot and paint it so vividly you saw it existing as an objective fact.”

Then I woke and wrote the vision down. It was early in the morning, about three or three thirty, so I went back to bed and I re-dreamed the dream. Re-dreaming the dream I had a slight change in the dream. Instead of saying that grandfather said it, I had so absorbed the faith of grandfather, I became grandfather, and I said “I remember when this was an empty lot.” Then I would paint the picture of my desire for this empty lot and paint it so vividly everyone who heard me saw it as something objective to them. And then, going back, as we are told in scripture, if an event in your life is foreshadowed by a word of scripture it’s predestined, it’s fixed. So I went back and reread scripture, and here in the 41st chapter of the Book of Genesis, the doubling of a dream means that the thing is fixed by God and it will shortly come to pass (verse 32).

So my dream was doubled that night. I was taken in Spirit into this fantastic mansion and heard a certain secret of creativity. I woke, recorded it, fell asleep again, and re-dreamed the dream. So it was the doubling of the dream, and the doubling of a dream means that God has fixed the thing and it will shortly come to pass. So when we double the dream, well, we need not fall asleep in it, you can double it in a waking dream. You can take it this night and see yourself as you would be seen by the world were you the man, the woman that you want to be. All right, that’s a dream. That’s a waking dream but it’s a dream. The same power that created the dream of the night is creating this. It’s Christ Jesus in you, your slave. Now tomorrow do the same thing—that’s a doubling of a dream. And you can treble the dream, and that’s persistency, that’s vigilance, and that’s faithfulness. And it will come to pass.

So you take your wonderful noble dream for yourself and for your friends, and for others. Regardless of the circumstances of the moment, if they’re not in tune with your desire for what you want, well then, ignore it and remain faithful to the dream. And then double dream. For that was shown me so clearly for I was lifted in Spirit into the mansion. I heard the conversation: Grandfather used to stand upon an empty lot and as he stood upon it he would say “I remember when this was an empty lot” and then paint his word picture of his desire for it. Well, I can say of a friend, “I remember when he was unemployed.” Well, if I say I remember when he was unemployed, I’m implying he’s not now unemployed. “I remember when he only earned” and I name an amount. “I remember when he only earned x-number of dollars a year.” Well, if I remember when he only earned that, I’m implying he isn’t earning that now, he’s a way beyond. “I remember when she was not well.” Look at her now. She must be radiantly happy and healthy if I remember when.

And so you take this technique and apply it to everything in your world. That conjures a picture. You bring someone before your mind’s eye, “I remember when he was simply unknown.” Then what am I saying? He must be known. Of course, you can do this in a negative, too. You can use it and just as swiftly Jesus Christ in you, your own wonderful human Imagination, will answer the call. You can say, “I remember when he was known, when he was someone, when he had money” if you want to use it negatively. So I tell you, I acquaint you with God’s law and leave you to your choice and its risk. For he in you will serve you as indifferently and as swiftly when the will in you is evil as when it is good. So I can’t deny that he will serve you even when you are evil. So I leave you to your choice and its risk. It’s like electricity. Because it could kill I shouldn’t deny man’s use of it. Because it has done so many wonderful things in the world, but it could destroy. So because it could destroy, why not use it constructively where it doesn’t destroy and helps man ___(??).

So I tell you God’s law. As we are told, “Blessed is the man… who delights in the law of the Lord… for in all that he does he prospers.” That’s the 1st Psalm. “Blessed is the man… who delights in the law of the Lord… for in all that he does he prospers.” So if you know the law and you delight in it, you will prosper. I only hope you will not use it negatively. But, may I tell you, I have no power to stop you from using it negatively. I still must acquaint you with it and hope that you will use it constructively. But you could use it negatively, and he will wait upon you and respond to your call just as swiftly as though you used it in the most glorious manner in this world.

But in the end he is faithful to his picture for you and brings you out just like himself. I only hope you will not use it negatively, because I don’t believe, in his case, that the hatching out is going to be delayed. But if you use it destructively, it may be a more painful process of coming to the end. But I can’t conceive of delay in his vision for man, and as a vision for man, individually, he calls us one by one. And so, he’s seen you in his mind’s eye and he so loved you he emptied himself of his primal form and took upon himself the form of a slave and became born in the likeness of you. And as you he goes through all the furnaces of affliction, obeying your will, even ___(??). But he has a fixed date for the bringing of you out into his own wonderful primal form. So I do believe, and yet I cannot say that it’s true, I believe if you use it negatively you may find the birth more painful.

Now let us go into the Silence.

Q: (inaudible)

A: No, my dear, I never consider the cost of what I want. I didn’t want to see Aida. I go to the opera occasionally when I’m in New York City, ___(??). When ___(??) willing to pay the price as God was willing to pay the price when he became me, when he became you. He did not impose upon us limitations of the use of him; he’s our slave, and we could use him lovingly or unlovingly. But he knew the price he had to pay, and he is suffering. People don’t believe it. If anyone wants to know the price that God paid to become you to make you God, read the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. Read it over and over and over. That’s the price to be paid. All the sicknesses of the world, God bears them. All the iniquities, he bears them. But there is one verse in it: he saw the fruit of his soul in travail and was satisfied. ___(??) the result of his suffering when he decided to become me to transform me into the form of God. Does that answer, David?

Q: (inaudible)

A: All right, if I want, say, x-number of dollars more than I earn, I must always be willing to assume the responsibility that goes with increased earnings. There are responsibilities. Some people do not accept it but there is. If they don’t accept it they suffer. I must be willing to assume the full responsibilities of increased responsibility. It carries with it a certain burden. But, it will not be a burden when you assume it. I can’t foresee now what will be asked of me if I should transcend my present position. But something will be asked of me that I do not now foresee. But if I want to transcend it, let that be the vision and then others will come, and I will have the ability to really play the part well, I will.

Q: Would you care to comment on the phenomena of meeting people in dreams who have passed on years prior and have received instructions on certain ___(??) phenomena?

A: You’re told in the Book of Numbers, the 11th chapter and 12th chapter: “Would that there were a prophet among you, for I the Lord God will make myself known unto him in a vision and I will speak with him in a dream.” So we have in the scripture only one source of dream, and that one source is God. All dreams proceed from God. So every dream has a great significance. I am not saying that we are masters in interpreting the meaning of dreams; many of us misinterpret them, but it does have a certain message for us if we can only interpret.

For instance, there is a lady in the audience here tonight. May I tell you the lady is Nordic. She is blue eyed. She’s a lady my age. She has been here tonight. And God was speaking to her. She saw a couple who are now dead. They knew her well when they were alive. They were Nordic. He was an engineer. She looked at him and remembered, remembered him well. Then she looked at the wife and it’s not the wife she knew here, much younger, but the wife was Nordic. And then looking back the wife is not the wife; she is Negress. But it seemed so natural. But she was startled by the Negress, and she is still Nordic. Then she looked back at him, he is Negro. Looked back at the girl and she is Nordic.

In the same dream, she goes to bed (the lady in the dream), and she finds herself sleeping in a reverse position in the bed. Her head is where formerly her feet would be. The whole dream is trying to show her something in the depths of her soul of a reversal. There’s a great reversal taking place in man where man is being transformed into God; that he’s not reptilizing here forever on this level, he’s being transformed. And all these are reversals—that God is not a white man or a black man or a red man. The form that was the primal form of Jesus Christ—before he emptied himself, and then took upon himself the form of a slave and was born in the likeness of men—it’s that form that man eventually will be raised to wear. And it’s not this form.

So she was shown, and this lady, as I say, she is the essence of the Nordic, blue eyes, and undoubtedly when she was young I think her hair must be very blond, I don’t know. I only know her in the years that I have known her here, in the last eight years or so. But she is very, very fair-skinned. And yet, in this it didn’t seem strange to her. She knew the people and the man, who was an engineer, when she saw him, she knew he was the same man, but suddenly he’s not the Nordic, he’s Negro. The girl was not the wife that she knew. She was married, the same girl, and she’s Negro.

So what was this fabulous dream trying to tell her? It’s trying to tell her a marvelous story. Don’t be concerned with all the conflicts of the world, that’s not the plot at all. That isn’t God. Just remain faithful to his promise to you… and he’s promised you to give you himself. And he’s not this [body]. The form that he gave up to take on this is the form one day you will wear, and you will be God. And there is only Jesus Christ in the world. He gave it up, his primal form, and took the limitations of this state, your own wonderful human Imagination, and then was born in your likeness. And tomorrow, he will not be anything you see here. He’ll return to his primal form and the form is God, and you will be like him.

So the dream of the night… I could not honestly… I am not an analyst in the sense of trying to analyze dreams. I would like to ask every person who comes to me with a dream, what does the symbolism mean to you? What does this person in your life represent when you knew him here? And so if I could get an honest response from this individual as to what he meant, then I might be able to throw some light on the experience that he had with that person. Because, I don’t know. If it comes to me symbolically, well then, I would try to find help by going to, say, my works, The Lost Language of Symbolism. And try to open up ___(??) and read with an open mind why did I encounter the rock, why did I encounter the pig, why did I encounter the dove? What is the sense of the meaning of it, for these are simply a universal language. But the other, when I meet individuals that I know well, they may be here or on the other side of the veil; what did they do to me when I knew them as friends or enemies? ___(??) what’s the significance… (tape ends).