Law – Storytelling – Picture Taking

Tonight, as I told you recently, is for my friend who is taking flight and she wants the law, so this will be on the law. All things exist in the human Imagination and by all things I mean it literally, all things. “All that we behold, though it appears without, it is within, in your Imagination, of which this world of mortality is but a shadow” (Blake, Jer., Plt.71).

If you could now think of your Imagination as the most sensitive instrument in the world, and compare it, say, to a piano; you can’t conceive of a tone or a combination of tones that it could not express. And so you can imagine, so you own the instrument: it’s your very self. But if you owned the most wonderful piano in the world, it wouldn’t mean you could play it, not play it really intelligently. You would have to find out some wonderful method and then practice. So here is this wonderful instrument, which is your Imagination, and so you own it, and that instrument is God. God actually became man that man may become God. So we can’t think of God as even near, for nearness implies separation. There is no difference between divine imagining and human imagining save in the degree of intensity of the two. When you and I are born anew, it means an expansion of the same power, which is imagining, and we rise to higher and higher and higher levels. On this level it is the same power but it’s keyed low. So here, when I speak of God I’m speaking of your own wonderful human Imagination. Now we can put it to the test, actually test it. “Come test me and see,” that’s what we’re invited to do in scripture (2Cor. 13:5). So I say that the actual source of all phenomena is one with imagining that is active in you and me. There is no other origin for phenomena in this world.

Now, let me share with you one story that was given to me this week, rather, a couple of weeks ago. This friend (who is here tonight) he said, “I’ve known this man—-I’ll call him Pat—-I’ve known him for about six months. He’s general manager of an auto supply firm. I also know his boss. I’ve known him for about four years, a very difficult man, so let us call him, say, Mike. One day, in fact, the day was the 5th day of December of last year, I stopped into this firm and chatted with my friend Pat. Talking with him I discovered he would like to buy the firm but he had no money, so I explained this principle of imagining to him. I said, Forget the means, forget the money, and if you really want to own your own firm, this is what I would do were I you. Tonight when I go to sleep I would make a certain drama. Take people who sincerely love you, your wife, your children, and I think I love you, so include me if you want to use me. But make a scene which scene if true would imply the fulfillment of your desire…that you own this auto supply company. Now, this is how it works. But you must, above all things—when you carry on this inner conversation with those who will be sincerely thrilled because of your successful transaction in closing the deal to own the thing, but also in the successful running of it, the operation of it—you must capture the feeling! Feeling truly is the secret. You must feel the reality of what you are doing. And this was December the 5th.

“On January the 5th, one month later, I received in my mail an advertising letter announcing the new owner of this firm. It was not that particular auto supply company, it was another, and he was the owner of this auto supply company. So I stopped in to see him, as a friend, to congratulate him and this is what he told to me. A man came in who owned an auto supply company and in the course of conversation he let it be known that he would like to dispose of some of his properties. He has many parcels and one was an auto supply company. Well, then because of my interest I simply perked up and told him of my interest in owning my own company…but that I had no money. He said that you don’t need money—‘you can just take possession of this company, we’ll sign the papers, and you pay me out of profits. You be the owner and you will pay me out of profits.’ We received the announcement in the mail of the new ownership of this company…a man who heard on December the 5th how to operate God’s law, and by January the 5th, one month later, he has successfully closed the deal for his own company by the sheer operation of the law.” So I say, imagining contains the whole; all things are contained in the human Imagination.

Now, how could I do it? Well, try it in this way. Bring before your mind’s eye anyone in this world, or any combination, and then listen to them tell you a story, a wonderful story. You listen carefully as they unfold the story and you become excited, just as though you’re hearing the most wonderful story, and when you reach a certain point, which is the climax of the story, take a deep inhalation and feel thrilled all over. It doesn’t really matter after that…it’s like taking a picture. Life develops it then. Life has a strange way of developing that picture. And you will see a negative in the solution—it’s an acid solution and it burns it, it has to be burnt—and then you take it out, and you dry it, and you have your picture. So, life actually is just like that. As we are told, “He whom he hurts and afflicts for secret ends he comforts and heals and calls them friends.”

Learn how to play this wonderful role. All things are contained in the human Imagination, but all things. Not a thing outside of your Imagination. Try this very moment to think of something in this world of ours that is part of the affairs of man that wasn’t first imagined. You may say, well, a tree wasn’t. Well now, on a higher level it was. On our level, automobiles, clothes, chairs, buildings, on our level; then he said, go to another level, the animals; then we go to another level, the plant world; another level, the mineral world. But, may I tell you, on higher levels they too were first imagined. On our level we are learning and trying to experiment. And so, this building first had to be imagined, the flag had to be imagined, the suit that I wear, everything in this world that is related to man had first to be imagined by man before it could be brought into this visible world of ours. And so, all the other kingdoms—the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom, the mineral kingdom—they too had to be first imagined.

On a higher level you are that being. You are moving towards that being to be one with it, because you are one with it now anyway, but you are keyed low for educative purposes. And so, just as this chap in one simple moment…had no money…he only had a desire. God, who is your own wonderful human Imagination, speaks to yourself through the medium of desire. He desired to own his own automobile supply area; he wanted his own auto supply shop, but no money. Now, the man who he worked for—and my friend knows both of them—and he tells me the owner of that shop was the most difficult person to deal with. He had meetings with both of them. But he didn’t talk to the owner; he talked to the one who wanted to own it. What he really wanted was to own his own shop. He knew these auto supply things, so he wanted it. Well, he got it. A man comes in and in the conversation reveals he would like to unload this parcel. He had so many pieces of property, and this he would like to unload and made it possible by saying to him, “It’s yours. We’ll sign the papers and you simply pay out of profits.”

I can multiply this kind of a story by the thousands. If you will actually believe it! And the day will come that you will simply find that everything in scripture is true. The law is all there, but man doesn’t see it. Our ministers are not telling it. As Lord Lindsay, who is the Master of ___(??) College of Oxford, he said to a group of ministers one day, he said, “You ministers are making a mistake. In your pulpits you are arguing for Christianity. No one wants your arguments. You ought to be witnessing: Does this thing work? Then share it with the rest of us. Don’t give us all this business of the arguments for Christ. Share it with us, does it work? Well, then share it with us, let us prove it in performance.”

My wife here recently gave me—as a little joke on Valentine’s Day—a little book called The Gospel According to Peanuts. Well, in this little paperback book Peanuts is making the statement—and you listen to it carefully—“The church is the greatest non-profit organization in the world,” but spells profit, p-r-o-p-h-e-t. There is no voice of God from the pulpits of the world, none whatsoever. They will take one little passage of scripture and never refer to it, quote a little passage, and then talk about the President or Vietnam, about some other thing on this level—not a thing to do with interpreting the word of God.

Now, we go back to the word of God, the Book of Nehemiah, the 8th chapter, the 8th verse: “And they read from the book, from the law of God clearly with understanding; they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.” So they take the law and explain it. That’s the purpose of the book! If God is sent into this world, he’s sent only to teach the law of God, that’s all he’s sent to do. He’s told to go and tell them of the law of God and the Promise of God, and to repeat it forever and forever. Tell them of the Promise. What is the Promise? That God is going to give you his Son, not as a companion, he’s going to give you his Son as your Son. If he gives you his Son as your Son, he gave you himself. For if you are the father of the Son of God then you are God. It’s God’s purpose to give himself to man, and to give it so thoroughly that there is no other in the world, just you and God; and because he gave himself to you, just you, and you are he. That’s the story. That’s his Promise. Let them wait in hope.

But now, to comfort them while they wait tell them of God’s law, and explain all about the law. It’s a simple law based purely on belief. “Whatever you desire in this world, believe you have received and you will” (Mark 11:24). Now I have found this simple technique…honestly, it’s so simple…I feel I’m taking pictures, that’s all that I do. You ask something of me. I don’t know a thing in this world about the human body. If you brought me a bone, I couldn’t tell you if it came from the foot or the hand, I wouldn’t know. I know nothing of the human body. I don’t know how it operates. I know nothing of diet. I try to satisfy a hunger. One day I might want fish. I want fish; don’t tell me about meat. Next day I want meat, whether it’s Good Friday or not. And so I satisfy hungers that way. Well now, you have a hunger so you come to me to ask me—I think I know the law—to satisfy or aid you in the satisfaction of your hunger. So you name something and you want…just like my friend, he went into this shop and he found a man who had a hunger to own his own business…that’s a hunger.

Now, all you do is this. You meet someone. Don’t wait until tomorrow to do it, right at that very moment as they depart from you. Let them go on their way. And if they ask you “What must I do?” Do nothing! They’re not taking the picture; I’m taking the picture of them. All things exist in my Imagination, so I can’t ask them to cooperate. If I ask them to cooperate with me, I’m sort of shifting the weight and preparing a little cushion in the event of failure. Then I could say you didn’t do your part. I don’t need them. Let them get out of my sight—I know what they look like, I know what they sound like—and then bring them into my mind’s eye and animate them. Have them all animated. If I need another one to come with them, if I need six more, or some other thing, another person, alright, bring it all in and set it up as you would set it up in a studio. You’re going to take a picture. And then let the whole thing become animated. Just as you get it all animated, they’re all telling this wonderful story concerning the fulfillment of the desire—this is the end, you always go to the end—then as you become more and more excited, one deep inhalation. And may I tell you, every atom of the body explodes.

You can try it right now, or try it when you go into the Silence. You can’t stop it…you get excited…and suddenly everything explodes. It’s really a creative act. It doesn’t have the physical effect here; there is no physical evidence there was a creative act, but it’s the same sensation. Only every atom of your body explodes, the whole thing explodes. Then, as he said to this man in the store as he was teaching him how to operate this wonderful, sensitive instrument, he said, “Should you tomorrow or in the interval between now, this night, and you do it, and the fulfillment of it, should one little doubt enter your mind, do this: just remember “But I experienced it, I experienced ownership, so I don’t care if at this very moment something denies it, I experienced it!” And therefore that little doubt will go to sleep. If some little thing comes in the interval to disturb you, remember you’ve experienced it. You took the picture. Well then, life develops it. Life is the acid and life develops it. Then the whole thing becomes externalized in no way that you could ever have devised. How could he have devised the means that a man, an honest man, a decent man who was a business man would say to him, “Well, pay me out of profits.” What sort of business is that…pay me out of profits? And yet, that is exactly how it was consummated. He bought it only on faith, only on his own honesty.

So this is the simple, simple law that I am trying to get over to all. But to my friend who departs a week from today on this very long tour—London, Russia, Tokyo, Formosa and other areas—let her tell this story to everyone who will listen to it, that imagining creates reality. That’s basic. But you’ve got to know how to do it. I could own the most glorious, the most sensitive violin in the world. Give it to me, I could take it to a dealer and he’d say, “You know what you have here?” and he could give me some name that I don’t even understand, and say to me, “You know what, well, that’s worth $500,000.” So I have it…all I have is $500,000 and I can’t get one note out of it. And so, you have something far more sensitive: you have God—the world’s greatest in the world creative instrument. So ___(??) because it’s you, he became you, your own wonderful human Imagination. But you’ve got to learn to play it. And you make unnumbered mistakes, just as a child playing a violin, and you put your fingers in your ears to stop the sound coming from it. But he is learning how to play.

Well, you and I make mistakes. We become violent, we become thieves, we become this, become the other…all by imagining. The terror that confronts man today is simply man. It isn’t Russia; it’s his own conception of himself that is the terror. My conception of myself is the thing that terrifies me. What is it? I’m a little man, unwanted, unschooled. Is that my concept of myself? Well, it terrifies me, because if it is my concept of myself, everything in this world reflects it and runs at me to bear witness to my own concept of myself. But if I know that all things are within me and I could by changing my conception of myself change the world in which I live, well…let me try it.

William James, one of our great educators at Harvard University, he made the statement that “the greatest revolution in my generation was the discovery that man, by changing the inner attitudes of his mind, could change the outer aspects of his life.” Well, here is the great William James. Well, that was told us in scripture in a very simply manner…but William James, this brilliant philosopher, great, great man, great educator…and he took all these things. You might have read one of his books A Variety of Religious Experiences. It’s really worthwhile re-reading, because he took all these cases, these strange experiences. It was he who said that “the mother seed and the great function of all true religions begin in the mystical experiences of the individual; that all theologies, all ecclesiasticisms are secondary growths superimposed. That these great experiences that give birth to true religions come from the depths of the soul, belong to a region that is deeper and far more real and vital than that which the intellect inhabits; because of this, they remain forever secure from all intellectual arguments and criticisms.” This is the great William James.

Well, when he made the statement that here, the greatest revolution in his generation was the discovery that man by changing the inner attitudes of his mind could change the outer aspects of his life, comes right back to that simple little verse:“Whatever you desire, when you pray, believe that you have received it, and you will” (Mark 11:24).Well, do you know the word “to pray,” both in Hebrew and in Greek, if you look it up in your biblical Concordance it’s defined as “motion towards, accession to, nearness at, at or in the vicinity of.” That’s what it is. So I stand here, and now it’s motion towards, motion towards ownership of that auto supply. Well, if I could really get near enough so that I could get accession to, I would sleep this night in the consciousness of ownership, wouldn’t I? As I get nearer and nearer and nearer to it, it’s like a motion within one’s being. If this night I would go to New York City, and time would not allow it, my commitments would not allow it, oh, thousands of things could stand in the way, but I still want to go, what I should do, I should this night assume as I go to bed, assume that I’m sleeping in my hotel room in New York City, and then view the world from New York City. Just see the world as I would see it were it true. When I think of Los Angeles I can’t see it around me here, as I would tonight when I sleep, I must see it 3,000 miles to the west of me. Well, if I fall asleep in that state, I have prayed…for prayer, to pray, is to move towards, accession to, nearness at, at or in the vicinity of.

If I want to go to New York City, let me get as close as I can ‘til finally I can get right into it. As I get into it, then think of the world for confirmation. Motion cannot be determined except by a change of position relative to some other state. If I move from here to the end of the room without some fixed frame of reference against which I move, I wouldn’t know I moved. I would have no way of knowing that I move at all. There must be some frame of reference. Well, this is a frame, the world is a frame; it remains fixed relative to me the pilgrim who moves. So I move from poverty to security, or from illness to health, and so there’s a frame of reference, and my world will reflect that motion that I make…and this is praying.

So everyone in this world contains within himself all that it takes to become what he wants to be in this world; for all things are contained in the human Imagination, and that is God. So God actually became man that man may become God. Don’t think of him on the outside; he can’t be even near. If God actually became me, he cannot be near, for nearness implies separation…can’t even be near. So listen to these words from the Book of John, “You will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he” (8:24). This is not a man talking to others; this dream takes place in the individual. I am saying to myself, “You don’t believe in Neville? Well, then stay and stew.” You will stew in your limitations and therefore miss your mark in life, which is sinning. For, “to sin” is “to miss the mark.”You miss the mark and go on forever missing the mark unless you believe that I am he. He what?—am, that which I would be. I desire to be other than what I am. I’ve got to believe I am it; and unless you do, then you sin.

But you will know the truth and the truth will make you free. Well, what is truth? We say a true judgment must conform to the external facts to which it relates. I say that isn’t true at all. Truth depends upon the intensity of imagining, not upon facts. The man had no external fact to support his imaginal claim that he owned a shop, none! But he actually believed he owned it and slept in that assumption. So truth does not confine itself to the external reality to which my judgment relates. It isn’t so at all. You can simply know what you want—don’t ask how you’re going to get it—assume that you are it; and if you can become self-persuaded that you are that which you’ve assumed that you are, in a way that no one knows it becomes externalized in your world. This is God’s law, and it’s God in operation, because your own wonderful Imagination is God. So an imaginal act is God in action.

But God creates not only by the imaginal act, he mixes it with faith. Imagination and faith are the stuff out of which man creates his world, so it has to be blended with faith. I must believe in the reality of my imaginal act, and remain faithful, loyal to that unseen reality, just as though it were true. Now, if you really believe that your Imagination is God, and believe implicitly in God, you can go from here to goal after goal after goal. Just try it. And may I tell you, share with me your experiences, just as my friend shared with me this experience, so that I in turn may tell it from this platform and encourage everyone to go on from wherever they are to where they want to be. I could tell you unnumbered stories and repeat the thousand I’ve already told you, but why? Bring in new ones by taking this simple, simple technique and trying it. As you try it it will work…it will prove itself in performance. No power can stop it.

So here, this is God’s simple, simple wonderful law. So when you read scripture most of it will be on the law. Great promises are made, but most of it is simply law…it’s all conditioned. It’s called in one book “repentance,” that’s simply conditioned states. Repentance is a radical change of attitude towards life. And God repented that he promised the good and then God repented that he promised the evil. As they change, he had to change. It’s the same being; he’s only reflecting himself. As told us in the 18th chapter of the Book of Jeremiah: “And the word of the Lord came to me and said ‘Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my word.’ So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel that he held in his hand was spoiled, but he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do” (verse 1).

Well, the word translated “potter” in Hebrew is “Imagination.” So I went down to Imagination’s house. Well, what Imagination’s house? I turned my attention inwardly and thought on self and found what I was imagining. But I was thinking of a friend of mine; he wasn’t well. Well, that’s the marred vessel…I am fashioning a vessel of a friend…that’s not a nice picture. Don’t discard it, take the same vessel and reshape it into another vessel, as it seemed good to you to do.Never discard anyone; you don’t have to. So just as you think of someone…and you feel sorry for him, well, why feel sorry for him? Take the same one and so reshape it that you feel happy for him.I know in our language we have so few words to express rejoicing with those who have great joy in the world, and so many words to feel sorry for those who are in pain—compassion, sympathy, pain. If I use the word “empathy” there isn’t one person in a million who would know what I’m talking about. It’s a word, it’s in the dictionary. But have you ever heard of anyone actually saying…save in literature, yes, you can put it in a book, and the average person reading it runs to the dictionary for the very simple reason he doesn’t practice it. So you empathize, and they say, “He does what? He empathizes?” And so he goes to the dictionary to find out what is he doing. Because we don’t really empathize: We don’t rejoice with those who rejoice. But let something be wrong with someone, oh, all run right over and meet with them…because it’s happened to him, not to me. That’s the attitude towards life.

So we have to start taking something entirely different out of life and rejoice with people who find something wonderful smiling upon them.They come into a fortune…are you envious? Why envious? Rejoice with them. But he lost a fortune…run right over and sympathize. He’s down to my level now. Well, that’s not the picture, because all things exist in the human Imagination. And because they do look upon it as the most sensitive instrument in the world, because it is, learn to play it. You can buy the most expensive instrument, but you’ve got to learn to play it.

A friend of mine (he’s here tonight) he has a music shop—a little while ago, someone came in and wanted a machine, a guitar. He said to him, Can you play it? He said no. He took the guitar from him and he made a few chords on it, and he said, “It will take you a year to do what I’ve just done so casually.You shouldn’t buy this.” He could have made money on it by selling it to him, but he wouldn’t sell it to him. This boy, whoever he was, thought that by owning a machine you could go right out and simply become a Beatle.Well, that was not it, so he didn’t sell it. You have the greatest instrument in the world, and that is your own wonderful human Imagination. Look upon it as the most sensitive instrument in the world and learn to play it. Because it is an art, a great art, you must first of all acquire a nice method. There must be a method and then constant practice…constant practice. So every moment of time you have the opportunity to practice. Somebody needs something and you can play that tune for them. Whatever they need, you can play it for them and bring about a harmony in their world. Bring them before your mind’s eye and rearrange the chord. The chord is made up now of things. You assemble things which if true would imply the fulfillment of your desire for them. So you are going to assemble the notes that would make the perfect chord, the harmony, and then you breathe them in, you strike it that way, and then it externalizes itself. And you do not a thing beyond that…that’s all that you do. This is the simple, simple technique of the working of God’s wonderful law.

Tomorrow, when you rise to higher and higher levels, which you will, the whole vast world will respond instantly to your imaginative act. For man, as God rises within him and expands within him, he finds himself in a world completely subject to his imaginal acts. They spring out of nowhere. It will not take an interval of time between the imaginal act and the fact, instantly it’s right there. You create your own world. And we’re all moving towards that direction, because we’re all one. There’s only one God. God became man that man may become God, and that is literally true.

Now let us go into the Silence.

* * *

May I call your attention to the book table. You’ll find my books and books that I recommend. I mentioned a book about two weeks ago written by a friend of mine who is here tonight, Mr. Whitelaw, Life is Only a Journey. As I told you then, he goes to many speakers. This is his own…I would say, the essence of what he has gathered from the many. He’s been coming here over the years. He’s gone to others, my old friend Dr. Bayles, and all the speakers, and from all of us he has gathered what is his, and he has written this book and he’s titled it Life is Only a Journey.

Are there any questions?

I will say to everyone, as you read this greatest of all books, the Bible, if you don’t have a concordance, it will be wise to get one, really, if you’re that interested. And take not one word for granted, look it up. Because, through habit we quote scriptures as we remember hymns and we think that is it. When you start to really find the true definition of the words, you stand amazed. Yet, our scholars have done a wonderful job, no question about it. Yet words change in their meanings, and because they change in their meanings, there must always be a need for revision. Right now we’re working on a new Old Testament. We’ve just brought out the new one, called The New English Bible. So words having lost their meanings over the years, they’ve gone into refreshing as it were.

I use the little picture of a ball, a tennis ball, and then a baseball, a billiard ball. Can you discriminate between these three sensations? They are not unreal, though invisible, because you couldn’t discriminate between nothings. If they did not exist, you couldn’t discriminate. So if I can learn the sense of touch…I put a ball in my hand, it’s a tennis ball. How do I know what it feels like? It gives. I have a baseball. That doesn’t feel like the other one. I can discriminate. Then I take a billiard ball or a ping pong ball. If I can discriminate between these “feels,” well then, I must be feeling something that actually exists though to my mortal eye invisible.

Goodnight.