The Fundamental Sin

We just have a couple left, tonight and next Tuesday night; then we’re closed for a little while, back on the 19th of October. I take it that most of you are on the list and so you’ll receive a notice. If you’re not on the list and you would like to receive a notice where we will be, may we have your name and address? Because we have but two left, I thought we’d try to make this just as practical as possible; not omitting, of course, the most important thing of all which is God’s wonderful promise.

We are told in scripture that the fundamental sin in the world is man’s lack of faith in I am he. If you want the quote, it’s the 8th chapter of the Book of John. You’ll find it confirmed in the 16th of John: “You will die in your sins unless you believe I am he.” You can take that literally. You may believe in this presence before you know from experience I am he. You don’t have to wait for the experience when it’s revealed to you by actual experience that you are the very being that conceived it all and played it all. You don’t have to wait to that extreme; you can start believing it now and prove it. The day will come you will know from experience I am he.

So that’s the fundamental sin. Sin means “missing the mark.” If you do not believe that I am the one that I would like to be, then you will miss the mark. You must dare to assume that I am the man or the woman that I want to be, so that I stop wanting to be it because I am it. If I am it, then I will sleep in that state and view the world from it as though it were true. If I view the world from that state, I am putting this claim to a test, and I tell you from experience it will become a fact in your world. Start to believe it before you actually know it from experience, but the day will come you will know it from experience.

Blake made this wonderful statement, he said, “Everything I have ever painted, everything that I have ever drawn, everything that I have written came from vision, pure, pure vision. I saw it, I experienced it.” That’s what Blake claimed. Now this is what he claimed, this is in his wonderful book of Milton: “God himself enters death’s door always with those who enter and lays down in the grave with them, in visions of eternity.” Just think of it, “God himself enters death’s door always with those who enter and lays down in the grave with them in visions of eternity…‘til they awake and see Jesus and the linen clothes lying that the females had woven for them.” Just imagine, God himself entering death’s door. What is death’s door and how did he enter with all who entered it and in it, he had these visions of eternity with those who entered? Then as he saw all these fabulous things, he waited ‘til we would awake. So he equates death with sleep, this profound sleep, and he waited until the dream was over; and then as the dream is over we see Jesus, and then we see the linen clothes that the females had woven for us. What sheer beauty and what depth he saw in that one little passage in the 32nd plate of Milton! Read it, the 32nd plate of Milton.

Now, in the word…he knew Greek, he knew Hebrew, Latin, Italian, French and a master of the English tongue. He never used a word carelessly, not Blake. He wasn’t simply writing poetry; not one word was used carelessly. So when he speaks of the linen clothes, in Hebrew the word linen also means “marble; to bleach, to whiten.” But it means marble…when they are made of marble, all the columns of marble…same word called linen. And now I will give you my experience that will simply corroborate all that he said in that one wonderful verse in Milton: “God himself enters death’s door always with those who enter, lays down in the grave with them, in visions of eternity, ‘til they awake and see Jesus and the linen clothes lying that the females had woven for them.” Well, my mother is a female…she wove this. Is this the linen cloth he speaks of? And is this linen cloth called my physical body also marble? Is it something that dead?

Well now, let me go back and take the foundation of what I began this night. The fundamental sin is lack of faith in I am he. That’s the fundamental sin. The word “I am” is the name of God in Hebrew. “Go and tell them I AM has sent you…that is my name for ever” (Ex. 3:14). I have no other name, that is my name for ever, and my name is in them. You say I am, and you say I am rich or I am poor or I am this or I am that. When you say God, you don’t think “I am he.” Not for one moment does man think “I am he.” “Unless you believe I am he you die in your sins” (John 8:24). For you think “he” is the creative power and the wisdom of the world that could do anything, but you don’t say “I am he.”

Now here, in this statement concerning “I am he,” may I tell you, in Hebrew, Yod He Vau means “to be, to become”; but the primary meaning of this ancient root was “to fall; to blow.” The name Jehovah should be understood in terms of the ancient meaning of this root verb which is “to be”; it means, really, “to fall; to blow.” So Jehovah is “the falling one” or “the one who causes to fall”; “the one who blows” or “the one who causes the wind to blow.” We come back then to the drama. There is only God, only God, nothing but God. God falling into the limit of contraction, into the grave called man, the limit. And from that limit he expands beyond what he was prior to the predetermined fall, taking with him all of us, individualized as himself. So here: “the falling one; the one who causes to fall.”

Now we go back to Blake: “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 when it leaves paradise following the serpent”(Vision of Last Judgment, Pp.91-92). You all know the story of the serpent, and you might think, how could that be a symbol of God? The Bible equates the Son of man, who is the Son of God, with the serpent: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14). He equates the two—the serpent and the Son of man. So here is God leading us, telling us the entire story; the whole story was told us in detail, the plan and the plot and the purpose of the play. Then come the words, Now it is expedient for you that I go away; expedient for all of us that the visible presence disappear; and he who was amongst us now dwells in us. He dwells in us—don’t you say I am?That’s his name. Is there any child born of woman, even an idiot, an imbecile, who doesn’t know that he is? Knowing that it is, is saying I am. So the visible presence of God disappears and now he dwells in us as I am. He enters death’s door with me, with you, with everyone in this world, and he lays down in the grave in visions of eternity.

Well, “visions of eternity”…tell me this then is a dream, and the Bible recognizes only one source of dreams—all dreams proceed from God (Job 33:15; Num. 12:6). And they gave me his name: his name is I AM. If I believe that, and this is a dream, I can dream the kind of dream that I want to dream. You can’t stop me from my daydreams and the daydream doesn’t differ from the night dream, not in essence. In the day dream one is in control. In the night dream one is not in control; one is usually the victim, or the servant of vision. But in daydream one is master of vision. So here, I share with them visions of eternity. If this is true, you and I and every child in this world who believes it, before they actually know it from experience, can bring to pass in their world exactly what they want, if they really believe it. For it’s the lack of faith in “I am he” that is the fundamental sin. If I really believe that I am he, and he is dreaming in me, and all things are possible to God, and I am he, well then, I can start to dream and put this belief to the test.

The day will come, I will know I am he, but before it comes to that day, I can believe it, and put it to the test. Take any request in this world…your own desire to be what you want to be, or the desire of the seeming other. Represent the other to yourself, or represent yourself to yourself, and use others as the barometer, as the frame of reference that would reflect the man that you want to be. Were I the man that I want to be my circle of friends would know it. Well, then see my circle of friends knowing it. Were you the man I want you to be, I would know it. Well then, let me see myself knowing that you are such a man. Let me represent you to myself as I would see you were you the man I want you to be, and see you, and believe I am he creating this condition. If I do believe in the reality of God, and God’s name is IAM, and he now disappears from visible sight, and he takes up residence in me, and I am he before I actually know I am he, I can believe I am. And then test it and try it.

Well, how will I know? Will there come a day that I will actually know I am he? Yes there will. This world’s divided into a “pre-resurrection” period and a “post-resurrection” period. And the whole vast world seems to be almost to the nth degree a pre-resurrection period, so they must believe in I am he; the post-resurrection period they know I am he. For he enters deaths’ door always with those who enter and lays down in the grave with them, in visions of eternity, ‘til they awake. Well, how do they awake? He equates death with sleep, so he lays down in death. God dies: God becomes man that man may become God. “Unless I die you cannot live, but if I die I shall arise again and you with me.” So he empties himself of his Godhood and limits himself to man. As told in Philippians, “He emptied himself and took upon himself the form of a slave and became obedient unto death…and was found in the form of man” (2:7). So he enters death’s door which is man.

Now, how will I know, not simply believe I am he, but know I am he? He enters death’s door, which is my own skull, which is your skull, all the skulls of every child born of woman. And then comes this moment in time. Remember, the word He Vau He, which is the root of Yod He Vau He, has the primary meaning not only of “the falling one” but “the blower; the one who causes the wind to blow.” That was the primary meaning of that verb, which is the root from which Yod He Vau He, which is Jehovah, has been derived, which is called “the God of the universe.” Suddenly you feel the wind…it’s like a vibration. It’s something you can’t describe save, well, the best I can say is a wind but it is an unearthly wind. Strangely enough you feel yourself awaking. Well, night after night you’ve gone to sleep and you wake in the morning. And one morning you are more awake than others…but the normal waking on your bed. This is not a normal waking: you hear and you feel the wind. The blower is now beginning to blow, and you begin to awake, and you awake in your skull. You know it to be a tomb. There’s no doubt in your mind where you are, you’re in your skull; but in your skull you know you’re completely sealed in, and you are alone. As you’re told “Jesus only”; there’s no one else. The word Jesus and the word Jehovah are the same. Jehovah, Joshua, Jesus, Jesse have the same root of He Vau He.

So here, suddenly you begin to awake, and you’re all in your skull, and you stand up in your skull as the man you were when you went to sleep the night before, and you wake. As you wake, finding yourself completely entombed, you have one consuming desire: to get out! So you push the base of your skull and something rolls away. As it rolls away you come out, just like a child being born. As you come out and you stand, that linen cloth, which is nothing more than your body, it’s bleached, it’s ghastly white, like marble. You look at it and here is this marble, this thing out of which you’ve just emerged. And the wind is still all over the place. You turn away for a moment to see if it’s coming from that direction, and in that moment this marble or linen cloth is removed. As you look back, it is gone; but the witnesses to the event appear…there they come. You didn’t see them approaching any more than you saw them in the Book, the 18th chapter, of Genesis (verse 1). He received the promise. He looks up and here stands before him three men. This is Abraham; the promises are all made to Abraham. This drama takes place in us, every one of us, individually.

So you see them. They witness the event, by a child wrapped in swaddling clothes; but they can’t see you because you are born from above. “That which is born of flesh is flesh”—they could have seen you were it a fleshly birth—but “that which is born of Spirit is Spirit” and no mortal eye can see it. So you are now born from above. And you are alone, so you’re told “Jesus only.” So when Blake was asked, “What do you think of Jesus?” he said, “Jesus is the only God, but so am I and so are you.” I’m trying to tell you this night that you are Jesus Christ. You are Jesus Christ in the present level; if you have not been born from above, in what I call the pre-resurrection period. You will be Jesus Christ in the post-resurrection period; and because in the post-resurrection period there is only Jesus Christ, you are Jesus Christ resurrecting, the risen Lord. And there is only one. God is not two; God is one and his name is one. So, as you are resurrected, every being that is on this side of the level when resurrected is incorporated into the same body, without loss of identity. No loss of that distinctive individuality, just one…and yet only one body. You will wear that one body. And then I tell you from experience—I am not theorizing, I am not speculating, I’m telling you what I have experienced—that every person in this world will be resurrected and incorporated into the body of God, without loss of their specific identity, that one being, wearing the body of God.

But, I ask you tonight until it happens believe it, believe in him, and his name is I AM. The day will come you will not only believe that I am rich and get wealth, I am known and be known, I am whatever you name and get it, but you will know that I am he. That the being spoken of in scripture as God—“unless you believe I am he you die in your sins”—well, you’ll stop dying in your failures by assuming that I am the man, the woman, that I want to be. And I’ll live in it, come what may I’ll live in it just as though it were true, and it will become a fact, what I’m assuming that I am.

The day will come, from experience—not from theory, not from anything that anyone tells me—from actually experiencing it I will know I am he. For this is how he is born: as we’re told in the Book of Peter, “We are born anew through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:13). Now he equates death with this profound sleep, and I can’t tell anyone what it feels like to awaken from this sleep. You only know you must have been dead by reason of the fact you are in a tomb, and only the dead are placed in a tomb. So you found yourself in your skull and the skull was a sepulcher, it was a tomb. Finding yourself there you know someone thought you dead enough to put you there…because you seemed so dead. Then the wind blew upon you, for he the Falling One that caused the whole thing entered death’s door with you and fused with you, and the two became one. So God entered with you—what he wanted really to be individualized himself as—and you were unique in his play. He fused with you and ceased to be God and became you; then you rose as God. This is the story. He leaves all things, cleaves to his wife and they become one, so that you, the soul, you are the emanation of God—my emanation yet my wife ‘til the sleep of death is over (Gen. 2:24). When the sleep of death is over, God fuses with man, and I am he; and we aren’t two, just one.

So here, in this wonderful story, before you actually know from experience that I am he, you can put him to the test by assuming I am…and you name it. I am known, I am wanted, I am healthy, I am this, that or the other, and dare to assume it; for this is the only creative power in the world; and if you do, you will become it. Then in time, when you least expect it, you will awaken in your skull; and then you will know the truth of the vision of scripture, truth of a vision of a man like Blake.He sees everyone in this world sound asleep, falling knowingly or unknowingly into states; and he doesn’t consider the wise man or the foolish man, the just man or the wicked man to be in supreme states, but all of them states of the sleep into which the soul may fall in its deadly dreams of good and evil, as it leaves paradise following the serpent (Vision of Last Judgment, Pp.91-92). The serpent leads us out—the symbol of God himself. So then the serpent leads you out of this heavenly state of innocence into the state of experience, then to lead you into the state of Imagination. For that is the process: innocence, experience, Imagination—where one completely rises into a world of Imagination where everything is subject to his imaginal power, everything. He is God awakened.

So he comes from innocence into this horror of experience. As warned us in the Book of Genesis (15:13), you will be strangers in a land and you will be afflicted, all things will happen to you, you will be hurt for 400 years, the symbol of this body. For 400 is simply the numerical value of the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, whose symbol is the cross; so it’s this cross, it’s called Tau. So, here I am on the cross. Until I am taken off the cross, I go through all the afflictions of the world.As told us in Isaiah now, I have tried you in the afflictions, “I have tried you in the furnace of afflictions. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it…for my glory I will not give to another” (Is. 48:10). He cannot give his glory to another, so he has to form you into his own image, and then fuses with you so that when you wake there is only one, not two. There were two while the struggle is on until finally you awake, and there’s only one, and you are he.

You come out to find yourself completely one with the risen Christ. Not less than, one with, you wear the body of the risen Christ, without loss of your own wonderful identity. And everyone will be redeemed, not one will be lost. So when you see it, you realize your creator and redeemer and yourself are one. It was only God all along. It was God who decided to restrict himself to the state called death, called man, for a purpose of expansion beyond what he was prior to that moment of the decision to transcend his translucence, and by this restriction to the opacity of man, the limitations of man, the contraction of man, and then to burst forth and come out as God but greater than he was. Meaning that truth is an ever-increasing illumination; there is no limit to the expansion of God. So he expands himself, and then once more conceives a play of contraction to expand beyond what he was. And it goes on forever. You and I are individualized in the body of God, wearing the body of God.

Now, tonight you can test it. You can’t test the body of God—that I tell you is a foregone conclusion, I’ve experienced it—but you can test the power of God and the wisdom of God by daring to believe I am…and you name the man you want to be or the lady you want to be. Dare to assume it! Regardless of what the world will say, dare to assume it, and sleep as though it were true. You will become it in this world. And then, like a thief in the night, when you least expect it, suddenly the wind will come upon you. When that wind blows upon you, you begin to awake. Then you understand the words in the 3rd chapter of John, The wind blows where it will and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes, you cannot tell; but in this very manner every man who is born in the Spirit is born. Just as the wind comes, you hear it, you cannot tell whence it comes or whither it goes; but so is everyone who is born of the Spirit (John 3:8).

It’s a strange, peculiar wording, but that‘s true. Suddenly you feel it; you hear it; you are born from above. You come out of your skull, alone, and all of the symbolism of scripture is present, and you observe it. Then you wake in this world to ponder it and to contemplate it, and wonder what on earth you ever did to warrant it. Therefore, I can say to everyone, no one can brag. It’s a gift! No one ever earns it, no one. You could not, between now and eternity, be good enough to earn it. What determines that moment in time when God blows upon you to awaken you, and gives you himself completely, I do not know. I only know it is a gift and it’s called in scripture grace. Grace is the gift of God himself to man, unearned, unmerited. You can’t acquire it by merit. I am not saying you should not try to be lovely and wonderful in this world, certainly. Be kind, be generous, be loving, be everything in this world that’s noble. I find it easier to live that way with myself, but I must confess it’s not because I try to live that way that he blew upon me and awoke me from this long, long profound sleep, which was likened to death.

And so, when we’re told that he enters death’s door, it’s true. Death’s door is your own wonderful skull and he lays down in the very grave with man, who enters with him. They enter seemingly as two. What was man then?—man was only his emanation. So you go back and you read the story, and who then is that first Adam and who is the emanation of Adam that we call Eve? Is this not the whole story? Because he himself enticed us out of that picture—he enticed the woman (she was man); and yet he’s symbolized as the serpent. Now listen to these words that always shock people. Last year in New York City this teacher who teaches all over the eastern coast, so she came home and paid a visit. Something prompted this remark, because she was being so good, so holy, so altogether righteous, and I said to her, “Do you not know that God and God himself consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all?” She almost went through the ceiling in my hotel. I said, “Well, you teach the Bible, don’t you? We’ll go and we’ll get the Bible now, 11th chapter, I think it’s the 32nd verse, of the Book of Romans, ‘For God has consigned all men—not a few, all men—to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all, not just a few.”

It was God who brought himself out, his emanation, into this world of experience and consigned us all to disobedience. He disappeared from view and became an indwelling presence. And we made idols after what we thought was the cause of the phenomena of life. We made totem poles, we made all kinds of things, forgetting who the God was. We keep on making more and more little gods on the outside. So he made us become disobedient, that he may have mercy upon all. As Blake said, If I were pure, never would I have known of a God of mercy, if I were pure. But because I am disobedient I made all the idols in the world and believed in astrology, believed in numerology, believed in teacup leaves, believed in Stalin, believed in Mao Tse-tung, in all the powers on the outside. I thought they were my saviors, everything on the outside, because I forgot the only God in the universe. The only God in the world is your own wonderful human Imagination, that’s God. But it’s hidden from view. You can’t see his face until you awake and know that you are he.

And so, until that moment comes, believe in the reality of your own imaginal acts. They’ll prove themselves in the testing. That day when he breathes upon you and you stir yourself and feel yourself waking…and may I tell you, it’s a peculiar waking. It’s unlike any waking that you’ve ever known in the 6,000 years of your sleep. You’ve never known such a waking…it’s a peculiar waking. It’s waking, alright, you know you’re waking, but it’s so unlike any waking you’ve ever had. I have had gas in the dentist’s chair; I have had other forms of sleep where I had a major operation; I have had all kinds of sedation, where you come through from the sleep, but nothing like this. When I came out of my dentist’s chair, in Atlanta, Georgia, having taken gas for an extraction, it was an awaking and I must have talked in my sleep, but it was a normal waking. When I had a major operation about fifteen years ago and came out of that state, that was returning to this world, this level. But this is something entirely different. Something is applied to your head, like some wonderful vibration, and it’s applied and it’s applied and it’s applied, and you can’t stop it. You feel yourself waking, but the waking is so unlike any waking you’ve ever known before.

You wake to find yourself in a grave. The grave is your skull and there you are entombed; for if I am entombed in the skull, I couldn’t have placed myself there. How could I have gone in there unless I walked in, and then fell asleep, and died? But someone must have put me there. I have no knowledge of going in there. And yet, Blake in his vision said that God himself enters death’s door always with those who enter. Yet we’re told in scripture, no one enters voluntarily, so someone carried me there. For the 8th chapter of the Book of Romans that: “The creature was made subject unto futility, not willingly, but by reason of the will of him who subjected him in hope”—what was the hope—“that he would obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God” (verse 20). So no one enters this state called death willingly.

So, someone subjected me and subjected you to this state. And when you wake you’re going to find yourself in the grave, and the grave is going to be your skull. It doesn’t matter if one dies here tonight…you don’t die anyway…you’re already dead. Now may I quote you from scripture, Revelation, the 1st chapter, the 18th verse of Revelation, “I was dead; and now I am alive for evermore.” That’s the 1st chapter, the 18th verse. The 3rd chapter, the 1st verse, “You have the name of being alive, and you are dead.” Here is one making the confession he actually was dead, but now alive for evermore; and you have the name of being alive, and you are dead. He’s telling this to Sardis (the whole vast world)—you believe you are alive, and I tell you that you are dead. But because I was dead and I’m now alive for evermore, have faith. I am only the first of those who rose from the dead, that’s what he’s saying. And because I, too, was once with the name of being alive and was dead, and having been dead and now I’m alive for evermore, I tell you that though you seem to be (you have the name of being alive) but I tell you that you are dead. But you will be alive. And all will be one. That’s what he’s saying to us in the Book of Revelation.

Everyone will awake to find there is no other; and because only Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, and you rise, then you know who you are. There is only Jesus Christ. So when Blake was asked, “What do you think of Jesus?” “He’s the only God, but so am I and so are you.” For in the end, his name is one and he is one: there’s nothing but God. All of us will rise into one body and that one body will be God, and you will be God. Not a little god, you are wearing the body of the glorious God. You will be he, without any loss of identity. Now tonight, you try to believe in I am he, until that moment in time comes when you will have the experience that I am he.

Now let us go into the Silence.

* * *

Let me call your attention to the book table. You’ll find my books and other books I recommend on the table, so on your way out you can browse around. No one will force you to buy anything. Now I do know where I will be when I return in October—I will be at 6005 Sunset, and the entrance is on Gorham(?), but the building fronts Sunset. This place is unavailable. I love this place; I’ve been here for nine years; I’ve always loved every moment of it, but at the moment the club is unavailable. So we found our friend Harry Smith, who owns the building, and this is on the street level. There’s no elevator and no walkup; it’s right off the street level; and it’s 6005 Sunset. We will be there on the 19th of October, beginning the usual time at 8:00. He’s very gracious. He’s allowing me to have all the Tuesdays and Fridays throughout the entire season. He’ll rearrange his schedule to fit my Tuesdays and Fridays, so there’ll be an unbroken Tuesday and Friday pattern when I open on the 19th of October. We’re leaving in a few days after we close for San Francisco; and then we’re going to New York City for a few weeks, six or so, and back in time to open on the 19th of October.

Are there any questions, please?

Q: When will you be speaking in San Francisco?A: I start on the morning of the 11th at the Woman’s Club or the Women’s Club. It’s right back of the hotel where we’re living, the St. Francis. In fact, it’s the same block on Post. Post Street intersects Powell and the hotel is Powell and Post. And this is right back, in fact, it’s not the length of the room between the exit from the hotel on Post to the entrance to the Women’s Club. It’s a very nice walk. That, too, is off the street level, there’s no elevator, you just simply come right in.Q: (inaudible)A: Collapsing of time? Well, this happened to me many years ago in New York City. I was reading the 14 chapter of the Book of John. It begins, “You believe in God, believe in me also.” In my Father’s house are many mansions; were it not so I would have told you. Now I go and prepare a place for you. And if I go, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am there you may be also (verses 1-3). Well, the Bible is on three levels, as told us in Ecclesiastes. There are three…like the ark, the ark is built on three levels. And so we’re told in Ecclesiastes everything’s on three levels—this level, then a psychological level, and a spiritual level. So I thought if this be true it may mean this…and I experimented…I will now assume that this is not Wednesday, this day is Sunday, and what I desired on Wednesday I have realized. It was only a desire, like an egg unfertilized. Well, on Sunday it’s hatched out…I have now realized what on Wednesday I desired. I went to the meeting that night, and asked everyone present to join with me in the experiment—just to experiment, it costs you nothing. I believe this to be the true interpretation on the psychological level, not the spiritual, on the psychological level of this statement.

Well, a lady in my audience had a few apartment buildings. She was a widow and her husband left her just these apartments in Brooklyn, and they were practically empty. They were in a very rundown neighborhood and everything was just simply down to the very bottom. So, she thought, I would try it. This was now the first week of October. She crossed out a little note on the calendar, the 28th day of October, and she felt the reality of the 28th day, and felt they’re all rented. Within a matter of days they began to fill up. On the 28th, every unit was rented in the two apartment buildings and they had been completely vacant. I said to her, Tell me, what prompted you to use the 28th? Was it an anniversary, say, a wedding anniversary or your husband (who’s now gone from this world) his birthday? She said, “No, I needed a loan from the bank. I couldn’t go to the bank and get a loan if they were all empty, they wouldn’t give me anything. But if I could go and say they’re all filled up, they could come and investigate and I’d get a loan; because I do need a loan to repair them and to paint the place and make it presentable.” That’s the only reason she picked out the date, the 28th, so she’d get it before the end of the month. She made the 28th natural. I can see her now…a very sweet lady, she was a widow, left two parcels, but they were not really productive until she heard this psychological interpretation of that first three verses of the 14th chapter of John. So, that’s the collapsing of time.

So I say tonight, for instance, this is now the month of June, well, can’t you feel what it would be like in the fall of the year, or Christmas…if you could wait that long? Or you could just feel…haven’t you said time and again, “It feels like Sunday” and yet it was Wednesday? Now what made you feel Sunday? Then you must have certain associations with the day of the week called Sunday. Well, you can feel it’s Monday. You can feel, “It almost feels like Monday.” Why does it feel like Monday? I must have certain associations with Monday. Well, you have associations with every day of the week plus seasons of the year. You ___(??) it’s spring, it’s summer. Why today at my home it really felt like fall…I turned on the heat and here it’s June. So what made me feel that it’s fall?—the weather. Well, one could feel a coolness if they really want to feel the fall weather. So you use your Imagination to extend your feeling. As Blake said, “Imagination is spiritual sensation.” So I stretch out my feeling and feel what I want to feel. So you can collapse time in that way on this level.

But I do believe when it comes to the spiritual level…I’ll go back to the Book of Acts, it is simply the Father and the Father knows, and he alone knows: “It’s not for you to know the times and the seasons that the Father has appointed by his own authority. But wait until you are endowed with power from above” (Acts 1:7). So that is on the spiritual level, which is the awakening from within you. You can’t force it. That’s one thing that you cannot force. There’ll be no miscarriage on that level, none whatsoever. No one will actually force it. You can’t force ___(??) the birth from above. On this level I think we’re allowed to do all kinds of things, but on the spiritual level—that which God conceived himself to be when he entered death’s door with you—had its own appointed hour and it ripens and it will flower. And all you and I have to do is simply wait…the whole thing comes up. Can’t lose it, no one can lose it. And may I tell you, no one in the end will be better than the other. No one will be more noble than the other because you can’t be more noble than God; and God is the ultimate, and that’s what you’re going to be. So no one can brag. First of all, it’s a gift anyway, and if it’s a gift, how can anyone brag? If you hear anyone brag here, just walk away, he hasn’t had it. He will…and then he won’t brag.

Any other questions, please? Remember we’re closing next Tuesday, and it’s not a long interval, really, between Tuesday, the 29th of June, and the 19th of October. But I do wish that in the interval that you will really go to town in application of this wonderful principle. And then share with me all the good news that you’re going to have if you really apply it, so I may tell your stories to the audience when I reopen in late October. For nothing encourages anyone more than the success of one who heard it and applied it. So you try it, and you will succeed, and then I will be able to tell others.

Q: I was wondering about how many ___(??) actually attained this, in your experience?

A:Well, Sir, I believe that many have. I am not in a position to judge, I am not a judge of the experiences of others, because if I say that my mother had me in a certain way and my niece had a child—four so far—in a different way, that because my mother bore twelve of us—two didn’t survive; ten survived; they’re still in this world of ours—and my niece has four in a Caesarean manner, if I said because I was born in the way that my mother bore me that all children must be born that way or not be born, then I am leaving the world of experience to the world of logic. And so that’s stupid. So I cannot put down as final this, because it happened to me in this manner, it’s the only way that it could happen to anyone else. If I have an obvious case…my wife gave birth in a normal way to our daughter, and my darling niece has given birth four times to four children in a Caesarean manner—and yet they are normal children, wonderful children. So to say a child can only be born in a certain way is stupid. So I will not state…because I have written it as it happened to me, I must be honest with myself and tell exactly how it happened to me. I’ve gone out on a limb and told the day and the city. Well now, if you go out and say it happened to Neville in San Francisco on the 20th day of July of 1959, therefore thereafter only in the city of San Francisco can it happen, well, how stupid that would be!But some people will take it that way and say it could only happen in San Francisco. No, I’ve told it as it happened to me to encourage everyone who will read the story that it’s going to happen to everyone. Because I know my weaknesses, I know my limitations, and therefore I know that he gives it to whom he will, even the lowliest among them, as we’re told, the very lowliest, in the Book of Daniel (4:17). You don’t have to be prominent and wise, because the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God. If you inherit God, you inherit his wisdom, so what is the wisdom of man? No matter how wise it appears to be and what he does in this world, when you are born from above and you are incorporated into the body of God and become one with God, everything on this level…well, you simply laugh your head off at the arrogance of man who thought himself pious, because it all is a pre-resurrection state. And you enter an entirely different world and everything is different. And not a thing here is as it appears to be.

So let no one tell you of holy men…forget them. Holy men and this sort of man…I get that question all the time. “Have you ever heard of so-and-so, the very holy person?” I run in the opposite direction! I’ve yet to meet what I call the holy man, what holy? You’re told in scripture….