09-22-1959
This platform is concerned only with Imaginism. We believe the Supreme Power that created the universe is all Imagination. We believe that man is all Imagination, and this Supreme Power we call God exists in us and we in it, that our eternal body is Imagination . . that is, God himself. And I mean that literally. So we will turn now to the greatest book in the world, the Bible . . which is addressed to the real man, who is all Imagination, not to the “natural” man or the one you see daily reflected in the mirror. For, like my Father, I AM spirit, and I, the spiritual man, have neither face, form, nor figure. I must come to understand my own invisibility, for when I fully understand that, I am awake. But I will express myself in form forever and forever. This universe, vast as it seems, is only a part, for there are worlds within worlds. This platform is to encourage you to test it and create reality. You can create the conditions of your own world.
You must realize that if one is a teacher the responsibility on his shoulders is great, for if I am a teacher my purpose is to make you see as I see, and to the degree that I can get you to see as I see I have succeeded in getting my thought across, but if my thought is false I mislead you, the responsibility is mine.
“And they said to him, ‘See these great buildings?’ And he said, ‘Yes, I see them, but not one stone of them will be left standing on another. And there will be wars and rumors of wars and all the conflicts of the world, and even the sun will be darkened and the moon fail to give its light.” “These things must be, but now take a lesson from the fig tree, for when you see the leaf appear you know that summer is near, and when these things happen He is at the gate,” etc. This is all addressed to you . . the real you, not to the man of sense; it is addressed to the Imagination. What structures will be cast down . . these on Wilshire Boulevard? Time will erase them; economy will dictate their fall. As land grows in value these buildings will come down to make room for taller ones. It has nothing to do with the visible world, but all to do with the structure of the mind. Some structures of the mind stand for centuries, but they will finally come down . . not collectively, but one by one in the mind of the individual. No matter how close we are as a family we never awaken together.
It is said: “The enemies of a man are those of his own household.” Not his physical household. The conflicts within me are my real family. The whole thing begins within the individual, and the structures by which I live are the sun and moon that guide me. We all live by structures built by other men. No being goes through a university who does not build such structures in his mind in order to get his degree. He passes his examinations on a memory test based on a structure built within himself from the ideas of men who have preceded him. Not one of these from Plato down but has some truth, but not one is completely true. “Destroy these buildings and I will rebuild them; destroy this temple and in three days I will rebuild it.” And only that picture is true that is built from a vision, for then man does not build it out of theory. All the different teachings of the world are Babel. It means “confusion.” These are the structures in the mind that must tumble. These must come down in the mind of the individual, and then he will begin to awaken.
The other day my friend, Bob Keeler, showed me a wonderful letter. A month or so ago he wrote a letter to Douglas Fawcett, whose concepts I have discussed here. He is now ninety-three years old and is a great philosopher. His name is mentioned on all suggested lists of required reading, though he is not always taken seriously. He was a former Don of Oxford. In answer to Bob’s letter, this is the gist of what he said: He told Bob he was very interested and then he said: “l have been fighting for Imaginism since 1916, and all my experiments prior to 1916 I have abandoned as valueless, but since 1916 I have been fighting for Imaginism.” Douglas Fawcett came to Imaginism by the way of completely exhausting all the other ideas (including the Germanic ideas) of truth. He eliminated them one by one by actual experiment. They did not “fill the bill,” and so one after the other he had to eliminate [them] and then arrived at Imaginism. He drew on Blake to support this claim. Then he came to the discussion of what Bob had written him about.
Bob had sent him two of my books, Your Faith is Your Fortune and Awakened Imagination, and explained my teaching of revision and said that people had changed their whole lives, sometimes, revising an incident that had taken place in childhood. You can go back as far as you are able to remember and you change that image that has been supporting a physical state by memory. What Fawcett wrote to Bob about this was very flattering. He said: “l should consider the revisionary aspect of Imaginism as that given by the Divine Society, and I suggest that you read the last chapter of my Oberland Dialogues. He suggests that the Divine Society is way beyond this terrain world and it consists of men who have become gods, and he feels such a wider outlook and such a revolutionary aspect of life must have come through that Divine Society. I know it, and I know there are those who form that great body of awakened individuals. They are individualized centers of imagining, and one day all will enter that state, for there is no limit to the expansion of man. From that Divine Society come the ideas that show man what he is capable of doing on this sphere.
You revise an incident of the day and relive it as you wanted it, and you persuade yourself that what you wanted took place. You do it over and over until it becomes real, vividly real, and fills your mind in place of the unlovely happening. And revision results in repeal. So the thing you have been keeping alive will now change according to the revised image. You will then discover that Imagination creates Reality.
But from now on we will weave in our visions so as to give offense to no one, nor will any be led to believe that this is an arrogant platform. A lady told me this story: She was reading one of my books, when a friend came by and seeing the book said: “l do not care for him or go to him. I go to Dr. X. Dr. X says the same thing, that God is man, but when Neville says it he sounds as if he meant it. But when Dr. X says it we know he does not mean it.”
“He spoke as one having authority, not as the scribes and the Pharisees.” A scribe is one who says the words of others. The one speaking with authority has realized his own invisibility, so that when he says God and man are one, he knows it. And do not tell him to “turn the stones into bread,” for he will say: “Get thee behind me!” He is teaching and telling you who you are, for he has found out who he is, and there is only one: you in me and I in you. Everything in your world you can create, for you are creating anyway . . though not always wisely. Some are frightened when you boldly assert that God is man, but you cannot restrain the feeling of authority. For I know God is man. I know the symbol that out of his own brain he will bring forth the child, and a wise man will put it in his hands and he will hold it. It seems mad, but I sired it. Who is the son? God. Who is God? I held him. But you are limited to this little garment of flesh for educative reasons. How could you reach people who are climbing through infinite levels of awareness unless you could reach them as one of themselves? So . . one returns. He can gain nothing from the return. Everything man has entered, he has entered, but he returns and . . as his Father did . . takes on the limitations of the flesh, returning through the womb of a woman. It is all imagery or the out picturing of the individual and what he is doing in this world. If I speak with authority, I cannot help it, for I know from my own mystical experiences that man is all Imagination. When I walk through this world I bring images through my five senses. If I do not rise above it but live in it as if it were true, then I am anchored in the senses. The real you is all Imagination, but between you and the natural man stands the specter of reason. And one must “cast him into the lake,” and bring before your mind’s eye what you would see and touch and hear if what you desired were a reality, and if you walk in that image you will bring about a transformation in your world.
We have these great giants, like Plato, etc., and every child builds into his mind the structures of such great minds, who give only partial truth. But as we are told in Mark 13, all these great “buildings” will go down. None will survive, only the visions . . the temple not built with hands, it will survive. Everyone here can be the woman or the man he wants to be, for God has never left you. God actually entered this body when you jumped in your mother’s womb. He entered death’s door (this body) with us, and remains with us until we awaken. For the day will come when you will awake, and then you are he, and the whole thing will be unfolded.
Let us go out determined to bring the buildings down by putting something in their place. As you become more and more aware, the old buildings will collapse. In the mind of every man these structures are built by the teachers of the world, but only the individual can bring to life the structure within himself. We awaken individually, not collectively. He comes, as it says, “in clouds of glory,” but inside you. All things topple at last. They used to bleed us to make us well; now they give us blood for the same reason. We change from this diet to that; each worked in its time. These are structures that are built into the minds of men. These will not fall collectively. For example, Fascism has not yet fallen. It only falls in the mind of the man who has discovered within himself how empty it is. But do not think that because they have lost the war that it is not still a structure in the mind of people. All these “buildings” will fall, but it has nothing to do with our lovely buildings on the Avenue. Economy will take care of those. But the buildings that the Bible speaks of are within you. That book is speaking of you, of us. God so loved you and me that he became us individually and stamps that print on us that makes each of us unique. We are all individualized but we are visible on certain levels of our being. The real you is an infinite God. On this level you have turned around, but the ascent is by the effort you will make through faith. Yet ninety per cent of what you receive will not be through your effort, but through grace. You have no conception how much is given to man. Your effort is always multiplied a thousand fold. You make your effort and you will be amazed at the gift that comes to you. Ninety per cent is by grace and only a maximum ten per cent is by the effort of the individual. God is not here to punish us, or to “get even.” It is the awakening of God in man. Here is one great philosopher, Fawcett, who came to it completely by elimination. He wrote: “I am so happy to find several allies in your great America.” Everyone individually will awaken to the reality he is seeking, and that is his own wonderful Imagination, and that is God.
That is the one called “the Potter.” “I went down to the Potter’s house and the Potter was working at his wheel.” I went right into my own being. I was working at the wheel. I was cogitating on what I had during the day. “And the vessel in his hand was spoiled, but he reworked it into another vessel, such as seemed good unto him.” (Jeremiah 18) Well, today did I take something that was spoiled and rework it? Did I take some distressing word and rewrite it? I could not stop the image forming when I read the letter today, so I hold in my hand that which is spoiled. But I can rework it and fashion it into another vessel. I can read the letter I wish I had received. Everyone has to do that, so if I did not do it he is not speaking of me, for I am not being the potter as I should. He is speaking of the one who, as in Jeremiah 18, is trying to awaken. Imagination is the potter. The word means “maker;” it also means “God.” So, I went to God’s house and I found him within myself. I sat alone thinking, which means being at my wheel, and what I held in my mental hand seems to be spoiled, so I rework it into a more wonderful vessel. If I can do it, I have proved I am beginning to awaken.
But do not try to create any new religion. Religion means devotion to the most exalted experience you have had. Do not try to rewrite it. Do not add to the tower of Babel. Visions will come bearing witness to your progress. As they come you know where you stand. You go from Genesis to Revelation. You come to the point where there is no sun and no moon. You do not need them; you become your own light. As [in] my story told in my book, The Search, I walked in a beautiful twilight. It is a vision and it happens to the individual, and you will know that “He is risen,” and it means you. They will call you by your name. It is the most perfect thing in the world. It is your name and it is your name forever. Let no one tell you it is not true. The vision is more true than all the structures that are being built in the minds of men by conjecture. Then, when you reach the final vision, you will enter that state of perfection that was yours before the world was. None will be lost. If one is lost someone will come and I do not care what a man has done. None will be lost, for then God would be lost. If one is lost someone will come out and volunteer to go and find him. If he or she has to marry the other to redeem him or her, someone from that Divine Society will volunteer to come. Not one will be lost, for we are all one and we are all awakening.
These are perfect visions from Genesis to Revelation, with a few commentaries. Ruth, Esther, Ecclesiastes . . these are commentaries and not perfect visions. But the five books of the Torah, Joshua, Judges, Kings, the Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah . . these are perfect visions and they are true, and you will pass through them and know the whole story is true, and you will see it reflected in your world of shadows.
You walk this world and you do not think you are in a fire, but this world is the fire, and when you come out you are like a burnt offering in the hand of God. This world is the flame of experience. We are looking at different views, and I am here to encourage you to live nobly and be faithful to your dream that it may crystallize. These things are only to prove that you can create. Do not become lost in the thing you create. Go back and create some more. My whole purpose is to tell you how wonderful you are, and if after the first night of this series you thought I was a dangerous man because I meant what I said, that God and man are one . . well, it is what I have been sent to tell you. And may I also tell you that everyone who is sent is called a devil, and God loves every one of them.
Now let us go into the Silence.
