The Old Testament calls upon God to awake, saying: “Rouse thyself! Why sleepest thou, O Lord? Awake! Do not cast us off forever! Having hurled Himself into time/space, God is dreaming he is man and sees Himself as enslaved and cast off.
But in the New Testament, God succeeds in awakening in man, and in the Book of Ephesians calls upon man to “Awake and rise from the dead and Christ will give you life.” Tonight I will take the two and try to show you who this presence really is. Your own wonderful human imagination is God. It is your imagination who is calling upon you to awake, for you are all imagination and God is you and you in Him. Your external body is the imagination, and that is God Himself.
Let me begin by telling you what happened to me last Tuesday morning. Early in the morning, desiring to check the time I switched on the television to the “Today Show.” Hugh Downs, the master of ceremonies, having been giving a cue to ad-lib for the next thirty seconds or so, said: “Let me tell you of a dream I once had. In the dream I was viewing a tape of one of my shows, when I said to the producer: ‘Do you know, I don’t remember having seen any of these people,’ and the producer replied: ‘That’s understandable, for this show is to be taped next Friday.’ When the following Friday arrived, the show I had dreamed of only a few days before was taped.” In his dream, Hugh Downs merged with the future and lived an experience he did not remember.
Now, let me tell you [of] one who merged with the past and lived an experience of long ago. The lady writes: “I am seventy-two years old. In my dream I am a ten-year-old girl, asking my father to write in my autograph book. Having memorized a verse I wanted him to write, I dedicated it to him as he recorded it in my book. Then the dream ended.
Although I could not remember the poem prior to the dream, upon awakening I recalled every word in detail. A few days later, while visiting my daughter I told her of the dream; and when I recited the poem my daughter went to her library and . . removing an old autograph book I had given her many years before . . turned to the page where the verse was autographed by my third grade teacher.” Returning sixty-two years, this lady merged with a fact and remembered an experience of long ago.
The she told me of a little boy of four, who . . living next door . . comes to see her often. One day he told her he had always known her and that there would never be a time when they did not know each other. Describing an incident of long ago, he looked out of the window and said: “Do you see that bush? As many leaves as are on that bush are the years, and I will know you when my head grows and reaches the sky.” Then one day he told her he had a dream that everything was nothing.
Modern man now concludes that the entire history of the world is laid out, and we only become aware of increasing portions of it successively. That you can merge with a section of the beginning or future relative to this moment, and experience that portion of history. How can that be? Because you are now merged with a dream.
Awakening in the morning, you think you had a wonderful dream last night; yet while you were dreaming, the experience was a reality. Awake, the dream becomes subjective. Why? Because you have once more merged with this section of time. While you are experiencing the dream, it is objective and real.
If you would only realize that the depth of your own being (which is your human imagination) is trying to instruct you, trying to persuade you, to get you aroused, as my friend’s dream of the other night. Starting from the center God is working towards the surface, so it takes a while for Him to awaken and reach your surface mind. But while he is moving He is influencing your surface mind, and when He arrives you and He are no longer two, but one! You can tell when He is moving toward the surface, for He begins to question the reality of the world in which he lives.
If a lady can return and so merge with the past that she can relive an experience of long ago in detail, and a man can advance into the future and interview those who will be taped the following Friday . . where is the experience of the past and where is next Friday’s show? Is everything already finished and we simply tune in on certain states? Yes, for this is a dream which you can modify or radically change. In fact you are called upon to revise every day of your life and sometimes even to eradicate it.
This is a world of death and everyone here is dead, dreaming the dream of life. In the beginning we all agreed to dream in concert and no one has ever violated that agreement. There are those, however, who would not agree to this cruel experiment, as told us in the 15th chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the form of the parable of the prodigal son.
All through scripture you are told that God loves the second son. He loves Jacob and hates Esau. He loves Isaac and banishes Ishmael. The second son . . he who enters the world of death to become a slave, hungers, awakens, and . . coming to his senses . . remembers the Father who gave him birth. And when he returns the Father gives him the ring, the robe, and kills that fatted calf, for “Your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found.” You and I, while living in this world of death are that second son, destined to awaken and remember the Father who gave us birth.
Now let me share a vision of a lady. She said: “While gazing at the fish in our pond and thinking of nothing in particular I heard a masculine voice say: ‘You have run the race. You have fought the good fight.’ That night as I fell asleep I heard the voice again, but this time the pronoun was changed to: ‘I have run the race. I have fought the good fight. I have kept the faith.’ May I tell you: having had that experience, this lady is at the end of the journey. She has kept the faith made in the beginning.
Listen to these words: “Among you stands one whom you do not know.” The word translated “among” is “en” meaning “radiating from within.” So, radiating from within you, stands one whom you do not know. And the word translated “stands” means “a covenant.” from within you is the covenant you made with yourself, which is: you will keep the faith, and you will not turn until the race is finished. And what a race it has been!
We suffer because we are sharing in creation’s cruel dream. In the beginning as the gods in scripture, we agreed to do it. As the Elohim we came down into the world of death by entering death’s door, the human skull. Laying yourself down in the grave of man, you took upon yourself all of his limitations and weaknesses, and . . although you will die from this section of time . . there is no final death. You and I are heirs to the universe, destined to join that one being that is called the Lord.
There is not a thing you can imagine but what already is. Eternity exists. When you imagine, you claim that which already exits by identifying yourself with the state you desire to dream into objective reality. Just as the lady slipped into a section of her past and relived it as though it happened for the first time, you can slip into any section of time and live an event you desire to externalize here. We are dreaming the dream of life until we awake. So I say, advisedly: God . . your own wonderful human imagination . . dreams in you.
The 44th Psalm is a Maskil of the Sons of Korah. The word “Maskil” means “a special, very serious instruction.” The word “Korah” means “one who removes the hair on his head.” (Some of our priesthoods do that today to imply that they have divine instruction which others do not possess.) But the special instruction stated in the 44th Psalm is that which one gives to one’s self: “Rouse thyself! Why sleepest thou, O Lord? Awake! Do not cast us off forever!”
Now listen to the words of Blake. Claiming that the poem, “Jerusalem” was dictated by the brothers on high, he begins it in this manner:
“Awake! Awake, O sleeper of the land of shadows, awake! Expand! I AM in you and you in me, mutual in love divine: I AM not a God afar off, I AM a brother and friend; Within your bosoms I reside, and you reside in me: Lo! We are One; forgiving all Evil; Not seeking recompense!”
Then he tells us that you and I turned away down the valleys dark, by saying: “We are not One: we are Many.”
God, speaking in this great poem, calls upon man to awake, saying: “I AM not a God afar off. Within your bosoms I reside and you reside in me; Lo! We are One.” This I know from experience. Without loss of identity you and I are One being. We are the brothers who collectively form the Lord. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one compound unity one made up of others. There is only the one Lord, who is our own wonderful human imagination. It is He who is dreaming this world in which we find ourselves.
Now let me share with you a very precious experience of a gentleman who teaches at UCLA. In his dream he encounters a teacher he has little or no respect for; but when he discovers the man to be the great examiner, his feelings change from apathy to warmth and respect.
Suddenly the exam had begun, and my friend must write his name, the date, and the hour. As he recorded his name, Monday, and the time of 4:10, a thrill ran through him; and he heard a deep masculine voice say: “Not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord’ enters in, but he who does the will of the Father who is in heaven.” (You will find this statement in the 7th chapter of the Book of Matthew). When one begins to hear the words of the Father as recorded in scripture, that one is beginning to awaken from this dream of life.
In the 1st chapter of John, it is said that when Andrew found Jesus, he remained with him because it was the tenth hour. A day is counted from 6:00 o’clock. Broken down into three four-hour watches of the day or night, 4:00 o’clock is always the tenth hour.
Now, this is all symbolism. Ten does not mean 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon, but that moment in time when the creative power of God is being explained. The number ten whose letter “Yod” begins the name of God (YOD HE VAU HE) [pron. YOD HEY VAV HEY] carries the symbol of a hand, the creative hand of God. Man is separated from all other animals by reason of a hand. That which looks like a hand in the monkey or ape can convey food to the mouth but it cannot fashion, make, or create. Give a man a hand and you have a creator. You have formed in the image of his Father who is God. So here in the tenth hour the creative power of God is being revealed to my friend.
As the dream began, my friend saw the world he disliked symbolized as a person who became the great examiner to test his ability to overcome it . . to modify or radically change it. And the test began at 4:10. Going over my notes, I recalled that last October, while in a dream at night, I was teaching, when I glanced at my wristwatch to discover it was 4:10 o’clock. Then I continued to explain the word of God for what appeared to be an hour or so, looked at my watch again only to find that it was still 4:10. Believing my watch had stopped, I awoke to discover it was not on my wrist, nor was it 4:10 in the morning.
Here is a vivid experience of a duplicate dream, and scripture tells us that if the dream repeats itself the thing is fixed, and the Lord will shortly bring it to pass. God’s creative power is now unfolding in my friend. Now he knows his own wonderful human imagination is God. That the great I AMness in man is God and that all things are possible to Him. Now the challenge is his. Whatever he wants is! All he has to do is adjust his thinking to the state desired until it becomes alive within him, and at that moment the state will objectify itself in his world.
A subjective desire reflected upon becomes objective. Just like the dream last night. Although subjective when you awaken and once more merge with this section of the dream, during the night it seemed the only reality.
You can take off this section of the dream, and as you merge with another, it will seem to be the only reality. The whole vast world is finished, and you and I are merged in a dream from which we are awakening.
The lady, while in a waking dream, heard the voice as she watched fish . . the symbol of those who accept the gospel of salvation. Those who call upon themselves to awaken rather than call upon a god to awaken them.
So in the Old Testament, God is called upon to “Rouse thyself! Why sleepest thou, O Lord? Awake, O sleeper and rise from the dead.” God is urged to awake in the Old Testament, because God became man that man may become God, while in the New Testament the plea is for man to awake. As you test your creative power you will discover who you are. All of these acts of scripture will come to you in audible form, and you will awaken to find yourself moving into complete fulfillment of the story of Jesus Christ.
Everyone has kept the faith. No one can come down into this world and violate that agreement. You and I agreed to dream in concert before we entered death’s door, the human skull. And one day we are going to awake as the poet said:
“He has awakened from the dream of life. ‘Tis we who lost in stormy visions Keep with phantoms the unprofitable strife.”
God dreams in you and you can test him any time if you are alert, for He steals into your conscious mind least disguised in the form of creative fancy. Sit down and think of a friend and watch this wonderful, moving being create mental images of him. The God of the universe is one with your wonderful human imagination.
He works in your depth, underlying all of your faculties, including perception. Then suddenly you find him moving in a serpentine manner in the form of creative fancy. When you think of someone you can catch Him; and then you will discover who God really is, for He is all within you.
Tonight take a mere wish and see it in your mind’s eye as fulfilled. Contemplate it. Merge and lose yourself completely in it. Allow your wish to take on objectivity, all the various tones of reality, so that it seems now to be the only reality. Then break it and return once more to merge in this section of your dream, and reflect upon that which was so real only a moment before. Do that and no power on earth or in the universe can stop that which you have imagined from objectification.
Simply rest in confidence that it will be objectified, and keep the Sabbath. The Sabbath is simply that moment when you do not make any effort to make it so, because you know it is already so! Do not labor to add to it or take from it. It is going to happen just as you judged it as good and very good.
You try it. If all things were made by God, and without Him was not anything made that was made, and you imagined and it came to pass . . then you must come to the conclusion that what is done grows from what is finished. In the beginning it was only a wish, but in the end it became a fact. So what is done grows from what is finished.
The creative power of the universe stems from imagination . . the real man . . for man is all imagination, and God is man and exists in us and we in Him. The eternal body of man is the imagination, and that is God Himself. Imagination is not a God afar off, but a brother and a friend.
As the Elohim we were brothers, not strangers, but . . as the parable tells us . . not all left our heavenly home. We ventured forth, agreeing to dream in concert or we wouldn’t be here; and failure is inconceivable, for the end is simply to awaken from the eternal dream of life.
We have suffered because we are sharers in creation’s cruel dream. The story is told us in the Book of Job. Everyone plays the part of Job. It’s a crude experiment, but the end is so glorious that one forgets the pain, as told us in the 8th chapter of the Book of Romans: “I consider the sufferings of this present time not worth comparing to the glory to be revealed in me.” We all share in the suffering, because we are dreaming in concert, dreaming the most cruel dreams; but it takes all to awaken, and in the awakening we are greater than we were prior to the beginning of the dream.
I know people see an absolute God but if God could not . . [text corrupt] . . it would be eternal darkness. God is a creator, ever creating, ever transcending whatever He created prior to that moment when He made the commitment and entered the world of death to overcome it. That is the challenge.
Now, in the Old Testament you are calling upon God to awake, for when He awakes you are redeemed. And in the New, God did awake and is telling the world that man must awake. To no longer call upon God to awake but man, for man and God are one. God became as you are that you can become as He is. So no longer call upon a god in some remote place and time, but call upon self . . the one and only creative power of the world. Nothing can be created without creative power. But nothing!
If you start to imagine that things are [as] you desire them to be regardless of reason and your senses denial and lose yourself in that end just as though it were true, by feeling the thrill of accomplishment; and rest in confidence that it is done; and your desire projects itself on a screen of space so you can see it in your world . . then you are the one they are talking about in scripture. Are you not told that by him all things were made, and without him was not anything made that was made?
And God is a person! It is a person who stands among you, not an impersonal force. Find that person and you will find him to be yourself. You are a person, and when you know what you did and see the results thereof, then you will have found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets wrote: Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of David.
Christ is not another! Christ in you is the hope of glory! Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? That’s what the apostle asks in the 13th chapter of 2 Corinthians. Well, ask that of anyone in the world and if he is brutally honest with himself he will tell you he cannot know it until it has been experienced by him, yet here is the challenge: “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?”
Now, if Christ is the one quoted as radiating from within you, and by him all things are made and without him is not anything made that is made (even the bad), then you must find him. If there is only one maker, is it not He who made your awful day, your awful month, your awful year? If you are brutally honest with yourself, you will admit that what happened was related to your imaginal acts.
When you recognize and acknowledge this, you have found him. And because He is a person and you are a person, you know exactly who He is. Now, walk with your head up high, knowing that you have learned from your mistakes; and from now on try to imagine the best as you perceive the best to be, knowing that these acts must project themselves in this world. Then you will awaken and rejoin the brothers, for “I AM not a God afar off, in me lo we are one, forgiving all evil and seeking no recognition.” If we are one, why should I demand recognition? Why not forgive all, for they know not what they do.
So I tell you: the God that you formerly dreamed in you was your own wonderful human imagination. Put him to the test. Conceive a scene implying the fulfillment of your desire and . . to the best of your ability . . merge with it. If you succeed in moving right into the scene, do you know it will become objective before it is seen in this section of time? It will become as objective as this world. Then when you break the spell, that which was objectively real only a moment before will be to you as a dream, but you will know it to be. Then wait in confidence that it will happen here, and when it does share it with others, that they may believe or not believe you; but tell them, because we are all one, so in the end you are simply telling yourself. That is the eternal story.
Now let us go into the Silence.