Response to an inquiry

Thank you for your kind words. I hope you do not mind an equally long-winded response. You have given me a lot to respond to, and I am glad to do it, but please understand that I am not minister or counselor, I am just an aircraft factory mechanic/inspector who learned how to read in seminary forty years ago, and who has done some reading since. I'll try to touch the points you've raised in order as well as I can, but please take my opinions (as well as everyone else's) with a grain of salt. E.g., if everyone is restored to living their next life as a twenty-something as Neville says, what's up with kids?

I appreciate your exuberance and eagerness to learn. That your friends and family are traditional-view Christians is great. You are in a good world for learning the scriptures as history, which is beneficial (else God wouldn't have had them written that way!). You don't mention if your exuberance is due to having received the baptism in the Holy Spirit or some other Pentecostal experience, such as a miraculous healing. That we are baptized in the Holy Spirit in churches that believe the literal-historical interpretation should tell us that God is very tolerant of that view. As Neville mentions in This is Your Future, we authored it.

We are in an odd way in that we believe the whole of scripture is literally true, but not necessarily in that historical-record way. The authors of scripture did use historical persons and events in writing the Bible, but keyed them to their spiritual insights. Not having been there (that we can recollect), none of us know which parts are historical, but we can be pretty sure every part has spiritual insight behind it. The trick, of course, is to figure out what each part is in real life "where the rubber meets the road."

Fillmore may help. I have the dictionary too, as did Neville, and occasionally I'll mine suggestions for interpretations of passages. But that is what they are, suggestions. We are all born into this ignorance and are a bit blind and confused, learning bit by bit, inching higher and higher, "line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Our Big Picture of what is going on is always in flux, always being expanded and revised. Fillmore and all that esoteric group will give you possible orientations to ponder, but revelations come through the spirit inside, usually when you are disarmed, like when you are "mindlessly" thinking while taking a shower or out for a walk (when we shut up, he can "talk"). It is kind of funny: mid-stride and all of a suddenly everything you know gets revised, like God hit an update button or something, and all you can say is, "Oh." (This is called illumination.)

Watch out for occult nut-cases and salesmen, of which there are many. It helps to have a real anchor, an "I know this is real" hard point. For me, at one time Jesus spoke audibly into my hearing nervous system, and at another I watched my shorter arm grow out. Those were real, physical displays of God's inclusive transcendent power which occurred in my personal history. I cannot possible excuse them or rationalize them away. Other "miracles" I have had could be psychological, emotional phenomena, but those two, no. Those were as real as anything else I have known. Everything else I learn has to take those two miracles into account. Almighty God having become my imagination works real well; God a kajillion miles away and running things by a non-touching remote control, not so much.

Probably the most useful tool you could possibly have would be Strong's Exhaustive Concordance with the Hebrew-Chaldee and Greek dictionaries, compact edition. There are a number of good word studies keyed to Strong's, but I got through school before they came out. I go "old school," me and the Holy Spirit. He explains things just fine. And being eternal we are not in a big rush to get it all all at once.

I think almost all people of all faiths realize that scripture is true on many levels. It is true in a historical sense and a in a personal sense, in a sociological sense and psychological, and in higher spiritual senses . . . up unto the reality of God's beingness which we are endeavoring to fathom. We don't need to tell people that we do not believe the historicity of the Bible--we don't know any better than they, anyway. But the spirit does reveal higher levels of truth, and we can tell people that we are investigating those levels, too, if they ask. Why? "Because I want to know them." Jonathan saying (in effect) to his armor bearer, "Let us go up," and the Philistines melting away from before him (1 Sam. 14) comes to mind. He didn't tell his father he was going up to battle, but his dad noticed later.

Neville-thumping goes over about as well as Bible-thumping, and anything that smacks of being spiritually different than the orthodox beliefs are usually considered Satanically inspired. I doubt .001% of Christians or Jews know that the original Bible has been altered--as documented by the Jews, or that the translation of the original texts has been guided by the philosophies and politics and, sadly, the ignorance of the translators. I spent a lot of time correcting my Bible (Bullinger's Companion Bible) according to Bullinger's appendixes 31-34. His margin notes are chock-full of corrections and clarifications, too, but be aware that he was an ultra-dispensationalist and literal-historical type.

By the way, I hope you understand that God speaks to us in illustrations. We "see" something, some relationship maybe, and "hear" what he is saying by its illustrative value. I think that is why the scriptures are all stories and symbols.

Neville was real clear about how UNclear people's ideas of "imagination" are. When we say, "God is our imagination," they hear "God is imaginARY" or "Our minds are God." That "beyond-being" thing that is God, the Ineffable, has no corporal body yet managed to "move" with what we liken to thought. That would be imagining. With absolutely nothing before him, not even the endlessness (Ein Sof), he imagined everything that could be and everything that could possibly happen to it. And he fixed a kind of end to it, I think a running end where each "end" in perfection opens to a new possibility for something else's perfection. Anyway, I think you can tell people that if God can see us and think about us, etc., then he has to have an imagination like that imagination by which we see and think about things. Our imagination is how we know that we "are" and is as much as breath to our life. Which is a good simile because God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life--life, not air--His spirit that made Adam a living being.

The non-dual concept of advaita is valuable. That is Sanskrit for "not divided": God is not one--there is a bunch of us--yet not two. When he breathes life into man, he doesn't divide from that breath. The "flip-side" of the breath, the living man, doesn't know it, but his consciousness/imagination is on its flip side that UNparted spirit of God. That UNparted spirit of God spoke to me and lengthened my arm and healed my friend and welled-up like living waters of joy and gratitude and adoration in my bowels, and then, using "my" mouth and breath, It spoke of God's glory in a language I had never learned. I almost disjointedly observed it.

Which brings me to this closure: "This kind comes forth by nothing but prayer and fasting." It occurred to me the other night--showering, of course--that fasting is not not eating, but not doing anything. Like Neville was told, "Do nothing!"  He had prayed (imagining vividly that he was home with an honorable discharge), now God would display his power by doing what man cannot do. And the solution to the problem (symbolized by an epileptic son) would come forth . . . by "nothing": "Put - your - hands - down." Don't we do this at healing services? We pray and get out of the way, and "simply receive." I guess we could say they come forth by No-thing.

HOWSOEVER, we have to pick our wars. Having very limited time to do more than to post my ruminations, I don't get to spend the time I would like in meditation and praying. I wish there was a prayer and meditation center/facility near where I live. Being young and healthy, you might consider mastering this stuff and coming up with a business plan for such a center where you live. Times for teaching, times for practice, times for group practice of focused intention.

A must-have text: God is a Verb: Kabbalah and the Practice of Mystical Judaism by the late Rabbi David A. Cooper. The point of the Jesus Mysteries and Jesus and the Lost Goddess (Gandy and Freke) is that "Christianity" is ages older than we think and the "Goddess" is the oneness of God. Sorry to be a spoiler. Fun for me was Gerald Massey's diatribes against organized Christianity. I almost bought the Desert of Amenta and Ancient Egypt, the Light of the World. The other people in Theosophy I can do without. Aryeh Kaplan has a good book on Jewish Meditation: A Practical Guide (1985, Schocken Books), I think well worth the money. Your mind can get really fried trying to read the Zohar and other Jewish mystical books. Cooper is frying enough. Lastly, consider investing in Victor Alexander's translations. They are pricy in my mind, but present another view of the Bible entirely. He is literal-historical, but you have to wonder how he can be and still translate like he does. I asked him. He says he doesn't read it and question it, he just translates it. Western mistranslations bug the heck out of him. Got to love him.

Start your reading with Mark, the first writer of a Gospel. When you read up on the Therapeutae and Christian Lindtner's theory (see Vivekananda, too), you might see the plausibility of Mark having been a Buddhist missionary to the West. Seeing what the O. T. scriptures actually say and hearing all the insanity of the Pharisees, scribes etc., he invented a representative of God, Jesus Christ, to answer them. Good tactic. I think he might have modeled his invented Jesus after the true historical character Jakob, whom we call "the brother of the Lord, James," and Buddha.

 And, I had a good Father's Day. Thanks.

Dan Steele

Nothing adds value like Quality.

---

 

-----Original Message-----
From: G S
To: imagicworldview <imagicworldview@aol.com>
Sent: Sat, Jun 14, 2014 7:39 am
Subject: Thank You

Hello Daniel,

I found your blog two days ago, after searching for information on Neville 

Goddard. I want to thank you for your insights and your willingness to share 

your knowledge.

I came across Neville Goddard's lectures in February 2014, through researching 

and reading Dr Joseph Murphy's books. Neville's teachings have really helped me 

change the way I live my life. I am so hungry for God's word and want his truth 

to be revealed in me. I have recently purchased the Metaphysical Bible 

Dictionary by Charles Fillmore, which I'm hoping will help me better understand 

scripture. I'm very keen to learn, so please feel free to recommend any further 

reading.

Most of my family and friends have traditional christian views. I have shared my 

opinion about using ones imagination to see life as they wish it to be, which 

has benefited some but others need some more time. I haven't told anyone (other 

than my partner) that I share Neville's views regarding the bible not being 

historical and in fact depicting different states of consciousness etc. I think 

they would think me mad if I told them that God is their imagination; but, I 

will do. :)

I want to know the true meaning of scripture inside out and possess an 

unwavering confidence in God. Neville made the statement in his book Your Faith 

is Your Fortune; "mans faith in God is measured by his confidence in himself." 

After reading that I realised that my faith in God had been low, as I had very 

little confidence in myself. However people that meet or know me think I'm  an 

extremely confident and determined person. The truth is I had bouts of 

confidence and determination, but would convince myself that I couldn't succeed 

in a certain area because of XY and Z. However I now know that all things are 

truly possible, not just a pipe dream. All things exist in my imagination, 

therefore whatever I desire and believe to be true is in fact real, regardless 

what my senses may say. I just have to keep persevering. 

Sorry for my long winded introduction. I hope you don't mind me emailing, I just 

wanted to let you know that you're doing a fantastic job. Thank you once again.

GS:)