It Is Ignorance We Are Dealing With, Really

Our problem is ignorance. We all have it. By the amnesia inherent in the process of becoming living beings (entering this sphere of death or lack of consciousness of God, actually), we all are born into a state of ignorance. Having adopted these forms we become isolated ignorance: ignorance defined. Our mission is to overcome this ignorance, which is become the essence of our being. It is a long haul.

Why? What compels us time and time again to descend into this madness and chaos? To suffer this disgusting darkness, discomfort, and disease? We do it to dispel ignorance, because dispelling ignorance is the ONLY thing that matters in the universe, and we have to do it ourselves. And what are people doing? Politics, control, making a living, whatever mindless thing seems needs to be done. LOA. OMG. They are all diversions, distractions of ignorance. The ONLY thing that really needs to be done is the overcoming of this ignorance. EVERYTHING else is forgiven. Has been from the beginning, when It stepped into this. Not a single thing in the universe we can do stymies God but the ignorance we hold onto. He made the universe for it. To get rid of it. There is not another God-damned thing that matters, for ignorance is the only thing that is God damned. Overcoming ignorance is the ONLY thing God is doing here. He already is what he is: the only thing leaving is not knowing it.

Why? Of what before our crucifixion into this dimension were we ignorant? We were God! Genesis 1:1 was our birthday. How could God be or have been ignorant of anything? What on earth does God not know; we as God didn’t know? The answer is No-thing. He created the world and universes out of No-thing—Himself—by imagination. We were and are ignorant of the No-thing, of the freedom of the integrity and the experience of being the Ineffable. We are here playing catch-up, becoming better his manifestation.

We inhabit imagined forms who do not know what they are or where they came from. But WE too are imagined forms who do not know what we are or where we came from. This is an imagic world: we are imaginings OF the Ineffable ignorant OF the Ineffable. This seventh day is our training day, a day for our enlightenment and conversion into what the Pentecostal experience is but a foretaste. That is the high calling of Jesus Christ, for us to embody the PRINCIPLE of the nature of the Ineffable Most High Itself. To become love and power in progression.

Kind of heady stuff, yes, but THAT is what the Ineffable Most High wants for us; it is what this world is all about. The Ineffable says, “Become Me as I become Me within and through you this seventh day. Play the game. Submit and practice. Help others as I help you. Love. Pray.” Sounds like something the church should be involved in, you would think.

Ein Sof: the Endlessness is not Size, Distance

I used to think of distance when I thought of Ein Sof, the Endlessness — that the Ineffable is a super enormous being — someone Who even infinity could easily fit into. But I now think of the Endlessness as something more akin sequential analog time. In my last post, David Cooper noted that the Hebrew of Genesis 1:1 can be translated as “With a beginning, (It) created God (Elohim), the heavens and the earth” (13th paragraph). The Beginning — Ein Sof — is an unending PROCESS. It is ENDLESS. Every moment is a new beginning. The state we were an infinitesimal moment ago was different than now, which we will never peg into a fixed acquisition (Cain), as it is always in transition (Abel).

God — FROM Ein Sof — is the unending process of the Ineffable Most High’s imagination BEGINNING. Always it is beginning. Where we — Elohim — observe, the powers in the process begin as particulate “matter.” Observe what you will.

Rabbi David A. Cooper: The Word Regarding the World is Given Unto Us

I wanted to copy a story from the book God is a Verb but could not find an i-pad friendly version to cut-and-paste from which was not a virus scam. Get the book. In the story (pages 73-74), the leading Jewish rabbis were arguing some esoteric point of the Law. One said it is this, the others said it was that. “If the Law (God) agrees with me,” said the one, "let this carob tree prove that I am right.” The carob tree flew out of the ground. The sages were unconvinced. A stream of water flowed uphill. So what? The walls of the building leaned in. Doesn’t prove a thing. Finally God Himself thundered against the scholars, “The rabbi is right!”

But the rabbis would not change their minds and quoted Deuteronomy 30:11-14, which states that earthly matters are now mankind’s domain, and heaven should not interfere: "Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, 'Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?' Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, 'Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?' No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it." Laughed God, “My children have defeated Me!”

A good story I wanted to share with you, but cannot because I can’t find God is a Verb in a safe pdf. But searching for it I found what is to me a new Rabbi David A. Cooper website.

Please go there posthaste and absorb everything there. Nothing could be better than to read Cooper’s website in the morning. I found the site, actually, from having found this interesting bit of Jewish theology, which is discussed much in God is a Verb:

2361 GOD IS NOT WHAT WE THINK IT IS
October 15, 2010

What is God? God is not what we think It is. God is not a thing, a being, a noun. It does not exist, as existence is defined, for It takes up no space (or includes all space but is not limited by it) and is not bound by time. Jewish mystics often refer to It as Ein Sof, which means Endlessness.

Ein Sof should never be conceptualized in any way. It should not be called Creator, Almighty, Father, Mother, Infinite, the One, Brahma, Buddhamind, Allah, Adonoy, Elohim, El (Eil in the ancient Aramaic - Steele), or Shaddai; and It should never, never be called He. It is none of these names and it has no gender.

When we call It God, what are we talking about? If we say that It is compassionate, full of loving kindness, the source of love, we may be talking about our image of what we think the divine nature ought to be but we are not talking about Ein Sof. In the same way, if we say that the God portrayed in the bible is vindictive, jealous, angry, cruel, uncaring, or punitive, we cannot be referring to Ein Sof. Ein Sof includes attribute but cannot be defined by any of them individually or all of them combined.

The mystery of the origin of the universe has fascinated every human consciousness from the beginning of recorded history. In all cultures of the world we find the timeless inquiry: Is there a creator and if so what is its nature? If not, how did creation begin and what is its purpose?

Mystics teach that there is a universal connection between all things; modern science offers the same message. This connection has various names, some say it is a soul force, others call it love; the ancients called it ether, science often names it energy. Yet, although there is general agreement that there seems to be a fundamental nature in the continuous unfolding of the universe, our relationship to the core of this nature has been a matter of considerable debate.

Jewish mystics are particularly concerned about naming the universal connection. People confuse names with identities. Many primitive cultures have name-secrets. They will not tell you their names for fear that you will have power over them. Similarly, at times, they will not allow you to take pictures of them. In the primitive mind, the essence of a person can be captured and imprisoned if one has control over a name or the image.

When we give a name to the nameless it is a stumbling block that trips most people. We think that if it has a name, it has an identity. An identity comes with attributes. So we think we know something about it. This is a mistake.

For thousands of years this mistake has become ingrained in the human psyche. The word "God" suggests an embodiment of something that can be grasped. We have given a name to the unknown and unknowable and then have spent endless time trying to know it. We try because it has a name; but we must always fail because it is unknowable. Judaism is so concerned about this misunderstanding, it goes to great lengths to avoid naming God. Yet various names seep through because our minds cannot work without symbols.

What then is the God that is written about in the bible? Kabbalists teach that the very first line of Genesis has been mistranslated. Most people think it says: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." But the actual words in Hebrew can be read another way. A Kabbalist could say: "With a beginning, [It] created God [Elohim], the heavens and the earth."

That is to say, there was an initial creation out of nothingness the potential to begin--Beginningness. Once there was a beginning, God (in a plural form) was created--a God to which the rest of creation could relate. Then the heavens and the earth were created.

The implication of this interpretation profoundly affects our entire relationship with God and creation, for it says that all the names we have for God and all the ways in which we relate to God are a few degrees removed from the source of creation that precedes even nothingness. This is called Ein Sof, which is not the name of a thing but is an ongoing process.

EIN SOF

The idea of Ein Sof was first described by Isaac the Blind. He originated the actual use of the word Kabbalah to designate a variety of Jewish mystical teachings and practices. Prior to Isaac the Blind these teachings were referred to more obliquely, such as: the work of the chariot, the work of creation, the way of truth, and other phrases that hinted at hidden mysteries. People who followed the mystical path had many names as well: masters of knowledge, the wise-hearted, those who know measures and other enigmatic labels.

It is not known whether this teacher Isaac was really blind, or if this was an appellation intimating that he did not see things the way other people saw them. Indeed it was said that he had phenomenal mystical powers, being able to sense a "feeling in the air" whether a person would die in the near future and whether a person's soul was newly formed or was an older, reincarnated soul.

Isaac teaches that Ein Sof precedes thought (machshavah), and it even precedes the nothingness (ayin) out of which thought is born. Nothingness is viewed as a level of awareness that is the result of the "annihilation of thought."

The idea of the annihilation of thought, of course, is paradoxical. Can we imagine a void without beginning or end? Can we, limited by minds that are finite, imagine infinity? The answer is no, we cannot think of nothing.

Anything that we can imagine has some kind of boundary--Kabbalists call it garment or vessel--and boundaries are containers. All thoughts, including all imagination, are garments or vessels.

By definition, a boundary sets limits. We may be able to put a name to infinity, we can draw a symbol of a figure eight on its side and say that this represents infinity, but no matter how much we may believe that our imagination is limitless, we remain confined by the boundaries of our own reality. If it can be imagined, it is not infinite.

As infinity is beyond the imagination, what about that which transcends infinity--that which created it? Ein Sof is not "restricted" by infinity. Indeed, we have suddenly run out of words because the idea of "trans-infinite" is a logical absurdity. What can go beyond infinity? Moreover, what can go beyond the Nothingness that surrounds infinity? This is Ein Sof. Although we are informed that Ein Sof is inaccessible through any intellectual endeavor, we may still ask if is there a "knowing" that surpasses the intellect? Does Isaac the Blind have access to a level of awareness through which he can sense, somehow, the imperceivable?

The answer is yes. Jewish mysticism teaches that we can know Ein Sof in ways that transcend thought. This aspect of developing a relationship with Endlessness, the source of creation, is the key to all Kabbalah and the life-blood of all Jewish practice. The secret teaching in developing this relationship with the unknowable is hidden in the mystical foundation of the nature of relationship itself.

The word "God," and all of its various names in Judaism, such as El, Elohim, Adonoy, Shaddai, and so forth, each represent aspects of Ein Sof. The exploration of these aspects gives us insight into the nature of Ein Sof. Thus, whenever God is discussed in this book, we are not talking about a thing in itself, but a representation of a far deeper mystery.

THE DIVINE KISS

In the Song of Songs, the mystic whispers about the kiss of its lover: "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for your love is better than wine."

We can feel the aching heart of the lover: "I am sick with love, his left hand is under my head and his right embraces me."

We experience the thrill of anticipation: "My beloved put his hand by the latch of the door and my heart was thrilled; I rose to open to my beloved."

"Ah," we say, "the passion of young love!" But this is not a poem about young lovers. It is about us, about every human being, and it describes our potential relationship with the Divine. Perhaps you do not believe this; perhaps you feel that having an intimate relationship with the Divine is beyond you, reserved for others, or another lifetime. This is not so. It is part of our heritage; it is yours and mine to have. All we need do is learn how to let go of our fear, for fear maintains the barriers of separation.

In many traditions, the mystical expression of our relationship with the Divine is through eros, the flame of a burning heart. Why? Because when we awaken to the realization that the presence of the Divine is revealed in the fullness of each moment, our hearts melt and the floodgates of our inner yearning open wide.

This is a mystical epiphany. It cannot be rationally explained. Although we cannot cross the barrier between us and that which lies beyond infinity, we can experience in the depth of our being the realization that for each step we take, the Divine steps with us; each breath we draw is connected with the breath of the universe; and that lover, beloved, and the essence of love itself are all reflections of exactly the same thing. In each of these moments we "know" the presence of the Divine and there is no separation.

One of the great Jewish mystics, Abraham Abulafia (13th century), says about one who has achieved this level of spiritual awareness: "Now we are no longer separated from our source, and behold we are the source and the source is us. We are so intimately united with It, we cannot by any means be separated from It, for we are It."

This is described in a lovely Sufi story of a man who constantly cried out to God, but received no response. After a while the devil whispered to this man, "How long will you wait for God to respond 'Here I am' to all of your entreaties?" This broke the man's spirit and he stopped calling out to God. In a dream, however, he envisioned an image of the Divine

who asked him why he had stopped. The man said that God had never answered his call. The wise dream-image, representing God, then said, "Did you not realize that every calling of yours IS itself my response?"

The urge to call out to God is always answered simultaneously as it is spoken, for ultimately there is no difference between the caller and that to which it calls.

The Kotzker rebbe, Menahem Mendel (19th century), a famous hasidic teacher who lived his last twenty years in voluntary seclusion, asked one of his students, "Where does God dwell?" As the student stumbled in his attempt to respond, the Kotzker rebbe answered his own question, "God resides wherever we let God in!"

Mystics throughout time, in all traditions, have said the same thing. We do not have to search for God because the presence of the Divine permeates all things. If there is a search at all, it is God searching for Itself, so to speak.

GOD IS A VERB

The closest we can come to thinking about God is as a process rather than a being. We can think of it as "be-ing," as verb rather than noun. Perhaps it would help us understand this better if we renamed God. We might call it God-ing, as a process, rather than God, which suggests a noun.

This idea was developed by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, who goes further and explains that the kind of verb that represents God-ing is different from the ones we have in our ordinary language. Most of our verbs are considered transitive, which require a direct object, or intransitive, those that do not. He suggests that God-ing is a mutually interactive verb, one which entails an interdependency between two subjects, each being the object for the other.

For example, "communicating" could be such a verb. If I were speaking to an audience, I might not be communicating. I would be engaged in the act of communication, but if the audience were not attentive and were thinking about other things, I would not be communicating no matter how much I talked. My verbal communication is dependent upon a listener; it cannot be a one-way street. Other obvious verbs that fit into this category are loving, sharing, dancing, kissing, hugging, and so forth.

We can relate to God as an interactive verb. It is God-ing. Moreover, from this perspective, creation should not be treated as a noun. It too is an interactive verb; it is constantly creation-ing. And, dear reader, you should not treat yourself as a noun--as Joan, or Bill, or Barbara, or John. With regard to God as an interactive verb, you are also verbs; you are Joan-ing, Bill-ing, Barbara-ing, or John-ing in relation to God-ing, just as I am David-ing. Each part in the universe is in dynamic relationship with every other part. In human interactions, such as marriage, one partner is husband-ing while the other is wife-ing. The two, in this sense, are one. We normally experience relationships in terms of their component parts; we are mistaken, however, when we assume the parts are separate.

It is important to remember that the concept of God-ing is a way for us to have a relationship with the Divine. This should not be confused as having a relationship with Ein Sof. Many names of God are included in Ein Sof; God-ing is one name--a name that happens to be a verb rather than a noun.

The true discovery of the intimacy of our ongoing relationship with the Divine can dramatically change our lives. It often happens spontaneously, without a reason. Some call this experience "grace." It arises out of nowhere. We are sitting on the beach, walking in the woods, caring for someone who is dying, even driving on the freeway and suddenly we are overwhelmed by a strange light that penetrates our consciousness and we are never again the same. We read accounts of such transformations and conversion experiences that have changed the world.

Occasionally, individuals devote themselves to a spiritual life because of such experiences. However, most people who commit to an inner path do so because they yearn to connect with truth and meaning. This commitment usually involves undertaking a variety of practices that become part of one's daily life. They may include meditation, prayer, movement, diet, self-restraint, periods of seclusion, mantras, service, acts of loving kindness, and other time-tested techniques to alter consciousness. Eventually, when the practitioner's priorities are clear, the inner light of awareness slowly becomes illuminated and her or his perception of reality steadily changes. On the spiritual path, either through a brilliant flash of insight, or in the slow, steady progress of continuous practice, we gain wisdom. It is not intellectual knowledge, but wisdom--a deep knowing--inexplicable, indescribable and exquisite beyond imagination. This wisdom is the fountain of true mystical experience, the driving force of all spiritual inquiry. It is what sustains us when we are faced with doubts, nourishes us when the world seems bleak, and comforts us when we face the death of loved ones. Without it, where would we turn? What would we be without the awesomeness of the unknowable God?

There is no answer to this question; we cannot prove anything about Ein Sof. Rather, it is a self-reflecting inquiry. Yet, when viewed from the perspective of our dynamic relationship with the Divine, it is a self-fulfilling question, for paradoxically the source of the question is the answer it seeks. "What would I be without God?"

Consider this from your inner awareness. Not you the noun, the person you may think you are, but you the verb, the process of being in full relationship, continuously, with its creator. When a question arises within you, who is asking the question and to whom is the question addressed? Assume that there is no "me" to ask the question and there is no God out there to answer it. The question is part of the process of David-ing and God-ing in a mutual unfolding.

Try to do this in a way that melts all barriers of separation. No subject and no object. Simply an ever opening process. No past, no future; only now. Each moment is a fresh opening. Each breath we draw, each move we make is only Now. This is my dance with God-ing. It is an awesome experience.

Awe leads to wisdom. The opening of the Jewish morning prayers quote a line from Psalms that says: "The beginning of wisdom is the awe of the Y-H-V-H [the tetragrammaton, one of the key nameless names of God]."

This Y-H-V-H is often referred to as Hashem, the Name. We don't want to give it a name, so we call it the Name. It is too awesome to name. Yet, we can experience awe.

Perhaps you will take a few moments to close your eyes and allow yourself to sink into this idea. Meditate on this thought: The teaching of the mystery of Ein Sof is that the center of our being out of which awe arises is that about which we are awed. It is It! When we contemplate our continuous process of opening, right here, right now, we realize that God-ing is always with us; always. The Zohar says: "Before shape and form were created, It [Ein Sof] was without form or appearance. Therefore, it is forbidden to perceive It in any way, not even by the letters of Its holy name or by any symbol. However, had It's brightness and glory not been radiated over the whole of creation, how could It have been discerned, even by the wise? Therefore, it descended on a [mystical] chariot to be known by the letters Y-H-V-H, in order that it could be inferred, and for this reason It allows Itself to be called by various names, such as El, Elohim, Shaddai, Zevaoth, and Y-H-V-H [among others, such as God], each being a symbol of divine attributes. However, woe to anyone who presumes to compare Ein Sof with any attributes. For it is limitless, and there are no means to comprehend it."

Another zoharic teaching says: "That which is within the thought [of Ein Sof] is inconceivable. Much less can anyone know about Ein Sof, of which no trace can be found, and which cannot be reached by any means of thought. Yet, from the midst of this impenetrable mystery, the first descent of Ein Sof [whatever gives us insight regarding It] glimmers like a faint, undiscernible light just like the point of a needle, a hidden recess of thought which is not knowable until a light extends from it where there is an imprint of letters."

The unknowable can be discerned. Beginning at an indefinable point as sharp as a needle, it radiates in various ways which can be perceived. This only occurs in the context of process and interaction. We are not an audience watching the God-ing process on stage. We are on stage, ourselves. We mysteriously begin to get a glimmer of God-ing when we succeed in merging with the continuous process of unfolding creation.

Our own experience of God-ing is not like anything we read about. It is a different kind of revelation than that described by ancient prophets. Perhaps some people still are able to hear a voice that booms out of the heavens. But this is rare, indeed, and even the Talmud has serious questions about its veracity.

However, we do not have to be prophets to experience God-ing. It is everywhere around us and an aspect of everything we do. It arises when we repeatedly encounter the magical quality of life, the incredible blend and variety of experience, the exquisite unfolding of nature, the intricacies of our minds, and more than anything, the awe, the profound awe we experience when we sense the enormity of this universe. Somehow the awe itself, ineffably, draws us into the center of creation. At some point we merge with it.

An Edited, Amended “It Works”

Tom T. noted in his comment that It Works, the famous little red book that makes your dreams come true, does not say anything about thinking from the end or saying I am verses to be, yet it works. I also note that Jarret does not go beyond acknowledging God.

I read with editing, comments, and amendments running in my mind. I might read It Works like this:

IT WORKS by R. H. Jarret
(1926)

The author sent the manuscript of this book for criticism to a friend who returned it with the notation, “It works.” This judgment born of experience was adopted as the title of the book.

The man who wrote this book is highly successful and widely known for his generosity and helpful spirit. He gives full credit for all that he has accomplished in mastering circumstances, accumulating wealth and winning friends to the silent working out of the simple, powerful truth which he tells of in his work. He shows you here an easy, open road to a larger, happier life. Knowing that the greatest good comes from helping others without expecting praise, the author of this work requested that his name be omitted. (Yes, but that was a long time ago, and everyone knows it was Jarret.)


If you KNOW what you WANT, you must believe that you HAVE IT to HAVE IT

This E-Book is not to be sold. It is a free educational service in the public interest published by Gann Study Group. And we thank them very much.

What is the Real Secret of Obtaining Desirable Possessions?

Are some people born under a lucky star or other charm which enables them to have all that which seems so desirable, and if not, what is the cause of the difference in conditions under which men live?

Many years ago, feeling that there must be a logical answer to this question, I decided to find out, if possible, what it was. I found the answer to my own satisfaction, and for years I have given the information to others who have used it successfully.

From a scientific, psychological or theological viewpoint, some of the following statements may be interpreted as incorrect, but nevertheless, the plan has brought the results desired to those who have followed the simple instructions, and it is my sincere belief that I am now presenting it in a way which will bring happiness and possessions to many more.

“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride,” is the attitude taken by the average man and woman in regard to possessions. They are not aware of a power so near that it is overlooked; so simple in operation (assumption) that it is difficult to conceive; and so sure in results that it is not made use of consciously, nor recognized as the cause of failure or success.

“Gee, I wish that were mine,” is the outburst of Jimmy, the office boy, as a new red roadster goes by; and Florence, the telephone operator, expresses the same thought regarding a ring in the jeweler’s window; while poor old Jones, the bookkeeper, during the Sunday stroll, replies to his wife, “Yes, dear, it would be nice to have a home like that, but it is out of the question. We will have to continue to rent.” Landem, the salesman, protests that he does all the work, gets the short end of the money and will some day quit his job and find a real one, and President Bondum, in his private sanctorum, voices a bitter tirade against the annual attack of hay-fever.

At home it is much the same. Last evening, father declared that daughter Mabel was headed straight for disaster, and today, mother’s allowance problem and other trying affairs fade into insignificance as she exclaims, “This is the last straw. Robert’s school teacher wants to see me this afternoon. His reports are terrible, I know, but I’m late for Bridge now. She’ll have to wait until tomorrow.” So goes the endless stream of expressions like these from millions of people in all classes who give no thought to what they really want, and who are getting all they are entitled to or expect.

If you are one of these millions of thoughtless talkers or wishers and would like a decided change from your present condition, you can have it, but first of all you must know what you want, and this is no easy task. When you can train your objective mind (the mind you use every day) to decide definitely upon the things or conditions you desire, you will have taken your first big step in accomplishing or securing what you know you want.

To get what you want is no more mysterious or uncertain than the radio waves all around you. Tune in correctly (to the assumption of HAVING what you desire) and you get a perfect result. But to do this, of course, it is necessary to know something of your equipment and have a plan of operation: assume IN YOUR IMAGINATION that you already HAVE what you wanted, and affirm that in your attitude.

You have within you a mighty power, anxious and willing to serve you, a power capable of giving you that which you earnestly desire. This power is described by Thomson Jay Hudson, Ph.D., LL.D., author of “The Law of Psychic Phenomena,” as your subjective mind. Other learned writers use different names and terms, Dr. Joseph Murphy called it your subconscious mind, but all agree that it is omnipotent. It is THE Omnipotent. Therefore, I call this Power “Emmanuel” (”God in us,” lit. Eil is with us).

Regardless of the name of this Great Power, Eil, or the conscious admission of a God, the Power of Eil in the subconscious mind is capable and willing to carry to a complete and perfect conclusion every earnest desire of your objective mind, but you must be in real earnest about what you want.

Occasional wishing or half-hearted wanting does not form a perfect connection or communication with your omnipotent power, Eil, the subconscious, which is what is needed. You must be in earnest, sincerely and truthfully desiring certain conditions or things -- mental, physical or spiritual. I.e., you are going for it and believe you can get it.

Your objective mind and will are so vacillating that you usually only WISH for things and the wonderful, Capable Power within you does not function.

Most wishes are simply vocal expressions. Jimmy, the office boy, gave no thought of actually possessing the red roadster. Landem, the salesman, was not thinking of any other job or even thinking at all. President Bondum knew he had hay fever and was expecting it. Father’s business was quite likely successful, and mother no doubt brought home first prize from the Bridge party that day, but they had no fixed idea of what they really wanted their children to accomplish and were actually helping to bring about the unhappy conditions which existed.

If you are in earnest about changing your present condition, here is a concise, definite, resultful plan, with rules, explanations and suggestions:

The Plan

Write down on paper in order of their importance the things and conditions you really want. Do not be afraid of wanting too much. Go the limit in writing down your wants, what would be “better than the best.” Change the list daily, adding to or taking from it, until you have it about right. Do not be discouraged on account of changes, as this is natural. There will always be changes and additions with accomplishments and increasing desires.

Three Positive Rules Of Accomplishment

1. Read the list of what you want three times each day: morning, noon and night. SCHEDULE SESSIONS FOR THE ACTUAL DOING.
2. Think of what you want as often as possible.
3. Do not talk to any one about your plan except to the Great Power within you, who will unfold to your Objective Mind the method of accomplishment.

It is obvious that you cannot acquire faith at the start. Some of your desires, from all practical reasoning, may seem positively unattainable, but, nevertheless, write them down on your list in their proper place of importance to you.

There is no need to analyze how this Power, Eil within you, is going to accomplish your desires. What is essential is to believe that you HAVE already what you desire—that it is not coming but was already RECEIVED in your past. Trying to figure out HOW Eil is going to do it is as unnecessary as trying to figure out why a grain of corn placed in fertile soil shoots up a green stalk, blossoms and produces an ear of corn containing hundreds of grains, each capable of doing what the one grain did. If you will follow this definite plan and carry out the three simple rules, the method of accomplishment will unfold quite as mysteriously as the ear of corn appears on the stalk, and in most cases much sooner than you expect.

When new desires, deserving position at or about the top of your list, come to you, then you may rest assured you are progressing correctly.

Removing from your list items which at first you thought you wanted, is another sure indication of progress.

It is natural to be skeptical and have doubts, distrust and questionings, but when these thoughts arise, get out your list. Read it over; or if you have it memorized, talk to your inner self about your desires until the doubts that interfere with your progress are gone. Remember, nothing can prevent your having that which you earnestly desire. Others have these things. Why not you?

The Omnipotent Power within YOU, Eil, does not enter into any controversial argument. It is waiting and willing to serve when you are ready, but your objective mind is so susceptible to suggestion that it is almost impossible to make any satisfactory progress when surrounded by skeptics. Therefore, choose your friends carefully and associate with people who now have some of the things you really want—vibrant, lively, successful people—not negative persons or slugs, but do not discuss your method of accomplishment with them.

Put down on your list of wants such material things as money, home, automobile, or whatever it may be, but do not stop there. Be more definite. If you want an automobile, decide what kind, style, price, color, and all the other details, including when you want it. If you want a home, plan the structure, grounds and furnishings.

Decide on location and cost. If you want money, write down the amount. If you want to break a record in your business, put it down. It may be sales record. If so, write out the total, the date required, then the number of items you must sell to make it, also list your prospects and put after each name the sum expected. This may seem very foolish at first, but you can never realize your desires if you do not know positively and in detail what you want and when you want it. If you cannot decide this, you are not in earnest, You must be definite, and when you are, results will be surprising and almost unbelievable.

A natural and ancient enemy will no doubt appear when you get your first taste of accomplishment. This enemy is Discredit, in form of such thoughts as: “It can’t be possible; it just happened to be. What a remarkable coincidence!”

When such thoughts occur give thanks and assert credit to your Omnipotent Power, Eil, for the accomplishment. By doing this, you gain assurance and more accomplishment, and in time, prove to yourself that there is a law, a Divine nature which actually works -- at all times -- when you are in tune with it.

Sincere and earnest thanks cannot be given without gratitude, and it is impossible to be thankful and grateful without being happy. Therefore, when you are thanking your greatest and best Friend, your Omnipotent Power for the gifts received, do so with all your soul, and let it be reflected in your face. The Power and what it does is beyond understanding. Do not try to understand it, but accept the accomplishment with thankfulness, happiness, and strengthened faith.

Caution

It is possible to want and obtain that which will make you miserable; that which will wreck the happiness of others; that which will cause sickness and death; that which will rob you of eternal life. You can have what you want, but you must take all that goes with it: so in planning your wants, plan that which you are sure will give to you and your fellow man the greatest good here on earth; thus paving the way to that future hope beyond the pale of human understanding.

This method of securing what you want applies to everything you are capable of desiring and the scope being so great it is suggested that your first list consist only of those things with which you are quite familiar, such as an amount of money or accomplishment, or the possession of material things. Such desires as these are more easily and quickly obtained than the discontinuance of fixed habits, the welfare of others, and the healing of mental or bodily ills.

Accomplish the lesser things first. Then take the next step, and when that is accomplished, you will seek the higher and really important objectives in life, but long before you reach this stage of your progress, many worthwhile desires will find their place on your list. One will be to help others as you have been helped.

Great is the reward to those who help and give without thought of self, as it is impossible to be unselfish without gain.

In Conclusion

A short while ago, Dr. Emil Coué came to this country and showed thousands of people how to help themselves with positive affirmations of what they assume. Thousands of others spoofed at the idea, refused his assistance and are today where they were before his visit.

So with the statements and plan presented to you now. You can reject or accept. You can remain as you are or have anything you want. The choice is yours, but God grant that you may find in this short volume the inspiration to choose aright, follow the plan and thereby obtain, as so many others have, all things, whatever they may be, that you desire.

Read the entire book over again, and fagain, AND THEN AGAIN.

Memorize the Three Positive Rules of Accomplishment.

Test them now on what you want most this minute.

This book could have extended easily over 350 pages, but it has been deliberately shortened to make it as easy as possible for you to read, understand and use. Will you try it? Thousands of bettered lives will testify to the fact that It Works.

Note to Tom T. Regarding I Remember When

Note to Tom T. Regarding Imagining:

You asked whether to write and read your It Works list as ‘to be’ or ‘I am’ statements. ‘To be’ implies to your subconscious mind that you believe you are not, but to be is useful in determining what you want to be.

‘I am’ as a thought, though, is a little harder to pin down. A good way to approach it is to use the “I remember when” technique Neville lectured on. If what you desire was true, IS true to you, you would remember this present state FROM that state. So you so encase yourself in your desired state that you remember the present as a distant recollection. Automatically, you must be in an I am frame of mind, feeling and experiencing that state as true, real, and present. If you can imagine that reality so clearly that you remember the present as past as you fall asleep, so much the better.

Caveat: Neville sometimes entered states so fully he was threatened with being stuck there. He was able to remember that the way he got there was also the way back, but on occasion he had to revive his as-dead physical body by shear determination. This is one reason the mystics have hesitated for centuries to promulgate this stuff — the world isn’t ready to fantasize themselves into states without guidance. And apparently they didn’t want the encumbrance of guiding. That was the church’s job, and they haven’t recognized it. Uh, we. Oh, ****.

I Believe in a Mean Jesus, Too

Continued from “I Believe in a Mean Jesus.”

A mean Jesus is, I believe, anyone who awakens to the knowledge that he or she is the Ineffable Most High. This person becomes so absorbed in the anointing of the Ineffable’s consciousness that he or she manifestly expresses the PRINCIPLES of Its nature; i.e., they become Jesus Christ. The principles of the Ineffable are not manifest of themselves but are manifest by those who grasp them. And those who grasp and manifest them are adopted, as it were, by the Ineffable: “This day I have begotten you.”

So it is with the psychological attributes of those so anointed by the Holy Spirit. These attributes are states the anointed enter and exhibit. Translate the names (natures) of the disciples of Jesus and, O my—there they are. The states are eternal and remain as Apostles, available to whomever so anointed would enter them, grasping that they are the Ineffable and becoming so absorbed in Its anointing that they expressly manifest the Principles of Its nature—love, compassion, care, charity, etc.—toward the fulfillment of Its destined end.

I hope you will be, as I hope to be, mean in this way, too.

By the way, the Season of Grace between the destructions of the first and second temples in Jerusalem, which Season culminated in the appearance of the Anointing Manifest among those persons seeking God (those persons = the Messiah?), was a sign indicating not that that time was special and/or exclusive, but that that atmosphere of acceptance and cultivation is ALWAYS AVAILABLE AND OPEN TO US.

And when the Bible speaks of the Man of the Principle, “Let all the angels adore Him,” I believe it is speaking of the Ineffable of Whom the Principles are manifest in the anointed.

Mental Movement Mechanics in the Rapture

Neville Goddard experienced transition of consciousness from concrete state of reality to concrete state of reality. He experienced this sort of transition unnumbered times. Here are three lectures from different sources where he mentions what happened when he once was lying down on his bed and found himself standing in another room without having left the bed: Imagining Creates Reality, Test Him and See, The Bible—Your Biography.

Sorry to make you scroll.

I wonder if this mental, spiritual mechanism, this movement from one experience of state to another experience of state, is what the Bible refers to as the 'rapture'—the catching away:


"I am telling you, in that night, two will be in one bed. One is raised and the other forsaken. And two [women] were grinding together, one was fetched and the other abandoned. Two were in the field, one was taken and the other left."
They replied and told him, "Wither, our Lord?
He told them, "Where the body is, there the eagles gather.” Luke 17:34-37 Alexander.

“Then the symbol of the Son of Man will be seen in heaven, then all the generations of the earth shall writhe and will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, together with great Power and Glory. And he will send his angels with a great trumpet call and they will gather his chosen from the four spirits, from the heads of heaven until their heads*" Matthew 24:30-31 Alexander .

*24:31 Lit. Ar. idiomatic construction retained: "[Of the chosen,] from the highest one in heaven to the highest one above them." (From imagination in the skull heaven to imagination in the new state--Steele.)

“For us, however, our deeds are in heaven, and from there we hold fast to that resurrection in our Lord Jesus Christ, Who transformed His body to put us at ease (to soften us), so we may become in the likeness of His glorified body, according to His Supreme power, through Whom everyone is in submission.” Philippians 3:20-21 Alexander.

”Behold, I will tell you a sermon. Even though we all repose, however, we are all transformed. Suddenly, in a blink of an eye, as the last horn is sounding and the dead arise without the throes of pain, we shall become transformed. For it was destined that here he should suffer the throes [of death,] so as to take on [the attire of] the unvanquishable. And that here he should die, so as to take on [the robes of] the immortal. However, when here he took on [the appearance of] the perishable, it was not defeat, and when he died, it was not extinction; therefore, he fulfilled the Manifestation that was written [of in Scriptures,] that he swallowed Death in victory.” 1 Corinthians 15:51-54 Alexander.

”Because our Lord by His command and through the voice of the archangel* and by the trumpet* of God that descends from heaven, [shall command that] those who died in Christ to rise beforehand. And then those of us who are living at that time, shall be raptured together with them and be lifted in the clouds as one body and we shall preside with our Lord in the air. And we shall be thus with our Lord in every season. Be like this then, uplifting each other's heart by such words.” 1Thessalonians 4:16-18 Alexander.


'Rapture' is in Alexander's Aramaic, if not the KJV. But note Neville's body, as far as he knew, was dead on the bed. "They will find me dead in the morning." "Where the body is, there the eagles gather.” But he wouldn't be there: Neville was in some hotel or other building in another life--a consciousness as fully concrete and real as his experience on the bed. So when we are raptured and taken, the body just lies there. "Look. Jim just died." No, Jim's consciousness is just somewhere else. Walking down the street, gazing out the window on the train, cruising on the freeway, flipping burgers--all of a sudden all these people do not vanish, they appear to die. They had had once to die, and all these lives in that death are over. The Judgment has come and the Big Guy has said, "Let's try this level," and we (hopefully) find ourselves in another concrete consciousness and existence in a heaven--a skull.

I think this happens individually. A running end. It could be corporate--sounds like it--but I don't think there is a wall, a point at which it is ALL over. But then again, Stephen Hawking doesn't think mankind can survive another thousand years on this earth, let alone another 600 or so. And he says he is being optimistic. Perhaps the wall cometh.

LB Makes a Really Good Comment on My January, 2014, Post: “Neville Goddard's Mistake in saying, "’Only Two Things Displease God.’”

It was too good and clarifying to leave hidden in a 2014 comments section in fine print. LB clearly states what Neville was saying, correcting me and possibly many others. It is what Neville wants said: “So let it be written. So let it be done!” So here is LB’s comment (with slight correction in capitalization and punctuation for readability) from my 1/16/14 post, “Neville Goddard's Mistake in saying, ‘Only Two Things Displease God.’ There is only one” (http://imagicworldview.blogspot.com/2014/01/neville-goddards-mistake-only-two.html):


I was not trying to convince you of anything...I was telling you who you are. This is and was and has been the plan all along, the fall of man into flesh eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil ...God laid down inside of man in order to go through the furnaces of life by his own error. You are hung up on semantics with what Neville said about the two things that displease God; you are taking it way too literally to extract what he is really saying. He was not making a definitive scriptural quote; he was, by saying these two things displease God, referring to the awakening man who then has to intentionally make the choice to eating from the tree of life again, believing he is God, walking in love, moving away from judging unrighteously—thus creating a love life. If we go to Paul’s description of God, it is love period. So in this way Neville meant that the awakening man must please his godself by becoming love again..thus expanding in love, which is the whole entire purpose for the whole thing. The whole reason God laid down in man in the first place was to expand in love. Don’t get so caught up in semantics as much as trying to extract the meaning. Neville doesn't read like the bible, you have to take his work in as a whole and get the essence of what he shares to understand him. Peace, brother. xo LB


I hope my capitalization and punctuation changes did not alter any meaning LB had. You can see the original comment at the link above. Thanks for reading.

Zechariah 4: What or Who is the Little Stone?

In Zechariah 4 it says that there is a little stone on top of the gold menorah. I know of no other text but the Ancient Aramaic and Victor Alexander’s translation of it where it says little stone instead of a cup or a bowl.

Neville Goddard taught that a stone is a fact. You “stone” a person who is in error with FACTS. So here on top of the menorah of gold, between the two sons of anointing, is a little FACT. What fact do you think it is?


Zechariah 4

1. Then* the angel who spoke through me returned and brought me to, like a man who has awakened from a [deep] sleep.
2. And he said to me, "What did you see?" And I said, "I saw a menorah of gold and a little stone on top of her, with seven candles* upon it and seven [of] seven mouths* to the candles that are in it.
3. "And there were two olive [branches] upon her, one from the right of the little rock and one from its left."
4. And I replied and said to the angel who spoke through me, "What are these, my lord?"
5. The angel spoke through me and said to me, "Do you not know what they are?" And I said, "I do not know, my lord."
6. And he said to me, "These oracles of the Lord regarding Zerubabel are not by power nor by might, except they are [according] to my spirit, said the Almighty Lord.
7. "What are you, a great mountain before Zerubabel? Except a valley, and to bring forth the corner* stone of providence and mercy."*

8. And the manifestation of the Lord was upon me to say,
9. "The hands of Zerubabel have consecrated the foundations of the house here and his hands have obeyed Him, so as you may know that it is the Almighty Lord who has sent me to you."
10. For those who denigrate the small days* shall gaze and see the Stone of Selection* in the hands of Zerubabel -- these are the seven eyes of the Lord that gaze upon all the earth.

11. I replied and said to him, "And what are these two olive [branches] from the right of the Little Stone and from its left?"
12. I replied a second season* and said to him, "And what are these two olive seedlings that are between the two nostrils* of gold from which they draw* the gold?"
13. And he said to me, "Do you not know what they are?" And I said to him, "No, my lord."
14. And he said to me, "These are the two sons of anointing that stand before the Lord of all the earth."

*4:1 Lit. Ar. id.: "And."
*4:2.1 Lit. Ar. id.: "Lamps," or "lights."
*4:2.2 Lit. Ar. idiom retained: "Flames."
*4:7.1 Lit. Ar. id.: "Healing," "crowning," "topping," or "excellence."
*4:7.2 NB! Reference to the Coming of the Messiah Eashoa and the role He will play in establishing the Church.
*4:10.1 Lit. Ar. idiomatic construction: "Without those."
*4:10.2 Lit. Ar. id.: Or: "Stone of Division."
*4:12.1 Lit. Ar. id.: Or: "Second time."
*4:12.2 Lit. Ar. id.: "Noses."
*4:12.3 Lit. Ar. id.: "Cut."


I should mention that Vic’s Old Testament Scriptures includes only the books he has translated. I said in a review of his New Testament translations that the text is not as polished as you might get from a big, well funded institution. It is more like you were taking a tour through an ancient ruin and stumbled upon a sealed box that had been hidden by Paul himself. Carefully opening the box to see what is inside, you find ancient texts in an odd form of writing. “This is ancient Aramaic,” the bus driver informs you. “It was the original language of the scriptures. Aramaic is my mother tongue. I was taught how to read the ancient form of it by my priests in the Church of the East. This is what it says,” and he begins to read the ancient scriptures to you as he might read the newspaper. It is a little rough, a little unpolished, a bit ungrammatical (not a problem Vic has), but you for the first time in your life hear the bible as the ancients meant it. Words and turns of phrasing no polished, institutional translation has ever given you.

“Wait. What did that mean? Why doesn’t my bible say anything like that? How did my translation get here from that?” you ask incredulously. And you might find that everything you thought you knew about the scriptures is wrong. I hope not, and yet I hope you do.

Rewrite and Edit Dr. Joseph Murphy‘s Book, “The Power of Your Subconscious Mind” Yourself

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind is one of the greatest books of mind-science literature, and I think mind-numbingly verbose and obfuscated. He says almost everything there is on subject, but uses almost all the words there are to say it. Can’t you do better? I invite you to download copy of Dr. Murphy’s classic and edit it in your word processor. Cut out the unnecessary, keep, reorder, and clarify the salient. Cut to the chase. You can do the same with a paper copy, a pencil or pen, and highlighters. I have marked the heck out of mine. Some of the best education you will ever get. Here is a bit of my attempt:

• Releasing the miracle-working power

A personal healing will ever be the most convincing evidence of that which is our “subconscious powers,” the Divine, Infinite Healing Presence. This Healing Presence is our subconscious mind. Over forty-two years ago I resolved a malignancy—in medical terminology it was called a sarcoma—by using the healing power of my subconscious mind, which created me and still maintains and governs all my vital functions. The technique I applied is elaborated on in this book, and I feel sure that it will help others to trust the same Infinite Healing Presence, which is lodged in the subconscious depths of ALL men. Through the kindly offices of my doctor friend, I suddenly realized that it was natural to assume that the Infinite Healing Presence, the Creative Intelligence/subconscious mind which made all my organs, fashioned my body, and started my heart, could heal its own handiwork. The ancient proverb says, “The doctor dresses the wound and God heals it.”

• Wonders happen when you pray effectively

Scientific prayer is the harmonious interaction of the conscious and subconscious levels of mind scientifically directed for a specific purpose. Do you know how to pray effectively? People who are in trouble have difficulty in thinking and acting reasonably. They need an easy formula to follow, an obviously workable pattern that is simple, specific, and effective. It is not the thing believed in that brings an answer to man’s prayer; the answer to prayer results when the individual’s subconscious mind responds to the mental picture or thought in his mind, the belief and intent of his heart. This law of belief is operating in all religions of the world and is the reason why they are psychologically true. The Buddhist, the Christian, the Moslem, and the Hebrew all may get answers to their prayers, not because of the particular creed, religion, affiliation, ritual, ceremony, formula, liturgy, incantation, sacrifices, or offerings, but solely because of belief—the mental acceptance and receptivity about that for which they pray. The law of life is the law of belief, and belief could be summed up briefly as a thought in your mind. As a man (or woman) thinks, feels, and believes, so is the condition of his mind, body, and circumstances. A technique, a methodology based on an understanding of what you are doing and why you are doing it will help you to bring about a subconscious embodiment of all the good things of life (Jethro). Essentially, answered prayer is the realization of your heart’s desire. Its desire is your prayer.

• There Is One Mind Common to All Individual Men: The ORIGINAL Mind

The miracle-working powers of your subconscious mind existed before you and I were born, before any church or even the world existed. The great eternal truths and principles of life antedate all religions. I urge you to lay hold of this wonderful, magical, transforming power, which will bind up mental and physical wounds, proclaim liberty to the fear-ridden mind, and liberate you completely from the limitations of poverty, failure, misery, lack, and frustration. All you have to do is unite mentally and emotionally with the good you wish to embody, and the creative powers of your subconscious mind, the Infinite Healing Presence, will respond accordingly. Begin now, today, let wonders happen in your life! Keep on, keeping on until the day breaks and the shadows flee away.

The World is an Assumption, and Jesus Christ is the Ineffable

The Ineffable by Its Imagination appears to us as people and everything in our world. The Ineffable Most High ASSUMES the world to exist . . . and ASSUMES Itself to live in it. The PRINCIPLE of Its existence as the world, Its progression from the chaos of its beginning in ignorance to the glorious Manifestation of Its perfection at its end, is Jesus Christ. He, the Ineffable appearing to us as this principle of Its own nature, is our Lord and Savior—the Ineffable Itself. There is no other name or nature given under heaven by which we must be saved. When you say, “Jesus,” think the Ineffable—Eil, the Shaddai. Jesus is the nature of the Ineffable within us.

The Ineffable assumes to live in us and as us, and our imagination is Its. We ignorantly think it is ours, that we are somehow separate. What we truly assume truly becomes, because what It assumes truly is. I.e., our imagination really is the Ineffable's. As bad as ours are, the Principle that is Jesus Christ draws us to the destined end. To good.

I have had the great pleasure in the last few weeks to watch the movies “A Christmas Carol” and “Scrooge,” the 1935, 1938, 1951, and 1984 versions, almost every night. When Hicks (1935) approaches the Christmas tree in his nephew Fred’s living room and hears Tiny Tim’s voice singing, “Hark! The herald angels sing, ‘Glory to the newborn King,’”—I have to tear up. There is one true Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior: the Ineffable Most High Himself. He is newly begotten in us and assuming to get the full manifestation of Himself through us. In His mind, it is GOTTEN. All we have to do is wake up to the fact.

God Appears as People

The Ineffable appears to us as people: Elijah, Moses, David, Jesus, etc., even the Devil, demons, angels, us, and as these states we are in. They, we, everything is Its appearance. When one sees Jesus in a vision or Elijah explains something to a mystic, it is the Ineffable, I believe, using forms which have meaning to us. The demon I saw in meditation and the Jesus who opened my eyes to see it for what it was were both the Big Guy communicating to me. EVERYTHING is His communication to us. If only we would listen.

Neville Truncated

It has bothered me for some time that Neville's technique seems truncated. Napoleon Hill in the Law of Success deals with titans of industry and finance: "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve." Neville seems to cut that down to "with no effort."

Someone else will make effort. Or die and leave you something. Reach out to contact you. Give you a gift. Or you will win at the races. You imagine causatively and believe . . . and forget it. You don't do a thing to achieve it except believe and wait. You need a house? Someone will offer to build it for you. You need a job? Someone will offer you one. Get you one.

I am not saying any of this is bad, or that it doesn't work, or that it isn't desirable. I am just noting that it is shortened, an abbreviated life. There is also causative imagining with effort which can accomplish great things. Like maybe creating the things you enjoy. Perhaps Neville was satisfied with his humble rental. Apparently. Nothing wrong with that. In fact I like it and am also satisfied with a simple, comfortable life. Contrite and content. I just wish my teeth were better than his. And also wish to say that applying effort to accomplish the big things you imagine is all right, too.

I Believe in a Mean Jesus

By mean I do not mean a grumpy guy who kicks at puppies. A mean is midpoint between any two extremes. One extreme is a Jesus who is, uniquely and alone, God the Son incarnate. The other extreme is a fantasized Jesus who was never human at all. I propose that the author of the Gospel of Mark had in mind a man or men who were perfect examples of an anointing, the manifestion of the PRINCIPLE that is Jesus Christ. On the one hand, we have the very real principle of the Ineffable's NATURE to become manifest in all Its goodness and glory, which cannot become an individual man; and on the other hand we have men enjoying the manifestation of the Ineffable's nature in their lives which is through, and cannot exist apart, from that anointing.

It is apparent that Mark had in mind Gautama Buddha as his prime example (see the Christian Lindtner Theory CLT). As a Therapeut (Pali "son of the elder'), Mark might also have had himself in mind as an example (remember, what he was writing about was (and is) all psychological; it wasn't about any people except as they served as symbols of what he wrote about). The principle that is Jesus Christ has been know for eons (that may be an exaggeration, but see Freke and Gandy The Jesus Mysteries). Moses was searching for Jethro, God’s Life of Abundance. I suspect that Mark, having learned the true meaning of the Jewish Scriptures from mystics at Alexandria, encountered spiritually anointed Jews near the end of the Season of Grace (Israel between the destructions) who were butting heads with the non-spiritual leadership of the Jews. I do not doubt that there was a man or men who were so absorbed in the Anointing that they presented every bit of the Jesus Christ we have in the New Testament. Yes, Mark presented Buddha as his primary example of the principle, but these men were his proof.

So what we have is a mean Jesus: not a unique other incarnate, nor a hypothesis. We have real people manifesting the real principle of that is Jesus Christ exemplarily AS THE GIFT OF GOD TO US IN THE SEASON OF GRACE. And his message to us in it is: "'Tis the Season!"

Have a merry Christmas.


Continued in “I Believe in a Mean Jesus, Too.”

Still Another Interpretation of Exodus 3:14: "My abundance comes by imagination"

'Moses' means "a son born." That is you if you have a germ of the Gospel in you. You are then learning and searching. And what you want to know is how to have a good life: how to please God, do his will, fulfill his purpose for your life, and how to be a blessing to others; i.e., how to live in abundance, in the "jutting over" of God's riches.

Hebrew has a word for that, for "His excellence": Jethro. Strong's Concordance Hebrew Dictionary #3503. It is from #3498, yathar, to jut over or exceed. Our anonymous Moses was interested in God's excellence, Jethro, and meditated upon the idea (hence flocks for sacrifice). He saw not the Egyptian gods but Ashur, Chief God of the Assyrians. And God spoke up: "Moses." Son! I paraphrase: "Let's get real. I have been seeking you, and I see how messed up religion is making you. I am here to set you straight and to bless your life. I want you to clear up your mind."

"How can I clear up my mind?"

"Leave that stuff and be real here with me."

"Well, what are you?"

According to Victor Alexander's version of the ancient Aramaic text, God said his nature is "Ahiyeh Ashur hiyeh." Ahiyeh = I come; Ashur = imagination (the spark that kindles the fire); hiyeh = his coming (Jethro = God's abundance). 'I come' and 'imagination' are one unit, and 'God's abundance' is the subject being discussed. Hence, I interpret this as: "My abundance comes by imagination. Just know that the eternal Becoming One has also become you."

Please note that this is the beginning and basis of the whole Bible, that God’s abundance comes by imagination!!

There Ever Was No-thing

No-thing became conscious. It wasn't overnight.
Although Consciousness (what we call Imagination) was No-thing, it was not quite like No-thing. Can you see the difference?
No-thing embarked upon making Consciousness like Itself. Consciousness became as No-thing before It (No-thing) became conscious.
THAT was the Crucifixion, Genesis 1:1 ‘Barsheeth,’ before that the world was. 'Bar' means son, the Son of No-thing. ‘Barsheeth’ means "Before the beginning, the Son of No-thing . . . "
The Crucifixion is that He, Imagination—the Son, created (imagined) God, the Heavens, and the Earth. I.e., He became their being in the process of becoming the Manifestation. Him here is the Crucifixion, the Consciousness of No-thing manifesting in our ignorance.
Destined is the Creation, the End-state imagined at the beginning of the Book of Genesis as good—beautiful like God—and manifest at the end of the Book of Revelation. The guiding Principle to this end is YHWH, “Jehovah,” otherwise known as Jesus Christ. The Principle cannot manifest as an individual man, but an individual man can manifest the Principle as he or she BELIEVES. Many have. I hope to. I hope you will, too.

Wishing you a merry, blessed Christmas,
Dan Steele

Now Let Us Go Into The Silence

Sometimes things so supernaturally click together coincidentally that you know that you are being taught something by God. I was looking at books and messages 24, 40, and over 91 years old that all came together on a certain day to tell me, "Now let us go into the Silence."

That phrase is associated with Unity, a nondualistic branch of Christianity with which Neville Goddard was associated. In all the hundreds of times I read or heard those words from Neville's lectures, I never really knew what he was talking about.

And like happened to Neville, I find myself at a point where I need to get rid of some hundreds of books I have accumulated over the years. I have my son posting some of the bigger lexicons and sets on Ebay, and in culling through the boxes for easy sells I stumbled upon Benny Hinn's The Anointing. I had never read it after inheriting it from my mother. I didn't remember why I had written Hinn off my list of actual Christians, so I opened the book to see whether I should sell it or trash it.

Providentially, the book opened to page 51, The Blessing of Silence. The Elijah in Hinn's early life was Kathryn Kuhlman, and he shares how he learned from her to enter silence. By silence she and he mean SHUT UP: for "He comes in when you're quiet." Okay, back to the shelf for the time being.

What had I rejected Hinn for? Arrogance? Greed? Whacko theology? Well, I knew he must be on YouTube.com, so I searched "Bennie Hinn" on YouTube (like I said, I hadn't thought of him for a long time). The first suggestion to come up was "Benny Hinn - 'Practices for Waiting on the Lord.'" That is when I said, "Oh. This is a roll," a collection of related teachings God is going to roll through my life to teach me something he wants me to learn. Never underestimate God's ability to teach one-on-one. The Holy Spirit is an excellent personal teacher.

Hinn says much the same half way through Practicing the Presence of the Lord, which see. Forty years later he is still teaching what he learned from Kathryn Kuhlman in the 1970’s. This is good. I couldn't stand her, but I loved Kuhlman. I so wanted her to be normal. Thank God she wasn't.

Well, what is this other book I see among the hundreds? A small, half-inch thick tract of lectures given by Evelyn Underhill to Anglican priests in the 1920's. I did not read much of it ten or fifteen years ago when I found it in a used bookstore and bought it because it was, after all, Underhill. I do not know what of it its previous owner read, but the book opened for me to pages 70-71:

"The obstinate pursuit of a special state of meditation or recollection always defeats itself: bringing into operation the law of reverse effort, and concentrating attention on the struggle to meditate instead of on its supernatural end. Yet it is not uncommon to find people forcing themselves from a mistaken sense of duty to develop or continue a devotional method which was never appropriate to their nature, or which they have now outgrown. THEY DELIBERATELY THWART A GENUINE THOUGH AS YET UNFORMED ATTRACTION TO SILENT COMMUNION BY STRUGGLING HARD TO PERFORM A DAILY FORMAL MEDITATION, BECAUSE THEY HAVE MADE THIS A PART OF THEIR RULE OF LIFE; OR DESPERATELY GET THROUGH A ROUTINE OF INTERCESSIONS  AND HAVE VOCAL PRAYERS TO WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN INJUDICIOUSLY BOUND, AND WHICH NOW LIMIT THE FREEDOM OF THEIR ACCESS TO GOD (emphases mine). On the other hand, persons whose natural expression is verbal, and who need the support of concrete image, make violent efforts to 'go into the silence' because some wretched little book told them so to do. True silent prayer is full of power and beauty; but I suppose few things are more stultifying in effect than this deliberate and artificial passivity. It is not by such devices that we feed the soul; their only result must be spiritual indigestion. Once more, everyone is not nourished by the same sort of food, or invited by God to the same kind of spiritual activity: the rightful variety of Nature is paralleled in the supernatural life. The important thing is to discover what nourishes you, best expands and harmonizes your spirit, now, at the present stage of your growth."

Yes, all that was one paragraph pages 70-72, which was why I didn't read much of the book.

Hmm. "He comes in when you're quiet." I happened to be silent in a meditation when a demon tried to pass itself off as Jesus, the ascended master, and God opened my eyes to its real nature. I was silently dumbstruck when I was rejected by God and again when subsequently baptized in the Holy Spirit. I was silent in meditation when Jesus said, "Come unto Me," audibly. Silent when I was healed, when my arm grew out, in the shower when he leads my thoughts. I read a bit more of The Anointing and watched a bit more of YouTube. What he taught about submission, that it is not us but God, was and is right on. Why reject him?

It was one of those weird shower insights God gives me that night. Naaman. Naaman was an Syrian leper in Kings chapter 5. He expected Elisha to come out and wave his arms and hocus-pocus him to health. Elisha just said to him through a messenger, "Go wash in the Jordan seven times." Naaman was pissed Elisha didn't even come out to see him and went off in a huff. His servants advised him: "Why not just do it?" I pictured Naaman dipping himself silently seven times in the Jordan, and his flesh became like that of a little child--clean. Naaman was happy, and he offered great riches to reward and honor Elisha, which Elisha adamantly refused. Now, if you understand the scriptures at all, you know that Elijah, Naaman, washing, Elisha, and Elisha's servant Gehazi are all states of consciousness we can fall into and pass through in our lives. They aren't those people; they are us as we travel through states. Kuhlman is Elijah to an evangelist, and he plays Elisha in following her, but he has the state of Gehazi in his consciousness also: unbridled greed, and it has made him as a leper like Naaman. At least in my opinion. No offense.

So what is it to go into the Silence? It is to SHUT UP. Be quiet, still. To "wait upon the Lord" is to WAIT. Wait wait. When God rejected me and I elected to search out why, it wasn't but a moment and he was showing me. When I silently considered what Jesus had done for me, it wasn't but a moment and he was showing me. Jesus was being crucified before my inner eyes and turned his face toward me, it wasn't in more than a moment of silence that he said, "Come unto Me." It isn't a matter of time, though it may take some. I guess it is a matter of searching without getting in the way, like when you enter a classroom eager to learn and are excitedly anticipating whatever it is that is going to be said. You say, "Here," and shut up, ears open.

The Mechanic and Mark’s Gospel: It’s a Therapeutae Theology Thing

Having as a Christian Pentecostal learned at least a little bit of the Jewish mystical-esoteric interpretation of the Bible and something of its ancient sources, I have to consider the possibility that the Christian Lindtner Theory is correct, that the author of the Book of Mark was an Indian Buddhist missionary to the Palestine area who interpreted and translated Sanskrit Buddhist texts in light of the Gospel According to Moses, and that his 'Jesus' was modeled upon the person of Gautama--Buddha.

Of course, anyone who has believed on Jesus, who has been saved and filled with the Holy Spirit is going to believe the Gospel just as it is written: Another Gospel? No thank you. It does not occur to that person that Moses' Gospel was said on this level, with Buddha as an example, so that the Jews could understand it. It worked really great late in the Season of Grace (from the destruction of the first temple in Jerusalem to the destruction of the second) and the Anointing appeared among the believing Jews. That was because regardless of the model, the mechanism works. The mechanism working is evidence of the reality believed upon BEHIND the model.

Unfortunately, the model--whichever model is used--causes confusion because people associate it with the evidence bearing mechanics. By 'mechanics' I mean such as the mechanics of physics: the mechanics of the forces of nature; the apple falls because of the mechanics of gravity. Newton supposedly read between the lines and saw gravity behind the falling. Mark came to see God behind Buddha, and that we are bright, shiny apples.

Most people do not know that God has been working on our consciousness for many ages, that Christ was known about from at least the time of Moses. Gautama certainly knew about the Christ nature as the principle of God's manifestation, and the ancient Gnostics understood this knowledge. Few Westerners know that Emperor Ashoka of India set up institutions to evangelize the world for Buddhism, nor that Greek Egyptian mystics and philosophers had an enclave near Alexandria, Egypt, which had healers among them called Therapeutae, "Sons of the Elder" in the Indian Pali language. No one knows who the Elder was: Ashoka, Gautama, or the Noah of Biblical fame, the original Buddha.

I consider the original 1st century Christianity to be refined Buddhist Judaism. Mark came initially preaching Buddhism, but found Buddha in 600 BC to be but an expression of the mechanism Moses wrote about still 600 years earlier. "Oh," he thinks, "It is not Buddha but the mechanism, the Source of the mechanism, doing these things. The question is: Are there such mechanics as causative imagining, prayer, and manifestation, in reality? Because if there are . . .

I am not trying to corrupt your Christian or Jewish faith. I am trying to correct it, to enlarge it to include the wider view of what was happening two and three thousand years ago. Mark learned much in the years of his trip from India, through Persia, Syria, and Israel, down to the enclave at Alexandria. Probably, he was there as a Therapeut with the Jewish and Gnostic mystics, and he learned the deep meanings of the Jewish Scriptures from them. Why didn't the Jews understand them? he might have asked himself. Moses was talking about imagination and the goodness of God, and they were talking about political parties and war. But some had withdrawn to make their paths smooth for God.

That many were getting right in the Season of Grace was perfect for Mark's reconciliation of Gautama's teaching with the Gospel of Moses, a refined Buddhism. So from Egypt came God's Son, the PRINCIPLE of His manifestation talking to the numb CONSCIOUSNESS that is supposed to be doing it: "Wake up!" What do you do with a sleeping limb? You shake it and tell it to wake up, maybe rub it until it comes back to life. Why should Mark's illustration be any different?

"If man would only look upon the world as a world of appearance, behind which the reality of imagining lay, he would find the truth" (Neville, "Feel After Him). And the truth Mark found was a hungry God, a God hungry for the manifestation of Its love.

Excuse me while I ramble :
A troubling thing for western minds is the Buddhist doctrine that there is no God, only ourselves, which is really weird in that they've got Buddha as an invisible spirit answering prayers on this side of Nirvana. May I propose that Gautama meant that there is no OTHER God but the Ineffable who is manifesting in, as, and through us and everything else. This world experience is the facilitation of manifestation, and the inner man's experience is the real deal of God's manifestation.

The point of the Therapeutae and Moses was that we are God and the Law is ours. We are the Spirit, but we are asleep as Adam in our dream (he never was wakened in the story, you know). The disciples are our sleeping minds. We need to get on with the progression to a wakeful state by the PRACTICE of humility and imagination.

While Mark may have presented Buddha as Jesus Christ, he knew there was no man who had become God or a god -- there is only the Ineffable and Its nature. Those who wake up and believe become as He, because they are Him. So what to do? Wake up, believe, and imagine lovingly within the Golden rule. I wonder if we oughtn't have imagination practice clubs or something like that.

Some of the many books which have informed my view :

Garnier, J. 1909. The Worship of the Dead, or the Origin and Nature of Pagan Idolatry and Its Bearing Upon the Early History of Egypt and Babylonia. London: Chapman and Hall (but please buy a reprint by Kessinger Publishing on Amazon).

Massey, Gerald. 1907. Ancient Egypt: the Light of the World. London: T. Fisher Unwin.

David A. Cooper. 1997. God is a Verb: Kabbalah and the Practice of Mystical Judaism. New York: Riverhead Books.

Thompson, Thomas L. 1999. The Mythic Past: Biblical Archaeology and the Myth of Israel. New York: Basic Books.

Freke, Timothy, and Gandy, Peter. 1999. The Jesus Mysteries: Was the Original Jesus a Pagan God? New York; Three Rivers Press.

Freke, Timothy, and Gandy, Peter. 2001. Jesus and the Lost Goddess: the Secret Teachings of the Original Christians. New York; Three Rivers Press.

Douglas-Klotz, Neil. 1999. The Hidden Gospel: Decoding the Spiritual Message of the Aramaic Jesus. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books.

Rehnborg, C. F. 1955. Jesus and the New Age of Faith. Buena Park, CA: C. F. Rehnborg Literary Foundation.

Of course, everything by Neville Goddard, all of which can be found for free on the World Wide Web.

Exodus and Genesis, especially, translated from the Ancient Aramaic by Victor N. Alexander (v-a.com/bible/), (http://v-a.com/bible/supporters). Vic cannot translate if we do not buy his translations. I find jewels of insights in all his works, things that put me right on my knees. Even if he disagrees with my theology, he has THE translation that supports mine! In my opinion, purchasing the books is worth every penny. I noticed that searching v-a.com/bible on Bing brought up all his New Testament translations and audio work. Please check him out.

On Neville Goddard's Technique

Abdullah taught Neville a technique of faith.

Faith is a special form of expectation: not coming, but came. Because of ASSUMPTION that the Ineffable HAS PROVIDED every good thing; therefore the desired state EXISTS. This is just early THANKS.

BASICALLY, it is prayer: to transport/teleport ones self in imagination into another state of consciousness, to experience that state as true and to BELIEVE that state is true unto sleep.

That state's virgin mother is the imagination's desire experienced and believed. We are the Father.

Honor your father and your mother.

Overlooked in Gregg Braden's video on How to Pray Effectively is his friend's saying/recognizing, "All of my ancestors, all of my ancestors," and honoring the four directions. Check out 4:10 to 4:30. This expression is eliminated in a subsequent clip.

My take on “All of my ancestors”: this is the universe’s field of consciousness, the Ineffable, Its Imagination, and the eternal Principle behind it: the manifestation of good and better, more of the Ineffable.

Have the right state of mind: the Kingdom of God has to do with attitudes. Have consideration, love; do everything in love and kindness, and let love emanate from your heart.

Ineffable Improvement is Ours to "Shine"

There is nothing but the Ineffable, the incomprehensible Most High. The Imagination of the Ineffable, which is manifest as both God and man, is not an entity independent of the Ineffable which the Ineffable just happens to use; it is the Ineffable. Nothing is next to the Source. There is no “other.” Only the Ineffable actually exists; our part is also Him. Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are not a second parties; they are the Ineffable. There is nothing no way, shape, or form but the Ineffable. And It is good.

Did I say there is nothing but the Ineffable? There is nothing but the Ineffable, the ineffable Source of all things, all of which are ultimately Its consciousness). I probably should stop here and let you think about it. I hope you will. But I want to remind you the opportunity this life is: to be It -- to manifest this PRINCIPLE.

I have been blowing this opportunity like I did school. You may have read my story about encountering God in the baptism with the Holy Spirit. I wondered of the purpose God had for giving me life in the first place, and said, "You are Glorious God; I am a mud-man." It now occurs to me that being the Ineffable's mud-man means I am CHRIST! Christ is the PRINCIPLE that the Ineffable manifests Itself in goodness. And that manifestation is us.  That is why the Ineffable replied, "Remember this, and it is all right." Whatever I do as Christ--remembering this principle that the Ineffable's manifestation is toward improvement--is "all right." I was simply accepted; being Christ, there was no need for forgiveness or punishment. I am manifesting the Ineffable's goodness as I am: I am the Ineffable's beacon. And so are you.
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Below is what I was working on that inspired me to write the note above. I wanted to respond to friends whom I found to be members of the True Jesus Church. Of course, all Christian churches (and a lot of cults) believe themselves to be the true Church of Jesus, but are they the church of the True Jesus? THAT is the question:


Forty-plus years of study and consideration DISPROVING the errors I am taught and have thought--a constant refining of vision--has brought me to a very different Jesus than the two-thousand year ago virgin-born human the church worships. The true Jesus is a feature in you and I.

I share a perspective with Neville Goddard and a great mass of others who greatly, deeply, and truly love, believe in, trust, and appreciate Jesus Christ, but believe that he has never been uniquely born apart from us, from everything. Believing HIM is salvation; the story about him, not so much. We totally buy into the "I AM THAT I AM" eternal self-existence of the unfathomable Source of all, the “Ineffable,” but not as being separate from ourselves. The one that God is includes us. This is Advaita Vedanta: doing right because there is no division between God and Man.

The Ineffable's Imagination is the part of It that ACTS. Creation is the Ineffable's action of imagining, Its motion TOWARD MANIFESTING ITSELF. Jesus Christ is the principle behind that action, its basic nature: that the Imagination of the Ineffable uniquely manifests the Ineffable, which is Good. The Imagination itself is the Manifestation of the Ineffable, and the Imagination is the Ineffable. So manifestation is a duplication process, and Jesus Christ is the principle behind that process. "He" is a quality of the Ineffable which is an overriding, guiding influence upon Its manifestation. Make no mistake about it: the hand (influence) of Jesus is the Ineffable, the Almighty Most High Itself. Jesus is not a secondary actor. As Gerald Massey put it, a principle can no more become a human than time can step out of a grandfather clock. But the principle of the process is that we are He, the Ineffable Itself, in the act of manifesting good in order to become Itself manifest. IT IS A RUNNING EVENT. The Ineffable is the becoming God, and so are we. There is no "other." There is no separation, no division between us. We are GP0–Ground Point Zero--of Its transition. KaBoom.

The True Jesus Christ is the principle that the Ineffable manifests. That, in my opinion, is what the name YHWH true means.

"I have come that they may have life (lit. lives) everlasting,*
and that they should have even more than this" (John 10: 10 Alexander).

The Principle pours it on. "Worthy is the Lamb."

You and I are never going to hear any better news than this: the Ineffable Itself is inside as us, and the true Jesus, the nature of the Almighty Most High, PROPELS AND COMPELS US to manifest Him. Jesus Christ, the Ineffable’s loving action to manifest Itself, draws us to become as He. No one is more eager for it than He. We imagine - pray - and it becomes--whatever we desire that is better. Jesus so doing is a sign to us that there is something there; Jesus is a lighthouse beacon. We realize (if we are not doltish LOA advocates) that there is in truth a powerful, loving God actively reaching out to us. The True Jesus indicates the great I AM THAT I AM we truly are! We respond to that love by becoming it.

The true Jesus Christ is YHWH, the action of the Ineffable—Its imagination. That is the power of creation, the power to become Manifest.

From before the beginning Imagination, the action of the Ineffable--Its Son, Jesus Christ--has endeavored to become the Ineffable’s own full and complete manifestation. It created and became us--individual consciousnesses acting in concert--to manifest Its love.

Do Not Blow The Opportunity: Shine the Ineffable

Are we blowing opportunity? Because no one ever sat me down and explained that school was an opportunity, I blew it. Unenlightened, uninformed, uninspired, and undirected, I did not apply myself to take advantage of it. What might have been? Are we blowing it again?

This is just such an opportunity: to be Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the PRINCIPLE -- Note: PRINCIPLE -- that the ineffable Most High improves. Every day, in every way, It gets better. That the ineffable Source changes at all is absolute heresy in the church, but it is the Gospel: constant change is the only thing that doesn't change. And the controlling PRINCIPLE of this change is Love: everything (in one way or another in the overall) for good, improvement, better, for the Ineffable is heading for the full and mature manifestation of Itself.

There is no Jesus Christ apart from the Ineffable manifesting Itself positively. “He” is the PRINCIPLE that the Ineffable's own existence manifests as goodness — YHWH, "Jehovah” — the Ineffable in covenant with us. This principle was Jethro, "His abundance," to Moses; and is Jesus, "I have come that they might have lives, and that they should have even more than this" (Alexander) to us. Jethro is constant improvement from chaos to order, from less to more, from illness to health. This is the Pattern Man Neville spoke of — the PRINCIPLE which has come to us: the Ineffable constantly manifests better. We are to present -- to manifest -- this principle by everything we think, say, and do.

There is no Past

I have suggested before that we heal the future by correcting the past. In all reality there is no past. 'Past' is a term used relative to our mental perspective.  We are constantly loading our future, creating a new future from what is now. 'Now' proceeds into the future, said Neville, to confront us there. Our future is loaded now with what we have believed, our reactions to what then was our present. I.e., our "past" is always with us as our present.

Sorry about the confusing tenses of our language.  We refer to the 'past,' but the past is a facet of the present which has loaded our present and future states and events unless we change it. It is simply a continuing effect--our present is already loaded with what is going to be.

There is no future, either.

That is what Moses' technique is about: "Ahiyeh Ashur hiyeh" (Exodus 3:14 Alexander): "Imagining (Ashur) changes (ahiyeh - my coming) the future (hiyeh - its coming)" INTO JETHRO (His blessings, which is what Moses was wondering about). I.e., "Imagination is how I become his blessings" (ahiyeh = how I become = imagination) (my interpretation). Maybe I should be using 'imagining' instead of 'imagination.' Nothing is fixed, determined, except God's overall intention.

This isn't rocket science, folks. This is simple theology. Moses wondered about the good life three and a half thousand years ago, and the answer is still the same: imagine it. The promise of God still stands: bless and do not curse, for God is one. It is all one big whole, and the God we are is the Master of the Universe!

The Master of the Universe! Who will delay His coming? Man (!), who does not imagine Him as one.

Doing bad or being indifferent to another is immature, evil. Doing good and blessing all is mature, God-like, right. The idea is that everyone would be thinking everything good for everyone. Not for everyone else, for there is no 'else' in God.

Okay, so how do I load the future with the things I desire?

What good can you think of? How far can you extend it? Expand your vision and feelings of wellness, and find some element of that feeling which indicates the whole. As you are drifting off to sleep at night, forgive and abandon this world and enter that specific experience in that world. Simply assume that your consciousness is your real, physical world. Keep experiencing that experience in that world in your mind until you fall asleep in it.

Following is Brad Jensen's Amazon.com review of R. H. Jarret's book It Works. Thank you, Larry, for the suggestion.

A person could do worse than to read several of the customer reviews for It Works at Amazon.com. The book, a pamphlet really, is not longer than this review. Two bucks for the Kindle ed., 89 cents for the mp3, or search for it online.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R27IELWGMYAOYK          

(original review: I had to correct some format-changed punctuation below)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJvcHzdoj5E&t=735s  

(audio and additional comments by Brad Jensen.)
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"It Works: The Famous Little Red Book That Makes Your Dreams Come True!"

How to put It Works to work for YOU! By Brad Jensen on April 29, 2006:

The powerful idea presented so simply and well in It Works will change your life. I know this because it has changed mine. The fantastic results that I have created using this idea have motivated me to investigate these principles for 25 years.

I want you to be rich with things that make you happy. I'm going to give you ideas and images you can use to help you be more successful with the list technique presented in It Works.

What I have Done With It Works

My annual income is now 35 times greater than it was the day I first read this little book. I have gained houses, cars, boats, businesses, friends, a family, and numerous creative and prospering ideas using the principles set forth in this book.

In the last 25 years I have spent thousands of hours teaching these ideas to other people. I've seen many people use the ideas in this book to create something new in their life, and I have seen others who are not so successful with it. I want you to be one of the successful ones.

How to Succeed with your List

First, let's take a little test. Take a sheet of paper (or your word processor) and without looking at the book write down the 'Three Positive Rules of Accomplishment' that are the key to this technique.

Then go back and compare them to the text. How did you do?

Did you miss a few? I did when I first tried this test myself.

If you read this book and it never goes farther than words and ideas in your mind, then you have lost the advantage of it.

The key to success with this method it to DO IT, not just think about it. Don't think that by reading it, even many times, that you will know it. That would be like thinking that you know how to ride a bicycle just by reading about it. In order to master the bicycle, you have to get on it and ride, learning to keep your balance as you move forward. That is exactly the way you learn the principles of conscious creation taught by It Works.

When I first started using the technique in this book, I wrote my first list, and started getting great results. Then after a month or so, I stopped writing and reviewing the list, and tried to 'do it in my head'. I didn't get the same results.

I went back to using the list, and the great results started happening again. Then I got what I wanted and let things slide, and the cycle repeated.

Meanwhile I started studying the ideas and teaching them to others. In the process I learned some interesting things I am sharing with you.

What I learned is that each of us has a spark from the Creator which is our own personal creator, like a genie from a magic lamp. The problem with this genie is that he responds to every thought in my mind as if it were a command. If I think of something with desire, he starts creating that for me. If I start to worry or fear, he starts to erase that creation.

Wherever I put my attention, the genie starts multiplying that attention into a real experience in my life. All of this creation takes place in a part of my mind called the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is the part of my mind that holds the tremendous creative power that I can learn to tap into and use. However, it has a special way of working that I must understand if I want to use my subconscious mind power effectively.

If my attention wanders all over the place, my subconscious becomes full of half-created thought-forms and my life is chaotic or boring. That's because the genie is busy trying to do a million different things at once, many of which contradict each other. His efforts always follow in the track of my attention, and until I get my attention going in a constant direction, I don't get the results I would like.

The plan given in It Works helps me to control my attention, and put that genie to work with enough time and focus to produce real and complete results. It will work the same way for you.

My conscious mind sets the agenda, but I often get distracted by the half-formed and malformed effects of previous wishes and desires. Many of those desires are unconscious, created with incomplete understanding or fear or worry. The genie does what I tell him, but he listens to my daydreams and worries and treats them as commands.

This creative power responds to what I believe. I have come to realize that what I believe is not necessarily the same as what I think. It's easy to know what I believe - it is what I act on. It is what I do. Even while I am unable to admit to myself what I really believe, my subconscious mind is working to make circumstances, opportunities, and events in my life to experience those beliefs.

How do I change what I believe, so that I can get what I want? There is a simple way to do this. It has been discovered and rediscovered by teachers and writers throughout the ages.

Here it is:

I can imagine what I want, I can pretend that it is so, and I can repeat this over and over.

The creative genie of my subconscious mind responds to imagination, focused attention, and repetition. That's what the book It Works is all about.

How to Get Faster and Better Results

Here are things that will help you create more successfully when you use the technique presented in It Works. These are things that I have discovered in the last 25 years of using It Works. Each of these is a suggestion based on actual experiences with using the list. Use the ideas that sound good to you.

The most important thing is to do exactly what it says. Follow the plan exactly: Create a list, include what you really desire in order of its importance to you, read the list three times a day, think of the items on the list as often as you can, and don't tell anyone what you are doing.

For faster demonstration of results, you can rewrite the list each day, even if it hasn't changed. Reorder the items on the list according to their importance to you. Doing this makes the ideas new again, and will lead to more rapid success. It's also important to do something physical with your ideas, as soon as possible. Writing them out is a way to give them entry into the outer world of manifestation. It creates a toehold for their growth into physical reality.

If you have a tape recorder, you can read the list out loud in a firm voice and tape it. Then play the tape over and over again (perhaps in your car as you commute to and from work). This needs to be done and played in private. That's easy nowadays since you can get an inexpensive tape player with headphones.

I found a little digital recorder that records into it's own computer memory, and then plays it back over and over again through headphones. You can also do this with the Sound Recorder program that is built into most personal computers.

Put real amounts, specific items, and specific dates in your list. Some people worry that this is 'outlining' and delays manifestation. But what good is it to get Coke when you want Pepsi, or Pepsi when you want Coke? You don't plant strawberries and expect to harvest watermelons. The most important thing is not a particular item on your list, but developing your power of conscious creation.

Do you have trouble remembering the items on your list? If so, it may be that they are not really that important to you. Try memorizing the items on your list.

Are you having trouble finding ten things to put on your list? Are you unsure which things should really be on the list? Here's an easy way to build your list: ask yourself - What do I think about all day? That is what should be on your list. You may have to start by listing your worries, and then turn each of them into a positive desire. For example, what do I worry about? What would need to happen for me to not worry about this any more?

If you have trouble finding things that you want, try thinking of it in another way. What would you like to see happen?

How will you know it is working?

When you receive an idea about something that is on your list, act on it in a positive way. Sometimes the thing you want requires a few intermediate steps. Be ready to go through several doorways as they open before you, to reach your goal. If you want a car, perhaps you will find yourself creating a new set of tires first, or a garage to keep the car in.

Realize that many of the things you want will find you. You will be tempted to say, 'but I didn't do anything, it just happened.' Your inner mind genie will use the simplest and most efficient way to create the results you imagine. It doesn't care who gets the credit. After a while you won't either!

Remember that your genie is working nonstop, according to the program that you set for him. If you say, This can't be working', he will do his best to make that seem true - even while he continues his nonstop creation of the other things you ask for.

How will you know it is working? For most people it is not one thing, or two things, but the fact that one thing after another manifests in their lives. The first thing you get from your list seems to be a coincidence, the second is luck, the third is serendipity, and the forth is a miracle. Finally after many creations, when your friends start wondering what the heck is going on, you will realize that there is a simple and rational law in operation, and that you know how to use it.

Get excited and enthusiastic about the good things coming into your life. If this doesn't seem natural to you, go ahead and use your power of pretend to "fake it until you make it." Appreciation is the oil of the engine of creation. Enthusiasm and excitement are manifestations of your appreciation, and confirmation of your positive expectation.

The attitudes that will delay your success or confuse your creation are jealousy, envy, resentment, reservations, uncertainty, and indecisiveness. Put all of those to the side. The more you recognize your own creative ability, the less you will care about those things that these attitudes have been attached to. You just won't have time for those ways of thinking any more.

There is no such thing as a negative thought - every thought has a positive result in reproducing itself. Every thing you think about grows in your mind and becomes part of your physical life. That's why it is so important to control what you are thinking. The key to controlling your mind is replacing the thoughts that create what you don't want, with the thoughts that create what you do want. You do not resist the old thoughts, you replace them by putting your attention somewhere else. Using your list is your key to accomplishing this. Use this physical tool to reinforce the thoughts that you want.

Think of your subconscious mind as being like a sailboat in the middle of the ocean. The sailboat is blown everywhere, back and forth, by the wind, which is the power of thought. It needs a keel and a rudder to be able to set a course and make way to a certain destination. Your list is the keel and the rudder of your subconscious sailboat.

Thought follows a certain structure in your mind. The idea comes first, then the belief, then the attitude, and then the behavior. Your strongest foundation, the anchor of your thinking, begins with your behavior. Change your behavior, then change the attitude that changing the behavior reveals, then change the belief that inspires the attitude. Grab hold of an idea that is bigger and more inclusive than the small ideas that have kept you poor and unhappy.

When you are tempted to tell everyone what you are doing to make the changes in your life, send them a copy of this book instead. After you have received 40 things you have asked for, you can start talking about the process you are using. Keep a list of everything you get until you receive 40 things you have asked for.

Many people find this book and use it to get one important thing, and then abandon this method. How did this book come into your life? Your genie brought it to you, or brought you to it, in response to your conscious or unconscious desire to create a specific experience, or to understand creation itself. Take advantage of this experience, and make this intelligent, conscious creation a way of life, not a one-time experience.

"Hey Peter, get back in the boat!" - the other 11 apostles

Trying to control other people and make decisions for them is a misuse of them, and of your own creative power. The most important thing you can make is a decision. Trying to take that opportunity for creation away from others is based on fear, not love. Fear in your mind will generally create things you do not want. Let people learn their lessons. God loves them, too.

I learned something wonderful long ago, that will give you freedom. I can't prove anything to you about anything important or meaningful. However, I can tell you how you can experiment and prove these things to yourself. If I walked on water, you would be looking for the rocks. If you walk on water, you will know that there are no rocks. Using this list will show you how to walk on the water of your life. You will have to learn to politely ignore your friends as they yell: "Hey Peter, get back in the boat!"

The Toyota Principle

The subconscious mind creation process goes on all the time. You don't have to be good to make it work. You don't have to chant, exercise, or repeat magic words. You are rich now with the results of what you have been thinking about. Your life is always full of something. If you want to be rich with something else, change what you are thinking about.

As you develop your ability to consciously direct your creation process, as you build your confidence and increase your will power, your results will come more quickly and be more satisfying. Don't delay this process by calling the results coincidence. Wait until you have received at least 40 items on your list (by receiving something and replacing the list item with a new item) before you judge the results as coincidence or creation.

You are already a success at creating what you are thinking about - everyone is. The biggest enemy of conscious control is self-importance - which may manifest in disguise as self-deprecation, worry about what others think of you, or the desire to have others approve of you. Don't let your ego distract your from taking control of your mind and your life.

Everything in your life is there because you have asked for it through either desire or fear. Nothing comes to you by itself. I call this the Toyota Principle because there used to be a commercial advertisement on television for a certain car company with the catchphrase: "You asked for it; you got it! Toyota!" When you have used your list for a while, you will begin to see this is true, and then vast realms of possibility will open in your life.

It's a friendly universe

If you are of a certain religious orientation, you might be concerned about this creative process and think it is a possible affront to God. I don't think it is. Think of the New Testament phrase, "Pray without ceasing." I have decided that this is a description of what we all do all the time. We pray nonstop without knowing it. Practice of the method of conscious creation will show you what prayer is, how it works, and that it is always functioning. I am firmly convinced that learning how my mind works, and how to use it more effectively to help myself and others, is what God wants me to do. How about you?

You don't have to believe in God to use the list. However, don't be surprised if using the list shows you that there is order and structure to the universe, including your mind as a part of that universe. Your world is a lot closer to you and more responsive to you, than you may have considered it to be. It's a friendly universe.

Be careful about including other people on your list. If you want joy and happiness with Jane or Bill, is the joy and happiness more important, or the relationship with Jane or Bill? Maybe the best way to be happy with Jane is let her go find Bill, and let Suzy come find you. As long as you are focused on what someone can give to you, you aren't yet completely experiencing love.

It may be tempting to think your success is dependent on the channel it happens to come through - your job, your family, a particular relationship or thing you possess. Time and experience will show you that this is not so. In the meantime, place your sense of appreciation and thankfulness on the Creator within you, who has made you in his image as a creator. When the river of your life changes its channel, you had better be ready to go with the flow.

How fast will it work?

Faster than you will expect. I put the number one item on my list last week and it manifested in two days - and I thought it would be six months or maybe never. Fortunately, while writing and then rereading that list item, I suspended my disbelief. Even before your pen finishes the sentence, the act of creation has begun. Of course there is no magic in the pen or paper - the magic is in making the decision a physical thing instead of just a mental idea. No matter how long you use this method, there will be times when you are just utterly amazed at what "happens" to you. (It isn't "happening"; you are creating it.) How fast can it happen? Don't blink twice - you'll miss it.

Everything you think will try to prove itself - including your skepticism. If you are afraid of what others will think of you, or of what you will think of yourself, then you may be fooling yourself while thinking you are being completely rational. The world is plastic to the molding power of your thoughts - even while you think this is untrue, or don't have a thought about it at all. Everything lives and moves and has its being in a sea of self-modifying thought. You can prove this to yourself, and put it to effective use, with the simple experiment of work with the list for a few weeks or months.

It doesn't take much time or effort. You have nothing to lose. No one will even know you are doing it. They will just think that you have suddenly become incredibly lucky, intelligent, charming, and good looking. It helps to smile a lot.

Creating complete mind pictures is very helpful. That is another book in itself. Feeling joy and enthusiasm about your mental creation is very helpful. It will start to happen naturally as you use this process over and over, because . . . It Works!