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William Blake, the greatest bard of Imagination, was one of the truly great
poets of our time. Poets can take liberties; however, that is their privilege.
Blake did not take the prose of history and lift it to the level of poetry;
rather, he wrote the poetry of his faith. This I know, for my visions have
dove-tailed his experiences, as well as those given in the greatest Book on
Imagination – the Bible.
Although I can talk about these visions, and record them in the written form,
I cannot bring you to the point of their experience. But I know the truth of
Blake’s words when he said: “Man is all Imagination, and God is Man and
exists in us and we in Him. The Eternal Body of Man is the Imagination;
that is God Himself.”
In 1925, while visiting London, I met an old Scotsman who told me that my
attitude of mind determined my life. That I need not be enslaved by life
but could control my future by my present thinking. This idea intrigued
me. I was fascinated by the thought that, in spite of my limited education
and background, I could transcend my environment. Seeing my interest, this
gentleman gave me some twenty or thirty books. These I read from cover to
cover, as I was hungry for the knowledge I found there.
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With my eyes closed, and knowing I was in my hotel room, I intensified the
feeling in my head and was again whisked out of the body, but this time I
remained in the room.
I then moved around the room and looked down at the body on the bed. The
body, itself, was clearly visible, but the head was covered with a white
substance like a cloud which parted briefly allowing me to glimpse the face.
Then I told myself that since I was spirit, I could go through the wall. I tried,
but the wall was so solidly real I could not penetrate it. Frustrated, I made a
running jump and hit the wall so hard I knocked myself out and came to in
my body with a frightful headache.
A few months later I again found myself released from the confines of my
body. Remembering my former experience, I quietly imagined myself
elsewhere, and in the twinkling of an eye I was there. Then I knew that I was
all Imagination.
I had given reality to the wall so I could not go through it. Although I gave
reality to the interior of that room, the instant I imagined myself elsewhere, I
was there, even though I had no feeling of having moved.
Begin now to prove to yourself that you are all Imagination. We are told in
the fifth chapter of Second Corinthians, “For we know that if the earthly tent
we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens.”
Paul does not say this earthly body will be redeemed, but that when it is
destroyed, we will have a house made without hands, eternal in the heavens.
The body you now wear is the limit of opacity and restriction which you, all
Imagination allowed yourself to reach when he entered its skull. At that
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moment Imagination became a living soul. It is from this restriction that God
can turn around and awaken, allowing you to know that you are God. Then
and only then will you clothe yourself with your garment that is made
without hands and is eternal in the heavens.
In my first book, “Your Faith is Your Fortune” I said, “In the beginning was
unconditioned awareness of being. This unconditioned awareness became
conditioned by imagining itself to be something. The unconditioned
awareness of being became that which it had imagined itself to be; so did
creation begin.”
I was not educated and had not heard of Blake when I wrote those words. I
discovered Blake only about six years ago at which time I found
confirmation of what I had experienced and understood his words: “The true
method of acquiring knowledge is by experiment, and true knowing is by
experience.” This I know to be true.
In my experience I felt myself to be spirit, yet I could not get through the
wall. I moved only when I imagined myself elsewhere. I tell you, the real
you is all Imagination, and I invite you to test him. Take some wonderful
goal for yourself or another. Listen carefully and you will hear two hissing
sounds in your head. The one on the left is intensely shrill while the sound
on the right is like an intermittent radio beam. Concentrate on that hissing
sound, then put on a friend’s voice as you would a record on a player. Hear
your friend tell you what you want to hear.
Now, you must believe in the reality of that imaginary conversation, for
your thinking always follows the tracks laid down in your inner
conversations. You are a speaking being, for you cannot think without
words, audibly or inaudibly spoken. Believe in the words you have heard.
Walk in that conviction and they will be spoken to you on the outside, for
Imagination is forever creating reality!
No intermediary is needed between you and God, for he is your very self! Sit
quietly and imagine you are hearing what you want to hear. Remember, you
are not your physical body. You are spirit, all Imagination and will be
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wherever you are imagining yourself to be! But do not imagine lightly, for
your body will make that very journey which you first entertained in your
imagination.
Recently a man came to me. He wanted to go to Sweden for his firm, but
because he was new to the job, he felt he would not be asked. I suggested he
feel himself going up the ramp of an airplane. I asked him to hear American
voices around him and to feel airborne. Then feel the sensation of the plane
coming down, and hearing only Swedish voices as he was now in Sweden.
Six months later, this gentleman represented his firm in Sweden. I now have
a beautiful crystal teardrop vase he brought back to me in appreciation of the
thought I gave him. An imaginal act contains within itself the power of its
own fulfillment. Imagination is your real body, eternal and creative. Where
you are in your Imagination, there you will be in the flesh. You are always
where you are in consciousness.
Thinking of something is not a creative act. You must think from your
wish’s fulfillment, not of its desire. I am is the way. I was or I will be will
never make it. A being called Jesus Christ is not the way. I am!
Consciousness is! I am is God’s name forever and ever. When asked, “What
is his name?” say, “I am.” Desire cannot fulfill itself until it is assumed.
If you want to be in San Francisco, you must assume you are there by seeing
the world from San Francisco, not wishing you were there while seeing the
world from Los Angeles.
Stand back and view your world. Are you seeing what you desire to see, or
are you still thinking of your desire? By this test you can always tell if you
are thinking of or thinking from.
If you are not seeing your world from your fulfilled desire, you are still
desiring, still holding yourself here, barring yourself from the desired state’s
fulfillment.
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Being all Imagination, you must be where you are in your Imagination. If
you will describe your world from the point of your fulfilled desire, and
remain faithful to that description, your desire will externalize itself for you.
The Bible contains the great story of Imagination. Man does not yet
understand it, but as Blake said, “That which can be made explicit to the
idiot is not worth my care. The wisest of the ancients considered what is not
too explicit to be fittest for instruction, because it rouses the faculties to act.
I name Moses, Solomon, Esop, Homer and Plato.” Much of the Bible is pure
poetry.
The Books of the Psalms and Jeremiah tell of this series of events in poetic
form. Luke begins his book by saying: “Inasmuch as many have undertaken
to compile a narrative of the things which have been accomplished among
us, just as they were delivered to us by those who, from the beginning were
eye witnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having
followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account
for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the truth concerning
the things of which you have been informed.”
Luke does not criticize those who have tried to tell their story but, knowing
the Bible is not chronologically accurate, he writes an orderly account. Luke
knew the stories of the shepherds’ watch and the heavenly chorus were
separated in time by years. In my own case the shepherds’ watch came
fifteen years after the angels chorus.
Luke tells, in narrative form, how the events take place, and claims to have
made a better arrangement of them. If you interpret his words as events that
took place, you will never understand the mystery. This series of everlasting
events takes place in the individual.
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Every child born of woman will have all of these experiences, as God
awakens himself in the individual. God actually sank himself in us as we are
told in the Book of Ecclesiastes: “He put eternity into the mind of man.” The
word “eternity” means “a lad; a youth; a young man.” The child who was
with God before the foundation of the world, is this eternity.
Have you ever thought of the Son of God as being God the Son? Think
about it. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, in woven in
every being, awakens and comes forth as the Son of God.
You need no intermediary between yourself and God, for you and God the
Father are one. Use your heavenly talent. Blake did. He took his mystical
experiences and wove them into poetic form. He knew how to get out of this
body for he became a mental traveler and shared his travels in poetic form
saying:
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You are nailed to this body, but you can extract yourself from it to become
as strong as the youth Blake speaks of in this poem, and make this body give
you what you want to express in this world.
I tell you, your Imagination is God and with God all things are possible.
Imagine you are what you want to be. Remain faithful to that thought and
nothing can stop you from becoming it. And remember, the barriers you see
are in yourself! Do not concern yourself with how you will outwardly
become your desire. Only dwell on the state desired and you will become it.
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