11/21/69

Blake said, “God only acts and is in existing beings or men.” That is, God is the only actor in the universe. It is God who embraced the fire of experience, and was consumed and rose from its ashes, and continues to rise as Jesus Christ or Divine Imagination. Good and evil are not conditions imposed by some malevolent deity, but states of experience through which the soul of man must pass in order that having experienced good and evil he will surpass them and awaken as God himself.

Tonight I’ll share with you certain experiences of mine, of others, and one lady, who is not here but I’ll tell it. I’m quite sure she never heard or never read the letter written by Aldous Huxley, which is printed in Walter de la Mare’s anthology on dreams. For she said, “I had a dream and this was my dream. I was someone who could be anything that I desired to be. I looked at anything that intrigued me and I could instantly put myself right into it and feel its emotions and share with it its thoughts, its environment. I actually became the being or the thing.” She didn’t name the thing…she just said “the thing.” “And throughout the night I seemed to go from one to the other, actually putting myself right into that individual or that thing. Then I woke, reluctantly, slowly, and hated waking as I was so enjoying the experience of being anything that intrigued me.”

Now here, I will quote it. It may not be an accurate quote, but close to it. He is telling of his experience with D. H. Lawrence, and he and Lawrence were close, intimate friends. In fact, when his home burned a few years ago here in the Hollywood Hills, he had unpublished manuscripts of Lawrence that Lawrence gave to him. They were close, most intimate friends. And this is what he said, “To be with Lawrence was like an adventure. It was simply a discovery, because he himself was really not of the order of this world. He belonged to a universe that was not of this world. When you were with him as he told his experiences, you felt that he knew from actual personal experience what it was to be a tree, to be a daisy, to be a breaking wave, to be the mysterious moon itself. You felt in him that he saw things that no mortal eye ought to see. Here was the most sensitive man that I have known; an intelligent man, a man who could cook, he could sew, he could embroider, he could do woodwork, you name it and that’s what he could do all to perfection. And yet he could sit perfectly alone doing nothing and be completely happy. He could put himself into the skin of an animal and tell you what it was like to be that animal. He could describe in the most convincing detail that dim inhuman thoughts of the animal. I never tired of listening to him. He was not of the order of these things.”

Well, I’m quite sure that my friend never read that. But to her I gave my eyes. And may I tell you, without boring you with my own experience I’ve tried to tell it time and again. But why tell mine? I’m waiting for others to tell it. Well, she told it, “I went from state to state.” She did not itemize them, she did not name them, but she said, “Things or persons, I knew exactly how they felt, I knew exactly what they did, all their emotions I shared.” Because, God is the only actor…there is not a thing in this world but what it is God, not a thing in this world. She is the actor, you are the actor, but when the eye is not open you think it is another.

Now, Blake made the statement: “Eternity exists, and all things in Eternity, independent of Creation which was an act of mercy. You will see by this that I do not consider either the just or the wicked to be in a supreme state, but to be every one of them states of sleep into which the soul may fall in its deadly dreams of good and evil” (Vis. Last Judgmt.,Pp.91). Here, everything in the world is. And I’m telling you from my own experience the day will come—I hope it’s now with all of us here, that you too will see that everything in this world is yourself pushed out; that you can actually enter into the skin of any animal in the world and experience its emotion, experience everything about that animal…it’s only yourself. The day will come and you will see it. It will stand perfectly still, perfectly dead. And then you will know who you are, that you are the animating power of the universe.

So then we are told in scripture that “All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made” (Jn.1:3). Now we are told what he made. What is it that he made? He made life and that you become the animating power of the entire universe. You will see it one day, and when you see it you will feel within yourself that something that is alive. The thing is dead as you look at it and then, within you, you will allow it to become alive. It is not alive outside of you; it’s alive in you. You will animate it and you will stop it and let it go, and you will stop it and let it go, and prove to your own satisfaction that you are the life of the universe. So when he said, “God only acts and is in existing beings or men” he meant it in this sense, God is the only actor in the entire universe (Mar. Heaven and Hell, Plt.15-17).

Well, how does he act? He acts imaginally…all in one’s own wonderful human Imagination. The day will come that you will think say of your home tonight as you are seated here. You see it in your mind’s eye, but you don’t really see it as you see me now or as I see you. But the day will come you will think anything and you will see it more vividly than you now see the speaker. You will enter it and it will not be a shadow; it will be three-dimensional just like this. You will sit in a chair or you’ll lie on a bed, and with your eyes shut as in sleep but you’re not asleep, you know exactly what you’re doing, you know exactly where you are. You will see through closed lids what you should not see if the lids were open. You will know exactly where you are and know exactly what you’re doing. Consciousness will follow vision and you will step into the image. The image will not be simply a flat shadow; it will be three-dimensional. It will close around you and then you will explore. Then you will know these words of Blake, “If the Spectator could enter into these images”—now follow it closely—“enter into these images in his Imagination, approaching them on the fiery chariot of his Contemplative Thought…if he could make a friend and companion of any one of these images, which always invites him, intrigues him to leave mortal things (as you must know), then would he rise from the dead, then would he meet the Lord in the air and then he would be happy” (Vis. of Last Jud.,Pp.82-84)

Sitting in my chair, how often have I done it or lying in my bed, knowing exactly where I am and knowing what I ought to see were I to open my eyes. But I didn’t open my eyes; I left the eyelids closed. And my eye, my inner eye is open, and I am seeing what no mortal eye could see were they sitting where I am sitting or lying where I am lying. And then I allowed my consciousness to move. Then you discover who you really are! They call it by your name…all right, Bill, Jan, Neville, call it by any name…that’s what you are to them. Then you move out of it, a conscious being in the world that you are seeing, and that world closes itself around you and you explore. You ask yourself, “Who am I?” If anyone entered the room and saw that thing on the bed or on the chair, they would call you by name and say he or she is asleep. Yet you are fully awake and you, too, are looking at it as something external to yourself. Everyone thinks when they see a person in this world they are looking at that being, and they’re only looking at the mask. They do not see the immortal you that cannot die. When this thing happens to you, you know you cannot die, that no one in the world can ever die. He is not the thing that they put into the furnace and consume. He is not that which they can put into the grave and bury. He is that which is I AM. And how can you describe it? It is simply consciousness…it’s simply your own wonderful human Imagination.

You explore a world just as real as this. The world is three-dimensional just like this. No one knows this wonderful mystery until they really experience it. So he said, “God only acts.” Well, I acted. I sat in the chair and saw what I should not see, and then my consciousness followed what I am looking at; and I stepped into the image and the image was not a flat surface, it was three-dimensional, and clothed me with it…completely clothed me. Well then, I walked into that state and then I explored.

So when she tells me in her letter, “I was one in my dream that could become anything that intrigued me. No matter what it was, if it intrigued me, I became it, one after the other, and I woke from it all reluctantly. I didn’t want to wake, I hated waking, but I had to wake from this fantastic experience of the night.” And I know she did not read this which is said by Huxley of his friend D.H. Lawrence that he was not an ordinary person, he was not of this world, and he didn’t live in this universe. Yet, in this universe he had more talents than anyone that he knew. He could sew as no one could sew that he knew, he could embroider, he could do work, carve all kinds of beautiful things in wood, he could cook. He could do everything…you name it and he could do it. He gave his entire time to the thing that he was doing. And yet, he could do nothing and be perfectly happy in doing absolutely nothing. He said he saw more than the human being ought to see.

Yet the same Huxley when I tried to tell him of mine, he showed no interest, none whatsoever. When I tried to tell him of the birth and tried to tell him of David and all the things that I have told you, Aldous showed absolutely no interest. He liked me as a friend, but he had his own limitations, as everyone has. You open your mouth and the minute you pronounce a certain word you’re catalogued in a certain social world. You pronounce it differently and instantly you are simply catalogued as one who is not of the “in” as it were. He would not listen…he liked me as a friend…but I didn’t speak as he spoke and as he thought anyone should speak. So I could have told him things beyond the wildest dream of his friend D. H. Lawrence, but he had his little stumbling blocks and he couldn’t listen. So we walked in to dinner together, breaking a thought that I wanted to complete, but he showed no interest. When Blake said to his friend who asked him “What do you think of Jesus Christ?” he said, “Jesus Christ is the only God” and then he hastened to add, “But so am I and so are you.” Then came dinner so he didn’t complete the thought or he didn’t develop the thought…and what a loss because there was dinner.

So I tell you, you as you’re seated here tonight, you are the only God. There is no other God. The day is coming, and I hope it is not too far away, when as you think of anything in this world, instead of seeing it in your mind’s eye you will see it as you’re now seeing the speaker. Because that eye when it opens allows you to see it just as though it is here. Whether it is something ten thousand years ago or a billion years ago or what you might think to be future, it is here. When the eye is open there is nothing that is not here, and you enter right into the state and the thing is completely real just like this room here is now.

So when he makes the statement that he does not consider the just or the wicked to be to be supreme states, he means it. You can forgive every being in this world for what he has done. It seems stupid, horrible based upon this level, but may I tell you, they are only states and they can’t help it. Man has to pass through all of these states. Good and evil are simply states of experience through which the soul of man must pass in order that having experienced good and evil that he will then awaken to the being that he really is: the one who actually embraced the fire of such experiences, was consumed, and then from the ashes rose…and continues to rise in every being in the world. For he is the only one being playing all the parts. So he rose in one, he rose in others and he is rising in all. The only one being is the being when you sit here and you say “I am”…that’s he. One thinks, “How could it be?” Well, I’m telling you from my own experience and I cannot deny it. I could no more deny what I have experienced than I could now deny that I am standing here.

And when the eye opens, I can’t tell you the thrill that is in store for you. The eye to all appearances is shut, and it isn’t shut…you’re actually seeing for the first time. The ears are open for the first time, and you hear what no mortal ear can hear, and you see. A few days ago, last Thursday, really a week ago last Thursday, I went down to this area where I was called concerning my Medicare and they asked me to prove that I would be sixty-five. Well, I couldn’t prove that I would be sixty-five. I had my passport, and they said, “No that’s not good enough. We want either a birth certificate or a baptismal certificate. I must have that in order to register that you actually are sixty-five this coming February.” Well, I didn’t know where to find such things. They may not be in existence in Barbados. But I knew once upon a time many years ago I did have to have it when I went off to London, and I wrote for it and got it. But where it was I didn’t know.

Well, two nights ago, about 1:30 in the morning, my brothers said to me—not my earthly brothers but my divine brothers—“Go and look in your wallet; it is there.” And I awoke, went to the bathroom, it was too early to disturb my wife, because she sleeps in one room and I sleep in the other, and so I didn’t think I should go in and open up the drawer to look at a wallet. It’s a wallet that my wife gave me back in 1938. I don’t carry wallets. I carried it for about a year or two after she gave it to me. It’s still as new as when she gave it to me back in 1938. And they told me to look there and there it was.

So the next morning when I woke about five, I completely forgot it. Went downstairs and got my paper, made myself a cup of tea, and here I am reading my paper, and about 8:30 it all came to me. Well, they told me this morning at 1:30 to go to the wallet and there I would find what I’m looking for, my baptismal certificate. So I went right in, opened up a thing I hadn’t seen in years, and there was my baptismal certificate. They told it to me. I was coming through from the depth of my being when they’re talking to me and said, “Go, and you’ll find it. There it is.” So then I picked it up and brought it out to my wife and showed it to her. It’s all falling apart it’s so old. It was 1924 that I got it. When I got my passport to go off to England on some dancing career I had to have it to prove that I really came into this world in some strange way. There it was, this peculiar falling-apart thing, and they told it to me.

So I can tell you that when the eye is open and when the ear is open, you can hear and see anything in this world that you want to. That’s your destiny. And when you are completely awake, you are God. There is nothing but God. God is the only actor in the world. So when you imagine anything in this world, I don’t care what it is, and if you will now couple it with faith by really believing in the reality of that imaginal act, it will come to pass. It surely will come to pass.

And so, eternity exists. What does it mean, “Eternity exists and all things in Eternity independent of Creation which was an act of mercy” (Blake, Vis. of Last Judgmt., Pp.91-92). It means that this little garment that I’ve seen sitting on a chair, lying on a bed, when I am not occupying it, others would come in and say that Neville is asleep…and I am hearing them and seeing them and I am not asleep, I am very much awake. But they’re looking at the garment and they only know me by reason of the garment. And that is a garment that anyone can wear and, may I tell you, many will wear it. It is the garment in which one awakes. But I am not the garment anymore than I am any part I ever played in the few plays that I have played. Oh, I have played…six plays on Broadway…but I am not the characters that I played, I was the actor. Well, God is the actor in all these parts and God is your own wonderful human Imagination. That is God and there is no other God and there is no other actor. He plotted the entire thing before he came down.

Now, we are told in scripture, the serpent spoke and told man…in this case it is said he told woman…“that you will not die, for God knows that in the day that you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, your eye will be opened and you’ll become like God knowing good and evil” (Gen.3:5). You’ll actually know good and evil. It’s something you must know, and knowing it you surpass it, and then rise beyond it as Divine Imagination. But you must know it. So the serpent said, “You will not die.” In the day that you eat of it you will embrace the fire of experience. You will be consumed as its victim, and then you will rise from the ashes, and rising you are God himself! That’s the story as told in scripture.

So then Blake added to this wonderful thought that we left paradise following the serpent. We left—that implies that we did not begin here on earth. If I left paradise following the serpent that told that I must embrace the great experience of good and evil, I must embrace it and be consumed in this fire…and yet I will not die ‘tho I turn to ash, and I will rise from it. In John we are told “I came out from the Father”—it’s a more lovely way of telling it—“I came out from the Father and I came into the world; again I am leaving the world and I’m returning to the Father” (Jn.16:28). So I did not begin here, you did not begin here. When we came down here and we found these garments, the little garment seems to begin, but it didn’t really begin. It is an eternal part of the structure of the universe. You pick it up and it seems to be a new garment. In my own case, 1905 it seemed to begin; that little garment was always so. It was always growing into manhood and always departing at the age in its sixties. Always appearing, occupied by God, moving towards a certain point, and then disappearing. And all these are but garments. You pick them up and you wear them and they seem to grow. People think you are the garment. They do not know you who are God who wears the garment. You are the Lord Jesus Christ. There never was another, there never will be another, you are God. So God only acts and is in existing being or men. There is no other God. He is the only actor in the entire universe.

If you want to test it, test it tonight. Dare to assume now that you are the one that you want to be. Though the eye is not open and the ears are not open, it doesn’t matter. I tell you from my own experience, for in me they are open. I tell you from my own experience they need not be open to test it. You could now dare to assume that I am…and then you name it. You remain loyal, remain faithful to this assumption, and though everything in the world denies it, if you remain faithful to it you will become it. It doesn’t matter who you are today. If doesn’t matter what the world thinks of you. As I told you earlier, in my own case if he had only listened to my message rather than to my English. I’m a colonial in his eyes and like all Englishmen, the colonials are looked down upon…they’re colonials. If you don’t speak with an Etonian accent, with the Oxford accent, or the Cambridge accent, you are simply a colonial. So, in their eyes you are simply not quite one of the boys. Had he only listened I could have told him things beyond the wildest dreams of D. H. Lawrence.

I know what it is to be not only the wave but the ocean. I told it in my little book called The Search. When I was but a boy, years before puberty—in fact, it stopped at puberty—but it lasted for years before that. And I knew the night it was going to happen. I didn’t want to go to sleep, because I knew exactly what was going to happen. It scared me unto death. I was the ocean…that was marvelous, to be the ocean. Oh, but to be the wave, the breaking wave, that frightened me. I, the ocean, would toss myself, the wave, into the sky and then catch myself upon my own bosom as I fell. I went up thrown by myself, the ocean. The ocean was marvelous. But to be the wave, that small portion of my being, the ocean, I threw myself up and then caught myself coming down. I would go to bed frightened to death, because I knew exactly what was going to happen. It happened once a month over a period of years. I could have told him that. He said that his friend Lawrence knew what it was to be the breaking wave and I could have told him what it was to be the ocean.

I could have told him what it was to be infinite light—but I mean infinite because there was no circumference…but my accent was colonial. And that’s the barrier the world over. They see someone and they judge by appearances. They judge by his voice, they judge by his looks, they judge by the clothes that he wears. They judge by everything that is external, and that is not the being at all, because the being you do not see. He is unseen. He comes to us unknown, unseen. But in his own wonderful mysterious manner he lets us experience who he is; and when we experience who he is, we experience it in a first-person, singular, present-tense experience. We experience him as ourselves. There is no other.

So I tell you—I’m not flattering you—you are God. Everyone is God! The one who stabs you, the one who murdered, is the being with the one who is murdered. We all experience all of these experiences of good and evil in order that having experienced good and evil we will surpass good and evil, and then rise as Divine Imagination, who is God himself. So I came down, as you came own, and we embraced this fire of experience, and we have been consumed by it. Many a time the little garment that we wore turned to ash, only to find us restored in a body that is similar. From that ash we restored it and found a new body just like the old one, only new and healthy and wonderful, and not a thing missing in it. Then we were consumed in that. And we keep on being consumed one after the other until that moment in time when we rise from it all. We aren’t consumed and restored any more; we rise as the Lord Jesus Christ, God himself. So there’s not a thing in this world but God…nothing but God.

So when he said, “God only acts,” he really meant that he is the only actor. He not only acts, he is the only actor. And when you sit tonight at home or sit here, and when you begin to imagine anything, may I tell you, it will happen. I was late tonight. I had a friend at home for brunch yesterday. She knows my friend who brings me here all the time, and she said to me, “Isn’t he unreliable?” I said, “No! Never! Always right!” She didn’t want to hear that; she wanted to hear that he was unreliable. She’s a very intense lady, very intense. She wanted to hear that. This is the first time in the months that he has been bringing me that he called from the Valley to say he couldn’t make it. An intense imaginal act produced what she wanted to hear. But she will not get the satisfaction from me. She’ll never hear from me that he was ever even late far less not coming. But she’s a very intense lady, intensely intense, and she said it quite openly in the presence of my wife and myself. She came to brunch and asked all about him. I said, “He’s perfectly wonderful.” “Well, have him call me.” He’s in the audience so I will tell him what she said, but I’m not going to ask him to call her at all. She knows exactly how to reach him. Then she said, “Isn’t he unreliable?” I said, “No. Not at all! He’s all together wonderful” which did not please her.

Well, do you realize that people in this world who on the surface are altogether wonderful, perfectly marvelous, and it’s a veneer? Below the surface is that intensity. They do not realize what they’re doing. They haven’t the slightest idea what they’re doing. Because they’re doing it only to themselves; they’re not doing it to another. She can’t do it to me, although undoubtedly she has tried. It will boomerang in a way that she will never know, because I would never resist it. And I love her dearly, just love her dearly, but she’s intense. Also, of the same school that if you are not of that physical background, well then, you are not “in.” I have told her unnumbered times that I have no, not the slightest little feeling toward any aristocracy in the world. When I speak of being a descendant of Abraham, it is not after the flesh; it is after the Spirit, where I actually believe 100 percent in the story that was told me before that the world was. That is what Abraham represents. There is no physical aristocracy, none whatsoever. The only aristocracy are the called, the elected—those who are called and embodied into the body that is the risen Lord.

But I could tell that to her forever and forever and she will not understand it. She still believes in physical aristocracy, and there is none. May I tell you, let no one in this world ever try to impress you with his own greatness relative to you. As I stand before you now, I have never been able to feel anyone my superior. Physically yes, they can knock me down with one blow; intellectually yes, no question about it; financially certainly. You name it, they’re all superiors. But I cannot meet anyone…I’ve never been able to meet one person in this world…that I felt my superior. Oh, he could be a giant intellectually, a mathematical giant, a musical giant, giant in a thousand ways, but that does not mean for one moment I feel inferior to him. I have never felt it and I cannot feel it…I just cannot feel it.

I was surprised today when I looked at my baptismal certificate. It amused me. Back in 1905 this huge, big, enormous thing…and the parent’s profession. My father’s profession in 1905 was a meat vender. He had a butcher shop, so he was a meat vender. Well, right away that would have disqualified me completely from this lady’s picture of being socially acceptable. But, may I tell you, let no one in this world ever make you feel less than anyone in the world, because you are infinitely greater than all the characters put together in this world. You are the God who is playing the parts. You’ve played all the parts. You’ve played the phony parts, the decent parts, the rich man, the poor man, the known, the unknown. You’ve played them all or you would not be here. And the reason why you’re here is because you’re on the verge of waking. You will awaken from the entire dream to find that you created the play, and finding no one in the world that could play the part you’re playing the part yourself. You’ve played all the parts and in the end you awaken. You awaken by a certain definite series of events that take place within you.

When they take place within you, all these inner things open. The eye is opened and the ears are opened as mine were this morning when they said, “Go and look, look into the wallet.” Well, I haven’t used that wallet. It was given to me in ’38 and after all this is now ’69, so that’s thirty-one years ago. I don’t think I used it more than a year before I simply put it away. As I told my wife today, “What use have I for a wallet when you give me a dollar when I go out? I have no use for one.” I get a dollar and change, and so what do I need with a wallet? It’s perfectly new, it’s a lovely one…she brought it back from Paris back in 1938. And here, the certificate was there…this crumpled little yellow page. They told me so vividly and I woke. It was too early to disturb her, so I went in, and then completely forgot it when I woke at five. Had my tea, had all these things, and then at 8:30 I remembered that they told me to go and look in my wallet. Went to the wallet and there it was.

So I tell you, there isn’t a thing in this world that isn’t now…absolutely here! They speak of the age of the moon as billions of years, but you cannot measure your age because there never was a time when you were not. Nor will there ever come a time when you will cease to be. There never was a time when you were not. You didn’t begin in time. You came down into time which you yourself created to experience good and evil, to expand the being that you always were. For, that is a constant, constant expansion of the being that you are. So you did not begin, even though your little birth certificate will say you began. No, you didn’t begin. You are the wearer of the garment and the wearer of the garment is the actor, and the only actor in the world is God. There is nothing but God and you are God. You can’t even say that he’s near to you, because nearness would imply separation. He’s not even near: you are God. When you say “I am” that’s he. Begin to believe in your own being who is God and whatever you imagine to be so, firmly believing that it is so, may I tell you that it will be so.

Now let us go into the Silence.

* * *

Now are there any questions, please?

Q: ___(??) In Job, is Satan representing the nature of the individual that is doubtful?

A: Satan is only doubt. God is the affirmative. As we are told in scripture, “All the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2Cor.1:20). Well, all the promises of God find their No in Satan. “If you are the Son of God then command that this be turned into that.” He doubts that it could be done. So every doubt in your mind is simply Satan speaking, for there is nothing impossible to God (Luke 1:37). When anyone will challenge you, don’t accept the challenge, not for one second. You’ll have to repeat it every day from now to eternity. They will say that was an accident, and tomorrow they’ll challenge again…that’s an accident. If you did it a million times, it’s still an accident, because to them it isn’t that which can be done. The devil is only or the anti-Christ is only any idea or person who denies the Christian revelation, that’s all that it is. Anti-Christ is not something coming out of space. Alright, he could come as a person who completely denies the Christian revelation, like a Hitler, like a Stalin. He personifies the anti-Christ to the degree that he completely denies the Christian revelation. But that’s only a part that he plays and God played the part. God will, one day having played the parts, play the part where he awakens as Jesus Christ. All must awaken as Jesus Christ. And there is nothing but Jesus Christ.

You decided to play the part you’re now playing. We decided to embrace the fire of experience and play these parts. And how close you are to the awakening no one knows. Let no one tell you. Only the Father knows, and the Father is within you, and you are the Father. You and he are one. But you must be one in the sense that you must be just as perfect as he is perfect, and when the perfection is done then you awaken. Let no one tell you that they know when…no one knows. It comes with startling suddenness, comes so suddenly, so unexpectedly.

Q: The garment that we wear, you said they are eternal parts of the universe. For instance, the family…have they been in that family before to continue experiences or are they just there…wandered into that family for the sake of experience in` that particular thing?

A: Well, Ina, in this sense. You take the play of Shakespeare, Hamlet. All the characters exist, all, since the year, what, 1580 or 90, back into the early 17th Century when he wrote them. They all exist and through the centuries men have been playing them. The relationships between Hamlet and his mother and his father who was murdered, and his uncle who murdered him, and all these characters remain the same, and different actors play the part.

Q: You think that’s similar to what happened in this world?

A: Well, this is God’s play. This whole thing is God’s play. It’s God’s play and these parts are forever, because they are part of the eternal structure of the universe.

Q: Do we go back into the play?

A: Well, my dear, you were before Ina. You are God who has no beginning. You came down and play a part which is part of the structure of the universe, but you are not that which began a few yeas ago in this world. You are the immortal God, the immortal being playing the part. And this part has a definite…like a play…you will play it differently but still the same part.

I have seen so many Hamlets and no two were alike…and yet all used the same words. Their faces differed because they were different beings. But they wore similar costumes, spoke the same words, but they played it differently. And their relationship to the mother in the play was the same although they played it differently. I saw Burton in the modern Hamlet and he used certain impressions, certain I would say, inflections that would differ. In fact, it was completely different from anything I ever heard before. When he said to his mother, “Assume a virtue if you have it not” he didn’t treat it seriously, he treated it lightly. It’s not the way I heard it before or I would read it. I do not read that in a light vein, “Assume a virtue if you have it not.” But he did it as though it was a lark, not believing that she could ever assume one. Well, that’s the way he interpreted it, but he did not change the words.

Q: Is that what you meant when you said of members of your family that when your family assembled again, you won’t be one of them?

A: I must leave this little costume. I’m leaving it forever when I take it off, but the costume remains as part of the eternal structure of the universe. These things are forever, all these are forever. And when I take it off now in the not distant future I have played my final role. To play the final role you must have these experiences that I have mentioned over and over and over again: such as the resurrection, and then the birth, and then the discovery of the Fatherhood of God. When these things happen in man, well then, he has played his role for the last time. So in this present play I am playing it as one called Neville, but I have played the last role. And until this that I have mentioned takes place in man, he has not played the last role.

Q: Someone else might pick up the role?

A: Why certainly. This is going to be played over and over and over.

Q: Thank you very much. You clarified it.

Good night.

See Neville Goddard Birth and Baptism Records