Out of this World (1949) by Neville Goddard

Out of this World Thinking Fourth-Dimensionally By Neville Goddard Read by Adam Hanin Originally published in  1949 by Goddard Publications As a general disclaimer, the views and opinions  expressed in this book belong to the author and may not always reflect those of Master Key  Society or its affiliates. This recording is a production of Master Key Society for the  purpose of research, study, and discussion. Chapter 1: Out of this World And now I have told you before it come to pass,  that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe," —John, Chapter 14, Verse 29 Many persons, myself included, have  observed events before they occurred; that is, before they occurred in this world of  three dimensions.

Since man can observe an event before it occurs in the three dimensions of space,  life on earth must proceed according to plan, and this plan must exist elsewhere in another  dimension and be slowly moving through our space. If the occurring events were not in this world  when they were observed, then, to be perfectly logical, they must have been out of this world.  And whatever is there to be seen before it occurs here must be “predetermined" from the point of  view of man awake in a three-dimensional world.

Thus, the question arises: “Are  we able to alter our future? ” My object in writing these pages is to  indicate possibilities inherent in man, to show that man can alter his future; but, thus  altered, it forms again a deterministic sequence starting from the point of interference—a future  that will be consistent with the alteration. The most remarkable feature of  man's future is its flexibility.

It is determined by his attitudes rather than by  his acts. The cornerstone on which all things are based is man's concept of himself. He acts as he  does and has the experiences that he does, because his concept of himself is what it is, and for no  other reason.

Had he a different concept of self, he would act differently. A change of concept of  self automatically alters his future: and a change in any term of his future series of experiences  reciprocally alters his concept of self. Man's assumptions which he regards as insignificant  produce effects that are considerable; therefore, man should revise his estimate of an  assumption, and recognize its creative power.

All changes take place in  consciousness. The future, although prepared in every detail in advance, has  several outcomes. At every moment of our lives, we have before us the choice of which  of several futures we will choose.

There are two actual outlooks on  the world possessed by everyone—a natural focus and a spiritual focus. The ancient  teachers called the one "the carnal mind," the other "the mind of Christ. " We may differentiate  them as ordinary waking consciousness— governed by our senses, and a controlled imagination—governed  by desire.

We recognize these two distinct centers of thought in the statement: "The natural man  receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him; neither can  he know them for they are spiritually discerned. " The natural view confines reality to the moment  called now. To the natural view, the past and future are purely imaginary.

The spiritual view,  on the other hand, sees the contents of time. It sees events as distinct and separated as  objects in space. The past and future are a present whole to the spiritual view.

What  is mental and subjective to the natural man is concrete and objective to the spiritual man. The habit of seeing only  that which our senses permit, renders us totally blind to  what, otherwise, we could see. To cultivate the faculty of seeing the invisible,  we should often deliberately disentangle our minds from the evidence of the senses and  focus our attention on an invisible state, mentally feeling it and sensing it until  it has all the distinctness of reality.

Earnest, concentrated thought focused in  a particular direction shuts out other sensations and causes them to disappear. We  have but to concentrate on the state desired in order to see it. The habit of withdrawing  attention from the region of sensation and concentrating it on the invisible develops  our spiritual outlook and enables us to penetrate beyond the world of sense and to see that  which is invisible.

"For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are  clearly seen. " — Romans, Chapter 1, Verse 20 This vision is completely independent of the  natural faculties. Open it and quicken it!

Without it, these instructions are useless, for "the  things of the spirit are spiritually discerned. ” A little practice will convince us that  we can, by controlling our imagination, reshape our future in harmony with our  desire. Desire is the mainspring of action.

We could not move a single finger  unless we had a desire to move it. No matter what we do, we follow the desire  which at the moment dominates our minds. When we break a habit, our desire to break it is  greater than our desire to continue in the habit.

The desires which impel us to action  are those that hold our attention. A desire is but an awareness of something we  lack or need to make our life more enjoyable. Desires always have some personal gain in  view, the greater the anticipated gain, the more intense, is the desire.

There  is no absolutely unselfish desire. Where there is nothing to gain there is  no desire, and consequently no action. The spiritual man speaks to the natural  man through the language of desire.

The key to progress in life and to the fulfillment  of dreams lies in ready obedience to its voice. Unhesitating obedience to its voice is an  immediate assumption of the wish fulfilled. To desire a state is to have it.

As  Pascal has said, "You would not have sought me had you not already found me. " Man,  by assuming the feeling of his wish fulfilled, and then living and acting on this conviction,  alters the future in harmony with his assumption. Assumptions awaken what they affirm.

As soon as  man assumes the feeling of his wish fulfilled, his four-dimensional self finds ways for the  attainment of this end, discovers methods for its realization. I know of no clearer definition  of the means by which we realize our desires than to experience in imagination what we would  experience in the flesh were we to achieve our goal. This experience of the end  wills the means.

With its larger outlook the four- dimensional self then constructs  the means necessary to realize the accepted end. The undisciplined mind finds it difficult to  assume a state which is denied by the senses. Here is a technique that makes it easy to  encounter events before they occur to "call things which are not seen as though they were.

"  People have a habit of slighting the importance of simple things; but this simple formula  for changing the future was discovered after years of searching and experimenting. The first  step in changing the future is desire — that is: define your objective—know definitely what you  want. Secondly: construct an event which you believe you would encounter following the  fulfillment of your desire—an event which implies fulfillment of your desire— something  that will have the action of self predominant.

Thirdly: immobilize the physical body and induce a  condition akin to sleep—lie on a bed or relax in a chair and imagine that you are sleepy; then, with  eyelids closed and your attention focused on the action you intend to experience — in imagination  —mentally feel yourself right into the proposed action—imagining all the while that you are  actually performing the action here and now. You must always participate in the imaginary action,  not merely stand back and look on, but you must feel that you are actually performing the action  so that the imaginary sensation is real to you. It is important always to  remember that the proposed action must be one which follows the fulfillment  of your desire; and, also, you must feel yourself into the action until it has all  the vividness and distinctness of reality.

For example: suppose you desired promotion in  office. Being congratulated would be an event you would encounter following the fulfillment of your  desire. Having selected this action as the one you will experience in imagination, immobilize the  physical body, and induce a state akin to sleep—a drowsy state—but one in which you are still  able to control the direction of your thoughts—a state in which you are attentive without effort. 

Now, imagine that a friend is standing before you. Put your imaginary hand into his. First feel it  to be solid and real, then carry on an imaginary conversation with him in harmony with the action. 

Do not visualize yourself at a distance in point of space and at a distance in point of time  being congratulated on your good fortune. Instead, make elsewhere here, and the future  now. The future event is a reality now in a dimensionally larger world; and, oddly enough, now  in a dimensionally larger world, is equivalent to here in the ordinary three-dimensional  space of everyday life.

The difference between feeling yourself in action, here and now,  and visualizing yourself in action, as though you were on a motion-picture screen, is the difference  between success and failure. The difference will be appreciated if you will now visualize  yourself climbing a ladder. Then with eyelids closed imagine that a ladder is right in front  of you and feel you are actually climbing it.

Desire, physical immobility bordering on  sleep, and imaginary action in which self feelingly predominates, here and now, are not only  important factors in altering the future, but they are essential conditions in consciously projecting  the spiritual self. If, when the physical body is immobilized, we become possessed of the idea  to do something—and imagine that we are doing it here and now and keep the imaginary action  feelingly going right up until sleep ensues—we are likely to awaken out of the physical body to  find ourselves in a dimensionally larger world with a dimensionally larger focus and actually doing what we desired and imagined  we were doing in the flesh. But whether we awaken there or not, we are actually  performing the action in the fourth-dimensional world, and we will re-enact it in the  future, here in the third-dimensional world.

Experience has taught me to restrict the imaginary  action, to condense the idea which is to be the object of our meditation into a single act, and  to re-enact it over and over again until it has the feeling of reality. Otherwise, the attention  will wander off along an associational track, and hosts of associated images will be presented  to our attention. In a few seconds they will lead us hundreds of miles away from our objective in  point of space, and years away in point of time.

If we decide to climb a particular flight  of stairs, because that is the likely event to follow the realization of our  desire, then we must restrict the action to climbing that particular flight of  stairs. Should our attention wander off, we must bring it back to its task of climbing  that flight of stairs and keep on doing so until the imaginary action has all the solidity  and distinctness of reality. The idea must be maintained in the field of presentation  without any sensible effort on our part.

We must, with the minimum of effort, permeate  the mind with the feeling of the wish fulfilled. Drwsiness facilitates change because  it favors attention without effort, but it must not be pushed to the stage of sleep, in which we shall no longer be able to  control the movements of our attention, but rather a moderate degree of drowsiness in  which we are still able to direct our thoughts. A most effective way to embody a desire is  to assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled and then, in a relaxed and sleepy state,  repeat over and over again, like a lullaby, any short phrase which implies fulfillment of our  desire, such as "Thank you" as though we addressed a higher power for having done it for us.

If,  however, we seek a conscious projection into a dimensionally larger world, then we must keep  the action going right up until sleep ensues. Experience in imagination, with  all the distinctness of reality, what would be experienced in the  flesh were you to achieve your goal; and you shall, in time, meet it in the flesh as  you met it in your imagination. Feed the mind with premises—that is, assertions presumed to be true,  because assumptions, though unreal to the senses, if persisted in, until they have the feeling of  reality, will harden into facts.

To an assumption all means which promote its realization are  good. It influences the behavior of all by inspiring in all the movements, the actions, and  the words which tend towards its fulfillment. To understand how man molds his  future in harmony with his assumption we must know what we mean by  a dimensionally larger world, for it is to a dimensionally larger world that  we go to alter our future.

The observation of an event before it occurs implies that the event  is predetermined from the point of view of man in the three-dimensional world. Therefore,  to change the conditions here in the three dimensions of space we must first change  them in the four dimensions of space. Man does not know exactly what is meant by  a dimensionally larger world, and would no doubt deny the existence of a dimensionally  larger self.

He is quite familiar with the three dimensions of length, width and height, and  he feels that if there were a fourth dimension, it should be just as obvious to him as the  dimensions of length, width and height. A dimension is not a line; it is any way in which  a thing can be measured that is entirely different from all other ways. That is, to  measure a solid fourth-dimensionally, we simply measure it in any direction  except that of its length, width and height.

Is there another way of measuring an object  other than those of its length, width and height? Time measures my life without employing  the three dimensions of length, width and height. There is no such thing as an instantaneous object. 

Its appearance and disappearance are measurable. It endures for a definite length of time. We  can measure its life span without using the dimensions of length, width and height.

Time is  definitely a fourth way of measuring an object. The more dimensions an object has, the  more substantial and real it becomes. A straight line, which lies  entirely in one dimension, acquires shape, mass and substance  by the addition of dimensions.

What new quality would time, the fourth dimension,  give which would make it just as vastly superior to solids as solids are to surfaces and  surfaces are to lines? Time is a medium for changes in experience because all changes  take time. The new quality is changeability.

Observe that if we bisect a solid,  its cross section will be a surface; by bisecting a surface, we obtain  a line; and by bisecting a line, we get a point. This means that a point is but  a cross section of a line, which is, in turn, but a cross section of a surface, which is, in  turn, but a cross section of a solid, which is, in turn, if carried to its logical conclusion,  but a cross section of a four- dimensional object. We cannot avoid the inference that all  three-dimensional objects are but cross sections of four-dimensional bodies.

Which means:  when I meet you, I meet a cross section of the four-dimensional you—the four-dimension self that  is not seen. To see the four-dimensional self, I must see every cross section or moment of  your life from birth to death and see them all as coexisting. My focus should take in  the entire array of sensory impressions which you have experienced on earth  plus those you might encounter.

I should see them, not in the order in which they  were experienced by you, but as a present whole. Because change is the characteristic  of the fourth dimension, I should see them in a state of  flux as a living, animated whole. If we have all this clearly fixed in our minds,  what does it mean to us in this three- dimensional world?

It means that, if we can move along time's  length, we can see the future and alter it as we so desire. This world, which we think so solidly  real, is a shadow out of which and beyond which we may at any time pass. It is an abstraction from a  more fundamental and dimensionally larger world—a more fundamental world abstracted from a still  more fundamental and dimensionally larger world and so on to infinity.

The absolute is  unattainable by any means or analysis, no matter how many dimensions we add to the world. Man can prove the existence of  a dimensionally larger world simply by focusing his attention on an invisible  state and imagining that he sees and feels it. If he remains concentrated in this state,  his present environment will pass away, and he will awaken in a dimensionally larger  world where the object of his contemplation will be seen as a concrete objective reality. 

Intuitively I feel that, were he to abstract his thoughts from this dimensionally larger  world and retreat still farther within his mind, he would again bring about an externalization  of time. He would discover that every time he retreats into his inner mind and brings about  an externalization of time, space becomes dimensionally larger. And he would, therefore,  conclude that both time and space are serial, and that the drama of life is but the climbing  of a multitudinous dimensional time block.

Scientists will one day explain  why there is a Serial Universe. But in practice how we use this Serial Universe to  change the future is more important. To change the future, we need only concern ourselves with two  worlds in the infinite series, the world we know by reason of our bodily organs, and the world  we perceive independently of our bodily organs.

Chapter 2: Assumptions Become Facts Men believe in the reality of the external world  because they do not know how to focus and condense their powers to penetrate its thin crust. This  book has only one purpose—the removing of the veil of the senses—the traveling into another  world. To remove the veil of the senses we do not employ great effort; the objective world  vanishes by turning our attention away from it.

We have only to concentrate on the state desired in order to mentally see it, but to give it  reality so that it will become an objective fact, we must focus attention upon the invisible  state until it has the feeling of reality. When, through concentrated attention, our desire  appears to possess the distinctness and feeling of reality, we have given it the  right to become a visible concrete fact. If it is difficult to control  the direction of your attention while in a state akin to sleep, you may find  gazing fixedly into an object very helpful.

Do not look at its surface but into and beyond  any plain object such as a wall, a carpet, or any other object which possesses depth. Arrange  it to return as little reflection as possible. Imagine then that in this depth you are seeing  and hearing what you want to see and hear until your attention is exclusively  occupied by the imagined state.

At the end of your meditation, when you  awake from your "controlled waking dream," you feel as though you had returned from a  great distance. The visible world which you had shut out returns to consciousness and  by its very presence informs you that you have been self- deceived into believing that  the object of your contemplation was real. But, if you know that consciousness is the one  and only reality, you will remain faithful to your vision, and by this sustained mental attitude  confirm your gift of reality, and prove that you have the power to give reality to your desires  that they may become visible concrete facts.

Define your ideal and concentrate your  attention upon the idea of identifying yourself with your ideal. Assume the feeling of  being it, the feeling that would be yours were you already the embodiment of your ideal.  Then live and act upon this conviction.

This assumption, though denied by the  senses, if persisted in, will become fact. You will know when you have succeeded in  fixing the desired state in consciousness by simply looking mentally at the people you know.  In dialogues with yourself you are less inhibited and more sincere than in actual conversations  with others, therefore the opportunity for self analysis arises when you are surprised  by your mental conversations with others.

If you see them as you formerly saw them,  you have not changed your concept of self, for all changes of concepts of self result  in a changed relationship to your world. In your meditation allow others to see you  as they would see you were this new concept of self a concrete fact. You always seem to  others an embodiment of the ideal you inspire.

Therefore, in meditation, when you contemplate  others, you must be seen by them mentally as you would be seen by them physically were  your concept of self an objective fact; that is, in meditation you imagine that they  see you expressing that which you desire to be. If you assume that you are what you want to be  your desire is fulfilled, and in fulfillment all longing is neutralized. You cannot continue  desiring what you have already realized.

Your desire is not something you labor to fulfill,  it is recognizing something you already possess. It is assuming the feeling of  being that which you desire to be. Believing and being are one.

The conceiver and  his conception are one, therefore that which you conceive yourself to be can never be so far off as  even to be near, for nearness implies separation. "If thou canst believe, all things  are possible to him that believeth. " Being is the substance of things hoped for, the  evidence of things not yet seen.

If you assume that you are what you want to be, then you will  see others as they are related to your assumption. If, however, it is the good of others  that you desire, then, in meditation, you must represent them to yourself as already  being that which you desire them to be. It is through desire that you rise above your  present sphere and the road from longing to fulfillment is shortened as you experience in  imagination what you would experience in the flesh were you already the embodiment  of the ideal you desire to be.

I have stated that man has at every moment of time  the choice before him which of several futures he will encounter; but the question arises: "How  is this possible when the experiences of man, awake in the three-dimensional world,  are predetermined? " as his observation of an event before it occurs implies. This  ability to change the future will be seen if we liken the experiences of life on earth to  this printed page.

Man experiences events on earth singly and successively in the same way that  you are now experiencing the words of this page. Imagine that every word on this page  represents a single sensory impression. To get the context, to understand my meaning,  you focus your vision on the first word in the upper left-hand corner and then move your focus  across the page from left to right, letting it fall on the words singly and successively.

By the  time your eyes reach the last word on this page you have extracted my meaning. Suppose, however,  on looking at the page, with all the printed words thereon equally present, you decided to  rearrange them. You could, by rearranging them, tell an entirely different story; in fact,  you could tell many different stories.

A dream is nothing more than  uncontrolled four-dimensional thinking, or the rearrangement of both past  and future sensory impressions. Man seldom dreams of events in the order in which  he experiences them when awake. He usually dreams of two or more events which are separated in  time, fused into a single sensory impression; or, in his dream, he so completely  rearranges his single waking sensory impressions that he does not recognize them  when he encounters them in his waking state.

For example: I dreamed that I delivered a package  to the restaurant in my apartment building. The hostess said to me, "You can't  leave that there"; whereupon, the elevator operator gave me a few letters  and as I thanked him for them, he, in turn, thanked me. At this point, the night elevator  operator appeared and waved a greeting to me.

The following day, as I left my apartment, I  picked up a few letters which had been placed at my door. On my way down I gave the day  elevator operator a tip and thanked him for taking care of my mail; whereupon, he thanked  me for the tip. On my return home that day I overheard a doorman say to a delivery man,  "You can't leave that there.

" As I was about to take the elevator up to my apartment, I was  attracted by a familiar face in the restaurant, and, as I looked in, the hostess greeted me with  a smile. Late that night I escorted my dinner guests to the elevator and as I said goodbye to  them, the night operator waved goodnight to me. By simply rearranging a few of the single  sensory impressions I was destined to encounter, and by fusing two or more of them  into single sensory impressions, I constructed a dream which differed  quite a bit from my waking experience.

When we have learned to control the movements  of our attention in the four-dimensional world, we shall be able to consciously create  circumstances in the three-dimensional world. We learn this control through the waking dream,  where our attention can be maintained without effort, for attention minus effort is  indispensable to changing the future. We can, in a controlled waking dream, consciously  construct an event which we desire to experience in the three- dimensional world.

The sensory impressions we use to construct our  waking dream are present realities displaced in time or the four- dimensional world. All that  we do in constructing the waking dream is to select from the vast array of sensory impressions  those, which, when they are properly arranged, imply that we have realized our desire. With the  dream clearly defined we relax in a chair and induce a state of consciousness akin to sleep—a  state, which, although bordering on sleep, leaves us in conscious control of  the movements of our attention.

When we have achieved that state, we experience  in imagination what we would experience in reality were this waking dream an objective fact. In  applying this technique to change the future it is important always to remember that the only thing  which occupies the mind during the waking dream is the waking dream, the predetermined action  which implies the fulfillment of our desire. How the waking dream becomes  physical fact is not our concern.

Our acceptance of the waking dream as physical  reality wills the means for its fulfillment. Let me again lay the foundation  of changing the future, which is nothing more than  a controlled waking dream. 1.

Define your objective—know  definitely what you want. 2. Construct an event which  you believe you will encounter following the fulfillment of your  desire—something which will have the action of self predominant—an event which  implies the fulfillment of your desire.

3. Immobilize the physical body and induce  a state of consciousness akin to sleep; then, mentally feel yourself right  into the proposed action—imagining all the while that you are actually performing  the action here and now so that you experience in imagination what you would experience in  the flesh were you now to realize your goal. Experience has convinced me that this  is the perfect way to achieve my goal.

However, my own many failures would convict me  were I to imply that I have completely mastered the movements of my attention. I can,  however, with the ancient teacher say: "This one thing I do, forgetting  those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are  before, I press toward the mark for the prize. " Chapter 3: Power of Imagination "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall  make you free.

" —John, Chapter 8, Verse 32 Men claim that a true judgment must conform to the  external reality to which it relates. This means that if I, while imprisoned, suggest to myself  that I am free and succeed in believing that I am free, it is true that I believe in my freedom;  but it does not follow that I am free for I may be the victim of illusion. But, because of my own  experiences, I have come to believe in so many strange things that I see little reason to doubt  the truth of things that are beyond my experience.

The ancient teachers warned us not to judge from  appearances because, said they, the truth need not conform to the external reality to which it  relates. They claimed that we bore false witness if we imagined evil against another—that no  matter how real our belief appears to be— how truly it conforms to the external reality  to which it relates—if it does not make free the one of whom we hold the belief, it  is untrue and therefore a false judgment. We are called upon to deny the evidence of our  senses and to imagine as true of our neighbor that which makes him free.

"Ye shall know the  truth, and the truth shall make you free. " To know the truth of our neighbor we must assume  that he is already that which he desires to be. Any concept we hold of another that  is short of his fulfilled desire will not make him free and  therefore cannot be the truth.

Instead of learning my craft in schools where  attending courses and seminars is considered a substitute for self-acquired knowledge,  my schooling was devoted almost exclusively to the power of imagination. I sat for hours  imagining myself to be other than that which my reason and my senses dictated until the  imagined states were vivid as reality—so vivid that passersby became but a part of my  imagination and acted as I would have them. By the power of imagination my fantasy led  theirs and dictated to them their behavior and the discourse they held together while  I was identified with my imagined state.

Man's imagination is the man himself, and the  world as imagination sees it is the real world, but it is our duty to imagine all  that is lovely and of good report. "The Lord seeth not as man seeth, for  man looketh upon the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh upon the heart. " "As  a man thinketh in his heart so is he.

" In meditation, when the brain grows luminous,  I find my imagination endowed with the magnetic power to attract to me whatsoever I desire.  Desire is the power imagination uses to fashion life about me as I fashion it within myself. I  first desire to see a certain person or scene, and then I look as though I were seeing  that which I want to see, and the imagined state becomes objectively real.

I desire to  hear, and then I listen as though I were hearing, and the imagined voice speaks that which I  dictate as though it had initiated the message. I could give you many examples to prove my  arguments, to prove that these imagined states do become physical realities; but I know that  my examples will awaken in all who have not met the like or who are not inclined towards  my arguments, a most natural incredulity. Nevertheless, experience has convinced  me of the truth of the statement, "He calleth those things which be-not as though  they were.

" — Romans, Chapter 4, Verse 17 For I have, in intense meditation, called  things that were not seen as though they were, and the unseen not only became seen, but  eventually became physical realities. By this method—first desiring and then  imagining that we are experiencing that which we desire to experience—we can mold  the future in harmony with our desire. But let us follow the advice of the prophet  and think only the lovely and the good, for the imagination waits on us as indifferently  and as swiftly when our nature is evil as when it is good.

From us spring forth  good and evil. "I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and  evil. " — Deuteronomy, Chapter 30, Verse 15 Desire and imagination are the enchanter's wand  of fable and they draw to themselves their own affinities.

They break forth best when the  mind is in a state akin to sleep. I have written with some care and detail the method  I use to enter the dimensionally larger world, but I shall give one more formula for  opening the door of the larger world. "In a dream, in a vision of  the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their  instruction.

" — Job, Chapter 33, Verses 15 and 16 In dream we are usually the servant of  our vision rather than its master, but the internal fantasy of dream can be turned into  an external reality. In dream, as in meditation, we slip from this world into a dimensionally  larger world, and I know that the forms in dream are not flat two- dimensional images  which modern psychologists believe them to be. They are substantial realities of the  dimensionally larger world, and I can lay hold of them.

I have discovered that, if I surprise  myself dreaming, I can lay hold of any inanimate or stationary form of the dream (a chair, a table,  a stairway, a tree) and command myself to awake. At the command to awake, while firmly  holding on to the object of the dream, I am pulled through myself with the distinct  feeling of awakening from dream. I awaken in another sphere holding the object of my dream, to  find that I am no longer the servant of my vision but its master, for I am fully conscious and  in control of the movements of my attention.

It is in this fully conscious state, when we  are in control of the direction of thought, that we call things that are not seen as  though they were. In this state we call things by wishing and assuming the feeling of our wish  fulfilled. Unlike the world of three dimensions where there is an interval between our assumption  and it’s fulfillment, in the dimensionally larger world there is an immediate realization of our  assumption.

The external reality instantly mirrors our assumption. Here there is no need to  wait four months till harvest. We look again as though we saw, and lo and behold,  the fields are already white to harvest.

In this dimensionally larger world "Ye  shall not need to fight: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord  with you. " 2 Chronicles, Chapter 20, Verse 17 And because that greater world is slowly  passing through our three-dimensional world, we can by the power of imagination mold  our world in harmony with our desire. Look as though you saw, listen as though you  heard; stretch forth your imaginary hand as though you touched .

. . and your  assumptions will harden into facts.

To those who believe that a true judgment  must conform to the external reality to which it relates, this will be foolishness  and a stumbling-block. But I preach and practice the fixing in consciousness  of that which man desires to realize. Experience convinces me that fixed attitudes  of mind which do not conform to the external reality to which they relate and are therefore  called imaginary—"things which are not"—will, nevertheless, "bring to nought things that are.

” I do not wish to write a book of wonders,  but rather to turn man's mind back to the one and only reality that the ancient teachers  worshiped as God. All that was said of God was in reality said of man's consciousness so we  may say, "That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory  in his own consciousness. " No man needs help to direct him in the application  of this law of consciousness.

"I am" is the self-definition of the absolute. The root out  of which everything prows. "I am the vine.

" What is your answer to the  eternal question, "Who am I? " Your answer determines the part you play  in the world's drama. Your answer—that is, your concept of self—need not conform to the  external reality to which it relates.

This great truth is revealed in the statement, "Let the weak  say, I am strong. " — Joel, Chapter 3, Verse 10 Look back over the good resolutions with  which many past new years are encumbered. They lived a little while and then they died. 

Why? Because they were severed from their root. Assume that you are that which you want  to be.

Experience in imagination what you would experience in the flesh were  you already that which you want to be. Remain faithful to your assumption, so that you  define yourself as that which you have assumed. Things have no life if they  are severed from their roots, and our consciousness, our "I amness," is  the root of all that springs in our world.

"If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die  in your sins. " — John, Chapter 8, Verse 24 That is, if I do not believe that I  am already that which I desire to be, then I remain as I am and die in my present  concept of self. There is no power, outside of the consciousness of man, to resurrect and  make alive that which man desires to experience.

That man who is accustomed to call up  at will whatever images he pleases, will be, by virtue of the power of  his imagination, master of his fate. "I am the resurrection, and the life: he  that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. " — John, Chapter 11, Verse 25 "Ye shall know the truth, and  the truth shall make you free.

” Chapter 4: No One to Change But Self "And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through  the truth. " — John, Chapter 17, Verse 19 The ideal we serve and strive to  attain could never be evolved from us were it not potentially involved in our nature. It is now my purpose to retell and to  emphasize an experience of mine printed by me two years ago.

I believe these quotations  from "The Search" will help us to understand the operation of the law of consciousness, and  show us that we have no one to change but self. Once in an idle interval at sea I  meditated on "the perfect state," and wondered what I would be, were I of too pure  eyes to behold iniquity, if to me all things were pure and were I without condemnation.  As I became lost in this fiery brooding, I found myself lifted above the dark environment  of the senses.

So intense was feeling, I felt myself a being of fire dwelling in a body  of air. Voices as from a heavenly chorus, with the exaltation of those who had been conquerors  in a conflict with death, were. singing, "He is risen—He is risen," and  intuitively I knew they meant me.

Then I seemed to be walking in the night. I  soon came upon a scene that might have been the ancient Pool of Bethesda for in this place  lay a great multitude of impotent folk—blind, halt, withered, waiting not for the moving of the  water as of tradition, but waiting for me. As I came near, without thought or effort on my part  they were, one after the other, molded as by the Magician of the Beautiful.

Eyes, hands, feet—all  missing members—were drawn from some invisible reservoir and molded in harmony with that  perfection which I felt springing within me. When all were made perfect, the chorus exulted, "It is  finished. "Then the scene dissolved and I awoke.

I know this vision was the result of my  intense meditation upon the idea of perfection, for my meditations invariably bring  about union with the state contemplated. I had been so completely absorbed within the idea  that for a while I had become what I contemplated, and the high purpose with which I had for  that moment identified myself drew the companionship of high things and fashioned  the vision in harmony with my inner nature. The ideal with which we are united  works by association of ideas to awaken a thousand moods to create a  drama in keeping with the central idea.

My mystical experiences have convinced me  that there is no way to bring about the outer perfection we seek other than  by the transformation of ourselves. As soon as we succeed in transforming ourselves,  the world will melt magically before our eyes and reshape itself in harmony with  that which our transformation affirms. In the divine economy nothing is lost.

We cannot  lose anything save by descent from the sphere where the thing has its natural life. There is  no transforming power in death and, whether we are here or there, we fashion the world that  surrounds us by the intensity of our imagination and feeling, and we illuminate or darken our  lives by the concepts we hold of ourselves. Nothing is more important to us  than our conception of ourselves, and especially is this true of our concept  of the dimensionally greater One within us.

Those who help or hinder us, whether they know  it or not, are the servants of that law which shapes outward circumstances in harmony with our  inner nature. It is our conception of ourselves which frees or constrains us, though it may  use material agencies to achieve its purpose. Because life molds the outer world to reflect the  inner arrangement of our minds, there is no way of bringing about the outer perfection we seek  other than by the transformation of ourselves.

No help cometh from without; the hills to which  we lift our eyes are those of an inner range. It is thus to our own consciousness that  we must turn as to the only reality, the only foundation on which all phenomena  can be explained. We can rely absolutely on the justice of this law to give us only  that which is of the nature of ourselves.

To attempt to change the world before we change  our concept of ourselves is to struggle against the nature of things. There can be no outer  change until there is first an inner change. As within, so without.

I am not advocating  philosophical indifference when I suggest that we should imagine ourselves as already that  which we want to be, living in a mental atmosphere of greatness, rather than using physical means  and arguments to bring about the desired change. Everything we do, unaccompanied by a change of  consciousness, is but futile readjustment of surfaces. However we toil or struggle, we can  receive no more than our assumptions affirm.

To protest against anything which happens to us is to protest against the law of our being  and our rulership over our own destiny. The circumstances of my life are too  closely related to my conception of myself not to have been formed by my own spirit from  some dimensionally larger storehouse of my being. If there is pain to me in these happenings,  I should look within myself for the cause, for I am moved here and there and made to live  in a world in harmony with my concept of myself.

Intense meditation brings about a union with the  state contemplated, and during this union we see visions, have experiences and behave in keeping  with our change of consciousness. This shows us that a transformation of consciousness will  result in a change of environment and behavior. All wars prove that violent emotions are extremely  potent in precipitating mental rearrangements.

Every great conflict has been followed  by an era of materialism and greed in which the ideals for which the conflict  ostensibly was waged are submerged. This is inevitable because war evokes hate  which impels a descent in consciousness from the plane of the ideal to the  level where the conflict is waged. If we would become as emotionally aroused over  our ideals as we become over our dislikes, we would ascend to the plane of our ideal as easily  as we now descend to the level of our hates.

Love and hate have a magical  transforming power, and we grow through their exercise into the likeness of  what we contemplate. By intensity of hatred we create in ourselves the character we imagine in  our enemies. Qualities die for want of attention, so the unlovely states might best be rubbed out by  imagining "beauty for ashes and joy for mourning" rather than by direct attacks on the state from  which we would be free.

"Whatsoever things are lovely and of good report, think on these things,"  for we become that with which we are en rapport. There is nothing to change but our concept of  self. As soon as we succeed in transforming self, our world will dissolve and reshape itself in  harmony with that which our change affirms.

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