Detailed Summary:
"Eternity in the Mind of Man" - Neville Goddard Lecture
Main Topics:
Predetermination: The lecture argues that everything is predetermined, based on the Book of Ecclesiastes and the modern vision of quantum physics. Professor Feynman is quoted: "We cannot believe that the future gradually develops from the past. We must see the space-time history of the world as something already established."
Olam - Eternity: The meaning of the Hebrew word "Olam" is analyzed, which translates as "eternity". It is explained that "Olam" also means "something hidden", "a youth" and "the virgin". This connects with the idea that God hid himself and his son in the mind of man.
David as the personification of creative power: David is presented as the personification of God's creative power. Passages from the Book of Samuel are analyzed where the identity of young David's father (Olam) is sought. The answer "I am the son of your servant Jesse" is interpreted as "I am the son of I AM", connecting David with divinity.
Death as a necessary experience for redemption: The lecture argues that humanity needs to experience "death" (understood as limited human experience) to achieve redemption. This is related to the story of the prodigal son, who returns to the father after going through hardships.
The power of repentance: Despite predetermination, it is stated that repentance (a radical change in attitude) allows one to modify experience and not be slaves to the cycle of recurrence.
Important Ideas and Facts:
The vision of Ecclesiastes: The Book of Ecclesiastes is used to argue that history repeats itself and that humanity cannot understand God's complete plan.
Quantum Physics: Professor Feynman is quoted to connect the vision of Ecclesiastes with modern physics, suggesting that time is not linear.
The story in the mind of man: It is stated that God placed the complete history of humanity ("Olam") in the mind of man.
The sacrifice of the son: The story of Isaac is interpreted as a symbol of the sacrifice of God's own creative power ("the son") to overcome death.
The awakening of the father: The awakening of the father (God) is described as the result of the victorious son's return.
Relevant Quotes:
"God has put eternity into man's mind, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end." (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
"We cannot believe that the future gradually develops from the past. We must see the space-time history of the world as something already established." (Professor Feynman)
"Eternity exists and all things in eternity, independent of Creation, which was an act of mercy" (Blake)
"I am the son of Jesse the Bethlehemite." (David in 1 Samuel 17:56)
"Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee." (Psalm 2:7)
Conclusion:
The lecture presents a complex vision of the relationship between God, man, and eternity. It is argued that everything is predetermined, but repentance allows one to modify individual experience. The key lies in understanding that God is found within each person, personified in creative power ("the son"). By overcoming "death" (limited human experience), redemption and the awakening of the father (God) within each one is achieved.
Lecture
12/11/64
Tonight’s title, I should say, is “God has put Eternity into the Mind of Man.” It’s taken from the 11th verse of the 3rd chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes. It’s considered the most disputed verse in the book. It begins: “God has made everything perfect in its time; and he has put eternity into the mind of man, yet so that man cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” That each event in life comes in a setting in which it fits. That God had, by the limitation of man’s power, made it impossible for man to comprehend the whole of his purpose. So man cannot quite see the purpose behind it all.
Now the entire world rejects this almost in its entirety…that everything is predetermined. Well, that’s what the book teaches. There are a few inserted verses, which if you’re serious as a student you can find them. They were inserted by some zealous religious leader, who tried to make God some great judge where he’s a God of retribution. That’s not what this one is talking about. He said the rich and the poor they go to the same end, that the wise and the foolish they go to the same end. He invites us all to simply enjoy life, eat and drink, and simply rejoice in what you do; for the end of all as far as he’s concerned it’s the same. He said, “That which has been is that which will be. That which has been done is that which will be done; and there’s nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, ‘See, this is new’? It has been already, in ages past. But there is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of things to come later among those who will come after” (Eccles. 1:9). But man rejects that completely; he can’t believe that for one moment.
But, we’ll come into this present generation of ours, and here are the words of one of the truly great physicists of the day, Professor Feynman at Cal Tech. Professor Feynman made the statement—-and it isn’t new, he only confirms but he doesn’t know he’s confirming Ecclesiastes—that having observed the strange behavior of the positron, where this little particle produced by atomic disintegration, starts from where it hasn’t been and it speeds to where it was an instant ago; arriving there it’s bumped so hard its time sense is reversed, and then it returns to where it hasn’t been. That’s Professor Feynman. This is this generation. He said, “Now, having observed the strange behavior of this little particle, we have to change our entire concept of the world. No longer can we believe that the future is unfolding gradually out of the past. We must now see the entire space-time history of the world laid out, and we only become aware of increasing portions of it, successively.” The whole vast thing is a world of recurrence.
Well, that’s what the writer of Ecclesiastes saw. He calls himself Koheleth. No one knows what the word means, because it only appears in this book, so they’ve guessed at it. But these are the words, “These are the words of Koheleth, the son of David king in Jerusalem.” That’s all that it says. So they have concluded that it means either an assembly, or the speaker before the assembly, a preacher, a teacher—one who has gathered together all the wisdom of the world and tries to convey it to an assembly. That’s what they believe the word means. But the words are this, “These are the words of Koheleth, the son of David.” That’s how the New Testament begins, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David.” Is this Koheleth? Now we go to the end of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, in the very last chapter: And “I Jesus” say to my angel, “I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star” (22:16). I am the root, therefore, I am father, I am the origin; I am also the offspring. I am the origin of the flower, of David. I conceived him, I am his father, and yet I am the flower. Here is the great mystery. “I will bring forth from you” said the voice to David “a son from your body. I will be his father and he shall be my son” (2 Sam. 7:12).
Now we go back to the statement of the 3rd chapter, the 11th verse, and listen to it carefully, for you can’t quite grasp it unless you understand the meaning of the word which is translated “eternity.” “God has put eternity into the mind of man, yet so that man cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” Now the word translated eternity is the Hebrew word Olam—-Ayin, Lamed, Mem—-and we sound it Olam. You turn to your Concordance and you look up the word and find its many definitions, its many meanings. Here are a few: “something hidden, something kept out of sight; hide oneself; eternity, the world; something veiled from sight; a young man, a youth, a stripling, a lad.” All of these are the meanings of the word Olam.
Now, what did God put into the mind of man and did it in such a manner that man cannot find out from the beginning to the end what God did? Only in the end can he find out, at the very end. Well, what did he put into the mind of man? Well, I’ll tell you that in the beginning, before we unfolded, he put himself, he hid himself, in the mind of man. Well, when he hid himself in the mind of man he was already a father, and because he hid the whole of himself, he had to hide his son. So he hid his son and he hid himself in the mind of man. God himself entered death’s door which is the human skull, and laid down in the grave of man to share with man his visions of eternity. At the end of the great vision, when the whole thing is over and this son conquers everything, then the son awakens the father who is the dreamer. And then in that awakening of the dreamer, he awakes from the dream of life.
Now let me try to explain it to you. This is a mystery. A mystery is not a matter to be kept secret, but it is a truth that is mysterious in character. How can God enter the grave called man? How can he condense himself to this thing? Well, in Hebrew thought history consists of all the generations of men and their experiences fused into a great whole, and this concentrated time into which all the generations of men are fused and from which they all spring is called Olam. Olam, then, is history…a compact whole, that’s what Olam is. So when we speak of Olam as eternity, all the generations, the play is finished. That’s what Koheleth is saying, the whole play is finished, and it repeats and repeats itself forever and forever. While he awakens within the play and escapes from it all, he warns us not to be amazed, not to be surprised, when we see day after day or year after year all the great…well, what would I say to describe it? Every morning’s paper brings it and you and I remain shocked when we see all the stealing going on in the world among officials. And he warns us not to be surprised because all officials are encouraged by the example of those above them to make what gain they can from their vocations. So we read in a morning’s paper that some trusted official suddenly embezzles so much the firm goes broke. Or someone that you and I voted for and thought he was the one to lead us to some greatness, and he entered politics as a poor man, married a poor girl, served only us, supposedly, and at the end of his faithful service (really to himself) he comes out with, say, twenty million dollars. And so, he warns us in the 5th chapter not to be surprised, not to be amazed when we see such things taking place among officials. This is a play. You can’t blame anyone when you see it. They don’t know they are sound asleep, as though they were really in a state of amnesia. But they don’t know it, and you and I don’t know that they don’t know it. We think that they are completely awake. So he warns us of all these things in the story. And man refuses to accept it, because he can’t believe that this thing is a play. But the book itself, from beginning to end, warns it, with few exceptions, which all scholars agree are insertions by these zealots, religious zealots, trying to give some kind of reason behind it all…and you can’t do it. God himself did it.
Now let us turn to the word Olam, for that gives us the cue. What does it mean? What did he put into my mind, into your mind, into our mind, and put it in such a way that you and I can’t detect it until the very end? And I tell you, the word means “a stripling,” it means “a youth,” it also means “to hide oneself.” Alright, I say in the beginning he put himself into the mind of man; and if the word is translated eternity: “Eternity exists and all things in eternity, independent of creation, which is an act of mercy” (Blake). So he put the whole thing in my mind. Therefore, I agree with Blake: “All that I behold, tho’ it appears without, it is within, in my Imagination, of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.” If he put eternity in my mind, I can’t see anything, really, outside of myself. There isn’t one thing outside of my self. But he will not allow me to discover just what it is and the process until the very end: It’s really himself. I make this statement: The whole is contained within man, but the important thing in man is God the Father and his Son. His Son is his creative power and his wisdom (1 Cor. 1:24). It’s personified in scripture as David. David is called “the adventurer”; David is called “the one who goes forward against all opposition and conquers.” He is the conqueror. He never fails, he goes forward, and when he conquers completely he sets his father free as told us in the Book of Samuel (1 Sam. 17:25).
Now we come to a certain passage in the Book of Samuel. Listen to it carefully. This whole story takes place in Spirit, not on earth. Here in Samuel…and David is brought into the picture, a youth, he’s just a youth, and the king said to his lieutenant Abner, “Abner, whose son is that youth?” and he replies, “As your soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell.” Well, the word translated “youth” is Olam. He’s inquiring about Olam, “Whose son is that youth?” He asked another question, he said, “Inquire whose son the stripling is.” The word “stripling” is Olam. Nobody knows, so the youth steps forward, and he holds the head of the giant in his hand, the Philistine, the one who was the opponent of Israel. And he turns to the youth now, he said, “Tell me, whose son are you, young man?” The word “young man” is Olam (1 Sam. 17:56). So, “Whose son are you, young man?” I’m trying to find out the father of this lad, I’m not asking about the lad at all. I’m not saying, “Who are you?” I’m saying, “Whose son are you, young man?” Whose son are you—and “young man” is Olam—so tell me. Well, he replies “I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.” Jesse means “I AM”…that’s all that it means. Jesse is the same word translated Jehovah. Jesse is the same word translated Jesus. This is who I am: I am the son of Jesse the Bethlehemite. Now, the promise is made that if I can find the one who destroyed the enemy of Israel, I would set his father free. I must now set the father of this one free. Well, who is the father of that being? I am. So, when you see him he sets you free.
So the mystery contained in the mind of man is God and his creative power, personified as a youth called David. God being man, his attributes are men. So his son which is the personification of his creative power is David. And when I put myself into death, the last thing to be conquered is death. So I enter death’s door, and play my part, sending my son into battle, my creative power, and my creative power conquers and conquers and conquers. As it conquers, as we are told, I will give to him who overcomes…the morning star (Rev. 2:26,28). In the end, we are told, “I am the root and the offspring of David, the great morning star” (22:16). So he gives himself. His own creative power is now redeemed. He brings it back enhanced beyond the wildest dream of anyone on earth, having gone through death and overcome death. He dies: He becomes man. This is death. This whole vast world, believe it or not, is dead.
I’ve seen it. I have seen the whole thing stand still. You can turn it back…so then you read the words, And he took the world and turned it back from its shadow ten degrees (2 Kings 20:9). How could you take the sun and the shadow that it cast upon the earth and turn the shadow back and tell me that the world is what the scientists believe that it is? If I can turn it back ten degrees, I can reverse its course, if I can turn anything back. How can I make it stand still? Well, I’ve made it stand still. I’ve made those I saw in the focus of my being, I’ve made them stand still, and they all stood still; and then I allowed them to move on in their course. So they moved on in the wheel of recurrence, but I had the satisfaction of tasting of the power of the age to be. Didn’t change them…I made them stand still, and then the birds stood still, the leaves stood still, everything stood still. Then, when I released within me—-not in them—-the activity which I arrested, they all continued to perform their intention. Their intention is predetermined; it’s a wheel within a wheel within a wheel.
And man will not believe it, he can’t seem to believe it. And so this is the most disputed book in the Bible, and the verse we chose for tonight’s subject is the most disputed verse in the book, the 3rd chapter, 11th verse (Eccles.). He has made everything perfect, everything—that every event in this world comes into a setting in which it fits—but by the limitation of man’s power, man is not able to see the full purpose of God’s plan. And man will not believe it.
Now he makes this statement…all through the book he uses the words “I saw” or “I have seen.” He reminds us of the Book of Acts when John and Peter are told, if they are not silent they are going to be imprisoned and persecuted and beyond that. They said to the Sanhedrin, “If it is right in the eyes of God…no, whether if it is right in the eyes of God to listen to you rather than God, you must judge. But we cannot speak of anything other than that which we have seen and heard.” So, whoever Koheleth is, is saying: These things I know, I have seen them, I’ve experienced them. Whether I understand them or not, I’m telling you what I have seen. And now he tells you—-this is the 4th chapter, the 15th verse—-he said, “I saw all the living that move about under the sun as well as the second youth, who is to stand in his place. There was no end to all the people. He was over them all. Yet those who will come later will not rejoice in him.” He saw all the people moving about under the sun, but he also saw the second youth, who is to stand in his place. And here, this one is over everyone—as we’re told in Ezekiel, the 37th chapter, And David is my prince over all, but no one will rejoice in him. So I tell you this story. And if tonight you are hungry for money, your concept of that so far transcends any thought I could ever tell you about David that you couldn’t even compare them. You have no ears to hear the story of the one who is coming to stand over all—the conqueror of your own being, your creative power, personified as the second youth. All through scripture it’s the second one that takes the place. So Cain slew Abel, and Cain I hated and Abel I loved; Jacob took the place of Esau; Ephraim took the place of Manasseh; and all through the entire Bible the second takes the place—this peculiar mystery that is taking place.
Now listen to these words, the word “Olam” also means, it’s the same word translated in the book of Isaiah as “the virgin” in the 7th chapter, the 14th verse: “And a virgin shall have a son and call his name Immanuel.” That word “virgin” is Olam. Here in the 9th chapter: “Unto us a child is born, to us a son is given…and his name shall be Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (verse 8). Everlasting Father, if I would spell it in Hebrew would be Ab Olam. That’s his name, Everlasting Father. Now these two, the child and the son given are entirely different. “Unto us a child is born,” that’s one. It’s not the same as “the son is given.” A child is born; the son is given. That son that is given is David, and “God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son” (John 3:16). What is his only begotten son? “Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee,” the 2nd Psalm the 7th verse addressed to David.
So to this David a son is given. And one of his names—-he has four names—-is Everlasting Father. So right into the mind of man is placed the Everlasting Father. For if he’s a father and he’s all, you can’t take from him fatherhood, therefore, where is his son? His son is his own creative power and his wisdom. He buries his creative power in this world of death; and sends him through death to conquer death, and he comes out, and the last enemy to be conquered is death. When he has conquered all, he comes out and extracts from the world of death his son that was the warrior, who performed all the actions as the Father dreamed it. When the Son has completed all the actions the Son returns, and as he looks into the eyes of his Son, that heavenly face and knows it to be his Son returned, he awakes. He awakes from the dream and he’s conquered death.
Now you understand the story of the prodigal son. He sends the second son into the world. The prodigal son was the second, not the first. He sends the second son into the world, and he goes into the pigsty and lives off of husks. He does everything, and then he remembers; he comes to his senses. And the Greek word translated “and when he came to his senses” literally means “and when he came to his senses after fainting.” Have you ever fainted, completely fainted, and then all of a sudden you’ll be on the floor, and then you come to your senses after fainting and the whole world returns? Well, this was like a faint and he comes to his senses after fainting and returns. In that interval he remembers, the Father remembers, and now his creative power is once more placed upon the throne as it were. The robe is put upon him, the ring, and shoes upon his feet, for only slaves went without shoes. He’s no longer the servant, he’s no longer the slave; he is now a free being. He brings back his creative power; and is risen from the world of death because he conquered death.
Now, does this give us any opportunity while we are in the world of death to modify it and change it? The book does not show it but the New Testament does. One who has returned from death can tell you a story. Until one returns from death, he doesn’t know of the story of repentance, he knows nothing of it. Prior to that, it’s simply a world of recurrence, and it’s over and over and over, and you wonder if ever in eternity one will ever come out. So he said, “What has man who amasses enormous fortunes, at the end he must leave it at death to those who did not toil. How does he differ from the poor man? And the wise man, how does he differ from the fool?” He only saw recurrence in this world. Well, when one rises from the dead…when that second one…he saw it only in shadow, that’s all that he saw it (Eccles. 4:15). He saw the second one, but he didn’t see it vividly. Read it carefully. There’s no description of the second one, he only knows it’s Olam; he only knows it’s the second, it’s not the first. He doesn’t in any way describe that second son, that second youth. But when that second one returns from his venture in the world of death and conquers everything, he awakens his father and sets his father free; and the father extracts his creative power from the world of death. He overcame it.
So here, not until someone rises from the dead can he tell the story of repentance. Repentance is simply, while one is still venturing in this turning wheel, where things recur and recur and recur: “Go and tell them that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.” This Book of Ecclesiastes shows us that humanity’s most urgent need is for the gospel that waited for the fullness of time, the most urgent need. Because, man seeing only the wheel…like Professor Feynman, the whole vast time-history of the world is laid out and we only become aware of increasing portions of that which already is. But when one rises from the dead and extracts his creative power, he can tell everyone—if they’ll believe him, who have not yet risen from the dead, for they haven’t found the son that was lost—“This is my son, he was dead, and he’s alive again; he was lost, and now he’s found” (Luke 15:24). So the prodigal has returned; my creative power in the world has returned. I lost it, I was sound asleep; to me it was dead. I am sound, sound asleep. And now, he conquered everything, he conquered death. Having conquered all he is returning, and he’s waking me, his Father, and he and I are one. I can’t separate myself from my creative power.
And so, when I now resurrect and completely return but enhanced beyond the wildest dream of what I was prior to my venture into death, I can now say: I can send my angel into the world and tell them that repentance works. That you don’t have to consider this wheel forever, you can interfere with the otherwise mechanical structure of the brain. You don’t have to actually observe this and that as it unfolds before your eyes. You can see what you want to see—though the wheel of recurrence would deny it—and change the pattern. And while you are in the wheel of recurrence, change the pattern and not be a slave of it. This exercise is the exercise that David needs, and then he will overcome and overcome all the things presented for his observation. And overcoming it, finally he overcomes death; and he returns to awaken his Father.
So God placed into the mind of men, Olam; and Olam really is himself and his son. He placed the history of humanity, that’s what he did. The whole compact history of the whole vast world he placed in the mind of man. So man cannot observe anything outside of himself. But he can interfere with this mechanical structure of the brain by repentance. Repentance is simply a radical change of attitude towards life. And so, I really need not, I need not go on forever just observing the wheel of recurrence with no hope of redemption—for there’s no hope in the Book of Ecclesiastes, none whatsoever. Enjoy yourself whether you’re poor or rich, he tells you, for your end is the same whether you’re wise or foolish, whether you’re known or unknown. Whatever you are, simply enjoy yourself. Said he, I have amassed fortunes, I have raised buildings, I have known the love of women, all the things. He refused nothing; he could indulge himself; and he saw the whole thing as a wheel turning and no escape.
But he did have the vision, a faint vision of a second son; but he didn’t know what the second son represented. He knew he was above all, and he knew that everyone he saw moving under the sun would be under this second son. But he also knew that those who would come later would not rejoice in him at all. So you could talk about him and tell about him and no one would care anything about David. Oh, he lived a long time since. Don’t tell me of David, tell me of today’s story, what is the president doing? What is the leader of Russia doing? What is the head of society doing? So you can say, well, today…and then you tell the story that those who were prominent only a few days ago are gone. But it doesn’t register. Khrushchev is gone from this sphere, but it doesn’t register at all. “Who’s the one who can take his place? Let me know him. If I could only know him I could better myself”…and they don’t understand the wheel is turning.
So the whole vast story is the same; they will not listen about David. So listen to the words, “Those who will come later will not rejoice in him.” I tell you there is no escape from the world until David returns from his conquering venture, and brings back the head which is the vital part of man, and brings back the head of the enemy of man. He brings it back and the king said, “Whose son are you, young man?” He answered, “I am the son of Jesse.” Son of Jesse? Yes, I am the son of I AM. So he looks you right in the face and calls you Father. Well, who is he calling Father? He’s calling you, and if you answered you’d say, “Well, I am his Father…called me Father…I am his Father.” He is the son of Jesse. At that moment you are redeemed; you’ve conquered death; you die no more. Until then, all death…you are restored at death only to die again. But when this thing happens in your life you die no more, you’re completely redeemed. But you put yourself into death to conquer death. You can conquer everything, but the last enemy to be conquered is death, and death is conquered when David appears, having returned from the slaughter of the enemy of Israel. And so, this is the story.
So I ask you to dwell upon it. When you go home, it’s only a very few chapters, there are only twelve chapters, and he tells you that “Take these words of the shepherd, for they are like nails that are properly driven in” (Eccles. 12:11). A good translation of that phrase would be that you take the idea of one who’s had the experience and you drive it in, the idea of one man driven into the minds of many so they become fixed. I am telling you of my own experience. So let me become the one who will drive the nail in, and let it become fixed in your mind, for these are the stories. And when they are well driven in, he said, the words are like nails firmly fixed, and all these words that are gathered together under one heading, by one shepherd, so let them be firmly fixed. One shepherd (meaning one man who has had the experience) let him take this experience and drive it into the minds of many so they become fixed in the minds of many, that you may be supported by it. Because the day is coming, you’ll have the experience.
In the meanwhile, you are not doomed to eternal recurrence as the book implies. You can repent, and no man is lost who dares to repent. To repent is to change your attitude towards life, and to change your attitude towards life is to change the phenomena of life. You will not see the same thing you would see had you not repented. Indulge yourself and enjoy it while you’re waiting for your creative power, personified as David, to return from the slaughter, to bring back the victory. Then you look into the face of your victorious son…for it was your son that you sent. He gave his only begotten son, his creative power, that’s his son. Not some little being on the outside, your own being. Your own creative power is always personified as a son, and that son is David. And therefore eternity, in the true sense of the word, is not the old man that the Greeks used but eternal youth. That’s your son. He was beside you in the very beginning, your eternal delight, your creative power, as told in the 8th of Proverbs: “He created me in the very beginning of his way, the first of his acts of old. I was daily his delight and he joyed in the affairs of men, a little child. I stood beside him as a little child” (verse 22).
So here, this son is only the personification of your own creative power. Exercise it tonight by changing your attitude towards life, anything in this world, an individual. And you gradually catch on to how it’s done. It’s a simple process when you catch on to it. You don’t burst a blood vessel. You reach a certain moment of actually feeling something that reason denies. At that moment, you feel a thrill as though some electrical current went right through you. Then you do nothing. Watch how you conquered it. Who did it? Your creative power, just watch it. You just bring into your mind’s eye a friend and see him as you would like to see him, and then at a certain moment, I can’t quite describe it other than to tell you it’s like some electrical current. It goes right through you; every atom of your being seems to explode. At that moment it’s done. You overcame whatever he faced as a problem, you overcame it for him. Doing that you overcame it, because you’re overcoming everything. In the very end, having overcome all, you return, having conquered all; and you conquer death and you return to awaken your Father who sent you, his son.
So the Father and the Son are one. Where is the sacrifice? asked the prototype of the Son. Isaac asked his father, “Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” and the father answered, “The Lord will provide himself a lamb” (Gen. 22:7). He is the lamb for a burnt offering. So I and my creative power I can’t divorce them. How can I divorce myself from my thinking, from my imagining? I can’t do it. I can’t put them apart. And so here I seem to send my imaginal act into the world; it returns bringing back exactly what I imagined. And so I overcome and overcome and overcome, and finally this personified power stands before me and calls me Father. At that moment I awaken from it all, and leave behind me a record of how I overcame; and tell the world, you’re not completely enslaved by the wheel of recurrence, you can repent. If you repent, you can change and change and change while you wait for the final consummation, which is the return of the prodigal, the second son. And when he returns, you put shoes on him because he’s free now, and you put a robe on him, and the ring of authority on his hand, and a banquet beyond the wildest dreams.
And those who did not go into the power will sit back and criticize. They wouldn’t go…the first son wouldn’t go. There are those who do not venture. Not everyone will venture into the world of death. For when you see it—-and I’ve seen it from on high—-I’ve had those who have not ventured tell me that no one could return. When I returned to them and told them one night that I came from the world that I called Earth, and they called it Woodland, they couldn’t believe that anyone could ever return from Woodland. So there are those who will not venture, and those who will not venture are called the first son. And those who dare to venture into the world of death and experience the whole, when they return they are enhanced beyond the wildest dream.
Now let us go into the Silence.
Now before we take the questions, I call your attention to my little pamphlet that came off the press this week, called He Breaks the Shell. It’s very simply told, but because it is something different from what man believes, it will be difficult to grasp. But may I turn to Blake…Blake was criticized by the Reverend Doctor Trussler and Trussler told him his works were too obscure and he needed someone to elucidate his ideas. He said to the great Rev. Dr. Trussler that “that which could be made clear to the idiot isn’t worth my care…and that the ancients considered what was not too explicit fittest for instruction, because it rouses the faculties to act.” And so, I’m going to ask you…it’s very simply told, not a word in it would send you to a dictionary, but it may be in conflict with your prefabricated concepts of religion or scripture. So read it and read it and read it. It’s all based upon my own personal experience. I haven’t told one thing in that little pamphlet that I heard from another. I’ve only related my own experience. It’s the unveiling of the image of God, when he sends his power into the world on a predetermined plan to conquer death, and brings it back enhanced beyond the wildest dream. It comes back as his image, and he unveils it, and there are four mighty acts in which he unveils the returned son on a higher level. For it’s a new creation when you return from death; it’s not the same creation. You’re ready now for a new venture. And so that’s what the story’s all about. It’s a very simple little thing. You can read it in, say, two, three minutes. But don’t say because I read it, well, I’ll put it aside. May I suggest that you read it and read it and read it. It’s not something that ninety-nine point ninety-nine percent of the Christians of the world, and the Jews of the world, will accept. But I tell you it is true. Hasn’t a thing to do with orthodoxy. It is true based upon my own personal experience.
Lecture questions
Now are there any questions, please?
Q: (inaudible)
A: As far as I am concerned, God is all Imagination. But people have such a strange concept of Imagination. You can take a very simple little story, you will say of someone, oh, that’s just his Imagination. Haven’t you heard that said “Just his Imagination”? And then someone does the most marvelous job, and he increases the returns of a business that ___(??) and all of a sudden he had Imagination and saw what could be done as against what was being done. There, he’s a man of Imagination! Same word Imagination. And so, we speak of all kinds of ways of using the word, and it’s right, it’s everything, all inclusive. But I use it in a way that to me God is all Imagination and so is man, because God and man are one.
Q: (inaudible)
A: Eternity? Eternity…the word Olam is “something hidden.” Well, certainly Imagination is hidden from the world, because they don’t believe what they are imagining is creative. Isn’t that hidden? And so, it is something hidden, something kept out of sight in time, both past and future. They can’t see the past, they can’t see the future, so they deny the past still exists, then deny the future exists now. So it’s out of sight. They don’t know David, so they can’t see that Olam, which is eternity, is “the youth, the stripling, the lad, the young man.” So when you mention to those who have not experienced him, they do not rejoice in him. I have gone on programs on TV and radio with ministers, rabbis, priests, and they stand appalled. I had one say to me, “Well, tell me…first of all I don’t believe you” said he “and secondly what do you propose to do to spread it if you really believe what you’re talking about?” I said to him, well, as far as I’m concerned, I am reaching you, at the moment, and right now on TV I’m doubling the exposure to, maybe, a half-million people. An nth part, always a little remnant will know, for I’ve planted it in their minds, driving it right in. I will leave behind me in printed form quite a few thousand books.
Well, if I go back in time to what you believe, where it started, there was no book, no book. If I go back to what you call the beginning of, say, one A.D., there’s no book. We had no record of the story until fifty or sixty years after someone had the experience and told it. So you now think you represent a section of one billion Christians, but they all grew in the interval when there was no book, and no TV as you say. But TV and radio came before…it was always part of the picture, but no one knows it. If Feynman, who worked on the atomic bomb and worked on our nuclear bomb, and he’s still a very young man today, and considered one of the top theoretical physicists in the world, not just in our land but in the world, and he said: “The entire space-time history of the world is laid out, and we just become aware of increasing portions of that which already is, successively” then said he in an after thought, “it doesn’t matter what direction of time you take.” And he’s right, would it matter? And this is today’s man in this century. Well, if it is true today, it was always true, that the entire space-time history of the world is laid out. That’s what Blake meant in his wonderful Vision of the Last Judgment that “Eternity exists and all things in eternity, independent of Creation, which was an act of mercy.” He need not bury himself in the dead to overcome death. But I saw it, it was all dead, everything was dead; and see it from a higher level, past, and the present, and the future coexist in the world of death. And you enter it, and then set yourself in motion, and overcome death.
Well, it’s nine…and so, may I remind you we’re closing next Tuesday. I intended to close on the 18th, but the club needs the place for their yearly Christmas party. So next Tuesday will be our last for the year, and we’re reopening on the 5th of January. I’m not going to send out notices to remind you. I will put an ad in the paper, the L.A.Times, the week before I open. But outside of that simple ad I will not be notifying you that I’m reopening on the 5th. So try to remember I’m reopening right here in the same place on Tuesday, January the 5th.
Until next Tuesday. Goodnight.
Question
- What does the Hebrew word "Olam" mean and why is it so important in this lecture?
- Answer: Olam has multiple meanings, including "eternity," "something hidden," "a young man," "the world," and "something veiled." It is crucial because it represents the mystery that God placed in the mind of man.
- How does Goddard relate the observations of physicist Feynman to the book of Ecclesiastes?
- Answer: Both suggest that the entire space-time history of the world is already established, and that we are simply becoming aware of successive portions of what already exists.
- Who is David in Goddard's interpretation and what does he represent?
- Answer: David represents the creative power of God personified, the son who is sent to conquer death and awaken the Father.
- Why does Goddard say that “this world is dead”?
- Answer: Because he sees it as a state of death from which one must awaken, where everything is predetermined in a cycle of recurrence.
- What does “repentance” mean according to Goddard and how does it differ from the traditional interpretation?
- Answer: For Goddard, repentance is a radical change of attitude toward life that allows one to modify one’s experience within the wheel of recurrence, not simply to regret one’s sins.
- Why is the theme of the “second son” significant in the lecture?
- Answer: Throughout scripture, the second son takes precedence (as in the stories of Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, etc.), representing the transformative power that overcomes the first state.
- How does Goddard explain the relationship between Father and Son?
- Answer: He sees them as one - the Father and his creative power (the Son) are inseparable, as one cannot be separated from one's own imagination.
- What does it mean when Goddard speaks of "conquering death"?
- Answer: He refers to awakening from the state of death (the world of recurrence) through the return of the creative power (David).
- Why does he say that people "will not rejoice in him" when he speaks of the second young man?
- Answer: Because most people are more interested in worldly matters and cannot appreciate or understand this deeper spiritual truth.
- What is the practical application Goddard suggests for this teaching?
- Answer: He suggests changing our attitude toward life, using our imagination creatively, and persisting until we feel the reality of our fulfilled desire, described as an "electric current" running through our entire being.
These questions address the fundamental aspects of the conference, from biblical interpretation to practical applications of its teachings.