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Transcript

Lecture by Father Paul Blighton
Tape 815 8/13/68

 

Good evening. This is Tuesday evening. Tonight we’re going to talk about God and His creation and what you, as an individual, can do about it, the things which we learn and the things which we can use. It is easy enough to learn many things, many words, but what good are they if they will not accomplish anything themselves in your life, or in your everyday life, in your working development, and all through your spiritual development?

It was — well, let us go back first to the, some of the dim days of the past and creation of the earth. A man — this was a rather lonely place — looked upon man as being a rather solitary and isolated individual. He looked upon himself this way. And without any neighbors, many times in most places before he began to colonize, and strictly alone in the universe with one or two people.

So it is that we today have begun to think of the earth as a rather isolated place and man has tried and attempted, and is still attempting, to reach out to some of his neighbors on other planets and other places. But when he learned that he had neighbors here on this planet and others, all governed by the same laws and the same universal understanding, all moving about the same sun, then his perspective began to change and he began to understand more, and he no longer felt that he was absolutely isolated in the house of the planet he lived in.

The human soul and its nature, as it appears before our minds at times, seems to be in a different light because man has been taught to know and to feel himself a part of a greater family of people, beings, not like a wanderer alone without any neighbors, but all controlled by the same central Source of life and light. This, of course, is quite true, but sometimes we sort of fail to recognize one thing, that we can study the Bible and the things that are quoted to us as being the eternal Laws, but we don’t go and study the creation itself.

New avenues of thought have enriched not only our minds but our language and our vocabularies where in times long ago there were few intellectual beings and communication was very difficult, very difficult for us to express our own personal feelings and our own inner feelings.

But man now begins to know that there is one type of people and one people under God that, regardless of the color of their skin, their nationality, or what country they may come from, from the north or south pole or wherever it may be, have one supreme image for all religions; all cults and all faiths have one image at the head of it. There may be many subsidiary images, but their subsidiary images are more or less secondary, and in accordance with the, more or less the race or nation, or whether they are yellow or red or whatever their color may be. And most have the same rights of human manifestation and living, then all are born with the same prerequisites to reach the eternal life that is spoken of by every great avatar and Master, and the power of what Jesus, the Lord of earth, talked about.

Sometimes people forget that when one studies God one has to study His Creation, and they sort of go off on a tangent and get all wrapped up in a lot of superconscious ideas and everything, and forget that this is an everyday thing. Take these laws and put them to work every day and test them out and find out whether they function or not. If they don’t, why, forget ’em and throw ’em away, because a religion that doesn’t work every day or a law that doesn’t work every day then is either— it’s one of two things. Either the law is not true, or you’ve got yourself in the way, or you’ve got some opinions that you shouldn’t have, and therefore it will not work.

In our work we want to know, we want to know, and we want to know also in our philosophy. The two should be one. We attempt to be upright men and to use our symbolic ideas in measuring our actions and relationships and communication and interrelationships. We implore you, our neighbor, as brothers to look upon ourselves as stones in the mighty structure, so to speak. The earth, the world, as a temple. We want to be free in our life, free from superstition, and we want to have some jurisdiction over our life and our actions, and not be under what might be called sort of a foreign dictatorship of any kind.

But there are certain things that still bind us, and those are the laws of creation and the things that hold matter together. This does not mean that you will not help to maintain certain ethics and practices which we find are good for everyone to use and the responsibilities of them, or help those who carry on certain social affairs that help people who have accidents, as they think, and have physical things happen to them in various ways.

It means that we will not tolerate injustice or autocracy, an autocratic empire, dictatorship existing for the purpose of but one life, one man or one small group. You will find on the face of the earth many organizations and schools, movements, and if you trace them down to some certain identities, you will find that most of them are more or less the same, basically, except their strivings may be different or they may be out to attain certain specific ideals or attributes different than the others.

The movement and school which we belong to and the ideal, that is of the Holy Order of Mans, and the greatest endeavor — its greatest endeavor is to assist a great civilization that has grown rapidly in science, faster that it has in philosophy, faster than its understanding in the Testament and creation, and to reach higher and more nobler states of existence, both spiritually and physically, to attain many more of the material benefits and things of the earth, because we know that they will, we will attain them as we attain the spiritual concepts and are able to hold these. We also point out that the practical methods are spoken of, as in Jesus’ work; that these are very, very true.

His consciousness, which we receive at times through our own building up and likening ourselves unto him, and those omnipotent powers received by every man and woman who was born — these are realistic things that can be used. We are further united, by the Holy Order of Mans, in our earthly brotherhood by the greatest of all emotions, and that is the God Self can contact others and we may experience that which we know is love, which we express to others and glorify His being in our divine communion with one another, because there is a communion between men and women, and woman and woman, and man and man. And when we speak of men here, of course we mean collectively.

We must remember that as little children our minds were not, are not contaminated now for a purely objective — and we’re trying to bring them to that state of a part of life. The mind of a child is always in attunement with the divine Mind, and it is easy to understand that the first message any child understands is love given and he gives his love back to his mother in return, and others around him, full, without fear.

We have seemed to speak as if we thought there was some possibility of all religions having a common ground to meet on — and there is, a common ground which is known by all. In the Christian faith we call this common ground Christ, the Christos. He’s known to the Orientals as the ..(?)… I guess that’s the right pronunciation. Theo — yes. And by other parts of the Eastern faith as the Lord Metrayas. And then we look on further and we’ll find him in Mohammedan faith with another name.

There are five or six names for the same great Being, all understood, all accepted in the same way. The Son of God. Now we’re not speaking of Jesus, we’re speaking of the great Son. And this we accept, and it was taught in the Testament. So you see it is not impossible.

Even the ..(?).. festival is a festival held by many of the Eastern faiths, as a festival in which they say that the Lord Buddha comes to earth and brings down the Christ force to earth at that time, for his followers and for his devotees in that part of the world, and is a celebration of it.

Man cannot denounce or deny, either directly or indirectly, the reality of the Christ, because he is absolutely dependent upon this great force and great power and intelligence. He could not live without it. Man, in his seeking for greater power, a higher life, the guarantee of infinite knowledge, both through many books and legends, folklore of all kinds in his quest. For many great truths are taught in the folklore of a nation or a race.

On the other hand, the greater part of the outer world, material world, feels that they have the source of all power in the release of the atom and the electron in physics, and so forth, by their controls, learning through mathematics. But all of these things are comparatively minute to the power and force that lies within the very touch and command of the individual, contained within the invisibility of the atom which can be released by man.

Now it doesn’t take any large atom-smasher or the investment of a million dollars to release this power. Man can do it with very little work, but an absolute determination and a conscientious understanding and a sincere letting-go of his own being, knowing that this power and force will work through if he doesn’t try to do it all with his will. If we could but release this power as easily as we release the power in an explosive, and as systematically, we would accomplish many great feats. But you see we still haven’t come to the place where we are looking at the unseen part of life and the unseen world as being a greater part of this creation than what we are looking at with our physical eyes. For the force and power within man, the human being, his vitality, his magnetism, is far greater than that of any force that he has released through engines or through his atomic devices.

We have power and energy manifesting through the human mind and body. The brain would not have any power of its own if it weren’t for this. No amount of food put into the body could furnish that much energy for the brain to keep alive. The directed brain contains all the forces of the universe, many types, which may be released, both seen and unseen, known and unknown to most people. For this day is the day for man and woman — we generally use the term “man” because it is a collective term that includes woman — to learn the use of the wondrous forces that we’ve been left with, which God has put at our disposal. And the knowledge of these forces gives man the control and the use of these powers in his universe every day.

The Holy Order of Mans was formed specifically to bring man the correlation of wisdom of the ages. With this wisdom, he should have an understanding of all men around him in this age, under a universal banner of his own. First of all, man must learn to know himself. He must learn the vehicles that he uses, the human body and the source of its energy, and the vital forces of life within it and how to control it.

Some have called this electrical energy, in surgery today, nerve energy. It is vibratory in nature like electricity, but we must not think that because an energy vibrates it is all electrical, for there are forces in our body which vibrate but are not electrical in nature. As you know it is likened to our house current. Some of these are used to convey other vibrations from one area to another in our human body.

There are certain locations in the body where this vibratory nerve energy manifests more strongly than they do in others. And there are nerve energies which work on the muscle structure and in the blood and in certain blood vessels and in the nerves around certain arteries, while that same energy would not function at all in other parts of the body.

The energy flows from the principal trunk nerves and the two principal nerve terminals of the hands and the feet. The hands receive great power, and thus we may run this power through the tips of the fingers at the ends of the very important nerves which constitute the terminals, or the delivery point or receiving point. This is why we have the so-called magnetic healing.

They have discovered that there is a power in the hands, and the greater power being in the thumb and the first two fingers of the hand, in healing and all its applications. The tips of these fingers are reached by the radial nerve, and this force will register on an instrument, a delicate instrument, potentiality, as to its potential difference from time to time, and may be used in many forces, in many ways in finding out things regarding the human body and its ability to control and deliver energy. The right hand is the most effective in power and can be used along certain places on the spine, to stimulate the nerves in certain conditions. If the person is suffering from pain of any kind, they must become — they become as quiet and relaxed as possible for about a minute, and then locate this and they find that the energy delivered from there is very effective.

(side 2 of tape) There are many different ways of application and approach. There are distinct ways of reaching any part of the human body from certain centers. By using the tips of the — the fingertips — we do not use them in the way of applying pressure or massage or anything of that sort; nothing to do with it. You’re not trying to cure pain, for pain is nature’s way of warning us that something is not working properly, and it relieves — but it is to relieve the condition at the present time, and let nature do it, which is causing the disturbance. Usually these applications are nothing to do with our determination except our word, and healing, and then the power will flow. There are a few things which we have to learn and have to decide on when we go into learning more about our vehicle and the ways to use it.

The eyes of man are very peculiar in many ways. They play a very important part in man’s vision and man’s life, both physical and spiritual. When we compare the eyes of man and those of animals, we find that the eyes of the animals are more efficient, and especially those of some insects are much more efficient than man’s eyes. In fact, the eye of man is about one of the poorest efficiency, has the lowest efficiency of any organ of his whole body.

Man’s duplicate seeing sees into one field of focus, gives a picture of life and the depths of what might be called sight, might be considered psychic by some, spiritual by others, and it might become unknown to others. And in other cases he might be called abnormal and some people might think that the individual was not physically sane. So we have anywhere from the very slightest indications of these, of intuition. We run over a large gamut of sight and find ourselves, from the seeing of children to the insane, and all of these things are different states of development, different states of sanity and sensitivity. And yet we try to treat people for the fact that they can see — one can see better than the other. So be careful. Don’t see too well, or some people may think you’re insane — this is the ridiculous part of it.

The science of sight will be found in our work on the physical vehicle, or in the thesis on healing, and this will bring interesting details as to the reality of your own being. But we have spoken of some of the physical applications. And before this we have spoken of mind. To go into the physical type of healing requires distinct visual charts and a following of these things through, careful study of sheets, or it will not mean anything — it will not have anything to do with your understanding of what actually takes place.

But we have talked in the past of the word and prayer, the word of Christ through us, and the prayer, and a way of understanding ourselves, of understanding our own prayers, of understanding our own ability to heal, our own ability to take care of our needs through the Word of God. And of course most people don’t ever associate the Word of God with what they need because, of course, if you follow the usual colloquial way of thinking, God don’t have anything to do with your everyday life. That’s just on Sunday, you see. They don’t never pay any attention to that when it comes to using it where you work or where you make money. That’s nothing to do with it. It’s all separated. Sunday is one day and the other six days is another. So don’t get them mixed up together, because if you do you’re liable to start thinking the way we do and then that would be bad.

But if you get into the assumption of, to get into the understanding of man’s mind and his attitudes and his mental attributes, you’ll begin to learn something about what life is like, only you won’t be doing it exactly as a psychiatrist does it, or the sociologist. Psychiatry has its place, but if God isn’t in it, why then it doesn’t have much of a place.

We learn one thing though, in all of our work so far, and that is the fact that man has the power to assume certain roles and certain things in his life, and that they will function and they are real, and they’re not play-acting. Now, I know of people whom you could talk to that would go on and explain the mental science to you as a play, and they live every day that way, as a play, and there’s no reality to it. They would tell you that all they see in front of you is not real. They would go on still further and tell you that no doubt it’s part of the play.

Well, I’m going to tell you one thing, my friend, when they wake up, after they’ve left this vehicle, they’re going to have a real sudden shock, and it won’t be an act or a play. It’ll be very darn real, believe me, and they’ll wish they’d found out more about the reality of it. Because when you wake up and find that you’ve got nothing but your mind to control the energy and powers around you, then you’ll wish you’d listened a little closer, when Jesus said and talked with his disciples.

There are three things in man’s life that has to do with his advancement and his spiritual reality. One is the attaining of his independent knowing, the second is his illumination, and the third his realization of God. From the first to the third of these major concepts — or major realities, I should use the term — he may study about them, he may work on them, he may work on them spiritually, he may get to the place where he has light to a certain extent, has broken through into the light, but until he starts to function on it, he hasn’t got it, because he hasn’t accepted it.

I know of people that occasionally have been able to see the God Self and they’ve worked very hard for some of these things. But until they accept this and go to work with it, by the assuming, the acceptance, the working with it, the reaching out, the moving with it, they’ll never have it. Because you may see all kinds of fantastic spiritual phenomena, and until you use it, u-s-e these powers that are God-given, you haven’t got them. You’ve just seen something that is a manifestation of them, but they have not been used by you, therefore you don’t have them. You have to work on them and step out on it.

It is just the same as when the Master said, on the road that day when he saw the leper and he said to the leper, he said, “Arise. Take up thy bed and walk.” Walk! he said, unless more or less thy same sins return unto thee. He didn’t say, “Maybe you can get up; try and pick up your bed; see if you can walk.” Unh-unh. He said, pick it up, walk. But mark my word, don’t go back and do it over again, because it will come back on you. Now the man had to assume that he was well, didn’t he, or he’d have never got off of the bed.

Now the church very often calls this an act of faith. Well, it’s far more than what the interpretation of faith is. You are actually assuming and taking on the conditions that you were commanded to do, and you are acting on it.

What if you said, went into a church — I don’t care what church it is, and somebody was chasing you or something, that you were afraid of, and you went to the altar and you said, “Father, take away this from me.” Would you go out to the back door of the church, cautiously open it up and peek out to see if they were still chasing you? Well, if you do, you might just as well forget the prayer, because it’ll do you no good. Because you haven’t got that tiny much speck of faith in what that prayer is, so don’t ever expect to get it answered, because it won’t be, I’ll guarantee it.

Now there are three comparative things in life that man works with, and those three things — one of them is the assumption or the assuming. the other is comprehension, and the other is realization. Now these are three distinct acts of man. You might say they are three points of the triangle, in a sense. Because these three words represent the three great states of reality which you must function in, somehow or other, in order to have a prayer or any state of spirituality work and become a part of your life. Assuming something is not getting a false idea, assuming something that you know to be a reality is taking hold of it and using it, with confidence, with knowing, with understanding.

Now there’s another factor necessary in here, and that’s comprehension. You have got to understand what you’re working with or at least what you want. Can you comprehend Jesus, can you comprehend the great Son? Can you comprehend the statement that Jesus made when he said, “Only through me shall you see the face of the Father”? Can you comprehend this? It’s possible for you to.

Then there is the realization of this: to realize that this is, and to accept it and work with it. Now I can see wheels going around in many heads. And when you get three words such as this: assumption, comprehension and realization, which aren’t really long words but they’re words that a lot of people might not run into every day, but they’re very simple. Comprehend, assume, and realize.

You know, I use these words and I love to use them, because it gives everybody a way of making a valid excuse that they shouldn’t pay any attention to them. Because there’s nothing I like to do better than to satisfy the people that don’t want to know, so they make sure that they don’t understand the words you say. And they say, I don’t know what he’s meaning, therefore I don’t have any responsibility to God for this, so I guess I’ve got a good alibi. And this is true; there’s no easier way in the world than to alibi by saying, well, I just don’t understand him because he’s using some big terms. And that’s why I’m going to use the big terms, you see, because then it gives them an absolutely bonafide alibi. They don’t have to pay any attention to God’s Word. Then we’ll see how many of them will go seek it out, because you always want to oblige people, always, even help ’em on the way to hell, if necessary. Well, if that’s what they want, I want to see that they have their choice.

This comprehension, as we speak of it, is a very serious bit of maneuvering and it’s a very serious thing, because it is one thing that will move more in your life than any thing else that I know of, because this is the halfway point, so to speak. It is the point at which the fork of the road is. No understanding, ignorance. Comprehension. This is the halfway point. And it’s at that point that the whole earth is now, in its decisions, in this way to the fulfillment of what the Testament said, when it said there shall be a new heaven and a new earth.

After our break period I’ll go on with this for probably another half hour, if I can keep it going that long, because this is rather meaty and I don’t like to go too long with it because you won’t get anything — have anything to take home. You can break now

Let us now get down to the business of really understanding some of the terms you’ve heard in church, in your faith and in the teachings in the Bible, by the use of these three words. Because they are three points of understanding and getting things to function. We have the term faith used in the Christian philosophy, and this faith is a blind acceptance that something is or something is going to be, or that something will take place.

Now, when you assume something, you do a little more than that, you know that it is going to take place. You know that it has already taken place. Now that’s a rather ridiculous statement on the face of it, but when you start to analyze it, it isn’t, because everything that happens first happens in the mind and in the Mind of God, because it has happened simultaneously there.

What is in your mind is in the Mind of God, isn’t it? Now, that may make you shudder a little bit when some of the things that you’ve thought of in the past you wouldn’t like to feel that you had put this in the Father’s mind too, would you? Well, you have. So kinda watch out what you think about, and if you assume something, you assume it has — already exists. And this is true, because it does exist. It exists in the Mind of the Father. It exists in your mind too. It exists there because you are the creator. You are the one that has given your word, (end of side 2 of tape) which is the word of God, that it’s going to happen down here in this world.

Now, you may not say this audibly. You may not make it in a distinct statement, but you may repeatedly accept something as a fact, and therefore it will become a certain condition or fact in your life. You may accept that you have arthritis or stomach ulcers or something else, and it will be, I’ll guarantee you one hundred per cent that you will develop them.

You know God never failed to answer a prayer, never. Never been known. A true prayer has always been answered. And they’re not always, the answering of them, nice things, because people don’t pray for nice things always. So when you assume something, you are actually going the full extent of faith. You are accepting the fact that it already is; and this is an act. You’ll notice I didn’t say just assumed; it’s the act of assumption. It is something that has — it is taking place now. You are now in that state of assuming, and therefore it is.

Now there is another factor which enters into the picture here, and that’s comprehension. Now a person may be able to understand certain things in word pictures, but can you comprehend the exactitude and the reality of your prayer? Can you comprehend how it could be? Can you comprehend the reality of it happening? In mind maybe, you hope the good Father does, but this isn’t any longer a state. Not a true Christian that’s believable can say, “I hope God will do this”, because if he does he’s a liar, ’cause he’s not a Christian, because he doesn’t believe in the Bible. No true Christian can say that he hopes God will answer his prayer, because he is a doubter of the Testament and a doubter of the Testament is not a Christian. So to comprehend is to be able to assume something and fully understand that it has happened. Comprehension. Reality.

And the next step is the realization. This is the materialization of it, realizing that it is so and that it comes from here, that it comes through the source and the power revealing in its channels — that there may be many people that had to do with this bringing about of this one prayer into reality. And then realizing that it is, and accepting it on this basis.

Now three of probably the most powerful terms that have been used in our language are these words. They have to do with our work here, and not only the people on the outside but also the people on the inside, and they have very definite points to do with the ministry. We won’t go into that, but it is just the same thing when we speak of the things outside, when we speak of realization or illumination.

The realization of it is when we start to work with it, when we start to realize, in illumination, for instance, that this is light and it isn’t imagination, and you start to work with it. These are not mental concepts.

It wasn’t too many months ago when we heard a man and he went on for quite a little time about concepts, concepts. Well, of course, they’re very beautiful and you can get a great lot of fun badgering one another with this, because you can come out with a great big fat zero. And if you keep on going, you can soon have a concept that you’re up in the state hospital, and you’ll be there, I guarantee you, you’ll get there sooner or later. Because when you cut God out of your life, you’re going to—you’re headed right for it. Sure cure.

Now I don’t care what you call it; that doesn’t make any difference. You can call it Allah, Buddha, whatever you — what have you. This makes no difference. It’s the recognition of power and Supreme Power and Intelligence which is at the root of all things. And it is the realization — and you don’t realize anything until you work with it and cooperate with it, in a sense cooperate, co-working. When it answers your questions, when your prayers are answered, when you have gotten results, then you have truly realized a thing, a prayer, or the Self.

And this is our great trouble in this life, not only with philosophy, not only with the teachings of God, but a lot of other things. It is the trouble with our modern education. Because no longer do they teach you to have confidence in what you have learned, and to use it. They take you down a narrow channel of learning and tell you that you have to have an expert in order to get it to work. And it’s a little bit silly, because I’m the expert and so are you.

I know this is the fact, because I’ve watched and had too many men working for me, and not as a minister either, but in science. And some of our most brilliant men are total helpless children, because they have been taught to in our educational system, that if they don’t have an expert at their side in case they get off of this one little narrow line, they’re lost. And they’re brilliant, but they are afraid to stand on their own good old-fashioned Yankee horse sense to do anything. And that’s just what it takes. That’s what my grandmother would have called it, Yankee horse sense. Well, I think they had horse sense in many places, but that was her expression. Because I don’t think she was any more Yankee than anybody else was. In fact, she wasn’t; she was English, and born there.

But if, you can read all you want to out of a book in mathematics, you can read all and study all you want to out of a book on electricity, or electrical engineering, or mechanics. And if you study about mechanics and machinists’ work, you can study all about it. You can know verbatim and to absolutely all the metals and everything else, but until you walk up to that lathe and put a piece of steel in that, and turn the switch, you don’t know a blooming thing. And in life, until you have made a prayer and got an answer, you don’t know God. And that’s the truth. And this is our great trouble.

We must learn to know things. Some of the ancients told us many years ago, one of man’s greatest sins was not doing something. He said, never hesitate to do something. You may do, and you may be wrong, but you have done. And that’s the lesser sin of the two. And it’s been taught that way for thousands of years by men who are, I am sure, much more intelligent than I am, and who have tried it in their history for thousands of years. Because if you don’t do, you can’t know, and if you don’t know, you are not sure.

And that’s just what we’re saying here. And this is what each one is faced with when he goes into the spiritual channel of things. He can work and study, philosophy, the Bible, the books. He can learn Greek, he can learn Latin, he can learn Hebrew, and go on for years learning, but until he gets his feet wet, until he does something with it, he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know a thing. He may have letters that long after his name, but he doesn’t know anything, not a thing.

But when one of my boys go out on the street, and they meet somebody that’s in trouble, and they stand and talk with them or say a prayer with them, privately, and it immediately takes effect and the person’s helped, I don’t care if he’s only been in here six days, he knows! And there’s only one way you can know, and that’s when you have gotten yourself out of the way, and you’ve let the power and the Spirit work. And when you’ve done this, then you know.

That’s why in this school we not only give fifteen hours of class work a week, and more than that incidentally, but I won’t brag so I’ll just say fifteen hours — but they get a lot of those little secret hours that they put in alongside of their bedside, in meditation and in other things, because if they don’t produce some efforts, some results about what they have learned, they don’t graduate. Tough. We want to know that you know.

Just because you can get up and say the Lord’s prayer and go through some ritual don’t make you a minister, not by a jugful. But if you can walk up to a person that’s very ill on the street and lay your hands on him and say, “Father, let the Holy Ghost come down!”, and he’s healed, you’re a minister. I don’t care whether you’ve ever opened the Bible or not. Actually, that’s so. But until you can do it, you’re not, and I don’t care how many diplomas or D.D.’s you got. I am emphatic about this because it is the keynote to every man, not only in the seminary, but every man and woman alive, their happiness; because the moment that they know, there is no more fear. Fear has gone out of their life forever, because they know that the Holy Spirit is a real thing, and there’s no more fakery or imagination about it. That is why the answer to people’s problems and their need today is to know! That will remove all need of the rest of the things.

Now, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t get an education. It’s nice to get an education, because you have to be able to converse with people, just so as to listen to them yak, and yak back at ’em. It won’t change the action of the Spirit or the power of God a bit; but you can understand more and appreciate more of God’s creation by it, that’s for sure.

So you see our keynote, our work, not just ours but every man’s on earth, every man on earth’s work, is to know. And when he does, he’ll ring the bell every time. Is there any questions?

One thing I might say on leaving this subject is that I have found one thing with all students. They are always very, usually very ardent in doing their Bible lessons, as a rule. At least they try to be. They sometimes misfire like anybody does, but they try. But that only prepares them. That opens the eyes to the ways and the history and the backdrop of creation. That shows you something of the universality of the whole thing. But that doesn’t change one little bit the necessity for knowing.

Now there are many, many very well-educated metaphysical teachers. There is a whole field of them that are well-educated, well-versed in the philosophy they are teaching. Might be Zen, might be Sufi, might be Mormonism, might be the occult in some way, or the mystics, but the world is still hungry and the young folks still are looking for answers, because nobody has told them anything about how important it is to know. So the answers aren’t in the book, the answers aren’t in the reading, the answers aren’t in the studying. The answers are in the practicing.

Do you know? And when you know, then you can go on and read and study and really get more out of it than you did before.

You know I had a rough time here one time, a decision to make, about a year ago or so. A young fellow came in that had never read our philosophy. I say “our”: I mean our short way of doing it, because it comes out of the Testament and the ancient mysteries. He was here two months, and went through realization. And I said, “My God, what am I going to do with him? He, by rights, has a right to the ministry. He’s only been here two months, and he hasn’t finished his first year’s work yet.”

So I sat him down; we were giving a test on the first year’s work because the rest of the group had — at that time they had finished the twenty one points of life and the tools. So I thought, “Well, we’ll try him out.” We put him down at a table — and of course, we have nice easy tests here. For this first year it only took about eight hours for our first year’s test.

Well, he made it. It took him twelve hours to pass 93, I think it was, or 94, a test that he’d never studied the material on. I said that he was realized, and he was, because all he had to do was go into the Mind of the Father, and there was the answers. He proved it. He knew! And he’s known ever since. Now that was a real toughie, you see. Because you wouldn’t think of ordaining a man two months after he got here, would you? Well, it was only about four months and he was ordained. But he knew! Why hold it up? He knew God, and he proved it.

O. K., if there’s no questions, why, I’ll say class dismissed. That’s enough for one lesson.