My consciousness must be alive with this truth:

That I and my Father are one and all that the Father hath is mine; I have a hidden manna, which is life eternal; I am the bread of life, I embody the bread of life.

But this must be an activity of my consciousness.

And, I must keep going right on with the Master, “That if this body for any reason is destroyed, I will raise it up.” I will be right there. Consciousness will be right there to revive it, to heal it, to renew it—as long as I have any earthly use for it.

I have had the experience recently, of being taken into my Master’s household, into my Master’s consciousness, into my Master’s temple, even the place, the cave where my Master lives—The Master—for there is but one.

And, this is an experience of consciousness, in which the body travels just as rapidly as thought. You can make this an activity of your consciousness, by remembering this. If you close your eyes now for a moment, and think about where you live, your residence, your present home, and look outside, on the streets or on the grounds, and now, let us immediately move to the shore at Waikiki. Let us go right out on the sand in front of the Royal Hawaiian, or the Halekulani, or Kuhio Beach—any place long Waikiki. And just see how rapidly we’ve moved there, not only mind, but body as well. Surely, surely, not corporeality, but body. We didn’t leave the body to go there, if you’ll notice we have our body right while we’re standing on the beach. And so if we like, we can move right up to the top of the Pali, and look out on that Valley, and instantaneously we are there. And we are there, in our same body, same form.

Now this, is not an experience of imagination, this is an experience of consciousness. It just so happens that you find it very easy to do, because we have only been to the places with which you are familiar. But just remember, that just as you can move about so readily in the places with which you are familiar; with an activity of consciousness, you could move about just as freely any part of this globe, even up into the other planets, into the skies, and down beneath the waters. Because, everything that takes place in your experience, must take place as an activity of your consciousness. Not even your body can move, without an activity of your consciousness moving it.

Therefore, the life of the vegetables, the so-called “walking dead,” is usually a life lived without conscious thought, and life moves in on them, and moves them around here, there, and the other place. All the nice things that happen of course are due to themselves. But all the wrong things that happen, is always due to somebody else, or some other experience, or somebody else’s evils.

But it isn’t so. It is only the fact that they permit themselves to be acted upon. They do not live their own lives; they do not take their lives into their own consciousness and govern it; they let themselves be acted upon.

And, if the world wants to say that you catch cold by sitting in a draft, or getting wet feet, so be it unto them, and they do it. And then when it is decided that you cannot catch cold that way any more, then they do not catch cold that way any more. None of this of their own doing, all of this being acted upon by the forces of human belief.

But an individual, and of course that is one reason that you are living in the United States, because here so definitely, you are if you would like to be, you are permitted to be an individual. There is no one here telling us how to think, when to think, or what to think about. We in this country, if we wish to exercise the privilege, we can be individuals.

But to be an individual means actually, to understand that you can only be one, by an activity of your own consciousness—determining for yourself, the nature of the thoughts that you are to think. Not accepting everything that appears in print, even those things that are in print, because someone believes them to be good and true.

Each one has the same infinite consciousness, and can evaluate what goes into their thought. Of course in the doing of it, we make lots of mistakes, but we have no right to be afraid of mistakes. Sometimes these mistakes lead us to the right path.

The main thing is that we determine at some time or other that we will be resurrected, and that we will ascend. Without this conviction and determination, of course the years will just pass, and we will continue to be acted upon by every wind that blows.

But, in a given moment, when we can accept that the resurrection of Christ Jesus was a lesson. It wasn’t a talk and it wasn’t a lecture; it was a lesson, an exemplification, an impartation of truth. Showing us that which is possible to us, as individuals, then, we can begin the process, of consciously abiding in the Word, consciously letting the Word abide in us, until in a moment that ye think not, all of a sudden it happens—the bridegroom cometh. The actual experience comes, of resurrection or and eventually ascension.

Of ourselves, we cannot choose to do this. This I say to you most regretfully; this I say to you very sadly, after having witnessed for many more than 30 years that it is so; that of your own accord, you cannot even determine to live; you cannot determine to live consciously. You cannot determine to abide in the Word and let the Word abide in you…you cannot do this.

It is only by the grace of God; it is only when you have been touched. Something within you responds, and you say, “I can begin, or I am going to begin, or this is my path.” Each one in turn waits, for that time when the Spirit of God touches them, and awakens them to the possibilities of the spiritual life. And even then, it is given to us, only to begin gently.

We can possibly begin by reading or hearing truth, 30 or 40 or 60 minutes in a day. More than that, it’s very difficult to take at first. Eventually as we persist, it becomes two hours and three. And Paul of course gives us the goal—“Pray without ceasing, know the truth without ceasing, abide in the Word without ceasing.” Day and night, live consciously always. Never live, not even for a moment of the day, to permit the human mind to have its way with you.

Now, you can understand what I’m saying, by this. If you remember a few years ago, the attempt to bring subliminal perception into advertising. This was, let us say, “You are sitting here, and somewhere else someone else is projecting thoughts into your consciousness.” You don’t hear it and you don’t see it, but all of a sudden you jump up out of your seat and you run downstairs and say, “I must have a bag of peanuts, I must have a Coca-Cola.” This is what actually happened in experiments. Nobody knew why, they just had to do it.

Well of course had it been carried out, you would have jumped up, and without thinking whether or not you could afford it, you would have gone out to buy a Chrysler, or a Cadillac, or Lincoln, and then afterward, had to worry about how to pay for.

Now, the practice was outlawed in England, and destroyed in the United States. So that it’s not operating in that direction, but in other directions it is. Every human has urges to do things and think things, which they don’t want to do and which they don’t want to think, and which they know are not good for them. And yet, they cannot control that instinct or that thought, or that deed.

This is because, we have lived for centuries, letting the universal belief of the world influence us, and have power and jurisdiction over us. We have lived, so as to let ignorance and superstition and fear govern us.

Whereas, it isn’t necessary, it is not necessary to be victims of ignorance, superstition, fear. Because, there is a secret that was known to the ancients, and it was taught by the Master, even though the manuscripts that are available to us, do not indicate how he taught it. And that is, that you can be a law unto yourself by abiding in the Word and letting the Word abide in you; by living and moving and having your being in God consciousness, instead of man consciousness; by living, dwelling, in the secret place of the most High, instead of dwelling in carnal thoughts, carnal hopes, carnal ambitions.