Q: What is the little ego, the personal mind, a part of?

A: That little ego has been described two ways in scripture. In the story of Adam it is called the fallen man, the personal sense of self that took upon itself the prerogative of a creator and set up an ego called I. And then got into all the trouble that’s been ever since. He’s had to earn his labor by the sweat of his brow, because he wasn’t willing to inherit it from God. And the second experience is given in that of the prodigal son. Here he was, a prince, a Son of God, joint heir to all this greatness, but it didn’t satisfy him. He wanted to go out and be a big shot on his own. And he was, he ended up with a great big feast with swine – great banquet he had in the end! And then realized that his father’s servants were better off than he. And there he was, heir, heir of it all, but the servants were better off than he. And then he decided, “I guess I’m not what I thought I was, I guess I’ll go home.”

I did that when I was twelve years of age. Ran away from home and sold newspapers because I wanted to be independent. I sold them for one hour and got two black eyes, and went home. (Laughter) It’s a tough thing being independent, and its nice to have a father to run home to. The prodigal found that out, I found it out, and probably you’re going to find it out. The only thing is that we don’t have to run far; it’s all here! The kingdom of God, the whole realm of God is within you. And it is attained, consciously realized through meditation and communion.

This I do not understand so we will drop it. (Pause)

Q: It is so often stated that Jesus died for our sins. Will you please explain this?

A: No, I can’t explain that in any literal sense. Of course religion, the orthodox religion, accepts that literally. But I do have an idea that from our standpoint it would mean that Jesus died to his humanhood. He overcame and crucified every sense of humanhood in order that his Christhood be fully evolved. And in that Christhood he could show forth the glory of the Father, which would heal our sins. You see, as soon as an individual comes in contact with spiritual consciousness, their sins, their diseases begin to disappear. That’s the secret of spiritual healing. An individual in either sin or disease – and they’re both the same thing, because disease is just as much a sin as any form of sin – a person in sin or disease comes in contact with one who has a degree of spiritual consciousness, that degree of spiritual consciousness erases the sinful state or diseased state or erroneous state of consciousness.

Now, did you ever stop to think that every successful practitioner, whether in Christian Science, whether in Unity, whether in The Infinite Way, every successful practitioner has died to some degree of their humanhood? First place, they’ve died to drinking, they’ve died to smoking, they’ve died to gambling, they’ve died to sex, pretty nearly completely if not completely. They’ve died to resentments, angers, jealousies, hatreds. They’ve died to a certain amount of fears. Oh you see, any successful practitioner has died a hundred deaths before they ever evolve to the place where just coming into their presence…

You know, one time when I was in the business world and I was living the ordinary life of a business man with drinking and smoking and card-playing and horse-racing – all those things that business men indulge, nothing vicious but just normally human – I came into the presence of a Christian Science practitioner, a man who sat with me for two hours. And when I left his presence, I no longer smoked, I no longer drank, I no longer played cards, I’ve never made a bet. And two days later I was out doing healing work. Now don’t you think that man had died an awful lot of deaths before his consciousness was pure enough to have opened me to that extent? Yah!

And so it is with those of us in this work. All of us have died to some extent. There’s much less of the human animosities, human jealousies, human resentments, human fears, human traits. Those things have died. And of course, if we are to remove the diseases and the sins of a widespread following, we’ve got to do a little more dying than we’ve already done. We’ll have to be a little more completely dead to selfhood, and more alive in our Christhood. The more we die to mortality, the more we die to human selfhood, the more alive in spirit we are. And that means the greater power there is to remove your sins and your diseases and your fears and your lacks and limitations. And so that is how I interpret that.

Q: How can the feeling of loneliness be overcome?

A: Well, there are two ways. It can be overcome humanly by finding the right companion. It can be overcome spiritually by finding God. There are no other ways. If you can’t find the right human companion, and very often you can’t, very often you can’t when you’re on the spiritual path, because if you could it would stand in the way of your finding your spiritual companionship. Never forget this, that people who have plenty of health and plenty of money and plenty of family and plenty of companionship, make very little progress on the spiritual path. They haven’t the incentive. They haven’t the drive. They’re getting along pretty well in their humanhood, why change? They don’t think that consciously, they just automatically fall into that way of life. But you watch the fellow who has been told that he’s got an incurable disease. Or you watch the person who just can’t find a human companion, or sufficient supply. And watch the hours of study they’ll put in, and the amount of classes they’ll go to, and lectures. And how they will dig and dig and dig.

And so there are the two ways, and probably you can choose, and probably you can’t. Probably the Father won’t let you find your human companion until you’ve found the divine one. After you’ve found the divine one, a very strange thing happens, a million human ones come along. (Laughter) It is exactly like supply. I don’t like to say this, even in classes because it sounds drastic, but it’s the truth. The longer a person seeks supply, the longer it’s going to evade them. The moment they give up seeking for supply, and say, “Well, what do I need it for anyhow, I have God?” Honestly, supply will fly at you so hard you’ll have to duck it. (Laughter)

Q: When you say we must walk the straight and narrow path once we enter into The Infinite Way of life, does this mean giving up various entertainments such as playing cards, dancing, and so forth?

A: No, it doesn’t! No, it means that when The Infinite Way of life touches you, you’ll find it impossible to play cards or dance. But until that time comes, you just go on enjoying them. But keep on with The Infinite Way and see what’ll happen to you. We have watched it. There comes a very tragic period when you can’t play cards and you can’t dance, and yet you haven’t attained the fullness of the spirit. And there’s an awful period of blankness comes in between and you wish kind-of that you hadn’t found God yet. But don’t be concerned about giving up. Wait, wait until the giving-up comes to you. If you give up, there’s nothing spiritual about that. That’s repression. That’s repression and it’s suppression. And very often if you do those things they’ll break out all over as soon as springtime comes. (Laughter) So leave them alone. Don’t give up, don’t suppress, and don’t repress, but rather keep turning to God, keep turning to meditation, keep turning to the writings and the recordings, and watch as the day comes when these things fade out. And then very quickly after, something else fills in their place and you never miss them. There’s just a little while sometimes, in between the one and the other.

Q: What is your interpretation when Jesus said, “My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” Well of course, I’ve never yet found anyone who heard him say it. We don’t have any eye-witnesses or ear-witnesses. He was way, way up there on a cross, where its doubtful if anybody could have heard him if he had said it. So the question is whether or not he said it? If he said it, it could be in the self-same spirit that you and I might say it. If we get into a problem that’s pretty deep, and we’re not finding our way out as quickly as we think we should, I haven’t a doubt that we’re apt to say, “Oh God, where are you? Why don’t you come to my rescue now? Or, why hast thou forsaken me? Look, like Job, “I’ve been a good man, been very charitable, good to my wife and good to my children, but look at all these boils!” (Laughter)

And we do that, we do that. We get all of a sudden to thinking, “You know, I can’t remember having done anything wrong. I haven’t broken any laws and look at this claim that’s come upon me.” And then we say, “I guess God has forsaken me.” It is for that reason that we have scripture to remind us that though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, Thou art there. That if I make my bed in hell, Thou art there. It shows us that those who have gone before us, even though they were good men and spiritual men and noble men and true men, that even they came to a valley of shadow of death, or even they came to something that they called hell. And they left this message for us that when you go through those waters just remember God is going through with you. Even – come, come, this Mr Isaiah, and he was a wise man. He was a wise man. I can’t find him but he’s here. There he is! Yes, these fellows left the way open for us.