The Divine Ordeal of Illuminate Body Realization

The Greatest Surprise Ever Experienced

Bible Talks of The New Testament

by Master Teacher

Students of the biblical teachings of salvation, good morning! We are here seeking a conclusion to an episode that may be described as “human civilization.” What is occurring in this aggregation to you as Christians is the awakening of you, in your mind. And I am drawing your attention to what you may experience as the phenomenal happening of resurrection and ascension.

I’d like to get into the heart of this very rapidly if I can because for many of you, quite literally, this will be the completion of your sojourn. That’s not true because I say it’s true, it’s true because it very simply is the end of the time when you came here, when you were here, and when you left. That’s it. It’s not something else. Heretofore the conclusion to that journey has been defined, in this association, as death. As Christians, you are now coming together with the dedication to experience the resurrection. Jesus says that what I do and have done, you will do. He says what I have done you will do because you are as I am. He represents to you, if you will allow him, the totality of his experience and yours shared with him. If you intend to progress to the realization of Christianity, which is the resurrection of your body, you are going to have to very soon begin to direct your immediate attention to it.

Now we have a Bible here that is a story, basically, of our civilization. I’m not concerned about whether you think you’re a part of it or you think you’re not a part of it. Obviously if you are in this room you are a part of it. I don’t care whether you’ve been circumcised. I’m really not concerned about Leviticus and all the laws of dietary gratification that authenticated you as an association with some inherent capacity contained within yourself to find heaven. This is the historic teaching of Judaism. Do you see? It says that all of us are endowed with the light of God. He defines it out in the world - let’s go to Moses - as laws that he adheres to in the principle of the establishment (I’m talking about the Jew now), but actually he believes is contained in him. There’s no question this is true because the laws of God were set up in him. This is the whole historic reference. What would be the difference in the so-called traditional Jew and any other human being? Actually, none! All religions that pertain to the idea of transformation to reach God acknowledge that the light, or that factor, is being carried around in the association, and that through some form of sacrifice it can be reached. That’s a definition of a religion.

This Bible is a description of a journey performed by you in this aggregation of time. We’re going to look at it because what is avoided in this book is the necessity for your individual transformation. The reason that it is avoided is because the sojourn in time must involve the prophecy of the completion of the sojourn. It cannot not!

I’m going to start reading in a minute, so you can look at this text of the Bible in a whole new association. I have a little energy in it because obviously in some sense everyone is a prophesier. You have that light contained in you, and you’re on a sojourn, and somewhere you believe you can be saved. And you’re looking for it. You are looking for a way out of what’s obviously a dilemma. In that sense, you prophesy to each other the solution, or a temporal solution, to the problem that you’re experiencing.

What are we actually beginning to describe? We’re beginning to describe sacraments. Sacraments are phenomenal experiences. In fact, everything you see outside yourself is a phenomenon. But how is it described by you? Noumenally - noumenon means subjective. You struggle with the idea that if I stand up here and spring into light and twenty angels come and sing to you - which is exactly what is about to happen - you must then reduce it to noumenon. You go out and try to express the phenomena that has occurred in your mind. You had a genuine experience of a phenomena - something that transformed you from your understanding of it, which is what a phenomenon is (phenomenon = not understandable) to the requirement for understanding.

I’m going to give you a sentence to see if you can hear it: If it is not reduced to noumenon, it doesn’t happen. Angels are all around you, all kinds of phenomenal stuff is occurring and some of it you are now aware of. It will be a new occurrence that previously you couldn’t explain. Because you couldn’t explain it at all, it wasn’t available to you. I’m going to give you what happens physically. This is the whole Course; this is the whole teaching. All you really do when you go outside is seek phenomenal occurrences in your mind, recognizing the relationship to yourself and justifying them to the images in which they appear. There is absolutely no reason why you two sitting there couldn’t decide at this moment that there’s a real, eternal happiness - God - and have a phenomenal experience because your mind is a vision or imagery of phenomena. You remember this, dear brother, the key to this is that there is nothing outside of you. Anything can happen. And it just happened. The initial encounter with me, by the certainty of my phenomenon of resurrection, is the phenomenon of my nomination of you to be the savior of the world. That’s exactly what Jesus Christ’s instructions are to you. It’s in everything we read: “Where I am going, you know, and the way you know.” (John 14:4) I am a phenomenon of your resurrection, but in a moment, you will resurrect with me.

So today in Sunday school we are going to look at the sacraments of the physical occurrence of your awakening: Baptism, Illumination, Resurrection and Ascension. They are described in the Bible, and very clearly Jesus went through this process, which therefore must be your process.

You have such a strong tendency to reduce, in your own noumenon, the phenomenal occurrence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ that I’m offering you. You may get the little feelings on Sunday morning when you walk into “Christ The Lord Is Risen Today.” What a terrible place to be in where your intellectual capacity has to be reduced to the little limitation of the nomination of your own mind not to see and hear any phenomena that cannot be recognized at the slow space that you are in. When a phenomenal occurrence happens to you, you must accept it under terms that justify your continued association with yourself. Or you will change. And you are fearful of a phenomenon that cannot be reduced to the noumenon of what you are. It already is light. By making it objective, you have reduced it to the cause and effect relationship. Today we’re not going to reduce it!

One of the first phenomenal sacraments that we perform in our association is what? Baptism! As a matter of fact, one of our exoteric determinations is the quicker we baptize the child, the more available it will be to get out of the sin and into the light, which is then instilled in that association and can become a prophecy for the coming of the Christ. Yes or no? All: “Yes!” Now, just as obviously, this so-called civilization will mask that. It will direct its attentions to various procedures. Perhaps you won’t be baptized until your confirmation. Confirmation is nothing but another form of sacrament. Perhaps you won’t be baptized until the sacrament of death. Did you ever see somebody who was baptized just before he died? I did. Did that allow him to get to heaven? Sure! Did he get there? Sure! You can’t hear that. I bet nobody hears that. All he really needed was to be baptized with the light, and at the moment of his death, he went to heaven. That’s the whole teaching. You say, “well, he really didn’t go to heaven.” Yes he did. As soon as he was baptized, the angels opened up heaven - I saw that happen. Why? He believed it! Sometimes you like to think that I’m just talking symbolically. I’m talking literally. The heavens opened up and his sins were remitted. Rather than his body dying, what occurred at his bedside was what we call the ritual of light gratification.

Really what occurs is first the birth then the baptism, then the transfiguration, then the resurrection, and then the ascension. But all of those could occur in your body at any moment. And, indeed, it is occurring! All I’m doing is taking that entire continuum that you express from the beginning and the end. And indeed you express yourself in your society since you must act out spatially what occurs in the body. You act it out as being in a civilization - being forced into Egypt, being separate, searching for Jerusalem. Those are all just physical actions of what you do in your mind. Can you see that? In other words, you can teach it from the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the body, and the emergence out of Egypt up into Jerusalem, which becomes the Kingdom of God, which is your head. But it’s all part of the same story.

I want to stay with the basic story because many of you now are participating in finally the only and greatest story that’s ever told. That story which is occurring is simply that you were in paradise - or whatever you call it - you were in heaven, you were eternal and you were in your entirety. You know that perfectly well. Please don’t ask me to describe it to you; the description of it is nothing but your temporal search for it. Can you see that? You were in heaven, you came here, and you’re looking for a way out. And that’s called a journey. Obviously, Jesus resurrected describes it as a journey without distance, to a time that is already over. Why? It is a journey without distance to a time that’s already over! Obviously you individually are in that sojourn of being here within a frame of reference that justifies the relationship of you in your baptism/ascension pursuit. You cannot not have that light in you; that’s what defines you as a human being.

This story here in the New Testament is about a man who underwent all of these procedures. They have a little problem telling the story because he undergoes it phenomenally, doesn’t he? In that sense, at the speed that you were at in your light association you were unable to participate with him. He was too fast for you. Can you hear this? When I first came here, I was much too fast for you. Coming from not here, I immediately duplicated all of the associations that I had undergone, or were undergone subsequent to my coming here, in a demonstration of the necessity for the transformation of your body, which is what I teach. Do you see that? I teach you the transformation of the body. You are having that experience. And every attempt of this happening to you is an attempt to awaken you from your own association. You view God as a disease. In some ways you must protect yourself. The warning that Jesus gives you from the very beginning is that if you decide you’re going to do this, you better get serious. When you start denying this, you just tighten up your own experience and the phenomena becomes what? Threatening. So, God then becomes a threat to you because of your fear of your own resurrection! I know you can’t fail. But when this suddenly occurs to you, I want it to make as much sense to you as it began to make to Jesus, as it began to make to me when I began to associate very common experiences phenomenally. Any experience that would happen to me during my awakening became phenomenal. I used to be able to see bread pop up from a toaster and that was one of the greatest happenings of my life. Wow! There seemed to be no time between when I pushed the bread down and when it came up. It was a phenomenal occurrence to me. Everything is a phenomenal occurrence. The problem you have is that until you have the experience, you can’t know what I’m talking about. Jesus says in John 3:3 that you can’t know what He’s talking about until you’ve been born again; you haven’t had the experience. And obviously you are afraid of it, and that’s why you are here.

Yet, all you could possibly do here is replicate the occurrence of coming from heaven to here and returning. You can’t do more than that. The idea that that occurs in your body, as Jesus teaches it, and is what Christianity is. Jesus Christ of Nazareth takes all of the historic reference of the sojourn of the human condition as it moves from the ape to civilization and the prophecies that are contained therein, and demonstrates His individual saviorship, which is what He invites you to do.

Each of us is going to describe the phenomenal occurrence of our resurrection in the manner in which we receive it. But the fact of the matter is that this New Testament will say that Jesus Christ of Nazareth underwent phenomenal occurrences, both in His own body and in His objective association with the world that are so beautifully described in here that it’s frightening. I want you to see that they are phenomenal and also that you can experience them.

Let’s look at it. So we’re going to read in the Bible the experiences that Jesus underwent. Actually the first reference is puberty. Some of you at puberty began to have great recognition of this. This is Jesus when He was young in the temple (Luke 2:47) and people could see that He was thinking differently. Virtually everyone in adolescence has an awakening experience. And you can’t share them with anybody. That’s why adolescents have such difficulty - it’s a maturity of their passion. It might have occurred to you, even as early as adolescence that this is actually happening, and you are so fearful of it that you have subtracted it from your mind. It is virtually impossible that the phenomena to which I am now directing your attention, and these are the ones that occur in the New Testament physically to Jesus, are not occurring, and will now occur in you.

Going past adolescence, obviously the first real major occurrence was your baptism. Let’s look at the baptism which Jesus underwent. It’s says that he is going to come to a prophet. What’s his name? All: “John the Baptist.” John the Baptist is an historic reference that is carrying the light of God and baptizing people so that they can carry that light; so that they can become prophets rather than profiteers. A little play on words there. Now that doesn’t mean they won’t profiteer from the association. And they do.

Let’s see if we can find it. First he has to be baptized: I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with what? Do you know what that says? Fire. It says he is going to ignite what I am offering you. I’m going to give you the spark, but the Holy Spirit is going to ignite you with the fire of the energy of love which is what God is. He’s going to what? Inspire you! Because contained in you through that baptism will be the necessity for you to prophesize the coming of the bearer of the fire, or the truth of you in the entirety - the savior of the world! So here we have him, and he says: ...he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. Whose fan is in his hand... That’s a lovely idea. What I’ve been trying to do is fan your flame. I’m fanning your flame because you have already been baptized. It’s impossible for you to be a human being without being baptized somewhere because that fire or light has to be in you. Obviously what you are doing initially is prophesying it without undergoing your own experience of saviorship. This is nothing but an encounter between the prophet and the savior. This is what this is going to say. No matter where you would go in this association, all of you are prophesying. Now, as that light of prophecy becomes brighter and brighter, you are able to recognize within you, or through the resurrection of Jesus, the certainty that your sojourn from time to eternity only involves the complete transformation of your own association. That’s what this says. Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. (Matthew 3:11-12) That’s literally what the transformation is. I know that threatens some of you. In other words, the message will not be watered down. Unquenchable means you’re not going to be able to water it down with la mer which is the illusion. The illusion of hydrogen/oxygen; the fire is eternal. Can you hear this? Combustion. It’s all light. It’s atomic, and there’s no way that water is going to put that fire out. Unquenchable fire.

Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. All John had to do was look at him. And he had a pretty good idea who he was. He wasn’t sure, but he could detect immediately that there was standing before him a man with one hell of a lot of fire. Can you hear this? He was by this time in his late twenties. Never mind all of his experiences prior to that - in the temple. People get the idea that he went on secret sojourns to India; that somehow this man from Nazareth went in secret to Egypt and learned all this. What crap! He worked at his house and he had these experiences in Galilee, a little town called Nazareth - or what you call Baraboo. What difference does it make? But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? Jesus says, “Yeah, I want to do that because I want to show you your saviorship as well as mine.” That’s actually what he says. And Jesus answering said unto him, suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. That literally means that the baptizer is not less than the Christ. Can you hear that? Obviously John has some doubt of that - just before his beheading, John is going to send messengers to ask if Jesus is really the One. John is put in prison and beheaded, they kill the prophet. They’re going to get the Christ, but they want to be damn sure they got the prophet first. Do you hear me? If you actually stand up and go out and teach this as the Baptist, and you begin to undergo fire, or attempt to define it with fire, Herod is going to cut off your head. Can you hear me? You’re not going to be allowed to foretell the coming of the Christ, never mind that he’s already come. Do you see? You’re not going to be able to do that. But Jesus says, Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. (Matthew 3:13-15)

And Jesus, when he was baptized went up straightway out of the water. What a lovely sentence. Out of the illusion, out of the water, out of the hydrogen and the oxygen, when he’s baptized - when that Spirit was ignited in Him. Notice it took even his acknowledgment. Notice that he was sharing the Light of God in his determination to express the entirety. This is exactly what this association is going to do. I guarantee it - he doesn’t know it quite yet. He cannot not do that because that’s what he is. If he’s been baptized with that association, he will straightway rise up out of the water. He has had that experience. What does it say: ...straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him. This is what we describe as the opening of the energies of your head. The experience of the opening of the light to let it shine into the Jerusalem of your head. It’s the performance of the act of the initial enlightenment of your body. All history of man contains this reference. There is literally no religion of man that does not contain this reference. I underwent the experience of the awakening of the dove. We teach it as healing, don’t we? We have the caduceus which is the energy association out of the water, up into the light. That was a physical occurrence that happened to Jesus in the river. That actually physically happened to him. It’s not just a story, although it could well be a story. I have no objection to it being that. But this is a physical occurrence. And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3: 16-17) The moment that the light opened, God immediately recognized him. Can you hear this? Immediately. How would he not? He says (uh-oh), “This is my beloved Son.” He didn’t even know he was gone. But he sure as hell recognized him when he came home. And that was the requirement for Jesus to proceed in his fast sojourn, because obviously Jesus had been speeded up.

Obviously the first real major occurrence was your baptism. Somewhere within the association of your mind, you had an experience that directed your attention to the real purpose of why you are here. This is a physical experience in the Eastern tradition, for example, and is described as the awakening of your ajna chakra, somewhere in your head. All of you have had some sort of revelation or phenomenal experience which was reduced by you to an evil intent to continue to organize yourself in the new power that you obtained. You say, “Oh, I had a great experience, now I’m going to go out and conquer the world.” Who told you to? The devil. For forty days after your initial contact, the devil tempted you with all sorts of uses for the power. (Matthew 4) And you accepted them! Why wouldn’t you? Look what he promises you. He said to Jesus, “boy, look at this new power.” He’s talking to himself. Why? He made his phenomenal baptism experience noumenon within his association. That’s what the devil is. The devil is nothing but a demonstration of your capacity to use the power of your own mind.

Jesus gets through his forty days of temptations and immediately begins to teach what? Salvation is at hand. Time has been shortened - that is really what I’m doing here, and you’re finally coming into it. Time has been shortened by his what? His view of heaven! God has acknowledged him, literally. Never mind the Old Testament god that taught all sorts of stuff. This God simply says, “This is my beloved Son.” That’s all. He doesn’t say anything else.

So, Jesus immediately begins to teach it. Why? It’s true to him! Most of you in this Bible class have gone through this, haven’t you? What we are saying is that most of you have begun to carry this message. As a matter of fact, all of you carry the message. Your message at some point had more light in it based on experiences that occurred with you within the offering given you in your own sojourn from death to life. So, you can see that’s happening. As Jesus did, you begin to experience the power of your own mind and you will now continue to direct your attention to your certainty that you are going to respond to the voice of God. God told you that you are the only living Son of God. Why? It’s true. He had to tell you because somehow you forgot. But there’s no possibility that contained within your own memory you don’t know. Why? I’m telling you. Am I the voice of God? You bet I am. Why should you accept that? You’re doing okay. This is temptation. Jesus deals with temptation. As you begin to make progress in the Course, He will say “don’t be tempted to do that” because you are beginning to have this experience. If you’ve overcome the fear of it, generally you are going to go out into the earth and continue to use it. That’s why I teach you to stay in fear. It’s a physical, phenomenal experience. Suddenly the whole world will cave in on you. Suddenly strange things will begin to happen. You’ll get a headache. You’ll go blind - that’s what happened to Paul on the road to Damascus when he had a very dramatic conversion or born-again experience. All these things will be part of it. Why does it happen? It requires the admission that you’re going to have the experience whether you want it or not. Why? You are God’s son. Any denial of that will cause the conflict that you call disease or pain. Am I familiar with this? You bet! Did Jesus have it? For forty days he was out in the desert. He just drew a circle and said, like you will, “I’m going to stay here and not let my mind stray.” You asked me if there is such a thing as discipline. Here’s the discipline of it: “No, I have this right direction. I don’t have to go out into the world. Phenomenal things will happen. I will be tempted to go away. But I will stay because I understand that I will begin to have a transfiguration, which would be phenomenal.”

The next major episode that demonstrates the enlightenment of the body occurs about midway through Jesus’ experience - remember this only lasted three years. About midway through the association, Jesus is beginning (just like you) to feel the security of his own saviorship. Quite literally. He’s out there teaching and suddenly people are healed around him. Suddenly people are beginning to gather around him. And suddenly it’s necessary for him to make a connection between himself and the end of the world. Just as you have just started to do. Everybody in this Bible class, if you’re about to leave with me, has made not only a connection to the baptism. Not only are you foretelling the coming of the Christ, but you have it in you now to actually end the world. What you’re saying to your associations is, “This will be the end of time.” Dare he say that? He has no alternative but to say it, because having had his own illumination, He finds Himself in a slow time. Can you get this? Please say you hear me. All: “Yes!” I want you to hear this because most of you that manage to get to this Bible class are right square in the middle of this experience... or right round in the middle of the experience, but round or square, it is happening to you!

What’s going to happen? He’s about to have a tremendous experience of transfiguration. Figure across. To cross in this configuration to a new configuration based on a very rapid association of time. But remember that he makes the prediction himself in regard to it, because he is now feeling the security of his own time frame. I had exactly the same experience. When I went out to teach this, I was teaching the security of my own time reference. In other words, I am endowed with the power of God, I know perfectly well that this world is not real. So, I needed now from you, a spatial reference. Otherwise I couldn’t leave. This is the same idea that as long as I’m here, I might as well tell you that you can’t get out without me. That’s what this says.

So here he is going around doing all these good healing things. He’s obviously, in that sense, endowing them with new spirit of what? Belief in God! Belief in miracles! People are able to see this guy working miracles! They are beyond anything the doctor or the priest could do. Obviously, at this point he is also becoming a threat because he has speeded up the repair of the association through the grace of God. I’m not going to get into that. That’s all in this New Testament. Suddenly the establishment is saying, “Who the hell is this?” He’s healing without the memory of ourselves. He’s speeding up that memory. So now we’ve moved up to Matthew, Chapter 17. I’m going to back up to the last three paragraphs of Chapter 16 of Matthew because I just discovered to my surprise they pertain to what I just said. I didn’t realize it. So here’s what happens:

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. He’s beginning to teach that in his association. He says, For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? He’s asking you why are you doing this when I’m offering you the freedom of God in your own mind. Uh-oh, now he says, truly: verily I say unto you, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. (Matthew 16:26-28) What he literally is saying is that if you believe me, you will never die. That is what this says. He looked right at you and said you’re not going to have to go through this anymore. Heretofore he had healed them. Now He’s telling them what? About his own resurrection. As soon as he discovered resurrection in his own mind, it was time for the reconfiguration of his body. Do you see that? It just makes sense. He’d been enlightened here, but he’s speaking of the resurrection of the entire body, so he needs an experience of the transfiguration of his body association. We wonder if that’s going to happen. This is getting exciting. Notice he said it, and then it happens. This is an amazing thing. Jesus always says it, and then it happens. It’s always the prophecy, and then it’s the necessity for you to declare it. Now, here we are in Chapter 17, in two thousand year old scripture. Somebody actually literally described this happening. Boy is it nice:

And after six days... What do you mean after six days? What is that in there for? That’s how long it took. Six days. There are only seven all together. So the resurrection is going to appear on Sunday. Otherwise what’s the sense in saying “after six days”? This is all just esoteric stuff directing you it might take six days. But it will be contained within that association. And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother... I’m not going to explain who they are, but I will sometime. He takes Peter, James and John his brother and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart. And was transfigured before them; and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. (Matthew 17:1-2) That’s a physical experience. Notice that his raiment was light, that the light actually surrounded him, his garment of body and soul were transfigurated so that not only did the beam of light coming from heaven, but the entire body transfigurated. What did that represent? Man, all of man. Watch how now the prophecy of his coming enters into it, literally.

And was transfigured before them; and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. Suddenly there’s all three of them. Can you get this? Here is the entire law of Moses, here’s Elias the prophet who proclaimed it, and here’s their savior. That’s all you’d need. And they’re talking about it - which is exactly what you do. You represent Moses, you get with the prophet, you get with the savior. And this is literally occurring. And it’s being described by these other guys and they’re dumbfounded because they literally see Jesus talking to Moses and the prophet. What are they talking about? How good it’s working! They’re talking about how well this is going. Here’s the law, and here’s the prophet, and here’s the savior. Try to get excited with me. I’m showing you how simple it is for you to get out of this. Do you know the nice thing about it? It’s a physical occurrence! This isn’t something that’s buried a long time ago. Many of you are about to transfigurate. Many of you have transfigurated. This is kind of exciting. ...there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. (Matthew 17:3) Oh, that’s astonishing. So, what does Peter say? Here’s Peter who represents man. Throughout this entire episode, Peter represents human being. Not that the kingdom is not built on him; it’s Peter who denies him. How many times? Three. Moses, Elias and the Christ. At some point when he is forced to look at the savior, he must deny the entire episode. That’s why he flees. But it is also he who has witnessed it. It is Peter who has made it phenomenal in the association of his mind without letting himself enter into his own saviorship - even to the point of being crucified upside down. Even to the point, historically, when he is in Rome and he’s carrying this message, he said “I wouldn’t dare be like my savior, will you crucify me upside down?” And he was. So he represents man which is upside down crucifixion. Do you hear that? Man has it exactly opposite.

Here we go: Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Hey, Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here; if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. (Matthew 17:4) He’s expressing the same problem he’s always had. Can you hear this? This is exactly the condition of man. He says, “Hey, let’s do that, we’ll make one for Moses, one for Elias and one for Jesus.” But look out, because when he says that, God is going to speak again. God only speaks twice in the entire New Testament. He speaks at your baptism, and He speaks at your Transfiguration. So here, suddenly are all three of them. All of time, all of the prophet of the end of it, and the end of it. And he is being transfigured in the light. What happens? God can see it again. This time, instead of just seeing the temporal association, he sees the temple of God, or the provision of your necessity to recognize Jesus as the savior in order that your Moses and your prophecy can come together. Tell me you heard that. All: “Yes!” So now what happens? God sees him again. And He says, “I’ll be darned.” He says, “There he is.” Only this time, he sees the entire association. So what does he say? This is first about Peter.

While he (Peter) yet spake - right in the middle of it - and Peter’s excited, he says, “Holy mackerel Jesus, do you see what happened?” There’s the picture. All of a sudden whoppo, the whole thing opens up. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: all of them and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; and adds hear ye him. He adds three words to that. He’s my savior. I’m going to use him because I see he has become not only a temporal or time reference, but a spatial reference. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, arise, and be not afraid. He said, “Don’t be afraid.” This is exactly what we do. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only. (Matthew 17:5-8) Just like he was before. The first thing he’s going to say to them is, “Don’t tell anybody about this.” That’s it. The first thing I always say to you guys is don’t tell anybody about this. That time will come. All that did was represent the entirety of the association. Isn’t that amazing?

And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead. Notice He said, “Again.” Don’t tell anybody about it. This is all part of the show that’s going on. And His disciples want to know what’s going on. And his disciples asked him, saying, why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? He’s the prophet that we spoke of. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, that Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. They’re killing the prophet. That’s what this says. Then Matthew, the writer, throws in a sentence: Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. (Matthew 17:9-13) What he says is, they understand that John the Baptist is going to be killed as that association.

Those of you who wonder about Elias (or Elijah as it’s spelled in the Old Testament), I’ll do an historical reference because you guys have been around a long time. Let’s back up almost one thousand years. Imagine that? The civilization that has been prophesying and has in its records in II Kings a story of one prophet passing on the light of God to another prophet. That’s a part of the tradition of this association. So, if we turn back, very quickly, we’re going to see a replication of the passing of the word of God without the saviorship. But surely you’re going to see an association of a vehicle that would take you to heaven, which is really what’s being offered you without the savior. This is II Kings, Chapter 2, probably written about - it’s written after Solomon - so it’s probably about one thousand B.C. And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. He wants to carry that portion of the enlightenment of his Christ with him. So Elijah says to him: Thou hast asked a hard thing. I love that. That’s a tough thing to do because for a moment you’re going to have to share our prophecy. You’re going to have to enter into my body. He says I’m going to accelerate the associations of my prophecy. Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so. What he says is, I’m about to have a phenomenal experience of being taken up to God because my prophecy period is done; I have fulfilled my function as a prophet. But if you are able to see that happen to me, you will assume the light of that occasion. I should tell you, this is one of the most beautiful descriptions of extraterrestrial happenings that occurs. Obviously this is all extraterrestrial. It’s happening out of time in time. And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof... He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him. (II Kings 2:9-13)

I’m sharing that whole story with you. I’m sharing your kosher with you. I don’t mind doing that. You need a structure of law because God must recognize the structure in its entirety. He can recognize you individually in your temporal association, but if he sees Jerusalem - which is really the enactment of that - he will see it in its entirety. All of the accumulations of the verbal message of Jesus, call that Sermon on the Mount, where he directs you to that, are all a part of this. When he expressed it, he meant it. He meant the threat of Sermon on the Mount. He was threatening you. Do you really want to give everything away and come with me? Do you really want to forgive and give your brother love, and when he asks for something, give him everything? Come on, guys, that’s the whole teaching. All of that opens the gates of heaven because God can hear that. He heard a man that’s conveying the love of God to his association. Obviously that would require giving up the world. It would require all of the admonitions that he taught you on this mount. Isn’t that nice? So nothing was lost in that teaching.

All of this teaching in the last two thousand years, where people have been speaking this word, all they really have needed was the light. All that the lady sitting over there saying, “I can understand you conceptually,” needed was to get her light ignited since she obviously is prophesying the coming. In that sense, I will ignite your light. “Baby, let me light your fire.” That’s an old song. That’s true. And you feel the ignition of your own light, and it makes you happy. Have you had transfiguration? That’s nothing but what you are having. All I’m doing is taking your death process away from you.

So, now we’re past the transfiguration. Here Jesus is what you would call a “divine human body.” There is no part of Jesus, and there is no part of you, that does not now represent the cellular associations of yourself. You are still operating in an association of continuum that doesn’t recognize you, and it is necessary for you to continue to convert your own cellular body. That’s what you should start to do right now. What I want you to see is this is your ordeal. It is not his; if you knew it was his, you would have already shared it with him and be gone. You have reduced his phenomena to the noumenon that produces the phenomena of your own limitation.

And suddenly we are at the resurrection. Why? Because you’ve got a body that’s been undergoing all of this and is still a part of earth. The story of Jesus’ resurrection is an Easter story. Suffice it to say that he actually undergoes the completion of his physical body and is actually not here at all. But notice that when he appears in his solid body, He appears so that you can recognize him. He’s not a phantom. He’s not even a transfiguration of the light. He is resurrected. What he’s really telling you is, so are you - even though you appear to be solid. The moment man recognized himself as man, he was a perfect replication of God - Adam Cadman. So, finally you come in and come out the same as you always were. It’s the same thing as saying it never happened, because the difference between you right there and you right there is actually nothing. I bet you can’t teach that! So I’m obviously resurrected. You may not be resurrected, but I may light your fire. You’ll have what? The light of the association. Nothing prevents you from opening up your heart and love and mind to God, except your fear of what? Your own enlightenment is your biggest fear. Once you get past that, once your temple is rent sufficiently, the light gets in and speeds up your time episode. So you recognize the fulfillment of the prophecy is at hand - and, in fact, you actually experience the fulfillment. Jesus in the Course is incredible. Jesus teaches it goes like this: zoom, zoom, zoom. It’s happening real fast all the time. At any moment you can enter into this real fast time.

One thing about the resurrection is that it’s a real surprise. Who is most surprised? Jesus! And in John’s Gospel, Jesus sees that the resurrection isn’t the end of it: Jesus said unto Mary, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God and your God. (John 20:17) It’s like he found himself on Easter morning in the garden before the tomb where his crucified body lay, and he found that he wasn’t quite done yet. The first person to see him, Mary, first mistook him for the gardener. She’s been with him for three years, and she is going to the tomb looking for him, and she sees him, and she mistakes him for the gardener! You talk about a phenomenal happening. Nobody, not even his closest disciples had any idea of how to convert this incredible happening into the noumenon of their own mind. It took a minute.

Then Jesus gets to demonstrate his resurrected body. He’s alive - alive solidly in body in an entirely different association. He has them watch him eat fish. He has them touch his hands and feet. He even appears behind closed doors: Then the same day (Easter) at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you; as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. (John 20:19-21) Here are the disciples huddled in a locked room, terrified, and they weren’t even sure Jesus was anything until he showed them his feet and his side. And immediately upon recognition, they are given the Holy Ghost and told to go out and give what they had received - the recognition of the resurrected Christ! I told you to stay in fear.

Another great story of Jesus’ surprise at his own resurrection is in Luke and describes two men walking on the road to a little town called Emmaus. They were talking about the events of Jesus’ crucifixion, the incredible storm, the veil of the temple being rent and the rumors of his resurrection. Nobody had seen or felt anything like it. And Jesus appears and walks with them: And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. That’s reasonable, if he didn’t recognize himself, you wouldn’t figure anyone else would either! And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? And one of them... answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And Jesus said unto them, What things? (Luke 24:15-19) After they start telling him about himself, Jesus picks up the story and recognizes it, and ends up telling them the entire story, with great gusto, from Moses to Christ. But do you see what happens? Jesus doesn’t even recognize himself for a minute there! Sound familiar? If you knew how to resurrect, you would have done it long ago. When it finally happens to you, no matter how prepared you think you are, it’s going to be a what? Surprise! You won’t recognize yourself! And you will say the same thing Jesus is saying, I am exactly like you but I am nothing like you at all. I am a perfect replication of you with the certainty of the entirety of God. Can you describe that? Of course not. Could the people who actually saw this occur describe it? The fact that we have the incredible descriptions of the experience in two thousand year old scripture sitting right here before us today is an incredibly miraculous phenomenal experience in itself!

How do you think those story-tellers of old felt? They saw him dead. They let him down. They did everything they could. And yet, at the same time, somewhere, they are having the exact same experience. They could not not. But if you want to see some despondency, look at the situation in which they found themselves for just a minute: Here was the savior who guaranteed them he was going to take them home. And they believed him. And all of a sudden he’s just gone. What had occurred? There was enough energy - this is called the twelve disciples - in the association brought about by the miracle of Jesus’ transfiguration. They saw His body, some of you guys have seen my body, go to light. When you have that experience, you have a tendency to begin to believe. And suddenly what happens? The world kills you. This is very carefully elucidated in A Course In Miracles. Following the crucifixion, the resurrection must occur. It cannot not. So Jesus now appears before you and the world can’t see him at all because it successfully killed him. Guys, the two worlds don’t meet. It’s not happening the way they imagined - somehow they thought that the results were going to be evident in earth. How could that be? The two worlds don’t meet! Jesus isn’t worried about them. What’s the first thing he does when he’s back among them resurrected? According to John, he gives them the Holy Ghost and tells them to go out and do what he did. He tells them they’re doing fine - don’t stop now.

Can you imagine the joy when suddenly he appears to them? What are you going to do? Go out and tell somebody that you had the occurrence? They’ll say, “Big deal.” They don’t care. That’s how come you’re not going to tell it to the world. How could you tell it to the world? They’re already trapped in the phenomenal experience. They’ll reject it unless it can be recognized in their association and organize it into a phenomenal occurrence that can be subsequently examined and denied by other experiences.

This is not the end. We have one more initiation, of which we can hardly speak: the Ascension.

The solution to you, from my mind, is that it is all going on all the time. There is actually no distance between the time that you decided to come in here and do this and when you went out. That is the simple fact of the matter. We’ve just talked about the fact of the physical occurrence of Baptism, Illumination, Resurrection and Ascension as if they were discrete events. That’s the only way I could tell you the story. Actually it’s all one thing. Once you have started, once the ignition has happened, once your fire has been lit, once you’ve heard God tell you that you are His beloved Son, your ascension is imminent. “Well, it’s going to take at least forty days.” No, no, no. What did we say at the beginning of this talk? All of the so-called initiations could occur in your body at any moment. Guys, it’s not a graceful progression of some sort. This isn’t a tidy little occurrence. It’s an explosion, you are being undone; and, indeed, it is occurring in you right now! You can delay it, you can prevent it, you can deny it, you can say, “I haven’t had my experience of transfiguration yet.” All that says is, “I want it to be phenomenal rather than noumenon.” Or you’ll say, “Show me how you do that, and I’ll believe you.” Nonsense. There is no way. You want to reduce it to the association that I’ve given you. The temptation is to do that - I don’t do it because all you’ll do is believe me and worship me. What good is that going to do? I’m just the devil. I’m outside of you with phenomenal capacity. It’s hopeless to be concerned about the other association. He is a residual of the continuum that you previously occupied. You remember this, brother, there is no world without you. Wherever you think you may have come from, if you think that you came to a world that was waiting for you, that’s not true. (Lesson 132) It was just you all the time. In order for you to discover that, you must somewhere begin to withdraw from the protection that is enhancing the phantom figures, Jesus calls them, that you have brought with you to justify this association.

The purpose of this Bible class is to impress on you that this experience of the physicalness of your Baptism, Illumination, Resurrection and Ascension is what Christianity is. It’s what you are. Do we doubt it? No - everyone knows that this is the “mystery” each of us will experience. And it’s right out there in the three-dimensional world that you created - and now it has a new purpose, doesn’t it? Everything that you see is for what purpose? Your physical resurrection. Where can we look? In the Catholic mass, the priest rings a bell and says, “Let us recite the mystery of our faith.” And then the whole congregation says, “Christ died, Christ arose, Christ will come again.” Why would He come again? To give you a bump, to push you over your fearful edge of non-reality! Welcome him this time. Try not to be too fearful. And if you haven’t been to a Catholic mass lately, most of the Walt Disney productions have resurrection as the theme: The Swan Princess. Rigoletto. Beauty and the Beast is the classic example - you might even be able to see it at the movies this weekend. What happens? The Beast dies. “No, he really doesn’t die.” Watch the movie. He dies. He’s dead, gone. It’s hopeless. We’re in despair. And then what happens? Right there in Technicolor, before your eyes, He resurrects. He comes back to life and what? Saves the Kingdom! Is he like he was before he was dead? Yes, perfectly. With some new, indefinable characteristic. And it’s not just his physical appearance - although what? He looks in the mirror and does not recognize himself.

It’s the only story we ever really tell!! Sometimes it’s so fragmented, you don’t recognize it. But look closer. Look. Look. The world is what? Forgiven, and then it disappears entirely.

Let’s look at that disappearance - in the New Testament it’s called the ascension. When does it happen? Forty days after the Resurrection. Sound familiar? You get the first hint of your commission - your true purpose - forty days after your baptism. And here we are again. Forty days after the occurrence of the Resurrection - you are dead to this world, and yet you live! And now your true purpose comes whole. We can barely speak about that occurrence here - it’s not really an “occurrence” in that sense at all. It’s the total fulfillment - it’s described beautifully in the Course, especially in the lessons - the late 120s through the 150s. “The only purpose worthy of your mind this world contains is that you pass it by.” “The knowledge that the Father and Son are one will come in time to every mind” And all the rest of it. In the New Testament, the reason it is difficult to describe the ascension, is that immediately it reverts into some sort of phenomenon of Jesus’ body arising up from the ground. That did actually happen. But what good is that going to do you? That’s just sort of hopeless. When they try to describe it, Mark and Luke simply say, “he’s gone to heaven.” (Mark 16:19, Luke 24:51, Acts 1:9) The fact of the matter is he hasn’t gone anywhere. Where would he go? The fact of the matter is, he’s standing right here. The fact of the matter is he would have to be any association that has perfected his own mind. Where is Jesus? Right here! The last thing Matthew says in his gospel is that Jesus said: “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:20) In the Course, he says “I am the guy sitting next to you.” You say, “Well, I don’t see any phenomena that way.” And I say that you’re seeing your own noumenon. You’re seeing what you want to see in your own mind.

There’s a lovely description of the phenomenon of the ascension in Acts. Luke tells us: And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner; as ye have seen him go into heaven. (Acts 1:9-11) They were having a phenomenal experience that they needed an angel of God to help them bring into the noumenon of their little Galilean world. Otherwise, when Jesus’ physical experience accelerated in a quantum fashion and he was going way faster than they could comprehend and he seemed to disappear, they might still be staring off into the cloud. They were caught in a whirlwind. They weren’t fast enough to experience and they could barely see it. And they needed a little angelic help to discern what was happening.

You could look at the ascension as maybe a black hole explosion. Ascension is any motion from any aggregation of point, which couldn’t be real. An ascension, in the sense of moving out, is the idea of a space/time location that contains a potential of energy association that can ascend using the power of itself. Let’s say that ascension would be burning coal. In that sense, you are increasing the temperature. It’s an ascension of the molecular association using energy based on fission. Does that help? I’m trying to give you an answer. Ascension doesn’t have any meaning, except it must be an ascension from something to something. If you are coming from something, it must be a location of where you think you are in that association.

You love the idea of ascension, the idea that you can find a bright reality. The problem is not that, the problem is where you base your assumption of the necessity is limited to the correspondence you have allowed yourself in the use of the material of your own potential. Who heard that? That’s nothing but the use of the energy that is carbon-based to demonstrate the power of the expansion. Do you see that? That’s exactly what we do. In fact, it’s what the condition of space/time is, isn’t it? A star is nothing but the ascension from the coal of the relationship with the helium and the oxygen, out into the power of that. The idea of ascension, or coming from something below to something above, could not be true in reality. But that didn’t solve my problem. My problem was I knew there was something out there and I couldn’t get to it. I discovered I couldn’t get to it using the potential that I had been given by the world, because the world was a demonstration of the limitation of potential, rather than the admission of the entirety of the black hole, which would get me out. There was nothing outside of me that would prevent me from having a body resurrection!

When I began to teach this, nobody could hear me at all. Obviously the Course in Miracles is the next step. Actually we’re just one thousand years ahead. We’re into quantum. First we had mechanical or mental freedom that you came here, then the mechanical of communication, and now the next one thousand years will literally be a quantum association with the ability to communicate simultaneously. In that sense we are at 2096 looking back at this. Actually we’re not at 2096 either, but certainly we would represent the entirety of that association. Some of you really had this, and some of you have come to know it. But at the time I began to speak of this, there were some associations who immediately heard voices. One guy whose dues were paid, he had been an addict - you guys think we come from some sort of super occupation, that’s nonsense. He’s walking out in the woods and all of a sudden this voice speaks to him and said go and do this and it will tell you what to do. It’s the same thing that happened to me. That’s how he got to be doing what he’s doing. Almost always when you hear it that directly, which most of us don’t, there’s no question that’s going to be a part of this Course in Miracles association.

I’m speaking from out of time, from whole mind. We’re about through with this association. I suppose now that the scholars for the next two hundred and sixty years will study my Bible Series. They’ll begin to say, “This part was certainly very lucid, but what the hell did he mean by this.” They’ll break my mind up in segments, because I’m liable to be talking about the Green Bay Packers or something. Can you hear that?

I understand that everybody is very excited. That’s what is happening here. In that sense, I am going past transfiguration to resurrection, and these are transfigurated bodies. That light will cause a resurrection. What does that have to do with the world? Nothing. At best the world would view it phenomenally and would be fearful. If the light is so intense, they will simply be afraid of it. They will simply close down and continue to move in a wider range.

That point of reference, say it came from Jesus, came during that crucifixion, during that resurrection. It is a point that you can depend on. You may circle around it for another thousand years, but obviously it’s the prophecy fulfilled. It’s what you are looking for that you’re fearful of finding. So, there are camp followers still here. They hang around the outside of this. They’re literally afraid of coming into the light. Or, more directly, they’re afraid of coming to the light contained within themselves. They’re even pretending they’re protecting the Christ child. For those of you who think you’re protecting the Christ child, He’s grown up. He’s your brother standing right next to you. When you hear that, that’s the Course in Miracles. When you hear that, you’re ready to leave. He not only grew up in you, He’s standing right next to you. Isn’t that amazing? He’s both your son and your savior. Let me see you teach that. That is a sentence in the Course in Miracles. When I look at minds that are hearing me, it is very exciting to me.

Do you know what’s so beautiful about the Course? It says that you are both the dream and the dreamer. It says that the dream is the prophecy, but you are the dreamer to fulfill it. You don’t mind seeing the dream, and even admitting that it is your dream because in that dream is the prophecy of salvation. The idea that you would enter into that and be that yourself is a very advanced teaching. It’s the whole teaching of Jesus of Nazareth. He says, “I did this and you will do this because you did it.” It doesn’t make sense now, but then the ignomatic statements of the Course like, “You are the only living son of God,” “You are the savior of the world,” “You are not a body you are free,” will all begin to make sense. Why? They make sense! How many saviors of the world are there? All: “One.” Who is it? All: “Me!” You got it. That’s what it says. And you’re going, “Oh, it couldn’t be me.” This is your world and you are the savior, and you are in your own story. I know you like it when I begin to tell the story, but all I’m really trying to do is elucidate your own memories so you can see that it is a twice-told tale, or a tale being told all the time, and that you are playing a very vital part in it since without you there wouldn’t be a story. Of course without you, there wouldn’t need to be a story.

This was a nice Sunday School this morning. We come to church to worship and to acknowledge the resurrection of Jesus, and the class we had today was about how you as a man are undergoing the same experiences within your own body association in time. That is coming about in you.

This is the workbook of the final lessons of the Course in Miracles: “Now is the time of prophecy fulfilled for now we cannot fail. God’s angels hover near and all about. His love surrounds you, and of this be sure: I will never leave you comfortless.” It is impossible for me to leave you, because I am the entirety of the representation of your resurrection. It means that you know about me. Therefore, somewhere in time your fire was ignited. Can you hear that? Somewhere in time you underwent those experiences. So, when you read Jesus now and he says, “If you like the idea that I am always with you, go ahead because I assure you that’s true.”

This last workbook is very lovely because in the final lessons are good stuff. The descriptions of what this is are very much a part of it. I’ll read you one. This would actually I suppose, be all that you would ever have to get. Most of you have discovered that any one association that you read is offering you the entirety. I’ll read a real gentle one:

I let forgiveness rest upon all things, for thus forgiveness will be given me. I thank You, Father, for Your plan to save me from the hell I made. If you think this prayer can be given in this world today, you might be mistaken. It is not real. And you have given me the means to prove its unreality to me. See what my mind just did to you. It’s not some prayer, “Father, help me.” He already has. You needed a reason to pray. But all of your reasons were wrong. You didn’t have any power of prayer. He agreed that when the Power of Prayer talk goes out, which says you can pray for evil - it says that you’re praying for the sickness and death and causing it to your brother. That’s a very tough idea. That’s the last prayer. When you take that power to change your mind, there immediately is no world. You better get in the fast lane, you. I wouldn’t want to hang around. Do you see what happens? As the vortex goes faster and faster, it becomes more and more chaotic for the minds out there. No one is to blame for it; it’s simply the way it is. Your requirement is to accept it for yourself and get into the circle. I didn’t come to save the world; I came to change the speed of it. It is not real. And You have given me the means to prove its unreality to me. The key is in my hand, and I have reached the door beyond which lies the end of dreams.

That’s why this is the most incredible prayer you’ll ever hear. Did you hear this? I’ve got it in my own hands! I can make a decision to use this key, this resurrection in my mind, to simply turn the thing and enter heaven. Or, I can go through some more shit. What you don’t like to admit is that I’m your personal savior. You like to sort me out and think I’m somehow representing Jesus. That’s crap. I’m representing you. I’m standing right at the door with you telling you I can’t do it for you, but here’s the key, turn it and go on in! This is called the gatekeeper. A lot of you have played this part. It doesn’t matter who comes up. He couldn’t get that far unless he’s got the key. It’s what we call, have you heard the term “skeleton key?” The skeleton key will open any door anywhere because the door is only in his own mind. It’s not really a special lock. Can you hear that? It will represent anything that his mind thinks the door is. He has the key in his hands. And he says, “Well, I could give that key to anyone.” Oh, yes. That’s the “pearl worth any price.” That key will unlock any door; but it’s going to unlock the door of your mind, in this case, to a whole new continuum, to a whole new place where you will immediately be greeted with, “Where in hell have you been?”

The key is in my hand, and I have reached the door beyond which lies the end of dreams. I stand before the gate of heaven (what a confession), wondering if I should enter in and be at home. What a ridiculous idea. Yet if you can hear me you can say that, “the decision still rests with me.” That’s the entire teaching. It was never outside of you. You say it’s a door of fear and for some of you it may initially be a door that appears to go nowhere. You can’t see heaven until you take the step. First there’s an inner door. Do you know I used to try to teach vestibule? Jesus teaches it as borderland. There is a place in-between. But you’ve got to get into the dark before the other door will open. So, you open up the door that’s going to be heaven, and it’s completely dark. Now there’s a couple of ways I handle that. I can cajole you. Come on, take the step! “I don’t know what it is.” Take it anyway. “No, I don’t want to do it.” Go ahead, take it. This is the whole Course in Miracles. Page after page it says that.

What has happened is, many of you have taken that step. It’s directly into fear. Sometimes Jesus says the face is terrible. You might even, before you see the face of Christ, see a face dripping with blood and yuck, it’s a reflection of your own guilt. We used to teach that you’ve got the dragon at the door. And you’ve got a sword and you’re going to try to cut him down. This is all mythology. All you have to do is smile at him. I saw him as papier-mâché. When I saw it was a mechanical dragon, it was funny. It had no life in it at all. It was just a mechanical device. That step into the dark will show you the other door. Once you take it, you never can really turn back again. If you take it and get the light and then become fearful and step back - you think it was bad before, wait until you see it now. It will never get better. It will keep getting worse. I hate to have to tell you that, but the fact of the matter is that it has to get worse for you so you’re willing to take the step. I’ve got you pressed against it.

Some of you, this is a confession I will make, if you get close enough, and I can say to you, why don’t you try to take a look, can you see up in there. And you say, “No, I don’t see it.” I go like this, (bump). I just give you a little push. Sometimes just when you say, “You, stop it,” you go, “Holy mackerel, how come you didn’t push me before.” I say because you didn’t get close enough so I could give you a nudge. You were so afraid yourself that you wouldn’t even get up to the edge. So at this level, there’s no real criteria for you to see the other side. Is that a fearful door? You bet! Does this Course lead you into fear? You bet! It leads you to the gate of heaven. That’s where the fear is. The fear is the gate of heaven. It’s nice to be heard. That’s another sign that this is about over. In effect, I came from out of time one thousand years from now and you immediately recognized me. You weren’t sure where I was, but you were sure I was the solution. You didn’t have to study it. A lot of you said, “Where have you been?” You could immediately recognize it in your own mind. So that invitation - you’re a late timer - you’ve actually used it up, you were just waiting for someone to tell you that you are right - it’s over! Good for you. There’s a lot of light here.

I stand before the gate of heaven, wondering if I should enter in and be at home. God, let me not wait again today. I’ve waited long enough. Nobody can open the door for me. Peter is at the door and he’s asking for your credentials. You’ve got a guy called Peter who guards the gates. Ha! Can you hear what I just said? You’ve got a guy named Peter who really doesn’t know what your credentials are, and that’s exactly the guy that denied the Christ. St. Peter. All you have to say to him is, “I’m ready to go.” And he’ll say, “Well, what are your credentials?” And you say, “Peter, will you get out of the way?” That’s exactly what Jesus said to Peter when he’s on his way to resurrection. “Hey, Peter, don’t do that.” He actually says, “Get thee behind me, devil.” Never mind Peter at the gate. He’s just a peter. He represents the reproductive associations of man. Peter in, peter out. If you use peter, you will peter out.

Let me not wait again today. Let me forgive all things, and let creation be as You would have it be and as it is. This is a great prayer, it has everything - it has the confessional in it, it has the admission that I am responsible for it, it has the declaration that I have the key and have used it. Do you have any idea what he’s saying to you? That prayer is the whole answer to any problem you’d ever have. It says that you have that key. What do you care who gave it to you. Obviously if you’d like to believe that Jesus Christ gave it to you, that’s fine, he did.

Let me remember that I am Your Son, and opening the door at last, forget illusions in the blazing light of truth, as memory of You returns to me. Brother, forgive me now. I come to you to take you home with me. And as we go, the world goes with us on our way to God. (Lesson 342)