Now, my friend continued, saying: "Driving home from work the other night I was thinking I could use a little more cash, as Uncle Sam would be making demands upon my income. Then I began to imagine lovely, green, crisp currency raining down on me. For about one minute I lost myself in a little shower of green currency. Then the traffic demanded my attention and I assumed my normal, alert state and forgot all about my imaginal act until the morning of the fifteenth of April. At that time my boss entered the office and said: `You will receive a ten per cent raise in salary retroactive to April first,' and handed me a check."

Let me share with you now a couple of stories a gentleman shared with me this week. He said: "About ten days ago my wife told me of a little girl only fourteen months old who had developed lumps on her neck [in] which - when the doctor removed and tested a lump - there were signs of cancer. Three specialists had been brought in and each separately had declared the child had cancer. Only one doctor, looking at the results questioned the verdict, but they were keeping the child in the hospital for further examination. As I listened to her story I cued my wife's voice out to the point that I couldn't even hear what she was saying, but hearing her voice, I reconstructed the story and heard its revision in my minds eye. That night as I fell asleep I listened again and heard my wife tell me the revised story. A few days later the doctors made another test from another lump and the vote was unanimous, the child did not have cancer. And since they had performed no remedial treatment in the hospital, they determined she never did have cancer, for without treatment the child could not have overcome the condition. When my wife heard the new verdict she told the grandmother and the mother what I had done, but they could not believe that an imaginal act has any power of causation."

From 'signs from above'

In San Francisco, about ten years ago, I was teaching an audience of approximately one thousand, when a lady stood up and said: "My brother is in the army. I do not know what he did, but I do know that he has been court-marshaled and sentenced to six months of hard labor. Neville, if I believe you, can I not set my brother free?" I said: "Yes, but only to the degree that you are self-persuaded that he is free." One week later this same lady stood up and told this story. "Believing you last week, when I returned home to my second floor apartment, I sat in my living room and imagined I heard the doorbell. Then I ran down the stairs, opened the front door and threw my arms around my brother. I rehearsed that scene over and over again until I could hear the doorbell ring, feel the banister in my right hand and my feet moving down the stairs. The doorknob became solidly real in my hand and I could see, touch, and feel my brother's presence before I stopped imagining. "Last Wednesday evening, as I was dwelling upon my brother's return, the doorbell rang and I instantly knew it was he. I ran down the stairs, opened the door and there was my brother. He told me that the army had reviewed his case and changed their judgment, setting him free with an honorable discharge."

From 'seek the kingdom'

Here is a story of a man who learned to turn to no one on the outside for help, for all help came from within him. As a very young boy he was one of a very poor family of five who lived in Russia. At the age of eight he was running errands to earn money to help feed the family. Having never had a square meal, a new shirt, slacks, or shoes, he knew the horror associated with a minority group, as his family were Jews.

This lad had a job taking large amounts of money to a bank to be exchanged into small denominations. One day he noticed that the teller's copper coins resembled the silver ones, and as he returned the money to his employer he began to play a little game with himself. Assuming the teller had given him silver instead of copper, he dreamed of the wealth that would be his, had the mistake been made. The very next day the teller made the mistake. Giving him silver instead of copper, the young lad pocketed the money, went to another bank and changed it into the right denomination then, returning to work he gave his employers the money they expected. Having been taught what was right and wrong, the boy wrestled all through the night with his conscience, but in the morning he took the money, bought a new pair of shoes, a new shirt and pants. Then he went to a restaurant and ate to his heart's content. No, he never returned the money, but he learned a great lesson from this experience.

The world, upon hearing this story, would say he was wrong; but when we came out from the Father we ate of the tree of good and evil, and there isn't one person in this world who has not violated that code. He may not have the courage to violate the moral code openly, but the drama of life is psychological. The child was hungry. Having entered the world of experience, he learned how to use the creative power of his own wonderful human imagination. In the interval he has given back to society ten thousand times more than the small amount taken, not to compensate, but because of the lesson learned. After the First World War Russia collapsed and, penniless, he came to Paris to work as a street cleaner. Then he remembered what he had done so many years ago, and from that point on he rose and today is a multi-millionaire in a legitimate business, applying this simple principle that an assumption, though false, if persistent in will harden into fact.

From 'gods almighty power'

My father would never go to church. He didn't like the minister at all. What wonderful stories we have of my father and the minister. One day the minister said to my father: "I am one of the chosen." My father looked at him and said: "I wouldn't have chosen you." He was just as brash as that with everything he did. He had no respect for the man. He never saw the inside of a church, except when we children were baptized. When my sixth brother was to be baptized - by this same minister - my father took two sea captains as godfathers. At the last moment the minister asked if the two gentlemen were Episcopalians, and when one claimed to be a Presbyterian and the other a Methodist, the minister informed my father that the child could not be baptized with these men as godfathers. With that my father said: "Give me my son. I will baptize him myself." He took the child out of the minister's arms, dipped his free hand in the water, sprinkled it on the child's face and said: "In the name of Jesus, your name is Fred" and walked out. And that's his name -Fred Goddard. That's the kind of man my father was and still is. Not a bone in his body lacked courage. He found the Lord as his own wonderful human imagination, so when he wanted something he simply imagined he had it, and walked in that knowledge.

I promise you, when you find the Lord and really trust him, you will know a peace you have never known before. You will never again bow before anything or anyone.

A lady I know took off to Paris with her two children, leaving her maid in charge of her apartment in New York City. When the lady returned, the apartment was empty, and the maid was no where to be found. The lady contacted the police, hired private detectives, and did everything humanly possible to find her furniture - to no avail. Then she came to me. We sat quietly in the silence and she returned to her apartment in her imagination. She walked through the rooms, feeling conscious of being there, now! She saw the furniture just as it had been before, touched the keys of her piano, and knew everything was back in place again.

A few days later, this lady went to her bank on Madison Avenue. Leaving the bank, she turned in the wrong direction and walked one block before she realized what she was doing. Looking down, she saw a familiar pair of ankles, and suddenly realized she had found her maid. As the light changed, she grabbed the girl and made her take her to where the furniture was stored. This lady now has her furniture back, every piece intact. All we did was trust the Lord our God. What would I have done to find the furniture for her, when the New York police or private detectives could not? But we trusted the Lord, our God. We didn't get down on our knees and plead for help, but simply sat in the silence and imagined. I assumed she was telling me she had found the furniture, and everything was in perfect order. When we broke the silence, I - trusting the Lord to bring it to pass - simply forgot it.

From 'god is light'

Now, the same lady who wrote the letter concerning the healing said: "I wanted to see Bergman, so I called the agencies. I called friends whom I thought had influence; I made every physical effort to obtain a ticket to no avail. Then, aggravated with myself, I simply assumed I was in the audience, watching the show and enjoying it thoroughly. A few days later a friend who lives in New York City called to ask if I could see him on a certain night, as he was going to be in town. I agreed and after dinner he took me to see Bergman."

From 'feel deeply '

I have been in many places where I was forced to test this principle. While on the little island of Barbados, which had only two small ships servicing it as well as the hundreds of islands nearby, I made a commitment to give a series of lectures in Milwaukee on the first of May. When I called, the shipping agent informed me that due to the fact that the ship sailing out of New York City carried only sixty passengers and the one from Boston carried only one hundred, that there was no passage available before the first of September. He promised to put my name on the waiting list, but gave me no encouragement as the list was very long.

I hung up the phone and sat in my chair in the hotel room, closed my eyes and assumed I was aboard a ship heading toward New York City. I assumed eight or ten of my family were coming aboard with me, and that my brother Victor was carrying my little girl. I could feel the motion of the plank. Having no stateroom committed, I remained on deck and placed my mental hands on the rail and felt the salt of the sea there. Then I looked back nostalgically at the little island. I repeated that action over and over again, feeling every step I made on that gangplank. I felt the rail and smelled the salt of the sea. I did everything that feeling could be brought to bear upon, and when my actions seemed natural, I broke it.

The very next day I received confirmation that I would be sailing on a ship which would land in New York City one week before my commitment in Milwaukee, which I did. When I asked the agent how I obtained the tickets, he said they had a cancellation in New York and the one person he had called on the waiting list felt that the timing was inconvenient; so - knowing he could accommodate my wife, our little daughter and myself in one cabin - he let us in. I never heard why someone canceled in New York or why the one he called in Barbados could not take the ship at that time, or why the agent did not call all the others on the waiting list. I only know that I got the reservation I had imagined.

From 'bear ye one anothers burdens'

Many a man remains behind the 8-ball because no one ever thought he could be anything other than what he appears to be. Fortunately I had a mother who, at a tender age took me aside and persuaded me that I was her favorite. She would say: "You will make mother very proud of you, won't you?" and naturally I said: "Yes, mother." I wore long white curls at the time, and she would curl my hair, run her finger up my curl, kiss me, and send me on my way - then call the next one to have his hair curled. Mother told the same story to each of us. It was only after we had all grown to manhood that we discovered what mother had done, but by that time she had accomplished her purpose. She didn't expect us to make a fortune but to be one in whom she would be proud, and in our own separate spheres we all became successful in her eyes.

Many a man is a failure today because no one ever believed he could be otherwise.

From 'behold the dreamer cometh'

The world is, and we are placed upon this little space called earth to learn to bear the beams of love, for God is infinite love. I know, for I stood in His presence, then came down and entered a specter in order to learn to love and take on substance.

Not long ago I was in another section of time instructing a group of maybe a dozen men all seated around me. In the center with me was a spectrum, a shadow of a man. I could move him about and do with him as I willed. Then I said to him, "Go and love. To the degree that you love, you will acquire substance. Only then can you take part in the drama and awake with life in yourself."

What I said to those men I say to you now. At the present time you are only an animated being, not a life-giving spirit. One day you will acquire substance (acquire love) then you will become one with life in your self, knowing that all things were made through the creative act of love (the act of mercy) and without it was not anything made.