How to Really Pray

I think you will find tonight's message a very practical one. Something that all should really have and apply.

The whole of life is just the appeasement of hunger and the numberless states of consciousness from which the individual can think and view the world. There's only a means of satisfying that hunger. I say this because your state of consciousness is always being externalized. If you know how to move from your present state, if you dislike it, to the state that you would like to externalize, then you have the secret. That is what I will attempt tonight to tell you.

For there are only states of consciousness pushed out, everything in this world, and all are contained within the individual.

Now in the Bible we speak of prayer, and prayer to the world means begging, but not in the Bible. it's thanksgiving it's praise it's not petition we speak in the Bible of repentance the world thinks that it means to regret to be remorseful that's not what the Bible teaches prayer and repentance are almost synonymous terms we are told to bear fruit that befits repentance.

Then they say that the central character of the scripture you and your disciples eat and drink with sinners. He replied I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. repentance.

Leave the righteous alone. They are so self -satisfied. They're like themselves, so leave them alone.

The word sin has nothing to do with breaking any moral code. The word sin means to miss the mark. That's what it means. You have a goal in life, and you haven't achieved it, well, then you are sinning. You may have a billion dollars and still are hungry for another. Well, then if you don't have the other, you are sinning. You may keep all the so -called codes of the world imposed upon you by the priesthood to the world. That would mean nothing as far as the scriptures go.

To repent is simply a radical change of attitude. That is what repentance means. For if I radically change my attitude towards life, I will then view the world and see the world from that change of attitude. And that change is a change of consciousness. And that change will be externalized in my world.

Now repentance is at once man's responsibility and a gift of God. Let us show you what I mean by it.

He said, I and my Father are one. yet I go to my father for my father is greater than I we are one yet my father is greater than I so I go to my father how do we arrive at this strange peculiar statement what does it mean in the office of the sent I am not inferior to my essential being the sender but only in the office of the sent I am restricted I must live by faith faith in what? faith in the sender it's myself, the father for I and my father are one but when I am sent into this world to experience death and to experience the restriction of man I am seemingly inferior to myself, the sender so when I repent I go to the sender I first do what I have to do so I say repentance is at once a responsibility of man and a gift from God but what is my responsibility?

I want to change my world for then I ask myself what would I see if it were changed? how would I see the world? if my world was exactly as I want it to be. How would I see it? Well, then see it. In my mind's eye, conjure a scene which would imply that it is true. Live as though it were true. In my mind's eye, I know I can't make it so. But in the depth of my own being, the Father, he has the power to make it so. so now I go to my father how do I go to my father? I first of all do what I am called upon to do I enact a scene implying the fulfillment of my dream and then I turn it over completely in thanksgiving to him it is myself my essential being, but it transcends my reasoning mind.

I do not know on this level how it can be done. But I do know that if I have faith in him, which is my own self, it will be done in my will. So we are told in scripture, without faith it is impossible to please him. And those who are drawn near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. I must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him, well without faith it is impossible to please him. What is faith? The same chapter in Hebrews defines faith for us: faith is the assurance of things not seen, the evidence of things hoped for. By faith we understand that the very worlds were created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear.

Well, in my world it hasn't yet appeared. I say it all is contained within my imagination. So I will enact the scene which would imply that it's real, and then within myself I give thanks. Now, we are told the most wonderful prayer ever uttered, you find in the book of John, the 11th chapter. He stands at the gate of death, and he raised his eyes and said, Thank you, Father, that thou hast heard me. I knew that you always hear me. Well, I can't deny that the depth of my own being is hearing what I am doing, what I am inwardly saying. So I can truly say, Father, thank you. He certainly heard what I said.

Well, is it now supported by some statement of scripture? Yes, again in John, but now in his letter, the first letter, and in this he said, if we believe that he hears in whatever we ask of him, we know that we have already obtained the request made of him. If I can simply assume that I am the man that I would like to be, but certainly the depth of my own being has seen that assumption, he has heard that assumption. Well, now, can I actually believe that that's all I need you? Well, I have to confess that I can't do it on this level. I am not wise enough on this level to devise the means necessary to externalize what I have assumed that I am.

Well, have you proved it, Neville? A number of times. A number of times. When I was completely shut out on certain areas, imprisoned, as it were, not in the federal prisons, but a state of imprisonment, to find yourself on an island where you enjoyed four months of it, almost five months, but you have a commitment in America, and you've got to get back, and then to be told that there is no possibility of return until the very earliest September. And that will be the very earliest. And your commitment is in Milwaukee in the first week of May. What are you going to do then? No possibility. No ships have taken the passengers. And the list runs into thousands waiting all through the Indies.

From Trinidad all the way up. All waiting. And you are in the island of Barbados without making any provision for your return to America when you sail for Barbados. five months before. So what did I do? I simply sat in a chair in my hotel room and I assumed I was on a little tender moving against the boat, for that was before the days of a deep water harbor. Now we have a deep water harbor. But then you took a small boat off to the ship waiting maybe a half mile to sea. And then you walked up a gangplank. So I simply stepped up on the gangplank and walked up that gangplank in my mind's eye if my mind wandered, which it did I brought it right back to that first step and walked up again it wandered before I got to the top I brought it back again and I trained it as you would a horse the mind is an unruly animal so I trained it and I walked up step after step when I got to the top I turned around and put my imaginary hands on the rail, and I could smell the salt of the sea in the air.

I looked back with nostalgia at the little island of Barbados, a mixed emotion. I am happy that I'm sailing for America, and sad that I'm leaving behind a very large, wonderful family of mine. And then, in that mood, I simply dropped I stopped off for a moment in sleep, just a little nap. The next day I was called by the very company who said that we have no possibility of getting you out of here before at the very earliest, September, and said there was a cancellation this day in America, and they offered it to me in spite of the list of over a thousand people waiting. It's not my concern why she or he or it canceled the passage.

My prayer was answered. I did what I was called upon to do. For repentance is a radical change of attitude. She said, you can't get out. Well, I said, I am out. I'm on a boat. And the boat is headed towards New York City. That's all I wanted to do. So I did my responsibility. And the second part of repentance is a gift from God. So God has the way of externalizing it. What caused the woman or the man or something to cancel the thing I was told afterwards she was afraid she was afraid for some reason not explained to make the trip and so one passage was open and I got that one room because there were only two beds in it and my little girl was only three years old she could sleep with her mother and I could climb up one flight and sleep on the upper bunk and then take my 11 days back to New York City.

So I did what I was called upon to do. That's my responsibility. To enact a scene which would imply the fulfillment of my desire and then surrender completely to my father for he has the power to externalize it. I do not know how to do it on this level. I haven't the wisdom. I haven't anything on this level to do it. So my faith is faith in my father. Father, faith in his power to externalize what I have done, all in imagination. So to me, that is prayer. That is repentance. I didn't sit down and felt for one moment that I had done something that was wrong, and that's why I couldn't get out. No sense of repentance like remorse, as the world teaches.

That's not repentance. Repentance is simply a radical change of attitude. That's what the word means. Metanoia, but radical, right down to the root, and you change your attitude. If I change my attitude, I've changed my state of consciousness. And because all states of consciousness are being externalized in the world, then that state will externalize itself in my world in a way I do not know. Or we are told, my ways are not your ways. My ways are past finding out. Just trust me. So without faith you cannot please God, we are told. If I would come to him, I must first believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Well, I seek him in projecting for me that which I desire in this world.

So that's what I mean by prayer. Prayer is the attempted communion with God. That's what prayer is. As we are told in the fourth psalm, the fourth verse, Commune with your own heart on your bed, and then be silent. Commune with whom? I do not need the mediation of any priest, any rabbi, or any heavenly being. I'm communing with myself. The depth of my own being is God the Father. That's my essential being. And he is one with the surface mind called Neville. and in the capacity of the office of the saint called Neville I am inferior to myself the sender but the sender and the saint are one you and God the father are one but in the office of the saint you are like an ambassador you do not speak with the same authority of the one who sent you to represent him so I represent myself in the world of death but the sender is greater than I.

And yet, I am here once. This is what I get from Scripture. And this is what I put into practice. This is what I try to teach and tell every one who will listen to me.