Glenn Clark: God’s Reach — Part 2

The Anthropology of Glenn Clark

Hi Friends,

The mission and vision of Glenn Clark’s life and ministry was not to get to heaven. He was not interested in becoming enlightened, leaving a broken humanity to fend for itself. His mission was to establish heaven’s kingdom on earth; his vision was to declare that Thy kingdom has come, on earth as it is in heaven.

Part 2 of Glenn Clark’s book, God’s Reach, describes the process he envisions for accomplishing that vision. Here is my understanding and interpretation of what he has to say.

The seven dimensions of the Cosmos were described last week in Part 1. They are not states of consciousness; rather they are external realities in which we all must live. While it is helpful to place all human events and all human thinking in these categories, the categorization of lower states of consciousness is not sufficient to bring about the kingdom.

We cannot permanently transcend the lower three dimensions. We can never escape the first dimension because, as new born babies, we can only cry and trust; we can never escape the second dimension because each of us desires to be creative and have better things in life, here and now; we can never escape the third dimension because our innate desire for freedom and community is too great to settle for anything less than a liberal democracy.

If we cannot transcend the lower dimensions, our only choice is to transform them. Transforming them requires two things: human beings must reach up to God, and God must reach down to humanity. That God and humanity meet is the life and message of Jesus; how God and humanity meet is the life story of Glenn Clark and the message of his two books: A Man’s Reach and the book I am introducing now, God’s Reach.

The seven dimensions are the staircase where God and humanity meet. The process goes like this: We humans breathe in the dense matter we find in the first, second and third dimensions, where kids shoot up schools, tyrants bomb innocent people, and political institutions are filled with dishonesty. We then climb the staircase to a higher dimension where the dense matter of these dimensions is transformed into spiritual matter, a process he calls transmutation. Finally, we return to our first, second, and third-dimensional life and breathe out the spiritualized, transformed matter, creating a world where kids are nurtured, where the powerful serve, and where political processes bring peace and prosperity, a process he calls crystallization.

To the best of my knowledge, this respiratory process of transmutation and crystallization is unique to metaphysical Christian writing. We often read that human beings are the hands by which God transforms our world. But Glenn Clark’s conclusion that God created human beings “as a sort of superconscious lung by which this process can be continued indefinitely” implies that God transforms our world through the collective breath of humanity. So this book, subtitled An Analysis of Spiritual Growth, is not only about individual growth, but also about human evolution. I will have more to say about that next week.

The dimension we rise into determines the nature of the transformation. Rising to the 5th dimension provides a transformation based on ideals and eternal truths; rising to the 6th dimension provides a transformation based on Love; rising to the 7th dimension provides a transformation based on oneness with God.

Our temporary rise into the higher dimensions requires two spiritual practices: Alignment (with God) and Rhythm (with humanity and creation). If this sounds like the first and second great commandments of Jesus, you’re right; we are to love God with all we have and love our neighbor as ourselves. But I want to highlight a few things that Glenn Clark brings to our understanding of Jesus’ teaching.

We can trust our alignment with God when our conscious and subconscious minds are also aligned. He refers to this alignment as “hind’s feet” in his best-selling book, I Lift Up Mine Eyes. There, he describes the near super-human capacity one has when the entire human mind is as free from all discord as the movement of a deer jumping a fence. This metaphor is, in my opinion, as good as it gets in metaphysical writing.

We can trust that we are “in rhythm” with others and creation when, and only when, we have entered the transmutation and crystallization process described above. When I am in conflict with someone, have I risen to a higher dimension, asked for a transformation of my stuff and my story, and returned breathing out words of love to the other person? When the network news describes atrocities of war, do I look for answers from the 5th, 6th, and 7th dimensions? When I read about senseless shootings, do I pray for the boys who do them?

Questions like these are why I believe metaphysical Christianity and writers like Glenn Clark are the future of Christianity. He is a forgotten writer for much of mainstream Christianity. The few who follow him today stress his evangelical and pentecostal teachings and tend to ignore his quixotic quest for world peace through prayer.

But the idealistic nature of metaphysical Christians enables us to recognize Glenn Clark’s deep, powerful and practical understanding of Jesus’ teachings in a new way. I hope his writings bless you as much as they have blessed me.

Sunday, October 30, 2022

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Foreword to Part II
6. The Law of Alignment
7. The Law of Rhythm
8. Dynamic Symmetry in the First Five Dimensions
9. Dynamic Symmetry in the Sixth Dimension
10. Dynamic Symmetry in the Seventh Dimension
11. Dynamic Symmetry in the Bible

 

PART II
Forward

In Part I we examined the stairways by which man, born as a son of earth, may climb into sonship with God. Union with Earth on the one hand and union with God on the other might pose a hopeless paradox were it not that God sent His Son into this world to show us the way the human and divine may be blended in perfectly adjusted and harmonious relationship when one is in perfect alignment with his God and in perfect rhythm with his fellow men.

In Part II we shall undertake to show how this perfect alignment and perfect rhythm may be attained. Once attained man stands revealed as a unique organism wonderfully and fearfully made as a selective channel to take the coarse, outer substance all around him and filter it upward into higher realms of the Spirit, in a sort of inward breath; and then in an outward breath send it forth again into outer actions, creations and tangible forms of one kind and another. The inward, upward process of turning solids into spirit is called transmutation. The breathing forth of the unseen into the seen is called crystallization. Man was created by God as a sort of superconscious lung by which this process can be continued indefinitely.

It is a fascinating study to trace the unique way man serves as a catalyst for transmitting the heavy, earthy world into the higher realm of the spirit. The plant through its “lungs” and “digestive apparatus,” in other words, through its leaves and roots, takes the carbon and other mineral elements from the earth, transmuting rocks and mud into sugars and salts of cellular life. Man consumes the plant, or, if the cow consumes the plant, man consumes the cow, and thus lifts the salts and sugars and vitamins which originated in the rocks and mud, and converts them all into energy. He uses this energy to create schools and churches and books and philosophical systems. In these philosophical systems and in these churches he finds great basic laws and principles underlying all of life which point to only one thing, a Universal God who creates and controls all of life.

Thus his thinking is transmuted into something still higher: love and gratitude and faith. Through that faith, if it is great enough, he places himself completely and utterly in union with God, until he and God become one.

It is equally fascinating to trace crystallization, the reverse process, by which man also serves as a catalyst in this eternal rhythm of God for stepping this intangible, imponderable, inner experience down into outer manifestation in the practical, every-day life of mankind.

Thus we see that life is a constant poem, a steady, constant rhythm from a higher frequency rate into a lower frequency rate, bringing that which is invisible into visibility; or, conversely, transmuting earthy things from a lower vibration to a higher rhythm, changing something visible to something invisible. Jesus commanded us to fulfill the law of transmutation when he gave the order “Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven”; and he commanded us to fulfill the law of crystallization when he ordered us to pray “Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.”

When we examine this crystallization process we is discover that the whole world is but an externalization of man. Just as man as a physical creation is himself merely an expression of the outer world, so is the outer world a picturization of the inner man. We might say that man has absorbed the outer world, drawing from its minerals to form his bones, drawing from the vegetable world to form the cells of his body, drawing from the animals to form his flesh — and then, having let the outer world pass through him, as through a filter, so to speak, and working upon it with his mind as a catalyst as it passes through, the outer world comes forth again as elements of a new and higher civilization. Thus we see that man has within himself the expression of everything, great and small, that resides in the universe.

Next we see how, through the marvellous working of his subconscious, inventive capacity, man has externalized, one by one, into objectivity, all the things embraced within himself. “He has externalized his animal propensities in the form of animal deities,” writes Vera Stanley Alder. “He has expressed his emotional and imaginative make-up in picture, in tapestry and in poem. He has externalized every muscle and sinew in his body in the form of tools, machines and engines. He has externalized his eyesight in the form of camera and cinema, his hearing in the form of music, telephone and wireless. At present he is endeavoring to capture in externalized instruments the very cosmic ray forces which play through him. His achievements are incessant, untiring and astonishing.”¹

If a man can externalize his emotions and imagination, his muscles and sinews, and even his sight and hearing, why cannot he externalize those deeper qualities of his soul and character and make of this external world a veritable Kingdom of Heaven on earth? Why cannot he externalize the thoughts of his mind and the desires of his heart? Jesus said that we could. That was the core and center of His entire message.

There is no doubt that we can externalize our own inner peace of mind upon the outer world provided that we have peace of mind. If there are enough of us to try the venture, there is nothing to prevent the love and harmony in our hearts from externalizing itself in the United Nations Council. A hundred cannot do it, neither can a thousand. How many million will it take?

1. The Fifth Dimension and the Future of Mankind: Rider & Company, London.

 

CHAPTER VI
The Law of Alignment

I HAVE found that the whole Art of Living is bound up in the proper understanding and proper application of this magic word, alignment. When one is in perfect alignment with God and man all work becomes play, and all creative effort becomes effortless. An aligned person is an irresistible person.

Jesus gives the secret of alignment in the last verses of Chapter Two in Luke’s Gospel. When he was in Nazareth with His parents, he was “subject unto them.” But in another verse in the same chapter we find that when Jesus was in Jerusalem passing by the temple he left the caravan of His family and entered the sanctuary where “he was about his Father’s business.”

Alignment, then, means the putting of that which is higher, high, and that which is lower, low. As a child Jesus placed himself beneath his parents, but in Jerusalem he placed his family below the Temple. Later when he found the Pharisees and the other keepers of the Temple trying to turn religion upside down, putting the outer and lesser above the inner and greater, he put the Kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness above the Temple. In His sermon on the Mount he gave a new, clear statement of the Art of Alignment in saying, “When ye pray stand not on corners as the hypocrites do, but enter into thy closet and close the door.” It is not what you do openly but what you think inwardly that counts. And as the climax of the Sermon he sums up all the laws of alignment in one simple sentence, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Let us apply the law of alignment first to the practical, three-dimensional plane where most people live. The efficient life on this three-dimensional plane consists of eliminating waste motions and putting everything of lesser value in subordination to that which is of higher value. In the mechanical world, for instance, it consists of getting the piping as direct from the source to the user as possible, bringing water down from the hills and gas up from the ground without undue waste of time.

The efficient man is the one who walks in rhythm with the laws of the universe and not in opposition to them. Records are constantly being broken on the athletic field as new ways are discovered of eliminating waste motions and releasing one’s efforts in more perfect alignment with the native powers within the body. Men can carry great loads up steep mountain paths if they place them correctly upon their shoulders; native women in Africa carry unbelievable weight upon their heads, having mastered the art of keeping all in alignment with a balanced spine.

In the industrial world we find stream-lined automobiles, stream-lined trains, diesel engines, chain stores. Efficiency experts are paid high fees to discover ways of eliminating waste motions among employees, and increasing the output of goods.

In the field of government, efficiency is undoubtedly increased by proper use of what might be called the hierarchy system. The original plan of the founders of this nation was for it to be a republic first and a democracy second. To this end it was planned for the common people not to choose the president, but for some superior men called Electors to do so. These were to constitute the Electoral College to select, out of their superior wisdom, the proper man to govern this great nation. The Christian Science Church, the Mormon Church, the Roman Catholic Church all function through hierarchies and when the right man or group is at the head of things there is no doubt whatever that there is greater efficiency and less waste motion than in the more democratic Protestant churches. Whenever war breaks out a democracy is converted into a dictatorship overnight, as at such times every delay through waste motions might prove fatal. One of the greatest disgraces of our government, due to misuse of our democratic system, is the terrible waste in conducting our nation’s business. Overlapping bureaus, red tape, duplication of service, lead to the unnecessary waste of an estimated five billion dollars annually.

The most effective way to get efficiency into the practical activities of this world is to lift our vision into the higher dimensions. One who depends entirely upon his three-dimensional brain to solve all the intricate problems of this world is like the man who tries to lift himself over a fence by pulling on his own boot-straps. To improve the quality of a business output requires first of all improving the quality of the men who participate in it.

Arthur Brisbane in an editorial that reached twelve million readers said, “Big companies are willing to pay fifty thousand dollars a year for men who can sit in office chairs before empty desks and look out the window for four hours a day and think straight; and they can’t find enough men to fill these chairs.” In other words, the greatest institutions are seeking men who can put themselves in alignment with the powers of the universe.

Wherever there is a church properly wired for electricity no effort is required to bring light into the building, no labor in cleaning lamps, or filling them with kerosene; the mere touch of a switch will flood the church with light. Likewise, where there is a church properly aligned spiritually, no effort is required to bring the Light of Christ to the congregation. Where the minister is completely and utterly surrendered to God, and where those next to him — the elders, deacons, trustees, superintendent of Sunday School and Religious Education Directors — are only slightly less consecrated than the minister himself, there is no need of putting on church suppers or bazaars or advertising in the paper to draw crowds. There is hardly need to preach sermons. Merely to enter a church where there is such perfect alignment, where First Things are really put first, where there is such complete, utter trust in God and such perfect love and mutual trust among all the members, is like stepping into heaven. Such an atmosphere of harmony is sufficient to light the flame of God in everyone’s heart.

Where a business firm has such accord among directors, managers and workers, where a football team has such harmony among its members, success is assured before the season starts. Effortlessly, joyously, victory comes.

But how does one achieve such perfect alignment? The place to begin is within one’s own soul, through prayer, meditation, and forgetting self in the service of others.

Here is a prayer that held a great Saint, Thomas a Kempis, in constant alignment:

“O Lord, Thou knowest what is the better way, let this or that be done as Thou shalt please. Give what Thou wilt. . . . Deal with me as Thou knowest and best pleaseth Thee, and is most for Thy honor. Set me where Thou wilt, and deal with me in all things as Thou wilt. I am in Thy hand; turn me round and turn me back again, even as a wheel. Behold I am Thy servant, prepared for all things; for I desire not to live unto myself but unto Thee; and oh that I could do it worthily and perfectly!”

If this alignment is perfectly experienced you will find that from that time onward God is everywhere. You will realize that He is present in all your life, the outer as well as the inner. You will become aware that He is radiating from your face and speaking through your lips and creating beautiful things through your finger-tips. You will experience the exquisite bliss of His love manifesting in your work, bringing harmony among your friends, and new joy into your play.

But greatest of all, when you have come into alignment with God in all your being you will be better able to pray for perfect and heavenly alignment to come into your friends, your church, your working associates, and you will be able to pray with new power for the Prince of Peace to become the Lord of Nations, bringing Peace on Earth and good will to men.

 

CHAPTER VII
The Law of Rhythm

AS YOU get quiet on a summer day and become aware of the ripple of the brook, the song of the birds, the ebb and flow of the tides, the beating of the heart, the inspiration and expiration of the breath, the waxing and waning of the moon, the alternation of day and night, the coming and going of the seasons, you begin to realize that God must have created this world as a poet creates a poem, while “the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” You begin to believe that the ancients were right in their theory of the “Music of the Spheres.” They believed that the stars as they moved through the sky created a beautiful symphony, the music of which was so constant that we were not conscious of it, but that if for some reason it should ever cease we should become aware that something very beautiful and precious had dropped out of our lives.

And so we discover that the second great law for bringing the harmonies of heaven into the world around us is the Law of Rhythm.

The scientists have done the spade work in proving to us that the entire material world consists of nothing more or less than rhythms and vibrations.

Dr. Donald H. Andrews, physicist of Johns Hopkins University said at Stony Run Quaker Meeting House, May 17, 1950, “If there were an atom squeezer which could squeeze atoms together so that only solid material remains, a man could be squeezed down to the size of a very tiny dust speck, and all men now living could be put into a bottle that one could easily carry in one’s pocket. All atoms,” continued Dr. Andrews, “give off music — vibrations that are rather like light. Each of us is giving off vibrations all the time, something like super-symphonic radiations. Most of these vibrations are in the infra-red range and cannot be seen with the naked eye. In short, we are living in a universe which is built on musical terms rather than materialistic terms. The discovery of atomic music has forced us to a new view.”

And that new view is that if we can bring ourselves into rhythm with the Music of the Spheres and ourselves in alignment with the Love of God, which is the foundation for that music, our lives might become masterpieces.

The scientist in his laboratory is not studying matter; he is studying vibrations. In one class he investigates the vibrations of electricity, in another the vibrations of heat, in another the vibrations of light, and in another the vibrations of sound. Everything solid he finds melts into music. “There are definite musical chords,” said Dr. Andrews, “which are associated with thd various chemicals of the body (and of everything else) and they are giving off their note all the time. The energy in the physical makeup of a single man could supply more power than all the power stations of the world for several months if it could be released under control.”

While the scientists in their laboratories are trying to master vibrations, the poet and the painter and the musician in their studies are trying to master rhythms.

All one need do to become an educated man is to understand the mystery of vibration on the one hand, and the mystery of rhythm on the other. Now vibrations, which are most commonly associated with matter, and rhythms, which are most commonly associated with art, belong to the same family. One is the Martha and the other is the Mary of life. All the higher forms of life manifest as rhythm, all the humbler forms of life manifest as vibrations. Rhythm commands, beautifies, creates; vibration serves in the more mundane phases as the hewer of wood and the drawer of water.

Every building and every bridge has some note that it vibrates to, and if a thousand violins stationed in different parts of that structure should play that note long enough the structure would fall. That is why an army crossing a bridge is required to break step. Our military leaders have apparently never forgotten the way an army once marched around Jericho for seven days keeping step and on the seventh day all the trumpets sounded one great note and the walls came tumbling down.

Link, author of Return to Religion, was a chain smoker. There was a beautiful rhythm in the way he took a cigarette from his pocket, tapped it, sprung his lighter on it, and sent the smoke curling from his lips. Wishing to break himself of the habit he changed the beautiful rhythm into ugly vibrations. By putting his packet of cigarettes on the mantle, and the lighter on the opposite shelf, he was forced to go stamping around the room for every new smoke In a few days the habit was “vibrated,” like the walls of Jericho, into discard.

Now that you have discovered that vibrations can tear down and that rhythms can build up, I suggest that you put all the habits that you want to cultivate, such as the habit of prayer, of sleep, of creative writing, into as regular a rhythm as possible, and any habit you wish to break try to put into a pattern of jarring vibrations as completely as you can. Just as you have regular hours each day for your meals, why not reserve a regular hour every day for your prayers?

If one can “vibrate” the walls of Jericho down, he can “rhythm” the streets of the New Jerusalem “up.” I have joined friends walking around the White House and the Capitol pouring the rhythm of love and prayer out upon the occupants and I know much good can come from such efforts.

The spoken word, if spoken in anger, starts vibrations in the air that strike upon the tympanum of the ear of the listener where they are reconverted into sounds that strike in turn upon the heart and hurts the receiver. The loving word, on the other hand, starts rhythms in motion that carry blessings to the ears and hearts of the listeners. The telephone carries the voice much farther than the word spoken into the air alone, the radio carries it still farther, and mental telepathy carries thoughts farther and faster and in a still more mysterious way than the radio. Finally, prayer, which uses a more delicate and perfect wave length than mental telepathy or radio ever touched, carries thought and wishes farthest of all.

Elijah one day became curious to find out exactly what was the wave length of prayer that made it so much more powerful than any other form of communication. So he climbed a high mountain to discover what sort of rhythm or vibration carried prayer so far and so fast. The experiment, which ranks above Franklin’s attempt to find the secret of electricity, is recorded in the 19th chapter of I Kings, the 11th and 12th verses:

“And the voice said, Go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of gentle stillness.”

I use the alternate translation instead of “A still small voice.” This experience revealed to Elijah exactly what the modern scientists have since discovered, that the shorter the wave length the farther the radio carries, likewise the softer and more still the prayer is, the more powerful are the results. All this puts a great premium upon the art of silence.

You who are reading these words please pause for a few moments at this point and listen to the sound of gentle stillness that fills the room and fills your soul. Whisper to the Lord,

“Hold me in perfect alignment, oh Father, to Your heavenly will, and carry me deeply into the blessed rhythm of Your heavenly love.”

In answer you will hear His voice coming down the ages.

“Be still and know that I am God.”

 

CHAPTER VIII
Dynamic Symmetry in the First Five Dimensions

THE LITTLE city of Athens has astounded the world in the way its sons surpassed all mankind in philosophy (Socrates, Plato and Aristotle), in drama (Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides), in oratory (Demosthenes and Pericles), in architecture (the Acropolis), in military science (Miltiades), in sculpture (Phidias) and in poetry (Homer). The reason was very simple: first, they invoked divine aid before they started anything, whether it was the battle of Thermopylae, the Odyssey of Homer or Demosthenes’ oration on the Crown. And second, they made rhythm the center and core of all their education. When the Greeks got these two elements perfectly blended one of the greatest discoveries of the ages burst upon them. Out of the marriage of Alignment, the masculine principle, and Rhythm, the feminine principle, was born a son known as Dynamic Symmetry.

The Egyptians whose education was also based on alignment and rhythm had made the discovery before the Greeks and upon it based their land measurements, their Pyramids, their art, and finally created the greatest civilization of their day. I am not an authority on Egyptology, but I did major in Greek and can speak with special assurance when I say that as soon as the Greeks applied dynamic symmetry to their art they produced the greatest sculpture in the world. After the Greek golden age waned, the precious knowledge having been delegated to the secret masonry, the masons concealed the secret so successfully that they lost it. Da Vinci, Dürer and the Gothic builders rediscovered it. At the end of the Renaissance it disappeared. Only a few decades ago when sculpture again came into its own it was found for the third time.

The sunflower is the most perfect example of dynamic symmetry in the plant world for it always keeps its face turned toward the sun. The seeds in this flower which thus derive their life directly from the sun, form a series of intersecting curves. Symmetry means balance and we naturally would expect these two sets of intersecting curves to contain an equal number of seeds. But nature and God do not subscribe to so mechanical a formula. The seeds on one side of the sunflower outnumber those on the other, which to all appearances is a violation of balance. Then where does the symmetry come in? Listen carefully, for here lies the Secret of the Ages:

When a sunflower is small there are 21 seeds on one side and 34 on the other. As it grows larger, there appear 34 on one side and 55 on the other; the next stage is 89 on one side and 144 on the other. In other words, the larger side regularly consists of the sum of the two sides at the former stage. The mathematical ratio of one side is always 1.618 larger than the other.

Furthermore, the distribution of leaves along the central stem also shows the same constant ratio. This orderly distribution of the leaves of plants is connected with a distinctive series of numbers i, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, etc. known as geometric progression. One of the larger numbers in the series divided by the preceding one always equals 1.618 and this ratio explains the symmetry of the design of the plant system.

Taking their cue from nature the Greeks discovered that the square is not God’s standard of beauty, but the rectangle; and the circle is not the last word in grace, but the oval. Taking the sea shell as an example of strength and beauty, note how first there is a rectangle (Figure A) where one side is 1.618 higher than it is broad. Now construct a square on the longer side keeping symmetry in the same way and you have Figure B. Then move at right angles again and you have Figure C. Give this whirling rectangle another whirl and behold how its power and beauty grows (Figure D). Give it one more turn and then use your pen drawing curves along the diagonals of each square, starting with the first, and see what you have: the basic pattern of the chambered nautilus (Figure E). Now let God give it a whirl and the chambered nautilus itself emerges in all its perfection and beauty (See next page).

The chambered nautilus is a perfect illustration of Dynamic Symmetry. Its physical beauty is bounded by physical and mathematical law.

As this is not a book on art, I shall not try to explain the intricacies of dynamic symmetry as applied to sculpture and architecture. All I can say is that not only does the ratio of 1 to 1.618 comprise the sides and whorls of the Chambered Nautilus but likewise of the human body as expressed in the Venus di Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and rises to its greatest architectural perfection in the Greek Parthenon and some of the Gothic Cathedrals.

The human frame is a wonderful example of dynamic symmetry. Man, being right-handed or left-handed, one hand is 1.618 more efficient than the other. He also has two lungs, two lobes to his heart, two feet, two arms, two eyes, two nostrils, two ears. But, alas, he has only one mouth, which may account for the shallowness and worthlessness of so much of his conversation. If he looked longer at the wonders of nature and listened more to the song of the birds and talked less gossip about his neighbors he would undoubtedly be far wiser and happier.

There are two motions to one’s breathing, one outward, one inward; two motions of the heart beat — and so life moves on. Athletes grow strong not through tensing the muscles alone, nor by relaxing them alone, but through a rhythmic balanced interchange between the two. Genius is developed not alone by stepping into the silence and getting still, nor by expending all one’s energy from morning till night in rapturous enthusiasm, but through a balanced, rhythmic interchange between the two. And finally, the great miracles in the spiritual realm are not brought about by smug serenity in the midst of comfort and ease where disturbances never occur, but rather through the peace that passeth understanding when the turbulent waves of life are tossing the little vessel like an egg shell, and all the doors of hope seem closed.

Profound books have been inspired by the paradoxes that create dynamic symmetry in its highest form. There is such power generated in giving without being seen as the giver that a best seller was written about it, Magnificent Obsession. There is such power generated in being labeled as a sinner and living as a saint that a masterpiece was written about it, Les Miserables.

Such power is generated in being sinned against and forgiving the sinner that miracles of healing have occurred through no other act than this. Opening these doors of dynamic symmetry lets the healing power of heaven flow unobstructed into the hidden parts of the body, no matter how deep, to bring the cure. No matter how great the dream that one catches on the mountain top, it can be conveyed to those below if the dreamer can obey the laws of dynamic symmetry.

The most powerful prayer that one can pray is the one that is made up of two ingredients — one-half an ardent, sincere desire for the thing prayed for, and one-half an equally sincere relinquishing of the desire completely into the hands of the Father to grant or deny as He sees best. Abraham wished for a son but was willing to relinquish him, and as a result the son was returned to him, and through him a long line of prophets and a mighty race. Gandhi’s achievements came through his practice of renunciation. He renounced leadership, and leadership beyond the dreams of men was given him; he renounced the use of physical force, and a mighty power called soul force brought most of his dreams to pass.

The secret process of how the pattern visioned on the Mount comes into manifestation on Earth, can best be clarified through the parable of the stereoscope. This instrument consists of two miniature panes of ordinary glass through which one looks — not at one picture but at two pictures of the same scene, yet pictures that are not from exactly the same point of view. One view is taken a few paces to the right of the other — we might say a modified 1 to 1.618 ratio. The pictures are similar in one respect — they are of the same scene, and dissimilar in the other respect they are not taken from the same spot. In each case you find something negative combining with something positive, which, when your eyes get into focus (or as Jesus put it, when your eyes become single), you find yourself no longer looking at a flat picture, but through a doorway, as it were, into a new world with heights and depths and shadows. Indeed you feel tempted to step through the doorway and stroll down the country lane or city street that opens before you. In other words, a couple of two-dimensional pictures when brought into focus under the principle of dynamic symmetry opens to you a three-dimensional world.

The three greatest dramatists, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Shakespeare, were the world’s most skilled users of dynamic symmetry. The Greek drama grew out of the ballad dance. In this dance, the singing and chanting chorus first moved to the right — this was called the strophe. Then they moved to the left — this was called the antistrophe. Between dances the leader of the chorus told the story. Later he became an actor and in the natural evolution of the drama the new leader of the chorus in turn also became an actor. During the height of the Greek drama there were never more than two actors on the stage at a time — always in perfect balance, usually in perfect contrast — perfect examples of dynamic symmetry.

With only two actors, and with a chorus moving rhythmically in the strophe and antistrophe, the stage was truly set for dynamic symmetry at its best. This ballad dance was not a mechanical device manufactured by the brains of men, but an organic expression springing from the deep dynamic symmetry rooted in Nature and Life.

Dr. William M. Mann, director of the National Zoological Park at Washington, D.C. and T. H. Gillespie of the Edinburgh Zoo agree that the pacings of animals back and forth in their cages are

“not efforts to get out but are a form of rhythmic play or dance. A bear, for instance, will perform this dance not only when caged but will do it on a ledge of rock with nothing to confine him but his own wish to take so many steps each way. If you’ll study those pacing animals, you’ll see that they always take the same number of steps in each direction, make the same motion with their heads at the turn, and if they take too long a step and come out wrong, they’ll mark time in order to restore the rhythm.”¹

Shakespeare was the most ardent and obedient disciple of dynamic symmetry of all time. The story of his development as a dramatist is fascinating. His first original play, Love’s Labor Lost, consisted of a prince and four knights, all sworn to have nothing to do with women; and a princess and four ladies, all sworn to have nothing to do with men. The knights who had never met these women, retired for a season to the castle of the prince; the women retired to spend a period in the castle of the princess. These estates, strange to say, adjoined each other; and one by one a knight would meet, accidentally, a lady, until all had met and fallen in love. And thus the story ended and all lived happily ever after.

Shakespeare’s next play was a little less “wooden” but still followed the rules of dynamic symmetry almost as faithfully as his first. In this one, A Comedy of Errors, a merchant of Syracuse had sons who were identical twins, and each had a servant who also were identical twins. The mother with one son and one attendant got lost on a storm-tossed sea and for years could not be found. The mixup between the two sons and the two servants, when they finally met, created the first important comedy based on mistaken identity.

In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the dynamic symmetry is still strongly marked but less obtrusive. Two opposing families each has one child, but one is a boy and one is a girl. When they come together Shakespeare’s powers at last find their full strength; and a drama comparable to the chambered nautilus in artistic perfection is brought to birth.

Then follow the tragedies King Lear, Hamlet and Macbeth in which the cold skeleton of dynamic symmetry is so clothed over with brilliant poetry and magnificent characterization that only an expert can detect the basic principles upon which they were built.

The moral laws of the universe are based upon dynamic symmetry. When Moses brought the Ten Commandments down from Mount Sinai they were inscribed on two tablets not one. The first carried the five laws of man’s relationship to God; the second carried the five laws of man’s relationship to man. We might say that they are alike but not equal. God’s laws are 1.618 greater than man’s. The Two Great Commandments upon which Jesus hung all the law of the prophets are the most outstanding examples of spiritual dynamic symmetry the religious world has ever known, just as the cross furnishes its most outstanding symbol.

In my own studies in Jesus in the volume, The Way, The Truth and The Life, I take pains to show how beginning with the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount is a perfect example of dynamic symmetry from beginning to end. Each pair of Beatitudes begets a third. The first chapter of the Sermon (Matthew V) deals entirely with man’s moral responsibilities toward man, and the second chapter (Matthew VI) deals with man’s moral responsibilities toward God, and the third chapter (Matthew VII) sums the first two up in such balanced symmetry as to take one’s breath away.

The second third of the book I devote to Jesus’ parables. And here we discover that he told all his parables in pairs. As Noah assembled the creatures in the ark two by two, so they could reproduce themselves, so Jesus assembled his thoughts in parables two by two in the minds and hearts of his listeners. For instance, he admonished them to count the cost of time and energy before they started the climb into the higher dimensions of the Kingdom. “This admonition, ” to quote from The Way, The Truth and The Life, (pp. 69-70) “took the form of two parables, arranged in dynamic symmetry like the stereoscopic lens, through contemplation of which one could step into a new dimension of thought and action:

“For which of you, wanting to build a tower, does not first sit down to calculate the expense, to see if he has enough money to complete it? — in case, after he has laid the foundation and then is unable to finish the building, all the spectators start to make fun of him, saying, ‘This fellow started to build but he could not finish it!’”

“Or what king sets out to fight against another king without first sitting down to deliberate whether with ten thousand men he can encounter the king who is attacking him with twenty thousand? If he can not, when the other is still at a distance he will send an embassy to do homage to him.”

“One can note a perfect balance and dynamic symmetry between these two parables. One parable deals with inanimate objects, the other with living men. One plans in terms of construction, the other in terms of destruction. One is concerned with projects of peace, the other with projects of war. But both represent in our day as well as in Jesus day projects which require more careful preliminary planning than any other work we can think of. Today, before any hotel or office block is erected bids must be made and estimates considered with great care And before an army makes an advance the preparation or logistics has to be taken care of in the most thorough of ways.”

Here is another pair of parables that illustrates Jesus’ use or dynamic symmetry:

“No one tears a piece from a new cloak and sews it on an old cloak; otherwise he will tear the new cloak, and the new piece will not match with the old.”

“No one pours fresh wine into old wineskins; otherwise the fresh wine will burst the wineskins, the wine will be spilt and the wineskins ruined.”

“Note how in the one parable there are men working at the winepress out-of-doors; and in the other there are women working on cloth indoors. One deals with wet goods, the other with dry goods; the one with something fluid to take into the body, the other with something static to put on the outside of the body. These parables, so completely different, focus upon one great central truth; we must not patch in a little here and patch in a little there, but we must go all the way out for God.”²

Here is another pair of parables that shows God’s love for men:

“Which of you with a hundred sheep, if he loses one, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open field and go after the lost one till he finds it? When he finds it, he lays it on his shoulders with joy, and when he gets home he gathers his friends and neighbors: Rejoice with me, he says to them, for I have found the sheep I lost.”

“Or again, suppose a woman has ten shillings. If she loses one, does she not light a lamp and scour the house, searching carefully till she finds it? And when she finds it, she gathers her women-friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the shilling I lost.”

“Note that here is the man and woman again, one seeking an inanimate thing, one seeking a living thing, but in both cases, the little things they are seeking are perfectly helpless. The little coin cannot get up and seek its owner; neither can the baby sheep climb the mountains to find its owner. All they can do is to wait. But both are very, very precious in the sight of God. In the days of Palestine, the coins worn by a married woman were symbolical, and each one had a precious value as a part of the whole. Likewise, every good shepherd valued each sheep and he rejoiced more over the lost one that was found than over the other ninety-nine that were safe. Here we have the dynamic symmetry of the Father Love and Mother Love of God uniting to save every lost and wandering child.”³

1. From: “Don’t Pity the Animals in the Zoo” — Reader’s Digest — March 1951.
2. The Way, The Truth and The Life, Glenn Clark. Harper’s, pp. 81-82.
3. The Way, The Truth and The Life, Glenn Clark. Harper’s, pp. 85-86.

 

CHAPTER IX
Dynamic Symmetry in the Sixth Dimension

THE PRINCIPLE underlying all the parables of Jesus mentioned in the last chapter can be summed up in the word, polarization — the mighty, eternal, cosmic rhythm between two opposite poles, sometimes known as positive and negative, sometimes as masculine and feminine. The positive or masculine can be called the desire, the negative or feminine, the relinquishment.

The male division of the Mind is the conscious realm that conceives the idea, visions it and images it; the female division of the mind is the subconscious realm which receives ideas and believes implicitly every idea the conscious mind impresses upon it. But the subconscious mind cannot bring it into expression unless the idea is impressed upon it by the conscious mind with feeling. The conscious mind can think, conceive and imagine; but it cannot impress its conceptions upon the subconscious unless it feels them. When the conscious mind warmly feels these conceptions as already accomplished, not coldly thinks them as something merely possible of accomplishment, then the subconscious mind accepts them in their perfect complete-ness and gives form and expression to them.

A high type of meditation used consciously or unconsciously by the great geniuses is to move alternately from the conscious to the subconscious mind. The meditator first steps into his subconscious mind and kneels in humility and obedience to the conscious mind. Then he steps into the conscious mind and impresses affirmations and commands upon the subconscious. Then he steps back into the subconscious mind and obediently accepts these commands and affirmations in complete trust as absolute truth, and surrenders them into the hands of the Father.

The psalms sung in the orthodox churches, the affirmations of the New Thought centers, the mantrams of the eastern religions, all have the purpose of impressing, through repetition, upon the subconscious mind, the great cosmic truths of life. But if your eye is single, said Jesus, and if you really put first the Kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness, and if you accept these truths with feeling, loving God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, you won’t have to depend upon “many repetitions as the Gentiles do.” The most effective way to reach your subconscious is not by mechanical force but through the power of faith and love, in other words through the power of sincere and exalted feeling.

As it is sometimes difficult to get the feeling when one is alone, Jesus offered this solution, “When two or three agree together touching anything, it will be done unto them.” That explains why the most powerful of all meditations is often found where two persons of the opposite sex come together and agree; for the man to take his stand in the conscious mind with the door of love wide open into his subconscious mind; and for the woman to abide in her surrendered, obedient subconscious mind, receiving all the commands and affirmations coming from the man and surrendering them with herself into the hands of God. Instead of alternately stepping back and forth with a shifting of spiritual “gears,” as is necessary when one meditates alone, there is a quiet resting, each person in the other and both in God, a constant abiding under the Shelter of the Almighty, a perfect experience of dwelling in the Secret Place of the Most High.

Parapsychology through its research in mental telepathy has proved to the world what metaphysicians have always known — that the mind of each one of us is a part of the Universal Mind. That being so, when Jesus impressed upon Mary, sitting at his feet, the great truths of the Kingdom and she was accepting them without qualification or doubt, he was, through her deep faith and love, actually reaching into the Universal Mind, and sowing seeds that would bear rich harvests in all the years that were to come. What you ask or proclaim in the secret of the inner room will be granted you openly. And thus we see the truth in Jesus’ statement, “Where two agree touching anything ... I will be in the midst of you and all your prayers will be answered.”

When a man meditates alone it is often hard to convert his cold thought into warm feeling. But when a man and woman who love each other with a high, pure love meditate together in an elevated fellowship of mutual trust, there is a heavenly interchange of strong, exalted feeling. Then all that is required is for the man to express his thoughts, his conceptions and his daydreams with perfect love and trust, and for the woman to accept them with equally perfect love and trust, and everything thus conceived and thus expressed takes permanent form and creates permanent results in the visible world. Most of the profoundest and most permanent advances in spiritual history have come to pass through such partnerships. The first perfect spiritual partnership was:

1. Jesus and Mary The second great partnership of the Spirit was
2. Saint Francis and Saint Claire The third was
3. Fenelon and Madame Guyon The fourth was
4. Saint John of the Cross and Saint Teresa The fifth was
5. Gandhi and Mira.

The service Mary rendered Jesus in accepting his visions and daydreams with the deep feeling of love and trust was infinitely more valuable in his ministry than the more obvious service rendered by Martha in serving his physical needs.

It was said that when Francis and Claire were in a room meditating and praying together, the Franciscan friars felt the power emanating from that room, and at times could almost see it as a light. But even this beautiful friendship was misunderstood at times and for that reason very rarely did they meet.

The most inspired spiritual literature of their time was produced by Fenelon and Madame Guyon. But the Bishops, not appreciating the purity of their love and fearing scandal, banished Fenelon to a little parish on the outskirts of France.

No literature since Jesus’ day surpasses in Christian love the Lays and Songs of Saint John of the Cross. When he was appointed to teach the nuns in Saint Teresa’s convent his power of expression flowered. The subconscious minds of Teresa and these humble nuns responded to the beautiful affirmations of his poetic mind and through their orchestration tremendous power spread through all of Spain.

What Francis and Claire did for Italy, Saint John of the Cross and Saint Teresa did for Spain, and Fenelon and Madame Guyon did for France.

These men, Saint Francis, Saint John and Fenelon, were all considered saints. So were the women: Saint Claire, Saint Teresa and Madame Guyon. In our own day many would call Gandhi a saint. Certainly no man of our time has accomplished such permanent results through “soul force” and “soul force” alone as he did. One of the keys to his tremendous powers is revealed to us in a book, Gandhi’s Letters To A Disciple, which was published after this chapter was begun.

As we do not have the detailed story of the other partnerships let us accept this as typical of them all. In his introduction to the book John Haynes Holmes writes:

“The Gandhi-Mira episode is one of the great idyllic stories of human life. It has always suggested to me the story which must have attached to Jesus’ relations with the high-minded and heroic women who clustered about Him in His ancient ministry in Palestine. In the final crisis of His career, when the Nazarene was arrested, tried and crucified, these women remained faithful to Him even when all His disciples excepting only John had fled away. This utter loyalty in death must have been the reflection of the similar loyalty of these women in life. They followed Jesus and served Him because they saw in Him the Master. So it was with Mira, who saw in Gandhi the Mahatma.

“In her Preface to this volume Mira tells the dramatic tale of her discovery of Gandhi and its cataclysmic influence upon her life. She was an English girl, Madeleine Slade, daughter of a distinguished British admiral, a popular social figure, highly educated, tall, beautiful, proud of bearing, with glowing eyes and liquid voice. Early enraptured by music, she was drawn to Romain Rolland by his writings on Beethoven, ‘and through Romain Rolland to Bapu,’ whose biography the great Frenchman had written. Mira read this book and said, ‘From that moment I knew that my life was dedicated to Bapu.’

“Mira herself speaks of her experience as ‘a power’ that was ‘impelling’ her before she knew either Rolland or Gandhi; in the former case it gave her ‘an extraordinary sense of mellow happiness,’ and in the latter case, burst forth into a light which, like the dawn, ‘glowed brighter and brighter in my heart,’ and at last became as ‘the Sun of Truth pouring his rays into my soul.’

“The most remarkable part of her experience is what she did with it. Had it been mere emotionalism of a romantic type, Mira would have rushed to Gandhi, if only to indulge her sentimental intoxication. But she did nothing of the sort. She did not even go to India, to meet him and sit adoringly at his feet. She did not even write him, or communicate with him in any way. With amazing sanity and self-control she set herself to the business of preparation, both physical and spiritual, for her task of dedication to the great Indian leader. This involved training in as apparently trivial an exercise as sitting cross-legged on the floor, and in as definitely important a one as diet and knowledge of Hindu literature. Only when she had completed almost a year of intense concentration and hard labor, did she feel herself fit to come into Gandhi’s presence and offer him the service of her life. Deeply touching is the scene of her meeting with the Mahatma. ‘I could see and feel nothing but a heavenly light,’ she writes. ‘He lifted me up and taking me in his arms said, “You shall be my daughter.” And so has it been from that day.’

“There can be no doubt as to the nature of this episode. It is the religious ecstasy of the highest and purest character. It is the soul obedient to God, and to His servant. It is the making of oneself a servant of truth and light. There have been many other instances of this spiritual surrender to so exalted a saint as Gandhi.

“Mira was changed in an instant — not by any sentiment of passion, but by a capture of her whole life by the subduing power of the spirit. God spoke in the sudden disclosure of Gandhi to his disciple, and Mira had the courage, and the supreme intelligence, to answer. Her life therewith became exalted, and to the end as beautiful as a gift laid upon an altar.”

Then follow the letters, 220 pages of them — and all by Gandhi. “These letters,” writes Mira, “are a selection of 351 out of 650 which I collected and treasured year by year. In the days of arrests and imprisonments, with their accompanying searches and destruction of papers, my only anxiety was for Bapu’s letters. Whenever I saw the likelihood of arrest approaching, I would leave them with some ‘unsuspected’ friend, or in some institute where no searches would be likely to be made. Then, for the last three years, I have kept them with me in a little tin trunk. Mercifully they have survived all vicissitudes, and now, when they are at last published, I shall feel an immense sense of relief. The treasure of spiritual thought and guidance which they contain, though addressed only to one, must be available to all.”

As one reads these letters he can imagine he is also reading the letters of Saint Francis to Saint Claire, of Saint John to Teresa, and of Fenelon to Madame Guyon. Tremendous dynamic symmetry of the upper dimensions was released through the lives of these men through the pure adoration and loving service of these women. Mira closes the book as follows:

“On January 30, at about 7:30 P.M. the news of the assassination was brought to me in Pashulok. I had come out on the verandah. As I heard the words, I became motionless and gazing up into the sky saw the stars glittering above the forest trees. The only words which spoke in my heart were: ‘Bapu, Bapu, so it has come!’ And with that there came a sense of peace which surmounted even the blinding shock.

“For me there were only two, God and Bapu. And now they have become one!

“When I heard the news something deep, deep down within me opened — the door to the imprisoned soul and Bapu’s spirit entered there. From that moment a new sense of the eternal abides with me.

“Though Bapu’s beloved physical presence is no longer with us, yet his sacred spirit is even nearer. Sometimes Bapu had said to me, ‘When my body is no more there will not be separation, but I shall be nearer to you. The body is a hindrance.’ I listened in faith. Now I know, through experience, the divine truth of these words.

And so Mira stepped into the glorious dynamic symmetry of the seventh dimension in this realm of time as Gandhi stepped into it over there in the realm of Eternity.

Again we see, in inspired literature, the work of the conscious and subconscious mind working together through men and women. The friendship of Dante and Beatrice was so platonic and spiritual that it never attracted criticism although some undiscerning readers may misunderstand it. But it did lead to the writing of one of the greatest masterpieces of literature of all time the allegory of the human soul in its journey from hell to heaven.

The love of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett became a living prayer partnership that led to the finest poetry of their day. This was the most perfect married partnership among all the literary folk that ever lived.

It has been rare that such ideal marriages occurred among spiritual leaders. Socrates had his Xantippe and John Wesley and scores of others had wives who could not orchestrate with them in spiritual meditation. The one outstanding exception is Jonathan Edwards whose wife was in utter accord with his spiritual vision. The result was something permanent in two fields: first, a family of children whose descendants have been prominent in moulding the destiny of America; and second, a philosophy on the place of freedom of the will that stands as the masterpiece of his age.

Unfortunately, all through time men have failed to understand this need and its fulfillment. It was not something that required marriage; there was Dante and Beatrice. And, of course, misused, there was danger of sorrow and tragedy, as in the partnerships of Shelley and Mary Godwin. Even when high and perfect it was often misunderstood. But out of all this evidence of the past the truth remains that the most creative meditation is where two come together and agree in the spirit of love and trust, which constitutes “praying in Jesus’ name,” one a man who images his dreams and one a woman who receives them in complete trust and passes them on to the Lord. Out of this perfect orchestration of thinking and feeling and sharing with God, wonderful things have been born on this planet. An outstanding student of spiritual biographies has reported that every spiritual leader who has left permanent results had a wife who trusted and loved completely as Jonathan Edwards and Browning had, or a Beatrice or Mira who gave spiritual feeling as she received his visions with perfect love and perfect trust.

Thus we see what a significant place feeling has when expressed in the form of dynamic symmetry in the lives of men and women. One of the essential elements is contrast, which is the very core of dynamic symmetry, and dynamic symmetry is not limited to sex. Some of the most powerful spiritual partnerships have been between men of opposite types such as Goethe and Schiller, and Carlyle and Emerson. When I, a teacher of literature in a northern college and a member of the white race, made a pilgrimage to meet Dr. George Washington Carver, a teacher of science in the deep south, a member of the black race, a spiritual partnership was established between us which both of us agreed doubled our creative output for the next ten years. Now that he and God have become one, I sometimes feel the partnership more vitally than ever.

Dynamic symmetry of the sixth dimensional type is found in powerful expression in poetry ‘drawn out’ of the writer by the ones he wrote it for, as Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic”; and in orators inspired by the audiences that welcome them. Indeed, nowhere is dynamic symmetry more potently operative than in the field of oratory. Someone has said that no great orator was ever created without a great audience. A hostile or luke-warm congregation will “kill” an oration almost as surely as frost will kill an opening blossom. Jesus experienced this when he could do no mighty works in his home town because of their unbelief. He was referring to this when he told his apostles in his final instructions before sending them forth to address many cities:

“If they receive you as a righteous man (one who can give them a commonplace sermon on how to be good) they will receive a righteous man’s reward; but if they receive you as a prophet (one through whom God speaks a message) they will receive a prophet’s reward.”

In other words the attitude of the audience will modify the quality of eloquence or lack of eloquence of the speaker. If they come in coldness they will receive information; if they come with warmth they will receive inspiration, and, if the speaker is a clear enough channel, actual revelation.

There was one dramatic moment in spiritual history when a group larger than two or three stepped into that complete, perfect orchestration of souls, all of one mind, gathered in one place, and that was called Pentecost, the place where the sixth and seventh dimensions became one.

 

CHAPTER X
Dynamic Symmetry in the Seventh Dimension

AND NOW we stand in the midst of the seventh dimension. Let us pause for a moment and listen to the voice of Jesus describing it: Lay not up for yourselves treasures in the third dimension of the earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in the seventh dimension of heaven. If you once reach this seventh dimensional area, he concluded in effect, “all these things shall be added unto you.” And the Psalmist completes the picture: “Because thou hast made the Lord even the Most High thy habitation there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.”

If we can find the right dynamic symmetry of the seventh dimension all things shall be added unto us as is verified by these seven major promises of Jesus:

1. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do. (John 14:13)
2. If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 18:19)
3. If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed ye shall say to this mountain, “Remove hence to yonder place” and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible to you. (Matthew 17:20)
4. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ye may ask whatsoever ye will and it will be given unto you. (John 15:7)
5. Everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. (Matthew 7:8)
6. When thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. (Matthew 6:6)
7. He that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father. (John 14:12)

These promises seem impossible. But all impossible things are possible if one can find the Key. And the Key to these seven promises lies hidden in these seven paradoxes:

1. The last shall be first. (Matthew 19:30)
2. Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. (Matthew 5:39)
3. Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. (Matthew 5:44)
4. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)
5. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 5:3)
6. Whosoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to hold the first place among you must be your slave. (Matthew 20:27-28)
7. He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. (Matthew 10:39)

“A paradox” said Frank Olmstead, “is a phenomenon on the boundary of a new dimension.” And the boundary where all of Jesus’ paradoxes lead us is straight into the seventh dimension — in other words, into the Kingdom of Heaven itself.

Therefore, all of the promises listed on the preceding page, extravagant as they may seem, become possible whenever one learns how to practice the paradoxes given above. But before we can practice them we must understand them.

Remember how the foundation of all dynamic symmetry rests on the one hand upon the Law of Alignment, and, on the other hand, upon the Law of Rhythm? The last of the paradoxes listed contains the last word in the Law of Rhythm, and the next to the last contains the last word in the Law of Alignment.

Let us consider first of all the Law of Rhythm. Where all vibrations are resolved into rhythms and all rhythms into stillness, “the sound of gentle stillness” or “the still small voice,” there we experience rhythm at its finest and highest. When any one on this earth becomes so still, so at peace, so completely liberated from all thoughts of self, so completely immersed in God that he experiences the peace that passeth understanding, then the Rhythm from above becomes so irresistible that no evil powers on this earth can stand before it. Saint Paul who almost single-handed planted the roots of the Christian Church so deeply that they will never die, gave the finest expression of this stillness in the classic words, “I am crucified in Christ. I live and yet not I but Christ in me.” The dynamic power in Saint Paul’s life came from his discovery that there is no stillness like the stillness that is created by the dying to self.

So powerful is this paradox, “he that loseth his life . . . shall find it,” that some branches of the Christian Church have adopted a sacrament to symbolize it in the form of complete immersion at the time of baptism. In this sacrament the initiate is bodily “drowned” for a moment. The place where he was visible a moment before suddenly becomes vacant. Only after that complete erasure of the physical form is he “resurrected” — a supposedly new creature reborn in Christ Jesus. Thus we see that the secret door to the most powerful Rhythm man can ever hope to attain is concealed in the greatest paradox Jesus ever uttered, “He that would save his life shall lose it and he who would lose his life shall save it.” In other words, when one takes his own little rhythm out of the way, the mighty Rhythm of Christ comes in. Whether one describes it as “the sound of gentle stillness” or “the peace that passeth understanding,” it matters not; the Power is there!

When we turn from the Law of Rhythm to the Law of Alignment we encounter another paradox of Jesus, “Whosoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whosoever wants to hold first place among you must be your slave.”

Alignment as we have already learned consists of putting first things first, the lower always subordinate to the higher. All cannot take the front seats, some must take the back seats or confusion will reign. As too many cooks spoil the broth, it is equally true that too many leaders will bring any movement or any institution into chaos. If all tried to lead an army, bedlam would be the result. Let the natural leaders lead, implied Jesus. Take the back seats, be willing to accept the leadership of any who are better equipped to lead than you are, and, just as water flows into the lowliest valleys, you may find the leadership “gravitating” to you. For the truest paradox ever uttered was, “The meek shall inherit the earth.”

When a guide escorts you through an art gallery, you let him direct you, you don’t try to direct him. Every man you meet is superior to you in at least one respect, and those willing to bow down in affairs where they are not supposed to lead are the ones who will be chosen to lead where God wants them to lead. Thus we find that as the quintessence of Rhythm is death, the quintessence of Alignment is slavery. Strange, isn’t it, that the two words mankind abhors the most are presented by Jesus as the most powerful doorways to spiritual power open to man!

But while the paradox of dying has been given expression in the church in the sacrament of baptism by immersion, there has been no sacrament as yet adequate to give full expression to the paradox of slavery. It is true that some of the smaller denominations, as well as the Catholics, undertake to meet this lack in such rituals as the sacrament of washing the feet. But would it not be possible to adopt a sacrament in our churches that would go still farther than that — a sacrament which, if entered into sincerely and humbly, might release power second only to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper? Let us imagine an entire congregation coming to kneel at the altar rail as is the custom of most denominations in the administration of the Holy Communion, and each one extending his hands while the pastor or priest moves from one to the other, carrying, instead of the wafers and the cup, a ribbon of pure white with which he momentarily binds each pair of wrists as he pronounces the words, “He that would be first shall be as a servant, and he that would be greatest of all shall be as a slave.” As he passes rapidly from one to another, each one emptying himself as a vacant vessel before the Lord, such a current of power from on high would sweep through the kneeling congregation that the whole community would be transformed by its power. Because pride, vanity and ego are the greatest blocks to the spiritual life today, I know of no ritual that would release greater spiritual power than one such as this.

Having learned that one cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven of the seventh dimension by thought only but by Grace; and that the Grace of God is most ready to act through the doorways of Death or Slavery, a group of very devout and surrendered souls experimented with the sacrament described above and the results were tremendous. Five of them, for instance, after sharing in the ritual of becoming slaves of Christ, broadcast a prayer for Hitler that actually stopped him in his tracks before World War II began. I describe this incident in A Man’s Reach. So profoundly do I believe Jesus’ promise that “the meek shall inherit the earth” that I actually believe (yes, know) that if some way could be arranged whereby three million so-called Christians could actually become aware of the reality and the joy of being slaves to Christ, we could see Christ positively inheriting the earth. Yes, I don’t just believe, I know that under such conditions “His Kingdom would come and His will would be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” This could easily be accomplished when the dynamic symmetry of Heaven, experienced through Alignment and Rhythm lifted to their highest power in the form of Death to the ego and Slavery of the outer self to the inner Christ, took control of sufficient numbers of the children of men.

I know that it was not until I had completely erased my own little self through the door of alignment into utter surrender and through the door of rhythm into complete erasure of self, that I was able to rise into the glory and bliss and marvelous power of the fifth, sixth and seventh dimensions. It was then that I experienced the ecstasy of stepping into oneness with God, my fellow men, and my Divine Plan. Since then I have knelt in spirit before every audience I speak to, and before every reader who opens my books. And I have lost all fear of death since I learned that no evil has any power in the face of one who willingly permits the little self-centered self to die, to be erased, to vanish into its native nothingness. For I learned that the redeemed Self, hidden with Christ in God, always rises from the ashes of that lesser self when it has died.

And so we find Schweitzer, dying to his great leadership in philosophy, religion and music in Europe, and humbling himself as a slave and servant to the needs of the least of those in darkest Africa, lighting a torch that will never go out! And we see Mira, dying to the great wealthy, prominent girl known as Madeleine Slade and becoming a slave to the Father of Lights shining through the Bapu in a secluded village of India, helping furnish the wave-length for the power of heaven itself to flow through and set India free.

When one is so utterly aligned with the Most High that he becomes a slave of Christ, and has put himself in such perfect rhythm with the Holy Spirit that his little self dies before the Greater Self, then there stands revealed the most powerful dynamic symmetry in all the universe. One who has passed through this process rises from death to eternal life, and from slavery to becoming a Son of God.

The opposite poles in this celestial new dynamic symmetry consist of God reaching down to man on the one hand, and man reaching up to God on the other. This is the perfect union described by Luther. “We are united as a bride is united with a husband.” This union is elaborated by Rufus Moseley in his book, “Perfect Everything” where he writes, “We become flesh of His flesh, blood of His blood, soul of His soul, spirit of His spirit, life of His life.” This “union of interchange” as Rufus Moseley calls it, brings into manifestation the highest form of dynamic symmetry available to man the paradox that sums up all the lesser paradoxes. In this divine Rhythm of the seventh dimension the Lord permits us to exchange our sins for His forgiveness, our weakness for His strength, our humility for His glory, our fear for His courage, our despair for His peace, our sorrow for His joy, our infirmities for His wholeness, our impurity for His purity, our poverty for His riches, our discord for His harmony, our ignorance for His wisdom, our sordidness for His saintliness, our humanity for His divinity, our mortality for His immortality.

But alas, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for most people to understand the deep paradoxes: that slavery leads to dominion, captivity to freedom, and death to eternal life here and now!

It requires a seer to vision these paradoxes, a sage to understand them, and a saint to practice them. If you would add the prophet to this list his job would be to promulgate them. Verily, if enough of us saw them, understood them, practiced them, as well as preached them, the Kingdom of Heaven would be brought from invisibility into visibility upon this earth.

 

CHAPTER XI
Dynamic Symmetry in the Bible

ABRAHAM is the first man in the Bible who did everything the Lord commanded him to do. He lived so completely in alignment with God in the seventh dimension that when told to leave the greatest civilization of his day, the Sumerian in the land of Ur, and go into a land he knew not of, he proceeded to go with perfect trust; and when his longed-for son finally came, he was willing at the Lord’s command to prepare to sacrifice him upon the altar.

As reward for this perfect obedience in leaving the land of Ur he was given a better land. “I will give you and your descendants after you the land where you are residing, the whole of the land of Canaan, as a possession for all time.” And his complete relinquishing of Isaac led to the return of Isaac and through him a mighty race. “Look up to the sky and number the stars if you can. Such shall be the number of your descendants. I have appointed you to be father of many a nation.”

Abraham also lived so completely in rhythm with his fellowmen in the sixth dimension that every act he did squared with the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” When, for instance, the land was not equal to pasture both his and Lot’s herds, he let Lot take the rich Jordan valley land and he went to the land of the Canaanites; and when Sodom was doomed to destruction he pled with the angels to save it even if only ten good men could be found in it.

Abraham had a unique experience in the fifth dimension also, when, following an intense appeal for the Lord to send him a son, he fell into a trance, and the Lord foretold the enslavement of his descendants by the Egyptians long centuries ahead. The most comforting prophecies that sprang from the patterns of the fifth dimension were that his descendants would be in number like the stars and that the land of Canaan would be theirs.

The special trusted servant that Abraham sent back to his own people to find a wife for his son, Isaac, had evidently caught the contagion of his master’s faith. He stepped into the fifth dimension and asked the Lord to give him definite guidance as to which girl drawing water from the well would be the right one. “Here I stand beside the fountain! The daughters of the citizens are coming out to draw water. Now may the maiden to whom I say, ‘Pray lower your pitcher, that I may drink,’ the maiden who answers, ‘Drink, and let me give a drink to your camels also’ — may she be the maiden thou hast allotted to thy servant Isaac! So shall I know that thou hast been kind to my master.” Rebecca arrived and stepped into the pattern so completely that that marriage was arranged in heaven — the most idyllic, though brief, courtship in the Old Testament.

Esau, the eldest son of Isaac, lived in the purely material level of the third dimension, descending in times of weakness even to the jungle appetite of the second dimension. His twin brother, Jacob, on the other hand, put himself in absolute alignment with the higher unseen things, preferring such intangibles as “birthrights” and “blessings” over things of the flesh.

Where Jacob fell short of attaining complete dynamic symmetry was his failure to keep in rhythm in as honest a way with his fellowmen as he kept in alignment in a worshipful way with God. While he achieved real alignment to the right ends, he failed to keep in rhythm with the right means. While he achieved the birthright and the blessing, he obtained each through craft, and for this he had to pay with interest when his Uncle Laban applied a similar trick on him in working him fourteen years instead of seven to get Rachel.

It was not until Jacob reached his dark hour when news that his avenging brother with armed horsemen was coming rapidly toward him that he stepped into such alignment with God and such rhythm with his brother and all mankind that the resultant dynamic symmetry brought to an end the life-time feud between the two brothers, and a crowning success to his life. A night of wrestling with the Lord brought him into such heavenly alignment that he received God’s blessing; and by sending loving gifts to his brother he created such heavenly rhythm that between the two all hate and resentment was swept away. To make atonement for his early failure to walk in honest rhythm with his brother, however, he was doomed to walk the rest of his life with an unrhythmic limp.

Joseph is the perfect example of how irresistible a man of destiny can become who lives, moves and has his being in the fifth dimension. Through dreams and the capacity to interpret dreams, he was able to rise continually above the vicissitudes of the second and third dimension where his associates lived, and sculpture his destiny according to the perfect pattern, eternal, infinite and unchangeable, carved for him “on the mount.” Just as Moses received the laws of God in sets of pairs (five commandments on our duty to God and five on our duty to men); and just as Jesus presented the Grace of God in the form of parables in sets of pairs, so all of Joseph’s dreams came in pairs. Through the stereoscopic lens of these pairs of dreams the perfect picture of Joseph’s perfect destiny unfolded:

The first set got him into trouble:

“Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Do listen to this dream I have had. Me thought, as we were binding sheaves in the field, my sheaf stood up, while your sheaves all around did homage to it!’ His brothers answered, ‘And are you to be king over us? You to lord it over us!’ They hated him worse than ever, for what he dreamed and what he said.”

“He had another dream which he told his brothers. ‘Listen,’ he said, ‘I have had another dream! The sun, the moon and the eleven stars were doing homage to me!’ When he told this to his father and his brothers, his father reproved him saying, ‘What is this dream of yours? Am I and your mother and your brothers actually to bow before you to the earth?’”

The jealousy these dreams stirred in the brothers led to their selling him into slavery. Later on when he was cast into another form of bondage another pair of dreams brought him liberation, recorded as follows:

Joseph asked two fellow-prisoners, the cup-bearer and the baker of the king, “Why are you looking so downcast today? We have had a dream,” they said, “and there is no one to interpret it.” Joseph answered, “Do not interpretations belong to God? But pray tell me the dream.”

“So the chief cup-bearer told Joseph his dream. ‘In my dream,’ he said, ‘there was a vine in front of me and on the vine there were three branches. It seemed to bud, its blossoms opened, and the clusters produced ripe grapes. As the Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, I plucked the grapes, squeezed them into the Paraoh’s cup, and handed the cup to the Pharaoh.’ ‘Here is the interpretation,’ said Joseph, ‘the three branches are three days. Within three days the Pharaoh will release you and restore you to your post; and you will hand the Pharaoh his cup as you used to do when you were his cup-bearer. But remember me when all goes well with you; do me the kindness of mentioning my name to the Pharaoh and get me out of here. For I was really kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews and I have done nothing in this country for which I should be put in the dungeon’”

“When the head baker saw that the interpretation was favourable, he said to Joseph, ‘In my dream I too saw something; three baskets of white bread were on my head; in the top basket there were all sorts of pastry for the Pharaoh, but the birds kept eating them out of the basket on my head.’ ‘Here is the interpretation,’ said Joseph, ‘the three baskets are three days. Within three days the Pharaoh will release you, and hang you on a tree, till the birds eat the flesh of you.’”

On the third day, which was the Pharaoh’s birthday, he held a banquet for all his courtiers, and he did release the chief cup-bearer and the head baker. The chief cup-bearer he restored to his post, where he handed the cup to the Pharaoh; but the head baker he hanged. It was as Joseph had interpreted to them.

Two years later Pharaoh had two dreams. Not a one of the magicians and sages of Egypt could interpret them. Then the cup-bearer remembered the Hebrew youth and Joseph was summoned: “I have had a dream,” said the Pharaoh to Joseph, “and there is no one to interpret it; but I have heard about you, that you can interpret a dream whenever you hear it.” “Not I!” said Joseph to the Pharaoh; “it is God’s answer that will answer the Pharaoh.”

“Then the Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘In my dream I was standing on the bank of the Nile; up came seven cows from the Nile, plump and sleek, and they grazed in the reed-grass. After them seven other cows came up, starved and very ugly and lean, — I never saw such poor cows in all the land of Egypt. The lean and ugly cows ate up the first seven plump cows, and even after they had eaten them — they were still ugly as before. Then I woke up.’”

“‘I also saw in a dream seven full ripe ears sprouting on a single stalk. Seven ears sprang up after them, withered, thin, and the thin ears swallowed up the seven ripe ears! I told all this to the magicians but not one of them could tell me the meaning.’”

Joseph said to the Pharaoh, “The Pharaoh’s dreams mean one thing. God has been showing the Pharaoh what He is about to do; the seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years ... it is one and the same dream. The seven lean and ugly cows that came up afterwards are also seven years, and so are the seven empty ears blasted by the east wind; there are to be seven years of famine. The dream was doubled for the Pharaoh because this is fixed by God, and ere long God will bring it about.”

In Chapter 8 I said that dynamic symmetry was first discovered in Egypt. When Joseph said, “The dream was doubled . . . because this was fixed by God” he revealed that he understood this law perfectly. Through the double lens of the stereoscope of dynamic symmetry he was able to foresee not only the peril that “was fixed by God” awaiting Egypt in the future but the exact way to meet and overcome the peril. Without hesitation he gave the Pharaoh a complete blueprint of everything he should do. “Put a shrewd, intelligent man in control of all of Egypt with food-controllers throughout the country to gather and store sufficient grain of good years to carry the nation safely through the poor years.”

The Pharaoh at once decided that this “shrewd, intelligent young man who functioned in higher dimensions was exactly the one to put in charge of the nation. The Scriptures tell how he did so and how the nation was saved. Is that a suggestion our government might heed in our hours of crisis today?

Great as Joseph proved as an administrator, Moses was still greater. Moses was the most perfect law-giver the world has ever known, and that was because he put himself in perfect alignment with God, and moved in perfect rhythm with men. His career carried him through all the dimensions from the lowest to the highest. As a babe in the bulrushes his survival came through his one-dimensional, single-minded seeking of nourishment at his mother’s breast (she masquerading as his nurse). In the two-dimensional level he killed an Egyptian in a fit of anger, and in a fit of fear fled the country. On the third-dimensional level he had access to the ancient wisdom of Egypt which was not limited to the third dimension, but went soaring up into the fourth and fifth. The forty years of sojourn in the wilderness as a shepherd gave him quiet spaces to rise up into the fourth, fifth, sixth and especially the seventh dimension, where he found union with God at the historic episode of the burning bush. As the bush was filled with fire without being consumed, Moses was “incandescent” enough to sustain the presence of God Without being destroyed. The modern counterpart of the burning bush is the incandescent light bulb, so empty of air of this world that it can hold the mighty voltage of light created in the high hills.

The power in Moses was the same as that in Paul, “My strength is made perfect in (your) weakness.” Moses was a poor orator; Aaron had to do the speaking for him. He had no talents with the exception of his immense capacity for selflessness. “As meek as Moses” became a by-word in the land. He alone became incandescent enough to hold the light of God.

When he returned to the court of Pharaoh facing the same task which Gandhi faced five thousand years later — to set his people free — he carried with him the power of the seventh dimension. He had risen so high that he was able to “come up over” every situation so completely that he could flow down over his foes and “overcome” them. But as Pharaoh, with the support of his magicians and sages, was ready to do battle with him on the level of the fourth dimension — the psychic level of hypnotism and magic — he boldly descended to that level and beat them at their own game. When his wand turned into a snake and swallowed all the magicians’ wands, which had also turned into snakes, and when the floods of frogs and gnats and hail began to come, Moses was surpassing the power of the Hopi Indians whose invocations bring down rain, and the Hawaiian Kahunas whose invocations enable them to walk unharmed on heated stones.

The Ark of the Covenant, constructed on the lines of dynamic symmetry, was the ordained vessel for the safekeeping of the Ten Commandments. Whenever the Israelites made camp in their marching through the wilderness they placed the Levite tribe in the center and in their midst raised the tabernacle, and in the Holy of Holies within the Tabernacle placed this sacred symbol of the soul of Israel — the Ark of the Covenant. As long as this rested at the heart and center of the nation all went well. Any nation that stole it found the curse of God was upon them, just as it falls on anyone who would appropriate another man’s divine plan for himself. The Ark of the Covenant thus became the sacred symbol of the Old Testament as the Cross has become the sacred symbol of the New Testament. These two symbols create the greatest dynamic symmetry in religious history. They were alike in one respect, they represented the most sacred value respectively of Judaism and of Christianity, and that value summed up in one phrase was alignment or union with God and rhythm of love and justice toward men. But they were exactly opposite or at right angles to each other in another respect — the Ark (as its prototype, Noah’s Ark) was built to protect and conserve that sacred value through Law; the Cross was built to sacrifice and expend that sacred value through Love. The emphasis of one was to keep, the other was to give. “He who would save his life,” rings the paradox of Jesus, “shall lose it.”

After the dark centuries when the Israelites had no leader save when an occasional Jeptha, Gideon or Samson would arise to rescue them, Samuel, the prophet, finally arose to power. From the moment of his pre-natal ordination by Hannah and its confirmation by the Voice calling him as a child, Samuel was open to the seventh dimension. But as his leadership became more and more a political one, he spent more and more of his time in the third dimension of practical politics, rising only rarely to the level of the fourth dimension — at which times he revealed his remarkable gift of telepathy. “Your asses have been found,” he said to Saul. He also had gifts of clairvoyance in the fifth dimension when he foretold the doom, first of Eli and his sons, and later of Saul and his sons.

Next we come to Elijah and Elisha, with names so much alike and yet different, with twin miracles of bringing boys back to life and multiplying housewives’ supplies of oil, thus making a perfect “dynamic symmetry team in themselves. In Elisha, especially (particularly in I Kings, chapters 4, 5, and 6) we run the entire gamut of the seven dimensions. In the fourth dimension Elisha was one of the greatest mind-readers of all time. He read the mind of his servant like a book when Gehazi intrigued from Naaman the reward that he, himself, had declined, and he read the minds of the Syrian generals, hundreds of miles away, when they plotted ambushes for the Israelites. He stepped into the fifth dimension when he pointed out to his servant the horses and chariots of the Lord descending the mountain — the divine pattern of protection God had prepared for them in the mount. He stepped into the seventh dimension when he prayed to the Lord to save the city through temporarily blinding the enemy. Following this he stepped down into the third dimension and revealed his clever mind when with debonair audacity he outfoxed the blinded leaders. “This is not the way over the city. Follow me and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.” He led them into Samaria where the king of Israel’s army was ready to surround them. Thereupon the king said, “My father, shall I slay them, shall I slay them? In response Elisha stepped into the sixth and seventh dimensions of forgiveness and love for his enemies and said, “Set bread and water before them that they may eat and drink and go to their master.” “So he prepared for them a great feast,” “and the marauding Aramean bands came no more into the land of Israel.”

If Jacob and Elisha, before the days of Jesus, found the seventh dimension the only way of permanently ending feuds and war, why can’t we, as a Christian nation, at least try the way that Jesus commanded us to follow?

The major and the minor prophets that came after this Elijah-Elisha team functioned in the fifth dimension when they were able to read the handwriting on the wall as Daniel did, or foresee the coming calamity as Jeremiah did, or prophesy the coming of the Messiah as Isaiah did. They functioned in the sixth dimension when they appealed for justice to the poor and oppressed in the voice of Amos, and for mercy in the voice of Hosea, and for social reform in the voice of Isaiah and Jeremiah. Finally, they lived, moved and had their being in the seventh dimension when they put themselves in such complete alignment with God that they could thunder with authority time after time, “Thus saith the Lord!”

Jesus lived, moved and had his being so completely in the seventh dimension, in his unlimited, all-out, complete love for God and oneness with him; and in the sixth dimension, in his love for men and his unlimited compassion for them, that his excursions into the lower dimensions were mere passing incidents in his life. At the beginning of his ministry, for instance, he made the casual remark to Philip that Nathaniel was an Israelite in whom there was no guile. When asked how he knew the nature of one he had never seen before he replied, “While you were still under that fig tree, before Philip called you, I saw you.” Nathaniel answered him, “Rabbi, you are the son of God! You are the king of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe me? You shall see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man.

In other words, reading the mind of another in the fourth dimension is nothing compared to receiving the inspired revelations of God in the seventh dimension. There are only a few instances where Jesus seemed to step for a moment into the third dimension where all of us humans spend most of our time: when he exclaimed in disgust over his disciples’ failure to heal the epileptic, “How long must I bear with you?”, when he wept over the death of Lazarus, when he agonized in the garden of Gethsemane.

But far above the few moments of this minor key we hear the great organ notes — “Peace be still.” “Take no anxious thought for the morrow.” “Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in the Father, believe also in me.” “In the world ye have trouble, but take courage, I have overcome the world.”

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