Every natural effect has a spiritual cause, and not a natural
Most of us do not remember. We do not remember the moment when we
planted the seed, but every natural effect has a spiritual cause, and
not a natural. A natural cause only seems; it is a delusion of the
withering vegetable memory. We cannot quite relate the harvest to
anything that we've done.
Let me now tell you just a simple little story. On March the 7th of
this year - the Log Angeles Times printed a little story about a lost
church organ. The minister called in the detectives and announced that
the church organ was stolen. He gave a descrip­tion of the organ, to
the best of his ability. They found what they thought to be the organ
that was lost, but all identification marks were removed. The serial
number and everything about identifying it for ownership had been
taken from the organ. The minister said to the detectives, "Look into
the back of the organ and see if you find a paperclip with a little
piece of paper clipped to it and this number written on the paper."
The detective said "Why?" and the minister said, "I placed it there."
He said, "Why?" He said, "Just in case."
Now, he is preaching the story of Christ. "Just in case ." That is
when he planted loss, "Just in case." To tell him that he was the
source of the loss of that organ, he would strike you if he was
bigger. Really, he was the cause of that loss, but you couldn't tell
him that. Yet he will repeat from the pulpit. "Be not deceived, for
God is not mocked." He will even quote Job, "My fears have come upon
me." (Job 4:14) For my imaginal acts, whether they be in love or in
fear, they are seeds, and I must reap them.
I will give you one that is very personal. When I planted it, I do not
know, but I had to have planted it. And I will show you that, even
though you plant unlovely things unwittingly, you need not be the
victim. You can revise it, and change it, even though you are
confronted with a seemingly insoluble problem.
When I left here last year, in the month of July, I checked my two
suitcases at the airport. When I arrived in Los Angeles, one was
missing. The contents I could not replace for $1500. They were all the
lovely dresses that my wife has, and all her dresses are made by a
certain couturier in Beverly Hills, and not one is under $195. She has
made these dresses over the years for her. They were not new, but I
couldn't replace them - any one - under $195 - plus other things in
that suitcase. My suits were in another suitcase, perfectly all right.
I recorded the loss. They said, "When we find it, if we find it, we
will send it right over to you, Mr. Goddard."
After five days and not a word, we called, and they said, "It is lost.
We've made every effort, and it cannot be found. Put in a claim and
send it off to San Diego, the headquarters for the PSA office." My
wife did the legitimate thing in the world of Caesar. She itemized the
contents to the best of her ability and what it would take to replace
the items in that suitcase.
That morning about 2:00 o'clock I awoke and said, "Now, look here. I
teach this principle, and, so, I have brought about a loss in my own
world. I will have none of it! I teach Revision. I heard what the man
said over the telephone! 'The thing is lost. They cannot find it; we
have looked high and low.' "
Then you read in the papers that hundreds of millions of dollars are
stolen every year at our airports, depots, and the wharves across the
country, and it's an inside job, as it were. So, at 2:00 o'clock in
the morning I took in my hands my suitcase. I felt the weight of it; I
could feel the weight. I could see in my mind's eye the grey bag with
the black leather. I could actu­ally feel it, and I felt it with the
sense of relief, for of all the pleasures in the world, relief is the
most keenly felt.
When you are expecting someone, and they are late - someone you truly
love, and they are late, and it gets later and later and you get
anxious, and then you hear the familiar voice; you know the relief
that comes. Well, now, that's what you do when you feel that relief.
And, then, I dropped it and got up and went into my living room and
simply read my Bible.
It was early. We have a lovely apartment, and it was quiet. We have no
neighbors. 1 turned on the lights and read my Bible. The next day: no
report. The following day I received a letter postmarked San
Francisco, a strange, peculiar hand printing my name: Neville Goddard.
The address was correct. When I opened the letter, there was the
little note in the same peculiar print­ing! "Your suitcase is in Box
524, Sorry. The Phantom," and enclosed a key. So, I called the
security guards at the Los Angeles airport, and I told them the
contents of the letter. I said, "I have the key."
"Well, we'll investigate immediately," which they did. They called
back within a matter of five or ten minutes to tell me that there is
no such box in Los Angeles. I reminded them that the letter came from
San Francisco, so, he said, "All right, I'll call you back." He called
San Francisco, and the security guards got the local police, and they
opened 524, and there was my suit­case. They opened it up in the
presence of the policemen, and the whole thing was ransacked -
completely ransacked, utterly turned inside out. They sealed it and
flew it down, and asked me to come over with my wife, and in the
presence of the security guards in L.A. they would open my suitcase in
my presence, which they did.
Not a handkerchief was missing! Everything was turned inside out. The
man was most apologetic, and he said, "Mr. Goddard, I am aw­fully
sorry. We are sorry for the Company. These things happen. We do not
know how they happen, but they happen. May we clean the things for you?"
I said, "No, that is something that my wife and I do every year. We
travel for more than two weeks. Everything we wear is dry-cleaned. So,
it is a little problem of ours, and we've always done it."
Then he gave me his personal card and said, "The next time you and
Mrs. Goddard travel on PSA, you are our guests." I took the card and
gave it to my wife, and now we are here and going back as the guests
of PSA. But we did not lose one handkerchief - not a thing, but it was
a complete mess. What they were looking for, I do not know, but they
found nothing there. However, that's done.
THE IDENTICAL HARVEST
Lecture #456 -Neville No Date
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