Posts Categorized: Pathwork Lecture Podcasts

PL 1 The Sea of Life

Spiritual material resembles threads, fine, ray-like threads—in this case of somber color and texture—which are spun, knotted, and entangled, until there is such a tight ball of confusion that one can disentangle it only with the greatest difficulty. . . . it takes a great deal of effort to find the truth at all.

PL 2 Decisions and Tests

[W]hen you understand that this life is one of many learning periods, one link in a long chain, you will at first sense and later comprehend more and more fully the connections. Then your goal will no longer be immediate happiness through the fulfillment of every single wish in this existence. You will instead direct…

PL 4 World Weariness

T]here are a variety of possible causes for world weariness. Of course the yearning for God and perfection plays a role here too whether consciously or not, as well as the nostalgia for one’s true spiritual home that dwells in every human being. For here on earth you are only visitors, it is not your…

PL 7 Asking for Help and Helping Others

Each emotional reaction, thought, opinion or tendency, even the smallest personality trait, is a luminous ray which is invisible to you, but belongs very personally to each individual being. In the same way, the fixed and yet eternally moving spiritual laws, which pertain to every possibility or modality of outer or inner reaction, also create…

PL 8 Mediumship—How to Contact God’s Spirit World

Those who have made the decision and given themselves into the hands of God immediately sense what is happening within. The first reaction is a great relief and an inward joy that for a while completely takes possession of one. This wonderful feeling, though, does not stay with you forever. Hearing this, you could easily…

PL 9 Prayer and Meditation— The Lord’s Prayer

My dear friends, today I would like to speak about prayer and meditation. What is the difference between the two? Many people are not quite clear about it. It is always a matter of agreeing upon the meaning of terms. I should like to make the following distinction: Prayer is a preliminary step to meditation.…

PL 13 Positive Thinking: The Right and the Wrong Kind

Doubt is the opposite of faith; and faith, my friends, is in reality nothing other than the certainty of all that you may doubt now: it is the inner experience. Inner experience cannot come into existence through outer events. us overnight pharmacy over the counter So we are dealing here with two entirely different levels…

PL 16 Spiritual Nourishment—Willpower

It is not surprising if a person, confronted the first time with this phenomenon—that a spirit should indeed be able to talk through a human being—cannot readily accept it. Many things are possible, however, of which you know nothing as yet. So just be open and wait. Eventually you will see that not only is…

PL 17 The Call—Daily Review

There are many of you who admit God exists. God or this Higher Intelligence—or whatever you choose to call it—is of course one and the same. Yet you do not believe that it could be possible in this wonderful Creation for an entity of higher intelligence than human beings to manifest to you through a…

PL 18 Free Will

The subject I will discuss tonight is free will. People are forever and ever debating this subject. One group claims there is no free will whatsoever: everything is fate or destiny. Another group says, more or less, that there is only free will. According to a third group, some things are determined by free will…

PL 19 Jesus Christ

Now who is Christ? Some Christian religions claim he is God. This is not so, for he himself has said, as you can read in the Holy Scriptures, that he is not God. He is not the Father, or the Creator. Some say Jesus was just a wise man, a sage, a great teacher with…

PL 20 God: The Creation

I want to stress that there is no coincidence here; none of you have been drawn to this community by chance, not even those who come here once and do not stay because they lack either the spiritual maturity to understand what is going on, or because they do not want to develop spiritually and…

PL 21 The Fall

Since one of the most important divine aspects is free will or freedom of choice, this had to turn into its opposite too. The spirit who was the first to succumb to the temptation of abusing this power, the one who is sometimes referred to as Lucifer, Satan, or the Devil, who influenced others to…

PL 22 Salvation

There are many ways, indeed, to test with what spirits you are communicating. Anyone who wants to judge must, under all circumstances, take the trouble to study the vast subject of how to test spirits. Only then will that person be in a position to determine from where they come. I have spoken about this…

PL Questions and Answers

Again I will answer your questions tonight, instead of holding a lecture. I will resume regular lectures after most of your questions have been answered. It is a very good sign if my little group has questions, for this is proof that…

PL 26 Finding One’s Faults

Another great misunderstanding is the mistaken idea that to follow the path I am showing you means neglecting your life in other ways. You see, my dear friends, I can observe the forms of your thoughts and feelings. I can see your lower self that fights constantly against the right decisions, delivering all sorts of…

PL 27 Escape Possible Also on the Path

Oh yes, the outer conflicts are always noticed, but you all know the outer conflict is only a reflection of the inner one. Yet people so often have the wrong attitude; in a very subtle way they think if they are trying to advance in a certain way, the outer conflict will eventually cease and…

PL 28 Communication with God—Daily Review

It is the same way with love. If love of another human being is sought with the current that is destined for the love of God, it will always leave you with a feeling of emptiness, dissatisfaction, or even frustration. So if God is not truly the basis of your life and if instead you…

PL 30 Self-Will, Pride and Fear

In the first place, we may again clarify that there is a distinct difference between self-will and free will. To make sure that you understand it clearly in this connection, I will repeat that free will can be used for good or for bad; this is important.

PL 31 Shame

There is a right kind and a wrong kind of shame. The right kind of shame is true repentance. Without this kind of shame, there could never be an incentive for self-development. Without it, no one would ever undergo the noble fight, my friends, against one’s lower self; no one would take the path of…

PL 32 Decision Making

“All things work together for the good for those who love God. ” Let us examine this statement of the Scriptures to find its deeper meaning. The words, “those who love God” do not mean merely that you believe in God or that you profess to love Him or that you recite some prayers. As…

PL 34 Preparation for Reincarnation

As promised, I shall speak tonight about the process of birth. I have received permission to do so from higher authority. My dear friends, let me first tell you that whatever I will say can only explain a very small and limited part of this extremely complicated procedure for which the human understanding cannot possibly…

PL 35 Turning to God

Many people seek God in the wrong way. I will try to explain what I mean. On this earth sphere there is a considerable amount of disappointment. Sometimes human beings turn to God only because contact with other human beings proves to be unsatisfactory. Perhaps not enough love is forthcoming; perhaps fear and caution cloud…

PL 36 Prayer

Now what is prayer? Many people have no questions about it; they just take it for granted. Many others  cannot understand prayer. They say—in their own way and not without logic—why should God grant a human being help or grace simply in response to prayer? Why should someone else who works but fails to pray…

PL 38 Images

This is the way we in the spirit world see images. The way you see and feel them is through unhappiness, anxiety, and puzzlement over many apparently inexplicable things in your life. For instance, your inability to change what you wish to change or certain kinds of events that seem to reoccur regularly without an…

PL 39 Image-Finding

The best way to begin is by thinking about your hurts, conflicts, and problems. Regard your wrong inner attitudes as ignorance and error. Actually, that is what all faults really are!  Think about your idiosyncrasies, your prejudices, your tight emotions in certain domains of life. Think how you react emotionally to certain things and when…

PL 40 More on Image-Finding: A Summary

In the two previous lectures I started to indicate how the images can be found. This cannot be an easy process, for what dwells in the unconscious is hidden from conscious awareness. I have given you methods to bring these unconscious images to the surface. This, my friends, is the only way to control your…

PL 41 Images: The Damage They Do

I am continuing this series about the images in the human soul, for there is no person who does not have them. Such inner impressions are formed in young years, and from those impressions wrong conclusions were drawn. These very images are responsible for your suffering, for the phantoms you carry about decade after decade,…

PL 44 The Forces of Love, Eros, and Sex

The erotic force is one of the most potent forces in existence and has tremendous momentum and impact. It is supposed to serve as the bridge between sex and love, yet it rarely does. In a spiritually highly developed person, the erotic force carries the entity from the erotic experience, which in itself is of…

PL 46 Authority

Authority is the very first conflict for a growing child when it reaches a certain degree of consciousness. Elders, parents or parent-substitutes, and later on teachers represent authority for the child. This authority denies the child many a wish fulfillment. Therefore, authority seems hostile. No matter how much love, warmth and affection a child is…

PL 47 The Wall Within

The more you learn self-honesty, the deeper can the truth penetrate into the core of the soul. But it takes a lot of doing before the core is reached. Wherever the conscious emotions, opinions, thoughts, conclusions, and desires are separated from those which are unconscious, we can see a wall in the human soul. You…

PL 48 The Life Force in the Universe

An inanimate object is petrified life force. A beautiful idea, a truth, is flowing life force. Life force is eternal and therefore all life is eternal. Death is but an illusion. An inanimate object you call dead is only so temporarily. All life, in whatever way it manifests, must exist eternally, for non-eternal life is…

PL 49 Obstacles on the Path: Old Stuff, Wrong Guilt, and Who, Me?

Identifying and analyzing your images and wrong conclusions will lead you finally to the recognition of their common denominator: The constructive attitude is: “In my ignorance I believe—perhaps unconsciously so far—that selfishness will bring me reward, will protect me from hurt. In what way have I been selfish? In what way has my conclusion been…

PL 50 The Vicious Circle

Tonight I shall discuss one of the vicious circles that is very common among human beings. To some degree it operates in every human soul. Most of the time it lives in the subconscious, although some parts of this circle may be conscious. It is important in this work that you follow the circle until…

PL 51 Importance of Forming Independent Opinions

These obstacles arise from the blindness in which you are encased and from your lack of understanding of the blindness of others. The blindness of others hurts you, and in your own blindness you are unaware of how much and how often you hurt the other person. If you can keep this mutual blindness in…

PL 52 The God-Image

Children experience their first conflict with authority at an early age. I have talked at length about this. They also learn that God is the highest authority. Therefore it is not surprising that children project their subjective experiences with authority on their imaginings about God. An image is formed, and whatever the child’s, and later…

PL 53 Self-Love

Tonight I should like to discuss the subject of self-love. You all know — I have said it again and again — that each truth can be distorted into an untruth. This is, perhaps, the most powerful weapon of evil. Complete untruth is not dangerous. But when something that may be true in some circumstances…

PL 54 Questions and Answers

QUESTION: The first is from someone who is not here. It concerns the Holy Ghost. It reads: May I ask the cosmic sense and the human meaning attributed to the power of the Holy Ghost? In some religions and philosophies the Holy Ghost is considered as a future leader and messenger to humanity. In our…

PL 55 Three Cosmic Principles: The Expanding, the Restricting, and the Static Principles

It is appropriate that we start the new season with a subject that deals with three cosmic principles existing in the entire universe. They are the expanding, the restricting, and the static principles. They manifest in nature; they govern and influence everything that has ever been created and ever will be created. There is no…

PL 57 The Mass Image of Self-Importance

Such a universal mass image is the following: “If I receive attention or approval or admiration, all my worth is established not only in the eyes of the world but in my own eyes. If I cannot get it, then I am inferior. ” Needless to say that this is a wrong conclusion and not…

PL 62 Man and Woman

The original spirit as first created was male and female in one. When the development of all the fallen beings will have been completed, male and female shall be one again. As one of the byproducts of the Fall, the original being separated and split. I have stated this before at various times. The lower…

PL 63 Questions and Answers

QUESTION: I would like to ask something about self-responsibility. Would not self-responsibility lead to irresponsibility toward others? If I am responsible for just myself, how then am I my brother’s keeper? Wouldn’t it lead to selfishness, being responsible only for my own life and well-being? I would look for that which is best and most…

PL 65 Questions and Answers

QUESTION: I have two questions in connection with the last lecture. The first is: I understood that the inner will you spoke of stems from the super-conscious. It was not clear to me whether the outer will then comes from a combination of the conscious and the subconscious?

PL 66 Shame of the Higher Self

Strangely enough, people are just as ashamed of their faculties of love, humility, generosity — the very best they have to offer — as they are of the small, selfish and ungiving part of their nature. Let us consider what causes this inner tragedy, this senseless struggle. One main factor is responsible, which varies in…

PL 67 Questions and Answers

QUESTION: In the last lecture you said in connection with raised consciousness that we will no longer be frightened of bad people. But how can I not be frightened of murders, hold-ups, and all such doings? This is still reality. We still feel the effect of all this.

PL 70 Questions and Answers

QUESTION: In your answer to my question after the last lecture, about the right way toward the love we all desire, you described the work process of realizing, observing, and finally abandoning the wrong way in order to clear the path for the right way. You ended with the sentence: “Then you are on the…

PL 72 The Fear of Loving

We now know that those who cannot love are immature. Immaturity causes unreality. Unreality, being untrue, must perforce, cause unhappiness and conflict, darkness and ignorance. Thus, maturity is really the ability to love. We also discussed that the child in you requires an unlimited amount of love. The child is as unreasonable, as void of…

PL 74 Confusions and Hazy Motivations

I cannot emphasize too strongly that you need first to find out exactly what the confusion is. Whenever something bothers you, be it merely a mood, an unpleasant inner reaction, or an actual outer happening apparently caused by other people, try to find out how you are confused; how your thoughts are muddled; how you…

PL 80 Cooperation, Communication, Union

I will, however, discuss two preliminary stages in the evolution toward union. These two stages do exist on your plane of existence and consciousness. They are, at the lower level, cooperation, and, at a higher level, communication. No living creature can exist without cooperation and communication. Even on the material level humanity could not survive…

PL 86 The Instincts of Self-Preservation and Procreation in Conflict

Growth, development, maturity and the healing of distorted soul forces lie in eliminating the pseudo-solution and replacing it with truth, which is always flexible and knows no rules. It alone can provide true security, although the personality going through the process feels acute insecurity and anxiety when called upon to give up the pseudo-solutions.

PL 87 The Next Phase on the Path: Questions and Answers

Some of you have wondered why at the beginning my talks were of a more spiritual nature, while lately the emphasis has been more psychological. canadian online pharmacy over the counter Although you all realize by now that true spiritual development cannot occur without clearing up distorted emotions, your knowledge is still largely theoretical and…

PL 88 Religion: True and False

Obedience to authority has been encouraged by exponents of religion under the half-true and only partly valid argument that humanity was too much enslaved by its passions to be let free. Therefore obedience had to be stressed in order to protect society.

PL 89 Emotional Growth and Its Function

But why is the emotional nature generally neglected? There are good reasons for that, my friends. To gain more clarity, let us first understand the function of the emotional nature in human beings. It includes, first of all, the capacity to feel. The capacity to experience feeling is synonymous with the capacity to give and…

PL 90 Moralizing—Disproportionate Reactions—Needs

Once you stop repressing your emotions, you will find not only definite individual negative emotions, such as hostility, resentment, aggressiveness, and envy, but also certain psychological conditions. It is important to recognize their existence and their significance. Are they real? Are they mature? When you ask these questions, you will understand how they breed the…

PL 91 Questions and Answers

QUESTION: In a previous lecture about emotional growth and its function, a question was asked as to how to handle very wild emotions at a time when one has no helper available. But what does one do if the emotions are so deep-seated, so deeply buried and repressed, for such a long time, that they…

PL 96 Questions and Answers and Additional Comments on Laziness as Symptom of Self-Alienation

We discussed some of the symptoms of self-alienation such as: not relating to yourself and to others as you and they are in your true selves; not experiencing yourself in your true strength; not identifying with yourself and your deep inner reality but instead with the superimposed layers of your personality; relying on public opinion…

PL 98 Wishful Daydreams

From our vantage point, we see you barricading yourselves behind a wall of separateness. This wall is a useless and illusory form of self-protection. In the last analysis it is simply a barricade against happiness and freedom. So, my friends, realize for all time that the goal of dissolving your obstructions is to enable you…

PL 100 Meeting the Pain of Destructive Patterns

First, let us briefly recapitulate. To begin with, the child suffers from imperfections in the parents’ love and affection. It also suffers from not being fully accepted in its own individuality. By this I mean the common practice of treating a child as a child, rather than as a particular individual. You suffer from this,…

PL 101 The Defense

When you are on the defensive, you are frightened; you feel threatened and endangered. There certainly are realistic dangers, and the human system is equipped to deal with them. If an actual attack is made on you, all your faculties will withdraw from their usual preoccupations and will be directed to and concentrated on this…

PL 102 The Seven Cardinal Sins

The first cardinal sin is PRIDE. I have discussed this in the past.* You all know its origin, reason, effects, and side effects. Briefly: pride is always a compensation for feelings of inferiority and inadequacy. That the effects of your pride must lead to separateness is self-explanatory.

PL 106 Sadness Versus Depression—Relationship

Let us first define the difference. In sadness you accept without self-pity a painful fact of life as something beyond your power to change. When you are truly sad, without depression, you not only feel it as a healthy growing pain free of hopelessness, but you are sad due to an outer circumstance, knowing it…

PL 107 Three Aspects That Prevent Loving

Within each individual there exists a well of wisdom and love. It is a treasure deep within you which can come to the fore only as you become aware of all those aspects of yourself that bar access to the treasure. You are accustomed to look for truth, guidance, and solutions to your problems outside…

PL 108 Fundamental Guilt for not Loving—Obligations

. . . little and unjustified guilts substitute for the real guilt of withdrawal, unlovingness, and isolation. In other words, these little guilts are supposed to atone for violating the great cosmic inner forces, breaking the flow, as it were. This very deep-rooted guilt prevents you from claiming your freedom, asserting yourself, feeling that you…

PL 111 Soul Substance—Coping With Demands

When a new child enters this earth, its soul-stuff is very malleable, very soft. Within this soul-stuff lie all the potentials — the talents, qualities, tendencies, characteristics, and also the unresolved problems. It is according to these potentials — positive, as well as negative — that the entity grows.

PL 112 Humanitiy’s Relationship to Time

Tonight I should like to discuss a new topic, humanity’s relationship to time. This is, indeed, an important subject. My words will be very helpful, if you take the trouble of pondering them and trying to apply them to yourself. What I will say may at first seem utterly inapplicable to your personal lives because…

PL 113 Identification with the Self

And now, my friends, I wish to discuss a topic I have not gone into before, identification with oneself, as opposed to identification with others. Last time I talked about humanity’s relationship to time. I said, in essence, that very rarely do people live in the now. They push into the future. They pull back…

PL 114 Struggle: Healthy and Unhealthy

People often say that life is difficult and painful, that it is a confusing and puzzling ordeal, that there is no meaning to it. They believe that they are separate from life, but they are not! Regardless of how your life appears, it is an exact facsimile of how you experience yourself. Your personal life,…

PL 118 Duality Through Illusion—Transference

Many manifestations of your earth life symbolize duality because so many things appear as pairs of opposites. In philosophical thinking, humankind itself is paired — man and woman, night and day, life and death. These are but a few examples of how life on earth presents itself in two-way splits. Humankind thus expresses a twofold…

PL 120 The Individual and Humanity

. . . . This will give you greater understanding and a wider vision of the relationship between the individual and the totality of all individuals. It will enable you to visualize that humanity as a whole is an entity, governed by the same laws as the individual who is a part of the bigger…

PL 121 Displacement, Substitution, Superimposition

As you know from my previous talks, each emotion, each feeling, each thought, each attitude, each need is an energy-current. There are many different types of energy, corresponding to the type of feeling or need. The integrated individual with a full rich life expresses a variety of needs and feelings — not just a few.

PL 122 Self-Fulfillment Through Self-Realization as Man or Woman

All who fulfill themselves contribute something to life. They enrich life not merely by using their vocational abilities but also through their ability to relate to other human beings and have fruitful contacts with them. As self-development proceeds, barriers fall; fear of others, and fear of oneself in connection with others vanishes, and therefore true…

PL 126 Contact with the Life Force

Let us recapitulate certain aspects of the life force. The life force is profoundly intelligent. Its intelligence is always available, always present and ready to be applied not only to great, important issues; this super-intelligence “deigns” to express itself . . .

PL 130 Finding True Abundance by Going Through Your Fear

There are two philosophies about life and spiritual reality which seem completely contradictory. One says that the spiritually and emotionally mature person has to learn to accept the difficulties in life. In order to cope with life, people have to accept what they cannot immediately change, what is beyond their direct sphere of influence.

PL 131 Interaction Between Expression and Impression

We have, in our pathwork, two fundamental approaches, both of which are necessary. One is finding, expressing, and emptying out what is within you, so that it can be reexamined as to its truthfulness and reality. The second is impressing, molding and directing the powers within yourself, so as to create favorable, or more variable,…

PL 134 The Concept of Evil

Numbness and insensitivity toward one’s own pain in turn means equal numbness and insensitivity toward others. When examining one’s reactions closely, one might often observe that the first spontaneous reaction to others is a feeling for and with them, a compassion or empathy, a participation of the soul.

PL 136 The Illusory Fear of the Self

The fear of the self is the basic fear behind the fear of life and even the fear of death. Neither could the fear of others possibly exist without the fear of oneself. A number of my friends are now approaching the point where the “big lie” of the mask and the pretense must be…

PL 137 Balance of Inner and Outer Control

The separation from the center is the wall of not knowing that this inner center of wisdom, love and power exists. You therefore do not seek contact with it, hence more confusion, error and ignorance arise. The less aware you are of this inner center, the greater your separation from it will be.

PL 139 Deadening of the Live Center Through Misinterpretation of Reality

Whenever you find yourself in a situation that is not desirable, that leaves you unfulfilled in any way, your usually vague discontent causes you to strive for another situation. A clear-cut goal-directedness and precise concept of a better way of life can succeed only when the present situation, with its lack, is totally understood. Striving…

PL 143 Unity and Duality

On the unified plane of consciousness there are no opposites. There is no good or bad, no right or wrong, no life or death. There is only good, only right, only life. Yet it is not the kind of good, or right, or life that comprises only one pole of the dualistic opposites.

PL 144 The Process and Significance of Growing

We were discussing the unitive and the dualistic principles. Human consciousness, perception, and experience are generally geared to the dualistic principle. This means that everything is perceived in opposites — good or bad, desirable or undesirable, life or death. As long as humanity lives in this dualism, conflict and unhappiness must persist.

PL 146 The Positive Concept of Life—Fearlessness to Love—the Balance Between Activity and Passivity

In the last lecture I discussed the necessity of transforming faults of character. The first step toward this transformation is always awareness of the faults. This is not easy, but not difficult either, if approached with the proper attitude. Once you are aware of your specific faults, the next step is to understand the reason…

PL 149 Cosmic Pull Toward Union—Frustration

The life force therefore consists not only of the pull toward others, but also of pleasure supreme. Life and pleasure are one. Lack of pleasure is the distortion of the life force and comes from opposing the creative principle. Life, pleasure, contact and oneness with others are the goal of the cosmic plan.

PL 154 Pulsation of Consciousness

Let me briefly enumerate certain basic aspects about pulsation. Everything that lives must pulsate, as it must breathe and move. Therefore pulsation and breathing are interrelated. The movement of life is contained in both. The movement is involuntary and occurs in rhythmic intervals, provided the organism is healthy, harmonious and undisturbed.

PL 155 Fear of Self—Giving and Receiving

In order to become what you truly are, the fundamental prerequisite is fearlessness. Overcoming fear of self is the key. Every kind of fear amounts, in the last analysis, to fear of self; for if there were no fear of your innermost self, you could not possibly fear anything in life. In fact, you could…

PL 156 Questions and Answers

On your path, you begin to come face to face with your images. That is, you begin to feel how you emotionally react according to them, you experience their reality, you connect with them, as opposed to before, when this was not the case. Certain emotional experiences come out from the depths of your being,…

PL 160 Conciliation of the Inner Split

A very deliberate, yet relaxed attempt must be made to feel the underlying causes of the outer results in your life. All sorrow and unhappiness, all emptiness and unfulfillment, all frustration and suffering are caused by being disconnected — as you know and I so often say — from the causes within yourself.

PL 161 Unconscious Negativity Endangers Surrender of Ego to Involuntary Processes

There are various states and processes in material life which afford humans the possibility of replenishing themselves from the universal source. One of the most automatic, generally accessible of these states is sleep. Human beings who are deeply troubled are so because they are too enmeshed in their ego. Insomnia occurs precisely because the ego…

PL 163 Mind Activity and Mind Receptivity

There are two powerful forces or attitudes in the universe and therefore in each human personality. One is the force that is striving, moving, acting, initiating, activating, doing. This aspect includes self-responsibility, independence, autonomy, free choice, and the power of the self. The other is being receptive to and waiting for whatever is to happen.…

PL 164 Further Aspects of Polarity—Selfishness

It is, of course, quite true that if people were entirely in harmony with the universal forces, they would not be sick, neurotic, unhappy. But it is equally true that sickness, discontent and disharmony are an indication of health. For it is precisely your real self, your spirit being, which speaks through the unhappiness, sending…

PL 166 Perceiving, Reacting, Expressing

The experience of who you are now cannot be avoided. Only by learning to do this can you come to your life center. By the very act of self-acceptance, the unwelcome emotions and attitudes gradually dissolve. Even before that happens, all strife ends when you accept yourself.

PL 167 Frozen Life Center Becomes Alive

The experience of who you are now cannot be avoided. Only by learning to do this can you come to your life center. By the very act of self-acceptance, the unwelcome emotions and attitudes gradually dissolve. Even before that happens, all strife ends when you accept yourself.

PL 168 Two Basic Ways of Life: Toward and Away From the Center

In the very center of the human personality exists a potent, white-glowing mass of energy. It is a constant fire that continually bubbles and explodes within itself. Each tiny explosion multiplies the mass expelling kernels of the same substance and energy. When this fundamental creative process is unobstructed and harmonious, the endless continuum of energy…

PL 171 Spiritual Laws

In the course of giving these lectures, the Guide has often referred to spiritual laws. In February 1969, Eva decided to compile some of the basic laws to give us further understanding of these very important concepts.

PL 172 The Life Energy Centers

What determines the proper function of the life force in the human being, and hence of the energy centers, can be understood only if we gain a view of the entire structure of the human personality. For this, some recapitulation is necessary. The life force is the creative force that enlivens the whole universe. It…

PL 173 Basic Attitudes and Practices to Open the Centers—The Right Attitude Toward Frustration

The opening of the centers creates a full capacity for living and feeling. Their closed state is responsible for unhappiness, negativity and lack of feelings. How closed the centers are determines exactly the degree of living in unreality and therefore in a state of strife and numbness. Joyful, fruitful, meaningful living implies a commensurate degree…

PL 174 Self-Esteem

Self-esteem, self-liking, or self-value—whatever you call it—is sorely lacking in every human being who experiences feelings of uncertainty, fear, insecurity, guilt, weakness, doubt, negativity, inadequacy, and inferiority. To the degree these feelings are present, self-esteem is inevitably lacking, only this is not directly recognized. Such ignorance is all the more damaging, for you are then…

PL 176 Overcoming Negativity

Since you are human, my friends, every one of you creates negatively. Your deliberate negative attitudes and feelings, which you do not want to give up, are a creation. To believe that your unhappiness and your suffering are inflicted upon you by others or by life is utter folly.

PL 178 The Universal Principle of Growth Dynamics

Tonight’s lecture is a sequel to all the lectures I gave this year and can be fully understood only in that context. It will deal with the topic of dynamic growth, the spontaneous unification inherent in the process of growth. All life is to some degree a growth process, either quite deliberate and committed or…

PL 179 Chain Reactions in the Dynamics of Creative Life Substance

In this lecture I would like to discuss a very specific chain reaction—both in its natural, unhampered, and therefore positive manifestation, and in its distortion. In its positive, natural version, the links of this chain are the following: life’s basic abundance and generosity; its overwhelming “givingness;”  humanity’s similar and hence compatible attitude; self-possession; the ability…

PL 180 The Spiritual Significance of Human Relationship

I should like to say that relationship represents the greatest challenge for the individual, for it is only in relationship to others that unresolved problems still existing within the individual psyche are affected and activated. This is why many individuals withdraw from interaction with others. The illusion can sometimes be maintained that the problems arise…

PL 181 The Meaning of the Human Struggle

You invariably mistake the manifestation for the root cause. You must learn laboriously, through your personal growth, to discriminate between cause and effect, reality and manifestation. This deeper, and always liberating comprehension of life, can be attained only through personal self-confrontation, never through theoretical speculation.

PL 183 The Spiritual Meaning of Crisis

Crisis in any form attempts to break down old structures based on false conclusions and therefore on negativity. Crisis shakes loose ingrained, frozen habits so that new growth becomes possible. It tears down and breaks up, which is momentarily painful, but transformation is unthinkable without it.

PL 184 The Meaning of Evil and Its Transcendence

In this dualistic approach you become split within yourself, for you reject a whole part of yourself that is the source of essential, potent creative energy without which you can never be a full human being. Your sense of awareness dims as you repress the undesirable part of yourself. The less aware you are, the…

PL 185 Mutuality: A Cosmic Principle and Law

Nothing can be created unless mutuality exists, be it a new galaxy, a work of art, or a good relationship between human beings. This applies even to the creation of the simplest object. To illustrate this principle, let us take this example. First the idea of the object must be formed in the mind. Without…

PL 187 (The Way to Handle) Alternation of Expansive and Contracting States

Expansion takes place when a positive, open, committed, honest, loving, giving attitude exists. When the good feelings and thoughts create a corresponding attitude in life, they influence actions, behavior, responses, reactions, emanation and deeds. Such an attitude brings forth desirable experience, fulfillment, pleasure, bliss and abundance in all respects of life wherever this attitude holds…

PL 188 Affecting and Being Affected

All human beings suffer from a basic conflict and pain; whether individuals are aware of it or not, it always exists. Again, the more aware of it you are, the better you can face and deal with it and the sooner you will resolve it. The conflict is the following: On the primitive, irrational level…

PL 190 Importance of Experiencing All Feelings, Including Fear—The Dynamic State of Laziness

The capacity to own up to being fallible, human, vulnerable, irrational, wrong, needy, defenseless, weak and unhappy must by necessity increase your capacity to be strong, truly right and not self-righteous, truly independent, and fulfilled. The admission of heretofore apparently inadmissible feelings is the bridge to inner unity and fulfilling self-expression of life.

PL 191 Inner and Outer Experience

Usually, when humans hear the word “experience,” they think of outer experience. This, however, is not the meaning of the word. The real meaning is the inner experience. You know that you may experience all things outwardly, but if the inner experience is inhibited, the outer experience will mean little.

PL 192 Real and False Needs

In the course of this journey toward experiencing old feelings which had not been fully experienced before, you also came across the needs you had as a child whose unfulfillment caused most of your painful, and therefore repressed, feelings. As I said, any person not bringing his or her unconscious feeling experiences into consciousness must…

PL 194 Meditation: Its Laws and Various Approaches—A Summary (Meditation as Positive Life Creation)

Meditation is conscious and deliberate creating. It is one of the most dynamic and creative acts imaginable. You constantly create, whether you know it or not. You create by what you are, by what the sum total of your feelings, your conscious and unconscious opinions and convictions are, by your conceptions, which determine your actions…

PL 196 Commitment: Cause and Effect

You can never measure yourself against others. Where you are now may be just right for you. It may be exactly where you have to be. When you know this, you will feel bright and hopeful. Others who find themselves at the identical inner crossroads may lag behind on their personal path.

PL 198 Transition to Positive Intentionality

The first step is to realize that your negative intentionality is really not unconscious in the strict sense of the word. It is not at all deeply repressed material. It is really a conscious attitude and expression, only you have chosen to ignore it, until you have finally “forgotten” that it is there.

PL 200 The Cosmic Feeling

I wish to discuss a very specific feeling, a feeling that is rarely recognized because it transcends the usual human being’s experience of feelings. Within the spectrum of human emotion there is none higher and closer to divine reality than love. The feeling I wish to discuss is beyond love. Since it is a generally…

PL 202 Psychic Interaction of Negativity

When you are only vaguely aware of your negativity, only dimly sensing the hurt that it inflicts on others, you are caught in a battle of blame, self-justification, helplessness, self-rejection and self-doubt. You cannot help but hook others, with their own unconscious conflicts, into your negativity.

PL 204 What Is the Path?

It is essential to deal with confusions, inner misconceptions, misunderstandings, destructive attitudes, alienating defenses, negative emotions, and paralyzed feelings, all of which psychotherapy also attempts to do and even posits as its ultimate goal. In contrast, the pathwork enters its most important phase only after this first stage is over. The second and most important…

PL 206 Desire: Creative or Destructive

Every attitude, every expression, every feeling creates an energy movement in your system—a specific soul movement. I spoke of this a long time ago and I will now do so more specifically. We will discuss the energy movement of wanting, wishing, desiring—its meaning, its significance in the total expression of the human personality, and its…

PL 208 The Innate Human Capacity to Create

As I have often said, the sum total of all your conscious, semi-conscious, unconscious, explicit and implicit thoughts, beliefs, assumptions, intentions, feelings, emotions and will directions—conflicting as they may be—creates your present experience and the way your life unfolds for you.

PL 212 Claiming the Total Capacity for Greatness

How rich and full is your life? How much are joy, peace, and abundance increasingly open to you? How much less are you afraid and reluctant to meet and expose the deepest regions of your innermost self? When you encounter inner blocks in momentary crises, how fully do you travel through them to find yourself…

PL 214 Psychic Nuclear Points

Creation requires the meeting of two essential principles that you, in human terminology may best be called the masculine and feminine principles. They permeate all of creation. They are the active and receptive principles. These two principles are aspects of one whole. Nothing can ever exist or be created without them coming together.

PL 215 Psychic Nuclear Points Continued—Process in the Now

Every smallest particle of creation consists of endless series of psychic nuclear spiral configurations that are intense energy movements, winding up in a climactic point which brings the particular creation into manifestation, on whatever level of reality that may be. Each of these configurations consists of a series of psychic events of consciousness content.

PL 217 The Phenomenon of Consciousness

Consciousness permeates all being, all creation, all existence—everything that is. In your dualistic realm, you speak of consciousness and energy as if they were two separate phenomena. This is incorrect. Consciousness is a creator of energy and energy must contain consciousness—various aspects of consciousness, perhaps “variations” of consciousness, as well as degrees.

PL 218 The Evolutionary Process

The topic of tonight’s lecture is the process of the evolutionary journey, for it is a journey. You begin to notice this process increasingly as you grow, through your efforts on your path, as an organic reality that communicates itself to you. It has its own laws, its own sequences, its own rhythm, its own…

PL 219 Christmas Message—Message to the Children

Here, on this path, you are learning to eliminate the obstructions and the obstacles. At this particular time, when the birth of the Christ consciousness is celebrated, we shall talk about the event as it begins to take place. Of course, my dearest friends, you do know that this does not happen at once. It…

PL 220 Reawakening from Pre-Incarnatory Anesthesia

In this lecture, I will again speak about the phenomenon of consciousness, particularly in connection with the evolutionary process and the meaning of individual life. All knowledge is in you. I have often said this, but it is rarely understood. Before you are born into this life, a process of anesthesia sets in

PL 222 Transformation of the Lower Self

You may imagine what this means in terms of ever increasing joy, love, peace, security, strength, creativity, deep friendships and unity. Even these first steps of transforming work have already changed your relationships, your experiences, your community, your sense of well-being and meaningfulness in life. You are often startled by this change. It sometimes seems…

PL 224 Creative Emptiness

Most human beings create an agitated mind, an inner and outer overactivity, because they are frightened that they may be empty, that there may be nothing within to sustain them. This thought is rarely conscious, but on a path such as this the time comes when you do become conscious of this fearful thought.

PL 228 Balance

This lecture is about balance. Balance is what keeps the universe intact. If there were no balance, no balancing consciousness, no balancing law, everything would disintegrate.

PL 229 Woman and Man in the New Age

As the planet is maturing, so are men and women. What does this really mean? How have woman and man evolved and where are they going? What is the ultimate realization of womanhood—and of manhood? Woman is coming into her own in this phase of history; she is coming out of her confinement.

PL 230 The Universality of Change—Reincarnative Process in the Same Life Span

What is the seed plan? It is truly allowing Divine Substance to infiltrate all that is. And that substance is never static. It contains limitless possibilities for being, expression and creative manifestation—literally limitless ways of joyousness, ecstasy and wisdom, to such an extent that it cannot even be put into human language. Wherever this movement…

PL 231 New Age Education

As a fundamental prerequisite, education in the coming age has to make room for the understanding of the principles you are learning on this path, and also of the levels of human consciousness and their interactions.

PL 233 The Power of the Word

What is the word? The word is the creative agent. The word is a psychic nuclear point that creates movement and a systematic chain reaction, one link logically and inexorably following another, until the word has become deed, fact, and finished creation.

PL 234 Perfection, Immortality, Omnipotence

The three aspects I want to discuss this evening are perfection, immortality, and omnipotence. Let us see how these three states of reality compare when you experience them in the higher-self consciousness, and when you experience them on the personality level. I venture to say, my friends, it will help you a great deal if…

PL 235 The Anatomy of Contraction

The path is a spiral movement. You know this. You have heard this and experienced it. Each round of the spiral is a new layer, and at the entrance of each round a new and deeper commitment needs to be made. The rounds or circles are not closed, they have openings. As you discover a…

PL 239 Christmas Lecture 1975

The Christ has been given birth by your work, my beloved friends. At each step of your path where you find a misconception, a negativity, a block, a destructiveness, a problem, an ignorance, you find a direct obstruction to the Christ within.

PL 242 The Spiritual Meaning of Political Systems

For this lecture I have announced a somewhat unusual topic, but you will see that it fits into the sequence of lectures and has its integral meaning in your own process, both as individuals and as a community. The topic is the spiritual meaning of political systems. I will speak about the best known political…

PL 243 The Great Existential Fear and Longing

The path I have the privilege to bring to you and help you on prepares you for this process. Little by little you deal first with the personal, individual violations of integrity and truth, level by level. The more open you are to this process, and, consequently, the more you recognize and loosen up your…

PL 246 Tradition: It’s Divine and Distorted Aspects

The topic of this lecture is the meaning of tradition. Let us first examine what tradition means in its best sense, and then what it means when it is distorted. Many human beings have distinct images about tradition. These images trigger off conditioned reflex reactions as soon as this term is mentioned or when human…

PL 247 The Mass Images of Judiasm and Christianity

This lecture grew out of an answer to the following question. Question: I am very puzzled by the tremendously strong reactions about the whole issue of Jesus Christ. I understand what you said about the fear of expansion that applies to all phases of expansion. But the reaction to your emphasis of the role of…

PL 250 Inner Awareness of Grace—Exposing the Deficit

In the present general state of humanity, self-responsibility is much more developed. You understand that you create your reality and your experiences—good or bad. How then does grace come in? Is it totally eliminated from your vision of life and reality? No, it is not. Grace is as much a reality as self-creation and self-responsibility—and…

PL 251 The Evolution and Spiritual Meaning of Marriage—New Age Marriage

During the many centuries of its existence, humanity has developed in many areas. Let us consider marriage. Under standing its evolution thus far will open your vision to the future. You will view the current attitude toward this institution with the larger picture in mind. History can be properly understood only when the spiritual meaning…

PL 252 Privacy and Secrecy

Today I wish to explore the concepts of privacy and secrecy. Much confusion exists about these two concepts. This confusion fosters the forces of evil and prevents you from fulfilling all your needs and attaining true expansion. It also makes closeness and intimacy impossible, and closeness is surely one of your legitimate needs. So is…

PL 253 Continue Your Struggle and Cease All Struggle

I would like to discuss a particular aspect of this transformation of consciousness, giving special emphasis to what was previously discussed only in general. Humanity’s greatest imprisonment, from which stems all fear and pain and suffering, is the duality in which the human mind is entangled. The mass mind then builds an environment and creates…

PL 254 Surrender

You often use the word “surrender.” You sense that this word contains an important aspect of spiritual fulfillment. Yet there is also a great deal of confusion attached to this word which needs to be explored. Human beings who are incapable of surrendering cannot find their core, or their divine nature, cannot love, and cannot…

PL 255 The Birthing Process—Cosmic Pulse

In this lecture I would like to discuss particularly a law of timing that applies to the development of every entity. You surely must have sensed this law and may even know about it vaguely. But it is important that you thoroughly understand it. According to this law a certain necessary time sequence exists on…

PL 256—Inner Space, Focused Emptiness

We have occasionally discussed this inner landscape. I have made mention of the inner space that is the real world. The term “inner space” is used quite frequently in your world these days, as opposed to outer space. Most human beings think of inner space as merely a symbolic description of a person’s state of…

PL 258—Personal Contact With Jesus Christ—Positive Aggression—The Real Meaning of Salvation

If you seriously long, pray, and search for a realization of Jesus Christ’s personal love for you, the answers will come forth. Perhaps you will not recognize the first answers as such. They may have something to do with specific barriers that prevent you from this experience, this reality. They may bring up new, or…