The Power Of The Word

By The Pathwork Guide

Greetings my very beloved friends. Blessings and love envelop you and penetrate your very core. With joy I resume my communication with you, although this communication has never really been broken.

Most of you can feel with clarity that you are deeply involved in a magnificent process -- the process of the spirit penetrating that which has alienated itself from the spirit. As I have explained before, the alienated part is on its own and creates its own momentum. It becomes involved in this momentum, creating and recreating its own patterns. Translated into human terms, this means that negative creation seems to be the stronger aspect in a person's life. He appears to be caught in it, unable to reverse this pattern. You on this path, with the work you have done until now, begin to realize that it is indeed possible to come out of the negative pattern of creation. In other words, of the momentum that takes hold of you as if it had an independent life of its own that has nothing to do with you. You seem to be its victim because you do not realize how you yourself directly created this movement that carries you.

You experience and witness in the creation of the path that this movement is part of a grandiose scheme that transcends the volitional, conscious aspect of your being. You are now engaged in a most positive momentum that is the stronger aspect, notwithstanding the still existing presence of lower self aspects. The higher self is becoming predominant. This is not superimposed in a wishful denial of the lower self. You see the fruits of this in your personal life to an ever growing degree, and you see the fruits of this in the growth and the expansion, both in depth and in width, of the community as a whole.

I want you to be aware of the fact that the higher purpose of this movement goes far beyond your present life. It is a preparation for important changes in evolution. All of you are instruments, each in his own way. Each of you needs to realize the importance of his task, from an inner place that is not ego-involved, not in vanity and pride. You need to realize that it is possible right now. In other words, if you so choose, then you can know the happiness of being an instrument for fulfilling a task for a much higher cause -- one of the deepest significance -- without pride and vanity. You can do this right now and thus further contribute to the energy and the consciousness that create this movement.

The movement of consciousness is the opposite of how human beings imagine it. The truth is that the dualistic, cut-off life is not raised, as it is often said, into higher realms of being. This is a reversed view, fitted to a consciousness that is still steeped in space and time-bound terms. It would be more accurate to say that higher realms come down and penetrate the lower realms, rather than saying that the lower realms raise themselves up into higher ones. According to this latter concept, the earth sphere would remain at its present level of development, while its inhabitants would rise up. This is only partially true. In the actual evolutional movement, the earth is increasingly penetrated with the energies of higher consciousness, transforming and spiritualizing the earlier cruder energies and consciousness. This is the task in which you are deeply involved, first with your own personality, and then by fulfilling a task in conjuction with higher plans for others.

In the process of your individual path you experience how that in you which is clear, which is truthful, and which encompasses limitless spans of being, of generosity and of love infiltrates into the realms of your lower self, with its little, faithless concerns. It is similar with the mass consciousness of man. Those of its aspects which are not too resistant joyfully embrace the movement of the Christ Consciousness which sweeps through the inner levels of reality and which comes from realms that might be designated as higher. In other words, that are more evolved, in truth, and purified. As this happens, then petty feelings of egotism and jealousy make way for a knowledge of your own value, for a knowledge of your inherent right to stretch your whole being into rich fulfillment, and for a knowledge of your unity with all other life. Let this awareness fill your soul, fill your mind, fill your heart, and fill your body. In other words, let it fill your whole being. Let yourself know that you are divine beauty, and so is the next human being, so are all human beings. You are all one and you need not fight for what is yours. All you need to do is to claim what you were always meant to experience. But your inner self will let you do this to its fullest extent only when you purify yourself; only when you become deeply honest; only when you have the courage and the integrity to expose all the aspects of your lower self and you consider their effects both on others and on yourself. Let this motivate you for the great task of self-transformation, which is the natural movement of your soul -- and which your unconscious fear and your unconscious ignorance try to stop.

Let the light of truth and love fill your day, fill your actions, and fill your attitude toward yourself. Let the constructive involuntary forces of the Christ Consciousness take over and carry you so as to create and recreate, thus making your life the glory that is yours to behold and to experience. You expand into it more and more, and you can only stand in awe at what you behold. The expansion and the transformation that you witness now are only a beginning; much more of it is to come. Your development will make you capable of withstanding the highest energies of joy and of fulfillment. And do not forget that what you already experience in your life and in your community now is a result of your combined constructive input, of your honest investment, of your commitment, and of thoughts, of intentions, and of actions of the highest nature. These, in turn, eliminate the walls between your human consciousness and entities of higher development, whose force and whose sphere of influence then merge with your love, with your truth, with your good will, and with your giving to the universe, thereby creating a mutuality of the highest order, as well as the momentum that now carries you, and that you begin to feel.

In this lecture I will speak precisely about this process. In other words, of how such a process can be initiated in a conscious and deliberate way: of how you can change the process from a negative creation to a positive self-perpetuating motion and creation. In other words, how can you create an involuntary movement through your voluntary system? I have promised to speak about the power of the word. So this will be the topic now. Let us first understand what the word is. The word is the creative agent. The word is a psychic nuclear point, or a psychic nuclear explosion 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. The word creates an energy pattern of further psychic nuclear points, each link, each point, being a word too, a sub-creative agent, as it were. Each word is a blueprint without which the structure cannot be built. The word is expression. The word is creation. The word is plan. The word is knowledge. The word is opinion. The word is consciousness. The word is feeling. The word is attitude. The word is intentionality. The word carries immense energy powers of its own kind, differing from other energies. The word is what is behind all of creation. Creation cannot exist without a word spoken, without a word known, without a word held, without a word believed in, without a word committed to in the area of that specific creation. The word that is spoken reveals the will that motivates this particular word. It can be either the divine will or the will of the cut-off, ignorant, and destructive particle of consciousness. The word is the sum total of your beliefs in any given area where you speak the word -- be it conscious or not. The word is the sun that creates the planets. It is energizing force and it is design.

There is so much contained in the word that it is not for nothing that Scripture starts with the postulate "In the beginning was -- or actually IS -- the word." There always will be the word. The word as you know it is the Word that God spoke. From that Word all of creation came into being, including your personality. The word is the blueprint behind all that which you can see, behind all that which you can experience, behind all that which you can feel. There are many words creating many aspects of creation in the planetary system, in the mass consciousness, and in the individual consciousness.

How can you apply this truth to yourself, in your practical life? Perhaps you will glean from the work that you have done until now on your path that every situation that you experience is the product of a specific word that you have spoken within -- and that you perhaps are still constantly speaking in one way or another -- on one level of awareness or another. Our aim on the path is to make conscious all these words that you speak day in and day out, every hour and every minute of the day, so that you can understand your creation.

Most of the time you humans are extremely busy so as to block out the words that you speak; and you produce noise in your inner system so that you do not hear your own words. A new phase on your path can now be contemplated and entered into -- by some already now, by some only later. First it is to to make yourself conscious of the words you speak, then of what they create, and third of how they create.

The word can be divided within itself. When you speak opposite words on different levels of your awareness or consciousness that cancel one another out, then you become confused. Therefore, you create accordingly. If you create fog so as not to know the words you speak -- in other words, if you overshadow them with other words -- then it is necessary to painstakingly crystallize the specific word that is most responsible for the creation of your life situation. You should do this with both your positive creations and your negative creations.

In a sense you have already done this, but not in this clear way. You now become more ready to handle the sharp tool that speaking the word can be. This knowledge in itself is not new. It has been postulated throughout the ages and it is professed in various corners of the earth. But often it is applied on top of the existing fog and on top of the existing negative words. In other words, it is superimposed without first lifting out the obstacles and the counter-currents. I spoke of this a long time ago but only fleetingly, because much work had to be done by all before I could come back to this topic in a meaningful way. The timing here is crucial. Words of truth and words of creative beauty spoken when the underlying material has not been made compatible with those levels of consciousness that speak those words can, at best, create only a short-circuit, and at worst a split and a division in a consciousness. This is why it is preferable if for a while the spoken word is an honest admission and an exposure of your negative intentionality and of your lower self motives. Not doing so implies attitudes of wishful thinking, of pride, of lack of faith (the fear of exposing what is not perfect), of laziness (shirking the process of becoming, of growing, of developing, of transforming in realistic, painstaking ways), and many others. So you see, my friends, it is a matter of subtle awareness when the word of divine, limitless abundance can be really spoken in truth.

Now let us concentrate on specific words that reach very deep levels of your being. I mean the word that you speak regarding your own value. I have indicated in recent lectures that your path is going to open up in that direction. There is a direct linkage between the power of the word and self-value. In other words, they go together. For how can you speak the word of faith in your own unfoldment and the word of faith in your own fulfillment if you secretly believe that you have no value, and therefore no right to experience bliss? How can you challenge the assumption of your worthlessness -- that all of you carry inside your hearts to some degree -- if you are terrified that this is the ultimate truth of your being? Then you can only continue to block this knowledge and to defend against it. It is precisely by and through those defensive maneuvers that you reinforce the belief in your unacceptability -- because all the defenses are negative, destructive, and create guilt. So even when on the surface you try to tell yourself -- often belligerantly -- that you deserve fulfillment, that you deserve peace of mind, that you deserve pleasure, that you deserve abundance, underneath the surface you actually fear that you will never attain all this, since you secretly feel that you do not really deserve it. You fear that if you did acquire all these desirable assets, then it would only be by stealing, and thefore you would be punished. So as you speak the word for what you long for -- and for what every human being longs for and should indeed experience -- you simultaneously speak a word against it on another level. The same applies to everything in life. While you are in this state of division -- and therefore of self-denial -- then you must feel pessimistic and fearful about the world as such. As a result, you will see it only in fragments, out of context, thereby reaffirming your fearful vision.

Thus the process of the path is essential in order to establish the one-pointed word. Through the honesty and the courage of self-exposure and the process of purification you will gain sufficient self-esteem to expose your devastating belief in your valuelessness. Only when you first pierce through the superficial maneuvers of your false self-value, which you substitute for your lack of a sense of self-value -- thereby making room for facing your painful belief in being valueless -- can you begin to see this assumption and then begin to cast doubt on your self-doubt. In that way you can constantly utter and pronounce words of truth. Even questions can be words of truth. "Is this assertion of my value a defense or a real expression?" "Do I, underneath my superiority and my arrogance, falter and doubt my intrinsic value?" And when the answers to these questions show that this is indeed so, then the word of truth can be expressed, perhaps again by an initial question: "Is it true that this or that lower self aspect makes me undeserving, makes me unlovable, makes me valueless? Or is there something else in me that justifies my appreciating myself and my loving myself, something that deserves esteem and fulfillment?" So questions can often also be words of truth.

So begin to see the words which you speak to yourself about yourself behind the smokescreen. On those deepest levels you malign yourself. You speak negative words about yourself. Those words need to be crystallized. They may exist only in a vague, hazy, inarticulated way. The power of the word is no less when it is inarticulated, when it is not spoken. There is always an immense power in the word. For the word is full of energy. Humankind at this stage of its development becomes increasingly aware of energy and of its importance. But you are not yet sufficiently aware that the thought and the word are also energy -- each one energy of a different kind.

Every level of the personality is the expression of a different kind of energy. The feelings have a different type of energy, the mental level has a different type of energy, the will level has a different type of energy, the physical level has a different type of energy, and finally the level of the spirit, of the higher self has a different type or kind of energy. It is immensely important first to recognize and then to feel the power and the energy of the word. This is vastly underestimated. You erroneously believe that what you think and what you say do not matter.

You can say a word with a loud voice or you can say a word inside of you. The word that is not uttered by the voice -- and therefore that is not heard by the ear outside -- is not necessarily less powerful than the uttered word that is pronounced with the vocal cords. Many words are spoken with the vocal cords that have much less energy, for they are not rooted in strong beliefs. They are uttered lightly. In other words, without feeling or conviction so as to fill the void within. The power of these words is an indirect one, in that these words create fog that separates the consciousness from the words spoken within which do have power, either constructively or destructively. So the lightly uttered word -- without impact, without a driving force, without depth, and without roots, be it spoken or be it the pitter patter of thoughts -- nevertheless has a serious effect on the creative process. Therefore, listen to their underground noise, see their meaning, take enough distance from them so that you can first hear them and then evaluate them. By first observing them and then by identifying them, you will gain a better understanding of how you create your life and of what your creative process is. See the powerful words which you speak behind that curtain, behind that fog of separation.

There are many powerful words that you speak with the thoughts which are hidden within you -- and which therefore are unclear to your observing consciousness. Your awareness of them will permit you to utilize this material. When you first observe and then dissolve the fog of the superficial word, the word that is merely noise, and therefore that is meaningless because it has no substance -- in other words, when you go through this smokescreen and you clarify your vision of the power of your word -- then you can first listen to your words and then contemplate their meaning and be aware of their consequences. Perhaps you can also feel the energy current in each word that you speak either lightly or loudly. You need to clearly enunciate the feelings, the convictions, and the ideas which then need to be examined as to their truthful nature and their effect on your life creation, on your behavior, on your receptivity, and on your perception of reality. That is, your own reality, the reality of others, and the reality of life.

When these words are not according to truth -- in other words, when they are contrary to divine, unalterable truth and beauty -- then the creation of the various energies of your words will take you into a self-perpetuating involuntary pattern that seems to make life dangerous, alien, hostile, and therefore to be defended against. As long as you are caught in this pattern, you will feel like a helpless pawn. But when you discover the power of the word and you choose different words -- words that are according to the truth of creation -- then you can create a pattern in which the involuntary process carries you in benign love, in ever expanding joy, and in abundance.

When you do not have joy and you do not have abundance -- both outwardly and inwardly -- in your life, then this means that you must be speaking a word that denies this possibility for you. If you do not believe in that possibility for yourself -- because you secretly, often without your conscious awareness, feel undeserving -- then it is likely that you deny this possibility per se in creation. That defensive palliative seems less painful than admitting the truth that you feel too evil -- and therefore too undeserving-- to have fulfillment. At first your conscious awareness may be merely of a general sense of pessimism, of nihilism, and of vague fears, as well as a total disconnectedness from the inner process of self-creation. At this stage the feeling of helplessness is overwhelming. Only when you begin to pursue the chain reaction and the connection between your word and your experience will you gain a deep security, in which you become part of the creative life process.

People who cling to nihilistic philosophies hide the process I just described. This kind of world view cushions them against their painful belief that they are unworthy of love, that they are unworthy of joy, that they are unworthy of fulfillment. All of you carry such a word in you. Some more, others less, some in one way, others in another. Find that word in you in which you, consequently, say: "I will not love. Love is dangerous, therefore it will hurt me." It is another word of untruth that creates its own pattern which then makes it seem like a truth. When this pattern is still in you, then you cannot experience the fulfillment that your soul longs for. For you are caught in an involuntary process that echoes that word, and therefore that manifests that word. The manifestation of this process in your life -- the involuntary life that you create for yourself, while you believe that you have no say in it -- is both the direct result and the indirect result of those words that you speak. Sometimes you speak them loudly, without knowing what you are saying and why you are saying it. Sometimes you speak them silently, without being aware that you say such and such a word, yet not necessarily unconsciously. For when you begin to observe the ongoing dialogue within you, then you will see that your words exist on a conscious level, but you do not take notice of them. But more often the words which you speak are not spoken on a conscious level, and therefore need to be dredged up. But there are always hints and clues that one can follow that make their existence obvious, if only you choose to make the connections.

In your busyness not to first hear and then understand your words, you do not take responsibility for the words that you speak. I purposely say "words" rather than "thoughts," for thoughts are only the outcome of the underlying factors that create the word. The word is the energy explosion. The word is that which immediately creates. The thought is the content, the word is its inception, its expression, its realization in its first stage. A thought without the word would be impossible, it would be meaningless, it could not exist. So the thought is the underlying consciousness factor of the energetic process. The spoken word is the finished product of the thought behind it. I repeat, this finished product of the thought -- namely the word -- is not necessarily conscious or articulate or vocal.

So take care of your words, my friends. Make room for clarity in your words. Take responsibility for the words which you speak within you. Your words are your life creation. Question the words you speak. Do they come from a thought of truth or do they come from a thought of untruth? A thought can be revised, it can be rejected, it can be debated. The word is already the finished product of the thought. Therefore, it is already the beginning of the creation. It is that which clinches the thought, as it were. So differentiate between the word and the thought. For example, if you think that you are unworthy of the best that life has to offer, then you can question that thought. But if you speak that word into yourself -- in other words, the false belief or thought or untruth that you are worthless -- then it is already a creation that is taken for granted because it is never challenged and is never debated. Therefore, it is left uncorrected. In that way it is constantly given power, a power that is not visible to you or noticeable by you. But it is an undercurrent on which the boat of your life, the vehicle of this incarnation, constantly swings and rocks. It is as though you are carried by that undercurrent -- and indeed you are. But you are no longer connected with the undercurrent. You do not know that you created the current through the thoughts that create the words that you speak. In other words, the unchallenged, unquestioned thoughts which you utter within your own mind.

What you need to do is to realize that where your creation is undesirable and limiting, you must first look for and then challenge the specific word that is responsible for this state. Then you must begin to say different words.

My dearest friends, it is also important for you to understand that the word that is spoken superficially -- while underneath the opposite word still persists -- will only create a short circuit. So if on a superficial level of your mind you say, you affirm "Yes, I have all the value in the world," then it is not going to take. And you do this constantly. You pay lip service to many truths in your mind and in your thoughts, and you may even say the words -- such as making affirmations -- but you do not challenge the words that are opposite. The only way you can know that you speak such opposite words is by the results, by the manifestations in your life. This is the absolute proof of what words are spoken within. There can be no mistake about that.

So look at the situations in your life that make you feel less than happy. Feel the involuntary process that carries you in that pattern, creating over and over again situations and manifestations that make you either less than happy or very unhappy. Then search within you for the specific word you say that creates this. In other words, what is the specific word in this or that situation? I tell you, my friends, it will not be difficult for you to unearth this now. Before your present awareness, at the beginning of your path, you would have been convinced that the superficial positive word is all there is. Then you would have used the fact that the opposite experience exists nevertheless as proof of the false belief that life is unfair and as proof of the false belief that life is untrustworthy. In other words, as proof of your conviction that your inner processes have no bearing on it. You would have convinced yourself further of the great hoax, of the general illusion that man is a victim of life (See No 211). However, now you have gone into yourself. As a result, you know your lower self and its negative intentionality; you know of your unfortunate hate for yourself; you know of your lack of faith in your higher self; you know of your lack of faith in deserving fulfillment; you know of your lack of faith in your right to expand and to stretch your consciousness into more alternatives for fulfillment for you. Now that you know all this, you will be able to find the words that you are still speaking in this or that area of your life.

In connection with this, I would like to say a few words about giving and receiving. By now you know that giving and receiving are one. But this knowledge is often merely a mental and superficial one, and is not yet an experiential one, it is not a realization. In other words, emotionally and experientially there is still a division. But you are becoming increasingly aware of the oneness, even in the division. Let me be more explicit. When you speak the word of self-devaluation into your inner being, then the result is that you must become fearful, that you must deny your moving out, that you must prevent your heart from flowing to the next one. Then in this miserable state you believe that all you need in order to be helped out of this state is to be loved. But no matter how much you long for it, when this love is given to you, then you cannot accept it. You always seem to find ways and means to prevent yourself from taking it. Here -- even in your divided consciousness -- you find the unchangeable unity: as you do not give, so you cannot receive.

Taking is dependent on your awareness of having earned the right to do so. In other words, of being worthy of it. And giving your love is equally dependent on that, for if you are not aware of your intrinsic worthiness, then receiving love threatens a worse punishment and it exposes you to the pain of your real feelings -- which in this case is your sense of worthlessness. You can give love only when you feel deserving of the pleasure to do so. And you can receive love only when you feel deserving of it. But this is impossible if you do not wish to love.

No one else can give you the worth and the love that you first need to extend to yourself. The fallacy of the thought that if only you were loved, then you could also love no longer should have any room in your consciousness. It simply does not work. It is a false word that you speak into yourself on some level. But as you try it out and you observe it objectively, then you see that there is no truth to it. You often are given, but you reject what is given in sincere love from others and from God -- from life itself. The word that you speak thus creates the false unity of neither being able to give love nor of being able to receive love. Only when you speak different words, deep inside of you, with all the feelings and all the conviction -- as a result of having first penetrated those deeper levels and then of having transformed the false words into a clear-cut, strong creative movement of the word -- will loving and being loved become a oneness, and not an impossible division.

In a similar way, when a person enters the path and comes into the purifying and strong energetic environment of your Center, then he will not be able to take it in. And yet he must first take what the path and the Center have to offer. As he takes, as he makes himself take, so does he give, even in the taking only. Not being willing to accept what is given is a crass form of ungivingness. Taking is already a giving, provided it comes from sincerity, rather than from the cheating, grabbing, acquisitive little lower self. Think about it. If you have something to give and it is not wanted -- in other words, it is not taken -- then it hurts. But when the other person takes it, then he gives to you by taking it.

You must come to see, to realize that the giving is in the taking is and that in the giving is the taking, the receiving. Even when the process alternates, in one stage you will find yourself more able to receive and less able to give; or giving through your sincere receiving. That is all right. Receive it in truth and in beauty, and you shall become stronger in the other kind of giving too -- where you give out from your own resources. Speak the appropriate word to yourself. In other words, speak the word that will create the greater power both to give and to receive, each in truth, each in wisdom, each in beauty, each in divine will. Soon it will become an endless flow. Giving and receiving will no longer be differentiated, for they are undifferentiated in reality. But in the words that you speak deep inside of you they seem opposites, and thus you create a conflict.

Now, my friends, go into your words. Observe the shallow ones. Observe the words of untruth. Then consider in what way they are untruth. And then have the courage to speak the word of truth. Visualization cannot exist without a word of truth being spoken. This must become clear to you, so that more false words are first challenged and then given up. It seems to take a lot of courage to say the word of truth. For example, "I can give my best and I want to give my best." "I will let God give through me in sincerity, in strength, in truth, in wisdom, in beauty." Why does it seem to take so much courage to speak these words? It seems to require courage for several reasons. For one, your lack of the belief that these words are actually a creation -- and therefore that they will create accordingly -- requires you to bridge the gap from not knowing to experiencing. This gap can be bridged only by faith. That, in turn, is a question of commitment. It is extending yourself into unknown, unexplored alternatives and into new vistas. And that is always a matter of courage. It is a commitment to believing in this possibility, even if you have not yet experienced its truth. The courage to strongly pronounce these words is a necessary step and a prerequisite. Faith always requires courage and strength.

For another reason, it is courage because the false safety measures into which so much false faith was invested -- often for a long time -- need to be relinquished. Unless this is done, then the word cannot be spoken. Therefore the creation cannot be forthcoming. The positive involuntary process cannot be set in motion. This is a process that is like a gently rolling sea with an immense and benign energy, just as you now begin to experience in your beautiful venture. More and more of you marvel at what is happening. It is a strength from within that takes over and that stretches beyond your limited vision and beyond your human consciousness. You marvel at it -- and you are right to do so. Know that this is the result, the creation of many words of truth, of many words of strength, of many words of giving, of many words of commitment, of many words of faith, of many words of good will, and of many words of action. In short, of the initial word that many of you have spoken and that has set all of this in motion. Even though words of untruth are still being spoken in those same consciousnesses -- by all of you -- the words of truth that are being spoken have also created a stronger power. That power, in turn, has made it possible for divine spirits and for divine guidance to come forth in ever stronger measure, in conjunction with your inner divinity.

I am sure that all of you know that in this first lecture of the year you have received a new tool. It is a tool that can be used meaningfully now, but a tool that could not have been used so in the past. Use it, try it, experiment with it. Then you will see the beauty of life opening up more and more. The love of all of us in our world constantly flows to you. Receive it. You are blessed. Be in God.

September 24, 1975