Read Choices and Illusions Online
Authors: Eldon Taylor
“You are a God experience walking.”
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Breaking the trance
Practical Metaphysics
However, let’s get back to “it’s never too late.” In my jour-
ney, there came a point when I hungered for more metaphysical
information. I enrolled in a California university, the University
of Metaphysics, and by correspondence commenced a study in
metaphysical science. This was not the metaphysics of an upper-
division philosophy course, as I expected; rather, it was a practical metaphysics for living. I had worked for a long time, often doubling the required number of exams in order to reach their designated
bachelor’s level of education in this unique field of study, when
they sent me the news. I was ready to advance, but to do so I had
to become an ordained minister.
This was not a strictly academic environment, and I should have
recognized that, but the requirement blindsided me. Still, I knew
that I was not worthy of being anyone’s minister, including myself.
Weeks passed, and one Sunday afternoon while reading spiri-
tual materials, I remembered a teaching from the school. I pulled
out a binder in which I kept many notes, and the letter from the
university fell upon the floor. As I picked it up, I knew immedi-
ately that I missed the lessons and all the joy and change they had brought into my life. I sat back down in my recliner and held the
letter in my lap.
My thoughts put me to sleep, and soon I was dreaming. This
is the dream:
the Fruit of the tree
Once upon a time, a man looked to himself and spoke:
“I desire to serve God, but my life has been full of error.
The example I have set is not that of a cleric. People will
only scoff and say, ‘Know ye them by the fruits of their
tree.’ Who am I, then, to speak for or of God?”
With these words circling within his head, the trou-
bled man lay down to rest. He spoke to God: “Your will,
not mine, be done.”
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CHOICES AND ILLUSIONS
As he drifted into sleep, pictures began appearing that
told this story:
Once there stood a tree—a tree of life that was full of
fruit. The limbs bent toward the earth under the weight of
the lush red cherries. The cherries danced in jubilee with
the breeze that bathed their tender skins and turned their
fullness and vivid color to face the Father, the Sun of the
heavens.
With the dew and the rain they would polish their
beauty and drink of the earth—to store within the energy
and vitality of life, taken from the soil through the roots
and fired with the spirit of the Sun radiating through the
leaves of their parent tree.
But alas, not all of the children of the tree would ma-
ture into lush red fruit. Out of an urge to experience and
learn on his own, one turned away from the Father and ig-
nored the parental warnings. Charlie, as he was known by
the others, kept his life juices warm, daring the cold, frost,
and elements. He began to fill with color and mature early.
Pivoting on his base, he turned away from the Sun
and took shade in the leaves. daring to fornicate with the
world, Charlie refused to release the natural pesticides
within himself and took up affairs with the parasites.
Soon his delicate skin was broken, and his fruit ex-
posed. The fragrance attracted the birds, and they too
feasted on his flesh. Charlie lived off the flesh and of the
world. Passion, experience, and knowledge were his prize.
Then one day the gardener came. Gently, he took from
the parent the pure and ripened children, leaving only
Charlie behind. Hanging alone, Charlie looked about him.
The fall nights were cold and lonely. His friends, the birds,
were on wing, abandoning him. His flesh had spoiled, and
even the insects avoided him now. His soul hung on to
his tattered body. The elements he had once faced with a
thrill now threatened to snap him from the stem of life.
Charlie was sad and lonely. He had learned these things:
knowledge is not necessarily wisdom, experience is not
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Breaking the trance
always a kind teacher, and passion is sometimes a poison
that betrays whatever value there is to be had in experi-
ence and knowledge.
Charlie looked up at the beautiful blue sky and the
buoyant, white, billowy clouds adrift, seemingly with
nothing to do or a care in the world, lazily on sail across
the vast blue heavens. “They and the lilies of the field,”
Charlie said to himself.
“dear God, I have sinned,” he spoke aloud. “I have
wasted the beauty of your flower and turned my back on
simple truths. In my pursuit of wisdom, I lost sight of Your
Great Form and indulged in physical illusions. I was lost. I
alone am to blame. I give my essence over to thee, Creator
of all that is good within me and all that could ever be love
within me. For you are Eternal love, and what is best for
me is also your way. That I should discover this so late in
my life is my most significant regret.
“I have watched the caterpillar spin his cocoon and
perch on the leaves above me as a butterfly,” Charlie con-
tinued. “But I fear that this recognition has come so late
in my life that I will be unable to share this Beauty, this
Truth, with others.”
With that, Charlie lowered his head. Suddenly, a squir-
rel jerked him from the limb and scampered down the
tree and across the meadow. The squirrel paused, exam-
ined Charlie, and then as though rejecting him, dropped
him in the grass.
Charlie rested there for a day or two, and then the
snow came. Covered by the white blanket, he slept.
The seasons passed as though in the twinkling of an
eye. Charlie took root and grew strong. From his branch-
es came blossoms, followed by fruit more beautiful than
Charlie could ever remember beholding.
Charlie praised and gave thanks to God!
The lowly man in my dream raised his head from
slumber. His prayer had been answered. The lord does not
forsake man; man forsakes the lord. Thy will, not mine,
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CHOICES AND ILLUSIONS
be done; for, after all, in their eternal, boundless beauty,
they are one and the same.
My life has changed since this dream. Today, many faces pro-
vide that warm, fuzzy feeling when I put my head on the pillow. I
enjoy my family and the lovely bride to whom I have been married
since 1990. In fact, my wife and I were to have only one child. I
committed to spend the first six years of his life with him and work from my home. So, I moved my office to my home and had a wonderful time. I stopped traveling and lecturing and spent the time
learning, writing, and administering a business. Then my youngest
was born. He too was due the first six years. The long and short of it is that for 12 years I sort of disappeared. When I reentered the world, so to speak, I was astounded by how many people thought
I had died. “I haven’t seen or heard from you for so long. I thought you were dead!” was not an uncommon line. Well, as that old saying goes, “Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
Today I can honestly say that those 12 years enriched my life
immensely. I do believe that everything happens for some reason.
I have practiced the messages in this book and can say to you in
heartfelt honesty, they work!
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The kingdoM wiThin
“I want to know God’s thoughts; all else are details.”
— A l b e r t e i n s t e i n
What if the world truly is magical? What if we were created
to be co-creators with all the power to manifest miraculous lives
if we but believed so? What if we were our own cheerleaders, full
of encouragement and rah-rah support? A friend of mine named
Terri Marie wrote a marvelous little book all about being our own
cheerleaders. The book, entitled
Be the Hero of Your Own Game,
suggests that we are usually good at encouraging others but then
tell ourselves all the reasons why we cannot succeed. What if we
believed that we were created with every good possibility in our
hands to be the very best of ourselves, to use our unique talents
and abilities in ways that might astound many, to have happiness,
peace, balance, and harmony every day in everything we do? What
if our Father in Heaven looked upon us with the love and blessings
that human parents have when they behold their newborn child
and with his all-good, all-powerful, and all-knowing best offered
all that he had to us?
What if we were created to be co-creators with all the
power to manifest miraculous lives if we but believed so?
I believe that God, or whatever term you are comfortable with
for the Creator, has done just that. Remember Mark Twain’s story
in his book
Letters from the Earth?
The point of the story was to 165
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CHOICES AND ILLUSIONS
hide God where humankind would never look. Hide him within
man—the last place people will ever look!
Mysticism
While I was lecturing abroad, a wonderful man approached me
with some questions. He had resigned his priesthood two years ear-
lier because he felt inadequate. He recognized that he had provided help to many but was disturbed that he himself was not worthy to
give good advice. His thoughts were not all pure, and besides, he
too was born a sinner.
We spoke for some time. I asked him several questions. In
the end, he admitted that no one could be worthy according to
that which he had been taught. like many, he had been trained
to believe that the
G
rand
O
rganizing
D
esigner had created him imperfectly. He was born a sinner, here to endure with courage
and faith the suffering that he would experience. Further, this very suffering was necessary for him to prove his devotion and love for
God. Since he had been a Christian priest, training for 12 years as such, I asked him about some of the words of Jesus. According to
Jesus, “The kingdom of heaven is within.” Further, “In my Father’s
house are many mansions,” “Why would you use my words and
not do my deeds?” “All that I do, you will do and more,” “If you
had faith but as tiny as a mustard seed . . .”—all of these quotations in context clearly suggest that God dwells within all of us. They
also suggest that Christ consciousness is what we should all seek to achieve. Indeed, Jesus states very clearly that we are all his brothers and sisters. nowhere does Christ suggest that we are poor, pitiful
creatures created to suffer. The message of Christ is love!
From here our conversation entered the domain of Christian
mysticism, and this led to the “I AM” presence. “I am that I am,”
spoken by God to Moses. The Great I AM presence is the kingdom of
heaven, or God/Christ consciousness within. (This is a study worth
undertaking, but one that is beyond the scope of this work, so I suggest the
I AM Discourses
published by St. Germain Press if you wish 166
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the Kingdom Within
to pursue this further.) I was then asked, “Is this the reason that all of your affirmations on InnerTalk programs begin with ‘I am’?”
My mind flashed back to a small bookstore in Reno, nevada,
where nearly 20 years before I was asked the same question. “Actu-
ally,” I answered, “the research shows this is the best way to state the affirmations. I do find it interesting that it is the declarative, ‘I am.’” We then spoke of prayer. The ancient texts were often interpreted incorrectly. The word
ask,
when translated correctly, should read
declare.
declaring is creating, not petitioning. At length we had traveled around the world and examined many religious systems.
We agreed, whether Christ consciousness or Buddha conscious-
ness, whether from the Upanishads or the Bible, whether lao-tzu
or Zoroaster, all the great living religions taught
love
at their core.
Suffering as some creation made imperfectly and therefore unable
to avoid sin, begging for salvation and so forth, was not the teaching. no—to the contrary, the God within created all with the
ability to manifest miracles, if they but had faith the size of a tiny mustard seed.
It was then that the lights went on in the mind of my new
friend. “Oh, I get it. When you teach people to suffer, even indi-
rectly, you claim suffering for them and yourself. How could I have missed that? no wonder I always felt guilty and ashamed.”
This gentleman has since made some remarkable changes in
his life. He still helps people, but now he empowers them to help
themselves. Through forgiveness, releasing guilt and blame and