Mark Yarnell’s Unpublished Fillmore
Talk 2
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This evening, based on unpublished Fillmore, I want to preface the class by saying a couple of things that I said last week, and that those things are these. First, unpublished Fillmore, possibly isn’t the right way to word this, because I can’t be a 100% positive that all these things are unpublished. Some of them may have been published, but I’ve not read them. Secondly, the whole primary objective of this class, is to have fun. It’s not to expose wild things out of context, so that we can go, “Wow, I can’t believe he said that.” It is rather to take an objective look, an honest look, at some of the things that probably never will be published, because they are somewhat controversial.
But nevertheless, Mr. Fillmore said these things, and he said them during healing meetings. And he said them during his sermons on Sunday. And I think there are things that give us more of a candid look at this guy. We have these assumptions about what Charles Fillmore was like. And yet, these tend to bring out more of the life of Charles Fillmore, more of what he really believed.
And the most exciting thing that I have found in reading Fillmore over the past few years, and reading these talks that aren’t published, is that he had a great deal of moxie. He had a lot of guts. When he believed something, he said it. And it might seem controversial on the surface, but that’s okay. That was okay with Fillmore. He didn’t mind being controversial. But I think also what we need to take a look at, is a thread that is interwoven among these writings, that indicate that he wasn’t at all what we have sometimes been told he was today.
In today’s society, in today’s religious movement, we are given molds, we’re giving pictures of how Fillmore looked, and how he felt, and how he fit in to religion in the United States. And yet, one of the things that is seemingly always lacking in the books, in the literature, in all the writings, is this sincere desire to mold and shape the world anew. An evangelistic fire that burned inside of Charles, and also Myrtle, that created in their minds, a need to change the world, and a desire to do it. And they were looking for any vehicle possible. But with that preface, let me ask that, if any question come up, I’d appreciate it if you’d jot them down, or put them in the back of your mind, because we are taping this. And then, when we take our break in about 25 minutes, we’ll take five minutes before the break, and answer any questions.
Also, if there are any questions you’ve ever had about Fillmore, any things in particular that you would like to know, jot those things down. And in doing my research, I’ll try to find the answers to your particular questions, in specific. If there are any subject matters, any areas of interest that you would like to hear Charles Fillmore speak directly to, write down the subject, and I’ll research it for you.
Renunciation
I want to begin with something that Mr. Fillmore said on October 18th, 1931, to a group of people. There has been much talk, and there have been many unity churches worldwide who have been very interested in Eastern mysticism. There have been increasing numbers of people who have been reading Bhagwan Rajneesh, and Sai Baba, and a lot of the Indian holy men. Well, Mr. Fillmore had some specific ideas about these holy men, and I want to share what he said in October, in 1931:
“There are plenty of holy men in the world today, who are considered very pious, because they’re poor. India is full of Fakirs, F-A-K-I-R-S, which means holy men, who are really parasites on that country, and are not building up. They’re not helping any people to understand the great law of abundance and resource.”
One of the things I’ve discovered in Fillmore’s writings, and one of the things I shared with you last week, is his belief in the absurdity, in the overall lifestyle of renunciation. You remember, last week I quoted him when he was speaking directly, about Mahatma Gandhi. And he says, “Here’s this guy over there that’s supposedly doing a great work, but I understand he doesn’t even have the consciousness to keep his teeth clean.” And he took some pretty low shots at Gandhi. But that’s just the way Fillmore was. If there was something that he believed in, and somebody was contrary to him, he spoke out about what he believed.
Prosperity
Now, he talked about prosperity in a way that I had not read any of his writings, also in October of 1931. Because he gave us a global picture. Now, again, we think of prosperity oftentimes as a new car, a new house, whatever. Fillmore was concerned with the entire world. And this is something we don’t always get, in today’s Unity. But Fillmore is interested in transforming the world. “World prosperity is what we are aiming at in our demonstration of prosperity. But I would say, that greed is often mistaken for prosperity. And this desire that we all have to load up with things, is really an evidence of greed, and not real prosperity. It is not prosperity as taught by Jesus Christ. We must follow Jesus Christ in our religion. And he laid down the law of prosperity.””
Here it is: “Instead of getting, we must give. Then prosperity will flow.” He was very, very big on the idea of constantly giving, giving, giving, giving, giving, giving. As a matter of fact, it really turned me on today to find out that He was the leading advocate, the first advocate of circulation day. They did this sort of thing all the time. This wasn’t new to us. This wasn’t something that we can say, “Wow, we’re Unity Northeast, and we gave a bunch of stuff away, and the newspaper covered it. And aren’t we great.” It was neat that we went through this process, but Fillmore was doing it back in the 20s and 30s, during the depression he was doing it. Because he believed that prosperity should be a worldwide thing. And he believed that prosperity wasn’t getting things.
Now, we read a great deal about Catherine Ponder today, and books by Catherine Ponder. And she’s always stressing the fact that you can get all of these things in your life. Well, that’s not what really Jesus and what Fillmore taught. They taught the idea of giving, and that the things would naturally come. Now, I’m going to touch on something that’s going to sound contradictory in a few moments, where he talked about money specifically, but I think you’ll see that it isn’t.
World Peace and League of Nations
I want to go to June 10th, 1923, when Fillmore made a really blatant statement, when he was talking to a group of people, and there were some political leaders there and he said, “This is the magnitude of this man’s objective.” He said,
“I want to get all you people together, and especially you leaders of the nations. And we’ll have some lessons on what man is, and what God is, and the relation of man to God and man. You must understand these principles. And I do not think there is going to be any peace. I do not have faith in any of these leagues of nations, or these peace propagandas. I do not think that they will amount to anything until we have an understanding by the world, until the people are educated to understand what God is, and what man is. Because they will continue to be torn about part, by selfish ideas.”
If Fillmore could have gotten all of the world leaders in the 20s, and 30s, and 40s, to sit down and hold court, he’d done it. He’d done it. He’d love to have done it. Because his whole contention was the heck with the legal nations, the heck with all this other stuff. The only way we’re going to have piece, is to educate the world. Now notice something, the world. He didn’t say Kansas City. He didn’t say people in the New Thought Movement, but I’ll get to that later.
The Fourth Dimension
I ran across something interesting in January of 1924. January 20th, he was talking to a healing meeting, and he was talking about the number 40 in the Bible. And I had never heard this idea before. Maybe you have. Here he goes,
“Jesus was 40 days in the wilderness, and you’ll find nearly all through the Bible that the number 40 with cyphers added. David was the King of his Israel 40 years. And Solomon was king in Jerusalem, 40 years. And as I say, you will find the number 40 all through the scriptures. What does that mean? It is talking about the fourth dimension. We are apparently just awakening to the fact that there is a fourth dimension. Our philosophers are giving us the theory. They say we don’t know through actual contact that there is a fourth dimension, but we see that everything that appears came out of that fourth dimension.”
So, Mr. Fillmore believed that... And I find nothing that repudiates in his later writings, this 1924 comment. Believed that the number 40 represented the fourth dimension. So, what I would encourage you to consider doing is, going back to your Bible, and looking up the different areas where the number 40 is mentioned, get a concordance, or whatever. And you’ll get a view of the fourth dimension. They’ll give you different aspects of the fourth dimension. At least that’s what Fillmore believed.
Psychology
Charles Fillmore was very, very practical, and very big on psychology. In addition to being a theologian, he believed that psychology was very, very important. In fact, in 1924, he said, what the world needs today in the church, is an understanding of man, and they need much more psychology. They need the understanding of the mind related to the divine. Psychology should not be taught separate from spirituality. They belong together. Psychology belongs in the church.
Now, I have heard a lot of people say, “Well, I don’t go to this particular church, because it’s just like hearing Wayne Dyer, or hearing a psychologist every...” And I’ve never heard that about this church in particular. But I’ve heard among different Unity students at retreats, at YAU or YOU. Well, it’s like listening to a psychologist every Sunday. That’s okay. Jesus taught self-help, and so did Charles Fillmore. And throughout his writings, you’ll find this emphasis on the need for psychology, the need for understanding the mind, as well as the spiritual aspects of man. Well, he says right here, they belong together. Psychology belongs in the church.
Karma and Reincarnation
Now, I want to uncover something that was particularly interesting to me, because we all know that Charles Fillmore believed in and taught reincarnation. He did not believe in karma. Karma was not a part of reincarnation, good or bad karma. Listen to this. December 30th, 1923,
“Let us take ourselves right where we are. Not in the past, not necessarily in the future, but just what you are. Many people say, “No, I was undoubtedly a very important person in a former incarnation, and I should have credit for what I was.” Now, you don’t get any credit for what you were. I can look back and find in my past...” [Here we go,] “... a great personality, that it seems to me I ought to have credit for, in this life, but I don’t get a bit of credit. If I tell people about it, they laugh at me, and think I’m nutty. And sometimes I wonder if I am. It’s all right. And I am sure we have to begin each life absolutely new, absolutely fresh.
So, the whole idea of... I’m not going to point any fingers, but I’ve even heard Unity ministers, and ministers of different faiths and new thought, stand up and talk about how they were Napoleon, and Nefertiti, and all the many important people. The interesting thing about reincarnation is, I’ve never met anybody who was a ditch digger in a former life. I’ve met an awful lot of kings, and princes, and queens. But the point I’m getting at here is, Fillmore didn’t believe in karma. He did not believe that you had to work off anything. He said, “You started fresh.”
Living forever and Race consciousness
On November 8th, 1922, he talked about his concept of health, and life, and death. And I think you’ve heard some of this, but I want to share it with you. He said,
Get healthy. Get so healthy, that you cannot die, and then live forever right here and now. That is practical Christianity. And that is just exactly what Jesus taught. And not only taught, but demonstrated. He put on that glorified body, and He said, “Follow me, and overcome.
One of the things I find in the writings, or the talks of Fillmore, is this overwhelming conviction that Jesus, when He was... Well, let me paint a picture for you. You all recall, there was the scene where Jesus was going to resurrect Lazarus, and Lazarus’ sister was talking to Jesus, and her name was Martha, and they were visiting. And Jesus was trying to teach her in that most important encounter that this point that Fillmore’s making. And Fillmore dwells heavily on this. Jesus said to Martha, “You know your brother’s going to rise again.” And Martha said, “Well yeah, Lord, I know that. In the judgment day, in the final days.” And He got mad. He said, “No. I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he sees death, he shall live. But whoever lives and believes in Me, will never see death.”
And so many people think, “Well, what does that mean?” Well, you know what it means to live in sin, because society and moralists have told us that. Well then, living in Christ must be just the opposite of that. And Fillmore caught a glimpse of this. And people said, “Oh my gosh, when he dies, have we had it. We’re in real trouble, because he went around saying he was never going to die.
But I think, and this is off the record, even though it’s on the tape. My opinion is that Fillmore understood. Now, this is just a guess, but it’s an educated guess, that Fillmore understood what he was doing, by telling people that he was never going to die. He knew he was going to. But what I feel he was attempting to do was, he was trying to elevate race consciousness just a little bit, by demonstrating this, and by explaining this.
Now, let me explain what I mean. In all of Jesus’s healings, or in the majority of them, He says, “Now, don’t go back to the village. Don’t tell no man what has happened.” And He knew, Jesus, the master psychologist, that the minute you open your mouth, you’re going to subject yourself to all kinds of skepticism that you don’t need. And that’s why He couldn’t do any good back home. He’d go back home, and He couldn’t heal anybody, because He was just the carpenter. And He wanted people to be aware of the fact when they’re healed, don’t subject yourself to race consciousness. Don’t tell anybody.
Well Fillmore, I believe, caught a glimpse of that. And I believe he knew that he was going to die, but I think that in putting that out there, he elevated race consciousness just a little bit, as a possibility. And the guy lived many, many years beyond when he should have, based on the contemporary mortality rates of his time. So, that’s just an educated guess. But I do know this, he believed that we should get so healthy that it’s impossible to die, and did his best to demonstrate that, and did a darn good job, I think.
Multiplying Money
This is cute. He talked about multiplying money. I want to give you something to try. He was giving this to his congregation to try. It sounds great to me. He says in December of 1931,
“Take an old dollar, and praise it every day, and tell it to become $2, or $10, and stick to it. And it will multiply and draw to itself the elements to make more dollars. I know that is the law. I have tried it. Now, if it is the law, let us put it to the test.”
So, try taking some dollars, and just turn them into two or $3. He said that you can set up the vibrations, and it will happen. That the spiritual substance will come into manifestation. He had some guts.
Charles was an evangelist
Last week, I shared with you a letter that was called The Covenant of Unity Worldwide Church. And I read to you what he said he wanted to do. He wanted to form a wide church. But I want to go a step further tonight. I want to read you something else that I think is really indicative of the whole concept of Christianity.
“Christianity will be accepted someday by the whole world, because it is the highest, and broadest, and deepest religion that has ever been given to the human family. It is that because it is based upon exact law. It is just as true as the law of gravity, or the laws that have been discovered in chemistry or electricity. Christianity, dealing with ideas and thoughts, finds these words and thoughts, are related in the mental realm, just as these elements are related in the physical and electrical world.”
But I want to go back to the first sentence. “Christianity will be accepted someday by the whole world, because it’s the best religion in the world.” And many times, in many of his talks, he says, “What Christianity needs, is a spokesman.” And he sets himself up to be that spokesman. That’s why in the 30s and 40s, he was traveling all over the United States, giving talks to all the many different churches. And today, we hear this scream or this cry. Well, Fillmore didn’t really intend for there to be churches. That’s not true. That is not true. He wanted to spread the message. He believed that the whole world needed Christianity. Charles Fillmore was an evangelist.
And I’ve got to share something funny with you. I’m not setting myself up, or comparing myself with Fillmore, but this is something that happened this week, that was really funny. One of the ministerial students came up to me and said, “I am never again, going to come to your church on Sunday. Never again.” She said, “You belong in a Baptist Church. You’re not telling the truth.” She said, “My head was so messed up for four hours after I heard your talk on Sunday, that I had to call Hypatia [Hasbrouck] and get my head straight. You do not belong as a Unity minister.”
And so, I just took it and I said, “Well now, what was it that bothered you the most?” And she reeled off two or three sentences. And all of them were quotes of Fillmore that I used. So, what I’m trying to do, what I’m trying to say through this series of tapes, and through this course is, Charles Fillmore had a magnificent dream. And we need to perpetuate that dream, I feel. But we’ve seen the folly of what happens when only one human being is set up to do this. Because the minute Charles and Myrtle left this plane of existence, the movement dissipated in terms of energy, because the movement was two people for such a long time.
And I, for one, and Edwene, for two. We are interested in revitalizing it. We’re interested in sharing these truths with as many people as possible. We’re interested in picnics, like the Fillmore’s used to have out at Unity Village. We’re not going to call in any efficiency experts, and change anything at Unity Northeast. What we need to do is, have fun, and play, and enjoy life, and perpetuate the ideas Fillmore was teaching.
If you don’t think he was an evangelist, I want you to hear what he said on August 5th, 1923. “People say, “I don’t see why you should give so much power to Christianity. There are many religions in the world that have more followers than Christianity.” That doesn’t make any difference to me. It isn’t the number of people, but is the truths, and the power, and the uplift of which those truths give to the people, that count. And I know that Christianity is not only ruling the world today, but it is to rule the world in the future. It is, and I quote,
“To be preached around the world to every living creature. We must all of us accept these doctrines, because as I say, they did not originate in any sect. This Christian sect simply gathered them together, as we would gather together a great bundle of good things of any sort, and selected the best and preserved them. And that has become the foundation of our doctrine in Unity. It is to be preached around the world to every living creature.”
Hell
Now, that doesn’t sound to me like a man who wanted to sit in one spot in Kansas City. And this you find throughout all the things. Now, he talked about hell, and hell was... He had a lot of fun with hell. He had an awful lot of fun debating with people. I don’t know if you know that, but quite frequently, fundamentalist ministers would show up on his doorstep, and want to argue with him about doctrines. And he was so well versed in the Bible, that none of them ever had a chance. But he said on November 8th, 1922,
“A fact that I like, now as we analyze that burning like a fire, as it is written in Revelation, it isn’t that at all. Reading the original text, you will find that it means those wicked people are to be purified. When? Anytime you commit a sin, you begin to feel that burning somewhere in your system, and you’re going through a purification of thought, that you sent down into your body consciousness. Or whenever you have fever, you are in hell fire, all right. And I don’t know that you would suffer anymore if you were really in a burning leg. But all of those points you will find in the original text, didn’t mean a definite place.”
We all know that, or we all pretty much seem to share that idea. But I was reading an interesting argument that he had with a fundamentalist. And of course now, Fillmore, it wasn’t always behind closed doors. One of the things Fillmore delighted in doing, was getting a fundamentalist in front of a group of people. Whether they were fundamentalists, or whether they were New Thought people. He loved to enter into a debate. He didn’t run from them, really enjoyed it.
Atonement
But he was talking about hell with one of the guys today, and you just couldn’t believe the argument in this talk. It was so irrational coming from the other person, that he quit arguing within about five minutes. First, he got Fillmore on atonement. Well, let me read you what he said about atonement. This is November 8th, 1922.
“I don’t care how much you believe that Jesus Christ died 2000 years ago for your sins. And that you’re going to be saved without any effort on your part. I say you are going to be disappointed. You have to wake up, and find that you must make atonement for your sins, just as you make atonement for any other mistake. You can’t go to heaven on a flowery bed of ease. That is all a delusion. I’m assuring you of that. I know...” [Now, hear this,] “I have seen it over and over again. And I know that we must every one of us come into this Christ consciousness, and see ourselves as the son of God.”
Now notice, he did not say that Jesus did not die for atonement purposes. He never ever taught that. What he taught was, that you can’t depend solely on that. That you have to do your own work. One of the things he said as a joke one time is, and he did take pot shots at Fundamentalists, and he had fun doing it. Because they were always taking pot shots at him. But one of the things he said, he said,
“Most of my fundamentalist friends have holes in their pants. They have holes in the knees, and they have holes in the seats. In the knees, from praying and in the seats from back sliding.” [And he said,] “What we’ve got to do is, put more holes in the knees, and quit worrying about this Jesus atonement, and start changing our lives, and making it better.”
Well, anyway, I don’t want to... What I was saying here, and I want to correlate this is, he was always willing to talk to somebody about the basic doctrines of Christianity. And it was amazing in reading his talks, how he was able not to twist or pervert anything, but to use the very scriptures that they wanted to use, to show them that they were wrong. And I’ve never yet read where he lost any kind of debate. And he did it all out of love. And people came from all around to discredit him. It was a big thing. If you can get Charles Fillmore, you’re really something. So, they were after him, and he had more fun with that. So, that’s what he believed on atonement.
On going to church
On going to church, August 5th, 1923:
“If you are a real Christian, you don’t have to belong to anything, but the Church of God, you don’t have to join any of these centers.” [Now, listen to this.] “You don’t have to belong even to Unity, which is the highest and best thing in the world today.”
That is a modest concession, but it is true. He was pretty dedicated to his way of thinking. On several occasions, I’ve run across where he said, “This is the greatest thing since bread. Unity is the most wonderful thing in the world.” And told his congregations this.
Baldness
Now, he talked about baldness. In 1923, he was talking to a group of people, and he said,
“I’m not using the law all the time. That is where we must cultivate and develop out of our old race thought. We live in a world of thought essence, or thought conditions, like fish live in the sea. And the sea of awfully mud sometimes, with material thinking. And before we know it, we get so sauced in mud, that it gets all through our brains. I can feel it sometimes in my hair, what little hair I have left. The reason by the way I haven’t more hair, is because I don’t give thanks for more hair. All you baldheaded fellas, start giving thanks for more hair, and you’ll have plenty of hair.”
St Paul reincarnated as Charles Fillmore
Oh, he’s great. Now, I talked earlier and said that there was going to be... Why don’t we do this? We’ve been talking now for... Let me see if there are any questions. The question was, “Did Charles Fillmore not believe in reincarnation?” No. Charles Fillmore did believe reincarnation, and he taught it, and he taught it to his congregations throughout the years. And there’s this thing that is surfaced in Unity, that we’re scared. Some people are scared, because the fundamentalists hear that we teach reincarnation. Okay. I don’t care. I don’t teach reincarnation, but Charles Fillmore did. And it was a major part of his teaching.
The comment was, he believed he was a reincarnation of Paul. Can you document that? Yes, 1924. Do you know where he said it? Where it’s recorded?
[Question from audience:] No, [inaudible 00:26:56].
Okay. Because I and another ministerial student have been searching for that statement for a long time. I’d like to have the statement.
[Question from audience:] [inaudible 00:27:06].
Fillmore supposedly said that he was reincarnated as Paul. Now, I have found all kinds of inferences to that effect, but I haven’t found the exact quote, and I’d love to have it for my personal record.
[TruthUnity note: See Paul Is Now Here in Unity magazine, August 1924]
About differences in Unity beliefs among ministers
[Question from audience:] [crosstalk 00:27:16]-
Yes. Question. The question was, did we come to some mutual acceptance of one another when this ministerial student jumped on me about being a Baptist minister? Yes. It didn’t rattle me a bit. In fact, I thanked her, because that is the way that I am. And I believe in spreading this truth. I don’t think that we can effectively minister to two or 3,000 people. I think once when we get up to a sizeable number, we have to take a look at starting another church.
I’m not one of these crystal cathedral type guys, but I do believe in spreading the truth as magnificently as possible. And I don’t think you can do that without enthusiasm. I don’t mean being a phony about it. I don’t believe Fillmore was a phony, and I certainly hope I don’t come across that way. I’m turned on about these ideas.
[Question from audience:] [inaudible 00:28:08].
Yeah. And I can’t-
[Question from audience:] [inaudible 00:28:09].
She questioned me, and she’s a delightful lady, and she didn’t offend me a bit. Her primary comment was, there was too much energy here.
[Question from audience:] [inaudible 00:28:23] praise the Lord. [crosstalk 00:28:27]-
But she’s got her right to an opinion. And that’s perfectly okay with me. Are there any other questions, or comments?
[Question from audience:] [inaudible 00:28:36].
The comment was, if you didn’t hear it, was in all of his reading and in all his talks, and all he’s heard about Fillmore, there have been so many things about Jesus Christ, and yet so many Unity ministers, so many Unity people push Jesus Christ off to this side. And isn’t that silly. And my response to that is, yes, as far as I’m concerned. Now, I don’t want to set up a judgment trip on other ministers. They can do whatever they want. But Charles Fillmore, the basis of Charles Fillmore’s ministry was Jesus Christ, was Lord Jesus Christ. And I had a lady come up to me and say, “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard a Unity minister call himself a Christian.” She heard a Sunday talk when I said, “Well, we’re all Christians, and we follow the Lord.” And this really excited her.
She said, “I don’t believe... That doesn’t sound like Unity.” Unity today, and Unity during the time when it was fostered and created by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, are two different things. Now, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with Unity today. And I don’t want to put the two on a comparative scale. But my honest impression is, if we want to grow as a movement, and if we want to help transform the world, we better be using Jesus Christ. And we better quit hiding behind astrology, and numerology, and tarot cards. All those things are interesting, and Fillmore himself said, “Well, let’s look into them.”
He read about Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism. He was highly influenced by Emmanuel Swedenborg, Madam Blavatsky, all the great esoteric people. But then, he turned back to Jesus Christ after reviewing all of these different side roads, and said, “This is the way.” Now today, it seems like so many people are going after those same side roads, that he already walked down, and concluded were not the viable path.
So for me, and for you, I know after visiting with you, I think Jesus Christ is the answer. And I believe that when we say... You see, in Unity now, we pay a great deal of time learning the different meanings of Jesus, Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus, God is blue. Love is purple. All these things are neat, and I find them fascinating. But the important things are that Jesus Christ came to teach us a way out. And if we follow those teachings, we can get out. So, I really appreciate you bringing that up. That was Fillmore’s objective, in my estimation.
Resurrection and ascension
The question was, what did Fillmore believe about the resurrection? Fillmore believed that Jesus Christ spiritualized the atoms of his body, and transcended physical reality as we know it. Now, let me explain that. Fillmore’s analogy that I read once, was one that you’ve probably all heard. And that is, in the physical universe, when atoms are sped up, and they become faster, they become like you take ice, you heat it. The reason that it melts and becomes water is, the atoms are sped up. They vibrate. Everything’s on a different vibratory rate. By the time you get it, turn it into steam, it’s just atoms vibrating faster. What he believed was that Jesus Christ was capable of spiritualizing the atoms of his body, and moving into a higher vibratory rate. In other words, you could see him, he was manifest, but he was regenerated.
Now, Fillmore believed more in regeneration than ascension. And last week, one of the ministerial students asked, “What did he believe on ascension?” What I’m finding more and more is, that he didn’t want people to ascend. He wanted people to regenerate their bodies, and take on the spiritual qualities that Jesus took on. So, he did believe in the physical resurrection of Christ, and went on to try to explain it scientifically, if that answers your question? Did you have another one?
Healing of Charles Fillmore’s leg
Yeah, there are physical records to document the fact that when he started his prayer work, his leg was substantially shorter than the other one. And when he passed on, the examination of his legs indicated that they were almost identical, and he didn’t even have to walk with a crutch or anything. He actually did stretch one of his legs. And there’s physical evidence of that, and it’s recorded. Yes?
Cause of Charles Fillmore’s death
[Question from audience:] [inaudible 00:33:01].
He died of old age. He fought it, and struggled, and fought it, and struggled. I think, and a close look at both his death, and Myrtle’s death, or really their transitions, we’ll call them. Indicates the beautiful difference between men and women. You had Myrtle coming from a very deep feeling, loving level, just decide I can do better on the other side, and I’ve done all I need to do. So, she just said bye to everybody, and went home, and made her transition. She was coming from a feeling nature.
Charles Fillmore fought it like a mad man. He thought it tooth and nail. But when he finally did make his transition, he made some interesting comments. One of them was, “Can you hear the trumpet? Can you hear the glory singing?” He was tuned into something else, right at the instant that he made this transition. So, he saw something else. But he was intellectually, constantly, doing a battle with death. Whereas Myrtle just accepted it as a flow. Yes?
[Question from audience:] [inaudible 00:34:05].
94. I believe that’s accurate. He was 94. Yeah, because he was lecturing in Los Angeles in 1944, at the age of 90. And he lived four more years. So, I’m almost positive. I may be wrong, but I think that he lived to age 94.
Forgiveness
Okay. He said something that some people wouldn’t want to maybe hear. And yet, I think it is very significant in our spiritual growth. He talked about forgiveness, on December 30th, 1923. And it was just about time for new year to begin. He said, “I know people who on the first of the year, swear off, we will say smoking, or drinking, and those things, but they don’t ask the Lord to forgive them, or to take away the old condition.” Time and time again, Charles Fillmore said, “You’ve got to ask the Lord to forgive you.” And there is power in that concept. I don’t care how un-Unity that sounds, there is tremendous power in asking for forgiveness from the Lord of your own being. Or if you wish, from Jesus Christ. Now, you don’t hear that a lot in Unity. But nevertheless, that was one of the primary teachings.
We are responsible for our own creation
I love this. And I was almost tempted to take this out of context, and just quote one sentence to you, because it’s just a mindblower. August 22nd, 1926. “I do not believe God made man.” When I first read that, I thought, “Well, I’m just going to take that one sentence in there, and read that, and drop it.” But I can’t. Who did make man? Man made himself. God imaged man as the divine idea, and it was given to man to make himself, that is what we are to do. That is our own responsibility. So, he really believed that man was an idea in the mind of God, and in all powerful all knowing mind. And I don’t mean a huge brain. You know what I mean by mind. And that He had this idea, but that we’re responsible for our own creation, which is really an interesting concept.
On money
On money. I have heard it said, Fillmore didn’t ask for money. Fillmore just gave everything to his covenant. He said, “I’ll be taken care of and all that.” But Fillmore did ask for money. Fillmore didn’t really see anything wrong with it. Now earlier I told you, that you would think that it was paradoxical, or contradictory, for him on the one hand to say that prosperity isn’t things, et cetera. That’s not the teachings of Jesus, and on the other to talk about money, but he did. And you’ve got to understand, here’s a man who asked to have the right to change his mind any day. They’d try to pin him down on doctrines, and he’d say, “Well, now I reserve the right to change my mind after tomorrow.” So, he was this, always pretty safe. Well, this is a statement he made about money.
“I ask for big things every day. I ask for all wisdom, for all love, for all power, and people say, “Do you ask for money?” I certainly do. I praise God for money. I praise God for plenty of money. And I know that if I keep on praising, by golly, I’m going to get it. And then, I’m going to praise God that I know how to take care of it. I think we should all have all we want to, to do the will of the work of God. And if we begin to ask in this abundant way, and larger way, we would all be happy. We would all be more prosperous, and spirit. We would have more to do of the good, that God wants to do through us. We all think if we only had more good, how much more good we could do? You can have more.”
Now listen to this. “God is more willing to give than you are to receive.” So, Fillmore did ask for money. And I love the idea that God is more willing to give than we are to receive. And I really believe that that’s true. And I want you to just think about the giving day of the year, and realize that so frequently we get caught up in saying things like, “Oh, you shouldn’t have.” People don’t want to hear that. It’s tougher to receive than it is to give. And Fillmore believed God wants you to have more than you can even possibly imagine. And so, he thought receiving was very important.
The Ten Commandments
Now, he made a comment about Moses and the tablets that I found to be amusing, on August 22nd, in 1926. “There was a good deal of pyrotechnical display, evidently, to impress the children of Israel.” Whatever pyro technical means. It has to do with technical fire.
To impress the children of Israel with the power of God. As a matter of fact, I do not believe it. I do not think that Jehovah wrote on tablets of stone, these commandments, as is described in the Old Testament. You can believe just as much of it as you want to, but I do not find Jehovah God writing in that way today. And I take for granted that he does everything today that he did in the past. I do not think he wrote the 10 Commandments. And I do not think we will ever be able to find them written on tablets of stone.
Two interesting elements here. One is, that Fillmore expresses in this passage, what he does in so many other of his talks. God does today, what God did back then. It’s not a magical mystical time, 2,000 years ago, when all the miracles were unleashed on the world, and accomplished. If God isn’t doing today, something that he supposedly did back then, Fillmore says that it’s poppycock. And I think he’s got a very interesting point, and a very well put point, he was a little concerned about the Old Testament in the Bible. He loved to interpret the Bible metaphysically, but he was really upset with the literality. He was real upset with literal assumptions about the Bible.
On August 22nd, 1926, he said, he took one of the 10 Commandments, and used the Bible as a dramatic illustrate of how people are breaking one of the 10 Commandments. He said,
“A whole lot of people who have made a graven image of the Bible, it is a fact that today, as in the time of Jesus, the Pharisees have made a graven image of the Bible. They literally worship it. It has been twisted around, and you will find again and again, search the scriptures. You can make a God of the scriptures. It is really worshiping it as a God. You must read it literally, fundamentalists say. That is worshiping. That is bowing down to graven images. Let it be free.” [And I love this.] “God is writing the scriptures today, right here, right now.”
And so, as we all know, Fillmore, wasn’t big on literality, but he went a step further. He said, “People who are reading the Bible literally, are literally making it their God. Instead of looking at the practical application of what is being said.
The importance of Jesus Christ to Fillmore teachings
And then finally, in speaking about Jesus. He gave instruction in a healing meeting, on exactly how to pray to affect miracles. This was in November, in 1922. He said, “All you have to do, is just get still and say, ‘Lord, I want to enter into the stillness, and still the intellectual mind and realize that Jesus Christ is now here.’” Again. Jesus Christ is right here.
Now, I must confess to you, that when I was in school... And this is okay, this is... No, I love the Unity Village. And I love ministerial school. And I feel like I learned a great deal. But while I was in school, I noticed something. I was spending my mornings in many cases, hearing something. And then, I was going upstairs into the archive room, and I was reading Fillmore, and getting something entirely different. And so for me, Unity is a blend of a lot of different things. But the most important part of Unity to me is, what Charles Fillmore and what Myrtle Fillmore believed and taught.
I don’t care. I can bring in overhead projectors, and show you the different chromatic wavelengths, between here and Pluto. We can communicate with another spirit on Jupiter. We can have a seance, we can do all kinds of wild things. And there are lots of people in this movement that are tuned into those things, and that’s okay. But to me, the Unity movement is Jesus Christ, and Charles Fillmore, and the things that he had to say. And so, I hope in sharing these ideas with you, I hope not that you will take them, and make them your own, and assume that this is the final word, or even the important words about Unity. But I hope you’ll get a better glimpse of what the man taught.
Because the truth of the matter is, we wouldn’t be here right now, if it wouldn’t have been for Myrtle and Charles. We probably wouldn’t. And they had some terrific ideas. And I think it’s time that we get these ideas out, and make the public aware. I think it’s time we quit hiding behind mysticism, and esoteric heights that we have climbed to, that surpassed the masses. And we start just recognizing that Jesus is here now, that He did teach the right way, and that all we’ve got to do is, tune into His power and His presence, and we can accomplish whatever we need to accomplish. And that was the thing that made Unity great. That was the thing that made our movement great.
Silent Unity and Unity ministries
In closing, are there any ideas that you’d like to share, or any other questions? Or are there any areas that you would like me to research specifically for next week? Yes?
[Question from audience:] [inaudible 00:44:02].
The question is, who dreamed up silent Unity? Myrtle and Charles.
[Question from audience:] [inaudible 00:44:08].
Yeah. It was their head idea. You see, their idea was that they had a really neat concept, and it was a little bit different than many people believed at that time. And their concept was, you don’t have to be in the same room with somebody to pray and affect the healing, or a prosperity demonstration. And so, their whole idea was to set up a place where people from all over the country and all over the world could call and write, and they could pray with them. Just simple prayer work. But it was more than that. It was prayer at silent Unity, and it was outreach to all the people in the world simultaneously.
And so, that’s why we’ve got AUC and Unity School. Unity School does a magnificent job of perpetuating, one of the aspects of Unity, that Charles and Myrtle started. And the AUC is doing its best to perpetuate the field movement. And where we get into trouble in Unity. If you want to know my opinion, is when either or both sides begin looking at the other, and saying, “You’re not meaningful. You’re not important to this movement.” Because both sides are important. Both sides were important to Charles and Myrtle. And they’re just as important today as they were back then. But they’re two separate functions, but they’re both functions that were launched by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore.
And I want to get that perfectly clear, Charles and Myrtle... Charles, especially wanted churches. He wanted churches. C-H-U-R-C-H-E-S. Not sinners. He called them sinner sons. He wanted churches where people could worship God.
Work
That is really a long-winded answer to a very profound question. I’m sorry. Yeah, I’ll research that. But I do know one thing he said... And the question was, what did Fillmore say about work? He said, “I can’t tell you what to do, but I have learned that I’ll never, again for money. I’ll only work for God, and the money will take care of itself. And he counseled people into trying to do the things that they enjoyed doing, and become so good at it, that they’d really blessed the world. But he did not believe that you had to work for money. He believed you could just find some way to serve other people in the money would take care of itself.
Next week
Well, thank you all for coming. You’re getting restless. Let’s close with a prayer. The classes are-
[Question from audience:] [inaudible 00:46:25].
One thing I wouldn’t say in closing is, we’ve looked at some of the team ideas tonight. We’re going to get a lot wilder next week. And we’re going to look at some of the really marvelous things that he about, that I guarantee you have never been published. I know the things we’re going to talk about next week have never been published. Thanks for coming.
