Welcome to the Golden Gate Course! Below is the first lesson as created by Bernard. Each lesson was originally intended to last for 2 weeks before moving onto the next one, but obviously you can work through the course faster or slower depending on what fits your needs.
However, please bear in mind that it is important to take time to reflect on the lessons to really make them part of you. Hurrying through them, especially in an anxious fashion, would render a lot of the lessons ineffective. This would lead to only “knowing” them superficially in the head and not knowing them at all in the heart.
As with other courses, I have added Follow Ups to help clarify or emphasize core concepts and useful ideas.
I trust that you will thoroughly enjoy the Golden Gate course and have great benefit from it!
Blessings,
William.
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LESSON ONE.
Do you want good fortune in life – happiness, success, health, friendships, prosperity, confidence, freedom, the little extras that make all the difference to your world? Of course you do. But how many people will admit it? As soon as some people awake to a knowledge of the great reality behind the visible universe they seem to get the idea that money should be beneath them. They throw a romantic veil over that vague term “the poor”, praise people who openly declare that they don’t wish to make any profits, and generally hold to the thought of poverty. Which accordingly, with unwavering accuracy, works itself out in their lives (as inner mind-pictures do).
Every student who undertakes this Course must be willing to rid themselves of these nonsensical notions. Our instincts tell us that, because nature herself is so abundant, the Power behind nature must be abundant too.
One student wrote, “When I read about your own thought building and the abundance that has manifested as a result of it, I feel so thrilled. Uplifted too – almost as though I shall float up and hit the ceiling – Because something within me answers to what you write. My heart cries joyfully, Of course we were not meant to live sparsely God is limitless, and we are supposed to share in this. An abundant supply brings a larger horizon if we use it wisely. I feel a sense of release when I say that I do want to live abundantly.”
I am not going to spend a long time in discussing all this. One of the conditions for enrolment for this Course is that you know it already. In these lessons we have to turn your whole life upside down, so we must get busy! It sounds drastic doesn’t it? But don’t be perturbed. All I shall do (if you will co-operate as you have agreed to do) is to turn your thought-life upside down. Your life will change with your thoughts.
A very simple statement, isn’t it – that last one? “Your life will change with your thoughts.” But in these seven words is the secret of success, the inner core of power. The reason, if you are not as yet enjoying the abundant life which divine intelligence has for you. Turn the words into the personal and say to yourself, “My life will change with my thoughts”. Sounds easy, but you have to know how – and that is just what I propose to teach you. Don’t “fight” me, and don’t be indifferent at any time during these lessons. Follow step by step in your thoughts, really carrying out in your everyday life what you learn, and you will be successful. Don’t just read – do. You have as little chance of gaining success through just reading these pages and not applying them as a would-be engineer would have by just reading a text-book. What I propose to teach you is something that will gain you your heart’s desires, bring you true success. It has been said that “true success is to live your life in the place you wish to be in, doing the work and the play that you want to be doing all the time.” Well, that is the success I am enjoying now. I could not desire any other work than that which I do, I would not spend my leisure in any other way, nor change my environment from where it is now.
But if I did wish to change any of these, I haven’t the slightest doubt that I could do so. That is success. Yet I had no “start” in life. No good education (being “indifferent” at school). I had no money from relatives or friends to help me along. I had no specialised training of any kind, but only what I picked up for two months at evening school. I did not even have good health to assist me for I was a so-called (by doctors) “incurable” invalid for many years. But as I have told the dramatic story of my recovery elsewhere I shall not do so here. You see, don’t you, that I have achieved the only kind of success worth having?
I know just why and just how I achieved it, and in these has lessons I propose to tell you every least little thing about it. You (or any keen, alert, intelligent person) can follow the steps I shall outline and reach your success too – but you must follow every step in the lessons all the way and not pick out the ones you like and leave the others.
How are you as regards optimism now? Are you beginning to realise that you can be successful, that it rests with you? Never mind about obstacles and handicaps! Never mind what the stars “say”! Never mind what your palm foretells, or your handwriting, or the shape of your face or head. By this method one may short-circuit all those and make straight for one’s aim. Refuse to be put off by any obstacle or handicap.
Just now I said that divine intelligence had for you an abundant life. And this is so. The scripture teems with promises of this abundance and all nature proclaims it to you. Those who are asleep to the power in their own thought-life, build poverty around themselves and do not dream that they could have abundant life. Such are too busy “dreaming” of limitation and poverty.
Yet your own good fortune awaits you. The reason you have not found it yet is because there is a “golden gate” standing between you and prosperity. It seems insurmountable, but in reality it is made of mind-stuff only! When you have the right thoughts in your mind the golden gate will melt before you and you will be able to pass through easily to the good fortune that divine intelligence has for you. For your mind and the gate will be one.
In this Course you will learn exactly how to transmute all your hampering thoughts into “golden gate” ones. All obstacles will disappear as you pass through. I cannot tell you how long it will take. It depends entirely on two things.
1. How readily you will believe the great truths and secrets I shall reveal to you.
2. What use you will make of them when you know.
At this point I will give you a powerful exercise which you should adopt and. carry out every day. This is one of four secret exercises which will be given to you in this Course. Do this exercises daily until you receive the next one. If you have not time to do it in addition to the other exercises, cut out one of those and use the Secret Exercise in its place. Do one Secret exercise every day and you will grow in a power which will amaze and delight you. Eventually you have all four Secret Exercises, then choose the one that gives you the most power and adopt that one.
Secret Exercise No 1
Go into a room where you can be alone. Stand, cover your eyes with the palms of your hands. Then state calmly, without actual sound, what it is that is your especial need at the moment. Breathe deeply seven times, then suddenly uncover your eyes and throw your arms out and up, “shouting” inwardly, but without actual sound, these words:
“My just desires I do not hide.
Windows of heaven, open wide!
Pour down abundance, riches, power,
Give me Thy blessing in this hour”
Pause a moment, feeling exultantly that your prayer has been heard and that the very riches of heaven are pouring out upon you, bringing you all good. things, but especially your particular need. (Be sure to ask only for that which is good, and for yourself, for this exercise cannot be done for others, though others can share in your blessings.)
Hold to the inner conviction that you will receive what you have asked for. Watch for it, expect it, repeating the exercise whenever you wish, but at least once a day.
And here is a special affirmation:-
“OBSTACLES MELT FROM MY PATH AS I STEP THROUGH THE GOLDEN GATE TO GOOD FORTUNE AND FULFILMENT.”
Don’t just say this once or twice and think that that is all you have to do. It is far more important than that. You must go on saying it until you feel a tingling exultation running through your veins. Think of some specially thrilling moments you have had. I once won a prize in a competition of skill which I had been entering every week for months. Suddenly I saw my name printed in the magazine and within a few minutes the postman arrived with the cheque. I was “thrilled to the marrow” as the graphic description goes. I literally tingled all over. My steps felt light, I smiled bright-eyed at everybody, and everybody smiled at me!
That is how you must feel about the affirmation. Say it when you wake, smiling over the delightful prospect, feeling it. Say it at odd times during the day – while walking, waiting for a bus, travelling in the train etc. Sit down in some undisturbed spot and say it over and over for a few minutes. Use a timer if possible (old-fashioned egg timers can be fun as you can watch the sand to run through). As you watch the timer say your affirmation slowly and happily, over and over. Say it when you go to bed, just before dropping off to sleep. And when you say the affirmation, muse on it.
Remember that you must get the affirmation right down into your subconscious and then this wonderful part of you will work it all out in your life. (Never mind how. Divine intelligence knows, so you do not need to know.) And here is a little-known method of doing it. As you say the affirmation, draw in your solar plexus (or stomach, if you like) and hold it while you say the words, (Do not hold your breath. Just breathe normally.) When you have said the affirmation, relax the solar plexus, pause a moment, and repeat. (You can do this quite unobtrusively at any time.)
Earlier in this lesson I quoted a student’s letter which commented on my abundance. This abundance was described in the magazine at the time and, for your benefit, I reproduce it here. It concerns the very early days of this Work, when I had a “paper fund” (used to buy paper for all the leaflets and booklets we send out), but the fund is not needed now. This Organisation is fully self-supporting and has been for many years. But at that time (1951) this Organisation was less than two years old. Started with a “seed” of faith and no capital, it had then become a tiny “plant” – and not the strong “tree” whose branches stretch across the world as it is today. This is the article that I wrote for the newsletter all those years ago:
“Abundance in a material sense has not come my way”, wrote a student this week. How familiar this phrase (or a similar one) is. But why? Why should not material abundance come to students when mental and spiritual abundance comes so often? I think I know the answer. You don’t believe that it will. It is easy to think of something abstract coming from the abstract realm of thought, but more difficult to think of something solid and concrete coming from this same realm. But it does. Not that the money itself comes from this realm, but forces are set in motion which bring the money into your life.
A few days ago I had been thinking of my needs for this Work. I went over in my mind the details of them and, having a firm, unalterable conviction that God can and will supply, I confidently expected it. That same evening I picked up my note-book and wrote in the date July 31st, 1951. Then I wrote, “To Infinite Intelligence, the source of all supply, I confidently turn for:- New students. Plenty of gifts for the paper fund. A heap of postal orders for fees and hooks, to meet all expenses. Overflowing supply so that I can have large, displayed advertisements. Great success in all things I have a strong feeling, belief and conviction that I shall receive these good things that I have asked for. All things are possible to him that believeth.” After that I soon went to sleep. The next morning the post was opened. There were new students, gifts for the paper fund and reams of papers and a heap of postal orders I laughed and picked them all up in my hands, spreading then out like a very large hand of cards. I read again what I had written the night before, thinking exultantly, “How near God is” You see what happened? During that day, while I was “building” for success, you students were writing to me. I set the forces in motion during that day and. wrote the result that night. And abundance has continued to flow all this week. So you see, if you will only believe with all your heart – you can receive a supply for all your needs.
As I have said, all that happened a long time ago and it seems so tiny now. Now we buy paper in large quantities, more than a hundred reams (or about fifty thousand sheets) being delivered at a time. The one office of those early days has changed into seven, all stocked with expensive equipment. I have employed up to fourteen people. All the other expenses have been on this scale – yet the principle remains exactly the same. I still feel a thrill in the nearness of God and His ability and willingness to supply. I still exult in the glorious fact of faith, and in the realisation of desire as the motive power, sending us onward and upward as we climb to achievement, we gather wisdom at every step. We learn by experiencing in our own lives, the power of faith.
If suddenly developed a yearning to emigrate to some far distant country, or to live in a vast mansion or to own a Rolls Royce or a string of racehorses or a theatre or museum, I haven’t the least doubt that I could do so. This is not said lightly. I am very serious when I say that. I haven’t any doubt at all that my faith would bring me my desire. But none of these things appeal to me – one has to have a yearning, glowing desire, to bring fulfilment “What things whatsoever you desire”, the Master said, “believe that you receive them, and you shall have them”.
This I know. I will teach you to know it too. In the next lesson I shall tell you more methods by which you can come to your own prosperity, but in this first lesson I am helping you to get some of the cobwebs and mist out of your eyes, to enable you to see and realise the existence of your “golden gate” to good fortune and fulfilment.
Remember: Change your thoughts and you change your circumstances. You have 30 weeks to study and practise this Course. In 30 weeks you can entirely change your thoughts and so begin to change your life entirely. Therefore success is assured if you start now, follow closely and do not waver. Do not just say the “Golden Gate” affirmation. Keep on saying it and musing on it at available times each day until you are living it, until it is the basis and theme of all your thinking. When you have finished this lesson, in two weeks, you will have 28 more weeks in which to practise prosperity-thinking. By then it should be a habit.
-Bernard