Richard Matheson - The Path: A New Look at Reality

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Contents

With love

To my wife Ruth Ann,

To my children Bettina, Richard, Ali and Chris,

To my daughters-in-law Marie and Trish,

my sons-in-law Bob and Jon,

And my grandchildren Robert, Lise,

Valerie, Emily, William, Mariel and Kate

For all that they have meant to me

And all that they truly are.

Acknowledgments

With the kind permission of The Word Foundation, Inc., all concepts in this book were taken in their entirety out of the following works by Harold W. Percival: Thinking and Destiny,

1979 The Word Foundation, Inc.,

Democracy Is Self - Government,

1980 The Word Foundation, Inc.,

Man and Woman and Child,

1979 The Word Foundation, Inc.

and The Word Magazine

1990 The Word Foundation, Inc.

Interested readers are urged to look for these titles in better bookstores, or else to contact the publisher directly:

The Word Foundation

P.O. Box 180340-R

Dallas, TX 75218 USA

I am indeed grateful to the Foundation, as owner of the copyrights, for its express permission to use Mr. Percivals own words in this book.

R ICHARD M ATHESON

Foreword

A LL OF US have experienced the idea that we are part of a broad, cosmological form or process. In this we have the sense of ourselves and, to some degree, of others. As we go through our daily activities we express our connection to the mundane; we eat, drink, laugh, and play, but out of a corner of our minds we wonderbut why? What does it all mean? Where have I come and where do I go?

In this book, the author gradually presents a cosmology through ten walks along a path where the reader participates in a conversation between a mysterious person and an everyman, one of us. Though we have doubts and lack of understanding, we have a passion and openness to learning.

If we can accept the notion that thought, like electricity, has form and physical properties and, like light, can operate over space and time, then we can appreciate and be warmed by the concepts developed in their conversations. Like the everyman, we can grow to appreciate what we have learned about life, death, acting and non-acting and its relationship to our thought and the cosmos, and how this manifests the world we experience. We read the dialogue and grow to appreciate our unique contribution not only to the here and now, but also to the futureall this in the light of what was.

This book was inspired by the teachings of Harold Waldwin Percival, especially his great book, Thinking and Destiny. Percival seemed to be born with an ardent metaphysical thirst and in 1892 joined the Theosophical Society and became a staunch member. In the spring of 1893 Percival had an awakening into Cosmic Consciousness. In that instant, according to Percival, eternities were apprehended. There was no time. Distance and dimensions were not in evidence.

He went on to say that he became conscious of the Presence of Consciousness. He was aware of Consciousness as the Ultimate and Absolute Reality. After this awakening he left the Theosophical Society and all other teachers. After many more years of study he published Thinking and Destiny in 1946. In this vast, dense book, he goes on to define and explain his vision and understanding. Most people need a full year to read and try to comprehend all this great work has to offer.

In this book, The Path, Richard Matheson takes a portion of Percivals vast cosmology and presents it as a pleasant, stimulating conversation between friends. Gradually, without quite realizing it, you take on the teachings. And when you have finished it, you will have learned something new and fresh and will have the possibility of your own life being forever altered.

S TAN M ADSON

Bodhi Tree Bookstore

West Los Angeles

To the Reader

I have been a professional fiction writer for fifty years: seventeen novels published; eight short story collections; twenty theatrical films produced; thirteen television films produced, and more than thirty - five series television scripts produced.

During all of this time, I have read and studied hundreds of books in every branch of metaphysics.

I have used a number of metaphysical ideas in my stories, novels and film and television scripts. But I always felt a need to express them directly and not through fiction.

Thinking and Destiny has made this possible.

In this remarkable work by Harold W. Percival, I believe I have found a book which integrates every conceivable metaphysical concept and answers fully the age-old question: What is the meaning of life?

However, because Thinking and Destiny is so rich with inspired information, most of which requires extensive study, I have prepared The Path ( A New Look at Reality ) to introduce readers to those concepts in Percivals book which are the easiest to comprehend.

These are taken directly from Thinking and Destiny, most of the statements in this book being in Percivals own words.

* * *

Why do I characterize The Path as A New Look at Reality?

Because you may never before have conceived of reality in the manner and/or terms presented in this book.

It is my conviction that basic Reality is not all that perplexing. What seems difficult to assimilate are the manifold details of Reality, not its fundamental elements.

This book seeks to address these elements. Elements which mankind must recognize and soon.

Never has there been a period of time more vital to everyone on Earth. It is a period of crucial transition which could well represent mankinds final opportunity to appraise itself and its, (too often), calamitous actions.

Our world is in profound danger. Mankind must establish a set of positive values with which to secure its own survival.

This quest for enlightenment must begin now.

It is essential that all men and women become aware of what they truly are, why they are here on Earth and what they must do to preserve civilization before it is too late.

I believe that the beginning of this awareness can be found in The Path.

R ICHARD M ATHESON

Los Angeles, California

January 1999

EDITORIAL NOTE

Any editing done by me has been to simplify, never to alter meaning in any way. The use of the words he, him, or man throughout implies both male and female.

R. M.

The First Walk

W HEN I WENT FOR A WALK on the day I met the man, my state of mind was dark.

In addition to the problems of my own life, conditions in our country and the world had thoroughly depressed me.

If I had been asked that morning to comment on the meaning of life, my response would have been, What meaning?

Life, in general, seemed virtually meaningless to me.

* * *

There is a path I follow when I walk. Several miles in length, it winds through the community I live in.

I had barely started along the path that morning when I saw a man ahead of me.