Force, Manipulation, and Violence

Force (noun) is defined as "violence; power exerted against will or consent; compulsory power. Let conquerors consider that force alone can keep what force has obtained." Force (transitive verb) is defined as "to compel; to constrain to do or to forbear, by the exertion of a power not resistible. To overpower by strength. To impel; to press; to drive; to draw or push by main strength; a sense of very extensive use. To enforce; to urge; to press. To compel by strength of evidence; as, to force conviction on the mind; to force one to acknowledge the truth of a proposition. To storm; to assault and take by violence. To ravish; to violate by force. To overstrain; to distort. To cause to produce ripe fruit prematurely, as a tree; or to cause to ripen prematurely, as fruit. To force out, to drive out; to compel to issue out or to leave; also, to extort." – Noah Webster

The world's definition of force is "to compel through pressure or necessity, to gain by the use of force or coercion, to impose relentlessly, to put an undue strain on." – OED

You must pay for what you force.

Force is the exertion of self-will that separates principle, the Three-as-One (Mind, Substance and Power), into its component parts: Mind forgets, Substance becomes diseased, and Power is transmuted down into force, which must then be redeemed (taken back) from the world through a physical object. Force is the misuse of Power, and is a sin.

Force may be covert, as in manipulation ("exerting shrewd or devious influence especially for one's own advantage"), or overt, as in violence ("the expression of physical or verbal force against self or other, compelling action against one's will on pain of being hurt"). The most effective deterrent against force, manipulation and violence is comprehension of the law As you sow, so shall you reap. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." – Galatians 6:7.

Edna Lister on Force, Manipulation and Violence

Don't ever force your opinion on anyone, but agree with him, and say, "Yes; I can see that it is good for you from your standpoint." – Edna Lister, January 31, 1933.

Those working on the Christos Degree, may not force or ask, or they lose the Way. – Edna Lister, December 22, 1934.

Do not force anything. – Edna Lister, October 28, 1938.

You must pay for what you force. – Edna Lister, November 24, 1938.

Nothing comes unless earned. No heavenly reward may be forced to earth. Many think to pull rewards downward from force of personal desire but they receive only the delusion of their own conceits. Do not use force from selfish will. – Edna Lister, March 30, 1939.

You cannot force the will or desire. Love must underlay the will until will and desire surrender to become one with soul. – Edna Lister, March 30, 1939.

It is simple to overstep where ability and determination are great. The danger is also great to become hard, to become dictatorial, to become overly forceful with others. – Edna Lister, February 20, 1940.

When you bring self-will to bear on God's Mind, Substance, or Power, then individual mind forgets, the Power moving though becomes force, and Substance becomes diseased. – Edna Lister, A Design for Ascension, 1941.

Unwillingness is self-will, which pushes against Power, creating force. – Edna Lister, A Design for Ascension, 1941.

The law is, when you bring human will to bear on Power, it becomes force.

Coveting causes an action of self-will, grasping, taking and having to pay later. Coveting brings a reaction of the law of force in its final vibration. We call this the law of cause and effect (the reaction of force being an effect of misuse). In other words, the reaction of misuse under law is like a boomerang: It always returns the misused force to the one who sent it out, to its own starting point. – Edna Lister, A Design for Ascension, 1941.

You can get in trouble with an enthusiasm that becomes forceful. – Edna Lister, A Design for Ascension, 1941.

Hold your tongue, and use no force on anyone. – Edna Lister, June 30, 1941.

Let; do not command or force, even slightly. You cannot fail if you let. – Edna Lister, June 30, 1944.

If you force, you remain in bondage to self. – Edna Lister, October 26, 1944.

The law is, when you bring human will to bear on Power, it becomes force. – Edna Lister, June 29, 1945.

You cannot open the higher mysteries unless you lift self. Pushing your way without lifting the self is force. Light must fill the subterranean subconscious, and you must give up self for every mystery gained. If this were not so, the Power released by higher mysteries would act as a boomerang and all force would hit you at once. – Edna Lister, July 10, 1945.

Attempting to force one who likes the bottom to ascend is useless. The use of force is justified only by success. – Edna Lister, Scribe A, July 19, 1945.

The use of force to bring a soul through is justified only when the outcome is successful, which is when the consciousness can hold the point of vision and glory to which it is forced. – Edna Lister, Scribe B, July 19, 1945.

An accident is an opportunity to take back a point of force to lift your spiritual debts. You can finish your old fate line, weave in the beautiful strands of your Path of Destiny, and continue confident and assured. – Edna Lister, February 4, 1946.

The use of force is justified only by success.

You must lift the force of misused Power, and the Fathers need a spot for entrance through you — through your life, body, possessions, or affairs. To look back is very dangerous; therefore, though much of your past misuse of the full power of love as force, comes to you through the body, possessions or affairs as a focal point, you must look up. Stand as law, and lift force high unto the power of love, each his own, each for every other and all for the world. This is law. Never seek causes except from a high upward look. Stand and know that "it" is but the need to focalize into one spot, to lift what went out as force, and to send love to melt dark clouds of misused substance. – Edna Lister, February 11, 1946.

When you injure yourself, you are taking back the force you created with the Power you misused. – Edna Lister, July 1, 1948.

Force: High pressure selling drives force into a person, and the sales agent creates a debt. If you let the Power do the work, you build up a burning desire in the prospect and create no debt. In praying, or if a curse is spoken, force goes to the left, substance to the right. You can recall the substance, but the force you spent forms debts that you must pay. – Edna Lister, June 17, 1949.

God's Will for you is 100% perfection. Ascend to where the Power can use you, and hangover debts and force won't knock you down. – Edna Lister, August 4, 1949.

The Armageddon we see on earth today, the violence and war, is cleansing the subconscious mind of the world of all its opinions and prejudices. – Edna Lister, What I Do Have, I Give, October 1, 1950.

You may know another's point of weakness, yet if you prey on any weakness, use it or manipulate it for your gain, you misuse divine Mind. The world is full of such manipulation for greed and power. – Edna Lister, Unconquerable Faith, November 5, 1950.

The seventh vial of wrath, poured out August 10, 1950, has opened up the violent hatred so long buried underneath the surface in the hearts of some. – Edna Lister, May 19, 1952.

Release of enough Power to smite evil greatly arouses it to a fury; quarrels break out and ever greater hatred against good arises from every quarter, until evil finally overreaches itself in its violence. We must bring all violence to the surface for Love's Power to absorb. – Edna Lister, January 8, 1953.

Humanity has thought that God created them to use the law, a misconception that has led to all kinds of misuse of God's Power, the use of force and false thinking that you can make law work for you. – Edna Lister, Faith, the Challenger, 1954.

It may seem that you are forced to do tasks foreign to you, to live in a way you dislike physically, emotionally and mentally. Yet, no one can force you to use your time wrongly; it is impossible for anyone to dictate how you think or imagine. – Edna Lister, Time, the Adjuster of Life, 1954.

A teacher, who speaks of mysteries, releases Power and must redeem any resulting force if students misuse this Power. – Edna Lister, Doing, October 19, 1954.

All the love in the world covers the black clouds of negativity, but does not take back the force. – Edna Lister, November 15, 1954.

The more violent the explosion of force, the longer the time it takes to return to the Source. – Edna Lister, December 5, 1955.

See yourself climbing. Never force another to climb ahead of you. If they fall, they can crush you. See them on a cloud continent of Light. – Edna Lister, October 15, 1956.

The force you use returns to you like a boomerang.

God must displace and ascend the equivalent in force for all Power released, to make it one with its original substance. He can do this only through the body of the one who envisions and asks for the Power to be released. – Edna Lister, January 9, 1957.

Every time you lift, you displace force. – Edna Lister, January 24, 1957.

God gives you all the force of evil associated with every new name you receive for lifting, and you are responsible for lifting that evil to relieve him immediately. Always declare that all evil comes to the surface as the Power moves forth, saying, "Let it be lifted." Your Guards will catch it, then release more Power. – Edna Lister, February 20, 1957.

Lift force continuously and release more Power to take its place. – Edna Lister, February 20, 1957.

A friend who betrays you has fallen from her high point, but is still good in her baby class. Declare it good, for your love is healing the crystallized force she released. This is your work, and when you lift for her, how can she regress? – Edna Lister, February 28, 1957.

Any pain lifts force, unless you whine about it. – Edna Lister, February 28, 1957.

Power melts force bound in the very rocks themselves. – Edna Lister, February 28, 1957.

You can educate Mind, you can cleanse Substance, but misused Power is force, and you can lift it only through a physical object for love to cleanse. – Edna Lister, August 10, 1957.

The Power you misuse as force is as strong as the Power you send forth positively. – Edna Lister, October 24, 1957.

Only Love can direct and control Power, or you misuse Power as force. Only Love can direct and control Love. When your expression of Love is great enough, it shortens time. – Edna Lister, December 19, 1957.

You have no right to force anyone to do as you would. It's one thing to rule your life firmly, but you may never force your will on another. – Edna Lister, January 2, 1958.

Stop when another asks an irrelevant question, for to proceed with your idea is force. Answer them while praying that they will see and receive at the right time and the right place. – Edna Lister, January 9, 1958.

An initiator can show the way, but should not force or he pays the candidate's debt. – Edna Lister, October 30, 1958.

When you force the body despite the need for rest and deny it, law makes you rest through illness and accidents. Your body and mind must have rest and relaxation, no matter what. – Edna Lister, The Ten Commandments, November 4, 1958.

Killing or trying to stifle desire separates Mind, Substance and Power, and creates force. – Edna Lister, The Ten Commandments, November 4, 1958.

What is loosed on earth is loosed in heaven. You loose imagination from inducting things of earth and find that vision is loosed in heaven. You are loosed from opinions and prejudices, those violent obstacles, the hindering twins of darkness. Then you learn that opinions come from willfulness and prejudices come from rebellion. – Edna Lister, Oracles of God, November 16, 1958.

Overindulgence causes a reaction of the law of force from the world, family and friends. – Edna Lister, The Ten Plagues on Egypt, December 2, 1958.

You can do only by standing steadfastly and letting God do the work as you, with no force of self-will. – Edna Lister, Eight Great Powers of Being, June 23, 1959.

You may rule your life firmly, but you may never force your will on another.

To use force as argument to change another's mind is a useless waste of time and energy. You cannot convince him against his will. He'll hold the same opinion when you're finished, and you will have created a debt to pay for forcing your ideas on him. – Edna Lister, What Is Symbolism? October 6, 1959.

Jesus said to Peter, "When you were younger, you girded yourself, and walked where you wished: but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you, and carry you where you do not wish." – John 21:18, signifying how you pay the debt for forcing your self-will. – Edna Lister, Follow Me, November 29, 1959.

The force people use moves out, strikes some barrier, bounces back and strikes earth as accidents, hurricanes, cyclones, etc. Some day we will build stations to receive this force and use it in industry. The force you use goes out, strikes a black cloud in the constellations and returns to hit you. To lift force, say, "This is my own. Let this force be lifted now and be united with Substance, Mind and Power." – Edna Lister, February 4, 1960.

Never force a younger soul beyond his ability to understand. – Edna Lister, May 8, 1960.

The Light in you challenges the dark in every mind and heart nearby. When you are "lifted up" in consciousness, you lift others, despite themselves, and that forces them beyond their ability and desire. They almost hate you for discomfiting them, but God must awaken the somnambulant ones who "just want to rest." Speak softly, don't nag, but put in a wedge of Light when you feel perhaps it will go in. Even if they blow up, it is better. – Edna Lister, May 8, 1960.

Only force can attract force. – Edna Lister, How Can I Apply Law to My Life? June 7, 1960.

You may not be idly curious. The difference between idle curiosity and divine speculation is that you ponder, without using force. – Edna Lister, July 12, 1960.

Some people form a magnetic wall of force around themselves when they are angry or upset. Pour out love enough and you can melt that magnetic wall. – Edna Lister, Make Earth Your Heaven Now, December 13, 1960.

Resentment separates Mind, Substance and Power and Power becomes force. You must redeem force through a vehicle, so it returns to you as angry words or a blow. – Edna Lister, Make Earth Your Heaven Now, December 13, 1960.

An Adept can manipulate to "demonstrate" phenomena, and many do. They seek to control and manipulate life's conditions with little or no personal desire to become selfless and perfect now. – Edna Lister, Invisible in a Mist, June 25, 1961.

Some people attract violence due to their under‑the‑surface hatred from the past, when they misused Power. – Edna Lister, August 3, 1961.

If you send Energy (Power) out as force, you will receive emotional blows to reunify the misused Energy with Wisdom and Love. – Edna Lister, The Twelve Wheels of Ezekiel, December 5, 1961.

Darkness must beat against something before being shattered and lifted, like waves on a rocky shore, or it rolls round the world, gathering more scattered force. – Edna Lister, April 9, 1962.

All dark emotions, force and blame for self and others will affect the glands. – Edna Lister, Metaphysical Correspondences, May 29, 1962.

You must pay for what you force. – Edna Lister, November 26, 1962.

Sometimes you lift another's force and might suffer yourself, but this is not lasting. A psychosomatic desire body pain cannot hurt your body. To lift, you must know what is wrong, but force hits you physically because "seeing" the wrong, even at a glance, creates a debt, although the motive is pure. – Edna Lister, February 27, 1963.

You must take in force and lift it; this redemption is the only method God has to lift evil from earth. – Edna Lister, Earth's Earliest Ages, June 11, 1963.

Negative thinking separates Mind, Power and Substance; that which was Power above becomes force at a lower level. – Edna Lister, Earth's Earliest Ages, June 11, 1963.

When you use God's Power for self, you turn it into force.

Force is Power misused on earth. When God releases great Power over earth, He uses an instrument, a person whose body can release this Power, and step it down to a useable state of energy. "Let me be used" is a sight draft on Power. From the other side, Legions of Light gather in the force of evil and ring it with an etheric wall that carries a two-way flow of Power from inner to outer to inner. The currents meet and explode, which enables darkness to become Light. Force, however, must be lifted through a physical body. – Edna Lister, Earth's Earliest Ages, June 11, 1963.

When you use God's Power for self, you turn it into force. – Edna Lister, God as Principle Applied Under Logic and Reason, November 5, 1963.

You cannot make anyone accept a belief; you cannot push or force them. – Edna Lister, God as Principle Applied Under Logic and Reason, November 5, 1963.

You cannot enter the kingdom of heaven by force. – Edna Lister, Seven Stages of Unfolding From Concentration to Comprehension, December 3, 1963.

To adulterate Mind, Substance and Power by separating them through the use of force is a sin. – Edna Lister, The Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes, April 21, 1964.

You may speak the Word, but only with a pure heart and hands, never in violence. – Edna Lister, June 4, 1964.

"I won't" challenges all evil forces in the universe. "I will" precipitates all past spiritual debt, and challenges every dark force to make you do it. – Edna Lister, October 12, 1964.

The higher you go, the harder the penalty, the greater the debt and force of a dropped line of responsibility. – Edna Lister, February 3, 1966.

Anyone who opens a new idea is crucified mentally and emotionally, gets the mud, criticism and force of resistance. – Edna Lister, February 3, 1966.

You create a great debt if you force a truth on one who does not desire it. If you pay attention, you can tell when his cup is full. – Edna Lister, May 2, 1966.

Power misused becomes force. Power is absolute, force is relative. – Edna Lister, Eight Great Powers of Being, October 25, 1966.

You create conscientious objectors when you force people or children to do what they do not want to do. – Edna Lister, How to Erect a Hypothesis, June 25, 1968.

He who uses force fails is the truth. – Edna Lister, Taoism and Confucius, Mithraic Mysteries, December 3, 1968.

We must eat of the Tree of Life, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; good, which is God, and evil, which the world has forced upon us. – Edna Lister, Hermes, the Story of Lucifer, June 16, 1970.

Deception is the accepted procedure of the age, but Galatians 6:7 says, "Be not deceived. God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap." This refers to the sins of a nation as well as those of an individual. The resultant "chaos" is the anguish of the public who believed the religious and individual integrity of those who exploited and manipulated their nations and fellow men for personal power and gain. – Edna Lister, Undated Papers, 1933-1971.

Treatments For Lifting Force, Manipulation and Violence

When witnessing violence, especially in an angry crowd, see them all in a sphere of Light, with gloves of Light, restrained. – Edna Lister, September 3, 1959.

A treatment for storms is, "Let it be ascended right where it is." A storm travels to every place where force waits to be lifted. This treatment releases enough Light to absorb a storm without damage. – Edna Lister, Earth's Earliest Ages, June 11, 1963.

New Testament on Force, Manipulation and Violence

Jesus said to Peter: "When you were younger, you girded yourself, and walked where you wished: but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you, and carry you where you do not wish" (John 21:18), signifying how we pay the debt for forcing our self-will.

Old Testament on Force, Manipulation and Violence

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the Lord, and lie unto his neighbor in that which was delivered him to keep, or in fellowship, or in a thing taken away by violence, or hath deceived his neighbor; or have found that which was lost, and lieth concerning it, and sweareth falsely; in any of all these that a man doeth, sinning therein: Then it shall be, because he hath sinned, and is guilty, that he shall restore that which he took violently away, or the thing which he hath deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered him to keep, or the lost thing which he found, or all that about which he hath sworn falsely; he shall even restore it in the principal, and shall add the fifth part more thereto, and give it unto him to whom it appertaineth, in the day of his trespass offering. And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord, a ram without blemish out of the flock, with thy estimation, for a trespass offering, unto the priest: And the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord: and it shall be forgiven him for any thing of all that he hath done in trespassing therein. – Leviticus 6:1-7.

Cause and Effect: Behold, the wicked brings forth iniquity; yes, he conceives trouble and brings forth falsehood. He made a pit and dug it out, and has fallen into the ditch which he made. His trouble shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down on his own crown. – Psalm 7:14-16.

Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him. – Psalm 140:11.

The violence of the wicked will destroy them, because they refuse to do justice. – Proverbs 21:7.

A man that does violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit; let no man stay him. – Proverbs 28:17.

If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they. – Ecclesiastes 5:8.

Thus saith the Lord; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place. For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people. But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. – Jeremiah 22:3-5.

The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; the God of my rock; in Him will I trust: He is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my savior; Thou savest me from violence. – 2 Samuel 22:2‑3.