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THE HEART OF THE DREAMER

December 22, 2013

by Wisdom Master with One Comment Imagination Neville Goddard neville goddard feeling is the secret neville goddard law and promise neville goddard law of assumption neville goddard lectures neville goddard power of awareness neville goddard power of imagination neville goddard quotes neville goddard wisdom

Neville Goddard 12-01-1969

The Christian world calls this the season of Advent; the coming of the great event or person; the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course Paul, in his letter to the Galatians doesn’t condemn it, but wonders if they really got the message, saying: “I notice you observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I have labored over you in vain.” There is nothing wrong with observing this season of the year, as long as you understand it as the coming of the great event or person.

Tonight I will tell you what I know from experience, from which my conviction was born. I must, however, use certain imagery in order to explain it. so I ask that you follow me in your imagination. Your wonderful human imagination is a reproduction of the Divine Imagination. Think of the human imagination as brain cells in the mind of the dreamer, which Divine Imagination sent out to infinity for a divine purpose. These brain cells are destined to return, like a boomerang, right back into the center of Divine Imagination as the dreamer who is God the Father.

The going out as sons is not easy. It was never intended to be. It takes the horrors of the world to awaken and expand his sons into God the Father. I promise you: the day will come when the divine breath will breathe over you and you will awaken in your immortal tomb. You, too, will leave that tomb to hold the infant child in your arms. He will be the symbol of your return, revealing the end of your horrors. Although you are then God the Father, you will not discover this for yourself until one hundred and thirty-nine days later, [when] God’s son, David, will reveal your true identity.

Before I retired last night I was wondering what I would talk to you about, and this morning about 1:30, I found myself preparing dinner for three friends. (I took care of the funeral of two of them many years ago in New York City. The third may be gone, as I haven’t heard from her for a very long time.) I was serving Barbados yams, which are unlike the ones we have here. It is a root weighing anywhere from two to thirty pounds. Its covering is dark brown, while the interior is snowy white.

As I approached the table, two jackals or silver foxes, approached, jumped on the table, and in the most vicious manner the father jackal tore a large hunk out of the back of his son and began to nail his son upon a board with its center gouged out to fit that hunk. The extended portion of the cross was wood, while the son’s body formed the upright part of the cross. Then I awoke.

This morning, I went to The Lost Language of Symbolism, by Bayley, where I read that the jackal is the pathfinder in the desert. He is equated with the Egyptian god, Osiris, who, as the “opener of ways to the gods, he brings three to the mountains.”

In the audience tonight are two ladies whose experiences I would like to share. One lady found herself in a crowd, looking at a woman surrounded by three men, who suddenly disappeared. The lady approached and asked their names, to which my friend replied: “Faith, hope and charity.” (The word “charity” is translated “love” in the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, and love is right.) What a wonderful vision for her. She saw the three that he brought to the mountaintop, and knew their names.

The Father took us, the brain cells of his own being, and nailed us upon the cross that we may go out to infinity in a horrible nightmare. Then, like a boomerang, we will curl around and return to the center of the dreamer of the dream as God the Father.

This is the great mystery of Christmas, the day when God the Father is born as Jesus, which means “savior”. In the 43rd and 45th chapters of the Book of Isaiah, we read: “I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your savior and besides me there is no God.” Here we discover that Jesus, our savior, is the Lord God Himself.

Everyone will return to the very heart of the dreamer as the dreamer himself. You were nailed down and sent out to infinity to experience all of its horrors; and when you have experienced them all, you will return as the being who conceived the world and played all the parts. This is the mystery of Christmas. Everyone, eventually, will know that he is the one called Jesus. The word “Christ” is the Greek word for “messiah”, and simply means, “the anointed of God; to rule all of the people of God.” Jesus is the Lord God Himself and Christ is his anointed, who will save the people from their sins and deliver them from their conquerors.

Who is this anointed one? David. He who delivered Israel from the Philistines and brought down the giant Goliath. When you return to your source, you will know that you are God the Father and that his son, David, is your son, for David will stand before you and call you, “Father.” Then and only then will you know who you really are.

What I saw in vision was beautiful imagery of he who finds the path in the wilderness. Nailed upon your cross, you play the part of man until you return – not as a son of God, but as God Himself. Leaving paradise as a little one, you overcome death and return – expanded to encompass all – as the dreamer himself. This is the mystery of Christmas, which is taking place every moment of time.

Another lady shared this experience, saying: “You were with me all through the night, explaining the mystery of imagining. At one point you said: ‘Come, brothers, show how it works’ and instantly a man appeared at my left, and another man – holding an open ledger – appeared at my right. Approaching the man on my left, he said: ‘Our funds are exhausted.’ Looking at him intensely, the brother said not a word, but simply turned and disappeared. Then you said to me, ‘you see? It is just as easy as that. You simply do what is to be done and go your way.’ The one with the ledger, now with an expression of joy on his face, looks at the ledger and sees that – through some miracle – the money is recorded there.” I showed her how imagination works. Believing in the reality of an unseen state, my brother imagined the ledger showed a healthy balance, just as the man desired it to be.

Now, in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he says: “Paul, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ – not by men nor through man, but through the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead.” Although the letter is signed “Paul” it is a corporate letter “from the brethren who are with me.” The brethren are those who have awakened from the dream of life. I introduced her to the brethren, who showed her how easy the law of imagining works. Looking intently, he saw the ledger reflect back a balance in the black, then went his way, unconcerned as to how it would come about, as the look of amazement on the other man’s face indicated the change.

This is what I am trying to convey to everyone who will listen. You can prove the law, but the story of Christ cannot be proved on this level. Its truth can only be known from experience. If you will but imagine you are the man (or woman) you want to be and walk convinced that you already are, in the twinkle of an eye the ledger will change. Things will happen in your outer world and your desire will be fulfilled. You need not be concerned as to how it will come about, simply let your Imagination create it.

It will appear in such a normal, natural way that you will be inclined to credit the means employed, rather than the imaginal act which did it. The world will say it would have happened anyway; but let me tell you: it would not, for imagining creates reality. It could not have happened without your imaginal act to support it, but when it comes to pass, it always appears by a natural means. It is miraculous only to the individual who sees the radical change and remembers his imaginal act which created the means that produced the end result.

In a few days, we will be celebrating the birth of Imagination in the individual. Don’t think some little individual was born 2,000 years ago. Everyone agreed to go out and experience the horrors of his own making, knowing that he would return to the mind of the dreamer as the Dreamer Himself. This return is told in the gospel. The story begins with the resurrection, for without it there could be no birth, no expansion, necessary to encompass God the Father.

The divine breath will breathe upon you and you will awaken in your immortal tomb with a built-in, innate wisdom as to how to get out. We are all in that same immortal tomb, as told us in the 87th Psalm. Pointing out different places in the same immortal tomb, he said: “This one was born here, that one there and that one here.” Coming out of that tomb, everyone is destined to hold the infant Christ in his arms and say: “Let me depart in peace according to thy word.”

Having heard salvation’s story, believe it and simply continue your journey until you fulfill it. May I tell you: no one will falter. No one can fail – even the most horrible being imaginable, for he is a son of God, playing the part he has to play. Everyone will play every part in order to say: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” I have played all the parts. My memory is now returning, and I am remembering the horrors of my deeds; so I can now forgive everyone for whatever he is doing – or will do – because these things he agreed to do, as he moves towards the end of the drama. Then, having moved out to infinity, he will curl like a boomerang, to return to the mind of the dreamer as the one who cast him out.

My dream was not a pleasant sight to see. Here was this huge father, tearing a large portion out of the back of his son; and then – as though he had human hands – he placed him on his back and nailed him to the wood, leaving the upright as the body itself. That was the jackal, the Egyptian Osiris, the pathfinder in the desert who knows the path and brings the three to the mountaintop. The three that you bring with you to the mountaintop are not Peter, Paul, and James – but faith, hope, and love, the three the lady saw so clearly in her vision.

The lady who learned how to use the law saw it perfectly, too. The law operates by faith. If you believe, no effort is necessary to see the fulfillment of your every desire. If you go to the bank and have money deposited there equal to your check, you will give them your check in the belief that – because of your faith – they will give you the money you desire. Treat your desire in the same manner. Knowing your desire exists in your imagination, simply expect its fulfillment in your outer world. Try it. I have lived by this law all of my life and know, that by applying this principle, all of your desires will be fulfilled.

Now, tradition tells us that the Christmas season begins on Andrew’s Day, which is the first Sunday nearest the 30th of November. In the gospel story, Andrew is the first disciple in the list of twelve, so his day is the beginning of the four Sundays known as Advent: the coming of the great event or person; the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But when Jesus comes you will not see a being on the outside, for he is in you, and his coming is his awakening in you – as you. You already are the Lord Jesus Christ, but you will not know it until you return to the very center of the one who sent you out into this world of hell. If you don’t believe this is hell, read the morning papers. They are filled with the happenings of people who do not know what they are doing. But it is necessary to experience all the blows of life in order to awaken and expand that little brain cell in the mind of the dreamer, who is God the Father. Contracting, you go out to the very limit of infinity, to return – expanded – into the very center of the mind of the dreamer, as the dreamer himself.

A way for your return was prepared for you before that the world was. This was done by setting up a son called David, the anointed one, as told us in the Book of Samuel. After the Lord had rejected everyone, David – he who was watching the sheep – was brought in, and the prophet Samuel was told to “Rise and anoint him. This is he.” Then the spirit of God came mightily upon David from that day forward. And in the Psalms, the Lord declared: “Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee. I have found David; with my holy oil I have anointed him. He has cried unto me, ‘Thou art my Father, my God and the Rock of my salvation.’” This is implied in the New Testament, when Paul said: “It pleased God to reveal his son in me.” He did not say who that son was, however, and the priesthoods of the world have changed scripture to make it conform to their misconceptions of the story.

Jesus is Awakened Imagination, who is God the Father; and if he is a father, he must have a son. His son is David, the sum total of his journey through humanity. You will know your journey through humanity is over when David stands before you and calls you Father. He is the symbol of the Christ, the anointed one, a man after your own heart, who did all your will.

In this world you have done – are doing, and will continue to do – the will of the Father; and believe it or not, you are doing it in love. And when you have finished the work you set out to do, you will return as the Father, to discover that it was all a dream. This universe, which seems so real, is a dream. We are eternal dreamers, dreaming non-eternal dreams. Falling asleep, you have the illusion of a fabulous journey in space, interlocked with time; but when time is finished, you will awake to discover that you never left your eternal home. That you were never born and have never died, save in your dream.

When time is finished, the breath of the divine being will breathe upon you. You will awaken within that immortal tomb, to come out and see the symbolism which was prepared before that the world was. Taking the infant child wrapped in swaddling clothes in your arms, you will see a heavenly smile appear upon his face, telling you that your journey into the world of death is over. But, because your brothers are still asleep, you will remain here for just a little while to encourage them; for they are all coming back, whether they have just started their journey, or are now returning. Those of you who are here now are returning. I know, for no man comes to me save my Father calls him, and I and my Father are one. Having returned to my Father as the Father, I am only drawing those who are returning, to encourage you to continue for the little while that is left.

The story of Christ is not the anniversary of a little boy who was physically born 2,000 years ago, but about the individual’s spiritual birth from within. This will happen in you when the fullness of time comes. Then he will send the spirit of his son into your heart crying, “Father.” If the spirit of God’s son calls you Father, are you not the one who is dreaming the entire dream? The time has come for this experience to be yours, or you would not be here. But when that moment comes I do not know; only your heavenly Father knows.

There is a peculiar, innate fear in man that he will never find the Father. That is because he does not know what he is looking for. Man thinks it is wealth or security, fame, or marriage and a family, when he is really looking for the Father. But how long, vast, and severe, the anguish ere he finds and knows the Father, is long to tell. He will find him, however, but only through his son. I could tell you from now until the ends of time that you are God the Father, but for you it would only be hearsay until it is experienced. But one day you will know the truth of my words; for God’s son, David, will call you “Father,” and – strangely enough – you will know this relationship more surely than you know anything here on earth.

Now, here is a statement from the 4th chapter of Ecclesiastes: “I saw all the living that move about under the sun, also the second youth which shall stand in his place. There was no end to all the people. He was over all of them, yet those who will come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a striving after wind.” Tonight there are hundreds of millions of people who would not be interested in hearing what you have heard this night. They are those who will come after. At the present time, they would rather have a huge diamond that’s worth a million dollars, or stocks and bonds that pay good dividends. Their hunger is for some little trinket – which will turn to ash – rather than the revelation of the second youth, who will reveal their Fatherhood. Surely this is vanity and a striving after wind. In his 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul speaks of this youth as the second man, saying: “The first man is of the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven and as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall bear the image of the man of heaven.” I wish he had called him the second youth, in keeping with Ecclesiastes, but it doesn’t really matter. It is the second being, called the “New Man”, in whom we all aspire.

I know that the sensation of resurrection is one of waking. I actually awoke and wondered how long I had been there and who put me there. Blake explained it so beautifully in his poem, “The Mental Traveler.”

“I traveled thro’ a Land of Men
A Land of Men and Women too
And heard and saw such dreadful things
As cold Earth wanderers never knew

For there the Babe is born in joy
That was begotten in dire woe
Just as we reap in joy the fruit
Which we in bitter tears did sow

And if the Babe is born a Boy
He’s given to a Woman Old
Who nails him down upon a rock
Catches his shrieks in cups of gold.”

I saw this in the symbolism of the god of Egypt with the jackal face, yet with hands, which nailed him down. I gasped as I watched the horror, yet he had no compassion, as he tore the back of his son and removed an area equal to the gouged out area of the board. This occurred just as I began to serve those who are dead.

In the 4th chapter of the Book of Daniel, the decree was made to: “Let his mind be changed from the man’s and let a beast’s mind be given him.” Are we not animals here in this world? Today’s paper certainly could convince anyone that we are. This is part of the unfolding horror, because the heart and mind of God was taken when the tree of life was felled. Then the heart and mind of the animal was substituted until one finds the Father; and when you find him, you will discover that you never left your immortal home. In the true sense of the word you were never born and have never died, save in your Imagination.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE HEAVENLY VISION

December 22, 2013

by Wisdom Master with No Comment Imagination Neville Goddard neville goddard feeling is the secret neville goddard law and promise neville goddard law of assumption neville goddard lectures neville goddard power of awareness neville goddard power of imagination neville goddard quotes neville goddard wisdom

Neville Goddard 11-15-1968

The most that can be expected of any man is that he be true to the vision he has seen. Paul, the greatest and possibly the most influential figure in the history of Christianity, was such a man. When brought in chains before the king, he said: “Here I stand on trial for hope in the promise made by God to our fathers. Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead? O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. Here I stand testifying, saying only what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass.’ As he made his defense Festus said, ‘Paul, you are mad; your great learning is turning you mad.’ But Paul said, ‘I am not mad. I am speaking the sober truth. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has wrought in me.'”

Paul knew no physical Christ, but defined him as the power of God and the wisdom of God, telling us: “From now on I regard no one from a human point of view; even though I once regarded Christ from a human point of view, I regard him thus no longer. I know only Christ and him crucified.” Paul urged us to always bear in mind that scripture was a mystery – a shocking mystery. It is told so beautifully, unless you take the trouble to look up the words as you read them you will accept their surface meaning, as one billion Christians do. Tonight, if I used the word, “crucified”, the average Christian would see a man impaled upon a wooden cross, or maybe hanging on a tree, but that is not what Paul meant when he used the word, “crucified.”

If you will look up the word, “crucified” in the James Strong’s Concordance, you will discover that it is made up of two Greek words. The first word means “union by association; companionship; completeness” and the second word means “to extinguish passion.” That is the purpose of the union.

Paul, seeing Christ as the creative power of God, says: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” Then he continued by saying: “You were bought for a price, so glorify God in your body.” The price paid is union with Christ. That is the heavenly vision Paul referred to when he said: “Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead? O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” For by this act God gives you himself, thereby transforming your mortal body of beliefs into a body of glory. This is done by a creative act.

You will find scripture is filled with creative acts. In one story, the Risen Christ is made to say: “Who touched me, for I perceive that power has gone forth from me.” (The word “touch” here means “to set on fire” and is a euphemism for “to lie with a woman,” as touch is a creative act.) The story is told of a woman who touched the hem of the garment of a man called the Son of God and was healed, but Christ is not a man, Christ is the creative power of God. That power is expressed through man supernaturally, not physically, for God, his Father, is Spirit and therefore he is Spirit. You cannot separate Christ from God, for God and his creative power are one, but it takes a man to express God’s power.

In the Book of Matthew, his disciples came to him, saying: “Explain the parable of the sower,” and he answered: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world. The good seed means the sons of God.” When the Son of man comes he plants his spiritual seed in those whom he calls. This act of crucifixion (which is the planting of the seed), far from being painful, is the most ecstatic experience possible. No union on earth can compare in ecstasy to this spiritual act. And when you, an individual, are called, you are told to “There remain with God.” There is no need to change your job, join a monastery, or go into a nunnery after the act. If you are a housewife, mother, father, businessman, or doctor when you are called, there remain with God and lock the memory of what has happened within you. Do not broadcast it to the world, for – not understanding – they would condemn you for talking such nonsense; yet this is the way God raises the dead.

Only Christ is raised. “We are born again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” But to be raised, the seed must be penetrated by Christ. This ecstatic union takes place your own wonderful human imagination as you walk the earth doing earthly things. Then, in due time you are raised and born from above as the drama of Jesus Christ unfolds within you.

The word translated “seed: is the Greek word “sperma,” which means “the male sperm.” Penetrated by Spirit, he leaves his spiritual sperm which bears his image of God which you carry within you, until it completes itself and you are raised, born from above, and unfold within yourself everything said of Christ in scripture. This is how God, being the Son of man, produces sons for the kingdom.

Now the Risen Lord asks this question: “Who do people say that the Son of man is?” and they answered: “Some say John the Baptist come again, others say Elijah and still others say Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” Then, identifying himself with the Son of man, he asked: “But who do you say that I am?” (You will notice that when he first asked the question concerning the Son of man they brought in a physical state, but when he asked: “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered: “Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.” Then he said: “Blessed are you Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to your but my Father who is in heaven.” Here we see that the drama must unfold within the individual, for no man of flesh and blood could have told Peter, it had to be revealed to him.

In Paul’s case, as in Peter’s their seat of authority was not in scripture as a dead written code, but in experience. Having experienced scripture, they could identify the Son of man with the I AM and Christ, for he is the power of God who impregnates the chosen ones. Eventually all will be called, and all will be raised through the impregnation of Christ, the Son of man who is God.

I know that on the surface this shocks people. If anyone read the Bible as I have just explained it to you, they would close the book and call it pornographic, yet from beginning to end, the Bible speaks only of the creative power of God. You can take that same creative power and use it here in the world of Caesar, for it is your own wonderful human imagination. If you will conjure a scene which would imply the fulfillment of your dream and remain faithful to that vision as Paul was to the heavenly vision, your desire will come to pass.

Paul did not expect the vision. It came upon him suddenly, like some great catastrophic earthquake. You cannot conjure the vision, it simply happens. But you can conjure a scene which would imply the fulfillment of your desire, remain faithful to it and it will project itself upon the screen of space. I’ve done it unnumbered times.

Take a simple scene. Would someone congratulate you if they heard of your good fortune? Then allow them to do so. Accept their congratulations, just as you would if they came to you in the flesh. Now remain faithful to that vision. If you need a more complex scene, like two people discussing your success, eavesdrop on them. Listen to their words of praise or envy, then do not forget that vision. Conjured in your imagination, carry it with you, knowing that what it implies will come to pass, for its potency is not in the scene itself, but what the scene implies.

So Paul, in this heavenly vision, saw the creative act of God. He saw individuals being raised and singled out to play their part, for God needs man as his agent. Every error (as well as truth), needs man to express it. God uses man as his agent to express everything in this shadow world, as well as the spiritual world. And so in the creative act of God it takes man, but not a man of flesh and blood.

Everything here is reduced, as we are completely encased and insulated. What thrills you here pales to nothing when the garment is taken off and you are Spirit, performing the act of God by glorifying him in your body. As his image, called Christ, you radiate the glory of God and are the express image of his person as you impregnate, but it is done selectively, never haphazardly.

The night I was called and taken into the presence of the Risen Christ, I had no idea it would happen. The year was 1929. Having read scripture before the vision, I thought the words “Faith, hope and love” were the words of Paul, but this night I discovered they were the words of God spoken by Paul, for he said: “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has wrought in me,” therefore these were the words of Christ.

The night I was taken into the presence of the risen Christ (the embodiment of God’s creative power) all I could see was infinite love. All I could think of was love. And when he asked me the simple question: “What is the greatest thing in the world,” I answered automatically: “Faith, hope, and love. These three, but the greatest of these is love.” At that moment he embraced me and we fused. That was my heavenly vision, my union with the Risen Lord. I can’t describe the thrill I experienced when I became one with the Spirit and the body of the Risen Lord.

Then I was taken to stand before a being who seemed to radiate infinite power. In him I felt no compassion or love, simply raw power. As his eyes penetrated mine, I heard his thoughts, as a voice rang out in the heavens, with this command: “Time to act.” At that moment I was propelled out of that divine assembly to find myself back in this little insulated body and – like Mary – I pondered what had happened to me.

I was only twenty-four at the time and knew nothing of the mysteries and wondered what had happened, as my room was flooded with an unearthly light which remained for the longest time. Then, in good time the mystery unraveled itself within me. We are told: “When he was about thirty years of age, he began his ministry.” Thirty years later I experienced my resurrection and birth from above. That pregnancy took thirty years to ripen and come to fulfillment in me.

If today you took me before any person who had the power to put me in prison or put me to death, like Paul I would still remain faithful to the vision. Paul said: “O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” The word “Agrippa” means “a wild horse tamer”. The mind is symbolized as a horse. Here is a wild mind that Festus considered mad, but Paul knew he was not mad. He was speaking the sober truth, but it is shocking and difficult to believe that this is what God told the prophets.

Paul told the Galatians that the story of Abraham was an allegory. In the story, Abraham was told that, in spite of his age and the fact that the womb had ceased to be after the way of women for Sarah, his wife, she would conceive and bear a son. If this story is an allegory and Abraham is the origin of all humanity (for he is the father of the multitudes) then everything that comes from this origin must be an allegory, for all things run true to their source. If the origin is an allegory, no matter how you bring it down to culminate in Jesus Christ that. too, has to be an allegory. But that does not mean it is not true.

Scripture is a great truth told in the form of an allegory. Try to find out the fictitious character of its stories and discover the meaning. And when you do, hold onto your discovery until vision either confirms or causes you to modify your belief. The story is told that Abraham had two wives and two sons, one born of a free woman and one born of a slave. The free woman, called Sarah, bore Isaac; therefore he was spiritually born and not something of the flesh. Sarah was told that she would be blessed with a child of God. If I am blessed with the begetting of the son of God then I must be his bride, his emanation yet his wife ’til this great sleep of death is past.

Paul experienced this heavenly vision and remained faithful to it. He did not waver even though they tortured him. Time and again he was brought before some tribunal. Being a very learned man and one of the Pharisees, he was born a Roman, yet was also a Jew; therefore, he could claim whatever suited him. If the Jews began to persecute him, he would claim his Roman citizenship – or his Jewish ancestry when necessary. He had everything, but in spite of his great learning, when the vision possessed him he could do other than live by it.

Paul was used in the capacity of Christ as one who expresses the creative power of God. Having experienced the crucifixion, he wrote these lovely stories concerning his experience, saying:” “I have decided to know nothing whatsoever but Jesus Christ and him crucified”” The average person will see a man impaled upon a cross, but having had union in order to extinguish passion, one becomes the sower, sowing seeds to the selective. And the one selected should not scream it from the housetops, but like Mary was told in the 2nd chapter of Luke, keep the vision locked in your heart and ponder it until the time is fulfilled.

No physical child is born, for the child you meet in the mystery is only a sign of your spiritual birth; but you couldn’t be born from above except through the resurrection of Christ within you. Therefore, man is born again through the resurrection of Christ, who has to be within him in order to rise from within. Only that which is now in you can rise in you. Only that which descended can ascend. So the seed descends into man, and when it matures Christ rises and Man is born from above.

I know it doesn’t make sense on this level. It cannot, for it does not take place here. As a child I was taught the Christian story by my mother and my Sunday school teacher. I believed them and never once questioned the historicity of Jesus Christ or the physical reality of the being. Then came the night of the shock when I discovered that Christ was the power of God buried in me, waiting for the fullness of time when it would explode and reveal me to myself. I didn’t realize how literally true the statement: “Unless you believe that I am he you die in your sins,” was, until the night he erupted in me and I discovered who I really was. Even then I did not know I had been singled out to play the part of the apostle. But it’s all done on a high spiritual plane, all within the individual.

In the Old Testament the story is told of Jacob who wrestled with the Lord and was touched on his thigh, causing it to shrink. Read this story carefully. Look up the word “thigh” in your Concordance and you will discover what is really being revealed. The truth is being told in a gentle manner so that the so-called “good” people of the world will not be shocked.

Perhaps if you are here for the first time you, too, will be shocked by my words, but those of you who have been coming regularly will not be, for you have been trained to understand. Like Paul, “If you will not receive the things I tell you of the earth, how will you receive the things I tell you of heaven?” What images can I use to tell you of the heavenly state when there are no images here to describe it? Do you know that “Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, nor has it entered into the hearts of men the things already prepared for those who love the Lord?” What image of earth could I use to describe things that cannot be seen by the mortal eye? Or understood by the mortal mind?

I can describe the moment of the crucifixion, but I cannot describe the ecstasy. That night, in vision I led a throng in procession to the house of God, when suddenly a voice came out of the nowhere saying: “God walks with them.” A woman at my right questioned the voice, asking: “If God walks with us, where is he?” And the voice replied: “At your side.” Taking the words literally, she turned to her left (she could have turned to her right) and looking into my face she began to laugh and said: “What! Neville is God?” and the voice answered: “Yes, in the act of waking.”

Then the voice spoke from within me and to me alone, saying: “I laid myself down within you to sleep and as I slept I dreamed a dream. I dreamed…” and I , knowing the end of the sentence would be that he is dreaming he is I, became so emotional that I was sucked into this body on the bed as my hands became vortices, my head a vortex, my side a vortex and the soles of my feet vortices. These six vortices created the greatest ecstasy imaginable, a feeling that was the exact opposite of intense pain!

Having experienced the vision, I have not been able to forget the moment he buried himself within me. And because He did, in due time He rose in me; yet I am still encased in this insulated body until that moment when he calls me to return to the glory that was mine before I was sent, restoring my rank at that time. I do not know when; I only know that when the moment comes that he calls, no power on earth can stop me from answering his call.

So the heavenly vision is a glorious experience. Everyone is destined one day to awaken as God, because everyone was selected in the beginning. One day you will have a mystical experience that is sheer ecstasy. Its purpose will be revealed later when you rise and are born from above. Then, if you are a teacher or an apostle (or whatever your role will be) you will play your part until that moment when your insulation is removed and men call you dead. But far from being dead, you will be in the kingdom.

You will not have gone through the little gate called death to be restored to like in a terrestrial world like this one, to do all of the things we do here. That’s the normal passage of death until that moment in time when Christ rises with you and you are a Son of the resurrection and die no more. For you there will be no more passages through the little gate called death, but – wearing a body of glory which was the price paid by Christ – you will live in an entirely different age.

There was never any money exchanged for your life. God paid the price by dying that you may live. He exchanged his life for yours, and you bear his seed which has the power to save you. God is the sower and you are the field. The purpose of the planting of that seed is so that you could become the Son of the kingdom. God is now waiting for the unnumbered sons which he promised to Abraham – more sons than the stars of the heaven, more than the sands of the sea.

In the end everyone will be saved, but there are degrees in the kingdom, just as there are in the army here on earth. Not everyone is an apostle, a teacher, or a miracle worker. The highest rank is the apostle who God calls, selects, and sends in his name so the apostle can say: “He who sees me sees him who sent me, who is God the Father, for I know my Father and you know not your God.”

May I tell you: when you experience the heavenly vision you will never forget it or turn aside from it. After it happens in you, your values change. You have no desire to possess things any more, because you know you own it all. King Agrippa had everything and possessed nothing. Paul had nothing and possessed everything. What could Paul want when he knew the truth of the 50th Psalm: “If I were hungry I would not tell you for the earth is mine and all within it. I would simply slay and eat, for the cattle on a thousand hills are mine.” I know this statement to be true, and have no desire to possess things anymore. All I need now is enough to pay Caesar his taxes. I want to give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, but I have no ambition to pile up things of this world.

Tonight, take any passage from scripture and check each word in the Concordance, for the meaning of words changes. Perhaps 2000 years ago those who heard the word “crucify” understood what Paul meant, but through the years our priesthoods have organized the great truth and changed the meaning of the word. Now we see a man impaled upon a cross and can ask ourselves the same question asked the Galatians: “O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish having begun with the Spirit, you are now ending with the flesh?” Are you seeing a man of flesh, rather than the dramatization of the power of God?

When you read scripture, see a man step on the stage (like a moving picture) and think of it as an allegory. Learn to distinguish between what you are seeing and what you are being told. And when you discover the fictitious character, extract its meaning and abide by it. Jesus Christ is portrayed as crucified, as having union by association to extinguish passion, at which time the seed (which is the image of the Living God) is planted, making your redemption assured.

You cannot be born from above (which is essential to enter the kingdom of God) unless first Jesus Christ rises in you. So you are redeemed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ in you . Nothing can emerge from man which was not first submerged, so Christ has to descend. When one the being who has already been raised and selected for that part plants the seed, the image of God descends, and nothing can ascend but that which first descended.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE HIDDEN CAUSE

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 03-28-1969

The dream of life unfolds on this level, as well as on a higher one. On this level we see things happen and are given reasons for wars and revolutions, as well as the geological causes for the convulsions of nature. But we do not know and cannot perceive their hidden cause, for it lies in the imagination of man. All things spring, not from the ostensible causes to which they are attributed, but from that which is hidden – man’s own wonderful human imagination!

In the April issue of the Atlantic Monthly, there is an article by General David M. Shoop, retired commandant of the Marine Corps. In this article, he claims that there is an ambitious elite of high-ranking officers who are turning this country into a militaristic and aggressive nation. They are promoting war in the belief that through it they will receive the promotions and glory they desire and cannot achieve while serving in a peacetime army. They dream of a war they can command in glory. Where? In their own wonderful human imagination, the hidden cause of all life! Imagination can be used infernally – as these men are doing – or towards the kingdom of heaven. This is done by thinking of a friend and hearing him tell you his good news. You can watch his facial expression change as he speaks to you. You can see him stand erect, wearing clothes he is proud of, as you feel the thrill of his change. And if you will believe that what you are now seeing is real, you can relax in the knowledge that one day your friend will conform to what have you done in your imagination!

Do you know that you can take that same individual and hear him tell you sad news? You can see him dirty and ashamed, and he will conform to that image which you have created in your imagination? Your creative power, which is Christ, can be used infernally or in a heavenly way. Its use is entirely up to you. General Shoop claimed that our involvement in Vietnam was a direct result of the ambition of an elite group of high-ranking officers who prefer war to peace, in order to receive glory and prestige in their chosen field! You and I are now burdened with the enormous task of continuing their effort, which began in the imagination of a small group of men.

The prophets and poets, inspired by the same voice, have told us this throughout the centuries. Yeats said: “I will never be certain that it was not some woman treading in the winepress who started that subtle change in men’s mind. Or the passion, from which so many countries have been put to the sword, did not begin in the mind of some poor shepherd boy, lighting up his eyes for a moment before he ran upon his way.” Who knows who is treading in the winepress this night? Who knows what a person in solitary confinement is imagining? Is he using this only power in the universe infernally or blissfully? I hope you use your imagination in the state of bliss, for the outside world is alive because of this hidden power within you. I know that a man, imagining intensely can influence millions. He can act through many men and speak with many voices. This little group of men, imagining their promotions, are influencing millions and moving through unnumbered men toward their goal. Those who cover their costumes with medals, like the Stalins and the Hitlers of the world, are displaying their complete misunderstanding of God’s power of imagination.

I ask you to believe me, for I am speaking from a level of one who has awakened from the dream of life. I have experienced scripture and know it is a true story from beginning to end. The gospel tells us of a pattern which repeats itself in everyone, for every child born of woman has within him an ancestral self, a heavenly being who supports him. This is the one who said: “I will never leave you or forsake you.” A child is alive because a son of God – who is the emanation of that ancestral self – is in it. We are told that bounds have been set to the peoples of the earth according to the number of the sons of God. You were given the gift of awareness because of the immortal son of the ancestral you who will never forsake you, not in eternity. See how precious you are in the eyes of he who is the power of powers?

Now, do not misuse this power, but use it only in love. Every person you meet, regardless of his pigment of skin, the nation behind him, or the so-called sect he is associated with, is alive because your ancestral being who has no beginning and no end is behind his mask, as he is behind yours. That one is taking him through the necessary experiences to make him one with himself, as the ancestral you is taking you through the necessary experiences to make you one with himself. Eventually you and he will return to that one being who sent you out in the first place. That is your destiny.

Now, in the gospels we are told that the Risen Christ turned to his apostles and said: “There are those standing here who will not taste of death until they see the kingdom of God.” Scholars claim this prophecy failed because they do not know what or where the kingdom of God is. It is not a realm, but a body. And it is not out there, but within. If, as Luke tells us, the kingdom of heaven is within you, who would know you entered it but yourself? And if you told your friends and it was not what they expected, would they believe you? No! They would continue to claim the promise was not fulfilled, yet I say the promises of God will not be broken. There are some standing here who will not taste of death before they enter the kingdom of God.

The kingdom, being within, is entered when the curtain is split. Only then can you see the blood of your ancestral being who died to become as you are. Recognition causes you to fuse with it, and rising like a fiery serpent, you enter that holy sepulcher where the drama began. Matthew knew that the violent took the holy sepulcher by force. The word translated ‘violent’ here means life; to press oneself into; to find a place within.

Life is in the blood. Contemplating the blood of God Himself, you fuse with it and become life itself. The Father, having life in himself, has granted you his emanation to be life itself. Becoming one with your ancestral being, you are no longer the emanated, but the Godhead through which the emanation occurred. So the statement is true: there are some standing here who will not taste of death before they enter the kingdom of God. But the only ones who will know it are those who experience it. This goes on forever and ever. If you are looking for the kingdom of God on the outside you will look in vain, for the kingdom is within and cannot be entered from without. In his 16th chapter, Matthew claims they will see the Son of man entering his kingdom, but in the 9th chapter of Mark and Luke, it is called the kingdom of God.

Now, after making the statement that some standing here will not taste death before they enter the kingdom of God, Peter, James, and John are taken into a high mountain where his countenance is completely altered before them. You may think this took place on the outside, but it takes place within. The evangelists took this appearance of resurrection and recorded it as Jesus’ external ministry; just as when I tell you what happened in me I speak externally, yet the three people who witnessed my transformation appeared within.

Recently a lady wrote telling of finding herself in a cage, observing three men etched in gold, and a woman holding an infant. This is a perfect adumbration. The three first appeared to Abraham in the Book of Genesis, and were confirmed in Peter’s second letter, where he remembers when Peter, James, and John were formed to witness the majesty of the one who was born. There are always three. The cage in which this lady found herself is the holy sepulcher, her immortal skull – where the drama began, and where it comes to its fulfillment. She saw the sign of her approaching birth from above, in the form of a woman holding a child and the three witnesses to this event. She – the emanation of her ancestral being – will awaken in that cage to return to her ancestral being, enhanced by becoming one with her celestial self.

While in this world of Caesar, seemingly detached and lost, you are not, for your human imagination is a wonderful power. It is yours to use lovingly, or as unlovingly as those men did with their dreams of wars, in order to get a little medal and be promoted. So what if they do? Eventually they will all be buried, and two generations later no one will know they ever existed. Our cemeteries are filled with monuments to those who thought themselves so important, yet no one recalls who they were. So I say: what does it matter if you own the world and lose your life?

I urge you to seek the kingdom of God, for when you do, you come into a power unknown to mortal man. All of the atom bombs in the world cannot compare to the power you are destined to fall heir to. You will possess a power that can still the world. But you will never know this power without love. With this power, unrestrained, you would still a nation, face its inhabitants toward the ocean, and put the idea of entering it in their mind. Then when you release this power they would all march into the ocean. But you will never know a power greater than you know love. The power known to earthly man is nothing compared to the power of love. With that power you can stop the thought process of another, change it completely, and when you allow that energy to flow once more, he will move in a different direction, not even realizing that a change had taken place within him.

When the embodiment of reason asked the Risen Lord: “Do you not know that I have the power to crucify you and the power to set you free?” Imagination replied: “You have no power over me were it not given you from above.” Just imagine knowing you have that kind of power! You came to play a part called Man, and when you have experienced it, you will play the part called Jesus Christ. His play takes place in heaven, which is within. And when you tell your story, those who hear your words on the outside will either believe or disbelieve you, and you will have no power to persuade them otherwise. Those who do not believe sit in darkness, breathing war as recorded in this month’s Atlantic Monthly. Although the salaries of these men come from the pockets of civilians, they are believing our country into a militaristic and aggressive nation, in order to become more glorious in their own little minds.

But I tell you, your ancestral being called the son of God shed his blood for you that you may have life in yourself. I know, for when my body was torn in two from top to bottom, I saw that blood of God as my own wonderful ancestral self. I am an extension of that self, not another – for that would imply there was a greater creative power than I am. I have seen this body of love. I wore it when we embraced. I will return to it and wear it forever when I leave this body of death for the last time. Then we will not be two, for I – an extension of myself – will return to myself, adding to God’s glory, His luminosity, and translucency, giving him a greater creative power by reason of the part I played, called Neville.

I urge you to use your imagination lovingly on behalf of everyone, and believe in the reality of your imaginal acts. If you have a friend who would like to be gainfully employed, listen carefully until you hear his voice tell you of his new position. Feel his hand clasp yours. See the smile on his lips. Use every sense you can possibly bring to bear into the imaginal scene. Persist until you feel the thrill of reality, then drop it and let that scene fulfill itself on the outside. We are told that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. Your imaginal act created for your friend in the kingdom of heaven is that seed. Don’t pick it up to see if it is growing; just leave it alone, and it will grow and bloom as a solid fact in your world. Then you will have found this hidden cause within you called Christ.

Christ, the power and wisdom of God, is in you as your own wonderful eternal being. He will never leave you or forsake you as told us in the 13th chapter of Hebrews. If, perchance, one day you are swept into an unlovely state and go through hell, remember: there is that in you who will not leave you or forsake you; and if you know this principle you can detach yourself from the state and it will vanish, as you move into a more desirable one.

There is truly nothing new under the sun. That which was recently recorded in the Atlantic Monthly is the same as that which was recorded in Genesis as the first frightful act, when Cain slew his brother Abel. This same act is taking place over and over again, and if a man knows how to detach himself he need not be pulled into that state. While in the army I was told I could not get out, but I dared to assume I was out. I acted, in my imagination, as I would act were I free to come and go as I chose. I persisted in this assumption for nine days. Then the one who first denied my request granted my freedom, and that day I was honorably discharged.

People plan a depression for personal gain. There are those who sell short for a personal gain. All kinds of things are done in order to be known as a billionaire; yet in time they die, to leave their billions behind for those who can’t even remember their names. Leaving this little section of time, he who was known as a billionaire here, moves into another section of time to once more seek his fortune. So the words are true: there are some standing here who will not taste of death.

May I tell you: no one can leave this earth until he awakens, because the earth does not terminate at the point where the senses cease to register it. When you shed your little garment, you will still be on this earth in a body like the one you left behind, only young, vital, and wonderful – but your environment will change. You may leave this world a billionaire to find yourself shining shoes, if that is to be your lot to fulfill. Your ancestral being knows what it will take to weave you into the likeness of himself, for you must be perfect as he is perfect. You will not be brought to the end until you can actually be superimposed upon his image and fit it perfectly. Then you are one!

No one ever leaves this age of death until he awakens. This earth stretches for a length of time long beyond the three score and ten. The world remains terrestrial, with all of its struggles. We continue to marry and die, to know sickness and health, sorrow and joy, just as we do here, as we go from one little section of time into another and then another until – in the eyes of our ancestral self – we are as He is. So you see that statement is true: “There are those standing here who will not taste of death.” The apostles who are called will not taste of death. No power can sweep them away from this section of time, until they go up that spiral roadway into the sepulcher where their drama began.

No mortal eye can see the kingdom of heaven, and it cannot be entered from without, but must be taken violently. This I know from experience. When I went up, it was with such force I felt a tremendous pressure in my head where I was pressed in, just a little bit left of center. I tried my very best to go beyond it, but I could not. It was so crowded I pressed myself right into the kingdom as a living mural, having entered it with a force akin to violence. I have now fulfilled the 11th chapter of the Book of Matthew: “The kingdom of heaven is taken by violence and the violent take it by force.” The old age of the law and the promise up until John the Baptist is behind us now. There is no need to do violence against your body in order to get into the kingdom. No diet or suppression of the normal urges of life will get you in. Only when you are one with your eternal self so that you can be superimposed upon him and fit perfectly will you find yourself split in two to be absorbed by the life of the being who kept you alive here as something on the outside and, like a sponge, you become one with it. Then, having life in yourself, you will return to your skull where the dream began, arriving with such force your head reverberates like thunder. But, knowing that there are people in this world who plot and plan violence, don’t try to compensate; rather plot and plan things of love and affection. Do that and you cannot be drawn into another’s circle.

I tell you: you are an immortal being. You were the Son of God long before the universe came into being. It was you who brought it into appearance for this great experiment. You are a ray of the being you really are, one with He who is radiating you. And He will not forsake you, but will continue to put you through the paces as He fashions you into his likeness. Then He receives unto himself all of the experiences through which you will have passed, and is enhanced and glorified by them. He is afflicted as you are afflicted. He suffers as you suffer, and when you return you and He are one, for the being radiating is one with the ray.

Take me seriously! Know what you want and then claim you have it. Tell a friend about it and feel his excitement for you. Persuade yourself that what you are imagining is true. Believe in its reality and it will come to pass as an objective fact on this level, I promise you. Then when the image is perfect, you will return to your ancestral self, and time will no longer be necessary between the imaginal act and the fact.

There are many levels: a level here, a dream level, and a level of spirit waking, where every thought is a fact and is known. From that level you return through various barriers to this, the lowest level, where everything is completely concentrated and limited in these little garments of flesh. Here we are slaves to our mortal bodies, serving them morning, noon and night as we feed, clothe, and shelter them. When you feed your body you must assimilate what it eats. Then you must eliminate its waste and care for it.

Every child born of woman is a slave to the body he wears. There is no slavery comparable to the slavery of the body. If I were a slave to one who had purchased me and I must feed and clothe him, though he has millions and I have nothing, he is as much a slave to his body as I am to mine, for he and he alone must assimilate and eliminate for himself. No matter how many slaves he may have, he cannot command them to perform the functions of his body for him. He must perform them all for himself. Everyone who comes into this world becomes a slave to the body he wears.

We are told in Philippians: “He emptied himself of all that was his and became obedient unto death, even death upon the cross.” When God came here he found himself a slave and was born in the likeness of men, thereby entering slavery. And I can’t conceive of any slavery comparable to the slavery of the body. Just imagine: you must wash it, shave it, bathe it, and do everything for it. And when it begins to wear out, you must get glasses for its eyes, false teeth, hearing aides and heart transplants – to name but a few. You must continue to patch it up while remaining its slave to the very end. Do you know of any greater form of slavery? While in our teens and twenties we never think that our body might get old and wear out, yet one day we turn a little corner of time and it becomes so obvious. Although the body wears out and becomes weaker and weaker, you are still its slave. I cannot conceive of any greater slavery.

But try to live a noble life, for you are immortal and cannot die. He who radiates you will never in eternity forsake you. He could not, for you and He are one; and when you return from your journey, you will be with the one who radiated you, just as you were before the journey began.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE INCARNATE REVELATION

December 22, 2013

by Wisdom Master with No Comment Belief is everything Changing Reality With Your Mind changing your reality with your imagination create your reality with your imagination Emmet Fox feeling is the secret Florence Scovel Shinn Focus Focus is power How to Manifest money Imagination Imagining creates reality Josephy Murphy Mental Attitude Mental Science Mind Science Money Neville Goddard neville goddard feeling is the secret neville goddard law and promise neville goddard law of assumption neville goddard lectures neville goddard power of awareness neville goddard power of imagination neville goddard quotes neville goddard wisdom Power In The Spoken Word power of images Power Of Imagination power of the mind Power of Thought power of words The Complete Neville Goddard Reader the conscious mind The Power Of Faith The power of the mind the power of the spirit within the secret the spirit the spirit of truth is within the subconscious we create our own reality

Neville Goddard 02-20-1969

Recently I read a book called, Vanished Parts of Yesterday, by Lord Frederick Hamilton. In it he tells the story of Catherine the Great – who, when she found the first violet of spring, ordered a sentry to be placed over it to protect it from being plucked. Forgetting to rescind the order, day and night, summer and winter, a sentry stood where 150 years ago, a violet bloomed. The new generation did not know why the sentry was there and he didn’t either. It was simply a tradition!

Make sure no sentry is now standing on your lawn, keeping you from the word of God; for you void the word of God through the traditions of your fathers which have been handed down from generation to generation.

Now, the spirit of truth comes to all who will accept it. And the incomplete form of the incarnate revelation will continue until the spirit of truth comes! It has come to this lady whose vision I would like to share with you now.

Finding herself on a movie lot with two others, she approaches a man who had the appearance of John Wayne. Calling her by name, he said something to her she could not understand; but upon awakening, these words were clearly heard: It is not Before Abraham was, I am! but Before Abraham, was I am!

Bear in mind the Bible’s original manuscript had no punctuation marks. There were no verses, no paragraphs, no capital letters, chapters, or punctuation until the 16th century. Man has placed the comma after the word was, as though a man was speaking. But in this incarnate revelation, the spirit of truth revealed the source of all life as “I am!” This is the same being who said: “Go to my brothers and say, `I am ascending unto my Father and you Father, unto my God and your God.”‘ In this revelation the incarnate work is not separating himself from you; rather he is telling you that the “I am” has unfolded within him.

Will you believe that revelation? Will you turn to this one presence, this one I am who was before Abraham, knowing it to be the source of everything good, bad, and indifferent?

You may think God could not create wars and conflicts between countries, but I tell you there is no other creator, no other cause. As horrible as the world appears to be, it is like a tapestry whose knots and loose strings appear ugly on one side, while its beauty is revealed on the other.

I know very able imaginists who suggest we look upon the history of man as material for the artistry of God. That’s beautifully said, but I rather think it takes the horrors of experience to transform man into the beautiful being he was in the beginning.

In the Book of Genesis we are told: “He meant it for evil but God meant it for good.” In order to play the part of man, awareness had to fall asleep, and in so doing became the dreamer called Joseph and was sold into slavery. In spite of the horrors of the world, Joseph awoke and was able to save civilization from death. So I believe that regardless of what we do, it is being transformed into the beauty of the promise.

Dwell upon this lady’s revelation, for it came to her through the spirit of truth. Remember: the dreamer in her is also the being in the director’s chair. John Wayne always plays the leading role, never a secondary one, and God is the key actor, always the star. Recognizing John (the word means “Jehovah’s favored one”) he calls her name.

Scripture tells us that God numbered the stars and called each by name. Do you know that you are far more precious than the stars or the sands of the sea? Though we seem to be unnumbered, each and every one of us is known in the mind of the Father and each name is recorded in the Book of Life.

Although my friend could not hear the words spoken in her vision, upon awakening she remembered: It is not before Abraham was, I am, but before Abraham, was I am! You will find this statement in the 8th chapter of the Gospel of John. This is a chapter which concerns itself with the identity of the Father. Here he claims: “My Father is he who you call God, but I know my Father and you know not your God.” In this statement he is trying to get you to go beyond a physical state and think of God (your imagination) as the source of all life!

You can test God through the act of assumption. By assuming you are now what you desire to be, and wearing that belief as you would a suit of clothes, you will become it.

I can remember buying a new hat and walking down the streets of New York City thinking everyone knew my hat was new. I was very conscious of my hat and a little embarrassed because of its newness. But when I had worn it long enough to throw it in the closet and unconsciously pick it up again, it was an old hat and I could wear it normally. You may deny this, but if you are honest with yourself you will admit that you are very conscious of a new suit or dress, even though those who meet you may not know or care whether your clothes are old or new. Only you are aware of the clothes you are wearing.

The same thing is true of an assumption. At first your reasoning mind and your outer senses will deny its existence, for your thoughts are new and haven’t been broken in yet. But when you wear your assumption long enough, it becomes comfortable and you feel its naturalness, then it will externalize itself as the world reflects the truth of what you have assumed.

Remember: the source of all life is I AM! We are told that the Lord will speak to man in a dream and make himself known in a vision. The word Lord may cause you to think of another, but the Hebrew word YAD HE VAU HE [pron. “YOD HEY VAV HEY”] means “I AM”! And there is no other when you say, I am!

The spirit of truth made himself known to this lady in a vision and will lead her into all things. Trained in the belief of an external God, she has overcome a great deal to receive him.

Man must overcome the belief in a being outside of self before the spirit of truth can come and make himself known to him. This being is immortal and within. Each time you say I am, you speak his name. When you discover this, you will know that you and God are one!

The world rejects this revelation because they do not know the Father. They call him “Lord” and worship him as someone external to themselves, not knowing He is within.

Although you may believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, when David reveals you as his father you will realize you are Jesus and he is your power-filled son, Christ. Then you will tell those who have been conditioned to believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and God is someone other than self, and they will not believe you; for the conditioned mind must be dissolved in order for that individual to realize he is God.

If David calls me father and he calls you father, are we not one father? If there is only one son, only one God and father of all, and everyone individually has the identical son who calls him father – have we not proved the truth of that wonderful 4th chapter of Ephesians: “There is only one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all?”

Now, what was God’s purpose? Why did He become you and I? So that we could become God. If this is true, how will we ever know it unless God’s son calls us father? I could call you Lord, God, Jehovah, or Jesus and you would deny it; but when God’s son – who was supposed to have lived 3000 [sic] years ago – stands before you who live in the 20th century, and calls you father, you cannot deny the experience. When you see David you know you are his father and he knows he is your son. Having fallen asleep, you have forgotten your true identity. But when David appears your memory will return.

God does not have a memory as we interpret the word. To God everything is actual. God’s son is a youth of indescribable beauty which is self-begotten. The verb beget is always attached to the male, while the verb to bear is attached to the female. Scripture speaks of two forms of birth: one which is attached to the female, whose body is formed by and born of woman, while the other is associated with the father, whose body is spirit and whose birth is from within!

In the 3rd chapter of John, Nicodemus is told that he must be born from above. In this chapter the word “anothin” is translated “from above.” At other times it is translated “anew,” or “again” – but a spiritual birth is a must before you can enter the kingdom of heaven, for it is God the Father who is born.

In the last book of the Old Testament the question is asked: “If I am a father, where is my son?” That question is answered when God’s son stands before you. As a teacher it has been difficult for me to get the mind which has been conditioned to believe in tradition, to believe in this revelation.

The mind has a tendency to continue to stand over that little violet which grew 150 years ago. But in this case, it was unnumbered centuries ag, when the idea that Jesus Christ was the son of God was planted in the mind of man while he – a physical man – was nothing more than a little worm. But I tell you: God sacrificed himself to become you. He is crucified on you and will rise from you.

Man is the only cross God ever wore and his birth takes place from man’s skull, for that is where God is buried. When He awakens in you and emerges from you, it is you who awake and emerge. And his fatherhood is revealed when God’s son calls you father.

Then you will tell the truth you have experienced to the world in the hope they will receive it. But whether they do or not, you will know that the spirit of truth has come. You will know you have finished the race and the crown of righteousness is yours. Although I will be gone, remember: God is still with you because He has appeared among you. And you will take what I have told you, plus what God is going to tell you from within, and experience that which has been so misunderstood throughout the centuries.

I have come to reinterpret the story of Jesus Christ. He who sees me sees the Father. How can you say: “Show me the Father.” Have I been so long with you, yet you do not know the Father? He who has seen me has seen the Father.

In the end everyone will be the Father. And because there is only one Father and only one son, this unity – now fragmented – will once more be gathered together. Without loss of identity I will know you more intimately than is possible in this world. Nothing can compare to the intimacy that we will have when we are raised and once more reunited into that one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one God and father of all.

Dwell on this revelation. It is not before Abraham was, I am, but before Abraham, was I am! Here we see that the fountainhead of everything is I am!

Although the horrors of the world may deny a divine event, remember the story of the tapestry. Scripture calls the unlovely side “below,” while the lovely side is called “above.” The Risen Christ is made to say: “You are from below and I am from above. You are of this world and I am not of this world.” In other words, you who have not experienced scripture are from below, while those who have are from above. You are of this world, while they are no longer a part of this world. But, because we are all one, you will be lifted up as the Risen Christ.

Any desire is yours to fulfill if you will not lose confidence in I am. Attach anything to it and it will grow. If your desire is to be rich, say to yourself: I am rich – and think from that assumption. If you want to be known, claim you already are. You can be anything you want to be by the act of assumption. Wear your desire as though it were true now, and your assumption – though denied by your senses – when persisted in will harden into fact by objectifying itself and becoming a reality.

But that is not the purpose of life. There is only one purpose, which is to fulfill scripture. And when God makes himself known in you – an individual – and you tell your experiences, the world will deny them. But I tell you: you cannot turn to another and say I am; and you cannot divide it, for I am is one!

The revelation given to Moses was I am! He was not speaking to another, whose name was I am. If I said the Lord sent me, you would think of another, but I am saying I sent myself!

One day Blake was asked what he thought of Jesus and he replied: “Jesus is the only God, but so am I and so are you.” Nothing could be truer than what Blake said, because there is only God and you are actually he! Having emptied yourself of the being you really are, you deliberately came here to play the part of man.

And when you awaken and you and I are reunited in the one body, we will know what we have done in this adventure. I cannot deny the world’s unpleasantness. Every newspaper tells of something terrible. You rarely read a pleasant headline. If they cannot find something bad in our city, they jump across the ocean to find it. The world is built that way, yet it is moving toward a glorious divine event.

When the Risen Christ said: “I have things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now,” he was speaking to those who were tightly bound in their concept of a God external to themselves to whom they prayed. That mind could not accept a God within who would make himself known in a vision.

I knew such a lady in New York City. She ran a book store, where I bought many books. Knowing my passion for books, when she would see my interest in a certain book she would quickly erase the price and mark a higher one in its place. This she did time and time again. I have paid her as high as $100 for three books. One day she said: “You certainly have vivid dreams,” and I replied: “They are not dreams, but visions, where I commune with myself, the self that you call God.”

Two years ago, while in New York I learned that Mary had been killed. Walking down a dark street one night she stepped off the sidewalk and a car struck her. Her husband found her body four days later in the morgue where they kept it waiting for identification. So Mary is gone, taking all of her beliefs with her.

There is no transforming power in what the world calls death. If you are prejudiced here, you are prejudiced there. If you change the price of books here, you will do it there. You will continue to play your part until you are willing to have the story of Jesus Christ awaken in you.

It is said that God spoke to Moses, making it appear as though God spoke from without; but God always whispers from within. Knowing God to be himself, when the revelation came, Moses spoke to him face to face and no longer in dream, as told us in the 12th chapter of Numbers.

Test my words, for I know the human imagination is God. Call forth your desire by calling it forth with God’s name. Decide what you want and ask yourself what it would be like and how you would feel if it were true. Then dare to assume you have it. Let the people who know you now see you after your assumption. Don’t make them see you; let them see the change!

Think of the world as a sounding box, echoing and reflecting what you have assumed. Listen to your friends comment on your change. See their faces expressing their pleasure on your good fortune. Wear that feeling as you now wear your present body of belief. Continue to wear that new state and in no time at all your desire will objectify itself and become a fact in your world. Then you will know who the cause of the phenomena of life really is.

There is only one source. The world calls it God. That is a lovely name, but don’t forget that God is your awareness! No one can see I am! They see what I tell them that I am. I walk the earth and they see that I am a man wearing a gray suit. I tell them where I live, and they know the names of my father and mother, sister and brothers; but these are only covers for the being that I am, as no one can see my true identity on this level. They only see my metamorphosis.

The lady whose vision I shared saw a metamorphosis that she herself created, in the form of one who seemed to be John Wayne. You see, God is protean and can assume not only one, but many metamorphoses, and more than one at the same time. She came upon her own creation, who spoke seemingly from without, whispering so softly she could hardly hear what he was saying.

Now, when vision breaks forth into speech the presence of deity is affirmed. In the vision of Moses, speech came from a burning bush; and in the vision of Isaiah, one of the seraphim asked: “Whom shall I send?” and Isaiah answered: “Send me, O Lord.”

In this lady’s case, she saw the form of man who she instantly associated with stardom. He was sitting in the director’s chair, directing and whispering a great secret, which upon awakening she remembered. It is not, before Abraham was, I am, but before Abraham, was I am.

Here we see how important the placement of the comma is. Just as it is on that day on the cross: “Behold I say unto you today, thou shalt be with me in paradise.” Placing the comma after the word today, changes the meaning completely from placing it before the word today. What confusion that has made among those who read: “Behold I say to you, today thou shalt be with me in paradise,” when forty days later he is made to say: “Touch me not as I have not yet ascended.” But the statement makes great sense when the comma is changed.

All punctuation is man-made. Change the comma and you will see that no one can be lost. How could God lose himself when he became man? He could not – therefore God has to redeem himself.

When you discover this truth, you cannot hurt another. Rather, you will help everyone, because you will know he is yourself pushed out. In this world we meet what seems to be another and in a sense they are, because we are all individualized. And we will never lose our individuality; yet in heaven there is a unity, an intermingling of being in its one body. There you dwell as the one Lord, the one God and Father of all, yet without loss of identity.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE LAW

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 11-20-1959

The whole vast world is no more than man’s imagining pushed out. I must qualify that by saying that the world outside of man is dead, but Man is a living soul, and it responds to man, yet man is sound asleep and does not know it. The Lord God placed man in a profound sleep, and as he sleeps the world responds as in a dream, for Man does not know he is asleep, and then he moves from a state of sleep where he is only a living soul to an awakened state where he is a life-giving Spirit. And now he can himself create, for everything is responding to an activity in man which is Imagination. “The eternal body of man is all imagination; that is God himself.” (Blake)

Three wonderful case histories were given to me last Tuesday and I can best describe what I mean by telling you of one of them. Here is this lady driving east on Sunset and she comes to a stop at Laurel Canyon. A bus is to her right, and then she sees this little elderly lady in grey who is running diagonally across the street through traffic, trying to catch that bus. The bus driver sees her but he pulls out leaving her on the street. The lady, who gave me this story, told me that she felt compassion for this elderly lady, but she was not in a lane where she could give her a lift; she had to pull out with her line when the light changed. She said to herself, ‘I will give that lady a lift just the same.’ So in Imagination, she opens her car door and lets her in.

Then still in her Imagination, she hears the lady tell her that she is meeting some friends a few blocks away and if she had to wait for another bus she is afraid they would not wait for her. The lady in the car carried on this imaginary conversation and it took maybe a half a minute until she felt satisfied about it. Four blocks ahead, as she again stopped for a light, someone tapped on the car window, and here stands a breathless little elderly with gray hair dressed in gray. My friend lowered the window and the little lady said ‘I have missed my bus. Can you give me a lift? Friends are waiting for me and when they see I do not get off the bus they may go on and leave me.’ My friend let her get into the car and then six blocks further the little lady said. ‘There are my friends!’ and thanks the driver and gets out.

Now here is a lady whom I say is awake. And may I tell you that in Heaven there was joy because one called a sinner (we are all sinners, for we are all missing the mark, and the mark is to awaken) has discovered that the whole world is responsive to what we are thinking. She could not actually give the first little lady a lift so she did it in Imagination, and then she sees this other elderly lady and gives her a lift. Here she is enacting her imaginary drama, and four blocks later when the dream is completed this little ole lady taps at her car window. In her imagination she gave a lift to a little grey haired lady dressed in gray. Does it matter if it was the lady behind at the last bus stop or this lady dressed in gray? Everyone is responding to what we are doing in our Imagination. There is no outside world that is really alive. It depends, for its aliveness, on the activity of man who is a living soul. Man named the animals, the birds, the trees, ‘ everything. God became man as a living soul, but He had to forget He was God to become man, and now man has to become a life-giving spirit, where he knows that everything is an imaginal activity.

Here, at that corner where the first part of this little drama took place, half of those who witnessed it would bawl out the bus driver for not waiting for the old lady, and the other half would say she was a fool for running into the street. This lady in the car could have reacted like that, for the dreamer does not know that he is dreaming. It is only when we awake they know they are causing the dream, or even had a dream. The lady in the car saw only someone who had failed to realize an objective, so she enacted a scene for her, implying she had realized it. And four blocks later she meets a little old lady who says to her the exact words she had heard in her Imagination. Her Imaginary dream unfolds in detail. An awakened dream is crystallized in the world. ‘Real are the dreams of gods, as they slowly pass their pleasure in a long immortal dream.’ When man completely awakens he dreams his pleasure and everything responds while he dreams it.

We think everything in the world is completely independent from our perception of it, but the whole thing is dead. I see it, and come upon it, but the whole thing is dead’. frozen. Then I start an activity within me and then the world that was dead becomes alive, but not knowing I am doing it, I am sound asleep and then the whole thing takes over and it becomes a nightmare. But I must keep control and know it is dependant on me. The world is infinite response and the thing that makes it alive is the living soul called generic man (male-female). And then God wove Himself into the brain of this generic man, and then He sleeps. As man begins to awaken he controls and takes over, and is no longer a victim of his vision, so he has control of his attention. Everyone is free to create his world as he wants it ‘ if he knows that the whole thing is responding to him.

In Luke 13 we are told the story of five Galileans who have been murdered by Pilate. ‘And he mixed their blood with their offering, etc.’ And the central figure of the gospels which is your awakened Imagination says to his followers; ‘Do you think these five were worse sinners than the others? I tell you ‘No’. But unless you repent you will all likewise perish in the same manner.’ Here on one level we think it served them right, just as those who saw the scene on the Sunset Blvd. would say ‘It served her right ‘ cutting across the street like that!’ In this story in Luke we are told that a man sinned in the past and was murdered by Pilate. It has nothing to do with it. Then Jesus asked them, ‘Do you think that the eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse offenders than the others who dwell in Jerusalem? I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.

On this level of the dream people think of getting even. It is a dream of confusion and people are reactivating, but man has to awaken and become an actor. On this present level man is always reflecting life, not knowing he is the cause of all he observes. But when he awakens from the dream and then becomes an actor. What percentage would have done what this lady in the car did? They would have reacted, or feasted on the fruit of the tree of good and evil. They would have had a violent reaction, and then they would have had a violent resistance from this dead universe. But this lady makes her dream and the whole thing comes to pass exactly as she pictured it, even to the number of blocks. You might almost think she had manufactured that little old lady in gray, but I tell you everything comes in response to our own wonderful imaginal activity.

You can be anything in this world but you cannot know it or expect it to come unless you Act. If you react based on the past, you continue in the same pattern. To be the man you desire to be you must create the scene, as this lady did, and the whole world will be convulsed if that is necessary to bring it to pass. There is no other power but God, but God had to ‘forget’ he was God in this state of sleep, and then He awakens and consciously determines the conditions he wants in the world.

So again I say to this lady, the angels rejoiced over your awakening, and ‘ I say this without pride ‘ they also rejoiced because I kept my promise that I would come and awaken this sleeper in the world of men. For I, also, had to forget everything to become man. For when one goes and then returns he has to forget everything to become man. For when one goes, and then returns he has to forget everything, but he promises he will carry out his pledge and help man awaken. Then the living soul becomes a life-giving spirit, and then creates.

Take it seriously. Do not go through this with your dream un-acted. It took this lady 30 seconds to enact her drama and another 60 seconds to realize it. You tell yourselves -it must take time- What time? Read Corinthians 1:18, I could go before men with all the words of wisdom, but know only one thing, the cross. To the wise it is foolishness, etc. What is the cross? Think of it in this light. You began, seemingly in your mother’s womb and end in the grave. You do not, but you have that picture. Look on the horizontal line of the cross as time. Intersecting this vertical line and call that infinite states, like Jacobs ladder. At any section of time I can move up or down. Time is flowing and the state with which I am identified still unfolds.

So, while seated in my car I can move up and enact a drama. I acted and remained within that state. It unfolded. It took 60 seconds. There are infinite states intersecting the line of time. We become one with a certain state and it demonstrates itself in actual phenomena. Everyone here, it need not take you more than 30 seconds to bring about a change of state. What would it be like? And you name your desire. Remain in that state, and that state, by the passage of time, will unfold in your world. You do nothing about it once you have entered the state’for the outer must move by compulsion of the inner power.

This little lady in gray had to come to my friend’s car. Every detail of that imaginary act took place.

Why not? The universe is infinite response. When you know that there is no one in the whole world could ever faze you, because he is a shadow. I have seen the whole world dead, completely frozen, and then I allowed something within me to start and everything became animated. Then you ask yourself a million questions. Who am I? What is it all about? Why? Everything here is responding to the imaginal activity within man.

When someone who is sick becomes well: when someone who is blind then sees, is that more of a miracle than what this lady told? She is awake. If you make a fortune it means nothing. All the honors of men in a state of sleep are as nothing. You must ‘repent’. It has nothing to do with the so-called judgment of God. It is only a dream and man is reacting to the dream and he does not know that he is the dreamer and causing all the dream.

The literal meaning of the Greek word translated as repent means ‘a change of mind.’ It has nothing to do with the moral picture. The churches introduced that, but it has nothing to do with it. I don’t care what a man has done, if he changes his mind in this meaning of the word ‘repent’ things will change, for he is then on the line of vertical line of states. He stands at a point on the states. There are infinite states and we must learn to distinguish between the state and the individual occupying the state. But I can now change and move into another state. I can in Time, do it in a split second and rise on the vertical line of the states.

So, ‘I come, only to teach the cross.’, said Paul. I will rise within myself and ignore the former state, and within myself I will assume that things are as I want them to be. If I remain faithful, the passage of Time will unfold it. So, Blake said, ‘Eternity is in love with the productions of Time.’ I tell you, do not let anyone ever convince you that because of your past accomplishments or your present state in the world that you cannot change your position by rising within yourself, and then see the whole world respond. And I mean NOW!

So, I tell you this lady is awake; the Child is awake in her, the purpose of life is to awake. If the whole vast world or sleeping humanity thought her important, would she feel flattered? If in a dream everyone praised you and then you awoke and found it was all a dream, would you be flattered? One dreamer puts a medal on another dreamer, and they do not know it. It is only the awakening that is important. Awakening and doing the will of God. God’s will is in you active as your own Imagination, and His will is to realize the imaginal state. To realize something novel as this lady did or to maintain something to maintain in being, or to let things go that you feel are unlovely. I will do it all and only act, and stop re-acting. Then the whole book, The Bible, becomes alive. Leave all the ‘wise men to mock it or tolerate’. Let them reach the moon or the stars, they are all dead. Nothing lives outside of man. Man is the living soul, turning slowly into a life-giving Spirit. But you cannot tell it except in a parable or metaphor to excite the mind of man to get him to go out and prove it.

Leave the good and evil and eat of the Tree of Life. Nothing in the world is untrue if you want it to be true. You are the truth of everything that you perceive. ‘I am the truth, and the way, the life revealed.’ If I have physically nothing in my pocket, then in Imagination I have MUCH. But that is a lie based on fact, but truth is based on the intensity of my imagination and then I will create it in my world. Should I accept facts and use them as to what I should imagine? No.

It is told us in the story of the fig tree. It did not bear for three years. One said, ‘Cut it down, and throw it away.’ But the keeper of the vineyard pleaded NO’! Who is the tree? I am the tree; you are the tree. We bear or we do not. But the Keeper said he would dig around the tree and feed it ‘ or manure it, as we would say today ‘ and see if it will not bear. Well I do that here every week and try to get the tree ‘ you ‘ me to bear. You should bear whatever you desire. If you want to be happily married, you should be. The world is only response. If you want money, get it. Everything is a dream anyway. When you awake and know what you are creating and that you are creating it that is a different thing.

The greatest book is the Bible, but it has been taken from a moral basis and it is all weeping and tears. It seems almost ruthless as given to us in the Gospel, if taken literally. The New Testament interprets the Old Testament, and it has nothing to do with morals. You change your mind and stay in that changed state until it unfolds. Man thinks he has to work himself out of something, but it is God asleep in you as a living soul, and then we are reborn as a life-giving spirit. We do it here in this little classroom called Earth or beyond the grave, for you cannot die. You can be just as asleep beyond the grave. I meet them constantly, and they are just like this. Same loves and same hates. No change. They will go through it until they finally awake, until they cease to re-act and begin to act.

Do not take this story lightly which I have told you tonight. Take it to heart. Tonight when you are driving home enact a scene. No matter what it is. Forget good and evil. Enact a scene that implies you have what you desire, and to the degree that you are faithful to that state, it will unfold in your world and no power can stop it, for there is no other power.

Nothing is independent of your perception of it, and this goes for that great philosopher among us who is still claiming that everything is independent of the perceiver, but that the perceiver has certain powers. It is not so. Nothing is independent of the perceiver. Everything is ‘burned up’ when I cease to behold it. It may exist for another, but not for me.

Let us make our dream a noble one, for the world is infinite response to you, the being you want to be.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 10-3-1969

In all the revelations which await you, there is none so fundamental as the revelation of Jesus Christ. He cannot be known outwardly, but must unveil himself from within. This experience will be yours when your immortal eyes are opened inward, into eternity, the world of thought.

He who awakens in you is the Lord Jesus Christ, but he is unseen by the mortal eye. As an individual the world knows you by your records. They know your date of birth, your parents, your brothers and sisters. Your friends know your weaknesses and limitations, but no one can know the being who awakens within you until the revelation is theirs.

Tonight I will try to show you the Lord Jesus Christ, for he is your true identity. His most fantastic claim: “I am the light of the world” was not claimed by one little individual, but by the universal being who is the life of every child born of woman.

The mortal mind, unable to understand this statement, questioned him, asking him to tell them who he really was and he answered: “Even what I have told you from the beginning.” The beginning of what? The year 1 A.D.? No. Before that the world was, you and I were told that we would descend into and experience death. Then we would return, enhanced by reason of our experiences.

Knowing me and my mortal beginning of only a few years, you may question my words, but I am not speaking about a physical being. The Lord Jesus Christ has unveiled himself in me, yet I remain here in this body of flesh until the silver cord is snapped.

Only then can I return to the world that was mine before that the world was and receive all the glory I was promised when I agreed to enter and experience death. Who is this being I know myself to be? The Lord Jesus Christ, of which we are all one.

Now, we are told: “You are born anew through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Here we see that our birth is conditioned upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You may think this happened 2,000 years ago, but John tells us in his Revelation that “Jesus Christ is the faithful witness, the first born of the dead.” Do not think of this in terms of time, but rather in order of events, for we are dealing with a mystery.

There is only one faithful witness who declares himself to be the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. That witness is Jesus Christ, he who came out from the Father and came into the world to bury himself in every child born of woman. He is in you right now, identifying himself as you. And when he awakes, in you, his first act is to resurrect from the dead. This is followed by your birth from above.

When the story of Christ awakens within you, you are no better than one who will awaken tomorrow for you do not precede him, as his story does not take place in time. I am speaking of the order of events.

Listen to the words carefully: “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born of the dead.” There are two events which take place here simultaneously. “We are born anew through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Christ must first awaken in you, then resurrect himself from the dream in which he died before he (as you) can be born from above. Christ is in you.

He is not some being who lived 2,000 years ago, was crucified on a wooden cross, and rose from the dead for your salvation. The Christ is buried in you individually. This is the age of the awakening and everyone is going to awaken. No matter what a man (or woman) has done here he is forgiven, because God played the part and all things are moving toward the fulfillment of a predetermined end.

We are told in the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, the 51st verse: “We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkle of an eye, for the trumpet will sound and we shall rise from the dead.” At the end of your long, long journey you will be changed, individually. This I know to be true from experience.

You are so unique that you alone hear the trumpet which causes you to awaken and brings you back into the infinite being that you really are – to play your distinct part, for no one can take your place. We shall all – not just a few, but all – be changed – in a moment, in the twinkle of an eye, for the trumpet will sound and we will awaken and rise from the dead.

What is the “trumpe”? The word means “a vibration,” and may I tell you it is the most unusual vibration you have ever felt. I have heard numberless vibrations, as you have. A concert is a series of vibrations synchronized into harmony. The piano, the violin, the cello – all are vibrations; but the trumpet Paul refers to is a peculiar vibration which is centered in the head and cannot be stopped.

When the vibration occurred in me it continued until I awoke to find myself in my skull. How long I had been there I do not know. I will go along with Blake, but I do not know from experience. I only know that a peculiar vibration awoke me. This was followed by my birth from above. And it only took a moment for the trumpet to sound and Christ, in me to awaken.

Yes, Christ is the first born, for his birth begins the series of events which continue for 42 months. And when the revelation has completed itself in you, you will still be tied to your physical body by its silver cord, so you will tell your experiences to encourage others.

Nothing in this world is really important and will prove itself to be pure nonsense. Men are given Nobel prizes, money and honors relative to their findings here which are non-existent. No one will ever find life in a test tube, for life exists only within individual man.

The day is coming when you will feel an activity within you, arrest it, and see the world stand still. Then you will know that you are life itself, and the life you now know yourself to be will never be found in any test tube.

Jesus cannot be known or proved to exist externally. Only the incurrent eyewitnesses can know him. Only those whose immortal eyes are opened inward into the world of thought will see the truth of which I speak, for I have awakened from the dream of life and know myself to be the light of the world.

This is a fantastic claim, one I know you are going to experience. The day will come when you will know you are not only the light of the world, but that you are the sender of infinite, pulsing, living light of which there is no circumference. As light you will be pure, as not a thing will be in it; no worlds, no suns, no planets – but nothing! Just you, and you are infinite light. You will see me as light, yet we will know one another as beings of love, for God is love and in that awareness we are one with God.

Everything said of Jesus Christ in scripture you are going to experience, and those whose eye is opened inward into the world of thought will see you clothed in the garments of love, of power, of wisdom, and of light.

Then, eventually everyone will return to the one being, yet all will be individualized. There is no absorption into, just union with the one being of love, power, wisdom, and light, for this one being is the Christ of scripture. And so I repeat: of all the great revelations which await us, there is none so fundamental as the unveiling of Christ in us.

Let the world do all the unlovely things it is capable of doing, remembering that behind the mask of everyone here, a being is buried who will awaken, rise, and come out. And when he does all will be forgiven, because he will know he was the one who did the unlovely acts as he wore his many masks.

In last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine I read a story written by one of Hitler’s right-hand men. In it he said: “I can’t describe it, but Hitler had the capacity to make everyone obey his will. He seemed to have no center and was in such complete control of himself that we were like puppets to him.”

Hitler slaughtered millions, yet blamed his own people when he did not succeed, saying: “The stronger power has succeeded. They will rule now. It serves my people right.” Here is the voice of hell which is always self justification. In the end Hitler failed and blamed the people he had controlled for many years. He thought he had control forever, but he lost it, for God has planned everything as it has come out and as it will be consummated.

Hitler was used for a purpose. To us it was a horrible purpose, but – as we are told in Genesis: “You intended it for evil, but God meant it for good.” Joseph (the dreamer in you) was sold into slavery, for God knew he could be used for His purpose. The brothers intended evil against him, but God meant it for good and raised Joseph to the level of the Pharaoh, where he saved civilization from starvation.

Read the story of Job, and once again you read of an innocent man who was used. Everyone is Job, who in the end will bring forth that which is buried within, which is the plan of redemption, to say with Job: “I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee.”

After you have gone through all of the furnaces, he who is buried within you (who is your reality of Being, your true identity) will erupt like a tree coming into blossom and bear its fruit. The first fruit to appear is your awakening and your birth from above. The second great event is to discover your Fatherhood. The third occurs as you ascend back into the heavenly sphere where you were before you came down, for no one returns to heaven but he who first came down from heaven, the Son of man.

You came down from heaven. That’s why you are going to go back, enhanced by the experience of this world of hell. The fourth act is a glorious one, when the seal of approval is placed upon your return, for then you are redeemed; and when you leave this sphere you will join your brothers to become one of the watchers from above, faithfully and lovingly awaiting their return.

No one will be lost, not one. Listen carefully: “All will be changed.” Paul begins his story by saying: “Behold I tell you a mystery.” The mystery is that all will be changed. It doesn’t take long. In a moment, in the twinkle of an eye, you begin to awaken and are born from above. Those with mortal eyes cannot see spirit, but those who witness your spiritual birth will see the sign of it. That sign is a child fulfilling scripture: “Unto you a child is born,” for your spiritual birth is when God is born. At that moment he brings back his son (which is yourself) – only now you are expanded from what you were prior to your descent into this world.

You will see your witnesses and read their thoughts. In fact, their thoughts will become objectified just as yours do here. As you think, God sees your thoughts and objectifies them. He sees everything you are thinking, everything you have planned, and projects them for you even though God you cannot see.

Take my message to heart and try to remember what was told you before that the world was. In the last chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes, the Preacher tells of the snapping of the silver cord and the breaking of the golden bowl and pitcher before the dust returns to the earth. Then he calls upon us to dwell upon his words for “The sayings of the wise are like goads, like pegs firmly fixed are the collected sayings which are given by one Shepherd.” One who has had the experiences tells them and they become pegs driven into the minds of many. Beyond this he warns us not to think of anything, “For of the writing and the making of many books there is no end.”

I ask you to dwell upon my experiences. Tomorrow you may be carried away with the news of the day. Although it may be very exciting, it is not important. What someone did, does not matter, and the reason it was done should not interest you. Rather you should be interested in the collective sayings of the wise, all found in scripture and given to you by one Shepherd. Dwell upon the words recorded there and try to find out what is being said.

“Who are you?” they asked. “Even what I have told you from the beginning.” Yes, I am the same being who spoke to you when we all gathered together in eternity. Before we came down you and I were one. Calling you gods, Sons of the Most High, I told you that we were going to have the experience of dying and falling as one man. And then I called you princes. And one day you will know yourself to be the prince of light, the prince of love, and the prince of power, for everything recorded in scripture will be experienced by you. That is your destiny.

It would be my pleasure to pass my immortal eyes on to you who are here, but I cannot do it from this level. It must be done from a higher level, done with the consent of the watchers in eternity, those who are already redeemed from this world. It seems stupid for a little man, weak and limited, to claim to be infinite, living, pulsing light; yet those to whom I have given my eyes have seen me as the prince of light, the prince of love, and the prince of power and wisdom.

I know myself to be the Lord Jesus Christ, yet I also know that I will continue to remain here in this mortal frame until the silver cord is snapped and the golden bowl and pitcher are broken. Only then can I return to those I have always known, those who are eagerly waiting for my return from the world of death.

So it is from death to life, from darkness to light, from bondage to freedom. We voluntarily came down and assumed this bondage of flesh. As we entered the world of darkness we forgot we were the light of the world. Eternally alive, we entered the world of death. We took it on in confidence that we possessed the power and the wisdom to return.

Everyone here will go back, regardless of what you have done, what you are doing, or what you are planning to do. Everyone, including Hitler and Stalin, including every monster who ever lived – all will be redeemed, for they were used for a purpose. No, you don’t love the individual who played the part, but beyond the mask of the body is God. One day the incurrent eyes will be yours and you will see the Lord Jesus Christ behind that mask.

Jesus cannot be proved as having ever existed or known by any outward means. No matter where you search, or what the priests tell you, you will never find any genealogy of Jesus Christ, for he is not to be found outwardly. Only those whose immortal eyes are open into the world of thought can find him. They know the truth concerning Jesus Christ from experience, and in the world of men they will share their story for those who hear to believe or disbelieve.

When John told his story he said: “I am a witness to what I have heard and seen with my own eyes; which I have handled with my own hands concerning the word of life.” Now, John is not some professor who is trying to give society a convincing set of arguments. Rather he is simply telling what he heard and saw in a region beyond that which can be explained with the rational mind. He invites everyone who hears his story of redemption to believe him, but he allows the individual to decide whether he will accept or reject it, just as I do.

Now, the Christ that you accept on faith comes to you as one unknown, yet one who in some mysterious manner lets you experience who he is. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul asks this question: “Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish, having received the spirit by faith, are you now ending with the flesh?”

Now I ask you: are you thinking of Jesus as a being of flesh and blood when you know that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven? Are you thinking of a physical savior? Didn’t you receive the spirit by hearing the story and accepting it with faith, for your acceptance was the spirit. If after hearing this incredible story you believe it, go your way and it will unfold within you. But if you reject it, your rejection will simply delay its experience, for you are destined to know the truth which will set you free from this bondage to decay.

All of the things that man is now discovering concerning the secret of life aren’t so at all. I tell you, you are the light of the world. One day you will come upon a scene, arrest it, and stop all of the intentions of those there. Then you will know that everyone is dead and you alone are alive and life itself. And as you release their activity in you, the scene will take on life once again, and then you will know from experience that you surely are the light of the world.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE LORD, OUR POTTER

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 11-07-1969

In the 64th chapter of the Book of Isaiah we read: “O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay. Thou art our potter; we are the work of thy hand.” When you hear the words Lord, Father, and potter, do you think of another? I certainly hope not.

The word “Lord” is Jod He Vau He [pron. “Yod Hey Vav Hey”] which is defined as “I AM”. Your own wonderful I AMness is the Lord, your Father. And the word “potter” means “imagination” that which is shaping your world. Imagination is the Lord, the potter, the shaper of your world, molding it into its present form.

“God is Man and exists in us and we in Him. The Eternal Body of Man is the Imagination which is God Himself.” (William. Blake)

Let me share a story I read in the October 26th magazine section of the New York Times. It was a letter written by one while in prison on an island in the Asian Sea. This gentleman was under house arrest, watched 24-hours a day, and only allowed to go for a short walk before dinner. Every morning at 9:00 and every evening at 6:00 he had to sign in at the police station before returning to his room.

Now, these are his words: “I began to imagine the tree in the village of Paula the day after my escape. I watched the man whose job it is to sit in the square and watch me as he drank his coffee. I smelled the fresh baked bread coming from the bakery and heard the cobbler opening his shop, and knew it was now 9:00. At 9:30 I would imagine an official speak to the man seated in the square, look up at my apartment intently as the man told him he had not seen me on my balcony that day.

At 10:00 the police would come to investigate and knock down the door. By 10:30 the news would scatter abroad and all would know that I had escaped. Throughout the day the villagers would pass in their silent way, secretly casting a knowing glance at each other, rejoicing in my freedom. Then I would imagine my friends gathering around their little short-wave radio, hearing the news of my escape. It seemed I felt the greatest thrill when I reached the scene where they all knew that I was free.”

At first this was only a day-dream, and then he began to believe in its reality. Oh yes, there were physical means by which he escaped, but they came into being as a result of his imaginal activity. I tell you, to attempt to change the circumstances of your life before you change your imaginal activity relative to it, is to struggle against the very nature of things; for this is a world of imagination, created by God – your reality and all imagination.

All things exist in Divine Imagination who is reproducing Himself in you, the human imagination; therefore, all things exist in you.

Now, you don’t have to be a prisoner physically to use this law. You could be imprisoned financially, socially, or intellectually. All you need is a keen desire to change. And you can, by doing the same thing this gentlemen did; by imagining the scene that would take place the day after your wedding; the day after you received your promotion; the day after you were financially set free to live graciously. Choose your day-after, and then imagine the scene that would take place. This gentleman started by letting the villagers know of his escape imaginatively.

Now, you have friends. They know your present position and the conditions that surround you. If they are not as you would like them to be, let your friends know – not verbally or outwardly – but in your imagination. See them seeing you as they would have to see you, the day after they know things are just as you want them to be. Then wait in confidence for ways to open that you could not devise. No one knows how or when it will happen, but it will. You will find yourself walking across some bridge of incident that you did not consciously devise, which takes you to your freedom – whatever that end may be.

I tell you, “Man is all Imagination and God is Man and exists in us and we in Him. The Eternal Body of Man is the Imagination and that is God Himself.” When this God awakes within you, His birth clothes you with everything said of Him in scripture. It is said that He is the light of the world; that He is love; that He is the power and the wisdom of the universe. May I tell you, when He awakes in you, you will be clothed with power, with wisdom, with light, and with love. And those whose eyes are opened into the inner, eternal world of thought will see you clothed as God.

But if the eye is not opened, they will see you only as the little garment that you wear, with all of its weaknesses and limitations. This you will continue to wear until that silver cord which ties you to it, is released. Only then will your heavenly inheritance be fully realized. But at night, while your garment of flesh sleeps here, you are detached, and move into the world of eternity where you are fully conscious of what you are doing. Then a quick series of events will pull you back to this waking surface of the mind, and you will tell your story in the hope that all who hear it will believe you. One day they will believe, for they will have an identical experience. No one can fail, for grace cannot be earned. It is a gift, given to all when God awakens in all, individualized as the one in whom he awakens.

This man started by simply imagining what the villagers would do if they knew he was free. Being a general under the leadership of the king, the legitimate ruler of the island of Greece, he was imprisoned when the opposition took over, as were many intelligent, brilliant minds of the day.

If they could only see the secret of his story, they too would be set free. Not by the same means I am sure, because God is infinite in his creative power. He has ways and means we know not of. It’s not the story of the means that is important, but the principle; for the means follow the principle.

He simply imagined a scene which would imply the fulfillment of his desire. He began to imagine seeing his friends gathered around the short-wave radio in secret, hearing the news of his escape. The man sat in the square and drank his coffee every day, just as the baker baked his bread and the cobbler opened his shop; but the knowledge of his escape was news – and not an everyday occurrence – for his friends to celebrate. But this day was different and that gave him the thrill of his life to imagine.

Start now to create the scene which, if true, would imply the fulfillment of your desire. If you will, there is no power that can stop its coming into being; because your Lord is your Father, who is your potter, and your desire is clay in His hand. So “Rise and go down to the potter’s house” said the Lord to the prophet Jeremiah, “and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house and there he was working at his wheel. Although the clay in his hand was spoiled, he didn’t discard it but reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

When someone comes into your world, don’t discard him by turning your back because he is ill, financially troubled, or not successful in his own eyes. Rather, see his desire as clay in your imaginal hands. Take that same vessel (person) and rework him into another state as it seems good to you to do.

If he is unemployed, rework him into a man who is gainfully employed and happier than he has ever been in his life. That’s all you do. What means will be applied toward his employment is not your concern. Your only desire is to be the perfect potter.

The individual came into your world as a spoiled vessel, not to be discarded, but to be reworked into another vessel as it seems good to you – the potter – to do. Read it in the 18th chapter, the 2nd through the 4th verses of the Book of Jeremiah. “Arise! Go down to the potter’s house and there I will let you hear my words. So I went down to the potter’s house and there he was working at his wheel, but the vessel in his hand which he was making of clay was spoiled, so he reworked it into another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to do.” And when you do, you will know who the potter is!

This law is true for anyone you may encounter. He need not be a blood relative. He may be someone a friend spoke of; but may I tell you: in the end we are all related, for we are all intermingled and really one. We are not as separate as the world thinks we are. I could not see you this moment if you did not penetrate my brain; so you are literally within me, even though you seemingly exist in the surrounding world independent of my perception.

Now, if you should change on the outside and I become aware of it, the corresponding change would take place within me relative to you. Your change could take place socially, intellectually, financially, or even in your physical appearance; but if I encounter the change, it penetrates me. My acceptance of it will cause me to modify the image of you that I hold.

Now, must I wait for the change to appear on the outside before I can change my image of you; or can I produce the change in me first, and then see a corresponding change on the outside? I can if I know that the potter is my own wonderful human imagination and is creating everything that is taking place in my world. “O Lord, thou art our Father, we are the clay. Thou art our potter, we are the works of thy hand.” The potter, the Lord, and the Father, are the same being; the same awareness; the same Imagination.

Believe my words! Trust your imagination! Having reproduced himself in you, all things now exist in your imagination. If you desire changes, produce them first on the inside. Penetrate that which exists in you, as that penetration will compel the outside to conform to the changes which you, the potter brought to pass. The only way to prove this is to try it. Imagine a scene which would take place after your desire has been fulfilled.

Do not concern yourself as to how it is going to happen; simply go to the end. The most creative thing in you is your power to imagine a thing into existence. We are told in the Book of Hebrews that, “The things which are seen are made out of things which do not appear.” No one can see your thoughts when you sit down to imagine. They are unseen by the outer world, but you know what you have done. Now, because imagination and faith are what creates and sustains your world, if you do not have faith in what you have imagined, it will not come to pass. It cannot, because imagination and faith are two sides of the same coin.

What I tell you I know from experience. I am not theorizing or speculating. I have tested my creative power and have now awakened from the dream of life. I have had the same experiences as one called Jesus Christ in scripture. Now I can say with him, “I am the light of the world.” And those who have the incurrent eyes have seen me in my garment of light.

A friend of mine shared this experience with me last Monday night. She said, “My friend Sharon and I were with you as you prepared to go to the platform. You looked very pale and weak in your dark blue suit, so we bought you some chocolate pudding, chocolate ice cream, and a chocolate bar, to give you strength. As you stepped on the platform, the form we know disappeared and in its place you appeared as light. You were a giant of a man, towering over all, yet nothing but light. As I gazed into your face your light began to intensify and became so great that I awoke.” Then, as an afterthought she said, “The candy, pudding, and ice cream, we bought you cost $0.28.” So now I owe her $0.28.

She saw me become the light that filled the room; and she saw correctly, for I know this to be true. You see, her eyes were given to her by the one to whom I gave my eyes. Now she, too, can see the truth of which I speak; yet, in the giving a spiritual gift is not lost, but retained, to increase its power, its wisdom, and itself.

I am telling you the truth. I live in that world of light. One day I will drop this little thing she saw clothed in a dark blue suit, to be one with my heavenly Father who sent me. But before I go I must give her $0.28, for – like Socrates, who owed a cock, asked that after he had taken the hemlock his debt be paid – I do not want to leave here owing anyone.

I tell you, you are all imagination and not a prisoner of anything or anyone, rather you have imprisoned yourself. You have brought all of your experiences into being and you can change them now that you know who you are.

When you hear the word Lord, don’t think of another. The word is Yod Hey Vav Hey and means I AM, as do the words Father and potter. Your awareness of being is your I AM, your potter who molds your world. To him and him alone lies all of the responsibilities for what is done in your world.

Your own wonderful human imagination is the cause of the restrictions on the freedom that you enjoy today. There is no other cause but the Lord, who is the Father, who is the potter, and if he is your own wonderful human imagination, to whom can you turn to praise or blame for the circumstances of your life? The blind leaders of the blind blame society or the government for the causes of the phenomena of their life.

But I tell you, there is no other cause; for there is no one outside of self. Society, the government, your family, or friends, are all within you. Although they appear to be pushed out, there is not a thing that does not now exist in you; as Divine Imagination (the Lord God Almighty) has reproduced Himself in you – the human imagination; and Divine Imagination contains all things within Himself.

Do not look to another as the cause of your misfortune. If you are perceiving a thing, it is penetrating your brain; therefore it exists in you. That which you are perceiving appears to exist in the surrounding world independent of your perception of it, but don’t wait for it to change. If you desire a change in that which you are perceiving, you must produce the change in yourself. Ask no one to help you; simply persist in your new thoughts and let your changed thinking reproduce itself in your outside world, for it is only an outpicturing of the world of thought within you. Try it. You can change your world as this prisoner did. In his imagination he moved in time to the day after his escape. You can do the same. Would your friends know of your success the day after it was achieved? Would they get together to discuss it? Make their gathering the scene from which you start. What would they say? Would some of them be jealous? Some happy for you? Put them all together and eavesdrop on their conversation. Then believe in what you have heard. Persist and your success is assured.

Tonight I have felt impelled to talk about the law because people seem to forget, and since we are still in the world of Caesar, the law is important. The Book of Psalms begins: “Blessed is the man who delights on thy law, meditating day and night. In all that he does, he prospers.”

Although to me the promise is the one grand objective, for it is the true reality of all; while here in this world of Caesar, rent must be paid, clothes and food bought with Caesar’s coin, so the law is important. It will not fail you, I promise, but it does not operate itself. When you know what you want, don’t pray to any outside God, for the true God is within you. In fact, God is not even near, as nearness implies separation. God is your I am, and there is no place you can go and not be aware of being.

I know that I am not this garment I wear, for I have seen it on the bed when I am not in it; but I have never been anywhere where I am not aware that I am. That “I am” is the Lord – he who I could never be so far away from as even to be near; because nearness implies separation, and I can’t be separated from the Lord.

“O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay. Thou art our potter; we are the works of thy hand.” When I, all imagination, entered death’s door, I found a male garment waiting there. Blake said it so beautifully: “When weary man enters the grave he finds his Savior in the cave. Some find a female garment there and some a male, woven with care.” I found a male garment, others find a female garment; but I – the finder – am Man, not male or female. And I- Man -am one with God; for I and my Savior are one. I and my Lord are one. I and God are one. And I and the potter are one.

Entering the cave which is the human skull, we find a garment woven by the female with care. Immortality occupies the garment you wear and walks in it, believing He is the restriction he wears – from the cradle to the grave – until He awakes. And on that day you will know who you really are; for you will know yourself to be the Lord God Jehovah who is Jesus Christ.

Now let us go into the silence.

neville goddard imagination creates reality

THE MYSTERY OF BAPTISM

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 01-31-1969

Baptism on this level is a symbolic representation of being raised to the realization of being God the Father. In his letter, Paul tells the Ephesians that there is only one baptism. This occurs prior to the realization of being God the Father. And in Paul’s letter to the Romans he states: “We are buried with Christ by a baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we also may walk in newness of life.”

Baptism implies complete immersion. It is said that when Jesus rose out of the water the heavens opened, and the Spirit, in the form of a dove, descended upon him.

Has it ever occurred to you that you are immersed in a body which is 90 per cent water? This is the great water in which God is buried and will remain until – now individualized as you – He will rise out of the water to see the heavens become transparent and the Spirit – in bodily form as a dove – descend with his gift of a new form, a new manner of existence, and a new unification, so that each – while preserving his individuality – becomes God the Father.

In his great eulogy, Paul places baptism as sixth in order. Beginning with the one body, Paul speaks of the one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and finally the one God and Father of all. So this baptism takes place just before you become aware of being – not just God the Father, but the Father of all!

Now it is said that when the heavens opened to complete translucency, Christ – now risen – not only saw the Spirit take on bodily form as a dove, but heard a voice speak directly to him. This event takes place in an individual’s soul, and is not seen or heard by anyone else!

Jesus is the personification of redeemed humanity. He represents all those who have fulfilled scripture. His story takes place in the soul of the individual who has the experience, and it is not shared by another on this level. “I have had a baptism to be baptized with, and now I am constrained until it is accomplished.” All scholars interpret this statement to mean the crucifixion, but it is not.

The crucifixion began with a creative act, when the Spirit of God moved upon and was baptized into these bodies of water. At that moment we were united with Christ in a death like his. After incubation, we will all hatch out and be united with Him in a resurrection like his.

Now inundated in a world of illusion, the Spirit is hovering, incubating, and one day will be raised out of this body of water. Then the heavens will open and the Spirit, in the form of a dove, will descend.

Bear in mind that Jesus represents redeemed humanity. His is the one body into which every being is incorporated. Jesus is the one Spirit, the one and only hope of man, and the only Lord. He is the only faith by which one should live, and the one baptism culminating into becoming the one God and Father of all. This is baptism in the true sense of the word.

In 1926 my mother came to see me in New York City, and was quite upset when she discovered my two-year-old son had not been baptized. She believed that if he died without being baptized he would not go to heaven, so we had him baptized for her sake.

But we are told that unless you are born of water – which you are dwelling in right now, and the Spirit – which is a spiritual experience, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. When this vision possessed me, my head became transparent. Through its translucency I saw a dove floating above me, and I had fulfilled the story in Genesis.

Man is not a fantasy of the earth and water, but the true ark of God, containing everything within him. The dove is the symbol of the Holy Spirit. When Noah stretched forth his hand he received the dove and brought her in unto himself, and there she remained.

In my own case, I came out of the water from which I was inundated. I extended my right hand and the dove lit upon it. Then I brought the dove to my face and it smothered me with love, as the voice of God – personified as a woman – said, “They avoid man because he gives off such an offensive odor; but his love is so great that he penetrated the ring of offense to demonstrate his love for you.”

Just recently I was reading the dialogues of the pilgrims of Buddha (translated from the Sanskrit by Mr. Rhys Davids), where he said: “In the eyes of the gods, human beings are seen as disgusting, revolting, and are accounted as such.” I know in my own case the voice of God spoke similar words, but not in the same manner. And on this level they may not be wrong, when you think of the tremendous amount of advertising is placed upon deodorants. But I do not believe Buddha was speaking of human beings in that manner.

We are here for a purpose. Ours was a deliberate descent, and not because of anything we did that was wrong. And when our incubation is over, we will once more rise from this world of death to be infinitely greater than we were prior to our descent. This water-body called man is the limit of our contraction and opacity, but there is no limit to our expansion and luminosity.

Do you know that when a body weighing 300 pounds is cremated, the amount of ash which remains could be placed in a Campbell’s soup can – so where did the 300 pounds go? It evaporated, because it was all water! We are all individually wearing a garment of water. We are buried with Christ by baptism unto death. And just as Christ rose by the glory of the Father, we too will rise in newness of life.

When this happens to you, no one here will know it, for they cannot see the events you encounter. No one will see the dove descend upon you, the transparency, or hear God’s voice tell you of his love. These events transpire in your soul, and when you share your experience with others some will believe you, while others will not. The majority will not believe, for having been conditioned to think of Jesus as a little individual who lived and died two thousand years ago, they cannot think of him as the personification of redeemed humanity. They cannot see Christ as a cosmic presence buried in all, but only as a mortal man – and that is not his story.

If you cannot enter into the kingdom of God unless you are born of water and the Spirit, then you must emerge (be born out of) the water in which you, as Spirit, first entered.

Your birth as Spirit qualifies you for the new form, the new manner of existence, the new unification of Christ on an entirely different level. One person at a time is called to enter into and form that one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all who is above all, through all, and in all.

Whether you have been baptized here or not does not matter, for it is only a symbolic representation of this – the final mystery in the great series. And when you have experienced the true baptism, you are an entirely different being. No one in the outer world can see the being you know yourself to be. But you will become completely absorbed into that one body, one Spirit, one God, yet you will never lose your individuality. That’s the great mystery and that’s the purpose of it all.

We were individualized before we descended, and tend forever and ever towards ever greater individualization. Having descended into these bodies of water, Spirit hovers over the water, incubating something precious that is buried there until it hatches. And when the water breaks the heavens open, and the Spirit in bodily form as a dove, descends. Then the voice of God declares his love, for he has raised up his glory and you become one with God the Father.

When this experience is yours, you will remain here to share your experiences in the written form, that in the tomorrows your words may spark something in those who read them. In this world of Caesar money and security, love and affection, are sought; but the day will come when nothing will satisfy the individual but an experience of God. Then he will know the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Your baptism in the Christian faith is only a symbolic representation of this great mystery of dying, being buried, and rising again with Christ. But you do not have to be baptized here in order to fulfill scripture.

I hope you will soon fulfill the real baptism and know the mysteries of scripture. My mother had me baptized at the age of three or four. At the time I had no knowledge of what was taking place; but in the real baptism I was the sole actor, alone on the stage where the vision took place.

In his book, John implies that others saw the event, as he put words in the mouth of John the Baptist. Luke suggested others were there, but told us he was only telling a story, saying: “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished within us, just as they were delivered to us by those who from above were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it seems good to me also, having followed all things accurately, from above…”

The phrase “from the beginning” is a translation of the Greek word “anothen”, which means “from above”. This same word is translated as from above, when the Risen Christ spoke to the Sanhedrin [member] Nicodemus, saying: “Unless you are born from above you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Luke is telling you that he has had the heavenly experience and knows what he is talking about, but he does not claim his story is chronologically exact. Luke rearranges the story, ending with the crucifixion, yet knowing that it came first.

Tennyson once said: “Truth embodied in a tale shall enter in at lowly doors.” Luke told his story as though it took place in the outer world, and unfortunately the world has accepted it on that level. Luke cannot be condemned for telling it that way, for it has kept the story alive. But it was written for you, most excellent one who loves God, that you may know the truth concerning the things of which you have been informed.

Having been told these stories, you have been informed of the truth which will one day come to the surface. Believing they happened to one man, you have worshiped an exterior Christ, joined a church, and done all that the church demands of you. But one day the true story will erupt within you. Then there will be no judgment concerning what the evangelist did.

Both Matthew and Mark claimed only the one having the experience saw the clarity of the heavens and the descent of the dove. Luke and John told of witnesses, but I know from experience: you and you alone bear witness to yourself.

That is why, when you tell others that the story written about Jesus Christ has unfolded in you, they cannot believe it. In their eyes you are a human being with limitations and frustrations, while they are looking for something entirely different. They do not know that the reenactment is coming to them, for he said: “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am constrained until it is accomplished.”

When you are baptized with this baptism, you become one with the one body waiting for all to come. You awaken as the one Spirit waiting for everyone to awaken. And as that one being, you will wait for all to set their hope fully upon this grace which comes at the unveiling of Jesus Christ. You will be constrained until everyone is once more brought into the one body, the one Spirit, the one God and Father of all.

After baptism you will take off the garment of flesh for the last time, to become one with God the Father who is above all, through all, and in all; to once more hover and wait for those you have incubated to rise from the dead garments of water where they are buried.

Now is the time to set your hope fully upon the true baptism, when the heavens open and you come out of the water to find the Spirit of God hovering above you. And because you are fulfilling scripture, you will do exactly what Noah did. You will extend your hand. The dove will light upon it and you will bring it into yourself. In my experience, the dove smothered me with love. Then God, in the form of a woman, told me that His love was so great he penetrated the ring of offense. Prior to that experience I had never thought of myself as being offensive; but to those who contemplate this world the ring of death is very offensive.

Throughout the letters of Paul, much is said of this baptism. In the third chapter of Galatians, Paul tells that baptism removes all human divisions of race, class, or sex. That after the baptism we are in Christ and are neither Greek nor Jew, slave nor free, male nor female. Having resurrected from division, we are baptized into the one Risen Lord who is one with every race and every creed; for the Risen Lord is above all divisions.

After baptism you will no longer see people in your dreams, for everything changes. Your little body will remain limited and weak, however, until you are relieved of it. Having fought the good fight and finished the race, you will have kept the faith and received the crown of righteousness and the wreath of the victor. So set your hope upon this – the final of the seven eulogies.

The great confession of Israel, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One,” parallels the Christian creed as the one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one baptism, found in the 4th chapter of Ephesians.

On the first day of January, 1963, I was baptized by the Holy Spirit. Now I, like Paul, spend my days from morning to night telling the story of the fulfillment of God’s promise to the fathers, while many believe and may disbelieve. But I will keep on telling it until I depart this world.

Everyone must and will be baptized into the body of the Risen Lord as the Risen Lord, without loss of identity. Then he will be given a new form, a new manner of existence, and a new unification; because, having been united with Christ in death, h is unified with Christ in a resurrection into a completely new unification.

There is no loss of identity, yet you know you are God the Father of all. I will know you more intimately there than I could ever know you here. I knew you before you descended, and I will certainly know you after we ascend. We can never lose our individuality, but will simply know a greater and greater individuality in that one body, one Lord, one God and Father of all.

Although I urge you to set your hope fully upon this grace that is coming to you, no one knows when it will happen. Do not think that what you have done has any restraining power, because it has none. Everyone has had thoughts which he is ashamed of. I am a perfect example of one who could never have judged myself as kindly or gently, as compassionately or mercifully, as I was judged to become – so how could I claim another as not qualified!

I did not come to judge you. I do not know what you have done and I really do not care, but I urge you not to put a barrier upon yourself because of the things you have done of which you may be ashamed. When His mercy shines upon you, though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow, so it doesn’t really matter.

I am not encouraging you to go out and violate your codes, but I urge you not to carry the burden of your past with you. Let it go if you can, and set your hope fully upon this baptism, for the Father is hovering over you. You do not see him because you are immersed in water, but he is incubating you, and one day you will break through the surface and be baptized into the body of the one God and Father of all.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE MIRACULOUS CHILD

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 10-28-1966

Tonight’s subject is “The Miraculous Child.” This child will not appear to the world, for they are so fixed in their misconceptions of Scripture, and there is no dead weight so heavy. But tonight I wish you would pay special attention, as I want to introduce you to this miraculous child. For “Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born, if he is not born in thee, thy soul is still forlorn.”

God participates in human history and is known in those through whom his timeless purpose is working in time. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ, and he appears, symbolized as a child. This miraculous child is not Christ, but a sign that Christ is born, in you. Now listen to one in whom God’s timeless purpose has been fulfilled in time.

Always remember that all the characters of Scripture are states of consciousness personified. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, none of these forefathers of Jesus appear in any Near Eastern work whatsoever. They do not appear either as individuals or as tribes. Appearing only in Scripture, they are eternal states through which God passes as he unfolds his purpose in you. And his purpose is to give himself to you as though there were no other, just God and you, and finally only you, for you are He.

The promise of a child begins in the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis. This promise was made to Abraham. Although Sarah was beyond the age of child bearing, when the child was born they called him Isaac which means, “he laughs”. Now, you would think he was born of human stock, but this child is a prototype of that which must be born in you. All the ancient prophecies were eschatology, for their visions were only about the last days.

Another prototype child appears in the name of Moses, which is the ancient perfected of the Egyptian verb “to be born”. Something is to be born. We think it is a man called Moses because he came out of the deep. But we find this story unfolding, and unfolding until we come to the point called David. Then we are told, “Go to my servant David and say, ‘When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your son after you. He will come forth from your body. I will be his father and he shall be my son.’” Again the child is promised.

Now we move into Isaiah, “For unto us a child is born, a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. His name shall be called ‘Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.’” Here we find this promise unfolding and unfolding, yet in the very last book of the Old Testament the father is still waiting for the son saying, “A son honors his father, if I am a father, where is my honor?”

The first chapter of the New Testament begins with the fulfillment of this promise. In it we read that this child is born, not of blood, or of the will of man, or of the will of the flesh, but of God. It’s an entirely different birth. Then he tells us, “This shall be a sign unto you. Blessed is she who believes that which she has heard, that there shall be a fulfillment of those things which were spoken unto her from the Lord.” The shepherds of the field appear and are told, “Unto you is born this day in the City of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.” The shepherds enter Bethlehem and, believing, they find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes.

As a Christian you were taught that these events took place on earth. That a little child was born of a woman who didn’t have a husband, or know a man. It hasn’t a thing to do with that. The child is only a sign, a sign that your savior is born and the only savior is God. “I am the Lord your God the Holy One of Israel, your Savior and besides me there is no savior.” There is only God. God, your I AM is the root, the creator of humanity and its offspring because I became what I created. Bursting the shell, I will come out, transcending what I was prior to my fall into my own creation.

I am telling you what I know from experience. The day will come when you will experience it too. My days of being consciously in this word are at an end. Like Paul I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness. There is nothing else for me to do, for I have experienced within myself all that I promised I would.

How will you know when it happens? You will not see signs on the outside, yet there are signs that come to all who are moving toward the end. Everyone, who is hungry, not for bread or for milk but for an experience of God, is here to fulfill the prophecy of Scripture. And Scriptural prophecy has not a thing to do with America, Russia, Europe, China or any part of the world as the prophets of the modern age will tell you. The Bible is not secular history, but the history of salvation. It has nothing to do with any land, but it is all about you who walk the lands of the earth.

Every day the morning mail brings me confirmation of those who are nearing the end. Two letters came this week that I would like to share with you. One lady writes, “I am 59 years old. I did not complete college because I had small sons and the demands of my family life were too great. But during the time I attended college I had a recurrent dream that I must prepare for an exam. As the years have progressed the dream persisted. Now I feel the sense of urgency knowing I must prepare for the great exam. Recently, when I closed my eyes I saw human faces, like the great paintings of Michelangelo, yet they had no eyes. And in the midst of these bodies I saw an infant who smiled at me. As he laughed I felt as though he were in heaven and I his observer. Then I had a vivid dream where I saw my son who was the most beautiful child imaginable. Do these experiences have any Biblical significance?”

The significance of her dream is the great exam. If you have ever been on TV, you know there is such a thing as an idiot sheet, a moving sheet in bold writing. All of these profoundly wise men who speak to you while standing in front of a TV camera, are simply reading an idiot sheet. I am using his analogy for a purpose; for I want to tell this lady that in the immediate future she is going to be given the great exam. Everyone in the world will be called for this exam. You will be called and taken in Spirit, into the presence of the Risen Christ and the exam will begin. He will ask you only one question, “What is the greatest thing in this world?”

Well it’s just like looking at the idiot sheet, for you are looking at the embodiment of love and as you look at the exalted Christ only one emotion permeates you and that is love. So put your heart at rest, for you cannot fail. You don’t have to study; the answer will be automatic. Then love will embrace you and change your lowly body to be of one form with his glorious body. Our translators cannot bring themselves to believe in the literal word of Scripture, so they translate this sentence to read, “He will change our lowly bodies to be like the body of Christ” but the literal translation is “to be one form with.” You aren’t like Christ; you become him. Your lowly body is completely refashioned to be of one form with, not like, his glorious body. When you look at that body you see the human form divine and it’s all love. So in the end there is only one body, one God, one Man and you are He.

Now let me tell you of a letter that came from a gentleman. He said, “I came home on Monday night, sat down in my chair and closed my eyes. As I began to relax a blaze of light appeared before me, and as I looked at the light I could see a pool of golden liquid pulsating light in its center. Then the light formed itself into a beautiful rose which expanded and expanded reaching toward the perimeter of this vast area when I was called to dinner.” Then he asked if this held any meaning.

In the second chapter of the Songs of Solomon we are told, “I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valley.” Who is I am? God. Here is Scripture unfolding within him. He saw the rose, not separate or superimposed upon the light, but the light itself formed the rose. Listen to the words, “I am the light of the world and I am the rose of Sharon.” Sharon means “prosperity; a straight path; the right way; abundance.” When the rose appears in the consciousness of man, it means great abundance. Abundance need not be measure in dollars and cents, but in a sense of well-being, a sense of peace; a sense of rest. The rose is God. I am the rose of Sharon.

Now, to repeat: God participates in the history of man and is known in those through whom his birth is taking place. God is working in you and as he works, Scripture unfolds in you. Scripture has been fulfilled in me. Like Paul, beginning with Moses and the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms, I have interpreted to you in all the Scriptures the things concerning myself. I am not speaking of anything else, only God.

Yesterday, about 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon, as is my custom, I was reading the Bible. My wife was resting in preparation for our dinner engagement, when I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Wearing only my shorts and, thinking it may be a delivery boy, I went to the door and here was a nun who said she had a message for me from God. Then, she began to tell me all about the many devils and terrible things that were going to happen to me if I didn’t get on his side. Finally I stopped her and said, “I am reminded of what Frank Lloyd Wright once said, ‘We are both doing God’s work, you in your way and I in his.’” Then I excused myself and as I closed the door a thought came to me. “He has awakened from the dream of life. Tis we who, lost in stormy vision, keep with fancy an unprofitable strife.” You find a devil and you make more devils because you recognize them and what you recognize you project and make real in your world.

All I can tell you is what I have experienced concerning Scripture. This miraculous child is a fact. The day will come when you will experience everything said of this child. There will be those who will make a hasty journey to see that which has happened in Bethlehem. They will find the child and, knowing whose child it is, they will call you by name. If your name is John they will declare it is John’s baby. Then you will pick up the child, look into its heavenly face and as he laughs the vision comes to its end. And then you will know the reality of the child that was given to you as a sign that the savior was born. There is only one savior who is God. So if the savior is born, God is born. He came down into man and raises man by being reborn, from man, for I am the root and the offspring of David.

Now, the lady and gentleman whose dreams I shared with you tonight do not know one another. Her name is Vera. Born in Russia, she came there to be a dancer in New York City and has now opened a lovely dress shop in the Disneyland Hotel. Jimmie was born in Italy. I have known them both for years, but they have never met. Last night I had a dream. Here is Vera, a lady, quite small and about 50 years old. And Jimmie, also about 50, handsome, wonderful and well put together as he always is, is looking at her. In my dream Vera is his mother and she is hugging me. Jimmie is disturbed and scolds her for displaying her feelings toward me. Then she turned to him and said in a very Russian accent, “And why shouldn’t I? He is your father.” Well, the bewildered look on his face when he heard that bit of news was so priceless I started to laugh. I woke myself up laughing and even woke my wife. Here it is 3:30 in the morning and I am laughing so hard my wife says, “What on earth is wrong with you?” I told her I had a dream and would share it with her in the morning. Then I got out of bed and went into the living room to laugh some more. But his was a true revelation.

If I am the Father of David and I know I am and David is the personification of all the generations of men and their experiences, and Jimmie is a man, am I not his Father? Am I not the Father of humanity if I am the Father of the essence of humanity, which is David? David has called me Father in fulfillment of the 89th Psalm. If I am David’s father, and he is the personification of all the generations of men and their experiences, am I not Jimmie’s father? It’s all the unfolding of Scripture, for there is nothing but God in this world. And when he unfolds himself in you, you will know it too. Those who have not experienced Scripture will think you are as mad as a hatter, but the day will come when you will know that you too are the Father of humanity, because you are going to be the Father of the sum total of all the generations of men personified as the eternal youth whose name is David. And if he is the essence of humanity, are you not, then, the Father of humanity?

In the very last chapter, the twenty-second chapter of Revelations we read “I am the root and the offspring of David.” The creator entered his own creation, then emerged from it; therefore he is now the offspring. But by creating it, is he not its Father? And by entering it, not pretending, but actually becoming it he accepted all the limitations of the human flesh. Now playing all the parts, he cannot come out until the very end of the drama. And when the play is over he, as you, emerge. Then the essence of the whole vast creative world stands before you as a son, and David calls you “Father”.

All this wonderful symbolism unfolds within man. And when the child comes it’s a miraculous child. The government, the full responsibility, all the authority will be on his shoulders. He will close and none shall open. He will open and none shall close. That’s the responsibility that is placed upon his shoulders. His name is Wonderful Counselor, for [he] has infinite wisdom now. Mighty God, possessing divine wisdom and divine might. His third name is Everlasting Father, as he is the eternal Father of humanity and the essence of humanity summarized in the eternal youth called David. Then comes the final title, Prince of Peace. Not just the peace after the conflict of war, but a full and complete enjoyment of everything in this world, for he has found peace. Then you are told, “Of his greatness there shall be no end.” And where does all this take place? In the individual you!

God actually participates in the history of man and is known in those through whom his timeless purpose is working in time. While you are walking, in time, his timeless purpose is working in you. Everyone will experience it, and no one will fail because God became each one of us that we, each of us, may become God.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE MYSTERY OF INSPIRATION

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard – 1-27-1969

Inspiration is a divine action which qualifies the individual to receive and communicate sacred revelation. The prophets, apostles, and incurrent eyewitnesses are those who receive such inspiration.

The prophets’ visions are foreshortened. They see as present what is really future. Prophesying of the grace that is to be yours, they searched and inquired what person or what time was indicated by the spirit of Christ in them, when they predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glory. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you!

The apostles are sent by the Risen Lord to fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament and to share their experiences with all.

Individual man, having been conditioned to believe that God is somewhere in space as someone on the outside, cannot believe that everything he beholds is within his own human imagination. But it is.

We are told: “He who receives you, receives me, and he who receives me, receives him who sent me. If Christ is in you, although your body is dead, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will raise you also through his Spirit within you.” (Matthew 10 & Romans 8) The first quote, from Matthew, tells you that God is in you, for the writers of the New Testament identify the Christ who governs your life with Jehovah, who inspired the prophets.

Paul tells us that Christ is in you, although your body is dead. This I know to be true. I have stopped time and witnessed how dead this body is. Time and again I have moved into a society, arrested the activity in me that causes the animation I am observing, and everyone has stood still. They appear to be as dead as the statues of clay or marble in a museum. I have entered a room to become possessed by the motion that inspires things. I have arrested this action, and everything has stood still. I have walked among those present to discover they are all dead. Now I know that Paul’s statement is true: “If Christ is in you, although the body is dead, he who raised Christ from the dead will raise you also, through his Spirit within you.”

But how do I convince you that the Lord God Jehovah is actually in you? That Jehovah is dreaming he is you, and in the end will awaken as you? How do I convince you that you will witness the images the prophets used? They tell us that Christ is the Rock. That you have forgotten the God who gave you birth.

The prophets equate the Rock with the Lord God Jehovah. This I know to be true. One day I sat in the silence, when quartz appeared before my vision. As I watched, the rock fragmented into numberless pieces and instantly molded itself into the human form, seated in the lotus posture in profound meditation. As I realized I was looking at myself, the form began to glow. It increased in intensity until it reached the limit of translucency. Then it exploded and my vision came to its end. Now I know I am the Rock that begot me.

Out of that solid state of death comes life, for you put this limit of contraction and opacity called Man upon yourself. At the present time three and a half billion of us walk the earth, individualized, because the being which gives us life is asleep.

Believing the world is taking place independent of our perception, we do not realize that our dreams are projecting themselves on this screen of space, and that we are in conflict with our dreams. But one day God will awaken within your dead body; and when he does, all of the imagery of scripture will surround you, identifying you as the central figure of the Bible — the Lord God Jesus Christ.

Scripture is all about God, as there is no one else. God and his name are one! That name is I AM! Falling asleep, God breathed upon your body and it became animated, as He dreams your world into being. One day God will awaken and all of your confusion will end. Then you will take off your garment of death to return to the being you were before that the world was. You will be enhanced beyond your wildest dreams, for there is no limit to your expansion and translucency. A limit was set to contraction and opacity, which is the body of death called Man; but your expansion and translucency is limitless.

Who would have thought that the imagery recorded in the 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy was true: “Of the Rock that begot you, you are unmindful and have forgotten the God who gave you life.” In this verse God is equated with the Rock that fragmented itself and is defused in all.

Although now a universally diffused individuality, the Rock’s name forever and ever is I AM! Every child born of woman says, I am! That is the fragmented rock. In the end, when the fragments gather together to form one being, you – wearing your face – will realize no one exists independent of your perception, for the world is contained within your own wonderful human imagination, and projected by you.

When I tell you what I know from inspiration, it is true, for it happened to me. And when it does, I turn to the Old Testament to find a passage in the word of God that parallels my experience. If I do, then I have two witnesses that agree in testimony, making it conclusive.

I saw myself begotten out of a rock, for the rock fragmented, then gathered itself together to form a person I knew to be myself – not the being I shave in the morning, but myself raised to the nth degree of perfection. That being was meditating me, and I must become as perfect as He is. And when I am He awakes and I am eternal life, the one who came down into a body that was dead, to dream the dream of life. Everyone is this completely diffused being. Knowing that you are, you are mentally saying I am; and that is God’s name forever and ever.

Now, not everything in the Bible is inspired. Paul’s passages about marriage are not. Paul confesses he is not married and wishes that everyone were as he is; but if that were true there would be no offsprings. Paul did say: “It is far better to marry than to burn.” In other words, it is better to have union with what he calls the marriage state, than to long for such satisfaction. This was his opinion, not his inspiration. In his letter to the Romans, Paul states his opinion about the homosexual – only because he forgot that in the Old Testament God made everything and pronounced it good and very good. If God made everything, then God made the homosexual, did he not? So not every word of scripture is inspired; but you will know the passages that are, for when you awake, scripture unfolds in you.

It is said that, beginning with Moses and all the prophets and the psalms. Paul interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things that concerned him. Remember: in Paul’s day there was no New Testament. It was written to record the passages of the Old Testament which were fulfilled. So when you read the New Testament, pay strict attention to any passage that is quoted by the Risen Lord and taken from the Old Testament.

In the tenth chapter of John, the Risen Lord says: “I and my Father are one. Why do you condemn me for saying I am the Son of God? Is it not written in your law…” – (and he quotes the 82nd Psalm) saying: “‘I say, you are gods’? If it is written, ‘Ye are gods and scripture cannot be broken, why do you condemn me, whom God consecrated and sent into the world?’ “Here is the Christ in you, quoting scripture after having risen from the sleep of death. And the moment Christ awakens in you, you are the Risen Christ!

There is only one Risen Christ and everyone is being gathered together into that one being. Although we have different talents, everyone will know God’s embrace, qualifying him for apostleship.

If you are meant to experience scripture consciously, you will be sent, and tell your experiences to those who will be drawn to you, to show them the parallel between what happened to you and what the word of God said through His inspired prophets. When the prophets inquired, they were told that they were not serving themselves, for their time had not come. But scripture has been fulfilled now, and the time is here for all to awaken.

We are in the act of awakening as God, and when the visions come they cannot be stopped. Coming suddenly and unexpectedly, their power possesses you as though something is wearing you. Then you begin to see and hear that which kings and prophets long to see, and cannot because the time has not fully come for them.

As passage after passage of scripture unfolds within you, you will recognize the inspired ones as they take place; but not everything written in scripture was inspired. They wrote certain dietary laws based upon what they called the need of the time, but these are not inspired. There are passages in both the Old and the New Testament that were not inspired, but man-made traditions which have enslaved the minds of men. We are asked: “Why do you deny the word of God for the traditions of your fathers?” If you are going to accept the man-made traditions, you will never know the inspired word of God.

The inspired word of God comes to certain individuals because God is rebuilding his shattered temple with living stones. This temple is not made with human hands, but with the redeemed. When one awakens, he becomes a living stone in that one divine body.

Now, “If the Spirit of Christ is in you, although the body is dead, he who raised Christ from the dead will raise you also through his spirit, which dwells in you.” If His Spirit wasn’t dwelling in you, He could not raise you. I know that when I awoke, there was no one there to lift me up. The wind was there so the invisible God was present, but I saw no other garment. I awoke within myself and when I came out, my body lying on the bed appeared to be dead.

Have you ever been in a recovery room in a hospital? In 1952, I had my gall bladder removed and my body was wheeled into a recovery room after the operation. When I came to, I looked at the four others who were there, and thought they were dead and we were in a morgue. Well, these mortal bodies we wear are dead. They are animated and seemingly alive because of the presence of God in them. That God, you are! You cannot go to eternal death in that which cannot die, for God is life. The body God wears returns to dust, out of which it was made; but you cannot die, for you are God Himself!

Spirit entered your body of flesh as your breath of life. At that moment God became human, and humanity became a living being. Inspired scripture happens each time the Risen Lord prepares to disappear from the visible world. His breath is his baptism with the Holy Spirit, which quickens your dead body into a life-giving spirit.

Having experienced scripture, when I disappear from this world I cannot go without, for – containing all within myself – I must go within.

This is the mystery of inspiration. You will be possessed by a vision, to find yourself playing the central role in a drama that is taking place within yourself. And when the vision fades you will search the scriptures to find the inspired word of God you have just fulfilled.

When you tell your experiences to all who will listen, few will believe you, for they have been conditioned to believe in some little external Jesus Christ and prefer to remain that way.

It is the Christ within man who is his hope of glory. That is the Christ who fulfills scripture. Having had scripture fulfill itself in me, I have interpreted to you in all the scriptures the things concerning – not a man called Neville, but God’s power, in me, called Christ.

Do not be embarrassed when I tell you that you are God. Instead, walk believing you are that important. You don’t have to become arrogant, but you must assume you are God. Think about it! Stop believing in God and start believing as God. Do this and the visions will come to confirm your assumption.

Scripture is all about Christ, the Jehovah you are. The spirit and the flesh are one; therefore, when David appears, in vision, you are revealing your true identity to yourself. This I know, for I have found David. He called me Lord. I know I am the Rock that begot him, for I have played all of the fragmented parts and put them together to form David.

When David calls you father, the Rock of his salvation, you will remember you are the Lord. Then you will tell salvation’s story, and if God is still asleep in those who hear, they will think you are mad. That’s all right, as all inspired men – being judged by the garment they wear – will appear mad to those who hear them. When you claim you have a spirit, you will be called mad, just as it is said of the Risen Christ in the tenth chapter of John.

Today, as in the past, people believe scripture will be fulfilled in a secular manner. But while occupying their garment of death, everyone will individually fulfill God’s word.

You are destined to know the power of stopping and starting time. Possessed by the Spirit, you will be taken into a room. Knowing intuitively who you are and the power you are feeling, you will arrest that activity within you and everything will stand still. As you examine that which was so alive and seemingly independent of your perception only a moment ago, you will discover it is all dead. Then, releasing their activity in your imagination, everything will once more become animated and continue its purpose. If a bird was in flight when you arrested it, it will continue to fly when released. If someone is carrying food to a table when arrested – although you can keep them in that position for as long as you like – when you release the power you know yourself to be, they will continue to serve the meal as if nothing had happened.

Can you imagine doing that? I tell you it is true, but as long as you identify yourself with a body of death and believe it is you, you will not realize you are your own hope of glory.

The body you care for and keep well is dead, while I – the awareness who entered it – AM a living being, who will experience scripture while in this dead body. I came into the world and took upon myself the body of a slave when I was born in the likeness of man. Now, wearing the human form, I AM obedient unto death, even death upon the cross of man. While in this state, I will experience the word I inspired the prophets to write, for I AM the God in you!

Having created an incredible adventure, I prophesied that I would die and overcome death. The prophecy has been fulfilled and will continue to be fulfilled in all, for I am God, capable of overcoming my last enemy, which is death. I will awaken in my grave and come out unassisted to find myself greater than I was before the adventure.

Those who think of me in terms of the outer form I wear will see the things that were foretold; but not me, for I AM spirit and cannot be seen with the mortal eye. Having eyes that see not and ears that hear not, I will give them eyes that they may see and bore ears that they may hear what kings and prophets long to see and hear, but cannot. A retreat will not cultivate inspiration. It doesn’t come that way. The fire that rises within you is the same fire that descends like a bolt of lightening and splits you in two. You cannot consciously lift this power through contemplation. Only He who first descended can ascend into the kingdom of heaven. Descending like a bolt of lightening, the curtain of the temple is split, releasing His spirit that was trapped inside. Then your power is raised back into the heavenly state from which you came, for you are the God of scripture who said: “I say, ‘You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you. Nevertheless you will die like men and fall as one man, O princes.’ ”

From now on, think of yourself as spirit, not flesh and blood. People are so proud of their physical line, yet if they knew its background they might be ashamed of it. Many a person has paid a fortune to trace his lineage and then spent another fortune to forget it.

Recently I read of a questionnaire which was sent out to various church officials in England, asking what they thought was going to happen to them when they died. One minister replied: “I assume I will enter into the joy of the Lord, but why bring up such an unpleasant subject?” This is true the world over, because man does not know he is immortal and cannot die.

You came into a world of death. The body you now wear will return to dust from whence it came; but you, its occupant, cannot die. Rather, you will simply dream yourself into another body of death, animate it in a terrestrial world like this, and continue to do the same things you are doing here. You will be in an environment which the depths of your being finds best suited for what He still wants to do, and you will continue doing it until you awaken in that garment and fulfill scripture.

Then you will take off your garment of death and return to the glory that was yours before that the world was. We knew each other intimately before we descended, and we will know each other just as intimately when we take off all of these masks and ascend.

In this world, we wear separate, individual bodies; but in eternity we form the one body. We are many, yet one. “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” In that state there will be only one Lord, one God and Father of all, and all form that one. No matter what type of dreams an individual has, in the end they will be but dreams; for when he awakes and returns, we will love him as dearly as we did before the descent.

Inspiration is a gift of God, which cannot be acquired. Because God is in you, scripture is inspired from within. At the present time, Christ – God’s power and wisdom – is personified as you. Although the body you wear is dead, He who raised Christ from the dead will raise you also. Christ in you is the one who rises. His spirit is your breath. Breathing his inspiration, you hear and feel the wind. Then you who radiate the glory of that God breath will awaken as God Himself.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE MYSTERY OF LIFE

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 12-12-1969

The words of one in whom the great mystery of life unfolded, are enigmatic. And the evangelist who wrote the gospels, kept that great mystery as it was told. In the 17th chapter of the Book of John, he is speaking to God the Father, the depth of himself, saying: “Now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world and I am coming to thee. Holy Father, keep in thy name that which thou hast given to me that they may be one, even as we are one.” (The only name that can bind us together and make us one is Father. When you and I discover that we really are the Father, we will understand the mystery of life.) Now he makes this statement: “I have guarded them and none is lost but the son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled.”

Bear in mind, this is not secular history, but salvation history; so who is this son of perdition that is lost? Scholars claim it is one called Judas, but that is not true. If you want to get close to the answer, read the 18th Psalm, which is repeated in the 22nd chapter of 2 Samuel. This is a hymn David sings, praising the Lord for saving him from death and destruction. And the word “perdition” means “death and destruction.”

Let me take these enigmatic words and show you what they really mean. The son of perdition is one who hears, but refuses to accept, the Christian revelation. The 2nd chapter of 2 Thessalonians tells us that: “The lawless one, the son of perdition, will be revealed and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by his appearing and his coming.”

I tell you salvation’s story as I have experienced it. You may deny my words, or agree with them. Those who deny me are the anti-Christ, the son of perdition. They themselves will not be destroyed, for the mystery of Christ will unfold in them.

Rather, the state of consciousness in which they dwell, will be lost, to them “for none have I lost but the son of perdition.” No individual will, or can be, destroyed, for he is a son of God. He can fall into the state known as the son of perdition, and while in it, completely deny this incredible story is true. But when it awakens in him and becomes true, then he has nowhere to go but to admit the experience.

If I tell you the incredible story and you think it is silly, I am not concerned, but confident it is going to happen in you; and when it does, what you thought before does not matter.

And so it is with others that come after you: When they are confronted with the experience, their thoughts and beliefs change. Everyone will be saved, and the only thing that is lost is the state of consciousness in which the individual lived when he heard salvation’s story and could not accept it.

The son of perdition has nothing to do with any Judas, for he is the one who betrays the messianic secret. No one could ever betray you but yourself, for no one knows your secret but yourself! Judas is Judah, the Lion’s whelp. He is the only son named in the genealogy of Jesus. “Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers.” Judah is the one who knows and tells the secret.

The son of perdition is not an individual man who can be destroyed, because every child born of woman is a son of God; and it takes all of his Sons to form God, as told us in the 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy: “He has put bounds to the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.” And every child born here is an emanation of a son of God.

The word “Elohim,” translated “God,” is a plural word. We are told that “In the beginning God (Elohim) created the heavens and the earth, saying: `Let us make man in our image.” Then the gods (Elohim) came down and buried themselves in humanity, and not one son can be lost, only the son of perdition, the state of consciousness which rejects and denies the Christian revelation.

You may question how a man can be consumed in the fire, turn to dust, and yet survive; but I tell you: all things are restored to life by the seed of contemplative thought, even the little discarded flower. That is restoration; but I am speaking of resurrection where the son is resurrected, not the body of flesh and blood he wears here. He who occupies a body that is always restored, is a son of God going through the world of death. And when his journey is over, he awakens from his great dream of death by the signs of life that follow.

Now, calling himself the son of man, Jesus speaks of himself in the future, saying: “When the son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Jesus is always coming, always awakening, in man. The great mystery called Christmas is the beginning of the signs of faith of which many will reject, as told us in the 2nd chapter of Luke. When Simeon took the little child in his arms he called it a sign for the fall and rising of many in Israel saying, “Thoughts out of many hearts will be revealed.” This is true, for I have told the story and some have accepted it while others have disbelieved.

But even those who deny it now will one day pull themselves out of the state of perdition by finding Jesus rise in them as their very being. Then, by the breath of his mouth (the word of God), perdition will be slain by the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, for the Word cannot return void. It must accomplish that for which it was sent. The gospel is the Word of God which actually became you that you may become the Word. Sending himself into the world as sons, God raises himself back to the awareness of being the Father.

Now he tells us, “When you see me you have seen the Father.” How can this be? When you see me you know me to be yourself. You will never see the Father outside of yourself. If anyone should come saying, “Lord, there he is, or here he is,” do not believe him for you will never find God outside of yourself. He will rise in you and you will know him only when his only begotten son, David, stands before you and calls you Father. Then and only then can you say, “I have found David, the son of Jesse (I AM), a man after my own heart who will do all my will.”

In the state of consciousness called the son of perdition you cannot believe my incredible story. But the state will be destroyed by the breath of his mouth, as his Word unfolds in you. Although you denied it prior to the eruption of the Word in you, after you experience all that is said of Jesus Christ, you know you are he, and you cannot deny it. So the son of perdition is the only one that is slain, the only one that is lost. It’s part of the play.

Everyone called by any name is saved, because it has already happened and will continue to happen; for I am in them and they are in me. Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou has given me. That name is Father. I have kept them in the name thou gavest me by telling them that they are the Father, and they are moving towards the discovery of it. Although some did not believe me, I have guarded them and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture (which is thy Word) might be fulfilled. I told them thy Word as I experienced it. I interpreted thy Word to them, and Father – they heard it. Some rejected it and some believed it. In spite of those who rejected it, may I say: they cannot die, for they are my brothers as we came down into this fragmented state together.

In this morning’s Los Angeles Times Book Review section, several of Robert Grave’s poems were printed. As I read them this one little verse stood out and my heart jumped within me. These are the words, if I recall them correctly:

“Hold fast with both hands
To that Royal love which alone
As we know certainly,
Restores fragmentation into true unity.”

What a revelation! The great poets are the ones who see so clearly. And those who have the capacity to use words, as Robert Graves has, say it so beautifully.

In the world the One is fragmented into the many. Regardless of the pigment of your skin, your race, your nation or belief, the world is the fragmented Rock that I saw back in 1934. During that time I was a dancer. The country was in the deep depression, and people could not afford to pay to be entertained by a dancer.

I lived in a basement apartment on 75th Street in New York City, not knowing where the next dollar was coming from. I did not despair, however, but sat in the silence and quietly closed my eyes. I was not thinking of anything in particular, just resting with my eyes shut, watching the golden clouds which always come, as all the dark convolutions of the brain grow luminous. As I contemplated this golden, liquid light, a quartz approximately 20″ in diameter suddenly appeared, then fragmented itself into numberless parts. As I watched, they gathered themselves together into a human form seated in the lotus posture. Startled, I realized that I was looking at myself – but a self containing such majesty of face and beauty of features, that I could never have believed possible. There was nothing I could have added to that perfection to improve it.

I was looking at myself in deep meditation, not as a piece of clay, but a living statue. Then it began to glow and increased in luminosity until it reached the intensity of the sun and exploded; and I awoke to find myself still seated in my chair in my little basement apartment in New York City. Turning to scripture, I read the 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy: “Of the Rock that begot you, you are unmindful and of the God who gave you birth you are unaware.”

Then in the 10th of 1 Corinthians, I read: “They drank from the spiritual Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” Now I know that within all is Christ, the Rock that never fails.

Back in 1929, the market broke, and 17 million men were unemployed. At that time we only had a population of maybe 130 million, whereas today we number 204 million. Our bins were filled, but people could not pay the tax or get the money to distribute the food.

By 1934 I had already gone through five years of the depression, so I wasn’t worrying about my next meal, or my next job for that matter. I was just resting, for by this time depression was a state of mind. So, as I daily did, I sat in my chair and turned my attention inward, into my brain, and contemplated within.

Then, as always, the clouds began to appear, grow luminous, and move in lovely, billowy, golden liquid light. Then came the rock. The perfect imagery of scripture. And the Rock was Christ. He formed himself into me, but me as a perfect being.

Everyone is destined to have these experiences. They are enigmatic but – luckily for us –those who recorded the story in the gospels kept the mystery in the words, and did not try to explain them in detail. Many will deny it, but they are not lost because of their denial, for nothing is lost but the son of perdition – the belief in destruction and death.

Everyone, seeing their friends depart this world have to admit to themselves that things do die. We came down into a world where everything dies; yet I tell you: nothing really dies, but returns by the seed of contemplative thought. But that is not the mystery of Christmas.

I tell you: God himself is housed in that which appears to die. He is dreaming this dream of death which we call life. One day he will awaken through a definite series of events, beginning with his resurrection. Blake claims the sleep of death is 6,000 years. I do not know how long my dream was, but I do know that when I awoke it seemed as though I had been there for an eternity.

My skull was completely sealed, but I had an innate knowledge as to what to do. I pushed the base of my skull and something gave, leaving a hole which I squeezed myself through and came out of that skull, just like a child comes out of its mother’s womb.

Then the imagery of scripture, as told in the 2nd chapter of the Book of Luke, surrounded me. I held the sign – the little child wrapped in swaddling clothes – in my arms and saw the three witnesses to the event, those who were told to “Go quickly into Bethlehem where you will find a sign that a Savior was born this day.”

God is the savior of the world as told us in the 43rd and 45th chapters of the Book of Isaiah. “I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior and besides me there is no savior.” The savior’s name is I am.

It is God who awoke when I awoke in my skull. In the Book of Psalms, God is told to “Rouse thyself, why sleepest thou, O Lord.” It is God who sleeps and dreams the dream of life, animating the world of death until he awakes within the skull of man where he first entered. His departure from that tomb is the birth we now celebrate on the 25th day of December.

This is followed by the great revelation of remembrance, for on that day God’s son David reveals your fatherhood. After this revelation you will understand the words of Robert Grave’s poem which I have quoted, because only then will you know true unity. If I am the father of your son, and one you know other than the speaker is the father of our son, are we not one father? So in the end there is only one body, one Lord, one Spirit, one God and Father of all.

One body fell. Its fragmentation is humanity. We are all sons of God being collected and brought back into the true unity as God the Father. Having played all the parts – the good, the bad and the indifferent – your son reveals your fatherhood. When these signs confront you, your journey is at its end.

Christianity is based upon the affirmation that a series of events happened in which God revealed himself in action for the salvation of his sons. God brings all the sons back by giving them himself; and it takes all the sons to form God, so in the end there is only God the Father.

It takes one who has experienced scripture to explain it. Who would have believed the third chapter of John could be literally true? Calling himself the son of man he said: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up.”

I know this truth from experience for I – a son of man – was lifted up in spiral form, just like a fiery serpent, right into the kingdom of heaven – which is within, as told us in the Book of Luke. As the temple of the Living God, my body split from top to bottom, and I – the son of man – rose into that heavenly state like a serpent, as it reverberated like thunder.

And who would have thought that when the Holy Spirit descends, it is in the bodily form of a dove, but it is. The Holy Spirit so loves you because you have finished the work that you, yourself, set out to do, that he penetrates the ring of offense to demonstrate his love.

We, a brotherhood of one, agreed to dream in concert before we descended and became fragmented. In this world we are seemingly separate brings, at war with one another, and yet there is no other because eventually we will be the Father of God’s only son. So,

“Hold fast with both hands
To that Royal Love which alone
As we know certainly,
Restores fragmentation into true unity.”

Here is one who stands before you and speaks of being here, yet tells you that he is to come. Then he asks the question: “Will he find faith upon the earth?’ So he is always coming, always awakening, and one in whom he awakens turns to his immediate circle and wonders if anyone will believe him.

In the story, Jesus is a wine bibber, a glutton, a man of the world who loves harlots and tax collectors and all the sinners. He has awakened in me, and because I, too, like a good dinner, a good bottle of wine, and a few good martinis, my testimony is dismissed; and I am considered an impostor, because this is not a popular concept of what Jesus ought to be.

But I say to you, if anyone tells you: “Come, I have found him,” do not go, because God cannot be found any place but within you. He is buried in you, will awaken in you, and rise in you, as you.

“It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him.” Have you seen his face? It is just like yours, but raised to the nth degree of perfection. He is the Rock, and the Rock is Christ. We have forgotten the Rock that begot us, and are unmindful of the Rock that gave us birth.

That Rock was fragmented, and you forgot that the world round about you was nothing more than yourself pushed out. So you have fought shadows, believing in the seeming other, when housed within that seeming other is the only God, and you are he. The same series of events will awaken in him as they will in you, and in the end we will all know each other.

Even though I know I am God the Father, and you know that you are God the Father, there is no loss of identity. And for all the identity of person, there is this strange, peculiar discontinuity of earthly form. You will wear your earthly face, raised to the nth degree of perfection. You will have a human voice and hands, but your body is indescribable. It is wisdom and above all things, it is Love.

Everyone in the universe will experience the mystery we are now about to celebrate, called Christmas. This is not some little day that took place once and for all 2,000 years ago. It is always taking place, for it is the coming of God, awakening within man. Were he not in you, you could not breathe. So he slays the son of perdition by the breath of his mouth, and destroys him by his appearing and his coming.

God the Father is within you, emanating the garment you are wearing. He cleaves to it, and you – in turn – cleave to him, until one day you learn to love only one being, and see that one being reflected in all things.

Hold to him. His name is I am. He loves his emanation and will cleave to him and they will become one. Then he awakes, wearing that individualized face which is perfect. I will meet you in eternity and I will know you; but for all the identity of person, there will be a discontinuity of form. A form that is glorious beyond the wildest dream of man. The form is all power, all wisdom, and all love. We purposely descended into this world to accomplish that end.

I hope that when you get together on Christmas day to celebrate with your family and friends, that you will remember what Christmas really means, and know that everyone present will have this experience.

They, too, will awaken to being God the Father. This I know, and because there is only one Father, he is one with the world. All the brothers will return, and in returning they will be God the Father; for it was God’s pleasure and will to give himself to all of his sons, so when all return, they are God Himself.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE NEW CHRISTOLOGY

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 9-22-1967

You will find this a very practical night, for I feel that the truth of the working of God’s law should be looked upon as intensely as anything in this world. So tonight I want to show you quite clearly how God’s law operates.

We are told in the 14th chapter of John: ‘Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? When I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am there you may be also.’ You may think some man is speaking to a group of men as I am here; but these words were spoken by the human Imagination, who – having come out from the Father, came into the world. Now leaving the world, human imagination is going to the Father’s house. He is returning to discover the source, the cause, of the phenomena of life.

Jesus Christ, your own wonderful human imagination, is the way to everything in the world – but specifically to the Father. Tonight we will take this thought on a practical level so that everyone will know how to bring into this world everything he wants, no matter what it is.

Today billions of dollars are being spent on anti-poverty programs; yet the one consuming thing we need (which will not cost one nickel) is a new Christology, a new way of thinking of Christ as the human imagination! Christ is the cause of everything, but as long as the churches mislead the world – by teaching he is on the outside as one who lived and died 2000 years ago to whom you should turn and pray – you will never find him. Poverty can never be overcome on the outside, no matter how much money is given to the poor. Only when the poor man is told that he is the source of all life and taught how to turn and pray to himself, will he overcome poverty. So the outstanding need is to teach this new Christology, to tell everyone you meet that Christ is the human imagination, for without this knowledge – I don’t care what you do – you will never bring your desires into fulfillment.

In my Father’s house are unnumbered mansions. Unnumbered states of consciousness. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am you may be also. In this statement Imagination is telling you he is the Father for ‘No one comes to the Father but by me.’ Only when you come to the awareness that your human imagination is the phenomenon, the source of all life, will you find the Father.

In the 60th plate of his poem, ‘Jerusalem,’ Blake speaks of the tower of Babel. I am sure you are all familiar with the story of how the tower contained multiple voices so that no one understood the other. Today, even though we and those in Romania, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia live in what is referred to as democratic countries, we do not mean the same kind of democracy. To us democracy is based upon the principle of compromise, but not the compromise of principle as they do. So the world is Babel and Blake makes this statement: ‘Babel mocks saying, there is no God or Son of God. That thou O Human Imagination, O Divine Body, art all a delusion. But I know thee, O Lord.’ (Here Blake calls his own human imagination, ‘Lord’) saying: ‘when thou ariseth upon.’ In the morning when Imagination ariseth and the eye awakens, you see the familiar objects about as life itself arises. The world is animated by your human imagination. If it did not return in the morning you would be called dead, for life is nothing more than an activity of imagining. So Blake continues, saying: ‘when thou ariseth upon my eyes, even in this dungeon, this iron mill.’ You see, Blake saw the physical garment as a dungeon, a mill of iron.

But your Imagination knows all, is all, and is all powerful! If you should forget something, knowing that your own imagination is Jesus Christ, say: ‘Thank you Father that you always hear me.’ Do that and in the matter of moments the thought will return. Recognize your own wonderful human imagination as the only God, the only Lord Christ Jesus, for besides him there is no other. So the outstanding need this day is for a new Christology, a new knowledge of Christ, a completely new thinking of the human imagination. Until this is done unnumbered billions will be appropriated to fight poverty to no avail. You can never give a poor man enough to satisfy him, and the day you stop giving he will cut your throat.

In our little island of Barbados we had a neighbor who had a cow. (Now, when I was young if you wanted milk you either kept a cow or a goat.) His cow had a calf and produced more milk than the neighbor could use, so the maid was sent to offer the excess milk – at no charge – to Mr. Seeon, a neighbor. He was delighted to receive it and was given his quart of milk every day until the cow was once more with calf and was dried up for the oncoming delivery. When Mr. Seeon was told that there would be no milk for about four weeks, he said: ‘If you knew you couldn’t keep me supplied with milk all of the time, you should have never given it to me in the first place. You have conditioned me to a quart of milk a day and now I have none.’

May I tell you: Mr. Seeon is simply representative of the world to whom you give. Try giving someone something on a monthly or yearly basis, then stop it, and you will find yourself his enemy. Knowing what you did in the past, he will hate you because you are not continuing to provide for him. But you can give him a new Christology by telling him that he doesn’t need you. That the source of all the phenomena of life is in him; that source is his own wonderful human imagination who is Jesus Christ.

Instead of teaching the true Christ, the churches tell of a Christ Jesus who lived and died two thousand years ago. They teach that he is still suffering for them even though they, themselves, are suffering. They do it because the priests do not know who Christ is. But if you who know who he is will put him to the test tonight, you will influence the world and bring about a new Christology, a new thinking about the human imagination; for the human imagination is Christ and there never was or never will be another.

In the 14th chapter of John, Imagination is speaking, saying: ‘Let not your hearts be troubled; you believe in God believe also in me.’ I say the habit of worry discloses the lack of faith in the sovereignty of God. You believe in God? Believe also in imagination! If you worry you don’t believe in your imagination, for worry is your confession of your lack of faith in the sovereignty of God. Now imagination continues, saying: ‘In my Father’s house are many mansions, were it not so would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also.’

Right after the Second World War, I went to Barbados with my wife and daughter after purchasing only a one-way ticket there. Four months later I decided to arrange for my return passage, as I was scheduled to lecture on the first day of May. At that time there were only two ships servicing the dozens of islands, and, although my brother had tremendous power in the islands, he could not do anything toward getting us passage back to the United States. Hundreds of people were waiting on the list and I was informed that I could not get passage until the end of September. When I heard this I said to myself: ‘All right, I’ll get out.’

That afternoon I went to my hotel room, and sitting in an easy chair I allowed it to become a little boat. (You see, in those days there was no deep water harbor and little boats took us to ships which were anchored in the bay a mile or so away.) Assuming my chair was a boat taking me to the harbor, I felt the rhythm of the water, and when we were latched onto the big ship I allowed my brother Victor to carry my little daughter onto the ship. Then I helped my wife and followed her, feeling every step up the gangplank. When I got to the top my mind wandered, so I brought it back to the base of the steps and repeated the action. Each time my mind wandered I brought it back again until I reached the top, turned, and holding the side of the ship I looked back nostalgically at the island of Barbados, for now we were sailing. In a matter of moments the phone rang and the agent told me that because of a cancellation they had just received from America my passage was available, and I could leave the end of April, the date I had just envisioned. On that day my brother carried my daughter up the gangplank, my sister-in-law followed, then my wife, and finally myself. They acted, but the source of their action was my imaginary act!

Scripture tells us that Jesus Christ is the source of all phenomena. That by him all things were made and without him was not anything made that was made. If Jesus Christ makes everything, and I know what I did, is he not my wonderful human imagination? He is described in Corinthians as the power of God and the wisdom of God, and isn’t that imagination? I didn’t pray to anyone. I simply sat in a chair and enacted a scene that, if true, would imply I am sailing. As I allowed the scene to take on the tones of reality by giving it all of the sense of vividness of naturalness, the phone rang, and I had confirmation of my trip to New York. So where is the creative power of the universe if not within man?

Paul tells us: ‘He loved you and gave himself for you.’ Loving you, Imagination gave himself to you by becoming you that you may become Imagination, who is Christ. There never was another Christ and never will be another. Put your imagination to the test and see if it is Christ. If it is, do you need anyone to support you? Do you need any anti-poverty campaign? If those on relief could only believe in Christ, what a change they could make in their life! Instead, they go to church and give it a portion of what is given to them through relief. They support emotionalism because they do not know that source of the phenomena of life. Those on relief think their income is coming from Uncle Sam, not knowing he does not exist. No government has any money! The money it has is first taken from you before it can be given to another. In this world the money we earn is taken from us to give to the Mr. Seeons of the world, and if it is stopped, the so-called government will be criticized for stopping the gift. The churches haven’t failed, except in not telling the true story of Christ. Rather than giving to the poor, they should tell the poor who Christ really is!

If I tell you who Christ is and testing, you find him as your human imagination, does it matter what the world thinks? If there is evidence for a thing, does it matter what anyone thinks? If this can be proved in performance, what does it matter what the world thinks? You do not need to ask any minister, rabbi, or priest what he thinks, if you can test your imagination and prove its creative power!

So, in the Father’s house are many states of consciousness. Pick a state, enter and occupy it. Your Father is the good shepherd and your desires are his sheep. When the good shepherd comes, he gathers all of your desires for yourself and others together and brings them into the field. How is this done? In your imagination! A friend’s desire may not be your desire for him, but if it is not in conflict with your ethical code and you are a good shepherd, you will represent your friend to yourself as telling you that he (or she) has it. That way your sheep, having heard your voice, will follow you into the fold.

In the 10th chapter of John we are told that the good shepherd goes first and his sheep follow. Signs follow, they do not precede. Take your desire into the fold by putting yourself into the desired state. Remain there until you feel its reality. Knowing that imagining creates reality, thank your Father and drop it. Now, do nothing on the outside to make it so, only know your desire is yours the moment you do it! Do not expect immediate birth! There are always intervals of time between pregnancy and its fulfillment. One seed may take 21 days, another five months, nine months, a year, or even more. Do not be concerned with the interval of time between the fertilization of the seed and its hatching; only know the seed of desire has been planted in the mind. And if at times you find your sheep have gone astray, bring them back into your fold when you know who the good shepherd is. But if you don’t, you will find many shepherds who will fleece you!

So I say: the greatest need today is not for a different church, but for a new Christology, a new thinking of the human imagination! There was never another Christ and there never will be another, no matter what the world teaches. ‘I go, to prepare a place for you.’ Taking all of your requests, imagination’s power goes and prepares a place for you to receive them. Going to the state of health, imagination prepares a place of health for one, of wealth for another, fame for another. You might not want to be famous, but if fame is their desire go and prepare a place of fame for them. They may not know that fame is simply a sketch in the sands of time. They may think their face can be engraved in granite and it will remain forever, but it is all an illusion. Their name can be forgotten as quickly as the next generation, but they want fame now and you – being the good shepherd – give it to them. Knowing the source of the phenomena of life you will realize nothing really matters. If you know how a thing is made and it is taken from you, you can remake it again. So you see: knowledge is far more important than that which knowledge has made, but man is lost in that which is made and has forgotten the maker.

Everyone should be completely consumed with the desire to know how a thing is made. I’ll tell you how I make it. Knowing what I want, reason may tell me I can’t get it and my senses may deny that I have it; but believing that my own wonderful human imagination is Christ and trusting myself, I assume I have it and drop it right there. I do not concern myself with what means will be employed for me to get it, I simply believe I already have it!

I believe that my own wonderful human imagination is Jesus Christ and all things are possible to him, even the recording of something that I have struggled all day to remember and cannot. Like Blake I turn to my human imagination, my divine body, for I know thee O Lord, when thou ariseth upon my eyes, even in this dungeon. So when I awake in the morning and imagination returns to make me alive, I trust it implicitly. Perhaps I can’t remember something, but would like to, so I say: ‘Thank you Father, you always hear me.’ Then as I walk the earth memory appears out of the nowhere. Perhaps it is a poem, a saying, or an article I have misplaced; but when I turn to Him and in thankfulness request its memory, my Heavenly Father always gives it to me. This I know from experience.

You turn to yourself, and yet you address him as though he were another, because imagination is another until this garment is taken off for the last time. Clothed in this garment of flesh you are limited, but when you take it off for the last time, you and He are one. Night after night Christ withdraws, as it were, and returning, he ariseth upon your weary eyes and you can see. If your human imagination did not return you would have no knowledge of this world. So learn to trust Him implicitly, for He will not fail you. You can attain any goal if you believe that your own wonderful human imagination is the Lord Jesus Christ. Imagine something, accept it in gratitude and watch it come to pass.

May I tell you: you have always been doing it, but your memory is so short you do not recognize your own harvest. If your memory awoke you would see that everything happens because you at one time imagined it, (mostly in fear) and then dropped it. You planted the seeds of the tares and the wheat, the events and circumstances of your world, but have forgotten the planting. So I tell you: you are as free as you want to be if you will believe in Christ. He is not on the outside but in you, as your own wonderful human imagination!

Now let me repeat a thought I said earlier. The habit of worry confesses ones lack of faith in the sovereignty of God. If you worry, you don’t believe in Christ! He said: ‘Let not your heart be troubled (worried), you believe in God, believe also in me.’ If you really believe this you will not worry, but will believe that He and He alone has ways no one knows of bringing to pass that which you have imagined.

There is no limit placed upon your human imagination save that which you place upon yourself. Your financial, social and intellectual pictures are as limited as you make them. All within you, you and you alone have the ability to enlarge your concept of causality, plant and reap your every desire. Desires are the sheep of your pasture and the shepherd is your own wonderful human imagination. If your desires have gone astray bring them back into the fold where they really belong.

When you go home tonight read the 14th chapter of the Gospel of John. It’s such a glorious chapter. The whole Bible is, really. Just to read every verse so thrills me it becomes alive to me. In this chapter, when they asked him to show them the Father, he said: ‘I have been with you all these years and yet you do not know the Father? When you see me you have seen the Father, how then can you say, ‘Show me the Father?” Then he tells us: ‘I dwell in you and you dwell in me, we are one and I am the Father.’ Man can’t quite see it and you can’t blame him for that. So I still say: the greatest need is for a new thinking of the human imagination. If man sees his own imagination as Christ, then all the so-called problems of the world will dissolve, leaving only harmony. There will be no barriers when one sees his own imagination as Christ.

If tonight you believe your imagination is Christ and you desire to be elsewhere, sleep there in your imagination just as though it were true. Forget the fact that you can’t afford it or do not have the time. ‘I am’ infinity, and all thine are mine and mine are thine. If you really believe in Christ as your own wonderful human imagination, then sleep as the person you want to be. Don’t ask me how it is going to come about, for my ways and means are past finding out!

A man called me three weeks ago, saying: ‘Many years ago in New York City you told me that if I wanted to go to California all I had to do was assume I was there. Well, my wife and I are here now, but I want you to know that I’m not sold on what you teach. I did what you said, but the reason I came here is because the company I worked for opened a factory and transferred me here.’ He didn’t find himself flying through space, but was transferred by his company, so he doesn’t believe that feeling is the secret! Well, you take your pearls and throw them before the swine of the world and they pick your wisdom up and drop it down, but you throw it just the same. I know you are warned not to do it, but I have never been able to discriminate as to who will take it and who will not, so I tell it to all who will listen.

When our late President Hoover addressed the GOP convention in San Francisco, he said: ‘The rise and fall of nations could be traced to the rise and fall of ideas implanted in the mine of man.’ Here is a man who rose from the very bottom. He had no money, put himself through college, yet left millions to his family and various charities. Time will prove that Mr. Hoover was a truly great man. He didn’t cause the depression but tells us that it can be traced to the rise and fall of ideas implanted in the mind of man. He sent me an autographed copy of his address and asked for a copy of my book, Awakened Imagination, which I am quite sure he had in his library at his death. His was a truly great mind, one that saw how things worked.

Men that you and I admire, if they were honest, would admit to implanting in our mind that which would belittle us and ennoble them. Many know what they are doing but they don’t know Christ. If they did, they would know they do not have to belittle us to ennoble themselves. If you want to rise, you don’t have to put another down in order to feel you have risen. Your reality is I AM. Raise your consciousness and you raise yourself, but you haven’t risen when you feel the need to push another down by claiming ‘I AM better than.’

Tonight take this law and apply it. I promise you it will not fail. When you go to bed dwell in your own wonderful human imagination and say: ‘Thank you, Father’ as though you were addressing another. You know you are thanking your human imagination, but while assuming you have what you want, thank your Father. You came out from the Father and came into the world. Now you are leaving the world and going to the Father. Eventually you will reach him, and when you do he is yourself. There is no other Father. There is no other God!

Now let us go into the silence.

THE ONLY CHRISTIANITY

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 11-10-1959

Here we believe firmly that Imagining is God; that the Supreme Power of the Universe is one with human Imaging. So, when you read the Bible – a fabulous, inspired book – and you come to the word “God” you can also use the word “Imagining” and you will get a clearer understanding of it.

Romans 4:20 – “No distrust made him (Abraham) waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.” When you read it you might think of some being external to your own Imagination. Could you now dream of being the man or woman you want to be? That dream is a promise. We are told he was not swerved by anything in the world and gave all the glory to God, or Imagining; fully convinced that God could do what he had promised.

If you believe what the churches teach you may think that you are not entitled to the good that you desire (read Romans 1:20) Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse; for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened, claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the Immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles . . . “and then they worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator.”

I tell you that he is speaking of this immortal being in everything that was made. Even the suit you are wearing. Someone has to first imagine it. The thing first imagined is the invisible image and then it becomes externalized as a hat or a suit or a house. Today a friend called me concerning a personal problem. She said, “You said your father has objective vision. He could see the images of his imagining as real as the forms of Nature.” I knew this is true. The whole vast world that he built for his ten children, he built out of his wonderful imagination. He would sit alone and conjure before him men and women and see situations as he wanted to see them. And then he would arrest that state just before sleep and he controlled it completely. And when he later returned to his offices and these things came to pass, he was not surprised. Others set the deals in motion that he had already seen in his mind’s eye.

This lady called to tell me about her sister’s husband. Her father had opposed the marriage and had said that this man would never be any good, and he had set forth in detail just what he would do. He said, “He will father your child but he will not support it. He will live in a bar and he will always be worthless.” This man has fulfilled that prophesy in every detail. Her father was a powerful figure in the theater and disliked his son-in-law and prophesied his future and it has come true in detail. I told this lady a story about a prophesy of my father’s years ago.

In 1919 at the turn of the year, I can see my father at the head of the table and all of us children sitting there and he said to my mother, “There will be a war in 20 years, Wilsey. It will be in the fall. Germany will again be at war with England. Japan will be in it, and Russia and Italy. America will be our great ally.” My mother looked around the table at her sons and said, “My boys will be of the age to go to that war. What are you talking about? He said, “It will be true and already all the ships are discussing it.” He was a ship’s chandler and talked with many people. My father did not know that this power he had of imagining as God.

He could take a man or woman or a community and see them so vividly in imagining in his own living room that they became objective to him, and afterwards find them coming to his office to propose what he had inwardly set in motion. But he did not identify that power that creates his world with this supreme power that he called God. “Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, his eternal power, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.” My father saw everything as made. He discussed a program with a man and afterward the man comes to him and proposes the deal that my father had already closed in his Imagination. But he did not identify it with God. “They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man . . . and served the creature rather than the Creator.”

Everyone here – your invisible presence is God, but if you imagine money into being and you make a million, suddenly you worship the million, not the power that made it possible. You enter a certain social circle and then you forget that you brought it into being by imagining and now you think this group is what is all-important. So man forgets and exchanges the glory of the immortal God for the image of a mortal man or something that vanishes. For everything visible will vanish; but you will not vanish. Even this great land will one day be washed by the sea but you will not be. That which brought things into being cannot cease to be. So we are warned.

I told this lady about my father and she said. “Your father did that in 1919, but I will go back to 1919, and my father said, “I do not want to buy a paper because I can see the headlines and they say WAR!” He was so determined and convinced that he would not buy one for weeks, and when he did finally buy it, the headline said, WAR! Then the lady asked if her father’s attitude towards the sister’s husband had determined what happened, and whether she should continue helping her sister who was always in need. Yes, it determined what happened. But now it could be changed radically. Give to the sister if she needs help. But then I told her that this power is all imagining and it is one tissue with our own wonderful Imagination. There is only ONE. We do not differ in nature or substance from IT but only in degree of intensity. If we could imagine anything in the world and not swerve and not turn and give all glory to this power called God, nothing could keep it from coming into being.

God speaks to man through the language of dreams, but I do not have to go to sleep to dream. I can imagine something for you and desire it with all my heart. If I imagine something for another, that is God speaking to me. I do not have to see a face. There is such difference between what the churches call God and what the mystic knows is God. Blake speaks of Christianity in the last chapter of his great work “Jerusalem.” He breaks it into four chapters, like the four rivers, etc., and he tells us:

“I give you the end of a golden string,
Only wind it into a ball:
It will lead you in at Heaven’s gate,
Built in Jerusalem’s wall.”

And then he defines Christianity. Articles of Faith? He completely discounts them. He says, “I know of no other Christianity and of no other Gospel than the liberty of both body and mind to exercise the Divine Arts of Imagination. Imagination, the real and eternal World of which this Vegetable Universe is but a faint shadow, and in which we shall live in our eternal or Imaginative Bodies when these Vegetable Mortal Bodies are no more.”

No other Christianity than the right to exercise the divine arts of Imagination. So I say to you, “I would like so and so. I am too close to the picture, so would you now exercise the divine art and hear so and so for me?” And you say to me, “Will you hear something for me? Imagine you have told me that what you want is now so, and give all the glory to the power that creates in this world.” I have personally done this unnumbered times. It is the only Christianity in the world. It has nothing to do with any church. The only Christianity is the liberty to exercise the divine arts of Imagination. Can I do it? Who is doing it? God is doing it! I do not have to make any form. The supreme power of the universe is one with human Imagination.

If we go back to the Old Testament and take the word “maker,” it means Imagination. “Your maker is your husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name,” The word “Potter” means Imagination. “I went down to the potter’s house and he was working at his wheel, and the vessel in his hand was spoiled, but he worked it into another vessel such as seemed good to him.” If I would only take that and use the word “Imagination,” but the translator could not bring himself to use it.

What is in my mental hand that I am making? If it is not good and I do not revise it, then I am turning my wheel and recreating that same picture, but if I am a wise potter I will change it and hear you tell me that you now have what you desire. I will make a new vessel. Who is doing it? The potter – and that is Imagination. All day long I think the same thing over and over. I am working at the wheel of recurrence. Everyone here can be the man or woman they want to be. I know it from my own family. Have you ever noticed how if you go into a business and take all the facts and estimate just how things will come out, how often they come about as you said. Who did it? You are not a prophet, but you are imagining, and the state then comes true. Not a thing is brought into being by any power outside itself. It is sustained by the activity of the one who brought it into being. So, if I brought in poverty it can only remain as long as I am conscious of being poor. The moment I cease to imagine that I am poor then things begin to change.

There was a play on Broadway called, “The Millionairess,” and a critic wrote sarcastically that Kathryn Hepburn was trying to impress us with the fact that all a pauper needs to become rich is the arrogance of wealth. He was wiser than he knew! The arrogance of wealth is all he needs to stop being a pauper. You walk in a state and it is an activity of mind and to the degree you can sustain it, to that degree you will create it. The whole world is nothing but God and God is Imagining and man is Imagination and “We dwell in him and he in us, and we are one.”

Now you try it. You take something tonight. If you are too close to your own picture, do it for someone else and see that one as he would like to be seen by himself and then remain faithful to it. He may never know you did it for him, but that doesn’t matter. When the thing happens so naturally that he will never think that what you did was responsible. He has exchanged the glory of God for an image resembling mortal man. He will say he met a certain person and they influenced someone else, or recommended him, and that brought it all to pass. These things get the credit and he forgets immortal God.

I have told you the story before of a friend who came to me because he desperately needed a larger income, etc., to care for the educational needs of his family. His present bank position held no hope of advancement. I taught him what to do and while I was absent in Barbados he did it and when I returned, he told me he had secured this fabulous position with the Rockefeller Foundation, where he still is. But as time went on, he is so literal minded, that he began to forget how it came about and now he gives full credit to the man who spoke to him in church and finally asked him to come into the Foundation. This man is now a powerful person in my friend’s mind and is the cause of his good fortune. He has transferred the glory that belongs to God to the image of a man.

No matter what you are doing, can you see clearly what you want to do and carry on a conversation inwardly with a friend which will imply that which you desire is now a fact? Then do it. For on higher levels of Imagining inner activity is revealed by inner conversation. If man would listen to what he is inwardly saying, he would know what he is setting in motion. As man walks the street if he would pause and say “what am I saying now?” he would find that 99% are justifying failure. But we are told, “You are without excuse for you have seen him and his work, yet you deny it.” When you hear the word God or Jesus Christ you think of some being external to your own imagining, but there is none for Imagining is God. That is what lights every being in the world, and as you imagine, so you will become.

So no matter what your present limitations are, you can start now to dream the most noble dream, and you can walk through this door tonight as though it is true knowing that your Imagining is God. There is no fiction. You can write your own novel and realize it. Even someone in a dungeon may be imagining and who knows what he may call forth. If I were in a dungeon I would move the world if necessary to get out. A body may be physically confined, but you cannot confine God. Man only sees the proximate cause; the real cause of something you cannot see; for the invisible power is what is creating. Who knows who may convulse the world. It may even be a woman “treading” in the wine press.

Everyone here, you can be what you want to be, no matter what your dream is, if you are willing to let God do it, God being your own Imagining. You walk completely suspended above appearances and you will become what you desire. This is the only Christianity I know – the freedom to exercise this divine art of Imagining. Now you try it. If you are here for the first time I challenge you to disprove it. Everyone has the same power. Because one has a million does not make him any more a creator than you are. Be careful what you are imagining for what you are Imagining you will create, though it may convulse the world. I hope you have the Revised Version of the Bible for it is from what I have quoted tonight. It is more accurate in meaning if not as orally beautiful as the King James Version.

You will find in Romans that recreation for it all, for after Acts Paul lays the foundation and he states, “I am a child of Abraham and one of the tribe of Benjamin. But he sees it now not as the code but the spirit, and he sees circumcision no longer as only a physical act. He realizes that he is now a true Christian. He did not go to any church. He sees now the spirit of the law and not the letter. You cannot be born a Christian! It is a way of life that you adopt. You could be born in the Vatican with the Pope as your father and you would not be a Christian. You can only be a Christian when you see the reality and adopt it as a way of life. The law was given to man but they break through from the letter of the law and find the spirit of it and live by it, and that is Christianity. There are many religions based on many ‘isms” but that is not Christianity. It is the liberty of body and mind to exercise the divine arts of Imagination.

This lady can change the picture for her sister’s husband. She can imagine that he is now generous, because now he has so much that he wants to give to her as she gave to him, and she can break the spell cast on him. I know my mother when she darned our socks dreamed for each of us of a future of which she would be proud. Everyone of us is living a noble life and I know she dreamed it for all of us. She never spared her shoe, wham! If you did something wrong. She left the world with her dream fixed in her mind and it came true. We can dream for ourselves or for our neighbors and that dream is the voice of God, for God speaks to man through the medium of a dream.

THE PERFECT IMAGE

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 04-11-1969

“He is our peace, who will make us both one by breaking down the wall of hostility, that he may create in himself one new man in place of the two, so bringing peace.” This being of peace is a person, not a doctrine or philosophy. He is a person who breaks down the wall of hostility between you who are seated here and your true identity, who is a son of God, one with his Father.

Now, a lady wrote, saying: “I saw myself in vision as radiantly perfect, yet I knew that we were two. Remembering the words ‘Be ye perfect,’ I knew that at one time I was not, but now my present reflection is one of perfection. Then I awoke, got out of bed and stumbled into the door, then lost my temper and yelled at my children for pouring soap on my nice clean carpet. So it must have happened in some other dimension of my being, for I certainly am not perfect here.” She is right. While we wear these garments of flesh and blood, we lose our temper; we run into doors and do all the things people do here. Did not the perfect one, who was the pattern man, call Herod “that fox,” and the scribes and Pharisees “Whited sepulchers, outwardly beautiful and inwardly full of hypocrisy and iniquity”? While you are here, encased in your body of flesh and blood, certainly you will lose your temper. Maybe not as you did before you were perfect, but you will to some degree as long as you remain here.

Now, how does he who is our peace, break down the wall of perdition and make the two of us one? By fulfilling his primal wish, which was: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” God fell asleep to his true awareness and began a good work in you, which he will bring to completion on the day of Jesus Christ – who is described as being the perfect image of God, one who reflects and radiates God’s glory. When his good work is finished, in you, then you – the image – will be superimposed upon him, and you will know yourself to be the Father. There is only God in the world. Having taken upon himself the limitation of man (as you are) he is working you into his image from within. And when you – the made, are as perfect as he – the Maker, you rise as one man, enhanced by reason of the experience of making an image which radiates and reflects your glory. So her vision was perfect, all based upon scripture. Here is another beautiful one.

This lady said, “I found myself in a forest, sitting on the ground leaning against a tree, when I heard a voice calling, ‘Father, Father,’ but I did not answer, because I did not want to be discovered. Suddenly you appeared, dressed as a shepherd boy, and said to me: ‘Why did you not answer me? I have been searching for you.’ And I replied: ‘You are always searching and finding me, in spite of the fact that the Good Book says I can rest on the Sabbath day.’ Then you looked at me and smiled the smile of an indulgent father; yet strangely enough, I – very female – felt I was the father.” In the 4th chapter of Galatians it is said: “When the time had fully come, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying: ‘Abba! Father!’ But the Father, sound asleep in Man, doesn’t want to be found, although the Son is always calling: “Rouse thyself, why sleepest thou, O Lord! Awake!”

And when one who is called the Son of God awakens to Fatherhood, he is sent into the world to awaken his brothers, but finds they still want to postpone the day of waking, still wanting to hold onto these little garments of flesh and blood. But I will always find you and will not let you rest, for “Truly, truly I say unto you, the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear it will live.” This lady heard the voice and recognized it, so she is not far from waking. Sent as a shepherd boy, the son of God does the Father’s will by calling the Father (in Man) to awaken and rise from the dead. God entered this world for the sole purpose of making you perfect as he is perfect. When his work is finished, he will superimpose himself upon that image and they will be perfectly one.

This lady knew she was perfect. She recalled the words: “Be ye perfect.” The completed sentence is: “as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Yes, be ye perfect for then you become one with your Maker; awake from this dream of life and resurrect from this world of death into a world of eternal life. Without the resurrection you would know infinite circuitry, repeating the same states over and over again. But, after moving around the circle unnumbered times, the perfect image is formed, removing you from the circle to enter a spiral and move up as the person who created it all. You can join every doctrine, sign every contract between people and nations; yet you will not know perfection until He (in you) finds you perfect and the two of you become one. So, he who is your peace will make you one with him by breaking down the dividing wall of hostility.

Then, without telling others you walk knowing who you really are. If you tell the world, they will only laugh at you because – while in this world, like my friend who had the vision – you will run into a door and lose your temper. Everyone is here for a definite purpose, which is revealed through revelations, thereby giving purpose to the whole of life. Without purpose, what does the world have to offer? If you owned everything that you could buy with money, if you had all the money necessary to live comfortably – and your soul is called, what would it matter? The world may call you dead, cremate your body and scatter your ashes, but you are immortal and cannot die.

Rather than being dead, you are in a world just like this one, mentally walking the same tracks over again and again. Oh, maybe you will not experience the same situations, but your world will be just as solidly real. You will return to a lovely twenty-year-old form, to marry, and age, and lose your temper as you bump into a door – until your image is so perfect it is superimposed upon its Maker. Then up you go to know yourself to be the one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all. That is the great living body of the Risen Lord. It seems incredible, but it is true. You are destined to know yourself to be the creator of the world. You are destined to share in the unity of that one body, that one Spirit, that one Lord, that one God and Father of all. I know, for I have experienced it. I was sent back to tell my experiences in the hope that those who are on the verge of moving into the same body, as the same Spirit, may hear my words and be encouraged by them.

Paul makes the statement: “I stand before you on trial for the hope in that promise that God made to our fathers. O King Agrippa, why should it seem incredible to any of you that God raised the dead? Is this not the promise to our fathers?” Search the scriptures and you will find that the promise was made in the 46th chapter of Genesis. “The Lord spoke to Israel in visions of the night saying, ‘Jacob, Jacob.'” (As you know, Jacob’s name was changed to Israel which means, a man who rules as God because he knows he is God.) Jacob answers: “Here I am” and the Lord said: “I am God, the God of your father. Fear not to go down into Egypt, for there I will make of you a great nation. I will go down with you into Egypt and I will also bring you out again.” Egypt is not a little place in North Africa; this world of death is Egypt, where everything appears, waxes, wanes, and vanishes. I have gone down into Egypt with you and I will keep my promise and bring you up.

When this world was coming to its end, Paul stood in chains before the prince whose kingdom was fading; but he could not let go of it, and said: “Why do you think it incredible that God raises the dead?” and the king could not answer. I tell you: God literally assumed the weaknesses and limitations of the flesh, in order to know you and to make you into his image. And when that image is perfect as He is perfect, you are no longer two, but one. Then you awake from the dream of life and ascend into your true being, called the kingdom of heaven. Our commonwealth is in heaven and we are sojourners in this strange land where we are enslaved. But have faith and set your hope fully upon that moment in time when the image is perfect. Then it will be unveiled within you to reveal you as the being who made it.

Though you are the made, you are the Maker; for the Maker breaks down the wall of hostility between you, making you and He one. Then you return to your heavenly state as the one who came down, but greatly enhanced because of your journey into Egypt. Having purposely imposed this limitation upon myself, I felt as though I were speaking to another, making requests of him and thanking him for their fulfillment. Now I have no sense of another. I feel only as the one who formed me into his likeness; for when I awoke He and I were not two any more, but one. This lady saw me clothed as a shepherd boy. She saw correctly; for although the Father and the son are one, it is the Spirit of his son who is sent into the heart, crying: “Father, Father.” She heard the cry and knew herself to be not only Man, but a father; yet in this world she is very much a lady. She heard my call, yet not wanting to be disturbed she did not respond; but may I tell you, the son of God will never let the Father rest. He is forever calling: “Awake you sleeper! Why sleepest thou, O Lord?” But the Father in you cannot awaken until he has completed his work.

He began it in you and will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. That day, the image of God himself is formed in you, and you awake to express that image by radiating and reflecting God’s glory. Night after night I am crying and crying to the Father in all; and those who hear my voice will begin to awaken from the dream of life and start their journey back to the being they were before that the world was, to find themselves to be more glorious, more wonderful, than they were when they descended. Tonight some friends are here who haven’t heard me speak in a number of years. When they were last with me I was speaking only of the law, as the promise had not fulfilled itself in me. So for their sake let me say: the promise is the law on a higher level, and the law is very simple.

There are infinite number of states. The state of health, the state of sickness, the state of wealth, the state of poverty, the state of being known, the state of being unknown – all are only states and everyone is always in a state. We all have one state in which we are very comfortable, so we return to it moment after moment. That state constitutes our dwelling place. If it is not a pleasant state, we can always get out of it. How this is done is the secret I will now share with you. All states are mental. You cannot remove yourself from your present state by pulling strings on the outside. You must mentally adjust your thoughts to proceed from the desired state, all within yourself. You fell into your present state either deliberately or unwittingly; and because you are its life, the state became alive and grew like a tree, bearing its fruit which you do not like. Its fruit may be that of poverty, or distress, heartache, or pain. There are all kinds of unlovely fruit. But you can detach yourself from your unlovely harvest by making an adjustment in your human imagination.

Ask yourself what you would like to harvest. When you know what it is, ask yourself how you would feel if your desire was ready to harvest right now. When you know the feeling, try to catch it. In my own case I find it easier to catch the feeling by imagining I am with people I know well and they are seeing me as they would if my desire were now a fact. And when the feeling of reality possesses me, I fall asleep in that assumption. At that moment I have entered a state. Now, I must make that state as natural as I have made my present state. I must consciously return to my new state constantly. I must feel its naturalness, like my own bed at night. At first the new state seems unnatural, like wearing a new suit or hat. Although no one knows your suit is new, you are so conscious of it you think everyone is looking at you. You are aware of its fit and its feeling until it becomes comfortable.

So it is with your new state. At first you are conscious of its strangeness; but with regular wearing, the new state becomes comfortable, and its naturalness causes you to constantly return to it, thereby making it real. Now most of us, knowing what we want, construct it in our minds eye, but never occupy it. We never move into the state and remain there. I call this perpetual construction, deferred occupancy. I could dream of owning a lovely home and hope to go there one day; but if I do not occupy it now, in my imagination, I postpone it to another day. I may wish my friend had a better job. I may have imagined him having it; but if I don’t occupy that state by believing he is already there, I have merely constructed the state for him but not occupied it.

All day long I can wish he or she were different; but if I don’t go into the state and view him from it, I don’t occupy the state, so he remains in the unlovely state relative to me. This is the world in which we live. You can’t conceive of a thing that is not part of a state, but the life of any state is in the individual who occupies it.

Life cannot be given to a state from without, because God’s name is “I am.” It is not “You are” or “They are.” God’s eternal name is I Am! That is the life of the world. If you would make a state alive, you must be in it. If you are in a lovely, gentle, kind state, you are seeing another as lovely, living graciously, and enjoying life to the utmost. Now, to make that state natural, you must see everyone in your world as lovely, kind, and gentle. Others may not see them in that light, but it doesn’t really matter what they think. I am quite sure if I took a survey of what people think of me, no two would agree. Some would say I am a deceiver, while others I am the nearest thing to God. I would find a range stretching from the devil to God, all based upon the state in which the person is in when called upon to define me. You can be what you want to be if you know and apply this principle, but you are the operant power. It does not operate itself.

You may know the law from A to Z, but knowing is not enough. Knowledge must be acted upon. “I am” is the operant power in you. Put your awareness in the center of your desire. Persist, and your desire will be objectified. Learn to use the law, because there is a long interval between the law and the promise. Those who heard me prior to 1959 are unfamiliar with my experiences since that time, and my words may seem strange to you. I cannot deny the law, for I came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them.

This I have done. I have told you that in the resurrection, Man is above the organization of sex, and that Man can change his sex at will. This week I received a letter telling of a vision which testifies to the truth of this statement. This gentleman is married to a lovely girl and is every bit a man, yet this is his experience. He said, “I found myself lying on a bed feeling as though I am a woman. Desiring a man of oriental descent and olive skin, I assumed I had found him. Instantly he appeared and, although no act was performed, I felt the thrill of imagining and instant fulfillment of my imaginal act. Then I awoke.” This man’s vision verifies what I have been telling you: that in the resurrection Man changes his sexual garments at will, and being above the organization of sex, he does not need the divine image of male/female to create. I think his vision is marvelous.

When he returned to this world, he was surprised at the experience; but I say to all: you are destined to know you are every being in the world, bar none! Like the lady who is so feminine, responding when a shepherd boy called her “father”. Although she would not answer my call, she knew I would always find her. I always will, for I – the Word of God – was sent as the son of God, and I shall not return to my father void. I must bring back that purpose for which he sent me.

I stirred the feeling of the fatherhood of God in her, and I will take back with me those that my father gave me. But while you are in this world of Caesar, it is important that you master the law. Think of everyone as representing a state. There is no such thing as a good man or a bad man, only good or bad states as you conceive them to be; but the occupant of every state is God. Blake said in his “Vision Of The Last Judgment”: “On this it will be seen that I do not consider either the just or the wicked to be in a supreme state, but to everyone of them states of the sleep which the soul may fail into in its deadly dreams of good and evil when it leaves Paradise following the serpent.” Identify yourself with a state and you are pronounced by others to be either good or evil; but you are only in a state.

Tonight if you are unemployed, or find it difficult to get a promotion in your present employment, remember: the solution to your present state is still a state! I hope I have made it clear how to move into states. It is done through the act of assumption with feeling and persistence. Assume health. Stand in its center and clothe yourself with its feeling. Persist in claiming a healthy body and a healthy mind, and your assumption will harden into fact as you move into and objectify the state of health. Now let us go into the silence.

THE POWER OF AWARENESS

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 1953

I think you know how thrilled I am to be back here, for this is the one platform that grants me complete freedom. You know that. Dr. Bailes has never once restricted me or even suggested any condition. He gives me complete freedom of this platform, and for that I am really very happy, for I couldn’t be here unless he did.

Now I have brought you this year an entirely new series. I have named this first one “The Power of Awareness” because it is the foundation stone on which the entire structure rests. Not a thing has happened in the past year to shake that foundation. Many things have happened, many revelations, many experiments, and yet the foundation remains intact.

For those not familiar with this foundation, we make the claim that conscious ness is the one and only reality. So, if you call God the ultimate reality, that is the name we give to this ultimate reality. So we say Consciousness is God. We say consciousness in action is imagination. And if consciousness in action, or God in action, is the Son bearing witness of his Father, then we come to the conclusion that imagination is that son.

We have had nothing this year, as I tell you, to disturb that deep conviction. We look upon the world as, I would say, a manifestation of consciousness; and the whole vast conditions of men but revelations of individual states of consciousness. We distinguish between the individual identity and the state of consciousness that it occupies. You are an eternal being. The real you is the imaginative you, personified for us in our Gospel as Christ Jesus, but man doesn’t know it. But this is your real being. This being is your wonderful imagination.

When we speak of the revelation of state, we simply mean that the state in which the real you for a moment abides, objectifies itself as the condition and the circumstances 0£ your life. If you are dissatisfied with the conditions of life, there is no possible way of changing them unless you first change the state from which you view the world; for the state from which a man observes the world determines the world that man describes. For the world that is described from observation must be, as thus described, relative to the describing observer.

In a very simple way, were I to ask you now “Where is San Diego?” and you answered “About, I would say, approximately 130 miles from here.” And then I ask another question, “Where is Santa Barbara?” and you replied “Approximately 100 miles from here.” Well, I do not have to be an Einstein to tell you where you are, for if you tell me where these two are, and one is a hundred miles from here relative to you, and the other is a hundred and thirty miles from here relative to you, I know you must be somewhere within the vicinity of this City 0f Los Angeles.

Now the same law holds good in any description you make of the world. If I ask you to describe your world socially, and I listen attentively to your description of the world, you are revealing your position in the social world to me. If I ask you to describe it intellectually, financially, spiritually, you may not know it, but the description that you offer of the world is revealing to me who listens – or to yourself if you are attentive – that particular state of consciousness from which you view the world. And you will continue to see the world as you now see it, unless you change your state of consciousness.

Now, there are certain words that in the course of long use gather very many strange connotations. And so, in the course of time, they cease to mean anything at all. Such a word is the “sub-conscious”. Such a word is, too, – and do not be shocked – such a word is “Christ Jesus”. No two have the same opinion of the word, the same definition or mood of the word. Let us now take a look at the word “sub-conscious” and see how it is defined for us. This is the definition as given to us in any good dictionary. It is that portion of mental state not directly within the focus of consciousness, but capable of being called into such focus by the proper stimulus.

Now that is the definition of this fabulous realm. Now let us look at the claim made for this realm. Our mental scientists, psychiatrists and psychologists of today refer to this region as the creative power in man; that everything in man’s world is determined by the activities of the subconscious mind; that man himself has absolutely no control over the activities of this region unless he first gets into a relationship with it. For here is a region that they call the sub-conscious; others call it the “unconscious” , and still others speak of it as the “collective unconscious”, but they claim for it a creative power that molds the outer world in harmony with the inner arrangement of its self. So they give it structure, they give it reality, they give it form, and they claim its structure determines the outer structure we observe and call the only reality: that any modification in the internal structure of this deep region results in corresponding changes in the outer objective world. But then they leave us at the mercy of IT, unless we can find the trick of entering into a relationship with it.

Now, let us turn to the Gospel. What is said of the central character of the Gospel – the one I refer to as Christ Jesus. It is said of this central figure that “All things were made by Him, and without Him there is nothing made that is made”. All things, not a few things, all things – it includes all. I read my Gospel carefully and I find that from within out is the order of the Universe. In the 7th Chapter of Mark “Not what goes in defileth the man, but what proceeds out of the heart”, either for good or for evil. Not just the good comes out, but the evil can come out too. All things come from within out; what goes within cannot defile the man; only the thing that proceeds out of the heart of man can bless him or defile him; that there is some creative power in man that constantly molds the outer world in harmony with itself, and this Creative Power is described for us as Christ Jesus .

Now, let us take another look at what they teach us: that there is a method they use to pry into the deep of this region; that when a man is asleep, they use the method of dreams to pry into the deep. For the Bible tells us that from cover to cover. “In a dream, when deep sleep falleth upon men, then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction.” You are told that God speaks with his prophet’s chiefly in dreams. It was a dream that prompted them all to bring about their great revelation. Your are told that this wise man, the wisest of all, was promised riches and long life and great power, and behold, Solomon awoke, and it was a vision in the night! You are told the birth of the central figure was prophesied in a dream, and everything was but the dream.

Now we discover there is another way of looking into the deep, and the waking way of looking into the deep is through man’s imagination; that imagination is now the waking method used to pry into this great mysterious deep. For the ancients discovered that if they would ever discover really the ultimate reality, it could never be by any instrument made by man. In order to discover the ultimate reality, they would have to set Mind to observe itself, and then to accurately record those observations. For they concluded that no description of Mind made by any science known to man could be an adequate description of the Mind which made that science. So when today we are speaking of taking the imagination to look into the deep, it is looking at itself. You set imagination to observe self and then to accurately record those observations. And you must come to the conclusion, imagination is the central figure 0f the Gospel.

When you will read your Gospel with this in Mind, the whole thing becomes a luminous book. One simple little passage, take it from any passage – if this was an open meeting I would challenge you now to ask me anything concerning the central figure, and taking the simple little technique of identifying that figure with my own imagination, the answer will be automatic .

So here is one. “Peter, lovest thou me? Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. Then feed my sheep.” And three times the same question is asked and three times a similar answer is given. And the last answer brought about a certain rebellion for it was asked three times. But now you take it as imagination asking itself, “I have discovered my savior, I discovered my shepherd, and what would be the sheep, for our minds are like rambling sheep, or our thoughts like rambling sheep that have no shepherd. Now that you have found me to be your shepherd, to be your savior, your own wonderful imagination to be the central figure; ‘Now, do you love Him?’ You answer “Yes!”. Well, then feed my sheep. “Well, then did I not feed the sheep? At any moment when did I not feed the sheep? “When you did not do it unto the least among one of these”. Any time you imagine any unlovely thought against another, you walked me in the mud. And then you said you loved me, but any time that your imagination was ever exercised on behalf of another, and it was not lovingly exercised, you did not feed me. You walked me in the mud.

And yet man goes blindly on believing he serves the Master; believing he truly understands Christ Jesus; that he understands and loves his Savior. And morning, noon and night he imagines the unlovely things against his neighbor, not knowing at that very moment he was walking his Master in the gutter. And so we are told “I sought water, and you gave me not to drink. I sought food, and you gave me not. I sought shelter and you took me not in. I needed raiment and you clothed me not.” But when did these things happen? I don’t recall ever turning you away. When you did not do it unto the least among one of these, you did not do it unto me. And then when did I do these things ? Whenever you did it to the very least among one of these, you did it unto me. And the day will come when man will discover the “least” spoken of is himself. When man discovers that the greatest of all the tyrants, the one who is the most impudent of all the offenders, the one who is the greatest of all the beggars is himself. Then he will discover that he stands in need of the alms of his own forgiveness and instead of railing against himself, he will start with self to ennoble his own thoughts, to lift himself up by imagining the best first of himself and then he will share that with the world round about him. For he will look out on a world and describe it relative to himself and he will not now see the unlovely things that formerly he saw. For this is what we mean by this foundation stone that so far has not been shaken.

A very wise man, Emerson, said that whenever a true theory appears it will be its own evidence. Its test is that it will explain the phenomena of life. I am convinced we have that true theory for this theory we give you here that your consciousness is the only reality and that the particular state of consciousness in which you abide is the sole cause of the phenomena of your life cannot be shaken. I ask you to test it, even if the test is motivated by the determination to disprove it. I will ask you to try it, for I know you will not disprove it. That this wonderful consciousness of yours is the ultimate reality, and you are free to choose the state into which you will go. But most of us have chosen, but unwisely. Not a thing is wrong with the state; the state is all right but it’s giving effect to it that makes it either right or wrong as far as we are concerned.

Now our theory, I assure you, has not been suddenly conjured out of the nowhere and the stories I have told you here for the last seven years, the case histories I have recorded in my last book, ‘The Power of Awareness”, were not fabricated to fit this theory. But this theory was slowly built up by careful observation of the facts. For when someone would come into my world and describe their world to me, they revealed the being that they really are. When I ask the simple question, “What do you want?” and they named it and they told me they really want it with all their heart, and then I asked them how would they see the same world had they realized their objective? Looking at the same world they began to describe it differently. I said, “Now, that is the description you must make of the world. You must weave that into your mind, for in so doing you move into the state where that world becomes real relative to that state.”

So if you now know the world you would see had you achieved your aim, then that is the world you must begin to see in the mind’s eye. And if in time that state becomes an objective fact, then the theory as you see was not made to fit it; it formed itself by a careful observation of these facts. So if I could repeat that time and time again, and each time by moving this permanent “I” into the desired state and let it occupy that state long enough to make it natural, at the moment of naturalness the state becomes visibly objective to them, then we have a true theory. For it does explain the phenomena of life.

So here, in this series we have brought you many revelations. One that I want to stress throughout the entire series is the wide difference between thinking from an end and thinking of an end. Right now I am thinking from Los Angeles; every part of this world, if I should think of it, I’m thinking of it. But I am thinking from Los Angeles, and the difference between the two, as you can see, one is reality and one is a dream not yet made real, because imagination is the central figure of the Bible, and no power in the world can stop his travel. He can go into any mansion and there abide. There is no power on the face of the earth that can stop me now from imagining myself into the state desired. So I begin to think from it. As I begin to think from it, all former states vanish and that is the great Son of God that can move into any mansion of his Father’s house and there occupy. If he ever goes in and occupies it, then I shall be there in the flesh also. So in this Father’s house of mine are the unnumbered states that are already existent and I, discovering who the son really is, and only the son can go into these mansions, so discovering the son to be my own imagination, I will dwell in imagination as though I dwell in the flesh, and then living in that state I will take my body also, that I may confirm that state. For dwelling in the state long enough clothes the state in flesh.

So here: every one of us, if you will accept it; can from this day on be as free as the wind. It’s entirely up to you to choose what mansion you will enter, for you are the only architect of your sufferings or your good fortune. There is no power outside that has caused anything to happen to you; it’s simply your choice, as I said earlier, your unwise choice. Knowing who you are now, and not being ashamed to lay claim to this bold, bold assumption that Christ in man is man’s imagination, then you will stop calling on some external force for help. As the Prophets say, why stand we here calling on God for help and not on ourselves in whom He dwells, as our imagination. So why call elsewhere, when He dwells here where I stand as my imagination. For is there any power to stop me from imagining that I am the man I want to be? So that I actually clothe it with a feeling of reality? If I can so clothe this imagined state with all the vivid sensitiveness of reality, then I will ultimately actually clothe it in flesh, for that’s the Law, from within out.

If you are bold enough to take it, you will free yourself today. If you are still timid, may I suggest you go back and read the seventh chapter of the Book of Mark, where you must then still keep alive the traditions of men and ignore the Law of God. So men wash the cups, and wash the pots, and pay all outside obeisance to things known as the traditions of men, that they may be seen of men and be considered holy. But I bring, said He, the Law of God and no man seems to hear it. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of the living God and the spirit of God dwelleth in you?” Have you ever heard these words, “Christ in you is the hope of glory”; not some Christ without but Christ in you is. But if we aren’t bold enough to lay claim to it, for we are told “Ye have the mind of Christ” not a mind that you are going to earn in time to come, you have it now, so lay claim to it, and begin to exercise this giant of the mind that is called the Son of God in the Bible, and you will see who your savior really is.

Now, may I give you a few of his titles, for these are all taken from the Bible. He is called the Redeemer; He is called the Savior; He is called the Passover; He is called the Second Man; He is called The Desire of all Nations. Now take it and see how it fits your wonderful imagination. The man you don’t know to exist – that Second Man – is the imaginative you; the one you hold captive by accepting the evidence of sense and only that which reason dictates. If you will now free the Second Man, you will see how he is the Passover. He can pass now from this present state into any desired state in the world, for no power can stop you from dwelling in imagination where you desire to dwell. So, placing yourself there, you begin to think from it, and not constantly starve yourself by thinking of it. So I will go and prepare it, and preparing it I will dwell in it, and begin to think from it.

Now, I assure you, unnumbered similar stories have been told me in the past year by those who took me at my word and began to awaken Christ within, for He had been asleep while the senses dictated their every step, and then completely denying the evidence of sense and boldly imagining themselves to be what they desired to be, they have found their savior, and what man the world could turn them back to the traditions of man. They are free from all traditions of men, and so no man can appear before them and call himself the intermediary between man and God. So they are turned from all intermediaries, having found the only Redeemer and the Redeemer is the only intermediary between man and God. So then you know that any time that you exercise your imagination lovingly on behalf of another, you are literally mediating God to man. So you don’t need any of the traditions of men and keep them alive, hoping that you will be considered by some invisible power, some holy being.

So, let us turn back and freshen up again this word which has been so abused, which now is your imagination, which people, without defining, call the “subconscious” as though it was some appendage. People go around speaking of “my subconscious mind”, or “My unconscious mind”, not knowing what they are referring to.

Well, this fabulous series of mental states is your imagination. And may I tell you it has form, it has structure, just as real as the visible objective world; that the inner world is a world of reality. Call it by any name. I call it my wonderful imagination, and it assumes the form of all that I accept and consent to as true. It actually assumes the form of the sum total of all of my beliefs, and my beliefs need not be true. They need not come near the truth. My beliefs could be prejudices; they could be superstitions. It doesn’t care. It will take all the stripes of men and wear them. So it will assume the form of the sum total of all that man consents to in this world, and then mold the outer world in harmony with the inner arrangement of itself. Therefore, to change the outer world, I must modify or change, in some way alter, the structure of the inner or second man – the second man being my imagination.

So I set myself to observe myself and to watch how my imagination works. And here is something that will interest you. I observe it always moves according to habit; that it is a being of habit, and so if I get into the habit of thinking the unlovely thoughts, it becomes very natural, so I listen only to that which is critical of another. I listen only to that which is not full of praise, that which judges harshly, and so according to habit it moves along these pathways.

Now, if I don’t like the outer world, and I really believe it is caused by the structure of the inner or second man, I then must change his likeness, change his form, by observing how I react to all the unlovely, and how I am not interested in the praise of another, and then begin to feed my sheep, begin to change my thoughts, my feelings, my moods concerning others, and as I begin to change my reactions to people, I find I am changing the structure of the Son of God. And then I automatically produce corresponding changes in my outer world.

If you really like it, and you are bold enough to take it, I promise you a world that is undreamed of by our wise men for even sleep will no longer be the unconscious that it is to the majority of people in the world; that sleep becomes only a doorway into the world where this real you – the second man – really lives and moves and has its being. It is a dimensionally larger world, and you enter it quickly in meditation, or night after night in sleep, and you will find opportunities that would dwarf the wildest dream of men here.

So I ask you to really believe it, and try in the short interval of four weeks while we are here to so prove it that you can tell me of the things that have happened to you by putting into practice this Power of Awareness. Learn to become aware at any moment of time of your fulfilled desire. Assume the feeling of your wish fulfilled and learn to become intensely aware of the state fulfilled, that you may look upon your world and describe it relative to your fulfilled desire. And learn then to sustain that mood. You will find in time through the habitual motion of your inner you, after a little while, because it always travels according to habit, it will move through habit into the feeling of the wish fulfilled, and the moment it is a natural wearing to itself, it starts to change the outer world to reflect the inner change of your mind.

Now, I hope you will take it, but there is no power in the world that can compel you to take it. You are as free as the wind to take it or not to take it. If you would rather persist in the belief that your Savior lived years ago and died for you and through his death, external to yourself, you are saved; you are entitled to believe it.

As I told you earlier, because the inner you is molded in harmony with the sum total of all your beliefs, you will continue to have visible proof of the truth of that belief. For you will find millions believing with you, and you will believe that the numbers make it right, and so you will contribute to the whole vast traditions of men. If you want to come out and be apart and find your savior where you will only find Him, within yourself, by setting your imagination to observe itself, you must come to the same conclusion – that this ultimate reality that men call God, that the Ancients defined as I AM, is your own wonderful consciousness and that IT in action, or the Son, or Christ Jesus, is your imagination. And then, having discovered, you start really to feed the sheep and you will stop, as of now, this walking of your Savior in the mud.

Now I see my time is up, and so at this moment I’ll take the chair and let us all join in exercising our imagination lovingly on behalf of another. Simply imagine that they are talking to you, and they are telling you what they wish they could tell you, and you listen as though you heard, and then you will put into practice that first verse of the fifth chapter of the Book of Ephesians: “Be ye imitators of God as dear children” – for how would I imitate my Father? “He calls things that are not now seen as though they were, and the unseen becomes seen”. That is the way my Father called things into being, and I am called upon to be an imitator of my Father as a dear child. For now I will call the imaginary voice. I will listen as though I heard what I want to hear. I will look as though I am seeing what I want to see, and if I persist in my listening and my looking, I will then be imitating my Father as a dear child, and he will not fool me. He will call into flesh, into objective reality, that which I have assumed that I have heard and I have seen.

THE PROMISE EXPLAINED

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 26 June 1970

The Bible tells the story of a promise – of a dream that existed two thousand years only in the imagination of Israel; and when their dream came true, Israel did not recognize their own harvest, and rejected their own harvest – denied it, for they were looking for it in an entirely different way. That is really the essence of the Bible, a promise made to man, and then man believed it. It was to Abraham, and Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him as righteousness. So, he had the faith to sustain it and pass it on to generations, and they all believed it; and they maintained, only in their imagination, for two thousand years the dream. Then the dream erupted within an individual – within Israel; and he told the story, but they did not believe……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… … Now we turn to the story. It’s an old man, a hundred years old, and a wife ninety years old; and it is said that “it had ceased to be with her after the manner of women.” In other words, it would be impossible for her to have a child. And the promise was made that she would have a child, and that child would be “your heir, and you will call him Isaac, which means, “he laughs.” Abraham had, from a slave, a son called Ishmael. It was said of him that his hand was against every man, and every man’s hand was against him……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …

This same story repeats itself all the way through. It begins with Abraham, and then the two – Ishmael who came first and then Isaac. Isaac was the promise. Then the grandchildren: Esau and Jacob, and God said “Jacob I love; Esau I have hated,” – the same pattern following all through Scripture coming into the New Testament. And in man it erupted – the story………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ….

Now we find a wonderful story in the Book of John, the 3rd chapter of John. It is not repeated in the Bible; it is only in John. It is not mentioned in Matthew, Mark, or Luke,–where a member of the Sanhedrin -a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus, –a member of the Sanhedrin is the highest body of a religious order. And Israel was a theocracy; it was ruled by the Rabbis, and here was the highest of the Rabbis. He identified something from what he knew of his own scripture, but couldn’t quite put the pieces together. So, he sought Jesus “in the night,” we are told. He came during the night, seemingly in a furtive manner – not to be identified or recognized by other members of the Sanhedrin. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ..

He addressed him as “Rabbi,” whence the fact that the man knows what others seemingly are not aware of. The conversation takes place in this manner; ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. He said, “I know that you are the one that is sent, for no one who is not sent by God could do the things that you do;” and then a sudden break takes place in the conversation, and Jesus said to him; ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …. ..

“Unless one is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …

Nicodemus answered, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”…………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …

And Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say unto you, unless one is born from above, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I have said unto you that you must be born from above, for I tell you that the wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell whence it comes not whither it goes. So is every one who is born of the spirit. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ……………. …Nicodemus answered, “How can this be?” …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …

And Jesus answered him and said, “Are you a teacher of Israel and you do not understand this? I tell you – I tell you what I know, and I bear witness to what I have seen, but you do not receive my testimony.”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …

That is the story in essence. Man was looking for it to take place, as Nicodemus did, as all births take place, never having heard of an entirely different kind of a birth. Here, that which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the spirit is spirit; but he never heard before that Isaac represented what which is born of the spirit……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …

Now, when you read the Bible, the characters of the Bible are not persons as we are; they are eternal states of consciousness through which you and I – the Immortal Being -we pass through these states. The end of it – the climax of it is simply Jesus Christ. Each is destined to awaken one day as Jesus Christ, who is nothing less than God Himself! Every one is destined to awaken as God!………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …

The birth cannot be of the flesh, for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. It cannot enter the Kingdom of God – only Spirit, for God is Spirit. So this represents – Isaac represents – the birth of the Spirit……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …

Nicodemus saw only physical birth. He could not understand any kind of a birth outside of a physical birth. Paul, now, explains in his 9th Chapter of his Letter to the Romans, the difference between the two births, and he speaks of the descendants of Abraham after the flesh and that which comes out of Isaac – and “we are named out of Isaac,” he said………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …

Well, I will tell you now from my own experience which duplicates that recorded in Scripture. You could not find a more beautiful recording than that which I have just repeated for you from the 3rd Chapter of John. It is accurate. It is perfect. When he uses the word “wind,” some translators said he should have used the word “spirit;” but the words “spirit” and “wind” are identical, both in Hebrew and in Greek – the same word. But he used the right word, for when it happens to you, you think only in terms of wind. When you are “born from above,” and the child is placed in your hand – this wonderful child actually laughs. You pick it up and you look into its face and say in the most endearing manner, “How is my sweetheart?” This heavenly smile breaks upon his face; but you hear a wind. It’s an unearthly wind that I can’t describe by anything known to my physical senses, and yet I heard it through, seemingly, senses, for I heard the wind. I heard it coming from within me and seemingly coming from without……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …

So when one is “born from above,” it is the moment when he is resurrected from the grave. This whole thing is dead – just as dead as it can be, but we animate it because we are in it. We are the Dreamer in it dreaming and keeping alive the dream – the promise that is made. May I ask you not to reject it. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …

A man – a little man – stands before you, with all the weaknesses, all the limitations of the flesh; but everything that you are heir to I am. I am still heir to it, in spite of what has happened to me; and yet I tell you it has happened to me, and plead with you not to reject it, but accept it, for the day is not long from now when this little thing [indicating his physical body] must be shed. That which has already happened within me, which is forever, just simply escapes. That is the Imprisoned Splendor waiting – bursting to get out permanently. It gets out night after night on a certain work to be done; but it is waiting for that moment when, for the first time, it takes off this little garment, and the silver cord is snapped and the Imprisoned Splendor set free, that which is within a man. It comes when he is “born from above.” ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …

So, the conversation between them is all about the Kingdom of Heaven and the only way that it can be entered. There is no other way you can enter it. So, until the “birth” takes place, you are still flesh and blood. You will “die” here – yes, but you cannot die, may I tell you? It seems silly. It seems stupid to tell you when a man dies and you cremate the body and you scatter the ashes that he is not dead. Yet, I know from my own experience of many who have gone – I have seen them. I have talked with them. I am talking to you. They don’t even know they are “dead.” They say to me, “Who is dead?”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ..

I say, “You’re not dead, but you ‘died.’ I was at your funeral. You are buried,” – and I tell them the cemetery where they are buried. They can’t believe it, because they are not dead. They are so alive to themselves, they can’t believe it for one moment. And you can bring back certain things: “You recall so-and-so?” ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. … …”Yes. Did he die?” they begin to think. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …… …”Well, yes, he did die.” ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ….. …”Well then, look at him. Is he ‘dead’? There he is – he died. You went to his funeral, didn’t you?” -and then they begin to think…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ….. …”Yes, I did.” “Well then, look at him. He isn’t dead, but he died.”

…”Well, you died, too, Jack; but you are not ‘dead’ because nothing dies in God’s world, for God is the God of the living.”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …….. … Every one that “dies” here is instantly restored in a body just like this, but young -unaccountably new – unaccountably young with nothing missing. If you had parts missing, they aren’t missing then. If you were deaf, blind, dumb, you aren’t deaf,–none of these things happened. You are simply completely restored, and you are perfect. But you are still in a world just like this, and you will still go through all the things you do here. You will work. You will marry; you will do all the things you do here, just as you do it here, until that moment when you are “born from above.” ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ……… … When you are “born from above,” you can die no more. That is behind you, as told you in the 20th Chapter of the Book of Luke, when they asked the question: “Tell me, in the Resurrection whose wife will that one be?” because she had married seven brothers. And he said to those who questioned him, because they were all great scientists – in those days they spoke of the Pharisee and the Sadducee; and the Sadducee was what we would call today the scientist – the agnostic or even the atheist. He won’t believe in survival because nothing could convince him that the body was not the reality – that something could escape from this body. So they asked him the question, “In the Resurrection, whose wife will she be?” for she married seven………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …

And he said to the Sadducees, “The children of this age marry, and they are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that Age and to the Resurrection from the dead, they neither marry, nor are they given in marriage, for they cannot die any more, being sons of the Resurrection. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ..

So, the whole drama begins with the Resurrection, which is the “birth from above.” They are two sides of the same coin; it happens only moments apart. You feel the most terrific vibration within your head. You feel – as I did – that “this is it!” meaning this is now a hemorrhage – a brain hemorrhage that must be massive, and therefore they will find the body tomorrow morning on the bed, and Neville is gone from this world.

Instead of that, I felt myself waking – waking from a dream. I had no idea it wasn’t a normal dream; but when I awoke, I was not in this world. I was in my skull, and I knew instantly that my skull was a sepulcher and I had been placed there. How I got there, I did not know; but I only knew that somebody who put me there knew of thought I was “dead.” So, I was buried as one that was dead, and you are now buried as one that is dead; and you are dreaming this dream of life in your skull. And that’s where you are. Your Immortal Being is there. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …

When I awoke to find myself completely sealed, I had an intuitive knowledge – as you are told, “The one who wakes is the wisdom of God, and he is the power of God,” for that’s how Christ is defined in Scripture: “the power of God and the wisdom of God.” And I knew exactly what to do. I would push the base of the skull. May I tell you? All things being relative, I stood within my skull. This [indicating his head] is a little tiny thing. How could Neville, 5’ll”, stand in a skull? I stood in my skull! It is the Immortal Skull – and the Immortal Head. I stood in it just like I stand here on the stage, and I went to the base of it, and I pushed from within. As I did so, something rolled away. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …

That stone rolled away, and then I came out, inch by inch, head first, just like a child being born; but I’m a man, and a whole man came out; and then when I was almost out, I pulled the remaining portion of me out of that body. And then the wind became even more intense – “the wind blowing where it wills.” I heard the sound thereof, but I could not tell whence it came or whither it would go. So, I looked over to the corner, having just seen the body; I looked over and couldn’t see anything that could be the cause of it, but still it intensified like some enormous hurricane. I looked back to the body and it was gone…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Then three witnesses, as told us in the Book of Genesis,–they then stand before – you didn’t see them approaching – they stand before Abraham, to whom the promise was made. Now I am playing the part of Abraham, for here the promise is made; and these three witnesses sent from God, and one is not only the spokesman of God, it is God Himself! As he looks up, he doesn’t see them approaching. There they are! I looked and I didn’t see these three men approaching. There they sat where the body was, and they are discussing.

And in Scripture, whenever vision breaks into sound – into speech, the presence of David is assured. They began to talk, discussing the wind; and then one is completely disturbed and walks towards the same direction where I thought the wind originated. He goes two steps and he sees the infant, the sign. As told us in Scripture, the child is only a sign of the “birth” of God. He announces the father of the child. They question his right. They say, “How can,” – calling me by name – “have a baby?” He doesn’t argue the point; he lifts the child and presents it, and then I take the child. And then is when it smiles in my face………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Are we not asked in the 30th Chapter of the Book of Jeremiah, “And the Lord said unto Jeremiah,” -and the word “Jeremiah” means “Jehovah will rise.” It is Jehovah who is buried in you. Jehovah will rise. And then Jehovah speaks to His prophet whose name, as I’ve just defined for you, is “Jehovah will rise,” – “Can a man bear a child?” Obviously the answer is, No. And then the Lord speaks:………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ..

“Why, then, do I see every man with his hands drawing himself out of himself just like a woman in labor? Why has every face turned pale?” …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… .

That is just as it happens. The face is ghastly pale like one in death practically, only it is moving, because the head moves, like one in recovery from a great ordeal. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

But here, you draw your Self out of yourself, just as you are told. But the Old Testament is an adumbration: it is a forecasting in a not-altogether conclusive or immediately evident way. The whole thing is adumbrated. One reading it could not read the sketch. It’s like a sketch. But when it actually happens in one as the cubic reality, and he reinterprets Scripture, taking you from the sketch to the reality of it, they would not accept it. They could not believe it…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …

Now, the Bible begins with the Self-revelation of god. He said to Moses, –and this is the Lord speaking: “I speak unto my servant Moses. I appeared unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name The Lord I did not make myself known unto them.”

The word translated “the Lord” is “Yod-He-Vau-He,” which means “I Am.” It is to Moses that He reveals His intimate identity, which is I Am. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …

But Moses said, “When they ask me, What is his name, what must I say?”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …… …”Say I Am has sent me unto you.”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …

He didn’t reveal this intimacy to the three states called Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They saw Him purely as Power – sheer power that was a destructive power, like the lightning, like the thunder, like the earthquake. Thy saw It only as power…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …

Now He comes into the more intimate revelation of Himself in one called Moses, and there He reveals Himself as I AM. It is an intimate relationship. You say, “I am.” That’s He! But the word “Moses” means “One to be born.” So we are told in the story, Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land, because it was not yet born. The revelation of God came to that point of an intimate relationship of the presence being felt, which was I AM; but something more had to be born. So we are told he was not allowed to go into the Promised Land, but one called Joshua went into the Promised Land…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …

Well, the word “Joshua” is the same as the word “Jesus.” It is the Hebrew form of the Anglicized form “Jesus,” which means “Jehovah Saves,” which is the same thing as “Jehovah.” “Joshua” and “Jehovah” and “Jesus” are identical in meaning. So, Moses couldn’t go because he was not yet born into the further unveiling of God………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …

What was the other unveiling of God? The final revelation of God-in-man is that of Father. When He unveils Himself as Father, that’s the final revelation of God to man, for then he has completed His task in giving Himself to man. For it’s God’s purpose to actually give Himself to man. So, there’s no two – just you; and you and He are one. So, you can’t say, “God and I,” -for you are God! You actually become God. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …

That is the story of the Bible. So, God as Father – only when you find Him now as Father. How would I find Him as a father? To see a man standing before me that I know to be my father? No. I see his son standing before me who knows me as his father……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ..

So, when I find God’s only begotten son standing before me,–and he doesn’t even have to call me “Father;” I know he is my son, and he knows I am his father; but he does call me “Father.” He calls me his lord, and I know I am his father. He stands before me, and who is he? He is the one mentioned in the Old Testament, for “I’ve come only to fulfill Scripture.”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …

The only “scripture” spoken of in the New Testament is the Old Testament. So when he said, “I come only to fulfill Scripture. Scripture must be fulfilled in me; and beginning, ” – not with the Gospels, not with the Letters, he begins with the Old Testament; he begins with the law of Moses, then he comes to the Prophets, he comes into the Psalms; and “he interprets to them in all the scriptures of the Old Testament the things concerning himself.”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ..

So, when one fulfills Scripture – that is the Old scripture,–then the story has come to its end, and in the fulfillment God unveils Himself, and that’s the last unveiling, and that is “Father.” So, he has come to make known the real name of God, and the name is “Father.” So, he smiled, “I have made known Thy name, and I will make it known that the love with which Thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them.” He begins the whole thing by calling upon the Father. Then he said, “I and my Father are one.”………………………………………………………………………………

THE PRUNING SHEARS OF REVISION

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 1954

This morning’s subject is “The Pruning Shears of Revision”. I firmly believe that if you will wisely and daily use the pruning shears of revision that you will find there is no objective beyond your ability to realize. And I mean that seriously, no objective beyond your ability to realize.

When I was a boy of seven, a lady said to me, “I have had a vision concerning you. I’ll make it now very, very clear to you–I do not know what it is you are going to do, but I’ve been shown you will do something that through the centuries after you are gone man will not undo it. I can see it and through the centuries you will grow in stature long after you have gone. And then three men will be mentioned in hundreds of years to come and you will be one of the three when something is discussed that was done for man.”

I feel that this morning’s subject that this could be it, that if I never said another word, and you heard it and believed it, and really used it, this would be the planting that would spread from us here that tomorrow could not undo. For it is magic, this pruning shears of revision. It really is not only the achievement of objectives, but if you do it daily, it will awaken in you the spirit of Jesus, which is continual forgiveness of sin.

In this teaching the sinner should always go free; you will never condemn him, for when the spirit is awake in you you will realize in him there is no condemnation, only forgiveness, and forgiveness is not as man of the world thinks when he omits the actual execution of his revenge. What we mean by forgiveness the identification of the other that we would forgive with the ideal that other wants to embody in the world. And so we do to him what we expect or would like the world to do to us. So whatever I myself would like to embody that is the vision that I must hold of every man that I meet in my world; that no man is to be discarded, every man is to be redeemed, and my life is the process whereby that redemption is brought about. And I do it by simply identifying the other with the ideal I want to externalize in my world.

Now we will go back to the 2nd of Genesis. It is said “And God placed man in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” Now when you read the story you think it happened thousands of years ago. I have come to tell you it is now. You are now in the garden of Eden and you think you are shut out or banished. You are in it, and the garden is your mind, but you need–like every gardener–you need pruning shears. For you have slept, as you are told in that second chapter; having slept, weeds have appeared in the garden and the weeds are revealing themselves by the conditions and the circumstances of life. For your garden is always projecting itself on the screen of space, and you can see by looking carefully at your world what you allow to grow in the garden of God. But you have a mission, you have a purpose, it is not to amass a fortune–you can do it if you want to–it’s not to be famous, it is not to be some mighty power, but simply to tend the garden of God. That’s your purpose. You are placed in the garden to dress it and to keep it, that only the lovely things grow in the garden of God.

Now every man in the world is rooted in you who look out and see that world. Every man is rooted in me; he ends in me as I am rooted in and end in God. Because he is rooted in me he cannot bear other than the nature the root allows. So he is in me and any changes desired in the outer world can be brought about only if I change the source of the thing I see growing in my world.

“You see yonder fields?
Don’t be surprised when you see sesamum:
The sesamum was sesamum,
The corn was corn,
The silence and the darkness knew
So is a man’s fate born”

So don’t judge it, because you are the source of the thing that you are beholding. Now turn within and prune it by using these pruning shears of revision.

Now this is how we do it. At the end of my day, I review the day; I don’t judge it, I simply review it. I look over the entire day, all the episodes, all the events, all the conversations, all the meetings, and then as I see it clearly in my mind’s eye, I rewrite it. I rewrite it and make it conform to the ideal day I wish I had experienced. I take scene after scene and rewrite it, revise it, and having revised my day, then in my imagination I relive that day, the revised day, and I do it over and over in my imagination until this seeming imagined state begins to take on to me the tones of reality. It seems that it’s real, that I actually did experience it and I have found from experience that these revised days, if really lived, will change my tomorrows. When I meet people tomorrow that today disappointed me, they will not tomorrow, for in me I have changed the very nature of that being, and having changed him, he bears witness tomorrow of the change that took place within me. It is my duty to take this garden and really make it a garden by daily using the pruning shears of revision.

I know from experience it will not only bring about these objectives, and bring about these changes, but the glorious thing is, it awakens in you, who use it, the spirit of Jesus, and you find yourself then not justifying but forgiving, and you will realize that freedom and forgiveness are indissolubly linked. You cannot be free and not forgive, for the one that you would bind and judge and condemn anchors you by your own judgment of him–for he is in you. And so by identifying him with the ideal you want to really realize you free yourself.

You are told “Forgive and you shall be forgiven. Forgive not and then you shall not be forgiven”. It’s automatic; it can’t be otherwise for the whole springs from you who behold it. And as you begin to practice it the very spirit arouses itself within you and you know that you are he that others spoke about and thought lived 2000 years ago.

So, when you realize it, you realize it through actual knowledge, you know it; no argument, you don’t tell others, you know that you are he. And then you will read the words in the ninth of Hebrews, “He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself”. And you will know you are the one that put away sin by the sacrifice of self and by the sacrifice of self it’s not being a brave one who throws himself in the line of fire to protect a brother, it doesn’t mean one who gives his body to be burned, one who is nailed on a cross, but the self of man is the sum total of all that that man believes and consents to as true. So that’s the self that is sacrificed.

I heard of this lady and she would make some man a wonderful wife, and yet she is unwed. She desires to be the companion of a great noble person, but she is unwed, I heard that. That becomes a part of myself, that’s my knowledge; I must sacrifice that self, that that aspect of my being be as happy as I am and those in my world are. For that’s the self I must sacrifice and put away sin, for sin to the mystic means missing the mark; it doesn’t mean the violation of certain codes, unless of course you have a mark and the violation fell short, but sin to the mystic is simply haying an aim in life and failing to realize it. So when you miss the mark you have sinned; so he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and knowing that himself is only all that he consents to, all that he accepts, all that he believes to be true, then what am I believing concerning that one–he is unemployed and he can’t find a job? I’m believing it. Now put away that sin where he is missing his mark and then by the putting away of the sin I do it only by the sacrifice of myself and myself is that belief, so now I revise. I can’t say well, I will no longer believe he is unemployed: I believe he’s employed.

I do it by the pruning shears of revision. I bring him before my mind’s eye and I congratulate him on his good fortune because he is now gainfully employed. I allow him to accept my congratulations, because I do not see a man unemployed, I see him employed and he knows he is in my mind’s eye for in that state I have pruned him from the unemployed state and once more reshaped the branch that grows in the garden of God. Tomorrow people will see him as they could not have seen him before the pruning that took place within me and he will be gainfully employed.

That one is unwell, you prune that branch. You don’t accept one thing in the world as final unless it conforms to the ideal you want to realize in the world. But you do it daily; if you do not prune it daily you will get out of the habit, then weeds will grow. Every man who really is a gardener who calls himself a gardener, a gardener in the garden of God, for every day is the opportunity to really prune the tree, this wonderful tree. And so everyone that you meet is a branch rooted in the vine that you are and you are that special tree in the garden of God, a tree bearing life, a tree bearing fruit for the food of the nations. You are that one.

If you take me seriously today, tonight do not let the sun descend upon any vexation of the day. Just look at it, don’t deny it, don’t duck it, look at it that you may prune it and then reshape it. Take the conversations with your friends today, were they pleasant, were they arguments, no matter what it is, were they negative?

Then rewrite the script and just imagine the conversation to have taken place that now you are rewriting for the first time. And it will take place, for everything in your world that you behold, though it appears without, it is within, in your imagination. And this wonderful imagination of yours is Christ Jesus. Imagination is the actual habitation of every created thing. No matter what you see in the world, it springs from your imagination. So that’s where you go, that’s the workshop, the garden of God.

And now you have a mission, you have a purpose in life; it’s a noble purpose, because you have been selected to really become the chief gardener in the garden of God, and in the garden you must have pruning shears, and pruning shears is revision. You simply revise, and as you revise the day you repeal the day, for the day is not slipping into the past, it does not recede as people think, it is always advancing into the future to confront you, either pruned or in some strange weed-like state.

So it’s entirely up to us–I hope that every man and woman here today will take me seriously and start this day pruning your garden. pruning your mind. I know before I leave this city in a matter of two weeks that you will be able to tell me of the new things that spring in your world or that spring from the pruned tree that is your own lovely imagination. You try it: then you will know what Blake meant when he said. “In heaven, the only art of living is forgetting and forgiving.” The only art of living is complete forgetfulness by putting something in its place, no vacuum, but putting something in its place.

So when you read these strange stories that you read in the daily press, you simply ignore them. They mean nothing. Men who are calling themselves leaders, shepherds of the flock, they excommunicate–not just one religion, all religions the leaders take it upon themselves to excommunicate, not knowing nothing is to be discarded, not a thing in the world can you discard for it is forever, but it can be pruned and made to conform to the ideal image. The man who will not revise his day either does not know it or he has lost the vision of that life into the likeness of which it is the true labor of the spirit of Jesus that transformed this life. So you don’t discard them.

In the current issue of “Time” magazine there is that noble soul who is known to us as Spinoza, Baruch de Spinoza, who has given so much to the world of philosophy, so much everyone has been enriched because he walked the earth. And here 300 years later, the ex-premier of Israel, Ben-Gurion, has asked the leading rabbis today to rescind that excommunication of 300 years ago, and they tell this noble soul today that they cannot rescind the works of their forefathers, that the curse remains forever, and you should read that silly, silly curse as it’s printed in the current issue of “Time” magazine. They call upon all the angels to curse him, as though angels would curse; they call upon everything to blast him, you could not walk within four cubits of the man’s shadow; no one should talk to him, no one should show him kindness, no one should write him and never read anything he ever has to say; and that’s 300 years ago.

The rabbis who so cursed him have long been forgotten and if they do live, they live only by reason of their curse. And no one knows really who they really are, but you can’t forget if you read in this world the works of Spinoza. Everyone in this audience possibly has used one of his phrases; did you know it was he who said “nature abhors a vacuum”? Now you use it; I use it, but what is the source of it–it was Spinoza. For here was this giant of a mind that after 300 years little minds who think they’re leading the flock; they call themselves shepherds. They should go back and read well the Book of Jeremiah, “You shepherds who spoil my vines and you who have come into my garden and you have taken my vines, now it bears no grape and it bears no leaf, and the garden of Jerusalem now has become a weed.” Read it in Jeremiah, how he cries out because shepherds, who call themselves shepherds, are blind leaders of the blind.

You take me this morning at my word; you owe me nothing, it costs you not a thing to come here this morning, you come you give me your time and I give you my time, but you go out and try it and start this day pruning that wonderful imagination of yours. Do you know someone that is evil? Stop knowing it by bringing him before your mind’s eye and carry on with him the most wonderful conversation in the world, with a tender spirit, a loving spirit, and believe in the reality of this communion, because if you really do it, you are entering the kingdom of heaven, for you enter heaven by a loving, knowing communion with a friend. So make him a friend, if he is a lovely one, no matter what he is, you can prune him and then as you prune him you are doing the work which you were sent to do for man–and you are that man–you are placed this day in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Don’t let it continue growing weeds in your world.

You are absolutely responsible for every being you meet in this world; that’s your responsibility. Just like the teacher we told you of who took this little child that was just about to be expelled; no, the child is not expelled because she heard what you are hearing this morning. So she brought before her mind’s eye the child that the principal, the psychiatrist and all the faculty had agreed unanimously to expel her on her l6th birthday, for she was rude, she was crude, she was unethical; and she went home on a Sunday night and brought that child before her mind’s eye and communed with her and saw in her a tender child, a considerate child, a loving child. The next day, Monday, in class she expressed all the kindness of that revision of the night before, and ten days later when it was seen and witnessed by all the faculty, and the psychiatrist, another meeting was called and they repealed their verdict of ten days before and the child is not expelled. She still sits in the George Washington High School in New York City, which is considered an excellent school; and so there she is. with no black marks against her because one teacher sat in the audience, as you are here, and she believed, what I hope everyone here will believe, and she redeemed a branch of her own tree. She didn’t realize the child was herself. She saw up to that very moment all the children that she taught in pure objectivity. Blind man sees the world objective to himself, something detached from himself. When man begins to awake he sees everything subjectively related; everything he meets is part of himself, and what he does not now understand, still he knows that it is related by affinity to some as yet unrealized force in his own being. So he doesn’t discard it, he knows his life is the process by which he will redeem it and he redeems it by using the pruning shears of revision.

So I feel that if after these fifty years of walking this earth that this is what that lady saw when I was but seven, I could really close the eye on three dimensions at any moment knowing you will not disprove it: you may never use them but you will never disprove this art of revision. And any man who will try it will prove it to his own satisfaction that he can rise beyond the wildest dream of men, and rising he awakens the spirit of forgiveness. He will rise in the early stages in the successful venture; he will increase his income, he will do all these things, but he will realize after a little while that wasn’t the purpose. They were only toys to tickle him, toys to amuse him until he awoke within himself the spirit of Jesus; then he sees an entirely different mission, not the amassing of wealth but the redeeming of society, the redeeming of every man in the world. He comes to do his Father’s will and we are told in the 6th chapter of John, “This is my Father’s will, that of all that he has given me I should lose nothing but I should raise it up again.”

Lose nothing–no, you don’t excommunicate, you don’t rub out, you simply raise it up again and as you raise it up you raise yourself up and the journey is forever. You are moving up an infinite vertical line in your own wonderful imagination, and you only move up by lifting others up. Blind men think they can save themselves, and because they think they can save themselves and discard the rest. The blind man also said this hundreds of years ago. He saved as he saved others; himself he cannot save. I say to you that it’s a false statement; it was put into the mouth of the Pharisee, put into the mouth of the Sanhedrin, the leaders who thought they were leaders, but I will tell you a man saves himself by, and only by the saving of his fellowman. There is no other way of saving self other than by saving the real self and every man is rooted in you who observes men. And so don’t discard, raise them up, prune the tree, and become the real gardener in the garden of God.

Take anything; you have a child today: we took all the requests this morning, there were dozens and dozens of requests this morning. Everyone must be answered, none must be discarded; don’t say one is impossible, there is nothing impossible to your imagination and your imagination is Christ Jesus. With Him all things are possible. Use him, stir him, wake him from his sleep; he has been sleeping through the centuries: because he has slept he has dreamed into being all these strange misshaped states. For the world only bears witness of the use or misuse of imagination. As we are told, he is the only thing in the world. What he is the only thing in the world? –Your imagination, for it is the habitation of every created thing and by it all things are made and without it is nothing made that is made. So use it wisely, use it lovingly and any time you use your imagination lovingly on behalf of another you are at that moment literally mediating God to man. Imagination is the redemptive power of the world and you are actually mediating God to man by using it in a loving, wonderful way.

THE PURE IN HEART

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 03-01-1963

I think you are all familiar with the 6th Beatitude: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” I daresay it would be unwise to pick and choose among the beatitudes, and yet I daresay most people look upon this beatitude as the particular star in the heavens. It really seems the most inaccessible, not only the promise, but the conditions that must be met in order for the promise to be fulfilled. We must be pure in heart to see God and what wouldn’t man give to see God! Yet, all he needs do in this world is fulfill this condition: to be pure in heart. What do we mean by “pure in heart?” Just what is it?

First of all, may I tell you: you need not think of moral perfection, and certainly it does not refer in any way to sexual purity, for we are told by the same one who uttered the beatitude that the harlot given to lust will go into heaven before the Pharisee. The Pharisee was perfect in keeping the outward law, the washing of the outside of the cup, of the hands, of the feet and he abided by the law outwardly. Yet, he was told that the harlot given to lust would go into heaven before he did. So it is not that. What is the purity spoken of? “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”

The Bible is a mystery. On the surface it seems simple and anyone should be able to understand that simple statement. Well, the Bible is not that simple. So what is this purity and what is the heart? The word “pure” is “katharos” ([Gr.] “to cleanse”), which means, “clear; unalloyed; pure, pure gold.” It was used on a tract of land completely cleared of all trees, no obstruction, none whatsoever. Here it is pure gold. To understand it we must go all over the Bible to get it.

In Psalm 73:1 we are told: “Truly God is good to the upright (Israel), to those who are “pure in heart.” So right away we set up Israel as the pure in heart. And then in the 1st chapter of John, Philip sees Nathaniel (which means “gift of God”) and says: “We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathaniel looks at him, and at the moment is not quite sure that anything good could come out of Galilee. Jesus, looking at Nathaniel, said: “Behold, an Israelite, indeed, in whom is no guile.” (John 1:45-47) That is an ‘Israelite’ one in whom there is no guile, no deceit, incapable of duplicity. That is the true Israelite, “that is the heart.”

Now, in Psalm 24:3-4 the question is asked: “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place?” Then comes the response: “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false, and does not swear deceitfully.” Then you are told in the next line exactly what it means, “who does not lift his soul to what is false, who does not swear deceitfully.” “He will receive the blessing from the Lord, and vindication from the God of his salvation.”

So we bring the whole thing down to one simple, simple point: a man incapable of deceit for personal gain. If I tell you a story for amusement, where you and I can laugh together, that is not deceit. But if I tell it for personal gain, say in politics, in government, in religion, or in business, anytime I plot and plan a little scheme to get the better of another for my own personal gain then I am not pure in heart. So, he is looking for one who is pure in heart because no one but such a one can see God. No one can be brought into the presence of the Ancient of Days and be presented to him but the pure in heart. He may have no intellectual background or social background or financial background, nothing the world would recognize, but he is incapable of deceiving another for his own gain. That one has the heart of the Israelite.

At the moment it is observed by God, he brings him into his presence and you see God. When you see God you see that only reality, and you become what you see. In that very moment, like a seal upon wax, the impression is made and you bear the image of God. Not on this physical garment, but you bear it on your eternal garment which was waiting for that moment in time when the heart was pure gold. You start with this homogeneous substance called the body. This simply contains all the minerals, all things. Then we are put through the furnaces of affliction. I speak of them as furnaces of experience. Every test in the world is given the individual by himself (but he does not know it) to do what is called, not the right thing, but the loving thing, where you could never deceive. And when you have been put through all these tests and you know, in spite of your own poverty or need, you would rather die than take advantage of another, then that heart becomes pure gold. Only it can receive the imprint of the King of kings.

How he finds such a person (and this is the mystery he has been looking and looking) he finds him and he calls him David, after putting himself through all the furnaces of affliction. He extracts the pure gold that can take his imprint and that he calls “David.” “I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart.” (Acts 13:22-24). Here, for the first time, I have brought forth exactly what I want. “I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart,” of which posterity God has brought forth a savior, Jesus, as he promised. The word “Jesse” actually means “I AM.” He is the father of David, so who is begetting that heart? I AM.

You put yourself, unknowingly on your present level, into every situation in the world, to test that gold. For here you are imbedded in this homogeneous substance containing all things, but you have to extract only pure gold, and that pure gold is David. “I have found in David, a son of Jesse” (the son of I AM) “a man after my heart.” So I bring it out, and out of it now I make myself a pledge, and this is the pledge, as told us in 2 Samuel 7:12: “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your son after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will be his father, and he shall be my son.” Now the process begins. He has found him and from him he is going to bring forth his own likeness. He has found David, his only begotten son ‘pure gold’ and now God begins the process of making what he has brought forth into his own image. “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” But you cannot make man until you first produce this pure metal, this pure gold. So God became imbedded in what is called a garment of flesh, and in it he moves through all the furnaces of experience until he can produce out of it the pure gold and then from it he now brings forth himself. He is going to make himself and making himself, he is making us individually.

Now, it does not make sense, but listen carefully: In Isaiah 44:28, we are told: “What is said of Cyrus is said of David.” And the name only appears twice in the book, in the 44th and beginning of the 45th [chapters] of Isaiah. Cyrus is called “my shepherd,” and that is what David is called. “He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill my purpose.” David will do all of my will, so you see, the two are as one.

Now in a wonderful manuscript, which is used in the Apocrypha and also in the traditional books of our Bible, Cyrus is made to say (and we are supposed to have this manuscript, this parchment): “I am Cyrus, the king, the great king, the mighty king. I am the son of Cambeses, the great king. I am the grandson of Cyrus, the great king, exalted according to the beneficence of their hearts.” Here we find: Cyrus – Cambeses – Cyrus. I make the claim that man awakes, matures completely, when man becomes the father of his own father. He is Cyrus, his father is Cambeses, his grandfather is Cyrus. So Cyrus awakes. He says: “I am Cyrus the king, the great king, the mighty king. I am the son of Cambeses, the great king. I am the grandson of Cyrus, the great king, exalted according to this love of their hearts.”

Now, here we come back, David seems to be something that I begot. I promised myself I am going to extract this gold, my very being: “I will raise up out of your body” (out of your very body) “your son who will come forth from your body. I will be his father and he shall be my son.” Now, we are told he buries this in the mind of man. The word “mind” and the word “heart” are the same in Hebrew. We are told in Ecclesiastes 3:11: “God has put the world into the heart of man, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” That word translated “heart” and the word translated “world” are now changed in the Modern Version of the Bible, and the word “heart” now becomes “mind” and the word “world” becomes “eternity.” So God has put eternity into the mind of man so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. The same word translated “world” is now translated “eternity,” and the word translated “heart” in the King James Version is now translated “mind.” It is the identical thing. What did he put into the mind? The heart, the whole personality of man. It is that gold. He had to first make him.

When man becomes incapable of deceit or duplicity, he has the gold. And the gold is in that man, and now that is placed in man by whom? The one who brought it into being. Who? Jesse. Jesse is producing David, and David is pure gold. “I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart.” Now out of him I am going to actually extract my own being. I cannot extract it from anything but pure gold. Now he begins to make man in his image, after his own likeness. And it takes that gold to take the imprint of God Almighty, of Jehovah himself.

Everyone in the world will do it, because Jesse is buried in your own wonderful I AMness, and if you should drop dead this very second, it makes no difference. The play goes on and you will be put into situation after situation until finally you become incapable of deceit. What you do sexually is not his concern, unless it is to deceive someone for personal gain. You marry someone with all the outer appearances of love, when basically you really want to get with them in twenty-four hours for what they have. That is marrying for personal gain, that is deceit. If you marry a thousand or live without marriage to a thousand people, that has nothing to do with it. No matter how you are given to lust, you will get into heaven before the Pharisee. (Matthew 21:30)

In Matthew 21:28, the question is asked to lead up to it: I ask you a question, said he. “A man said to his first son, ‘Go into the vineyard and work’ and he said, ‘I will not’ but afterward he repented and went into the vineyard. And he said to a second son, ‘Go into the vineyard and work’ and that son said he would, but he did not. I ask you, who obeyed the will of his father?” And they said, ‘The first.’ I tell you, the tax collectors and the harlots will get into the Kingdom of Heaven before you. For you are like the second son. You say: “I will do it,” but you do not. The first one repented and said: “I will not,” but after repenting, he went. He changed his mind, he did it. So everyone in the world is brought into these unnumbered situations where they are faced with it, and though you starve, you cannot take advantage of another. You would rather be dispossessed of everything in the world than take advantage of another for personal gain, or go through all the things in the world rather than seemingly dishonor anyone. You cannot do it. When man comes to that point, he is the pure in heart. It has nothing to do with the moral code of the world. Don’t think of this in any way as moral perfection that is attained by an individual, and don’t think of it as the world would naturally think of it as sexual purity. It hasn’t a thing to do with it. It has all to do with duplicity. Can you really be double-minded and say one thing as a promise when you intend another, which intention is to get personal gain at the expense of another, whether it be a party, an individual, a family, or a government?

So, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” And that pure in heart is that when the gold is actually there, being put through the furnaces of experience and finally when I arrive at the point, just say: “Let me die but I cannot take advantage of another for personal gain.” At that moment (and I am speaking from experience), you are taken into the presence of the Most High.

For my experience I go back to the days of the deep depression. I mean, I did not know where to find a nickel. There is a lady in the audience tonight who, along with my wife, came to my very first meeting, and she knows the truth with which I speak. I would walk from my little place in the village in the hope of finding a friend fifty blocks away. I could not ride the subway; I did not have the nickel. I would walk these fifty blocks in the hope of finding a friend who would give me a quarter, in the hope that eventually I could pay it back. I had four mouths to feed: my dancing partner and her parents. Could I find a quarter, I would buy some vegetables and a little olive oil and then walk back the fifty blocks. And many a day I could not find a friend who had a quarter. I would pass the places where these things were displayed and I could not take one piece of lettuce. I could not take anything from these trays all exposed. I would go back hungry and tell them of my experience. But I could not lift a thing from anyone; it was theirs, not mine.

I know exactly how this thing works and while I was in that state, when I was incapable of stealing and I could not deceive for personal gain, one night I was taken in the spirit right into the presence of the Ancient of Days. And he asked the eternal question: “What is the greatest thing in the world?” and I was, by him, prompted what to say, which I ought to say: “Don’t be anxious how or what you are to answer, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” (Luke 12:12) And so in that moment what I ought to say I said, that “the greatest thing in the world is Love.” You could not steal from one you love. If you ask them for it and they had reasons for not giving it, you could not condemn them for their reason or their action, or reaction. You accept it. So when you are brought into that state it is because the heart is guileless. And so he finds an Israelite, “Behold! An Israelite, indeed, in whom there is no guile.” No guile whatsoever. He is guileless and then he can see the face of God. We are told in the same book, the 14th chapter: “When you see me, you see the Father.” He saw the father because he was without guile and his face was unveiled.

Now we are told in 2 Corinthians 3 (so take heart, not one will fail): “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the [glory of the] Lord, will be changed” , or rather, it is said in the present active tense: “into His likeness from one degree of glory to another, by the Spirit.” We are actually being changed, by beholding the face, from one glory to another glory. It is actually the present active tense, “being changed” from one glory to another. We all, unveiled, beholding the Lord, are being changed into his image from one glory to another glory.

So I tell you: don’t despair. If today you think it is easier to get away with it than to face society and you get away with it, do it. But tomorrow you will be faced with a similar situation, whether in this world of ours or another, for there are worlds within worlds. But you will not come out of the furnaces until the heart is pure gold. No one in the world gets away with anything, but no one! We are told in the 6th Beatitude: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” Believe it. Nothing but the unalloyed gold can come out.

I love all the Beatitudes, but I must confess this one excites me. There are eight, if you read them one way, or you read them another way, nine, and a maximum of ten. Some are inclined to read it as ten, as it gives them a feeling of a new Torah, a new Ten Commandments. It is stretching it a bit, but you can. But there are definitely eight. But it is a new code, a new law where causation becomes mental and not physical.

You are told: “You have heard it said, ‘thou shalt not kill’ but I say unto you . . .Thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto you, any man who looks lustfully upon a woman has already committed the act in his heart.” The whole thing is raised from the physical level of the Pharisee, where he does not do it physically but he does it mentally and it is raised to the level of the mind, where if you do it mentally you have done it. To plot and plan to take advantage of another and you restrain the impulse, you think of the consequences to yourself, your friends and family and because you could not stand the embarrassment if you were caught then you restrain the impulse to do it. That was not good enough. You should not have entertained the thought. To entertain the thought is to perform the act, with the new code. Until you cannot even entertain the thought, if I contemplate an act and it seems pleasant, I might be inclined to do it if I could get away with it. But if I contemplate the act, along with the consequences to myself and others, and restrain the impulse if the act is to take advantage of another for personal gain, I am told that is not good enough.

Maybe you have had the experience and you would rather die than steal. If you have not had it, may I tell you: you will not avoid it. Don’t think that man is judged today because of his fabulous wealth. Sometimes I think that God starts on his play at the top of the ladder. All the honors given to the world, and they receive all the mortal honors ‘things that vanish’ and how they love them! And then the play unfolds because they are not strong enough as yet to withstand the temptations if they are up against the pressure of things and if they have more than their own mouth to feed. When there are others that you love and they depend upon you to find that quarter, and you will not steal and come back without it, and you all have to amuse yourselves with fun, just simply play the game until that moment in time when pure gold comes out and he found David. Having found David of pure gold, he sees David in you, and out of you he brings himself. Who was the being he is bringing out of Jesse? Who is Jesse? He is the father of David. He is pulling Jesse out of his own being, and Jesse is “I AM.” Who is the one he placed in the mind in the beginning? In the beginning was when the gold became pure unalloyed gold. He leaves it in the mind of man and then he pulls out his own image and the image is Jesse, for his name is “I AM” and Jesse’s name is “I AM” and Jesse is the father David, so he pulls himself out of himself. And he sets up in himself a son called David ‘pure gold’ – “A man after my own heart.”

This is the mystery. It is not the easiest thing to reveal. May I tell you: it is the most glorious thing when you contemplate it. Here God himself, and his name is “I AM”, decides to take his own being and bring forth himself, the image of himself. He sinks himself in this we call “the tent.” In the Bible it is called a tent of flesh and blood – all the passions, this complete state that contains everything, all the metals, all the fires of the world. He cannot use them. He has to extract them from the pure gold and that pure gold is David. He cannot start his work until he brings David out. He brings David out, only David. “I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all of my will; and I will bring forth from him a savior, Jesus, as I promised.” So he starts the work of bringing him forth. And he brings forward himself, the father of David. He first creates David (Psalm 2:7) “Thou art my son. Today I have begotten thee.” Out of this I am going to bring that which is my own being, and he brings his own being out, who is the father of the son, and that father is Jesse. He is the father of David, and Jesse is “I AM.”

All of a sudden this begins to unfold within you, but it will not start until you reach that point where the pure gold is producing in you through all the fires of experience, where you are guileless. Let no one tell you that your excessive energies expressed in anything in this world are wrong. They are not wrong, unless expressed falsely. Let me quote: “Who will ascend the hill of the Lord, and who will stand in his Holy Place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, and does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.” Any deceitful act on your part and there are still more fires you must pass through and experiences you will pass through, until you are faced with everything, with all the world against you. You cannot violate your code of guilelessness. You find when you cannot raise a finger to take anything, then that heart is the heart he is looking for. Now he starts to mold it in his own image, as in the 1st [chapter] of Hebrews and it takes on the imprint of God himself.

So don’t be concerned, it will work. Because the one who does it is doing it in you, your wonderful I AM-ness. That is the great Elohim who sank himself in you and began the process of extracting pure gold that he may work on it ‘this gold’ to mold his image upon it. And that is you. So, you believe it! Read the 24th Psalm. It is a short one, but what a beauty! “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.” It tells who you are. For right now you are going to come into his presence if you are one who cannot lift up your soul to that which is false. And he tells you who he is: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.”

You will find it one day. The whole vast world is yours. You are heir to it. Then if you can fit that bill where you can rise into the presence of the Lord, it is because you do not swear deceitfully, regardless of the temptation. Then you are brought, and when you take off this little garment, after that moment in time you will take it off for the last time. Then you will read in that wonderful 5th chapter of 2 Corinthians, what is waiting for you, what body of glory is waiting for you! And so you will fit it. It is all perfect. But don’t despair and don’t be concerned; you will not fail. No one in the world will fail. If today we seem to be on different levels, forget it. We will all pass through similar levels, moving to the time we will be fitted to come into the presence of the Holy of Holies. “Who will stand in His Holy Place?” You will. When you stand there you will see him and you will be just like him. You will take the imprint of the being you behold. And at this moment you become one with the being you behold. When you put on the veil once more and return to this world, no one sees it. They see the being they have always known. You are veiled, as all are veiled. But when it is taken off after the experience, it is taken off for the last time.

So when we are asked the question, after the statement is made that “the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have their nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” The son of man is waiting for just such unalloyed gold in the heart of man, because literally a nest means: “this moving tabernacle,” this thing called the flesh. He is waiting for it to be just right, and when it is right, when he least expects it, he is taken to the Presence, where he receives the imprint, like a seal of wax, and he returns once more veiled and no one knows him. He knows what he saw and he knows what he became at that moment. He was like molten gold, but no one knows him because he is the being he was prior to that.

So I tell you: don’t seek the opportunity, because he in you is working it out for you. He will take you through all the experiences necessary to reduce you to pure gold, and the chances are the majority of you have reached that point. But don’t test yourself. No, life does that. All this is moving, and the day will come you will have these experiences, and when you can meet them and it does not matter whether you die or not (but you cannot be double- minded about it) then it is done, and he sees in you the David he has been looking for. He is always looking for David. “I have found David and he cried unto me, ‘Thou art my father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.'” (Psalm 89) All these things are unbelievably true. Suddenly you are actually having an experience that was written 4,000 years ago. These words were written and put on parchment thousands of years ago, and you thought they were relating to some little incident of 4,000 years ago. But they were telling you God’s eternal story, and in everyone it happens, and suddenly you find “I AM.” Where was he all along? He was in you after he had made his David. Now he finds him in the one in whom he made him. As told you in Ecclesiastes 3:11, he hides it right into the mind of that man, and he so does it that man cannot find out what he did from the beginning to the end until that moment in time when he finds him, and it is David. And who is he? Your son. And if your son is his only begotten son, who are you? Jesse. And who is Jesse? “I AM.” That is the name of God.

Now let us go into the silence.

* * * *

QUESTION: Do we have a responsibility towards purification of the heart, are we responsible in any way towards purification of our heart?

ANSWER: The name of the being who is doing it is “I AM.” I ask you a question now: tell me your name? You would first respond: “I AM,” before you would give the name, don’t you? That is the being that is doing it. He is buried in you and has gone through unnumbered ages purifying that homogenous substance, separating it so he could bring out the unalloyed gold. So all the mixtures cause one to act in unnumbered ways that they do. So, the answer to your question, in a sense, is: the being who is doing it you named before you gave me your earthly name that you, now at the moment, bear. Is that clear? Therefore, I say we will never in eternity fly from that homogeneous substance into which he sank himself when he decided to make man in his own image. But he has to make him, first of all, pure gold. I tell you, it is really pure gold, when you see it one day after the temple has been torn from top to bottom (as you are told in the Book of Hebrews). He identifies the spiritual body with the curtain of the temple. The curtain was torn from top to bottom and then he entered into the Holy of Holies forever. No intermediary there. When it is torn you see molten gold, moving liquid gold, and you know this is yourself. And you will say, with Blake: “I behold the Visions of my deadly Sleep of Six Thousand Years Dazzling around thy skirts like a Serpent of precious stones and gold. I know it is my Self, O my Divine Creator and Redeemer.” Then suddenly you will say: “I know it is myself, O my Divine Creator and Redeemer.” At that very moment, the being who created you, you are he.’ He made you into his own being and succeeded in giving you himself. So you are looking for pure gold. And then, as that molten gold, up you go right like a serpent to fulfill the statement of John 3: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up.” And, suddenly, and you are really molten gold then, and up you go. The incorruptible element, which will not corrode in all eternity, gold. The pure gold is incorruptible, and this is only the symbol of the true spiritual gold which you are. Therefore, Paul was right when he said the body you will wear is imperishable, incorruptible, immortal. But you first have to get that metal out of this very alloyed state into the unalloyed state. And when you see it, may I tell you: you will know at that moment you have always known it.

So, to come back to your question: it is the being that is in you, your own I AMness, that is doing it. Having heard it, believe it! The question is asked: “What must I do to do the will of him who sent me? What must I do to do the works of him that is called God? Believe in him whom he has sent.” Believe it! It is true! I am speaking from experience. None of this is theory. All I have told you this night I have experienced it. And, so, the great I Amness sunk in us is God, the Elohim. Genesis 1:26: “Let us make man (us is plural and the word “Elohim” is always plural, like the word “gods”) in our image, after our likeness.” Well then, he sinks himself in us and forgets who he is, and the journey begins and he is burning himself, and finally he reaches the point and bear in mind, don’t forget what I told you tonight, it has nothing to do with the sex angle. What you do in your life sexually, I do not know or care and God doesn’t, maybe some moral angle, who cares? But that is not God, and so it is not that. That is not your judge. It is not any moral purity, as the world understands that word. If you promise one, intending when you promised not to keep it but to fulfill another state for personal gain, that is what I am getting at.

The 6th Beatitude: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they, only they, shall see God.” And that purity hasn’t a thing to do with what the world will tell you. It is all based on guilelessness, for he is the true Israelite. “Behold! An Israelite, indeed, in whom there is no guile.” And that is called Nathaniel, which means “gift of God.” Pure gold. And “Who will ascend the hill of the Lord and who will stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart.” You know about the clean hands and the pure heart now: to murder is better than the other, to murder for personal gain is full of guile. Moses murdered the Egyptian who killed the Hebrew boy, and yet he saw God. For even murder, in the heat of passion when it is someone you love, in a moment of violence – that, in the eyes of God, is not comparable to deceiving your neighbor. If you murdered for personal gain, as some do, as many do and you go into battle and those who plotted and planned the destruction of millions for their personal gain and their individual governments, but in the heat of battle, as we are told, Moses murdered the Egyptian when he had killed the Hebrew boy, yet Moses saw the face of God.

David was chosen, yet he slew Goliath. So, deceit is that one little bit of alloy left among the gold that must be burned away before it becomes unalloyed gold. This seems to be the most difficult thing when man is under pressure to eat, to pay rent, to do these things, that he would take from another for personal gain. That is what is called “guile” in the Bible. That person cannot see God. They cannot see God and they cannot receive the impression of God. He cannot make you into his image. When you are brought into his presence, at that very moment it is like a seal upon wax and you are one with him, you take on the whole impression of God. Forever is your immortal body, your indestructible body. You cannot be brought into his presence until you are pure gold in His eyes, the one he calls David.

You dwell upon it and upon the answer to the lady’s question: Who is doing it? ‘I AM’ doing it. He dwells in you.

THE REVEALER

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 11-22-1968

The Psalmist said: “Those who know thy name put their trust in thee.” The name of God is synonymous with God himself, so when you know God’s name, you will put your trust in him. The Book of Exodus tells the story of Moses, who questions God, saying: “When I go to the people of Israel and say to them: ‘The God of your fathers has sent me,’ and they ask: ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say?” And the Lord answered: “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you; this is my name forever and by this name I shall be known throughout all generations.”‘ Now you be the judge. Do you trust your own wonderful I amness? I hope so, for God is the I AM that is your I am. Awareness is the Lord your God, who will bring you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Make no graven image of anything that is in the heavens, the earth, or the water, and bow before it; for there is only one God, and he is your own wonderful I amness.

Recently a lady wrote thanking me for teaching her who Jesus Christ really is. Then she said: “On my job I lift a typewriter every day. The other day, while moving it I strained a muscle in my lower back and experienced great pain. Remembering the story of the father who had his seven-year-old son revise the scene where he was hurt, in my imagination I picked up the typewriter without any pain. Having eliminated its cause, I felt no need to request help on the outside and within a few days my back was fine once more.

Then she continued: “I was raised in the Catholic faith. Shortly after the experience with my back, I had this dream. Entering the side door of a Catholic church, I walked across the church to the opposite side without genuflecting. As Mass was over and everyone was leaving, I turned to join them, when I heard the words: ‘Now you will face the altar and get down on your knees, because a priest is watching you.’ Turning, I saw a man robed in black, and I replied: ‘I will not, for I do not believe in anything outside of myself.’ Then I awoke.” What a marvelous experience! In the state called dream, where attention is the servant rather than the master, this lady remembered the teaching and put it into practice. Priest or no priest, she would not stand before any man-made altar and bow.

“I (your own wonderful awareness) have brought you out of the land called Egypt, the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods besides me. You shall make no graven image unto me, or any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, on the earth or in the waters. Do not bow down to them or serve them.” (Exodus 20) In spite of these commandments, millions bow before man-made altars and little figurines they call Jesus Christ, because they do not know the Lord. If they knew him, they would know his name is I AM. The Lord is your I am, and there is no other God. Speaking from within, awareness tells you he came out from the Father and came into the world; again he is leaving the world and going to the awareness of being the Father of all life! Coming out from yourself, you and God the Father are one!

The full significance of God’s name is known only in the light of its consummation. God is the Word. His name is manifested when he, the Word, is made flesh. You are this one who is the Word made flesh, for are you not flesh and blood? And don’t you say “I am”? You will never know the full significance of God’s name, however, until you consummate it.

There are some questions that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no, such as the one asked by John: “Do not keep us in the state of uncertainty, but tell us plainly, are you the Christ?” (John 10) If the Christ of an individual’s personal expectations is meant, then the answer is No. But if you mean the Christ who was buried in the skull, the one who rose from that state of death and came out of that tomb, unaided, to find three witnesses of his birth – then my answer is Yes, I am He. If you mean the Christ who found David in the spirit, who identifies him as his Father, I am he! And yes, I am the Christ who tore the curtain of my own body from top to bottom, and, as the son of Man, rose like the serpent in the wilderness. And if you mean the Christ on whom the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form as a dove, then I must answer: Yes, for I know from experience that I am He.

Now, the words “God” and “Lord” mean I AM! Awareness is the foundation of all life, while the words God and Lord cover it up, like a mask. Rather than calling upon the Lord’s name, call with his name. To do that you must say I am! And because all things are possible to God, anything can be called forth with his name. The minute consciousness is connected to desire, you have called it forth with God’s name. If your desire is for wealth, fame, or health, call it forth by claiming: I am famous, I am wealthy, or I am healthy. Do that and you are calling with God’s name. We are told to not take God’s name in vain; for if we do, he will not hold us guiltless. The minute you say: I am a nobody, I am unwanted, or I am no good, you have taken God’s name and conjured exactly what He has assumed – be it good, bad, or indifferent. Any assumption is yours! Now that you know God’s name, put your trust in the true God who is your own wonderful imagination!

Now, many bold assertions are recorded in the Gospel of John. When you read them, do not think another person is making the statement. Know that the being in the depth of your own soul is speaking. Although the words seem to be spoken by another, and – like Moses – you may think they are coming from without, if you are conscious of them, they are within you. The first bold assertion is: “I am the bread of life.” Coming from within, this life comes to feed the multitudes. One day you will feed the multitudes – not with bread made of flour, but with the desires they want to express. You will feed the blind man eyes that see, ears for the deaf to hear. The lame will walk and the poor will be affluent, for you will know yourself to be the bread of life which came down from heaven.

In my vision, thousands of people in different states of want were waiting for me. As I glided by, the blind, halt, lame, withered, and shrunken became remolded in harmony with the perfection I knew myself to be. They fed on me, as I granted everyone their wishes. When the vision was over and a heavenly chorus cried out: “It is finished,” I, the Word made flesh, descended to this little world once more to tell my story. I have finished the work I sent myself to do. I came out from the depths of my own being, to expand my I Amness into a greater translucence and luminosity.

Everyone came out from Self, destined to discover that Self to be God the Father. You have always been the Father, but, coming out from that I Amness, you think you are another. Turn around and think only of yourself; for you are Imagination, asleep, dreaming your dream of life. You are God the Father! One day God’s son will reveal you to yourself. He will not appear as Jesus Christ, for Jesus is I AM and Christ is his creative power. It is David who will appear and set you free, for when you see David you will know who you are.

Now, the second bold assertion is: “I am the light of the world.” This light is consciousness. One night I felt myself sink into infinite, pulsing, golden, liquid light, of which there was no circumference. I was its center, and knew myself to be the infinite light of the world. Another time, I entered a room which appeared to be animated and independent of my perception; yet when I stopped an activity in me, everything froze, proving once again that I was the life of the world. You are destined to know you are the way, the truth, and the life, from experience.

Awareness is the only way to the knowledge of being the Father, as you will never find him external to yourself. Only when God’s son makes you aware of being his father, will you know who you really are. When you see David, you will know in the depths of your soul that you inspired him to write the words: “I will tell of the decree of the Lord, and he said unto me, ‘Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee.'”

As the Word, you sent yourself into the world to fulfill all that you said you would. In the beginning you were the Word which was with God and was God. You are the Word which went forth from God’s mouth and will not return void, but must accomplish that which you purposed and prosper in the thing for which you were sent. Coming out from the knowledge of being the Father, you brought with you the pattern of salvation. This you will fulfill, as it is this pattern that takes you back to the knowledge of being the Father you have been seeking. You came out from yourself and entered the world of men by falling asleep to your true awareness. You will return to that awareness when you learn to trust the one and only God, who is your own wonderful human imagination. Forget all the little isms; there is only God! When you say I am, you are speaking as God. Add any word and you have placed a limit on an infinite being. That which is unlimited, abides by his own law and becomes that which he believes himself to be – whether it be unwanted, sick, helpless, or poor. Believe in a world of your own creation, and – because all things are possible to imagine – the moment you become aware of anything, you have given it the power to project itself on your screen of space.

People are forever searching for something beyond the veil. Men who are considered high in the Christian church use mediums for such a purpose. One such man, a bishop of the Episcopal church, requested a medium to ask his son if he had seen Jesus. Then the son, supposedly speaking through the medium answered: “No, they talk about him, but I haven’t seen him yet.” Can you imagine such a question from one who, as the Great Father, blesses and baptizes? All of this worldly nonsense is not the Christian faith. A Christian must have faith in Christ, God’s pattern by which he will be saved. But this is not the Christ the world is looking for. They expect some glamour boy who is beautiful on the outside. But Christ is the eternal pattern which God established in the beginning. Knowing he would fulfill his word, he came into the world, becoming flesh. And when the pattern unfolds within him, Christ has returned to the being he was before that the world was.

If you really believe in your I Amness, you must test yourself by daring to assume you are now the being you desire to be. Walk as though you were, and if this is a true doctrine, your desire will externalize itself on the screen of space. Test yourself every day, and then one day you will experience everything described in the Gospel as happening to one called Jesus Christ.

Everyone says, I am! We are all the same God! There can’t be a billion little I am’s running around; there is only God whose name is I AM. When you say “I am”, it isn’t “we are,” is it? Of course not, it’s one I am. Here is a universally diffused individuality fulfilling what it intended to do, which is to gather itself once more into the same one body to know itself to be the one Lord, one Spirit, one God and Father of us all. Regardless of what part you play, you return to a unit of being where no one is greater than the other, for there is only God.

As I look into the world, I know that everything I see is myself pushed out and everyone is going to fulfill the story of Jesus Christ, in detail. It’s a definite pattern. If you do not fulfill the pattern as described in scripture, but have a similar experience, it is a foreshadowing that the pattern is coming. Then wait, for you are predestined to fulfill scripture, in detail. It takes 1,260 days from your awakening in the skull called Golgotha, to the descent of the Holy Spirit in the bodily form of a dove. Then you become a witness until you depart this world and enter the celestial sphere where all the fathers have returned to form the one Father. So be encouraged! You are a divine, infinite being. In the world of Caesar you may seem to be a little man (or woman) struggling to pay rent and make ends meet; yet you own the world, because it is housed within you, and it is all yours!

Start now to put your imagination to the test. Jesus Christ is in you and you will not fail if you call your desire forth with God’s name. Sleep in the assumption that you already are the person you desire to be, and firmly expect the evidence to appear in your world.

The last bold statement in the Book of John is: “I am the true vine.” If God’s name is I AM and it is synonymous with God Himself, then I – the vine – will grow and produce the fruit I AM aware of. If you dare to remain conscious of any state, it must appear! Claim for yourself that which you would like to experience. Then put your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the unveiling of Christ within you. When the first act takes place, count the days, and you will discover the last act will appear exactly 1,260 days later. After that, you will linger to tell your story to those who will listen. Not everyone will, for they are interested only in things of this world. Show them how to get their things until they hunger for the promise. Then Christ will unveil himself in them and they will discover they are God the Father. Yes, I am the way, the truth, the life, and the vine. But when I come to the end, I AM the Father.

So many lovely things are taking place in those who come here. One lady told me she heard the words: “I am the resurrection and the life. Believe in me and you shall have everlasting life.” Then a few days later, as she returned to this world from the depth of sleep, the word “resurrection” was ringing in her ear. A complete transformation is taking place in the soul of many here, and they are now believing to the point where they are controlling the dream world, and are no longer its victim.

I urge you to take me seriously, and put my words to the extreme test. There is no other way to the knowledge of being God the Father, except by me. No man comes to the Father except by me. Diets will not do it. Holy retreats will not do it. I am the way and there is no other way. I am the truth and there is no other truth.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE ROCK

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 2-19-1969

In the 32nd chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy, we are told: “The rock, his work is perfect.” Then this question is asked: “Is he not your father who created you? Separating the sons of men, he fixed bounds to the people according to the number of the Sons of God.” Today there is much talk about curtailing the population explosion. This we will never do, for the bounds are already recorded.

Not one child could be born were it not for a son of God giving it life. For it is the sons of God who become the perfect Rock. In the Book of Psalms, it is said: “I will behold thy face in righteousness and I will be satisfied when I awaken with thy likeness.” Although it is hard to believe that the Rock could be God, it is true, for the Rock is the only foundation, and no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is made, which is Christ.

When scriptural truth is experienced it is literally true. The rock first becomes a person, whose work is perfect. And we are urged to “Be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect.”

When the question is asked: “Is he not your father who created you?” the statement is made: “He has set bounds to the people according to the number of the sons of God.” The word translated “God” here means a compound unity of one made up of others. That unity knows the name of each son. You may not believe me, but we are all God’s sons, all destined to be God Himself. Although it does not yet appear what we shall be, we know that when He appears we shall be like him and we shall see him as He is!

No matter how handsome or beautiful you are, when you look in the mirror you are not perfect in your own eyes. But you are promised: “You shall be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect,” and Christ is called the Father, the Rock!

Now I will share my personal experience of scripture. In 1934, while sitting quietly not thinking of anything in particular, I closed my eyes and watched golden, pulsing light come out of my head. Suddenly a solid rock, such as a quartz, appeared before my eyes. As I watched, it fragmented into numberless little pieces, then quickly reassembled itself into the human form seated in the lotus posture. No longer was it a stone, but now a breathing, living being!

As I looked, I realized I was seeing myself as perfect! The beauty, dignity, and strength of character I saw in that face was indescribable. It was the face I see in the mirror every morning as I shave, yet it was raised to the nth degree of perfection. Then it began to glow, and reaching the nth degree of luminosity it exploded, and I opened my eyes to find myself back in my room in New York City.

I saw Christ, God’s power and wisdom, as a rock – the limit of contraction and opacity. Now I know the truth: that you are gods, Sons of the Most High. You left the Father’s glory and have clothed yourselves in mortal flesh. His perfect being is housed in you and he is molding you into his likeness. And when you are perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, you will no longer be two, but one!

In the interval you are his emanation, yet his wife, till the sleep of death is past. And when you awake, like the psalmist you will be satisfied when you behold his form. You will not only have his likeness, but you will know from experience that you are the one who began a good work in yourself. For when God’s work in you is brought to completion, God awakes. That is the day of Jesus Christ, for when God awakens, you awake to discover that you are one with God.

Although we are limited to the number of the Sons of God, no one knows that number. Today there is an attempt to try to stop the population explosion, claiming we cannot afford to feed everyone. But I remember hearing George Washington Carver speak back in the thirties. Standing before a large audience in New York City he said: “One day I asked God why he made the peanut and he said: ‘I gave you a brain. Go into yourself and I will reveal the answer to you.'”

Then Mr. Carver discovered that the peanut contained everything, and he brought out three-hundred by-products of the peanut, calling it his synthetic kingdom. He said: “The Southern states of America (that which is south of the Mason/Dixon line) can grow enough peanuts to feed and clothe the world.” Therefore, you see the problem is economic, for we do not know how to distribute that which we are capable of producing.

Today billions of dollars are spent so that people will not grow what they can. If a man produces more than the government wants him to, he must spend billions storing it, for we haven’t learned how to change our economic system to take care of what man is capable of producing.

Communism is not the answer, neither is socialism or democracy for that matter; but the solution is not in curtailing the birth of children. First of all it cannot be done, for God has fixed a limit to the peoples of the earth according to the number of the sons of God. We are more than the stars of the heaven, more than the sands of the sea, and each son is known by name!

It takes all of the sons to form the Lord, for the word “elohim” is a compound unity of one made up of others. The one Rock is made up of all the fragments. The Rock broke into many pieces, destined to adjust itself together a perfect human form. Having declared: “Let us make man in our image,” the Rock buried himself within you to form you into the perfection that He is. And we are told in the 44th Psalm to “Rouse thyself, why sleepest thou 0 Lord. Awake!”

The Son of God is within everyone, known in eternity and known by name. As God’s Son you must awaken, but you cannot do so until God has made you as perfect as He is. When this occurs, God, and you – his emanation – awaken to discover that the two of you have become one. Having left everything, the Son of God – who is one with his Father – cleaves to his emanation – his wife – until they become one flesh, one being, one Lord.

I tell you a truth! Although you are unmindful of this rock and have forgotten the God who gave you birth, you are a son of God. The day will come when you, too, will see that Rock which begot you. The rock symbolizes death in the sense that God died to his luminosity and translucency in order to take upon himself your body of contraction and opacity.

As far as I am concerned, individually, I have awakened. For me the dream of life is over and I know from experience that scripture is true from beginning to end. I know that we are the sons of God who collectively form the only God, and there is no other!

Now, there is no other foundation than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. That foundation is the Rock who is now forming itself into a beautiful youth. Christ is breathing in you, making your body alive. It is Christ who dreams your every dream, even the most horrible ones. He inspires every vision, as well as all of your actions. And when you are perfect in his eyes so that you can be superimposed upon him with a perfect fit, his work will be finished and He will awaken as you!
God, desiring to make man into the perfection that he is, clothed himself in mortal flesh to dream this dream of life. We agreed to dream this world into being in order to become more luminous, more expanded, and greater than we were when we descended. And this we will do.

A friend recently shared this experience with me. A few years ago his friend was about to give up the theater, believing it was too difficult for him – a black man – to succeed. My friend loaned him my book, Out Of This World, in which I stated that an assumption, though false, if persisted in, would harden into fact. His friend read the book but could not believe this statement.

Then one day I autographed a book for this gentleman with these words of Blake: “If the fool will persist in his folly he will become wise.” This gentleman’s name is David Moses. When he received that book it did something to him, for he began to persist in the folly of claiming success even though the evidence of his senses denied it.

Within a matter of weeks he received an offer for the Greyhound commercial. From that he received movie and TV contracts. He is scheduled to be on the Dianne Carroll show and has just completed a pilot for Danny Thomas, who told him that the show, when accepted by the network, would start this coming September with either twenty-six or thirty-nine segments. Here is one who dared to persist in his dream.

Now, the dreamer in him is the same God who declared: “See now that I, even I am he and there is no god besides me. I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal. I do all things and none can deliver out of my hands.” (Deuteronomy 32). If God is putting you through the paces, it is because He is shaping you into his own image; and when God completes the work He began in you, you will no longer be two, for then you will know I am He!

Having clothed yourself in mortal flesh, you have gone through hell, for that is what this world is. And you will not leave yourself here, for if one of us were to be left behind, God would cease to be the being He is. He would have to leave the ninety and nine and go in search for the one. Everyone has to awaken to the awareness of being the same being, only enhanced, to find himself greater than he was before his descent into this world of sin and death.

I have seen that breathing, living figure. I knew it was myself, yet I could not believe I possessed that strength of character or majesty. Put a superlative to every characteristic you admire and you will describe that face. And when the good work which is being done in you is complete, the face you now wear will conform to it and you will say: It is I! To the eyes of the world you will be the same being they have always known, but God only sees the heart and in God’s eyes you will be perfect.

“Beloved, it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears we shall be like him and see him as He is!” When He appeared to me I saw my own face. No longer a rock, I was a living, pulsing, breathing man meditating me, and “I was satisfied when I awoke with his likeness.” (Psalms 17)

Everyone, when awake, will have the likeness of perfection. No one can fail, but will be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. I mean no one! Hitler cannot fail, for the son of God dreams Hitler is his very self, and will awaken to see Hitler’s face raised to the nth degree of perfection. The same thing is true for Stalin. On this level we cannot understand how this could be, but I tell you that is exactly what is going to happen.

We knew each other before we came down, for we are the sons of God, who as one man proclaimed: “I say, ‘Ye are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you will die like men and fall as one man, O princes.”‘

Within you, individually, is the prince, the son of God who collectively forms the Lord. This I know from experience and speak to you with authority. The scribes speak from theory and speculation, but I speak with the authority gained from experience. I am sharing my experiences with you, for I know I have fulfilled the pattern that every man will follow. Everyone will see the Rock form itself into a breathing, pulsing, living being to reflect the individual’s beauty and perfection molded there.
In the statement: “And the Rock, his work is perfect,” the word “perfect” means to set up for a goal. God’s goal is to make you in his own image, after his own likeness. The world came into being, not to make one person more important than the other, but to make individual man into the image of the one and only God.
You will never lose your identity. You are individualized and the God forming you into his likeness is individualized and is known by name in eternity. Although there are more sons of God than there are sands of the sea, we will all return to know each other intimately. All things by a law divine in one another’s being mingle. We will have access to the wisdom of all, wisdom derived from this fantastic experience of descending into mortal flesh.

In the case of the gentleman I told you about, he is now a success and may perhaps forget how his success came to be. Quite often when people reach their goal they turn their back on the ladder by which they did ascend and forget the God who gave it birth! I hope this gentleman remembers, because no one gets off the wheel of recurrence until he is judged perfect by the one who began the good work in him. Only then will the individual become superimposed upon the Son of God to form the one God and Father of all.

A friend recently told me how he first came to hear me. It seems that in the spring of 1967, as he pulled a book off the shelf at the Glendale library, a book fell to the floor. He picked it up, read the title, Your Faith is Your Fortune, by Neville, and replaced it.

A week later he returned to the library, pulled out another book and the same book fell to the floor. Again he picked it up, checked the title, and returned the book to the shelf. When the same thing happened the third week, he took the book over to a table and read the first twelve pages. Realizing its message appealed to him, he checked it out and read the book from cover to cover twice before returning it to the library.

A few weeks later he saw my ad in the paper, and he and his wife have been attending my meetings ever since.

It was no accident that the book fell three times, for in his letter he shared this vision saying: “I was driving my car when suddenly I knew I was going to have a baby. Although the street was dark, I stopped in front of a house, and looking through its lighted window I could see an instructor and his students. Opening the door I cried: ‘Call a doctor quickly as I am going to have a baby.’Then I ran back to the car to find a baby lying on the seat. I picked it up and said: ‘I am its father. I am its father. I am its father.'”

Here is a beautiful foreshadowing of an event this gentleman – as well as everyone – will experience. No one can leave this wheel of recurrence until the Father in him knows his work is finished, and he has made that one into his own perfection. He was perfect when He descended and He must be the perfect Father when He ascends. And, because of his journey into this world of death and your experiences here, when He ascends you return more expanded, more luminous, to know you are the one perfect being!

All of the sons of God are perfect and will form the one body. Just as the heart, lungs, kidney, liver, and all of the body’s vital organs have different functions, yet form one body, so it is with each son of God. Together we form the one body, yet each is known and loved by one another as brothers. Now, “Go unto my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending unto my Father and your Father, unto my God and your God.'” There can’t be two Fathers or two Gods, so we are really brothers in the most intimate sense, as collectively we form the LORD.

We are told that living water came out of the rock in the desert, and when struck, honey escaped. Everything comes out of the Rock, for he is God and the source of all life. The wise man builds his house upon this rock when he knows it is his own wonderful human imagination. Make it your only foundation by building what you want upon it. Persist in believing in yourself and you will have your desire, because all things come out of you! Entertain a noble concept of yourself and believe its truth into being!

Because all things are possible to imagine, you can be anything you want to be. If you are now experiencing difficulties and know sadness, it is because the son of God is weaving you into his image, grinding you on the stone of life. You are doing it to yourself, because you are that son who took on this mortal body of flesh. Remember the words of William Blake and “Have confidence in objects. Everything is ordered and correct and must fulfill its destiny in order to attain perfection. Follow this path and you will receive from your own ego, a deeper perception of the eternal beauty of creation. You will also receive an ever increasing relief from that which seems so sad and terrible, as it will show you why this event that seems so hard to bear took place.

Everything is ordered and correct, and in the end you will awake to discover you are one with the infinite beauty who is your own being. Until you see your true self you can only speculate as to your beauty and strength of character. When I saw myself, I could hardly believe I was looking at the being I know as Neville, for the being I saw was glorious!

I saw Neville as a breathing, pulsing being. His eyes were closed in deep, deep meditation and I knew he was meditating me. I also knew that when his work was finished, I would be as perfect as he is. Then he would awake and we would be one.

The perfect Rock is not something out in space, but our redeemer, who is the Lord. We are redeemed by the limit of contraction called “the Rock”. Although it could have been a diamond, the rock I saw was quartz, dull in color. It exploded into many pieces which quickly gathered themselves together to form this perfect being looking just like me. Then it began to glow, and reaching the limit of luminosity it exploded as I awoke in my room.

Now I know that although the wise men of our day speculate on how to curtail the population explosion, they cannot stop it. If the humble peanut can clothe and feed the world, then the problem is economic, but I do not have the solution. I am not an economist. In fact, I can’t even balance my own checkbook. Every month the bank statement shows that I have less than I thought I did. It may be only forty cents, but it’s always less. My wife can’t balance the checkbook either and she majored in mathematics at Smith.

I am always amused to hear these wise men who, although they can speak many languages, their words reveal their lack of the knowledge of the word of God. Read the 52nd chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy: “He has fixed the bounds of the people according to the number of the sons of God who are more numerous than the stars in the heaven and greater than the sands of the sea.” Every child, when born, is the mortal clothing of the son of God who is within him, or the child could not breathe. And although God has unnumbered sons, there is a limit known only to the collective one, who is God. You are loved as an individual and you are known by name, for the son of God speaks to you individually and loves you beyond measure.

If God has put bounds to the people according to the number of the sons of God, and his sons are clothing themselves in mortal flesh, how can any man stop it? I am one of ten children. We are the result of God’s sons meditation, and no one can stop God’s sons from coming in for the experiment.

Dwell upon the fact that you are the perfect son of God. Live in the consciousness of that perfection and one day you will see your face woven into the likeness of the Father in you, who is Jesus Christ. And remember: all things are possible to him. Do not turn to anyone on the outside, turn only to the son of God within you who is your human imagination!

Now that you have heard the true story of the Rock, dare to assume you are that perfection, for you already are perfect. In the beginning you said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” That was your challenge and that is your destination.

While you are moving towards that end, you will play the part of the rich man, the poor man, the beggar, and the thief. You will play every part, as all things are ordered and correct.

No matter what you have done, do not dwell upon it and become remorseful; rather start dwelling upon the perfection of the son of God within you. Dream nobly and have no other foundation, for there is no other God. “See now that I, even I am he and there is no God besides me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal, and none can deliver out of my hands. I raise my hand to heaven and cry, ‘I live forever.'”

The being who spoke those words is within you, speaking to you every moment of time! I have been sent to get you to listen to him. He is telling you that every noble thing you desire is possible, because all things are possible to him. All you have to do is assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled, for if you do, it will become true!

This being knows the way to your desire’s fulfillment, but his ways and means are past finding out. Do not try to tell him how to do it; simply walk as though you were the man or woman you want to be, and let the Rock, who is the son of God in you, project your fulfilled desire on the screen of space – and he will!

Now let us go into the silence.

THE ROLL OF THE BOOK

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 11-01-1968

David, speaking to us in the 40th Psalm, says: “Lo, I come to do thy will, O Lord, for in the roll of the book it is written of me.” And in 5th chapter of the Book of John these words are found on the lips of one called Jesus Christ: “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness to me.” Claiming the entire book is all about him, he begins with Moses, the law, the prophets, and the psalms, and interprets the scriptures as things concerning himself. You will find this method of interpretation the key which will unlock the innermost of revelations. Take any story and, regardless of whether the central figure is male or female, claim you are that being, that you are reading you own autobiography.

In the 25th chapter of the Book of Genesis, the Lord said to Rebecca: “Two nations are in your womb and two peoples born of you shall be divided. One shall be stronger than the other; the elder shall serve the younger. And when her days were fulfilled the first came out red and covered with hair, so they called him Esau. Then his brother Jacob came forth with his hand holding Esau’s heel.” Now we turn to the last book of the Old Testament, the Book of Malachi and read these words of the Lord: “I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.”

Put yourself in the role of Rebecca and try to find out who these two are that you have brought forth. Remember: if they came from your womb, they are housed within you. One to heaven doth aspire – that one you love, and one to earth doth cling – that one you hate.

These are not two little boys who lived thousands of years ago. The Bible is divine history, not secular. The characters described there are housed within you, within me, within every child born of woman. Speaking to man through the medium of dream, with every dream being both egocentric and protean, God plays all the parts, whether they be male, female or from the animal world.

Now let me share with you an experience which happened to me many years ago. Back in the early 1930’s I suddenly found myself confronted with two characters. Above me and to my right stood a beautiful angelic being, while below stood a monstrous hairy animal which looked like an orangutan. Speaking in a guttural voice he looked up at this heavenly being and said: “She’s my mommy.” Repelled by the thought, I struck him and with each blow, he grew in strength. Then, from the depth of my own being I realized that these two were my creations. Speaking with a human voice and looking like an animal covered with hair, this monstrous being was the embodiment and personification of all of my misspent energies. Every unlovely thought, every cruel, thoughtless act aided its growth. Whispering in my ear, influencing my decisions in order to feed its hunger, it fed on violence, while the angelic being was the embodiment of every kind and lovely thought I ever possessed.

Then I realized he had the right to live. By claiming to be the offspring of this heavenly being, he claimed to exist, but I knew he did not. He had no power of his own, only my power of awareness. Although he appeared to be detached and completely free of my perception, I knew I was the cause of his life. And as I pledged myself that I would redeem him, he melted and all of the energy I had given to create and sustain that monster, returned to me. He not only dissolved, but left no trace of ever having been present. Today I can bring him back in memory, but he had no existence outside of myself. He was simply embodied energy; therefore, was he not Christ, the creative power of God? Is not Christ the bearer of all the sins in the world, allowing man to use or misuse him? It was my own creative power that I misused and Christ is the creative power of God. And only God can create and only God can redeem.

Now listen to these, the last words on the cross as recorded in the 23rd chapter of the Book of Luke: “Father, into thy hands I commit my Spirit.” That is a portion of the 5th verse of the 31st Psalm, which reads: “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.” Here we find God, the giver of the power, redeeming it, for his creative power cannot be lost, not in eternity. When confronted by my misused power I simply redeemed it. Declaring itself to exist outside and independent of me, I knew it could not be, for there is no other, and as I redeemed all of my misspent energy it returned to me and the glorious one shone like the sun.

We are told in the 13th chapter of the Book of Revelation: “The beast was given a voice to utter blasphemies against God, against his name and his dwelling place, that is, those who dwell in heaven.” My monster uttered blasphemy, claiming divine right by declaring the heavenly being was his mother. Are we not told in the 10th [chapter] of John that he was accused of blasphemy because he dared to claim he was the Son of God? Read the 13th chapter of John carefully and you will see that the dwelling place of God is made up of those who dwell in heaven, so that the entire redeemed society form the body of God. The angelic being I saw, personified that society, that dwelling place of God which is God, so my monster was taking God’s name in vain.

Now to some dreams. A gentleman’s letter came yesterday, in which he said: “In my dream I was standing on the sidewalk when I heard the words: ‘We will get him this time. He has been gone too long.’ Then a man resembling you, Neville, came by laughing, singing, and dancing. As I watched, he walked up three or four flights of stairs and stood in the center of a brilliantly lit stage. Then the props began to move and I heard the sound of an iron gate closing, as a voice range out: ‘Your deception is at an end’ and I awoke.”

Looking at this dream on the surface you will think that I, a deceiver, am now behind bars and my deception is over; but let me quote scripture: “The creature was made subject unto futility, not willingly but by reason of the will of him who subjected him in hope that the creature would be set free from this bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the sons of God.” Every child born of woman is deceived, for this is a world of deception where everything deceives.

So let us look at this dream remembering that all dreams are egocentric, with the individual who is dreaming playing all the parts. Seeing the gay, happy man resembling he who is telling salvation’s story, indicates that you, the dreamer are on your way, that as you accept my words you leave the world of deception behind you. We are told: “The good news preached to us was preached to them.” It is the same news, but it did not benefit them because it was not received with faith when they heard it.

Many have heard salvation’s story, while only a few will accept it. If perchance, by your much coming you have accepted this as your way of life, and are willing to live by it regardless of what you hear to the contrary, then you find yourself free from the world of deception. Believing in the power of money, or being socially prominent, becoming famous, or the best dressed man or woman, the world plays the game of deception, forever deceiving themselves.

My friend saw a gay, happy spirit who tells a story of salvation that does not depend upon trying to be good or acquiring merit. That is all I asked you to do, to believe my words and live by them. You do not have to acquire merit in order to get into heaven; your acceptance of my story will take you right in. And when the time is fully come, heaven will unfold within you and you will leave this world of deception.

Another letter came, saying: “I found myself in what seemed to be an ancient world filled with throngs of people. Talking to three men, I looked down to find a little lamb at my feet. Picking it up, I said: ‘This is my baby’ and as I looked into the faces of the men, they smiled and I awoke.”

This is an adumbration, a foreshadowing. The lamb is the symbol of God’s great sacrifice, as told us in the very beginning of Genesis: “Father, I see the wood and the fire, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Then Abraham answered: “God will provide himself (as) the lamb.” We are told in the 13th chapter of Revelation that everyone whose name was not written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb which was slain will worship the beast. Everyone was written there before the foundation of the world, before becoming a dual being. There is an outer you who, being flesh and blood, cannot inherit the kingdom of God, so your outer name is not written there. But the inner you was there. Before the foundation of the world his name was recorded in the book of life of the Lamb. This is not some emergency thinking on the part of God. The plan of salvation came before we entered. The whole thing was a plot, a plan of expansion. Her little lamb was an adumbration of the little child, the symbol of her birth from above.

Another letter came, saying: “I did my homework, as it were, by sitting in my living room and imagining something I want to experience here. After satisfying myself with the feeling that it was accomplished, I bathed in the feeling for a while, and as I did I felt myself become a ball of light. Below me, stretching into infinity was an abyss which I also knew to be myself. As the ball of light, I moved in all directions, covering the abyss. Then I, the ball of light and I, the abyss began to contract. We became smaller and smaller until I felt myself enter my skull. Then I felt as though I was going to burst, so to stop it I opened my eyes and, returning to this world I broke the vision.”

Now this gentleman knows that no matter what appears in the outer world, it is taking place in heaven, which is in the skull. That’s where the drama unfolds, for that’s where God is buried. Having had this most marvelous experience, my friend now knows the truth of Blake’s vision, that all that you behold, though it appears without, it is within, in your imagination of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.

Then he said: “I wonder if those who attend your meetings teach their children the art of revision. I taught it to my son when he was five. At the time he had quite a serious accident and was bleeding profusely. As I washed the wound, I told my son to go over the entire event, but to omit the scene where he was hurt. I explained that if he omitted that particular scene he would have nothing to cry about. He did as I asked and immediately stopped crying. I continued to wash the wound and as the bleeding stopped I applied a loose bandage and my son returned to his play. Since that day, whenever my son – who is now seven – gets hurt, he revises the scene and omits the part where he gets hurt.

“While my wife was playing tennis she received a severe break to her ankle. We both revised the incident, and although she had to stop playing tennis for a while, the ankle healed rapidly with only the aid of an ace bandage, much to the amazement of the doctor.” If you have children, teach them the art of revision early so that the idea will become a habit, just like it has in this gentleman’s home.

Let us return now to the interpretation of scripture. Being all imagination, take any passage and put yourself in the central role, for in the volume of the book it is written of you. Don’t think of some man who lived 2,000 years ago. Christ in you is the hope of glory. That is the Christ of whom the scriptures speak. Enter the state of Abraham as you read the story of Abraham and Sarah. Then become Sarah when she is the center, and Rebecca when she appears, for the Book is written of you! Do this and you will have the key which will unlock the most difficult passages of scripture.

Don’t give up. Dwell upon each story as though it were happening to you now, and your eyes will open. Visions will come and throw great light upon your understanding, like the vision I shared this night, the vision of the two nations within my womb – one an angelic female and one a monstrous male that had no right to live. May I tell you: when I pledged myself to redeem him I never felt such compassion before or since. I knew I was the cause of that which had no right to be brought into being, and when I pledged myself that if it took eternity I would redeem it, the whole thing dissolved leaving not a trace behind to even suggest it once existed. And all of its energies returned to me, to be used wisely, not to be misspent anymore.

Everyone will one day confront their two nations, one stronger then the other, and the elder will serve the younger. Well, the first act of man recorded in scripture was a violent one. Cain killed Abel. Cain, the violent outer man comes first. Esau, a man covered with hair, came first while Jacob (the supplanter) came second. Esau, once redeemed, disappears and is replaced by Jacob, whose name is changed to “Israel” which means “one who rules as God.”

Always keep alive that which you love; your emanation is your dwelling place. The monster not only opened his mouth to utter blasphemies against the name of God, but against his dwelling place – that is, those who dwell in heaven. Heaven, made up of the redeemed, is that one dwelling place of God. Everyone, when lifted up and redeemed, will be incorporated into that one body of beauty and glory. The monster, by claiming self-existence, takes the name in vain. He does not have any life outside of the one who, by the misuse of God’s creative power, caused him to come into being. When you see him you will know in the depth of your soul that you are the cause of his misfortune. He has no right to live, no right to exist, but you cannot kill him, he must be redeemed.

In the 13th chapter of Revelation, you are asked: “Who can prevail against the beast?” and in the 3rd chapter of Matthew it is said: “Do not resist the one who is evil.” In the world of Caesar that statement makes no sense, but the evil one you created in yourself is the cause of the one who is evil in the world of Caesar. The evil one in you whispers violence in your ear in order to be fed. So you are told not to resist him, for he thrives on your resistance.

When I pummeled my monster he so loved it, he grew in stature before my eyes, for as I beat him I fed him violence. Therefore, do not resist the evil one, but redeem him. When I pledged myself to redeem him I wasn’t saying it for the benefit of another, I was pledging myself, and as I did he melted away, as all of the power of my misused moments in time returned to me and I felt like a giant form of sheer redeemed power.

Take any story in scripture and claim you are playing the central role, for you are its center. There is no other being. There is only God and you are He. No matter what name is given to the central character, assume its role and the entire Book will unfold within you and you will know yourself to be the Lord Jesus Christ.

So do not turn back and believe in a God outside of yourself. Know like my friend that your deceiving days are over. You were made subject unto futility, not willingly but by reason of the will of Him who subjected you in the hope that you would obtain the glorious liberty of the sons of God, for in freeing you He would free himself from this world of bondage to decay.

Man, made subject unto futility, piles up a billion dollars, struts and uses his power for three score and ten years only, to find that tomorrow his little soul is called. He doesn’t die, but passes through the gate called death to find himself restored to life in an environment best suited for the work yet to be done in him. To those who cannot follow him, he dies, but to himself he is about twenty, in the year 3,000 or 1,000, for it’s a closed book. “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done and there is nothing new under the sun.”

Life in a world just like this one will go on until God’s real purpose is fulfilled and that is when God’s image awakens within all of his sons. God has awakened within me, and will awaken in everyone, for all are destined to awaken in the image of the One.

Tonight, ask yourself what they were saying about you when you were called Abraham. Read your story carefully and let it unfold in you. Then one day the real drama will unfold and from that moment on, when you put your head on the pillow you will no longer enter the border land of dream, but go beyond this age to enter an entirely different world. Still tied here, however, you will return day after day until your work is finished.

Now, many of you have recently been having visions of my departure. They are all symbolical. One lady was listening to me speak on the law when suddenly I left the garment on the stage. Standing lifeless behind the podium a silence filled the room so thick that it could be cut with a knife. Then I returned and with great difficulty re-entered the garment and finished my statements on the law. May I tell you: although there are many things here I love, I wish her vision were true on this level. But she conjured me in her vision because I am the one in the outer world who introduced her to this law of God. As far as she is concerned there is little, if anything I could tell her concerning the law, so I have departed from that aspect of teaching her. All I can share with her now are aspects of the Promise, which I have done in my book, Resurrection.

Today I noticed that my book was copyrighted in 1966. It was on the 10th day of October in 1966 that a wooden peg was nailed upon my shoulder, whereupon the responsibility of telling the story hangs. I have now told it as it has never been told before. When I depart there will now be a record of how God unfolds in man. I have told it as clearly and as simply as I am capable of doing in that chapter called “resurrection.” My work is finished, so He came and severed the sleeve of my tunic exposing the arm of God and fulfilling the 32nd and 53rd chapters of Isaiah. “Who has believed my report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

The right arm is the symbol of the power of God. Having unfolded the entire drama of Christ within me, He gave me the power to record it so that the unborn tomorrows will read my words and wean themselves from the traditions of men. Believing that unless a tremendous effort is made to acquire merit, the Kingdom of Heaven is unattainable, men have been led astray. The Kingdom is entered simply by hearing the story of salvation and believing it. You need never see the inside of a church, but if you hear salvation’s story and live by it, scripture will erupt within you and the role of the central character in scripture, called Jesus Christ, is yours.

In the meantime, take a passage of scripture and, putting yourself in the center, let the story unfold. Do that and you will understand its meaning. And always remember that a dream is egocentric and protean. Proteus was the legendary god of the sea who, in the service of Neptune, could assume any shape or form. You, the dreamer, are God assuming many shapes and forms in order to fulfill your dreams. God is the author of the drama and the actor. In your day dream I play the part of your teacher of the Word of God, so I could appear in that role in your night dream. But bear in mind: dreams (day and night) are yourself made visible. You are the dreamer dreaming the dream of life.

One day you will meet your monster on the threshold of consciousness, for he is attached to you although you cannot see him. And when you dissolve him by your compassion and love, he will not evaporate into space, but will return to you. I can’t tell you the thrill when you experience that union!

At the very end of the journey you will find these symbols coming into your world and you will say: “Into thy hands I commit my Spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.” Having misused His power in His slumber, when He awakes God redeems Himself. And His last cry on the cross is: “Father, into thy hands I commit my Spirit!”

Now let us go into the silence.

THE SECOND VISION

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 9-11-1959

We make the statement with Blake that, “All that you behold, though it appears to be without, it is within, in your imagination of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.” I mean that literally. The whole of humanity is contained in you, for that is the being you really are, and that is God. “And we exist in Him and He in us. The eternal body of the Imagination: that is, God Himself.”

Did you hear President Eisenhower speak just recently on his reaction to his recent trip? Then he came to what he felt was the very spirit of our land – the freedom of the individual. He said we have two great documents: one, the Declaration of Independence, the other is one that takes precedence over it, and that is the Bible. I wish he spoke for every one of us in the world, but even the majority who accept it as the Word of God do not understand it. It is a series of visions from beginning to end. The Old Testament shows what is taking place in the whole; the New Testament tells what is taking place in the single or individual man. The whole vast vision in both Old and New is actually taking place in the individual.

I told you of the experience that took place on July 21st in San Francisco, and that parallels the first vision in the books of Matthew and Luke. I actually gave birth to this Christ Child as it was enacted in me. I was its father. My reality is invisible, for I held in my hands what I formed as my own son, but I did not need a body. So when God conceives of Himself, He conceives of man. So you are God, conceiving Christ Jesus and forming out of your own being unaided by any other person in the world the only-begotten Son of God.

The vision began to unfold in me and twenty-four days later came the second vision, and the second vision is the death of Herod. The child is taken into Egypt to save him from being killed at the command of Herod. Herod is compiled of two words; one means “Hero” and the other, “Edeos” means to fashion, or “a thing formed.” And the thing formed has to die, for the being you really are is God, which is spirit, without form or figure. But you display this body in every form in the world. So the second vision came. Twenty-four days later, I am seated at a table with friends, and as I rose, my body dropped dead. And then came a manservant and tied it up with a rope as you tie up a piece of beef for the oven. You could see the flesh jump as the cord drew tight. And he said, “You were not sick; why did you die?” And I said “There is a time to be born and a time to die; and a time to plant and a time to reap, and the time has come.” That is the death of Herod, or form. It is when you find that the “form” or “hero” that you thought so wonderful comes to an end. Then the Child comes out of hiding in Egypt. But now Herod’s son, Archelaus, rules in his place; and the word means “mighty political power.” For there is still the danger or the chance that one could sell his soul, become a part of some ”ism” or some great organization for profit or for acclaim of men. But He goes to Nazareth to become a Nazarene. The word simply means, “to separate.” It does not mean humanity being separated into two camps – the sheep and the goats. It only means putting off form and putting on the lamb. It has nothing to do with this meat of an animal called a lamb that we eat. Blake wrote:

“Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed
By the stream and o’er the mead;
Gave thee clothing, wooly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?

Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee,
Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee;
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself, a lamb.
He is meek, and he is mild;
He became a little child.
I a child, and thou a lamb,
We called by his name.
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Little Lamb, God bless thee!

Blake is not speaking of a little lamb of the field. What could it tell you if you asked it? Nothing. It is the symbol of the Christ Child that comes out of the mind of man. This is the symbol of the separation of the form from the lamb. How do I do it? By living completely by faith. If you do not live by faith you delay the coming of the Child, for it does not come by the passage of time, it comes out of the mind of man when that mind is prepared for the coming. I must learn to actually live in the reality of invisible states.

No matter what it is, start with a job or a house that seems beyond your reach, and then live in the feeling that you have it. In the degree that you are faithful to these images you are preparing the way for the coming of the Child. I place my image in a garden (Eden), and then out of it comes a river and it parts into four sections. It is not actually water. If I wanted to realize my dream, what must I do to make it real so I can share it with this, my shadow world called man? I must know the taste and touch and sight and sound of what it would be if it were true. If I could see what I would see if my dream were true, and remain faithful to that imagery, I would make it real in the world of shadows. The only risk is that after it becomes real, man is likely to lose himself in the thing he created in the world of effects and deny his faithfulness to the image that produced it. So then he goes sound asleep once more. So many people do that. It is nice to meet, now and then, someone who has not forgotten.

I have told you the story of this man before. He was a young lawyer of thirty, without funds, when a few years ago after coming to my lectures he decided to use his Imagination to obtain an immense objective. He desired to control a multimillion-dollar concern — the Berkeley Savings and Loan Company. At the time he had no connection with them, but within six months he was in control. He turned over the wheels of industry so fast that he doubled its assets. Now he has sold out control and gone into the building business. He has recently returned from Hawaii where he built four hotels. Now he is building the largest co-op on the west coast, the Comstock, named after the famous Comstock Lode. It is on San Francisco’s Nob Hill and is costing $8 ½ million. He is president of the company. He wrote me a letter and said, “I have a deep and abiding conviction in the power of my Imagination from listening to your lectures. If Imagination creates Reality and I walk in the direction of my image, then I will predict my future.” Now he is president of this company and building this 120-unit co-op, which will be the highest on Nob Hill. He has not forgotten. I wish I could say the same of others. They build big dreams and make them real and then forget how it was done. So, after Herod is dead, his son then rules in his place, and they say, “It would have happened anyway.”

So the Child is taken to Nazareth to be separated. Many of you think that a Nazarene is one of some sect that does not cut his hair. It has nothing to do with that. It is one who is separated within himself, and knows his own invisibility and his difference from the form that appears. Herod dies, and it means form or figure — the thing you can see, and then the child is taken to be separated from all states that are visible. He is Invisible Reality.

And then we are told you do not see Him for twelve years. It means more than a length of twelve years. It means the point at which one reaches emotional maturity, or imaginative puberty, where one can now create out of his own being. Then he reappears. And the first thing He does is to deny his earthy parents. “I am about my Father’s business, etc.” He turns his back on his earthly parents. “I and my Father are one.” And then He starts the work and goes through to the very end. There is only this short interval before he reappears. This did not take place, it is taking place in the mind of everyone as the way is prepared for His coming, and you prepare the way by living by faith. “Faith is the evidence of things not yet seen.” Faith means, “meaning.” “Things that are seen are not made from things that do appear.” Science thinks that things come from substance that does appear. They are taking over a million organic substances and an equal number of inorganic substances and are now reducing the whole to electricity – positive, and negative. They think the whole vast world comes out of this, but it does not; it comes out of your wonderful imagination. Any change in your image will result in a change in the world. When man knows this, he is beginning to awaken, but until he is sure of that, he is still asleep. “Father, I thank thee thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes.”

“Prudent” comes from a word which means, “those who pray and act piously.” Note the world around you and you will see these who act piously. But this is hidden from the scientists, the “wise men.” Would you tell a scientist his imagination is creating this world of confusion? He could not believe an attitude will bring about a change in the visible world. Is it not psychical? If a man can pre-determine an attitude, where is causation? Causation is within the Imagination of man, and man is God, spiritual man, that is. When you live by it, the visions begin to unfold and you will see if the Bible is historically true or psychologically true.

Most of the eastern world says the Christian Bible is the opium of the people, and the western world says it is history. But it is a series of visions that will come only after the way is prepared. And that is by faith. But try to tell someone you are being born of your own being, and you rise from the floor and see your body lying on the bed, its head moving from side to side like someone coming out of an anesthetic. You will think it is wind that is causing the terrific vibration in the room. Then you look back where your body was and it will be gone, but in its place will be three wise men, and they too think vibration is caused by the wind, and one goes to investigate, and the others will say, “How could that be?” And you will take the child and hold it and know it is your self-begotten son and you will know that you have given birth to Christ Jesus. From then on you begin to awaken, and you find out who you really are, and you will know that you are God. You are not dependent on anything in the world, for you are making everything in the world. Everything is taking place in the mind of the single individual, for the whole vast world is contained in you.

I must tell you these things, no matter if you believe them or not. The birth of that child was mine, and I know who I am and who he is. This is a child born of a virgin. It is not a physical virgin. It comes out of the mind of man, and that is the womb of God. You are told in Hebrews 11, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

That is the preparation and the event comes like a thief in the night, it does not come by observation. This has nothing to do with holiness. A physical Christ is blasphemy. Christ is spirit and is born from above, and not beneath. The physical comes from below, but “unless ye be born from above ye cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” Christ is not of flesh, but comes out of your hands and smiles into your face.

Until you know it, it seems stupid, but throughout eternity it is taking place. “For God enters death’s door (this body) with those who enter and lies down with those who sleep to enter in the dreams of eternity until they awaken.” But when the door is opened these twelve crystals begin to vibrate in what is called the pineal gland, these twelve translucencies through which the Christ spirit shines. And the whole thing gives just as if the child were being born in the physical sense, and then you can stand no more and you are pushed down to the floor. You cannot get any lower, so that symbolizes the manger. The wise men call it your child, for you are being individualized, and the name he calls will be your name, and in your hand will be placed the child, and you will know it. For the symbolism is true. Out of the brain of man comes the Christ Child. The three wise men are always present.

But you to whom it is happening do not know what has happened. You hear the wind, the “thermal” and it means the “spirit of the divine wind.” He does not precede you, he cannot come before you for it is God giving birth to his son. But man does not know what is happening for he cannot believe that he is God. Though you cannot believe it now, you have a wonderful experience in store. If not here, then it is beyond the veil. It does not matter. This is not from the study of any philosophy, but it is an actual mystical experience. The four Gospels are the beginning of the drama unfolding in the mind of man.

You want a job? Could you drive your car into the parking lot and occupy that space which would be yours were you the vice president, or any position you wish to occupy? Then do it mentally and do it over and over until it seems natural. Then the shadow world will rearrange itself and make way for the car in a physical manner. But then don’t forget how it happened, for then you will go sound asleep again, and then it might take you a very long time to again live by faith. When you have too much of the world in focus, you do not live by faith. How can you, if you can write a check for anything you want? Jacob is the eternally beginning one and I am called on to bring Him, and I can only do it through faith. So today, no matter what you desire, if you know that Imagination creates Reality then you can bring about a change of attitude and following this change in this shadow world around you. When you react, actually you penetrate. But when I change something within myself, I am acting, and only God acts in existing beings and men. Satan is that aspect of mind that reacts to life instead of affecting life. So do not argue but decide what you want in place of what you have or see. Until I can change a thing I can tolerate it, for I know I can change it, for when I change within, it will have to change outwardly, no matter what it is. “All that you behold, though it seems to be without, it is within, in the Imagination, of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.”

The whole vast world is the world of Imagination. You will see those visions and you will know they are in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It has everything to do with your awakening. How soon the third vision will come after the death of Herod, I do not know. It’ll all depend on me and how I live by faith. And then comes another vision, and another, and they go through to the very end. The first man is clothed in this garment of skin, but the second man is waiting within everyone for birth.

If you would today transform your life, all you need are sound and sight and touch and taste. These are the four Rivers that flow out of Eden – these are the senses and you water your Eden by these, and if you are faithful to your image it will flow into what you call reality, but it is the shadow, only the idea is the real.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE SECRET OF PRAYER

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 10-06-1967

The secret of scriptural prayer, as told in the form of a parable, is to pray and never lose heart. One such parable tells of a widow who kept coming to a judge, asking for vindication. At first he did not respond, then he said to himself: “Although I neither fear God, nor regard man, yet I will exonerate her, because by her much coming, she wearies me.” Parables, like dreams, contain a single jet of truth. This parable urges persistence in mastering the art of prayer. Once you have mastered it you will live in the state of thanksgiving, and all through the day you will say over and over again to yourself: “Thank you, Father.”

A most effective prayer is found in the 11th chapter of the Book of John, as: “Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me, for thou always hears me.” In this chapter, the story is told of someone who has died and has seemingly gone from this world. But the truth is that no one is dead to you, when you know how to pray. You may no longer touch, see, or hear those you love with your mortal senses; but if you know how to give thanks, you can move from your body of darkness into the world of light and encounter your loved ones there. Therefore, he who would learn how to pray will discover the great secret of a full and happy life.

In the 33rd chapter of the Book of Genesis, Jerusalem is called “Shechem.” It is said that, “Jacob came safely into the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan. There he erected an altar and called it El Elohey Israel, which means “the God of Israel”. Orienting himself toward Shechem (the true direction) Jacob remained in El Elohey Israel, which means “safe in mind, body, or estate”.

We are told that Daniel oriented himself at an open window, where he looked toward Jerusalem. And those in the Mohammedan world pray looking towards what they call Mecca. But because Christianity takes place within, scripture is speaking of the Jerusalem within, and not on the outside at all. When you pray you do not prostrate yourself on the ground and look towards some eastern point in space, but adjust yourself mentally into your fulfilled desire. Although this technique is simple, it takes practice to become its master. Your true direction is to the knowledge of what you want. Knowing your desire, point yourself directly in front of it by thinking from its fulfillment. Silence all thought and allow the doors of your mind to open. Then enter your desire. Stay with your imagination as your companion. Start by thinking of your imagination as something other than yourself, and eventually you will know you are what you formerly called your imagination. It is possible to amputate a hand, leg, or various parts of the body – but imagination cannot be amputated, for it is your eternal Self!

Let me show you what I mean. While standing here in Los Angeles, I may desire to be elsewhere. Time and finances may not allow it, but in my imagination I can assume I am already there. Now, by a mere act of assumption on my part, God departs this body. If I assume I am in New York City, anyone I think of in Los Angeles must be three thousand miles away. No longer can I think of them as just down the street or in the hills west of me. That is my test.

The word “prayer” means “motion towards, accession to, act or in the vicinity of”. Orienting myself towards New York City, I have made a motion, an accession to. As I act in the vicinity of, I see my friends relative to New York City. Having done this, let me have full confidence in my imagination, knowing he is the being who made the motion. Blake’s words are true: “Man is all Imagination, and God is Man and exists in us and we in Him. Man’s Immortal Body is the Imagination, and that is God Himself.”

You can not only move in space but also in time and fulfill your every desire. Prayer does not have to be confined to what a person calls self. You can pray for another by feeling they now have what they formerly wanted, for feeling is a movement. The first creative act recorded in scripture is motion: “God moved upon the face of the water.”

A friend recently had a fantastic vision, during which he asked: “Did I learn anything?” and I answered: “Yes. You learned how to move.” Then everything was transformed, as conflict deceased, a hovel became a castle, the battlefield a sea of ripened wheat, and he was escorted into his eternal home. Prayer is motion. It is learning how to move toward a change in your bank balance, your marital status, or social world. Learn to master the art of motion; for after you move, change begins to rise up out of the deep. The technique of prayer is mastering your inner motion. If you are seeing things you would like to change, move in your imagination to the position you would occupy after the change took place.

Everything and everyone in your world is yourself pushed out. Any request from another – heard by you – should not be ignored; for it is coming from yourself! You came down from a world of light to confine yourself to this body of darkness. Now a spark from an infinite world of light, one day you will remember that world and awaken, but in the meantime you must learn to exercise the power of your mind. Having remembered the infinite world of light, I now know that everything is myself, as all things are contained within me.

Prayer is psychological movement. It is the art of moving from a problem to its solution. When a friend calls, telling of a problem, we hang up, and I move from the problem state to its solution by hearing the same lady tell me the problem is now solved.

A friend recently shared this dream with me: We were in a garden and he told me all of his desires, when I said: “Don’t desire them, live them!” This is true. Desire is thinking of! Living is thinking from! Don’t go through life desiring. Live your desire. Think it is already fulfilled. Believe it is true; for an assumption, though false, if persisted in will harden into fact.

When you are learning the art of prayer, persistence is necessary, as told us in the story of the man who – coming at night – said: “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread.” Although his friend replied: “It is late, the door is closed, my children are in bed, and I cannot come down and serve you,” because of the man’s importunity, his friend gave him what he wanted. The word importunity means brazen impudence. The man repeated and repeated his request, unwilling to take no for an answer. The same is true in the story of the widow. These are all parables told to illustrate prayer.

The Lord’s Prayer teaches the oneness of us all. It begins: “Our Father.” If God is our Father, are we not one? Regardless of our race or color of skin, if we have a common Father, we must have a common brotherhood.

Eventually we are all going to know we are the Father; but in the meanwhile, persistence is the key to a change in life – more income, greater recognition, or whatever the desire may be. If your desire is not fulfilled today, tomorrow, next week or next month – persist, for persistency will pay off. All of your prayers will be answered if you will not give up.

My old friend, Abdullah, gave me this exercise. Every day I would sit in my living room where I could not see the telephone in the hall. With my eyes closed, I would assume I was in the chair by the phone. Then I would feel myself back in the living room. This I did over and over again, as I discovered the feeling of changing motion. This exercise was very helpful to me. If you try it, you will discover you become very loose with this exercise.
Practice the art of motion, and one day you will discover that by the very act of imagining, you are detached from your physical body and placed exactly where you are imagining yourself to be – so much so that you are seen by those who are there.

Being all imagination, you must be wherever you are in imagination. Moving in your imagination, you are preparing a place for your desires to be fulfilled. Then you return, to walk through a series of events which will lead you up to where you have placed yourself. In imagination, I can put myself where I desire to be. I move and view the world from there. Then I return here, confident that – in a way unknown to me – this being who can do all things and knows all things, will lead me physically across a bridge of incident up to where I have placed myself. You can move in imagination to any place and any time. Dwell there as though it were true, and you will have learned the secret of prayer.

My wife had a wonderful vision where she found herself in a grove of trees. Walking down a clear passage, she saw people gathered around an altar. A lady approached, carrying a book entitled, The Credence of Faith and the Forgiveness of Sins according to Judaism. Reaching the altar, she began to read it aloud. Shortly, another lady appeared, carrying a book entitled, The Credence of Faith and the Forgiveness of Sins according to Christianity. Approaching the altar, she too opened her book and began to read. As my wife listened, she realized it was infinitely more difficult to be a Christian than to be a Jew. She saw the whole thing was psychological. That nothing is done on the outside, because everything comes from within.

Browning began his wonderful poem, “Easter Day” with the words: “How hard it is to be a Christian.” And Chapman said: “Christianity has not been tried and proved wanting. It has been tried and found difficult and therefore given up.” Why? Because a Christian cannot pass the buck and blame another. Christianity is built upon the foundation that all are one. That man is forever drawing conformation of what he is doing within himself. That your world bears witness to what you are doing to yourself. This is difficult to accept, yet it is Christianity. No man comes unto me, save my Father who sent me calls him. I and my Father are one, therefore I call all those who enter my life to reveal to me what I am doing in my imagination.

Learn how to pray. Master it and make your world conform to the ideal you want to experience. Stop thinking of, and start thinking from. To think from the wish fulfilled is to realize that which you will never experience while you are thinking of it. When you put yourself into the state of the wish fulfilled and think from it, you are praying, and in a way your reasoning mind does not know, your wish will become a fact in your world. You can be the man or woman you want to be, when you know how to pray. All things are possible to him who believes, therefore learn the art of believing and persuade yourself it is true. Then one day, occupying space and time in your imagination, you will be seen by another, who will call or send you a letter verifying your visit. This I know from experience.

The Bible is not just beautiful poetry; it is the inspired word of God. Written by poets, they have given enlarged meaning to normal words. When you put your body on the bed and assume you are elsewhere, are you not all imagination? In the act of imagining, you depart the dark caverns of this body and appear where you imagine yourself to be, because you are God – all imagination – and cannot die. You cannot go to eternal death in that which cannot die, and your immortal being is imagination! You are the central being of scripture – the one called Jesus Christ, who is the Lord God Jehovah – who descended here for a purpose.

While here, you must pay the price of living in the world of Caesar. You may criticize our politicians and protest any raise in taxes, but you will continue to be taxed. All you have to do is learn the art of prayer and make more money.

I am reminded of a story told of the late President Kennedy. It seems his father – who had, in one generation, made something like four-hundred million dollars – complained that his children were spending too much money. At a banquet, President Kennedy said: “The only solution to this problem is for father to make more money.”

One day a friend told me that when she was a child, her father would say: “If you have but a dollar and it was necessary for you to spend it, do so as if it were a dry leaf, and you the owner of a boundless forest.” If one really knows how to pray, he could spend his dollar and then reproduce it again. You see, this world is brought into being by man’s imagination, so it is very important to learn the secret of prayer.

If you are still desiring, stop it right now! Ask yourself what it would be like, were your desire a reality. How would you feel if you were already the one you would like to be? The moment you catch that mood, you are thinking from it. And the great secret of prayer is thinking from, rather than thinking of. Anchored here, you know where you live, your bank balance, job, creditors, friends, and loved ones – as you are thinking from this state. But you can move to another state and give it the same sense of reality, when you find and practice the great secret of prayer.

Take my message to heart and live by it. Practice the art of prayer daily, and then one day you will find the most effective prayer is: “Thank you Father.” You will feel this being within you as your very self. You can speak of it as “thou” yet know it is “I.” You will then have a thou/I relationship, and say to yourself: “Thank you, Father”. If I want something, I know the desire comes from the Father, because all thought springs from Him. Having given me the urge, I thank Him for fulfilling it. Then I walk by faith, in confidence that he who gave it to me through the medium of desire will clothe it in bodily form for me to encounter in the flesh.

Don’t get in the habit of judging and criticizing, seeing only unlovely things. You have a life – live it nobly. It is so much easier to be noble, generous, loving, and kind, than to be judgmental. If others want to do so, let them.
They are an aspect of yourself that you haven’t overcome yet, but don’t fall into that habit. Simply thank your heavenly Father over and over and over again, because in the end, when the curtain comes down on this wonderful drama, the supreme actor will rise from it all and you will know that you are He.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE SEVEN EYES OF GOD

December 22, 2013

we must go on to higher and higher levels, for that is the purpose of the teacher. I would like to look tonight into what it is to my mind, the greatest book in the world, the Bible, and show you a section with which you may not be familiar.

It concerns the Seven Eyes of God, from the visions of Zechariah. He saw a stone with seven facets, and the Voice said, this is actually the seven eyes of God that reach over the entire world.

For these seven eyes are really in man, for man is the earth of God. So forget this little planet and know that man is the true earth in which God is planted. These are the seven visions of God, seven increasingly clarifying visions of the Creator. The Bible names them but you must look for them.

The first appears only once in the Bible in Isaiah 14 ~ Lucifer, the morning star. And it tells how he is fallen and cut down to the ground – this shining being. All races have taught that man has fallen. It is not something that belongs to the Christian or the Jewish faiths, but all races have held this concept. So the first Eye of God is Lucifer – cut down to the ground.

The second is Molech, the strange god that demands sacrifices (Jeremiah 32). Man offers up his sons and daughters to appease this being he conceives to be God. But the Voice said, “I command them not, neither came it unto my mind, that they should do this abomination to cause Judah to sin.”

This Eye is in every man who thinks he has angered God and must make sacrifices to appease Him. All the wars of the world are an appeasement. The Inquisition with its tortures was an appeasement to God. The wicker baskets in which men were burned alive were an appeasement. They did it all to appease God that he might not be angry.

The third eye is Elohim, or gods, gods above and outside of man. The elements he worshipped, the stars and planets he thinks can regulate his life and influence his behavior. He turns to something outside of himself and it fails him and he cries that he is forsaken.

The fourth is Shaddai – almighty. In this eye, man seeks security and comfort. These are the governments, the mighty political machines, the rulers that man trusts, and all this fails him, too.

And then he turns to the fifth eye of Pahath, which means, “to dig a ditch or to snare animals, dig a pit.” It does not mean the animals of the forest; no, it is man I bring into my little trap. Much of the world functions like that today, everywhere in every business, especially in the great advertising campaigns. These people rule like tyrants over us. Every paper, every magazine, every TV commercial has another method of trapping us into buying all these things, so many things that we never get them paid for before we have still others.

And then the sixth eye is Jehovah – Yod He Vau He – or I AM. Man finally grows out of the snaring process. He does not now have to trap anyone in the world, but only boldly assert himself. Bold inner persuasion will create the condition that I AM persuaded of. That is Jehovah, the sixth eye.

The seventh is Jesus, or “Jehovah saves,” or “rescue.” Where man boldly asserts himself but his heart is torn for those still asleep, and he sacrifices for the others and gives himself for the whole vast world. Not as the churches teach it, but as the mystic tells you. You will take anyone, no matter who he is or what he has done, for he is only in a state. You do not condemn anyone but you lift him out of the state, and you do it by identifying the one you would save with the idea he wants to embody, and to the degree that you are faithful to your vision of that person, he will embody his ideal and become it. That is the eye called Jesus, or the seventh eye.

There is an eighth eye, only implied in the Bible and it is veiled. On the eighth day they circumcise the child and unveil the organ of creation. There is an eye in man and Blake names it. He says, “He did not come. He hid in Albion’s forest.” Albion is Blake’s name for universal man, male or female. This eye is hidden in “Albion’s forest” – in the dark convolutions of the brain. There this eye is hiding. When you finally begin to exercise your imagination for another and actually revel in the joy of others as they become the embodiment of what they desire, and you revel in that far beyond what you would for yourself, that is the eye of Jesus. What begins to be the perfect seeing of the seventh eye of God, then something stirs, and it stirs exactly like something trying to get out of an egg. It is something trying to break through Golgotha – and Golgotha is “the skull,” that is the meaning of the word. But it is held by five nails, the five senses. The five senses confine man to this world, and then he breaks loose from this skull as the seventh eye is clarified; and the eighth eye sees concrete reality for the first time in his life, and then, once seeing clearly, he never blames anyone. For with this eighth eye, he sees the perfect world.

This is called circumcision or the unveiling of the perfect organ, which is man’s Imagination. On the eighth day, he is circumcised. It means that the eighth eye is open. It does not open by the process of time, but only after the clarifying of the seventh eye of Jesus. Then you see that God became man, that man, awakening, may become God.God contracts Himself to this very limit of opacity, so that living in this state may be called the very grave of man, and “God enters death’s door with them that enter, and lies down in the grave with them, in visions of Eternity until they awake.” (Blake) And then there are these seven visions.

First – Lucifer, the fallen one.

Second – Molech, the being that demands sacrifices. They are doing that right now, only they call it Nationalism, and they offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though the Voice said, “I do not command them to do this and cause Judah to fall into sin.”

Man sickens of it and turns to the third eye or Elohim, but the stars, the planets, do not respond.

Then he turns to the fourth eye or Shaddai – Almighty, to the financial and political “gods”.

And then he separates from that and digs his little pit, Pahath, and snares all the people of the world because he can outsmart them, and because of his smartness he lives very well during this little span from the cradle to the grave, and that is the fifth eye through which much of the world is seeing today.

He sickens of it, and then he finds that I AM – or Jehovah, is the only reality, or the sixth eye of God. And I build my world, as I want it and when I sicken of it, offer myself as a sacrifice for all others and give completely of myself for the good of others, and my good fortune then becomes the joy of hearing their good fortune.As it says in Job 42:5 “I heard by the hearing of my ear, but now my eye seeth Thee.” Suddenly something happens within me, and the eighth eye opens and I am circumcised, in mind, not in the flesh, and as that something opens within you, you see the reason for it all, and you see that Eternity is, and you can take anyone in this world and pull him out of any state in the world. That is the eighth eye of God.

I want to share with you an experience. The true method of knowledge is through experiment. So we invite you to experiment. The true faculty of knowing is the faculty of experiencing. For, when you have had the experiences, you no longer care whether anyone else knows it or not. It does not matter.You know it, and you know that you know it. So I would like to share this with you, this experience, for when you begin to awaken, then you begin to remember. For if Christ is the center, then I can say, “Return to me the glory that was mine before the world was. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life I now live I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” If the center of man is Christ, and He was before the world was, then when I begin to awaken I only begin to remember.And when that happens, then the world cannot any longer teach you anything. So when man begins to awaken he does not question the things of this world; he knows they are not true. Psychologists tell us a complete understanding of a dream depends on the knowledge that you are dreaming, and then that wakes you up, for this is the only world they know.They speak of a dream state as being subjective and a deep dream state as the unconscious and doubt the worth of it all. But when you open the eighth eye you will know there are worlds within worlds and you are heirs to all of them. You can test your experiences and bring anything you want into your world and prove it.

Years ago I felt myself dreaming and I was swimming. I knew it was a dream. I looked up and saw the shore of a primitive island, not the little island where I was born, for that is well cultivated and in no way primitive, but this was primitive. I saw it was an island and I knew I was dreaming, and I saw these strange things like cement posts driven down through the water but they were in a state of decay. They could have been at one time part of a jetty. I could see this peculiar primitive beach and I prolonged the dream, for if you know you are dreaming you need not wake.

Something in me began to tell me, as memory began to return, that if I would take hold of one of these pilings and not let it go, and awaken, I would awaken there. I felt it and it was solidly real, just as it would feel here, and my hand did not go through it, and I held on to it and made myself awake; and I awoke in that water on that beach and then I waded ashore. I was no more asleep in that sphere than I am here in this one.

It taught me a lesson that if I could touch anything in another world and compel myself to awaken while holding it, I would find it was real. So you do it for your world. A job you want, the home you would occupy, the marriage you want.Sit at the desk at which you would sit, live in the house you want to live in, be married to the sort of person you want to be married to, and if you hold to it in your imagination, then you will make it real in your outer world. The Ancients called this capacity the Western Gate, and tied it in with the sense of touch.If you can hang on to the thing you touch and then awaken, you will find that the thing has become real. We have it in Genesis in the story of Jacob and Esau. Isaac, the father, who was blind said, “Come close that I may touch you. Come closer.” And the state symbolized by Jacob, the supplanter, was made real in place of the state that had seemed so real before, symbolized by Esau.

We are told again in Judges 17:19 how the seven locks were shaved from the head of Samson and then the Philistines came and gouged out his eyes and he was eyeless in Gaza. And they made him dance before the crowd. He asked to be taken to the temple and placed where he might touch the two middle pillars, and then he pressed and pushed and pulled down the whole thing and slew more Philistines than he had ever slain during his life.All this is symbolical of the capacity to touch. I know, for I have done it. Many a time, finding myself dreaming, I have held on to an object in the dream and found myself awakening in another world. I have also found myself in other aspects of this world. I did it in Barbados when I wished to be seen by my sister who was 2000 miles away. But whether it be in this little aspect or in another world, it does not matter, for there are infinite worlds and you are heir to all of them.

You can get all you want in this world. You can use the fifth eye or the fourth eye. All those who lead us into battle are using the second and third. Few are using the sixth and only an nth part use the seventh eye or the eye of Jesus, and not until it is used and you would rather have the good of another than your own good, and rejoice for another more than for yourself, have you really opened the seventh eye and then you are ready for the opening of the eighth eye.

The seventh eye, the eye of Jesus, has nothing to do with a man born 2000 years ago; it has everything to do with the expanding mind of man. When you exercise the seventh, then something opens. It is the eighth. But until the seventh is fully open, “he hides in the forest of Albion.” He hides in the dark convolutions of the brain. It may scare you a little at first, the feeling of an electric battery moving in your head.

You feel memory come back and you feel it on this side and then on that, and then you center it, and then you SEE. Something opens and you actually see a world no one else can see. The seventh eye is based purely on faith. Man does not know God will actually redeem him and he cries, “My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” And then the new world will be seen.

Man seeks security and comfort through the fourth eye. These are the dictators, the political machines, etc. They are always going to save the country, save the world, and then they are driven out – but they take a half billion dollars with them. We have seen it in this hemisphere – the very ones impoverishing the treasury that men had just called the saviors of their country.

They have not reached the sixth eye, or I AM. He who has reached that turns to no one. He knows, “I AM that I will be, I AM what I am.” You can be that or anything you want. But then you go beyond it and you want nothing for yourself but only for others. Then he starts giving himself for man and then when that is completely clarified the eighth eye opens.

Look in your Bible and read the story of the unveiling of the mind of man. But it comes only after the seventh eye is exercised. So I must learn to experience feeling and touching. That is called the Western Gate, and it is closed in man, but he must learn about it, and before I close this eye he must learn much about the Western Gate, for I was told not to hold back one secret, and having had the experience of holding on to an object and awakening not on my bed at all, I must share it with you.

I awake in the world where I am holding the object. I have been shut out many times from this world by holding on to an object in that world and awakening in it, and it was just as real as this, but I came back to this. I had a body here and one there. When I returned here where was that other body? Have I not many bodies, for I am scattered over all the world, and man, as he begins to awake, collects the scattered portions of himself, and then he finally finds the being that is God.

You can love everyone in this world and you will find joy beyond your wildest dreams in doing good for another; when he asks of you and you, in your Imagination create, and then you have confirmation of it, and then you rejoice as God rejoices. “These things have I spoken that my joy may remain in you.” For whenever anyone awakes, that is the eye of God.

So there are seven stated quite clearly and the eighth implied. I tell you that you will feel it like a chick in the egg of the skull. Christ is crucified on this cross (man) with five nails – the five senses. The same meaning is in the story of the five foolish virgins. And then he tears himself free from this cross.

Now, you catch it on the wing, but I tell you that you will discover all kinds of wonderful things in the awakening of God in man. For God became man that man may become God. So this wonderful poem that existed only for God is beginning to exist for itself. Sentients begin to appear in the poem, lifting it to higher states and we become at last creators, one of an infinite society of gods.

This eighth eye is misunderstood by the priesthoods of the world and they circumcise the child. It is the Imagination that must be unveiled, not the physical organ, and it comes only after the perfect clarity of vision through the eye of Jesus. Jesus means, “Jehovah saves.” Not one is lost.He has fallen into a state, but you, through the eye of Jesus, save him. You ask him,“What do you want?” and see that condition real for him, and then seeing it embody itself, you rejoice that one has been lifted out of the mire. You do it over and over, and then your head becomes alive and you feel electric currents through it, and yet you will know what you should do, just as a chick knows what to do. It pecks its way out.And then the place where the skull grew together after birth becomes awake again, and you see another world, and you see the world was perfectly made and every state is perfect, and then you will know that you are awake to play beautifully on this eternal world, to bring out these beautiful combinations made by your Father.

If tonight’s talk seems different from what you expected, then nothing is more practical than the sixth eye. You can make your world what you want it to be by the sixth eye; in fact the fifth has done it. You can snare all kinds of people in your little traps. Read the morning papers.

Every ad is to snare us into emptying our pockets, and they will be thrilled that they can do it. Every year we find new traps to get what we have. We have new forms of credit. No one dies leaving anything behind any more. The whole vast thing is a trap. It has become the way of life, the fifth eye.

But then come the sixth and the seventh and then the eighth; and when the eighth opens you forgive everyone in the world, no matter what he has done. You, as man, have gone through every eye. You have worshipped Elohim and sacrificed to Molech.

But when the eighth opens, you will know that nothing displeases your Father but unbelief. Sin does not displease him. The priesthoods of the world tell you sin displeases him, but only disbelief displeases him, for they that come to him must believe in him. Anything you can believe is an image of truth.

Could you believe that someone in dire need is now well taken care of? Then he can become as you see him. But sin does not displease your Father. It means, “to miss the mark,” and He comes to the world to show everyone how not to miss the mark. If I do miss the mark, He makes a greater effort to show me how not to miss marks.

Hebrews 11 – “Those who come to Him must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that seek…” So seek Him first and then all these things will be added.

So there are these eight eyes in man. The eighth hides in the forest of Albion, or the dark convolutions of the brain. Breathing won’t bring it out, or diets, or Yoga exercises will not do it.He will come out only when, as you look through the seventh eye, which is the vision of Jesus, you see only the good of another and glory in that beyond what is only for yourself. Then you will begin to see through the eighth eye of God.

Use the seventh eye consciously and take every person regardless of color, race or creed and ask of him only, “What do you want?” For in Him there is neither Greek nor Jew, nor bond nor free.So you take everyone, for he has only fallen into a state and you single out that individual’s request and persuade yourself that he is now the embodiment of the ideal that he wants to embody and to the degree that you use the seventh eye will the eighth come out of the “forest of Albion”.The opening of the eighth eye is actually the second coming of Jesus. For when the seventh becomes perfectly clear, then the eighth will open, as if it were released from the tomb, and then you see as God.

One cannot be born a Christian. If you are not using the seventh eye, you are not a Christian. If you are the Pope, you are using the fourth eye and all the priesthoods of the world use the fourth eye. So-called almighty powers all use the fourth eye.But you must use the eye of Jesus. Jesus is the eye of God that sacrifices itself for the whole vast world. He gives himself for every being in the world, seeing for them their ideal, their perfect state.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE SHAPING OF THE UNBEGOTTEN

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 05-03-1963

We are told in Paul’s letters to the Ephesians (5:1): “Be imitators of God as dear children.” So, we must find out what God did. We are told: “He called a thing not seen as though it were and the unseen became seen.” (Romans 4:17) The one who had the vision (and I turn to one, that is Blake) and Blake said: “Many suppose that before the Creation, all was solitude and chaos.

This is the most pernicious idea that can enter the mind, as it takes away all sublimity from the Bible and limits all existence to creation and to chaos.” But listen to the next statement: “Eternity Exists and All things in Eternity, Independent of Creation, which was an act of Mercy.” No scientist today believes that. They think we came out of chaos; they think the whole thing began to evolve out of something that wasn’t. And here one with vision tells us: “Eternity Exists, and all things in eternity, Independent of creation,” which creative act was a merciful act.

Now what does he mean by it? Well, I have had a vision and I know that Blake is telling the truth, so I am telling the truth based upon my vision. Everything in this world is forever. What you now see, what former people saw, what they are going to see – everything is forever. These are parts of the eternal structure of eternity; this body, this little lectern, everything in the world is but a little part of the eternal structure of eternity. It didn’t come into being at all, it always was – all the stars, everything on earth, all part of the eternal structure of eternity.

Now he speaks of creation as “an act of Mercy.” And here you are as a body, I am as a body, and all these bodies, everything – and then God, said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26) For here man is part of the structure of the universe.

But here God is saying: “Let us make man in our image after our likeness,” and that is “an act of Mercy.” And so he takes man as I would take a tree and say to you: “Let us make a tree, and mold it into our being, after our likeness. Let us give to it the qualities that we possess – our creativity.” It can’t create in itself; it is simply the universe, and it’s all part of the structure.

The whole vast world is simply the universe, and it’s all part of the structure. And God is shaping himself now – God, the un-begotten, is begetting himself. And so he begets himself in me, he begets himself in you. When he completes the act of begetting himself in us, we are God!

We are that which could now use the same structure to beget anything that we can conceive of. So God takes man, part of the eternal structure of the universe, and begets himself in man, and when he begets himself in man, the state begotten is the one who begot it. God and man – or the thing that came out of man by God’s act – are God.

Now, I am told: let the individual imitate God as a dear child. I am told: everything is. “Eternity Exists, and all things in Eternity, Independent of Creation.” Now I am going to create. God was the creator. It all exists independent of creation. So how would I do it? I can’t think of anything then that doesn’t exist. I think of you in unnumbered states of mind – when you like me, dislike me, you’re sympathetic, unsympathetic – I can think of you in unnumbered ways.

But I want to create something now, I want to create something that is lovely for myself, so I bring you into my mind’s eye, and I bring another in my mind’s eye, and then I have in my imagination a little party – say a cocktail party, a tea, a dinner – and I control the imagery that I have brought into my mind, for all exists in eternity. But I bring you without your knowledge, without your consent.

Then I control the entire moment of time – make it a minute, or five minutes, anytime, not too long – I control it. But I so arrange the imagery that it implies something other than what it was prior to the arrangement. I bring you all into my mind’s eye and I allow you to hear something that is taking place.

I allow you to see me as you would see me were things as I desire them to be, and so I am begetting something. I am actually shaping myself – the unformed – upon the formed. For all things in this world are already part of the structure of eternity, every being.

So I bring a being – it is part of the structure; I bring another being – it’s a man; another being – it’s a woman, and I so arrange them in my mind’s eye that when I put them into that form, they see me as they would see me were my dream realized. It’s my dream I am begetting, but I am begetting on the structure of the universe that which did not exist before.

So you and I as living souls did not exist, but the structure – this garment – always existed. These garments existed, everything in the world existed, but we – living souls – did not, and God begot us, begot us just like himself to become a creative being just as he is. You take the same structure and then create and create and create. So: “Be ye imitators of God as dear children.” How did he create? Well, this is how he creates: “He called a thing that was not seen as though it were seen, and the unseen became seen.” (Romans 4:17) That’s how he does it.

Let me go back and requote the brilliant Blake. And may I tell you: I can’t read anyone in this world that I would put even near him. I go back into the Bible – yes, he’s equal to all the great prophets of the Bible. He brought it into our tongue today so we can grasp and understand it. He said: “Many suppose that before Creation all was Solitude and Chaos. This is the most pernicious Idea that can enter the Mind, as it takes away all sublimity from the Bible and Limits all existence to Creation and Chaos.”

“Eternity Exists and All things in Eternity, Independent of Creation, which was an act of Mercy.” Just imagine: if God did not take this that was himself, and through his wonderful intense desire on his part, create his image out of that which was, we would not be here as living, creating beings – creating and miscreating, but creating. If we miscreate unnumbered times, we can still create. A miscreation is still a creation.

I bring war, revolution, all these horrible things in the world – it still is creating. And eventually he who started this process will bring us into his own likeness, and we will be one with God. But just as he did it out of things that are eternal parts of eternity -that this body and this little thing here that will seemingly decay – and this will decay, the garment will decay, all will decay. It does not, really – that’s the great illusion, it is forever.

Everything in this world is a part of the eternal structure of the universe. And out of all these parts God then said: “Let us make man,” for we already existed, like a tree. We don’t make man out of chaos; man exists – it’s part of the structure, part of the universe. But now, let us make man as part of the structure of the universe, and let us now make him after our image, after our likeness. And so he takes man and makes man into his image.

Now we go back into the Book of Genesis and see what he does with man. A word used in the book is “the tree,” “the Tree of Life” – where man in some strange way is expelled, because he may eat of the Tree of Life before he’s prepared. Well, if you have a concordance (I have James Strong’s Concordance) the word “tree” is defined as: “the spine, backbone, the carpenter, the gallows.” Who is hanging on the gallows? (It is called, “the gallows.”) This word, “the tree,” is the gallows; it’s the spine, the backbone, the carpenter – in other words, the builder, the potter, the creator.

There he hangs upon the tree. Well, the tree is the spine, it is the backbone. And after unnumbered playings on this calling it “man,” he brings out of this something that is entirely different – it is himself. It is shaped because he is the unbegotten, and he is shaping himself upon a form.

Just as I would take the potter and I would mold the clay upon some form, and mold it to my heart’s desire, God is molding himself upon man. And when he has completed the act as he desires it, there are three definite stages where he reveals the completed work.

He molds us, and molds, and molds us, making us ever more sensitive, ever more creative, ever more like himself; and when he is satisfied that we are just like he is, he unveils his work; and the unveiling of the work begins with the awakening of himself, and that is called the resurrection. He awakes in the individual in whom he has completed the work, and that awakening in the Bible is the resurrection.

Then, after the resurrection, he goes through an act like a birth, and he is born from above. And he is self-begotten, because the individual who is born cannot conceive of being sired by anyone other than himself.

He can’t for one moment – when he awakes in the tomb of his skull – believe that he is other than himself, and when he comes out of his own skull, he cannot have any feeling, any sensation of having any father or mother. So if he is born, then he must be self-begotten. God is so begetting himself that when he begets himself the thing begotten is God, and he comes out – just self-begotten.

Then comes a second stage, where he has the experience of being a father. Until that moment he didn’t realize that he was. And now, strangely enough, when he sees the symbol which reveals to him fatherhood, there is no mother. He is the father of God’s only begotten Son, and he knows now who he is. It took the Son to reveal to him who he really is. (David is the Son.)

And then comes the third symbol, and the third symbol is where the entire veil that separated the two is torn from top to bottom. From the top of his skull to the bottom of his spine, he is severed in two. Hebrews 10:19 tells you the purpose of that severance. What happened from that moment on, the two become one; they are not two any more.

They were separated by a veil and the veil was the body of God, and it is torn – the entire thing – from top to bottom, and then, strangely enough, you see yourself. May I quote Blake again: “I behold the visions of my deadly dream of six thousand years dazzling around thy skirts like a serpent of precious stones and gold.

I know it is myself, O my Divine Creator and Redeemer.” (Jerusalem, 1:96) At that moment you see the being that created you and you are the very being who created you.

It’s a self-creation. God begot himself on the mold called “man.” And at that moment when you see it, after the splitting from the top to the bottom, you see this moving, lovely, golden, liquid light and it’s you and you know it. And you say: “I know it is myself, O my Divine Creator and Redeemer.” And then you, as the very being who created you, move up in serpentine form right into Zion. For all go into Zion, all go into the New Jerusalem. So creation is an act of mercy.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 02-19-1963

Tonight we have as our subject, ‘The Sin Against the Holy Spirit.’ Undoubtedly you have heard unnumbered concepts of this statement from scripture. The most common interpretation is the violation of the sex act. But that is not my picture – not as it has been revealed to me. As I told you: the Bible is not something you can open up and read as you would a novel. It is a building on three levels. As you are told: ‘A three-fold cord is not quickly broken.’ I, personally, cannot conceive that you will violate and blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. I will give you my reason for it afterwards. So, if I can comfort you, may I tell you: don’t be anxious, that you will simply sin. Yes, we all sin every moment of time. But all sins are forgiven, all blasphemies are forgiven.

The only blasphemy that cannot be forgiven is that against the Holy Spirit, as told in Matthew 12, Mark 3, and Luke 2. I find in the Book of Luke a more advanced development of the theme than I do in Matthew and Mark. Mark is the earliest revelation of this theme, but each statement is followed by the strangest, most irrelevant theme in the three books. That which follows in the Book of Luke gave me my cue. He made the statement that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is not forgiven (Luke 12:8). You will think you are reading an entirely different chapter on a different theme. Then it goes right into this statement: ‘And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious how or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.’ (Luke 11-12). That little word ‘ought’ reveals so much. It implies you need not say what you should say. ‘The Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say’ – and that is the crux of the whole thing. Man is free and, because he is free, he need not say what he should say. So, He will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.

First of all, you must understand what a synagogue is. It is a gathering, a community called by Jehovah. We think a synagogue is built with human hands, but the synagogue in the true sense of the word is a place of worship, a place of instruction, and the only worship in the synagogue is the reading of scripture, the word of God. No getting down and saying prayers. ‘And they read from the book, from the law of God, clearly; and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.’ (Nehemiah 8:8) Here, for almost 2,000 years, in the most populous of our Christian denominations, they read it in Latin, in a tongue not understood by anyone in the congregation. We are warned to ‘read from the book, the law of God, clearly; and they gave sense, so that the people understood the readings.’ Were I in France and spoke only English, I could not go to any church and ‘hear’ anyone who read to me in French. You would have to read to me in the English tongue, and with understanding, that I may understand. Here is the word of God. But if I understood some other tongue, read it to me in that tongue, read it with the sense so that I may understand it. This is the story all over the world. We will take one little passage, and we do not understand it and we criticize others. It has nothing to do with things taking place in the outer world. It is all about you.

Before we go into this statement, let me show you the difference between Jesus, and the Christ – for the whole thing is about the Christ. The connection between Jesus and the Christ is not that of an historical figure and some metaphysical entity, but that of a visible history condensed into a few years, and the history that is continuously unfolded throughout the ages – a history that is known as the history of salvation. Christ is divine history inwoven in every child born of woman. The whole vast history of God is inwoven in you and in me and in every being, and when it reaches maturity in you in one short interval of time – that condensed amount of time, just a few years – the whole thing unfolds. But may I tell you: only a few will believe it. The entire divine history of God inwoven in man like a seed matures through the ages – all the pains and violence – everything in the world. And suddenly what you heard about another begins to awaken in you. It will come out petal by petal. The whole thing flowers in you and you are he. That is the story.

Now why do I not believe that you could ever sin against the Holy Spirit? I will tell you: ‘And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious how or what you are to answer or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.’ Someone asked me a question. Who asked me a question? Some question must be asked for me to answer. What am I to say? The Holy Spirit will teach me in that very hour what I ought to say. So when I am brought into this wonderful gathering and presented to the Holy of Holies – God himself – I am told supernaturally, yes, I am prompted as though on a stage and the prompter is telling me what I ought to say. And I cannot, from my own experience, believe that anyone in this world could falter. It is automatic. When you stand in his presence and he is infinite love, he will ask you: ‘What is the greatest thing in the world?’ and you -without taking thought or batting an eye or trying to rationalize – you will automatically, like an echo, say: ‘Faith, Hope and Love, these three abide, but the greatest of these is Love.’ And he who asked the question and prompted you supernaturally what to say, will then embrace you, and you are one with God forever and forever. Then you will be sent to tell that story to the whole vast world who will listen. Some will listen and accept it, others will reject it, and the majority will not even listen. It does not matter. The tree is growing in us, and when it matures in a very short interval of time -only a few years – the whole thing unfolds. It doesn’t take fifty years – I am fifty-eight – but in just a matter of years it begins to happen, and one after the other everything said of him unfolds in you, and you are he.

So, Christ is divine history, and Jesus – the first to be raised from the dead -is the one in whom that divine history unfolds. Just a little short interval of time, and you are he. Everyone becomes Jesus, because in everyone – in one moment of time – it is going to happen. When this garment of flesh comes off you will know exactly who you are. Personally I cannot believe (although the word is used, and I am told in Deuteronomy, Proverbs, and Revelation: ‘Do not change one word of scripture,’ do not add to or take from it, leave it as it is) – therefore I cannot alter the word ‘ought,’ and it is used both in the King James and Standard Revised Versions. He will tell you what you ought to say, giving man freedom to deny it and not say the greatest thing in the world is Love. That is man’s choice. But I do not believe man will ever not say it. In my own case it was like a response, an echo. How could you change an echo? Not if you screamed it from canyons. The voice will come back as I said it. You are supernaturally prompted what to say. So I cannot see how you are prompted in the depths of your soul what to say, and not say it. Don’t despair – you will not sin against the Holy Spirit. But all other sins are forgiven – but all of them. What are they? It is stated so clearly for us if we understand the Bible: every sin in the world is forgiven. All blasphemies are forgiven and we hold the key.

In the end of John 20, he appears, and the inner room was completely filled and he was shut out as it were. They wondered if he really rose. He appears in the midst of them and shows them the marks upon his body to testify to the reality of this appearance. Then he said to them: ‘Peace be with you.’ Listen to it carefully. He said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ If you forgive the sins of anyone they are forgiven, and if you retain the sins of anyone they are retained.’ He breathes upon them and gives them the Holy Spirit. (The words, ‘breath,’ ‘wind,’ and ‘spirit,’ are one, the same word, both in Greek and Hebrew.) So he breathes upon them. I will tell you what it is. It is the most intense vibration you have ever felt. There is nothing comparable to it – that breath which transfers to you the gift God promised, the gift of the Holy Spirit. It awakens you. It took place in the ‘upper room.’ If you read it correctly, they were gathered together in the upper room. Suddenly he appears and breathes upon them and gives them the power to hold, or release.

I tell you: you can exercise this faculty right now. You can take someone in your world and represent them to yourself as you would like to see them. To the degree you are self-persuaded he is such a being, he becomes it. You are actually freeing him, and not holding him enslaved forever by seeing in your mind’s eye the being that is limited. That is your privilege. These are only states of consciousness, and every state a man leaves, he grows – as Matthew brings out: ‘If a tree be good it bears good fruit, if it is bad it bears bad fruit,’ and he invites us to take the good tree. Luke went beyond Matthew in this statement of sinning against the Holy Ghost. If you sin against the Holy Spirit there is no forgiveness, but against anything else there is forgiveness.

Everyone in this world is bearing fruit – poverty, wealth, health, being known, being unknown, everything – and you who know this law can take anyone from the state where you find them and put them in the state you desire to see them. You don’t need his consent or knowledge. Don’t tell him what you are doing. Trust this power in your own being. Persuade yourself that this imaginal act is true and real, and to the degree that you are self-persuaded it is real it becomes real.

And so I tell you: if you forgive anyone he is forgiven; if you retain his sin it is retained. Don’t blame him if he does not find the good job you think he should find. Don’t give him an argument. Does he need a good job, and you tell him to go and to make a greater effort? You are not applying this principle. Only after you become self-persuaded that he is employed are you forgiving his sin. Sin means missing the mark. If he misses it and you know it, you can help him. Listen to the words: ‘If I had not come and spoken unto them, they would not know sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.’ He comes and shows man that causation is mental, that it is not physical – and now man has no excuse for his sin, missing the mark. If man has a mind – an imagination – he can exercise it. ‘You have heard of old that you should not commit adultery, but I say unto you to look on a woman lustfully you have already committed the act in your heart.’ He raises it out from the physical state. He makes every man responsible for missing the goal. If I do not get the job, he does not condemn me. He only asks me to apply the law as it is revealed. ‘They read from the book the law of God clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading.’ He reads from the Book (God’s revealed Word) that causation is mental, that imaginal acts create facts.

So what are you imagining? I can say morning, noon, and night that I am holding the thought for you, and hope you get it. But I must so persuade myself, that I can’t see anything else in the world. That is what he taught us to do. And I tell you the day will come (it begins in one moment when you least expect it) when suddenly the whole thing begins to awaken and the flower begins to unfold in you. In the beginning of time you were shown it on Mount Sinai. They can’t find Mount Sinai – they never will – God’s secret mountain where all of us were gathered together around Mount Sinai where Jehovah pledged it. He called us his bride. We were Israel then. Then he took us and pledged Israel to himself in this wonderfully holy covenant and showed us what we would go through. You forget it in passing through, and can’t remember it until the very end. In the very end, memory returns, and these wonderful words from Edward Thomas’ great poem: ‘All was foreshown me, what could I foresee, when I learned how the wind would sound after these things should be.’ You do. Suddenly the thing begins to unfold and you hear the wind – this terrific hurricane of power. Then all things begin to unfold, and everything said of Jesus Christ in the scripture you will experience, from the birth to the very end – everything. Do not see him as something on the outside. See Jesus, as I told you earlier, a history – condensed in a few years, just a few years. And see Christ as history, continuously unfolded throughout the ages and you- the individual-matching this already unfolded divine history. You went through all the fires of the world and suddenly you reached the point of blooming, and in a quick moment you bloomed, and all that was foreseen and foretold – you suddenly awaken, and you are it.

Everything in the world is forgiven – I don’t care what you have done or plan to do. They are only states. The only thing not forgiven is the sin against the Holy Ghost, and that is – as I see it – when the individual refuses to confess his faith when supernaturally prompted to do so. You are brought into the presence of the God of Gods – the only God – and here in his presence you are prompted to confess your faith, and the words are told you. But you have heard it before. We have all heard them before, but even at that very moment they are still repeated in the depths of your soul that you may not make any mistake: ‘What is the greatest thing in the world?’ and without batting an eye, you answer: ‘Faith, Hope, and Love, these three abide. But the greatest of these is Love.’ And here is infinite love embodied before you, the Holy Spirit – Jehovah himself, and he embraces you and you are merged with him, you are one with him – infinite love – never in eternity to be dissolved from him, because you answered correctly. Yet you did not write the words. So I cannot see how anyone can sin against the Holy Spirit. I cannot change the scripture, and as far back as we can go – to the earliest manuscripts – the word ‘ought’ is there. But there is a possibility that one having been supernaturally prompted what to say could change the scripture – and that is the sin against the Holy Ghost. But I do not think you will. I cannot conceive of anyone doing it. I cannot conceive of God failing.

In the interval – all these things we sin against – we fall into states. A man falls into the state of feeling sorry for himself. Knowing the law, instead of arguing with the man, just take him out of it. He may fall in again twenty-four hours later. A friend called me today and my wife answered the phone, and he said: ‘What news have you of Vicki?’ She said: ‘We are very pleased with her report.’ He answered: ‘Pleased? I wish I could say pleased about things concerning myself.’ He has been coming to my lectures for years. He was here last week. After years of saturation, he cannot conceive of feeling happy. And you tell him morning, noon, and night that these are states – that if you put yourself in a state of being wanted, you will be wanted. The state of being unwanted, then you will not be wanted. It will go on forever. He cannot believe in this reality. I have brought him out unnumbered times, and yet I must never falter. ‘How often must I forgive? Seventy times seven.’ If he calls me a thousand times I still must pull him out, and you go over it all again. You and I who know this principle must forgive seventy times seven and not ignore him, because he will not do it himself. If he wants to lean, let him lean. One day when he least expects it, suddenly the whole story of Jesus Christ will unfold within him, and he is Jesus Christ.

Christ is divine history, the history of salvation. And Jesus is history condensed into a few years that match it. Suddenly the whole vast thing has been stretched out and continuously unfolded throughout all the ages and is now telescoped in a short interval of time – the life of one man. May it happen to you now. When it will happen, only God knows. I do not know, but he knows, and when it starts to happen you cannot stop it. The whole thing will form the flower that is Christ. When you make your exit from this world you have made it for the last time and then you are in eternity – but not better than those who have not. ‘Christ is the first fruit of those that slept,’ the first that has been raised from the dead, but he is the beginning of the prophecy. We are not better than any being in this world because of our awakening. All will be one, and that one is God.

So the sin against the Holy Spirit – may I ask you not to be too concerned. I can’t conceive that you in any way will respond [incorrectly] when you are prompted supernaturally what you should say. God has taken His place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment. You are brought into his presence and presented to the Ancient of Days – the Holy Spirit – and he is Man, the embodiment of love. And he will ask you a very simple question. He is the Rule, the Author, but don’t be anxious of how or what you are to answer or what you are to say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. And I tell you: what you ought to say, you are going to say. You are going to say it automatically and then he embraces you – and he is infinite love, joy beyond the wildest dream. No one could conceive of the joy when Jehovah embraces you. And then you are sent to do what you will be doing: telling the word of God, just speaking – you can’t add to it or take from it. (Nehemiah 8:8) The four chapters from the 8th through the 11th of Nehemiah simply tell you about the word of God, nothing else.

Let no one tell you that the sin against the Holy Ghost means any physical departure or misuse or abuse, or any other thing. Hundreds of books have been written on that theme, and it is not so at all. They are rationalizing God’s word. You can’t rationalize it. It has to be revealed. That is a mystery known only by revelation. I have read these books. I had them at home. Today, having had the experience, I know that everything is forgiven – but in the true sense of the word – no matter what man has done. Man has fallen into states. If he falls in time after time after time, you pull him out. And you do it for yourself, though your reason and senses deny it – it does not matter. You remain faithful and you – the only living reality in the world – will take the state, and the state will bear fruit. In Matthew 12:33, we are told: ‘Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.’ Those who do things you do not like are bearing bad fruit. But he is not the tree; he is the immortal soul falling into these states, one after the other. As Blake said: ‘I do not consider either the Just or the Wicked to be in a Supreme State, but to be every one of them States of the Sleep which the Soul may fall into in its deadly dreams of Good and Evil when it leaves Paradise following the Serpent.’

Man falls into these states unwittingly. You take someone, and without their knowledge or consent draw them into a level state and persuade yourself it is true. Though you have no evidence to confirm it, you persuade yourself it is so, and suddenly you will hear and he will confirm the fruit that he is hearing. But if you don’t do it and you believe all the things you hear and see in the course of a day, you are moving unnumbered (persons) into all kinds of confusing states. I say: don’t be concerned, but do practice freeing individuals from the sin that is forgivable. You could forgive every being in this world before He breathes upon you and gives you the gift of the Holy Spirit. You still can forgive. Everyone can do it.

My friends in San Francisco, and here – dozens of them whose stories I have told, who forgave, who took certain things that they wanted in this world and denied they did not have them and assumed they had them. These are all states, but you got them and you took others and changed them and made them conform to your dream of them and they conformed to it. Let us remember what we did and continue doing it, knowing that any moment in time, when we least expect it, like a thief in the night he comes upon us and he breathes upon us and our head becomes a vibrant center and we awaken from this sleep. It is Christ breathing upon himself in us, for Christ – being divine history – he simply awakens and unveils it in us, and we suddenly become aware and we awaken and we are he. Then we look into our scripture and read the story in Matthew and in Luke, and everything said of his birth we experience, even to the three who were present, even to the swaddling clothes – and then you stand confounded and bewildered. Then a few months later something equally as fantastic happens. And we are told: if the Son makes you free you are free indeed. The promise is made that the Son will make the father free. (I Sam. 17:25) If he sets the father free, there must be a child, and he tells us he is trying to find the child. It takes the son to set the father free. In John 8:35, he said: ‘The Son abides forever. If the Son sets you free you will be free indeed.’ Then you see the Son after another breathing (or wind) upon you, your head becomes a vibrant state, and all of a sudden, here he comes. He calls you, ‘Father.’ You know who he is. He calls you, ‘Father’ and you know exactly who you are. So everything is telescoped.

Let me again repeat the connection between Jesus and the Christ. It is not that of an historical figure and a metaphysical entity, but that of a visible history condensed within a few years, and the history that is continuously unfolded forever – continuously unfolded throughout all the ages. And suddenly this matches that, and it is telescoped, and all that is unfolded forever is telescoped in you in a few short years – and you are he.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE SPHERE WITHIN

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 06-02-1969

Entering this world of death, you brought all you have (or can have) with you. You are like a garden, already planted and sowed, for this world is too poor to produce one seed. Although William Blake was called a madman, he knew this great truth, and said: “The Human Imagination is the Eternal Body of the Lord Jesus.” I tell you: the Lord Jesus is your own wonderful human imagination, who became as you are that you may become as he is.

Everything is housed in you, because Jesus is buried there, and it is from there that he will rise. You might think Paul was speaking of one external to himself, when he said: “I have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus,” but Paul was not. The preposition “in” designates Christ as the sphere within which faith lives, rather than an object of faith. So, if everything is within you, you may question why you are in this world of sadness, death, and sorrow; but I will tell you: you are here for a purpose.

In this world a king can bestow a high honor to anyone, but he cannot fit that one for the high office. Now, God not only bestows his honor, but he prepares the individual to receive it. You are here because you are being prepared. We are all part of the corporate destiny of a fabulous play, whose outcome is an entirely different world. In fact, this high honor cannot be conceived of until experienced.

When you have been prepared, you will be automatically drawn like a magnet into that sphere where your faith lives. Then all that is now contained within you will awaken; and the highest honor will be yours, with the revelation that God gave himself to you, as you. I tell you now: God became as you are, with all of your weaknesses and limitations; and God is going through the horrors of this world with you until you are prepared to receive the high honor, as the story of Jesus Christ (which has already been sown within you) erupts like a garden already planted, and you discover you are God.

Everyone will enter this sphere and know this revelation, but we all have different parts to play in that body. The part you will play has already been written and you were chosen to play it before that the world was. That part to which you have been cast must be prepared to receive your eternal form.

Some schools of thought will tell you that you were born blind because of karma; but I say to you: you were born blind, deaf, limited, weak, or poor – not because your parents sinned, or you sinned, but that the works of God may be made manifest. You cast yourself into the role you are now playing in order to prepare yourself to receive the high honor in the eternal body of the human imagination, which is God himself.

Scripture tells us God is love and God is life. If God is your life and he is love, then your life is love. In fact everything that loves is eternal. The moment a woman brings a child into the world, she is in love with her production and – if need be – will sacrifice herself for it. That woman, by her expression of love, is eternal. The man who expresses love for his child is eternal, also because God is love and love is man’s life.

Our scientists tell us that man alone is capable of love, but not the animal or plant world; yet I say anything that loves is eternal. One day, while walking on the beach in little Barbados with my wife and daughter, we watched as two little boys, walking with their governess, turned over a large rock to discover two beach crabs underneath. The larger one immediately ran three or four feet away, turned, and looked at us with piercing eyes. Then I said to the boys: “Be quiet and watch,” and as we did, the crab returned, quickly grabbed the little one who had remained, pressed it to its breast, and ran away to hide once more. Now, wasn’t that a demonstration of love? God made everything in love. Never would he have made it had he not loved it. The little crab was made by love. I saw it express love, therefore the crab is eternal.

Man has been trained to believe in Jesus Christ as an external being, an object of his faith; but Jesus Christ is not the object of faith, but the sphere within which faith lives! One day in 1959, having been prepared because of the parts I have played throughout my long journey, I was magnetically drawn into that sphere. Then that which was already planted within me, erupted, and the drama of Jesus Christ unfolded, casting me in the central role as the being who gave himself for me.

He had to prepare himself – as the being you call Neville – by suffering with me until the work he set out to do in me was finished. Then the honor was conferred, at which time everything said of Jesus Christ unfolded itself within me.

I know this is true of every child born of woman; but it is difficult to convince those who do not wish to stand upon their own feet. Perhaps they cannot at the moment. They still may have to go through the mill by suffering, while the one who bestows the honor upon them suffers with them. The king of this world does not suffer with those to whom he bestows honor; but God, in bestowing the honor, requires you to receive it in order to execute your part in the corporate body of God.

The part you are now playing is played for a purpose. If your child is mentally deficient, don’t think you are its cause, for you are not. You did nothing wrong. Your child is being prepared to receive this great honor. This is simply a part he must play; and when every part has been played, he will be as perfect as his heavenly Father is perfect. Then the honor which was originally bestowed upon him erupts, and he discovers he is God himself – for in the end there is nothing but God.

When Blake made that statement, he was called mad; but I tell you there are states in which the visionary is considered mad for experiencing that which others have not. I have experienced that which you have not, yet I know you will. What part you will play in the body of God, I do not know; I only know that the part was created before that the world was, and it is perfect.

Now, in the Book of Joshua we are told that the land given to Israel was distributed by lot. This does not mean a piece of land, but the part you were allotted. The twelve tribes of Israel were cast into the lots. In the story we discover that Caleb was given a portion of the tribe of Judah, the same Judah as is mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus as the one through whom the drama unfolds. The word “Caleb” is defined as “a dog,” but its spiritual definition is “a homosexual.” Now we see that Caleb – the fourth son of Jacob – is a part of the eternal play of God. This we are told in the 15th chapter, the 13th verse of the Book of Joshua, as God justifies everything he has made.

When people sit in judgment, it is because they haven’t the slightest concept of scripture, and do not realize what is taking place in the soul of man. Nothing is to be condemned, for God would not have made it had he not loved it, for God is love – this I know from experience. I stood in the presence of Infinite, Eternal Love, who embraced me and incorporated me into his body. At that moment I became one with the body of love, so I know God is love.

I also know that any one or any thing that loves is eternal, because love is God and God – who is eternal and infinite – made everything because he loved it; therefore it too is eternal. This world is too poor to produce one seed, so we enter it like a garden already planted and sown. We bring everything that we have or ever will have with us. The part of the mathematician is there for you to play, even though you may not be cast in that role at the present time. The part of the mystic is there for you also. You may condemn a part, but it is within you. It may lie dormant because you are cut out for another part; but you will play your allotted part perfectly, and in the end become one with the one corporate body of the Risen Lord.

What part you will play in this body I do not know. I can only tell you we fell from the kingdom of heaven and we are rising back into that unity. I know, for I rose like the son of man and re-entered that kingdom. It is there I will reside when I drop this body. And you will be there also, when you drop your physical body for the last time. Then we will be brothers in love. So, “Go to my brothers and tell them I am ascending unto my Father and your Father, unto my God and your God,” for we are all brothers in the kingdom of heaven, all united to form the one and only God.

Tonight you may be playing a small part; but let me assure you, you are in the part you play because Jesus is in you. He is your breath of life, your awareness of being. An idiot may not know where he is, what he is, or who he is; but he is aware because Jesus Christ is in him.

Now, in the 11th chapter of the Book of Revelation, John speaks of the Lord and his Christ. The word “Christ” means “the anointed,” who is David (as told us in the Book of Samuel and the 89th Psalm). David, called the firstborn from the dead, is anointed with the holy oil. That David is he who appears as a result of your being prepared to receive the highest honor – which is God himself. Man made Saul their king; but God rejected Saul and made David higher than the kings of the earth, proclaiming he was his son.

So, when you see David, you will see your son and know exactly who you are. And you will also know that everyone – even those you formerly disliked – is destined to see your son; and- because there is only one son, begotten by one Father – you, and he who you formerly disliked, are one. No one can be a stranger, for no one is another. Everyone is coming towards the point where he knows he is God the Father.

You came into this world, not as a poor little child, but as God desiring to play that part. I was born into a family of ten who had no money, no social or intellectual background. During that time there were two people in Barbados who foretold the future.

When I was about four years old one gentleman known as the prophet Gordon told my two eldest brothers that one would become a successful businessman and the other a doctor, which they did. Then he added: “Don’t touch the fourth one, for he belongs to God. He has come to fulfill God’s word,” and that is what I have done. Then, when I was about nine, a lady said she saw my destiny in a vision.

Everyone has a pattern to fulfill. You may not know what your pattern will be, and that is right; for if you knew what you were destined to do, at a certain point in time you might hesitate to follow that path; so it is hidden from you that you may be conditioned to receive the high honor, which is God himself.

Man finds it difficult to believe he is so destined, and thinks the idea is blasphemy. I have heard men who have achieved high titles in their churches, say from the pulpit that those who believe God is in them are insane; and I wondered how they could make such a statement, for they knew nothing.

When it happened in me, I was drawn into the sphere where a spiritual experience is revealed; and as the plan unfolded and God revealed himself to me as me, I saw those men still in the same state of mind and realized scripture was right in describing them as the blind leading the blind. Wearing their robes made by the human hand, they think that is the way God dresses – when God is clothed in love.

The colors of their robes are lovely and they are made quite beautifully; but their robes do not endear them to God, for God does not see the outer robes – he only sees the man’s heart. And when that heart has been prepared, then the individual is drawn into the sphere of spiritual experience where faith lives. It is from there that he returns, knowing the faith of which scripture speaks.

When I returned from the vision of being incorporated into the body of love, if the worldly wise men had forced me – like they did Galileo – I, too, would deny it, yet knowing I am right and they are stupid. Today we know that the earth goes around the sun, but when Galileo lived the pope and cardinals compelled him to confess publicly that he was wrong and they were right. Now we know they were wrong and he was right; but they still go blindly on making others confess concerning their wisdom; and they haven’t any, for they are men without vision, as they haven’t experienced the word of God.

If this night I were put under physical pressure I, too, would confess that my experiences were hallucinations; but in my heart I would know that my visions were real. I could no more deny them than I can the simplest evidence of my senses. What I am seeing now as an objective fact that I cannot deny, will become a memory image an hour from now. I have experienced everything said of Jesus Christ just as objectively as I see you and this room, and I know that everyone is going to have the same experiences when he is prepared to receive them.

In our land, I recall hearing an interview with a man who had just been appointed an ambassador. When asked about the place where he was going, he admitted he didn’t even know where it was on the map, or anything about the government there. He received the appointment because of his generous contributions to the presidential campaign, not because of his fitness for the position. But before God gives you the honor, he qualifies you to receive it by putting you through the paces.

In the first chapter of the Book of Colossians, we read: “The Father has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.” The phrase “to share in” literally means, “for the part.” Here we see that the part has already been prepared, and now we must be qualified for the part each one of us will play in our inheritance.

The words “to share in,” causes one to think in terms of material goods; but if you actually share in God’s inheritance, you share in the part of being God, for he is your inheritance, and God is all. You can recreate anything, when you know you are the creative power and the creative wisdom of God. That is the gift God is preparing us all to receive!

I can’t tell you how altogether glorious you really are. If you would dwell upon this thought alone, you would stop feeling inferior in any way. No matter where you were born or what you are doing today, if you will walk aware that God selected you for an eternal part in the new body he is building out of living stones, you will never feel small again. Dwell upon that wonderful hope.

Know that God is preparing you for the part you will play in his living body, and that he will not stop no matter what you may go through. If you know this you will say with Paul: “I do not consider the sufferings of this present time worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed in me, for that glory is God himself.”

If suffering be your lot, then suffer knowing the glory that is to be yours when the fires of experience are over. You may not suffer physically, but to lose a loved one is a suffering that can eat your heart out; but that suffering is preparing you to receive the glory that God has predetermined for you.

Tonight my message may not seem to be practical, but may I tell you it is the most practical talk I can give. I could tell you how to go about getting a better job, more money, larger houses, and better cars; but do you know: that which is most profoundly spiritual is, in truth, most directly practical; for while your mind is removed from your desires of this world by dwelling on something far greater, things are moving within you.

Then, one day, you will give your entire heart to a far more noble state, and you will be drawn into the sphere where scripture unfolds from within. It comes so suddenly, as you are not aware that you have moved into that sphere where the eruption takes place. It takes time to prepare you for that sphere, but when you are there you know nothing but the power of God. You feel him as an unearthly wind. You hear him in its unearthly sound as scripture erupts and you experience everything – from your birth from above, to the descent of the dove.

I promise you, if this experience is not yours in the not distant future, you will know it in the state the world calls the grave, for there is no death. You were created by the living God, and because you have loved – even if only for a fleeting moment – you are an eternal being, for God is love.

You will be restored to life in a world just like this one, to go through the paces. Then, one day, you will remember having heard a madman tell you of a sphere into which you would be drawn. You will move into that sphere, and scripture will erupt within you. Then you will know that no one in the new generation differs from those in the old, but that all ages are equal. Today we haven’t turned out any Shakespeares, Raphaels, Beethovens or Bachs; but many books are written, canvases are filled, and songs are sung on the guitars and the banjos. So you see – all ages are equal and not one age differs from the other.

We are in a world of educated darkness, where each individual is being prepared to receive God’s gift. That gift is not a castle on the Rhine, or a kingdom in this world, but God Himself. When God gives himself to you – and God is all – you receive all.

You brought all that you have (and can have) with you when you entered this world. You came in just like a garden already planted and sown, for the world in which we live is too poor to produce one seed, because your reality is Jesus, who is your own wonderful human imagination. His body contains everything in eternity, while this world only objectifies what is within your human imagination.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE SPIRIT WITHIN

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 04-25-1969

When reading the Bible always bear in mind that the persons Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jesus, Peter, Paul, (or any name appearing there) are states of consciousness. The names only identify the states represented. If you see the characters as persons, you misunderstand scripture, for the names are simply personifications of eternal states which will be revealed to you, mortal man, in a series of divine revelations.

Satan, for instance, personifies the state of complete unbelief. In the state of Satan you cannot accept a thing as real unless you can touch it or see it. Blake tells us: “Satan believes that sin is displeasing to God. He ought to know that nothing displeases God but unbelief and eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Combat of Good and Evil is eating of the Tree of Knowledge. The Combat of Truth and Error is Eating of the Tree of Life. These are not only Universal, but Particular. Each are Personified.” Here he speaks of Satan as an eternal state into which anyone may fall when a state is denied because it is not in harmony with the outer senses.

But every mystic worthy of the name knows that a true judgment need not conform to the external facts to which it relates. If I say: “Aren’t they beautiful?” and you see nothing, you may not agree. That is because you are not seeing what I am. I may be seeing a dozen red roses in a crystal vase which has been placed on a corner table in my living room. Now, to the degree that I am self-persuaded they are there, their appearance will become a fact. This I know from experience, so I know that a true judgment need not conform to the external facts to which it relates. Satan insists that it must, but truth (called Jesus Christ) tells us that it need not be so.

Tonight we will take the Spirit of truth on a higher level. Personified as a man, Jesus proclaimed himself to be the Spirit of Truth saying: “I came out from the Father and came into the world. Again I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” Knowing the physical background of the man who said these words, this statement did not make sense to those who knew the speaker, and he had nothing to display on the outside to support his claim. The Jerusalem Talmud tells us that if the Messiah is in the world he does not know it until Elijah comes and anoints him. Then he will suddenly appear, for the Jewish expectancy is the sudden appearance of the Messiah.

In the Book of Zechariah this Messiah is called “the corner, or top stone.” “He shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace! Grace to him!” And in the book of John, we read: “The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Here we see he is the top stone as well as the foundation stone of which there is no other. Now, a foundation stone is hollow, for it contains the plan of the edifice. There must be a plan, a purpose for a building, so in the hollow foundation stone the documents are laid. This structure is the temple of the Living God, of which you are. His plan of salvation is buried in your skull and you are destined to bring forth this plan, as grace and truth reveal you to be the one and only Jesus Christ.

A lady wrote this week, saying: “A week ago last Monday as I closed my eyes in the silence, I thanked you for once more explaining the law although I already know all about it, when I heard you say, ‘But do you really know it?’ Then I realized that I knew it with my surface mind, but did not really believe it in the depths of my being.

Suddenly a pyramid appeared with the top stone missing. A sphere was above the pyramid, peaked by a crown outlined in a scintillating white light. The sphere began to spin, causing everything to become so brilliant I closed my spiritual eyes to return to this level of my being. Since then I have felt that if my inner eye had been stronger I would have seen a being emerge from that light.” She is right, she would have, but it is not yet time for her to see her true self.

Your wonderful skull is the hollowed out foundation stone where Christ is buried. God and his creative power became you (humanity) that you may become as He is, for He is the consciousness of every child born of woman, and in the fullness of time a being will emerge from that stone to know itself to be the light of the world. In the 3rd chapter of the 1st Epistle of John, we read: “It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall know him for we shall be like him.” Yes! When God’s plan of salvation unfolds itself in you, you wil1 not only be like him, you will be one with him!

In order to externalize truth (or error) a man is needed to be its agent; therefore, truth is man. Scripture personifies truth, but man, not realizing this, sees one unique little man and not God’s plan. Having unfolded His plan of salvation in a man, God uses that man as his agent to say: “I am the way, the truth and the light. No one comes unto the Father but by me. If you knew me you would know my Father also, for I and my Father are one.”

I, the Living Word, came into the world to experience scripture and I cannot return unto him void, but must accomplish that which I purposed and prosper in the thing for which I was sent. The O1d Testament is an adumbration of God’s plan of salvation. Written as the history of Israel, it is experienced spiritually by an individual whose physical origin is known, and the world sees the person, but not the state he is conscious of being. They expect the Messiah to be a being external to themselves, to come out of the nowhere and surprise them. But the Messiah is buried in that hollowed foundation stone which is the skull of Man. He does come suddenly, for when it is his time to awaken, everything said of Jesus Christ in scripture unfolds in you, in a first person singular, present tense experience. Then you tell your friends about your experiences and they smile as they shake their heads, for they know your parents, your weaknesses and your failures, and cannot believe you have fulfilled the Old Testament.

Although I read the statement in the 40th Psalm: “In the volume of the book it is all about me,” I did not know it to be true until the Spirit of truth awakened in me. Now I tell my brothers that I am departing this world and going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God because I know that we are all one. The one God in a diversified state appears as many, but it takes the many to form the one God. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one.”

When you read scripture, always remember that every word has a meaning. The word “Zechariah” means “Jehovah remembers.” In the state of Zechariah you remember your promise to Israel, for the word “Israel” means, “to rule as God.” Remembering, you don’t rule as a little god-like tyrant of the world, but as God Himself! You must forget the concept of Jesus Christ as a little man external to yourself, for it is Christ in you who is your hope of glory. All things are made by him, whether they be good or ill, lovely or unlovely. An artist doesn’t have to create only the beautiful, but can create anything, and so it is with God. You can find him by testing your wonderful human imagination.

I have searched for and found Jesus Christ to be my own wonderful human imagination. I now know that everything in my world was first imagined by me. I may not always remember the imaginal act relative to the unlovely things I have experienced, but I have imagined and watched its fulfillment in my world. I know that although I may not remember the imaginal act, I must have committed it, for I cannot reap that which I have not sown.

In the 2nd chapter of the Book of Jeremiah, the Lord said: “I planted you a pure seed, O Israel. How did you become degenerate?” I will tell you how! By going after foreign gods; by worshipping the gods of astrology, numerology, wealth, or so-called important people. By believing in things on the outside and seeing other causes for the phenomena of your life and not the only cause, who is God, your own wonderful human imagination, whose name is I am! One day you will awaken to discover that you are the one and only God. But you aren’t going to rob anyone, for it takes all your brothers, together, to form the one pyramid, and when this is accomplished the top stone will be put in place.

Now a lady wrote, saying: “This dream disturbs me greatly. In the dream I entered an exquisite jewelry store, [and] picked up many items, among which was a beautiful green gem. Then I left without paying for the articles I took. On this level I would never do such a thing and cannot understand why I would do it there.” My dear, you should be thrilled because you did it. On this level you are eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but you are way beyond this tree, for you are now eating of the Tree of Life by fulfilling the 50th Psalm: “If I were hungry I would not tell you for the world is mine and all within it.” If everything is yours, whose permission do you need to take it? As an incurrent eyewitness, you do not function here save when you open your mortal eyes. In this world of good and evil you would never go to Tiffany’s and walk out without paying for your purchases, but as the Spirit of truth, you are feasting upon the tree of truth and error in the world that is yours. In that world there is no need to ask permission of anyone to take anything you desire.

Man’s real hunger is not for bread alone, but for the Word of God to fulfill itself in him, as Amos was told: “I will send a hunger upon you. It will not be for bread or a thirst for water, but for the hearing of the word of God.” Her hunger was represented by the green stone, green being that which is growing, like the tree of life. My dear, you are blessed for having such a dream.

No one would ever agree with another as to what is right and what is wrong, for we all have different values. What is right to one is wrong to another. We came down into the world of death because we ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and we are told that the only thing that displeases God is the eating of that tree, and unbelief. If you think another is the cause of your misfortune, you are sinning and missing your mark in life. There is only one cause for all of the phenomena of your life, and that is God, whose eternal name is I AM. When you really believe this, you will not deny the harvest you are reaping. It may be unpleasant, but you will know that it couldn’t happen unless you sowed it, so accept your harvest and then plant something lovely in its place. Never deny that one and only cause, which is your own wonderful human imagination!

Scripture teaches no other God, but organized churches have created little icons for people to come and genuflect before in violation of the 2nd commandment: “Make no graven image unto me.” Half of my family are Catholic and have these monstrous looking statues all over their homes. We were raised Protestant, but several of my brothers married Catholics and raised their children in that belief. I don’t argue with them because as far as they are concerned, I am a product of Satan. If I would only go with them on Sunday mornings and do all the little nonsense they do, it would be wonderful as far as they are concerned; but they think I am blaspheming when I tell them that the only Christ erupted in me as my very self, for they know my origin, my father and my mother. They do not know the “I” who was in concealment until Elijah came.

The body you wash and care for on the outside is the Elijah of the Old Testament and the John the Baptist of the New. Coming into the world by assuming a garment of hair, man has made every effort to attain salvation by physical means, like doing violence against its appetite. For seven years I went on a starvation diet of vegetables only and I grew thinner and thinner and weaker and weaker. I was young and virile. I desired everything that a normal man would, yet I went on a diet of celibacy and had nightmares with my suppressions, wondering why they were happening to me when I was trying to be such a holy man. Ab once told me that I was so good, I was good for nothing. That’s John the Baptist, the outer man, who must be restrained and beheaded before Christ can come into the world. This I know from experience, for I certainly didn’t expect him. I went to sleep in my normal manner, not knowing that in the wee hours of the morning He would erupt in me, but he did, for I awoke to find myself in a tomb which was my skull. Then, in 1,260 days, everything said of Jesus Christ unfolded in me in a first person singular, present tense experience, just as told us in the Book of Daniel and confirmed in the Book of Revelation.

Now I, personified truth, stand alone and point the only way to the Father, while Satan (personified error) has the authority of the world behind him. The world has accepted error by worshiping their misinterpretations of scripture which have become the traditions of the church, yet I have awakened and know exactly what has happened to me. I have been on television and radio around the clock with ministers, priests and rabbis who look at me strangely when I quote their own Book for them. When I quoted the words spoken by David in the 2nd Psalm as: “I will tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, ‘Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee’, they said: “But that quote belongs to Jesus Christ.” This is true. The statement can be found in the 3rd chapter of Matthew, but did not David, in the Spirit, call Jesus, “My Lord”?

One night in New York City I said to a rabbi: “David called me Father”.
Is that not the fulfillment of the 89th Psalm? I have found David. He has cried unto me: ‘Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’ Therefore am I not the one spoken of in the 20th chapter of Luke as Christ? With that the rabbi put his hands to his ears to shut out such blasphemy, yet this same truth is found throughout the entire scripture. They called him blasphemous because he said: “I and my Father are one. My Father is he who you call God, but I know my Father and you know not your God.” He never denied his brothers, but knew they were sound asleep and would one day awaken to discover that God is the dreamer in all. At the present time he is dreaming he is you, and when he awakes, you will be God. He actually became as you are, that you may become as He is.

Now, in order to prove that the law works, you must try it. Have a goal. Your goal may be peace of mind, health or marriage. You name it. Knowing your own wonderful human imagination is the one and only cause of your life, conceive a scene which, if true, would imply the fulfillment of your goal. Do not allow yourself to observe the action, but put yourself in the center of the scene and allow your friends to congratulate you on your good fortune. Accept their congratulations without embarrassment. Enter into the spirit of the scene and remain there until it feels real, then drop it in confidence that the imaginal act was performed by God. How do I know this? Because God’s name forever and ever is I am. If at the time of your imagining I had asked you what you were doing, you would have said: “I am imagining.” At that moment you called forth your desire with His name.

Every time you imagine, God is acting and all things are possible to him.
All you need to do now is wait patiently, confident that your desire will externalize itself, and when it does you have found the cause of creation. Then tell your sleeping brothers, who wait patiently for their world to change while they activate its continuance. Nothing happens on the outside! Everything has to be initiated on the inside first. Read the morning paper, turn on the television or radio, and react to what you hear and see, and that reaction is an imaginal act which will cause unlovely experiences to people your world. As you reap your harvest, you may not relate your present experience to what you did, but you had to have done it or you couldn’t be aware of it now, for everything is yourself pushed out, for you and God are one.

When you read scripture in the future, bear in mind that the persons stated there are personifications of states. The word, “Moses”, for instance, is the ancient Egyptian verb meaning “to be born”. And what is to be born? The Living word which will fulfill the written word. The New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old. It’s not the other way around. There could be no New without the Old. The Old Testament tells the story by intimating God’s plan, while the New Testament interprets it by fulfilling it. Man has misunderstood the interpretation and worships states called Moses, Elijah, Jesus, Peter, Paul, and all the others, when you – as an individual – interpret the states within yourself to discover that you are scripture.

He sent me, His word, into the world with the words: “Time to act.” Having looked into the face of infinite love, we embraced, fused and became one protean being. Now God, as infinite might I was hurled out of that assembly and returned to this little garment lying on the bed. I did not know what it was all about, but I have never forgotten the experience.

I could no more deny it than I could the simplest act of my senses, yet that happened to me back in 1929. Thirty years later His word, now myself, erupted and I began to fulfill scripture within myself. Now I tell it to those who will listen, knowing that no one comes unto me save my Father calls him. He draws you, one by one, to hear His unfolded Word. Of those who come, some believe and some disbelieve, as indicated through your visions.

Now I am departing this world, not to a restored society like this, but to return to the body of the Risen Lord, knowing myself to be one with the one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE STATE OF VISION

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 2-26-1968

“We have only to raise Imagination to the state of Vision and the thing is done.” (William Blake) Just imagine it! That is all you and I are required to do. No matter what it is we desire, we have only to raise imagination to the state of vision, and the thing is done! Now, when the prophets of old used the word vision in scripture, they meant all of the senses, either individually or in combination. The Book of Isaiah begins: “The visions of Isaiah, the son of Amoz. Hear, O heavens and give ear O earth; for the Lord has spoken.” And the Book of Obadiah states: “The visions of Obadiah. Thus sayeth the Lord God.” Here we find the visions are audio; but scripture records visions of sight, sound, scent, taste, and touch. The last chapter of the Book of Job reads: “I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee.”

Imagination must be raised to the sense of sight in order to see. The sense of sound seems to be the most popular in scripture, yet in the story of Jacob it is the sense of touch. Isaac, Jacob’s father, was blind and could not see. His twin brother, Esau, was the first out of the womb. He was covered with hair and – because of his birth – had the right of inheritance by law. Jacob, who followed his brother, was a smooth-skinned lad, who deceived his father through the sense of touch. Killing one of his father’s flock, he wrapped the skin around his arm, and when his father touched him, he felt its reality and gave Jacob the right of birth.

This is not a story of a man who was blind, or of two sons that came out of the womb of a woman. This drama unfolds from within. Esau is the world you know by your reason and senses. The room you are now in is your Esau, while your subjective desire is your Jacob. Wearing garments of hair, Esau is the outer, objective world, which Jacob, your desire, is seeking to replace. As Isaac – the father – you have the power to give reality to your desired, subjective state. Invite it to come near, that you may feel it, to know whether it is as real as your outer world is.

Isaac chose the sense of touch rather than that of sound, adding the sense of smell, saying: “You smell like Esau.” Using these two senses, Isaac granted Jacob the right to become an objective fact. So when Blake tells us that if we will raise imagination to the state of vision the thing is done, he is speaking of vision in any one, or a combination of the five senses.

Perhaps the sense of hearing is most developed in you. If so, you can single out a voice and hear it with such clarity that you can become self-persuaded its words are true. Your sense of hearing can be developed to the degree that you can shut out all other senses and believe in what you are hearing. When the words take on the tones of reality and you are self-persuaded that it is so, the event has been impregnated upon you; and what do you do after impregnation? Nothing! You simply carry the knowledge that in its normal, natural time, that which you heard so clearly will be born. No two eggs have the same interval of time between their fertilization and hatching out. I do not know how long it will take for your desire to become an objective fact. I only know that when imagination is raised to the state of vision – be it sight, sound, scent, taste or touch – the thing is done!

I know a very fine artist (whose works are in national galleries) who was starving, and didn’t have a dime with which to buy food. One night she was so tired she couldn’t even walk to the YWCA to offer her services for a meal. Instead, she stretched out on her couch and said: “Lord, you said if I but believed, all things would be possible. Well, I believe that I am well fed.”

In relating this story to me, this lady added this comment: “I didn’t actually hear the words audibly, but received an impression which was: ‘If you really believed as you claim, wouldn’t you prepare the table for the meal?’ With that, she began to set the table in her imagination. She put on her best tablecloth, her nicest plates, and even lit a candle, in preparation of the food to come. Then she fell asleep and began to dream. As she lifted the cover from a beautiful platter, she heard a ring which persisted until she awoke to realize it was her telephone. The caller was a friend of her mother’s whom she hadn’t seen for years. The lady said: “Suddenly I have the greatest longing for a meal you prepared for your mother and me several years ago. Would you please do it again tonight if I bring over the ingredients?”

Now, although this lady had a kitchen in her apartment, she had no food in it, so when the friend went to the store she couldn’t buy a cup of flour or sugar, but stocked up on all the basics needed to prepare a meal. Within an hour she was in the artist’s home with the food, and a short time later they sat down to a delicious dinner, of which – when the meal was finished – there was enough left over for at least two more meals.

Although this lady is a great artist, she has developed the sense of touch. She fell asleep touching the plates and the silver, and awoke touching the cover to a platter filled with food. Her experience is dramatized in scripture as the story of Isaac. In order to understand scripture, it is necessary to see it with the eyes of the mystic. Blake asked: “Why is the Bible more entertaining and more instructive than any other book? Because it is addressed to the Imagination, which is spiritual sensation, and only immediately to the understanding, or reason.” When you touch something spiritually, you are receiving a sensation that your outer senses deny. And when you use your imagination, you are touching with the hands of Jacob, seeing with the eyes of Jacob, and hearing with Jacob’s ears.

In the 115th Psalm, the psalmist tells us our Lord does everything we do. Then he compares the Lord to the gods of the world, saying: “Their gods are made of silver and gold. They have mouths but speak not, eyes but see not, ears but hear not, feet but walk not, hands but feel not. Those who make them are like them, and so is everyone who trusts in them.” Anyone who trusts some little thing a man made with his hands, that can’t talk, hear, walk or feel, has a false God and a false Jesus Christ. Made with human hands, it cannot utter a sound or hear your request. It cannot answer you, see, hear, or walk. It is merely something made with human hands; and those who trust in it are just like the thing made, because they are unwilling to exercise the inner man – called Jacob in the Old Testament and Jesus Christ in the New.

Begin now to exercise Jacob by sending Esau out into the fields. Then clothe Jacob with the tones of reality by exercising one or all five of your inner senses. If you will become self-persuaded that your desire is already granted, even though it is denied by the outer senses it will become a fact. I do not know how it will objectify itself, or when; I only know that when imagination is raised to the state of vision, the thing is done.

Because Blake made these bold assertions, people question why he wasn’t rich; but Blake had no desire for fame or enormous sums of money. At that time, the king of England was George the Third. He was a madman and remembered only because of the fact that he was king during the time of our revolution against England. People of great wealth and fame lived during Blake’s lifetime, but are forgotten now, while Blake grows in stature and simply dwarfs everyone in his age.

Blake had no money. He was non-schooled by human standards. Teaching himself Latin, French, and Italian, Blake was a master in the use of the English tongue. This giant of a man had no human luxuries, but he didn’t need them as he was busy doing the work of God. Blake claimed that the world was vision, confessing that his greatest work, “Jerusalem”, was given to him by dictation. He didn’t see Jerusalem, he heard it. The words were dictated by the Spirit of God, yet Blake called it his greatest vision.

Perhaps the sense of feeling is easy for you. If so, be like Isaac and touch your desire to see if it is Esau (real) or not. When reality was touched, Isaac said: “You have the smell of Esau; therefore the blessing is yours.” Why? Because it seemed real to him.

Money has an odor all of its own. Blindfold yourself and smell a dozen different pieces of paper. Make one of them a dollar, five-, or ten-dollar bill, and the moment it reaches your nose you will know it is money, for there is something different about it.

Everything has an odor. My brother Victor is a successful businessman. When I questioned him about his success, he said: “I love the odor of business. When I open the store in the morning, I love the smell emitting there.” I walked around the store with him and didn’t care a thing about the odor; but I can open a book of Blake’s and be lost to the world for the rest of the afternoon. When I was in Barbados recently, I shared one of Blake’s letters with Victor. I so thoroughly enjoyed the reading I tasted every delicious word, but the message meant nothing to my brother. He uses his talents in a different way.

Choose the medium best for you and use it. Sound seems to be the easiest for many, yet if you love someone you will know the touch of their flesh and odor. If man didn’t have a distinctive odor, how could a bloodhound find him? We think only in terms of the skunk ring, and know it can be used against a man because it is unique; but there is no dubious odor. There is no dubious voice. A voice can be imitated; but if recorded, its graph would not be like the original. You are unique, and when you love someone dearly you know their voice and what they feel like, and if you are close to them, you know their odor. Share the news of your good fortune with them. Hear them empathize with you. Listen to their voice carefully and revel in what you are hearing. Believe in what you have heard, and you have impregnated yourself with the message.

A friend recently cured his skin cancers through the use of sound. Every morning as he shaved the evidence remained. But using his sense of hearing, he listened to the voices of his friends as they congratulated him on his complete cure. He did not put his hand to his face and feel its smoothness. He could feel and see what was there, but he persisted in hearing his friends’ empathy – and one day the cancers were gone.

I urge everyone to try it. It costs you nothing. Blake had a friend named Samuel Farmer, to whom he made this fantastic statement: “Raise Imagination to the state of vision and the thing is done.” You can do it by using any sense, either individually or collectively. You can imagine seeing and hearing at the same time. You can look as though you see, and listen as though you hear; but you determine what you want to see and hear. Bring them together. See and hear only your fulfilled desire, and watch the evidence unfold in your world.

When scripture tells us that God sees the heart, it is not speaking of the physical heart, but the individual’s identity. The Fourth Psalm tells you to “Commune with your own heart on your bed and be silent.” In other words, talk to yourself! This self is a totality, for your feelings, thoughts, desires, and motives are always exposed to yourself, who is God the Father! You may conceal thoughts from those who are enclosed in garments of flesh and blood, but not from the depth of your own being! Scripture tells us that the Lord rejected all of the brothers and chose David, saying: “He is a man after my own heart who will do all my will.” David is the one who fulfills all of your thoughts, feelings, desires, and motives – always doing your will.

Scripture will only be understood when it is seen through the eye of the mystic. Let us take the statement: “Be angry but sin not. Commune with your own heart and be silent.” If you have something against someone, explode and get it off your chest. Then commune with yourself by calming down and constructing a scene which would imply everything was perfect in your life. Fall into the depth of self, using as many of your senses as possible to achieve the vision you desire to appear.

You can raise any sense – be it hearing, sight, sound, touch or smell – to the state of vision. I was drafted into the army during World War II, but I wanted no part of it. When my request for a discharge was disapproved, I did not get angry and try to go over the colonel’s head. Instead, I lay down on my army cot, closed my eyes to the other fifty men in the room, and imagined I was two thousand miles away in my apartment above Washington Square in New York City. Placing myself on my bed, I saw my wife sleeping in hers. Then I rose, and looking out the window, I saw the Holly Apartments across the street and Washington Square down below. Turning, I walked into the living room, dining room, and the kitchen. I felt familiar objects and brought as many of my five senses alive in the drama as possible. At 4:00 o’clock in the morning I awoke hearing a voice say, “That which I have done, I have done. Do nothing.” Who spoke those words? I did, but I heard them as coming from without.

Knowing what I had done and what I had said, I walked in faith for nine days, doing nothing on the outside. On the tenth day the colonel who had rejected my application called me into his office and gave me an honorable discharge.

I brought feeling up to the state of vision. By feeling the bed and the various objects in the apartment, I fell asleep feeling the joy of being there. The colonel thought he initiated the desire to discharge me, but he had no choice in the matter. I imagined, knowing the world was my imagination pushed out, and everyone in it had to do what they are doing to aid the birth of what I had done.

Knowing what you ought to do is not good enough; you must raise your imagination to the state of vision in order for the act to be committed. Then what must you do? Nothing! You simply watch the series of events unfold within your world. Remember, you operate your creative power, it does not operate itself. There must be action, a commitment on your part. Nothing, however, can be done to earn God’s gift of grace. When God’s promise fulfills itself, it happens suddenly and so dramatically that you have no time to think about it. In fact, you will not even recognize it, unless you hear it from someone who has experienced it. I know, as far as I am concerned, I never heard it from a man, or saw the Bible’s story as relating to me. But I know from experience that the truth comes through an act of God in self revelation, for God is hidden in the mind of man and unveils himself as man!

Start now to exercise your God-given talents of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell – together, or individually. The sense of touch is the strongest in me. If someone expresses their desire to me in a letter, I touch the paper they wrote, believing they are telling me of their desire’s fulfillment. I know only one out of ten ever respond after I have granted their request, but that is all right. Having felt their letter and seen its contents, I know I have impregnated myself with the good fortunes they are desiring, and in so doing, my own captivity is being lifted.

Right now, give something to a friend without their knowledge or consent. You have your five senses! Exercise them by bringing the objective body of Jacob to the surface. Clothe him in external reality as the Esau you would like to replace, vanishes. What you have is your Esau. Your desire is Jacob. You are their father. Raise imagination to the state of vision and allow Jacob to supplant Esau. Then rest in that assumption and watch the change which takes place in your wonderful world!

Now let us go into the silence.

THE TALENT

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 02/02/1970

A talent is a gift entrusted to one for his use. And when one is given the greatest talent of them all, its use gives meaning to existence.

In the 25th chapter of the Book of Matthew, a parable is told comparing this gift to the kingdom of heaven as: “A man going on a long journey called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another, one. Then he went away. When he returned, the servants explained their use of the talents. The one who had received five had increased it to ten, for which he was highly commended and invited to enter into the joy of his master. The one who received two had doubled his and he, too, was highly commended and invited to enter into the joy of his master. But he who had received one, being afraid to test it, had buried his talent. He was condemned, the talent taken from him, and given to the one who had ten.

You may wonder when you read this story how the Lord of the universe could be so cruel to one who did not use his talent. But I tell you: every individual in this world has been given the greatest talent imaginable, which is the gift of God Himself as their human imagination. How is this gift being used? Some bury it by worshipping little icons on the wall and things round about them, but the worship of God is the use of His gift – the use of the human imagination.

Now, the parable tells us that those to whom the gifts were given were asked for an accounting, and those who had multiplied them were highly commended and invited into the joy of expansion. Blake, in his preface to the 4th fourth chapter of his wonderful poem, “Jerusalem,” addresses the Christians saying: “I know of no other Christianity and of no other Gospel other than the liberty, both of body and mind to exercise the Divine Arts of Imagination. Imagination, the real and eternal World of which this Vegetable Universe is but a faint shadow, and into which we shall go in our Eternal, or Imaginative Bodies when these Vegetable, Mortal Bodies are no more.” Then he adds this thought: “The Apostles knew of no other Gospel.”

Jesus Christ is your own wonderful human imagination. Crucified on humanity, Jesus is buried in you and will rise in you to the degree that you exercise your talent – your Human Imagination’

Christianity is a mystery. When speaking of Christ, Paul uses the word “mystery” no less than twenty times. The secret of imagining is the greatest of all problems, to the solution of which everyone should aspire, for supreme power, supreme wisdom, and supreme delight lie in the solution of this great mystery. When you unravel the mystery of imagining, you have conquered death.

Now let me tell you the story of a lady I knew in New York City about twenty years ago. I started lecturing on February 2, 1938, sharing my experiences based upon my use of the talent. Shortly after my opening, a lady – very prominent in our country, both politically and socially – began to attend my meetings. She was the daughter-in-law of one who was governor of New York, [later] Vice President, and then President of our country.

One day this lady came to our apartment and told me that she and her husband owned a home in Long Island where they spent their summers, and lease an apartment in New York City where they live during the winter, and always sublet during the summer. Needing the money obtained from renting the apartment to open their home in Long Island, this lady asked for my help.

Although this lady was a pillar of the Episcopal church in New York City and Long Island, she did not go to her ministers, but to me for help. I asked her: “If you sublet your apartment today, where would you sleep tonight?” And she replied, “In Long Island.” Then I told her to go home and sleep in Long Island tonight in her imagination. As she is falling asleep, I asked her to think of her New York apartment across the East River and tell herself that she is here in Long Island now because her apartment has been rented. Admitting that, although the idea did not make sense, she [said she] would try it, and promised to call me if it worked. I told her the only “if” to it is “if” she does it.

Two days later this lady called me at 9:00 A.M. from her home in Long Island saying: “Yesterday a gentleman came to see my apartment. He had all the qualifications and money necessary to rent it, but wanted immediate occupancy. I called my husband at the office and that night we physically slept in our home in Long Island.” I told her how thrilled I was for her. I had expected her call, but wanted to ask one question: “Did you imagine sleeping in Long Island the night you promised you would?” And she answered: “Yes. I told my husband I was going to retire early as I had an appointment with myself. Then I went to bed assuming I was in Long Island. I thought of my apartment in New York City and felt the relief of knowing it was rented. I took my time looking at the familiar paintings on the walls, the furniture, drapes, and accessories there. Then I fell asleep. The next morning I awoke on my bed in New York City, but because of the series of events which took place that day, we have physically moved to our home in Long Island.”

Now, in this lady’s mind she is a Christian. She is a gracious, sweet lady, cultured, kind, considerate and generous, but she hasn’t the slightest concept as to who Jesus Christ really is. She thinks of him as a man who was born 2,000 years ago, died on a wooden cross, [and] was buried in a grave in the Near East, out of which he rose in some miraculous way. That hasn’t a thing to do with Jesus Christ.

Crucified on the cross of your body of flesh and blood, Jesus Christ is your own wonderful human imagination. Buried in your skull, He is dreaming your life into being. Although everything seems so alive here, this world is really His dream of death. But one day He will awaken and you will discover that you are the one spoken of by the prophets and the law of Moses and the Psalms. That there never was another and never will be another.

Start now to exercise God’s gift of himself to you, for He so loved you He became you. Can you conceive of any greater gift? But the gift, like the muscles, if not exercised will atrophy and die. You have the greatest of all talents, which is God’s gift of himself to you, which is your own wonderful human Imagination.

Now, an idea which is only a thought produces nothing. In order to be awakened, motor elements must be employed, for imagination is spiritual sensation. As an example, imagine a rose. See it in your mind’s eye, feel its velvet petals with your hand, smell the rose – and you have used three talents. Now, if you can detect the fragrance of a rose, see it, and touch it, isn’t the rose there? If it is not, then why is its fragrance in the air?

You may question my example, but I know, if you have used your talents as I encouraged you to do, the rose will come. I am not saying it will magically appear in your vase by falling out of the atmosphere. But I am saying that in its own wonderful way the rose will be yours. Do not concern yourself as to how the rose (or roses) will appear; simply go to the end and dwell there.

When you know what you want, use your sense of feeling. Let the feeling of satisfaction so fill your being that the idea ceases to be a desire, but has evoked motor elements. These awaken sensory sensations within you causing the desire’s fulfillment. Imagination is nothing more than sensory states. Learn to go beyond an idea by feeling its reality. Then turn to another and still another, as the being who is feeling it begins to awaken within you. Fulfill all of your desires while you are here, and then when you least expect it, the Divine Breath will breathe upon that immortal tomb where you are buried. And you will awaken to find yourself completely sealed in your Holy Sepulcher where you have been dreaming your life into being.

This world is made up of horrible dreams which the one within every individual is dreaming. That one must and will awaken, as you hear the story and put it into practice through repentance. The word “repentance” comes from the Greek word “metanoia,” which means “a radical change of attitude.” This change must be so radical that it gets right down to the root, the I AM. Think of your world as your mirror. Do you like what you see there? You know you can live with it or ignore it, but perhaps you would like to see it differently. If you would, repent by persuading yourself that you are seeing a world to your liking. Persist in your repentance, for to the degree that you are self-persuaded it is so, it will be so.

If you attempt to change the world before you change your attitude towards it, your struggle will be in vain. That which you dislike will change only to the degree that you change your attitude towards it. Until you do it cannot change, for the dislike is coming from within you. “Man is all Imagination, and God is Man and Exists in us and we in Him. The Eternal Body of Man is the Imagination and that is God himself.”

The secret of imagining is the greatest of all secrets, and everyone should try to unravel this mystery. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you as your human imagination? Test yourself and see. You do not test another. Test yourself’ See if what I tell you is true. I say your own wonderful human imagination is Jesus Christ, the life-giving spirit of all things. If this is true, you can test him who is your very self, and when you prove it you will know where, what, and who you really are.

If I told a pillar of the Episcopal church (as the lady whose story I shared, was) that her imagination was Jesus Christ she would think me blasphemous. When the lady came to me for help I did not call him Christ in her presence, but spoke of her imagination. She could use that and still have her little icons. She could assume her apartment in New York City was rented, but she could not believe that the being who made the mental transfer was Christ. Yet we are told that all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that is made. She mentally moved, and in less than twenty-four hours the move was physically accomplished.

Now if all things are made by Christ and she knows exactly what she did, didn’t she discover him? No, she didn’t. She calls Christ her imagination, but separates her imagination from the Maker of worldly things. Although she knows she brought about the rental of her apartment by her imaginal act, she still cannot bring herself to believe that her imaginal act was God in action. Raised to believe Jesus Christ was someone on the outside, she still worships a man based upon an artist’s concept of him. But when you discover who Jesus Christ really is, you will know him as your very self. It does not yet appear what we should be, but we know that when he appears, we shall know him, for we shall be like him. “When scripture unfolds from within you, you will know that you and Christ are one.”

God became not a man, but humanity, that humanity may become God. In giving us himself, God gave us the talent to use wisely or unwisely. I ask no more than the right and the liberty to exercise this talent. In this world a man can exercise his talent, be it that of an artist, a musician, a writer, or a poet, but he must conform to the ideology of the country and the time in which he lives. In Russia, the praises of Stalin were sung for almost thirty years. Statues were made of him; pictures were painted of him. Writers praised his name, yet he was a monster who deliberately slaughtered thirty-odd million Russians. Hitler was another monster who used the talents of others to balloon his own ego.

But I tell you, every child born of woman has the greatest talent of them all – the human imagination. A man sentenced for life could be in a dungeon imagining himself elsewhere, and if it takes an earthquake to set him free, an earthquake will appear. But if he sits in the dungeon believing the world is against him, he will remain there. But, while there in his body, he can walk the streets as a free man by using his talent. He can view the world from a free state and in a way that no one knows, he will be set free.

Whatever your desire may be, is possible and can be yours if you will imagine its possession and dwell in its fulfillment. But I warn you: Do not imagine with hate in your heart, because you are only hurting yourself. Although you may not realize it, the world is yourself pushed out. It is forever bearing witness to you who are all Imagination. Make no attempt to change the world until you first change your attitude towards it. Change your thinking and the world will reshuffle itself to reflect your new thoughts. This is the talent of which the gospels speak.

To one five talents were given. To another, two and another, one. Then came the day of accounting and all those who had expanded their talents were invited to enter into the joy of their master. And those who were afraid to test their Imagination, who wouldn’t even try it, were condemned, and the knowledge of the power that they are was taken from them.

The talent is God’s gift to you. It is entrusted to you for your use. Use your talent tonight by sleeping in the assumption that you are now – not tomorrow – but now, the person you would like to be. In the morning, persist in your assumption by allowing the world to see you as they would have to see you, were you now the one you would like to be. Although your reason and senses deny your assumption, if you persist your desire will harden into fact.

Let the world turn their back upon this law. That is perfectly all right, but you go your way using your talent. And when you least expect it, all that is said in scripture concerning Jesus Christ will be yours to experience in the first person, singular, present tense. Then you will know beyond all doubt who Jesus Christ really is. When you know who you are, it will not matter what the world says. Let the billion Christians and the two billion non-Christians go their way. If they want to question or ridicule you, turn your back and walk away. Having found the real Christ, you have found the great secret to the mystery of all life.

Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism. All that was promised in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms came to its fulfillment in the mystery called the gospels. Man thinks they are speaking of secular history, but I tell you, they have recorded Divine history. The story of Jesus Christ as recorded in scripture is a supernatural experience which takes place within the individual. No drug can unlock this experience and no person has the key. It is grace, grace, and more grace, for the talent – which is God’s gift of himself to the individual – will awaken and the individual will know that “I am he.”

Another time, this same lady came to me regarding her son, who was in the State Department in the Near East. Long before hippies came into being, her son wore a beard. She wanted him to shave it off, so I suggested that she kiss him and feel the smooth skin on his cheek and chin. This she promised to do.

One morning I opened the New York Times to the Social page where I saw a picture of her son without a beard. The next time this lady came to see me I mentioned seeing her son clean shaven and she said: “I imagined kissing him and feeling his face, but because he fell in love with a girl in the State Department who didn’t like his beard, he shaved it off.” She attributed the shaving of the beard to the means rather than the cause, which was what she had done in her imagination. The girl was only the instrument which brought it about. Having forgotten when she planted the seed, this lady didn’t recognize her own harvest.

What are you doing in your imagination? To let something drift on and on when you dislike what is happening is stupid. As far as I am concerned, I don’t care if every man grows a beard and wears his hair long. I would hope they washed it occasionally, as I do like cleanliness. But it is entirely up to you what you do with your talent. I hope you will learn to use it consciously, for this talent is God’s gift to you, and it contains the power to set you free.

The only Christ the apostles ever referred to is the human imagination. Blake knew that, for it was he who said: “I know of no other Christianity and no other Gospel than the liberty, both of body and mind, to exercise the Divine Arts of Imagination. Imagination, the real and eternal world of which this Vegetable Universe is but a faint shadow and in which we shall live in our Eternal or Imaginative Bodies when these Vegetable Mortal Bodies are no more”.

These garments will all wear out because they cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. But you are not these garments of flesh’ You are all imagination’ You are Spirit’ You are a reality that cannot die, as you are forever. But while you are here, clothed in these garments of flesh, you have been given a gift. Don’t bury it. Exercise it. You not only can become the person you want to be, but you will become it to the degree that you exercise your talent. That talent is God’s gift of Himself to you, and God is in you as your own wonderful human imagination.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 11-14-1969

The attitude of the world towards the great mystery of Christ is due to their ignorance of who he really is. And only to the degree that the individual experiences the mystery, will he know that he is the heavenly being who came down and assumed the body of death to rise as Jesus Christ.

Follow me closely into the drama, as recorded in the 18th chapter of the Book of John, where Jesus is being questioned by Pilate. Now, the word “Pilate” means “closely pressed like a contracted form; the limit of contradiction; of opacity.” To see the characters of scripture as historical is to see truth tempered to the weakness of the human soul. They are not people such as you and I, but eternal states, attributes, and qualities of the individual. Pilate is the state of contraction the Father entered, and the story is taking place in you.

Questioning self, Pilate asked: “Are you the King of the Jews?” and Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others tell you about me?” (Do you know this from experience, or it is hearsay?) He doesn’t deny that he is, but wonders if this contracted state has reached the point where the shell of it breaks, and knows from experience who he is. Then Pilate asked: “You are a king?” and Jesus answered: “You say that I am. For this I was born and for this I came into the world to bear witness to the truth.” Then the contracted form asked: “What is truth?”

Based upon this level, it is true that I am standing at a podium and you are seated on chairs facing me; but I am not speaking of this truth, I am speaking of the true knowledge of God. I am not concerned with the world of science. Today we are on our way to the moon for the second time, but that is not the story of the Bible. I am speaking of the being who created Man, the heavens, and the earth, and sustains them. I am trying to tell everyone that the being who did this is now individualized, housed in his creation, and has forgotten who he really is.

Having come down into this limit of contraction and opacity, you now ask yourself the question: “Do I know this truth by my own accord, or was I told it by another? If it is hearsay, then I do not really know it; for the only way I can know God is through experience.” So to the degree that you experience scripture, will you understand it. The terms Pope, minister, or layman, mean nothing. You could be washing floors tonight and know, from experience, that you are the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now let us turn to the poet Robert Browning, who said:

“Truth is within ourselves. It takes no rise from outward things what’ere you may believe. There is an inmost center in us all where truth abides in fullness, And to know, rather consists in opening out a way whence the imprisoned splendor may escape, than an effective entry for a light supposed to be without.”

Here Browning took three of the mighty I AM statements from the Book of John: “I AM the truth; I AM the way, and I AM the light,” and incorporated them into this very short statement.

There is an inmost center in us all where truth abides, not just a little bit, but in fullness. He likens it to an imprisoned splendor, radiating from within. To think of some human Christ as coming from without is to completely misunderstand the great mystery of scripture.

Sitting here now in this little room, you may seem so small and the universe so enormous. But it is here, in this contracted state called Pilate that you begin to stir and ask yourself these questions. The questioning within the individual causes the effluence within to roust itself and come out as the creator of the universe. This I know from experience. No matter what the world tells you, you are not some little tiny being. You have gone through hell and maybe will go through more in your search to find your true self, who is God the Father.

The true knowledge of God is recorded in scripture, but told in a strange and wonderful manner. Jesus said: “Go and say unto them, I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star.” Here you discover that “I am” is the root, the origin, the Father; yet “I am” the offspring of David. In other words, “I am” is the Father of David and David’s offspring. Then we read: “I will bring up out of you, O David, a son that will come forth from your body. I will be his father and he shall be my son. And then you will say: ‘I and my Father are one.” God the Father created the universe (his son), then buried himself there, that he may – in the fullness of time – draw himself out of humanity (which is David) to know himself to be the root and the offspring – the grandfather and the grandson.

If you see David as the world does, you will never understand the mystery. David is humanity reduced to a single being. When you see him, you are seeing the sign that you have played all the parts you agreed to play in the beginning. Having extracted yourself from your creation, you redeem it as it condenses itself into a single youth, who stands before you as your son David of Biblical fame.

Speaking within himself, Jesus is made to say: “I am from above; you are from below.” Above and within are one and the same, just as below and without are the same. He who comes from above (within) is spirit, above all and within all; while he who is from below (without) expresses that which is of the earth and earthly. Maybe you cannot pay your rent this night, and your cupboard is bare; but I tell you: you created the universe and you are sustaining it. There is no other God. “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” There is no room for two.

When asked to name the greatest of all the commandments, Jesus didn’t mention any of the ten, but went directly to Israel’s confession of faith: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Then he gave the second commandment, as recorded in Deuteronomy as “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Why? Because your neighbor is yourself. The day will come when you will discover that only as you change your attitude towards the seeming other, can he change; for he cannot change of himself. Only as I change my attitude towards you, can you change towards me. I love him. Why? Because he first loved me. If you want someone to love you, or see you differently, change your attitude towards him. The world is yourself, projected. You want something different projected, you must change the film in the camera. You must change that which you are aware of. If you will, the world will conform to your change in thinking.

I have come to speak of the true knowledge of God. What I tell you is true. There is an inmost center in us all where truth abides in fullness. One called Jesus Christ is that center, saying: “I am the truth.” He has resurrected in me, broken the shell, and, as he came out I was set free. Night after night I become more and more aware that I am the creator of it all.

When someone dies, he does not go to the cemetery to impoverish the relative who put him there. No, he goes within, back to the I AM who is the sender. This morning as I was waking, I met my friend Al, who died at the age of 64. He was the same Al I knew here. He loved my company socially, but after attending three or four of my meetings, he confessed that what I said did not interest him. He loved to sit at his piano on Sunday mornings and cry as he played the old hymns. That satisfied him. But my words made no sense to him at all. Coming back from the depths of my soul, having told the story to those on higher levels of my being who could hear me with understanding, I met Al at a railroad station. He was sitting at a counter having a snack. That was all he wanted of me here, was to join him in a little physical meal. He was the same Al, still denying the Fatherhood of God as I have experienced it. He had his own fatherhood of God and could cry his eyes out while playing the lovely old hymns. He could sing “Nearer my God to thee,” yet continue to think of his God as way out in space. When I told him of the only God who is housed within, he turned a deaf ear. He had his own little Jesus Christ and wanted no one to rob him of that.

Scripture tells that when those who heard him tell of the Father could not accept his words, he said: “I go unto my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Now I ask you, if I and my Father are one, and I and your Father are one, are you and I not one? Those who call themselves Christians today still reject Him. They have their little icons out in space and worship some stupid little concept of the mind, unable to believe in the resurrection coming from within. But I tell you: you are God the Father of humanity, the most wonderful, theatrical play ever conceived. And you are God, playing all the parts until you awaken, break the shell, and are self-born. Coming out of humanity, you return to the Being you really are, for there is nothing but God.

Everyone is playing the eternal play, told so beautifully in scripture. When the resurrection occurred, the only scripture known at the time was the Old Testament. There was no New. He interpreted the Old by telling his experiences.

In the three oldest manuscripts of the Book of John, the 18th verse of the first chapter reads: “No one has ever seen God. He who is in the bosom of the Father, God’s only begotten, he has made him known.” In the 4th century the word “son” was substituted for the word “God” and the sentence rearranged from “God’s only begotten” to “the only begotten Son.” My mission is to let you know who that Son is. He is David, God’s only begotten, and there is no other Son. The churches cannot see it, because they have rearranged scripture to fit their purpose. But you have never heard any bold affirmation concerning I am the tradition or I am the convention. You will hear I am the truth, I am the way, I am the life, I am the resurrection – but never I am the convention, or I am the tradition. We are hiding from ourselves when we keep traditions and conventions alive. Convention says Jesus Christ is God’s Son, but our Bible has been changed over and over again by men who – having no vision – cannot understand its truth.

Here is a vision of a friend: In the vision she finds herself in a gambling casino. The owner approaches carrying a stick to count off her winnings which – instead of being chips – is a long loaf of French bread, sliced, but joined at the crust. She calls out $50 and he repeats the sum and cuts off a slice of bread. Then she said: “$100.” He repeated the amount and cut another slice. Every time she gave a figure he repeated it, becoming more and more frustrated with each slice, much to her enjoyment. Coming to the end of the loaf she said to herself: “What number shall I call next?” and she heard “$1,150.” As she called it and received the entire loaf, the loaf began to bleed like a rare piece of roast beef, and she awoke.

The figure 1,150 is important here as it totals the number tone [sic] seven, which is Spiritual perfection. In his 6th chapter, John speaks of bread as “my body,” saying: “Unless you eat my body and drink my blood you have no life in yourself.” Why? Because life is in the blood. Here is a perfect vision of the symbolism of scripture. She has completely accepted the truth that the body of God is her own wonderful human imagination. Life (blood) is flowing forth from her now, as she has accepted her imaginal body in its fullness and blames no one else now, for she knows he is only herself. When you reach the point where you cannot blame another because you have accepted your imagination as the sole cause of the phenomena of life, you have eaten the loaf and drank the blood.

Your recent letters have thrilled me beyond measure. One gentleman found himself attending a concert at the Hollywood Bowl, listening to a long-haired gentleman who – he intuitively knew – would repeat the same performance. Instantly knowing it was being presented again, he became aware of a lady seated next to him, who said: “What is that in the sky?” Taking his binoculars, he looked up to see a multicolored bird resembling a parrot, who spoke, saying: “Get out of here. We don’t want any part of you.” Then it came down and touched his face with its wings.

This was no idle dream, but a wonderful adumbration of what will take place when the multi-colored parrot becomes a pure white dove. It was a woman in his vision, not a man. It will be a woman who will turn and say to him: “They avoid Man, but He so loves you He penetrated the ring of offense to demonstrate his love.” His vision was a foreshadowing of what is in store for him.

A lady, whose eyes are now open as an incurrent witness, saw me dying. In her vision she told her friend not to touch me, for if she did I would not be set free. Then, as she watched, I died. These are wonderful visions for her to have, for “Unless I die thou canst not live. But if I die I rise again and thou with me. Wouldst thou love one who never died for thee? Or ever die for one who has not died for thee? And if God dieth not for Man and giveth not Himself eternally for Man, Man could not exist. So God died.” I have awakened from the dream of life. I have been born from above, and the only one who is born from above is God, He who perpetually dies. Her vision was perfect, and I cannot congratulate her enough.

I am not here to flatter you, but to tell you the truth as I have experienced it. There truly is an inmost center in us all, where truth abides in fullness; and to know the true knowledge of God we must stop trying to break through from without. Rather, we must release this imprisoned splendor from within.

Listen to my story. Believe it implicitly, and the crust will break; and he who is radiant light will come out, transforming everything it touches into beauty and perfection, to reflect the perfection you know yourself to be. We are told in the 25th [chapter] of Matthew: “Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” This kingdom is a body of perfection. Awakening in that body of awareness, you know yourself to be that which the world is reflecting. And in that body you cannot come upon imperfection because you are perfect. That is what is in store for you. “Come, blessed of my Father, enter into and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

In his 5th chapter, John tells those around him that they have never heard His voice or seen His form, but “I know thee, O Lord.” And in the 17th chapter, he turns to his disciples and says of them: “They know that thou hast sent me.” He knew he had found a few who really believed his story and would spread it. Then others would continue the telling, as it will grow and grow. The truth of which I speak has been heard through the hearing of your ear; but eventually you will know the true knowledge of God from experience.

Turn your ears away from anyone who speaks of a God outside of you, for there is no external God. He who created and supports the world is housed in you. These words are blasphemy to the world, but I tell you they are true. One day you will crack the shell, and He who is imprisoned splendor will come out. Memory will return, and you will know all that you knew before that the world was.

By coming down and taking on the limitations of the flesh, you have expanded yourself beyond what you were prior to your descent. I tell you: no one takes your life, you laid it down yourself. You have the power to lay it down and the power to pick it up again. We came down of our own accord because there was no one else to come, as we are the Elohim. The word first appears as the word “God” in the statement: “In the beginning God.” It is the Elohim who said: “Let us make man in our image,” and the word was translated “Lord” in the statements “The Lord took his place in the divine council.” In the midst of the gods (Elohim) he held judgment saying: “I say, You are gods (Elohim) Sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you shall die like men and fall as one man, O Princes.” It takes all of humanity to form the one God who created and sustains the universe.

I am not speaking of anyone on the outside. That is not the truth of which the scriptures speak. It makes no effort to change society, but rather urges all to “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” He doesn’t try to make the slave a free person, but leaves him just as he is. Today all of our energies are going into keeping records and changing things. I recently received a notice from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. I thought they were interested in my health, and since I have been paying their insurance since 1936, I went to see them today. The lady asked me many questions, none of which were related to my health. She said she knew everything else about me, which confirmed my suspicions that we are all computerized numbers. She needed proof that I would be 65 this coming February. I showed her my passport, for I have no driver’s license as I do not drive, but she wanted a birth certificate. I told her that on the island and in the year I was born, a birth certificate was too expensive; but I was baptized and somewhere I have that certificate. She urged me to write for it, and I will; but our visit made me realize that everything about the garment you wear is already known by the government, all carefully computerized and filed.

But you are not the garment, which – in my case – will be 65 in February. You created the world; so don’t let anyone scare you, as you and the one who is trying to frighten you, are one and the same being. There is no other God. You can prove my words by simply imagining you are already living in the state you desire. Do not raise one finger to make it so; simply believe it to be so. Go about your business as though it were true and it will happen, because that is the way you brought everything into being.

Can you imagine what it would be like if you were the man (the woman) you would like to be? Sustain that imaginal act as though it were true, and no power in the world can stop it from becoming true, because there is no other power. Try it beginning tonight. Take a glorious concept of life. Nothing less than the very best, and simply imagine it to be true about you and those you love. Start with your immediate circle and – although at the moment your circle may deny it by reason of what they are doing – persist in your assumption as though it were true, and it will harden into fact.

Grant all of your sleeping brothers their right to pursue God in some other direction. They will never find him in any other way, save by experiencing the story of Jesus Christ. Then and only then will they know the true knowledge of God.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE TRUE VINE

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 04-04-1969

Today, as you know, is Good Friday, and undoubtedly millions have attended services and heard some portion of the last seven words of Christ; but I wonder how many of them know who he is and what the words really mean. I tell you: Jesus Christ is your awareness, your I Amness, who became as you are that you may be as he is. I want you to accept this literally, for it is true.

Now, each one of the seven words spoken of today is really a sentence, the first of which is: -“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,-” and the last is: -“Father, into thy hands I commit my Spirit.-” This is only a portion of the quote from the 5th verse of the 31st chapter of the Book of Psalms. The complete thought is this: -“Father, into thy hands I commit my Spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.-” Here we find the redeemer to be one with the redeemed, for speaking to the Father, he says: -“Thou hast redeemed me,-” yet he has already confessed -“I and the Father are one.-” So you see the redeemer and the redeemed are really one.

Let us look at these words through the eyes of the mystic, and not with the traditional eyes of the church: -“I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser.-” This true vine is the imagination. It is man’s eternal body, who is God himself. Jesus is the divine body, of which we are his members in the sense that he is in us. Christ is not a little man, but humanity. He is our own wonderful human imagination. He is our redeemer, yet he is the one redeemed.

When I first realized this I was shocked, for I was born and raised in the Christian tradition and knew no other religion. Then I discovered that Christ was not someone on the outside that I should worship, but my own wonderful human imagination, and for a while my world turned upside down. There is a little poem that fits this perfectly: -“Behold this vine. I found it a wild tree whose wanton strength had swollen into irregular twigs. But I pruned the plant and it grew tempered in its vain expanse of useless leaves and knotted as you see into these full, clean clusters to repay the hand that wisely wounded it.-”

Your imagination is the true vine from which everything in your world is drawn. Any misuse of your imagination causes the deformities in your life. It is a shock, I know, to realize that you are the sole cause of your life; and what a responsibility you have, to prune this true vine of awareness!

Since the Father and the Son are one, I – as Father AM the true vine and must prune myself. Not realizing a seeming other was a branch growing from me, the true vine, I allowed myself to entertain unlovely thoughts of him. But I didn’t cut the branch, for the pruning is not in that way. Called repentance in scripture, pruning is revision – which is a radical change of attitude towards an individual or a situation. I revised my thoughts relative to that seeming other and accepted this unseen imaginal act as reality. Then I watched, and in time I became aware of a change in my world relative to this person or that condition. Having found the true vine and the Father who pruned it, I know I must prune it every day; for if I do it will knot and form itself into these full, clean clusters to repay the hand of the vinedresser (the Father) who pruned it.

Listen carefully now to these words from Paul’s letter to the Philippians: -“Christ Jesus who – though he was in the form of God – thought it not robbery to be equal with God, emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, and was born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he became obedient unto death, even death on the cross.-” Your body is the cross upon which Jesus Christ is crucified. And it is there he will remain until he transforms your lowly body into the one form with his glorious body. Then he will have fulfilled his purpose. I tell you: Jesus Christ has actually taken upon himself your body of humility and become its slave by feeding it, bathing it, clothing it, and caring for it in every way; yet Jesus Christ is not of this world. But in time he will completely transform you into his glorious body, for he is the redeemer, who – having assumed your body – will redeem it, thereby becoming the redeemed.

The true vine is your own wonderful human imagination. When you believe this you will no longer imagine as you formerly did, but will prune your thoughts every minute of every day. You will break the habit of feeling remorseful, depressed, or regretful. You will no longer think unkindly about another, because you will know that he is actually yourself pushed out, and appeared in your world because the Father in you called him. No one can come unto me unless I, who am one with the Father, call him. Even though he brings poison he does it because I gave it to him to bring. This is the story that is reenacted today, but not understood.

Now we are told he took a sop (called -‘a morsel’ in some translations) and gave it to Judas, who quickly departed. The sop is a gift of great friendship. In the ancient world, the sop was dipped into a liquid and handed to the honored guest, he who is the closest and dearest friend. That’s Judas. Only one who knows the messianic secret can betray it. No one can betray me who does not know my secret. How could you betray me if I had not taken you into my confidence as a friend, and shared my secret?

So Judas leaves to tell the world of the real Christ and gives them a sign saying: -“The one I shall kiss is the man; seize him. Hold him fast.-” Don’t let him go, but eat his doctrine, feed upon it, drink it. Let everything else go, but don’t let him go. When you have found the cause of the phenomena of your life, let every other belief go. Should people urge you to eat certain food or observe certain days do not believe them, for there is nothing you can do on the outside that will ever commend you to God. You are defiled or purified by what comes out of your heart, not by what you eat or observe on the outside. Are you imagining good or evil for yourself, for the true vine is your own wonderful human imagination, and the world without is nothing more than your branches.

Now, who is this one that Judas kisses? The Risen Christ! This I know from experience. One night I was explaining the word of God to twelve men, when one jumped up quickly and departed. I instantly knew he was going to tell exactly what I had told him concerning the cause of the phenomena of life. Then he returns. It’s the same being, but now he is richly dressed and so important we all stand at attention at his entrance. Coming toward me he severs my sleeve, revealing my right arm and kisses the one it is said of him: -“Don’t let him go, but hold him fast.-”

The word -“hold-” as defined in the concordance, means -“almighty power-” and the word -“fast-” means, -“to abstain from all food.-” Here we are being told to abstain from any food for thought other than our own wonderful human imagination. We are urged to feast upon our own power and wisdom. Abstain when others urge you to try a little numerology, a little astrology, or any belief of a power outside of your Self. One of the great weaknesses of man is the necessity of always being right. Those who prophesied that California would experience an earthquake which would kill millions, will pray until they break their skull to prove the rightness of their prophecy; but it hasn’t a thing to do with scripture. The earthquake spoken of in scripture takes place within, and not on the outside, at all.

Jesus Christ is God himself, who became you, individually. Your awareness is He. When you imagine, God is acting. He is the true vine and the vinedresser, for he is your imagination, imagining you. If you really understand this, you will start pruning your thoughts. If you don’t and continue to believe Jesus Christ is other than your Self, you will persist in allowing your wanton energy to run wild, to swell into irregular twigs, and bear unlovely things in your world.

When you become aware of those in need, even though you do not know them personally, do you use your imagination to lift them from that state? That is what you are called upon to do. If you represent them to yourself as you would like them to be, and persuade yourself it is true, that branch will change in your world. You do not eliminate the state of need. It remains for anyone to be aware of, but you – having lifted yourself out of the state – see it no more.

Prune your vine morning, noon, and night; and then — when you least expect it – a series of wonderful, supernatural experiences will be yours, as God reveals himself in you – not as another, but as your very Self. Then you will say, from personal experience, -“I am he.-”

In the 17th chapter of Luke, we are warned not to heed anyone who may say: -“Lo, here it is!-” or -“There!-” for the kingdom of God is within. And we are told in the 3rd chapter of Philippians: -“Our common wealth is in heaven, from where we expect a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will refashion our lowly body to be one with his glorious body.-” This body of humiliation will be completely transformed by the exalted Christ in you. So do not go any place when someone tells you to look elsewhere, for you can only find the true God within. If our commonwealth is in heaven (from which we expect a Savior who is the lord Jesus Christ) and heaven is within, our Savior cannot come from without. And when he comes, it is in a series of majestic, supernatural acts, wherein he unveils himself and rises from within.

Blake expressed this thought so beautifully in Plate 96 of -‘Jerusalem’ as:
-“I behold the Visions of my deadly sleep of six-thousand years Dazzling around my skirts like a Serpent of precious stones and gold. I know it is my Self: O my Divine Creator and Redeemer.-”

I have beheld those visions. I have known the thrill of seeing that pool of golden liquid light and knowing it to be my Self. And I have experienced the 3rd chapter of John by ascending into the kingdom of God within myself. I was taught to believe in someone on the outside; yet, when my Spiritual body was split and truth was revealed to me, I fused with golden, pulsing, living, liquid light and – like a serpent – I returned to the kingdom of heaven within me to become a living stone in the living temple of the Eternal God. This knowledge, I know, everyone is going to experience.

Once again let us return to the drama depicted today. The first word of the seven wonderful words is this: -“Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.-” If you know that you are the cause of your sorrow, can you not forgive the one who submitted it? Must you condemn a shadow, when you are its cause? Everyone who comes into your world is drawn there by your Father, with whom you are one. If he who enters insults or offends you and you know you are the cause of his seeming offense, can you not forgive him? Can you not say: -“Father, forgive him for he knows not what he is doing?-” Your world is filled with those who are under compulsion to play their part because of what you have imagined. You may have forgotten your imaginal acts, and may even deny you ever entertained such thoughts; but they could not come if you had not called them out of yourself; therefore, you must forgive them, for they only did what you asked them to do.

Now at the very end, this statement is made: -“It is finished.-” What does he ask for when the work he was given to do is finished? -“To return unto me the glory that was mine, the glory that I had with thee before that the world was.-” Having emptied himself of his glory and taken upon himself the form of a slave to become obedient to death upon the cross of Man, he has redeemed the state of slavery by becoming one with it and raising it to the level of Father. Now he requests to return to his former glory, the glory that he knew before that the world was.

Only one being returns. That being is God the Father, the sender, now one with his Son, the sent. Entering this world of many, we are the gods, sons of the Most High, yet one with our Father. When, as the son, we overcome death, we return with greater brilliance and translucency because of our victory over death. Then what a joy is ours!

If you will accept this truth and will not let it go, your days will change as you feast upon the body of imagination and drink of its life-giving blood. Give up everything you have ever believed concerning causation and believe in the one cause of all life – be it good, bad or indifferent – which is your own wonderful human imagination.

When an experience comes to you that causes you distress, instead of denying it or trying to rub it out, accept the event and change it. Beautify your world! The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe the story of redemption. Jesus Christ is not some man who died two thousand years ago. You and I died with Christ in the beginning. You have been crucified with Christ and he lives in you. Live your life in the flesh by faith in the Son of God. who so loved you he actually became you. His incarnation took place when you were born. He is a slave to your body, for your birth from below is when imagination took upon himself the form of a slave. He is not a person who, enslaving another, calls that other his slave; for the one who is the slave-master is still a slave to the body he wears, taking care of its normal, natural functions for himself.

God actually became the slave that you are, in order to redeem you. A complete transformation will take place, and you – the grub worm – will return to the awareness of being the exalted butterfly – the same being you were before you descended in power and took upon yourself the form of a slave.

I can’t tell you the thrill that is yours when you wear that all-powerful garment of fire and air. While you wear it there is nothing you cannot do effortlessly. You can form eyes that see perfectly and mold them into empty sockets, form arms, which move perfectly in their sockets. With your magical power you can change age-shrunken bodies into perfect twenty-year-old ones. That power is yours when you wear your body called heaven.

One night in 1946, I wore that body. It’s the same body I gave up when I took upon myself this body of a slave in order to redeem it. That night, while still aware of being Neville, I – the invisible – became a visible being by nailing myself upon this cross called Neville. And I wore it faithfully until the night of the transfiguration. So I know the thrill that is in store for you when your body of slavery is transformed into a body of immortality. You see, the being you really are is Jesus Christ and cannot die. You who were before that the world was, came down into this world of death to overcome it, to rise as one being; for you – the redeemer – will know yourself to be one with the redeemed.

Now, one of the last words on the cross is: -“I thirst.-” You may think this is a thirst for water, but the Book of Amos tells you what he is thirsting for. -“I will send a famine upon the land. It will not be a hunger for bread or a thirst for water, but for the hearing of the word of God.-” Every word has to be fulfilled in him. That is his thirst. When the thirst comes upon you, every word of God will unfold in you, casting you in the starring role. Then your hunger and thirst will be satisfied, for you will have experienced the entire Bible in a first person, singular, present tense experience.

I wonder what per cent of our world understands this wonderful day of the crucifixion. At one church here on Wilshire Blvd., there will be seven preachers; each will speak on one sentence and attempt to explain it. With the traditional concept of Jesus Christ, how could the statement: –“Father, forgive them,-” be explained? How could you, personally, truly forgive someone if you did not believe he was yourself pushed out? How could you forgive one who had just murdered a friend or a loved one, without acknowledging that you had to have done it; because it couldn’t have happened and you be aware of it, unless your Father called it to your attention by drawing the event into your world, and you and your father are one? Only when you know who the real cause of the phenomena of life is, can you forgive. If awareness is the cause of murder and you are forever aware of something, the state of murder cannot be cut off; but your awareness can be rearranged. The event can be completely transformed by repentance, which I call revision. When you revise a disturbing memory, you have repented in the true sense of the word.

When I first found this vine I could hardly sleep for days and days, I was so disillusioned thinking of the responsibility that was now on my shoulder – responsibility that I had always placed upon the shoulder of another. But once I accepted the fact that Jesus Christ is my human imagination and the cause of everything I am aware of, I knew I couldn’t pass the buck any more, but had to do something about it. So I, the Father, began to prune the vine.

The entire 15th chapter of the Book of John is devoted to this pruning of the vine. He starts off: -“I am the true vine. My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.-” The tree in your garden may be lovely to look at and it may pain you to cut a certain branch, but you know you must do it if you want good fruit next year. That is life. Consciousness (the I AM) is the eternal vine. Your eternal body is the Imagination, which is God himself. We are all members of the divine body – Jesus; therefore humanity is truly the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every child is part of that universal body; and when he knows that Jesus Christ is his own wonderful human imagination, he is confused for the moment, until the realization rearranges itself within him. Then he takes himself in hand, determined to do something about it. I tell you from experience, if you will take yourself in hand and really believe in Christ in you to the point that you will turn to no other causation, but will prune your thoughts morning, noon, and night, your world will change. It will mold itself in harmony with the change which has taken place in you, for your outer world is forever reflecting your inner, imaginal acts.

This is the great story that is told today. Jesus Christ is not a man who was nailed upon a wooden cross, or hanged upon a tree on the outside.

The tree spoken of in the Book of Acts is Man himself. The brain is the root, with the veins and arteries as the tree and its branches. This is the tree of life spoken of in the 4th chapter of Daniel. It was felled but its root was not disturbed so that the tree could reverse itself, and its power – which had gone down into generation – could be turned up into regeneration.

When that hunger comes upon you, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. But be not deceived; the kingdom of God will not come with signs to be observed. Let no one tell you: -“Here it is,-” or: -“There-” for the being you are seeking is the cause of your life. That being is God the Father, who is in his kingdom, and that kingdom is within you. Suddenly the drama called Jesus Christ will unfold within you and you will know the joy that comes with fulfillment. When this plan unfolds, you sleep differently, you wake differently. There isn’t a moment in time when you could not close your eyes and willingly depart, for you know the Word has unfolded in you. Yet night after night the visions continue to possess you, all based upon the promises of God as recorded in the Old Testament.

Every night when I close my eyes to this world, I enter that world – the world of Spirit waking – and fulfill the word of God.

Now, I received two letters this week regarding dreams of horses. Always bear in mind that a dream is a parable with a single point of truth. In one lady’s dream she was driving down the highway with her husband, when she looked back to see two wild horses running toward a deep cliff. The younger one leaped across the cliff into rich pasture, but the older one fell on the highway. Although she knew he was not injured she felt sorry for him, and as she reached out to him, he got to his feet and came to her for comfort. The horse is a symbol of one’s understanding. She has not completely discarded the old, yet it is not equal to the new understanding of the eternal truth, for the younger horse made it beautifully across the cliff. She didn’t go to bed that night to conjure horses. They came to her, for now she is riding a new understanding and the true word of God is becoming alive within her. In the 12th chapter of Numbers we are told that God speaks to man through the language of dream. If God is speaking, you want to pay attention and extract the single jet of truth in what he is saying.

Another lady dreamed of three horses – a white, black, and pale one, all living on her thousand-acre estate. Men offered her a fantastic price for the estate; yet she knew what they really wanted was her white horse and she didn’t want to part with it. Time and time again they tried to kill her or injure her in some way, yet the white horse always appeared to redeem her in a human manner.

In the Book of Revelation we are told that Jesus Christ rides the white horse. Here we see this lady isn’t completely in control of her understanding, but she has found it and is redeemed by it even though she is still seeking herself, because her enemies are her beliefs based upon her early training, which came back to haunt her.

In her letter to me she wondered if she had already ridden the red horse of conflict, since she did not see one. I tell you all: don’t try to put something into your dreams that is not there. She didn’t dream of a red horse, so why mention him? A dream has only one central jet of truth. In her case it is the white horse, the symbol of the redeemer, who is your own wonderful human imagination.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE ULTIMATE SENSE

December 22, 2013

Neville 06-20-1969

In the Book of Nehemiah we are told that: “They read from the book, from the law of God with interpretation and gave the sense so that the people understood the reading.” I wish that were true of today’s preachers, but unfortunately they have mistakenly taken personifications for persons and the gross first sense for the ultimate sense intended.

In today’s paper I read where 325 graduate students of fifteen Catholic colleges were asked to name their ten heroes, in order, with no restrictions as to time. The late president Kennedy came in first, his brother Robert second, Martin Luther King third, with Jesus coming in fifth.

Here are graduates of fifteen Catholic colleges who – seeing the Bible as secular history – place its primary character fifth in their heroic order when if read as literature (as many college students do) they would discover it is not secular history at all.

In Biblical thought a name is not a mere label of identification but an expression of the essential nature of its bearer. To know the name of God is to know God as he reveals himself to the individual. As the Psalmist said: “Those who know the name put their trust in thee.” His name is revealed in a progression of revelations. It is first revealed as God Almighty in the name El Shaddai.

This name is personified as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In the state of Moses the second revelation comes as “I AM.” Then, in the third and final state of Jesus Christ, the full disclosure of his name is revealed as Father, in a Father/Son relationship. Bearing the name of Jesus, you will say with Paul: “I have made manifest the name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world. They were thine and thou gavest them to me. I have made known unto them thy name and I will make it known that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them.”

But now, when you read scripture always remember that the names Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Jesus are personifications of eternal parts of God’s play. Having faith in yourself and the play you created, you entered the part called Abraham, at which time you were shown the entire play in detail. And when the play is completed you move into the part called Jesus Christ to discover you are its author.

To say Jesus is your hero and see him as a person is to completely misunderstand the story of scripture. As Blake said: “It ought always to be understood that the persons, Moses and Abraham, are not here meant, but the states signified by those names, the individuals being representatives of visions of those eternal states as they were revealed to mortal man in a series of divine revelations as they are written in the Bible. I have seen these states in my Imagination. When seen at a distance, they appear as one man. As you approach, they appear as multitudes of nations.”

I know the truth of that statement for although Blake was born in 1757 and died in 1827, we are closely woven in the tapestry of thought. One particular night we met, and after discussing the mystery of God, Blake said to me: “Fall backwards with a complete abandonment of self.

Do not restrain yourself, just relax and fall.” Following his instructions I felt as though I was falling off the earth, as I hurled through space like some interstellar body. And when the motion ceased I looked up to see a single man aglow in the distance. His heart was like a flaming ruby, but when I approached I realized that all of the people in eternity were in that one body. I saw the body we will all be gathered back into when God’s play is over.

The play begins when “The scriptures, foreseeing that God would save and justify the heathen, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham.” Now, if you take the story of Abraham as secular history you would realize that he would have been shown God’s plan of salvation two thousand years before it occurred. But, agreeing to play the part of Abraham, you entered death’s door, the human skull. It is there that you sleep in visions of eternity as the Christ seed, being one with your Father.

The word translated “seed” in Galatians is “sperma” meaning the sperm of man and identifying man with God. This is not the physical sperm, for it is only a shadow producing bodies of death. I am speaking of the spiritual sperm called Christ, whose seed is capable of extending itself.

Dreaming your life into being, you appear to be two, but you are not. One day this barrier will be removed and you, individualized, will emerge as the Lord Jesus Christ – which, like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is a sign, witnessed by God.

When you read scripture try to remember that these characteristics are only personifications and try to find out what they represent. Until you understand the significance of the name, you are going to miss its message. Quite often you will find a classic telling a far greater story than you will ever hear from the pulpit on a Sunday morning. One of my favorites was written by a mathematician. You know his story as Alice Through the Looking Glass.

“Come and look at him!” the brother cried, and they each took one of Alice’s hands, and led her up to where the King was sleeping.

“He’s dreaming now,” said Tweedle-dee: “and what do you think he’s dreaming about?”

Alice said, “Nobody can guess that.” “Why, about you!” Tweedle-dee exclaimed, clapping his hands triumphantly. “And if he left off dreaming about you, where do you suppose you’d be?”

The dreamer in you is God, who must dream in the sequence he set up in the beginning. No part can be omitted. As our forefathers played it so will we, for there is only one actor in this drama called life and that actor is God.In you God is dreaming the various parts he wrote in the beginning and you saw while in the state of Abraham. You are the Son of God now, an “I”, which he is extending. We are all the “I”, only now we are enhanced by reason of the predetermined dream.

Charles Dodgson (whom we know as Lewis Carroll) wrote the child’s classic, Alice Through the Looking Glass which tells us that everything was possible through the looking glass. This is true, for with God all things are possible. Things are what God thinks they are. He thinks He is you and will keep on thinking He is you until he brings you to the awareness of being the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is sad to read that those who have graduated from Catholic colleges believe this personification is a character of history, and unbelievable to think they have put him in the fifth place. I am not saying this could not happen in a Protestant college, for it could happen there, too.

Who knows – they might put him in the tenth place rather than the fifth. Without any feeling towards the story it cannot be believed, but the dreamer in you is playing every character in the play as you cast your shadow in this world. I heard it so clearly one night, when He said to me: “I laid myself down within you to sleep, and as I slept I dreamed a dream…” and I knew He was dreaming He is I, and when He awakes, I Am He!

Now, in this shadow world you must learn to imitate him. If he dreamed you into being and is dreaming you through all of your worldly experiences, you can start to modify some of them by imitating him and dreaming your own particular dream. What would the feeling be like if your desire were true? I know from experience that it will come to pass, and I want to encourage everyone to try it.

Start tonight. Feel yourself into your desired state of consciousness. What would you be conscious of feeling if the world reflected your desire right now? I encourage you to use feeling, just as Isaac did in his story. As Isaac, you cannot see your desire as objective to yourself. It is Jacob, smooth-skinned and with no external reality while this objective world is Esau.

You must clothe Jacob with such external qualities that he will feel objectively real to you. Touch has a fantastic sense of reality, so through the sense of touch and smell Isaac gave Jacob the right to be born.

I know when I am out of this body I am awake, and when I touch someone there they are solidly real. I can hear their voices and see their faces, and when I touch them my hand does not go through their bodies, for the world, at that moment, is just as real as this one.

Learn to shake yourself loose from what the world believes is the only reality. Feel yourself touching a friend or relative you know well and love, and you, too, will know from experience that no one dies to cease to be. No matter how wise the priest and rabbi may be, they have not been where you have and therefore cannot know what you know.

They are theorizing and you will be speaking from experience. I have stepped into other worlds and they are just as real to me as this room is now, and the people there just as solid to my touch as this lectern is now. At this moment this room is real to me because I am in it. But when I am in these other worlds they are more real than this room or my home in Beverly Hills where I spend most of my waking hours.

Let us return now to the sense of touch. Think of something that you would touch if your desired were objectively real. Money, for instance, can be touched and it even has an odor. These are the senses Isaac used. When Jacob came close, Isaac touched him and said: “You feel like my son Esau and you have his odor.” Then he blessed Jacob and, strangely enough, when Isaac discovered he was self-deceived he could not reverse his blessing.

As Isaac, through the sense of feeling you set in motion that which the feeling implies, and in its own good time it will confront you. You may not recognize your own harvest and wonder when you would have planted such a seed; but you had to have done it or it could not come to pass, for God is your awareness, dreaming everything in your world. He is the reality behind their appearance.

So when you open the Bible in the future and come upon the glorious name Jesus, stop yourself from thinking of an individual who was born in some strange manner 2000 years ago, and think of him as the representative of all who have reached the climax of the play; for everyone who has achieved the end is gathered into that one body which is personified as the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, it is the Christ seed who is the Son of God that rises. Listen to the words in the 3rd chapter of Galatians: “The promise was made to Abraham and his seed who is Christ.” You will note the world “seed” is singular, not plural. Here we find that the seed is one with the one who made the promise.

Entering the part called Moses you were told that you would go into a foreign land where you would be enslaved and suffer for four hundred years. Then you would come out expanded a hundred-fold greater than what you were before the play began. That’s the purpose of the play. We entered death’s door with the Christ seed, to lie down in our grave and experience visions of eternity. This we are doing. These eternal visions (eternal states) are parts of the play.

If you leave a part another may enter it or you may return to play it again, for you travel through states just like a traveler in time and move from state to state until you reach the final state called Jesus Christ. When you enter that state you awaken in your grave and come out of the gate of your father. Looking back you see your body, which is the linen clothes your earthly mother wove for you. Everything that is recorded of Jesus is a sign. When you experience these signs they will not be gossamer, but solid reality.

The Bible is an allegory whose fictitious characters have meaning, but man, unfortunately, has mistaken the personifications for persons and the instrument which conveyed the instruction for the instruction. Believe me, for what I am telling you is true. I, too, thought that these were historical characters who lived thousands of years ago, but they did not. They are characters in a play which was conceived in the Divine Mind, and are not of human composition. The play has a divine origin, and when you experience it you will bear witness to its divinity.

From time to time individuals are called and sent to be witnesses. They are known as apostles. An apostle is first called out of this world to enter the heavenly world, where he is commissioned and sent. Returning to the same garment he left behind on the bed or chair, he is awed beyond measure with what he has experienced. From that moment on he cannot only preach the truth of the gospel, but is a witness to it, for he knows the difference between the thing signified and the sign.

Isaiah tells us: “The Lord himself will give you a sign. A young woman will conceive and bear a son and call his name Immanuel (which means God with us.)” This is true, for God is with every child born from a regular conception of woman. He is its breath, its awareness. The Christ seed is there also, awaiting fertilization at a certain moment in time. And when the hour has come the individual himself comes out of himself to find signs bearing witness to God’s expansion.

Your birth from above is a spiritual experience, as is your son David, your ascension, and the Spirit Himself descending upon you to smother you with love, for God is Spirit. When God is born you are born as God, even though you must continue in your limited state until you take off your garment of flesh and blood for the last time.

I do hope you are reading the Bible daily. I find no book comparable to it. But you will get nothing out of the reading unless you read it through the eyes of the mystic. Take my experiences with you as you read, and then you will know who Jesus, Abraham, and Isaac are.

The name “Isaac” means “he laughs.” Isaac was Abraham’s promised son. He is the sign the shepherds were told to find as a child wrapped in swaddling clothes. You will see this sign, and as you take that child in your arms he laughs.

The word “Moses” means, “to be born.” Moses could not enter the promised land because he had not yet been born. It is Moses who leads you up to the one being who is yourself. I have seen that one being and I know he contains the entire universe. From a distance he appeared as one man, but as I approached I saw he contained a multitude of nations, races, and people.

Now I know that all that I behold, though it appears without it is within my imagination, of which this world of mortality is but a shadow. Truly the world is nothing more than yourself pushed out. And in the end you come out to discover you are that one Man who contains eternity – the one Being spoken of as the Lord Jesus Christ.

I wish I could convince everyone that there is only one true gospel of Christ. Mankind is redeemed, not going to be. It is already done. If you are not there yet it doesn’t mean you aren’t going to get there. Nothing can prevent you from reaching your destination and having the experience, because the drama is over. It has been accomplished.

Christ is risen, so mankind is already redeemed and no one can be lost. We are told that the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart. If the Lord did it, Pharaoh had to do what he did, for it is a part of the play. On a certain level you can’t understand, and like Job you will want to curse God and die, yet Job is your story.

As an innocent being you are put through hell by the will of God, as told you in the 42nd chapter of Job: “His friends came and comforted him for all the evil the Lord God had brought upon him.” No one else caused his sorrow. The dreamer puts himself through hell by his ignoble dreams, and that dreamer is God.

Now that you are coming to the end, as it were, learn to alter the play. Make your world conform to your lovely concepts the same way the Father dreams your life into being. Although you appear to be two, when he brings you to the climax you will be as one. God is your husband, your Maker who cleaves to you – his emanation, his wife – until you become one Being, one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all; for in the kingdom of heaven there is no room for two, only one.

Now, while you are still here you have needs which must be met and perhaps desires yet to be fulfilled, so I urge you to use the law by assuming that you have them, for your assumption is the beginning of your dream. Although your reasonable mind and your outer senses deny it your persistence will harden your assumption into fact. I have watched it happen unnumbered times. Your noble dreams will not interfere with the basic dream that is taking place in you, so take your wonderful dreams and persist in them. Walk as though they were true. Try to touch them and give them reality. If you can use the sense of odor try to detect it.

One night a lady decided to test me by embracing a huge bouquet of roses. She caught the aroma of the rose and completely saturated herself with it, then she dropped the thought. This lady lived in the Waldorf Towers, and when she returned to her room the following evening she discovered three dozen roses had been placed there. It appeared that the Queen Mother was in New York City and had attended a banquet in her honor.

Special roses were grown and [brought] there for her pleasure. The next day the maitre d’ sent three dozen roses to this lady’s room. She put her sense of smell to the test and within 24 hours her room was filled with roses.

I don’t care who you are, I invite you to take the challenge. In the 13th chapter of 2 Corinthians you are asked this question: “Test yourself and see. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless of course you fail to meet the test.” Test God’s power and God’s wisdom, for encased in love you are testing the Christ seed within you. You can take anything and test this power. Do it just for the fun of it. Hold a long-stemmed rose in your hand.

Touch its velvety petals and smell its heavenly aroma. Make a pledge to yourself that you will live by your imagination, for God has promised that you can assume a state and it will become a fact in his words: “Whatever you desire, believe you have received it and you will.” It can’t be stated any clearer than that. These are the words of an awakened man who is God, for every man who awakes in Jesus Christ is God, He who is forever extending himself.

So when you know what you want, construct a scene which would imply that you have it. Enter the scene by touching the articles there, listening to the sounds that may be heard, seeing with your spiritual eye, and smelling its odor with your spiritual nose. Bring all of your senses to bear upon the scene implying the fulfillment of your dream.

After you have done it persist in the awareness that your desire is already a fact, for the present moment does not recede into the past, but advances into the future to confront you. You will walk into your future and confront the fulfillment of your desire, which began as a dream.

You may think your yesterdays are in the past, but God knows you will meet them in the future, for your future is always confronting you and bringing in the harvest of what you are doing now.

Now let us go into the silence.

THERE IS NO FICTION

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 06-07-1968

Fiction is defined as an imaginary construction which is unreal – as opposed to truth, or reality. But what is real and what is imaginary when, in a spiritual sense, all existing things are imaginary?

Mark tells the parable of the fig tree, which – having been cursed – was found withered to its roots. Calling attention to this fact, awakened imagination said: “Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart that what he has said will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you desire, when you pray believe you have received it and you will.” Mark 11.

Here is an imaginary act which has no support in fact. The tree was not withered at the time it was cursed, but when they returned the next day the imaginal act had been executed. So you see: this law is not limited to being constructive only. It can be used for good, bad, or indifferent purposes; for there are no limitations placed on the possibilities of prayer.

Now when you pray you must immerse yourself in the feeling of the wish fulfilled, for the word “pray” means, “Motion towards; accession to; at or in the vicinity of.” Point yourself towards the wish fulfilled and accept that invisible state as reality. Then go your way knowing the desire is now yours. You did it and you will not be surprised when it comes to pass.

When you first practice this technique you will be surprised when it happens; but when you learn how to completely accept the state assumed, you will know you do not have to do a thing to make it come to pass, as the assumption contains its own plan of fulfillment. You will know that this world is imaginal and that an assumption – with no external object to support its truth – will harden into fact when its truth is persisted in.

If an imaginal act produces an external fact to support it, then is not this world essentially imagined? If you dare to assume what your reason and senses deny and walk faithful to your assumption, believing in its reality – and its corresponding effect is produced, can this seemingly solid, real world be anything other than imaginal? Everything is imagined, for you are God – all imagination! God exists in you and you in Him. The world is all that you have imagined it to be, even though you cannot remember when or how you brought it into being.

You cannot feed the mind violence and not expect violence in the world. Although the networks will deny this, a friend at NBC-TV studio told me that when it was official that Kennedy was dead, he received an order from New York that for the next four days no violent films were to be shown. He said pandemonium took place in the studio, as they went through their files trying to find enough non-violent film to cover four days! Lucky for them, most of the time will be taken up with the giant coverage of the funeral in New York City.

One gentleman recently interviewed on television said that Senator Kennedy was always talking about being assassinated. That when the shots rang out, he instantly knew that Kennedy was dead. You cannot entertain thoughts of being assassinated without experiencing them. Who knows who, unseen by mortal eyes, was treading in the winepress, influencing that young boy’s mind!

Do not allow anyone to act as an intermediary between you and your God, for He is within you! God is never so far off as even to be near, for nearness implies separation. How can you be near God, when He became aware of being you? The moment He bestowed his spirit upon you, He gave you his consciousness, that you may – by that consciousness – understand the gift you have been given.

God gave me the gift of birth and Fatherhood. Without the gift of his spirit, I could not understand the gifts which have followed. How could I ever interpret the gift of belief or be awakened from my long sleep, if He who interprets all things had not first become me?

When Pharaoh’s butler and baker had dreams, they spoke to a slave, saying: “We had a dream.” Joseph then replied: “Does not the interpretation belong to God? Tell me the dream.” Now I ask you, is Joseph not claiming here that he is God?

The Book of Genesis begins: “In the beginning God” and ends “In a coffin in Egypt.” Who is in the coffin? Joseph! So in the beginning God, as Joseph, is placed in a coffin in Egypt.

Now, having said that interpretation belongs to God, Joseph then interpreted their dreams. Two years later, he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream and it came to pass, just as he said it would. If this story is true, is not the spirit of God upon man? Yes! Because God actually became as you are, that you may be as He is. Accept this literally, for it is true.

Imagination truly creates out of nothing! Thoughts call forth a thing that is not seen, as though it were happening. This is accomplished by an imaginal concept touched by feeling.

Hearing of the success of another and feeling their joy builds a structure which will project itself on the screen of space. Calling the projection reality, one may think it was created from the outside. But what happened had to happen as it did, for there are no accidents. Last night Kennedy could have used other exits but he had to use the one he did, for there is a time for every imaginal act to project itself, just as there is a time to be born and a time to die, a time to laugh and a time to cry.

In Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ he described this world as a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. All realized ambitions are full of sound and fury, signifying nothing; for the real play takes place unseen by mortal eye and unheard of by mortal ear. The drama of life unfolds from within, for God the Father is molding you into his likeness. So set your hope fully upon this grace, this gift God gives of himself to you as he unfolds his image in you. All else is nothing more than sound and fury, meaning nothing!

Stalin’s daughter, writing about her life in Russia and her father’s death, told of a stroke which paralyzed one side of his body. Although his eyes were open, she doubted he saw anyone in the room; yet the expression on his face was that of extreme hatred. One arm was extended as though cursing what he saw. No one will know what Stalin was seeing for, “No one knows the thoughts of a man but the spirit of man which is in him.” One can only speculate. Perhaps in that flashing moment he saw his dream of life crumble into ashes, and cursed the vision.

Now, in the eyes of millions Stalin was considered a very wise man, yet the Bible describes such a mind as a fool, saying: “The fool says in his heart there is no God.” Show me a man who believes there is no God and – although he may have many degrees and considered to be a very wise person – he is a fool of fools.

The Bible does not imply that the uneducated man is the fool, only he who says in his heart there is no God. Stalin’s world collapsed as the doors opened and he departed this little sphere. His world was real until that moment, and yet it was a world of fiction.

Everything here will collapse, but because this is a fictitious world you can have anything you want. Would you like to be known? To fulfill a great ambition? To be famous in the eyes of others? You can have them all, if you are willing to assume they are already yours. And, in spite of the evidence of your senses and the contradiction of your reason, if you walk and sleep in your assumption it will harden into fact. And after you have experienced them you will depart, leaving them all behind.

Your desire is brought into being by an imaginal act. It is sustained by an imaginal act, and when that imaginal act is withdrawn (or modified) your desire – fulfilled – will collapse and vanish. So I maintain there is no fiction!

A friend sent me a copy of the June issue of Harper’s Magazine, which tells of a trial of a captain in our Air Force. As a school project this captain wrote an essay entitled, “Captain Dale Norte Has Been Court-martialed,” in which he stated the place and the time it happened.

Years later while in the Air Force, Captain Dale Norte was court-martialed, sentenced to a year of hard labor, and discharged from the service. Captain Norte wrote his own court-martial and then fulfilled it – so what is fiction? You can write your own essay on success if that is your desire, and to the degree that you are self-persuaded it is true, you will give it life in your world.

The secret is to imagine to the point of self-persuasion. Can you believe what you are imagining? There are not two of you – you and Imagination! You are not reshaping a piece of pottery when you imagine, but yourself! You are moving into your desire. If you persist until you see exactly what you want to see, fix your position with the glue of feeling and remain there – it will be reflected on the screen of space, just as your world is now reflecting the fixed state from which you are viewing it.

There are two worlds: the outer world of effect and the inner world of causation. That inner world, in the depth of your soul, is where the true drama of life goes on. It is there that God is endowing you with life-giving power. Now a living soul, you are being transformed into a life-giving spirit!

On that day you will see this world from above, to discover it is dead and you are its animating power. Blake said: “Where man is not, nature is barren.” This is true, for nature cannot produce anything by itself. Man, a living soul, causes things to appear alive by his animating power.

Although you are now animating all that you behold, you are destined to become a life-giving spirit – to fashion things in your own image, bring them forth, and endow them with the power to create life.

Believe me, there is no fiction! Every thought you think will come to pass. You may think it is just a thought and will never become real, but it will.

Think you are a martyr, and you are. And you will continue to be one until you change your thinking. The Kennedy’s, believing they are martyrs, will have these blows repeated over and over again until they awaken from within. I don’t care how good your life seems to be at the moment, it is a dream from which you must – and will – awaken.

What do you love the most – your husband, wife, or child? It could even be some inanimate object that you treasure, yet one day you will have to tell it goodbye. Recently a lady showed me an enormous diamond ring she was wearing, saying she had paid $75,000 for it. Although she has children and grandchildren, this ring is so important to her, and she is so proud of it. Well, you could multiply this lady by millions who love objects that are dead, because they do not know that they are.

Since we are living in a world of Caesar live it to the fullest, but do not be in love with it. Do not be moved by its emotions, as one million people were today as they watched a closed box, not knowing for sure a body was in it.

Now, the Bible teaches that permissible lies are allowed. An assumption not based upon fact is a lie, is it not? We are told to emulate the story of the unjust steward who – when told he might lose his job – asked the one who owed one hundred measures of oil to give him fifty, another eighty, and still another sixty. And when he returned to his master the steward was commended for his wisdom.

This steward falsified the record, the facts of life which memory claimed to be correct. Perhaps memory says you only have ten dollars in the bank, the rent is due, and there are no prospects of more money on its way. Or that your friend is ill or out of a job. These are facts memory has recorded. You can falsify that record by a permissible lie, by seeing a thousand dollars in the bank and the rent as paid. By seeing one who is ill – as well, or one who is unemployed – as gainfully employed.

That which appears so real is based on fiction anyway, and fiction is fact in the sense that it is all imagination! You can lift anyone out of the state into which he has fallen and place him in another, be it a state of want, illness, or failure. There are infinite states into which man may fall.

If you will but believe that imagining creates reality, and there is no fiction, you can rewrite your life and give yourself and those within it beauty for ashes, gladness for mourning, and praise for faint-hearted. Believe in the reality of your unseen act, then watch it fulfill itself. If you have proof that imagining creates reality, it will not matter what others think. All that matters is that you try it and allow imagination to prove himself in performance.

I encourage you to live as fully and as graciously as you desire to, while you wait for God’s Son to reveal himself in you. But don’t think that because you do not live fully and well, you are better off in the eyes of your Father – for you are not. He is only interested in the work He is doing in you; and when it is completed, you will be born from within, for until that happens you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

On that day you will enter an entirely different age, where trees, fruit, beasts, and birds are unknown, yet not unperceived. It is a world beyond other seas, unknown and inconceivable to those who live in this world of death.

When I say everything is at your disposal, I mean everything is in your imagination, and you are its creative power. Living in this fabulous world, you can travel unknown seas by gondola and know fruit, trees, birds, and beasts unknown here on earth; and in that world you are in complete control.

While walking the earth, man is totally unaware of the food he is mentally eating. Thoughts of horror and anger, jealousy and hate, feed invisible monsters which produce heartaches and pain. There are those who want the spoiled fruit which is part of this age; but when you enter that age, you are in complete control of your power. You realize that everything is a thought and under your control.

We are told: “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard and it has not entered into the heart of man the things already prepared by God for those who love him.” When you are one with your Father, you will awaken to find yourself in that age which has already been prepared for you. So set your heart fully upon that world which you will enter at the unveiling of Christ from within.

As you awaken, one after the other, no two will have a duplicate experience. The symbolism will be there however, as well as the time element. It is always five months between the vision of the birth and the revelation of God’s son.

In the story recorded in the 40th chapter of the Book of Genesis, Joseph gave different interpretations to the number three in both dreams. The baker had three baskets on his head, with birds eating the bread contained therein. Joseph interpreted the dream by saying: “In three days you will hang from a tree and the birds will eat upon your flesh,” and it came to pass as he interpreted it.

The butler saw a vine with three branches which budded, blossomed, and ripened into grapes. He put the grapes into a cup, crushed them, and gave the cup to Pharaoh. The most important thing here is the grape vessel. Anyone can poison wine, so the cup bearer must be a trusted servant. It is he who drinks the wine first, and if poisoned, he dies and not the master.

Joseph interpreted the dream saying that the butler (the cup bearer) would be restored in three days, and he was. Now if it takes the spirit of God to interpret all dreams and all dreams come from God, is not he who interprets the dream the awakened man called Jesus Christ?

Remember, regardless of what happened today or what the future looks like, there is no fiction. Imagination creates its own reality. You have the power to change your present and your future by writing a glorious tale about yourself and those you love. Make it a first-person, present tense experience or as something you have already accomplished, and then live in that state, for imaging does create reality.

The stories I have spoken of come from the eleventh chapter of the Book of Mark. This entire chapter supports my theory. I urge you to have faith in God! He is not on the outside. He is not even near, because God actually becomes you! You will know you are He, when God’s son, David, calls you Father. I can tell you that from now until the end of time God became you, but only when his son calls you Father, will you know who you really are.

In the meanwhile, believe me and test your creative power. You can bring anything out of nothing by conceiving a scene implying the fulfillment of a dream, and believing in its reality. Persist in your belief and your invisible dream will become a visible fact. That is falsifying the records – which is allowed.

We are called upon to emulate the unjust steward. The word steward originally meant “the keeper of the pig,” the symbol of Jesus Christ, the human imagination! You are the steward of your imagination. Feed it loving thoughts for yourself and others. If you feed on violence, you will become violent, for you become what you eat.

Born in the little island of Barbados, we kept ducks and chickens for our own consumption. If mother wanted a pair of ducks for a Sunday dinner, ten days prior she would tell one of her nine sons to put a brace of ducks aside.

Now, our ducks were raised in the yard and fed on fish, which was cheap and plentiful – and not on corn, which had to be imported and was very expensive. We could buy a bucket of fish scraps for a penny, so we fed the chickens and ducks fish; consequently they smelled of and tasted like fish.

But if they were separated ten days or two weeks before you wanted them for dinner, and stuffed with corn and food of that nature, the entire texture of their flesh changed. During that interval of time however, they could not be given even a little bit of fish. They had to have a complete, radical change of diet.

If mother’s command was not remembered until perhaps four days before the meal everyone knew it, because when the birds were plucked and the heat began to express the birds, the entire neighborhood knew the Goddard’s were having fish for dinner, and no one could eat them. But if their diet was changed from fish to corn – and only corn for that interval of time – we had delicious ducks for dinner which tasted like ducks!

Now, although we are not ducks we do feed on ideas. Feed your mind a certain idea for one week and you will change its structure. Continue for two weeks and you will be well fed on lovely thoughts. You see, this is a fictitious world and you are its author. Nothing is impossible! It’s all fiction anyway, so live nobly and dream beautiful dreams; for you are all imagination, and your human imagination is the Lord God, Jesus – the Christ.

Now let us go into the silence.

TRUE FORGIVENESS

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 04-01-1969

Tonight we will take two aspects of the great mystery: true forgiveness, and the immortal eyes which see into eternity.

“He said to them, ‘When two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.’ Then Peter said, ‘Lord, how often shall my brothers sin against me and I forgive them?’ and the answer came, ‘Seventy times seven.’ The art of forgiveness must be practiced daily, but first we must learn how to forgive. Repentance and faith are conditions of forgiveness, but true forgiveness is forgetfulness. Christianity and its doctrines make no sense to the worldly-wise, so why are people Christians? The promise that the dead will rise doesn’t make sense to the mortal mind when the body is cremated and burned to ash; yet only by believing the story of redemption, can you truly forgive. You must learn to distinguish between the eternal human who occupies a state, and the state itself. This is the only means to forgiveness.

All scripts are written for actors. In the play, the actor cast in the role of a murderer must play that part, and so it is with this world. God, the author, wrote the script and plays all the parts, while wearing a mask, called “another”. If you will learn to distinguish between states of consciousness and their occupant, you can forgive everyone. How? By identifying the one you would forgive with the ideal he failed to realize. The highest ideal would be to identify him with the divine image itself. As God we said: “Let us make man in our image.” That image is Christ. You are called upon to take a man who is condemned by the world, and see him radiating and reflecting God’s glory. Well, you could fall a little short of that image, but you could take an ideal he has failed to realize. It could be affluence or at least an income equal to his responsibilities, until you are strong enough to go beyond the barrier of observation and see him as the divine image himself.

Matthew makes this statement: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” In the Hebraic world it is said that if two sit together and there is no word of the Torah between them, they are seated in the seat of the scoffers; but “Blessed is the man who sits not in the seat of the scoffer, but rejoices in the law of God day and night, for that man shall prosper in all that he does.” Although the man is known to have a brilliant mind, if he does not discuss the Torah (the law of God and his prophets), he is seated in the seat of the scoffer. And in the 3rd chapter of the Book of Malachi, we read: “When those who love the Lord speak with one another and discuss the word of God, the glory of God is between them.” How many in the world today fill that bill? Who, at a cocktail party ever discuss the word of God? I recall about five years ago I was invited to a dinner party, where everyone was telling jokes. Although I love a joke, I am not a good story teller of that nature; so when it was my time to speak I rose and told them about God’s law. When I seated myself the gentleman giving the party said: “I didn’t realize we had invited a longhair here tonight.” That was his attitude towards the word of God. Well, the gentleman has just departed this little section of time, and has been restored to a young body to continue living in a terrestrial world like this – but without his money in the bank, for that he left behind. He took the knowledge of what he had done and who he is with him, but his earthly things he left behind.

Now, in this world, when you give something to someone else or sell it, you no longer possess it; but that is not true in the heavenly world. It is a world of sharing, where nothing is lost. In that world I can give you every faculty that has awakened within me, and it becomes yours to use and give to another to use as they will. Two years ago I gave my immortal eyes to a lady who is here tonight. In her vision, I took my eyes out of their sockets and placed them into hers. Soon after that experience she was told, in vision, that she was an incurrent eyewitness. The word “incurrent” means “to give passage to a current that flows inward.” Blake spoke of the incurrent eyes, saying: “I rest not from my great task to open the Eternal World; to open the Immortal Eyes of Man inward, into the world of thoughts into Eternity ever expanding in the bosom of God, the Human Imagination.” Blake wasn’t interested in the external eyes, because he knew they did not see. Having resurrected from this body of death, Blake wanted to give everyone his immortal eyes that they might see as he did.

Resurrection does not come when your body is being cremated; rather you are raised while wearing your garment of flesh in this world of death. Then you can give your immortal faculties to another without their loss in the giving. And when the visions come, they possess you. You don’t have to go into meditation to seek them. They can come while you walk the street or are seated in a theater enjoying a play, when suddenly you are seeing what is not there to be seen by mortal eye and you can’t stop it.

Last Friday, the lady I gave my eyes to, and her friend, returned home from the lecture. While sitting in the car they were discussing the word of God, when a series of visions possessed her. She found herself in a church, with a bright red carpet running down its center. An angelic being directed her attention to the altar and the objects lying there. Then the vision changed and a coach, drawn by a team of horses suddenly appeared. Stopping in front of her, the door opened and a being with light radiating from his countenance stepped out. He was so majestic he could have been Hercules himself. For a moment they stared at one another. Then he re-entered the coach and disappeared. Suddenly another coach appeared, this one drawn by white horses. It stopped. The door swung open and I stepped out, smiled, and vanished – leaving the door of the carriage open, as three women came out, all dressed in black. Then a marvelous thing happened. A pallet bearing a corpse appeared, and as she looked she saw that it was I. A piece of cloth was tied across my mouth and behind my head. I was placed upon a cross, which was raised, set aflame, and burned to a stump. And when she looked into the stump she saw liquid, molten gold, as the vision faded. Then the coach reappeared, now driven by a majestic being. Again it stopped. The door opened and a man, like the Ancient of Days with a white beard, white hair, wearing a white gown and a blue robe, stepped out. In his left hand he held a large white book and in his right hand a pen, which he pointed at her and the vision vanished.

I have told you time and again about this golden liquid light, which is the blood of God that comes forth from the furnaces. This lady was not seeing me as a man placed on a burning cross. It could have been, but that’s not the story. The body you wear is your cross, and you cannot escape the fires of experience. But when your journey is over, you – the tree of life – are reduced to a stump, as recorded in the Book of Daniel as: “Hew down the tree and destroy it but leave the stump of its roots in the earth; for from that stump a new being will rise.” That being is golden, liquid light.

Paul said, in his fifteenth chapter of 1Corinthians: “Someone will ask, ‘How do the dead rise? With what body do they come?’ “Then he answered his own question, saying: “It is as God has chosen.” Conceived by an infinite being, the dead rise into that one perfect body, to become one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all. This one body contains all of humanity, yet is unique to everyone. What it is like I cannot tell; but you will know it when you – as golden liquid light – fill it with yourself. You, as molten gold, will rise up like a serpent, into that heavenly state to be cast into the body God has chosen for you and it is unique. It is waiting for you, and no one can fill it but you. In the end everyone is redeemed in that one body to know himself to be the one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all. Don’t try to compare your mortal frame to your immortal self, for it cannot be done. Paul made it so distinct, saying: “It is planted in weakness, it is raised in power. It is planted in dishonor and raised in glory.” This is true for every child born of woman.

Having risen from the state of death, it is my choice, my privilege, to give my eyes to whomever I will. I gave them to her, and she – in turn – gave them to her friend, whose experience I will now share. Having heard her friend relate her visions, she retired that night; and as she fell asleep she saw a match strike the earth and it instantly burst into flame, reminding her of the plains of Kansas when the sun rises – for it is like a flame spreading across the prairie flatness. Then a dark object came out of the center of the flame and approached her. Moving in a serpentine motion, it placed itself upon a cross which immediately rose from the earth and stood erect. As she watched, the serpent transformed itself into a man hanging on a cross, but instead of being on the cross, he was in it. This lady saw the transformation of a serpent into a man being transfigured on a flaming cross from within.

As you can see, these visions parallel each other, confirming the truth which I have shared with you. You have an immortal body in paradise, while you wear your mortal body in this world of Caesar and fight with shadows. Although there appear to be others here, there is only God. The world seems to be multiplied by billions of people, each separate and individual; yet there is only one being, who is God, fragmented into garments of flesh. But the day is coming when, as molten gold, you are gathered together to form one being. Retaining your individuality, I will know you and you will know me; but the body we wear there is not like this one. Having been raised from the dead, when I revealed myself in the lady’s vision I shared with you tonight, she knew me, and then I vanished from sight. Others will see me in different roles, for I am a protean being. I can display the fact that I have risen from the dead, but I cannot reveal my risen body until you arrive where I am. Not understanding the resurrection, man thinks it takes place when the body dies; but it happens while you are here in this world of death.

Everything here is dead. The animal is killed before its meat is consumed. This is true of the bird or fish, fruit, or vegetable. So the last enemy to overcome is death. While we are here we fight against shadows as we think he or she is another; but there is no other, for we are all brothers, all sons of God, who collectively form the one being who is God. He who is the maker of his sons is housed in each one of them. Say “I Am” and you have revealed God’s name.

Now, if you would forgive another, you must learn to distinguish between the immortal “I” and the state into which he has moved – either wittingly or unwittingly. As Blake said: “You can see by what I teach, I do not consider the just or the wicked to be in a supreme state, but to be everyone of them states of the sleep into which the soul may fall in its deadly dreams of good and evil. If you truly love another it would not matter what he (or she) did – you would forgive him. I don’t care what my mother would do – I would forgive her, or any of my brothers. I have expanded my circle to include friends, and enlarged it to encompass those I do not presently know; for in truth they are all my brothers. The man who said: “Go and tell my brothers I am ascending unto my Father and your Father, unto my God and your God” had pushed out his circle to encompass all, because he knew there was only one being who was playing all the parts. So you cannot truly forgive unless you can discriminate between the being who occupies the part he is playing, and the part itself. Then you can identify him with what you know he would like to be, and to the degree that you are self-persuaded that he is occupying the new state, he will become it.

It’s entirely up to you to practice the art of repentance, which is a radical change of feeling. A friend may have committed an act of violence and admitted his guilt. Practice the art of repentance by separating your friend (the actor) from the part he played, and identify him with the part you know in your heart that he would like to play. Persuade yourself it is true and, to the degree you are self-persuaded, your friend will be transformed into and occupy that state for all to see.

The first words recorded in the Book of Mark (the earliest gospel by date) are: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent and believe the gospel.” I call upon you this day, to believe the story of Christianity; and if you believe and are a Christian, you will put it into practice. Christianity is the fulfillment of the promises Jehovah made to man. When the story of Jesus Christ is re-enacted within you, you have fulfilled God’s promises to Israel. Then tell your story to those who will listen; and, while you are moving in your heavenly sphere, you will select those to whom you will give your eyes.

Selection comes from wisdom which is from above, not from below. On this level, if I had to give my eyes to one, it would definitely be my wife, and next to her, my daughter. But on a higher level, where there is no uncertainty as to who should receive them, I gave my eyes to a lady I only know at a distance. I have never seen her home, nor has she ever been to mine. I love her like a sister, but I certainly have never seen her socially. While functioning from above, however, the wisdom of Caesar is not used. Using the wisdom from above, I selected from those who come here the one to whom I gave my eyes. The gift is complete, yet I did not lose them in the giving. In fact my vision increased in the giving.

The visions come when you least expect them. You may be in a crowd when everything is blocked out and the vision possesses you. It is nonsense to think you must go to India to be taught how to meditate by some guru. True vision cannot be taught, but comes upon you when you least expect it; and you cannot stop it, for vision is Christ in you, who is your hope of glory.

The body you wear is the cross Christ bears. The fires these ladies saw are the furnaces of experience Blake speaks of as “How they come forth from the furnaces; how long, vast and severe the anguish before they find their Father, were long to tell.” Man is seeking his heavenly Father, who is himself. He is looking outside for the cause of the phenomena of his life; but when he finds it, he finds himself. Then he will say: “I and my Father are one.” His trip in this world cannot be over until the Father is found; and how long, vast, and severe the anguish before he finds him, were long to tell.

I cannot tell you how close you are to discovering your true identity; but I can tell you that it will begin with your resurrection from your immortal tomb, where you first laid yourself down to sleep and dream this dream of life. This is immediately followed by your birth from above. One hundred and thirty-nine days later you will find your son, who will reveal you to yourself. Then one hundred and twenty-three days later your spiritual body is split in two, and you see and identify yourself with the molten gold found at its base. Fusing with it, up you will go like a serpent, back into your own skull – called heaven. Nine hundred and ninety-eight days later the dove descends, giving you the benediction that the Spirit of the Most High is upon you; for he will anoint and send you to preach good tidings to the afflicted and open the eyes of the blind. The blind spoken of here are those whose eyes do not see the mystery behind the facade.

But tonight, learn to forgive. This is essential! Learn to discriminate between the state in which a man is placed, and its occupant. If you can discriminate between the two, you will forgive; for you will recognize the being is trapped in a role. If the part be that of the murderer, he must murder. If he is trapped in the role of sickness, he must be ill. If you do not like the part he is playing, remember: all plays belong to the author who is God. We are the actors who will understand the reason behind the play when the curtain descends and the play has come to its end.

I pray it will be tonight!

Now let us go into the silence.

YOU ARE A COSMIC BEING

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 05-02-1969

Tonight I want you to think of Christ as a cosmic being who contains everyone within him. Having died for all, this one being is in all, and will rise in all. Only one being can rise, for only one being fell. Having deliberately destroyed his temple in the fall, God, (this one being) is rebuilding his temple out of the redeemed, in order for it to become something far greater than it was prior to its destruction. One being, containing all within him, fell into this world of death to become individualized as you, as me. That same being will rise in us all, individually: and when he does the divine name “Lord” will be conferred upon the individual in whom he rose.

In Paul’s wonderful letter to the Corinthians, he tells us: “From now on I regard no one from the human point of view; even though I once regarded Christ from a human point of view, I regard him thus no longer.” Why? Because Paul was led from tradition to self-discovery. While determined to destroy those who believed in a savior other than the one he was taught to believe in, Paul discovered that the Christ of whom they spoke was a pattern of salvation contained within every child born of woman. It was Paul who said: “When it pleased God to reveal himself in me, I conferred not with flesh and blood.” The pattern unfolds in only one way, and Paul tried to describe how it unfolded in him. I cannot find the true detail by his description of it, but Paul does tell us to imitate God as dear children.

Now, in order to imitate anyone or anything, it must be seen or heard first. How can you imitate something you cannot see or hear? It is my purpose to tell you how to imitate God as a dear child, for imitation can only be accomplished by hearing what took place and believing it. Now, the question is asked: “How can men imitate him whom they have never heard, and how can men hear unless there is a preacher? And how can there be a preacher unless he is sent.” Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by preaching Christ. If, when I tell you I came out from the Father, you will accept my words and believe I am telling you the truth, then you will set your hope fully upon this promise and its unfoldment in you.

I tell you: one being fell to become all, and one being is going to rise in all, as each is called according to His purpose. I was called in 1959. He may call you tonight, but each one of us will be called individually by the same being who is rising in all.

I cannot conceive of anything comparable to this, for unless we are born from above we remain in the world of death, turning the wheel of recurrence over and over again. I can assure you from what I know from my inner vision, that everyone will escape. God will not leave one section of himself in the world of death. He is one being who – containing all -fell into the world of death. That same being, rising in each, individually according to his purpose, rebuilds his temple out of the redeemed.

If you would imitate God as a dear child you must first have a pattern from which you may follow. This is true in all walks of life. There must be a mold into which molten metal is poured in order to form a casting. Jesus Christ is the mold which “Must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Perfection is a molten state into which you must be reduced. Your physical body, when it is burned, it is reduced to dust; so it cannot be this body that is reduced to a molten state. No. It is not your physical body, but your Spiritual body.

Christianity is based upon the claim that a certain series of events happened in which God revealed himself in action for the salvation of man. It hasn’t a thing to do with any individual man on the outside. Paul’s story, which preceded the gospels by twenty or twenty-five years, is not concerned with what happens to the individual between the cradle and the grave.

If the one called Jesus was a carpenter, a mason, a bricklayer, or a pimp, it would not concern Paul. He was only interested in what happened in an individual. Paul knew he had awakened from the dream of life, but could not share his experiences with others except in words. We are told that he spent his last days from morning to night discussing the kingdom of God and trying to persuade others concerning Jesus, and some believed while others disbelieved.

This is true in this world in which we live. When I tell of what happened to me, individually, my experiences are so unusual the average person will not accept them. They – still in the world of Caesar – are more concerned with how to make that extra dollar then they are in the eternal world of life.

Although this world of death is temporal, it will continue as though it is forever, until the individual hears the Word of God and responds with faith by setting his hope fully upon the grace that is coming to him at the revelation of Jesus Christ within him. That is where the one being, containing all of us, fell. It was a deliberate act, and necessary in order to expand beyond what He was prior to the fall. We did nothing wrong to warrant our fall; rather we desired to enter this world of death. We agreed to take upon ourselves these dead garments; to be enslaved by them and to overcome them. We did it in perfect confidence that He who contained us all, would redeem us all.

In the 32nd chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy we are told that: “He has set bounds to the people according to the number of the sons of God;” therefore, every child is a garment worn by a son of God, and God will not leave one of his sons in this world of death. Rather, every son will rise, individually, to the realization that he is God the Father, as it takes all of us to form that one being who is God and Father of all.

When I speak of Jesus Christ I do not mean a man, but a pattern. Like Paul, I no longer regard Christ from the human point of view. I once regarded him as such, but not any more. Now I see him as a pattern of salvation which began to unfold in me back in 1959 when I awoke in my skull. Until that moment in time I – like you – had no idea I was buried there; but, because it happened to me, I will now prophecy for you. A storm wind will possess you, and you will awaken within yourself to discover you are entombed in your skull, from which you will emerge. That will be your birth from above, of which John speaks, saying: “Unless you are born from above you cannot enter the kingdom of God.” This kingdom is the new age spoken of as that age – as opposed to this age.

This is the age of death where everything begins and ends, while that age is eternal life. Having overcome the world of death, Jesus Christ (the pattern) unfolds as you rise, victorious, into the world of eternal life; for you are the gods who came down, individualized yourselves in order to rise as the Lord, as there is no other being.

The world may condemn you if you are a thief by profession, but Paul doesn’t. It matters little what happens to you individually between the cradle and the grave. But it matters much if, when you hear my story of salvation you believe it; for then you will break the shell and rise above all this worldly nonsense. Salvation’s story was told to us as it was to them; but it did not benefit them because – believing this world of death was real – they were more interested in achieving greater intellect and more wealth here; therefore, the story was not received with faith.

I read a story concerning Lord Russell who, although loving to be called “Lord,” said: “I regard religion as a disease, born of fear. A source of untold misery to the human race.” Well, I tell you it is not a disease, although I know there are numberless forms of interpretation of the great mystery.

Like Paul, I was taught that Christ was a man who came into the world and claimed he was the Messiah to save the world. But I tell you, Christianity is based upon the claim that a certain series of supernatural events happened, in which God revealed himself in action for the salvation of man. When I realized that these events spelled out the pattern man who was Christ, I knew there was no other.

It takes the many blows of the world to reduce us to that liquid, cosmic being who awakens in the grave. That grave is not in some cemetery, but in the skull from which a storm wind will awaken you. In the Jerusalem Talmud, there is a tradition that the Messiah was born in Bethlehem the night of the destruction of Jerusalem, and he was carried off by a storm wind. I tell you this is true.

When the storm wind possessed me I reverberated from head to foot. I felt as though my body was being shattered as I awoke. Expecting to see the same room I had retired in, I awoke to find myself in a tomb which I intuitively knew to be my skull. It was sealed, and when I rolled a stone away, I discovered that I could force my head into the opening found there. This I did and I came out of that skull as a child comes out of the womb of a woman; but this was the womb from above rather than the womb from below, for you must be born from above in order to inherit the kingdom of God. Then the entire imagery as told us in scripture surrounded me, witnessing the event.

It is written that the angel of the Lord said to those who were going to be witnesses: “Go and you will find him, for God is born this day in Bethlehem. Look for this sign, which is a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying on the floor.” The witnesses then went hastily and found the sign; but they could not see he who was having the experience because he was Spirit, and since God is Spirit, it was God who was born.

Although I could not be seen by mortal eye, my witnesses could not see me; but I could see them and their every thought was objective to me. Then the sign of my birth was carried away by a storm wind.

Now, knowing myself to be God, who is a father, I must have a son to bear witness to my fatherhood. Five months later God’s son David stood before me and called me father and I fulfilled his promise. Then I returned to the limitation of my cross in order to share my experiences with you, my brothers, to encourage you to believe. I saw my only son who is God’s only son.

That son is the personification of all the generations of men and their experiences, proving that the race is finished and the crown of righteousness is mine. I have played every lovely and unlovely part in this world. I had to in order to see my son, whose beauty is beyond measure, and whose name is David.

Now, the third mighty act reveals your true identity as that of molten gold. In the Book of Zechariah, we read: “He stood upon the Mount of Olives when it was split from east to west as one half moved northward and the other half moved southward.” You will discover, as I did, that the Mount of Olives spoken of here is your body; for the Old Testament is an adumbration, a forecasting in a not altogether conclusive and immediately evident way.

It is a shadow, but not the substance. Zechariah refers to a mountain, but when it happens to you, you will realize that the mountain is yourself. It is your body which is split from top to bottom, from east to west, as one side moves northward as the other side moves southward, revealing liquid, molten gold at its base. As I looked at this living, liquid gold I knew it to be myself; and I fused with it and up I went into my skull – into the kingdom of heaven, for the kingdom is within, At that moment I departed the world of generation and returned to the world of regeneration, as the heavens reverberated like thunder. Having returned to the molten state, I cast myself into the mold which was prepared for me before that the world was, to become the living image that radiates and reflects God’s glory. I am now the express image of God Himself. God’s primal wish was, “Let us make man in our image.”

I tell you, He has wrought it! As one of the gods, I have completed the journey; but because we are all brothers, I am compelled to remain in the world to tell you in the hope that you who are still asleep will believe me. I say the Christ of scripture is a pattern of salvation and not a man separate from yourself.

The four mighty acts which form that redemption begin with your awakening within yourself and end with the descent of the dove. Two years and nine months after my ascent into the kingdom of heaven, the Holy Spirit descended upon me in bodily form as a dove and smothered me with love. Then I knew I had filled the entire role and was now a glorious, living stone in the living body of the Risen Christ.

Christ is the one being who fell containing all within himself. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Because he could not fall without all of us, we agreed to fall with him. That was an agreement for expansion, for truth is an ever expanding illumination. God, having reached the limit of contraction and opacity, died in order to rise into limitless expansion and translucency.

Opacity (which is doubt) is personified as a thing and called the devil; and this being called “man,” is the limit of contraction. It may be hard to believe, but – as Paul said after his revelation: “The wisdom of this world is foolish in the eyes of God, and the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger then men.” Man believes he is getting wiser and wiser, yet it is only wiser and wiser nonsense. But God allows the nonsense to go on as men give each other medals, knowing that after the revelation man will know that the Bible is not speaking of a messiah to come from without, but from within.

One man fell, saying: “I say, You are gods, Sons of the Most High, all of you. Nevertheless you will fall like men and die as one man, O princes.” Can you imagine that? Falling as one man we are princes; and if that is true, then our father is a king. I tell you, our Father is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, for he is the Lord God Jehovah who is raising us to himself that each one of us may become fully aware of being the Father. Regardless of your present sex, you are a son of Sod destined to awaken as the Father.

This wonderful story of scripture is completely misunderstood. Today’s preachers are not sent, for they have not yet been awakened; therefore they will give you all kinds of stories concerning the interpretation of scripture. Prior to 1959 I was not sent, but in 1959 1 was called, incorporated into the body of God and sent. This incorporation is like an impression made by a seal on wax or clay, for I came out bearing the image of God. The mortal eye cannot see that image, and when I die here, my physical body will disintegrate like all bodies do. My friends will say I am dead, for to them I am a mortal being with weaknesses and limitations of the flesh.

Those who see me as Neville are misled, as they cannot hear what I am saying; for they are seeing a body disintegrating before their eyes. They are judging by appearances and cannot understand that God does not see as man sees. Man sees the outward man, while God sees the inner man; and I, the inner man, have been impressed upon God like a great seal upon wax. I wear this little body that continues to decay; yet I, unseen by mortal eye, am radiating and reflecting the glory of God. I am the express image of the person that is God, but only those whose eyes are open will see me.

I promise you who hear me tonight, that it won’t be long before you will depart this world. Don’t be afraid. You will be restored to life, in a world just like this, to continue your journey. If you believe what you have heard from me, although I will not be there, wherever you go they will talk of the work I did here. Individually, I have left the world of death. I am only waiting for the moment when this little garment is taken off for the last time. I will not be restored to a world of mortality like this any more, for I have finished the race; I have fought the good fight; I have kept the faith. Now there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness where I go to wait for all my brothers to come into that union and be the one being that came down bearing all.

Mark my words, I am not fooling you. It isn’t long to wait before you will take off this garment and find yourself restored to life. You will meet many of your friends there who went before you. It will be a world just like this, where you will do all of the things we do here. And you will remember who taught you. You will not see me there, but eventually you will see me. Now I am going to where you cannot come; but you will, for everyone will awaken as God the Father.

I am not trying to persuade you to change your attitude towards the speaker. I am only telling you what I know from experience. Like Paul, I did not receive this knowledge from a man; it came through revelation of the true nature of salvation. It’s something entirely different. Salvation is not a man, but a pattern man buried in all, who will awaken in all in a first-person, singular, present-tense experience. When the experience is yours, you, too, will know who you are. I was taught to believe God was another; but when the pattern awakened in me, I knew I was He. Now I remain in the world only to share this wisdom with my brothers.

The unknown author of the Book of Hebrews said: “Holy brethren, look to Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession.” We are all sharers in this great gift, so let us now look to Jesus, the apostle who is called and sent. It is Jesus who is called. That’s who you really are. As the apostle, you are called and sent to tell the story of salvation from experience. You will tell your good news, knowing that not everyone who hears it will respond. In fact many, being more interested in the honors of men, will discount it.

Those who have $50 million are only interested in increasing their wealth to $100 million; and, although they may be eighty when they hear your story, it will not interest them, as they will still want more of what they must leave behind when they depart this world – as they won’t be able to take it with them, as you know. They will make a world like this, only devoid of what they had built up here, and cast themselves in a role best suited for the work yet to be done in them by the son of God who is wearing that garment. He may zap him from the role of a millionaire and place him in the role of a shoe-shine boy or one who cleans latrines, if that is necessary for the work yet to be done in him.

The world into which they go is just as real as this. I know this is true from experience. I have sat in a chair and felt something happen within me and I see a world that is solidly real. As my consciousness follows vision, I step into that world and it closes upon me as this world is shut out. While in that world my body is real. It is seen and heard by others. If, in that world I have a body like this, yet those who are here see my body asleep in a chair, how did I get that body? It was just as real to me and to those who saw and heard me there as this body you now see here. You could destroy this body, but you would not have destroyed that body in that world.

William Blake once said: “The oak is cut down with the ax and the lamb is slain by the knife, but their forms eternal remain forever and are reproduced by the seed of contemplative thought.” When I stepped into that world I knew myself to be a man called Neville. I was so aware of being Neville I clothed myself in the body that was Neville; yet I knew there was a body that was Neville, sound asleep on a chair.

How did it happen? By the seed of contemplative thought. When you die here, you remold yourself in the likeness that you know – only you reduce it in age to a time that pleases you. An eighty-year-old man, knowing what he knows now, will wear a twenty year old body, produced by the seed of contemplative thought. Who does it? The God in him. He will not go through the womb of a woman, but will create a new body by the seed of contemplative thought. He goes on in that world, just as he does here, to die there and begin all over again until he hears the story of salvation and believes.

Now let us go into the silence.

YOU CAN FORGIVE SIN

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 03-29-1963

“You Can Forgive Sin.” That, to most people, will be blasphemy as you will hear later on, quoting from scripture. It is so common among all of us to ascribe our ills and troubles to outward things – like the present conditions of the world, to our environment, or simply to things. And these things may be things that are absent from our world, or things we have in our world, but still things, while all along the real cause of our ills is sin. So we are told he was called Jesus because he came to save men from their sins; his only concern was the saving of men from sin.

Now what is sin? Sin means “missing the mark,” missing the road, “missing the goal” in life. If you haven’t a mark you can’t sin. If you have a goal in this world and do not realize it and miss it, then you have sinned. So his purpose is to show man how not to sin in this world. No condemnation. Tell me you sin – tell me your goal, and I will tell you God’s word. That is what he said. He has come only to show man how not to miss his objective in this world.

Now we turn to Mark 2:3 – or the same thing with a different twist in Matthew 9:2. It is the story of the paralytic. We are told he was preaching the word, that is, the story of salvation, and they brought in a paralytic carried by four men; and seeing their faith, he said to the paralytic: “My son, your sins are forgiven.” (2:5) And scribes sitting around thought in their heart, “Why does this man speak thus? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” And discerning in their hearts what they contemplated, he said, “Why do you question thus in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say ‘Rise, take up your pallet and walk?’ So he said to him, “Take up your bed and walk and go home” and he rose and went on his way. Then we are told, “. . . they were all amazed and glorified God . . .” who had given such authority to men, for it was a man who did it. We are that man. It is to us that this authority to forgive sin has been given. And the world thought they were simply the exclusive power of some being outside of man. Read it in Mark 2 and Matthew 9.

Now what is this ability to forgive sin? We know that “sin” means missing the mark. The one that forgave it called himself, “The Truth.” He said: “I am the Truth. If you know my word and abide in my word, then you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.” (John 8:31, 32) For the whole story begins he was teaching the truth – the word. Now, he calls himself “the truth.” If I said to you tonight, what would you like to be in this world? And you name it – I would like to be_____(no matter what it is) and I turned to you and said: You are that, you are it; right now you are it – you would say: I am it? I can’t believe it! Then you are denying the truth. He said: “I am the Truth” – I AM everything in this world; everything man can ever imagine, I AM. So, you imagine what you would like to be. If you cannot remain faithful and loyal to that vision of yourself, then you are sinning. Not to sin is to have a goal. What would it be like? If I remain faithful to that vision as though it were true, no power in this world could stop me from realizing it – but no power. I could realize it. How? Don’t ask me. But if it took the entire world of three billion to play parts to aid me in the fulfillment of my vision, they would play it without knowing they had played it. It would make no difference if they knew or did not know. They would have to contribute to the fulfillment of my vision, if I remain loyal to that vision.

So, what would it be like if I were the man I would like to be? If I said to you tonight: is there a man in this room who is rich? And no one said, I am rich – that is not your goal, and if it is, you are missing the mark. If there is a man in this room – general man – who is known, who is contributing to the world’s good, and no one replies, I am he, then either it is not your goal – or if it is your goal, you are missing it. So the name is “I AM he”, as told in John 8:24: “I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.” This is not a man talking to me. This is taking place in the depths of the soul of man. If you don’t believe now that I AM the one that I would be, then you are missing your goal and you are sinning. So it does not come from without; it is not caused by anything on the outside at all. My health problems are not caused by conditions and by environment, or anything else; it is caused only by sin – and sin is missing the mark. There is only one being – one person in the world – who can hit that mark, and it is God. God forgives sin, as told us in Isaiah: “I am the Lord, I am thy Savior, and there is no other savior.” “I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior. No one has formed before me or no one will be formed after me. I am the Savior.” (Isaiah 43:3; 43:11)

You will be saved from what you are. There is only one being in the world that can save you, and that Being is “I AM.” So, you save yourself. What would it be like were it true – if I were now the man or woman I would like to be? Assume it and dare to believe it and walk as though it were true, and no power in this world can stop it – but no power! There is no one greater than God. Say, “I am” – that is God. You stand in the presence of a being and because he has a little tag – or because he is the Premier of a certain country, or Queen, or President of a certain land, you think he is greater than you are? You are missing the mark. You can’t stand in the presence of anyone who is greater than you, if you know who you are. You are not going to lord it over them, knowing, but no one will be smaller, either – all are God. Then you are told to go and tell them. (Ezekiel 3:18, 33:8) – “go and tell them. If you do not tell them, and they sin and you do not tell them – they will die in their sin, but their blood will be upon your head. If you tell them and they do not repent, they will die in their sin, but the blood will not be upon your head. So tell them.” So Jesus is made to confess that he told them, that the blood might not be upon his head.

I Acts 20:26, 27 Paul makes the confession: “. . . for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” He told them that, that he may not carry that secret to the grave and not share it with the world. So I have told them all, that this is a principle that cannot fail.

Now let us come back to the paralytic. You came here tonight on your own steam, as it were. If I tell you we are the paralytic of scripture, you will be surprised. They were brought into the place by four men. Do you know who the four men are? The ancients always called us by the four senses – the four rivers that ran out of Eden. They did not speak of five, they spoke always of four. They joined taste and touch together because they depended upon contact. To taste something or touch something, it must be contacted. But they separated sight, sound, and scent. These three were separate in the great symbolism of scripture. But taste and touch were joined. They called them the four senses, and we came here tonight borne by these four men. I know my bank balance, and in two weeks Uncle Sam wants part of what I earned. I do not even know Uncle Sam. They tell me he exists somewhere, but I do not know where; so I am supposed to pay on the 15th of next month “x” number of dollars. Regardless of how I live, I must save something to pay him. It is the land of Caesar, I am fully aware of that. I can see my bank balance. I know what it is in my world. I can take my senses and bring it to play on what is taking place.

I was brought here tonight on the shoulders of these men. He tells me: your sins are forgiven, and, walk. How can I do it, knowing what I must pay on the 15th, knowing what I must do between now and the 15th? How will I do it? Your sins are forgiven, but who can forgive but God? Only God can forgive, and God is I AM. All right, I will now see the world as I would see it were it now May 1st and all things behind me, completely paid, paid in full.

Suppose I was unemployed. I was brought here tonight on the backs of these men. I know I have rent to pay and food to buy – all of these things – and he tells me my sins were forgiven, to rise and take up my bed and walk! How? I was brought in here on the backs of four men and called upon to rise – ignore these four and walk on my own steam now. Don’t walk based on what the four allow me to see, to hear, and smell, and to be. Walk out of here unaided by these four. Walk on my own. How? I ignore the evidence of the senses. They brought me in here. I completely ignore what they tell me I really have in this world, and I see what I would like to see and assume things are what I would like them to be, and influence every being in the world to play their part to fulfill what I am assuming that I am in this world. I came in a paralytic, and walk out on my own steam. That is the story.

Every being in the world is called upon to rise and walk out, for he forgives your sin. He comes into the world only to free man of sin, no matter what you have ever done in this world. Don’t look back on things as they are; look on things as they ought to be, the man or woman you would like to be, and assume that you are and see that only. And then you will know what it is to forgive sin. Who forgives? God forgives. He forgave you. I assumed. Who assumed? I assumed, that is – God. “I AM” is His name. I AM assuming I AM the man I would like to be. That is God. I begin to name it and walk in that state, and that is God. There is nothing but God. Forget what you have done. or what you are seemingly doing, and dream of the man or woman you would like to be and dare to assume you are it.

Now we are told by the great Blake: “The spirit of Jesus is continual forgiveness of sin” – forgiveness of sin every moment of time. Tonight when we go into the silence we can sit here for a minute and forgive each other. Suppose I could hear everyone here rise and tell the most fantastic story in the world about themselves or a friend, or a relative – or someone. Suppose I, really wanting it to be told from this platform, sit in the silence and listen to that and that only – the most fantastic story in the world that you could tell me individually. If I walk out of here tonight convinced that I heard it and remain loyal to what I have imagined I heard, I must hear it – no power can stop it, if I remain loyal. If anyone says it has not worked, I am not asking any questions, but as far as I am concerned, it has worked. I am sure when I know the vision I am holding for you “has its own appointed hour, it will ripen and it will flower. If it seems long in coming, wait. It is sure, it will not be late.” If I actually assume things are as I would like them to be of every being here, and I remain loyal, I either know the story is true or it is false. I know it is true. It can’t fail. There is no power in the world to make it fail.

Another word for sin in the Bible is “trespass.” In our wonderful Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” It is a minor infraction of this principle. “Trespassing” means an individual lapse, a temporary relapse. You and I begin to discuss a personality. What am I doing? He is only in a state. So, I must think he is unemployed when you and I get into the discussion. I discuss a man who is unemployed and we see him as unemployed and begin to say: Well, conditions are bad, or maybe he was not good enough for the job, and you and I are discussing a man that is unemployed and we see only the state. I am trespassing. He is in the state. But I may fall into this little trap. We all do it, every day, all day long.

We read the paper, and a man is called a great man because he happens to be President, or maybe some other person in this world. We read some columnist about him and you are carried away with what the columnist tells us, and suddenly we begin to think as he would have you think, and you are trespassing. “Lord, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” It is a slight departure from our goal. We are moved aside by what we read, or heard, or saw in this world. So, that is trespassing. So, I discuss someone who cannot find the job – well, will he qualify? I am asking all these things, and they are irrelevant to this principle. Not with this principle do they have any value whatsoever. What does he want? He wants a job. And how much does he want? He names a figure. Suppose that he had what he wanted – then let me assume it is true and I begin to see the world as I would see it for him were it true and feel the joy that would be mine were he now gainfully employed, earning that sort of money. This is either true, or it is false. I tell you: it is true.

If today you and I can say The Lord’s Prayer – but really say it – and ask forgiveness for our trespasses and let him show mercy for having gotten off the mark as it were. Read the story. He is brought in on the backs of four men. He himself had no faith. But in spite of what they knew, there was still a certain faith, and they brought him into the presence of God, knowing God could forgive sin. And he said: “Because of your faith” – he speaks now to those who brought him; he did not speak to the man at first, then he addresses the paralytic: “My son, your sins are forgiven you.” Here, a vicarious faith. So, I can have the faith for you if you do not have it for yourself. You can have it for me if I don’t have it for myself. Quite often vicarious faith is easier than the direct faith. If I can turn to you, if you really believe an imaginal act is a fact, and you could actually believe I am now what I would like to be, and although at the moment I doubt and am not faithful, you can say – in spite of myself you can pull me out – for a minute I would know faith. Those who brought him on their backs showed faith in bringing him into the presence of God. God commended them for their faith. And he turned to the paralytic and said: “My son, your sins are forgiven.” Those who heard thought it blasphemy. Who could forgive sin but God alone?

He did forgive sin, for he was the “I AM.” “Unless you believe I AM he, you die in your sins.” So, I ask you tonight, turn to your neighbor, and maybe you can hear what the other wants and rejoice in their good fortune, and they can rejoice in your good fortune Actually feel it is true, and see the world as it would be were they what they wanted to be – and they will become it.

So, this is the story of our ability to forgive sin. They were afraid when they saw what happened and then they crucified God because he had given such authority to men. We are told: “If you retain it, it is retained. If you release it, it is released.” I see a man and judge him by my senses. I retain it. But I could release him by seeing him standing on his own feet and moving in this world in a glorious manner. So the material I formerly would discard as no good, I don’t discard anymore. I take it and use it. I take the same man that formerly I would discard and see him as gainfully employed, loved, and loving, and believe that the thing I am seeing for him is true; and to the degree I am faithful to the concept for him, it becomes true in this world.

That is our power. We have power to forgive sin. If you don’t have a mark in this world, you can’t sin. If hasn’t a thing to do with moral issues. No. Do you have a goal? Do you have some objective in this world? Then this is how you realize it. Suppose it were true. In Romans 8:4: “. . .walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Flesh would be my senses. My senses deny that I am what I would like to be. Let us not walk by flesh – let us walk by the Spirit. Spirit is to see it in my imagination as though it were true. Tonight I may go home to find an empty cupboard or a notice at my door: “Tomorrow, or else.” It is all right. If I believe what I am imagining, it would make no difference what threat was given me – if I really believed. “Now believe it,” we are told. If you believe it, it will crystallize into fact. It does not really matter what threat at the moment my senses tell me -I have to ignore it. I have to ignore the four who brought me in this place. I will not now be borne anymore by these four. I will simply walk by spirit and not by flesh.

So, I ask you to try it. If you try it you can’t fail and – realizing your objective, may I also ask you to share it with me so that I may tell it to you. [the audience].

About three months ago a man sat in this audience, and he wrote me a sweet, wonderful letter which I received this morning. He expected a big bonus. He had worked hard with all the promise, and one who was never on the job, but by his estimate “one of the girl friends of the boss” – she got the big bonus. He, who had done all the work, got practically nothing. So, he and I agreed mentally that he would have the most wonderful job, with more money and everything. This is now going on April. It seemed a long while, but today he is on the job, with more money than he had – more than he expected – more responsibility and opportunity, and everything. I remained faithful to that letter I knew would come when he would write it. And all I did, I heard him tell me (mentally) what he would tell me were it true, and I never wavered.

So, I only ask you to be as faithful to any imaginal state in this world, no matter what it is. In everyone God resides. Everyone has to say, “I am.” That is God. I am Einstein, I am Neville. I AM is God. Neville is a tiny thing resting on the foundation that is God. I am rich – that is a tiny thing on the foundation of God, and God is Infinity, God is Everything. Therefore, whatever you say, before you say it, you say, “I am” – and you listen and you notice the four men who brought him in, brought him in paralyzed. He isn’t that at all. But they deny it – the four senses are bringing him in and the four senses deny it, the four senses ignore it.

When you call on the name of God, you don’t say in the name of God, so-and-so; you ask with the name of God, and to ask with the name of God you say: “I AM wealthy, healthy, secure” – then you believe it. If you ask with the name of God and believe it mentally, you will see the world as you have never seen it before you made the claim, and remain faithful to that claim and it must crystallize in your world.

This is this principle and it goes with every being in the world, regardless of nationality or pigment of skin. It is all God. Everyone has to say, “I am” before he says, “I am – this . . .” “I am a man” – you say, “I am” before you said, “man.” “I am American,” “I am Indian,” “I am Japanese,” “I am Chinese.” What kind of a being would you like to be? You name it. “I AM” is doing it. Take this fabulous world of ours and take all your dreams and put them on the only foundation – no other foundation than God – and God is I AM.

So, the paralytic came here tonight in all of us, and we were borne on the backs of four men, and the four are our four senses: sight, scent, [sound], taste, and touch. Taste and touch are joined into one because they depend on contact. These are the four streams – the four rivers of life that come from the Garden of Eden. Any moment of time we are in the presence of I AM! Let him forgive me my sin. I forgive myself by daring to assume I am what I would like to be and assuming that I walk in that assumption and it crystallizes into fact. No power in the world can stop it – but none!

When we speak of sin, don’t let anyone scare you about sin. He comes to forgive the sinner. His only interest is in the sinner. The so-called moral violations – forget it! I do not ask you to violate them, but forget them. Everything will be ironed out. It is my duty. Through the consciousness of Paul, Ezekiel, Jesus – “If I don’t tell you what I know of God’s law, then your sin is upon my head; but if I tell you and you still will not believe me, you will die in your sin, but your blood will not be upon my head.” So Paul said: “I will tell them. I have declared the entire counsel of God to them, so I am innocent of their blood.” Infinite states. A man falls into a state and so he is in the state, but he is not the state. Take him out of the state by saying while he is in the state: “What would you like?” and he names the state that he would like to enter. And you put him into that state by asking what it would be like if he were now the thing he would like to be; and you remain faithful – leaving him where he is – but you remain faithful to this concept and he comes out of it. On reflection, he might say: “It would have happened anyway.” It is all right – you know. Tell everyone the story, and tell them it is entirely up to them. If they believe it – as we are told: “If you do not believe I AM He you die in your sins.” (John 8) When you read it, you might think a man is telling you: I am God, and you are not. The whole story is taking place in the soul of man. That is the story.

Now he tells us the truth: “You shall know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.” And they complained: “we are free.” Here they are enslaved, and we thought we were free. We are Americans, we are free. To what extent are we free? You can’t pay the rent or buy the food, and we think we are free. I can only be free if I know the art of forgiving sin, and the only one that can forgive sin is God – and God’s name is “I AM.”

In this world today, in our wonderful land, there are hundred of thousands in prisons physically – but they are Americans. There are hundreds of thousands who are unemployed, who can’t pay the rent. Free? They are Americans. I say go and tell every being in the world the story of God – as told us in both the Old and New Testament – and set them free. They can be free if they know who they are. I must tell them the story. There is not one being in jail tonight, if you ask him who he is and how old he is, he will say: “I am John Smith, and I am . . .” and he will tell you his age. But before all these things, he tells you “I am.” I have seen this, you see. It frightens people, as you are told in Matthew 9:8: “When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.”

In San Francisco, when I told this story, a lady who sat in my audience had just received notice from the army that her brother had been tried, court marshaled, and sentenced to six months of hard labor. She went home and said: “If this man is telling the truth, I can set him free.” She sat in her hotel apartment where she would see if anyone came in. She lost herself in the imaginal state that the bell was ringing and she ran down the stairs, threw the door open, and embraced a brother who was waiting there. She did it for one solid week. The next Sunday morning, before she came to my meeting, it happened. When she came to my meeting, she could not restrain the impulse to rise and she jumped up in the audience of 1,000 and said she must tell the story, and she told it. He was honorably discharged, though he had been court marshaled and sentenced to six months at hard labor.

Everyone can be forgiven. He is not the same being he was – whatever he did to warrant the court martial – why should he pay the last ounce, if she could redeem him by pulling him out of the state that caused him to do whatever he did. If I am pulled out of the state into another state – if I had someone tonight who was the most horrible beast in the world and I am determined to make him a loving, nice person, then he comes into my world and demonstrates his kindness by his act, by everything – he is not the same being he was when I disliked him – the same immortal soul, but he is in a different state. Always I was judging the state, but should I keep him in that state and make him pay a price that belongs only to that state? You see, there is such a thing in this world as God’s mercy. No sins can be expiated unless God intervenes and is merciful – for you are God and you can intervene. He gave it to you. Only God can forgive sin, and you can forgive sin: therefore, are you not he? God is merciful. Can’t you be merciful and completely transform any being in the world? And oh! What a thrill it is to transform a being and see them different in a little while!

So I ask you to try it, it cannot fail. But believe the statement in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses.” We have actually trespassed. We have heard a rumor and we got off the beam. We see the signs all over the place: “No Trespassing,” but we step upon it. Don’t. No matter what you hear of anyone, have no ears to hear it unless it is something lovely, for they are only discussing a state, and they are keeping that being in a state. Don’t listen. Pull everyone out, but don’t forget to pull yourself out. Put yourself into the most glorious state of being successful, being wanted, being happy. You try it. I promise you it will not fail you.

Now let us go in to the silence.

YOU CAN NEVER OUTGROW I AM

December 22, 2013

A man can never outgrow or lose the God he knows in a first person, present tense experience. And when he finds this God he tells his brothers, saying: “If I had not come and spoken to you, you would have no sin, but now you have no excuse for your sins.” God reveals himself to man as his eternal contemporary, saying: “Unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins,” but man finds it almost impossible to keep the tense. He thinks of God in the third person, addresses him in the second person, but can only know God in a first person, present tense experience. Just imagine – no one can sin until God reveals himself to the individual in a first person, present tense experience. Only then can man have no excuse for his sin. And when one who finds God tells his brothers, he receives no greater reception than the first one did, because they see him as a man of flesh and blood, and cannot see this invisible being who says: “I came down from heaven.” Man is looking for Christ to come from without, but his revelation is whispered from within.

“I tell you: I have been crucified with Christ. It is not I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” In that act he, whose name is I AM, became me. And if I do not believe that my I amness is he, I will die in my sin.

When asked to identify his Father, he said: “If you knew me, you would not ask, for no man can know me without knowing God, for he and I are one.” This is not a physical man speaking to another, but self speaking to self. What child is not aware that he (or she) is? And to be aware is to say, “I am,” the name God revealed to Moses on the mountaintop. All things are possible to God, but man has difficulty keeping the tense. He speaks of God in third person, prays to God in the second person, but can only know God in first person, present tense, for “I am the Lord, thy God and besides me there is no other God.” In the 50th Psalm these words are put into the mouth of David: “Against thee and against thee only have I sinned.” Only I, who must know myself in a first person present tense experience, have sinned and I have only sinned against myself!

Do you believe that Jesus Christ is in you as your very self? Are you willing to test yourself? Let me tell you of one lady who did. Many years ago while living in a rooming house in Brooklyn, with very little money, this lady started each day with these words: “I am a very wealthy woman. I have $50,000 in cash.” Every Sunday morning she would go to the corner and buy a Sunday Times for her neighbor, Miss Mead, who was a little old lady living frugally and rarely left the house. Within a year after this lady began starting her day claiming her wealth, Miss Mead died, leaving her $50,000 in cash, plus jewelry valued in excess of $30,000. She received an estate of over $100,000 by keeping God in the present tense.

My friend has now found him and I want all who hear me to find him, for when you find this God you will never outgrow – and therefore never lose – him, for you can never grow outside of self. You may believe in astrology, and outgrowing that belief you may then believe in tea leaves. Outgrowing that, you will find something else to believe in as you grow and outgrow, grow and outgrow; but you cannot outgrow the God you find in the first person, present tense, for when you find him to be your I amness, you have found the only God. One day everyone will find him and join their brothers who, already awakened, are in eternity contemplating this world of death, watching for the little stir of life.

I have been sent to tell you these things, for if I had not come and spoken to you, you would have no sin. You could not miss the mark because you did not have any, but now you have no excuse for missing it. I have revealed God to you in first person saying: “He who sees me sees him who sent me.” I was sent by my Father, he whom you call God, only I know my Father and you know not your God, for I know that I and my Father are one.

In the 1st chapter of Colossians, Paul tells us: “The gospel which you have heard has been preached to every creature under heaven,” and in the 3rd chapter of Galatians he states: “The scripture, foreseeing that all would be saved through faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” In the state of faith called Abraham we heard the story and then went astray. Falling asleep, we forgot our true identity and worshiped idols. Speaking of God in the third person, and to him in the second person, we have forgotten the God who gave us birth. Yet I tell you: God is eternally contemporary for he is our awareness of being.

Now, without faith it is impossible to please God, and faith does work on this level. Everything you possess was brought into being through faith, and the glory of faith lies in its power to link us to the heavenly realm. Having heard salvationï¿½s story, can you have faith in this divine vision (which is the gospel) in the time of trouble? No matter what happens to you, can you center yourself upon the vision? Can you believe that, housed within you as your I amness, is the only creative power in the world? I hope so, because your faith in God is measured by your confidence in yourself.

When you imagine a state, do you believe that the scene has the power to externalize itself? Or do you feel you must pray to a being on the outside for help? I tell you: there is no being on the outside. The creative power of the world is housed within you now. Sit down and imagine a state of confidence that it must externalize itself. Believe that because all things are possible to imagine, the state you have imagined must become an external fact.

I have tried this time and time again, and it has always proved itself in performance. Now I share this knowledge with everyone who will listen. How many believe my words and put them into practice I do not know. I only know that man finds it hard to keep the tense. Religious leaders speak of God in the third person as if he were on the outside, yet I tell you he comes from within. When Moses heard the words: “I AM has sent me unto you,” it seemed to come from without, yet it was whispered from within.

There is no evidence of an historical Jesus Christ. We have the essence of Christ, but not an historical one. The being within me that is speaking, is the Christ, but that which is talking to you is only a garment. Everyone knows its background. Its parents are known, its physical brothers and its limitations; yet the being wearing this garment of flesh came out from God who is my Father, for I am from above. The body I wear is from below. I am in the world but not of it, for the being who awoke within me is the one speaking to you now. It is not the same being who entertains guests in our home or enjoys dining in a good restaurant, for this being is not in any way a part of this world. This is the being in you that I am trying to reach tonight, trying to stir and awaken to return to the one grand I AM.

Believe me when I tell you the only purpose in life is to discover who you are. Against thee, O Lord, and thee only have I sinned. Addressing him in the second person as “against thee,” he realizes the Lord is within him; that he is the “I” of man who inspired the prophets to write what they did. Having conceived the play and coming out from the Father to play it, “I” must fulfill what I foretold I would do, and I will.

Christianity is based upon the affirmation that a certain series of supernatural events happened in which God revealed himself in action for the salvation of man. I have experienced every one of these events. As each event took place I recorded the date in my bible, even to a simple little one like: “What you must do, do quickly.” Against that statement I marked the date of October 10, 1966, for I had been preaching to a group of twelve men, all seated on the floor, when one man jumped up and departed quickly. Then a man dressed in costly robes entered, approached me and unveiled my arm revealing the arm of the Lord. But the one who revealed it moved quickly, as that simple statement dictated.

The words of the Lord recorded in the red letter edition of the Bible will be fulfilled by you. Whether he quotes the Old Testament or relates to it, you are predestined to fulfill the red letters recorded there.

The entire drama has unfolded in me, so I know the perfect pattern that God sent into the world. We are told the first shall be last, and the last first. In the story the last act is recorded as the crucifixion yet it is the first. I have been crucified with Christ. It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loves me and gave himself for me by actually becoming me. His name is I AM. That’s the Lord God Jehovah, who is Christ. He is God the Father who became you. His death – in the sense of complete forgetfulness as to his true identity and belief that he is actually you – is your life. It is this being who tells you: “Unless I die thou can’st not live, but if I die I shall rise again and thou with me.” He rose in me. He proved that he could die and rise, for when he rose I rose knowing I AM He. He became me in the most intimate way by becoming my awareness. Then he talked to me and revealed himself to me from within my very self. In the beginning the words seemed to come from another, as though someone on the outside had spoken them; yet they were whispered from within as everything said of Jesus Christ unfolded in me.

Can you accept my words and keep the tense? It is so very important to do so, for if you turn to the second person, or the third, you have created a false God and a false Jesus Christ. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? For unless you believe that your I amness is He you will die in your sins. Put the little word ‘is’ in the sentence: “Unless you believe that I am is He, you die in your sins,” to give it meaning, for without it you may think a being on the outside is speaking and keeping you from missing the mark. If you want to be rich and do not believe that you are the cause of wealth, then you will go on missing the mark by remaining poor. The true goal is to know God is your own wonderful human imagination. This God you will never lose, for when he reveals himself within you it is in a first person, present tense experience.

As God unfolds himself within you he doesn’t call himself “God,” but “I AM.” It was “I” who awoke and rose in that tomb; no one else was there. I had no help getting out; “I” pushed the stone away myself. And when I looked back to see that out of which I came, I saw the three witnesses as recorded in Genesis. It is said that Abraham (the state of faith in which I started) was seated by the door of his tent in the heat of the day when the three men appeared. As one spoke concerning the child, Abraham knew he was the Lord. That child is Isaac, which means, “he laughs.” I found that promised child. Like Simeon, I took that promised child in my arms and he laughed.

So who is Christ? And who is the Lord? Did scripture not fulfill itself in me? I have come only to fulfill scripture, and this I have done. I know I am the temple of the Living God, for my body was torn from top to bottom. I found my son, He who was set up in the beginning to reveal me as the Father. This is not what the priesthoods teach; but I am telling you what I have experienced, for I have found David. He cried unto me: “Thou art my Father.”

I do not care what the priesthoods of the world may say; I am telling you what I know from experience. If they do not believe in me, they will continue to live in sin by worshipping a false God. All the priesthoods and rabbis worship an idol, for the true God cannot be worshipped in any tense other than the present. His name is I Am. No picture on a wall or statue in a garden is the Lord. “Make no graven image unto me.” If you do not see him as yourself you will not find him, and when he comes he reveals himself through his son calling you Father. This you set up in the beginning and then you agreed to play all the parts. Not one part can you condemn, for all contribute to the end when you find God. The goal of life is to find him, not on the outside, but within yourself in the first person, present tense. The world thinks I am insane when I tell them who I am, for they see the garment of flesh I wear and know I am subject to all its weaknesses. But because the drama of the scripture has unfolded within me, I know how true scripture is.

I cannot describe the joy that is yours when you awaken. I can only say that the world into which I go night after night is entirely different, and earth does not contain anything which I can use as an image to describe that world. I return through darkness into this world every day to share my experiences with everyone who will listen, while some believe me and some do not. My most intimate friends may not believe me, for they know and judge me by my human weaknesses. My brothers, knowing we were sired by the same father and came out of the same mother’s womb, cannot believe my experiences are related to scripture. But I am not asking you to believe in Neville, but to believe in God who is your own wonderful human awareness.

I have been sent to tell you who God is. He who sent me is one with me, for although he seemed to be another when I stood in his presence, when we embraced we fused and became one. The recording angel, the ledger, the being of love who embraced me, is within. In the beginning I foreknew myself. Through foreknowledge I was predestined to be called from the world of death, called from within myself by an infinite being of love, wearing the human form divine, to be embraced and sent. And the moment we embraced we fused, and I knew myself to be infinite love. There had been a seeming separation when I entered a world that was not mine, to experience all of its horrors until its end when I am called, acquitted, justified, and glorified. Now there is nothing left for me to do but tell it to everyone who will listen and urge them to set their entire hope upon this grace which is coming to all at the unveiling of Christ in each individual, in the first person, present tense.

While you are here you can become independently secure, certainly. All of these things are possible to you, but the real objective in your life is to find God, the cause of all life. To believe in God does not aid you. The question is: do you believe in yourself? Can you believe you are rich when you have no money? Can you continue to believe it throughout the day and fall asleep night after night as though you were? If you will, you will become rich. Then fulfill another desire and then another, and one day you will discover the one who made it possible. That one is God.

Millions of people claim to believe in God in the third person, but they do not know God. Only when God reveals himself in the first person, present tense can he be known. That God cannot be outgrown or lost, for you cannot outgrow I am. I am is the theme of the Book of John, which goes back to the 3rd chapter of the Book of Exodus, the 14th verse, as: “Go say, ‘I am has sent me to you.” As a man, I am revealing God’s true name, but those who hear my words know the outer garment I wear and judge it. They know my weaknesses, but they do not know the Lord. I tell you: when you know the Lord (or rather are known by him) you will experience a thrill that is beyond description. Your shock will turn to joy, however, as the drama of one called Jesus Christ unfolds within you.

In the meantime you can test him in the world of Caesar. There is no limit to his power, so take that power which became you and attach it to your desire. Sleep every night so attached to your desire that you feel its reality, and in no time you will prove my words. Within a year the lady in New York City received her $50,000, pressed down and running over. She knew exactly what she did and would never have guessed that the little old lady she bought the paper for every Sunday morning would be used as the means to give her the wealth she claimed. This lady has found God, yet she is still inclined to speak of him in the third person.

Man is in the habit of thinking of God and not as God. It is so easy to forget to keep the tense. Every good, well-trained Jew is familiar with the first five books of the Old Testament. They have read the Book of Exodus many times and believe God is the great I AM; yet they still think of him in the third person. They would think that anyone who boldly stood up and proclaimed, “I Am He” was arrogant; yet I tell you that is the only way you will ever find God.

But when he comes, there is no need to brag about it. You know who you are, and when they call you by your earthly name you respond. Perhaps you will have dinner together, but they will continue to be totally unaware of the being within you, and you don’t always throw pearls before swine, because they are not prepared to receive them. You will join their party and enjoy the evening as you let the outer man play his part, but you know the inner man, the one they know not of. That man is Jesus Christ.

There is only one Christ. Everyone has been crucified with that one Christ can make the statement: “It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in this body of flesh and blood, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” God actually became as you are, that you may rise to the one being called God the Father. As one power, we came down from God to become the gods. In order to descend in power and play these parts we had to enter complete forgetfulness. The actor cannot pretend. He must enter and become the part he has agreed to play. He cannot step upon the stage knowing he is a great actor who everyone recognizes. He must lose himself in the character by leaving his personality in the dressing room and entering the stage as the character he is to portray. So when God stepped upon the stage wearing this, he is Neville, one hundred per cent. He had to completely forget that he was God, yet knowing that he brought with him a pattern which would erupt and his memory would return. I agreed to play the part as Neville. He and I are one, but I am greater than he.

Look upon Jesus Christ as a pattern. I have told you how the pattern erupted in me in the hope that you will believe me. Although a few believe my words, the majority disbelieve fulfilling scripture. “He came unto his own and his own believed him not.” What I tell you and what you are capable of conceiving may be entirely different. Can you receive what I tell you as my own personal experience? I can tell you that scripture is true from beginning to end, but can you believe me enough to set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the unveiling of God within you? I hope so, for God is in you as your I am. And when he awakes you go through a series of supernatural events called Jesus Christ. Then you will tell your experiences to those who will listen in the hope that they will accept them; but it does not matter if they do or do not, for in the end, you take off your garment of flesh and return to an intimacy that is indescribable.

Eyes have not seen or ears heard the things that are already prepared for you. In that world you are in control of everything and everything is alive. Every night I pass beyond the world of dream to enter the world of reality, and I return each morning through the world of dream to reenter this world of death. This I do night after night, and will continue to do until that moment in time when it pleases the depth of my own being (who is the Father) to take off this garment of flesh and call it a day.

Remember, you can only sin against that self of you who is God. And any time you think of God in any tense other than the first person, present, you are entertaining an idol, no matter what you call it. If you leave this auditorium tonight conscious of being God, you are walking in the knowledge of the true God and all things are possible to you. Walk in complete trust that things are as you want them to be. This is loyalty to unseen reality. This is faith. There are only two things that displease God: One is lack of faith in I AM He, and the other is eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Before descending into the land of forgetfulness you made yourself a promise that one day your memory would return and you would realize you were the creator of it all, for God gave you himself. He actually became you, as told in the story of Melchizedek. He had no father, no mother, no beginning, and no end. In the end you become a priest after the order of Melchizedek, knowing the whole vast infinite universe was created by and sustained by you. Now, this is really incredible. I recently read that the great Einstein said: “I rejoice in the discovery of the uniformity of the laws of nature and whoever is behind it that we call the Lord. But that man should survive the disintegration of the brain, to me is unthinkable.” If a man as wonderful as Einstein feels that the story of the gospel is unthinkable, then condemn no one. You can’t deny Einstein’s greatness. He was tender, kind and sincere; but in spite of that gentility he was quite satisfied to dwell in the uniformity of the laws of nature and whoever is behind it.

I tell you there is one behind it all. He so loved you he became you and the day is coming when you will know that you are he. You will know you are not the creation of the city, but its creator. You are not the made, but the maker. Whether you are male or female, you are the emanation of the Lord yet his wife till the sleep of death is past. Then you will awake to know you never left your heavenly home, you were never born and never die, save in your dreams.

Now let us go into the silence.

YOUR HUSBAND

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 02-02-1968

Probably one of the most misunderstood verses in the Bible is recorded in the 3rd chapter of Genesis, the 16th verse: “The Lord said to the woman, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you.”

In this fabulous world of ours, many accept this statement literally and believe that the children spoken of here come from the womb of woman and the male is the husband and ruler; however in the 54th chapter of Isaiah, you are told: “Your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name.”

Humanity (male and female) is God’s emanation, yet his wife, ’til the sleep of death is past’. Regardless of your sex you are the woman the Lord spoke to in this 3rd chapter of Genesis. Your children are not those brought forth from the womb of woman, but from your imagination! Your husband (the Lord of hosts) will sire every idea you fall in love with, no matter how horrible it may be. And being protean, God has the power to play every part and assume every shape in the world.

Let us take a vivid example. When Hitler and his Third Reich came into power, unnumbered happily married women who loved their husbands and children fell in love with the concept of a superior race – a Germanic race who would enslave humanity. And as the idea caught fire in their minds, these women had an affair with Hitler in their dreams. It was not the person, Hitler, that they had union with, but the state he personified – just as you, if you are completely honest with yourself, have fallen in love with an idea (a state) and met its personification in soft Beulah’s night and had an affair. Then in the morning you have looked at your husband and experienced pain, for not understanding the mystery of Christ, you thought you had an affair with a person. But the man involved could have been playing cards, getting drunk, or sound asleep in his own bed and be completely oblivious to you as a person. He was merely the personification of a state which you accepted and yielded to in soft Beulah’s night, but by that act you multiplied and replenished the earth with the same idea, the same state!

It is impossible to kill an idea, for the moment an idea is accepted, it is conceived and the earth replenished. You cannot kill a state by cutting off the occupant’s head, shooting [him], or putting the man in prison. The occupant may depart, but the state remains for anyone to fall in love with. These are false gods, which will multiply your pain and cause you to go through literal hell as you bring forth these ideas as your children.

Look into your own mind, and if you are perfectly honest with yourself you will remember having had union with someone other than your mate in this world, not knowing he (or she) was only a state of consciousness personified. You do not have union with the person, but the state the person represents, for your Maker is your husband who is playing the part of the person.

If this night you really believe what I teach and fall in love with it, you may find yourself in soft Beulah’s night having union with the being who personifies it. You may think it is with the personification called Neville, but it is union with the state. As Neville I may be entertaining someone at my home, enjoying a lovely drink, or reading the Bible as I do all through the day, and be totally oblivious of you and what you are doing. If you really believe what I say, accept it, and live by it, it is quite possible and highly probable that you will have union with this idea. And although he may wear my face, you are having union with God your Father, who is your own wonderful I Amness.

The Bible recognizes only one source, only one cause of all things. That one source is God, who – as a protean being – plays all the parts in history. He animates you, as you are his wife. And when you fall in love with something other than the true God and seek false gods, your sorrow is multiplied, and in pain you bring forth your children.

I recall a friend of mine who has now departed this world. Born in Boston to a very poor family, she hungered for the glamour of the theatrical life. Although she danced as one with two left feet, her mother brought her to New York City, where George M. Cohan was casting a show. Hiring a young dancer from Denmark, he was given the right to pick the girls for his chorus. Although this girl could not dance he chose her, and within a year they were married. This marriage produced three beautiful children.

The lovely girl had a desire for glamour, for pomp and circumstance, so during soft Beulah’s night she had affair after affair after affair with everyone from the Pope to the Prince of Wales, thereby perpetuating the belief in pomp and circumstance. Now, don’t blame the Pope, for he didn’t know her – or the Prince of Wales, as they only personified the state she desired to express. She loved seeing the Pope being carried on the back of strong, strapping men, extending his hand to be kissed. Wanting to be part of that world, she was always having union with those who personified it.

Now, if you are Catholic you may be shocked, but don’t think the Pope or the Prince of Wales is exempt from this action, as it is part of the great drama in which we all are cast. She has played her part and spent the last fifteen years of her life as a wino, giving her body to anyone for a bottle of wine. She wedded herself to a false god and greatly multiplied her sorrows. In pain she brought forth the children of her strange gods, yet her desire remained for her husband. God is your husband – your center and the very core of your being. No matter what you do, you are still seeking God. So while she was seeking wine for the last fifteen years of her life here, she was still seeking – not her husband, who came from Denmark, but her true husband, her Maker, who is the Lord of Hosts, the Father of the child!

In the 2nd chapter of Paul’s 1st Letter to Timothy, the statement is made: “Woman is saved by the birth of children.” This is false. The footnote in the Revised Standard Version gives you the Greek, and the true translation as: “by the birth of the child.” It’s not by bearing children (all these ideas) that one is saved, but by bearing the child! When you give yourself completely over to the gospel story you are ready, and God will assume the mask of the one who is expressing it at the moment. Then you will have union with that being and bear the child!

So when you have these dreams, don’t feel strange and condemn yourself. Everyone has had similar experiences. If you resist the union in dream it is because the idea represented there is foreign to you; but when your desire is something you really want to make alive and it is expressed – be it good, bad, or indifferent – you will have union with it and feel no shame, in spite of the whole vast world looking on, for this is the world in which we live.

In the 9th chapter of Luke, Jesus asked his disciples: “Who do people say that I am?” And they answered: “John the Baptist, or Elijah, or one of the risen prophets.” Then he turned to them and asked: “But who do you say that I am?” Peter then became the spokesman for the group and said: “You are the Christ of God.” Commanding them to tell no one, he said: “The Son of man must suffer and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes. He must be killed, but on the third day he will rise again.”

Jesus did not deny Peter’s confession, but declined to make it public until he had reinterpreted the popular messianic concept in terms of his own experience. From time to time, one who has experienced the true story of salvation comes into the world and tells it. Then all the elders, scribes, and priests, who carry on the traditions of men, will deny it. This is eternally so; that is why he declined to make it public. The scribes, teaching the traditions of men, claim Christ is coming from without – but I tell you he comes from within! I tell you that God became your very “self” that you may become God.

Playing all the parts, God lets you go anywhere and meet anyone. And when you fall in love with a state, he will play the part of the state expressed, and in soft Beulah’s night you will have an affair. He will play the part of a Stalin or a Hitler, a Pope or a prince, if you are in love with the state of consciousness. And you will give yourself willingly to him, thereby multiplying and perpetuating that state in the world. In the morning you may be ashamed of your act when you face the one who bears your name (or whose name you now bear), but at the time you had no choice in the matter, for God in you – who is your husband and Maker – played the part. Being protean, if you meet a dog or cat, see a bird or fish in your dreams, it is because God is playing their parts. No matter what the animal, remember: God is playing its part in order for you to become one, for in the end he will leave all others and cleave to you, his wife, until you become one being, one body, one Spirit, one hope, one God and Father of all.

Now let me share a letter I have been waiting to receive since the 15th of December. This lady’s home is in a small, rustic canyon. One day she spent the afternoon in Los Angeles with a casual acquaintance, and had just returned home, when she heard the phone ringing. She was being called by the casual friend, who appeared to be quite distressed. Inviting the lady to join her for dinner, she returned to Los Angeles, where the lady asked her to spend the night. It seemed strange to her to agree, but after spending several hours reading aloud to the lady, they retired and she fell asleep. Then she said: “At 3:30 in the morning a peculiar, cold wind caused me to awake. The room contained an eerie light, when out of nowhere my two brothers – whom I haven’t seen in over forty years – appeared, along with my landlord, who is like a brother to me. The three take their positions, two at my feet and one at my head. Picking up an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, my older brother said: “She is too old to have a baby.” Then he placed it in my arms, and as I looked at the child I began to smile. The child then responded and extended its arms toward me, when I awoke on the bed.”

Then she continues: “About five months later, I saw a young boy in his teens coming toward me out of the canyons. He had blond hair and blue eyes, and as I looked at him I knew he was David. Passing me, he headed for the sea, and I watched until he was out of sight. I didn’t have to ask him: ‘Whose son are you?’ because I knew he was mine.

“Four months later, again at 3:30 in the morning, I was awakened by the sound of an earthquake, followed by a loud bomb. Suddenly my entire being was broken from top to bottom. I felt myself outside of my body, looking at it as though I were another. The left shoulder had fallen a bit and when I returned to the body moments later, I felt pain on the left side. Now I await the fourth vision, which is the descent of the dove.”

I can’t tell you my thrill when I look over this audience and see how many are awakening. In the 9th chapter of Luke, it is said: “Truly, truly I say unto you, there are some here who will not taste of death until they have seen the kingdom of God.” The babe is the key to that kingdom! When Simeon held the child in his arms, he said: “Now Lord let thy servant depart in peace, for my eyes have seen the salvation of Israel.” So to have held the child is to have witnessed the kingdom of God. This kingdom is a character, an entirely different concept of creative power- not a place in time or space! And you are that character when you are one with your creative power, there to create what you want!

The child is a symbol of your entrance, and there are some standing here who will not experience the phenomenon that men call death before experiencing the kingdom of God! Although this audience can be counted on your fingers, there are so many here who have experienced the truth and so many on the verge of it, that my joy is boundless; for if you owned the entire world and were not awake, what would it matter! No matter how wealthy you are here, the day will come when you will depart to discover that you have left your billions behind. You will be in a body like this one, only incredibly young, in a terrestrial world just like this to continue to have blind unions with strange gods, not knowing that your Maker is your husband – the Lord of hosts is his name.

The search for your real husband is on! You have gone into strange lands and had union with strange states personified by man. Falling in love with a state, its personification always confronts you in a dream, the mask being worn by your husband, who did it without the person’s consent or knowledge. As an innocent bystander, the person will never know he was used. He was simply the personification of certain beliefs which inflamed your mind, and confronted by your real husband – who is the Lord of hosts – you submitted to them.

All of the characters in scripture are played by God. It is He who plays the part of the angel in the story of Abraham and Sarah. Read it carefully and you will notice that the voice changes from that of an angel to the voice of God. When Abraham is told: “Your wife will have a son,” Sarah laughed because they were both so old and it had long ceased to be with her after the manner of women. Now, the child promised to the Sarah in everyone is the child of which I speak. You are God’s emanation and he has promised that, in spite of your age, you will have a son. Blake put is so beautifully when he said:

“Whom God has afflicted for secret ends,
he comforts and heals and calls them friend.”

Although you go astray, following false gods, false beliefs, God will always bring you back; but you will suffer, for you must experience the messianic pains of childbearing. Then one day you will find the one husband and fall in love with his promise. And you will meet someone who personifies salvation’s story and have union with him. But he will be totally unaware of the fact that you so fell in love with the idea that he sponsors, and will never know of your experience unless you tell him.

Having been sent from on high to tell you who “I AM”, you may believe me or resent my message; but I, a person called Neville, am totally unaware, totally innocent of anything that happens to you in your dreams. Leading you now toward what you believe in, your husband will assume my mask and play the role I personify in your dream. Change your beliefs and he will assume another mask and play that part, as you multiply and replenish the earth with ideas of which you are in love!

Don’t think that communism or democracy can be destroyed. If I believe in democracy as a form of government, it is an idea. You can kill me, but you can never kill the ideas I entertain. This morning’s paper tells of those who have been stealing from the government. Why should we be taken aback when we see dishonesty among officials? From the very beginning they are encouraged by example to make what gain they can from their positions. Seeing what their superiors did and got away with, they have union with the idea and awaken to that state of consciousness. Then they suffer, for this is bearing the children of a false god.

Examine your thoughts. Are they ones you want to bear in this world? Are they calling forth false gods? False ideas? If so, “I will multiply your pain in childbearing, yet your desire shall be for your husband.” The Lord is always ruling, always willing to assume any role and play it for you as he leads you towards himself. And when you meet the true God you will discover that you were the actor all along, for you and He will be One. Blake said it so beautifully:

“Joy and woe have woven fine
a garment for my Soul divine.”

In Blake’s “Marriage of Heaven and Hell,” he gave us this true revelation: “God only acts and Is in existing Beings or men.” Let this thought burn itself into your mind. God is a thought in action! Imagine something and God is acting! God only acts and is. Every moment in time, whether in this the waking world or the world of sleep, God is and only God acts! At night in dream, God plays the part of the state you are attached to at the moment or falling in love with. If you like the state, God will assume its personification and you will yield to become one with him. Then in the morning you will awaken with the memory of what happened and multiply your world with the idea. You will give your life, if necessary, to get your idea over to the world, even though it is the most nonsensical thing possible. This you will continue to do until the child is born and your journey is over.

In the 16th chapter of John, we are told: “When a woman is in labor with all the pain that possesses her it is only because the hour has come. But after the child is delivered she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a child has been born into the world.” Life consists of the children you have borne and are bearing, and life is very painful. You must pay rent or bear the consequences. You must buy food or go hungry. You must buy clothes or be embarrassed. You must pay taxes, drink water, and breathe air. Man has discovered how to tax the water you drink, but as yet has not found a way to tax the air you breathe. Give him time and I’m sure he will! We are already taxed to the bursting point. You go to work, and at the end of the year you pay taxes to someone who doesn’t exist! We call him “Uncle Sam,” but he is invisible! There is no Uncle Sam, yet he puts his hands in our pockets and takes from us what we could spend in a far better way than he does. So you see: that 3rd chapter, the 16th verse of Genesis is true: “I will greatly multiply your pain in child bearing.” If you entertain the idea of war or famine, fame or fortune, you shall bring forth their children and your pain will be multiplied in child bearing, yet your desire will be for your husband who is the Lord, your Maker.

Even though you are not aware of it now, your husband is suffering with you and will continue to, until you hear the gospel with understanding and believe the incredible story that God actually became you that you could become God the Father. Then to prove that God actually gave himself to you, you will see his only son, David, and – like the lady – you will not have to ask: “Whose son are you?” You will know he is your son, and he will know that regardless of your sex here, you are his Father. When that experience is yours, you will stop giving yourself to false gods and obey your husband by fulfilling the divine formula of salvation.

Now let us go into the silence.

neville goddard imagining creates reality

YOUR MAKER

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 01-07-1969

Your maker is your husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name. By him all things are made, and although he is an unseen activity within you, without him is not anything made that is made. I ask you, as Paul asked the Corinthians, to examine yourselves to see if you are holding to your faith. To test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Chris is in you? – unless, of course, you fail to meet the test. I tell you: Jesus Christ is a power within you, which you must find and test. Paul didn’t say that Jesus Christ made only the good, but everything – be it good, bad, or indifferent. And Blake said: “I know of no other Christianity and of no other gospel than the liberty both of body and mind to exercise the divine arts of Imagination. Imagination, the real and external world into which we will live [sic] when these vegetable, mortal bodies are no more. The apostles knew of no other gospel.”

Now, John Mills defines causation as the assemblage of phenomena, which occurring, some other phenomena commence to appear in the world. In other words, causation is the assemblage of an imaginal state implying the fulfillment of desire, which feeling will activate and produce in the world. And H. G. Wells put it this way: “Throughout the ages, life is nothing more than a continuing solution to a continuous synthetic problem,” How many times have you said to yourself: if I only had x-number of dollars I could live comfortably, then inflation appears and you are forced to use your creative power to construct an imaginal solution to your new problem.

Webster defines a synthetic body as the compiling of separate elements which produce a new form. In this world you will never find permanency, for something will penetrate the state you are now occupying and force you to conceive a new solution. This is how it is done. Do not judge the problem – rather ask yourself what its solution would be. Suppose you were in jail. The solution would be to be out of jail, pardoned, and sleeping in your own home. So, while still confronted with the problem, and lying on your cot in jail, you would close your eyes to the cell and feel you are now home, as a free man. Then fall asleep allowing the maker of all things to create that which will be seen out of that which does not appear.

A few years ago, a lady in my San Francisco audience rose and said: “My brother is in the army. I do not know what he did to cause his punishment, but he has been sentenced to six months of hard labor, and I want him set free.” After establishing the fact that he would go to her apartment if he were free, I urged her to imagine he was there now. That night, this lady imagined hearing the doorbell ring. Rushing down the stairs, she opened the door to find her brother standing there, a free man. She rehearsed that scene over and over again until it seemed natural to her. One week later, while sitting in her apartment, the doorbell rang. She ran downstairs, opened the door, and embraced her brother – who told her he was honorably discharged. Who brought the action against him, or who discharged him I do not know. I only know the brother did not run away from the punishment, for the lady came to my meeting the next Sunday and shared her story with all who were there. Now, if she hadn’t known this principle and put it into practice, she would have remained at home, angry and frustrated for six months until her brother was released.

All things are made by your imagination, for without imagining, nothing is made. Imagination is not limited to this level of consciousness. There are levels and levels of imagination, as your dreams and visions prove. This world is sustained by Divine Imagining, which is human imagining on a higher level. Our imagination is keyed low, but we are called upon to exercise this power, to examine ourselves to see if we are keeping our faith. On this level, faith is not complete until, through experiment, it becomes experience. Experiment with this statement: “Whatever you desire, believe you have received it and you will.” (Mark 11) If faith is not complete until, through experiment it becomes experience, you must take an unseen objective and place it in an assemblage of mental states which would imply its fulfillment. Then this desire must be activated by entering into its center, feeling its reality, and walking in the faith that it will happen. I tell you: in a way you could not devise, what you have assumed will come into your world.

You do not have to construct a bridge of incident to walk across; you simply move toward the fulfillment of what you have already prepared for yourself. Then fulfill another desire the same way, and when it appears you will know exactly what to do when confronted with any problem. You will simply turn your back upon it by constructing an imaginal scene which would imply the fulfillment of its solution. Activate it and let it come into being.

Unfortunately it is so easy to make the acceptance of Christianity a substitute for living by it. In New York City alone there are more than one million people on relief, and I dare say 90 per cent of them claim to be Christians, yet do not know the meaning of Christianity. Christ is not on the outside, but within you. And when He appears you will be like him. That is what we are promised in the Book of John. Will you see someone on the outside who looks like you? No! Christ is in you, and he makes all things. Test him and you will discover he is your imagination!

When I was a boy I lived in Barbados. Unschooled, with no background whatsoever, I dreamed of coming to America. I became so enamored with the idea, that at the age of 17 my parents put me on a boat to America with $600 in my pocket. They thought I would come back once the money was gone, but I wanted to live in America so badly I had to come and make it my home.

Are you willing to become enamored over a desire that much? Are you willing to fall in love with its fulfillment that you imagine it is yours now? If so, I promise you it will outpicture itself in your world. And when it does, you will have found Christ, for the words of scripture: “By him all things are made and without him is not anything made that is made,” are false.

When you test your imagination you will find He who produced your desire and the Maker of all things! I have tested him numberless times. I have taught this principle to others who have tested him and shared their experiences with me. Now I know who Jesus Christ really is. The words, “Unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins,” are not spoken on the outside, but on the inside. Now wearing a garment of flesh, my words appear to be coming from without, and one day I will seem to die and become a historical fact. But I am not speaking as an outer man. I am speaking as the true Jesus Christ, who comes in every individual by unfolding his story as recorded in scripture. There is only one story, and only one being to play the part. That being is God. It is he alone who acts and is in all things.

When the Old Testament fulfills itself in you – an individual – you will not be a spectator observing the drama, but the central actor. And, knowing it is God alone who acts, you know you are He. And when you tell your story, those who hear you will see the garment of flesh you wear, and think you have a devil and are blaspheming the name of God. But, knowing your father is he who men call God – you know your father, while men know not their God.
While wearing a garment of flesh, I know my origin and destiny, for scripture has unfolded itself in me. Many who hear my confession are not expecting this kind of revelation, so they shut me out as one who blasphemes God’s name. But the words of scripture are spoken from within. This statement is one you are saying to yourself: “Unless I believe that I am he, I will die in my sins.” To sin is to miss your desire. If you do not believe you are its creator, you are missing your mark. You must believe, to achieve! You must assume you already are the person you want to be, in order to become it. Although your assumption is denied by reason and your senses, if you will persist in your assumption, it will harden into fact. This is how something is made out of that which does not appear.

Knowing what you want, assume your desire is already fulfilled by imagining a circle of friends are congratulating you. Fall asleep knowing that those who would empathize with you have already witnessed your good fortune. Knowing you have put the fulfillment of your desire in motion, walk confident that what you are assuming is true. And when it happens, share your experience with others, in the hope that they will try it and it will work for them. It does not matter to me what others think, for I have found my Father – the one the world worships and calls God – to be my own wonderful human imagination!

People buy pictures of Jesus and hang them on the wall to bow before, yet the pictures are so unlike the artist who painted them. When Christ appears, you will be like him. This I know from experience. When Christ appeared in me, I was the one playing his part. Since only God acts and is in all men, God puts himself into the central role and unfolds the eternal drama in each individual, who then knows that he is God.

Last year I gave ten lectures in San Francisco. Just before the first meeting a lady told me she thought I was the greatest teacher of truth in the world. I thanked her and began my lecture by stating that man is all imagination and God is man. That the eternal body of man is the imagination, and that is God Himself. Then I told the story of a lady who found herself sitting in a chair in a very large room, when a self-propelled carriage appeared. The door opened and I stepped out, wearing a cape and carrying a briefcase. Personifying sheer power, I entered the room and began to proclaim the power of God. As she looked at me, she said to herself: “That is Neville, and yet it is God.” Without giving her any sign of recognition, I finished my proclamation, turned, and – as though by appointment – the carriage appeared, I entered it, and vanished.

I continued by telling everyone that life itself is a glorious play, which was conceived by God, directed by God, and every part is being played by God. That this world is like a glorious poem, which exists not for itself, but for the one who conceived it. Falling in love with the world God had conceived, He wanted all of the characters to exist for themselves. But, finding no one to play the parts, God died to his true identity in order to take upon himself the limitation of the characters in his play. Now playing the part of every individual, God experiences all of the tribulations of being man, until He awakens in the character He is playing. I know I am Neville, a character in the play, but I also know I am God. This lady, who only a few minutes before had told me I was the greatest truth teacher in the world, was so shocked she never came back to the other lectures. She had expected me to conform to her little concept of God and I did not. Instead, I boldly proclaimed that we were all God, even though we are not all aware of it. Unless the story told in the gospels concerning Jesus Christ awakens and unfolds in the individual, that individual does not know that he is the Christ.

Paul found Christ to be his human imagination and urged everyone to test himself. Like Paul, I urge you to test your human imagination. You do not need the money or the time to go anywhere in your imagination, yet you can put yourself there, just as though you had made the trip. If you do, and your circumstances change so that the money and the time appears, allowing you to go, have you not found Jesus Christ to be your imagination? This is what scripture teaches, but man has personified the story and made Jesus Christ into a little idol to bow before, when the true God is the human imagination. All things are made by the human imagination. Imagine something that is not now a fact. Persist in your imaginal act, and when it becomes a fact, you have found God. And once you have found him, never let him go!

At the end of the drama it is said that one who knew Jesus betrayed him. Now, in order to betray someone, you must know his secret! So the one who knows the secret betrays him. That one is self! God is self-revealed. Unless God reveals himself to you, how will you ever know him? Turning to those who did not know him, Jesus said: “Now that you have found me, do not let me go, but let all these go.” Let every belief of a power on the outside go, but do not let the belief in your powerful imagination go – for truth is within you. When you find the Maker in yourself, then no matter what arguments the priesthoods may give, do not believe them, for the Christ you seek is the human imagination.

Tomorrow you may forget and be penetrated by rumors which disturb your body and cause you to suffer. When this happens you must reestablish your harmony by imagining things are as you desire them to be. Living in this wonderful world, we cannot stop the penetration. To perceive another, that other must first penetrate your brain; therefore, he is within you as well as on the outside and independent of your perception. Cities, mountains, rivers and streams, must first penetrate your brain for you to be aware of them. At that moment of awareness they are within you, even though they still maintain a certain independence of your perception and are without. Treat this inner penetration seriously and you will discover all you need to do is adjust your thinking. That you are all imagination and must be wherever you think you are. If you want to contact a friend, simply adjust yourself to his community by making there – here, and then – now. Visit him in his home by penetrating it within yourself. Give him your message and see his eyes light up with the pleasure of your words.

If God is in you, is there any place where God is not? And if there is no place where imagination is not, where would you go to be where you want to be? If everything penetrates you, then you must choose what you want and adjust yourself into the feeling that you are already there. You will know you have arrived when you view the world from there.

Motion can be detected only by a change of position relative to another object. While physically sitting in a chair you appear not to move, but because everything penetrates you, by a mental adjustment you can think from the awareness of being the person you want to be. How will you know you have changed? By the expression on the faces of your friends. If they now see the new you, then you have moved. So let them look at you until their faces tell you they are seeing that which you are assuming is true.

There must always be a frame of reference from which you move. Your frame is your friends, who would know of any change in your life. If I died, motion would be detected, as one friend would call another, who would call another, and finally dozens of people would know that Neville had died. If, on the other hand, I became a millionaire, that same chain reaction would occur.

After assuming you are now what you want to be, make your friends your frame of reference by hearing them congratulate you. Feel the reality of their actions. Relax in the peace of knowing it is done. And when it comes to pass, you have found Christ, for it is He who makes all things and without him is not a thing made that is made. You made your life change by finding Christ to be your imagination!

I tell you: God became you, with all of your weakness and limitations, that you may become Imagination. Becoming our imagination, God exists in us and we in him. Our eternal body is the imagination, and that is God Himself. And God alone acts! He can act the part of the fool, or the king, the poor, or the rich man. Every desire is a state. Move into your desire, and God will play that part – as you! If you desire riches, yet do not know this power, you will remain poor because you are looking for a God on the outside, trying to coerce him into giving you wealth for acquiring merit. You can spend your life acquiring merit and be so good the world will think you are wonderful, yet remain poor. Man must seek and find his true identity within himself, for he and he alone is the revealer and maker of everything in this world.

I have never seen Neville do anything. I was never a spectator, but the actor playing the part. Now wearing this garment of decay, called Neville, when I tell my story people are shocked. They think I am blasphemous by making these bold claims, yet I can no more deny my mystical experiences than I can deny the simplest evidence of my senses. I know what I ate tonight, yet its memory is not as vivid to me as my experiences of scripture. So I say to all: the one who makes everything is the human imagination. This may seem cruel to one who is now experiencing pain, but it is true. I have suffered. I have known physical pain. Even though I may say I caught the flu, I know I caught it within me. I read the paper where I learned that 50 per cent of the people had the flu, and – becoming a statistic – I made it fifty-one. I have experienced its aches and pains, and learned a lesson. Now I know that even though I have experienced the drama of Jesus Christ, I am still subject to everything man is subject to. I know that I cannot point to any other cause other than my own imagination, as cause cannot come from the outside. If I am in pain, the cause is mine. We are told in Galatians that God – your imagination – is not mocked. That as you sow, so shall you reap. “See yonder fields? The sesame was sesame, the corn was corn, the silence and the darkness knew, and so is a man’s fate born.”

So I repeat: Causation is the assemblage of mental states, which occurring produces that which the assemblage implies. Assemble a mental state which implies you are now what you want to be. Enter into that state. Remain there until you become one with it by performing inner acts as though they were outer ones. Continue to do so and watch, for your outer world will change as these inner acts become facts in your world. And don’t think you will ever find a stopping place. No state you have ever created will endure unmoved, undisturbed, forever – because every moment of time you are being penetrated. Your idea of perfection and harmony today will be disturbed tomorrow, forcing you to use your talent to construct an imaginal change.

Your departure from this world will be so only to those who cannot follow you into another section of the same world. There you will continue to imagine, until the gospel story repeats itself in you. It will, for it is the story of God awakening and being born in man. Where God is not in man as his human imagination, the story could not be repeated. But when it erupts and Christ unfolds within the individual, he leaves a section of time to enter an entirely new age called the kingdom of God.

You can prove you are all imagination if you believe it, for you live by your beliefs. Lip service is not enough. Belief must become alive. Do you really believe your imagination makes all things? Then test yourself and see. When confronted with any problem, immediately construct an imaginal solution. Enter into that image and abide in its truth. Always remember who the maker is, for he makes things out of that which does not appear. He is like quicksilver, but you can test him best in a daydream.

Fawcett said: “Divine imagining is like pure imagining in ourselves. It lives in the very depth of our soul underlining all of our faculties, including perception, but streams into our surface mind least disguised in the form of creative fantasy.” All dreams proceed from God whether they be in the day, or night. Everything is preceded by a dream, called an imaginal act!

Take me seriously and test the maker in you. “Examine yourselves to see if you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless, indeed, you fail to meet the test.” (II Corinthians 13) I hope you will find out that you have not failed!

Now let us go into the silence.

YOUR SUPREME DOMINION

December 22, 2013

by Wisdom Master with No Comment Belief is everything Changing Reality With Your Mind changing your reality with your imagination create your reality with your imagination Emmet Fox feeling is the secret Florence Scovel Shinn Focus Focus is power How to Manifest money Imagination Imagining creates reality Josephy Murphy Mental Attitude Mental Science Mind Science Money Neville Goddard neville goddard feeling is the secret neville goddard law and promise neville goddard law of assumption neville goddard lectures neville goddard power of awareness neville goddard power of imagination neville goddard quotes neville goddard wisdom Power In The Spoken Word power of images Power Of Imagination power of the mind Power of Thought power of words the conscious mind The Power Of Faith The power of the mind the power of the spirit within the secret the spirit the spirit of truth is within the subconscious we create our own reality

Neville Goddard 1953

As you have been told, this morning’s subject is “Your Supreme Dominion”. As a man does not possess it or he does not know that he possesses it for he certainly is not exercising it. As we read in the very first chapter of the Book of Genesis, “And God made man in His own image, in the image of God made He him. He made them male and female, and God blessed them.” And God said unto them, “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it and have dominion over all the fish of the sea and all the fowls of the air, and every moving thing that moves upon the earth. And God saw all that He had done, all that He had done, all that He had made, and they were very good.”

Now, you and I reading the Bible, not knowing it to be a psychological truth and seeing it as historical fact, we cannot understand the word. But when man knows the Bible is the greatest collection of psychological truths and was never intended to be seen as history or cosmology, then he gets a glimpse into this great wonderful book. For man himself is the great psychological earth that must be subdued. In man move all the passions, all the great emotions symbolized as creeping things and animals. In the deep of man actually live the invisible states symbolized as fish. In the deep of man actually live all the unnumbered infinite ideas symbolized as the fowls of the air. It is this man that must be self subdued, for subdue it, then comes the promise and have dominion over this vast wonderful country that is man. If man does not know that he himself is the earth spoken of, he thinks he must go out into the world and conquer it. The world reflects the work done on man. And so when he looks upon this wonderful world round about him, he thinks himself so little.

The Bible also tells us he calls himself a grasshopper, and referring to himself as a grasshopper, he sees giants in the land, the giants of industry, the giants of economics, the giants all round about him, and he feels smaller and smaller because he does not know how to go about actually subduing the earth, which is himself. When man knows it, he will realize that man as an individual is supreme within the circle of his own consciousness, for within the circle of his consciousness the entire drama of life is re-enacted over and over again. He has to start with self and then he will see this outer wonderful world, this visible world, is not what he thinks it to be, a place of exile from God; it is the living garment of the Father, and although to many of us its discordant harmony needs some interpretation, to the wise it has a voice and the voice speaks of hidden things behind the veil hidden things behind the veil of man’s mind, for this whole vast wonderful world is a response to the arrangement of man’s mind. For when he knows it he will look within for the hidden causes, look into the deep to see the fish and how they swim and how they are related, for this arrangement of the deep is going to project itself as circumstances and conditions of life.

And so today, if you haven’t started, today is the time to start to really put into practice this teaching, and make of this violence a garden of God. It is called Eden and man was placed within it to keep it and to care it, for the garden of God is man. It is the mind of man. You never find a garden unless a man is present, for without a man there would be a forest of wilderness. But when a man is placed in it he begins to cut the trees or the seeds of wrong thinking; he clears the ground and he cultivates the ground, and then plants wisely. Then you will have dominion, for you will select the seed you will plant, the ideas you will entertain, and you will cultivate them. Knowing the outer world constantly bears witness of the inner arrangement of mind, you will only select the things you want to project into the living garment of your Father. For the whole vast world round about you is a living garment worn by your Father.

So how did he reap? He said He made man in His own image; well, the methods of mental and spiritual knowledge are entirely different. You and I can know a thing mentally by looking at it from the outside, by comparing it with other things, by analyzing it, by defining it, by even giving a description of it, but we can know a thing spiritually only by becoming it. We must be the thing itself if we would know that thing spiritually. We must be in love if we would know love. We must be God like if we would know what God is. For God made me, not out of something other than Himself; He made me perfect, so He made me by becoming me. There was no other way in the world that God could have made me unless He became me. So God became man that He may know man in the only way that He could know anything, for He knows all things spiritually and He calls them very good.

So He made me by becoming me, and now I am called upon to go and take care of the earth, and to subdue it, and take dominion. And I am the earth – I must learn to plant as He planted, and He planted the world by becoming the world. I must now plant as man, by becoming the man I want to be. So I will itemize all the things, name them, give a name to everything I want to express as a man, and then know it spiritually by becoming and I become it as He became me. I identify myself with it and live in that identity and I clothe it in flesh, I clothe it in fact. Not one thing in the world that is mine can be taken from me save by detachment from the state where that thing I love has its natural life. If I live in a world of beauty, if I live in a world of friendship, of comfort and all the lovely things that men enjoy, no power in the world can take one of them from me save I, who live among them, detach myself from the state where these lovely things have their natural life. When you and I know it, we begin to cultivate the earth, we actually weed the mind of all negative states, all unlovely emotions, and we bring into subjection not the outer but the inner, and then the outer reflects that cultivation on self.

Now, how is it done? You are told in the first book of the Bible how it’s done. For the promise is to the man who does it and the promise is a complete expansion beyond his wildest dreams of the state he plants. The one who first did it was called Jacob; well, I am Jacob. You are Jacob if you start to plant; every man is the potential Jacob, and Jacob did it by righteousness. As you are told, he did it through righteousness and he multiplied exceedingly, so that he increased a thousand fold his flocks, his cattle; he increased and grew beyond the measure of man in having all the maid servants and men servants and the camels. And this is what he said, “My righteousness shall speak for me in time to come.”

Righteousness is right consciousness. The only right consciousness is the consciousness of already being the man you want to be, for that attaches you with an invisible state. You can’t see it yet but you become attached to the state that you dare to assume you are, and you go fishing in the deep, you are beginning now to subdue the deep. You enter a state through the medium of feeling , through feeling that you are already what you want to be. And that is how you grow exceedingly great in your world, for you will be the Jacob expanding in your world.

The next one we come upon is Job. Here in the midst of all the trials and tribulations of a man, Job says, “I will hold fast to my righteousness and then my heart shall never judge me harshly as long as I live.” He will hold fast to righteousness in the midst of storm, in the midst of all the problems of the world he will assume that he is free and hold fast to that right consciousness knowing that not in eternity could his heart ever judge him harshly.

Then we are told, “The meek of the earth seek righteousness and it is to the meek of the earth that the earth is given. As you are told the meek shall inherit the earth. You might have been taught to believe it meant the beaten man, the man who falls and grovels like the grasshopper; it doesn’t. The word “meek” if translated actually means to be tamed as a wild animal is tamed. To the man who tames the mind, the man who tames his being that he can set it any task and have it execute that task, that man is meek and the meek inherit the earth. And the meek always seek righteousness, so if I today began to subdue this earth, I must make righteousness my watchword, and so if I were righteous I would now single out the nature of the trees I would plant, the nature of the flowers I would plant, the nature of the animals I would cultivate, the nature of the fish that I would catch, and I would name them as desirable states, called in the Bible beauty instead of ashes, called in the Bible the spirit of joy instead of mourning, called by all these lovely things. As you are told, all the things that are good, dwell on these things. To every good thing, for He called it very good. Every thing that I would call the good, which is a righteous judgment, will be the right judgment. I, in spite of the evidence of my senses that would deny it, in spite of reason that would tell me that it was impossible of realization, having discovered that I am the one planting my garden, that this is the only garden to cultivate, that this is the only earth to subdue, I would start now and boldly assume the good, first for myself – always start with Jerusalem – then go into the world and preach the goodness by knowing the goodness.

When you meet someone, regardless of what the appearance would reveal, know the truth for that one and set him free. Know that knowing as he ought to be known first by himself, but if he hasn’t known it as true of himself, you at least know it for him. And though you never meet him in the flesh again keep on knowing the truth that sets man free by knowing he is already free, and you are cultivating your garden. You are bringing it into subjection, you are subduing it and then you shall have dominion. So you are supreme in your world if you only know the world that you really are; so man is the psychological earth on which this wonderful whirl of events takes place. Man is the psychological earth on which all the animals move; every emotion is symbolized as the animal. Every fowl of the air is truly the idea you entertain. Every fish of the deep is the invisible state that you could catch if you only knew how to cast your net on the right side. For you fish all night and catch nothing, but then comes one who knows, who is righteous, and he casts it on the right side, always that right side, and the right side is righteousness or right consciousness. And I will catch it; I may not see them, I don’t have to see them. I don’t have to wait for the evidence of my senses to confirm, for I am told, “And faith was accounted unto him for righteousness.” So I will have faith in the reality of the deep; I will have faith in the reality of invisible states. So it’s now invisible, I know it, it’s a fish, but I have faith in the existence and the reality of the invisible state I want to externalize, knowing I can externalize it, for every time I externalize it I add to this wonderful garment of my Father, and that is my job, my duty.

So here, everyone of us, begin to believe that you are the only earth spoken of in the Bible. You are the one chosen to live in the center of the garden, but make it a garden, for the words are, “Keep it, keep it and plant it well”. You have dominion over every idea in your mind. You say you haven’t. Well, some may be to you disturbing, but you do have the choice of rejecting it or accepting it.

If you accept it, you identify with it and the state with which you are identified must, by the very law of your being, objectify itself within your world, that you may see by it how you plant that garden. Now, don’t wait one second beyond the time that you observe weeds instead of flowers. Start right at the moment of observation, and start to replant the garden. Start really to subdue it. Become the meek and the meek is the bold. The meek is the bold of heart who does not ask assistance. He walks knowing he can do it. He can fish. He can actually bring into subjection every bird of the air, every idea of the mind. He will begin to know these things spiritually. He will know them in the only way that you and I should know anything, by becoming it, not to have a world of information concerning objective things, and knowing these things only mentally. I must learn to know things spiritually; I must learn to know what love is spiritually by being in love. I must learn to know what security is spiritually be becoming conscious of already being secure. I must learn to know what health is by becoming conscious of already being healthy, and sustain these states in the name of righteousness, knowing that my righteousness shall answer for me in time to come.

Make me no promise for when the father-in-law said to Jacob, “What promise should I make you? ” “Just tell me that the offspring born in a certain manner shall be mine and no other promise, and no wages and no salary, all the spotted ones are mine. There isn’t a spotted one among the parents but every offspring that is spotted.. though the parents are not, that is mine. That’s my wage and my righteousness shall know it for me in time to come.” And he begins to assume that his world is peopled with the spotted calves, and everyone born that was healthy was born spotted. And he increased beyond the wildest dream of a man.

Well, become that man, and start from the simple beginning as he started. There wasn’t one thing in the world to encourage him that one calf could ever be born from parents that were not spotted and be a spotted calf. Yet he knew and he assumed that they had given birth to such things in numbers, they would come and they came a thousand fold. So in your case, maybe it’s business, maybe the doctors have given you a final, final verdict and it’s fatal. Well, I say in spite of this, and the doctor in his own way is doing his best, he would not have said it to hurt you or to frighten you. He firmly believed it, but you have another law and your law is that you can assume, in spite of that verdict, that you are well. And then, though tomorrow and the next day the tree doesn’t appear, know that in time your righteousness shall speak for you, and like Job in the midst of all the storms, when he should have gone to the grave, he held fast to the consciousness of already being what he wanted to be, that his heart may not in time speak harshly against him. Well, it didn’t – you know the story.

And so, all through we are told, “Break off the sins, break off missing marks by righteousness. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

Now you are told, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all things shall be added unto you.” Well, the kingdom of God is within you. You have been told that a number of times. The Bible affirms it over and over – “The Kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are within you.” They aren’t without. You see them seemingly without; that is the response to the within-ness where they are. Now, seek it and His righteousness. So assume within the mood that would be yours were you already the man that you want to be. Sustain that mood, occupy it as often as you can, and see how that righteousness shall draw things unto itself, and the things it draws are always in harmony with its nature. It never draws anything foreign to itself. If I assume that I am the man I want to be, I cannot then encounter events that are in conflict with my assumption. For my world mirrors the being I am.

So, here, today when you return read the whole chapter. It’s beautiful. But I started with the 27th verse, “And God made man in his own image, in the image of God made He him. Male and female made He them.” Then comes what is to be done. Then comes the promise if you do it. Then comes the judgment, “It is good and very good.” So you start knowing that you are the earth on which you now start to labor. If you do it, you shall be fruitful, and you will multiply, and you actually replenish this world, though it seemingly is barren you replenish it, if you subdue it. And the earth is self to be subdued, not by beating self as some people have misunderstood, not by isolating the self in some little secluded spot, not by running away from life, but in the midst of life is the opportunity to become meek: to take the violence that is man, it is individual man, and then bring it into the state of the meek, to transcend the violence by not fighting against conditions; know that conditions can only reflect what is within the one who observes that condition. So don’t rage against it; leave it just as it is. If conditions remain the same, that is a sure, sure sign that you have not been faithful to righteousness.

Had you been faithful to the consciousness of already being the man you want to be, conditions would have to change in harmony with that righteousness. So don’t rage against it; leave it as it is, and start today to take this wonderful earth, which is the foot stool of the Lord, which really is the mind of man, and start really to work upon it. Then you will not turn from left to right; you will keep the narrow path. You will go out knowing you can do it.

I know from experience it will not take long to see shoots appear; it will not take long to see the flowers appear. They will all appear, if you will take yourself in hand and by an uncritical observation of self watch the being you are; see the condition of the earth as it is now by the uncritical observation of your reactions to life. When you see who you are that is showing you the state of the earth as it is now. Don’t condemn it, just start to subdue it, and know that you do have dominion over all the fish of the sea, the fowls of the air, and all the animals that move upon the earth. Knowing them to be the moods of thought, the desires, the passions that move in you, start to entertain only the good and the very good.

Dwell upon them and you will re-people your earth for you are supreme within the circle of your own consciousness. Now you may say it’s a very little one; may I tell you that though you have a body and a life of your own, you are rooted in me, and you end in me, as I am rooted in God and end in God.

So every man can say the same thing no matter if you look into a world of 2,500,000,000 of them and every year they slip through the gates into the invisible state relative to this world, but as they come and go every man in the world is actually rooted in you and ends in you, and you are rooted in the ultimate that we call God, the Father. So the whole vast (world) is simply centered in you; start now to rearrange it that it may reflect the beauty that you want to live about and live in in this world. You do it by assuming the best. Always imagine the best of self; always imagine first with Jerusalem and then go out and radiate what you have given to self. If you live in that wonderful state yourself, you will only have the good to shower upon others, for you have one gift that is truly yours to give and that is yourself. You have no other gift. If you are good, you can give only the good. If you are not – well, whatever you are – that you give.

So the story is you may find today when you observe yourself, by observing your reactions, that it’s not a very pleasant land but it is still a fertile land; it can be cleared of all these trees of traditional wrong thinking and can be replanted in harmony with the beauty that you desire. And in the immediate present it will bear fruit in harmony with the seeds you plant.

So let us go out determined to bring about a better arrangement of our mind that we may produce more noble garments for our Father to wear. For this wonderful, visible, objective universe is only the living garment of my Father, it’s not a place of exile, as so many believe, talking about home and their going home, as though they are not now in the very midst of their Father. When you see me, you see my Father. Whenever you see me, you see the state of my mind, for you will see the world in which I live and the state of my mind, that inner arrangement, that’s my Father. When you see me projected, you then call it the Son, and my world round about me tells me where I am. All these inner states are places in this fabulous psychological consciousness. Inner state is equal to place and where I stand within myself determines what I see when I look outside the self. So, when I look out upon the world, that area of my Father’s garment, whether it be torn by reason of the inner place where I stand or whether it be lovely, I see only the inner arrangement of myself. I am forever surrounding myself with the true image of myself, and what I am in consciousness that only can I see. Knowing that, let me be determined today to seek righteousness, or right consciousness, that I may reap in the immediate present all the lovely things that I desire.

Now in summary, single out some noble aim in life. Having defined it clearly to yourself as a desirable state. the state you would like to externalize, ask yourself this very simple question, “What would the feeling be like were it true if I already embodied that noble state?” In response to your question will come a feeling; assume that feeling; it has reality outside of the present moment. Its being is in complete independence of present objective fact. It has real structure; it has reality in the deep of it. It came in response to your call when you said, “What would the feeling be like were it true?” And you named what you were thinking of – if it was security, if it was health, if it was any state, that fish came from the deep; it’s located and you took the “I” and placed it in that feeling. You were actually standing upon it though it is invisible. Now remain on it.

If you remain in that state, you are told in the Bible three days, you will be “spewed out on dry land.” “Three” doesn’t mean three days; “three” means fullness, “three” means complete. So if I will live within that fish for three days until the whole thing seems natural and seems real, and it has the sensory vividness of reality. I will then be spewed out as something objective, and something that is commonly called in the Bible “land” or “dry land.” But it does have reality, as you feel it, only people get away from it because it doesn’t have immediate objective fact to confirm it. But you ride it for your three days and you will know what it was to enter that fish and remain in it until fullness was attained, until reality was attained within. In that state you were righteous and your righteousness will speak for you in time to come. It will not fail you; it cannot fail you.

YOURS FOR THE TAKING

December 16, 2013

by Wisdom Master with One Comment Belief is everything Changing Reality With Your Mind changing your reality with your imagination Emmet Fox feeling is the secret Florence Scovel Shinn Focus Focus is power How to Manifest money Imagination Josephy Murphy Mental Attitude Mental Science Mind Science Money Neville Goddard neville goddard feeling is the secret neville goddard law and promise neville goddard law of assumption neville goddard lectures neville goddard power of awareness neville goddard power of imagination neville goddard quotes neville goddard wisdom the conscious mind the power of the spirit within the secret the spirit of truth is within the subconscious

Neville Goddard 09-18-1967
There is only one cause for the phenomena of life. That cause is God. Housed in you, God is a person in the most literal sense of the word. Believe me, for I know this from experience. God, the only creator, is pure imagination working in the depth of your soul. God began a good work in you and He will bring it to completion on the day God’s creative power is unveiled in you! God’s creative power and wisdom is defined in scripture as Christ. When Christ unveils himself in you, you will know you are God’s power and God’s wisdom.

God, your own wonderful human imagination, underlies all of your faculties, including perception, and streams into your surface mind least disguised in the form of creative, productive fantasy. When you ask yourself what you can do to transcend your present limitation of life, you are dwelling upon the means. God does not ask you to consider the means, but to define the end. Speaking to you through the medium of desire, God asks the question: “What wantest thou of me?” Then he tells you not to be concerned with the ways and means, for his ways are unsearchable. They are inscrutable and past finding out. This statement you will find in the 11th chapter of the Book of Romans. So don’t be concerned as to how God will fulfill the end, only know that He will. Can you believe your desire is fulfilled? Can you believe it is true? If you can, it is yours for the taking, for nothing is impossible to one who believes.

Now, let me share with you three stories which came to me during the summer. The first letter was from my friend Bennie. In it he told of lying prone on his bed, face down, when he felt as though someone grabbed his shoulders; and as he was lifted up he heard the words: “Take a stand!” Intuitively he knew he had to make the decision now as to whether he was going to believe that imagining creates reality or disbelieve it.

Scripture tells us, “He who is not with me is against me.” There is no neutral ground, for “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. To set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother.” Why? Because a man’s enemies are within him. Everyone must eventually take the stand that imagining creates reality and swim or sink with this concept.

Now, a few days later while in meditation, Bennie felt himself being held from behind by three men. As they raised him, he watched the sun rise and heard the words: “Look! Behold!” and “Recognition!” And he remembered a passage from my book, Your Faith Is Your Fortune: “Recognition of this truth will transform you from one who tries to make it so, into one who recognizes it to be so.”

Soon after this, a friend asked Ben to pray for him. He wanted to be the property manager of the company he worked for. Although he had been passed by year after year, Bennie told him what to do, and imagined hearing the friend tell him the job was now his. A few months later the job was vacated and his friend was given the position with an increase in salary and greater responsibility, just as he had imagined. What did Bennie do? He imagined! To whom did he pray? To his own wonderful human imagination! God, the creator of all life, is like pure imagining in you, underlying all of your faculties – including perception. He streams into your surface mind least disguised in the form of productive fantasy. Bennie took a stand. He prayed for his friend and believed his prayer was answered. He tested himself, and the windows of heaven opened and poured forth blessings for all to see. Now Bennie knows that with God all things are possible.

God is your mightier self. Emptying himself, God took on the form of a slave and is now found in the likeness of man. Abdicating his power, Pure Imagination took upon himself the limitations of flesh, thereby becoming human. It is God who weaves your every desire into cubic reality, waiting upon you effectively and swiftly, regardless of whether your desire is for evil or for good. The one who conjures thoughts in the mind of a Hitler or Stalin is the same power as the one conjuring thoughts in the mind of a pope or the Arch Bishop of Canterbury. There aren’t two Gods. There is only one!

The 14th and 53rd chapters of the Book of Psalms are identical, each telling us: “The fool says in his heart there is no God, but the Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of the many to see if there are any that act wise and seek the Lord.” Here we find that in the eyes of God, wisdom is equated with seeking the Lord. And if God is all-wise and all powerful, then any search other than for the Lord is stupid. You may be the greatest mathematician or scientist, the most intelligent and honored man among men, but if your search is not for God, you are stupid in His eyes.

Called upon to look for the cause of creation, what are you doing losing yourself in the phenomena of life? When something happens, search your thoughts and you will discover your own wonderful human imagination to be the cause of your experience, because God is a person. At the present time He is wearing a mask called Neville, but the one speaking to you now knows himself to be the Ancient of Days. Every being in the world is a mask worn by God; for housed in man, is man’s imagination.

A thought acted upon is an imaginal act. Think (imagine) a horrible earthquake and God will give it to you. Imagine (think of) a war and God will provide that, too. Imagine peace and you will have it. God will give you health if you will but imagine being healthy. Imagine success and you will have it. The moment you think, you are feeding your imagination, which is a person. I use the word person deliberately, for you are a person. You are the mask God is now wearing, for God became you that you may become God.

Now let me share another letter with you. Last year this lady, living about sixty miles north of San Francisco, was possessed with the desire to come to Los Angeles and attend my lecture. Leaving word at her office, she drove her car to the San Francisco airport, where she took a plane to Los Angeles. There she was met by a friend and immediately came to the lecture. After the lecture she joined a group of four women and one man for coffee, where she expressed her hunger, having missed lunch and dinner that day. The gentleman sitting beside her then said, “I’d like to buy you a steak.” And as she looked into his face she heard a voice within her say, “This is your husband.”

Now, this lady has been married and divorced four times, so she had specific desires for a husband which she felt must be fulfilled. She wanted to be happily married to a man who lived by this truth. She wanted him to love and respect her as well as her seventeen-year-old son. Having imagined such a man in September, she attended my meeting in October, and married the gentleman she met here the following January.

The gentleman added his story to her letter, saying: “Having played with the idea of being married, I went to a pawn shop last September and purchased a plain gold band which I placed on the third finger of my left hand. Every day I wore the ring and every night I slept in the feeling of being happily married. (My friend thought he could not get the feeling of being married without a physical aid, but you don’t need anything outside of your imagination to catch the mood.)

Having been an alcoholic, this gentleman imagined his wife never mentioned his past; for although he had not tasted alcohol for nine years, he had paid the price in his search for God. You see, the alcoholic is searching for truth. Thirsty, he finds a false spirit in the form of alcohol, while those who will not touch it – and criticize those who do – haven’t even started their search. But I have news for them. One day they, too, will know a hunger which will not be satisfied by bread. They will know a thirst so great they will make the mistake of clothing it in the form of a bottle. But because it will be a false thirst, the thirst will remain. Then they will discover the true hunger and the true thirst, which is for the hearing of the word of God.

Now, in the third letter a gentleman writes: “Having borrowed from the bank, every month when I sent in my payment I reduced the total amount in my record book. One day, as I was writing my check and recording its payment, I closed my eyes and saw two zeros under the balance due column. Then I gave a sigh of relief because the note was paid. For the next thee months I persisted in seeing those double zeros and rejoicing in being debt-free. Then came an unexpected surprise! Our company paid us all a mid-year bonus which was so large I was able to pay all of my bills, including the bank loan, and deposit the rest in the bank.”

Now I think this gentleman and I must be two peas in the same pod, because money seems to burn in his pocket, too. Instead of keeping the money in the bank as the rational mind would do, my friend began to think about how to spend it, so of course he found a way. He bought a tape recorder to bring and record my message!

To whom did my friend turn when he wanted the bank loan paid? He turned to God! He did not get down on his knees and ask some outside God to do it for him. He didn’t go to church and consult a priest, rabbi or minister. He didn’t contact a so-called truth teacher, but simply closed his eyes to the obvious and saw two zeros in the balance due column. Then for the first time in the history of his company a mid-year bonus was paid. This happened to him because of his use of the law, and his knowledge of who God is.

Not everyone who seeks God finds him, but there are those – like Philip -that when they find him, they bring their brother Nathanael. Andrew found Jesus and brought Peter. You, too, will find Jesus when you exercise your imagination, and bring those you love to his awareness. If great wealth befell you, would not your wife (or husband), your children, as well as those in your immediate circle benefit from your good fortune? And if it befell them, would it not befall you? So we benefit each other as we search out God and test him.

Revelation tells us to be either hot or cold, but never to be lukewarm. If you do not believe me to the point of testing the law, you are lukewarm. But one day, like Ben, you will take a stand. You will either be for me or against me. You will try to believe that imagining creates reality, or reject it. You will be hot or cold about it, and that is better than being lukewarm. I have discovered that those who hated me at first when I took from them their idols, the icon in their mind called Jesus, have become my finest students. So many people claim they believe in Jesus, but cannot define him. Unable to place him in time and space, they are defiant when I say: Christ in you is your hope of glory. Full of insults, they are cold. Some have even been violent. But one day they will find him of whom Moses and the prophets wrote, turn around, and be embraced by the Lord.

I started telling this story in the 1930’s and here we are in the 1960’s. During these thirty-odd years I have found those who really opposed me – those who were so moved and disturbed they were determined to disprove my words. But since they couldn’t do it, they too have found God to be their own wonderful human imagination. The Bible is addressed only to the human imagination. In Blake’s famous letter to the Rev. Dr. Trusler he makes this comment: “Why is the Bible more entertaining and instructive than any other book? Is it not because it is addressed to the imagination, which is spiritual sensation, and only immediately to the understanding, or reason?”

The Bible is imaginative instruction. When it unfolds in you it is more real than anything here, yet it is all imagined, for God is all imagination and so is man. The eternal body of man is the imagination, and that is God Himself. There is nothing but this one body called Jesus, who is the Lord God Jehovah.

I tell you, God became as we are that we may become as He is. No one took God’s life. He laid it down himself saying: “I have the power to lay it down and the power to lift it up again. The fall into fragmented space was deliberate. And He who fell has the power to gather us all together, one by one, into that single body who is all love. His body is above the organization of sex. In it there is no Greek, no Jew, no bond, no free, no male, no female. When you wear it you understand Paul’s statement: “I consider the sufferings of this present time not worth comparing to the glory that has been revealed in me.” In that body you know yourself to be the real Man, and this fleshly body as nothing. You will realize that you were never male or female, but have always been God.

Remember, everything is yours for the taking. If you want it, take it. If you cannot claim it for yourself, ask a friend for help. If you want to be happily married, do what my friends did. You want to pay off all of your debts? Whatever you desire is yours. All you have to do is imagine you have it, for everything in life is yours for the taking!

Now let us go into the silence.

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