neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

IMAGINING CREATES

Neville Goddard 6-3-1968

neville goddard Imagination Is RealityThe creator of the world works in the depth of your soul, underlying all of your faculties, including perception and streams into your surface mind least disguised in the form of creative fancy. Watch your thoughts, and you will catch Him in the act of creating, for He is your very Self. Every moment of time you are imagining what you are conscious of, and if you do not forget what you are imagining and it comes to pass, you have found the creative cause of your world.

Because God is pure imagination and the only creator, if you imagine a state and bring it to pass, you have found Him. Remember: God is your consciousness, your
I AM; so when you are imagining, God is doing it. If you imagine and forget what you imagine, you may not recognize your harvest when it appears. It may be good, bad, or indifferent, but if you forget how it came into being, you have not found God.

You do not have to be rich to be happy but you must be imaginative. You could have great wealth and be afraid of tomorrow’s needs, or have nothing and travel the world over, for all things exist in your own wonderful human imagination.

Let me tell you a story of a lady I know who traveled in her imagination. When this lady was about sixteen she lived in Northern California. She was devoted to her father, who lived high, wide and handsome. He supplied all of the family’s needs very well until the day he was killed. Then, overnight, the family discovered they had nothing! Her mother, feeling she could not stand being ridiculed, moved the family to San Francisco, where the girl – although possessing outstanding artistic talent – found employment as a waitress in order to help the family.

Taking the streetcar home from work that first Christmas Eve, she found the car filled with young boys and girls, singing and happy, and she could not restrain the tears. Lucky for her it was raining, so she extended her face to the heavens and let the rain mingle with her tears. As she tasted the salt of her tears she said to herself: “This is not a streetcar, but a ship and I am not tasting my tears, but the salt of the sea in the wind.”

While she physically held the rail of the streetcar, she mentally touched the rail of a ship moving into Samoa. Physically tasting the salt of her tears she imagined it was the salt of the sea. As the streetcar reached its destination, she was entering the bay of Samoa, feeling the moonlight shining on her body and hearing a voice say: “Isn’t it a heavenly night.”

Two weeks later this girl received a check for $3,000 from a law firm in Chicago. It seems that two years before, her aunt had left the United States, requesting that if she did not return, the money was to be given to her niece.

Within one month, the girl was on a ship sailing for Samoa. Coming into the bay, she saw a ship plowing through the water leaving lovely white foam in its path. As the moonlight touched the wake, its spray touched her face and a man standing near said: “Isn’t it a heavenly night.” At that moment her outer senses experienced what she had used her inner senses to make real!

Now, imagination – being spiritual sensation – is the creator of the world. With her five senses (sight, sound, scent, taste, and touch) she transformed a streetcar in San Francisco into a ship in the South Pacific, and within one month she physically fulfilled her imaginal act.

Many will say that was just coincidence, but it was not! It is reality, but how do I get you to believe me? But whether you believe me or not, I know from experience that God and you are one grand Imagination, and there is no other God! One day, Imagination in you will awaken and you – fully aware of who you really are – will know that all things are subject to you. That is your destiny.

The present moment is a formed imaginal act. Arrest it, and you can change it in yourself by following the advice given in the 18th chapter of the Book of Jeremiah:
” ‘Arise! Go down to the potter’s house and I will let you hear my words.’ So I went down to the potter’s house and there he was working at his wheel. The image in his hand was misshapen, but he reworked it into another image as it seemed good to the potter to do.”

The word translated “potter,” means imagination, and we are told that the Lord is not only our Father, but the potter, and we are the clay in his hands! (Isaiah 64)

Remember the day your boss criticized you, and you are molding an image of yourself based upon what he said. Being undesirable, that image is misshapen. Unable to discard yourself, go down to the potter’s house by taking the same scene and reshaping yourself by remembering the day your boss congratulated you on your accomplishments. Will this act change your world? Yes! I tell you: the God of the universe is shaping you morning, noon, and night, as you accept words, actions, and events from seeming others.

I urge you to shape your world from within and no longer from without. Describe yourself as you would like to be seen by others and believe your words. Walk in the assumption they are true and – because no power can thwart God – what He is imagining, you will experience.

You are not someone apart from God, for I AM cannot be divided. The Lord, our God, is one I AM, not two! If God’s I AM and your I AM is the same I AM, define what you would like to be. Then believe you are the Lord! Be like the lady who transformed a streetcar into a cruise. Lose yourself in your new state, while your world on the outside remains, momentarily, the same.

Now, your reasoning mind may say she did have an aunt who had the presence of mind to die and leave her $3,000 at that particular time. And being young she did not consider the future; but I tell you: this is how the law works. It never fails if you will go all out and believe that your human imagination is God.

Because God cannot die, he is a God of the living! So when the garment you now wear comes to its end, you – the being living in it – will continue to live. You will still be in a world just like this one until you awaken from the dream of life. Then you will move into an entirely different age, to realize the oneness of the being that you really are. Until then, believe what I am telling you, for it is true.

When you imagine for a seeming other you are blessed, for there is no other and you are giving your imaginal gift to yourself!

Hear your friend tell you his good news, see the joy on his face, feel the thrill of fulfillment, and let it take place in your world. And as it does, recognize your harvest. Realize you are responsible for its consummation.

The world is yourself pushed out. Ask yourself what you want and then give it to yourself! Do not question how it will come about; just go your way, knowing that the evidence of what you have done must appear, and it will.

Last year, while I was in Barbados, a friend received a call from his mother telling him that his brother had killed a man. As he replaced the phone, a vision appeared in which a woman said: “Find Neville and he will give you the rainbow in the sky.” My friend called me in Barbados, and when I heard his story I said: “It is done. God is infinite mercy, and there is nothing but forgiveness of sin.”

When the spirit of Christ is formed in you, you will forgive a person, no matter what he has done. Pharaoh would not let his people go because God had hardened his heart, so how can you condemn Pharaoh for something God did? Tonight my friend told me his mother had called to tell him his brother had been set free.

I will tell you now, that no one can reach the end of the journey without having killed someone. Everyone must play every part, so that when memory returns he may forgive all. The part of the thief, the murderer, the rapist and the one raped – every state will be experienced. Anything man can do is recorded in scripture, and to fulfill scripture man must do every thing.

Had I not played every part, I would not have been born from above. My friend, who loves his brother and could not understand how he could do such a thing, has murdered, as we all have. We must do everything the world condemns in order for the spirit of Christ – which is continual forgiveness of sin – to be formed within us. And when this happens to you, you will see no one to condemn. It is not that you are indifferent to war or murder, but you will see the world as a play with you – the author – playing all the parts.

Remember: you don’t have to abide by anything you dislike. It is but a vessel in your hand which is not properly shaped. Go down to the potter’s house and rework it into another vessel as it seems good for you, the potter, to do.

You can not only rework your concept of self into a new one, but you can rework another. If one is not well or does not earn enough to pay his expenses, the concept is misshapen. You don’t ask the vessel if you may rework it, rather you feel as though you have witnessed the change or heard the good news.

There must be action, for an idea alone produces nothing. You must act within yourself by entering the idea. When someone calls or makes a request of you, you must act upon it by producing a motor element within yourself. It may be the sound of their voice telling you it has already happened. Or you may feel the touch of his hand. Whatever you do, it must be something that takes the desire from being an idea and moves it into the creative state of fulfillment.

The very first creative act recorded in scripture is when the spirit of the Lord moved upon the face of the waters. Here is motion. If you would like to be elsewhere, all you need to do is close your senses to the room you now occupy and sense the room where you would like to be. Open your eyes, and your senses will deny any change, for yours was a psychological motion. By closing your eyes the obvious here vanishes, and through the act of assumption, there becomes here. Seeing the world related to your new position, you breathe reality into the state and, having moved from where you are to where you want to be, you have created it.

I know this doesn’t make sense, but as Douglas said: “The secret of imagining is the greatest of all problems, to the solution of which every mystic aspires, for supreme power, supreme wisdom, and supreme delight lie in the solution of this far-off mystery.”

How is this mystery unraveled? By claiming you are all imagination. Then wrapping yourself in space, and mentally seeing your world relative to your assumed position in space. Do that and you have moved.

President Hoover once said: “Human history, through its many forms of governments, its revolutions, its wars – in fact the rise and fall of nations – could be written in terms of the rise and fall of ideas implanted in the minds of men.”

Here you see that the change of governments is the result of the change of ideas implanted in the mind. Can you now see how we are implanting the horrors of the world? Read the morning paper, watch television, or listen to the radio, and you will observe how their words frighten you in order to get your attention. See a headline that someone was murdered and you stop to read it. See another, saying things are fine, and you ignore it, as it would mean nothing. Read the scandal sheet, telling of some prominent person who has been unfaithful and you enjoy a bit of gossip. All of these are ideas implanted in the mind, which cause the rise and fall of nations.

I tell you: imagining creates reality! If you want to change your life you must become aware of the ideas you are planting in the mind of others! When you meet someone who is negative, put a lovely idea in its place. Then, whenever you think of him, imagine he is telling you something lovely. And, because you now walk in a world that is not disturbed by his negative state, when he finds himself no longer thinking negative thoughts, he will never know you were its source. You will know it and that is all that is important.

Become aware of the thoughts you are thinking and you will know a more pleasant life. It makes no difference what others do; plant loving, kind thoughts and you will be blessed in the doing.

Believe me: Here was a child of sixteen who transformed her tears into the salt spray of the sea, a streetcar into a ship, and San Francisco into Samoa. She is blessed, for when it came to pass, she never forgot her moment of despair when she imagined a state and it came to pass.

I ask you now to believe in the invisible God who became you. When you say “I am”, you think of the face you wear, but you are not it. You are so much greater than it could ever be.

One day, God’s son David will look into the eyes of the being you really are and call you father. He will not call you by the name of the mask you wear, for David is the express image of your invisibility. Recognizing you as his eternal father, David signifies that your journey into the world of death is at its end. And from that moment on you will share your experiences with anyone who will listen and save everyone you meet.

You will save one who is unemployed by mentally hearing him tell you he is now gainfully employed and making more money than ever before. Having heard his good news, you will subjectively appropriate your objective hope and never turn back by doubting the reality of what you have done. You will simply watch it come to pass. Then you will know that you have found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets wrote: Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Lord God, and the Father of all!

I have disclosed the one and only source of the phenomena of life. Everything that has ever happened, is happening, or will happen to you, comes from God, who is your own wonderful human imagination. I urge you to use it wisely.

Now a lady wrote me, saying she heard a voice cursing her, and – not understanding – she questioned self and heard the words: “Because I want you.”

In the Book of Galatians, Paul tells those who have arrived at the end of their journey, to reject all laws and institutions which would interfere with the direct communication with their individual God. (Galatians 5:1-14)

In the spirit world, all organized societies are personified. Rivers, mountains, cities – everything is human, for God is Man. Even the Los Angeles Woman’s Club building is personified in the spirit world. Representing a need of the ladies who own it, when seen in the spirit world, and trying to detach yourself from it, it will curse you, for it wants to feed on you.

So when you leave religious institutions, organizations, customs, and laws that would interfere with your individual direct communion with your God, they will curse you, for they will have lost you. Just leave them alone. I have seen them all and they are nothing more than shadows. Once I saw a monstrous witch in a cave teaching little children the black arts. When she saw me she screamed: “O Man of God, what have you to do with me?”

The Bible tells the same story. Those who teach the black arts and how to hurt people, those who would control your mind and make you dependent upon them, are only personifications of organizations who keep you from contacting the only God who is within you. Every orthodox religious group would enslave you for the rest of eternity if they could; but when you leave that belief, its personification will curse your leaving, but their curse means nothing. They cannot touch you when you completely reject any intermediary between yourself and God.

Now to come back to tonight’s theme: Imagining creates reality! Have you imagined something and it hasn’t come to pass? Then what are you imagining right now?

Are you imagining you are John Brown? You were not born knowing you were John Brown. You were born and others began to call you John. As time passed you began to assume you were John Brown and began to respond when you heard the name John.

When you imagined being secure did you forget the feeling? Are you imagining you are secure now? You may have no evidence that you are secure, but as you allow others to tell you how much you are loved and wanted, how successful and famous you are, you will begin to assume it, and imagination will have created its reality. Try it, for that reality you already are!

Now let us go into the silence.

neville goddard imagination creates reality

MY WORD

Neville Goddard 04-22-1968

neville goddard imagination creates reality“My word that goes forth from my mouth shall not return to me empty, but shall accomplish that which I purpose and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55) This is the same word recorded in the Book of John as: “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

The word became flesh and dwells in us.” (John 1) The Revised Standard Version of the Bible has mistranslated the preposition “in” to read “among” as the word, becoming flesh, dwells in us. Notice John used the plural “us”, for it was not a person the word assumed, but the nature of being a person. The word assumed human nature, to become the mold upon which the pattern is molded.

In the beginning the word was with God and was God. The Greek word “logos” (translated “word”) means “pattern, that which gives meaning, a plan.” In the beginning there was a plan called Jesus Christ. He is the pattern man, who took upon himself human nature to become the mold upon which our nature is being formed. The word did not become an individual called John, Neville, Peter, or Grace – but human nature, so that when his work is finished in an individual, he will say: “I am He.”

This is the story of indentured labor, a contract which binds one person to work for another for a given period of time, like an apprentice. In the West Indies, Trinidad, and British Guiana some hundred years ago, they had indentured labor. For fourteen years, the Indians were slaves; then they were given some acreage, a home, and set free to compete with those who had enslaved them. Scripture speaks of indentured labor as: “The Lord God said to Abram, ‘Your descendants will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs. They will be slaves and oppressed for four hundred years. Afterward, they will come out with great possessions.”‘ Here is a fixed period of time, and slavery will not go beyond this point. Four hundred is the numerical value of taf, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, whose symbol is a cross. Human nature bears this cross for four hundred years. Then the word unfolds itself and human nature is redeemed. Redemption means to redeem an article which was put in pledge by repayment of the loan for which it was given. So we see that: “The creature was made subject until futility; not willingly, but by the will of him who subjected him in hope that we will obtain the glorious liberty of the sons of God.” (Romans 8)

Now, you and I can believe, yet have no consciousness as to why we are here. We are living, animating bodies – but not life-giving spirits. Desiring this knowledge, we were subjected to and sent into slavery for a definite period. There is no other way to be redeemed, so God became us. He is playing the part of you, regardless of what your name is here. We are all God’s word, moving towards a definite end. My word, which is my very self, shall not return to me void. It must accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I send it. And when my word returns, I will discover I am the word which was sent forth, making me – a son of God – equal to God. If the word as God dwells in you and unfolds in you, are you not one with God upon your return?

Ecclesiastes tells us: “He has made everything perfect in its day and he has put eternity into the mind of man, yet so that man cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” In Hebrew thought, eternity consists of all of the generations of men and their experiences fused into one grand whole. The concentrated time into which the whole is placed, and from which all the generations spring, is called David. That is what is put into the mind. The word “olam” (translated “eternity”) means “a youth; a stripling, a young man.” You will notice that all of these terms are used to describe David. Whose youth is that? Inquire whose son the stripling is. Who are you, young man? These are questions asked by Saul, Israel’s first king, made by human choice from outward observation. Saul was rejected by the Lord. Seeing only the heart, God chose David, claiming he is “A man after my own heart who does all of my will.” So David is Israel’s first king by divine choice, while Saul was the first king by human choice.

After you have gone through all of the generations of men, you will be confronted by a youth, the personification of eternity, which you bring forth as the result of your journey into death. And no one is going to fail; for – as God’s word – you cannot return to him void, but must accomplish what you purposed, and prosper in the thing for which you were sent. At your journey’s end, you will find David, who will cry unto you: “Thou art my Father, my God and the Rock of my salvation.” Here is God’s anointed one, the first born of every creature. As the word possesses you, human nature is put off, and you become the mold upon which divine nature is fashioned and ultimately born. And when the work is completed, the word unveils itself, and David – the result of your frightful pain – calls you “Father”.

With all of the confusion in the atmosphere about racial conflict, my friend Bennie recently shared a vision with me. In his experience, six neighbors (all black) were running toward him carrying knives. Their bodies were lacerated, but healed, and their arms all scarred. Stopping one person, Bennie said: “Don’t you know this is wrong? That violence is stupid? That it is evil?” For one moment the man hesitated and then shook his head and said: “Even if I wanted to, I could not stop it.” This world is a stage upon which man is under compulsion to play his part. How are you going to stop a play and change it because you do not like the part you are presently playing? Because you do not like violence, are you going to stop murder and change the play? Hamlet is murdered every night that the play goes on, and when the curtain goes down he is taken off the stage. Murder is part of the play, already written and unalterable. You can, however, change your way of life within the framework of the play, by the same principle that animates the world.

Now, the word did not inhabit and assume itself to be a particular man, but dwells in us; therefore, you do not have to assume your name is Rockefeller to feel wealthy, but rather you simply assume the nature of wealth.

In the Book of John this question is asked: “What do you want to see, a man shaken by the winds?” Are you looking for a man to bow to? A man to feel inferior to? I have met men I respect, but I do not consider any of them my superior. I respect Einstein’s great mind, but if I stood in his presence, I would not consider him greater than I.

Today I went to the dictionary and looked up the word “person.” It said the word was used in this sense: “In my station in life, I could never know a person of the trade, socially.” Strangely enough, I had that experience at a cocktail party one night. The lady who gave the party apologized profusely for inviting a man and his wife who owned a very successful haberdashery on Madison Avenue. This lady did not earn her money. She had received her wealth from a divorce settlement. But because she was a member of all the exclusive clubs in the city of New York, she felt she was above the couple who earned their living – thereby expressing the dictionary’s definition of the word “person.”
Certainly there are other definitions for the word “person.” The first and final definition is “actor; a mask for one who plays a part.” Here is a part a person is playing. This lady could not see the part, for – feeling detached – she saw the person. Even today, with all of her missions, she still cannot separate the person from the part he plays.

But God, being protean, is playing every part. When Bennie saw the violence, he was looking at his past, trying to tell the truth to those who would listen. Momentarily arresting the attention of one cast in the role of violence, he realized that even if he wanted to stop it, he couldn’t. Being cast in a role, you must play it through to the very end. Then David will come out, bearing witness to the will of God – who entered and completed the drama in order to bring out Sons with life in them. It takes this horrible drama to transform an animated soul into a life-giving spirit. We are taught to believe that if we do certain things we will change the play, but this is not true. “Those whom he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. And those whom he predestined, he called, and those whom he called, he justified, and those he justified, he also glorified.” Here is a play of five terms, beginning with foreknowledge and ending in glorification.

If at the present time you are financially behind the eight-ball, assume the nature of wealth until you embody it. You must forget a person called Jesus, and think of him as God’s word, which became flesh and dwells in you. He never assumed a person, but man’s nature.

In the state of Abraham, Imagination took upon himself the element of human nature before he took on a personality. Finding himself in human form, the word molds human nature upon himself until humanity becomes the very image of God. And on that day, he who began the good work in you will unveil himself, and you will know that you are God. Having written the play with all of its horrors, God plays all the parts. One day every son will know he is the author of the play. On that day his creative power and wisdom will be enhanced beyond his wildest dreams, because – as life itself – the word assumed the state of death and conquered it.

Now, a lady recently shared a perfectly marvelous experience with me, saying: “I saw myself come out of myself as an old woman, holding a child in her arms. Although I saw her as another, I knew her as myself.” This is a perfect vision of the 18th chapter of Genesis. Sarah was an old woman. It had long since ceased to be with her after the manner of women, yet she brought forth the promised child. In this chapter God speaks to Abraham, and as he tells him of the promise, it turns from the first into the third person. It is said that Sarah laughed because she and Abraham were old. At the time she did not recognize the Lord; but when the one speaking of him in the third person says: “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Sarah recognized him and doubted no more. This lady had the vision of Sarah, and will now have the experience of Mary and bear the promised child. That same night, as she closed her eyes, she saw a huge ear, a hammer, and a spike. As she watched, invisible hands drove the spike through the ear. Although she knew the ear was hers, it did not hurt. By that act, this lady fulfilled the 40th chapter of the Book of Psalms, for if you read the footnote you will see that ears will be bored for you. This is done for you to hear the word, coming uninterrupted from within.

Everyone will awaken, regardless of the violence which appears in the world. We have it in our city today, but I say: “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.” Just as the man said to Bennie: “Even if I wanted to, I could not stop it.” If the part you agree to play calls for violence, you will do it, for having agreed to be cast in the role, you must play the part to the finish. Within your sphere, however, you can take on the nature of anything and express it, for you are the world! Take on the nature of health, and health will take on the tones of flesh. Find the feeling of wealth, and you have caught its nature. You don’t have to feel you are a specific individual who is wealthy, healthy, or famous, in order to personify it. God did not assume individuality, but the nature of humanity. He dwells in you, for the word became flesh and dwells in us all.

I am telling you what I know from experience. Believe my words. Dwell upon their meaning and you will awaken from within as God’s word unveils itself in you. You will find the essence of your journey through these four hundred years and redeem yourself. You see, the one who put you into bondage has to redeem you, and the only way he can do it is to give you himself. Life is in the blood. He must redeem you with his life-blood. As your body of belief is split from top to bottom, you will see God’s blood as living, liquid gold. Fusing with it, you become his blood and return to the Holy of Holies as the one who made the supreme sacrifice. You must be redeemed, for he who redeems you pledged himself and must regain his pledge. You were sent into the world, not willingly, but so that you could become as he is. The only way he could do this was to give you his life-blood. While in the world, you are aware of generation and division. But when you become aware of being one with His blood, you move up into regeneration and unity, into the one Being who fell.

Remember, you are the word making this world real, and – although you are totally unaware of it – the Pattern Man is being molded upon your nature. He who began the good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ. On that day you will know that you are God. In the meanwhile, imitate God. Name your desire and feel its nature. And when it becomes flesh, don’t forget how it came into being. Don’t give credence to the means, but remember the nature that produced the desire, for this world is a play, and a play it will remain until God’s word redeems himself in all.

Now let us go into the silence.

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

NEVILLE’S PURPOSE REVEALED

Neville Goddard  25 June 1971

neville goddard Imagination Is RealityWhen purpose is revealed, all falls into place. The revelation of purpose gives meaning to everything, and there is a purpose in this wonderful, vast creation of God. Paul said: “He has made known unto us . . . . the mystery of His will, according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time.” [Ephesians 1:9, 10] There is a plan behind it all. 

Now let us turn to the most disputed verse in Ecclesiastes: “God has put Eternity into man’s mind, yet so that man cannot find out what Cod has done from the beginning to the end.” [Ecclesiastes 3:11]

The Revised Standard Version translates it as “eternity.” The meaning of the word translated “eternity” will determine what meaning you would give to that verse. The word is “olam.” The King James Version translates it as “the world.” “He put the world into man’s mind.”

But the word is “olam.” It really means — in a sense — “history”; but history to the one who wrote it, the Teacher, consists of all the generations of man, including their experiences, and all fused into one grand whole; and this concentrated time into which all things are fused, they call “eternity.” It is from this that all things spring. Now that is in your mind.

All the generations that ever walked the face of this earth, all of their experiences, all that are walking today, all that ever will walk, God placed in your mind. You are not limited to this small, little section of time — threescore and ten years. He took Eternity! Therefore, He gave you Himself! But He hid the gift from the beginning of time to the end.

The gift is God Himself! Believe it, and the whole incredible story of the Gospel will become to you possible. And the day will come, you will experience the gift, and you will know how true it is. God’s purpose is to give Himself to you individually, as though there were no others in the world — just you, for the gift is so complete, it is not you and God; it’s you as God. God became as you are, that you may be as He is. [Paraphrase of Blake’s statement in “Jerusalem”] So in the end, you will not see another as God. It is you as God! This is the story.

Now, in the 4th Chapter of Ecclesiastes, at the very end of the 4th Chapter, he said, “I saw all the living that move about under the sun, as well as that second youth, who was to stand in his place; there was no end to all the people; he was above all of them. Yet those who will come later will take no joy in him. Isn’t that also vanity and the striving after wind?” [Ecclesiastes 4:15,16J

This “second one” spoken of in Scripture is the Lord from Heaven. It begins in the very beginning of Genesis. The “second one” was Abel, the slaughtered, the murdered. As we move through, the “second one” was Isaac, — not Ishmael, the first. We come on through, and it was Jacob, not Esau. A strange reversal of order takes place in all of these adumbrations in Scripture. They are all a foreshadowing of what God has planned for us. There is that “second youth” in us that has to be awakened, and that is God Himself! He is reproducing in us His own image, and that is called the “second man” or the “Lord from Heaven.”

I will share with you, as I’ve done night after night, my own personal experience of Scripture. The story is the only true story in the world. God’s eternal purpose is taking place in time; but it is an eternal state. It’s something that is continuous. It is permanent, in contrast to this fragmented state in time where we seem to begin, and all things that begin here end. But there is something that does not begin. It is continuous. It is in man. It is buried in man, and that that cannot begin or end is God-in-man.

Paul asked the question: “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” [II Corinthians 13:5]

Well, the answer to that, if you are honest with yourself, if you have not had the experience, — you would say, “No, I do not. I could believe it, and I will believe it; but I do not know it. For, to experience it would be to know it. Not to experience it and only to believe it would be hearsay, but I want to actually experience it, that I may know it.”

Your purpose in this world is not what the world thinks it is. Therefore they said you do not rejoice. “Those who come later will not rejoice in Him” [Ecclesiastes 4:16, R.S.V.], because they will think their purpose is to make a fortune, to get a bigger house or more houses, to get a name among those who are departing this world, for all these appear, they wax, they vane, they disappear. No matter how long they prolong it, or they think they do, they all vanish; and they want to have some name among the shadows that are vanishing. There is a purpose, and the purpose is to awaken as God — God Himself!

The plan is definite in Scripture. He said, “I have come into the world only to fulfill Scripture.” That’s my purpose. “He who began a good work in me will bring it to completion at the unveiling in me of His plan, which is Christ Jesus” [Philippians 1:6]. He will unveil Christ Jesus in me. Well, when he does, “I am He.”

I have been taught that He dwells in me, but I have also been taught that He came from without. When one experiences the story, he realizes He is not from without at all. He was always buried in me — that Universal Christ, the Cosmic Christ. The whole of Him, riot a little piece of Him; but the whole is buried in the seeming part; and that individual, speaking of you now individually, will one day have the experience recorded in Scripture of Jesus Christ!

He said, “I am not of this world. I am from above. You are from below.” [John 8:23]

He isn’t speaking to the crowd on the outside. It’s taking place within the individual. I am speaking now to this conscious, reasoning mind “below” — this garment of flesh and blood, — you are from below. I am from above. I must be born from above. You, Neville, — the flesh-and-blood Neville — you were born from below — from the womb of a woman. I am being born from above — from that place where they laid me when I “died.” I died as God, to awake in man as man, and then to take that man in whom I am buried and raise him to the level of my Self as God.

He is buried in your skull. That is Golgotha. There is no other burial place for Jesus Christ. You can go all over the world looking for his so-called “holy sepulchre”; and you will not find it outside of your own skull. That’s where He is buried. And the day will come that you will find yourself awakening. You will awaken in your own skull, and you will be alone — all alone, and the skull will be sealed — completely sealed; but you now, having awakened within your skull, you have an innate wisdom as to what you should do. You have one consuming desire, and that is to get out.

You are completely sealed in your skull, and you are standing up alone; but you know if you push the base of your skull, something will “give.” And you do; you push it from within, and something rolls away, as described in Scripture: “And the stone was rolled away” [Mark 16:4J. You do it. And then you put your head through that little opening, and you squeeze, and you come out like a child being born, inch by inch by inch. And when you are almost out, you pull the remaining portion of your body out of your skull. And after a few seconds on the ground, you rise again and look back at that body out of which you came. It’s ghastly pale, tossing its head from side to side just like one in recovery from some great or major operation. Then you hear the wind that actually preceded the entire drama — a peculiar, unearthly wind.

Now, “wind” and “spirit” are the same word in both Greek and Hebrew. But you hear the wind; it’s a storm wind. You feel it in your head, and yet you seem to feel it’s coming from the corner of the room where you find yourself. You look over to that corner, not more than a few seconds; and as you look back, the body out of which you emerged has been removed, as told in Scripture: “They have taken away his body, and we do not know where they have laid it.” [John 20:2] The body is gone; it has been removed. But in its place now are seated three witnesses to the event. In my own case, they were my three older brothers. As tradition has it, — it is not in Scripture; but tradition has it, the three who came to witness the birth were brothers: the king of Arabia, king of Persia, king of India; and they were brothers. In my case, they are not earthly kings in my family; they were simply my own wonderful, loving brothers. And there they sat, one at the head, one at one foot, and one at the other. The body was gone, but that’s where it would have been had it remained there: the head and the two feet.

They are equally disturbed because of the wind. My brother Lawrence was the most disturbed; and he rose and started towards the same direction that I started. He hadn’t gone more than a step when something attracted his attention, and he looked down on the floor, and he announced to my other two brothers, “Why, it is Neville’s baby!”

They, in the most incredulous voices, asked, “How can Neville have a baby?”

He does not argue the point. He lifts the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and brings it over and places it on the bed. He didn’t see because I am now Spirit. I cannot be seen by mortal eye. They saw it, and they came and saw the sign that was foretold by the angels. “Go, and you shall find this as a sign, an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes” [Luke 2:12], — and that’s the sign that God Himself was born. “For a Saviour is born this day to you.” [Luke 2:11]

The only “saviour” in Scripture is the Lord God Jehovah. “I am the Lord God, your Saviour,” you are told in the 43d and 45th Chapters of Isaiah, “and beside me there is no saviour.” [Isaiah 43:11 and 45:21] So, the Saviour is being born. That’s exactly what is going to happen to you individually.

I took the infant up, arid then I looked into its face, and I said, “How is my sweetheart?” Then it broke into the most glorious, heavenly smile. As told you, “the name was called Isaac” [Genesis 21:3], which simply means: “He smiles.” The smile is a heavenly smile. While he is looking into my face and smiling, the whole thing dissolves.

Now we come to that “second youth”; and he comes (in my case) a hundred and twenty-nine (129) days after the “birth from above.” An explosion in my head -— the whole drama takes place in your skull. That’s where you were buried, and that’s where the whole drama is going to unfold. A hundred and twenty—nine days later my head began — there’s a vibration, and when it reached the limit — what I thought was the limit, it exploded; and then when the whole thing settled, I am seated at an ordinary table. Before me is a table; on it an enormous head severed from the body. Leaning against the side of an open door and looking out on a pastoral scene is my son David of Biblical fame. Yes, David of Biblical fame! That’s why I say the drama is permanent and continuous. It’s not something that took place, once and for all, two thousand years ago or four thousand years ago; it is taking Place now, and it will continue to take place until His purpose is fulfilled. It cannot he fulfilled until everyone experiences that predetermined drama — for the awakening of God in man as God, — that man in whom He awakes is God!
So, here is David leaning against the side of an open door and looking at me. I have never seen such beauty in my life. David has an unearthly beauty. You can’t describe the beauty of that lad of about 12 or 13. And while I drink him in and feast upon his beauty, the whole thing dissolves; and I know I am his father, and he knows that he is my son.

Until that moment in time, I had no idea there was any relationship between a Biblical character and the one talking to you now. It came as a complete surprise to me that the story told in the Bible is eternally true, and it’s all about us. That David is your “son,” but you do not know it. He put that in your mind in the beginning, “but so that you cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” That is the 11th verse of the 3d Chapter of Ecclesiastes. That is what He put in your mind. That is that “second youth” who is over all of them. As you are told, “He is prince forever [Ezekiel 37:21]. If he is “prince,” his father is “king.” “And the Lord will be king in that day, and his name shall be One; and all will be one.” He is king! The king has a son; the son is a prince. And David is the “prince” forever and forever.

So, here is the unfolding drama of God-in-you, and God is king. But He’s a father. Well, if He’s a father, there must be a son, and the son is David.

Now we read in the story of David:

I will tell of the decree of the Lord:
He said unto me: “Thou art my son.
Today I have begotten thee.” [Psalm 2:1]

And now the Lord speaks:

“I have found David, . . . . .
He has cried unto me, ‘Thou art my Father,
my God, and the Rock of my Salvation.”

[Psalm 89:20,21]

You will find David, and only when you find him will you really know that you are God. You will not in eternity be persuaded by someone other than yourself. You can only know it — actually know it — by finding David, and David will reveal to you Who-You-Are. That was God’s plan in the beginning. That’s His purpose.

So He set it forth in Christ. Well, the word “Christ” is the Hebrew word “Messiah.” That wonderful poem of Browning, when he tried in his wonderful manner, through the use of words, to reveal the coming of Messiah, — he called the poem “Saul.” If you are not familiar with the story, Saul was insane — King Saul; and David plays the lyre — plays the harp and soothed him when he was demented. Now the story as Browning tells it is this:

David stands before Saul, and he said to Saul: “Oh, Saul, . . . .
A face like my face . . . shall receive thee; a man like to me
Thou shalt love and be loved by forever: A Hand like this hand
Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee!”

Then standing before him, he said: “See the Christ stand!”
He is telling you who he is; he is the “Anointed One.” “Christ” means the “anointed one.’

“Rise and anoints him. This is he” [I Samuel 16:12], said the Lord to His prophet Samuel. “This is he.” Who are they speaking to? To Samuel. Of whom? He spoke of David. So Samuel took the ointment, — that is, the oil — the precious oil, and anointed David in the presence of his brothers; “and from that day forward the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David.” [I Samuel 16:13]

Now you are told, “Those who come later will find no joy in Him.” [Ecclesiastes 4:16]

They are so eager to make money, so eager to get a name among shadows, so eager to build monuments to themselves, that they have no time for the story, — they are all about the shadow world. Now, what does he mean, he was above all of them? Well, if you can take it, may I tell you? all these “garments” [indicating the physical body] are shadows. They are part of the eternal structure of the universe. You are “wearing” these garments, and they are you only for a temporary part of your time. They became a part of you when you penetrated them and annexed the brains of them; and so for a little while they are a temporary portion of the soul — but only for a temporary part of your journey. It is not You. These garments –you burn them up — put them into the oven and reduce them to ash, but that’s not You. Throw it into the furnace, and that Fourth One comes out, the Fourth One being your Eternal Being as you. You are told in the Book of Daniel: “Throw them into the furnace,” — reduce them to ashes; but here is the Immortal You that cannot die. But while you are here and you are a part of that little world in which you live, you think it is you, and you’ll die to protect it and do anything to save it while you go about your business trying to make more and more of this shadow world.

He said, “Those who will come later will not rejoice in Him. Is that not a striving after wind?” It’s just like “striving after wind” to build up more and more of the same shadows.

So here, I am sharing with you what I personally have experienced. All the adumbrations of the Old Testament, which are put into the form of a story told as if it were true, — for that’s what is told; it is told as if it were true, and you were taught to believe that it was physically true, and it’s not physically true. It takes place in man. It is more true than any physical story ever could be, for this is eternally true.

Now the third one, you will find yourself, — and this is a marvelous one; the day will come, you will be split in two from top to bottom, and you will see at the base of your spine golden, liquid, pulsing, living light. Although it’s liquid, pulsing light, you know it is your Self; and you fuse with it; and then like a fiery serpent, you rise into your skull. And when you enter, it is just like thunder. You reverberate; your whole head begins one grand, marvelous reverberation. You think it’s going to split; but no, — it subsides, and you have gone hack into Heaven! That’s how you take Heaven, and you take it violently, as told you in Scripture. [See Matthew 11:12,13; and Luke 16:16, R.S.V.]

And then comes the climax; and the climax is when the Spirit descends upon you in bodily form as a dove and smothers you with affection, kissing you all over your face, your head, your neck. He remains on you when the vision begins to fade. Then the drama has been brought to its climax.

You then tell it to the best of your ability, either in the spoken word as I am, or you can write it if you can write. But you tell it to anyone who will listen. It’s not very encouraging if you read the end of Acts because he told it “from morning to evening . . . . some believed him, and some disbelieved him. [Acts 28:23, 24]

Well, the same thing is true here, because man has been taught to believe it is a physical story — a secular story. When I tell them the true meaning of it, then they turn their ears — that is, they clasp their hands over their ears, for they can’t believe that what they were told is not true secularly.

But I tell you, it is not historically true, if by “history” I mean things that took place here on earth. It is eternally true in the Spirit world. And that is what is going to happen to you; and when it happens to you, you will leave this world. And the next time you close your eyes and men call you “dead,” you will be one of those who look down from Eternity upon this world and see all this taking place, and it’s all under you. That is what he meant: “I saw all those who go about under the sun, and he was over all of them.” All these things are simply under his control. Everything here is taking place by those who contemplate it above.

So when we are told the story: He stood before the judge, and the judge said, “Who are you?” he said, “For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth.”

He said, “Are you a king?”

He said, “You say that I am, but my kingdom is not of this world.”

It hasn’t a thing to do with this world; he came only to bear witness to the truth, and the truth was the Word of God. So, he cane to express that Word, and the Word had to find expression in him; then he tells it to the world. “Some believed, and some disbelieved.”

There is no personal description of Jesus in the Scriptures. So, forget all the pictures that you have seen, no matter how good the artist. No personal description of Jesus in the Bible because you are the Lord Jesus Christ. And the day will come, they will know you to be Jesus Christ, regardless of your sex. And they will know you, identified as you are, — you are Mary, you are John, you are Jim, you are Stanley, you are Benny; and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. They will know you as their friend, and still know that you are the Lord.

So, everyone will be the Lord Jesus Christ, They all form “one Body, one spirit, . . . one God and Father of all,” — without loss of identity. You are individualized; and you tend forever and forever towards an ever greater individualization. You reach that climax of it all as what you are individually but as the Lord! And they will see you and know that you are the Lord, while you are walking this earth, may I tell you? Not in some after-death state.

When this thing happens to you, there are those in your circle of friends who will see you, and they can’t believe their own eyes, but they can’t deny what they saw. They will know you are the Lord. They will dine with you the next night, have a drink with you, tell you a joke; you tell them one, and still they can’t get it out of their heads that they saw you and you were the Lord. They know that you are the Lord, and yet you are the same friend they have always known. But they saw you as you really are after you have been born from above.

So, man must be born from above or he cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Everyone will be born from above, for that One to be born is already in man dreaming. The Dreamer-in-man is Jesus Christ. You are dreaming this world. Now dream it nobly. Dream noble dreams. All can come to pass.

In your dreams dare to assume that you are the man that you want to be. Assume that you are it, and persist in that assumption; and that assumption, in a way you do not consciously know, will harden into fact. All assumptions if persisted in become what the world calls “reality.’ So, do not give up. The most fantastic dream can become true if you assume it and walk in the assumption as though it were true.

Night after night, sleep as though you are the man — the woman — that you would be or that you would like to be. And then, if tomorrow does not bring it to pass, it doesn’t matter. There are intervals of time between the assumption and its fulfillment. It’s like generation. So, if you dare to assume it, give it time. And then some bridge of incidents will be built for you without your conscious knowledge of it, and it will lead you across that bridge to the fulfillment of your assumption in a way that you do not know.

So, dare to assume a noble concept of yourself. Live in it as though it were true; and may I tell you? It will become true.

Now a lady wrote me this week and asked me if I could throw some light on this. She said, “I found myself in a dormitory. I recall the dormitory, for I was in that school from the age of 12 to 18. But here you are as an instructor, and you are teaching all of us how to solve puzzles. You did not actually do it for us; you allowed us to use our own talents, but you are instructing. You were the instructor teaching us how to solve puzzles, leaving us full freedom to make our own efforts.

“Then you sat next to me, and you asked me this, — and this puzzled me because I do not understand what it means. You asked me, ‘Do you know what twenty-seven is?’”

Do you know what twenty-seven is?

Now she said, “I do not, and I cannot throw any light on it whatsoever. If you can throw some light on it, please do.”

Well, there are twenty-two letters to the Hebrew alphabet; but really they are twenty-seven, for there are five finals. Twenty-two originals, but five are repeated and called “finals.” So, there are twenty-seven letters.

I would suggest to this lady to read the 27th Psalm tonight. Take the 8th verse. It’s a glorious Psalm. It is not long — a very short one.

Thou hast said to me, “Seek ye my face.”
My heart says to thee,
“Thy face, Lord, I seek.
Hide not Thy face from me.” [Psalm 27:8,9]

That’s the whole drama, the Father and the Son, for no one can reveal the Father but the Son. And this is the Son — David — speaking. He is speaking to his Father: “Hide not Thy face from me.”

Yet you told me to seek your face.

My heart says to you,
“Thy face, Oh, Lord, I seek.
Hide not Thy face from. Me.”

That’s the drama.

Now in her letter she said, “Recently I have been having these dreams where I know I am dreaming. I am trying so hard to see what I am seeing, but I know I can open my eyes and see differently; but I am struggling to open the eyes and they won’t open.”

They are actually on the verge of it, my Dear. You must open the in-current eye, because you are going to see inwards into the world of thought — into Eternity — that which is ever expanding in the bosom of God, — what is it? The human imagination.

As someone wrote, they had their ears pierced — not the lobes of the ear, but the very center of the ear. Yes, they must be pierced, too, as told you in the 40th Psalm: “Ears Thou hast pierced for me.” [Psalm 40:6] You have made holes in them, that I may hear the heavenly sphere; we only hear the sounds out here — the noises. But there are ears to be pierced, and there are eyes to be opened. Then in-current eyes open up into the world of Eternity, into the world of thought, and forever expand; and that eye is the human imagination, which is one with God. For:

“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.”
[Blake, from “Annotations to Berkeley”
and “The Laocoon”]

So, be careful what you imagine. I don’t care how trivial it is, it will come to pass. The whole vast world is nothing more than the confused imaginations of men and women. So, if it seems confused, it is because man is not in control of his imaginal acts. He thinks he can imagine anything with impunity, but he cannot. It all comes into the world to confront him, and to show him what his harvest is. He planted it somewhere along the way; and now here comes his harvest, and he doesn’t recognize his own harvest.

Now, this being my last night, — I have no plans for the future, — I am going to give you a full opportunity to ask questions. First of all, let us go into the Silence.
(Following the Silence): Now are there any questions? Don’t be embarrassed. This is my last night here; so take full advantage of it.

(A lady asks a question that is unintelligible on the tape.)

NEVILLE: The question is, — you will find it in the end of the Gospel of John when he asks Peter if he loves him. “Peter, lovest thou me?”

And he says, “Yes, Lord, thou knowest that I do,”

He repeats this question three times, and it annoys Peter at the end. That’s the story. [See John 21:15 and following.]

I can say in words that I love you. I want it carried to the depths of your own being; so I repeat it. I repeat myself here night after night after night, because people I think heard me, and then I discover they didn’t really. If they had heard me to the point of belief, they would live by it, because man lives by his beliefs. And when I find them not living by what they have confessed in words that they believed, I know that they really didn’t believe it at all, because man lives by belief.
Then I say, “Well, do you believe it? Do you really believe that what I have told you is true, that I was born from above? Do you really believe that David is my son, and he is the son of God; and therefore he revealed to me who I really am as against what I thought I was?”

You may say in words, “Yes, I believe you.”

Then I may find you after that disbelieving by your behavior. And so, at the very end he asks him three times; and you will find the word that he used to be “love.” There are different words. “Eros” is love on the lowest level, and man mistakes that for love. “Aphrodite”(?), that’s love — something entirely different. So, man thinks of sex. All right, I am not denying sex. Sex is a very important thing in this world — very important; but people will say, ‘I love you,” meaning sex. Others, an entirely different emotion permeates them.

I stood in the presence of Infinite Love, and it’s Man; but there was no feeling of sex about it. He embraced me, and our bodies became one body; we fused, when I answered his question. He said, “What is the greatest thing in the world?” and I answered, “Faith, hope and love; these three. The greatest of these is Love.” [I Corinthians 13:15] At that, he embraced inc. Now, our two bodies became one body. As we are told in Scripture, “The two shall be one.” [Matthew 19:5]

But on this level, sex plays a very important part; but the day will come, the body is going to be split in two from top to bottom, and that energy that went into generation will be reversed and move into regeneration. So, he asked the question at the very end of the drama.

Now, let me make this statement: When I said, “He asked the question,” — the Gospels were written by anonymous characters. No one knows who Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are, — no one. They are anonymous names. They were only relating their own experience, but they told it in the form of a story. So, here is an allegory.
An allegory is a story told as if it were true, leaving the one who reads it or who hears it to discover its hidden meaning and learn its truth. So, they related their own experience, whoever Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were. They took the name because a name in Scripture has great significance; it’s not just a title or, I would say, some little tag.

The name “Jesus” is the same as the word “Jehovah.” The same “Yod He Vau” begins both words. The root is the same. “Jehovah” is “Salvation.” Jesus is called the Saviour; that’s salvation. And so, the Saviour was born, — Jehovah was born in a man and they related their own experience and told it beautifully. But–

“Truth embodied in a tale
Shall enter in at lowly doors.” [Tennyson]

So, they told it in the form of a story, that it would be accepted that way; and then gradually as you accept it, it will unfold in its true form.

So, Peter was the one who denied him three times before the cock crowed. So, he is still reminding him that he did at the very last deny him. “You turned your back upon me three times, and I told you the cock would not crow until you had denied me three times, and then the third time you wept bitterly because you knew how prophetically true my words were.”
So, man will swear, “ I will live by this for the rest of my days.” All right, you don’t have to swear. Try it! Try living by it! It’s not the easiest thing in the world to watch one’s imagination morning, noon and night, and to actually control it as you would a boat at sea when you steer it in the direction you want it to go. But, it has to be done eventually. Therefore, get started now.

“If you say you love me, you will keep my word,” he says.

So Peter says, “You know I love you.”

Well, the only way you can love me is to obey my word. “Those who love me,” he said, “obey the word.”

“What must I do to be doing the work of God? [John 6:28]

“Believe in him whom He has sent.” [John 6:29]

Well, the only one you can believe in — what? A little man? No; believe in the teaching, for he tells you, “They aren’t my words, but the words of Him who sent me.”

So, if you really believe that, you will believe the words and live by them. So, he asked it three times and let Peter deny him three times.

Are there any other questions, please?

(A gentleman asks a question that is not intelligible on the tape.)

NEVILLE: That was a colored man in Barbados. His name was Jordan. I was a boy. Of course, I didn’t know the story until I was in my 20’s. It was never told me. But I am one of nine brothers and one sister. My brother Victor met the prophet Jordan. He was known as “the prophet.” He was light-skinned; he was a mulatto, and everyone looked upon him as one who really had the prophetic vision. And he met my brother Vic, and he said to Vic, “What number are you in the Goddard family?”

Vic said, “I am the second.”

He said, “Now, what do you want to be?”

He said, “I want to be a businessman.”

He said to my brother Victor, “You are going to be a very, very successful businessman.”

Now he said, “What does the third one want to be?” That was my brother Lawrence.

He said, “He wants to be a doctor.”

He said, “He will be a very good, successful doctor. But,” he said, “don’t touch the fourth one. He belongs to God. The Lord has sent him to do a definite work; so don’t touch him. You can’t persuade him to do anything outside of that work that God sent him to do.” So, I happen to be the fourth one. Now that is what my brother Victor told me when I went back after I was gone for twelve years.

 

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

PERCEPTION

Neville Goddard 4-26-1968

neville goddard Imagination Is RealityThere is nothing that appears in perception which cannot be duplicated in fancy, and what the world perceives is all imaginative in character. Here is a graphic example: I am sure everyone knows what it is to detect the fragrance of a rose. Now smell is a chemical sense and depends upon contact for perception. But does one really need a rose to detect its fragrance? Cannot its fragrance be reproduced imaginatively?

Having smelled an Easter lily, can you not discriminate between the smell of a rose and a lily, imaginatively? Then they do not exist independent of you, but live on some level (or levels) of your imagination! Can you call upon your memory of an experience of long ago, bring it back, and duplicate it in fancy? If so, then this world is no different from your imaginal one!

In 1820, William Blake wrote “The Presence of the Divine Teacher,” in which he said: “Man is all Imagination and God is Man and exists in us and us in Him. The Divine Body Jesus, we are his members.” In this statement Blake does not separate the members from the one body, the one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one God and Father of us all. There is only one Imaginal Body. We are all His members, for we are all Imagination!

You can reproduce and duplicate any perception you have ever encountered, in your imagination. A friend or dear one does not need to be physically present for you to think of him. Nor do you have to be in your living room in order to see its contents. You can see the plains of Kansas, the mountains of Colorado, or the great Mississippi River without being there. So when we think from the premise of this as a world of imagination, we start on solid ground, for imagination is He who creates reality. There is no fiction in the true sense of the world, for when a state is imagined, it is created. Prayer is imagination drenched in feeling. A desire, drenched in the feeling of fulfillment, objectifies itself. This I know to be true; so regardless of what the world thinks, when you reproduce anything in your mind it takes on form in your outer world.

Everything here was once only imagined. The clothes you wear, the chair in which you are now seated, the building which houses you – all were first only imagined. Everything begins and ends in the human imagination. The source of all phenomena is Divine Imagining, which is God Himself!

Scholars consider the 82nd Psalm as the most difficult psalm in the entire Bible. Thomas Cheyne, the editor of the Encyclopedia Biblica, said of this psalm: “The ideas may be perennial, but their outward forms have long since ceased to be understood, and give the greatest challenge to the imagination of any interpreter.”

Here is the essence of the psalm: “God has taken his place in the divine council, in the midst of the gods he holds judgment.’ 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.’ ”

The word which troubled the great scholars is “elohim.” It is a plural word which may be translated as “God” or “gods”. God (elohim) has taken his place in the divine council, proclaiming: You are gods (elohim). God is a compound unity of one made up of others. It takes all of the generations of men and their experiences to form the one God.

The elohim is not something distinct and separate from the many, for unity has a presence. Having fallen into division, we will return to the presence of unity. Divided in a world of generation where all things die, we will return to the divine society where all things live. The presence is being formed by the return of the fallen man who carried all of the gods with him in his fall.

It is not “I, and another called “the Lord”. Everyone is the Lord, as told us in the Sh’ma, the great Hebrew confession of faith: “Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

God has risen and is rising in all. He deliberately took upon himself man’s nature. By that act of assumption, Jesus Christ became the pattern upon which the nature of man is molded. He didn’t take a person called Neville upon himself, but my nature. And in so doing Jesus Christ became the type upon which I have been molded, raising this animal energy – called man, to divinity – called God.

Having fallen, God must now rescue himself. This he will do, for he has prepared a way for his return. You see, no man or group of men killed Jesus. It is he who said: “No man takes my life, I lay it down myself. I have the power to lay it down and the power to lift it up again.” Experiencing death by taking upon himself the animal nature of man, Imagination takes that energy and transforms it into his own likeness.

God is the great lover and artist who will transform you – his son of division, into himself – the image of love! Loving you so much He died to begin his good work in you, he will complete it at the day of Jesus Christ. On that day you will rise to His level, to discover that you and He are one creative power of love!

There is only one way to return to the awareness of being God the Father, and that is to follow the pattern of the true words which you have heard from me. I tell you from experience: you will awaken, rise and are born from above. Five months later David will stand before you and call you Father. Four months from that date, your spiritual body will be split and He who wove it for you will unwind himself as you! Then two years and nine months later, the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, will descend upon you and smother you with love.

Do not believe in any being on the outside! Make a decision within yourself now to radically change your attitude toward another, and persuade yourself that what you believe is true!

If imagining creates reality, and you practice repentance by radically changing your mind, you can take anything that displeases you and change it. Then persuade yourself that the change is real. Expect it to mold itself in harmony with what you are thinking, and the man, woman, or room, will bear witness to your repentance.

When you change your attitude towards another, he must change his attitude towards you. Are we not told: “We love him because he first loved us?” It always starts with self! If you want him to be different, you must initiate the change. And as you do, you are practicing repentance, for the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It is now time to repent and believe the gospel!

Nothing is so well concealed as the goodness of God. Look around and you will see murder, rape, and crime at every moment of time, so how can God be good or loving? It is hard to believe, and will not be understood until the end, when that which has been concealed will be revealed.

We are told: “The spirit of the Lord will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his mind. In the latter days you will understand it clearly.” (Jeremiah 22) So in your last days, when you come to the end of the play, the goodness, the greatness, and the love of God will be revealed.

Do not concern yourself with those who have no interest in hearing the truth concerning the mysteries of God. Don’t try to change them. If they are complacent, and believe theirs is the only truth, leave them alone and maybe when they die their death will force them to modify the ideas they have championed here. There will be no Jesus Christ standing on the outside to greet them, or angel to meet them. Rather, they will be restored to life in a body the same as before, only young. They will be in a terrestrial world like this, in an environment best suited for the work yet to be done in them. Even though the color of their skin may have changed, you will know them when you see them. No matter how many masks your friend may wear, you will always know the identity behind the mask.

He who started the journey is wearing your mask right now, and He will continue to wear masks until He has executed and accomplished the intents of his mind. God’s original pledge to himself was that he would make Man in his own image. Then the gods descended; and the gods will ascend, for no one has ever ascended into heaven but He who descended from heaven. The gods, falling as one man, descended into division and broken unity. In time, they will all be gathered together into that one unity called God the Father.

Many believe scripture is a myth, but when it is experienced in the depth of the soul, it is literally true. This you will know from experience. Having reached the limit of contraction to experience the nature of man, you will ascend into a limitless expansion as God.

Returning with all that you have experienced, your tremendous power is added to God’s already existing power. Then God, forever expanding, will decide on another adventure and we will all once again fall into a state like this in order to grow and grow and grow in our own wonderful human imagination!

Now remember: nothing appears in perception that cannot be duplicated in fancy. If you can perceive your desire, it exists. You cannot perceive an object that does not exist on some level (or levels) of imagination. Identify your human imagination with God, and because God calls a thing that is not now seen as though it were seen, you can call a state into being by assuming you are in it. And if you believe you have received your desire, you will, for belief will lead the way to its fulfillment.

If you look to reason rather than imagination, you are seeing the devil instead of God. The devil is the doubter in you. He questions your belief saying: “If you are the son of God then turn this stone into bread. Cast yourself down and his angels will lift you up.” All of these challenges are made by self-doubt.

I urge you to practice the art of imagination. If you do, I promise you will prove it in the testing, even though you may have started out to prove it wrong!

Now let us go into the silence.

 

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

REVEALED TRUTH

Neville Goddard 11-03-1969

neville goddard Imagination Is RealityWhen the Rev. Dr. Trusler criticized Blake, saying he needed someone to elucidate his ideas, Blake replied: “You ought to know that what is grand is necessarily obscure to the weak. You also ought to know that what can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care. The wisest of the Ancients considered what is not too explicit as fittest for instruction because it rouses the faculties to act. I name Moses, Solomon, Aesop, Homer, Plato.” Then he asked this question: “Why is the Bible more entertaining and instructive than any book? Is it not because it is addressed to the imagination which is spiritual sensation and only but immediately to the understanding or reason?”

Tonight I will ask you a riddle based upon scripture and try to solve it for you. What is it that becomes its own grandson and vice versa? And how can the Divine Creator be my Father, yet my child? Now this riddle is not addressed to the reasonable and logical mind, but to the human imagination, as its answer must be revealed.

Let us turn to the Book of Isaiah. In the 7th chapter we are told: “The Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold a maiden will conceive and bring forth a son and call his name Immanuel, which means God is in us.” (This is confirmed in the New Testament as: “The Kingdom of God is within.”)

Now, in the 9th chapter of Isaiah, we read: “Unto us a child is born and his name shall be called the Everlasting Father.” So what we, individualized, will bring forth as a sign, is a child whose name is Everlasting Father; therefore are we not bringing forth that which created us? Here we see the Everlasting Father and the child are one, for that is the child’s name. He is the Everlasting Father, the self-existent, ever-created being who created and sustains the universe, and we are told that we will bring him forth as our child.

Now let us turn to the 11th chapter of Isaiah, where we read: “There shall come forth a shoot out of Jesse, a branch shall grow out of his roots and the branch will be the ruler of all.”

The riddle’s solution can be found in the names. “Jesse” means “I AM”, which is the eternal, everlasting name of God. The shoot which comes out of Jesse is his son, David, and out of David comes a branch who is one with his grandfather. In the 20th chapter of the Book of Luke, the 43rd and 44th verses, this same riddle is asked but not answered: “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David, when David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord?” Let me take these passages and put them together for you.

The son is Immanuel, meaning “God is in us.” His Father is David, the beloved, and his grandfather is Jesse, who is I AM, the Everlasting Father. Here we find three separate generations, as it were, yet the son is one with the grandfather.

Now let us unriddle the riddle. David is called the beloved. He is the personification of all the generations of humanity, and their experiences. It is out of David that God begets himself, for the dream is nothing more than the reproduction of the Divine Imagination in the human imagination. There is not a thing in the world but God, who is reproducing himself in humanity. God (Divine Imagination) is wearing the masks of humanity in order to experience its horrors, so in that sense humanity is his son. And when the journey is over for the individualized God, his experiences fuse into a single youth, whom he recognizes as his son, David. Then out of David (humanity) comes which would be the grandson, who is one with the individual, now the grandfather. So the riddle is this: Who becomes his own grandson who becomes the grandfather? Divine imagination!

Speaking of David, God the Father said: “I have found in David a man after my own heart who will do my will.” So God the Father, having begotten himself on humanity, causes humanity to do his will, for man is completely under the control of this supreme being. And while on Man, God begets his grandson, for Man his son and the child, Immanuel, his grandson. So you see: the grandson and the grandfather are one, and you are that one. You are what you begot, and you are its begetter, for you come out as God the Father. Looking down on humanity personified as David who calls you Father, you realize that David brought forth you, his begetter; therefore you are the grandfather and the grandson. You, humanity, are that upon which the child is begotten. And when humanity gathers itself together into a single youth and personifies itself as David, he calls you Father, making you the grandfather, and Christ the grandson, one.

I do not say that this is easy for you to grasp, but I am telling you it is true. A fantastic miracle takes place. It is truly the riddle of riddles. Now, the question is asked: “why do the wise men say that Christ is the son of David, when David in the Spirit called him Lord?” Christ is the child, the sign that God is in us, just as the Lord promised, saying: “This shall be a sign. A maiden will bring forth a son and she shall call his name Immanuel which means ‘God is in us.’ And when the Christ is born, he shall be known as the Everlasting Father. Therefore God, through humanity, begot his own grandchild. As human imagination, I am God’s son, but when he raises me to His level, I beget His grandchild. And when my son stands before me, I see David, the being out of which the Christ came. Therefore, who am I? I am the grandfather, the I AM who is one with the grandson (the human imagination).

I know this is difficult for you to grasp, but I feel we have reached the point in time for you to hear it. Out of Jesse (I AM) God the Father’s eternal name, will come a stem (David) humanity, and out of David will come a branch (Christ). Now, the question is: “What do you think of the Christ? How can the scribes say he is the son of David, when David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord?” I tell you: David is humanity – that upon which Imagination molds himself and brings himself out of, then raises the individual out of which he came, back to himself along with the knowledge that the grandfather and the grandson are one glorious imagination. Humanity however will remain, for that is what Imagination molds himself on, throughout eternity. And when Imagination, individualized, has had all of the experiences of man, they will be gathered together and fused into one single whole, and appear as the eternal youth, David. You must go through all of the experiences of humanity before God’s son David will come forth to reveal you as his Father. It is he to whom the sign was given, for the child comes out of David; therefore the child is the grandson of God the Father and one with his grandfather, whom David reveals you to be.

I tell you: you are God Himself. The eternal Divine Imagination is reproducing itself in human imagination so that your I AM is one with the universal I AM. There can’t be any other. All the horrors you have known or may still know will add up to the birth of that wonder child. “To us a child is born.” It is to us, the human personality, that the child is born whose name is Everlasting Father. Then we experience His glorious son, David who made it possible. So Divine Imagination became humanity (human imagination) in order to beget himself. It takes all of the horrors of human history to produce that son who is the grandson of and one with the Eternal Father. The son, however, remains humanity, who condenses itself into a single youth called David.

I hope you will dwell upon my words. There are many things to be said and time is short, so I feel it is time to tell it. This is the riddle. The Eternal Being (who is God the Father) entered into the eternal structure of the world (which is humanity). Man as you know him is part of the eternal structure of the world, and on it God the Father is reproducing himself. And when his work is finished, he brings out his likeness as his grandson. Then the grandson claims that David calls him Lord and the Lord is David’s father; therefore the grandson (the Christ) is the identical image of and one with his grandfather, the Eternal, Everlasting Father.

Dwell upon my message tonight. Sense it until its meaning is revealed to you by a wonderful mystical experience. Believe me, for you are the Eternal God the Father. The universal I AM and your I AM are one and the same I AM. God is forever bringing himself forth by molding himself upon that part of eternity called the human family. It’s a very painful process to reproduce the Divine Imagination in the human imagination, but there is no better way to do it than in this manner.

The three passages in the Book of Isaiah and the 20th chapter of the book of Luke propound the identical riddle which, put in our language, would be: How can that which begot you become your child, and in so doing, raise you to your begetter, who is God the Father? And how can you then look back on humanity and see all of its experiences fuse into a single being who stands before you and calls you Father?

Dwell upon my words, for you will find them most stimulating and, far from not being practical, they are the most practical words you have ever heard. The Bible is far more exciting than anything you heard or read today, for not a thing said by any person could compare to the words you have heard tonight. All of the plots and plan of men concerning bringing this world to an end are not part of the divine plan. Divine Imagination’s plan is to reproduce Himself in the human imagination, for God is only begetting Himself. Divine and human imagination are not two, but one imagination, which differs only in the degree of intensity. The purpose of it all is that you will be able to wish anything into realization. I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly. No longer will you be a slave to the world or afraid of anything, for you will know that you are one with its creator. In that awareness, you will ask and receive instantaneous return. All this will be yours when the complete revelation of what I have told you this night is fulfilled.

When you read scripture you will not find this spelled out as I have told you, but having heard my story over and over again you can follow my argument. The riddle is: What is it that becomes his own grandson and vice versa; the grandson becomes his own grandfather? If this is so, then where does David the father of the grandson fit in? Ask yourself and it will be revealed to you, for you will bring forth the wonder child whose name is the Everlasting Father. You will awake a few months later to discover that, instead of being God’s son, you are David’s Father. So instead of coming out of humanity as humanity’s son (which you did), you come out as God, the Everlasting Father.

It takes humanity and all its horrors for God the Real Father to experience in order to produce his likeness which is Himself. Humanity remains, but this time not a multitude of faces, but only one face. All of the faces are put together and fused into in the one body of your son (who is God’s son) David, who calls you my Lord. How then can you be David’s son when David, in the Spirit calls you my Lord?

Do you follow me? I hope so. It is a profound truth and I think nothing deeper will come to you, for this is the story of scripture. Blake was perfectly right when he said: “Why is the Bible more entertaining and more instructive than any book? Is it not because it is addressed to the imagination which is spiritual sensation and only immediately to the understanding or reason? Therefore, what can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care. The wisest of the Ancients considered what was not too explicit to be fittest for instruction because it rouses the faculties to act.” Here we have a riddle and must respond to its challenge.

How can a grandson become his own grandfather? You say that the Christ is the son of David, but tell me: how then can David, in the Spirit, call him my Lord? If he is David’s son and David’s Father is my Lord, and David in the Spirit calls him Lord, is he not his own grandfather?

Dwell upon this and maybe, because it has been given to you this night, something may explode within you to lead you to its understanding. But the full understanding will come when scripture unfolds within you like a wonderful unfolding flower.

You will find these three generations constantly throughout scripture. The Book of Matthew begins the New Testament with the three generations: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham.” Here is Abraham, the father of the multitudes. Then David, the beloved human being who brought forth the image of God called Christ the Lord. And God and his image are one, so we go back now to the grandfather being one with the grandson.

Tonight may seem to be profoundly spiritual, yet I must repeat what I have said time and time again. Whatever is most profoundly spiritual will prove, in time, to be the most directly practical. Instead of wrestling with your problems, dwell upon these revealed truths, for as you do, your problems will solve themselves. Rather than going to bed worrying about how you are going to meet a pressing commitment, go to bed dwelling upon what I have told you and the commitment will be met. Your Father knows what you have need of. Seek first the kingdom of heaven and all these things will be added unto you.

When you sit down to work out one problem, you simply involve yourself with another and still another. But if you will dwell upon revealed truth, all the things you need will be taken care of. As you dwell upon revealed truth, try to solve these wonderful riddles. You may not unravel them, but think about what I have told you, because I am telling you what I know from experience. I did not arrive at these conclusions by logic. I am not a philosopher. I am simply one in whom the Word unfolded. And when it unfolds in you, you too will tell it from experience.

You who heard me this night, dwell upon the thought that you are giving birth to Christ. That he will be your son because he comes out of you. And that this wonderful child is one with your Father who would have to be his grandfather. If he comes out of you and he is one with his grandfather (which is your Father) you will awaken to the realization that you are the Everlasting Father. Then you will look down upon yourself, called Man, and see it personified as David, who calls you the Everlasting Father, my Lord.

You cannot awaken as the Everlasting Father, however, until you bring forth Immanuel (which is the wonderful child) as the child is the everlasting sign that you have brought forth God, born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God – for God is begetting himself. This is literally true. The child that comes forth from you is the Everlasting Father. The minute you bring forth Immanuel, God in you comes forth revealing you as the God who wrought it. Then humanity, out of which the sign came, stands before you as a single being whose name is David, and David calls you – not grandfather, but Father.

Think of humanity as the soul of man, the bride of the Lord whose maker is her husband. The Lord so fell in love with humanity (his bride) that he left all and has cleaved to his wife until they became one flesh. So humanity is Mary, destined to bring forth the Christ child. And the child and the Holy Spirit are one, and the child and his grandfather are one. When you bring forth the son, God has finished his work in you and his cleavage on you is complete. Then you aren’t two any more, but one. This is Divine Imagining reproducing itself upon humanity, which in the end comes out as God, the Everlasting Father.

Now let us go into the silence.

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

THE COIN OF HEAVEN

Neville Goddard 1954

neville goddard Imagination Is RealityThis being my last Sunday for a year, I wish to leave no doubt in your mind of what I tried to tell you in the last nineteen lectures. So I am going to ask a question which you can silently answer yourself. Have you lived this life of yours in such a way that you desire to live it again? Well, if you haven’t, you’d better listen very carefully to what I will say this morning, if you have not already started, for may I tell you the next life is this life.

When the eye is opened you will see it, that man unless he awakes and changes the tracks of this life he walks them forever. So if you have not lived this life in such a way that you really desire to live it again, you start now to interfere with these tracks and laying new tracks.

Let me give you just one simple little vision; these are all true visions of the speaker. Lying on my bed, suddenly the eye opened, the inner eye opened, and I saw a man casually dressed in working clothes walking the sidewalks of a major city. As he came to a hole that was open to receive coal, in fact the coal had just been delivered, he dropped something from his hand and bending down instead of picking up the thing dropped, he picked up huge hunks of coal that were scattered around the hole, and then my vision relaxed.

When I re-concentrated the vision it was on the early part of that scene of the man walking down the sidewalk. He came to the manhole, he dropped, as he had in the previous state, bending down he picked up the coal as he had done before. Everything was in detail. As I saw it for the second time, I said “Now that scene hasn’t changed one iota.” My attention again relaxed; when I re-concentrated it, it was on the early part of the scene.

Now I could prophesy for that man; I knew exactly what he would do every moment of time right up to that manhole; that he would drop his package and not pick it up but pick up the coal. I knew he would look into that manhole and then change his mind either because someone below saw him pick it up and he didn’t want the consequences of his action or else he had a change of heart, but I knew in detail what that man would do.

We are walking tracks and the tracks are forever, and by the mere curvature of time your next life is this life. You simply replay it: so if you have not so played it that you are proud of it, you start now and you start the change today.

We have given you a system by which you change it. For those who haven’t heard why I say you walk tracks, you are standing forever in the presence of an infinite and eternal energy, and from this energy all things proceed, but they proceed according to pattern. Energy is moving in a certain pattern and you determine the pattern that it takes, for you actually lay down these tracks within you that energy flows over by the use of your inner conversations.

This energy, I call it now mind, follows the tracks laid down in a man’s own inner talking. So if your inner conversations are not what they should be, I ask you today to start carrying on conversations within yourself from premises of fulfilled ideals; the man you want to be, the woman you want to be, if you have failed so far to embody it, now you begin to assume that you are that man, that you are that woman, and inwardly carry on conversations with your friends, those that respect you, or those you want to respect you, and carry on these conversations from the premises that they see in you the man and the woman that you want the world to see, just as though you were, and these words, inner words, which are really the breeding ground of future action will lay down new tracks and then the energy which is always flowing will flow over these tracks and the conditions and the circumstances of life will change. If you do not lay new tracks, I will prophesy for you you will find your self repeating it but you will not know you’ve done it before.

If I could only take you now into the inner vision with me and show you this room rising, everything rising in detail like a three dimensional curtain ascending, but everything is moving up and yet it remains. It is so altogether automatic that it ascends every moment of time the whole world is ascending, and as it ascends the world remains the same.

It’s almost as though not a thing has happened, and so you can’t see it, but if the inner eye opens you see it ascend and as it leaves off that which begins is the duplicate, the perfect duplicate of the thing that rose and it rises in a three dimensional manner, so that when a man goes over these tracks he is totally unaware that he has walked them forever.

So I bring you a message to make you conscious: man must awake from the dream where he is simply an automaton. He moves like a machine, then he begins to awake and when he awakes then he is not that man at all that he seemingly in the past played for eternity. He awakes into a new being, a new man.

Now, the new man is a man of new conversations, as told you in Ephesians “Put off the former conversations, they belong to the old man that is corrupt, and put on the new man by a transformation of mind”, and the new man is identified with completely new words.

He speaks only the kind things; he is incapable of any unlovely thought in the world; he is incapable of even listening to the unlovely for inwardly he speaks only the kind, only the loving things of the world. Then he finds himself awakening a man within that was asleep; he awakens the second man which is called Christ Jesus in the Bible, which I tell you now is your own wonderful, loving imagination.

When imagination awakes it is incapable of being exercised in any way outside of the loving way. So every time you use your imagination lovingly, you are literally awakening this inner man and you’re mediating God to man. If I think of anyone in a loving way, I’m in contact with that being and God flows toward him.

Now because this is my last Sunday I will give you what I gave the class last Friday. Do not see it just as some metaphorical picture; see it as an actual picture. Imagine yourself at the very base of a wonderful waterfall and that water is flowing beautifully on you and imagine it’s flowing through you and now from you and flowing towards someone you think of.

I make this statement because it’s a true statement; we are now in Eden but we are asleep as told you in the second of Genesis; man went sound asleep when he was placed to dress it and to keep it.

To awake, do this–just imagine yourself the center through which water radiates and everyone in this world is rooted in me and ends in me as I am rooted in and end in God: so I am in God’s garden, it’s Eden, but in God’s garden every man in the world has a plot, a little garden. In that garden there are trees that grow, you can see them; if I look at this man now and inwardly look at his plot in my garden I will see the trees, some will be called health, some I call wealth, the tree of dignity, the tree of nobility, the tree of being wanted–they may be withered, they will never really die but they may be withered, they are in need of water.

Just imagine that you are watering that plant and see in your mind’s eye the leaves appear on what formerly was a barren plant. See the fruit appear and wherever he is in the world as you water his garden, which really is your own garden, as you water it he will embody the very qualities that the tree is now beginning to bear and radiate. You name the tree; whatever you name it, that it is: and you name this one if you know he is unwanted: he wants to be wanted.

You name it and let the water flow towards it. Imagine it’s growing healthily in that garden and see it put out its leaves and see it put out its fruit. Wherever he is in the world he will begin to be wanted by people in his world. If he is unemployed, it’s a tree of employment and see it radiate its leaves and radiate its fruit; he will be wanted and he will be gainfully employed.

I tell you this is not just an idle statement, everyone here can do it and everyone should do it, and when ever you water the tree in anyone’s garden at the same time you are watering your own garden in the eternal one of God. For “I am the vine and ye are the branches”, every man can say the same thing.

So as you rise here, there are 2600 of you, you individually are the central vine of God’s garden and everyone in your world is a branch in that vine. So when I, as a central vine, water a branch in my garden, at that same moment I am being watered and my garden is being watered in your wonderful garden. I don’t have to water my own, just by taking care of the many gardens in God’s Eden I take care of my own garden that is in the vine of everyone in the world.

You try it, and you can bless everyone in the world and then eventually the eye opens, the ear opens, the inner man awakes and you see the most glorious world which is always here to be seen, only we in our sleep had shut it out. We shut the whole wonderful golden world out by going to sleep and becoming an automaton; but take me seriously for your next life is this life.

You make this life what you want to make it because if you don’t you will find yourself automatically and you won’t even know it, because as a sleeping person you don’t know you are walking the same track, but if I could only take you within me and let you see with the eye of the inner eye and watch these automatons in the world, sleeping people; yes, the eye is open and they seem to be awake, but they’re really sound asleep for they’re repeating the same thing.

Now become conscious; as you become conscious you enter the most glorious circle of awakened humanity. I call it the conscious circle of humanity, or as my old teacher used to call it “The Brothers”. It simply means the awakened man and when he awakes they’re all glorious beings for they are all the image of the Divine One. So try it, try it today with the art of revision.

At the end of this day, review today. If some unlovely thing in the day, don’t allow it, you rewrite it. Take that same scene and rewrite it, and having rewritten it replay it. In your imagination you imagine the action to be unfolding and you replay everything in the world; as you replay it as you ought to have played it the first time you’ve changed it. And the moment is never receding as people think, the moment is advancing.

Now this may seem an insane statement to tell you- -that yesterday is today’s future: it seems insane you think it’s not, it’s past: but by the curvature of time you will discover but you will not know it, because you will be asleep unless you begin to awaken, and you will come upon what is yesteryear in your future, for the moment is never receding, it is always advancing into the future to confront us. And so if you don’t change it, you will simply find yourself repeating over and over what luckily in God’s infinite mercy that sleep shuts out the memory of it, so you are doing it and you think you’re doing it for the first time. But I ask you to awake for the purpose of this platform is to awaken everyone who comes here that we may all enter this brotherhood of awakened humanity.

Now we are told there were ‘two gifts given to man at birth’–it doesn’t mean this little birth when I left my mother’s womb but when I left the womb of my Father that is the grand womb, the womb of creation when, before the world was, He created me and made me perfect and set me in this world for a purpose, educative purpose, but He gave me two gifts; He gave me His own mind and He gave me the gift of speech, the very thing He used to create a world.

So He spoke the world into being and then gave me the gift by which he spoke the world into being; so He gave me mind and speech. If I use the gift wisely, and do it rightly, I will be led into the realization, into the fulfillment of my every desire; not one is beyond my ability to realize.

If I continually use it wisely when I quit the body, as the world calls a man dead, when I leave this into another dimension by the wise use of the same two gifts, I will be brought into the company of the blessed, if I awake. If I don’t use it wisely, I continue my circle of sleep; if I use it wisely, I will break the circle of recurrence and rise beyond it into eternity. If I don’t, I continue on the curved line of time and repeat it over and over until some day I awake, for I am destined to be conformed to the image of His son.

So I have no doubt that everyone will awake but why not start the awakening process now? And you start it by practicing the art of revision. You try it; don’t treat it idly. I ask you and I beg you to read and read over and over again the chapter “The Pruning Shears of Revision” and take it day after day, and never let the sun descend upon your wrath–any vexation, or any problem of the day.

Resolve it before you sleep and carry that resolved picture into sleep and you will find the inner man awakening. But you try it with your friends and that you are the grand waterfall.

The Bible speaks of water, the mystic knows it does not mean water, it means truth, and so when I see anyone in my mind’s eye and see him free, I am giving him the only truth that will set him free.

So if I water his plant, imagine the water is really going to it and I see the leaves begin to appear and that man becoming free: he becomes healthy, he becomes secure, he becomes loved, then those trees are growing beautifully in my garden, and so as I do that, not only will he benefit from my watering his plant but I will benefit, I will begin to awaken.

So I ask everyone here to really try it. Now I know today the title was “The Coin of Heaven”, but this being the last day, I thought I would simply give a sort of quick summary of what I have tried to tell you, for the purpose behind the nineteen lectures was to stimulate you to interfere with your time track that you may do something about it for the passage of time cannot change it.

If you wait, thinking there is going to be some change beyond the grave, I tell you you will wait in vain. There is no transforming power beyond the grave. All transforming power is in man now to interfere with his time track and you interfere with it by simply changing one moment in the course of a day, not accepting it as final no matter how factual the day.

You know you did have that experience, don’t allow the day to descend upon it and say “Well, I did have it”. Go back to that moment in time. rewrite it, replay it in the revised version, and do it over and over in your imagination until that takes on the tones of reality.

As it takes on the tones of reality you have changed your future. Take another incident and change it and keep on changing all the little episodes, all the little experiences and make them conform to a more idealistic experience and relive it.

If anyone is here for the first time, you might think, well that’s fooling yourself, but you try it. Try it and see if the inner man will not awaken and when he awakens you will see a world that is automatic.

You will see a world that’s a machine and the whole vast world playing their parts that they’ve played forever, and will continue to play on the curvature of time forever until he snaps out of it and rises from the dead. As you are told, “Awake, you that sleep and rise from the dead.”

The state called sleep now, is likened unto death where the son has died, so we are told the second son, the prodigal, that when he returned from that cycle and he was met, the father said: “He that was lost is found, and he that was dead is alive again”. So this state of  lost-ness is likened unto death and the only purpose now is to rise; not to amass a fortune, although you are entitled to it, not to become famous, although you are entitled to it, but simply to awake from the state of sleep. And I know of no other way to awaken a man unless I can show him how mechanical he is and if you will take and practice seriously the art of revision, the eye will open and you will have the experiences the speaker spoke of.

You, too, lying on your bed will find the eye peering into a city that may be 2000 miles away and there you will see more clearly than I see you now and you will watch the tracks of a man, and then disinterest and all of a sudden you decide to once more to be interested and you don’t have a memory image of the man, you see the whole thing all over again. You see the man walk the same sidewalk, he does everything he did a moment before. Then take it back again, that track is laid forever and he will walk it forever until he awakes.

So I ask everyone here to take me seriously. If this seems a bit too mystical for you, I don’t apologize; it’s the only thing I can give you, for as I begin to awake I’ve got to give you the food on which then my father feeds me. He feeds me on new ideas; he changes my values, he changes all my meanings in the world.

I don’t have the same meaning I had last year; I don’t have the same values I had last year; for the motives I had last year might have been along a different line; but then all of a sudden things change and you can’t place value where formerly you placed it. You can’t place it on wealth, you can’t place it on names, you can’t place it on recognition. All your values change and then you begin to inwardly see a new wonderful world.

So I tell you this garden of which I speak is a true garden, this you call the world. Don’t believe for one moment you are in exile; this wonderful visible objective world of ours is not a place of exile, it’s the living garment of my father. It really is his living garment but it needs interpreters. Individual men come as they begin to awaken and they will interpret for you this strange discordant harmony, for to you if I tell you, everything in your world is related by affinity to your own mental activity, you can’t see it and so you can’t quite see this discord as related to you if you didn’t think that way that you know of, you weren’t conscious of it.

If you were conscious of the activity within you, you would see everything related to yourself, your own being. What you do not now see you will still know it is still related, so interpreters come because the interpreter as he begins to awaken, he knows this wonderful world has a voice for him that speaks of things behind the veil, behind the veil of your own mind, for behind your face right now there’s an activity, an activity of your own imagination, and that activity, could you see it you would see it projected as the conditions and circumstances of your life.

Not one thing is out of order, change the activity and you change the world in which you live, and you change that activity by the changing of your inner speech, for speech mirrors your mind and your mind mirrors God. If you don’t change the speech you haven’t changed the activity, and if you don’t change the activity you can’t change the conditions of life, for they only come bearing witness of this inner action of your mind.

So you want to change–I hope you do; but if you can now reflect upon your life, be it ten years, or be it sixty years, and you can’t say within yourself “I would want to live this again if I had the freedom of choice”, then you better start right now changing it, because I make you a prophesy, I make you a promise, your next life is this life. So if you cannot now in reflection say “I desire to live it again”, then start today to lay down new tracks because if you don’t you’re going to live it again, and living it again you won’t even know you are living it again.

It is so altogether automatic, it’s so effortless as you walk the tracks, for you stand in the presence of energy and you can’t stop walking; you’ve laid them and you will walk them, and the curvature of time will bring you back and back and back forever and forever until you break it and you begin to awaken and when you awaken you enter a circle of awakened humanity. And I’ll tell you you know them more intimately than anyone you now know in the state of sleep. There is not a person on earth that you know as intimately as those who have awakened when you awake.

When you go into their presence and you mingle with them you become one. You do not lose your identity: in fact you tend ever toward greater and greater individualization.

You never become absorbed and lose your identity, but as you awaken you awaken to the being that you always were but you had forgotten it and went sound asleep. There is a beauty in the inner man that the outer has never touched, never scarred, and so as you awaken and they will be there to meet you because they are awaiting eagerly for the breaking of the circle of recurrence. So you try it.

We have told you many things this year, many things that seemed too mystical, but I warned you, when I took it four Sundays ago, this year I would give you the end of a golden string and I called upon you to roll it into a ball, and if you did it would lead you in at heaven’s gate built in Jerusalem’s wall.

Well, I felt I have given you that string but I cannot roll it into a ball for you. I promise you I will water your garden but it won’t awaken you, it will awaken you only to lovelier things in a way, but it will not really break the circle for you, so I offer you now this day again the end of the golden string but I call upon you to wind it and roll it into a ball by the daily application of the principle of revision, by daily watching your inner actions and see if they correspond to the actions you desire to perform in the outer world.

Watch your conversations carefully; are they from premises of fulfilled ideas? If they’re not, go back and make them and make them actually correspond to the ideal you want to embody in this world. Start, that is winding it into a ball and it will lead you in at heaven’s gate built in Jerusalem’s wall. I have no doubt in my mind for I know from experience that’s how I opened up that wall; I opened it up by application.

So I warned you every time I have taken the platform that the knowledge you have now is of no avail unless it’s applied. A little knowledge if carried out in action is more profitable than much knowledge which you neglect to carry out in action. If you had all the knowledge in the world and you didn’t put it into practice, you wouldn’t awaken.

Now here this morning everyone has heard it; you take it today and start this day revising, and watch the circle begin to snap, watch the eye begin to open, and I tell you there isn’t a gift on earth, there isn’t a possession in the world that you would want more than the opening of the eye when the eye opens.

That’s why I say your values change, the meaning of life changes, for you wouldn’t sell the eye that opens for all the wealth of the world; you wouldn’t exchange it for any recognition in the world now conferred upon the so-called great. You see the so called great all equally sound asleep playing their parts walking curved lines, and then you snap it and move into a wonderful world of awakened humanity and there you see these glorified beings, but really glorified beings, who preceded you into the conscious circle of humanity.

And now my time is up.

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

THE CRUCIFIXION

Neville Goddard  4-9-1963

neville goddard Imagination Is RealityThe crucifixion is the history of man. Our human history begins with birth and ends with death. In Divine history it begins with death and ends with birth. There is a complete reversal of these histories. Here we begin in the womb and end in the tomb: but in Divine history we begin in the tomb and awaken in the womb where we are born. Now here in this fantastic drama I think we have misconceived the part of Jesus Christ and made of him an idol, and having made of him an idol he hides from us the true God.

Let us turn to the Book of Luke 18:31-34: “And taking the twelve he said to them; ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written of the Son of man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon; they will scourged him and kill him, and on the third day he will rise.’ But they understood none of these things; this saying was hid from them, and they did not grasp what was said.” We are told that no one understood him.

Now believe this; I am speaking to you, as I have tried every night, from experience. I am not theorizing. I have no interest whatsoever in trying to set up some workable philosophy of life, I really haven’t. If I made my exit tonight it would make no difference to me personally, maybe to my wife and my child, my family, – but not to me.

This drama begins with the crucifixion.

“Unless I die thou canst not live;
But if I die I shall arise again and thou with me.
Wouldest thou die for one who never died
For thee, or ever die for one who had not died for thee.”
(Blake Jer. Plate 96)

This is the story of every being born of woman. No child in the world could cross the threshold that admits to conscious life unaided by the death of God. It is God’s purpose to give us himself as though there were no others in the world. Just God and you, God and I. Believe this, really. If you believe it then the most unbelievable Gospel in the world becomes possible and believable; and it takes the son to reveal it to be true.

Now this is the story as revealed to me. You may think, – well now that was just a simple, wonderful, – exciting, – yes! – just a dream. May I tell you it was not a dream. It was an experience more vivid than this moment here in this room. For true vision is far more alive than anything you have ever experienced in this world, – but anything. This night in question I was walking with an enormous number as though the whole humanity walked in a certain direction; and I was one of the unnumbered.

As I walked with them, – they were all dressed in this very colorful Arabic colors; and a voice shouted out of the blue and the voice said: “And God walks with them.” A woman to my right, I would say in her thirties, maybe forty, a most attractive Arab; and she asked the voice: “If God walks with us where is he?” And the voice answered from the blue, – “At your side.” She took it as the whole vast world takes these things, – literally. And turning to her side she looked into my eyes and became hysterical, it struck her so funny.

It was the funniest thing she had ever heard. “God walks with us?” And she turned to a simple man with all of his frailties, all of his weaknesses, one she knew well; and having looked into his face, having heard the voice, – she said: “What! – Neville God?” And the voice replied: “God laid himself down within you to sleep and as he slept he dreamed a dream, he dreamed” – and I completed the sentence: “He was dreaming he was me. How else would I be in this world if he didn’t dream? And you awake from sheer emotionalism.

And may I tell you this is the sensation of the crucifixion. It’s the most delightful sensation in the world; it is not painful. My hands became vortexes; my head a vortex; my feet vortexes; my side a vortex. And here I was driven into this body on the bed through my emotionalism, held by six vortexes; my hand, my feet, my head and my side. And the delight, the sheer joy of being driven upon this cross, this body!

So I speak from experience; it is not a painful act. But it happened in the beginning of time. This was only a memory image returning; when I was about to awake. But in that interval, – how long, – who knows? The Bible speaks of three days between the crucifixion and the resurrection; but that is all symbolism. Blake calls it six thousand years. He said:

“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.”
(Jer. Plate 96)

Here we turn to the drama of this coming Friday all of Christian churches will re-enact; and they differ. Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 gave the last cry on the cross as the quotation from Psalms 22:1 “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” John 19:20 gives it in the cry “It is finished.” Luke 23:46 substitutes the 31st Psalm, 5th verse for the 22nd Psalm: because he was using Mark’s script. But he elaborates on Mark’s script and he substituted Psalm 31:5 for Psalm 22:1, and this is what he quotes: “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!” This is the verse: “Into thy hand I commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.” He kept his faith, for he told me:

“Unless I die thou canst not live;
But if I die I shall arise again and thou with me.”

There came the very act of crucifixion that was in itself resurrection. Yes, – an interval of time in between, no question about it.

But may I tell you, no one in this world can fail. As quoted in Romans 6:5: “For if we have been united with Christ in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” Everyone in this world will be resurrected; but it takes an interval of time with all the blows in the world to make the immortal garment.

Now listen to this carefully. It has been given to me and you take it for what it is worth. The promise of this begins in Genesis 17:19, the promise of an infant called Isaac: and the whole vast world has the strangest concept of Isaac. The Lord begat Isaac. Isaac is to be bought, not as the result of generation but the shaping of the begotten.

Here is God the unbegotten shaping himself upon us; and when he completes that shape and it is perfect in his eyes then we are born from Above. So Isaac is the shaping of the unbegot, but God is not begotten, he is begetting himself on man, the individual man. And when he begot himself in me to his satisfaction, I was born from Above and went through the entire series in the interval of nine months, – judged by Caesar’s calendar.

How many thousands of years prior to that I do not know, I cannot tell you. I would if I knew for I have no secrets; when I get it I tell you, but I do not know, the veil has not been lifted to that extent. But I do know that when it pleased him, that which he begot in me, then it took nine months for the entire series of these mystical experiences as described in Scripture to completely unfold within me.

So I can tell you it is going to happen to you. And so there’s no time. It took nine months from the moment of the Birth but when that Birth takes place it is all in God’s keeping and you and I are put through the furnace of affliction. Let no one tell you that you are not going to, Isaiah 14:24: “As I have planned, so shall it be, as I have purposed, so shall it stand.” And no one will thwart it, – but no one. I am inclined to believe that in spite of the pain, in spite of all the things that man plots and plans in this world, there is a definite period.

The Book of Habakkuk tells me it is, but they won’t tell me what the period is. He says: “The vision has it’s own appointed hour; it ripens, it will flower. If it be long then wait for it is sure, it will not be late.” If it will not be late and the vision has it’s own appointed hour, well then, whether Blake is right or someone else is right, I do not know. But I assure you the last section takes only nine months, even though you linger for years beyond that nine months.

For you came into your inheritance at that third experience; but the glory of your heavenly inheritance cannot become actual, or is fully realized in the individual, so long as he is still in the body. The moment he takes off that veil, called the body, he is clothed in that garment that God, and God alone, made. God was actually shaping himself upon this garment, without my consent, without my knowledge; molding that unbegotten Being that He is and giving me Himself. So when He succeeded in giving me Himself, it satisfied Him, that immortal garment that He would wear; so He wears it for his name is “I AM”.

And may I tell you in all of my experiences I never had a change of identity, – never. I have always been aware of being “I am.” I have never had any feeling of being other than who I am. And some thing was taking place in me, and it was God. As we are told: Phil: 1:6: “He who began a good work in me will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Jesus Christ is a profession that is God and he will not stop it until he brings it to Jesus Christ in you. But we have taken Jesus Christ and made of him an image, an idol; and having made of him an idol he now hides from us the true God.

It is God, the only God, that is actually shaping himself upon you. And when that is shaped upon you, – this is a form, a mold, – but this cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven; this is flesh and blood. It takes this to mold it upon it, for what is being molded upon it is God, the unbegotten, and God being Spirit he is molding himself as spirit, the immortal you. And then you, God, are clothed. Well, how could you clothe God in form? He is clothing himself in a shape and that is you, – so he begets us. But it began with the crucifixion. The crucifixion does not end the drama, it begins the drama. So every one becomes a breathing, living, conscious being because God died for him.

It’s the mystery of life through death, as told us in John 12:24: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” It has to fall into the earth and die, and this is the earth (the body) in God’s kingdom. And God falls into this earth and dies, he forgets that He is God in His belief that He is man.

God actually becomes man that man may become God; and molds Himself; this Unbegotten Being upon man. And when He is satisfied with that molding process, it is in the eye of God that it’s perfect; therefore, if it is perfect, then God is born in man. So God actually gives Himself to us, to each of, as if there were no others in the world, – just God and you, God and I. Believe it. The whole story of the Gospel is this story.

So the crucifixion, from my own personal experience, is not as the churches depict it. The sorrow comes in between; that interval be it 6000 years, I do not know. But in that interval we have to be molded, as we are told in Isaiah 48:10,11. “I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it.” For there is no other way in the world to bring me into that state of perfection and to weave me into an immortal body to receive God Himself as my own being. So I went through all the fires of affliction, and these fiery, fiery ordeals. So don’t be concerned.

“Whom God has afflicted for Secret Ends.
He comforts and Heals and calls them Friends.”
(E. Gospel) Blake

When you and I enter God’s Golgotha, as we are told: “And when they came to the place which is called ‘The skull’, there they crucified him.” (Luke 23:33) The word “skull”, which is translated in the definition of Golgotha, – another definition is the “Holy Sepulcher”. So now we know what the Holy Sepulcher is. It is our own wonderful human skull, that’s where he is crucified. But he is also nailed upon the cross. He is nailed through the feet and pierced on the side. Now here John gives so much time to the piercing of the side.

He does not give the cry of dereliction: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me.” John only claims: “It is finished” and then the soldiers shaft into the right side and out came blood and water. And down through the centuries they are trying in some way to explain it. They can’t explain it on anything that is biological, save that a birth always has the phenomena of blood and water. When a child is born the water is broken and there is a flowing of blood and water.

This is birth. To understand it we go back to the 31st Psalm: “Into thy hand I commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.” He promised it and He did it. That is only a symbol of one’s birth, which is redemption. So I say to you, don’t weep when you see it, rejoice, it was God’s sacrifice of himself because he desired to individualize himself in unnumbered garments, in all of us.

God can’t beget anything other than God, so we are told in the 82nd Psalm: “God has taken his place in the divine council in the midst of the gods he holds judgment.” On God in the midst of gods – all is God. He is asking and begetting this Unbegotten Being. The cue is given us in the Book of Hebrews 5:6. It is called by a different name, it is called Melchizedek. He has no father, no mother, no genealogy. He is telling you who he is. Everyone who is Born from Above, – because God succeeded in giving Himself to that individual, – that individual has no genealogy. He is God the father. Believe me.

How could he give himself without knowing His son? I tell you the whole vast world of humanity is symbolized in a single youth, – called David. David is the whole world of humanity, in the language of symbolism. And the day will come in the second mystical experience in the nine month period, and here you look at David; and David is you r son and you know it more surely then you know anything in the world.

There is no uncertainty when you look into his eyes and you see David and he calls you “My Lord, my father.” You know for the first time who you really are. And you turn to the world and you tell them what happened. But you are told, as I quoted earlier from Luke 18:34: “They understood none of these things; this saying was hid from them, and they did not grasp what was said.”

How can you persuade the individual that the day will come that even this very moment I could take the most orthodox Jew in the world, – if I went to Israel tonight, – and talked to the head Rabbi and asked him if he feels any relationship to David.

He would say: “Only as the greatest of the kings of Israel; but relationship as to myself, No.” But he respects the great king of Israel, and hopes some day to rebuild the dynasty that is now gone. But he could not feel a relationship. And if I, in his eye, a total stranger, a gentile, would tell him I am his father he would spit in my face.

To him that would be blasphemous; and yet I could tell him I am his father. I’ll go further, I’ll tell you, you are his father, and the day is coming it will be revealed to you. And when the whole vast world is completed and God’s work is finished; and he has given himself to every being in the world, – because he is the father of David.

To give me himself He has to give me fatherhood of David, – not just fatherhood. There is no need to give me fatherhood and not the father of his son. His son, yes. Psalm 2:7 “Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee.” Then he takes this only begotten son to prove his gift to us by giving us that son as our son. And you look right into his eyes and he calls you “father,” he calls you “Adonai, my lord.”

I tell you the day will come when you and I will be the same father of the same child, everlasting eternal youth; that God in the beginning put into the mind of man and molded man into the likeness of himself. Read it in Eccl. 3:11. “God has put eternity into man’s mind; yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” The word translated “eternity” is the Hebrew word Olam.

The Olam is translated, youth, lad, stripling. Listen to the words and see how we know who he is. The king wants to find out the identity of this fantastic youth that conquered the entire enemy of Israel, – he brings down the giant.

So the king says to his lieutenant: “‘Abner, whose son is that youth?’ And Abner said, ‘As your soul lives, O king, I cannot tell.’ And the king said, ‘Inquire whose son the stripling is.'” No one knows. Now the stripling comes in with the head of the giant in his hands, the head of Goliath, the enemy of Israel. And the king said to him: “‘Whose son are you, young man?’ And David answered, ‘I am the son of your servant Jesse, the Bethlehemite.'”

Now prophecy was made in I Samuel 17:2.5. “That the father of such a lad would be set free in Israel.” Not the lad; the lad is buried in every being in the world. But the father of that lad, who knows he is the father, he is set free in heaven, free in the New Israel. So when one knows he is the father by actual experience; at that moment he is free in Israel.

The 6000 years of turmoil is over for him; but David is still to be redeemed, to be discovered in the minds of all. And everyone is going to find him, and finding him they will find the relationship of himself to that lad; and we all will be one and our name one when the curtain comes down on the final act of this marvelous play.

Blake said: “Do not let yourself be intimidated by the horror of the world. Everything is ordered and correct and must fulfill its destiny in order to attain perfection.”

Everything is ordered, everything is perfect. God planned it just as it has come out and as he willed it, it will be consummated, and no tyrant in the world is going to stop it. He will take all the tyrants in the world and use them in the fulfillment of his purpose, as we are told in Proverbs 16:4: “The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.” Everything, not just a few. For it takes the wicked being to cross your path to add a little more fire to bring you closer into the image of God. If it takes many to cross it, they will cross your path.

What man looking at this garment we are wearing now could ever see him in the image of God. But this is not what is molded; this is only a form on which he is molding himself. When he has finished the molding then comes this fantastic experience in you; and you awake in a tomb. And the tomb all along was a womb; that was where you were crucified and you didn’t know it. And one day you awake in a tomb and the tomb is your own wonderful skull; and that is the holy sepulcher.

This week thousands of pilgrims will go to Jerusalem, to the holy sepulcher. And some priests, quite innocently, will point out a place and say “That’s it, that’s where he was buried.” He wasn’t buried there at all. There is no holy place in Jerusalem. The holy place is your own wonderful skull; that is the holy sepulcher, that is where he is buried. And that is where he is sound asleep dreaming with you these visions of eternity until you awake.

When you awake you are he and he is your very own being.

It is his purpose to give you himself, and there is no way in eternity that God can give you himself and prove it, unless he also gives me his most precious possession in the world, – and that is his son. He doesn’t give me his son to walk the street with me as a companion; he gives me his son as my son. So I look right into the eyes of the son of God and know him to be my son.

Then I wonder, how could this be? Here a man a few years old, weak, limited, with all the frailties of the world, all the weaknesses of the flesh, and yet, God so succeeded in his purpose for me, that he, the unbegotten gave me himself; therefore, I am unbegotten. Though I seemingly had a beginning in time, with the gift of God, the unbegotten, I now cease to be begotten.

I have no genealogy; I have no father, – I am father, – the father of his only begotten son. I tell you this is a mystery. But mysteries of this nature are not matters to be kept secret but truths that are mysterious in nature.

They are not things to be hidden. The minute they happen to you, you tell them to encourage every being in the world that in spite of the furnaces of the moment to continue, keep on moving, for you are moving anyway. But the end: – listen to the words: “O God, faithful Lord.” He has kept his faith, he promised me in the beginning he would do it. “Thou hast redeemed me.” And then sent me through furnaces without my consent, without my permission.

Take the story of Job. Here is one subjected to all the most horrible experiments in the world produced by God. And in the end he said (Job 42:5), “I heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee.” He sees the only thing in the world is reveal God to himself, because God is invisible to the world; but his son reveals God.

“No one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son, and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” So, how will I ever know God? When his son comes in to my world and looks me in the face and calls me “father”, then I know God.

And yet in spite of this may I tell you, the day will come you will still be taken into the presence of Infinite Love. And you don’t have to ask who you are or anyone in the world who he is.

As you stand in the presence of Infinite Love he embraces you; and you know who he is and who you are; for at that moment of the embrace you become one with the body of Infinite Love. Yes, that God is Almighty we know. But almightiness and omniscience are but aptitudes of God.

God himself is Love, absolute Love, and I can’t describe it except to tell you it is man. When you look at him, Infinite Love, and he embraces you and you are lost in the body of God again, one with it, it is your body. And then he comes to the final journey. “And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place, you may believe.” (John 14:29)

So I share with you my experience; and remember it because it is going to happen to you. When it happens to you, you will not differ from any other being in the world to whom it has not yet happened. But it is going to happen to every being in the world, but you will be one with those to whom it has already happened. And when it happens, – it may happen to you tonight, – you’ll wear the garment for a little while and then in the normal process of time you will take it off.

Then at that moment of the discarding of this mold that God used to mold Himself, you will be one with the gods. Your entire inheritance is to inherit the kingdom of heaven. Believe me.

What that garment looks like, I can’t describe it. I can describe the sensation, but it doesn’t make sense to anyone in the world. But the final act, when he ascends into heaven, and you ascend and live, – I can only describe it as the seraphim. A golden, golden liquid being – and you ascend as a serpent. It doesn’t make sense does it? A human serpent, as described in Isaiah 6:2.

The face, the hands, the feet were human but he couldn’t describe the glory of the body. It is simply golden liquid light. Because in the resurrection man is above the organization of sex. This garment he used to mold himself and to give man himself.

Blake brought it out in his wonderful poem called “The Gates of Paradise”

 “When weary man enters his cave, he meets his savior in the grave;

some find a female garment there, and some a male, woven with care,
Lest the Sexual Garments sweet should grow a devouring winding sheet.
One Dies! Alas! The Living and the Dead, One is slain, and One is fled.”

If this is slain, the mold, it is over. No need for the mold anymore, for he wove among this divided image, male and female, the garment that is immortal, which is above the organization of sex. So he discards then this divided image as far as that individual goes. He is now clothed in his immortal eternal body and no need for the divided image on which God molded himself and gave Himself to us; that being, being Jesse, which means “I AM”. The same name as Jehovah, which is “I AM”. The same name as Jesus, which is “I AM”.

So I tell you that fantastic mystery of crucifixion. It is true. It begins the play of God. If I went to a play tonight and saw a three hour movie before me on the screen, – I could, as many people do, misconstrue the role of the actor and make of him, as people do here of a movie actor or stage actor, – make of him an idol, ask him for his signature. Do all kinds of things that make of him an idol. And then, making of him an idol, he hides from me the message of the play.

Here is a play condensed into a few hours that took six thousand years to unfold. And so man’s misconception of Jesus Christ has made of Jesus Christ in the eyes of all Christians, an idol; and that idol hides from that man who holds him up as an idol, the true message of God.

God’s purpose is to give himself to us without an intermediary. No intermediary between God and you. Actually he is begetting himself; on you, because He is without origin, the unbegotten. When he begets himself in you and gives himself to you, completely individualized as you, – and you have no origin, and the reason you have no origin is the child, and you see God’s son as your son. Then you will know who you are: the being without father, without mother.

It’s a strange thing to say that I a little thing a few years old, – that some fantastic mystery could take place there and here is this garment which began 58 years ago; and yet on this garment, and the garment which undoubtedly began that preceded it, something was being molded that was unbegotten! And when it was completely knitted to its perfection, and then I wore the garment that was molded on me, with all the pain that I went through; that I was the being who molded it. And the being who molded it is unbegotten. So the garment I wear, the immortal garment, though begotten, it is being worn now by the unbegotten, God the father. You dwell upon it.

If what I have told you this night seems strange, – if you are here for the first time, or maybe you are here for the hundredth time, it still seems strange, – but it is true. Everything I have told you is true, I have spoken to you from my own spiritual experiences. We are all on a fabulous pilgrimage moving towards some invisible shrine and God is awakening in us.

The world round about us will go on in their journey; and when we are singled out one by one they will laugh at the very thought that he who died a normal death as any other man was that exit, – his final exit; and she by that experience, – do they talk about it, eternalize it? They smile and continue the journey.

Perfectly all right. But I tell you, you too will be called out of the pilgrimage and the voice will speak out of the vast sky: “God walks with them.” And someone will question the voice, and the voice will answer, “Yes” and they will turn to you and they will be just as hysterical as they were with me. And the voice in the depths of your own soul will tell you: “God laid himself down within you to sleep, and as he slept he dreamed a dream, he is dreaming that he is you.

And then you will feel the wonderful thrill of being nailed upon this body. But O what a thrill! These whirling vortexes, no pain just joy, ecstatic joy. And then you are on the bed alone and the journey in the soul continues, but they are moving on, but you cannot rest from that moment on.

Everything changes. You see people as you saw them and still they are different. You know their future, you know what they are destined to be; that everyone is destined to have the experience; and to remember in that ecstatic moment where unnumbered ages before he was nailed upon the cross through God’s love.

“Unless I die thou canst not live;
But if I die I shall arise again and thou with me
And if God dieth not for Man and giveth not himself
Eternally for Man, Man could not exist.”

And this is the wonderful mystery of life through death. Now here is our story for you this night.

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

THE FATHER

Neville 09-23-1968

neville goddard Imagination Is RealityThe Bible begins with Abram, a character whose name means “exalted father.” Abram was placed in a profound sleep, told of the trials and tribulations he would pass through, and the length of time which he would suffer. Then the Lord God said to him: “Behold my covenant is with you. No longer shall your name be Abram, but Abraham for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.” The insertion of the letter “he” [pron. “hey”] (the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which is “grace”) changed the name from Abram to Abraham. Now, grace is Jesus Christ, for we are told: “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” So into the name of Abram goes the letter “he” and grace is inserted into the exalted father. Then the journey begins.

Scripture tells us that God speaks to man through the language of dream and makes himself known in a vision. If God speaks to me in a dream and makes himself known to me in a vision, there is nothing more important than to record that vision. Here is a vision I had in 1934. I was alone in my living room. My eyes were closed and I was meditating, but not on anything in particular. I love to just turn my eyes inward and watch the liquid, golden clouds form. (If you try it you will find it very easy to do. Simply turn your eyes inward, close the lids as though asleep, and suddenly all of the dark convolutions of the brain will grow luminous. They will pulse and form themselves into clouds around your head.)

Here I am, not thinking of anything in particular, simply observing these golden forms, when suddenly before my vision appears a large, rough quartz. As I watch, it fragments itself into numberless little pieces. Then some magnetic hand or invisible force took all of these pieces, and gathering them together, molded them into the human form. Here is a man seated in the lotus posture in deep, deep meditation. As I looked at him I saw myself. Here I am observing myself meditating myself. As I watched, it began to pulse with life. Then it began to glow like the sun, and when it reached the limit of intensity it exploded. I broke the silence and returned once again to the normal state in this world.

That was an adumbration, a forecasting of my last days in this age. I saw my exit. When the moment comes for this garment to be taken off for the last time in this age (which will be this present little stretch of time) I will explode into eternity. There was no form. The form preceded it. That meditating figure in the lotus posture was perfect. It could not be improved upon. It’s difficult to conceive such perfection, yet I was looking at myself. I knew he was meditating me, and that I do his will. I came to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work, which is to fulfill scripture. And when that is completed he will explode and we will be one.

We are told: “Call no man on earth Father, for you have but one Father who is in heaven, and the kingdom of heaven is within.” You have a being just like yourself, meditating you! What you think is an original thought, an original desire, is nothing more than the will of your Father, the one meditating you. So in the end no matter what you have done, you are forgiven because you only played the part he willed you to play. To him you are David, the son of Jesse (I am) a man after his own heart who will do all his will. You have always done his will and you will always do it, and in the last days, to you alone he will appear.

We are told: “Scoffers will come in the last days scoffing and saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming, for ever since the fathers fell asleep all things have continued as they were from the creation of the world.” Man is looking for the Father to come from without and not to resemble the one who is looking for him, but when he finds him he finds himself. You are God the Father meditating your projection for the experience of this world, and you will redeem yourself in the last days.

Let me show you how scripture reveals this. Bear in mind the Bible is a mystery, not as something to be kept secret, but mysterious in character. You must search the scripture to find the Father. When the letter “he” [pron. “hey”] was placed in the name of the exalted Father, he became Abraham, the father of a multitude of nations. “And the scriptures, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham.” The gospel is the play.

Let us see how this is revealed to us. At the end of the journey, one that should know better said: “Master, show us the Father and we will be satisfied.” He then replied: “I have been so long with you and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How then can you say, ‘Show us the Father?'” They do not believe he took upon himself the form of Man and became obedient unto death upon the cross of Man. But I know that the being I saw meditating me as my very self was Christ, who is God the Father.

Now, if God is a father he must have a son, and if he was the Father before he began to meditate this projection of himself, then he had a son before he began this projection. So he asks the question: “What think ye of the Christ? Whose Son is he?” And when they answered, “The son of David,” he said, “Why then did David, in the Spirit, call him my Father?”

(The word “adonai” is translated “Lord,” as every son referred to his father as “my lord”). But David called him Father in the Spirit, and not in the flesh! Here he reveals who the Father is and who the Son is, but no one understood it. The evangelists recorded it. I read it over and over, but didn’t see it until I experienced it. Not until David stood before me and I experienced the relationship of Father/Son did I really understand that passage. I have talked to priests, rabbis, ministers, and truth teachers, but none see it, and because of their fixed belief they will not see it. They do not believe that the character in scripture called Jesus Christ is God the Father, and the character in scripture called David is the Son of God, even when they read the 2nd Psalm, where David says: “I will tell of the decree of the Lord, he said unto me, ‘Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee.” In spite of that, they still cannot see it.

Now, I say the Bible is completely consistent in imagery and symbolism. I saw the rock, and the meditating figure who is the cause of my behavior. The thing that is cause is Father, for he is the source of all. I saw a man who did not just resemble me but was me, raised to the nth degree of perfection – alive, breathing and radiating until it exploded like the sun. We find the same symbolism in the 89th Psalm: “I have found David, he cried unto me, ‘Thou art my Father, my God and the Rock of my salvation!” The Rock, the Father, and God. This meditating being has me in his power. There is not a thing I can do but fulfill his will. And in the end when he explodes we are one, and he has gathered, from the experiences he has put me through, that which was necessary for his own personal expansion, his own personal luminosity, going beyond what he was prior to the deep sleep into which Abram, the exalted Father, was placed.

So a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and as he slept the Lord God said to him: “Your descendants shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and they will be slaves there for four hundred years.” In the Hebrew world (especially in the mysteries) every letter was a numerical value as well as a symbolical value. The last letter, tau [pron “taf”] has a numerical value of four hundred. Its symbol is the cross. Four hundred does not mean years as you and I count them. It means as long as you wear the cross of Man. At the very end, when you take off the cross, you will explode into a new being – a new body, a new age, a new world. The exalted Father had to take upon himself the limitation of Man to enter the world of three dimensions, but when he has completed his journey, he and his projection which he put through hell explode, and they are one.

We are told: “No one comes unto me unless my Father calls him, and I will raise him up at the last days.” Now, this is a difficult passage for anyone to understand. No one comes to me unless my Father calls him. Well, I saw my Father, and he calls everyone into my world; but he is calling a certain remnant in the last days and these, with my explosion, will be raised. The day you hear Neville is dead, far from being dead I will be in an entirely new age, and I will raise with me those that my Father designates. I cannot name one of them. When they said: “John and James, let them sit at your right hand,” he said: “It is not mine to give, but my Father’s who is in heaven.” He knows who he is calling. And when the real end comes, far from being restored into a world just like this with my Father still in meditation, still putting me through the paces, I will explode and return to the Father, expanded, greater than that which I was before that the world was. I came out from the Father and came into the world. Again I am leaving the world and returning to the Father, taking with me everyone my Father calls.

The Father is not something you are going to find in some cathedral, some retreat, or holy place; he is wherever you are. The Father is within you, and one day you will be sitting quietly, not thinking of anything in particular, when the symbolism will take place. The rock (the quartz) will shatter into pieces, then reassemble itself into the perfect statue of you as a meditating Buddha. Then it will begin to glow like the sun, brighter and brighter, until it explodes and you return to the awareness you were when the vision possessed you.

So do not go beyond where you are in search of the Father. When you see a picture drawn by an artist who claims it is a picture of Christ and it doesn’t resemble you, don’t believe him. Every Sunday morning sculptures and paintings are sold in all the churches in the world claiming they are in the likeness of Christ, yet they don’t look like anyone you know – or like anyone in this world, for that matter. Those who buy them have forgotten that Christ is God’s Power and Wisdom which was put into the Father as the Father when he fell asleep to dream the sons of God into being.

Carl Jung had a vision similar to mine about ten years after I did, but it frightened him, which indicates to me that he is not at the end of the journey. When he saw himself in the lotus posture he was afraid, because he knew when he awoke he, Carl Jung, would be no more. But the Father does not see the projection that is the dream of himself, the real self who could not enter the sphere. He must dream it and make it real. He cannot pretend, for complete incarnation is essential to individualization. It’s a tragedy, yes. It’s a separation from the Father, for I was looking at him. It’s a fall into decay and death, for that is what this world is. It’s a fall into hell, for this world is hell, but the end will justify the means. Paul said: “I do not consider the sufferings of the present time worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed in us.” No matter what you have gone through and still have the memory of, or what you are going through, or may go through, no suffering can compare to the glory that will one day be yours. That glory is the unveiling of God within you as you. You are not going to see him as another. You are God.

But the one passage I quoted earlier is still puzzling, for I tell you: your Father is meditating you and yet here is a passage saying that my Father has called a certain number which I will raise at the last moment. Are they to be exempt? Will they be freed by reason of the fact that I will raise them up? I do not know. I only know that scripture cannot be broken. We are told: “You must be born again, for unless you are born again you cannot enter the kingdom of God.” The same one who made that statement claims that when he is raised, he will raise all that his Father (which is himself) calls in the last days.

But while he, the Christ in you who has come only to fulfill scripture, projects himself on the screen of space, he has no choice but simply executes his Father’s will. “My meat is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work” and the only work he came to accomplish was to fulfill scripture. He never attempted to change Caesar’s world. If there was slavery he left it in slavery. All of the things that are happening today, you and I think never happened before, but it has always happened. Cruelty there, cruelty here, slavery there, slavery here, and he never attempted to change one thing. He said: “You want to pay taxes? Give me the coin. Whose inscription is this? Caesar’s? Then render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”

Now this happened to me in 1934, and the mighty acts of God did not start to awaken me until 1959, so my Father knows all. He knew in ’34 that regardless of what happened (wars or rumors of wars) I would be here in a garment of flesh and blood in ’59, for in the interval of time between ’59 and ’63 he knew what he was going to do to his projected image. He also knows the moment of my departure. I only know it is this interval of time, for I have finished the race. I have fought the good fight and I have kept the faith, but the day of my departure I do not know. That hour only he knows. Whenever it comes I know an explosion awaits me and I will awaken as the very being that I saw, only it will not be man as we know man, but an entirely different being.

Your Father resembles you. He looks like you and is in love with you because you do his will. If you did horrible things in the past it is because he willed it. If today you do lovely things, he wills it, but you will not escape the doing of one thing in the play. Before we fell asleep we all agreed to dream in concert, that we may enter this world of three-dimension, this world of dream.

May I tell you: the dreamer cannot be destroyed by his dream because he is dreaming in a remote region of the soul. Not a thing that happens in this world can ever touch him. If you blew the whole earth apart you couldn’t touch the Father who is dreaming, and because he can restore the dream, he will restore the earth. He will restore anything. His projected self dies at the age of eighty. She looks old and is old, when suddenly she is formed into a lovely girl of twenty. She is totally unaware of how it happens, but her Father is doing it. He is all powerful. Having dreamed and projected her, his dream for eighty years, he simply restores her to youth with everything in place. Nothing is missing and she is twenty and no longer eighty. Now, isn’t that a miracle?

I see this constantly. They are not babies or children, but young men and ladies, twenty years of age. They procreate there and have their children too. They work there as they do here. The world is terrestrial just like this and solid just like this, and they do not know the Father. So he said: “If you knew me you would know my Father also, but because you know not my Father, you do not know me.” If you only knew me you would not kill, but you kill because you do not know me or the Father. That’s what he is saying. That’s the one who is dreaming us into being.

I hope that this will be your experience in the not distant future, for you can mark it down. From ’34 to ’59 was the time allotted in my case. Then from ’59 to ’63 the four mighty acts unfold. The first is your resurrection and birth from above. The second is the discovery of David, who calls you Father. The splitting of the temple (which is your body) from top to bottom and your ascent like a serpent into heaven is the third. The descent of the dove which smothers you with love is the fourth and final mighty act of God.

Now the first word uttered by the figure called Jesus Christ was when he was twelve years old. Appearing in the temple he turned to his earthly parents and said: “Do you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” At the end of the journey he is still speaking of the Father when he announces: “Father, into thy hands I commit my Spirit. Thou hast redeemed me.” (If he completes the verse of the 31st Psalm which he is quoting he would add: “O Lord, faithful God.”) Then he commits himself into the hands of himself, for he has withdrawn and the race is over.

Tonight, don’t even feel the nearness of the Father, for the Father is never so far off as even to be near, as nearness implies separation. When you fall asleep this night remember his name is “I AM.” That’s the one on the pillow. And may it be this night that he will seem to be another, but that’s the way it has to be done in the language of symbolism and imagery.

Now let us go into the silence.

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

THE GOSPEL

Neville Goddard 01-22-1968

neville goddard Imagination Is RealityWhen you hear the word “gospel” you usually think in terms of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but tonight I want to introduce you to the gospel as found in the letters of Paul.

Listen to these words carefully: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel, not that there is another gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or any who hear him, should preach a gospel that is contradictory to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed.” Then he repeats this saying: “I have said before so now I say again. If anyone teaches a gospel that is contrary to the gospel we preach, let him be accursed.” You will notice that Paul includes himself in that statement, because it is possible under the threat of death or pain or torture for man to confess that he was wrong. (The churches made Galileo confess, under the threat of Cain, that the earth was stationary and not moving around the sun, even though today we know Galileo was right.)

The churches still teach a Christ that never existed, but Paul taught what he had received through revelation, saying: “Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through a revelation of Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. I will have you know that this gospel, which I preach is not man’s gospel. I did not receive it from a man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” Then he tells us who Jesus Christ is, saying: “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.”

Now, the word “Christ” and “Messiah” are the same in scripture. Confessing “I am a child of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin,” Paul was a master in the law of Israel. Looking for some physical descendant of Jehovah to come as a messiah and destroy the enemies of Israel, the mystery unfolded in him, and he said: “I want you to know how greatly I strive for you that you will have an assured understanding and knowledge of God’s mystery of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

To Paul, the wisdom and power and knowledge of God which suddenly erupted in him was Christ, for when the visions came he understood who the messiah really was. Paul realized that God, called “the Word”, was buried in man and had three stages to its history: its planting, its death, and its resurrection. First the Word is sown (or imparted). Entering the world of death, it is forgotten in the struggle for food and clothing, rent and taxes. Then the Word is heard with understanding, quickened, and as it erupts all the promises of God to Abraham unfold from within the individual. When it erupts in you, you will no longer search for a physical Christ, for you will know Christ as the wisdom and power of God in you! Like Paul, you will then say: “I no longer regard anyone from the human point of view. Even though I once regarded Christ from the human point of view I regard him thus no longer.” Knowing that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, you discover who can!

Paul, speaking to the Thessalonians, said: “When you received the Word of God that we preach to you, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it really is, the Word of God that works in you, the believers.” In this statement Paul is speaking to those who hear God’s eternal story and believe it. They are the ones who, when the world calls their dear ones dead, persist in believing they are not dead but alive, and that God will fulfill his promise in them. They believe, not in the words of men, but in the Word of God buried within.

Now, here is a story I received last Friday night. This will illustrate how you will know when the Word is quickened in you. This lady found herself, in dream, in a huge crowd, seated on a grassy hillside. A man was standing on a small, raised platform speaking into a microphone. In his hands he held an open Bible. Then a gentleman stood up and said: “I challenge anyone to disprove my knowledge of the Bible.” (This lady, in keeping with the character that she really is – and she certainly is not lukewarm in anything that she does) rose, and quoting the 22nd chapter of the Book of Matthew, the 42nd, 43rd, and 45th verses (she omitted the 44th verse which is a quote from the 110th Psalm) said: “Question, please! What think ye of the Christ? Whose son is he? They answered, ‘The son of David’ Then he said to them, ‘Why then did David in the Spirit call him Lord? If David thus calls him Lord how can he be David’s son?'” Completing the quote, she continued to explain to the crowd the relationship between Christ and David, saying: “Christ is the Father and David the Son in fulfillment of scripture.” Then in the dead silence that followed the statement, she awoke. The Word has become so quickened in her that it is only a matter of moments before it will erupt and the story of Jesus Christ will be her story.

No individual called Jesus Christ was ever crucified on a wooden cross. When Paul said: “I have been crucified with Christ” he was speaking of the Cosmic Christ who is crucified on humanity that humanity may become a living soul. It’s the wisdom of God and the power of God that is crucified, died, and is buried in you. And it is that same power and wisdom which awakens to reveal you as God’s power and wisdom.

In the state of Paul you, too, will say: “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 the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” You may think a person is speaking but it is God himself, who so loved you he gave you his power and wisdom called Christ, that in time you would awaken to the realization that you are God.

In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he asks this question: “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, are you now ending with the flesh?” Now I am going to ask you: Are you going to think of a physical man called Jesus Christ? An external savior who will come through the loins of the descendants of David? Or are you going to think of the Christ-Spirit that is buried in you when I speak of the Christ? Will you accept the idea that the Spirit of Christ is crucified on you and buried in you? Will rise in you as you? Or are you going to continue to see a physical being called Christ as God’s power and wisdom?

Paul confesses: “I did not receive this from men, nor was I taught it by man. It came through a revelation of Jesus Christ, which is God in the act of self-revelation!” Then he continues, “When it pleased God to reveal his Son in me I did not confer with flesh and blood.” How could you ask another to explain a revelation, which came from within you? They could tell you all kinds of things about the outside, but they cannot tell you a thing about this great mystery until it has unfolded in them. In the 2nd chapter of Colossians Paul says: “I want you to have the assured understanding and knowledge of God’s mystery of Christ.” He tells you Christ is a mystery, as all the treasures of the wisdom and the knowledge of God are hid in him.

Christ was never a single little man who walked the earth. The Christ-Spirit, God’s very own power and wisdom, is crucified and buried in you, and one day that power will rise in you and you will know that you are He. “Let any one who teaches another gospel be accursed.” Well, the whole vast world teaches another gospel. They tell you that a little man was physically born from the womb of a woman who was spiritually impregnated, and that’s not the story at all! Everyone will give birth to Christ! This will be a sign unto you when you hold that babe in your own arms, for at that moment you will be holding the sign of your birth into life itself!

Let me share with you a vision of George Russell (known to us all as AE) from his book, The Candle of Vision, which he begins by quoting from Proverbs and Job, saying: “The Spirit of man is that candle of the Lord and when his candle shines upon my head, by its light I walk through darkness.” His vision begins: “Where I saw this I will not say. There was a hall vaster than any cathedral, with pillars that seemed built out of living and trembling opal. High between the pillars were thrones upon which sat Divine Kings, all fire-crested. One wore the crest of the serpent, another plumed with feathers of flame. At the end of the hall sat one greater than the rest who radiated light as the sun. Below on the floor lay a dark figure, and two of the Divine Kings made motions with their hands above it over head and body. Where their hands waved, sparkles of fire like flashing jewels broke out. Then out of this body rose a being as tall, as glorious and majestic as those seated on the thrones. As he woke to the hall and became aware of his brothers, he lifted up his hands in greeting, and the tall golden figures leaped up from their thrones, raised their hands in greeting, and quickly faded into the light where the great one sat.” AE had eavesdropped upon a god who was awakening from his passage through darkness into light.

Now so entranced in this world, you have forgotten that vast hall where you laid yourself down to dream this world into being; but one day you too will awaken, and your brothers, all vested kings, will be there to greet you. One by one everyone will awaken in that same manner to be incorporated into that single body which was at the end, waiting for the return of all.

You and I agreed to dream in concert and this world is our dream. It is a world of darkness, a world that is a nightmare, but in the end you too will return enriched by the dream. You will awaken to find yourself glorified by it, glorious and majestic because of your experience in this world of darkness, this world of death.

Now, another lady gave me a letter on Friday, saying: “I have been having the strangest thing happening to me. I have been having double vision. While in my living room doing the normal housewife chores I see a roadway there, bathed in living light, with a light of greater intensity at its end. All day long the two worlds converged to remain with me, yet one world did not seem to disturb the other.

“The first night of the double vision, as I lay down to sleep I saw a tall being robed in white. He was so magnificent I felt that I must be at his feet, yet I knew I was on my bed. Standing erect with his arms raised above his head, I see he is holding a lamp which illuminates everything round about him. Then I am looking through his eyes and seeing my husband sleeping on the bed. Suddenly I realized that I am the being having the experience and the one who is conveying it.” Then she asked this question: “Could I be this glorious being I saw?”

May I say to her: You are infinitely greater than you think you are, for you are the being looking through the eye and the one stretched out on the bed called your husband, as you are the invisible cause of all! You are awake, really home, and it’s only a matter of moments before you will be completely awake from this dream of life. Oh, you will have many fantastic experiences, which may frighten your friends and disturb relatives, but you cannot help it, for you have arrived.

Now, Paul wrote his Gospel to the Galatians before 52 AD. All of his letters were written before the four gospels came into existence. Mark, the earliest gospel, was written in the year 70 A.D. and John, the last, was written in 90 A.D. Read the Book of John and you will see that it has drawn heavily on the story of Paul. All of the promises of God awoke in Paul. Telling the story as it unfolded in him, he said: “Anyone who tells another gospel, let him be accursed.” Any other gospel destroys the truth and keeps men as slaves. Even today, after 2,000 years, men are still led astray by being taught the historicity of Christ, for it is a mystery.

When Paul read the Old Testament without its revelation, he believed that Abraham was a being of flesh and blood. In the Book of Galatians he tells the story of Abraham and his two wives: Hagar, who bears children into slavery, and Sarah, who bears children into freedom. Then he said: “This is an allegory.” Now, an allegory is a story that is told as if it were true, leaving the one who hears it to discover its fictitious character and extract its meaning. If the story of Abraham as stated in the 4th chapter of Galatians is an allegory, and the New Testament begins: “This is the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” – is the story of Jesus Christ not an allegory, written for us to learn its message? This doesn’t mean the story is a lie, but because man cannot grasp the mystery of God, it is told in the form of a tale. Unfortunately, man has accepted the story instead of its message. The story of Jesus is an allegory, yet it is truer than anything known to man, for the wisdom of man is foolishness in the eyes of God, who wrote the story.

In 1929 at the age of twenty-four, I stood in the presence of the Risen Lord, and when he asked me a simple question I answered in the words of Paul: “Faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.” When I came back to this world I must confess I wondered why I used the words of Paul rather than one of the evangelists. I am not saying that which is recorded in the four gospels is not true. It is all true, but the experiences recorded there were built from this original gospel, and any teaching contrary to it is a lie. There is no historical Jesus Christ. There never was one and there never will be.

Paul was looking for the Messiah to come from the outside, and when he came from within, Paul was honest enough to record what happened to him, and for that he was condemned by the Sanhedrin, his own earthly brothers. They imprisoned him, chained him, and wanted his death because he dared to bring a translation of the prophecies of God that differed from what they expected.

They wanted an external Messiah, but Christ does not come that way. He awakens from within, for it is He who is playing all the parts. So the Word, having been received by man, awakens to discover himself! It has been him all along, and when he returns from his passage through darkness into the heavenly guild, all of his kingly brothers will be waiting for him. Arriving there, he will contribute to the wisdom and the power and the glory of God, for everyone returns with his gift!

Read Paul’s thirteen letters carefully and you will realize that the system of the Christian faith was fully matured before Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John came into existence. Paul calls his system the Gospel of God, the message of salvation.

Having fulfilled scripture, I know that everything said there is non-historical and yet true. One story is told of the feeding of the five thousand. Calling himself the bread of life that came down from heaven and referred to as the great fish, he tells us all that we must eat his body and drink his blood, so in this story the five thousand are spiritually fed. This is my experience of that story.

In the year 1946 I was sailing through the Caribbean toward Mobile, Alabama, when suddenly I was lifted up on high in one spiral motion. As I rose, a heavenly chorus began to sing over and over again: “Neville is Risen” and I felt as though I had been encased in a conflict with death and I was its victor. Clothed in a body of fire, I was a fiery being dwelling in a body of air. Before my eyes I could see an infinite seat of human imperfection and I knew they were waiting for me. Knowing that if I be lifted up to a state of perfection, I lift all men unto me, I glide by them completely undisturbed and unconcerned. And as I do, each and every person was made perfect, as missing members of their bodies appeared out of the nowhere and remolded themselves into the bodies. All this time the heavenly chorus accompanied me, singing: “Neville is Risen.” When everyone was made perfect the chorus exulted: “It is finished,” and then – for the first time since I left eternity – I knew the cramped stage of being here, for at that moment I felt myself come down and condense once more into the straightjacket of this body on the bunk of a freighter coming into Mobile, Alabama.

In that vivid experience I fed the thousands – not a little bread, but myself. Having conquered death, I was perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect, and I fed them what they wanted. The one who wanted the eye got it, he who wanted that arm got the arm. Whatever they wanted they got in its fullness, and when everyone was made perfect the chorus exulted: “It is finished,” and I was crystallized into this little thing called Neville, where I have remained since 1946. Now I know what is in store for me when I break the bonds of this straightjacket and return to the heavenly guild, as I know my brothers are waiting for my return from this journey through darkness into light.

Now let us go into the silence.

neville goddard imagination creates reality

THE GREAT MYSTERY

Neville Goddard 04-12-1968

neville goddard imagination creates realityEaster Sunday is the day the world celebrates the greatest mystery of the Christian faith. I use the word “mystery” advisedly, for in the Book of Mark, Jesus turns to his disciples and says: “To you it has been given to know the mystery of God, but to those outside, everything is in parables.” (Mark 4) Here we see that the mystery of God is revealed from within, while the story of God is told as a parable to those on the outside. A parable is a story told as though it were true, leaving the one who hears it to discover its fictitious character and learn its lesson. On Good Friday, possibly hundreds of millions of people will attend the three-hour service. An equal number – and maybe even a greater number – will go to Easter service on Sunday, not knowing they are worshiping a parable which must be experienced from within to be known.

Paul said: “Great indeed is the mystery of our religion.” This is not something to be kept as a secret, but is mysterious in character. Its mystery is not easily accepted. We are told in the Book of John that many followers could not accept his words. They left never to walk with him again. (John 6)

The Christian world celebrates Good Friday as the day Jesus died, yet scripture tells us this is not true. In the Book of Galatians, Paul states: “I have been crucified with Christ; nevertheless it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2) You could hang on the cross forever, and not experience the death of the Son of God. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, record his death as taking place when “He cried again with a loud voice and yielded his spirit. And behold the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and all the rocks were split.” (Matthew 27; Mark 15; Luke 23)

There are two sides to the coin of the Easter celebration. The yielding of the spirit, and the severance of the body of God. “I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ who is within me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” God gives himself to you the moment the curtain is torn. Spirit fell from unity into diversity, into a world of generation and death. But when your spiritual body is split in two, spirit takes your individuality with him and once more ascends into unity and regeneration. This is the true story of Good Friday. The world, however, will not believe it. Looking on the outside, they hear the parable and believe it is a fact.

Now, as the disciples entered the tomb, a young man sitting at the right said: “You seek Jesus who was crucified? He has risen and is no longer here. See the place where they laid him.” This statement discloses the fact that Jesus has risen, as well as the place of the resurrection. But no effort is made to describe how he rose or when it happened. In these two statements we find a fantastic mystery, which I hope to unfold for you from experience. But first, I want to explain what I mean by calling those into my circle and teaching them from within.

This week I received two letters. In the first letter, the lady dreamed she was summoned to me, to discover others were there. Calling her and two others to me, I said: “I must die.” They were so delighted with the news, and as she turned to tell the others, she awoke. The following night, one of the friends in her dream found herself with two others, being taught a new language by me and making an effort to understand and learn from me. She awoke, wrote it down, and returned to sleep – to discover that now the three were linked together, as they attempted to speak the language. I was standing off to one side, helping whenever they needed it. Again she awoke and recorded the dream. And again she closed her eyes, re-entered the dream, to discover that now the three of them were one. I stood before them, called them forward, and said: “I must die to the flesh in order to live in you. From now on you will find me within.”

On this level these dreams are a parable, a story of the inner man, which – falling into diversity, is separate, linked together in the search for the cause of all life, ultimately discovering the unity of all. It is true. It is necessary that I die, but I have already. On the 8th day of April, 1960, I died to all generation. My creative powers have now turned into regeneration and now, night after night, I beget on the higher level.

It is said, that as he cried the loudest, he yielded his spirit; and the curtain of the temple was torn from top to bottom, the rocks were split, and the earth shook. This is true. When my spiritual body was split, I felt every little vertebra of my spine separate. Then, like a serpent, I moved up into the Holy of Holies. This is how your creative power, called the Son of man, is lifted up. In his 12th chapter, John tells us: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I draw all men to me.” The evangelist who is telling the story added this remark: “He said this to show by what means he would die.” This is not true. He said this to disclose the kind of death that would be his.

Only by yielding the spirit, can you die and ascend into a new being. You must draw yourself into yourself, otherwise you will hang on the cross forever.
Everyone is hanging on the cross, manifesting the flesh. Having been crucified with Christ, it is not the flesh which lives, but Christ, who lives in a fleshly garment. The life you now live in the flesh you live by faith in the Son of God, who loved you and gave himself for you. I remember the moment I cried out – splitting the curtain, and finding myself part of that pool of golden, liquid light at the base of my spine. Then I moved up into the Holy of Holies.

One man fell into diversity. Now asleep, he sees millions of others and does not realize they are himself pushed out. The lady saw three others, separate and individualized, then linked together, and finally one. Well, multiply three a million times, and you will see multitudes, all separate. Then the linking, the meshing, the weaving, of one thought into another; and finally the unity of all.

These marvelous experiences did not take place on this level; and if you try to interpret them as something that will happen here, you go amiss. When you meet me at night, it is because you have conjured me out of the depths of your own being. I am always with you, but not on this level. I died in 1960, and from that day on I have revealed the secrets of God from within.

We are all on this cross, but we have not died, for only God dies. It is God who is speaking in William Blake’s beautiful statement: “Unless I die thou cans’t not live. But if I die I shall arise again and thou with me. Would thou love one who never died for thee? Or ever die for one who had not died for thee? And if God dieth not for Man and gives himself eternally for Man, Man could not exist.” So God dies, and everyone who is raised becomes one with him. You know me as a person, but I am one with God, so in that sense I died. I have to die to the flesh in order to lie in you. From now on you will find me within, not without.

The parable the Christian world will celebrate on Easter Sunday belongs to this level, but its meaning is within. Walking with you on the outside, I eat and drink and do all the normal things of life here. If you ask anything of me, I will do it for you. But when you meet me in the depth of your own being, I will be teaching the spirit.

Good Friday and Easter are two great mysteries. Good Friday comes first in the parable, but scripture tells us that the first is last, and the last is first. This is true, for the resurrection, which we celebrate on Sunday, is the first of the great events.
In fact, two events take place that very moment: the awakening within and the departure of your spiritual body from the tomb. “In a moment, in the twinkle of an eye, at the last trumpet all will be changed into the imperishable one.” This is the great eschatological trumpet of the 27th chapter of Isaiah. When this great trumpet sounds, all those who entered the land of Egypt will be called back to worship in Jerusalem. The word “trumpet” means “reverberation.” There is a peculiar reverberation that takes place. You feel as though every bone in your skull is breaking but instead, you awaken within yourself, come out to leave your tomb empty. That is your spiritual birth!

The Easter story begins with the resurrection. God is buried in you and this is the story of his seed. “Unless a seed falls into the earth and dies it remains alone, but if it dies it brings forth much.” Here is the story of life through death. God dies for your salvation. His death is your redemption. He was with you from the beginning, experiencing all of your pain and joy. But when he gives up this world the curtain is split, and as he is lifted up he takes himself – now individualized – with him. That is your ascension. Now, the resurrection is not the ascension. Your resurrection and birth from above come first. This is followed by the ascension nine months later.
To the Christian world this is only a parable, for they have not stirred themselves to question it. And not everyone who hears the truth will believe it, because they have not been called to hear it – and that goes from the Pope down.

No matter what name man calls himself, or what robes he clothes himself in, he is sound asleep. Anyone who believes in a man who lived two thousand years ago, thinks things happen on the outside, and has no desire to question the meaning behind the parable. But one day, a man will know from experience that everything is taking place within. That the world is but a mirror, reflecting that which is within. So her vision was perfect. It started with separation, then – linking together – it ended with unification.

I have told you the great mystery of the crucifixion. Every child born of woman has been crucified with Christ. But only when his spiritual body is split, does Christ die to the flesh. Today I read the work of a brilliant scholar who stated he thought it was merciful that Jesus only had to suffer three hours. Here is a man who knows his Greek, Latin, and Hebrew backwards, but cannot see the mystery behind the parable. He added the thought that they did not break his bones because scripture had to be fulfilled, yet he hasn’t the slightest concept as to what that means. Bones represent the law of God which cannot be broken by man. It is the law of the identical harvest. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and the promise, but those who worship the parable think the bones of his feet were not broken so that scripture may be fulfilled.

God’s law was established in the beginning, as everything must bear fruit after its own kind. If it’s a pear tree, it bears pears; a plum tree bears plums, and an apple tree, apples. Bones represent the law of identical harvest. Assuming you are known or unknown, wanted or unwanted, wealthy or poor, your assumption is your seed and because of God’s law you will bring forth that which you have assumed you are. So when Jesus Christ had risen, the curtain had been torn and he had left this sphere. But having left this law behind, they could not break his bones.

A great scholar sees everything on the outside and therefore speaks of a parable. But you have been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of heaven. Not everyone will receive it, so it is offered to more than can accept it. There will always be a remnant, however, who will understand and believe; and that is how we go up.

In the lady’s vision, she saw how protean I am. First there were three, then linked together they became one. In that same way I am part of your being, always speaking to you from within. And when you see me in vision, I will not be talking about this visible garment I wear, or when I will depart from it, for no one knows the hour or the day. When asked: “Teach us the number of our days,” no reply was given (Psalm 39). If anyone tries to tell you they know when you will depart, do not believe them.

It is my desire that everyone will soon celebrate the splitting of the spiritual temple and move into an entirely different world to exercise a power of which mortal man knows not of. I can’t explain this power, but it is in my head. I can move mountains by simply exercising it as this power is my very being. Hearing it in my head, I control it there. My five senses have synthesized into a power so great I can do anything, and as I exercise this power it grows and grows and grows. It has been eight years since God died, and since that time I have grown in power, grown in wisdom, and expanded in the bosom of God. It is my prayer that you will know it, too.

Now let us go into the silence.

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

THE INCARNATE REVELATION

Neville Goddard 02-20-1969

neville goddard Imagination Is RealityRecently 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.

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD

Neville Goddard 11-8-68

neville goddard Imagination Is RealityLast night I fell asleep dwelling on two thoughts which parallel each other. One is from Paul’s letters to the Corinthians and the other from the Gospel of John. Paul said: “I cannot address you as spiritual men, but as members of the flesh, babes in Christ. I feed you milk, not solid food for you cannot take it.” And in the Gospel of John, the central character said: “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” When I awoke this morning my mind was crowded with the knowledge of God. This is not easy to speak of or to accept, but if you are a good student of scripture you will know that what I tell you is true.

In the Book of Genesis it is said that Adam knew Eve, his wife. That she conceived and bore Cain saying: “I did it with the aid of Jehovah.” And in the Book of Luke, we are told that when the angel told Mary she would conceive and bear a son, Mary asked; “How can this be seeing that I know not a man?” The words “know, knew, foreknowledge, or foreknew” are used as a euphemism for the creative act. And the one who performs this act is Jehovah.

Now, it takes man to express everything, whether it be evil or good, truth or error. This is also true with the creative power of God. We are told: “This is eternal life, to know thee – the only true God, and Jesus Christ (the creative power of God) whom thou hast sent.” Again we find the word “know.”

When God awakens his creative power which he sent into the world as man, that man performs the marriage act, spiritually. The majority of those known by him do not know they are pregnant until they bring forth God’s creative power and know themselves to be the personification of the Lord Jesus Christ.

One who was with him all the time said: “Show us the Father and we will be satisfied,” and he replied: “I have been with you so long and yet you do not know me, Philip?” In other words, you follow me and follow me, yet you are not ready to receive me; for I am spirit and you are seeing me as a man of the flesh. These are mysteries he could not tell, for he knew they would be too hard to bear. Now, the knowledge of God requires a complete surrender of self. There are variations of that surrender in the person that is known, so not everyone receives the imprint of God to its fullest extent. The one who completely surrenders receives the gift of apostleship, which is the highest order in the body of God. That one is qualified to be sent and speak from experience. The prophets, teachers, healers, and miracle workers will tell it from hearsay; but all will tell of the imprint, based upon what happened to them. But the one who comes as the apostle does so because he stood in the presence of the Lord and so completely surrendered himself that he speaks from experience, and says: “He who sent me is with me. Lo, we are one.”

The creative act on the highest level is an embrace, a complete fusion of the two, where one melts into and becomes one with the other. I know that. I who answer to the name of Neville, and my Father who men call God, are one. He sent me, yet he is with me, for I am not alone.

Having awakened this morning with my mind overflowing with the knowledge of God, I knew I must tell you, whether you accept it or not. And you are not to judge anyone as to whether he or she is qualified to believe it or not. I feel like Jeremiah, when he said: “If I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak anymore in his name,’ there is in my heart as it were a burning fire and I am weary with holding it in and I cannot.”

In the eighth chapter of Romans, we are told: “Those whom God foreknew (had this intimacy with before) he predestined to conform to the image of his son.” (Bear in mind now, that the son is he who reflects the glory of God and is the express image of his person). “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” Your complete surrender brings you to the point of glorification as you reflect God’s glory. I am not speaking of you as a man born of flesh, but as spirit, for God is spirit!

In the current issue of the Saturday Evening Post, there is an article written by an English anthropologist who makes little of the Bible, claiming it teaches cosmology. But the Bible does not teach cosmology, astrology, astronomy, or biology. It is concerned with only one thing, and that is God’s plan of redemption.

The Bible tells of how Spirit comes out of this biological thing called Man, who is one with God yet endowed with a creative power within himself. It’s not something which is an animated body, but a life-giving spirit. As the Father has life in himself, he has given to that which he brings out, life in itself, so that one can speak in the name of the Father, knowing he is the Father. God begets himself in the sense that he brings out of these so-called animated bodies, images of himself that are endowed with life-giving spirit.

Scripture has nothing to do with this little body of flesh and blood, which is an eternal part of the structure of the universe. While animated by a spirit of God, the body knew horrors beyond horrors; but nothing could come out of it. Then the decision was made to make man in the image of God, and the creative act was committed.

How did I make my children in my image? By planting my germ into that which was prepared to receive it. Then, in the fullness of time that which bore my image came out endowed with a certain independence. That is just a shadow of what God does; for when Adam knew Eve she conceived and said: “I have begotten a man with Jehovah.” That’s the literal translation of the Hebrew. Those who translated the Bible added the words, “with the help of,” but these words are not in the original manuscript.

In order to bring forth a man by Jehovah – whose name is I AM – you must bring forth your own wonderful I AMness. And when you know yourself to be the creative power of God, your work is complete. Then, knowing you are God’s perfect image, you will be sent as an apostle to play the part of the creative power of God. The act is spiritually performed in the same manner as the marriage act is committed here on earth. But there are levels within levels within levels of the body of God.

Now, those whom he foreknew, means those he impregnated and predestined. If a woman is impregnated, she is predestined to bear the image of the one who impregnated her. That’s a simple way to put it. Then those who are predestined are called and justified. Justification means divine acquittal. No matter what an individual has done, he is completely acquitted, for he could not have done it had he not been performing the will of God. And in the end everyone is glorified and will say: “Return unto me the glory that is mine, the glory that I had with thee before that the world was.”

I now reflect the glory of God. Not physically, but I know myself to be the express image of his person. I use the word “person” advisedly, for God is man in spite of our anthropologists or scientists, who think in terms of an impersonal force. The mystics know that God is man. The great poets know it. “Thou art a man, God is no more, thine own humanity learn to adore.”

When I stood in the presence of the Risen Lord, he was not some peculiar abstract. He was infinite love, yet he was man. After asking me a very simple question, I answered quite honestly. Then I knew the moment of divine impregnation as I became one with God.

Infinite might sent me back with the words: “Down with the bluebloods.” This is not some social order, but any ritual, creed, or ceremony, that would interfere with your direct access to God. I know there was no need to form an organization to destroy these, but that if I ignored them they would die for want of attention.

When you fall in love, you are attentive. You bring her flowers and candy. Then you marry, and if you stop the tender words and gifts, your romance will fade away and finally come to an end. The same thing is true for any outside ceremonies that would interfere with your direct access to God. Ignore them and they will die for lack of awareness. But if you believe in the rituals, creeds, and ceremonies on the outside, you will keep them alive, even to the very end.

In our fabulous world, God so loved you, individually, that he gave himself to you in the most intimate manner. He did it by becoming you that you may become God.

How can I explain that even though I am one with God, He sent me. That He is with me, yet remains the Risen Lord. This does not make sense to the rational mind, but when He embraced me we completely fused like a drop of ink in a glass of water.

Being sent, I had no loss of identity; yet I felt like power – the being who sent me. And when I stood in the presence of God’s only son, David, who acknowledged me as his father, I felt the love of the being who embraced me.

No one can see God, for he is invisible to the mortal eye; yet his presence can be felt. It is difficult to explain how God completely fused with me, yet sent me individually, without loss of my identity. I feel him, not as another, but as myself. I know he is the Risen Lord. That he came with me, as me; yet I also know he remains the Risen Lord.

I have tried to explain this so you could catch the mood and not try to understand it rationally, but it seems difficult for you to understand. That is why I have many things to say, but you cannot bear them now, so I feed you milk.

In my own case I cannot wait for the morning to come after a vision to share it with you. Someone once said: “Do you always throw these pearls before swine?” and I replied: “I do not meet any swine.” I share my visions with all, and if they cannot accept them, they will leave them – but nothing will be lost. I will pick up all the scraps and put them back to be shared once again. I cannot become the critic and determine who should hear what. How do I know who is willing to completely surrender to God? Or to what degree they will surrender! If not today, one day everyone will join that one body and know themselves to be the one Lord, one Spirit, one God and Father of all.

This morning, as I researched the words “know” and “knowledge”, the impact of the words took on greater meaning. You would not think that the statement: “You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free,” would denote a creative act, but it does. I am the personification of the truth that, when known, will set you free. I have been so long with you and yet you do not know me? If you only knew me, you would know my Father also. One day you will know the truth in an intimate manner, at which time He will leave his imprint upon you. Having been sent as the image of the invisible God, you will receive this imprint by a complete and utter surrender of Self. Then in due time that image will come out, for I AM in you and you are in me, for we are truly one!

Scripture is the most creative book in the world. It is not based upon anything known to man, yet it is the only way to eternal life. If you had great wealth, were honored by all, voted the handsomest man or the most beautiful woman – what would that amount to compared to knowing God, which leads to eternal life? And this is eternal life, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, who is the personification of God’s creative power.

When God knew Man, God’s creative power became personified; so when you meet a man on the spiritual level you will automatically surrender. This surrender will even involve objects, for nothing will be left out of God’s temple. The whole God is in Man, but on different levels based upon ones willingness to surrender.

I hope I have fired your curiosity so that you will open your Concordance and follow through the word “know”. There are many words translated now which have a different meaning, so take nothing for granted and check them all out.

The statement: “To know God is eternal life” means to have an intimate relationship with God so that He buries his image in you. At that time God gives you his life, for you are his emanation yet his wife, till the sleep of death is past.

In the 54th chapter of Isaiah, you are told: “Your Maker is your husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name.” If your maker is your husband whose name is the Lord of Hosts, are you not his wife? Will you completely give yourself over to him as the perfect wife, or will you be restrained in the act?

In my case I seemed to have no choice. I was spirited into His presence, and when asked: “What is the greatest thing in the world?” I answered without hesitation: “Faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.” With that He embraced me and I completely fused with him and now wear the body of God, which is infinite love!

While in that oneness, yet without loss of identity, I was sent with the cry: “Down with the bluebloods.” God, now clothed as Infinite Might, power without compassion, spoke these words to me: “Time to act.” I heard the words. I witnessed the event, so for thirty years I told the law. I did not tell the promise, for I did not know it until I brought forth the child to bear witness to the fact that I and my father (who men call God) are one. It takes the child to bear witness to the truth that I, as an individual, knew and had become one with my Father.

Leaving all, God cleaves to his wife – the one he impregnates – who then brings forth God’s likeness as the infinite Christ child. Being God the Father, when you and He become one consciously, are you not the one Father? You may bear the child, not even knowing you are pregnant. But when you bring it forth, you know the union of the two is complete. As long as you believe there are two – you and God – there is conflict. But when the partition is removed, you know yourself to be one with God who so loved you He became you. And when you bring forth his image in the form of his son, you know he has finished the work he set out to do in you.

May I tell you: if the world rose in opposition to my words it would make no difference to me, for my words will live forever – while all that took place this past week will be forgotten.

Human history and everything man has ever accomplished will prove to be false. Every great accomplishment will be modified in time, many times. Even so-called facts will prove to be error. In the end everything will be rubbed out, leaving no trace of ever having been present; for the only thing that is really forever, is what God is bringing out of humanity – which is himself. So in the end there is nothing but God – only God!

But in this world of Caesar, if one wants more of its fruits, let him have them. Eight years ago when Nixon ran against Kennedy, a friend of mine sent Nixon my phonograph record – at which time he wrote the lady and thanked her for it, saying that it had been added to his library and that he would have many moments of joy listening to it. That year he lost the election. Two years later Nixon lost his bid for governor of this state, but four years later his dream came true. I am quite sure, with his background of listening to his inner voice, that my record – which was on the law and the promise – sparked something in him. On the record, I spoke of the difference between thinking of your desire and thinking from it. When you think from your desire’s fulfillment and sleep feeling as though it were true, it becomes a fact. This is a simple technique to get things in this world.

Nixon didn’t win by an enormous majority, but he won. I firmly believe he did not just listen to my record once, but played it many times. When you know exactly what you want, you are thinking of your desire. Turn your thoughts around and think from its fulfillment. You can think of what you want and desire it forever, keeping it always beyond your reach; but when you think from its possession, your desire is yours. I’ll show you what I do. While in Los Angeles, I think of San Francisco as 600 miles to the north. Closing my thoughts to Los Angeles, I imagine I am in a hotel room in San Francisco and think of Los Angeles as 600 miles to the south of me. When possible, I take a short nap in that awareness. Now, when I open my eyes I find myself back here in Los Angeles, knowing from experience that within a short period of time I will physically be in San Francisco.

The average person, believing only that which can be seen and touched physically is real, will think I am crazy. A very intelligent, wonderful man who attended my meetings in New York City, once told me he enjoyed listening to my words; but when he did, he planted his feet into the carpet and held the sides of the chair to remind himself of the reality and profundity of things. Otherwise he would take off into some dream world. Call it a dream world if you will, but if there is evidence for a thing, does it matter what others think? I had evidence for my belief and I tried to share my experiences with him, but he would not even test his imagination.

Not everyone who hears the truth will believe it, even though he seems to be so wise in the eyes of the world. So I say: I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot hear them now. I am not speaking of the law. Mark puts that quite simply: “Whatever you desire, believe you have received it and you will.” I am speaking of the promise and urge you to search the scriptures, for if you do you will find me there. And when you find me, you will know, from experience that you and I are one.

Now let us go into the silence.

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Neville Goddard  10-3-1969

neville goddard Imagination Is RealityIn 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.

neville goddard imagination creates reality

THE MYSTERY OF INSPIRATION

Neville Goddard – 1-27-1969

neville goddard imagination creates realityInspiration 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.

neville goddard imagination creates reality

THE POWER OF AWARENESS

Neville Goddard 1953

neville goddard imagination creates realityI 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.

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

THE SECRET OF CAUSATION

Neville Goddard 12-05-1969

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality“The secret of imagining is the greatest of all problems, to the solution of which every man should aspire; for supreme power, supreme wisdom, and supreme delight, lie in the solution of this great mystery.” Imagination is the Jesus Christ of scripture, and when you solve the great mystery of imagining, you will have found the cause of the phenomena of life. Imagination is called “Jehovah” in the Old Testament and “Jesus” in the New, but they are one and the same being. Divine Imagination, containing all, reproduces itself in the human imagination; therefore, all things exist in the human imagination. When you solve the problem of imagining, you will have found Jesus Christ, the secret of causation.

Let me share with you two experiences which came to me this past week. The first lady said: “Returning from a wonderful cruise recently, I checked my baggage at La Guardia Airport, bound for Chicago, where I expected to spend a few days with friends. Arriving in Chicago, I discovered that the bag which contained most of my clothes and all of the presents I had bought for my friends and relatives – as well as a locket I had had made from the engagement and wedding band my late husband had given me – was missing. I immediately reported the loss to the airline, but when I arrived in California there was still no trace of it.

“A week later I received a letter saying that the bag could not be located, and my first reaction was to curse the airline for their negligence; but then I remembered that imagining creates reality. I tried to reconstruct the letter, but when I couldn’t feel its words were true, I began to assume that the bag had arrived at the house. I lifted it up on the bed, opened it, put my clothes away, as well as the gifts which were there. I did this every night and during the day, when I would notice my thoughts going astray.

“When the grandchildren would ask about their presents, I told them that they were on their way, as I never admitted to anyone that the bag was lost. How could I, if I believe what I had imagined? Six weeks later I received a letter from the airline saying: `If you do not pick up your bag within five days, you will be charged storage.’ I picked up the bag to find everything there, and put them all away, just as I had imagined doing.” Then the lady added this thought: “Love’s labor is never lost. Everything in that bag was loved, and I knew that if this principle was true, it would prove itself in the testing – and it did.”

I can’t thank her enough for sharing this experience with me, that I, in turn, may share it with you. Everything is created by the human imagination. There is no other God. You can use your imagination wisely and create a heaven here on earth, or use it foolishly and create the world’s havoc; but there is only one power, called the Lord God Jehovah in the Old Testament, and Jesus Christ in the New.

This lady’s first impulse was to curse the person who stupidly lost the bag. Then, remembering what she had heard, she tried to revise the letter. When that didn’t seem natural, she asked herself what she would do if the bag was now in her possession. Assuming it was there, she did everything she would do if it was a physical fact – and six weeks later it was.

That is what I mean by imagining creating reality, for an assumption is faith; and without faith it is impossible to please your own wonderful human imagination. Divine Imagination, containing all, reproduces itself in human imagination; therefore, the human imagination contains all. The world is the human imagination pushed out. Not knowing this, man cheats himself, murders himself, declares war against himself, and does all sorts of evil against himself; but do not let yourself be intimidated by the horror of the world. Leave it alone, for it is only the misuse of the power exercised by sleeping mankind.

Now, another lady shared this experience with me: She found herself in a neighbor’s kitchen, filled with men and women dressed as Mennonites. (You all know what the Mennonite look like. Originating in Zurich, Switzerland in the year 1525, they moved into Germany, France, Belgium, and Holland, to finally arrive in this country in the 17th century. Now numbering around 150,000 to 200,000, they continue to dress and live in the same fashion they did when they arrived here 300 years ago. Here is a fixed belief which has perpetuated itself year after year.)

The neighbor’s second husband had mistreated her, so the Mennonites killed him. Although she tried to tell them that it was wrong to take the life of another, as far as they were concerned it was the right thing to do. He had joined their society and knew their laws, which stated that if a man mistreated a woman, he was to be killed. No matter what argument she used, she could not persuade them that what they had done was wrong.

In the 16th chapter of the Book of Proverbs you will read: “All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but God weighs the heart. God has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.” Believing in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, they felt no remorse or guilt for their actions, for in their eyes it was perfect.

Suddenly a limousine appeared and men dressed in black and carrying machine guns entered the house. As she watched, the leader, pointing his gun at the lady, ordered the others to search the house. Then the lady awoke, not to find herself on her bed, but standing in the room of her dream. Suddenly realizing that she was awake in her dream and the action was taking place within her, she stopped the activity, which allowed her to see anyone as alive and independent of her perception, and they all froze.

(As Blake said, “All that you behold, though it appears without, it is within, in your human imagination of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.”)

Turning to the leader she said: “You don’t want to kill her, you love her and she loves you.” Then turning to the woman she said, “You love him and he loves you.” Allowing them to obey her will, she stood back and watched, as the man put his gun down and – with outstretched arms – moved to embrace the woman. Turning to go into the kitchen and release the animation there, her alarm caused her to awaken to this level of her dream.

This world is just as much a dream as that one, but man is sound asleep and does not know that he is dreaming. No one will sentence a man for dreaming he killed another; rather they will try to analyze it for him, and most of our so-called experts on dreams are past masters of misinterpretation. They do not realize the great mystery surrounding us. I tell you: the whole vast world is the individual dreamer pushed out, and the conflict is within himself, and not on the outside.

This lady’s drama began as something taking place on the outside, and seemingly independent of her perception of it. Then she awoke to an activity within her, which was animating and making alive all that she perceived. Arresting it, everyone became frozen, like statues. She changed their intentions, then watched as they were reanimated once more – but now bewildered, because of the radical change in them which took place in her.

Scripture calls this repentance, or metanoia, which means “a radical change of mind.” When ideas change, so do your intentions and attitude towards life. The story is told, that at his trial, the Risen Christ said to the symbol of the authority of this world: “You have no power over me, were it not given you from above.” This world is a drama which has been set in motion based upon your attitude from above. Functioning from above, this lady is tasting of the power of the age to come.

In the 10th chapter of Luke, the story is told of seventy disciples, who – having been sent out into the world – returned thrilled beyond measure, and said: “Lord, even the demons were subject to us in your name.” Then he said: “I saw Satan fall from heaven. Nevertheless, rejoice not that the spirits are subject to you, but that your names are written in heaven.” I say to her, rejoice not that you have tasted of this power, but rejoice because your name is written in heaven. This is infinitely greater than demonstrating your power in this world.

Now, Luke does not speak of seventy individuals which were sent out, but the numerical value of the Hebrew letter ayin, whose symbolic value is the eye. This is not the outside eye, but the incurrent eye, which sees inward into the world of thought. You have the incurrent eye, nevertheless rejoice – not because the spirit was subject unto you, but because your name is written in heaven. One day when you are called into that assemblage, you will see that there is such a record, and your name is written in heaven.

This may seem stupid to the intelligent mind. That is because they are sound asleep. This Manson boy, now on trial for the murders recently committed by his group, fell into a power of which he is totally unaware. Many who became his slaves were simple people, some cultured. One had attended college for three years.

His power, exercised without love, resulted in a horrible experience; but she exercised her power in love, saying: “You don’t want to kill her. You love her and she loves you.” She released the man from his violent state by the power of love. This world is every bit as much a dream as that world, and you, its dreamer, are God learning to exercise your powerful imagination, in love.

You can take this message on either level. Use it as my friend did, when she would not accept the fact that her luggage was missing, or test your power from above. Scripture claims that: Whatever you desire, if you will believe you already have it, you will.

Refusing to believe her luggage was missing, my friend fulfilled her desire by placing it on the bed, removing its contents, and putting them away. This she did every night for five weeks, and then one day she received a notice saying that if she did not pick up her luggage within five days she would be charged storage!

I can’t thank her enough for sharing this experience with me, that I may share it with you to encourage you to control your human imagination; for if you would steer a true course toward a certain goal in life, you must ever be aware of the end that you are shaping by your imaginal activity, and not allow doubt to enter for one moment. When you know what you want, you must think from your belief in its possession, morning, noon, and night. If you do, no power can stop its appearance, because you are the dreamer of your dream, pushing yourself out, shaping your world by your imaginal activities.

Your own wonderful human imagination is the Jehovah and Jesus of scripture. The words mean: “Jehovah is salvation, or Jehovah saves.” In the 3rd chapter of Exodus, Jehovah revealed his name as I am. You are not John or Mary, but simply I am. In the 4th chapter of the Book of Genesis we are told that when Abel (the 2nd son) was killed, Eve bore Seth, a son to take Abel’s place. Seth then had a son called Enosh, “And from that day on, men began to call upon the name of God.” (Remember, in the lady’s dream the second husband was killed.)

Now, the words “call upon” literally mean “call with.” It is nonsense to say: “In the name of Jesus; in the name of God; or in the name of Jehovah.” If you say: “In the name of Jesus Christ,” you do not feel anything. But when you call with the name, you say: I am unpacking the suitcase. I am hanging the clothes in the closet. I am putting the presents away. I am arresting the activity within and silencing those who stand before me. I am saying: “You love her and she loves you.'” That’s calling with the name of God. And from that moment on, men began to call with the name of God.

If you really believe me, you will prove my words in the testing. The two ladies have proved it and shared their experiences with me. I can’t tell you my thrill when I know that you have heard me to the point of applying my words. One who is the incurrent eyewitness took it into the depth and saw into eternity. The other knows the truth, and believes it on this level of her being. From this level she brought her luggage back with all of its contents in place, while the other went into a deeper level of her being to discover that there was nothing on the outside but herself.

Mennonites are only expressions of fixations. They haven’t changed their outer dress in 300 years. Satisfying their conscience, they will loan you a dollar and not accept any interest on the loan; but they can feel justified in buying land and holding it until the price goes up. You see, man has a peculiar, innate something that justifies everything he does, thereby making him pure in his own eyes.

But I say to you: your imagination manifests itself in the imaginations of men. The world is playing its part, because you are imagining every moment in time. Who knows who is treading in the winepress tonight, causing the subtle change in the minds of men. Perhaps he feels wrongfully accused, and is now sitting in jail thinking of getting even with society. That’s treading in the winepress. When he can lift his thoughts to the point of vision, the act is committed, and it will manifest itself in the world of man,

Vision is simply awakening in the dream. Asleep, you seem to be the victim of your dreams; but awake, as you are here, you can become discriminating. She awoke in her dream, making it vision. Realizing that it started as a dream – therefore, it must still be a dream – she knew the people were only herself made visible, so she could change them. Placing the thought of love in the mind of the man, he became aware of his radical change of thinking, yet was totally unaware of who produced it.

Who knows who is producing the changes in the minds of men today, producing war or peace. It could be some woman treading in the winepress; or – as Yeats said – it could be in the mind of some shepherd boy, lighting up his eyes for a moment before he ran upon his way. Dreaming of heroism, of noble battles where he was the hero, that little boy can cause the blood to flow. If you know who you are and how imagination operates, you will learn to control your imaginal activities. If you do not, they will be controlled for you by another, and you will become their victim.

Any time you exercise your imagination lovingly on behalf of another you have done the right thing. But if it is not done in love there is a question mark, for God is love. This knowledge is not the result of some philosophic reasoning, but of self-revelation. God unveiled himself within me and now I know that God is Infinite love. Yes, he is Infinite Power and Wisdom as well, but power without love can raise horror.

I say to everyone, believe me. The Jesus of scripture and the Jehovah of scripture are your own wonderful human imagination. There is no other God, and God is love. One day you will know this truth, but in the meanwhile believe me as the lady did. When her natural human impulse was to curse, she blessed by imagining her luggage on her bed. Then she performed in her imagination what she would do in the flesh if her desire was now outpictured on her screen of space. This world is a play, peopled by those in costumes. You are its author, writing your play. You can change it (as my friend did) and prove to yourself that you can take a fixed idea (symbolized as a Mennonite) and change it.

Believe me, imagining does create reality. Take me seriously. You will never know Jesus until you know the secret of imagining, for your imagination is he. If you really believe in God, believe in your own imagination, for it is the power of God and the wisdom of God. The power and wisdom of the lady’s imaginal act influenced the entire outer world and produced that so-called “lost” bag and returned it.

I tell you, there is only one power in the universe. We call it by the name of God or Jesus. But if you think of Jesus as someone on the outside, who lived 2,000 years ago, you will never know him. Nor will you ever know God, if you think of him as some impersonal force. God is a person because you are a person. He became you, as he became us all, that we may become as He is.

Take my message to heart and apply it from now on. You can be the man you would like to be. Don’t start dreaming about it. Awake and think from it. Do not concern yourself about trying to meet the so-called “right” people. They are simply reflections of the activity you have placed within you. Change your thoughts and you will change the behavior of those who surround you for they are nothing more than yourself made visible.

The day will come when you will awake from this dream, and you will see what my friend saw in another aspect of the dream – that the world is dead, and only the reflection of an activity of the human imagination. Then you will depart, leaving the world as it is for others to play upon, while you return to the being you really are – the Lord God Himself, the creator of the dream.

Now let us go into the silence.

neville goddard imagination creates reality

THE SEVEN EYES OF GOD

neville goddard imagination creates realitywe 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.

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

THE SHAPING OF THE UNBEGOTTEN

Neville Goddard   05-03-1963

neville goddard Imagination Is RealityWe 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.

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH

Neville Goddard 10-07-1968

neville goddard Imagination Is RealityWhen I speak of Jesus or any other character of scripture, I am speaking of a personification of a principle, not of a person as you are or I am. The Bible records vision, and makes no reference to persons or events which occurred on earth. Unfortunately, man has mistakenly taken personifications spoken of there for persons – the vehicle that conveyed the instruction for the instruction, and the gross first sense for the ultimate sense intended. It is difficult to discuss a principle without personifying it and giving it words to speak. This the evangelists have done; but to see Jesus as an historical character, is to see truth tempered to the weakness of the human soul, unable to bear the strong light of revelation.

In the very first scene of “Hamlet”, Shakespeare personifies the morning as “Morn, in russet mantle clad, walks o’er the dew of yon high eastward hill.” Here Shakespeare has given the morning feet, and clothed in russet it walks over the dew on eastern hill. I love it! Shakespeare was a master of the English tongue. Like Blake, he had an inflamed imagination and personified everything. Blake tells us: “Cities, mountains, valleys, rivers, all are human. When you enter into their bosoms you enter into heaven and earth, just as you enter your own heaven and earth. And all that you behold, though it appears without, it is within, in your imagination of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.”

The evangelists did not write history, but theology, as they told their own experiences of God in dramatic form. They told of Jesus standing before Pilate, who questioned him, saying: “So you are a king?” to which Jesus replied, “You say that I am. For this I was born. For this I came into the world to bear witness to the truth. All who are of the truth hear my words.” Then he goes on to explain that those who accept this truth will find it to be in conflict with the traditions of men, whose concepts of God are not based upon experience, but what they believe God to be.

Men without vision teach the theology of the Word. Because of their authority in the church, people accept the statements prominent theologians make regarding the great mystery of Christ, as fact. But, having been cast in the central role of the Christian mystery, and having played the entire drama from beginning to end, I tell you their teaching is far removed from the facts, and has nothing to do with the Christian mystery.

I recall, maybe fifteen years ago, in New York City, a friend invited me to the Bohemian Club at Harvard University to meet one of the world’s great metaphysicians. Questioning my education, and learning from me that I teach scripture from revelation which comes from within, he turned his back on me in the most insolent manner. Unless I had some tag given me by a recognized body of men to support my claim, he would have nothing to do with me.
Well, the gentleman is gone from this world, and so is my friend who introduced me to him. Death will, however, cause them to modify or radically change the ideas they championed while here. Metaphysicians have tried to compose a workable philosophy of life which has nothing to do with scripture – which is one hundred per cent vision. And when I speak of vision, I am personifying the ultimate in truth; for this I was born. In his gospel, John tells us: “You are from below and I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world.” John is not saying he is a supernatural being who came from an entirely different world, but that his experiences did not take place here.

While walking the earth as a man, the truth unfolds from within. Personified as the Lord Jesus Christ, truth has unfolded within me – not as another, but as myself. And when I tell of my experiences, some will believe while others disbelieve. The majority will reject my story because they know the body of flesh I wear, my background, weaknesses, and limitations; and I, a man, am not what they are looking for. Men looking for the spirit of truth think in terms of a Messiah who will come and save them – not a personification of a principle. But the spirit of truth is a pattern, buried in all, which erupts in the fullness of time as the one in whom it erupts. This pattern is dramatized as events in the life of a man called Jesus, but the events are supernatural. A scriptural episode is not a record of a historical event, but a parabolic revelation of truth which will be experienced in another region of the mind.

We are told: “Thy word is truth” and “I am the truth”- therefore, I am the word! You will literally fulfill the statement in the 148th Psalm: “By a storm wind he fulfills his word.” When the wind possesses you, you are under its control, as it clothes itself with you and intensifies. When it happened to me, my entire being vibrated; and when I stood and looked at my skull from which I had emerged, I felt it must be a hurricane because of its intensity. Those present had the same feeling of a storm wind. You are destined to fulfill God’s word. Recorded 1000 years B.C., His word will be fulfilled by a storm wind, so wait until you are clothed with power which comes as a storm wind.

Now, Luke and Acts are one book, which was divided by the early fathers of the church ( why, I do not know). In the Book of Acts, the story is told that while the disciples were together, a mighty wind filled the room and their foreheads became luminous. Then they began to speak in multiple tongues, so that each one heard in his own tongue wherein he was born. Many have attempted to change these words, yet they are literally true. I know, for I speak from experience.

The Spirit of truth is personified, as you are a person just as I am. I ask you to set your hope fully upon the grace which is coming to you at the revelation of this principle within you, called Jesus Christ. Make no mental image of Jesus, for he is a pattern housed in every man, which erupts in the fullness of time. And when it does, you will know that you are God – a knowledge you will never forget. And from that day on, what you accomplish in this world will mean nothing. Since the pattern fulfilled itself in me, I have no more interest in the world of men. Every night I fall asleep dwelling upon the four mighty acts of God, never what the day brought forth here in the world of Caesar. When I hear good news from friends, I rejoice, display empathy and happiness for them; but as far as I am concerned my back is turned to all of the accomplishments of this world, and I remain facing the vision.

Remember: the Spirit of truth is not something which comes from without, but from within. You are told: “I will send the Spirit of truth from my Father who will bring all things to your remembrance.” And when you remember, and share your visions, you may incur the envy of men who – if they are high in office – might put you out of the synagogue or the churches. There are times when death is allowed. The inquisition proved that. Tens of thousands were burned alive because what they had experienced was in conflict with the church fathers. We are warned: “They will kill you. They will do this because they do not know the Father or me. Had they known the Father they would have known me also, for we are one.” God, the Father, became me when he sent me. He has never left me alone. If you really see me, you will not see this mortal body called Neville, but the Ancient of Days, infinite Love personified as man. That is my Father, yet He and I are one.

Regardless of how this little body reacts, I must remain, telling the story until that moment when God calls me back. Then those who are serious followers will find a freedom they cannot enjoy while I am here, for the pattern will erupt within them and they will experience God. Then they, too, will tell the story with the authority which comes from personal experience, and understand my words when I say: all of the accomplishments of this world mean nothing.

Now, on this level, a true judgment must conform to the external fact to which it refers. If I claim this is a lectern and you know what one is, upon examination you would agree with me. But if I speak of lovely roses and there are none to be seen, you may think I am crazy. But I say: a true judgment need not conform to the external facts to which it refers.

A lady sitting in my audience in New York City, put this principle to the extreme test. In the silence she embraced dozens of beautiful roses, touching their velvety pedals and allowing their scent to fill the air. She touched, smelled, and saw roses, when none were physically present. Being a widow, this lady lived in a single room at the Waldorf Astoria. She went home that night and there were no roses to greet her; but the next night as she was returning to her room, she smelled the pungent odor of roses. She had ordered none and was not expecting any, but when she opened her door there were three dozen beauties on her bureau. The night she imagined embracing roses, the queen of England was attending a banquet in her honor. That year a special rose had been grown called the Elizabeth Rose. The banquet room had been filled with roses, and the next day one of the attendants was told to give Mrs. Neemier three-dozen roses. So I say: when you know this principle, a true judgment need not conform to the external facts to which it refers, otherwise Mrs. Neemier would never have had her roses.

If you confine yourself to the human belief of truth, you will be stuck in that groove; for every moment of time you are confronted with the facts of life. Knowing your social, intellectual, and financial background, you could not get out of the environment in which you were placed. My family did not accept these so-called facts of life. They climbed out of poverty by using their imagination. Knowing what they wanted, they imagined their desire was an external fact. They remained faithful to this imagined state, and in time they became what they imagined themselves to be. That is the law.

I urge you to set your hope fully on the grace that is coming to you at the unfolding of Jesus Christ in you. Use the law towards beautifying your world and getting all of the lovely things you feel you need. Don’t ask anyone’s permission; simply appropriate it in your own wonderful human imagination. Imagine and live by imagining, – morning, noon, and night. It will not fail you, but remember: you are the operant power.

Knowing what to do is one thing. Doing it is another; and we are called upon to be doers of the word and not just hearers only, deceiving ourselves. You can read one of my books over and over again. You can tell others what the book says, but if you never apply its message, the mere reading of its words will not benefit you. But if you will test your imagination, it will prove itself in performance.

Jesus, the Spirit of truth, is not a person that was physically born from the womb of a woman. Jesus is the Immortal Man, who is buried in mortality. It is He who – erupting in individual man – moves him from darkness to light, from death to life eternal. Those who are not awake to this principle do not die. Rather, they are restored to life to continue their journey, for nothing dies in God’s world, not even a little rose. Because of God’s death, man is destined to move out of a world where things appear to die, to enter a heavenly world where its occupants are supernatural. No more will there be men of flesh and blood, but immortal brothers who have life in themselves. No longer will man animate a body of death, but will know himself to be a life-giving spirit.

That is your destiny. Dwell upon it. If you still have ambitions to shine in the world, apply this principle. But I prophecy for you: the day will come when you will turn your back upon it, realizing that all that matters is what God has wrought in you.

Now, throughout the centuries the 22nd Psalm has been identified as the song of the Messiah. It begins: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” But it ends on a note of triumph: “Men will tell of the Lord to unborn generations that God has wrought it.” They will tell that the Lord did accomplish that which he swore he would do. On that day, you will say: “I have finished the work thou gavest me to do. Glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory I had with thee before that the world was,” for you will know from experience, that there is nothing but God. We knew the glory before the world was; and for a divine purpose we – the One – became the many. Now, calling us one by one, we are united into a single being, who is God; and these furnaces of affliction will turn into rivers of joy.

The spirit of truth is God’s plan of salvation buried in you. In the fullness of time that plan will erupt and the story of Jesus Christ will become your story. It is my hope that your story will begin this night.

Now let us go into the silence.

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

THE SPIRIT WITHIN

Neville Goddard  04-25-1969

neville goddard Imagination Is RealityWhen 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.

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

THE TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD

Neville Goddard 11-14-1969

neville goddard Imagination Is RealityThe 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.

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

THE TRUTH OF CHRIST IS HERE

Neville Goddard 6-22-1970

neville goddard Imagination Is RealityThere is something in this changing, changing world that never changes, and Scripture refers to that which never changes as Truth, So, Paul said, “The Truth of Christ is here.”
Now he defines Christ as “the power of God and the wisdom of God.” He confesses that once he thought Christ to be a man. He said, “Hereafter, I regard no one from the human point of view. Even though I once regarded Christ from the human point of view, I regard him thus no longer.”

He saw Christ as a plan – God’s plan of redemption of man. But really, it was the redemption of himself, because God became man, that man might become God. So, he saw Christ differently and there was no one to this day who was greater than Paul concerning the spread of the knowledge of the truth of Christ.

He neverchanged his religion. He said, “I am of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee of the Pharisees.” He knew his Law backwards. But he reinterpreted Scripture in the light of his own experiences, and Paul was the first one to use the word Christ, for his letters preceded the Gospels by at least 25 to 30 years. The Gospels were written after the letters of Paul – whoever Paul was.

His first name, as we know from Scripture, was Saul, and Saul was an insane king, chosen by man. And then Saul’s name was changed to Paul after he had the vision.

And so, in the light of his own experience, he reinterpreted the Scriptures, and then he wrote these thirteen Letters, and he called Christ “the power of God” – the creative power of God – “and the wisdom of God.” Then he said, “The truth of Christ is infinite.” So, listen to what he is talking about when he is talking about, and he only talked about, Christ after he realized the mystery.

Now, here tonight we can bring it down to the most wonderful level and show you how to apply this Principle, not forgetting the greatest thing which is the purpose of it all, which is to transform man into God. But really not so much transforming man into God, but to redeem God, Who came down and assumed the limitations and the weaknesses of man, and then He goes back to Himself as He was before, but enhanced by reason of the experience.

You did not begin in your mother’s womb. You were “in the beginning” with God. You are God! And it was God who made the decision who came down into this world called death, and assumed the weaknesses and the limitations of man. You will return to the Being that you were prior to coming down.

As the Psalmist said, “Rouse thyself. Why sleepest Thou, O Lord? Awake! Do not cast us off forever.” It is God-in-man that is sleeping and dreaming this Dream of Life. Paul realized it, and he knew that while we are dreaming the Dream of Life, we could dream it as we would like to dream. If you ever discover yourself dreaming, you can either awake from the dream or control the dream. If you know you are dreaming, you can control it.

I tell you, you are God dreaming this Dream of Life. You may not know you are; I am telling you that you are. You can put it to the test, and no power in the world can stop it because there is no other power. “Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.” That Power is buried in you! When you say, “I am,” that’s God!

Now, what are you assuming that you are? You can assume anything in this world, for the Being assuming is God. Can you believe in the reality of your assumption? Can you believe that which at the moment your reason denies and your senses deny? Can you believe it? If you can believe it, no power in the world can stop it from objectifying in this world of ours, but no one.

Let me share with you some of my own discoveries. We go back, now, to the Psalmist, and the Psalmist asks the question concerning this life: he said, “Send Thy light and Thy truth to me. Let them bring me to Thy holy hill and to Thy dwelling.” (Psalm 43:3)

Now, when the story is told, it takes a man to tell it, for it takes a man to express the power of God and the wisdom of God, and this one makes the claim, “I am the Light of the world. I am the Truth.” So, when the Psalmist pleads to the Light and the Truth to lead him, and to lead him to the hill and the dwelling of God, one comes into the world

in whom the Light unfolds and the Truth unfolds, and he declares, “I am the Light of the world. I am the Truth.” Yes, “I am the Way, I am the Truth, I am the Light” – the one and only true and living way. To what?

To the Source of all creation, called in Scripture “the Father.”

“No one comes to the Father but by Me, for I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.”

But Paul discovered this was not a man. This was a pattern. So, in him, Christ became the Pattern Man. “Follow the pattern of the true words which you have heard from me. Guard the truth which has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.” Do not turn to the left or the right. You guard this Truth; and the Truth is the pattern of “the true words, which you have heard from me.”

He knew his Old Testament. There was no other testament. He never quoted any other book. He didn’t quote the great classics proceeding the age, only the Old Testament. And here he saw it in an entirely different light. He saw the Old Testament as an adumbration, an intimation, and then, when it happened in him, he reinterpreted the Old in the light of his own experience, and then he told it.

Then came our Evangelists, who told it for our sake, and told it in the form of a man.

“For truth embodied in a tale Shall enter in at lowly doors.” [Tennyson]

So they took it, and they told it in the form of a man, and the world has accepted it as a man. And he is speaking of a Cosmic Christ, a cosmic principle, which is the power and the wisdom of God, the Creator of all. This is buried in us.

Now let me share with you a simple, simple technique. You might have done this. I hope you have. I know from my own experience before these major things happened in me of a mystical nature, you are going to have this experience, I know it. Have you ever closed your eyes, not forcefully, just simply closed them, and turned your attention inward into your skull, and just wait? And after you have seen all the dark convolutions of the brain, they turn into light. And haven’t they come around your head, and then moved off like smoke rings, only they are light rings? And you see this luminous, golden light go off like rings and rings of light going off.

So, we turn back to the 43rd Psalm: “Send me Thy light and Thy truth to lead me and to bring me to the Holy Hill and to Thy dwelling place.”

Well, I have found it. I’m sitting in the silence, and then this whole thing envelops me, all golden, liquid light. Thinking of a friend and what the friend would like in this world, I bring that friend before me. But his request, or her request, must conform to the Golden Rule. In other words, I will ask nothing for anyone that I would not ask for myself. If they ask me to hear that you are dead that they may inherit your wealth, I could not be the one to whom they should turn. Turn elsewhere, but don’t come to me to ask me to hurt anyone for your personal gain. But ask me anything and it’s a simple matter.

In the silence, to just see is the most obvious thing in the world, these wonderful, golden, liquid circles that surround your head, and then they go off like someone blowing smoke rings, only instead of smoke, they are made of golden, liquid light. So, “Send me your light and your truth,” for we are told: You shall know the Truth, and the Truth will make you free” , in this light, for “I am the Light of the world.”

I will send, now, that thought on the light, and it cannot return unto me void, but “it must accomplish that which I purpose and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

And so, while you are seated in the silence, just simply think of your friend as having what he asked, or she asked of you and then just simply break it. And your word has gone forth from you. But you say, “That’s from you, a man.” Don’t you know that God became you? It went forth from you, but God became man, that man might become God. So, in the silence, who are you? Who is doing it? I am. Well, what is His name? I AM. That’s His name forever and forever.

But who is doing it? Who said he was the light of the world? He said, “I Am the Light of the world.” What is this Light? Isn’t this, now the Truth? “Well,” you say, “maybe, and maybe not.” Well, wait and see if it isn’t true. If it proves itself in performance, then is it not true? And if others deny it because it doesn’t make sense, does it matter what they think? If there is evidence for a thing, what does it matter what the world thinks?

It’s a simple, simple technique. I hope you’ve had the thrill of seeing this wonderful golden light emanating from your head. It happens before you are born from above. So, do not condition it by thinking you must first be born from above. You do not. It is there because God is already in you. Yes, He is awaiting birth within you. Frankly, He is awaiting the discovery of Himself through the Son standing before Him and calling Him Father. For the purpose of life is to find the Father.

“How long, how vast, how severe the anguish ‘ere we find the Father were long to tell.” (Daniel 12:6)

But the Father has been built in since Eternity in these dark convolutions of the human brain. That’s where the Father is. You will never come into the presence of someone that you will call Father. You will come into the presence of someone who will call you Father. You will never find the Father outside of your Self. When you find the Father, it’s because His Son calls you Father. There is no other Father.

So, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.” To what? To the Father. “No one comes unto the Father but by me.”

“Well now, show us the Father.”

“Have I been so long with you, Philip, and yet you do not know the Father? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How then can you say, show us the Father?” The day will come, you will find the Father, but you will not find a man or a being standing before you that you feel like calling “Father.” You will find a being standing before you, and instantly you will know, memory returns at that moment that he is your son David. And David calls you Father, and you awake from your long self-imposed sleep, for you deliberately became man for a purpose.

“No man takes away my life. I lay it down myself. I have the power to lay it down and the power to raise it up again.”

So, no one takes away my life. God deliberately became humanity, and He plays all the parts, and when He played them all, He came out. And the sum total of all the parts, gathered together into one single being projected, became David. For humanity has done, and is doing, and will continue to do the will of God. So no matter what a man has done, is doing, or will do, he is only doing the will of God!

But God is not someone other than your Self. God-in-action is your own wonderful human imagination imagining, and humanity is expressing the imaginal acts of man. That’s God.

Everything that man has imagined, is now imagining, or will imagine, will be expressed, and humanity will express it. The individual comes out, but He is playing all the parts, and He can say, “Forgive them. They know not what they do.” But each will come out, having played all the parts, and then he will be confronted with one being, a youth named David, and David will call him “Father”; and then the drama is over and he knows who he is. He is God the Father.

For the whole search of man is for the key, the Source of the phenomena of life. And there’s only one God, and that God is your own wonderful human imagination. So, you are in search of that God, You will find Him, may I tell you, because Truth in Scripture is that which is firm and unchangeable. Let no one tell you that you will find it by dieting, by going to holy places, by attending services on Sunday morning, by going to Mass, by any outside ritual. Forget it.

You are told: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8) Well, how do I think I’m “pure in heart”? By diets? By going to church? By doing all the things that people tell me to do? No.

Man is purified by the death of his delusions.

As he dies to all of his delusions, he begins to awake, and it comes suddenly upon him, one delusion: that the white man is better than other colors, or the black man is better than other colors, or the yellow man is better, or the Christian is better, or the Jew is better, or the social worker because of his progress is better. All these are delusions.

But God in you is the Father. He will lead you through unnumbered experiences and take you into an experience that you could never consciously devise and shatter your delusions.

When the black man is looked down upon, one day he will save your earthly life. A black man would forfeit himself to save you from an ultimate, inevitable destruction. Or it could be the reverse: if he looks down upon the white, the white will give his life to save the black. And in that moment, that individual is saved by the death of that delusion.

So, everything here is all right. It’s perfect! You will come out of everything in this world; and when you come out, you are God! We are told, “No one ascends into Heaven but he who descended from Heaven – the Son of Man.” You do not know you’ve descended from Heaven, but I know that you have. You came out “before that the world was.” You descended from Heaven, or you could never in Eternity ascend into Heaven. And then you are told in Scripture how you will ascend.

He identifies Himself as the “Son of Man.” He said, “No one ascends into heaven but the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” Now he asks the question: “Who do men say that the Son of Man is?” And they answered, “John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the Prophets.” Then he asks this question: “But who do you say that I am?” He identifies himself with the Son of Man. And the answer comes back: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” He equates the Son of God with himself when he says, “I am”, and then he accepts the answer, “Thou art the Christ.”

He is the Power that was sent into the world, for “Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.” But he confessed that the one sent is ‘one’ with the Sender: “He who sees me sees Him who sent me.” So, the being sent is not inferior as to its Essential Being, only as to the office – in this case as the sent, but not as to its Essential Being. “The Father and the Son are one” but when he is playing the part of the sent, he is the Son, and seemingly inferior as the sent – the ambassador. He is one with Himself, the Sender. So, “He who sees me sees Him who sent me.” So, I am not divorced from Him; He has never left me alone.

So here, if I am ever to ascend, well then, I must be the One who descended, and that I know from my own personal experience. And just as you are told in the Old Testament in the 21st chapter of Numbers, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness”, what was the serpent? It was a fiery serpent – a brazen, fiery serpent. That’s exactly how you are lifted up. You are split in two from top to bottom, and then you behold this fiery, golden, liquid light at the base of your spine; and, like a serpent – a fiery serpent, coiled like spiral lightning, you ascend into heaven.

Well, where is heaven? “The kingdom of heaven is within you,” we are told in the 17th [chapter] of Luke. So, if I would go into heaven, where would I go? I’d return within myself, into this immortal skull, and it reverberates when I re-enter that state. So, I return “like the fiery serpent.”

Well, who returns? Only one Being can return, the one who descended. And if only the Son of Man descended, then, though I did not know it, I must have been all along that Son of Man! But I was dreaming, and I was the one who sought the blessing, for he said, “Rouse Thyself! Why sleepest Thou, O Lord? Awake! Why cast us off forever?” as told us in the 44th Psalm. “Rouse Thyself.” He is speaking to the Lord. Well, who is sleeping in man at the moment? The Lord descended to this limitation called Man, and while buried in man, he dreams the Dream of Life. But while He’s dreaming, may I tell you, you can be anything that you want to be, but anything, absolutely! Catch the mood. What would the feeling be like if it were true?

I told you a few, I think, maybe, months ago of a friend of mine who called me. She never had money. I gave her away because she asked me to give her away. She said, “I have no father to give me.” Whether the father was here, I do not know. And so I said, “Willingly, I’ll give you away.” So, I arranged it – almost like a funeral. When they said, “Who giveth this woman to this man?” I stepped forward and said, “I do.” So, I gave her away. At the reception, this lady came by along with these people, and this one said, “Who are you?” I said, “I am the bride’s ‘father’; I just gave her away.” She said, “I know you gave her away all right, but who are you?” I said, “I am her ‘father.’” She said, “Yes, but I happen to be her sister!”

All right, so that was it. She had no money; he had no money. About eight months ago she called me and said to me, “Would you hear good news for me?” I said, “Within the Golden Rule, yes.” “Well,” she said, “it’s within the Golden Rule. I want ten million dollars.” I said, “I don’t care if you want a billion. So you want ten million dollars? All that I will do is what I would do for someone who said, ‘I can’t pay my rent; it’s due, and it is a hundred dollars.’” It’s the same thing to me. Words do not return void, if you send them out on the Light.

“Send Thy light and Thy truth to lead me.”

So, I heard it. Six months went by, and she called me up: she called me up and said her brother had received an estate of one hundred million dollars. They were all poor people, but I wasn’t going to hold my breath for my million, she promised me a million dollars. But it is all, now, the consciousness of wealth. That’s what I am getting at. They are all ready for this hundred million dollars that eventually will be settled – maybe after they are all gone from this world. When an estate of that nature comes into this world, there are unnumbered people who will claim that they are illegitimate children of the one who died. So, I didn’t tell her that. I only knew it takes time for these enormous estates – they are put there by a consciousness of wealth.

So, she calls me last week. She said, “You know, Neville, these two elderly ladies” – He has a little church not far from here, and they give her their thanks – well on in years; and they said to him and to her, “You know, we are millionaires?” Well, they couldn’t believe it, for they couldn’t afford to give even a dollar, but they said they were millionaires, and to prove that they had money, they paid off the mortgage a hundred per cent on the little church and the home, and bought a new car for her, and they were driving a Continental, having set up a trust fund for her of one thousand dollars a month for the rest of her earthly days.

She grew into the consciousness of being wealthy. And they do it as you would fish if it’s properly baited. It’s all in your consciousness! You cannot be in the consciousness of being poor and attract anything but poverty. All these are states. The man tonight who is sitting in the highest position in our country, or in Russia, or in England or in any part of the world, is the same Being who is now shining shoes for a living. They are only states of consciousness. One is in the consciousness of being wanted and important, and he thinks himself so important – he is doing you a favor if he lets you cut his hair! And the barber is so proud that he can cut the man’s hair, and both are the same Being, for God is one. There are not two gods.

“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

There are infinite states of consciousness, and we are pilgrims passing through. When you pass through and you are in the state of poverty, and I say, “Who is poor?” you would answer, “I am.” Well, you have called the name of God! And then I meet some one who thinks he has a billion or two billion dollars, and I say, “Who is a fabulously wealthy person?” and he will say, “I am,” with great pride; but he doesn’t differ in name, the name of God, from the poor one who can’t pay the rent. It’s only a difference in state.

“So I do not consider either 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 dream of good and evil.” [Blake, from “A Vision of the Last Judgment”]

You fall into a state, any state. The state of the thief, and so he said that because he knows he must pay the consequences if caught. And so, he doesn’t feel that he did wrong. The only thing he did wrong, in his own mind’s eye, he was caught! All that he is concerned about is, “What did I do that was wrong?” Not that he took the money; that wasn’t wrong. “What did I do that was wrong that I was caught?” And you think that is not true? That’s exactly how they think, and it’s not just the one who picks up little things in a store that is called shoplifting, that’s small compared with what takes place in businesses among trusted employees. And they wonder, after years and years of being trusted, “How did I get caught? What did I do wrong?” Not stealing and breaking the employer! These are all states of consciousness.

So, you go into a state. You decide your state. But bring it within the framework of the Golden Rule:

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Whatever you would have them do unto you, well, there’s nothing wrong in giving you a hundred million dollars, is there? Well, she said, “I want ten million.” If anyone gave me ten million dollars, I wouldn’t refuse it. So, she asked within the framework of the Golden Rule.

You will say, “Well, that’s greed.”

I don’t think so. That’s stupid. It is all within the concepts of man. The one who will tell you that that’s greedy wishes that he had it. And so, they are checking their portfolios that are bursting with billions of dollars and telling the poor, poor people that they shouldn’t really want it – it wasn’t God’s will for them, but God’s will for us – the custodians of this wealth.

So, forget it, and come down to this simple principle that “the Truth of Christ is in me.” That’s what he said in the 2nd letter to the Corinthians, the 11th chapter, the 10th verse, of Corinthians. “The Truth of Christ is in me.”

Then he begins to analyze what he means by Christ. Christ is the power, the creative power of God and the wisdom of God, and although I once believed in a man called Christ, henceforth I believe so no more. I now see that I am crucified with Christ. In the very beginning, this power was crucified on humanity, and it is raising itself individually, not collectively and when it raises itself individually it returns to what it was prior to its descent. It was the Son of Man. And when it returns, it is enhanced unnumbered fold by means of its experience in this state called death. It overcame death. For here it dies. Everything dies in this world. And here, it’s the victorious power that could become one that has to die and still transcend the grave.

So, everyone here – in the interval, do not turn from left to right; do not go after any false gods. “… Why stand we here trembling around, Calling on God for Help, and not ourselves, in whom God dwells?” [Blake, from “Jerusalem”]

Why should I turn to someone else when He dwells in me? Well, find out Who He Is in me. He is my own wonderful human imagination. That’s God. Now, how can I prove that? Well, set a goal for yourself. I want this, that or the other. “All things are possible to God.”

“And you tell me my imagination is God? All right, well then, how do I prove that?

I bring before my mind’s eye a scene, which implies that I am the man that I would like to be, and I re-enact that scene in my imagination. That is subjectively appropriating the objective hope. I re-enact the whole thing in my imagination, and then I reap the reality of that subjective appropriation, and do nothing about it. Capture that mood until life begins to really pulse, and then, while they are pulsing, you have sent it into the world. It impinges on everyone in the world, and they, whether they want to or not, are under compulsion to aid the purpose of that subjective hope and you will become the one that you’ve assumed that you are.

Do it with love. Always do it in love and you’re doing it the right way. I’m told by Paul, the first great convert by his own experience, because he said, “When it pleased God to reveal His Son in me, I conferred not with flesh and blood.” He reveals His Son in you. Where else can He reveal him when the whole drama takes place within man? All things take place within the human imagination. “And it pleased God to reveal His Son in me.” Well then, His Son is standing before me. I’ll see him, and he is not His son; he’s my son. Then I know who He is that I formerly worshipped. It’s not any he – I AM.

That’s the story. “For no one knows who the son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the son.” So, no one ever sees God! But “the son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath made him known.” So the son appears and calls you “Father.” Then, and only then, do you know you are the Father.

You do not know the Scripture. “Call no man on earth ‘father,’ for you have but one father, who is in heaven.” And where is heaven? Heaven is within. So, when you find that Father, you don’t find Him as another standing before you as someone that you call “Father.” When you find the Father, it’s the Son who reveals the Father, and the Son stands before you, calling you “Father.” And you are God the Father! And long before you have this experience, send your word on its way to bring lovely things into the world for everyone you can think of, because every one – even though they are unlovely, judged by human appearances, they are the Brothers. We are the Brothers that came down. We are the gods. We are the Elohim.

Elohim is plural, gods: one made up of others. So, we are the gods that came down and assumed these limitations. And as the gods, we are brothers, everlasting brothers, expanding forever and forever by reason of this experience. So, do not be led astray. If someone wants you to go and see some holy man, run for your life! Go to some holy place? Go and take all these courses and diets? Food cannot commend you to God. You are no worse off if you do not eat, and no better off if you do.

So, when this one comes into the world, having had the experience, they call him a drunkard, they call him a glutton, a leper, and a friend of publicans and sinners, because He’s in all of them. He sees nothing to condemn in the world. He sees them only in states. The whole vast drama is the falling into states. And he came to redeem them out of their states of suffering, until that moment in time when they find the Father. And when they find the Father, who had been the Father but themselves! And they go out thinking, “I will never again see my father’s face”; and that Father built is built in Eternity within themselves. And we go here, there and elsewhere, looking for Him, and He is exactly where He was standing before you started the search. But we go in search of Him. And one day He appears, not as another, He comes in the form of a son, and the son reveals you as God the Father! And that son is David.

Let the whole vast world rise in opposition. They can never, in Eternity, disprove it. David, as told us in the 2nd Psalm, is the Son of God. “And I will tell of the decree of the Lord. He said unto me, Thou art my son. Today I have begotten thee.” And to confirm it in the 4th chapter of the book of Acts, read the story – how by the voice of the Father “and thy servant,” and the word translated servant is better translated, son. The footnote in the Revised Standard Version gives the alternate translation and it’s preferred as the word, son. So, “Thy son David has said” and then he quotes the 2nd Psalm, telling who is the author, the writer of that Psalm.

But revealed Truth cannot be logically proven. It’s not truth based upon what the world would call truth. That is this level, but the Truth spoken of in Scripture is revealed Truth and that cannot be logically proven. You accept it on faith, or you reject it. But may I tell you, even though you reject it – it may take Eternity, but you will not be lost. One day you will accept it on faith alone, and then it will happen in you and your memory returns and you return to the Being that you really are. And the Being that you are is the Elohim, the brotherhood of the gods, for we fell as one man, and we became fragmented in this world of unnumbered beings, but none will be lost “in all my holy mountain” – not one.

I cannot conceive of one of my brothers that I have known in Eternity being lost. If you play the part of a Hitler, play the part of a Stalin, or any monster in the world, you have fallen into a state, and I must redeem you from that state. So, redeem a man from the state of loneliness, if he is lonely, he wants a companion. What’s more marvelous than that in the world? He wants a companion, or she wants a companion. We should all have. If he wants to pay rent, what’s wrong with that?

He gave himself, in the beginning, a pattern. So, He gave me a pattern, a pattern against the wall, because I see something and then I move to the right, and I see the price and the restraint involved in that state. So, I want to exercise all the talent the Father gave me. And “I and my Father are one,” as we are told in the 10th chapter of the book of John. Read it in the 10th chapter, the 30th verse, “I and my Father are one.”

In the 14th chapter of John, he does say, “but my Father is greater than I.” As I said earlier, that does not mean that the Lord is inferior as to His essential Being, only as to His present office as the sent. So, when I send my Self into the world, it seems to be inferior to my Self, the Sender, but we are one, for there’s nothing but God in the world.

“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord, is one.”

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

THE ULTIMATE SENSE

Neville  06-20-1969

neville goddard Imagination Is RealityIn 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.

neville goddard imagination creates reality

THE VALUE OF DREAMS

Neville Goddard 11-6-1959

neville goddard imagination creates realityHere we use the words “God” or “Christ” or “imagination” interchangeably. They mean the same thing. If I use the word “God” because I am moved to use it, or the word “Christ,” it is the same thing. It is the fundamental power that created and sustains the universe, and which, also sustains our environment. We are told there is a secret to the whole creation “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God, and by Him were all things made, and without Him was not anything made that was made.” We could use the word “imagination,” but the secret here is “Word.” What is the Word? Something was made that was made.

You have been taught to believe many things about the Word. Read the Bible and you will find what it means, for no one familiar with the Scripture could fail to see that the Word is the dream of man. You have been taught it is some being, born in a miraculous way, without the offices of a man. Well, it is, in a way. I have a dream and it comes out of nowhere; it depends on no outside help. “If there be a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make myself known to him in a dream.” So the voice of God is the dream of man. “Blessed is she, for she believed that this spoken to her would be fulfilled.” It was told to her in a dream. From the beginning to the end of the Bible God is always speaking through a dream. In Job he speaks of two types. The first is a dream and then a vision of the night. “And there He will open the ears of men and frighten them with warnings.” I do not have to fall asleep here to dream. The nightmare is the rearrangement of the day dreams. They are rearranged drama­tically and presented to me, and if my purpose is faulty it terrifies me with a warning.

There is one given in Genesis by Israel. He was first called Jacob and then he wrested for himself the new name of Israel – or Is-real. From then on his dreams were objective facts, so the dreams were real. He made a bargain with his uncle Laban that all the spotted and striped animals in the flocks were to be his, and Laban agreed, thinking Jacob would be little more than a slave while he worked to win the first daughter and then the second. And then the Lord appeared in a dream and told Jacob that all those goats and rams which leaped upon the flocks when they came to drink were spotted or striped. And as the flocks bred where they came to drink, then the offspring became as in the dream, spotted or striped, and Jacob became richer and richer and his father-in-law got nothing from his hard bargain. What he saw in the day dream he saw in chronological order in the night dream. We see a thousand things during the day, and often vio­lent things, to be rearranged and dramatized in the dream of the night, so it may terrify us with warning, for we are told, “My word will not return unto me void but must accomplish that where − unto it is sent.” And the Word of God is man’s dream.

Could you dream today? That is the Word of God. Throughout the whole Scripture we are told of the Word of God, and we think someone is actually going to speak to us. It could come that way when man fully awakens, but it usually comes in a dream. Solomon was promised great riches and long life, and then he awoke and “it was a dream.” God always appears speaking to man in a dream, so the voice of God is the dream of man. It need not be a night dream. Live so in your day dream that the night dream follows in a chronological order, just as Jacob saw it regarding the striped and spotted cattle. Though all the flock is brown I will see them spotted in my mind’s eye. And that which was brought forth was brought forth in the image held. He saw what he wanted to see in the day dream and then in the night dream it came forth in chronological order. But man is terrified by his dream, but they are shown him only to get him to think more constructively during that day. For God is man’s Imagination.

I could pick out a dozen people in this audience tonight who have written me about controlling their day dreams. Here is a man whose property was going to pot, his tenants were behind in their payments, the stepfather was drinking and the children were shabby and neglected. Instead of taking legal action the owner took an imaginary ride past his property and saw it in the well-kept state in which he desired to see it. Things began to happen. The woman broke her leg and went to the hospital; at once the stepfather disappeared. When the woman recovered she went away for a time with the children and returned with a new husband. The place is now in better condition than it has ever been, the children are well-cared for and the family is happy and contented. So, “blessed is she that believed that this spoken to her would be fulfilled.” For everyone is Mary; the owner of the property was Mary. You have a dream of what you want to be and you see it clearly in its fullness. Now blessed are they who could believe this spoken by God, for God’s voice is man’s dream. So, can I believe that I am now what I want to be and be faithful to the voice of God? Then my Word shall not return to me void. If I can believe, it will come to pass. It has nothing to do with your background, for God speaks to man and He does not care who you are, for it is through the medium of one’s own dream that He speaks to you.

“Have nothing to do with this man for I have been troubled in a dream concerning Him.” So spoke Pilate’s wife. Pilate receives this note from his wife when the one who was the embodiment of Truth stood before him. Pilate is the embodiment of Reason and Truth does not reply to Reason’s voice. But Reason could not believe that God speaks to man through a dream, so he did nothing. God can speak through the night dream but it usually frightens and because he does not understand it. “He speaks to man in a dream, in a vision of the night.” He does it that we may change our purpose and change our deeds, for if night after night my daily thoughts are rearranged in my night dreams so that they terrify me, then what am I doing that it should be so? For night after night He dramatizes my day, but not in chronological order. He takes the whole day and dramatizes it, and if it is not pleasant it will terrify me to get me to turn from my deeds and my thinking and rearrange the furnishing of my mind and come to the point where I can wrestle with this being (my inner self) as Jacob did and get a new name, so that my day dream can then be projected at night just as I dreamed it during the day. Jacob wanted the mottled and striped ones, and it comes just as he saw it. The entire Bible from beginning to end is the vision of God speaking to man, and he speaks to man through the medium of dreams. Visions are different from dreams and they come by Grace and only to bear witness to the progress that you make, to mark the mile-posts on the way. Sometimes you do hear a direct voice, but that is rare, but God is always speaking to man through his day dreams. The voice of God is heard by man in dreams.

In the beginning he placed man (Adam) into a profound sleep and there is no record he has ever awakened, so he is still asleep. Then “God spoke to them in the cool of the evening.” It is all imagery. It is man in a profound sleep and God is speaking through the medium of dreams. Numbers 12: “If there be a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.” You do not have to fall asleep to dream. Everything in the world is talking to me and I am talking to myself and my own wonderful Imagination is God speaking to me. In the beginning was the dream and the dream was with my Imagination and the dream was my Imagination, and by it were all things made that are made. So I begin in a dream, but I can change my dream, and changing my dream I change the activity of my Imagination and change the phenomena of my life. If I do not change it, it remains the same.

If you know someone who would like this or that, you do not raise a finger physically, but dream it for them. What would it be like if it were true? Represent them to yourself as if their dream were true, and then you do nothing to make it come to pass, for a true dream has its own way of fulfilling itself. That is your Word and it cannot return unto you void. But I am free to change the Word of God and change the sentence and make it spell something different. You can take any 12 words and express devotion or, by their rearrangement, express something frightful. The Word of God is the dream of man. So what are we dreaming? If you would only believe it and become the one of whom it was said, “Blessed is she who believed that this spoken to her would be fulfilled.” For you are this being spoken of. Think of the most ideal state you would like to realize. And do not modify it. Think of the ideal state for you. No two want the same thing. Few would want to do what I am doing and very likely I would not care to do what you are doing. But dream nobly. You have the Word. Its use may cause a seeming convulsion as this man’s did. He did nothing but take his ima­ginary ride past his property and see things as he wanted them to be. But then what might be called a convulsion − the accident to the woman. He has asked did he cause the accident. Certainly! His Word caused it. It took that to free the woman from the monster who was living off her. Was it not a little price to pay to get free and to enjoy what followed? But be careful what word you are speaking, for the Word of God is the dream of man. And since man’s dream is caused by his own imagining, then who is God?

In this past week I have had one heavenly experience after another with my father, for I have thought so much about him, he is part of the drama of the night and I can take any of these parts and find their meaning for my instruction. Here, the other night I was with my father. I knew he was gone and he knew it, but he knew the boys could not see it. But my brother Collin went out in the rain and got some flying fish. Now he employs two to three thousand people, anyone of whom could have done this for him, but he went out − in the dream − and got these flying fish himself and brought them in. Now in the Islands there is nothing cheaper than flying fish. If you want dolphin you ask for dolphin, etc., but if you just ask for “fish” you always get flying fish. And in the dream my father said to me, “It is wonderful. He has no false pride and he can use his own hands to do what some think only servants should do.” My brother was one of the eight sons who bore my father to the grave. My dream was not frightening to me for I knew my father was where Collin could not see him, but he was looking on and was proud that his son showed himself to be without false pride and could do what any employee would have been glad to do.

By taking today and living so fully in Imagination as the man I want to be, then I am obeying the Word of God. I can take the same word and distort it, for I am He, for the Word of God being the dream of man, and that, springing out of Imagining, that is God. So God, Christ or Imagination are interchangeable, and the whole thing is speaking of your own wonderful human Imagination. But if, during the day, I modify the Word because of the evidence of my senses, then the Word I have sent out I have voided, but if I have remained faithful to my image then it must accomplish that whereunto it is sent.

Everyone can hear God for everyone is God. You are not some little thing divorced from God. People go to church and kneel and try to get the ear of God and they hope that God will forgive them for something they are condemning themselves for. This too, is a Word of God, but what confusion! There is no one to intercede for you for we are all One. So stand on your own two feet and speak the Word for everyone and for yourself. Then it has to fulfill itself, for Imagination creates Reality, and there is nothing to stop it.

My father stood on a beach in Barbados 30 years ago and saw it as a perfect place for a hotel. He never faltered in that dream. The years went by and the owners finally died and when it came up for sale the one person who could have paid for it twice what my father could, had gone to Brazil, and his cabled offer arrived 24 hours too late. My father’s dream came true, though he made it 30 years before. He was Jacob and he wrestled with an idea until it became real. He first made it real in his mind’s eye, and when the time came the one person who could have outbid him was called away. My father did not devise that, but when the man in Brazil remembered the sale and sent his bid it arrived 24 hours too late.

Everyone here − you are God. You are not some little thing beating your head out. God became you that you may awaken and know that you are He. Nothing you have ever done caused the so-called “Fall.” There is no “original sin.” It was God actually, willingly and lovingly becoming his own creation who is called man, that he might awaken it to become Himself. It was purposeful and deliberately done to awaken his creation, and when it awakens it ceased to be created for it is God, so “He who comes after me is preferred before me.” Why? Because it came first. This which was first an image and was lit by God and is God, then has no beginning. That is the secret. Something that had a beginning is lit by something that is beginning-less and becomes it, so then it is also beginning-less. The form is lit and becomes a center of Imagining. Then you will understand the words, “Return unto me the glory that was mine before the world was.” So man in the true sense cannot begin after he is lit by God.

So take your most wonderful dream and no matter what the day seems to bring, a dream is God’s Word and it cannot fail. Can you believe you are the woman you want to be? Stick to that and control it and do not let it become a jumble in the course of the day, for if you do then God will take the “jumble of the day” and rearrange it in the dream of the night and it might terrify you, but it will only be to instruct you. These dreams are created by you in the course of the day, but if you would now only set the pattern of life you want and remain faithful to it, it cannot return to you void but must accomplish its purpose.

So you will find all through the 66 books of the Bible that He is always appearing to man in a dream. Never mind the “holy men” or “holy places.” Wherever you stand, that is holy ground. “Take off your shoes, Moses”… for where man stands there is God, for God is man. Do not look for someone to come in robes, etc. The real man is the natural man and acts in a natural way, but buried in him is the Second Man, the Lord from Heaven, and that is God. Let the natural man beget himself on his divided image. But that man died − (the natural man). Yet you are told “You are gods.” We are told they condemned Jesus, not for what he had done but because he blasphemed. He said he was the Son of God. But he told them, “I say the Law tells you this.” Psalm 82: “I say you are gods, sons of the most High. But you shall die like men and fall as any other prince.” The Scripture cannot be broken. So I blaspheme when I say I am the Son of God? I tell you I am consecrated and sent by my Father, and you call me a blasphemer? You are actually the Son of God, the Son of the most High. The Second Man must awaken in the natural man. So you will die like any other natural man, but nevertheless the real you is the Son of the most High. When He said He was going to die and yet that He was the Son of God, they did not know He spoke of the Second Man. The first garment into which I am woven must be discarded as I awaken from within it to discover who I am. First I must put on visibility and become mortal.

Blake writes:

Whate’er is Born of Mortal Birth
Must be consumed with the Earth
To rise from Generation free;
Then what have I to do with thee?

Thou, Mother of my Mortal part,
With cruelty didst mould my Heart,
And with false self-deceiving tears
Didst bind my Nostrils, Eyes and Ears;

Didst close my Tongue in senseless clay,
And me to Mortal Life betray,
The Death of Jesus set me free;
Then what have I to do with thee?
(To Tirzah)

This garment (the body) is to be used as I awaken. But as I become more and more awake I can prove by a dream that I am He. The story is, “Go and bring me Jacob.” “He who formed me from the womb to bring Jacob again unto Him.” Bring me that state of mind that can pre-determine. He wants a Son like Himself. But who can bring Jacob? And how can I find him when he is so small? Yes, he is small but who will bring him? For He formed you in the womb (Mother Nature) to bring Jacob. He wants to awaken in every being one who can create as He creates, for He creates by the Word, and God’s Word is man’s dream.

neville goddard imagination creates reality

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

Neville Goddard 10-30-1967

neville goddard imagination creates realityMany times I have heard someone say: “I believe that imagining creates reality, but I once imagined something and it never came to pass.” Then I ask: “What are you doing, saying: ‘I once imagined it’ and not imagining it now? For God’s name is I Am, not I did! Always thinking of God as someone outside of himself, man finds it difficult to keep the tense, but God is the human imagination and there is no other God.

When you imagine you may include others, but do not think in terms of influence. Rather, think only in terms of clarity of form.

Perhaps a friend would like a better job, more money, and greater responsibility. Before you imagine, take a moment and clarify the form your imaginal act will take. Are you giving the celebration party or is he? Who will be there? Fill the room with those who would want to share in the celebration. Raise your glass and say: “Here’s to your fabulous new job, your salary increase, and the challenge of your greater responsibility!” Don’t think in terms of trying to influence the friend’s boss, for he could die or be discharged. Just go to the end. Toast the event, and do not think of influencing others.

The law, to be effective, needs feeling with form. Build a structure that would imply your desire is already fulfilled, and enter its form with feeling. You do not have to be concerned about influencing others, as they are not the cause – your imaginal act is! Those who have a billion dollars are not causing your world. You and you alone are doing it, as your imaginal acts influence people. Everyone is yourself pushed out, so when you imagine, you are influencing yourself!

Knowing what you want, place your attention on its clarity of form, and then watch what you are imagining. Are you remembering when you imagined something greater than what you have? If so, you are confessing you are not now imagining your desire fulfilled. If imagining creates reality, you must change your memory and become aware of what you are imagining right now.

Let me now tell you of a series of dreams I received from a friend. The series began one night when she found herself with a group of children, trying to find something that was lost. Seeing a brown paper bag tied with string, she opened it and removed a watch, as one of the children said: “That is a treasure,” and the dream ended.

The next night she found herself moving as if on wheels, with everything she sees moving with her. Then she said to herself: “This is not what I want. Everything is moving, while I still have the sense of longing,” and she awoke.

The following night, she felt herself walking with an enormous crowd across fields, on roads, and sidewalks. She went up hills and down stairs, attending my lectures in many places. Listening attentively, she was thrilled to hear the revelations which were being shared. Entering a beautiful, old, ivy-covered building, she tried to mentally remember every word I said; but when she awoke on her bed, their memory was gone.

The next night she entered an expansive white house, which she knew her father had built. All of the rooms were empty, except the one in which I was teaching and the adjacent room where her father was. (Don’t forget this aspect of the dream, as the father is unseen.) Addressing all of my remarks to her, she is filled with joy. Then, with profound authority I announced: “My name is Friday.” Recognizing its tremendous significance, she said: “Yes! And that means, O my darling.” I smiled, nodded, and she awoke.

My friend heard and saw correctly, for my name is Friday, as I am the God of love. In mythology (which is only part vision) love is a goddess. But in vision, love is man. Having been incorporated into the body of the Risen Lord, I am the embodiment of love; I am one with that one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all.

The word “yachid” is used only ten or twelve times in scripture. It is defined as “my darling, my only son”. Anyone who is incorporated into the body of love is yachid, and called my darling. The word first appears in the 22nd chapter of Genesis, when the Lord – speaking of the promised child – says to Abraham: “You did not withhold your only son (yachid),” Then, in the Gospel of John, when the crucifixion and resurrection had taken place, this passage from Zechariah is quoted: “They shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and mourn for him as one mourns for an only child (yachid).” (John 19 & Zechariah 12) I have experienced scripture. I now tell its truth to those who will listen. Those who believe my words will encounter me as I teach night after night. My friend could not recall the words I spoke, but she did remember my name, for my name is Friday, as I am the God of love.

The first definition given to the word yachid is unity; sole (in the sense of being unique); the only one. Everyone incorporated into that one body is unique and the only one, for there is only one body, only one Spirit, only one Lord, only one God and Father of us all. In that body there is a unity, yet an individuality; and when you wear it you are Friday, the God of love.

On this level no one sees that body, but she saw it in the spirit and brought the memory of the experience back with her. In the ivy-covered walls I instructed others, but in the white house there was only one door to the room occupied by her unseen father and where I spoke to her alone. Do you see the symbolism?

Now a dream is egocentric, with every aspect of it taking place in the individual. Although the dream unfolds in one, that one contains all. In her dream the father is unseen, but projects himself into the teacher – who tells her that her father is the God of love.

Returning to this level, the first words given us by the one who comes to reveal this truth – that imagining creates reality – are: “Repent and believe in the gospel.” Repentance, which is a radical change of attitude, can cause your powerful imagination to burst through this world of death. So I ask you to repent. To test this wonderful law by changing your attitude towards life and watch what happens.

A gentleman recently dreamed he was peeling his head, bringing the skin down to his neck then pulling it back again. As he did, he realized that he was generating light from the inside and knew that the outside was completely dark. This gentleman saw the truth. Blake said it so beautifully: “All that you behold, though it appears without it is within, in your imagination of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.” Now he knows that the outer world is being lit by the light of awareness which comes from within.

While listening to a taped lecture of mine, this gentleman fell asleep and was awakened by two terrific blows on the right side of his head and saw the index finger of the right hand extended. Having peeled his head, he has removed the outer skin of Esau. Knowing he must continue to wear it while here, this gentleman will put it back on; but now he knows the world is made alive from within – and that in itself is quite a blow. This man has been coming to hear me for only a short time. He has appeared at the eleventh hour and is receiving the same fruit as those who came at the first hour. Everyone receives the same message and the same blows, as they are essential to the awakening of the sleeping one within all.

In his wonderful hymn, Isaac Watts says: “Wrapped within the silence of the tomb the great redeemer sleeps. Hail and death combined their force to hold our Lord, but the great conqueror arose and broke the fragile chain.” Your heavenly Father sleeps within you as your own wonderful human Imagination. One day He will break the chain and you will rise as He! But in the meantime, put him to the test, and you will discover that neither hail nor death combining their force will keep your desires from being fulfilled.

Now, there is an eternal brotherhood and fatherhood, for every individual is the father of the same child. How would I ever know that you and I are one were it not for this symbol? God placed eternity (his only son, David) in the mind that man may know he is his father. And if you know David to be your son, and I know I am his father, are we not one? There is no other way of proving our brotherhood, save through our common fatherhood.

If you had a son and I had another, we could question this common fatherhood; but there is only one son, who is loved by all. We are all one, but we will know it only as we are gathered into that one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all.

Always think in clarity of form, for as you do, you are influencing others. When I wanted to get out of Barbados, I didn’t think of influencing anyone. I simply used clarity of form and walked up the gangplank in my imagination. That act caused someone five thousand miles away to cancel their passage. And although there were hundreds ahead of me waiting for passage, the one who had the power to distribute the tickets chose us, so I did influence others. I imagined, and we came back, while thousands who preceded us in applying for passage continued to wait their turn.

Do you know that the moment you draw a line you encompass energy? That without an outline, everything is nothing? Draw your outline and make your picture as clear as possible. Perhaps you are giving a party to honor one who is present. Sit at the table with friends and raise your glass. Congratulate your friend on his new position, his greater salary and more responsibility. Stick to that thought, and it will not matter to you who is influenced.

The moment you think of influence, you reduce a miracle to magic. All the people in the world are only yourself pushed out. No one has the power to hold you back or promote you, for you are self-promoted or self-restricted.

Blake tells us to enter into – not just observe, but enter into – images in our imagination. To approach them on the fiery chariot of contemplative thought. To make a friend and companion of any one of these images of wonder, for if we will, we will rise from the grave and meet the Lord in the air and be happy.

Let us say you are in Los Angeles and want to be in New York City. You could enter the city on the fiery chariot of your contemplative thought by thinking from it, and no longer thinking from Los Angeles. You enter New York City by rising from your grave of flesh and blood in Los Angeles and meeting your Lord (your I AM) in the air. Do that and you will be happy in the doing, for that is how reality is created.

When you enter the state you desire to express and believe it is true, no earthly power can stop it from objectifying itself. And although you do not deliberately influence others, you influence everyone. As Sir James [Frazer?] said: “A man on this planet cannot raise a hand without influencing the farthest star in the heavens in its unified form.”

Practice the art of imagining, and you will discover you can go anywhere and enter any time without the aid of anyone. Move in your imagination, and people will respond because of your action. Dare to assume you are wealthy, and watch everyone play their parts to provide you with the wealth you claim to have. They will, for they are only yourself pushed out.

The world goes on and on, as the actors – playing their numberless parts – desire more and more things that vanish. Man is forever fighting for something that passes away; yet he is told: “Do not lay up treasures on earth where thieves can take and the moth corrupt, but lay up treasures in heaven where no man can take from you.”

The treasures of earth can be withdrawn at any moment, but the treasures in the instructions I am giving you now are forever. Only one being was pierced, and that is Jesus Christ, your true identity. The crucifixion is over. You have been crucified with Christ, and your resurrection will take place in you, in its own wonderful time.

I ask you to test your imagination! Go all out and believe in what you have imagined. Do not try to influence anyone. Instead, put all of your energies into clarity of form.

If a certain desk designates that you are occupying a desired position, occupy that desk. Enter into the image, and you will realize your vision. Sit in the chair behind that desk and view the room. Persist in thinking from that point of view. If you do not physically occupy that chair tomorrow, and begin to doubt, ask yourself: “What am I doing, remembering and not imagining?” Then return to your chair behind that desk!

Now let us go into the silence.

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

WHO AM I?

Neville Goddard  05-06-1968

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality“Every generated body in its inward form is a garden of delight and a building of magnificence. Travelers from Eternity pass outward to bodies of flesh and blood and forgetfulness, but travelers to Eternity pass inward to the Father and Remembrance.” (William Blake) Notice the movement here. Those who travel from eternity pass outward to these bodies of flesh and blood and forgetfulness, while those who travel to eternity pass inward to the body of the Father and Remembrance!

Tonight I want to ask this question: “Who am I?” Am I Neville Goddard? No. Are you John Brown or Mary Smith? You may know your physical background and if I should call your name you would answer, but are you the name you go by? No. Your name is a part of your outward journey from eternity into a state of forgetfulness of who you really are. Were you to turn around by practicing repentance, by radically changing your attitude towards everything in the world, you would move inward to the Father and Remembrance.

If you don’t like someone, change your attitude towards him. Represent him to yourself as you would like him to be, and persist in seeing and liking the new image. Your reason and your senses may deny any change, but it will come because you are practicing repentance. Change your attitude towards life by turning your thoughts around and you will move towards eternity. You will pass inward to the Father and Remembrance. “I came out from the Father and I have come into the world. Again I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

Follow me now in your imagination, for I am going to tell you a little story. It is the story of a man who was born in a very modest environment in a certain city. He never traveled beyond a few miles of his home. He had no social, financial, or intellectual background, but lived a simple life in a normal environment. Now imagine this man entering the synagogue (as was his custom on the Sabbath), picking up the Book of the prophet Isaiah and turning to the 61st chapter, rise and read these words: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me and sent me to preach good news to the poor and release to the captives.” Closing the book he hands it to the attendant and sits down as all eyes are on him. Turning to those present he says: “The scripture that you have just heard has been realized today.”

Knowing scripture was being fulfilled in him he told those that would listen, but that’s not what the people were looking for. They did not think scripture would be fulfilled in an individual, but by an individual on the outside. They are taught to believe that a conqueror will come from without and enslave those who enslave and free those who are bound, but that is not how Christ comes. He comes to set you – an individual – free, for though you be a billionaire, you are still enslaved by your billions. You could this night have millions of dollars, yet find yourself flat on your back, paying someone to care for your normal, natural functions as you are unable to do it yourself; therefore you are a slave to the body you wear and totally unaware of the being you really are. So when Jesus comes into the world he comes not from without, but from within. He unfolds in you, casting you as the central character in scripture. That is the story of Christianity.

Now, in our story the man makes the claim that scripture is fulfilled today and then makes this statement: “Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad.” Those who heard him make this statement said to him: “You are not yet fifty years old and you saw our father Abraham, or Abraham saw you?” Then he said: “Before Abraham was, I am.” Well, that was too much, so they took up stones (the literal facts of life) to throw at him, saying: “We know your background. You are Joseph’s son. We know your brothers and sisters. We have the entire record of your physical history and you dare to make these claims?” He was not speaking of a literal, physical birth, but of the unfolding of scripture in the individual, the unfolding of that which was true before that the world was.

In the 17th chapter of the Book of John, Jesus (he who said: “I and my Father are one”) addresses his Father, saying: “Return unto me the glory that was mine, the glory that I had with thee before that the world was.” Here he is asking for the return of the glory he knew before he entered this predetermined play. Having played all the parts, he is returning to himself, enhanced by the play. And because God is one, in the end everyone discovers himself to be that one God and Father of all. I tell this to you before it takes place, that when it does take place you will believe me.

The story of Jesus Christ is the only story of salvation. There is no other way, no other savior. But Jesus Christ is not a man, but a plan of salvation. He is the pattern which is activated and awakes in Man. No one knows the name of that earthly man in whom this pattern awoke or the authors of the gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The true authors of any book of the Old Testament are unknown. All we have are their records. But I tell you tonight: the pattern as spelled out in the New Testament as the life of one called Jesus Christ awaits animation in everyone, and when Man turns around it erupts in him and Man finds himself to be the central character of scripture, who is God the Father.

The pattern begins with an event called the resurrection. In my own experience, I actually awoke from a sleep of which I was totally unaware. You see: you left eternity to travel outward into these garments of sleep, and you have been traveling for unnumbered ages. If I would take the experiences of the mystics, scripture, and others – like a Blake – I would say you have traveled 6,000 years during which time you have been totally unaware of who you are. Then comes that moment when, as the same traveler, you are turned around; and instead of traveling from eternity, you travel to eternity, to the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God the Father to discover that you are He.

On your turn around you awake, and where do you think you are? In your skull! An unearthly vibration awakened me one night and I found myself waking like I had never experienced before. Completely awake, I found myself alone and therefore had to redeem myself. Intuitively knowing how to get out, I pushed the base of my skull and came out in the same way an infant leaves its mother womb, only I came from above and not from below. I came out from the base of my own skull and not from my mother’s womb. Then the entire drama as described in scripture unfolded before me, casting me in the central role. No one saw me, but I saw everything that was taking place. The three witnesses were there, as well as the little infant wrapped in swaddling clothes. I was not an infant, I was the same being I am now. The infant wrapped in swaddling clothes was the sign of my birth from above. The witnesses called me by my earthly name. That is not my true name, but they could not see that yet, so using my earthly name they identified the children as mine. As Spirit, now they were unable to see me, for I am born from above as Spirit, and they only know me by reason of the mask I wear. They knew that the one who wore that mask was born from above, so they called that name; but am I that name? No!

The next grand event came a few months later, when a similar vibration resulted in another explosion within me. And when it was still, David of Biblical fame stood before me and I knew he was my son. There was no uncertainty about this relationship. I am looking at my son and I know I am his father. At that moment I fulfilled the 2nd Psalm: “And the Lord spoke to David saying, ‘Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee.’” And in the gospels we are told that in the Spirit, David called Christ “Lord,” which means Father. Then, for the first time, I knew who I really was.

In the 16th chapter of Matthew, Jesus turned to his disciples and said: “Who do men say that the Son of man is?” and they answered: “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah and still others say Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” Then he asked: “But who do you say that I am?” (Here he identified himself with the Son of man). Peter answered: “You are the Christ, the Son of God.” Upon hearing this Jesus said: “Flesh and blood could not have revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven has made it known.” No earthly man or woman can tell you who you really are to the point of belief because it cannot be rationalized. This knowledge comes by revelation. Your Son sets you free from all doubt when he is unveiled within you.

Raised in the Christian faith, I was taught to believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. I did not know that he was literally God the Father until it pleased God to reveal his Son in me. At that moment he revealed me as God the Father. So now I can say to you this night: “Before David was, I am,” yet David chronologically lived in 1,000 B.C. and I was born in this century. That’s 3,000 years between us, yet I am his Father!

Who am I? Neville? No. He is a garment of sleep and forgetfulness I wear. Those who are on their outward journey know me as Neville, but those who move to eternity pass through the body of the Lord, and remembering, they know who I really am, for we will be one. When Man turns around, he begins to remember what was shown him before the journey started. The return is the act of remembering, for the being who fell asleep is the same being who awakens memory, only this time enhanced and expanded by reason of the plunge into forgetfulness called the world of death. I came out from the awareness of being the Father and came into the world. Again I leave the world and return as the Father.

Tonight I can tell you who you really are, but until God’s Son has revealed himself to you, you cannot be convinced. I know you trust me and believe my words, but not with the assurance and conviction that will be yours after the experience. How can you, born in the twentieth century, know yourself to be God the Father of one recorded to have lived in the year 1,000 B.C.? You can’t know it until it happens in you. Then and only then will you know the answer to the question: Who am I? And you will reply with conviction: “I am the central character of scripture. In the volume of the book it is written of me: ‘If I were hungry I would not tell you, because the world is mine and all within it. The cattle on a thousand hills are mine. If I were hungry I would slay and eat for it is all mine.’”

Now, Jesus did not start his ministry until that fourth and final act, which was the descent of the Holy Spirit in the embodied form of a dove. He didn’t start with the resurrection (his birth from above), the discovery of David as his Son, or the splitting of the temple (which was his own body) from top to bottom. These things are awe inspiring, but he waited until the final act, which took exactly three and one half years. We are told this in a very simple way. Just before he starts his ministry, he said: “Were there not others in the days of Elijah when heaven was sealed for three years and six months? And Elijah went to none of them except Zarephath. There were many lepers in that day, yet none of them were cleansed but Naaman.” This was a way of concealing and yet telling those who have had the experience that it takes three years and six months from the awakening to the descent of the dove. Only then do you tell it, and there will be those who believe and those who will not believe you. Well, that is forever.

Tonight if the outer world heard what you are hearing, 99.99 per cent would question my sanity, but I have scriptural support for that: “Why listen to him, he is insane and has a devil.” Why did they think he was insane? Because he said: “I and my Father are one. My Father is he who you call God, only I know my Father and you know not your God.” He spoke of the moving inward to eternity and only these who had turned around could understand to the point of acceptance, but he still told all who would listen.

The drama of Christianity is not something that unfolds on the outside of Man, but takes place within Man and is the only way of salvation. A man called Neville is not the way to the Father. Neville is not my identity. He is the garment I wear as I walk the earth. I am telling you what happened in me while wearing this garment called Neville. Certainly Neville is not God the Father of David, but I am. Neville is not anything other than a little garment that God is wearing, playing the part called Neville, which is forever. Just like a Hamlet, an actor plays the part; but the one who wrote the play is the one to praise or condemn, not the actor. Well, God wrote the play. Neville is a part in God’s play and God, being protean, plays the part called Neville. If tonight I leave this garment called Neville it is not gone, for every event in space is forever, and tomorrow God will pick up the part called Neville and play it. You will see it in time, but I – the being who played the part – will not be playing it, for I have passed on, on my way to the Father.

The drama is finished and is being played forever and ever. When anyone is cast in the role called Neville he has these experiences, but the one who plays the part is God individualized, for the gods came down. Neville is part of the eternal structure of the universe and no one can rub it out. You could blow my head off right now and I drop dead, yet you could not destroy the character called Neville, for it remains forever and forever. Nothing passes away. I have moved back in time, not only a few years but hundreds and even thousands of years and know it is all a play, completely sealed and intact. As I enter a scene it appears to be taking place now, but I am seeing what has already happened, even though as the play unfolds in this world it appears to be a present fact.

So who am I? Only your Father in heaven can reveal my true identity to you. No one can tell you to your own satisfaction that your I Amness is Christ, yet you are told in the 13th chapter of 2 Corinthians: “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? Test yourself and see.” You are called upon to test your creative power, even though you do not realize who your power really is. And you are told that you are born from above by the awakening and resurrection of your power from the dead. That through this powerful resurrection from the dead you are born anew and relegated Son of God in power. Now, if Jesus Christ is in you, and you are born anew through his resurrection from within, is Christ in you not your hope of glory? And when he awakes it’s not another. I know from experience, when Christ awoke within me there was no other. It was I who awoke!

Now, we are told: “Unless you believe that I am he you die in your sins.” Christianity teaches that a man is telling another that unless the other believes this man is He the other will die, but that is not the Word. I am the Word speaking to myself. I am telling myself that unless I believe that I am God, I will continue to believe in my limitations and die to the tree of life. When those who heard this simple man say: “Unless I believe I am he, I die in my sins,” they couldn’t understand, for they knew his father, Joseph; his brothers James, Hosea, Peter, and Simon, as well as his sisters (which were plural). They questioned how any man not yet fifty years old could know these things or have seen Abraham. How could anyone know that he was before that the world was? They thought he was insane because they were looking for a savior outside of self, and there is none. The one and only savior awakens from within, because God became Man that Man may become God.

God actually became you on your journey from eternity into these garments of sleep in the hope that one day you would turn around and, moving to eternity, pass inward to the body of the Risen Lord to become one with the one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all. One body fell, diversifying itself into unnumbered men and women, and only one body will return. When you experience this return, it will not matter what the world thinks. You will stand completely unashamed and undaunted, regardless of their arguments. Whether the one who tries to break you sits on the throne of the religious, political, or financial world, he is still a child and you simply tolerate his infant mind. You won’t argue with them because they are incapable, without vision, to comprehend the true pattern of salvation.

Without vision Man hasn’t the slightest concept of the mystery that God is buried as a pattern in Man. That he erupts and Man bears the fruit of the tree of life beginning with God’s resurrection from the dead. Then comes the birth from above, followed by the revelation of God’s Son, revealing Fatherhood. Only when this revelation is yours do you know who you really are, for “No one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” So when the world tells you that Jesus Christ is the Son, leave them alone, for they do not know the Father. Jesus Christ is God the Father, whose Son is David. When David chooses to reveal his Father to you, then and only then will you know who “I am.”

As Blake so beautifully said: “Every generated body is a garden of delight and a building of magnificence.” This body is that which is within, not without. On the outside the garment becomes withered, old, and decayed. That is not the body Blake is speaking of, for the generated body is within. It is a form, and when you see it you see the glory that awaits your return.

I remember a vision my friend Bob Crutcher shared. He found himself in a dilapidated shack fighting a war in Paris. As he opened the door to leave, all of the soldiers fused into a single man and I am that man waiting for him. Taking him to the back of the house, he sees beautiful, golden fields being harvested with wheat. To his left that which was the enemy is now transformed into a mountain of harvested wheat. Sensing something symbolic in the scene he asked: “What are they doing?”
“The same thing they did last year. It goes on forever,” I replied.
“How long have I been here?”
“Two years.”
“Did I learn anything?”
“Yes, you learned how to move, how to create.” Then he looked at what was the little shack, and it had become a castle with attendants waiting to escort him to his quarters, as the vision came to its end.

Bob has already discovered he is God the Father, so no matter what happens to the outer form, it is as nothing to him. It is only a garment of forgetfulness worn by a Son of God as he passes inward to the Father and Remembrance.

So who am I? Jesus Christ who is God the Father. I tell you now before he awakes in you, so that when it does take place you will believe me. But until you turn around and start the journey inward I cannot bring you to the inner conviction that it is true, for the outer Man wants an outer belief. He thinks there is another one who is greater than himself, who will save him. Today we have the world going on relief because the politicians have promised to take care of everyone, yet our country is already broke. If a politician has any religion whatsoever and wants to be a good politician, he must put his religion in deep, cold storage while he plays the part, for politicians are perpetual liars, making promises they cannot keep.

I am not sent to tell you any lies, but to tell you of the only true God. While on the outside, you will hear many false promises, but when you turn around you will discover you are the Lord Jesus Christ who conceived the play and played every part. I have told you exactly what has happened to me, and as Peter tells you: “I think it right to tell you now that you may be brought to remembrance of these things, for I was shown by the Lord Jesus Christ that I have not long to wear this garment of flesh.” I tell you this now so that in the future you may remember my words and rejoice. Peter was on the mountain when the whole thing unfolded. He knew the majesty of the power of Christ. I ask you to believe me, for what I have told you this night is true.

Today people are creating monuments to garments of flesh and blood. It’s like making a monument to Hamlet and not to Shakespeare. We have all of these monuments to the garments God wears, rather than to God the healer and true character of the entire play.

Ask another: “Who am I?” and they will call you by your outer name, but when you ask yourself: “Who do you say that I am?” you realize that no flesh and blood person can ever tell you. The answer can only come from your Father who is in heaven and heaven is within. The drama unfolds not between two men, but within one Man. Life has only one purpose and that is to fulfill scripture. Today we have countries, corporations, and individuals building images of themselves and they are all false; for there is only one real image, who is your Son, David, who tells you who you really are.

I tell you: you are God the Father. The day will come when the words you now hear through the outer ear will be experienced from within and then you will know who you really are. You will know that you are Jesus Christ, who is God the Father and his only begotten Son, David.

Now let us go into the silence.

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

YOU CAN FORGIVE SIN

Neville Goddard  03-29-1963

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality“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.

neville goddard imagination creates reality

YOUR HUSBAND

Neville Goddard 02-02-1968

neville goddard imagination creates reality 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 imagination creates reality

YOUR SUPREME DOMINION

Neville Goddard 1953

neville goddard imagination creates realityAs 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.