Eternity Within Archives - Page 2 of 2 - The Master Key To Wisdom

neville goddard imagination creates reality

THE SECRET OF PRAYER

December 22, 2013

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

Neville Goddard 10-06-1967

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now let us go into the silence.

THE SEVEN EYES OF GOD

December 22, 2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First – Lucifer, the fallen one.

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

Man sickens of it and turns to the third eye or Elohim, but the stars, the planets, do not respond.

Then he turns to the fourth eye or Shaddai – Almighty, to the financial and political “gods”.

And then he separates from that and digs his little pit, Pahath, and snares all the people of the world because he can outsmart them, and because of his smartness he lives very well during this little span from the cradle to the grave, and that is the fifth eye through which much of the world is seeing today.

He sickens of it, and then he finds that I AM – or Jehovah, is the only reality, or the sixth eye of God. And I build my world, as I want it and when I sicken of it, offer myself as a sacrifice for all others and give completely of myself for the good of others, and my good fortune then becomes the joy of hearing their good fortune.As it says in Job 42:5 “I heard by the hearing of my ear, but now my eye seeth Thee.” Suddenly something happens within me, and the eighth eye opens and I am circumcised, in mind, not in the flesh, and as that something opens within you, you see the reason for it all, and you see that Eternity is, and you can take anyone in this world and pull him out of any state in the world. That is the eighth eye of God.

I want to share with you an experience. The true method of knowledge is through experiment. So we invite you to experiment. The true faculty of knowing is the faculty of experiencing. For, when you have had the experiences, you no longer care whether anyone else knows it or not. It does not matter.You know it, and you know that you know it. So I would like to share this with you, this experience, for when you begin to awaken, then you begin to remember. For if Christ is the center, then I can say, “Return to me the glory that was mine before the world was. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life I now live I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” If the center of man is Christ, and He was before the world was, then when I begin to awaken I only begin to remember.And when that happens, then the world cannot any longer teach you anything. So when man begins to awaken he does not question the things of this world; he knows they are not true. Psychologists tell us a complete understanding of a dream depends on the knowledge that you are dreaming, and then that wakes you up, for this is the only world they know.They speak of a dream state as being subjective and a deep dream state as the unconscious and doubt the worth of it all. But when you open the eighth eye you will know there are worlds within worlds and you are heirs to all of them. You can test your experiences and bring anything you want into your world and prove it.

Years ago I felt myself dreaming and I was swimming. I knew it was a dream. I looked up and saw the shore of a primitive island, not the little island where I was born, for that is well cultivated and in no way primitive, but this was primitive. I saw it was an island and I knew I was dreaming, and I saw these strange things like cement posts driven down through the water but they were in a state of decay. They could have been at one time part of a jetty. I could see this peculiar primitive beach and I prolonged the dream, for if you know you are dreaming you need not wake.

Something in me began to tell me, as memory began to return, that if I would take hold of one of these pilings and not let it go, and awaken, I would awaken there. I felt it and it was solidly real, just as it would feel here, and my hand did not go through it, and I held on to it and made myself awake; and I awoke in that water on that beach and then I waded ashore. I was no more asleep in that sphere than I am here in this one.

It taught me a lesson that if I could touch anything in another world and compel myself to awaken while holding it, I would find it was real. So you do it for your world. A job you want, the home you would occupy, the marriage you want.Sit at the desk at which you would sit, live in the house you want to live in, be married to the sort of person you want to be married to, and if you hold to it in your imagination, then you will make it real in your outer world. The Ancients called this capacity the Western Gate, and tied it in with the sense of touch.If you can hang on to the thing you touch and then awaken, you will find that the thing has become real. We have it in Genesis in the story of Jacob and Esau. Isaac, the father, who was blind said, “Come close that I may touch you. Come closer.” And the state symbolized by Jacob, the supplanter, was made real in place of the state that had seemed so real before, symbolized by Esau.

We are told again in Judges 17:19 how the seven locks were shaved from the head of Samson and then the Philistines came and gouged out his eyes and he was eyeless in Gaza. And they made him dance before the crowd. He asked to be taken to the temple and placed where he might touch the two middle pillars, and then he pressed and pushed and pulled down the whole thing and slew more Philistines than he had ever slain during his life.All this is symbolical of the capacity to touch. I know, for I have done it. Many a time, finding myself dreaming, I have held on to an object in the dream and found myself awakening in another world. I have also found myself in other aspects of this world. I did it in Barbados when I wished to be seen by my sister who was 2000 miles away. But whether it be in this little aspect or in another world, it does not matter, for there are infinite worlds and you are heir to all of them.

You can get all you want in this world. You can use the fifth eye or the fourth eye. All those who lead us into battle are using the second and third. Few are using the sixth and only an nth part use the seventh eye or the eye of Jesus, and not until it is used and you would rather have the good of another than your own good, and rejoice for another more than for yourself, have you really opened the seventh eye and then you are ready for the opening of the eighth eye.

The seventh eye, the eye of Jesus, has nothing to do with a man born 2000 years ago; it has everything to do with the expanding mind of man. When you exercise the seventh, then something opens. It is the eighth. But until the seventh is fully open, “he hides in the forest of Albion.” He hides in the dark convolutions of the brain. It may scare you a little at first, the feeling of an electric battery moving in your head.

You feel memory come back and you feel it on this side and then on that, and then you center it, and then you SEE. Something opens and you actually see a world no one else can see. The seventh eye is based purely on faith. Man does not know God will actually redeem him and he cries, “My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” And then the new world will be seen.

Man seeks security and comfort through the fourth eye. These are the dictators, the political machines, etc. They are always going to save the country, save the world, and then they are driven out – but they take a half billion dollars with them. We have seen it in this hemisphere – the very ones impoverishing the treasury that men had just called the saviors of their country.

They have not reached the sixth eye, or I AM. He who has reached that turns to no one. He knows, “I AM that I will be, I AM what I am.” You can be that or anything you want. But then you go beyond it and you want nothing for yourself but only for others. Then he starts giving himself for man and then when that is completely clarified the eighth eye opens.

Look in your Bible and read the story of the unveiling of the mind of man. But it comes only after the seventh eye is exercised. So I must learn to experience feeling and touching. That is called the Western Gate, and it is closed in man, but he must learn about it, and before I close this eye he must learn much about the Western Gate, for I was told not to hold back one secret, and having had the experience of holding on to an object and awakening not on my bed at all, I must share it with you.

I awake in the world where I am holding the object. I have been shut out many times from this world by holding on to an object in that world and awakening in it, and it was just as real as this, but I came back to this. I had a body here and one there. When I returned here where was that other body? Have I not many bodies, for I am scattered over all the world, and man, as he begins to awake, collects the scattered portions of himself, and then he finally finds the being that is God.

You can love everyone in this world and you will find joy beyond your wildest dreams in doing good for another; when he asks of you and you, in your Imagination create, and then you have confirmation of it, and then you rejoice as God rejoices. “These things have I spoken that my joy may remain in you.” For whenever anyone awakes, that is the eye of God.

So there are seven stated quite clearly and the eighth implied. I tell you that you will feel it like a chick in the egg of the skull. Christ is crucified on this cross (man) with five nails – the five senses. The same meaning is in the story of the five foolish virgins. And then he tears himself free from this cross.

Now, you catch it on the wing, but I tell you that you will discover all kinds of wonderful things in the awakening of God in man. For God became man that man may become God. So this wonderful poem that existed only for God is beginning to exist for itself. Sentients begin to appear in the poem, lifting it to higher states and we become at last creators, one of an infinite society of gods.

This eighth eye is misunderstood by the priesthoods of the world and they circumcise the child. It is the Imagination that must be unveiled, not the physical organ, and it comes only after the perfect clarity of vision through the eye of Jesus. Jesus means, “Jehovah saves.” Not one is lost.He has fallen into a state, but you, through the eye of Jesus, save him. You ask him,“What do you want?” and see that condition real for him, and then seeing it embody itself, you rejoice that one has been lifted out of the mire. You do it over and over, and then your head becomes alive and you feel electric currents through it, and yet you will know what you should do, just as a chick knows what to do. It pecks its way out.And then the place where the skull grew together after birth becomes awake again, and you see another world, and you see the world was perfectly made and every state is perfect, and then you will know that you are awake to play beautifully on this eternal world, to bring out these beautiful combinations made by your Father.

If tonight’s talk seems different from what you expected, then nothing is more practical than the sixth eye. You can make your world what you want it to be by the sixth eye; in fact the fifth has done it. You can snare all kinds of people in your little traps. Read the morning papers.

Every ad is to snare us into emptying our pockets, and they will be thrilled that they can do it. Every year we find new traps to get what we have. We have new forms of credit. No one dies leaving anything behind any more. The whole vast thing is a trap. It has become the way of life, the fifth eye.

But then come the sixth and the seventh and then the eighth; and when the eighth opens you forgive everyone in the world, no matter what he has done. You, as man, have gone through every eye. You have worshipped Elohim and sacrificed to Molech.

But when the eighth opens, you will know that nothing displeases your Father but unbelief. Sin does not displease him. The priesthoods of the world tell you sin displeases him, but only disbelief displeases him, for they that come to him must believe in him. Anything you can believe is an image of truth.

Could you believe that someone in dire need is now well taken care of? Then he can become as you see him. But sin does not displease your Father. It means, “to miss the mark,” and He comes to the world to show everyone how not to miss the mark. If I do miss the mark, He makes a greater effort to show me how not to miss marks.

Hebrews 11 – “Those who come to Him must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that seek…” So seek Him first and then all these things will be added.

So there are these eight eyes in man. The eighth hides in the forest of Albion, or the dark convolutions of the brain. Breathing won’t bring it out, or diets, or Yoga exercises will not do it.He will come out only when, as you look through the seventh eye, which is the vision of Jesus, you see only the good of another and glory in that beyond what is only for yourself. Then you will begin to see through the eighth eye of God.

Use the seventh eye consciously and take every person regardless of color, race or creed and ask of him only, “What do you want?” For in Him there is neither Greek nor Jew, nor bond nor free.So you take everyone, for he has only fallen into a state and you single out that individual’s request and persuade yourself that he is now the embodiment of the ideal that he wants to embody and to the degree that you use the seventh eye will the eighth come out of the “forest of Albion”.The opening of the eighth eye is actually the second coming of Jesus. For when the seventh becomes perfectly clear, then the eighth will open, as if it were released from the tomb, and then you see as God.

One cannot be born a Christian. If you are not using the seventh eye, you are not a Christian. If you are the Pope, you are using the fourth eye and all the priesthoods of the world use the fourth eye. So-called almighty powers all use the fourth eye.But you must use the eye of Jesus. Jesus is the eye of God that sacrifices itself for the whole vast world. He gives himself for every being in the world, seeing for them their ideal, their perfect state.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE SPHERE WITHIN

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 06-02-1969

Entering this world of death, you brought all you have (or can have) with you. You are like a garden, already planted and sowed, for this world is too poor to produce one seed. Although William Blake was called a madman, he knew this great truth, and said: “The Human Imagination is the Eternal Body of the Lord Jesus.” I tell you: the Lord Jesus is your own wonderful human imagination, who became as you are that you may become as he is.

Everything is housed in you, because Jesus is buried there, and it is from there that he will rise. You might think Paul was speaking of one external to himself, when he said: “I have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus,” but Paul was not. The preposition “in” designates Christ as the sphere within which faith lives, rather than an object of faith. So, if everything is within you, you may question why you are in this world of sadness, death, and sorrow; but I will tell you: you are here for a purpose.

In this world a king can bestow a high honor to anyone, but he cannot fit that one for the high office. Now, God not only bestows his honor, but he prepares the individual to receive it. You are here because you are being prepared. We are all part of the corporate destiny of a fabulous play, whose outcome is an entirely different world. In fact, this high honor cannot be conceived of until experienced.

When you have been prepared, you will be automatically drawn like a magnet into that sphere where your faith lives. Then all that is now contained within you will awaken; and the highest honor will be yours, with the revelation that God gave himself to you, as you. I tell you now: God became as you are, with all of your weaknesses and limitations; and God is going through the horrors of this world with you until you are prepared to receive the high honor, as the story of Jesus Christ (which has already been sown within you) erupts like a garden already planted, and you discover you are God.

Everyone will enter this sphere and know this revelation, but we all have different parts to play in that body. The part you will play has already been written and you were chosen to play it before that the world was. That part to which you have been cast must be prepared to receive your eternal form.

Some schools of thought will tell you that you were born blind because of karma; but I say to you: you were born blind, deaf, limited, weak, or poor – not because your parents sinned, or you sinned, but that the works of God may be made manifest. You cast yourself into the role you are now playing in order to prepare yourself to receive the high honor in the eternal body of the human imagination, which is God himself.

Scripture tells us God is love and God is life. If God is your life and he is love, then your life is love. In fact everything that loves is eternal. The moment a woman brings a child into the world, she is in love with her production and – if need be – will sacrifice herself for it. That woman, by her expression of love, is eternal. The man who expresses love for his child is eternal, also because God is love and love is man’s life.

Our scientists tell us that man alone is capable of love, but not the animal or plant world; yet I say anything that loves is eternal. One day, while walking on the beach in little Barbados with my wife and daughter, we watched as two little boys, walking with their governess, turned over a large rock to discover two beach crabs underneath. The larger one immediately ran three or four feet away, turned, and looked at us with piercing eyes. Then I said to the boys: “Be quiet and watch,” and as we did, the crab returned, quickly grabbed the little one who had remained, pressed it to its breast, and ran away to hide once more. Now, wasn’t that a demonstration of love? God made everything in love. Never would he have made it had he not loved it. The little crab was made by love. I saw it express love, therefore the crab is eternal.

Man has been trained to believe in Jesus Christ as an external being, an object of his faith; but Jesus Christ is not the object of faith, but the sphere within which faith lives! One day in 1959, having been prepared because of the parts I have played throughout my long journey, I was magnetically drawn into that sphere. Then that which was already planted within me, erupted, and the drama of Jesus Christ unfolded, casting me in the central role as the being who gave himself for me.

He had to prepare himself – as the being you call Neville – by suffering with me until the work he set out to do in me was finished. Then the honor was conferred, at which time everything said of Jesus Christ unfolded itself within me.

I know this is true of every child born of woman; but it is difficult to convince those who do not wish to stand upon their own feet. Perhaps they cannot at the moment. They still may have to go through the mill by suffering, while the one who bestows the honor upon them suffers with them. The king of this world does not suffer with those to whom he bestows honor; but God, in bestowing the honor, requires you to receive it in order to execute your part in the corporate body of God.

The part you are now playing is played for a purpose. If your child is mentally deficient, don’t think you are its cause, for you are not. You did nothing wrong. Your child is being prepared to receive this great honor. This is simply a part he must play; and when every part has been played, he will be as perfect as his heavenly Father is perfect. Then the honor which was originally bestowed upon him erupts, and he discovers he is God himself – for in the end there is nothing but God.

When Blake made that statement, he was called mad; but I tell you there are states in which the visionary is considered mad for experiencing that which others have not. I have experienced that which you have not, yet I know you will. What part you will play in the body of God, I do not know; I only know that the part was created before that the world was, and it is perfect.

Now, in the Book of Joshua we are told that the land given to Israel was distributed by lot. This does not mean a piece of land, but the part you were allotted. The twelve tribes of Israel were cast into the lots. In the story we discover that Caleb was given a portion of the tribe of Judah, the same Judah as is mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus as the one through whom the drama unfolds. The word “Caleb” is defined as “a dog,” but its spiritual definition is “a homosexual.” Now we see that Caleb – the fourth son of Jacob – is a part of the eternal play of God. This we are told in the 15th chapter, the 13th verse of the Book of Joshua, as God justifies everything he has made.

When people sit in judgment, it is because they haven’t the slightest concept of scripture, and do not realize what is taking place in the soul of man. Nothing is to be condemned, for God would not have made it had he not loved it, for God is love – this I know from experience. I stood in the presence of Infinite, Eternal Love, who embraced me and incorporated me into his body. At that moment I became one with the body of love, so I know God is love.

I also know that any one or any thing that loves is eternal, because love is God and God – who is eternal and infinite – made everything because he loved it; therefore it too is eternal. This world is too poor to produce one seed, so we enter it like a garden already planted and sown. We bring everything that we have or ever will have with us. The part of the mathematician is there for you to play, even though you may not be cast in that role at the present time. The part of the mystic is there for you also. You may condemn a part, but it is within you. It may lie dormant because you are cut out for another part; but you will play your allotted part perfectly, and in the end become one with the one corporate body of the Risen Lord.

What part you will play in this body I do not know. I can only tell you we fell from the kingdom of heaven and we are rising back into that unity. I know, for I rose like the son of man and re-entered that kingdom. It is there I will reside when I drop this body. And you will be there also, when you drop your physical body for the last time. Then we will be brothers in love. So, “Go to my brothers and tell them I am ascending unto my Father and your Father, unto my God and your God,” for we are all brothers in the kingdom of heaven, all united to form the one and only God.

Tonight you may be playing a small part; but let me assure you, you are in the part you play because Jesus is in you. He is your breath of life, your awareness of being. An idiot may not know where he is, what he is, or who he is; but he is aware because Jesus Christ is in him.

Now, in the 11th chapter of the Book of Revelation, John speaks of the Lord and his Christ. The word “Christ” means “the anointed,” who is David (as told us in the Book of Samuel and the 89th Psalm). David, called the firstborn from the dead, is anointed with the holy oil. That David is he who appears as a result of your being prepared to receive the highest honor – which is God himself. Man made Saul their king; but God rejected Saul and made David higher than the kings of the earth, proclaiming he was his son.

So, when you see David, you will see your son and know exactly who you are. And you will also know that everyone – even those you formerly disliked – is destined to see your son; and- because there is only one son, begotten by one Father – you, and he who you formerly disliked, are one. No one can be a stranger, for no one is another. Everyone is coming towards the point where he knows he is God the Father.

You came into this world, not as a poor little child, but as God desiring to play that part. I was born into a family of ten who had no money, no social or intellectual background. During that time there were two people in Barbados who foretold the future.

When I was about four years old one gentleman known as the prophet Gordon told my two eldest brothers that one would become a successful businessman and the other a doctor, which they did. Then he added: “Don’t touch the fourth one, for he belongs to God. He has come to fulfill God’s word,” and that is what I have done. Then, when I was about nine, a lady said she saw my destiny in a vision.

Everyone has a pattern to fulfill. You may not know what your pattern will be, and that is right; for if you knew what you were destined to do, at a certain point in time you might hesitate to follow that path; so it is hidden from you that you may be conditioned to receive the high honor, which is God himself.

Man finds it difficult to believe he is so destined, and thinks the idea is blasphemy. I have heard men who have achieved high titles in their churches, say from the pulpit that those who believe God is in them are insane; and I wondered how they could make such a statement, for they knew nothing.

When it happened in me, I was drawn into the sphere where a spiritual experience is revealed; and as the plan unfolded and God revealed himself to me as me, I saw those men still in the same state of mind and realized scripture was right in describing them as the blind leading the blind. Wearing their robes made by the human hand, they think that is the way God dresses – when God is clothed in love.

The colors of their robes are lovely and they are made quite beautifully; but their robes do not endear them to God, for God does not see the outer robes – he only sees the man’s heart. And when that heart has been prepared, then the individual is drawn into the sphere of spiritual experience where faith lives. It is from there that he returns, knowing the faith of which scripture speaks.

When I returned from the vision of being incorporated into the body of love, if the worldly wise men had forced me – like they did Galileo – I, too, would deny it, yet knowing I am right and they are stupid. Today we know that the earth goes around the sun, but when Galileo lived the pope and cardinals compelled him to confess publicly that he was wrong and they were right. Now we know they were wrong and he was right; but they still go blindly on making others confess concerning their wisdom; and they haven’t any, for they are men without vision, as they haven’t experienced the word of God.

If this night I were put under physical pressure I, too, would confess that my experiences were hallucinations; but in my heart I would know that my visions were real. I could no more deny them than I can the simplest evidence of my senses. What I am seeing now as an objective fact that I cannot deny, will become a memory image an hour from now. I have experienced everything said of Jesus Christ just as objectively as I see you and this room, and I know that everyone is going to have the same experiences when he is prepared to receive them.

In our land, I recall hearing an interview with a man who had just been appointed an ambassador. When asked about the place where he was going, he admitted he didn’t even know where it was on the map, or anything about the government there. He received the appointment because of his generous contributions to the presidential campaign, not because of his fitness for the position. But before God gives you the honor, he qualifies you to receive it by putting you through the paces.

In the first chapter of the Book of Colossians, we read: “The Father has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.” The phrase “to share in” literally means, “for the part.” Here we see that the part has already been prepared, and now we must be qualified for the part each one of us will play in our inheritance.

The words “to share in,” causes one to think in terms of material goods; but if you actually share in God’s inheritance, you share in the part of being God, for he is your inheritance, and God is all. You can recreate anything, when you know you are the creative power and the creative wisdom of God. That is the gift God is preparing us all to receive!

I can’t tell you how altogether glorious you really are. If you would dwell upon this thought alone, you would stop feeling inferior in any way. No matter where you were born or what you are doing today, if you will walk aware that God selected you for an eternal part in the new body he is building out of living stones, you will never feel small again. Dwell upon that wonderful hope.

Know that God is preparing you for the part you will play in his living body, and that he will not stop no matter what you may go through. If you know this you will say with Paul: “I do not consider the sufferings of this present time worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed in me, for that glory is God himself.”

If suffering be your lot, then suffer knowing the glory that is to be yours when the fires of experience are over. You may not suffer physically, but to lose a loved one is a suffering that can eat your heart out; but that suffering is preparing you to receive the glory that God has predetermined for you.

Tonight my message may not seem to be practical, but may I tell you it is the most practical talk I can give. I could tell you how to go about getting a better job, more money, larger houses, and better cars; but do you know: that which is most profoundly spiritual is, in truth, most directly practical; for while your mind is removed from your desires of this world by dwelling on something far greater, things are moving within you.

Then, one day, you will give your entire heart to a far more noble state, and you will be drawn into the sphere where scripture unfolds from within. It comes so suddenly, as you are not aware that you have moved into that sphere where the eruption takes place. It takes time to prepare you for that sphere, but when you are there you know nothing but the power of God. You feel him as an unearthly wind. You hear him in its unearthly sound as scripture erupts and you experience everything – from your birth from above, to the descent of the dove.

I promise you, if this experience is not yours in the not distant future, you will know it in the state the world calls the grave, for there is no death. You were created by the living God, and because you have loved – even if only for a fleeting moment – you are an eternal being, for God is love.

You will be restored to life in a world just like this one, to go through the paces. Then, one day, you will remember having heard a madman tell you of a sphere into which you would be drawn. You will move into that sphere, and scripture will erupt within you. Then you will know that no one in the new generation differs from those in the old, but that all ages are equal. Today we haven’t turned out any Shakespeares, Raphaels, Beethovens or Bachs; but many books are written, canvases are filled, and songs are sung on the guitars and the banjos. So you see – all ages are equal and not one age differs from the other.

We are in a world of educated darkness, where each individual is being prepared to receive God’s gift. That gift is not a castle on the Rhine, or a kingdom in this world, but God Himself. When God gives himself to you – and God is all – you receive all.

You brought all that you have (and can have) with you when you entered this world. You came in just like a garden already planted and sown, for the world in which we live is too poor to produce one seed, because your reality is Jesus, who is your own wonderful human imagination. His body contains everything in eternity, while this world only objectifies what is within your human imagination.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 10-07-1968

When 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.

THE SPIRIT WITHIN

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 04-25-1969

When reading the Bible always bear in mind that the persons Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jesus, Peter, Paul, (or any name appearing there) are states of consciousness. The names only identify the states represented. If you see the characters as persons, you misunderstand scripture, for the names are simply personifications of eternal states which will be revealed to you, mortal man, in a series of divine revelations.

Satan, for instance, personifies the state of complete unbelief. In the state of Satan you cannot accept a thing as real unless you can touch it or see it. Blake tells us: “Satan believes that sin is displeasing to God. He ought to know that nothing displeases God but unbelief and eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Combat of Good and Evil is eating of the Tree of Knowledge. The Combat of Truth and Error is Eating of the Tree of Life. These are not only Universal, but Particular. Each are Personified.” Here he speaks of Satan as an eternal state into which anyone may fall when a state is denied because it is not in harmony with the outer senses.

But every mystic worthy of the name knows that a true judgment need not conform to the external facts to which it relates. If I say: “Aren’t they beautiful?” and you see nothing, you may not agree. That is because you are not seeing what I am. I may be seeing a dozen red roses in a crystal vase which has been placed on a corner table in my living room. Now, to the degree that I am self-persuaded they are there, their appearance will become a fact. This I know from experience, so I know that a true judgment need not conform to the external facts to which it relates. Satan insists that it must, but truth (called Jesus Christ) tells us that it need not be so.

Tonight we will take the Spirit of truth on a higher level. Personified as a man, Jesus proclaimed himself to be the Spirit of Truth saying: “I came out from the Father and came into the world. Again I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” Knowing the physical background of the man who said these words, this statement did not make sense to those who knew the speaker, and he had nothing to display on the outside to support his claim. The Jerusalem Talmud tells us that if the Messiah is in the world he does not know it until Elijah comes and anoints him. Then he will suddenly appear, for the Jewish expectancy is the sudden appearance of the Messiah.

In the Book of Zechariah this Messiah is called “the corner, or top stone.” “He shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace! Grace to him!” And in the book of John, we read: “The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Here we see he is the top stone as well as the foundation stone of which there is no other. Now, a foundation stone is hollow, for it contains the plan of the edifice. There must be a plan, a purpose for a building, so in the hollow foundation stone the documents are laid. This structure is the temple of the Living God, of which you are. His plan of salvation is buried in your skull and you are destined to bring forth this plan, as grace and truth reveal you to be the one and only Jesus Christ.

A lady wrote this week, saying: “A week ago last Monday as I closed my eyes in the silence, I thanked you for once more explaining the law although I already know all about it, when I heard you say, ‘But do you really know it?’ Then I realized that I knew it with my surface mind, but did not really believe it in the depths of my being.

Suddenly a pyramid appeared with the top stone missing. A sphere was above the pyramid, peaked by a crown outlined in a scintillating white light. The sphere began to spin, causing everything to become so brilliant I closed my spiritual eyes to return to this level of my being. Since then I have felt that if my inner eye had been stronger I would have seen a being emerge from that light.” She is right, she would have, but it is not yet time for her to see her true self.

Your wonderful skull is the hollowed out foundation stone where Christ is buried. God and his creative power became you (humanity) that you may become as He is, for He is the consciousness of every child born of woman, and in the fullness of time a being will emerge from that stone to know itself to be the light of the world. In the 3rd chapter of the 1st Epistle of John, we read: “It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall know him for we shall be like him.” Yes! When God’s plan of salvation unfolds itself in you, you wil1 not only be like him, you will be one with him!

In order to externalize truth (or error) a man is needed to be its agent; therefore, truth is man. Scripture personifies truth, but man, not realizing this, sees one unique little man and not God’s plan. Having unfolded His plan of salvation in a man, God uses that man as his agent to say: “I am the way, the truth and the light. No one comes unto the Father but by me. If you knew me you would know my Father also, for I and my Father are one.”

I, the Living Word, came into the world to experience scripture and I cannot return unto him void, but must accomplish that which I purposed and prosper in the thing for which I was sent. The O1d Testament is an adumbration of God’s plan of salvation. Written as the history of Israel, it is experienced spiritually by an individual whose physical origin is known, and the world sees the person, but not the state he is conscious of being. They expect the Messiah to be a being external to themselves, to come out of the nowhere and surprise them. But the Messiah is buried in that hollowed foundation stone which is the skull of Man. He does come suddenly, for when it is his time to awaken, everything said of Jesus Christ in scripture unfolds in you, in a first person singular, present tense experience. Then you tell your friends about your experiences and they smile as they shake their heads, for they know your parents, your weaknesses and your failures, and cannot believe you have fulfilled the Old Testament.

Although I read the statement in the 40th Psalm: “In the volume of the book it is all about me,” I did not know it to be true until the Spirit of truth awakened in me. Now I tell my brothers that I am departing this world and going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God because I know that we are all one. The one God in a diversified state appears as many, but it takes the many to form the one God. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one.”

When you read scripture, always remember that every word has a meaning. The word “Zechariah” means “Jehovah remembers.” In the state of Zechariah you remember your promise to Israel, for the word “Israel” means, “to rule as God.” Remembering, you don’t rule as a little god-like tyrant of the world, but as God Himself! You must forget the concept of Jesus Christ as a little man external to yourself, for it is Christ in you who is your hope of glory. All things are made by him, whether they be good or ill, lovely or unlovely. An artist doesn’t have to create only the beautiful, but can create anything, and so it is with God. You can find him by testing your wonderful human imagination.

I have searched for and found Jesus Christ to be my own wonderful human imagination. I now know that everything in my world was first imagined by me. I may not always remember the imaginal act relative to the unlovely things I have experienced, but I have imagined and watched its fulfillment in my world. I know that although I may not remember the imaginal act, I must have committed it, for I cannot reap that which I have not sown.

In the 2nd chapter of the Book of Jeremiah, the Lord said: “I planted you a pure seed, O Israel. How did you become degenerate?” I will tell you how! By going after foreign gods; by worshipping the gods of astrology, numerology, wealth, or so-called important people. By believing in things on the outside and seeing other causes for the phenomena of your life and not the only cause, who is God, your own wonderful human imagination, whose name is I am! One day you will awaken to discover that you are the one and only God. But you aren’t going to rob anyone, for it takes all your brothers, together, to form the one pyramid, and when this is accomplished the top stone will be put in place.

Now a lady wrote, saying: “This dream disturbs me greatly. In the dream I entered an exquisite jewelry store, [and] picked up many items, among which was a beautiful green gem. Then I left without paying for the articles I took. On this level I would never do such a thing and cannot understand why I would do it there.” My dear, you should be thrilled because you did it. On this level you are eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but you are way beyond this tree, for you are now eating of the Tree of Life by fulfilling the 50th Psalm: “If I were hungry I would not tell you for the world is mine and all within it.” If everything is yours, whose permission do you need to take it? As an incurrent eyewitness, you do not function here save when you open your mortal eyes. In this world of good and evil you would never go to Tiffany’s and walk out without paying for your purchases, but as the Spirit of truth, you are feasting upon the tree of truth and error in the world that is yours. In that world there is no need to ask permission of anyone to take anything you desire.

Man’s real hunger is not for bread alone, but for the Word of God to fulfill itself in him, as Amos was told: “I will send a hunger upon you. It will not be for bread or a thirst for water, but for the hearing of the word of God.” Her hunger was represented by the green stone, green being that which is growing, like the tree of life. My dear, you are blessed for having such a dream.

No one would ever agree with another as to what is right and what is wrong, for we all have different values. What is right to one is wrong to another. We came down into the world of death because we ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and we are told that the only thing that displeases God is the eating of that tree, and unbelief. If you think another is the cause of your misfortune, you are sinning and missing your mark in life. There is only one cause for all of the phenomena of your life, and that is God, whose eternal name is I AM. When you really believe this, you will not deny the harvest you are reaping. It may be unpleasant, but you will know that it couldn’t happen unless you sowed it, so accept your harvest and then plant something lovely in its place. Never deny that one and only cause, which is your own wonderful human imagination!

Scripture teaches no other God, but organized churches have created little icons for people to come and genuflect before in violation of the 2nd commandment: “Make no graven image unto me.” Half of my family are Catholic and have these monstrous looking statues all over their homes. We were raised Protestant, but several of my brothers married Catholics and raised their children in that belief. I don’t argue with them because as far as they are concerned, I am a product of Satan. If I would only go with them on Sunday mornings and do all the little nonsense they do, it would be wonderful as far as they are concerned; but they think I am blaspheming when I tell them that the only Christ erupted in me as my very self, for they know my origin, my father and my mother. They do not know the “I” who was in concealment until Elijah came.

The body you wash and care for on the outside is the Elijah of the Old Testament and the John the Baptist of the New. Coming into the world by assuming a garment of hair, man has made every effort to attain salvation by physical means, like doing violence against its appetite. For seven years I went on a starvation diet of vegetables only and I grew thinner and thinner and weaker and weaker. I was young and virile. I desired everything that a normal man would, yet I went on a diet of celibacy and had nightmares with my suppressions, wondering why they were happening to me when I was trying to be such a holy man. Ab once told me that I was so good, I was good for nothing. That’s John the Baptist, the outer man, who must be restrained and beheaded before Christ can come into the world. This I know from experience, for I certainly didn’t expect him. I went to sleep in my normal manner, not knowing that in the wee hours of the morning He would erupt in me, but he did, for I awoke to find myself in a tomb which was my skull. Then, in 1,260 days, everything said of Jesus Christ unfolded in me in a first person singular, present tense experience, just as told us in the Book of Daniel and confirmed in the Book of Revelation.

Now I, personified truth, stand alone and point the only way to the Father, while Satan (personified error) has the authority of the world behind him. The world has accepted error by worshiping their misinterpretations of scripture which have become the traditions of the church, yet I have awakened and know exactly what has happened to me. I have been on television and radio around the clock with ministers, priests and rabbis who look at me strangely when I quote their own Book for them. When I quoted the words spoken by David in the 2nd Psalm as: “I will tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, ‘Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee’, they said: “But that quote belongs to Jesus Christ.” This is true. The statement can be found in the 3rd chapter of Matthew, but did not David, in the Spirit, call Jesus, “My Lord”?

One night in New York City I said to a rabbi: “David called me Father”.
Is that not the fulfillment of the 89th Psalm? I have found David. He has cried unto me: ‘Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’ Therefore am I not the one spoken of in the 20th chapter of Luke as Christ? With that the rabbi put his hands to his ears to shut out such blasphemy, yet this same truth is found throughout the entire scripture. They called him blasphemous because he said: “I and my Father are one. My Father is he who you call God, but I know my Father and you know not your God.” He never denied his brothers, but knew they were sound asleep and would one day awaken to discover that God is the dreamer in all. At the present time he is dreaming he is you, and when he awakes, you will be God. He actually became as you are, that you may become as He is.

Now, in order to prove that the law works, you must try it. Have a goal. Your goal may be peace of mind, health or marriage. You name it. Knowing your own wonderful human imagination is the one and only cause of your life, conceive a scene which, if true, would imply the fulfillment of your goal. Do not allow yourself to observe the action, but put yourself in the center of the scene and allow your friends to congratulate you on your good fortune. Accept their congratulations without embarrassment. Enter into the spirit of the scene and remain there until it feels real, then drop it in confidence that the imaginal act was performed by God. How do I know this? Because God’s name forever and ever is I am. If at the time of your imagining I had asked you what you were doing, you would have said: “I am imagining.” At that moment you called forth your desire with His name.

Every time you imagine, God is acting and all things are possible to him.
All you need to do now is wait patiently, confident that your desire will externalize itself, and when it does you have found the cause of creation. Then tell your sleeping brothers, who wait patiently for their world to change while they activate its continuance. Nothing happens on the outside! Everything has to be initiated on the inside first. Read the morning paper, turn on the television or radio, and react to what you hear and see, and that reaction is an imaginal act which will cause unlovely experiences to people your world. As you reap your harvest, you may not relate your present experience to what you did, but you had to have done it or you couldn’t be aware of it now, for everything is yourself pushed out, for you and God are one.

When you read scripture in the future, bear in mind that the persons stated there are personifications of states. The word, “Moses”, for instance, is the ancient Egyptian verb meaning “to be born”. And what is to be born? The Living word which will fulfill the written word. The New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old. It’s not the other way around. There could be no New without the Old. The Old Testament tells the story by intimating God’s plan, while the New Testament interprets it by fulfilling it. Man has misunderstood the interpretation and worships states called Moses, Elijah, Jesus, Peter, Paul, and all the others, when you – as an individual – interpret the states within yourself to discover that you are scripture.

He sent me, His word, into the world with the words: “Time to act.” Having looked into the face of infinite love, we embraced, fused and became one protean being. Now God, as infinite might I was hurled out of that assembly and returned to this little garment lying on the bed. I did not know what it was all about, but I have never forgotten the experience.

I could no more deny it than I could the simplest act of my senses, yet that happened to me back in 1929. Thirty years later His word, now myself, erupted and I began to fulfill scripture within myself. Now I tell it to those who will listen, knowing that no one comes unto me save my Father calls him. He draws you, one by one, to hear His unfolded Word. Of those who come, some believe and some disbelieve, as indicated through your visions.

Now I am departing this world, not to a restored society like this, but to return to the body of the Risen Lord, knowing myself to be one with the one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE SPIRITUAL CAUSE

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 05-03-1968

All cause is spiritual! Although a natural cause seems to be, it is a delusion of the vanishing vegetable memory. Unable to remember the moment a state was imagined, when it takes form and is seen by the outer eye its harvest is not recognized, and therefore denied.

“There is a moment in each day that Satan cannot find, nor can his watch fiends find it, but the industrious find this moment and it multiplies. And when it once is found, it renovates every moment of the day if rightly placed.” (William Blake) The word Satan means doubt. Desiring a certain state, reason may tell you it will be difficult to attain, and your friends may say it is impossible. If you listen to them and doubt your desire’s fulfillment, Satan has made himself known to you. Your protractors – God and Satan – are always with you, for one is faith and the other doubt. Can you imagine you are the one you would like to be, and remain faithful to that assumption? If you can and do, it will appear, and you will realize that its spiritual cause was the moment of assumption.

Now let me share a letter from a friend. It seems that when he first met him, his barber was the fourth man in a four-man shop. (In case you are not familiar with a barber shop, the owner always has the first chair and, if it is a slow day he gets the customer. If he has finished when the second man comes in, the owner takes the second one also. If three more should come in, they will go to the different chairs, with the fourth barber being the last to receive a customer.) One day my friend sat in his chair. As they talked, he discovered that the man was proud of his profession and desired to be the best barber in town. Hearing the desire expressed, my friend imagined the man had reached the top of his profession. Within a year the barber had bought the shop and had moved to the first chair!

Last month this barber told my friend of his desire to attend a hair styling contest in San Francisco. Realizing that no one goes to a contest unless he wants to win, my friend saw a trophy on the shelf near the door and heard the gentleman say he had won it. Last weekend three of the four men in the shop went to the contest and returned with four of the nine trophies given in the competition. The owner won a first and second place prize, with the two men who went with him each taking second. “Now” he said to me, “I have often heard you say from the platform: `I will tell you before it takes place that when it does, you will believe me.’ Now I am going to tell you, Neville, before it takes place, that he has already won the contest to be held in Southern California, for I have seen his trophy. Then he will go to Miami and win another trophy which will enable him to enter the international contest in Brussels, of which I have placed him as the winner.” I know he will win, for every natural effect has a spiritual cause. My friend’s imaginal act is the cause, and he will remember what he did and be blessed because of it.

In this same letter, my friend shared a dream which repeated itself the same night. He said: “I saw a man who looked like a cartoonist’s concept of Father Time. Wearing a white robe, he was holding an open, gilt-edged book in one hand and a quill in the other. Insisting that I was born on a certain day, I became equally forceful in stating that I was not. I knew my birthday to be the 19th of September, 1927; yet he persisted, regardless of my protest. Then I awoke.”

The 87th Psalm speaks, not of a physical birth, but of a spiritual one, saying; “The Lord records as he registers the peoples, saying: `This one was born there.’ My friend did the perfect job in challenging the recording angel, for to sin by silence when we should protest makes cowards of us all, and no coward can be in the Lord’s stable of studs. I am convinced from the way he worded his letter that he has been born from above. He has had other experiences which would imply adumbrations, but this vision denotes the past, not the present or future. He knew his physical birthdate, yet that date was denied as the day he was born into the Spirit world, for the man represented not the physical, but the spiritual world.

I urge everyone to think of time as precious! Use each and every moment to plant a seed of thought you want to experience. Then, when your thoughtful seed is harvested, remember the moment of planting; for every natural effect has a spiritual cause which happens the moment you dare to assume your desire is real. The cause of the barber’s success was an assumption on the part of my friend. The effect is seen, but the cause is unseen. Start now to consciously use your precious moments and try to remember what you did when your harvest arrives. Nothing appears by accident! Everything is the result of an idea, either wittingly or unwittingly planted. You did it knowing what you were doing, or while lost in an emotional state. Feeling intense, a lovely or unlovely seed is planted, and must be harvested; for you always reap the thoughts you sow. This is the law of life.

Now, another lady wrote, saying: “I found myself in a glorious mansion surrounded by beautifully kept grounds. Looking out of the window I saw you, Neville, and a lady, leave in a white car; yet I knew you were going to return. Then I awoke, saying: “Now I know that I have experienced what Neville said I would.’ My throat was parched as though aflame, so I drank a glass of water, returned to bed, and had this dream: I am in a department store looking at brides’ Bibles. Several brides, dressed in long white gowns, were being married by proxy, with the department store providing grooms so they could have their picture taken. One bride turned to me and said: `I am going to Paris,’ and I replied, `I’m getting married next month.’ ”

This is a beautiful vision. We are told in the Book of Isaiah: “Your Maker is your husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name.” Her husband was revealed in the depth of her being. She will have union with him and, like an egg, God’s plan of salvation will be fertilized. Then, in time it will erupt and everything said of Jesus Christ will unfold, and she will know she is God, the Father of all life.

Another lady wrote, saying: “I took my son into the back yard to show him our new pond, which contained about twelve inches of clear water and a small shaggy white dog. I took the dog out of the water, dried him off and allowed him to run and play. Then I noticed he had returned to the pond, and knew I should leave him there, so I did.”

Scripture speaks of the stone, the water, and the wine. The stone is the literal story, the allegory. When man discovers the fictitious nature and character of the story by turning within, he has struck the rock and – like Moses – water flows from it. The first miracle, or sign, is recorded in the Book of John, as turning water into wine. The story comes first. That’s the stone. If you accept the story as literally true, you have accepted the stone. When you discover the fictitious character and extract the true meaning of the story, you have found the psychological water. A dog is the symbol of faith. Her faith is now in the psychological meaning of these great truths, and as she applies them she will convert them into wine.

Believing that imagining creates reality, dare to imagine you are now what you would like to be. Do that and you are turning the water into wine.

We are told that when Jacob brought his flock into the field, the well was covered with a stone. He rolled it away, watered his flock and replaced the stone. Jacob did not turn the water into wine, but removed the stone which covered the tomb of water. This is an allegory. You must use your imagination to extract the water (meaning) and feed your flock. Every scriptural story has a psychological meaning. Find the meaning and you are extracting water from stone.

In the parable of Isaac and his two sons, Esau and Jacob, Isaac is blind. Desiring to be felt as his brother Esau was, Jacob clothed himself with the skins of a goat. Clothed so that his blind father could feel him through the sense of touch, Jacob deceived his father into giving him his blessing. Let us extract the psychological meaning from this story. Reason says you are not the man you want to be. Closing your eyes to the obvious facts of life, you deny everything reason dictates by mentally clothing yourself in your desired state. Let people see you there. Imagine until you are actually standing where you want to stand. Actually doing the things you would do if your desire was now an obvious fact. Do this, and you are clothing yourself in the outer garment of naturalness.

When you open your eyes to the facts of life, they will deny everything you have done – but you know what you did. You caught a precious moment which doubt cannot find, or his help-mates find. You have become one of the industrious, for you found the moment and clothed yourself with the feeling of fulfilled desire and – like Isaac – you have given your blessing to the moment and cannot take it back. Isaac would not retract his blessing; so when Esau (the reasonable, rational mind) returned, its right to live had been taken away by Jacob (the smooth-skinned desire). Jacob was rightly named, for the word means “the supplanter.” Isaac explained to Esau that, even though Jacob deceived him, the moment could not be called back. It was on its way toward fulfillment. And when it appears, its suddenness is only the emergence of a hidden continuity.

I have told you the story of how Moses did not cross into the promised land, but Joshua did. You may not be familiar with scripture, but Joshua’s original name was Hoshea (Numbers 13:16) The word “Hoshea” means “savior or salvation.” Put the prefix “Je” before Hoshea and the meaning changes to “he by whom Jehovah is saved.” Moses represents the pattern man, and Hoshea – creative power. When that power is fertilized, Joshua – the pattern – unfolds, and the individual occupying the state enters the promised land.

What you saw in the beginning was the perfect egg, but it was not fertilized. A sperm must penetrate the surface of an egg in order to fertilize it; yet no hole appears in this perfect egg either before or after penetration, because it is all imagination. Being all imagination, you do not need to go through any door to put yourself into a closed room, or break down any wall when you depart. Having entered without the use of a hole, you can depart without leaving any breakage relative to your entrance or departure. So it is with a little sperm. It penetrates the surface of an egg and it leaves no hole either before or after penetration; but unless it penetrates, that egg remains just a perfect pattern of what could be. It takes the sperm to penetrate and make it alive.

I urge you to test your creative power on this level. Take every moment you can and clothe yourself in the feeling that your wish is fulfilled. Feel its reality and do not forget that moment, for it is productive. In its own good time, that moment will appear in this world, properly clothed as an objective fact. No matter who it takes to aid the birth of your imaginal act, he will appear. If it takes an army to bring it to pass, an army of men will do it. You do not have to determine the way, all you need do is imagine. Just as you would plant a seed in the ground, confident that it will grow, so you can drop your fulfilled desire into your mind, confident that it will appear as an objective fact.

If you want to be a man of wealth, assume that you are. You see: the man of wealth and the poor man are the same being. The individual who occupies the poor state is God’s emanation who has fallen into the state of poverty. He does not differ, however, from the individual who occupies the state of wealth. The man in the state of wealth may have lots of money, but he is the same being, in a spiritual sense, as the man who is poor. The only difference is that the poor man does not know he can leave the state of poverty.

This world is made up of infinite states which you may clothe yourself with. If you do not like the state you are in, you can get out of it by taking a heavenly moment and assuming you have moved. You can put yourself into any state, be it wealth or poverty. If you don’t enjoy poverty, don’t get into the state. I have no desire for fabulous wealth. I do not want the responsibility connected with it. I can’t see how anyone who is fabulously wealthy has any time for spiritual awareness. Morning, noon, and night he must watch his portfolio. The first thing he does in the morning is read the financial section of the newspaper. He reads it as some ladies read the social section – as though it really matters.

There are those who read the obituaries first and make their living from it. My father-in-law was a very prominent man in New York City when he died. Shortly after his death, his wife received hundreds of letters from people claiming he had ordered something from them and had promised to pay, and many of the writers had misspelled his name! Her lawyer told her to forget the letters, as many people made their living that way.

You can’t conceive of anything that someone is not already doing. Everything is possible because imagining creates reality. And don’t think you can imagine quietly, because your world is a record of your imaginal acts. Nothing appears by accident. You may not remember the moment you imagined it, so you cannot relate your spiritual cause to its natural effect; but every natural effect has a spiritual cause. All causes are spiritual, all imaginal, 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.” (William Blake)

God is the only source and there is no other. In the 87th Psalm it is said that when this one is born, the Lord registers his people, and the singers and dancers alike say: “You are my springs.” There is no other spring! No other cause! No other source! Whether you are dancing or singing here, you are asleep and your own wonderful human imagination is causing your life to be what it is.

Do not blame another for the events in your life. There is no one you can turn to as its cause, and don’t let anyone blame you, as they are creating their own world by what they are imagining. If one imagines unlovely things for another, they are going to produce them – not in the other, but in themselves.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE STATE OF VISION

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 2-26-1968

“We have only to raise Imagination to the state of Vision and the thing is done.” (William Blake) Just imagine it! That is all you and I are required to do. No matter what it is we desire, we have only to raise imagination to the state of vision, and the thing is done! Now, when the prophets of old used the word vision in scripture, they meant all of the senses, either individually or in combination. The Book of Isaiah begins: “The visions of Isaiah, the son of Amoz. Hear, O heavens and give ear O earth; for the Lord has spoken.” And the Book of Obadiah states: “The visions of Obadiah. Thus sayeth the Lord God.” Here we find the visions are audio; but scripture records visions of sight, sound, scent, taste, and touch. The last chapter of the Book of Job reads: “I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee.”

Imagination must be raised to the sense of sight in order to see. The sense of sound seems to be the most popular in scripture, yet in the story of Jacob it is the sense of touch. Isaac, Jacob’s father, was blind and could not see. His twin brother, Esau, was the first out of the womb. He was covered with hair and – because of his birth – had the right of inheritance by law. Jacob, who followed his brother, was a smooth-skinned lad, who deceived his father through the sense of touch. Killing one of his father’s flock, he wrapped the skin around his arm, and when his father touched him, he felt its reality and gave Jacob the right of birth.

This is not a story of a man who was blind, or of two sons that came out of the womb of a woman. This drama unfolds from within. Esau is the world you know by your reason and senses. The room you are now in is your Esau, while your subjective desire is your Jacob. Wearing garments of hair, Esau is the outer, objective world, which Jacob, your desire, is seeking to replace. As Isaac – the father – you have the power to give reality to your desired, subjective state. Invite it to come near, that you may feel it, to know whether it is as real as your outer world is.

Isaac chose the sense of touch rather than that of sound, adding the sense of smell, saying: “You smell like Esau.” Using these two senses, Isaac granted Jacob the right to become an objective fact. So when Blake tells us that if we will raise imagination to the state of vision the thing is done, he is speaking of vision in any one, or a combination of the five senses.

Perhaps the sense of hearing is most developed in you. If so, you can single out a voice and hear it with such clarity that you can become self-persuaded its words are true. Your sense of hearing can be developed to the degree that you can shut out all other senses and believe in what you are hearing. When the words take on the tones of reality and you are self-persuaded that it is so, the event has been impregnated upon you; and what do you do after impregnation? Nothing! You simply carry the knowledge that in its normal, natural time, that which you heard so clearly will be born. No two eggs have the same interval of time between their fertilization and hatching out. I do not know how long it will take for your desire to become an objective fact. I only know that when imagination is raised to the state of vision – be it sight, sound, scent, taste or touch – the thing is done!

I know a very fine artist (whose works are in national galleries) who was starving, and didn’t have a dime with which to buy food. One night she was so tired she couldn’t even walk to the YWCA to offer her services for a meal. Instead, she stretched out on her couch and said: “Lord, you said if I but believed, all things would be possible. Well, I believe that I am well fed.”

In relating this story to me, this lady added this comment: “I didn’t actually hear the words audibly, but received an impression which was: ‘If you really believed as you claim, wouldn’t you prepare the table for the meal?’ With that, she began to set the table in her imagination. She put on her best tablecloth, her nicest plates, and even lit a candle, in preparation of the food to come. Then she fell asleep and began to dream. As she lifted the cover from a beautiful platter, she heard a ring which persisted until she awoke to realize it was her telephone. The caller was a friend of her mother’s whom she hadn’t seen for years. The lady said: “Suddenly I have the greatest longing for a meal you prepared for your mother and me several years ago. Would you please do it again tonight if I bring over the ingredients?”

Now, although this lady had a kitchen in her apartment, she had no food in it, so when the friend went to the store she couldn’t buy a cup of flour or sugar, but stocked up on all the basics needed to prepare a meal. Within an hour she was in the artist’s home with the food, and a short time later they sat down to a delicious dinner, of which – when the meal was finished – there was enough left over for at least two more meals.

Although this lady is a great artist, she has developed the sense of touch. She fell asleep touching the plates and the silver, and awoke touching the cover to a platter filled with food. Her experience is dramatized in scripture as the story of Isaac. In order to understand scripture, it is necessary to see it with the eyes of the mystic. Blake asked: “Why is the Bible more entertaining and more instructive than any other book? Because it is addressed to the Imagination, which is spiritual sensation, and only immediately to the understanding, or reason.” When you touch something spiritually, you are receiving a sensation that your outer senses deny. And when you use your imagination, you are touching with the hands of Jacob, seeing with the eyes of Jacob, and hearing with Jacob’s ears.

In the 115th Psalm, the psalmist tells us our Lord does everything we do. Then he compares the Lord to the gods of the world, saying: “Their gods are made of silver and gold. They have mouths but speak not, eyes but see not, ears but hear not, feet but walk not, hands but feel not. Those who make them are like them, and so is everyone who trusts in them.” Anyone who trusts some little thing a man made with his hands, that can’t talk, hear, walk or feel, has a false God and a false Jesus Christ. Made with human hands, it cannot utter a sound or hear your request. It cannot answer you, see, hear, or walk. It is merely something made with human hands; and those who trust in it are just like the thing made, because they are unwilling to exercise the inner man – called Jacob in the Old Testament and Jesus Christ in the New.

Begin now to exercise Jacob by sending Esau out into the fields. Then clothe Jacob with the tones of reality by exercising one or all five of your inner senses. If you will become self-persuaded that your desire is already granted, even though it is denied by the outer senses it will become a fact. I do not know how it will objectify itself, or when; I only know that when imagination is raised to the state of vision, the thing is done.

Because Blake made these bold assertions, people question why he wasn’t rich; but Blake had no desire for fame or enormous sums of money. At that time, the king of England was George the Third. He was a madman and remembered only because of the fact that he was king during the time of our revolution against England. People of great wealth and fame lived during Blake’s lifetime, but are forgotten now, while Blake grows in stature and simply dwarfs everyone in his age.

Blake had no money. He was non-schooled by human standards. Teaching himself Latin, French, and Italian, Blake was a master in the use of the English tongue. This giant of a man had no human luxuries, but he didn’t need them as he was busy doing the work of God. Blake claimed that the world was vision, confessing that his greatest work, “Jerusalem”, was given to him by dictation. He didn’t see Jerusalem, he heard it. The words were dictated by the Spirit of God, yet Blake called it his greatest vision.

Perhaps the sense of feeling is easy for you. If so, be like Isaac and touch your desire to see if it is Esau (real) or not. When reality was touched, Isaac said: “You have the smell of Esau; therefore the blessing is yours.” Why? Because it seemed real to him.

Money has an odor all of its own. Blindfold yourself and smell a dozen different pieces of paper. Make one of them a dollar, five-, or ten-dollar bill, and the moment it reaches your nose you will know it is money, for there is something different about it.

Everything has an odor. My brother Victor is a successful businessman. When I questioned him about his success, he said: “I love the odor of business. When I open the store in the morning, I love the smell emitting there.” I walked around the store with him and didn’t care a thing about the odor; but I can open a book of Blake’s and be lost to the world for the rest of the afternoon. When I was in Barbados recently, I shared one of Blake’s letters with Victor. I so thoroughly enjoyed the reading I tasted every delicious word, but the message meant nothing to my brother. He uses his talents in a different way.

Choose the medium best for you and use it. Sound seems to be the easiest for many, yet if you love someone you will know the touch of their flesh and odor. If man didn’t have a distinctive odor, how could a bloodhound find him? We think only in terms of the skunk ring, and know it can be used against a man because it is unique; but there is no dubious odor. There is no dubious voice. A voice can be imitated; but if recorded, its graph would not be like the original. You are unique, and when you love someone dearly you know their voice and what they feel like, and if you are close to them, you know their odor. Share the news of your good fortune with them. Hear them empathize with you. Listen to their voice carefully and revel in what you are hearing. Believe in what you have heard, and you have impregnated yourself with the message.

A friend recently cured his skin cancers through the use of sound. Every morning as he shaved the evidence remained. But using his sense of hearing, he listened to the voices of his friends as they congratulated him on his complete cure. He did not put his hand to his face and feel its smoothness. He could feel and see what was there, but he persisted in hearing his friends’ empathy – and one day the cancers were gone.

I urge everyone to try it. It costs you nothing. Blake had a friend named Samuel Farmer, to whom he made this fantastic statement: “Raise Imagination to the state of vision and the thing is done.” You can do it by using any sense, either individually or collectively. You can imagine seeing and hearing at the same time. You can look as though you see, and listen as though you hear; but you determine what you want to see and hear. Bring them together. See and hear only your fulfilled desire, and watch the evidence unfold in your world.

When scripture tells us that God sees the heart, it is not speaking of the physical heart, but the individual’s identity. The Fourth Psalm tells you to “Commune with your own heart on your bed and be silent.” In other words, talk to yourself! This self is a totality, for your feelings, thoughts, desires, and motives are always exposed to yourself, who is God the Father! You may conceal thoughts from those who are enclosed in garments of flesh and blood, but not from the depth of your own being! Scripture tells us that the Lord rejected all of the brothers and chose David, saying: “He is a man after my own heart who will do all my will.” David is the one who fulfills all of your thoughts, feelings, desires, and motives – always doing your will.

Scripture will only be understood when it is seen through the eye of the mystic. Let us take the statement: “Be angry but sin not. Commune with your own heart and be silent.” If you have something against someone, explode and get it off your chest. Then commune with yourself by calming down and constructing a scene which would imply everything was perfect in your life. Fall into the depth of self, using as many of your senses as possible to achieve the vision you desire to appear.

You can raise any sense – be it hearing, sight, sound, touch or smell – to the state of vision. I was drafted into the army during World War II, but I wanted no part of it. When my request for a discharge was disapproved, I did not get angry and try to go over the colonel’s head. Instead, I lay down on my army cot, closed my eyes to the other fifty men in the room, and imagined I was two thousand miles away in my apartment above Washington Square in New York City. Placing myself on my bed, I saw my wife sleeping in hers. Then I rose, and looking out the window, I saw the Holly Apartments across the street and Washington Square down below. Turning, I walked into the living room, dining room, and the kitchen. I felt familiar objects and brought as many of my five senses alive in the drama as possible. At 4:00 o’clock in the morning I awoke hearing a voice say, “That which I have done, I have done. Do nothing.” Who spoke those words? I did, but I heard them as coming from without.

Knowing what I had done and what I had said, I walked in faith for nine days, doing nothing on the outside. On the tenth day the colonel who had rejected my application called me into his office and gave me an honorable discharge.

I brought feeling up to the state of vision. By feeling the bed and the various objects in the apartment, I fell asleep feeling the joy of being there. The colonel thought he initiated the desire to discharge me, but he had no choice in the matter. I imagined, knowing the world was my imagination pushed out, and everyone in it had to do what they are doing to aid the birth of what I had done.

Knowing what you ought to do is not good enough; you must raise your imagination to the state of vision in order for the act to be committed. Then what must you do? Nothing! You simply watch the series of events unfold within your world. Remember, you operate your creative power, it does not operate itself. There must be action, a commitment on your part. Nothing, however, can be done to earn God’s gift of grace. When God’s promise fulfills itself, it happens suddenly and so dramatically that you have no time to think about it. In fact, you will not even recognize it, unless you hear it from someone who has experienced it. I know, as far as I am concerned, I never heard it from a man, or saw the Bible’s story as relating to me. But I know from experience that the truth comes through an act of God in self revelation, for God is hidden in the mind of man and unveils himself as man!

Start now to exercise your God-given talents of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell – together, or individually. The sense of touch is the strongest in me. If someone expresses their desire to me in a letter, I touch the paper they wrote, believing they are telling me of their desire’s fulfillment. I know only one out of ten ever respond after I have granted their request, but that is all right. Having felt their letter and seen its contents, I know I have impregnated myself with the good fortunes they are desiring, and in so doing, my own captivity is being lifted.

Right now, give something to a friend without their knowledge or consent. You have your five senses! Exercise them by bringing the objective body of Jacob to the surface. Clothe him in external reality as the Esau you would like to replace, vanishes. What you have is your Esau. Your desire is Jacob. You are their father. Raise imagination to the state of vision and allow Jacob to supplant Esau. Then rest in that assumption and watch the change which takes place in your wonderful world!

Now let us go into the silence.

THE STORY OF JUDAS

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 12-4-1959

We tell you here that we believe you can be what you want to be in this world and that it is my purpose to tell you. If I have moments in my life I regret it, not in the sense of a change of mind as in the word repent, still I must tell you.

I may have moments of regret that you have misused this power for any purpose, yet it is better that you misuse it, rather than not to use it. How many times one feels concerned at the misuse of this principle. Yet it is better to misuse it than to bury it, for even by the misuse we learn, though painfully. In the story of the talents it was only the one who did not use it that was condemned.

We are living in a world that is like a play and some seem from birth to be cast in a difficult role, and yet you tell him that God is Infinite Love. But he is the playwright and the casting director, for this is a play. As Shakespeare says, “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players. We have our exits and our entrances and one man in his time plays many parts.” But that “time” is not three-score and ten; it is the time it takes to awaken that man, the perfect actor, or God.

So I play every part, but playing every part does not mean I play every man or woman in the world. There are billions of actors but only so many parts, and every part you and I must play. The central figure, the star, is Christ, and the whole play is about Christ from Genesis to Revelation, but there are many parts that reveal it.

There are twelve main characters (the 12 disciples), and the four-and-twenty elders, and the High Priest Caiaphas and his political opponent, Pilate. These are in every age and every time. The purpose of the play is to awaken in us the actor, God.

These characters of the Bible are not people: they never walked the earth as people. We play all the characters, but they do not live any more than Hamlet lived. When Olivier plays Hamlet, Hamlet can do nothing but what Olivier does, and then Olivier can if he wishes play another character altogether.

The characters are the eternal states of the Soul, but we must learn to distinguish the man from the characters he is playing. The characters are real in eternity and we assume the character and play it on this sphere. To say that everything in this world is a play does disturb, but I want you to believe it.

Tonight I want to discuss the most difficult of all the characters, and if asked you would refuse to play that role, but it is the most important, for until it is played, Christ cannot awaken within you. It is the character of Judas.

People say he is the betrayer, but to be able to betray I must first hold the secret. So I betray you into the hands of your enemies. I reveal you, for that is what “betray” means. Only he who knows God could reveal God. Only Judas did not leave Jesus in the garden.

The others left him, but Judas remained to reveal Him, or betray Him, and then Judas commits suicide. But we are told, “No man takes away my life, but I lay it down myself.” So, who is Judas? Until that character is played, Christ is not awakened in the mind of man. He reveals God.

Then he repented when he found that those to whom he revealed the Lord spat at him and reviled him and condemned him. It does not mean upon a man; it is a symbol. But I say the time will come when you will not repent, even though you will be concerned as to the consequences of your act. The word is only translated six times in this form.

Paul wrote a bitter letter to the Corinthians and he said, “I do not repent or change my attitude toward you.” And another time when Jesus is made a member of the order of Melchizedek he says, “I do not repent.” But in this case when Judas reveals the Lord to the world he repents, for he sees what they did with the knowledge. Not something done to a man, for Christ is invisible, for he is the Lord and the Lord is spirit and spirit is without form. You tell the world who He is, as man’s Invisible Reality, and then when you see that they spit in his face – figuratively – then you are concerned for the consequences of your betrayal of the identity of God.

Judas is not a man any more than Christ is a man. Christ is the Invisible Reality, and all the others are states, and we move into states. But when you are cast in the role of Judas you are at the end of the play and the play is over. You betray the identity of the Creative Power of the universe and then you “commit suicide,” you hang yourself upon a tree. As he betrays Him he becomes the very being that he betrays.

Now Judas comes from the same form as the word Judah. It means the hand. It is the first symbol in the name of God, or the Hebrew symbol “Yod,” the hand of worship, the hand of the Creator. Then the second name of Judas is Iscariot. “Is: means “Man”; “Cariot” means “to lay timber,” or the carpenter.

So Judas betrays the Lord, for no one knew him, but Judas told them, “when I kiss him you will know him.” And yet Jesus had said to them, “I have been with you three years and you do not know me?” The others ran when he was arrested, but the one who knew him kissed him and said, “Do not let him go,” and that is your Imagination, for that is Christ. There is no other. Christ in Man is man’s own wonderful human Imagination, and with Christ all things are possible.

So you can take this revelation and go out and be anything you want to be. If using this power I go out and take advantage of another, it means my misuse of what I have just heard. But the one who tells you and then sees what you do with it often repents. So the story is told you that they spat on him – not a man, for who can spit on Imagination – not knowing there is no other: we are all one. This is spitting on Christ or putting stripes upon him. Not on his body for He is invisible, for my Father is spirit and spirit is invisible.

So the most difficult to play is that of Judas, or the betrayer, and if the playwright were casting the play no one would volunteer to play it. But one has to go out and “betray” God by telling his identity, and to the degree that you can do it you will prove it by the behavior of those to whom you tell it. For all the characters of the Bible are true as states and they live forever. God sends his sons through these characters as actors that at the end of time He may awaken these actors as Himself.

You are infinitely greater than any character in the Bible, for they are states, but there is another one that is not a state and that is Christ, and he is being awakened in you. Christ is God and He is awakening in every being in the world. He has prepared a play to awaken every child born of woman, and to create like his Father he has to go through every experience, and they are all written in the Bible.

So there are the twelve, and the four-and-twenty, and there is always the political power, and the religious power, and the wise men, called the Sadducees, and those who conform to that which they think will make them important in the eyes of men – the Pharisees. Then there are those who have mechanical talents; you can take from the inspired works of a Shakespeare or a Blake and write many books, but they could not write one thought that is original, and they are the Scribes. Then there is “the multitude,” who hail the hero today and then stone him the next.

So the eleven could not commit suicide or, in other words, let go of everything they had ever heard regarding causation. That is everything that you previously thought you must let go of and die to and live only to the Christ. And so you read the statement of Paul that he comes to teach only one thing, and he got it from revelation. It is true: it comes by a vision, but then the Sadducees will laugh at you. We have this now in our midst as they talk about evolution, and the world has accepted it, yet I am told that God created all things and called them good, and wondrous. All were distinct acts of creation.

I have nothing to do with anything less than man, but everything less than man only bears witness to what I Am. I did not evolve through all the animals. That is true only as related to human affairs. I see it move from the canoe to the ocean liner; from the plow to the tractor, from the cave to the palace. Evolution is only in the affairs of men.

The bird builds its nest as it first built it and it is fixed and perfect, but the things of form evolve. But this is not man – this body – this is only the mask (Persona). I am all Imagination and I wear this mask until I go through all the parts, and then I am He, for the purpose of the play is to awaken us, “for God alone acts in all existing beings and men.” The purpose of the play is to make us actors, even bad ones. If we are bad ones the one who reveals the secret repents, yet he would not change it.

We are told that when Judas came and kissed Jesus that Jesus said to him, “Friend, why are you here?” The translators could not bring themselves to believe the actual translation so they have put it in the footnote; “What you have to do, do it.” The actual translation is, “What you must do, do it quickly.” You have to do it. You have to tell the world who God is and that He is Imagination, but the translator used the sentence, “Why are you here?”

Everyone is an actor awakening, so I say to everyone, you are playing all the parts, and I hope you will start to play the part of Judas. You did not come to play just one part. Everyone plays many parts.

You can, if you will, slip into this part of Judas. You could play Caiaphas or Pilate forever, and think that causation is external, or is in the hands of the political or the religious powers, or the great universities. Until it comes (Ed. Note: the understanding of true causation), you do not know it, but I know who I am and who you are. Every being is God in different states, all playing these wonderful parts, but when he awakens he is God, and no matter what he has ever done he is forgiven. When he awakes he is white as snow, no matter how scarlet things were.

I ask you to take this revelation of God, who is your own wonderful human Imagination. That is what Judas tells you, and I am playing his part. He is not a man but a state into which I have entered deliberately and consciously, for no one can betray God unless he knows the secret.

We are told in Corinthians, “Who knows the thoughts of a man but the spirit of man who dwells in him.” Who could reveal or betray God, but he who knows His secret? But if you know it and you test and prove it, then you are commissioned to go out and betray God. You go out and betray the secret of creation. “Then he went and hanged himself to a tree.” This body is a tree. He comes to do it and he had to do it, but then he stands aghast at the use to which they put this secret about which he came to tell.

Then the next stage is to awaken completely as Christ. “We do not yet know what we shall be like, but when we see him we will know him, for we will be like him.” You will be like the very Being you were sent to betray. Everyone here will play every character in eternity. I do not mean people. They will go through all the characters, for the characters are eternal states. Distinguish man, who is all Imagination, from his present state. You can forgive him anything knowing he is playing a part written for him by God. We are all players in God’s play.

You can go back and see the parts you have been playing from the cradle until now. If you were given a vision you would now, this moment, see in human form the state that I am playing. You would see it and yet it is not a man but only a state. I have seen people in argument and over them you see figures in contention. They are only playing states and as they forgive and shake hands these would vanish.

A gentleman sat here the other night and he wrote to me; “As you began to speak I saw over your shoulder a patriarch: who wore the black hat and robes of a priest. I do not know who he was but I feel he is a great inspiration to you.” This is true, for I entered a certain state (I was speaking about the foundation stone) and that state was personified as a man.

I was telling you that the foundation stone of everything is Imagining and not to leave that and go in search of another foundation. And here this gentleman saw a being who was to him a patriarch expressing what I was talking about. I know it is true, for I am never alone. But you are infinitely greater than the state, for you are a living Center of Imagining. You can move through all the states; you are not the state.

They build churches to Peter, or to John, etc. They are being built only to states, and the states are eternally dead until the Son of God gives them life. When you enter the state of contention it is then alive, but if you are not in the state of contention it is dead. They do not build churches to Judas. I lived on a little island and they divided it into eleven parishes, named for the disciples, but there is no Judas.

My forefathers did not know he was the most important, for only he could discover God and betray him. They call one who betrays a friend a Judas. But in Matthew 26, Jesus calls him, “Friend” and then he said, “What you have to do, do quickly.” He did not call the others friend. He called Peter, “Satan”, but to Judas he said, “Betray me!”

And then often those to whom the secret is revealed begin to use it wrongly. They discover Imagination creates Reality, and disliking someone they will imagine something bad and by their very intensity, bring it to pass. You can use this in a horrible way, so we are told he repented or was deeply concerned as to the consequences of his act.

You can be what you want to be in this world, and those who recoil from this Truth are its enemies and do not know it. Millions will recoil from it, but that is all right for they have not yet reached the point where they can be cast in the role where they will take it and go out and betray God. You can betray God only by revealing Him. You will not know Him by anything the scribes or the Pharisees will tell you, but only by inner revelation. And when you are fully persuaded you will go and tell it.

Then whenever the day comes to close this eye and take off this mask, you will awake among the giants of those who are awakened. But none will fail, for everyone in eternity will finally awaken. So if I have to play a part over and over until I am buried in the part, I will be buried until I learn I am the actor and not the part I am playing.

Isaiah 40:6-8 – it seems so strange that the book that forms the foundation of the play should make this statement: “All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades but the word of our God will stand forever.” And the “Word” is the play from Genesis to Revelation. If you took all the Bibles and burned them, the play remains in spite of the written record.

We hear so much about goodness; few can define it since no two ages have the same concept. I do not teach you to be “good”, but to be creative in expressing this great talent. Do not bury it even if, in using it, you make mistakes. Prove it in your own life and then go out and tell others. No priesthood could send you or have the power to send you out. No holy water will send you out.

You are sent by God and God is spirit. So if you feel moved to do it do not hesitate, and if you make mistakes and I hear of them I may feel for a moment that I wish you had not, but I will not really regret that I told you of the identity of God. Your human Imagination is God and is one with that which sustains the Universe. When you see it you go out and betray, or reveal it. Judas means “hand” and that becomes the first letter of the name of the creator. (Yod He Vau He)

We are told that Judas betrayed his Lord for thirty pieces of silver and then he was said to have turned it back to the priest. They bought the potter’s field. It means “maker”. It appears 62 times as “maker”: It is used only a few times as “potter”. It means “maker” in the sense of one that is a craftsman, as a goldsmith or a silversmith. It means that the individual is a maker.

So he took the fullness of the price of God – for 30 means “fullness”. He went through every furnace, for no one playing Judas could skip one. So he paid the price. And then he threw it to the potter. He should have thrown it to the silversmith.

But the same word translated as silversmith is also translated potter. I pay the full price to discover that my Imagination is God and then I die to all I formerly believed and then tell it to the populace, and then have them deny it and “spit” on him, etc. It has nothing to do with anything taking place on earth. Go out, think about it and determine to make yourself the person you want to be. Then betray this secret and tell others what you have discovered.

Imagine the loveliest things in this world for yourself or for another. So let us go now into the silence and when you break it, knowing that Imagining is God, let no one persuade you there is any other cause for phenomena. Go through these doors knowing it is so and then you will not be impatient, but you will let it be so, for God creates Reality. The Father walks through the world with me and I do not know it. I do not know that the Imaginal activity is the cause of what appears in my world.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE ULTIMATE SENSE

December 22, 2013

Neville 06-20-1969

In the Book of Nehemiah we are told that: “They read from the book, from the law of God with interpretation and gave the sense so that the people understood the reading.” I wish that were true of today’s preachers, but unfortunately they have mistakenly taken personifications for persons and the gross first sense for the ultimate sense intended.

In today’s paper I read where 325 graduate students of fifteen Catholic colleges were asked to name their ten heroes, in order, with no restrictions as to time. The late president Kennedy came in first, his brother Robert second, Martin Luther King third, with Jesus coming in fifth.

Here are graduates of fifteen Catholic colleges who – seeing the Bible as secular history – place its primary character fifth in their heroic order when if read as literature (as many college students do) they would discover it is not secular history at all.

In Biblical thought a name is not a mere label of identification but an expression of the essential nature of its bearer. To know the name of God is to know God as he reveals himself to the individual. As the Psalmist said: “Those who know the name put their trust in thee.” His name is revealed in a progression of revelations. It is first revealed as God Almighty in the name El Shaddai.

This name is personified as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In the state of Moses the second revelation comes as “I AM.” Then, in the third and final state of Jesus Christ, the full disclosure of his name is revealed as Father, in a Father/Son relationship. Bearing the name of Jesus, you will say with Paul: “I have made manifest the name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world. They were thine and thou gavest them to me. I have made known unto them thy name and I will make it known that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them.”

But now, when you read scripture always remember that the names Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Jesus are personifications of eternal parts of God’s play. Having faith in yourself and the play you created, you entered the part called Abraham, at which time you were shown the entire play in detail. And when the play is completed you move into the part called Jesus Christ to discover you are its author.

To say Jesus is your hero and see him as a person is to completely misunderstand the story of scripture. As Blake said: “It ought always to be understood that the persons, Moses and Abraham, are not here meant, but the states signified by those names, the individuals being representatives of visions of those eternal states as they were revealed to mortal man in a series of divine revelations as they are written in the Bible. I have seen these states in my Imagination. When seen at a distance, they appear as one man. As you approach, they appear as multitudes of nations.”

I know the truth of that statement for although Blake was born in 1757 and died in 1827, we are closely woven in the tapestry of thought. One particular night we met, and after discussing the mystery of God, Blake said to me: “Fall backwards with a complete abandonment of self.

Do not restrain yourself, just relax and fall.” Following his instructions I felt as though I was falling off the earth, as I hurled through space like some interstellar body. And when the motion ceased I looked up to see a single man aglow in the distance. His heart was like a flaming ruby, but when I approached I realized that all of the people in eternity were in that one body. I saw the body we will all be gathered back into when God’s play is over.

The play begins when “The scriptures, foreseeing that God would save and justify the heathen, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham.” Now, if you take the story of Abraham as secular history you would realize that he would have been shown God’s plan of salvation two thousand years before it occurred. But, agreeing to play the part of Abraham, you entered death’s door, the human skull. It is there that you sleep in visions of eternity as the Christ seed, being one with your Father.

The word translated “seed” in Galatians is “sperma” meaning the sperm of man and identifying man with God. This is not the physical sperm, for it is only a shadow producing bodies of death. I am speaking of the spiritual sperm called Christ, whose seed is capable of extending itself.

Dreaming your life into being, you appear to be two, but you are not. One day this barrier will be removed and you, individualized, will emerge as the Lord Jesus Christ – which, like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is a sign, witnessed by God.

When you read scripture try to remember that these characteristics are only personifications and try to find out what they represent. Until you understand the significance of the name, you are going to miss its message. Quite often you will find a classic telling a far greater story than you will ever hear from the pulpit on a Sunday morning. One of my favorites was written by a mathematician. You know his story as Alice Through the Looking Glass.

“Come and look at him!” the brother cried, and they each took one of Alice’s hands, and led her up to where the King was sleeping.

“He’s dreaming now,” said Tweedle-dee: “and what do you think he’s dreaming about?”

Alice said, “Nobody can guess that.” “Why, about you!” Tweedle-dee exclaimed, clapping his hands triumphantly. “And if he left off dreaming about you, where do you suppose you’d be?”

The dreamer in you is God, who must dream in the sequence he set up in the beginning. No part can be omitted. As our forefathers played it so will we, for there is only one actor in this drama called life and that actor is God.In you God is dreaming the various parts he wrote in the beginning and you saw while in the state of Abraham. You are the Son of God now, an “I”, which he is extending. We are all the “I”, only now we are enhanced by reason of the predetermined dream.

Charles Dodgson (whom we know as Lewis Carroll) wrote the child’s classic, Alice Through the Looking Glass which tells us that everything was possible through the looking glass. This is true, for with God all things are possible. Things are what God thinks they are. He thinks He is you and will keep on thinking He is you until he brings you to the awareness of being the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is sad to read that those who have graduated from Catholic colleges believe this personification is a character of history, and unbelievable to think they have put him in the fifth place. I am not saying this could not happen in a Protestant college, for it could happen there, too.

Who knows – they might put him in the tenth place rather than the fifth. Without any feeling towards the story it cannot be believed, but the dreamer in you is playing every character in the play as you cast your shadow in this world. I heard it so clearly one night, when He said to me: “I laid myself down within you to sleep, and as I slept I dreamed a dream…” and I knew He was dreaming He is I, and when He awakes, I Am He!

Now, in this shadow world you must learn to imitate him. If he dreamed you into being and is dreaming you through all of your worldly experiences, you can start to modify some of them by imitating him and dreaming your own particular dream. What would the feeling be like if your desire were true? I know from experience that it will come to pass, and I want to encourage everyone to try it.

Start tonight. Feel yourself into your desired state of consciousness. What would you be conscious of feeling if the world reflected your desire right now? I encourage you to use feeling, just as Isaac did in his story. As Isaac, you cannot see your desire as objective to yourself. It is Jacob, smooth-skinned and with no external reality while this objective world is Esau.

You must clothe Jacob with such external qualities that he will feel objectively real to you. Touch has a fantastic sense of reality, so through the sense of touch and smell Isaac gave Jacob the right to be born.

I know when I am out of this body I am awake, and when I touch someone there they are solidly real. I can hear their voices and see their faces, and when I touch them my hand does not go through their bodies, for the world, at that moment, is just as real as this one.

Learn to shake yourself loose from what the world believes is the only reality. Feel yourself touching a friend or relative you know well and love, and you, too, will know from experience that no one dies to cease to be. No matter how wise the priest and rabbi may be, they have not been where you have and therefore cannot know what you know.

They are theorizing and you will be speaking from experience. I have stepped into other worlds and they are just as real to me as this room is now, and the people there just as solid to my touch as this lectern is now. At this moment this room is real to me because I am in it. But when I am in these other worlds they are more real than this room or my home in Beverly Hills where I spend most of my waking hours.

Let us return now to the sense of touch. Think of something that you would touch if your desired were objectively real. Money, for instance, can be touched and it even has an odor. These are the senses Isaac used. When Jacob came close, Isaac touched him and said: “You feel like my son Esau and you have his odor.” Then he blessed Jacob and, strangely enough, when Isaac discovered he was self-deceived he could not reverse his blessing.

As Isaac, through the sense of feeling you set in motion that which the feeling implies, and in its own good time it will confront you. You may not recognize your own harvest and wonder when you would have planted such a seed; but you had to have done it or it could not come to pass, for God is your awareness, dreaming everything in your world. He is the reality behind their appearance.

So when you open the Bible in the future and come upon the glorious name Jesus, stop yourself from thinking of an individual who was born in some strange manner 2000 years ago, and think of him as the representative of all who have reached the climax of the play; for everyone who has achieved the end is gathered into that one body which is personified as the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, it is the Christ seed who is the Son of God that rises. Listen to the words in the 3rd chapter of Galatians: “The promise was made to Abraham and his seed who is Christ.” You will note the world “seed” is singular, not plural. Here we find that the seed is one with the one who made the promise.

Entering the part called Moses you were told that you would go into a foreign land where you would be enslaved and suffer for four hundred years. Then you would come out expanded a hundred-fold greater than what you were before the play began. That’s the purpose of the play. We entered death’s door with the Christ seed, to lie down in our grave and experience visions of eternity. This we are doing. These eternal visions (eternal states) are parts of the play.

If you leave a part another may enter it or you may return to play it again, for you travel through states just like a traveler in time and move from state to state until you reach the final state called Jesus Christ. When you enter that state you awaken in your grave and come out of the gate of your father. Looking back you see your body, which is the linen clothes your earthly mother wove for you. Everything that is recorded of Jesus is a sign. When you experience these signs they will not be gossamer, but solid reality.

The Bible is an allegory whose fictitious characters have meaning, but man, unfortunately, has mistaken the personifications for persons and the instrument which conveyed the instruction for the instruction. Believe me, for what I am telling you is true. I, too, thought that these were historical characters who lived thousands of years ago, but they did not. They are characters in a play which was conceived in the Divine Mind, and are not of human composition. The play has a divine origin, and when you experience it you will bear witness to its divinity.

From time to time individuals are called and sent to be witnesses. They are known as apostles. An apostle is first called out of this world to enter the heavenly world, where he is commissioned and sent. Returning to the same garment he left behind on the bed or chair, he is awed beyond measure with what he has experienced. From that moment on he cannot only preach the truth of the gospel, but is a witness to it, for he knows the difference between the thing signified and the sign.

Isaiah tells us: “The Lord himself will give you a sign. A young woman will conceive and bear a son and call his name Immanuel (which means God with us.)” This is true, for God is with every child born from a regular conception of woman. He is its breath, its awareness. The Christ seed is there also, awaiting fertilization at a certain moment in time. And when the hour has come the individual himself comes out of himself to find signs bearing witness to God’s expansion.

Your birth from above is a spiritual experience, as is your son David, your ascension, and the Spirit Himself descending upon you to smother you with love, for God is Spirit. When God is born you are born as God, even though you must continue in your limited state until you take off your garment of flesh and blood for the last time.

I do hope you are reading the Bible daily. I find no book comparable to it. But you will get nothing out of the reading unless you read it through the eyes of the mystic. Take my experiences with you as you read, and then you will know who Jesus, Abraham, and Isaac are.

The name “Isaac” means “he laughs.” Isaac was Abraham’s promised son. He is the sign the shepherds were told to find as a child wrapped in swaddling clothes. You will see this sign, and as you take that child in your arms he laughs.

The word “Moses” means, “to be born.” Moses could not enter the promised land because he had not yet been born. It is Moses who leads you up to the one being who is yourself. I have seen that one being and I know he contains the entire universe. From a distance he appeared as one man, but as I approached I saw he contained a multitude of nations, races, and people.

Now I know that all that I behold, though it appears without it is within my imagination, of which this world of mortality is but a shadow. Truly the world is nothing more than yourself pushed out. And in the end you come out to discover you are that one Man who contains eternity – the one Being spoken of as the Lord Jesus Christ.

I wish I could convince everyone that there is only one true gospel of Christ. Mankind is redeemed, not going to be. It is already done. If you are not there yet it doesn’t mean you aren’t going to get there. Nothing can prevent you from reaching your destination and having the experience, because the drama is over. It has been accomplished.

Christ is risen, so mankind is already redeemed and no one can be lost. We are told that the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart. If the Lord did it, Pharaoh had to do what he did, for it is a part of the play. On a certain level you can’t understand, and like Job you will want to curse God and die, yet Job is your story.

As an innocent being you are put through hell by the will of God, as told you in the 42nd chapter of Job: “His friends came and comforted him for all the evil the Lord God had brought upon him.” No one else caused his sorrow. The dreamer puts himself through hell by his ignoble dreams, and that dreamer is God.

Now that you are coming to the end, as it were, learn to alter the play. Make your world conform to your lovely concepts the same way the Father dreams your life into being. Although you appear to be two, when he brings you to the climax you will be as one. God is your husband, your Maker who cleaves to you – his emanation, his wife – until you become one Being, one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all; for in the kingdom of heaven there is no room for two, only one.

Now, while you are still here you have needs which must be met and perhaps desires yet to be fulfilled, so I urge you to use the law by assuming that you have them, for your assumption is the beginning of your dream. Although your reasonable mind and your outer senses deny it your persistence will harden your assumption into fact. I have watched it happen unnumbered times. Your noble dreams will not interfere with the basic dream that is taking place in you, so take your wonderful dreams and persist in them. Walk as though they were true. Try to touch them and give them reality. If you can use the sense of odor try to detect it.

One night a lady decided to test me by embracing a huge bouquet of roses. She caught the aroma of the rose and completely saturated herself with it, then she dropped the thought. This lady lived in the Waldorf Towers, and when she returned to her room the following evening she discovered three dozen roses had been placed there. It appeared that the Queen Mother was in New York City and had attended a banquet in her honor.

Special roses were grown and [brought] there for her pleasure. The next day the maitre d’ sent three dozen roses to this lady’s room. She put her sense of smell to the test and within 24 hours her room was filled with roses.

I don’t care who you are, I invite you to take the challenge. In the 13th chapter of 2 Corinthians you are asked this question: “Test yourself and see. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless of course you fail to meet the test.” Test God’s power and God’s wisdom, for encased in love you are testing the Christ seed within you. You can take anything and test this power. Do it just for the fun of it. Hold a long-stemmed rose in your hand.

Touch its velvety petals and smell its heavenly aroma. Make a pledge to yourself that you will live by your imagination, for God has promised that you can assume a state and it will become a fact in his words: “Whatever you desire, believe you have received it and you will.” It can’t be stated any clearer than that. These are the words of an awakened man who is God, for every man who awakes in Jesus Christ is God, He who is forever extending himself.

So when you know what you want, construct a scene which would imply that you have it. Enter the scene by touching the articles there, listening to the sounds that may be heard, seeing with your spiritual eye, and smelling its odor with your spiritual nose. Bring all of your senses to bear upon the scene implying the fulfillment of your dream.

After you have done it persist in the awareness that your desire is already a fact, for the present moment does not recede into the past, but advances into the future to confront you. You will walk into your future and confront the fulfillment of your desire, which began as a dream.

You may think your yesterdays are in the past, but God knows you will meet them in the future, for your future is always confronting you and bringing in the harvest of what you are doing now.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE VALUE OF DREAMS

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 11-6-1959

Here 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.

THREE PROPOSITIONS

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 1954

Well, my first proposition is this one. The individual state of consciousness determines the conditions and the circumstances of his life. The second proposition is that man can select the state of consciousness with which he desires to be identified; and the third follows naturally–therefore, man can be what he wants to be.

If the first proposition is true that the individual’s state of consciousness is the sole cause of the phenomena of his life, then the normal, natural question that is asked “Why doesn’t he change it to a more desirable state if he could change it?” Well, that is not as easy as it appears.

Today we hope to give you a technique to make it easier but man finds it very hard to leave the things to which he has grown accustomed. We are all grown stuck in the habitual. It may seem strange but a very sordid cartoon appeared years ago, that is during the last war; you might have seen it, it came out in the “New Yorker” and it was one by George Price. In it is one single little room, a sink piled high with unwashed dishes, plaster falling from the walls, and these two middle-aged people, she sitting on a chair reading a letter, disheveled, matted hair, and he with torn clothes and feet stuck upon the table and socks exposing holes, and the caption of the picture is this. She is reading a letter from her soldier son abroad: “He says he’s homesick.” Now you should see the interior of this house–one room, completely disheveled-but the lad was homesick!

Now man finds it difficult to detach himself from the habitual; so this morning we have brought you these three propositions, and I hope I can make it clear that you can with this knowledge apply it so that you can realize your every objective. It is the height of folly to expect changes to come about by the mere passage of time, for that which requires a state of consciousness to produce its effect could not be effective without such a state of consciousness. So if I must be in the consciousness of the thing that I am seeking before I find it, then the only thing to do is to acquire that state of consciousness. Most of us do not even know what we mean by state of consciousness. To those who are here for the first time it is simply meant by state of consciousness the sum total of all that a man believes and accepts and consents to as true.

Now it need not be true; it may be, but it need not be true, it could be false, it could be a half truth, it could be a lie, it could be a superstition, it could be a prejudice, but the sum total of all that a man believes constitutes his state of consciousness. It is the house in which he abides, and as long as he remains in that house similar problems will confront him, the circumstances of life will remain the same. He may move physically across the ends of the earth but he will encounter similar conditions; he can’t get away from the house in which he abides. The Bible speaks of these houses as mansions of the Lord, it speaks of them as cities, it speaks of them as rooms, as upper rooms, all kinds of words are used to describe individual states of awareness. And the appeal in the Bible is always to move out and occupy the upper story, meaning to move up to a higher level within one’s self.

Now, if you do not know the state in which you abide, it’s a very simple technique you may employ to discover that state: for the man dwelling in a state, and we all dwell in states, could easily discover the state by listening within himself and observing his own internal mental conversations, for the state is singing its own song and it reveals itself in man’s inner speech. If you will listen attentively and uncritically to what inwardly you are saying, you will discover the state. And it will not surprise you that things are as they are for you will hear within yourself the cause of the phenomena of life. So that what you are inwardly saying and doing is far more important than what you outwardly know or seemingly outwardly express; so when a man knows what inwardly he is doing then he can change it. If you have never uncritically observed your reactions to life; if you are totally unaware of your subjective behavior, then you are unaware of the cause of the things in your world. But if you become aware of the state, then you simply go about changing it.

Now here is a technique I have found most helpful and I find that it works like a miracle; anyone can do it. I know that some of you here possibly come from extreme orthodox walks of life and it may seem strange to you even to be here, but I assure you you are not alone, many of your leaders in the orthodox field seek an audience with the speaker; many a rabbi has been in my home, many a priest, and many a Protestant leader. Many of them. They come to my home for interpretations of the book that publicly they wouldn’t dare give any interpretation other than the most extreme literal interpretation. So don’t be surprised if you hear things here that might startle you; your leaders are startled; but this is a technique I have found most helpful.

First of all, man stands forever in the presence of an infinite and eternal energy, from which energy all things proceed but it follows definite patterns: it just doesn’t move out of man and crystallize in things in some strange haphazard manner. It follows a definite track and the track it follows is laid down by the man himself in his own internal conversations. So though man is called upon to change his thinking that he may change his world, for we are told “Be ye transformed by the renewal of your mind”, man can’t change his thinking unless he changes his ideas for he thinks from his ideas. So if I would change and become transformed, I must lay new tracks and the tracks I lay are always laid down in my own internal conversation. So what am I saying now when seemingly I am alone? I can sit in that chair, or stand here, or walk the streets and I can’t stop talking. Man does not realize that he is talking, because he is never still enough to listen to the voice speaking within himself, but inwardly he is whispering what outwardly is taking place as conditions and circumstances.

Most of the things he whispers are negative in justifying his behavior. There is no need to justify. He is excusing delay or excusing failure, or he is arguing, or he is judging harshly or he is condemning. Many of us have secret affection for hurts: we don’t want to be liked by certain people; we just wouldn’t like it if they liked us. We just don’t want certain things to take place in our world even though they may bring a greater comfort and a greater satisfaction. Man has a peculiar, strange feeling, a little affection for the feeling of being unwanted or the feeling of being hurt, and he likes to talk about it. Well, try to pull that man out of that habitual state: it would be just as difficult as to keep that soldier boy away from that sordid room; he goes back into the sordid rooms within himself. You don’t see dishes unwashed within your self, but if you could only see the internal psychological state in which most of us abide, we would see a room far dirtier than the one that George Price illustrated in the “New Yorker” magazine. They are all unwashed plates within us: on the outside we wash them but we are told in the Bible, we leave the inside unwashed and we become whited sepulchers.

Now, if I sincerely desire to change my world there is no one in my world I need change but myself, so that I don’t need to change you as an individual but I do need to change my attitude towards you. If you dislike me or if I think you dislike me, or if your behavior offends me, the cause of my offense is not in you and your behavior but I must look for that cause within myself. Now if I seriously and I am honest about my search, I will find it and I will find that inwardly when I think of you it is never a pleasant conversation that I carry on with you. So let me sit down now and bring you before my mind’s eye, and as I bring you before the mind’s eye let me imagine a conversation which would imply a radical change in my world; let me bring you up and change my attitude toward you by laying new tracks relative to you.

These tracks will then become the tracks across which this eternal energy will pour, an energy which is only thinking; moving across the tracks laid down in my own inner conversations will result in changes in my outer world. Now, if I repeat the conversations and do it more often, then it becomes a habit and I will find that when I am about my Father’s business in the outer world I am inwardly through habit carrying on these changed and lovelier conversations. Now, a transformation of consciousness will definitely result in a change of environment and conditions. But I mean transformation of consciousness, I do not mean a slight alteration of consciousness like a change of mood.

It is nice to change a mood from some unlovely to a lovely, but I want a transformation and by transformation I mean that when one state into which I have moved and move so often that it becomes a habit and that state grows stable, so that it expels from my consciousness all of its rivals, then that central habitual state defines my character and really constitutes my new world. It spells out a transformation, but if I only do it a little bit and return to my former state, then I might have had a temporary lift but I will not notice radical changes in my outer world. I will notice these changes in my outer world if inwardly I have truly changed. Then without effort on my part I will find the outer world changing to correspond to the changes that took place within me.

So you bear it in mind, I can’t stress it too often, I can’t give it too great importance, this wonderful thing called man’s ability to talk within himself and without the aid of anyone in the world, sitting alone at home you can construct a sentence which would imply the fulfillment of the ideal; you can construct a sentence which would imply that a friend I blessed that she has realized her objective, that the thing you know she wants she has. So what would she say to you had she realized it? Well, you listen attentively as though you heard and you will really hear if you are still enough you will hear as coming from without what really you are whispering from within yourself.

Man is this wonderful temple in which all the work takes place and the outer world is only a projection of the work done within himself. This, called present man, unfortunately is asleep. It is told us so beautifully in the Bible that Adam slept, in the second chapter of Genesis. He was placed into a profound sleep from which he has not been awakened. There is no reference in the Bible where Adam was ever awakened from his sleep but there is a reference where he awoke but not as Adam; he awoke as a second man called Christ Jesus. So in Christ they awake: in Adam all sleep, but a man who is totally unaware of the mental activity that goes on within him is the one who sleeps as Adam: he doesn’t know it. He walks with his eyes wide open, he may be a very important person in the world, he may be wealthy, he may be famous, he may have all the things that you admire, but if he is totally unaware of that mental activity which is the cause of the phenomena of his life, that man is sound asleep and he is personified as Adam.

And he will read his Bible and think it is a literal story; he will read where Adam was put to sleep and from Adam a rib was taken and a woman was formed called Eve, but when a man begins to awake he realizes that this symbolical Eve of the Bible is only his own emanation now called by the name of nature. And nature is his slave, and must fashion life about him as he fashions it within himself. But if he is asleep, he fashions it in confusion, but he fashions it anyway, for he uses the very technique that his Father used to build a world. He uses speech, he uses inner talking, and that’s how this whole vast world was brought into being; so he uses the same technique, he has speech and he has mind, but in the state of sleep he brings about strange conditions, and he doesn’t know he’s the cause of the strange things round about him. As he begins to awake, then he awakes only as one being, he awakes as Christ Jesus and the being called Christ Jesus personified in our Gospels is simply the awakened, loving imagination.

Imaginative love where only love guides it is incapable of hearing anything but the lovely. When that being begins to awake he doesn’t see things in pure objectivity, he sees everything subjectively related to himself. He is incapable of meeting a stranger; he may meet one for the first time but he knows it is not really a stranger, that the man had no power to come into his world save he from within himself drew him. “No man comes unto me save I call him;” “No man takes away my life, I lay it down myself”: “You didn’t choose me, I have chosen you”. Though you seemingly come now for the first moment in my life, you still didn’t choose me, I have chosen you. I see then every being subjectively related to myself. So in that state you become incapable of hurt, you’ve overcome all the violence that formerly you’ve expressed in the world when you were asleep. There is no condemnation to the sleeping man, he is dreaming confusion because he doesn’t know who he is: but he begins to awake by such techniques as given you this morning.

If you take this technique and you try it consciously, for here I am appealing not to the passive mind that passively surrenders to appearances, I am appealing to the Christ in you which is the active conscious use of your lovely imagination. So when you sit down and you predetermine what you want to hear and you listen until you hear it, and you refuse to hear anything other than that, then you are using the one power in the world that awakens a man and you are using your lovely imagination, which is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Here is a lady this past week; she has heard the story of revision; her husband calls her and it’s a big deal, it runs into a fortune, he had sent off 600 feet of film to Acme and they’ve returned the film, only the first 300 were good. The second three were duds, as they call it, not a thing was on it, a complete blank. Yet they were up against time, that 600 feet of film had to be on a plane headed for Chicago in the immediate present, less than twelve hours away, it had to be there, that was the contract, and 300 feet of film taken, no sound appeared, with the whole thing a blank.

She sat down when her husband called her, desperately called her: she sat on the bed just where she had received the call, put the receiver up, and sat in the silence until she heard within herself that phone ringing and across that wire the same voice, but now not an anxious voice but a tender loving voice, which was her husband, explaining that the whole thing had been resolved, they had found what seemingly they had lost forever. She sat in the silence for one hour and ten minutes, and there she listened and she listened until her whole body became still in hearing only what she wanted to hear. And an hour and ten minutes later while still in the silence the phone rang; it’s her husband calling to say that Acme just called him to explain and excuse themselves, it was their mistake, they had found the missing 300 feet of film. And there was not a dud, it wasn’t a blank, the whole thing was perfect.

Now the average person, not ,knowing this law of revision or even those knowing it, would have accepted as final the evidence of sense and receiving news that seemed so factual they would have gone into a stew, bawled out Acme and pulled all kinds of wires to correct it. But she heard and she acted upon it, and that’s what I mean when I tell you that a little knowledge if you carry it out in action will be far more profitable than much knowledge which you neglect to carry out in action; now many of you present and this is no judgment, you have the same knowledge that this lady has; she’s been coming here recently but she heard, she attended all the meetings at the Ebell, and she’s been here; undoubtedly she’s here this morning, but at least she came the first two Sundays and she hasn’t missed one at the Ebell, and having heard the art of revision, she acted upon it.

Others heard the art of revision: have you acted upon it? Did you last night allow the sun to descend upon your wrath? Did you sleep last night with any trouble, any vexation unresolved? Or did you last night truly go to bed having resolved every vexation and trouble of the day? All the little problems, each one must be resolved, you rewrite the play. If you didn’t rewrite yesterday’s events and make them conform to the ideal you wish you had experienced, then you heard but you aren’t a doer. And so you are told in the Bible, “Would that ye be doers of the word and not mere hearers only.” For if you are a hearer and not a doer, then you are like a man who sees his face in the glass and turns and straightway forgets what manner of man he is. But if you are a doer and not a forgetful hearer, then you shall be blessed with the deed, for you will look into the law of liberty and you will liberate yourself and liberating yourself you shall be blessed with the deed.

For those of you who are Bible students and want to check it, read the Book of James. You will find that story in the first chapter of the Epistle of James, where he looks in and liberates himself–well she liberated herself by listening until she heard exactly what she wanted to hear, and she heard it one hour and ten minutes later. Now the majority of people I say they would not have acted upon it: through habit they would have gone into a stew; they would have fumed and fretted, and that very day had he brought home the negative news that undoubtedly he would have, they both would have slept allowing the sun to descend upon their wrath.

But now you know that there’s not a thing on the outside to change, that first proposition is true, that the man’s state of consciousness, which simply means all that he accepts, all that he believes, all that he consents to, that and that alone is the cause of the phenomena of his life. Man can change his state of consciousness and therefore man can determine the conditions of his life. But the passage of time will not in itself do anything; time is only a facility for changes in experience but it cannot produce the change. It is simply that which allows changes to take place, but it can’t produce them. Space gives us the facility for experience and time for changes in experience, but of themselves they do nothing. We must operate the power, and so the individual if he doesn’t become the operator then he will wait in vain.

So no one here this morning, in fact no one coming here through the year should ever allow himself to blame another, ever allow himself to justify failure, for he is only betraying his own lack of the use of this law. Anyone that you listen to who is complaining of a third party, he has no idea how he is betraying himself, he is telling you of his own unwashed dishes within himself, but he doesn’t know it. He thinks it is in the one that he is now judging, but as he talks to you listen attentively and see what must be washed within him and you aid him.
In your own mind’s eye rewrite that script that you heard and when you leave him just imagine you heard a more lovely conversation than the one you did hear. Just rewrite it for him and in some strange way lift him up within you, for that’s your task; it’s my task.

We aren’t here to condemn, we are here to redeem; having awakened we have found Christ in us as our own imagination and so our duty, as it is said Christ’s duty is to do the will of him that sent me and the will of him that sent me is that “Of all that he has given me I should lose nothing”, but I shall raise it up again and I raise it up by encountering someone and then finding him down I raise him up ‘within myself ‘. I simply hear what I want to hear from him. Now my voice you are hearing this morning, you could take the tone, listen attentively and you will hear this tone within you; when you hear the tone within you, then put upon that tone the word that you want to hear and having put it upon it, listen and do not move until you hear this tone conveying these words. But make them noble; don’t take that tone and put upon it any word outside of the word which would imply a dignified, noble state, because you are not hurting anyone but self. If you take someone and you put words upon that tone or that voice, and the words do not imply a noble spirit, then you are only allowing that being to be down within you, you are not really performing your duty.

So here this morning, believe these propositions and then having believed them, do something about it. Go out and take what we have told you concerning inner speech: it is truly the greatest of the arts. You listen and only hear what you want to hear. You take your imaginary hand and put it into the hand of a friend, the imaginary hand of a friend, and there you congratulate him on his good fortune. If you want one to congratulate you, you allow yourself to be congratulated. You don’t bend the head, you hold it high and accept the congratulation, and when you congratulate him imagine that he is fully conscious of the good that is already his and he accepts that congratulation and make the contact real.

That is truly entering the kingdom of heaven, for you enter the kingdom and the kingdom is within you, it’s not without, and you always enter the kingdom by a loving, knowing communion. You can enter the kingdom at every moment of time, ride the street car, ride the busses, and with all the talking and gossiping, you can enter the kingdom and bless a friend by just imagining the friend is with you and you are putting your hand into his and congratulating him on the good news you’ve heard concerning him, and listen as though he answered in kind, and in that moment you have actually blessed him. He may be a thousand miles away but from that moment on things begin to stir within his world for you have brought about a change within the structure of his mind and every modification of the structure of a man’s mind must result in corresponding outer changes.

So you bring about these lovely changes within you. Look at the testimonial–one you heard this morning; here is a pile of letters and this is really a tight, tight pile. It is one of the biggest piles I think that you have received here and this week’s mail I can’t begin to tell you what a thrill it is to receive, one after the other not begging for help any more but giving praise and thanks for the principle that brought the help into their world. I can’t tell you how many in the last two weeks have received an increase in income, increase of position, a better state of health; things happened because they did something about it. They were not just warming a seat here on Sunday morning and waiting for things to happen by association: they produced the thing by producing it first within themselves.

So here this appeals to men who are big enough to stand on their own feet: men who want spiritual meat and who have outgrown the milk given to sleeping man. So if you want the literal concept, you are still asleep and this really would not be the place to get it, for from this platform you are going to be given meat, spiritual meat, for you must go out and do something about it. If you have the greatest knowledge in the world concerning foods and you didn’t eat, you would die of starvation, and so it’s not the knowledge of it, it’s the application of it that counts.

Now this coming week, we start tomorrow, and it’s an interesting one for those who like their Bible, those who would like to put their mental teeth into it tonight and come tomorrow night with some intuitive knowledge of it, it’s the 49th chapter of Genesis; you’ll find many of them I’ll quote tomorrow, but in the 49th of Genesis here is what it says. First of all he calls his sons together to tell them their future and there are twelve of them. It’s Jacob calling his sons, but the fifth one, when he calls the fifth one, he tells him the scepter shall never drop, shall never depart from your hand, never, not in eternity. His name is Judah, the one that fathered the line that flowered in Christ Jesus, when you read the genealogy as given to us in Matthew and Luke.

Then it said of Judah that he took his foal and he tied it to a vine and he took the colt of an ass and tied it to a good vine, and then he washed his garments in wine and he washed his clothes in the blood of grapes. And his eye was red with wine and his teeth white with milk. Well now, those of you who still would like to read that literally, you may get some satisfaction out of washing your clothes in wine–I don’t, I’d rather drink it, but some wash theirs in the blood of grapes and then the teeth white with milk and the eye bloodshot with wine. Well now, that was the one who fathered out of Thamar the twins that brought forth the line that flowered in Christ Jesus. So go back and read the genealogy of Judah and then see what Judah did and how he took two animals, one was a foal and one was a colt.

Now I won’t tell you the interpretation: you exercise your intuitive faculty and you come tomorrow night and you hear what we have to say about the amethyst, or the wine stone: how a man must make the amethyst, how a man must take his garments, a thing that clothes the mind of man and wash them in the blood of grapes, how a man not only must do it but his eye must become equally bloodshot with wine and his teeth white with milk. And we will show you tomorrow night why they placed upon him the scarlet robe and then placed upon him the most mystical of all–the purple robe; so as they placed them up to the very final act was the placing of the purple robe upon the man who had awakened, who is now ready to ascend on high, to higher levels within himself.

But you can’t ascend until you first make the purple robe and although we have orders in this world who have scarlet robes and purple robes, no man can make it for you. And so it cannot be woven in any factory, it has to be woven from the factory within yourself. So tomorrow night for those who are vitally interested in going deeper into the mysteries our subject is “The Twelfth, an Amethyst”. The very last act of a man, the twelfth, for there are only twelve, then comes the most, I would say, the least precious of all stones in the eyes of man, but in the eye of God it’s the most precious and it’s not the little thing you find among the stones, it’s the one you find within yourself. So that is tomorrow’s subject.

WALK BY FAITH

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 11-06-1967

Blake asked the question: “Why is it that the Bible is more entertaining and instructive than any other book? Is it not because it is addressed to the Imagination, which is spiritual sensation, and only immediately to the understanding, or reason?”

The one book, called the Bible, is composed of sixty-six books. Take this challenge. Read each book as though the depth of your soul is speaking to your surface mind. As though the ineffable Imagination is speaking to the human Imagination, and not to your immediate understanding or reasoning mind.

Let us examine this thought. In his 2nd letter to the Corinthians Paul says: “We walk by faith and not by sight.” When we walk by sight, we know our way by objects that the eye sees. But Paul tells us to order our life by objects seen only in the imagination. In other words, when you know where you want to go and what you want to be, you are told not to rearrange your physical structure, but to walk by faith, viewing only the rearranged structure of your mind. And if you will remain faithful to that state of consciousness, what is seen only in your imagination will objectify itself in your world.

Paul now adds another observation, saying: “This one thing I do. Forgetting what lies behind, I strain forward to what lies ahead.” Paul’s goal was the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, but you need not have such a goal. Your desire could be a successful business. Now, everything begins in the imagination, for man is all imagination and God is man. God and man differ only in the degree of imagination’s intensity. Now keyed low, man walks by sight or by faith in his human imagination. Walking by sight is easier, because buildings rarely move. But when you walk by faith, the objects in your mind’s eye must remain as stable as those of the physical eye.

My brother Victor wanted to be a successful business man, and he knew how to remain faithful to what he imagined. In 1924, when our family didn’t have a cent, Victor rearranged the name on a building (in his mind’s eye) to imply we owned it. This he did for two years, when – without any more money than when he started imagining – a casual acquaintance purchased the building for us without collateral for $50,000. Eight years ago we sold the building to a bank for $850,000, and there is no capital gains tax in Barbados!

Walking by faith, every day as Victor passed that building, he saw “J. C. Goddard and Sons” on the marquee in place of the existing name of “I. N. Roach & Company”. Sight told him the building belonged to another, but faith said the building was his. By simply rearranging the structure of his mind every day for two years, our family’s fortune changed.

Now, we are told: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for; the conviction of things not seen, so that what is seen was made out of things that do not appear.” (Hebrews 11) Only my brother Victor saw his mental act. Others saw the sign, “J. N. Roach & Company” – by sight, but Victor saw the words, “J.C. Goddard & Sons” – by faith.

Someone once asked Blake what he saw when he looked at the sun, and he replied, “I see a host of angels singing, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.”‘ We can all see the same tree but see it differently, just as we can the same man. One may see him in need, while another sees him gainfully employed, both using the same power. You have the power to either live by faith or by sight. If you live by sight, accepting everything that happens, you remain an automaton, unable to change the conditions and events in your world. Only as you begin to live by faith will your life change.

Paul tells us that no matter what he has done or did not do, he puts it behind him and stretches forward towards what lies ahead. Paul’s ideal was to be called to the highest point of God. I hope this is your ideal, too, but perhaps it is not. Maybe other things are pressing upon you, such as the need for money. If so, make that your objective, but use the same technique.

Put the past behind you. Do not look back and become like Lot’s wife who turned into a pillar of salt – which is a preservative. You always put what you want to preserve in brine. If you turn back and dwell upon the state you want to leave behind, you have placed it in brine and will become it once more. But if you will turn your back upon the past regardless of what you have or have not done, and stretch forward to what you want to be or do and remain faithful to your desire – nothing can stop you from achieving it. You will become the man you assume you are, if you persist in the assumption that you are already there!

Like Blake, I have found the Bible most entertaining, challenging, and instructive. It is not an easy book to read, however. If it were, it would not be worth my care, for as the ancients discovered, that which is not too explicit is fittest for instruction, as it rouses the faculties to act.

Take this simple statement in Hebrews: “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son who reflects the glory of God and bears the stamp of his nature.”

The prophets, instruments through which God spoke, recorded their visions of what God intended, saying: “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows forth his handiwork.” (Psalms 18 & 19) But in the last days God speaks to us by his son, David. This is a fantastic revelation, for in the end God is going to reveal himself.

I could tell you until the ends of time that you are He, but only David can make you believe it. I’ll tell you why. Many people, like Bishop Pike, question the authority of scripture; but it will never be questioned after it is experienced.

In the Book of Revelation, Jesus Christ is called “the word of God”. And in the Book of John he declares his word is truth. May I tell you: only when a truth is experienced can it be known. I know what I have experienced is true. You have heard my words and believe me, but you will not know their truth to the degree that I do until they are experienced.

I have told you how my brother walked by faith rather than by sight, and created a fabulous business in the islands. Sight told him he didn’t have a penny to his name. But in faith he began to alter his life by that which only his imagination could see. Your sight registers what is before you right now. If you do not like it, you have an “I” within that is Christ in you. He is the power of imagination which, through faith, can change your life.

As the operant power of your imagination, you can tell where you are going and what you are doing by watching your thoughts. If certain events in your past are unlovely and you remember them, you are ordering their experience. But if you turn your back on the past by forgetting what lies behind and stretch forward to what lies ahead, you will order your conversations aright and become what you behold. This truth will never be disproved, but you are its operant power and must live by it. You need nothing on the outside, but can start just where you are; but you must walk in the direction you set up in your imagination.

Ask yourself this simple question: What would it be like if it were true that I am now the person I want to be? Then reach for its feeling, its spiritual sensation. What is that? I’ll show you in a very simple way. Feel a piece of glass, now feel a baseball. Does the baseball feel like glass? Can you feel a tennis ball? Does it feel like a baseball or a piece of glass? Can you feel a piece of cloth, a violet, a piano? Do they all feel alike? Of course not. That’s spiritual sensation – a vivid way of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling reality.

A few years ago I gave a similar lecture in New York City and a lady in my audience decided to test me. While sitting in her chair she embraced a large bunch of roses. She smelled them, felt their velvety petals, and saw their beauty in her mind’s eye. Then, breaking the silence she left my meeting and returned to her hotel room at the Waldorf Astoria.

The next day the queen mother, Queen Elizabeth, was given a party at the Waldorf Astoria, with two thousand people in attendance. After the reception the maitre d’, not wanting to discard the flowers there, instructed his men to take three dozen roses up to this lady’s room. And when she came home that evening, all she could smell were those lovely roses. She had embraced and lost herself in the feeling of the possession of beautiful roses. She walked by faith and not by sight, and the next day her room was filled with the heavenly aroma of roses.

Now, perhaps because of its memory, you find yourself continuing to look back at what you were (and are) and not ahead into what you want to be. If you will order your conversations aright, right now, their truth will happen in the simplest way.

A seamstress and dress designer I know wanted more money. Using her imagination, she held an envelope in her hand and listened to the paper tear as she opened it. Shaking the contents out, she counted the money to the very penny. This she did for seven nights. On the eighth day, a lady called, offering her a job which paid her, to the penny, what she had imagined. Do you know – that lady could have counted out much more and she would have received it, but she was quite satisfied with the amount she had imagined.

Now, if there is evidence for a thing, does it matter what the world thinks? Could you ever take this lady’s experience from her? No! The truth, experienced by her parallels scripture, for all things are possible to one who believes. How did this lady believe what she was imagining? She did it by bringing forth all of her senses to bear upon this event. Using her sense of hearing, she heard the paper tear. Shaking the contents of the envelope, she heard the money fall on the table. She felt the envelope and saw the bills inside. Do you know, money has an odor unlike anything else? So you can smell money. She determined what she would do if she had the money and she did it.

Another lady went to Sterns Department Store in New York City, saying to herself: “Neville says I can have anything I want if I will imagine and believe in my imaginal act.” Having no money, this lady walked over to the hat department, took off her hat and tried on a new one. Walking around the area, she admired herself in front of all the mirrors, but when she returned, her hat was gone. When she described it to the sales lady, she learned that her hat had been sold! The section manager was called in, and he told her to take any hat she wanted, compliments of Sterns. She liked the one she had been wearing, so she left the store with her new hat on her head, and she hadn’t paid a dime for it.

Here is another story of a similar nature. This lady’s profession was that of being a lady of the evening. She attended all of my meetings, and one day she said to me; “You know, Neville, the strangest thing happened. You told me that I could have anything I wanted if I simply imagined it.

One day I saw a beautiful hat in the window of a department store on Broadway. It was $18, but I loved it so I imagined wearing the hat. As I walked up the street I kept looking at my reflection in the shop windows, seeing that hat on my head. Arriving home, I imagined placing the new hat in the closet instead of my old one. Every day, for the next week or ten days, as I put on my old hat, I imagined it was the new one. Then one day a friend called and asked me to come see her. While there, she brought out a hat box and said; ‘I must have been insane when I bought this hat. I wouldn’t wear it to a dog fight; yet strangely enough I feel it would look lovely on you.’ She opened the box and brought out, not a hat, but the hat, the very hat I had seen in the window and worn in my imagination.” Then she asked: “Neville, why didn’t God give me the money to buy the hat myself, instead of giving it to me in this manner?”

Knowing her profession, I said, “Ann, do you owe any rent?” and she replied, “Yes, two weeks.” “What do you pay, about $17.50 per week?” “Yes.” “So you owe $35. What price hats do you usually buy? Three or four dollar ones? Have you ever bought a $17 hat?” “Never.” “Then tell me honestly. If, when you were looking at the hat, you had seen a $100 bill on the ground, would you have brought the hat?” She said “No.” Then I said, “No matter how much money God might have given you, you still would not have bought the hat, so someone else had to buy it for you, and they did.”

I have bought clothes, brought them home, and wondered what possessed me to buy them. I did it because someone was treading in the winepress elsewhere. Someone imagined a suit of clothes, so I went to my tailor, chose the cloth, and paid for the suit. But when I brought it home, my wife wouldn’t let me bring it into the house. Then a friend who wanted something just like it contacted me and got the suit. He was treading the winepress while I paid for the suit.

Believe me, imagination is spiritual sensation. It is a vivid sight, a vivid sound. When Beethoven went deaf, all sound to the outer ear came to its end. Then Beethoven began to hear with the inner ear and wrote all of the beautiful music we so enjoy.

You can now think of someone you love and hear him speak. If you can’t hear him, use one of your other spiritual senses. A touch, a sound, a sight, or an odor will do. I know in New York City, years ago, as I walked through Harlem, I smelled the odor of cooking that instantly took me to Barbados. Although I was physically in Harlem, my sense of smell told me I was 2000 miles away in Barbados.

You can remember a sound, a touch, a sight, and put yourself any place. Like Paul, learn to walk by faith and not by sight. Forget what lies behind and stretch forward to what lies ahead. In the third chapter of Philippians, Paul names his desire as the calling of God in Christ Jesus, but it need not be yours.

I urge you to try this, for your life is forever. Nothing dies. The little rose that blooms once blooms forever, for nothing passes away. If a loved one ceases to be in this little sphere he doesn’t die, but is instantly restored to life to carry on his wonderful journey in this age until that moment in time when God speaks to him through his Son, who calls him Father. Only then will he know he is the author of his world. Then his journey will be over, and when he takes off his little garment it will be for the last time.

Paul tells us in Philippians; “I desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is better by far, but it is more necessary that I remain in the flesh on your account.” Paul longed to depart and be one with God the Father, but he knew it was necessary for him to remain in the flesh and continue his instruction, just as I do.

Take my words to heart and achieve your every desire. Learn to walk by faith and not by sight and, like Paul, turn your back upon everything you have ever accomplished and go forward – by faith – towards the goal you have set for yourself. Knowing what you would see if your goal were reached, how you would feel if you were there, what you would do now if it were true? Walk in that state and you will achieve it.

Now let us go into the silence.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 10-30-1967

Many 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.

WHAT IS TRUTH?

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 03-31-1968

Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism, the fulfillment of all that was prophesied in the Old Testament. This week the Christian world celebrates Passover, the triumphal march into Jerusalem – the trial, the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. Let me share these events with you as they are seen through the eyes of one who has experienced them.

In the 18th chapter of the Book of John, Pilate said: “So you are a king?” and Jesus replied: “You say that I am, but my kingdom is not of this world. For this I was born. For this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth.” Then Pilate asked: “What is truth?” and when there was no response, Pilate left, saying: “I find nothing in this man worth condemnation.” Having already claimed: I am the truth, and my word is truth, here we find Jesus making the claim: I came to bear witness to the truth.

Peter tells us that “The prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired concerning this salvation. They inquired what person or time was indicated by the spirit of Christ in them, when predicting the suffering of Christ and the subsequent glory. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you.”

The prophets were doing a work, the full import of which was in the promise. They were conditioned to hear – and quite often to see – the word of God. Although they recorded what they heard, they did not understand the writing. Daniel declared: “I heard but did not understand.” Then he was told to “Shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end.” The time when the word, embodied in flesh, unfolds in a man who – having broken the seal – interprets the written word from experience. He came into the world and the world knew him not. Even today the word is still misunderstood.

Hundreds of millions of Christians will go to church this coming Friday and the following Sunday, to proclaim Christ has risen; yet they do not know the Word. But when he who is sent by love enters the world, he finds a small group who will accept his words. From that group, an even smaller group will understand him to the point of complete acceptance.
Scripture is completely misunderstood and can be interpreted only by one who is called, incorporated into the body of love, and sent back into this world of death to await that moment in time when the word unfolds from within. And when he tells his experiences, the multitude cannot believe him, for it is not what they were taught; yet, having become an eyewitness, he can no longer say “I think”, or “I believe,” as our theologians do. His is an assured “I know!” To believe in something is marvelous, but it cannot be known until it is experienced.

Many years ago I was a dancer in New York City. One day I took a taxi from rehearsal to my hotel. When we arrived, the driver claimed I had broken the glass when I slammed the door, and asked me to pay for it. I knew I had not broken any glass and suspected he had been collecting $8 from every fare all through the day, so I did not pay him other than what the meter read, plus a generous tip. A short time after I had retired to my room, the phone rang, and the operator said that there was a policeman in the lobby who wanted to see me. When we met, he asked me about the broken glass, and I told him I had not done it. It was the dinner hour, so I was asked to go with him to the night court. This I did, and when the driver was asked if he knew I had broken the glass and he said: I think he did – the case was dismissed. He thought I did it and maybe he believed it, but he did not know! One must have an assured I know, which can only be obtained from experience.

I stand before you knowing the truth, and it is not as it will be re-enacted this coming week in all of the Christian churches of the world. Christ in you is your hope of glory. One day – like a tree – that living word will bloom in you and bear its visionary fruit, all related to the Old Testament.

The only Bible that the early Christians had was the Old Testament. Those who wrote the New Testament were called “the people of the way”. Do you know who they were? Jews! Although the unknown authors of the books Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were Jews, they did not confess that they were, like Paul did. Paul’s 13 letters, which form the bulk of the New Testament, came first. It was he who said; “I am a Jew, a child of Abraham of the tribe of Jacob.” Paul never denied his Jewish ancestry, yet he laid the foundation of the Christian faith. Man forgets this, and thinks the Old and New Testaments represent two religions; but there is only one religion, whose foundation is Judaism and fulfillment (like the fruit appearing on a tree) is Christianity.

This is the greatest story that has ever been told. The crucifixion is over. I know, for I remember when I – a whirling vortex – crucified myself upon this body called Neville at six points: the hands, the feet, the head, and the right side. The Word of God, who is God, is nailed to your body by whirling vortices. This is the same Word who was in the beginning with God and was God. There was meaning in that Word, a plan, and a purpose, which was revealed to you before the world began. This is not some emergency thinking on the part of God; he chose us in him before that the world was!

Christ is in us, crucified on our body. He became a slave that your body may be alive, and he will wear that body until he awakens. The body you now wear can be cremated and therefore gone from the mortal eye; yet you, its wearer, are still very much alive, continuing your act of slavery in a body just like the one you now wear. In my own case, however, I will not wear a body of death any longer; for the Word has erupted within me. I know scripture is true from beginning to end, for I have experienced it. I also know that those in whom it has not erupted will find themselves restored to life.

If our late president Eisenhower has not had the Word unfold within him, even though he was the president of our great country, he has been restored to life as a young man, about 20 years of age. He will be in a terrestrial world like this one, in an environment best suited to his needs, to continue the work that was started in him by the son of God, who is his ancestral self.

When I speak of the son of God, I am referring to man’s true being. No child enters this world unless a son of God – who is his ancestral self – supports him by dreaming him into being. And everyone who leaves this section of time moves into another section of time automatically, until his ancestral self awakens.

The only purpose of life is to bear witness to the truth of the Old Testament, which is the word of God. God’s word has erupted in me. Having fulfilled the prophecy of the Old Testament, I bear witness to its truth. The Old Testament is the prophecy, but dead until it erupts. Then the individual within whom it erupts becomes Jesus, the Spirit of prophecy. Men have speculated on the meaning of the Old Testament, and will believe their speculations from now until the ends of time; but they will not know the truth until it erupts within them. You may trust one in whom it has happened. You may believe he is telling the truth and adjust your thinking to conform to his words; but you cannot know their truth until you individually experience it. To believe the words of another are true is not good enough. The judge will throw out the case unless the witness can say, I know! For it happened in me!

This week the trial, the crucifixion, burial, and death of God’s creative power will be celebrated – but not the other side of the coin of resurrection, which is the birth. Christianity is an Easter religion. Without resurrection, Christianity would just be another little ism. The world is full of little isms and they are all helpful. Being psychological, they encourage positive thinking, telling you how to assume a certain attitude of mind and live a freer, healthier, more wonderful life. But when it comes to truth, Christianity is the religion of Easter, the religion of rising from the world of death and entering the world of life, called the kingdom of heaven. It is the story of the salvation of the gods who came down.

In the Book of Deuteronomy we are told that bounds have been set to the peoples of the earth according to the number of the sons of God. A child could not know life here, were it not for his ancestral self, who is one of the Sons of God who fell as one Man. Containing all men within the one, all will return to that one Man – but each in his own good time. No one can tell when that hour will come. You may long for it, but you cannot force its coming.

While on the cross, Jesus said: “I thirst.” You may think he is thirsting for water, but his thirst was caused by the famine which is sent upon the land. It is not a hunger for bread or a thirst for water, but for the hearing of the word of God. Thirsting, they gave him vinegar, in the fulfillment of the 69th Psalm, “…for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” Having come into the world only to bear witness to the truth, I know God’s word is truth! When his word becomes alive in you, the Old Testament will erupt like a seed, and you will know the truth of scripture from experience. Then you will tell the world, who will receive you not, because they will know your physical background and not the Word of God who unfolded within you. Only one who has fulfilled the Word can interpret scripture. The prophets wrote it, but they could not understand their writing. The scribes – not understanding – lived by the external word; but experience brings the internal Word to match the external one.

It is said that two different persons must agree in testimony for the testimony to be conclusive. The two can be the external word of scripture, and the internal Word unfolding within the individual. If they agree, their testimony is conclusive.

When he said: “For this I was born,” he was not speaking of a physical birth, but of a spiritual one; for unless you are born from above, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Man, born into the world of Caesar, lives with reason and logic. To him one must be born as an offspring from the womb of a woman; yet Jesus is speaking of an entirely different birth – the birth of Spirit, which comes from above, and not the birth of flesh, which comes from below.

His statement continues, “For this I came into the world.” This is true, for the Word became flesh, as you and I, and now dwells within us. “He is clothed in a robe drenched in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.” Is not the body you now wear drenched in blood? Our Cardinals wear red robes and call themselves princes of the church, but that is not the robe spoken of here. Every child born of woman wears the red robe as his body of flesh and blood. Incarnating himself, the Word is made flesh and dwells in us all.

You are the incarnated Word of God, who at one moment in time will be called. Your name, already written in the Book of Life, will be checked off; and you will be incorporated into the living body of love, which is God’s most radiant form. In that instant you become one with that same body, that same Spirit, that same Lord, that one God and Father of all.
As Love, yet wearing a body of power, you will be sent back into the world to wait your time of thirty years. While here, you will do all of the normal things you did before. You will make mistakes, you will laugh and cry, and then suddenly scripture will erupt from within, and you will find yourself compelled to tell your experiences to all who will listen. But because it is not what tradition teaches, many will turn their back and walk away, unable to believe what they cannot comprehend.

This Friday, many will spend three hours celebrating an event which took place in me in the matter of moments; for I remember the night memory returned, and I reenacted the 42nd Psalm. I remember when I walked in procession to the house of God, when a voice rang out saying: “And God walks with them.” A woman questioned the voice, saying: “If God walks with us, where is he?” and the voice replied: “At yours side.” Turning to her right, she looked into my eyes and laughed, because she saw a man she knew was weak and frail, a man who could succumb to temptation. Her question: “What? Neville is God?” was answered: “Yes, in the act of waking.” Then the voice spoke to me from the depth of my soul, and said: “I laid myself down within you to sleep, and as I slept I dreamed a dream… Suddenly I knew exactly what he was dreaming, for in a split second I felt myself become vortices, as I penetrated my hands, my feet, my head, and the right side of my body. I felt the six points of the Mogen David, the Star of David, experiencing an ecstasy greater than my wildest dreams. Now I know the crucifixion happened on the night of the triumphal journey into Jerusalem. Tradition is correct in keeping it in the same time slot, but they do not tell the story correctly.

In the Book of Acts, we find this quote from Deuteronomy: “Cursed be anyone who hangs upon a tree.” The crucifixion took place upon the tree of life, in Man, and not on any wooden tree. Blake tells us so beautifully:

“The gods of the earth and sea
Sought through nature to find this tree.
But their search was all in vain;
There grows one in the human brain.”

Look at a picture of the human body with the skin removed, and you will see all of the veins and arteries rooted in the brain and turned down into generation. That is the tree spoken of in the Book of Daniel. It was felled, stripped of its leaves, and its fruit was scattered. The root, however, was not to be interfered with. After seven times pass over, and the one who was felled knows that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will, the tree is reversed; and its energy will move from generation to regeneration, as it bursts into bloom and bears its glorious fruit.

In that crucified state we fell and crucified ourselves on the living tree, which was felled. Its root is the human imagination, which will awaken in the holy sepulcher, where the drama began. You see, it is there that God entered death’s door and lay down in the grave of man to dream the dream of life. It is there that He will awaken. It is there that He will come out and look back upon that which contained him that body of a slave.
Then all of the imagery of his birth from above will appear, so that He can make the statement: “For this I was born; for this I came into the world: to bear witness to the truth. Thy Word is truth.” The written word is a sealed book of which I, the living Word, interpret through experience.

True scriptural interpretation can never be gained through learning. Knowledge must be obtained from experience. Learning may cause you to think it is true; but you can only know scriptural truth through experience. When the story of Christianity has fulfilled itself in you, you do not have to believe in the Christian faith – you know it is true! And Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism. It is man’s departure from this world of death and his entrance into the world of life! After the Word has erupted in you, you will wear a garment of death no more.

No one ever really dies, because the immortal Word is in him. A friend may appear to die, but he does not. He is instantly restored as a living being without change of identity, where he will continue his journey until God’s word becomes activated and lives in him. And when it does, he becomes a witness to the written word of scripture.

The Word doesn’t come to change Caesar’s world. It is the Risen Word who says: Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s. If Caesar wants taxes, give them to him. If you desire things in Caesar’s world, assume you have them and Caesar will be satisfied, for you will have them. You can always meet Caesar’s demands. If he wants something else; don’t quarrel with him, simply assume he has it. You don’t change Caesar, for he is just as much a slave as you are. Whether he be a king or a Pope, man is still a slave to the body he wears, and cannot compel anyone to digest, assimilate, or eliminate, for him. He has to do it all by himself. And when he dies to this world, he is restored to find himself in a body that is just as much a slave as this one.

Those who have gone beyond are now performing the normal, natural functions of the body. There is sex there, hate, and love – just as here. It’s the same world, for your life does not terminate at the point where your senses cease to register it. Like a play on Broadway, you may leave the stage, but you remain the actor. Having left the stage, you are no longer seen by the actors who remain there; but your identity does not change. It goes on forever.

The drama is concentrated this week; but the truth is not being told, as man finds it easier to see thought in picture form. But in the story of salvation – Jesus Christ – is publicly portrayed as crucified. The portrayal began in the spirit! It never existed in the flesh. Haven’t you gone to the theater and become so carried away with the acting that you forgot the message the actor was trying to portray? Many a play is not just for amusement, but to educate. Such is the story of salvation. It is the greatest play that was ever conceived, but man has fallen in love with the husk, because he does not know the kernel. That is why Paul made the statement:” 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 that you have turned from the spirit to the flesh? From now on regard no one after the flesh, even though I once regarded Christ from the human point of view, I regard him thus no longer.

This week Christians will celebrate a physical death, and Christ is not and never was a physical being. They will celebrate the ascension of an individual, yet Christ is universal. The Cosmic Christ is buried in every child born of woman. And that Cosmic Christ is represented by the sons of God, who altogether form the Lord God Jehovah. Every child possesses an ancestral self, who is an individualized son of God, who will awaken to reveal the true identity of that child. Right now your ancestral self is individualized as you. And one day you, too, will know who you are. No one on earth knows your true identify; but you will know it, for you will return to your ancestral self that was – and still is – one of the sons of God. The word elohim is a compound unity of one made up of others. We are the elohiym [pron. e-lo-HEEM] which form YAD HE VAU HE [pron. “YOD HEY VAV HEY”], the lord. Not one of us can be absent, for it takes all of us to make the whole.

Remember: Jesus Christ is not a little man, but the Cosmic Christ who dwells in you and will erupt in you, causing you to return to the one body, the one Spirit, the one Lord, the one God and Father of all. I am telling you what I know is truth. Our theologians recite creeds. They share their knowledge as to what they have learned and thereby believe; but they cannot tell you what they know until they have the experience. I tell you that you are God the Father; but you will never know it until you meet your one and only begotten son, whose name is David. You cannot come into the knowledge that you are God the Father except by him. “No one knows who the Father is except the son, and no one knows who the son is except the Father.” When the living word begins to unfold, the Son you have been searching for throughout eternity will appear. Then you will know the truth and these words will become yours, “For this I was born. For this I came into the world: to bear witness to the truth!”

When the personification of reason asked: What is truth? the personification of truth did not answer. How can truth make reason understand the true knowledge of God? In his 17th chapter John said: “This is eternal life, to know thee the only true God.” The world has as many gods as there are stars in the sky. They have brought truth down into many isms; but to have eternal life, you must know the only true God. The evangelist, John, then added the words: “and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.”

There is only one pattern, only one path, which will lead you to sacred history -which is the same forever and ever. There is nothing accurate, however, about secular history. Two accounts of a little section of the last world war differ from each other. Eisenhower’s son wrote a book about his father’s experience, and Mr. Montgomery – General Eisenhower’s right-hand man – wrote about the same experience, yet they are entirely different.

There is never any need to add to or take away from the Word of God. If, at the present time you do not understand it, just leave it as it is, for the day will come when you will. On that day the Living Word will unfold in you and interpret the written word, and you won’t have to add to it or change it in any way. Scholars without vision have tried to change the word to make it conform to what they think, but do not know! As Paul said to the Galatians: “I notice you observe weeks, months, seasons, and years. I’m afraid I have labored over you in vain.” There are not special weeks, months, seasons, or years; for you awakening can happen at any moment in time. The crucifixion began before that the world was, while Easter comes when the age of Caesar has reached its end. Resurrection is one side of the coin of Easter, with your birth from above as the other.

God sent his Word into your mind. That Word cannot return to him void, but must accomplish that which God purposed, and prosper in the thing for which it was sent. You will return claiming: “I have finished the work thou gavest me to do.” God gave you only one thing to do, and that is to testify to the truth of his Word. You did not come here to make a lot of money, leave your name in granite, or your face carved on a mountainside. You did not come to change, judge, or condemn anything. Leave the world just as it is, for God planned everything as it has come out and as it will be consummated. Simply set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you, for you have come to bear witness to the truth. Nothing else! God’s Word is truth, so you have come to fulfill scripture.

Now let us go into the silence.

WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 12-13-1963

Where are you from? This you will find in the 19th chapter of the Book of John. And the rabbi said to Pilate: We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die, for he claims he is the Son of God. And their law would not allow that, for we know where this man is from, know all about him; and when Messiah appears no one will know where he is from. So his claim is false. When Messiah appears it will be mysteriously done. And yet we know exactly where this man is from. Even his own brothers do not believe in him. And he said to his brothers, My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. And then he repeated it, but qualified it: My time has not yet fully come. He knew his time. He is speaking of two entirely different times, two entirely different worlds, two different ages. So: My time has not yet fully come, but your time is always here. But my time had not yet fully come.

So Pilate said to him: Where are you from? And Jesus gave no answer. Pilate said to him: You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have the power to set you free and power to crucify? And Jesus answered him: You would have no power over me unless it had been given to you from above; therefore he who delivered me to you has the greater sin. He does not answer Pilate’s first question, but he corrects Pilate’s misunderstanding of power. He does not answer: Where are you from? He doesn’t answer him because Pilate would never understand; and he corrects Pilate’s misunderstanding – which is the world’s misunderstanding – of power. Pilate thought he had the power to set him free or to crucify him. He was simply telling him he had no power whatsoever unless it has been given from above.

For, one day you will have this experience, and you will taste of the power of the new age. You will see a scene just like this. As you taste of the power of this new age, you will know it is all animated, and you are the power animating it. You will arrest within yourself an activity that you sense, and at that moment of arrestment everything stands still and is dead; it’s made as though it were made of clay. Not just the outer aspect, but your brain, that is so fluid and so alive and so pulsing – that, too, if you opened up the skull would be like clay. The heart that pumps – that too would be like clay. The whole thing including all the inner works would be frozen. Then you would release within yourself the activity which you have arrested and everything once more would become animated and would continue in its course and would perform its intention. Then you will know what he means by this time, which is forever – as against His time, when he said to him: Brothers, my time has not yet fully come, but your time is always here.

Now, man’s conventional view of time – including our great scientists – is that the future develops continuously out of the past; but that is not the Biblical view of time. The Biblical view of time is: what appears to be so new in our world is only the appearance of the return of phenomena already old. The whole vast world is moving on a circle, and all of this is already so, so that the entire space-time history of the world is laid out and we only become aware of increasing portions of it sequentially. But it is on a curve, and therefore what seemingly is past isn’t really; from the Biblical view, it is your tomorrow. It hasn’t receded into a past; it’s advancing into a future and it is forever.

Now listen to these words: What had been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, See, this is new? It has been already, in the ages past. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to happen among those who will come after. (Eccl. 1:9-11).

Well, who would accept that! The conventional view completely denies it, it couldn’t possibly be. He is telling me that I have a memory of my youth. I can’t quite remember the moment of my physical birth. I vividly remember the moment of my spiritual birth. But he is telling me it has been – that I do know. And everyone here – without memory of that physical birth – they can’t deny by observation of other people being born, that they, too, must have been born in a similar manner; so they say it has been. Now he tells me: that which has been done (which is my birth) is that which will be done. That I am moving towards that same thing on a wheel of recurrence, that same thing in this world of Caesar, and only divine mercy can redeem me from the wheel. That: What seems to be, Is, To those to whom it seems to be, and is productive of the most dreadful consequences to those to Whom it seems to Be, even of torments, despair, and Eternal Death; but then Divine Mercy steps beyond and Redeems Man in the body of Jesus. (Jerusalem, 36 William Blake) So here the wheel returns.

Now, let me share with you a story told me last Tuesday night – the lady is present. She gave me a letter just before I started. I had no time to read it before my meeting, and had no time until just before I retired that night – so about midnight I read the letter. It was dated Nov. 23rd, which as you know was a week ago last Saturday, the day after the great event in this world that took place on the 22nd. She states in the letter: This is my experience of ten days prior to the 22nd of November (that is the 12th of November). I go from my office home and back always in a certain manner, a certain road. It is my habit when I get into a certain intersection that I turn and read the headlines at a newsstand. Quite often a red light is with me, and so I have a moment to turn and read the headlines.

This night on my way home it was dusk, the sun was setting. I am moving west into the setting sun, and a few cars moving. I turned to read the headlines of the day. As I turned, I saw four papers on the rack – three the usual black and white, and one was a green sheet and this enormous black type as a head mat read: KENNEDY SHOT. This is the 12th day of November. I almost put my foot on the brake to turn, but I was in the intersection. Then reason prevailed. I said, No it’s the headlight, it’s the dusk, it’s the sun that is setting; and surely above all things in my office where I work, the radio goes all day long, and such horrendous news would be on the radio. So that capped it, reason prevailed, and I knew I had not seen correctly; but I saw on this green paper: Kennedy Shot. Well, I kept going across the intersection. How long does it take – 2 or 3 seconds? And so at the end of the three seconds I crossed the intersection and kept moving. It wasn’t one block before I completely forgot the incident.

In my office ten days later, on Friday the 22nd, I came to the office late. Two radios were blasting, a TV is going, and nothing but this news on the air. Some are crying, many are talking, others are cursing, and I wanted some quietness to do work. I am at the typewriter. 3:30 in the afternoon I am still trying to remember a dream, a dream that is related to what I am hearing. I couldn’t call back the dream. I know that something I dreamt is related to what I am hearing on the radio. What is coming across TV too, but I couldn’t bring back the dream. A co-worker leaves the office. He is gone not more than a few minutes, when he returns bringing in a folded paper. He comes in my direction and he calls me by my name. He comes over to my desk and he slaps it down on the table and said to me: Isn’t it amazing how fast these papers can move? and he intended that I should have the paper. I took the paper and opened it and here is a green sheet, the outer covering is green; and only two words as the mat head: KENNEDY SHOT. Then suddenly what had happened to me ten days before springs into my mind, and here I am seeing the entire scene as I drove home going west and watched this headline on this newsstand.

I took that letter, because it meant a tremendous thing to me. I read it over and to my wife. She and I reacted as I would expect her to react – I knew how I would react. But last weekend a friend of mine who sponsors my meetings in San Francisco came home, and so I invited four mutual friends that knew her well, to dinner. There were the seven of us. I took the letter and read it and gave it to each to read and see the letter and hold it in their own hands. There was only the moment of surprise of a strange coincidence – no more. Within a matter of seconds – just as the lady said in three seconds she had completely forgotten the incident and tried to bring it back to memory like a dream; for the event is now turning something in the depths of her soul, that she experienced it. But she couldn’t bring it back until the fact was presented when the paper was put before her in a physical manner, and then she saw it. Through the evening they discussed all kinds of things relevant to the great drama; but they thought that the FBI, the Secret Service, the local police – all these people should have done what they did not do. And here it is, stated so clearly in the first chapter of the book of Ecclesiastes.

So in her letter she said to me, at the very end: When the man looked at me, having given me the paper and I saw it, black type on green, I must have turned green myself, because he said to me: What’s the matter? and I couldn’t answer him; because how could I tell him that creation is finished? How could I tell him that this is a drama, and it is finished? That because it is animated, blood flows instead of tomato juice (as it does on the stage). But having had the experience of arresting in me an activity which animated the scene I saw, I know that it is no more than that on the stage.

But it is for a divine purpose, and the purpose is that God is individualizing himself. He individualizes himself through this play; and when he comes out individualized, that’s Jesus Christ, the only name that the individualized God bears. So in each, as he comes out individualized, he is incorporated into the one body; for the Lord on that day, the Lord will be one and his name one and the Lord will reign as King over all the earth.

Then, said she at the end of her letter: Could my reason – that is, my refusal to recognize as true what I actually saw – be the lines spoken in the 30th chapter of Isaiah? Then she quotes the 9th – 11th verses: For they are a rebellious people, lying sons, sons who will not hear the instruction of the Lord: who say to the seers, See not and to the prophets, Prophesy not to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more of the Holy One of Israel.

Yes, I can answer her. They are these lying sons – your reason. They took everything that night – the setting sun, the dusk, the absence of the news from the radio, everything, the headlight – to persuade you that you had not seen what you actually saw. And it went so deep into your being that even when the news began to blare at the office, you thought it was related to a dream. This was a waking dream, just like another dream, and you tried to bring back memory – and you couldn’t recall what you actually had experienced.

But it also struck me in a very forceful manner, because in the same 30th chapter of Isaiah I took the verse I wanted for the title page of my latest book, The Law and the Promise. I took the 8th verse, and she took the 9th 10th, and 11th: And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever. And so I took that verse for my title page, that I would inscribe it in the book, whether one believed it or not. For I know it is more true than anything being discussed this day concerning what happened in Dallas, for they think it should not have happened. They don’t know this time against that time.

So he said to his brothers, who did not believe in him: My time has not yet fully come, but your time is always here. These garments are part of the eternal structure of the universe; and this thing here (the body) I will one day vacate it, but it remains as part of the eternal structure of the universe – like Hamlet remaining after Lawrence Olivier makes his exit from this world. And so he remains, as part of the eternal structure of the play called Hamlet. Tomorrow another one – unborn today – will put on the costume of a Hamlet and play Hamlet as conceived by God, because I will have vacated it for the last time. But the time here is to be worn forever and forever until he completely individualizes himself. And more than the sands of the sea we are told. He is the great Abraham of scripture, the father of the multitudes, individualizing himself. There is a series of events by which he breaks this invidious bar, and then causes the individual whose shell he breaks to separate and escape from this strange, wonderful wheel of recurrence. At that moment in time, this series of events begins to appear within you – that’s his secret.

But everything is here and that bullet in the brain of Kennedy is part of the eternal structure of God’s world, and God conceived it. And so is the one who pulled it [the trigger] – God conceived it. And that’s a part to be played – and played over and over and over. And man can’t quite see the garment, because it doesn’t make sense, because he thinks it’s here. It isn’t here. This is forever, as the play. But he is speaking of the other time: my time has not yet fully come. My time belongs to a world where I am then really free – where I am in a world where everything is subject to my imaginative power – but everything! And I too, will be part of that world, animating this, seeing it differently, so that the bullet and the one who pulled it [the trigger], and those who weep will not really disturb me from that level.

So Blake made the statement: Hear the voice of the Bard! Who Present, Past, and Future, see; whose ears have heard the Holy Word that walks among the ancient trees. He is telling you the experience of that 3rd chapter of Genesis: And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And then in the 4th chapter of Daniel – and this Holy One who walked in that garden gave the command: Hew down the tree. We were the tree in that holy garden, but innocent trees. And we had to fall into experience to awaken into the world of imagination, where everything is subject to our imaginative power, awakened as God. So here: Hew down the tree and cut off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. But leave the stump of its roots, let him be wet with the dew of heaven. (Dan. 4:14-15) Take from him now, (it’s a tree and suddenly becomes a person). Let his mind be changed from a man’s and let a beast’s mind be given to him; and let seven times pass over him to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom he will, and sets over it the lowliest of men.

So here the tree is felled. And again with Blake: The Gods of the earth and sea sought thro’ Nature to find this Tree; But their search was all in vain; There grows one in the Human Brain. (from The Human Abstract.) So it is turned down into generation, and suddenly it becomes an animal. This (the body) is an animal. This is an animal form. Everything we call human – that’s animal – is related to the animal world. It has the animal heart, the animal mind. And seven times pass over him. What is a time in the language of scripture? Blake implies approximately 900 years. So seven times must pass over him. Blake leaves off the little additional 300 years and speaks of a solid number, 6,000 years. He says: I behold the Vision 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. 96 [sic])

So here he saw the whole thing clearly. The Holy One he heard – the Holy One walking in the cool of the day – in this world called the Garden of Eden. And he tells us by implication that he actually heard the command: Hew down the tree. So said he in this very opening to what he started as a series – but only gave us one. He calls it, The First Book of Urizen, but he deleted the word First afterwards because he only wrote the one. But in this one he addresses the Holy One, the immortal, and he calls them Eternals. Eternals! I hear you call gladly. Dictate swift winged words and fear not to unfold your dark visions of torment.” This I am quite willing when I see the result of passing through this horror – I am quite willing that I seek in my mind’s eye the vision, which is your vision for me, when you complete your dream and you individualize yourself.

So Los beheld the vision, and he was faithful to the vision in time of trouble. So when you go through it [trouble], know it has happened and happened and happened, but you have no memory. In some strange way, this lady in ten days, within one block – it so passed from memory that even when the radios began to blare and the TV, and even the weeping and cursing and talking, she is prodding herself to remember a dream. And only when the facts of a paper were placed before her and she saw the green page with the headline: KENNEDY SHOT did the whole thing run into her mind like some photographic plate. And she remembered the intersection where she saw these four papers on a rack, three the normal black and white, and the fourth one the green with this headline; then the struggle with herself as she crossed the intersection which only took two or three seconds. Then all of sudden it rushed into the mind.

And our theologians for centuries have been trying to delete from our Bible the Book of Ecclesiastes, because it doesn’t make sense. Because the normal view of time is that the future develops continuously of the past: I was born as a babe and so I will grow as any person in this world, grow to manhood, and then – having waxed – I will then wane and vanish. That is the normal progression of this linear motion of time, but that is not the Biblical view of time at all. It is something entirely different, and he separates the two times. He speaks of your time that is always here, and my time when I chose the words I wanted for the title page of my book: Inscribe it in a book that it may be for the time to come For that is what it is. I am not speaking of this.

The Law – yes. I still say, within the framework of God’s grand dream there is another dream – my dream, your dream. And these that have unnumbered experiences – we aren’t going to change His dream for us, but we can modify and change within the framework of His dream the things that we will encounter. And if I use the Law wisely I will avoid repetition tomorrow when the wheel turns again. I won’t break the foot the next time; I won’t have the distorted arm the next time; I won’t have anything the next time if now I revise it. So I say: if there is one thing I have been brought into this world to tell you, it is the secret of revision: that if something today is unpleasant, you don’t like it, don’t let it slip by.

The Bible speaks of redeeming the time. Every moment, if it is unpleasant, it should be redeemed, because you are going to meet it tomorrow as the wheel turns. So don’t let the night descend and catch you with the unredeemed day. Take the day and redeem it. You may produce the results now, in the immediate present. But if you don’t redeem it, when the wheel turns because you haven’t yet hatched out (or as Blake says, For hatching ripe he breaks the shell,) – but if the shell isn’t yet broken by the series of events which detaches you from this wheel of recurrence, then revise the day. So that next time when the wheel comes around you aren’t going to relive the unpleasant thing of this moment in time.

But I tell you: your time is always here, my time has not yet fully come. It takes one more link to break it, for it is all only hanging by a link. To be part of the world, where – having once tasted of the power of the age to come, then to return to the world where you are part of this age and be animated – as he confessed: You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above. Here is one who is confessing he is only at the very brink of leaving it. But while he is in the world of Caesar – having tasted of the world to come and the power that belongs to that world – while in the world of Caesar, wearing an animal garment, then no one has the power over him unless it was given him from above. So the one who gave it to you, he has the greater sin. If now he sends you to the gallows because he sends you to perform an act that is condemned by society, you have the greater sin, for it is part of the great play.

And this dual time is so difficult for man to grasp. But I am only quoting scripture. He speaks so often of time, and he separates these two times: this time which belongs here forever, and that time; this world and that world. So he speaks of two ages: this age where there is rebirth, but he doesn’t mean reincarnation, for that which had been done is that which will be done. Were you once born of your present mother? You will be. It is happening all over again, at the moment in time when the wheel turns, and we will get the same surprise that is conceived of reincarnation, being born in the same manner of the same mother. Because they can’t see these garments and they think these are themselves, and these are garments that God wears.

And so, the whole vast world will say: O yes, I believe in reincarnation. It justifies the inequalities of life. Nothing justifies the inequalities of life – as you are told of the blind man in John 9:2, 3: And his disciples ask him: Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him. All these are the experiences through which God goes: the blind, the lame, the withered, the halt – everything. It is not any justification, because the God of whom I am speaking is not a God of retribution. In spite of the horror of the play, he is a God of Love; because in the end, he individualizes himself, and you are he. If it took 6,000 years of horror, the end results justify the means he conceived as a play to bring it out.

I ask you: don’t forget the lady’s letter. Don’t do what my friends of last Saturday night did. So when they departed and I started washing dishes in the wee hours of the morning, I said to my wife: What a strange reaction. Now, that lady sponsors me, she has sponsored me for the last seven years, and prior to that she came to my meetings when she was not my sponsor. She sells all of my books, and all of my other friends have known me here on the West Coast for the last fifteen years. And so it was like reading a nice little mystery and then throwing it into the ashcan – that’s it – and then we go back to discuss the facts of life. Why were not the FBI on the job, and not these people on the job? And they just got through reading, that ten days before he was actually shot by the human standard, he was already dead.

But time with a larger focus, you see a larger focus, you take a larger section of time. And she, in some wonderful way, the green light is with her, she hadn’t time to really focus, so she is moving forward with the green light, and in the intersection, she is almost on it, but habit possessed her and she turned to see – she is in the right-hand lane – and here on a green paper the headline, Kennedy SHOT. But then it fades. But are we not told in Eccl. 1:9: There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be remembrance of later things yet to happen among those who come after. And so she is trying, when it does happen, that we on this level will appreciate it. She is trying to remember what she called a forgotten dream. She thinks it’s a dream and she is wondering: When did I dream this? but she cant bring back to memory, can’t recall it -until the paper is brought and the voice said: Isn’t it amazing how fast these papers can move? Even then she didn’t – and she opened up and saw the same headline on the green page. Then the whole thing rushed into the brain. Being a student of the Bible, she searched the Bible for something that caused her to lie to herself, and she found the 3 verses of the 30th chapter of Isaiah: Lying sons, sons who will not hear the instruction of the Lord They will not listen to him. And they say: O seers,” those who see like a Blake, tell us not. Do not look. Don’t tell us any more. Tell us smooth things, pleasing things. And so thats the world.

But I am not sent to tell you the smooth things or the pleasing things. But I can tell you – through the one thing I have brought to tell you, which is revision – it isn’t hopeless. You can, if the day is unpleasant, revise it. And if tomorrow the results are not before you, and the next week and the next month, they are not before you, I know that by your revision you will change the events, when once again you must come to that moment in time. And so you will change the pattern, for the wheel is turning and you can’t stop it.

I saw it. For one moment in time I was part of it, and I stopped it within me, and they all stopped. Not one could move, not even the bird in flight. The birds couldn’t fall. There was no gravity – gravity was in me. And I thought (as I was taught in my little school) that Sir Isaac Newton discovered it; and I almost thought he made it, because the whole thing was Sir Isaac Newton. I heard it, and so no one was as great in my mind as the great Sir Isaac Newton. As a child I really believed that he determined how things should fall and how they should go on. Then one day I came into a taste of the power into which tomorrow I would inherit – for I will inherit the kingdom of God, with all the power that goes with it.

But I tasted of that power before the last link was broken. And so the birds couldn’t fly, the leaves couldn’t fall, and the grass that was moving in the wind couldn’t move; and people walking couldn’t walk, and the diners dining couldn’t dine, and everything was frozen. I looked at them. I was moving; I was not frozen. I froze in me an activity which froze them. I went over and looked at them, and these were dead things, part of the eternal structure of the universe. Forever these are garments to be worn by God. And then I released it and they all moved. The birds continued in flight, and the leaves began to fall, and the grass began to wave, and the diners dined, and the waitress walked, and everything continued to fulfill its purpose. Then I knew of a different time, a different age, of a different use of power – and that here we are only an animated world.

So, to repeat: You have no power over me, unless it has been given to you from above. The word is “anothin,” the same word used in the 3rd chapter of John. When he said, Except you be born from above (anothin) you cannot inherit the kingdom of God. You are still part of the wheel of recurrence, still part of this time – which is forever. But God in his infinite mercy, having put seven times over you, will move beyond, and redeem you in the body of Jesus. Because there is only one body, you are redeemed in the body of Jesus. Jesus, believe it or not, is God. People won’t believe it. They smile at you and they laugh. But Jesus Christ is the only God, but so are you when you enter his body and become incorporated into it. Because there is only one name, only one Lord, and that one name is Jesus Christ. And all will be redeemed in the body of Jesus and all will have the same power, the same being; everyone will be Jesus.

Now it doesn’t make sense. But what I told you earlier doesn’t make sense. The lady is here and I must tell her that one of my friends who read the letter knows her quite well, and she said: You know, having seen the name of the one who signed it, I believe every word of it. Were it not that she wrote it, I would question it. So the questioning mind already was there, but she read the one who sent it and – trusting her implicitly – she said, I believe every word of this letter. But still, only three or four seconds, right away she is discussing the possibilities of changing God’s play and changing it radically so that he would still be here as our President. And they can’t see these wheels within wheels within wheels that Ezekiel spoke of.

So I tell you: it is not reincarnation, as the world teaches to justify the inequalities of life; you can’t justify them. For man didn’t sin. He didn’t gouge his eyes out, he was born blind. And his parents didn’t sin? And this only so that the works of God may be made manifest? What a horrible God! And that is the word of God speaking? He didn’t sin and his parents didn’t sin? It is only that the works of God be made manifest. Therefore, revision – which in scripture is called repentance (but the word is tarnished) It was taught – the very first word used in the earliest Gospel, which is Mark – that first word spoken by the embodiment of God is repentance. The time is fulfilled he speaks of time, the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel. (Mk.1:15)

Well, repentance really is the ancient word for the word I use today of revision. For repentance is a radical change of attitude toward life. And if in the revolution of this world there is really a revolution, it’s not what took place in Cuba or in Russia or this country – or in any part of the world. The real revolution is when man discovers that by a radical change of his own mental attitude towards life he can change the outer aspects of life. When man makes that discovery, there is a real revolution in the world. A man discovers that by his own change of mental attitude he changes the outer aspects of his life! For I can’t conceive of any greater revolution in the world – and that is repentance.

But the churches have put barnacles on it, and they teach us to be remorseful, to be regretful; and to this very day you turn on the radio or the TV, they are still talking of the event that should not have happened. They all sit in judgment of God. And here is the whole grand wonderful play unfolding. When one really sees it in the end, and when one completely awakes, he, too, will be able to say to all of the characters who played the part: Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. How could you tonight – if you really believed the vision that was written to me ten days ago – how could you today condemn anyone who had a part, whether his part was to play a part in not properly arranging protection, or the one who has gone berserk and bought his gun, and then hate, as he did, if he did it; and then the one who came and did all these things to hush the very voice that might be able to throw light on it? All these things in the wonderful drama. And then this fantastic pageantry that we had in our country, where the whole vast world – with the aid now, of this Telstar – saw it all at the same time. Russia saw it, all of Europe. If there are TV sets in China, they could see it too, because by this new beam the whole vast world could see it. And what drama! A tremendous pageantry that she actually saw ten days before this level could receive it.

So where are you from? I came out from the Father, said he. And I have come into the world. Again I am leaving the world and I am going to the Father. (John 16:28) In four short phrases he states his prenatal existence, his incarnation, his breaking of the wheel – he’s going to die leaving this wheel – and return to the Father. But he said to the others: Where I go you cannot now come, but you will. Where I now go you cannot now come – not now. He tells you he is breaking the wheel, and therefore he departs for the last time; but he did incarnate and took human form.

He tells us by the words, the little phrase: I came from the Father – that is a confession of a prenatal existence. I came into the world from the Father. But when you see me you see him who sent me. And who sent you? The Father. When you see me you see him who sent me. Well, how could that be? But if God is individualizing himself and God is Father, when he is individualized that individualized presence must all be Father. That is why he is saying these are the ways to the Father. You will never know that you are father unless God’s only begotten son appears and calls you Father – no uncertainty when you look into his eyes and he into your eyes and he calls you Father. And so God is Father. When he begets you as himself, you can’t be less than God; and, therefore, he is father of the same child, not another child.

And so this is the way by which this invidious bar is broken – this envious bar. For, someone who has wealth, they may envy someone who has more; one who is poor envies the one who has some; one who is known is not envious of the unknown, but they are envious of the known. All this strange, peculiar enmity in the world is part of God’s play, these unequal discriminations in the world. And the world thinks it is going to change it in some strange way. You will change it only in one way; if you know the art of revision. But you will change it only to the extent when you reach that point in time – which is forever – you do not encounter (again) what to you was unpleasant. When you encounter that moment in time, it’s the completed circle.

Now let us go into the silence.

Question and Answer:

About two months ago (a psychic) saw it, tried to get in touch with the President to persuade him not to go. But, first of all, no one could persuade the President not to go. He would not have listened for one second. Today he is now woven closely in the tapestry of martyrs because he died in office a violent death. Already they are building up the idea of a Lincoln concept. And so given the choice of living another few years with a painful back or going this way without pain – he didn’t know it. And then to go down in history believing undoubtedly as he does in the linear concept of time, he would have chosen exactly what happened to him.

But may I tell you: that was only the part – God played the part. God through this is individualizing himself. Don’t get off now to a man who is called John Fitzgerald Kennedy or one who called himself Oswald. It is the all-together preciousness of the whole vast fragmented state that produces the individualized God. This body is going to be worn as it has been worn by many people – many actors -the actors all are God. It’s a great mystery. When I leave the stage, it is dusted off and hung up for the next occupant; and the next occupant and the next occupant will always be God.

You could not have changed his (JFKs) values. First of all he prided himself on being a very intelligent gentlemen and he was very learned. He would have looked upon Dixon’s suggestion as superstition. It would have annoyed him to think that anyone could have persuaded him to cancel a political visit, thinking in terms of next year, by some superstitious concept. He would have thought the Republicans have pulled that on me. He would have found it in the one who wrote the letter – a nice Republican – because if she succeeds in persuading me to go, then I have missed an opportunity to challenge the state of Texas. He would have justified it, just as the lady justified it with the oncoming lights and the setting sun and the absence of the news on the radio.

Reason steps in; and reason is the lying son who refused to hear the instruction of the Lord, who said to the seers see not – she was a seer, she saw it – and said to the prophets prophesy not to us what is right, speak to us smooth things. Speak to us and tell us of the prophesies of illusion. So he doesn’t want to hear unlovely things. Everyone in high office surrounds himself, invariably, with yes-men. So there are no seers who surround many prominent persons. If you said anything that displeased Hitler, you got your head removed. If you told the truth that they would lose the war and that millions would have suffered as a result of his attempt to conquer the world and that he himself would have an ignorable end, he’d have you removed because he didn’t want anyone to speak to him of anything other than smooth things. It is said of Stalin.

But they fulfill scripture, scripture is the eternal drama and man is trying to rewrite it. He’s always trying to rewrite it. Then say: He didn’t really mean this. And you say; Who didn’t mean it? Well, the one who wrote it. Don’t you believe God wrote it? Don’t you believe God dictated it to the prophets – men organized by divine providence for that communion? They will seriously confess that maybe. Well, if God dictated it, doesn’t it contain his word? Aren’t you one who mustn’t tamper with the word of God? Well, they all tamper with it.

I read from a new Bible today, and they tried their best to give meaning to that which I quoted tonight and it is so far removed. It is the Modern English Bible; only the New Testament is out so far. And what they did to that wonderful 19th [chapter] of John in trying to give meaning, because (they think) he can’t possibly mean what the Word says, what he says -but he said exactly that.

To the first question he does not answer – Where are you from? and Jesus gave no answer. He would not. The priest: Do you not know I have the power to set you free and the power to crucify you? You would have no power over me had it not been given to you from above. Well, that’s stupid to Pilate, who represents Caesar. Caesar is the power of the world in today’s business – and he represents Caesar. You dare to say to me – you whose background, whose origin is well known to the world He had a large family. Four brothers are named and sisters and he comes from a simple little family. And you dare to say to me – Caesar’s right arm – that I have no power over you except that it be given me from above? Is there something above Caesar? And he says from above meaning “anothin” – from God. Therefore, he (meaning God) therefore God determined who delivered me into your hands. He has the greater sin – if it’s sin.

Goodnight.

WHO AM I?

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 05-06-1968

“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.

WHO IS THE REAL MESSIAH

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard June 11, 1971

It is in us as persons that God is revealed. “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ,” [Philippians 1:6]. To say “Jesus Christ” is the same as saying “Jehovah’s Messiah.” Christ is Messiah.

This will not shock you because you have been coming – maybe all of you – for quite a while. It certainly would be a shock to the outer world to learn who Messiah is. But I am telling you from my own personal experience Who-He-Is. We are told in Scripture, “He is the Son of God,” [Acts 9:20]. I am telling you tonight who the Son of God really is; and you will never in Eternity find another Son – not in Eternity!

You and I were taught as Christians that Jesus Christ differs – is something entirely different from that of the Old Testament. Yet he is made to say, “I have come to fulfill Scripture,” [Matthew 5:17]. “Scripture must be fulfilled in me,“ [Luke 22:37]. “Then beginning with Moses and the law and the prophets and the Psalms, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself,” [Luke 24:27]. He came only to do the Will of God.

Now, in the 40th Psalm we are told:

“I delight to do Thy will, O God.Thy law is within my heart.” [Psalm 40:8]

This is the Psalm of David. It’s the 40th Psalm.

“I delight to do Thy will, O God.”

In the 13th Chapter of the Book of Acts, by the same author that gave us the Book of Luke, we are told – and this is the Lord speaking: “I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart who will do all my will,” [Acts 13:22], — confirming the 40th Psalm, which is the Psalm of David: “I delight to do Thy will.”

Well, I am telling you from my own experience, the day is coming – and I hope it’s in the immediate present – that you will be set free. You’ll be set free only as you find David. “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed,” [John 8:36]. Well, who are you? You are God the Father. That’s Who-You-Are.

You came down and became man; but before you came down and became man, you had prepared a way for your Self to return, and only your “son,” which is the result of your experiences in manhood – the result is David; and when you see the result of your experiences, and know then – like memory returning – Who-You-Are – you are set free as told us in the Book of Samuel: He has promised to set the father of the one destroying the enemy of Israel – to set that father free.

So he inquired. But who inquired? The king. But the king was insane; his name was Saul. He couldn’t even remember that he met the lad and met the father of the lad prior. Here in the 16th Chapter, he has asked the father of the lad to let the lad serve him. In the 17th Chapter he is inquiring: “Whose son are you, young man?”

“Inquire whose son – whose lad – the stripling is.”

No one knows, because Saul is an insane man, as we are! You are not confined in some institution; but if you have lost your memory as to Who-You-Are, you are insane. You are suffering from amnesia. And in this case, although we are not violent, we are suffering from total amnesia, because we do not know our only “son.” That only son is David, named in the New Testament as Jesus Christ, which is Jehovah’s Messiah. And David is the Messiah. “Rise and anoint him, for this is he, and then the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that moment forward,” [I Samuel 16:12, 13]. He never lost a battle, because the Spirit of the Lord was with him. But to find David, what else is worthwhile in this world?

Maybe tonight you could use, — and who cannot use, — a fortune? Any one of us tonight could use an extra sum of money, no matter what it is. If I had tonight millions, I could still use another few. If you had only a few thousand, you could use a few thousand more. Every one can use it. But what is that, compared to the finding of the Son? “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed,” as told you in the 8th Chapter of John.

If the Son – and man is looking for the Son, and he is complacent – he is satisfied, because he has been taught to believe one called “Jesus Christ,” born two thousand years ago is the Son. He has completely accepted that; he believes that, and he thinks that is going to set him free. It will not in Eternity set you free. You must find, in the spirit, David; and David, in this spirit, is going to call you”Father.” And when he calls you “Father,” your whole memory returns. And that is God-awakening!

You rise from the grave first, and still you do not know the Son. You are born from above, “not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God,” [John 1:13] – born of your Self. You came out all by yourself. Yet, you are not free – not until you find the Son. And when you find him, it’s told you in the form of a parable. “For this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and he is found.” [Luke 15:32]

And the one who complained never left home. He remained in the land of Innocence; he never entered the world of Experience. You entered the world of Experience; and having gone through all the fires of this world, you come out as God the Father. To be a father, there must be a son; and the son, may I tell you? Is David. I will state it a thousand times over: there is no other son. “God and His Son” is the drama in this world. You – sound asleep and completely oblivious as to Who-You-Are, suffering from total amnesia – only one thing in this world can ever bring back to you your memory, and that is the discovery of David. And when you find him, suddenly memory returns, and the whole thing unfolds within you. And you are the One who conceived the play, and did not pretend that you are man. You actually became as we are, that we may be as You Are. So you became man that man may become God! but prepared the way for your return to your own Godhood.

Now we are told, “Be ye perfect, as your Father in Heaven is perfect,” [Matthew 5:48]. The word “perfect” is “telos,” which means “the end.” It comes at the climax. It means to reproduce faithfully the original. Well, God is the original. He comes down into this world, and in man reproduces faithfully Himself in man. And then He awakes having reproduced it, so that His Son “in the beginning” recognizes it, and brings back into His Eternal Being all of us.

So every one will awake. I can’t conceive of failure. I can’t conceive of one being in this world failing, because God the Father is in Him! Even if he dies as a little child, he once breathed. That breath was God. “Nothing is impossible to God,” [Luke 1:37]. The most horrible beast that walked the face of this earth in the form of man cannot fail to awake! I do not care what he is. Every being in this world, male and female, will awaken; and when they awaken, it’s because the Son appears.

“No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal it.” [Matthew 11:27 and Luke 10:22]

So in the fullness of time, He sends His Son into our hearts crying “Father.” And then, in that moment in time, the Son appears. He was always within us. The whole vast thing takes place within the Immortal Head of man. So when you depart, having found the Son, you will be part of the watchers, watching every one in the world; and they are all your brothers. And you will know that:

“What seems to be, Is, to those to whom It seems to be, and is productive of the most dreadful consequences to those to whom it seems to be, even of torments, despair, eternal death; but the Divine Mercy steps in and redeems Man in the one body called Jesus.”

[William Blake, from Jerusalem]

And “Jesus” is “Jehovah.” “Jesus” is the word that means “Jehovah.” “Christ” is “Messiah,” the Son. So “Jesus Christ” is simply “Jehovah’s Messiah.” That Messiah is David. Jesus is the Lord God Jehovah. His Son – if he is a father, he has a son, and the Son is David. There is no other Son.

“So David in the spirit calls Him “My Father” [Matthew 22:43] – my rock – “the Rock of my Salvation” [Psalm 89:26] – he calls Him “my God.”

So Jesus is the man that is “born from above,” and the man “born from above” is Jehovah. He is God the Father; and if he is a father, there must be a son. “Where is my son?” Then the Son comes, and he’s David; and David brings back your memory, and you are set free. For: “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.” This is the great mystery of the Christian faith.

It’s a mystery, not to be kept secret, but it is mysterious in character. Scholarship is not enough to grasp the mystery of Scripture. In fact, when Paul sets out the eighth rank in the Kingdom of Heaven, he puts the wise, wise men at the bottom. People completely misunderstand what it means to be one who speaks in many tongues. That’s the scholar. It hasn’t a thing to do with all this nonsense where people throw themselves into a trance, and then utter – bringing saliva into their mouth; it hasn’t a thing to do with that.

He mentions eight divisions, and you read it in the 12th Chapter of First Corinthians [I Corinthians 12:8-10]. The first is the apostle: that’s always the first. Then the prophet; then the teacher; then the miracle worker; then the healer; then the helper; then the administrator; and then those who speak in diverse tongues, — the scholar who will take our scripts and, year after year they will bring them back into their original position, because men invariably interfere with them. More so in the past then today, because today we have print; and we can set a type and reproduce a thing over and over. But in the past, until the middle maybe of the Fifteen Century, everything was script; everything was copied. Well, a man couldn’t take these volumes and copy them accurately; so he not only mis-copied, but he also inserted his own opinion. So the scholars who understood the vast background of language could take them and bring them back to their seeming original form. Yet they are the last in the ranks in Heaven.

The first is the Apostle. Well, who is the Apostle? The one who is called and sent. That’s the Apostle. You are called into the presence of the Risen Lord. You answer the questions He asks you, which is the highest of all; it’s above all the ranks, for Love is the greatest of all.

You could be the Apostle, you could be the Prophet; you could be any of these mentioned in the eight ranks, just as we have in Government. You come down from the head to the very lowest. In the Army, we start with the General down to the Private. We have it in the social world. But above all these ranks stands Love. And so, every one, one day, will be embraced by “the One Body, the One Spirit. . . . The One Lord. . . . the one God and Father of all,” and that Being is Love. So all will be equal, in spite of the parts we play in the world. So let no one “pull his rank” on you.

So he has been sent? Well, that’s all right; he is sent, and maybe he is a Prophet, and maybe he is a healer, and maybe he can work miracles; but let no one “pull any rank” on you, because eventually you are going to be part of the Body of God, and Body’s Immortal Body is LOVE. All will then be members of the Body of God: “the one body, the one spirit. . . . The one lord. . . . one God and Father of all.” So let no one “pull his rank” on you.

I have been called, and I have been sent. I am an Apostle. I stood in the presence of the Risen Lord, and He asked me to name the greatest thing in the world, and I answered in the words of Paul: “Faith, hope and love, these three; but the greatest of these is Love.” [I Corinthians 13:15] At that, he embraced me, and our bodies fused and we became one body without loss of identity. I was not absorbed into some world soul. I was one with that body of Love, one with that spirit, one with that God and Father of all – but no loss of identity. Then I was “sent.” To be “called” is to be “sent.” But it was the embrace of Love that was the important thing, for that is above all ranks in the world.

So here, the day is coming – and I do hope it’s soon for every one here – when you will find the Son; and when you find him, he is David — David of Biblical fame, the David mentioned in the Book of Samuel and the Book of Chronicles, the David of the Psalms; that is the David of whom I speak – the one who could say:

“I will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said unto me, ‘Thou are my son, today I have begotten thee.” [Psalm 2:7]

This is the David of whom I speak, and he is the Son of God; and Jesus Christ – Jesus is Jehovah, and “Christ” means “Messiah.” That is the “Anointed One.” And who was anointed? Was it not David?

“Rise and anoint him. That is he. And from that moment forward, the Spirit of the Lord descended upon him and possessed him;” and he lost not a battle, for the Spirit of God went with him.

So this is our destiny. You and I are destined to awaken as the Being that we really are. Now the word called “perfect” is “telos.” It simply means the “end,” the “climax;” it always comes at the end. And you will be saying these words, “I have finished the work Thou gavest me to do. Now return unto me the glory that was mine, the glory that I had with Thee before that the world was,” [John 17:4, 5]. That’s what you will say! You are only asking for the return of what you gave up to come down into the world of “death.”

“I have finished the work,” – that is what the word “telos” means: to finish it, to accomplish it; “and having finished it, I am only asking for the return of what was mine before that the world was.”

And “glory” means God Himself. “Glorify Thou me with Thine own Self, with that glory which I had with Thee before that the world was.”

So what on earth could any one ask for that would be comparable to the discovery of the Son which brings his memory back? Well we are all suffering from amnesia. If I could only remember that I am the Father! And there, as father, there is a son – and find the son that could I some way call me and then bring back my memory. And he does! He calls you, and your memory returns; and here you stand before your own “son” – your only “son,” and then you know exactly Who-You-Are.

And you know how you did it! “Before that the world was,” you prepared the way for your Self to return. And he – your “son” – did everything that you willed him to do. And now you would not leave his soul in hell. You redeem him, and you bring him back. And you and your “son” return.

Now the “son” is the sum total of all the experiences of humanity, fused into a single whole and projected – personified, and it comes out as David. And that is David. You cannot blame any one for not completely accepting the false concepts that we have given to the world as we teach Scripture. Those who are grounded in the Old Testament, you can’t blame them for not – unless they have the experience. When they have the experience, they will not go along with the traditional Christian concept; they will see their own wonderful state unfolding: that the Old Testament actually is true – it unfolds. And it is true in the New, but not as taught by those who teach it. They teach it entirely differently. It’s not so at all.

God is the only Reality. There is nothing but God. And God is Love, and God is the Father; and as a father, there must be a child, and that child happens to be a son, and that “son” happens to be David.

So I am telling you what I know from my own experience. I am not speculating; I am not theorizing.

If today we go back two thousand years, we think the most important people who lived in the First Century A.D. would be the Caesars and the mighty powers of that day. They were the unknown fishermen. Name the others. The unknown fishermen of that Century were the most important.

So he comes into the world; and man, by his wisdom, did not know God. “So it pleased God by the foolishness that I preach” [See I Corinthians 1:21], said Paul, “to tell you of the mystery of God. And the weakness of man,” – he uses that – “and the humbleness of man,” – and he uses that – “and not all the false pride of the world.” Today we give awards to this one for being the best dressed. Well, she can afford a hundred thousand a year for dresses. The other one can afford another fortune for something else. And we give all these awards every year.

Ask me next year who was mentioned this year. They fade just as shadows fade. But we go back two thousand years when the unknown fishermen were the most important people who walked the face of the earth. And he called them, one by one; and as he called them one by one, he embraced them and sent them. No one can be sent unless he is first called; and when he is called, he is embraced. But who embraced them? While he was on earth? No. After he departed this world. It’s the Risen God that calls them. The Risen Lord calls them; and when you are called into this, may I tell you? The story is so altogether true: There is here the angelic being with a recording book. How on earth could that be seen by Daniel? But it is true. Here is a book that tall [indicating] – a book that wide; and here she stands – or rather, she is seated at a desk not unlike this, but it’s a big one, and she is recording – the Recording Angel. And when you are called into this Divine Assembly, you stand at her side, and she looks at you. She doesn’t say one word to you; she just simply records your name. She checks you off. Then you are taken, in spirit, into the presence of the Risen Lord, the Ancient of Days – that’s who he is – as described in Daniel. And he asks you the simple question: “What is the greatest thing in the world?”

And you answer automatically, as though you were divinely prompted: “Faith, hope, and love – these three: but the greatest of these is Love.” Then he actually embraces you. He has hands, he has a face, he has a mouth – he asks you a question. And here, he embraces you and you fuse as though you took a drop of water and dropped it into a bowl of water. It disappears in it without loss of identity. It becomes the bowl, and yet it is still individualized.

I did not cease to be aware that I am the being that I thought myself to be; yet I felt the ecstasy of the union. That was union. That was the true baptism of the Holy Spirit.

And then I was placed in the presence of another, who was Infinite Power; and it was he who sent me. He is the same one who embraced me, for God is a protean Being. He assumes any form that suits the purpose of the moment. So when I was sent, Power sent me; when I was embraced, Love embraced me. That is for Eternity, as told in the 8th of Romans: “Nothing in Eternity can separate us from the love of God” [Romans 8:39]. So not a thing that I will go through, having been sent, can separate me from that union with Love. But I was sent, not by Love; I was sent by Power. He seemed to be Almighty Power when he sent me. “Down with the bluebloods,” – not the social structure. Down with all external worship – it simply is an expression meaning all church protocol: everything that is something on the outside – down with it. It hasn’t a thing to do with Reality.

All the things you see when you go to church – all the crosses and all the things — down with it! Do not tear it down – ignore it. It hasn’t a thing to do with Reality.

So, Power sent me to tell you what I am telling you; but Love first embraced me, and therefore I am persuaded that not a thing in this world can separate me from the Love of God. No matter what I go through, it can’t separate me from the Love of God.

But I am telling you, you are God the Father. You will not awake until the Son appears. At that moment in time when he appears, your memory returns, and you recognize him in the most intimate, marvelous manner; and no power in the world can shake your confidence in this union of father-son. It’s the return of memory. Amnesia vanishes, and your Godhood returns. But you know every one is going to have the identical experience. You cannot boast, as you are told in First Corinthians, the 4th Chapter:

“What have you that you did not receive? If you received it, where can you boast?” [I Corinthians 4:7]

Of what could you boast? How could I stand before you and boast that I was embraced by God when it was a gift? God gives to Himself! So I can’t boast. I am not better than – if I precede you in a chronological order, I can’t precede you in importance, because we are all one. Every one is God! So if I preceded you – undoubtedly I have by a few years – it’s twelve years this coming month that it happened to me. It could happen to you tonight. It may happen to you at the end of a section of time. But when it happens, you have been one with me. I can’t be better than – and time will mean nothing if I preceded you in time. It hasn’t a thing to do with taking precedence over you, because we are one. God is one.

So here, the whole unfolds within man – the skull of man, the Immortal Head of man. That’s where the whole drama is.

If you dwell upon this, may I tell you? You will have such courage to face everything in this world. If business is slow, what does it matter? If someone that you love dearly is fading before your eyes – all right, you know, she or he is still the Being the you are. Nothing dies in this world. And so, it really doesn’t matter. If they fade and they disappear from your world, it still doesn’t matter because you are love, and he or she is love; and all, in the end, are one. All are one.

So you are encouraged to go through all the fires of the world – all the hell that one can put upon you, because we are all one, and we cannot come out until we are perfect. You must be perfect, as your Father in Heaven is perfect. And that “perfect” means simply “fully made,” “fully grown,” a full man; and that full man is God. God is man. Let no one tell you that He is not.

He is not some impersonal over-soul. God is man! Man not knowing this on this level, he thinks He is some peculiar impersonal force. He is not an impersonal force; He is very personal: “One body, one spirit. . . . . one lord . . . one God and Father of all” – all are contained within this “One.”

So I ask you to be patient. And if you can’t completely grasp all that I am trying to say, believe me. I am telling you what I know from my own personal experience. I am not speculating; I am not theorizing. I have no intention whatsoever to set up some workable philosophy of life. I have no –ism, no desire to set anything in motion to perpetuate what I am talking about.

If any one has that desire, let them have it; but I have one. I do know that it will last and last and last, and grow, just as it grew two thousand years ago. For the time has come to tell you the truth concerning the Son. We have had it now for two thousand years – a misconception of who God really is. Jesus is the Lord God Jehovah. And the Lord God Jehovah is a father; and the Father has a Son, and that Son is David. That is the David of Biblical fame. And one day you will know it, and you will be so thrilled, you can’t conceive of the ecstasy that is yours when you see David, and David calls you “father!”

And then you go back into your own words because you dictated the words of Scripture and fell asleep. You are the Author of the Book! “In the volume of the book, it is all about me. I delight to do Thy will, O My Lord,” [Psalm 40:7, 8]. It’s all about me: the Father and the Son. This is the relationship.

And when it happens to you, you will tell it. And I am – telling you from my own experience that unborn generations will take what you hear tonight and tell it and tell it and tell it. I mean unborn generations throughout the centuries, for I’ve been sent to tell it.

The year was 1929 when I was called. In 1929 I was called and sent, and I did not understand anything concerning the mystery that happened that night. But He takes the lowest of men, the humblest of men – not the scholars. He takes those that no one would ever suspect; and if He takes you, well then, He is with you, and He unfolds Himself within you. So, in due time, thirty years later He unfolded Himself within me – in 1959. It took Him thirty years in preparation within me, like a gestation; and then suddenly He rose within me. Then I knew who He was.

He came to me as one unknown, yet one who in the most wonderful, miraculous manner allowed me to experience Who-He-Is. When I experience who He is, I realized I am He. There were not two of us then – just one. I was all alone in the tomb wherein I was buried, and I didn’t realize throughout the years that I was the One spoken of in Scripture – that I was the buried one.

Now let me comfort you. “We have been crucified with Christ” – not just a single being – “we have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, it is Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live, I live by the faith of that Son of God who loved me,” – his Father “gave Himself for me” [Galatians 2:19, 20]. He “died” to bring his Father back. This is part of the drama. The Father and the Son. Only God could do it! There is nothing but God in the world.

God is playing every part in the world; and in the end, when He awakes, his beloved David stands before him – the sum total of the Father’s experiences through death. And he conquers death. He comes out of death, as the Immortal Being that he is.

Now if you know of anything in this world worthwhile more than what I have told you tonight, name it for me. If tonight you owned the earth, and death, may I tell you? Is inevitable, what would it matter what you owned? If you were the most famous person in the world, what would it matter if death terminates it? I tell you that you are an Immortal Being, infinitely greater than any outside man in the world. No position could ever be given you comparable to the Being that you really are. You are the Immortal God. You are God the Father

If any one should doubt me tonight, I would not question you. You only know this much: I’ll meet you in Eternity, and we will laugh at your doubt! I would not care if you doubted or not, we will meet in Eternity. There will be no need for forgiveness, because we will simply be hilarious that in your present state of consciousness you could doubt that you are the Being I am telling you that you are. Having awakened from the dream of life, I am telling you Who-You-Are. And so, should you doubt it, I will only have to wait; and I will wait patiently and then embrace you lovingly as my brother, for we are all brothers. It takes all the brothers to form God the Father.

Every one is a Brother; and together, collectively, we form God the Father. You see, the word “Elohim” is a plural word. It’s a compound unity: one made up of others. We are the “others.” We are the Brothers.

So, “In the beginning God” – that word is “Elohim” a plural word –“said, ‘Let us make man in our image.’” That is a plural word, and the word is Elohim.” So we are the ones who make it in our image. It must be faithfully reproduced. What? The original. We are the original. It must be faithfully reproduced to expand the glory that is ours! When it is faithfully reproduced, then it is perfect, when you awake; but you have expanded by reason of the experience of coming into the world of “death.”

Now, if this is not practical tonight, may I tell you? It’s far more practical than anything that you would ever hear in the world. In the morning’s paper you read of prominent men. It’s always prominent if it is in the theatrical world and big, or if it has money. It doesn’t ask you how you got the money; but you could leave, say, fifty million tonight, even though you stole the fifty million, and you are going to get a long, long obituary tomorrow; but you aren’t going to take it with you. You will leave your fifty-whatever-it-is for others to either spend or invest as they do; but they aren’t going to take it with them.

I ask you to live nobly, because now you know Who-You-Are. Live so that you mind can store a past worthy of recall. Well, you are simply going to leave the little things behind you, but you will take over your past. I will know – you will know – when you go beyond. In my own case, I am not going beyond. I have finished the race. I can actually say with Paul: “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth is laid up for me the Crown of Righteousness” [II Timothy 4:*]. So, I am not continuing the race, continuing the fight; I will only continue it for a little while, to get off all that I am told I must get off before the curtain comes down, which in my own case – without being sad about it – I personally hope it isn’t too long. Personally, I hope it’s not beyond the immediate present. That is my personal hope. But I do know we all come in on time, and we go out on time. So I cannot tell anyone because no one knows that hour, that moment, but the Deep, and He doesn’t reveal it to the surface mind. He simply reveals it at that moment when you go.

But I as a being still living on the surface for a little while –it would be my wish that it would not be long delayed, because I have finished it. I have done all that I am called upon to do. “I have finished the work Thou gavest me to do. Now return unto me the glory that was mine, the glory that I had with Thee before that the world was.” That is my prayer tonight.

I do hope that you will be encouraged, no matter what happens to you in the present or the future, to remember these words that you really are God the Father. If you are beaten down and you are ostracized and you are alone, remember: You are God the Father!

And remember my words: You are going to find your “son” who is God’s Son, and God’s Son is going to call you “Father,” and you will know you really are God the Father! And whatever clothes you have worn – how tattered they might have been in the world, when you hear it, you will be clothed in your Immortal Body.

WHO IS THE SON OF MAN

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard

So, the Tonight’s subject is: “Who is The Son of Man?” In the 16th chapter of the Book of Matthew, the question is asked of the Disciples: “‘Who do men say that the Son of Man is?’ and they answered, ‘Some say John the Baptist come again, others say Jeremiah or one of the prophets, others say Elijah.’ And then he said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’” [Matthew 16:13-15]

So here He equates the Son of Man with I AM. It is the one title that is most used concerning Jesus in Scripture. We find it in Ezekiel throughout the entire book, and the 7th chapter of the Book of Daniel, we hear “one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him is given dominion and glory and kingdom.” [Daniel 7:13].

Dominion is supremacy in determining and deciding and directing the actions of others. It is really ascendancy over human and unhuman forces, such as assures being obeyed.

Now, let me give you an experience of mine that you may taste of this power that is in store for you. You will only taste of it before you have complete possession of it. You may not get complete possession of it until you are completely permeated with Love, or you can wreck the world. This is the Power. You will come upon a scene like this:

To give you my own experience, I came upon a scene that I felt to be about two hundred years ago in the New England States of our Country. Somehow I thought it was a Sunday afternoon, and they were all dining. My attention was attracted to a family of four: the father, mother and what appeared to be their two sons in the early 20’s – say, 21 and 22 or 21 and 23. As I stood watching them, I felt within myself that I could stop an activity that I was feeling, and that if I succeeded in arresting this activity within me, everything would stand still. Well, I did it. I arrested an activity within me, and everything stood sill. A bird was flying and it flew not. The waiter was coming in with the next course, and she walked not. They were dining; and one, as I looked at him, he had the soup spoon just about here (indicating a spoon approaching the mouth) and he couldn’t bring it any further. He dined not. The leaves falling, like the Fall of the year, and they fell not. The grass was waving, and it waved not. Everything was frozen, as though made of clay. I looked at them, and one second before they were all alive and seemingly independent of my perception of them; and now I knew they were not – that the whole vast world was dependent upon an activity that took place within me, of which I was totally unaware until that moment.

When I released that activity within me, they all continued to fulfill their intentions. The bird flew to the branch where it intended. The waitress continued walking towards the table where she would serve the second course; and the leaves began to fall to the earth, and the little green grass waving continued to wave, and the boy brought the soup to this mouth. Everything continued as it intended to when I stopped it.

I know now that I could have changed their intention; and had I changed their intention and then released it, they would have thought they had initiated the change, and they would have done exactly what I had ordered. That is dominion – complete control over the actions of others so that they must obey you. What enormous power is in store for man when man awakens from the dream of life! That’s dominion.

Then comes glory. Well, “glory” in the Bible is equated with God. “I will make my glory to pass before you,” [Exodus 33:19], and “…as I pass….” [Exodus 33:22]. There He equates “glory” with “I”, so He gives Himself to you – actually, literally gives Himself to you, so that you become God!

And the kingdom. What is a kingdom but a realm, subject to an anarchical form of government by a king? Therefore, you become the king as spoken of in Scripture. This is in store for every child born of woman. That One, in scripture, is called the “Son of Man.” We speak of Him in Scripture as the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is in every one, and that One, one day, will awaken as the one in whom He awakes; and then you will have dominion, and then you will have glory, and then you will have the kingdom. That’s what is in store for every one in the world.

Not a thing in this world will die, but that which has no right to live. Only that which has no right to exist will be brought to an end, and it is not any child born of woman. Any child born of woman has a right to live, a right to exist; so I show you now – or tell you rather – what must die, what must be brought to an end.

One day you are going to have this experience. You will suddenly be confronted, in vision, with the most monstrous thing that you have seen. It’s an animal, but it speaks. It speaks in a guttural voice. You will see two: a beautiful angelic being, radiantly beautiful, and this monstrous thing covered with hair. In fact, I would not offend the gorilla by likening it to a gorilla, for a gorilla is made by God. But this is made by man. You will confront these two: one, the embodiment of all your misused energies in the world, every unlovely thought formed it. Every violent act of yours formed it, and it thrives on violence.

As I looked at it, I did not realize at the moment that I had created it, and it called this lovely angelic being “Mother;” and I struck it, and it gloated. It loved being struck! And I pummeled it, and it grew bigger and stronger through my violence. And as I looked at it, something within me knew that I was the father of it. I brought it into being by my own violence, my own misused of energy, as I brought this glorious being into being by my loving use of the same energy. As I looked at it, I pledged myself that if it took me eternity I would redeem it.

I had no one to whom I could turn as a witness to my pledge. I pledged myself to redeem it if it took me eternity. At that very moment of my pledge, which I meant beyond all doubt, the whole thing melted before my eyes, and all the energy that went into it returned to me. Not one little drop was lost. It all came back to me, the one who misused that energy and formed this monstrous thing out of my misused energy. And this other one glowed – glowed like the sun. She simply personified my loving use of the same energy.

So the only thing that dies is that which has no right to live. The only thing that comes to an end – ceases to be – is that which has no right to exist. And it is simply made up of energy; so the energy is not lost, but it returns to you who created that monstrous thing. And though unseen by your mortal eyes, unheard by mortal ears, it whispers into your ear the moment in time to be violent, to be unkind, and to be unlovely, for it can feed only on violence. It feeds only on hypocrisy – on every unlovely thing in the world. So you have a constant companion urging you to commit some unlovely act, to entertain unlovely thoughts, that it may be fed. Then when you confront it, you will pledge yourself – without being told by any one else – you will know how it came into being, and you will know what you should do, and you’ll do it. And you will mean every word that you say to yourself, “I will redeem you if it takes eternity.” And it only takes a matter of moment – only moments, and the whole monstrous thing melts before your eyes, leaving no trace of every having been present, when all that energy returns to you, and you’ve never felt so strong in your life. That is the being returning to the Son of Man, who now has dominion and has glory and has kingdom.

So then we are told: As the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in himself,” [John 5:26]. You are that Son! Before we came out from the Father, we were part of the Eternal Being called God the Father, just as a bud or a spur or a little graft becomes a part of the tree and takes its nourishment from the tree. When it is detached and then grafted onto some solid stock, as you and I were – we were grafted onto the stock called Humanity; and then we, the graft, become a father in our own right. So when the graft takes and we begin to grow and produce fruit, we can only product the fruit of the tree from which we were taken, and we were taken from the Tree of God – The Eternal Tree of Life.

So grafted onto these bodies as we are, we penetrated these bodies and annexed the brains of these bodies, and the graft took; and then as it took, because the Father has Life in Himself, that spore – that graft called His Son – now has Life in Himself and becomes, in his own right, a father – one with The Eternal Father. And that’s our destiny!

Everything said of this character in Scripture called Jesus Christ you are going to experience, and it will be said of you. Do not be embarrassed. That is the “play.” That is the plan of the entire Mystery of Being. You are destined to awaken as God the Father!

So in the end there is only God. For we came out from the Father, and we became one with Humanity; and when the vow takes place and we begin to bear the fruit of our Father, we return to the one Father, and are reincorporated into the One Being, and there is only “… one body and one Sprit… one Lord… and Father of all…” [Ephesians 4:1-4], and you will be that one body and spirit and Lord and Father of all, and yet I will know you! You will not lose your identity. I will know you are the being I know now as my friend, and yet I will know you as God! You are destined to awaken as God.

It’s a shock to the world to hear this. It seems blasphemous; so they accused Him of blasphemy. He said, “Why?” They said, “Because you being man make yourself God.” He said, “Is it not written in your Scripture, ‘I say ye are gods, all of you, sons of the Most High? Why, then do you accuse me for blaspheming because I say, ‘I am the Son of God’?” [John 10:33-36]. He said that was in their scripture, and Scripture cannot be broken.

Man has been trained to believe that he is a little worm – that he is some little outcast that is no good, and that, for most people in the world today, death ends it all, because more than half of the people in the world are under an atheistic regime. They will number far in excess of half of the people in the world; and they claim that death ends it all. And the other half claims that death does not end it all, but they still think of themselves as worms. Any one making the bold claim that they are destined to awaken as God sounds like blasphemy. But I tell you that you will awaken as God! And you will know that you are God.

I got a letter today from a friend of mine in L.A. I have been teaching this Law since 1938, but I did not know the Promise of God until twelve years ago in this City when it happened to me. From then on, all my lectures have been – I would say – geared toward the Promise. So he has been coming to my meetings twice a week in L.A. over the period of the last three years. As I have told them, and I tell you, before I depart this world physically I will appear to you as the Man I know myself to be, for He awoke within me. But he said to me in this letter which I got today: “Last Tuesday morning, early in the morning, I had a vision; and a woman said to me, ‘Neville has risen. Look down there,’ and she pointed down to the end of the corridor. As I looked at the end of the corridor, there as an effulgence of glorious golden light, and I said to myself, ‘My friend, a man called Neville! And I know he is the Lord. I know as a friend of his I could always go to his home unexpected, uninvited, and be welcome; and yet at this moment I have not been invited specifically to come, but he told me – and I remember vividly – that he will show himself to me before he departs. And I knew at the end of that corridor in the effulgence of glorious golden light, out of sight was the Holy of Holies, and there He was, and He was the Lord. And I was overcome with an emotion – a mixed emotion. My emotion was one of fear, one of joy, and one of awe. Knit these three emotions together, and that is what I felt. He promised that he will appear to me, and so now I will wait. I know he is there, I see the radiation of him, and it was a woman who told me, ‘Neville has risen. Look!” and she pointed to the end of the corridor, ‘and there you will see him.’”

I am only telling you what I know. Not only this one, but hundreds must witness before I take off this garment for the last time in this world. For in this City twelve years ago I awoke from the dream of life. I awoke to find myself buried in my own skull, as every one is but he doesn’t know it. And I came out of that tomb – out of that sepulcher, the only sepulcher in which Jesus was ever buried, and Jesus is the Lord Himself! The Lord actually became as we are — literally, that we maybe as He is. [See “There is No Natural Religion” by William Blake]

So, when we were detached from the Infinite Being called Father and started a journey of tribulation, it was for a divine purpose. But we, by detachment, depending on our Father for our own support, or own supply, will now become a being having life in itself, “As the Father hath life in Himself, He has granted the Son also to have life in himself,” [John 5:26].

The only way it could be done was to detach his spore – detach the graft and implant it to this sturdy stock called Humanity; and then it produces, not humanity, it produces that from which it was taken, just as you do with a tree. You take a bud that can propagate itself, and you graft it onto a sturdy stock; and when it takes hold, it does not produce the fruit of that tree on which it is grafted, it produces the fruit of itself, and it brings forth what it is. So we are sons of God bringing forth all the fruit of God! Then we have life in ourselves.

So I say to every one in this room, as to every one in the world, I do not care what you have heard in the past; this is the greatest of all mysteries which is the Christian faith. I am telling you what I know from experience. I have experienced the Christian faith. I am not speculating. I am not theorizing. It is true from beginning to end, but not as it is taught in the world. It’s taught in the world as secular history, but it is not secular history; it is salvation history. The whole thing is based upon God’s plan of saving His own sons that He brought out of His own body and transplanted and engrafted into the stock called Humanity.

So the Son of man – the name given the Lord Jesus – the name that He used most about Himself – is said of every one seated here, regardless of your six. When you say, “I am,” that’s He. When you say, “And who do you say that I am?” you are discussing the Son of man. And now He equates the Son of man with “I AM.”

So as you are seated here, that is the Lord Jesus. As told you in Scripture, you must test yourselves to see whether you really believe it or not [see II Corinthians 13:5]. “Examine yourselves to see whether you are holding to the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not believe Jesus Christ is in you?” When I say, “Jesus Christ,” if you thought of some being external to yourself, at that very moment you failed the test. “Do you not believe that Jesus Christ is in you?” So, you failed if at that moment that I used the term “Jesus Christ” you mind conjured some existence external to yourself in time and space. He is in you; and in you, He awakes. And when He awakes in you, you are He. And everything said of Him in Scripture you will experience. “All the things that I have done,” said He, “you will do, for now I am returning to the Father. I have accomplished the work He sent me to do, which was to fulfill Scripture. Scripture must be fulfilled in me.” And having fulfilled Scripture, now He returns to the Father, and He said, “Return unto me the glory now –“ What glory? “—the glory that I had with thee before that the world was.” [John 17:4] And glory is God Himself.

So return unto me – I was one with you – well, return that same Unity, for I have completed the job that you gave me to do; and I have told them who you are. I have made known unto them Your Name, and I will make it Neville. And the name He made known to us was Father. So God is Father. If I complete the job that He gave me to do, I must arrive at the point where I, too, am the Father – not just a father, for there is only one Father. So I must arrive at the point where I am the Father! So I found out His Son and the Son’s name, and I must find that Son and have that Son call me, “Father.” Well, he did. So, I know the truth of Scripture, for the Son’s name is David. It is David. That is the Son of God as told us in Scripture, “for David in the spirit calls him ‘My Lord’.” [Matthew 22:43]

So Jesus is the Father. Jesus is the Immortal Father; and David, which is the symbol of Humanity, calls Him “father.” So here we find in the last book of the Bible, the 22nd chapter of Revelation: “I am the root and the offspring of David.” [Rev 22:16]

The modern translation of the word “root” is “scion,” which means a graft. I am the graft, and yet I am the offspring of that graft! I am the scion and the offspring of David – David being Humanity. Engrafted onto Humanity is the Son of God, and He brings forth all that was in God. So if God is a Father, He brings that forth; and because He is one with the Father, He brings forth the Son. The Son calls him “Father.” Now we know who the Son of man is!

The Son of man in Scripture comes before the Ancient of Days – and may I tell you? That’s a true story. I stood in the presence of the Ancient of Days, and He asked me to name the greatest thing in the world, and I quoted from the words of Paul in the 13th chapter of I Corinthians, and I said as he asked me the question: “Faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.” [I Cor 13:13] At that moment, Infinite Love embraced me, and may I tell you? Love is a man! The Ancient of Days is a man, and you can’t think of anything in his presence but love. I answered “Love,” and he embraced me; and as we embraced, we fused, and I became one with the body of the Ancient of Days. I became one with the Spirit of God, and then he sent me – sent me to do what I am doing now – to tell you of the true story of the Christian father. It hasn’t a thing to do with rituals, hasn’t a thing to do with form; it’s entirely a mystery hidden within man, which in the fullness of time will unfold within man. And when it unfolds within man, the man in whom it unfolds is the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything said about Him, you will experience in the first-person, singular, present-tense experience. As David, as told you in Scripture, called Him “Father,” David will call you “Father.” And as David confessed in Scripture, “I will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said unto me, Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee.” [Psalm 2:7]

Well, you will know when you see him that he is your son; and that day that you see him as your son is that day that you have finished the drama. All the tribulations of humanity you’ve gone through; and having gone through all of them, at the very end He stands before you and calls you “Father.”

Now we are told: They asked him, “When will the hour be? When is it going to happen?” You can read this in the 13th chapter of Mark [Mark 13:4] and the 24th chapter of the Book of Matthew [Matthew24:3]. And he said to me, as he said to the world: “As the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so shall the coming of the Son of man be.” [Mark 13:27]

What does that mean? The lightning shines from the east and as far as the west, and “so shall the coming of the Son of man be.” He comes only to fulfill Scripture. Well, the only scripture that he could fulfill would be the Old Testament. There was no New Testament. Now where is this in the Old Testament? Where is this splitting of the veil spoken of in the New Testament? Where is this splitting of the veil spoken of in the New Testament – where is it in the Old Testament? Where is the serpent spoken of in the New Testament that is in the old? He said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up.” [Matthew 3:14] And he said, “I am the Son of man.” Now where do we find it?

Let us turn, now, to the book called Jehovah Remembers; it is called by us Zechariah, for the “Zechariah” simply means “Jehovah remembers.” The last chapter: “On that day he shall stand on the Mount of Olives . . . and the Mount will be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley: and one half will withdraw northward, and the other half will withdraw southward . . . and then living water will flow out from Jerusalem . . . and on that day the Lord will be king over all the earth; and the Lord will be one, and his name one.” [Zechariah 14: 4, 8, 9]

Now when you read it, unless you’ve had the experience, you ask yourself, what on earth does it mean? Well he is telling you exactly what it means. The drama takes place within man, not on any place called the Mount of Olives in the Near East. The whole drama takes place right here in man. And like the lightning, it will come just as unexpectedly as the bolt of lightning; and it will split you in two from top to bottom. He calls it east and west – from the top of your head to the base of your spine. And they will part leaving a wide valley between the two halves of your body; and at the base of your spine you will see a living pulsing, vivid light. It’s liquid. “Living water will flow out of Jerusalem.” And you will contemplate it; and when you contemplate it, you will fuse with the water – the living water that you contemplated, for you will know it is your Self. And as you become one with it, like a fiery serpent you will ascend your spinal cord into the only heaven that there is, right back within your own wonderful skull. And when you enter, it will reverberate like thunder, as you are told in Scripture: they take it violently. “And the violent take it by storm.” [See Matthew 11:12 and Luke 16:16, especially the Revised Standard Version]

So the only mountain that is split is not the mountain in the Near East, but this mountain [indicating the physical body] right down the middle from the top of your head to the base of your spine. At the base of your spine is the Living Water that will flow out of Jerusalem; and you will contemplate it and know it is your Self, and you’ll become one with it. At the very moment of fusion, like a fiery serpent you will ascend into heaven; and you will know what it means that you stood on the Mount of Olives. And it is split in two from top to bottom. And one withdrew northward and one withdrew2 southward; and then the living water flowed out of Jerusalem. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted dup.” [Matthew 3:14] That’s how you are going to be lifted up, like a fiery serpent.

You will still be human. I will know you in Eternity, for I will know you as my fiend and my brother; but I will know you are God! I will know you as the Lord – every one in the world, for nothing in Eternity will die but that which has no right to live; and that is simply the embodiment of your mis-spent energies – all your hates, all your unlovely thoughts, unlovely actions – everything whipped into the creation of a monster. I will call him the dweller-on-the-threshold. No one sees him with mortal eye, but he is ever present, whispering in to the ear of man to be violent. He simply thrives on violence. He loves violence. He loves deceit – everything that is unlovely in the world, and can only feed on the unlovely thoughts, when the other one feeds only on loving thoughts. Feed her with Love. So every time you do anything lovingly, you feed her, and she glows; and when you do anything unlovely, he is fed, and he gloats with it all. And the day will come, he will leave her alone forever. She is made of the substance of God, which is Love. And here was the embodiment of hate and violence, and you will dissolve him without thinking for one moment that he is going to dissolve. When I made the pledge, I had no idea it would work like this. I thought I would have to spend Eternity to change it and work with it and make something good out of it. I had no idea it was simply the embodiment of misspent energy.

As we are told in Scripture, “Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.” [I Corinthians 1:24] I was not wise in my use of that power, and I made that monster. But every one has made it, and every one will redeem it. Every one will be forgiven for his misuse of the power.

So you are not going to any so-called lake of fire, as so many evangelists talk about and our ministers and priests from the pulpits talk about. There is no hell. You are in it right now! This is hell right now. The sufferings of men and women in our hospitals tonight, the sufferings of those who must look for food, not knowing where the next meal is coming from, those facing possibly dispossession and know not where to turn – all these; isn’t that hell? But our priests are not satisfied with that even; they try to make an even more horrible hell than that is. This is hell. Our boys in Vietnam – that’s hell. Those who come back with arms missing, feet missing – isn’t that hell? For the ret of their earthly days, these young men in their 20’s are going to go through life, many of them, with all arms missing and their feet missing, and they are basket cases for the rest of their days, just vegetating. There is no greater hell. It’s right here in this world. This is the world of death where everything appears in this world; it simply waxes, it wanes, then it vanishes. And the only escape is out of this world – not to make it a better world. When they talk about making this a better world and getting all our energies together to make it something wonderful – no. This is a school – a school of educative darkness, and you don’t turn a school into a home. It is escape from this world, and God has planned the escape for His sons. He has built that bridge of escape, and that bridge of escape is the story of Jesus Christ. There is no other way out.

“I am the Way.” [John 14:6] I am the true and living way. To what? To the Father. We all go back to the Father. We came out from the Father and we came into the world. Again, we are leaving this world, and we go back to the Father – but not until the job is done. So we came here to fulfill a certain job; and when the job is accomplished that which He gave us to do.

So the Son of man in Scripture, who is brought into the presence of the Ancient of Days, is seated right here in his audience in garments of male and female. And the day will come, you consciously stand in the presence of the Ancient of Days, and you will answer as I did, as thought you were divinely prompted. You don’t have to be concerned as to what you are going to say. In that day you will know what to say. You say it automatically. You will not make a mistake. Don’t be concerned. No one is going to make a mistake in the presence of Infinite Love, for you cannot think of anything but – in the presence of Love, you can’t think of any thing; so when he asks you the greatest thing in the world, you answer automatically, as thought were divinely prompted. And then he embraces you. At that embrace, you are fused with the Ancient of Days.

So you must learn to discriminate between Christ-in-us and we-in-Christ. Christ-in-us is simply – I would say – proof of being sons of God, for Christ in us – Christ being the Son-in-us, we are sons of God.

We-in-Christ are incorporated into the body of the Ancient of Days. That is the grand transition. So, thee Son wakens, and he is embraced by the Ancient of Days and incorporated into the body of the Ancient of Days, Infinite Love. And then you are sent.

So to be called is to be sent, and then you tell the story. You tell it from experience. You don’t theorize, you don’t speculate; you tell it as you have experienced it. And having experience it, you can’t change it. You do not modify it to please others. If they are not pleased, you are not concerned. You can only tell what has happened to you, and you go forward and you tell it. As told in Scripture, “They related their own experience.” When they came back, they simply told what happened. To whom? To themselves. “They related their own experience;” and that is our Scripture. We are only telling the drama as we have experienced it. And then they went back into the ancient scriptures and saw confirmation of the experience. They found it there; but finding it there, it was adumbrated. The whole Old Testament is an adumbration. It is a foreshadow in a not-altogether conclusive or immediately evident way, but there it is, foreshadowing the story of standing on the Mount of Olives, and then a bolt of lightning splits it in two form east to west, and one side moved northward, the other side moved southward. Who would have thought for one moment that was going to take place in man and that he is the great Mount of Olives? And the Being stands in you. And that Son of God, which is the Son of man, is you. And He becomes the fiery serpent, and moves up into heaven. After it happens, you say it was always there but I didn’t have eyes to see it – my eyes were not open. He had not yet opened the ears that I could hear. He had not yet opened the eyes that I could see.

So if this seems something other than what you came to hear, again let me repeat myself. Whatever is most profoundly spiritual is in reality most directly practical. You will find things coming into your world of which you are totally unaware at the moment; they will come because your Father knows your need far better than your conscious reasoning mind does, and it will come. Without any effort on your part it will come. Just be about your Father’s business and “set your hope fully upon the glory, upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” [I Peter 1:14] And when He comes, He unveils Himself in you, as you; and then you know who Jesus Christ is! You will never know Him if you look for Him as coming from without, and the whole vast world is looking for Him to come from without.

He can’t come form without because He is buried, and buried in the Holy Sepulcher. And the Holy Sepulcher is the skull of man. Until He comes, He remains buried in the grave – the grave of the human skull. And when He wakes, He wakes as you in the grave. And when He is born from above, as we are told is essential to be born again or you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven; so when He is born from above, He is born out of your skull.

The very night when He awakens within you, which is the Resurrection, He is born and He comes out. And then you will find who you are. And then the whole drama unfolds before you, just as it is recorded in Scripture concerning one called Jesus. So Jesus is the Pattern Man. It’s the pattern that every one will follow; and as you follow that pattern, the whole thing unfolds within you.

So we are told in Scripture, “Be ye imitators of God as dear children.” [Ephesians 5:1] Well, here is the pattern of God. Imitate that. You can’t do it deliberately or consciously; it is going to happen in this pattern. When it happens, you will tell it, as every one in whom it happens tells it. And you will meet with the same response. Some will believe you and some will disbelieve you. Don’t make any effort to force those who disbelieve you to believe you. To try to suppress opinions which you do not share – you will find it far less profitable than to tolerate them. So they don’t believe you; so do not try to persuade them. You simply leave them. You do not share their disbelief, for you’ve had the experience; so you leave them just as they are. And do not try to suppress that disbelief, as the world does. Today we are trying to suppress at a fantastic cost opinions of other governments that we do not share, and they are spending billions to suppress our free enterprises. They can’t suppress it with all of their billions, and we cannot suppress theirs. So it is far wiser to tolerate it than to try to suppress it, just as it is far wiser for me, at any opposition to my experience, to simply tolerate it, and not try to suppress it. Leave them alone. Eventually every one who now opposes it will be brought to experience it; and when a man experiences it, then he can’t deny the experience. So having the evidence as something he himself experienced, all arguments cease.

So the Son of man of Scripture is in you as your own wonderful I-AM. Your own wonderful human imagination is the Christ – the Lord Jesus Christ of Scripture; and the Lord Jesus is God, the Father. And His Christ is humanity personified as the single being called David. David will call you, one day, Father, and you will know you are his father! And David only represents Humanity, that sturdy stock on which the sons of God were engrafted.

No let us go into the Silence.

Now, are there any questions, please?

A Gentleman in the Audience: Did I understand you to say that we should not concentrate on trying to improve the world?

NG: I did not say that. I said this is a schoolroom of educative darkness, and you do not change a schoolroom into a home. It remains a school filled with problems to be solved. Let us solve the problem, but you still are not going to turn the school into a home. It remains a school for all who are coming into it to face the problems – if not similar problems, more problems. So make any effort you want; but you will not enter heaven by reason of any gift you make to society or any changes you seem to bring about in the world. You can only enter heaven by being reborn, “For unless you are born again, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” [John 3:3] No matter what you do in this world, you have to be born again, for “flesh and blood cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven” as told us in the 3rd chapter of the Gospel of John. Here was a member of the Sanhedrin and he did not know it. He said, “You are a master of Israel and you do not know?” {John 3:10] Unless you born from above, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. He did not know it! He thought that by doing good things in the world and giving some fabulous sum of money to some foundation and giving his name to some hospital, that that would earn him some little niche. No, no; you aren’t in any other little niche. You are still flesh and blood. He said, “You cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.” That which is flesh remains flesh, and that which is Spirit is Spirit. [See John 3:6] And if I would enter that Spirit, it must be Spirit; and that comes out of the skull of man, not from the womb of woman.

These garments [indicating the body] are born from the womb of woman. The second birth is from the skull – a literal birth out of the skull. You come out just as a child from the womb, but you come out of your own skull; and you ease yourself out inch by inch by inch; and all the story of the birth of Christ as recorded in the Books of Luke and Matthew surround you. You are wrapped in swaddling clothes as the sign of your birth, a birth from above. The witnesses to the event, as they appear out of the nowhere. They witness the infant, which is a sign, for the child is not the thing that is born, as we are told: “And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall fin a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.” [Luke 2:12] This was not the birth, but the sign of the birth.

Well, what was born? God was born! The Savior was born. And man has completely misunderstood the entire mystery of the story. When you are born from above, no one is going to see you with the mortal eye, but they will see the sign of your birth, the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes.

Lady in the Audience: Neville, will you explain what you by the Kingdom of Heaven?

NG: The Kingdom of Heaven? To me, the Kingdom of Heaven is not a realm. To me, the Kingdom of Heaven is when man is clothed in his immortal body. Wherever he is, that’s the Kingdom of Heaven. When I am clothed in my immortal body, if I move through the petrified forest, it will instantly burst into foliage. If I move through the desert, it will blossom like the rose. Wherever I am, clothed in my immortal body as the Risen Christ, everything is perfect. You cannot move in any sphere that could remain imperfect; in my presence, it is perfect. That’s the kingdom of Heaven – not a realm.

If I walked through Hell, it would cease to be Hell, clothed in my immortal body.

I know in my own case, in 1946, traveling through the Caribbean on my way to Mobile, Alabama, on a freighter carrying this red dust for Alcoa – it’s an aluminum dust we call Boxite; and I retired early, because it only carried a few passengers. I think twelve was the maximum. It was really a cargo boat. We were down to the very gunnels with this Boxite. So I retired early; in the wee hours of the morning this happened to me. I heard this heavenly chorus singing, and it is saying, “Neville is risen;” and I felt myself twisted out of my skull like a corkscrew, and here I am clothed with a garment of light – living light, and I felt myself a conqueror in a conflict with Death. Here I am, completely clothed in something entirely different. Well I was light unto myself. I didn’t need the sun, the stars, the moon, or anything to illuminate my world. It was light enough.

And then I saw this enormous sea of human imperfection, and I was moving in the direction of it. I didn’t walk; I simply glided above the surface of the earth. Well, when I got to this enormous crowd, feet were missing, hands were missing, limbs were missing; they were simply halt, lame, blind, withered. Not one asked me to help. I did not do what I did out of compassion. I simply glided by, and every one was made perfect as I glided by. Eyes out of the nowhere reappeared in the empty sockets. Arms out of the nowhere fitted the empty armpits, and those were crippled ceased to be crippled. Everything was made perfect as I glided by. And the chorus accompanied me singing, “Neville is risen.” When I got to the very end and this was all made perfect; the chorus exulted, “It is finished!” Then I felt myself crystallize back into this little garment which was asleep on the bed in the stateroom.

So I know from experience that Heaven is not a realm, but it is the body of the Resurrected Christ-in-you. When you awake and you are risen, you are clothed in an entirely different garment, and that garment is perfect; and nothing can remain imperfect in its presence. So you don’t need a realm called “heaven.” You don’t need anything, just your body. And wherever you go – if you walk this very moment into the petrified forest – these trees that have been long dead and turned to stone will burst in to foliage, because you are a God of the Living. “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” [John 11:25] Nothing can remain imperfect in the presence of (this document ends incomplete)

WHOM DO YOU SEEK?

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 04-02-1968

The Bible, from beginning to end, is the vision of the Lord God Jehovah, yet the message given there can be applied in a most practical manner.

In two weeks the Western world will be told the story of Good Friday. They will hear of a man who was in a garden with those who believe him, when a band of soldiers came looking for a certain person. Then it is said: “Knowing what was to befall him, Jesus came forward and said, ‘Whom do you seek?’ and they answered, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Then he said to them, ‘I am.’ (The pronoun “he” is not in the original manuscript.) When they heard that, they drew back and fell to the ground. Again he asked, ‘Whom do you seek?’ and again they replied, ‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ and he said, ‘I told you that I am; so if you seek me, let these men go.'”

That is the story and when man first hears that the one who is speaking is his own wonderful I AMness, he falls to the ground in shocked disbelief. You see the word “Jesus” means, “I am.” Recorded in the Old Testament as “Jehovah the Lord”, when the name is revealed, it is “I am.” This is true all through scripture. When those who are seeking a savior on the outside hear that their own wonderful human imagination is Jesus, they draw back in shock, for they simply can’t believe it.

Now let me tell you a story I recorded in one of my books. The year was 1950 and the man is my brother-in-law. Having graduated from Harvard, he entered the banking business, where he remained for many years. Now, in the banking profession a promotion occurs only when someone dies, is fired, or resigns. Qualified to hold the finest job, he wanted the best for himself, his wife, and their two children. He was a pillar of the Episcopal Church in New York City, sitting on the planning committee, advising them as to the care of their money, yet he knew nothing of the art of prayer or the secret of Christ.

One day he came to the house, and telling me of his financial desires, he asked what he should do. When I asked him if he would like to be in the investment business, he replied: “I want it more than anything in the world.” Then I said: “Go to bed tonight knowing you are now investing large sums of money. Do that night after night and the position you desire will be yours.”

Shortly after his visit my family sailed to Barbados, where we remained for three months. When we returned, my brother-in-law and sister came for dinner and this is the story Sam told me. Three weeks after our previous visit he attended a meeting on Wall Street. After the meeting was over a man he had known for years came over to him and asked if he would consider leaving the bank and joining him. He then quoted a salary which was twice what Sam was presently making, as well as promising him a five week paid vacation every year. Well, Sam was stunned beyond measure. He went home, discussed the offer with his wife, and they agreed it was a marvelous opportunity. That day he began his investment career representing the Rockefeller brothers – not the foundation, but the five brothers and their sister. He never bought stock, only suggested it. One day he told me he worked with one portfolio for $394 million, and that’s just one of many! Sam remained there for eight years, leaving to become a junior partner in a brokerage firm.

I wrote his story in one of my books and gave him a copy. A short time later while visiting them I discovered my book had found its place on a top shelf, completely out of reach. They had read the book, but as a pillar of the church with its orthodox concept of things, they could not associate the Jesus they worshiped with what they did, and the next time I went to their home, my book was completely out of sight. As a Harvard man, he could not believe that one who had never seen the inside of a college had helped him.

So whom do you seek? Is it not Jehovah, the savior of the world? The one who created all things, and without him there is not a thing made that is made? Sam knew what he did to get the job, but he could not believe that what he did was Jesus. Through the years we have remained close and dear friends, but never has one word been said concerning this. At dinner he gives grace and thanks someone on the outside for their food, doing it by rote. He can’t help it, for it is part of his training, but the day will come when he will discover who Jesus is. He found him, but – unable to recognize him – he turned his back upon the one and only one [who] is Jesus Christ. We are told: “He who is not with me is against me and he who will not gather with me, scatters.” At the present time Sam is not with me, but continues to worship something on the outside. Now you see how practical this story is.

Do you seek Jesus? Say “I am” and you have found him. Man finds it so difficult to understand that his own wonderful human imagination is the being he is seeking, but the day will come when he will find him. On that day Jesus’ Son will stand before him and call him “Father”. Jesus is not Jehovah’s son as you were taught. Jesus is Jehovah. Now, if Jehovah has a son and Jesus is Jehovah, is not David the Son? One day the veil will be lifted and God’s Son, David, will stand before you and call you “Father”. Until then, although many will listen to my words, they – like my brother-in-law – will not accept it.

Everything came about as Sam desired it to be. They are now living in a beautiful apartment. Their children have graduated from Smith and Harvard and in two more years he plans to retire and travel throughout the world. Sam found Jesus but did not recognize him. He is still looking for something on the outside – but may I tell you: no physical man is Jesus.

If anyone comes to you saying he is a holy man, do not believe him. Jesus is holy, for Jesus is Jehovah, he who can only be recognized through his Son, as it takes God’s Son, David, to reveal your true identity, that of being the Lord God Jehovah. Jesus Christ, that’s who you really are, and only God’s Son can reveal it to you. I know the truth of which I speak, for it has happened to me. The world teaches that everything is on the outside. That your success or failure depends upon where you live, the church you attend, your school or college education. This they believe because they do not know Jesus Christ, who is their own wonderful human imagination!

When I asked Sam, he told me that regardless of how disillusioned or tired he was, he imagined every night, and that although he had known the gentleman for many years, he had never been approached until three weeks after he had applied this principle. Sam saw the results of what he did. He knew he did it, but he could not believe that what he did was Jesus Christ!

So I ask you: whom do you seek? Do you seek Jesus, the savior of every being in the world? Jesus can save you from whatever you are. He can save you from missing your mark in life. “His name shall be called Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins,” and to sin is to miss your mark. Who is he? Your I am! Can you believe that? Is that idea so shocking to you that like those recorded in scripture you fall to the ground, then rise again to ask the same question: “Whom do you seek?” Jesus? I have told you he is your I am. And if you are really seeking me, then let the idea of a man go!

You aren’t seeking a man, a new president to lead you. You don’t need any leader. All you need is Jesus! It doesn’t matter who is the president tomorrow. A few years ago our president was voted in by an enormous majority, and tonight everyone is disillusioned, for they sought a man. Don’t seek a little man of flesh and blood, for flesh cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is Spirit. While walking in a garment of flesh and blood, Jesus will awaken in you!

This is the story that will be told on Good Friday, but not as you have heard it this night. And Sam will be ushering the people into that grand old church, just as he has done for years. He was married in that church. His children were baptized there and he has been active all these years, but he does not know Christ. I introduced him to Christ, for by him all things are made, and without him was not anything made that was made. I brought him to the only living Christ and he proved himself in the testing, yet Sam continues to believe in a false Christ – a Christ he will meet on the outside, not knowing that Christ dwells within.

I have been quoting the 18th chapter of John, the 4th to the 8th verses. As you read this you see they first play the garden scene and then it is said: “Jesus, knowing all that was to befall him…” The phrase “to befall him” in the Revised Standard Version, is translated in the King James Version as “to come upon him.” This phrase in Greek means: “a pressure from above that is mental or emotional which causes changes in the world.” So Jesus said to Pilate: “You could do nothing to me were it not given you from above.”

You see you are really not here in the true sense of the word. The being that is externalized here is putting on pressure, and you are willingly playing the part. And when everything is done that scripture says you will do, you will awaken as the one who placed the pressure on yourself. That is why I have no power over you were it not given me from above; therefore I who deliver you into the hands of another have the greatest sin. But as you move through the play, he who is pressing himself upon you, forcing you to do everything you have ever done, will be forgiven. “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.” Then you will awaken to the realization that your I am is God. See how practical the story is?

Now let us go back to the three manuscripts which make up what is called the Law of Moses. The manuscripts only have initials, which are J, E, and P. Although scholars tell us “J” means “Jehovah”, “E” the “Elohim” and “P” the “Priestly Code”, no one really knows who they are. J and P begin: “In the beginning God” But “E” begins on the 15th chapter of Genesis, stating: “After these things…” (In other words, after what is called the creation, the flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.) After these experiences, one is found who will do these incredible things. Then it is said: “The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. And the Lord said to him, ‘Fear not Abram, I am your shield; great shall be your reward.'” Then comes a discussion between the two concerning the child. Abram wants a child to be his heir and the promise is made: “Your own son shall be your heir, and not one born into slavery.” Then it is said: “A deep sleep fell upon Abram and a great darkness fell upon him” as the Lord told him of the horrors that would take place, and promising him that after his journey is over he would awaken with great possessions.

Now, in the New Testament it is said: “The Lord spoke to Joseph in a dream,” and there is no record, either in the Old or the New, of their awakening! May I tell you: Abraham – he who believes, and Joseph – the dreamer, awaken when God in Man rises. Then Man, who has been searching for salvation on the outside, awakens to discover that he is the Lord who imposed all of the horrors upon himself. So you see: the “E” manuscript records events from Abraham on; events that take place in vision, for the drama of creation takes place in all!

Now, what I have told you this night about my brother-in-law can be applied to transcend any limitation desired, I don’t care what it is. I knew by nature Sam would do what he said he would. He had promised that even though it was not rational (and Sam is a rational man), he would sleep in the assumption his desire was fulfilled until I returned from Barbados. Then he would tell me it didn’t work! Knowing Sam would not falter in the doing, I knew by that time it would be done, and of course it was. So I urge everyone to take my words seriously and try it. When you go to bed tonight, catch the feeling that would be yours if your desire were now realized. Then fall asleep in that feeling. If you do it, you will not fail. How it is going to happen I do not know; I only know that if you do it, it will happen. And when it does, don’t forget the lesson you have learned.

Sam has money now and continues to invest it in the world of Caesar, but has forgotten the principle behind it all and is looking for a physical Jesus on the outside. May I tell you: he has a great surprise in store for him, for when he dies, there will be no Jesus there to welcome him. Instead he will be restored to life in a body the same as before. His body will be young and unbelievably new, as he finds himself in an environment best suited for the work yet to be done in him. This he will continue to do until he finds and believes in Jesus.

Everyone is looking for Jesus Christ, for Jesus is Jehovah and Jehovah is the Lord God, the Savior of the world. And when you find him you discover his name is “I am.” So when you go to the people of Israel and they say, “Who sent you?” just say: “I am.” That’s all! If you do not believe you are this fabulous being, that your own wonderful human imagination is the cause of the phenomena of your life, you are still searching for its cause. But when you are convinced, you will begin to awaken and discover that there never was another God. Then you will see how practical this vision of God really is.

Your own wonderful human imagination is the Lord Jesus. Prove it! Believe in the only Jesus, for all things are made by him and without him is not anything made that is made. It is he who made the statement in the Book of Deuteronomy: “I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal.” The same being who wounds, heals, because imagination does it all! So you see how practical and wonderful this whole principle is?

Tonight, if you really want something – I don’t care what it is – you can have it. For your own sake I hope it will not injure another. You don’t have to hurt anyone to get what you want; all you have to do is accept it! To live as though you had it now! And when you get it (and you will) I urge you to share your good news with others to encourage all.

The other day my barber was telling of a conflict in his family and I said to him: “The problem is within you. Change your thoughts of your family and they will change.” Well, he didn’t understand me, but that’s all right. If I have to tell him seventy times seven times, I will because the story must be told. The boy who shines my shoes tells me about going to church on Sunday then having dinner with friends. He loves to be a part of that group. That’s religion! But when he asks me a question I try to tell him who Jesus Christ really is. It hasn’t gotten through, but that’s all right. Release a drop of water on a piece of granite and it will take a while to penetrate, but if you keep on dropping the water eventually it will get through. Well, water is truth and every time you tell of the true Jesus Christ you have released a drop of water.

Christ is your own wonderful human imagination. That’s an awful shock, and when you first hear it your world collapses, for there is no one to turn to but self! Formerly you could point to another as the cause of your misfortune, but you can no longer do that when you discover who Jesus Christ really is. From that moment on you must turn to yourself to blame or praise. And when you have played all of the parts, you will find him of whom you seek, Jesus of Nazareth!

Now let us go into the silence.

WONDER WORKING POWER

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 02-03-1969

You have within you a wonder working power! To understand this power, let us turn to the Book of Joshua, where we are told: “Wherever the sole of your foot shall tread, I have given you.” The Hebrew form of the word “Joshua” is Yad He Vav [corr. Yod Hey Vav Shin Hey, pron. Ye-ho-SHOO-ah] and means, “Jehovah saves”. So you see, Joshua is not promising another, but himself!

Jehovah leads the dance of life. We are his dancers, yet his very self; for God and his eternal name is one I AM. There is no place you can go and not know that you are! You may suffer from amnesia and not know who you are or where you are, but you know that you are; so without voicing it you are saying I AM! That’s God. There is no place where God is not and there is nothing that God is not; for if there is something, it has to be God!

Now, all things by a law divine in one another’s being mingle. If you will take the idea of inner penetration seriously, you will find its possibilities are staggering. Everything in this world penetrates your brain. You penetrate my brain just as I penetrate yours. My apartment is several miles from here. New York City is three thousand miles, and the place where I was born is five thousand miles away. I know they are there, but if I accept the thought of inner penetration then I believe they are also in my brain.

If I desire to visit my island home in Barbados, but do not have the means or the time to go there, I can enter its image in my imagination by approaching it on the fiery chariot of my contemplative thought. I have done it. I do not use this wonder working power lightly anymore, because I know that after imagining, my desire fulfilled (although I may forget it) I will be compelled to experience it in this world of shadows.

This wonder working power is to be used for anything you desire. It now penetrates your brain, and it is wherever you are. I know that Barbados is in the outer world, but I also know that I am all imagination. I know that God is Man and exists in us and we in Him; that the eternal body of Man is the Imagination, and that is God Himself. So if I – imagination – enter into an image I desire to occupy, no earthly power can stop that image from becoming an objective fact.

What is the secret that makes this wonder working power operate? Feeling! Reality is controlled by feeling, as told us in the 27th chapter of Genesis. The central character in this chapter is the state called Isaac, who has two sons – Esau and Jacob. Esau is clothed in objective reality, while Jacob wears subjective reality as longings, wishes, and desires. When Jacob disguised himself as an objective fact, Isaac said: “Come near that I may feel you to determine whether you are Esau or not.” And when he asked: “Are you really Esau?” Jacob answered, “I am.”

Put yourself into a subjective state. Then feel the objectivity of the state by giving it sensory vividness and tones of reality. Then deceive yourself into believing that the image into which you have entered is now objectively real. Do that, and you have entered the state called Isaac. And we are told that when Isaac once more saw his objective world, Esau returned and Jacob disappeared. Then he realized that he had been self-deceived, but could not take back the blessing given to the subjective state.

Although your objective world denies the reality of what you have done in your imagination, that which you have subjectively assumed is on its way to supplant your objective world and become your Esau. You see, in life you are playing the part of Isaac with your two sons: Esau – your objective world, and Jacob – your subjective one. Your subjective world may seem to be clothed in unreality; but when you enter into its image in your imagination and clothe that image with feeling, your subjective desire takes on the tones of reality.

This is how I do it: When I close my eyes this world is shut out and I, like Isaac, am blind to the outer world. Then I feel myself into the state of my desire. With my inner eye I see it all around me. I sense its solidity, and when my five senses are awakened I have the feeling of relief, knowing it is accomplished. When I open my physical eyes, Esau – my physical world – returns and tries to persuade me that what I did was unreal. But having done it time and time again, I know that my desire is moving towards its objective fulfillment.

This is what I mean by wonder working power. It is all within your own wonderful human imagination, for that is God. The promise to Joshua is God’s promise to himself, for there was no one to play the part that is so uniquely you, but God. Having conceived a play which existed only for him, God, the director and author, became the actor. His name is I am! Before I am known as John, Peter, man, or woman – I simply am! Clothing myself in what I would like to be, I am rich, poor, known, or unknown. Although my objective world denies the reality of what I have done, when I have felt the reality of my desired state, I have given it my blessing and cannot take it back.

The moment that which was subjective becomes objectively real to you, you have given it your blessing and cannot take it back. Clothed in the feeling of insecurity, your outer world (Esau) reflects that feeling. But when you clothe yourself in the feeling of being rich, even though it is subjective, watch – for as insecurity will no longer have your blessing to remain alive, riches will supplant it.

Every state of consciousness is within you, for everything is God made visible! And all things by a law divine in one another’s being mingle. The moon is remote in space, yet it penetrates your brain; therefore it is in your brain. I can’t take you with me to view the earth from the moon, but you can go there yourself. You can go to any point in space that you can conceive of, by just imagining you are already there.

When I was in the army, my commanding officer denied my request for discharge. His word was final in the world of Caesar – but not in the world of God, for that very day I assumed I was honorably discharged and living in my apartment in New York City, 2000 miles away.

Sleeping on a little cot in the barracks, I assumed I was in my own comfortable bed. I made it quite clear to myself that I was not on furlough, but was honorably discharged and once more a civilian. In my imagination, my wife was in her bed and my little girl in hers.

Then I got off the bed, walked over to the window, and looked out upon a familiar scene that could only be seen from there. I saw the Holly Apartments across the way, as well as Washington Square. I walked through every room in the apartment, touching familiar objects, and then returned to my bed to sleep in New York City as though it were a fact.

Early the next morning, I saw a sheet of paper which resembled the application I had made. Then a hand holding a pen scratched out the word “Disapproved,” and boldly wrote the word “Approved”! And I heard a voice say: “That which I have done, I have done! Do nothing!” Knowing exactly what I had done, I knew I was moving towards its objective confirmation and no power on earth could stop it. Nine days later, the man who disapproved my application gave me an honorable discharge!

I tell you: everything is possible to the individual when he knows who he is. You are the Joshua of the Old Testament and the Jesus of the New. And Jesus, your own wonderful human imagination, is Jehovah. He is your awareness, but as long as you see Jehovah as someone other than yourself you will not apply this principle. You must be willing to give up all foreign gods, all idols, and return to the one and only God, whose name is in you as your very being!

If you were trained in the Christian faith, you were taught to believe that Jesus was on the outside. But how can you put him to the test if he is another? There never was another Joshua or Jehovah. There is only God, the director of the great dance of life whose dancers are himself. God plays the part of the bum and dances the dance of poverty. He also plays the part of a millionaire and dances to the tune of millions, as every part is being played by God.

Now, everyone must act from where he is! Ask yourself: where am I? If I am God, where can I go and God is not? If I make my bed in hell, God is there. If I make it in heaven, God is there, for everything penetrates me! I do not have to physically move. Simply by adjusting my thinking I can move from one state to another.

I remember one cold winter night in New York City. I was lecturing in a church off Times Square where the usual crowd was in excess of a thousand, but because of the cold and snow there were only about 200 in attendance. My first book had just been released, and that night maybe 50 copies were sold, and since I had run the presses on 5000 I was eager to get the book in distribution.

Because of the storm outside, that night I spoke of the warmth of Barbados: the palm trees and the odors of the tropics. And when I retired, I felt myself in my mother’s home in Barbados. I listened to the movement of the leaves and smelled the tropical atmosphere. Then a cable came saying that mother was dying and I should return home. Within 24 hours my wife and I set sail for Barbados. I had put myself there and had to fulfill my imaginal act, even though it was an inconvenient time for me to go; so I do not treat my wonder working power lightly!

When I ask you to adjust yourself to a certain state, I mean for you to feel it is real, for reality is controlled by feeling. The day will come when feeling will modify, or even void, that which you think are the laws of nature and science, and you will discover they are not so at all.

This wonder working power is all within you, and can be operated consciously when you know who you are. If you get down on your knees and pray to an external God, you do not know this power. Whether you are in a church or a bar, God is there; and wherever God is, that place is holy. A bar is just as holy as a church, when you are there knowing who you are!

It does not matter where you are or what time it is; you can adjust your mind and make anything real through feeling. Although your objective world will deny its reality, the state you entered subjectively is moving towards fulfillment. We are always imagining, although totally unaware of what we are doing.

Yeats once said: “I will never be certain it was not some woman treading in the winepress who started a subtle change in men’s mind, or that a passion, because of which so many countries have given to the sword, did not begin in the mind of some poor shepherd boy, lighting up his day for a moment before it ran upon its way.”

Someone in prison feeling abused by society can cause the combustion of the world by imagining getting even with those who placed him there, while those who did it think they are safe, not realizing that – although the man is in prison – he is God, using his wonder working power.

If you know there is only God, who would you want to hurt? You would realize that no man could ever shoot another, for there is no other. There is nothing but God, the one and only reality. This is the Sh’ma, the great confession of faith: “Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.” Keep this in mind and you will never go wrong.

If God is one, there cannot be another. I am the one body fragmented in order for the poem to become alive. As I gather myself together to rebuild the temple which was destroyed when I deliberately shattered myself, the dead stones are made alive once more. One by one each fragmentation returns to the same body, making it more luminous, more transparent, and more creative, for God is an ever-expanding creative being.

This wonder working power is in your own wonderful human imagination. That is God. 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. A Christian calls the imagination Jesus. A Jew calls it Jehovah. Tradition claims Jesus and Jehovah are idols – but God’s true name is I am!

Believe in the human imagination, the only true God, by consciously using your wonder working power. Where can you go that you are not imagining? No matter where you are, you are imagining (aware of) being there. A newborn child does not know who he is, where he is, or what he is; but he knows he is. That is God. He is your wonder working awareness, the wonder working power of Imagination!

I hope you take me seriously and learn to consciously believe in your inner penetration. Everything penetrates your brain, or you could not be aware of it – be it good, bad or indifferent. You don’t have to take a train, a boat, or a car to go anywhere. All you need do is adjust your thinking. Affirm: “I am possessing it now” and persist until you feel the relief of possession. Then go about your business, knowing that in a way you know not of, you will be led to the fulfillment of what you did within yourself!

You do not have to consciously determine the series of events you will encounter; they will simply unfold in your world. You may meet a seeming stranger. Others may appear, and – upon reflection – you may even give them credit for your success; but they were only playing a part, as all things by a law divine in one another’s being mingle.

Others penetrate you and you penetrate them, for we are all one. If someone can play the part necessary for you to climb on that rung of the ladder, then he will do it without his knowledge of consent. Do not think of individuals, but of what you want as an end!

Shape your life wisely by becoming aware of the desire you are shaping in your mind, for without desire there is no power in life. Your power line is I am, while your desire is the light bulb. Just as it is impossible for a light bulb to give off light when it is not attached to the power line, so it is with you. You must attach your desire to your I am for it to illuminate and become objective to you.

Give lovely gifts to all you meet, for everyone is yourself pushed out. Take a noble concept you would like to experience, and adjust your thinking to it, by feeling you have moved into its fulfillment. Give it reality through feeling. Look at your world from this point, then open your eyes knowing that although your objective world denies it, you have given your desire its right of birth, and nothing can stop its fulfillment.

Read the 27th chapter of Genesis carefully, remembering that all of the characters spoken of there are personifications of states within you. As Isaac, you always have two sons: your present objective world and your present subjective world. The story tells you how to clothe yourself with the subjective desire, through feeling, until it supplants its objective brother.

That is how you move from one state to another until you reach the state called Jesus. Then the story recorded in the gospels will fulfill itself in you, casting you in the central role. Only this experience can save you from this world of Caesar, for you are redeemed, from within yourself, by recreating the story of Jesus Christ.

Now let us go into the silence.

YOU ARE A COSMIC BEING

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 05-02-1969

Tonight I want you to think of Christ as a cosmic being who contains everyone within him. Having died for all, this one being is in all, and will rise in all. Only one being can rise, for only one being fell. Having deliberately destroyed his temple in the fall, God, (this one being) is rebuilding his temple out of the redeemed, in order for it to become something far greater than it was prior to its destruction. One being, containing all within him, fell into this world of death to become individualized as you, as me. That same being will rise in us all, individually: and when he does the divine name “Lord” will be conferred upon the individual in whom he rose.

In Paul’s wonderful letter to the Corinthians, he tells us: “From now on I regard no one from the human point of view; even though I once regarded Christ from a human point of view, I regard him thus no longer.” Why? Because Paul was led from tradition to self-discovery. While determined to destroy those who believed in a savior other than the one he was taught to believe in, Paul discovered that the Christ of whom they spoke was a pattern of salvation contained within every child born of woman. It was Paul who said: “When it pleased God to reveal himself in me, I conferred not with flesh and blood.” The pattern unfolds in only one way, and Paul tried to describe how it unfolded in him. I cannot find the true detail by his description of it, but Paul does tell us to imitate God as dear children.

Now, in order to imitate anyone or anything, it must be seen or heard first. How can you imitate something you cannot see or hear? It is my purpose to tell you how to imitate God as a dear child, for imitation can only be accomplished by hearing what took place and believing it. Now, the question is asked: “How can men imitate him whom they have never heard, and how can men hear unless there is a preacher? And how can there be a preacher unless he is sent.” Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by preaching Christ. If, when I tell you I came out from the Father, you will accept my words and believe I am telling you the truth, then you will set your hope fully upon this promise and its unfoldment in you.

I tell you: one being fell to become all, and one being is going to rise in all, as each is called according to His purpose. I was called in 1959. He may call you tonight, but each one of us will be called individually by the same being who is rising in all.

I cannot conceive of anything comparable to this, for unless we are born from above we remain in the world of death, turning the wheel of recurrence over and over again. I can assure you from what I know from my inner vision, that everyone will escape. God will not leave one section of himself in the world of death. He is one being who – containing all -fell into the world of death. That same being, rising in each, individually according to his purpose, rebuilds his temple out of the redeemed.

If you would imitate God as a dear child you must first have a pattern from which you may follow. This is true in all walks of life. There must be a mold into which molten metal is poured in order to form a casting. Jesus Christ is the mold which “Must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Perfection is a molten state into which you must be reduced. Your physical body, when it is burned, it is reduced to dust; so it cannot be this body that is reduced to a molten state. No. It is not your physical body, but your Spiritual body.

Christianity is based upon the claim that a certain series of events happened in which God revealed himself in action for the salvation of man. It hasn’t a thing to do with any individual man on the outside. Paul’s story, which preceded the gospels by twenty or twenty-five years, is not concerned with what happens to the individual between the cradle and the grave.

If the one called Jesus was a carpenter, a mason, a bricklayer, or a pimp, it would not concern Paul. He was only interested in what happened in an individual. Paul knew he had awakened from the dream of life, but could not share his experiences with others except in words. We are told that he spent his last days from morning to night discussing the kingdom of God and trying to persuade others concerning Jesus, and some believed while others disbelieved.

This is true in this world in which we live. When I tell of what happened to me, individually, my experiences are so unusual the average person will not accept them. They – still in the world of Caesar – are more concerned with how to make that extra dollar then they are in the eternal world of life.

Although this world of death is temporal, it will continue as though it is forever, until the individual hears the Word of God and responds with faith by setting his hope fully upon the grace that is coming to him at the revelation of Jesus Christ within him. That is where the one being, containing all of us, fell. It was a deliberate act, and necessary in order to expand beyond what He was prior to the fall. We did nothing wrong to warrant our fall; rather we desired to enter this world of death. We agreed to take upon ourselves these dead garments; to be enslaved by them and to overcome them. We did it in perfect confidence that He who contained us all, would redeem us all.

In the 32nd chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy we are told that: “He has set bounds to the people according to the number of the sons of God;” therefore, every child is a garment worn by a son of God, and God will not leave one of his sons in this world of death. Rather, every son will rise, individually, to the realization that he is God the Father, as it takes all of us to form that one being who is God and Father of all.

When I speak of Jesus Christ I do not mean a man, but a pattern. Like Paul, I no longer regard Christ from the human point of view. I once regarded him as such, but not any more. Now I see him as a pattern of salvation which began to unfold in me back in 1959 when I awoke in my skull. Until that moment in time I – like you – had no idea I was buried there; but, because it happened to me, I will now prophecy for you. A storm wind will possess you, and you will awaken within yourself to discover you are entombed in your skull, from which you will emerge. That will be your birth from above, of which John speaks, saying: “Unless you are born from above you cannot enter the kingdom of God.” This kingdom is the new age spoken of as that age – as opposed to this age.

This is the age of death where everything begins and ends, while that age is eternal life. Having overcome the world of death, Jesus Christ (the pattern) unfolds as you rise, victorious, into the world of eternal life; for you are the gods who came down, individualized yourselves in order to rise as the Lord, as there is no other being.

The world may condemn you if you are a thief by profession, but Paul doesn’t. It matters little what happens to you individually between the cradle and the grave. But it matters much if, when you hear my story of salvation you believe it; for then you will break the shell and rise above all this worldly nonsense. Salvation’s story was told to us as it was to them; but it did not benefit them because – believing this world of death was real – they were more interested in achieving greater intellect and more wealth here; therefore, the story was not received with faith.

I read a story concerning Lord Russell who, although loving to be called “Lord,” said: “I regard religion as a disease, born of fear. A source of untold misery to the human race.” Well, I tell you it is not a disease, although I know there are numberless forms of interpretation of the great mystery.

Like Paul, I was taught that Christ was a man who came into the world and claimed he was the Messiah to save the world. But I tell you, Christianity is based upon the claim that a certain series of supernatural events happened, in which God revealed himself in action for the salvation of man. When I realized that these events spelled out the pattern man who was Christ, I knew there was no other.

It takes the many blows of the world to reduce us to that liquid, cosmic being who awakens in the grave. That grave is not in some cemetery, but in the skull from which a storm wind will awaken you. In the Jerusalem Talmud, there is a tradition that the Messiah was born in Bethlehem the night of the destruction of Jerusalem, and he was carried off by a storm wind. I tell you this is true.

When the storm wind possessed me I reverberated from head to foot. I felt as though my body was being shattered as I awoke. Expecting to see the same room I had retired in, I awoke to find myself in a tomb which I intuitively knew to be my skull. It was sealed, and when I rolled a stone away, I discovered that I could force my head into the opening found there. This I did and I came out of that skull as a child comes out of the womb of a woman; but this was the womb from above rather than the womb from below, for you must be born from above in order to inherit the kingdom of God. Then the entire imagery as told us in scripture surrounded me, witnessing the event.

It is written that the angel of the Lord said to those who were going to be witnesses: “Go and you will find him, for God is born this day in Bethlehem. Look for this sign, which is a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying on the floor.” The witnesses then went hastily and found the sign; but they could not see he who was having the experience because he was Spirit, and since God is Spirit, it was God who was born.

Although I could not be seen by mortal eye, my witnesses could not see me; but I could see them and their every thought was objective to me. Then the sign of my birth was carried away by a storm wind.

Now, knowing myself to be God, who is a father, I must have a son to bear witness to my fatherhood. Five months later God’s son David stood before me and called me father and I fulfilled his promise. Then I returned to the limitation of my cross in order to share my experiences with you, my brothers, to encourage you to believe. I saw my only son who is God’s only son.

That son is the personification of all the generations of men and their experiences, proving that the race is finished and the crown of righteousness is mine. I have played every lovely and unlovely part in this world. I had to in order to see my son, whose beauty is beyond measure, and whose name is David.

Now, the third mighty act reveals your true identity as that of molten gold. In the Book of Zechariah, we read: “He stood upon the Mount of Olives when it was split from east to west as one half moved northward and the other half moved southward.” You will discover, as I did, that the Mount of Olives spoken of here is your body; for the Old Testament is an adumbration, a forecasting in a not altogether conclusive and immediately evident way.

It is a shadow, but not the substance. Zechariah refers to a mountain, but when it happens to you, you will realize that the mountain is yourself. It is your body which is split from top to bottom, from east to west, as one side moves northward as the other side moves southward, revealing liquid, molten gold at its base. As I looked at this living, liquid gold I knew it to be myself; and I fused with it and up I went into my skull – into the kingdom of heaven, for the kingdom is within, At that moment I departed the world of generation and returned to the world of regeneration, as the heavens reverberated like thunder. Having returned to the molten state, I cast myself into the mold which was prepared for me before that the world was, to become the living image that radiates and reflects God’s glory. I am now the express image of God Himself. God’s primal wish was, “Let us make man in our image.”

I tell you, He has wrought it! As one of the gods, I have completed the journey; but because we are all brothers, I am compelled to remain in the world to tell you in the hope that you who are still asleep will believe me. I say the Christ of scripture is a pattern of salvation and not a man separate from yourself.

The four mighty acts which form that redemption begin with your awakening within yourself and end with the descent of the dove. Two years and nine months after my ascent into the kingdom of heaven, the Holy Spirit descended upon me in bodily form as a dove and smothered me with love. Then I knew I had filled the entire role and was now a glorious, living stone in the living body of the Risen Christ.

Christ is the one being who fell containing all within himself. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Because he could not fall without all of us, we agreed to fall with him. That was an agreement for expansion, for truth is an ever expanding illumination. God, having reached the limit of contraction and opacity, died in order to rise into limitless expansion and translucency.

Opacity (which is doubt) is personified as a thing and called the devil; and this being called “man,” is the limit of contraction. It may be hard to believe, but – as Paul said after his revelation: “The wisdom of this world is foolish in the eyes of God, and the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger then men.” Man believes he is getting wiser and wiser, yet it is only wiser and wiser nonsense. But God allows the nonsense to go on as men give each other medals, knowing that after the revelation man will know that the Bible is not speaking of a messiah to come from without, but from within.

One man fell, saying: “I say, You are gods, Sons of the Most High, all of you. Nevertheless you will fall like men and die as one man, O princes.” Can you imagine that? Falling as one man we are princes; and if that is true, then our father is a king. I tell you, our Father is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, for he is the Lord God Jehovah who is raising us to himself that each one of us may become fully aware of being the Father. Regardless of your present sex, you are a son of Sod destined to awaken as the Father.

This wonderful story of scripture is completely misunderstood. Today’s preachers are not sent, for they have not yet been awakened; therefore they will give you all kinds of stories concerning the interpretation of scripture. Prior to 1959 I was not sent, but in 1959 1 was called, incorporated into the body of God and sent. This incorporation is like an impression made by a seal on wax or clay, for I came out bearing the image of God. The mortal eye cannot see that image, and when I die here, my physical body will disintegrate like all bodies do. My friends will say I am dead, for to them I am a mortal being with weaknesses and limitations of the flesh.

Those who see me as Neville are misled, as they cannot hear what I am saying; for they are seeing a body disintegrating before their eyes. They are judging by appearances and cannot understand that God does not see as man sees. Man sees the outward man, while God sees the inner man; and I, the inner man, have been impressed upon God like a great seal upon wax. I wear this little body that continues to decay; yet I, unseen by mortal eye, am radiating and reflecting the glory of God. I am the express image of the person that is God, but only those whose eyes are open will see me.

I promise you who hear me tonight, that it won’t be long before you will depart this world. Don’t be afraid. You will be restored to life, in a world just like this, to continue your journey. If you believe what you have heard from me, although I will not be there, wherever you go they will talk of the work I did here. Individually, I have left the world of death. I am only waiting for the moment when this little garment is taken off for the last time. I will not be restored to a world of mortality like this any more, for I have finished the race; I have fought the good fight; I have kept the faith. Now there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness where I go to wait for all my brothers to come into that union and be the one being that came down bearing all.

Mark my words, I am not fooling you. It isn’t long to wait before you will take off this garment and find yourself restored to life. You will meet many of your friends there who went before you. It will be a world just like this, where you will do all of the things we do here. And you will remember who taught you. You will not see me there, but eventually you will see me. Now I am going to where you cannot come; but you will, for everyone will awaken as God the Father.

I am not trying to persuade you to change your attitude towards the speaker. I am only telling you what I know from experience. Like Paul, I did not receive this knowledge from a man; it came through revelation of the true nature of salvation. It’s something entirely different. Salvation is not a man, but a pattern man buried in all, who will awaken in all in a first-person, singular, present-tense experience. When the experience is yours, you, too, will know who you are. I was taught to believe God was another; but when the pattern awakened in me, I knew I was He. Now I remain in the world only to share this wisdom with my brothers.

The unknown author of the Book of Hebrews said: “Holy brethren, look to Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession.” We are all sharers in this great gift, so let us now look to Jesus, the apostle who is called and sent. It is Jesus who is called. That’s who you really are. As the apostle, you are called and sent to tell the story of salvation from experience. You will tell your good news, knowing that not everyone who hears it will respond. In fact many, being more interested in the honors of men, will discount it.

Those who have $50 million are only interested in increasing their wealth to $100 million; and, although they may be eighty when they hear your story, it will not interest them, as they will still want more of what they must leave behind when they depart this world – as they won’t be able to take it with them, as you know. They will make a world like this, only devoid of what they had built up here, and cast themselves in a role best suited for the work yet to be done in them by the son of God who is wearing that garment. He may zap him from the role of a millionaire and place him in the role of a shoe-shine boy or one who cleans latrines, if that is necessary for the work yet to be done in him.

The world into which they go is just as real as this. I know this is true from experience. I have sat in a chair and felt something happen within me and I see a world that is solidly real. As my consciousness follows vision, I step into that world and it closes upon me as this world is shut out. While in that world my body is real. It is seen and heard by others. If, in that world I have a body like this, yet those who are here see my body asleep in a chair, how did I get that body? It was just as real to me and to those who saw and heard me there as this body you now see here. You could destroy this body, but you would not have destroyed that body in that world.

William Blake once said: “The oak is cut down with the ax and the lamb is slain by the knife, but their forms eternal remain forever and are reproduced by the seed of contemplative thought.” When I stepped into that world I knew myself to be a man called Neville. I was so aware of being Neville I clothed myself in the body that was Neville; yet I knew there was a body that was Neville, sound asleep on a chair.

How did it happen? By the seed of contemplative thought. When you die here, you remold yourself in the likeness that you know – only you reduce it in age to a time that pleases you. An eighty-year-old man, knowing what he knows now, will wear a twenty year old body, produced by the seed of contemplative thought. Who does it? The God in him. He will not go through the womb of a woman, but will create a new body by the seed of contemplative thought. He goes on in that world, just as he does here, to die there and begin all over again until he hears the story of salvation and believes.

Now let us go into the silence.

neville goddard imagining creates reality

YOUR MAKER

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 01-07-1969

Your maker is your husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name. By him all things are made, and although he is an unseen activity within you, without him is not anything made that is made. I ask you, as Paul asked the Corinthians, to examine yourselves to see if you are holding to your faith. To test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Chris is in you? – unless, of course, you fail to meet the test. I tell you: Jesus Christ is a power within you, which you must find and test. Paul didn’t say that Jesus Christ made only the good, but everything – be it good, bad, or indifferent. And Blake said: “I know of no other Christianity and of no other gospel than the liberty both of body and mind to exercise the divine arts of Imagination. Imagination, the real and external world into which we will live [sic] when these vegetable, mortal bodies are no more. The apostles knew of no other gospel.”

Now, John Mills defines causation as the assemblage of phenomena, which occurring, some other phenomena commence to appear in the world. In other words, causation is the assemblage of an imaginal state implying the fulfillment of desire, which feeling will activate and produce in the world. And H. G. Wells put it this way: “Throughout the ages, life is nothing more than a continuing solution to a continuous synthetic problem,” How many times have you said to yourself: if I only had x-number of dollars I could live comfortably, then inflation appears and you are forced to use your creative power to construct an imaginal solution to your new problem.

Webster defines a synthetic body as the compiling of separate elements which produce a new form. In this world you will never find permanency, for something will penetrate the state you are now occupying and force you to conceive a new solution. This is how it is done. Do not judge the problem – rather ask yourself what its solution would be. Suppose you were in jail. The solution would be to be out of jail, pardoned, and sleeping in your own home. So, while still confronted with the problem, and lying on your cot in jail, you would close your eyes to the cell and feel you are now home, as a free man. Then fall asleep allowing the maker of all things to create that which will be seen out of that which does not appear.

A few years ago, a lady in my San Francisco audience rose and said: “My brother is in the army. I do not know what he did to cause his punishment, but he has been sentenced to six months of hard labor, and I want him set free.” After establishing the fact that he would go to her apartment if he were free, I urged her to imagine he was there now. That night, this lady imagined hearing the doorbell ring. Rushing down the stairs, she opened the door to find her brother standing there, a free man. She rehearsed that scene over and over again until it seemed natural to her. One week later, while sitting in her apartment, the doorbell rang. She ran downstairs, opened the door, and embraced her brother – who told her he was honorably discharged. Who brought the action against him, or who discharged him I do not know. I only know the brother did not run away from the punishment, for the lady came to my meeting the next Sunday and shared her story with all who were there. Now, if she hadn’t known this principle and put it into practice, she would have remained at home, angry and frustrated for six months until her brother was released.

All things are made by your imagination, for without imagining, nothing is made. Imagination is not limited to this level of consciousness. There are levels and levels of imagination, as your dreams and visions prove. This world is sustained by Divine Imagining, which is human imagining on a higher level. Our imagination is keyed low, but we are called upon to exercise this power, to examine ourselves to see if we are keeping our faith. On this level, faith is not complete until, through experiment, it becomes experience. Experiment with this statement: “Whatever you desire, believe you have received it and you will.” (Mark 11) If faith is not complete until, through experiment it becomes experience, you must take an unseen objective and place it in an assemblage of mental states which would imply its fulfillment. Then this desire must be activated by entering into its center, feeling its reality, and walking in the faith that it will happen. I tell you: in a way you could not devise, what you have assumed will come into your world.

You do not have to construct a bridge of incident to walk across; you simply move toward the fulfillment of what you have already prepared for yourself. Then fulfill another desire the same way, and when it appears you will know exactly what to do when confronted with any problem. You will simply turn your back upon it by constructing an imaginal scene which would imply the fulfillment of its solution. Activate it and let it come into being.

Unfortunately it is so easy to make the acceptance of Christianity a substitute for living by it. In New York City alone there are more than one million people on relief, and I dare say 90 per cent of them claim to be Christians, yet do not know the meaning of Christianity. Christ is not on the outside, but within you. And when He appears you will be like him. That is what we are promised in the Book of John. Will you see someone on the outside who looks like you? No! Christ is in you, and he makes all things. Test him and you will discover he is your imagination!

When I was a boy I lived in Barbados. Unschooled, with no background whatsoever, I dreamed of coming to America. I became so enamored with the idea, that at the age of 17 my parents put me on a boat to America with $600 in my pocket. They thought I would come back once the money was gone, but I wanted to live in America so badly I had to come and make it my home.

Are you willing to become enamored over a desire that much? Are you willing to fall in love with its fulfillment that you imagine it is yours now? If so, I promise you it will outpicture itself in your world. And when it does, you will have found Christ, for the words of scripture: “By him all things are made and without him is not anything made that is made,” are false.

When you test your imagination you will find He who produced your desire and the Maker of all things! I have tested him numberless times. I have taught this principle to others who have tested him and shared their experiences with me. Now I know who Jesus Christ really is. The words, “Unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins,” are not spoken on the outside, but on the inside. Now wearing a garment of flesh, my words appear to be coming from without, and one day I will seem to die and become a historical fact. But I am not speaking as an outer man. I am speaking as the true Jesus Christ, who comes in every individual by unfolding his story as recorded in scripture. There is only one story, and only one being to play the part. That being is God. It is he alone who acts and is in all things.

When the Old Testament fulfills itself in you – an individual – you will not be a spectator observing the drama, but the central actor. And, knowing it is God alone who acts, you know you are He. And when you tell your story, those who hear you will see the garment of flesh you wear, and think you have a devil and are blaspheming the name of God. But, knowing your father is he who men call God – you know your father, while men know not their God.
While wearing a garment of flesh, I know my origin and destiny, for scripture has unfolded itself in me. Many who hear my confession are not expecting this kind of revelation, so they shut me out as one who blasphemes God’s name. But the words of scripture are spoken from within. This statement is one you are saying to yourself: “Unless I believe that I am he, I will die in my sins.” To sin is to miss your desire. If you do not believe you are its creator, you are missing your mark. You must believe, to achieve! You must assume you already are the person you want to be, in order to become it. Although your assumption is denied by reason and your senses, if you will persist in your assumption, it will harden into fact. This is how something is made out of that which does not appear.

Knowing what you want, assume your desire is already fulfilled by imagining a circle of friends are congratulating you. Fall asleep knowing that those who would empathize with you have already witnessed your good fortune. Knowing you have put the fulfillment of your desire in motion, walk confident that what you are assuming is true. And when it happens, share your experience with others, in the hope that they will try it and it will work for them. It does not matter to me what others think, for I have found my Father – the one the world worships and calls God – to be my own wonderful human imagination!

People buy pictures of Jesus and hang them on the wall to bow before, yet the pictures are so unlike the artist who painted them. When Christ appears, you will be like him. This I know from experience. When Christ appeared in me, I was the one playing his part. Since only God acts and is in all men, God puts himself into the central role and unfolds the eternal drama in each individual, who then knows that he is God.

Last year I gave ten lectures in San Francisco. Just before the first meeting a lady told me she thought I was the greatest teacher of truth in the world. I thanked her and began my lecture by stating that man is all imagination and God is man. That the eternal body of man is the imagination, and that is God Himself. Then I told the story of a lady who found herself sitting in a chair in a very large room, when a self-propelled carriage appeared. The door opened and I stepped out, wearing a cape and carrying a briefcase. Personifying sheer power, I entered the room and began to proclaim the power of God. As she looked at me, she said to herself: “That is Neville, and yet it is God.” Without giving her any sign of recognition, I finished my proclamation, turned, and – as though by appointment – the carriage appeared, I entered it, and vanished.

I continued by telling everyone that life itself is a glorious play, which was conceived by God, directed by God, and every part is being played by God. That this world is like a glorious poem, which exists not for itself, but for the one who conceived it. Falling in love with the world God had conceived, He wanted all of the characters to exist for themselves. But, finding no one to play the parts, God died to his true identity in order to take upon himself the limitation of the characters in his play. Now playing the part of every individual, God experiences all of the tribulations of being man, until He awakens in the character He is playing. I know I am Neville, a character in the play, but I also know I am God. This lady, who only a few minutes before had told me I was the greatest truth teacher in the world, was so shocked she never came back to the other lectures. She had expected me to conform to her little concept of God and I did not. Instead, I boldly proclaimed that we were all God, even though we are not all aware of it. Unless the story told in the gospels concerning Jesus Christ awakens and unfolds in the individual, that individual does not know that he is the Christ.

Paul found Christ to be his human imagination and urged everyone to test himself. Like Paul, I urge you to test your human imagination. You do not need the money or the time to go anywhere in your imagination, yet you can put yourself there, just as though you had made the trip. If you do, and your circumstances change so that the money and the time appears, allowing you to go, have you not found Jesus Christ to be your imagination? This is what scripture teaches, but man has personified the story and made Jesus Christ into a little idol to bow before, when the true God is the human imagination. All things are made by the human imagination. Imagine something that is not now a fact. Persist in your imaginal act, and when it becomes a fact, you have found God. And once you have found him, never let him go!

At the end of the drama it is said that one who knew Jesus betrayed him. Now, in order to betray someone, you must know his secret! So the one who knows the secret betrays him. That one is self! God is self-revealed. Unless God reveals himself to you, how will you ever know him? Turning to those who did not know him, Jesus said: “Now that you have found me, do not let me go, but let all these go.” Let every belief of a power on the outside go, but do not let the belief in your powerful imagination go – for truth is within you. When you find the Maker in yourself, then no matter what arguments the priesthoods may give, do not believe them, for the Christ you seek is the human imagination.

Tomorrow you may forget and be penetrated by rumors which disturb your body and cause you to suffer. When this happens you must reestablish your harmony by imagining things are as you desire them to be. Living in this wonderful world, we cannot stop the penetration. To perceive another, that other must first penetrate your brain; therefore, he is within you as well as on the outside and independent of your perception. Cities, mountains, rivers and streams, must first penetrate your brain for you to be aware of them. At that moment of awareness they are within you, even though they still maintain a certain independence of your perception and are without. Treat this inner penetration seriously and you will discover all you need to do is adjust your thinking. That you are all imagination and must be wherever you think you are. If you want to contact a friend, simply adjust yourself to his community by making there – here, and then – now. Visit him in his home by penetrating it within yourself. Give him your message and see his eyes light up with the pleasure of your words.

If God is in you, is there any place where God is not? And if there is no place where imagination is not, where would you go to be where you want to be? If everything penetrates you, then you must choose what you want and adjust yourself into the feeling that you are already there. You will know you have arrived when you view the world from there.

Motion can be detected only by a change of position relative to another object. While physically sitting in a chair you appear not to move, but because everything penetrates you, by a mental adjustment you can think from the awareness of being the person you want to be. How will you know you have changed? By the expression on the faces of your friends. If they now see the new you, then you have moved. So let them look at you until their faces tell you they are seeing that which you are assuming is true.

There must always be a frame of reference from which you move. Your frame is your friends, who would know of any change in your life. If I died, motion would be detected, as one friend would call another, who would call another, and finally dozens of people would know that Neville had died. If, on the other hand, I became a millionaire, that same chain reaction would occur.

After assuming you are now what you want to be, make your friends your frame of reference by hearing them congratulate you. Feel the reality of their actions. Relax in the peace of knowing it is done. And when it comes to pass, you have found Christ, for it is He who makes all things and without him is not a thing made that is made. You made your life change by finding Christ to be your imagination!

I tell you: God became you, with all of your weakness and limitations, that you may become Imagination. Becoming our imagination, God exists in us and we in him. Our eternal body is the imagination, and that is God Himself. And God alone acts! He can act the part of the fool, or the king, the poor, or the rich man. Every desire is a state. Move into your desire, and God will play that part – as you! If you desire riches, yet do not know this power, you will remain poor because you are looking for a God on the outside, trying to coerce him into giving you wealth for acquiring merit. You can spend your life acquiring merit and be so good the world will think you are wonderful, yet remain poor. Man must seek and find his true identity within himself, for he and he alone is the revealer and maker of everything in this world.

I have never seen Neville do anything. I was never a spectator, but the actor playing the part. Now wearing this garment of decay, called Neville, when I tell my story people are shocked. They think I am blasphemous by making these bold claims, yet I can no more deny my mystical experiences than I can deny the simplest evidence of my senses. I know what I ate tonight, yet its memory is not as vivid to me as my experiences of scripture. So I say to all: the one who makes everything is the human imagination. This may seem cruel to one who is now experiencing pain, but it is true. I have suffered. I have known physical pain. Even though I may say I caught the flu, I know I caught it within me. I read the paper where I learned that 50 per cent of the people had the flu, and – becoming a statistic – I made it fifty-one. I have experienced its aches and pains, and learned a lesson. Now I know that even though I have experienced the drama of Jesus Christ, I am still subject to everything man is subject to. I know that I cannot point to any other cause other than my own imagination, as cause cannot come from the outside. If I am in pain, the cause is mine. We are told in Galatians that God – your imagination – is not mocked. That as you sow, so shall you reap. “See yonder fields? The sesame was sesame, the corn was corn, the silence and the darkness knew, and so is a man’s fate born.”

So I repeat: Causation is the assemblage of mental states, which occurring produces that which the assemblage implies. Assemble a mental state which implies you are now what you want to be. Enter into that state. Remain there until you become one with it by performing inner acts as though they were outer ones. Continue to do so and watch, for your outer world will change as these inner acts become facts in your world. And don’t think you will ever find a stopping place. No state you have ever created will endure unmoved, undisturbed, forever – because every moment of time you are being penetrated. Your idea of perfection and harmony today will be disturbed tomorrow, forcing you to use your talent to construct an imaginal change.

Your departure from this world will be so only to those who cannot follow you into another section of the same world. There you will continue to imagine, until the gospel story repeats itself in you. It will, for it is the story of God awakening and being born in man. Where God is not in man as his human imagination, the story could not be repeated. But when it erupts and Christ unfolds within the individual, he leaves a section of time to enter an entirely new age called the kingdom of God.

You can prove you are all imagination if you believe it, for you live by your beliefs. Lip service is not enough. Belief must become alive. Do you really believe your imagination makes all things? Then test yourself and see. When confronted with any problem, immediately construct an imaginal solution. Enter into that image and abide in its truth. Always remember who the maker is, for he makes things out of that which does not appear. He is like quicksilver, but you can test him best in a daydream.

Fawcett said: “Divine imagining is like pure imagining in ourselves. It lives in the very depth of our soul underlining all of our faculties, including perception, but streams into our surface mind least disguised in the form of creative fantasy.” All dreams proceed from God whether they be in the day, or night. Everything is preceded by a dream, called an imaginal act!

Take me seriously and test the maker in you. “Examine yourselves to see if you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless, indeed, you fail to meet the test.” (II Corinthians 13) I hope you will find out that you have not failed!

Now let us go into the silence.

YOUR SUPREME DOMINION

December 22, 2013

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

Neville Goddard 1953

As you have been told, this morning’s subject is “Your Supreme Dominion”. As a man does not possess it or he does not know that he possesses it for he certainly is not exercising it. As we read in the very first chapter of the Book of Genesis, “And God made man in His own image, in the image of God made He him. He made them male and female, and God blessed them.” And God said unto them, “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it and have dominion over all the fish of the sea and all the fowls of the air, and every moving thing that moves upon the earth. And God saw all that He had done, all that He had done, all that He had made, and they were very good.”

Now, you and I reading the Bible, not knowing it to be a psychological truth and seeing it as historical fact, we cannot understand the word. But when man knows the Bible is the greatest collection of psychological truths and was never intended to be seen as history or cosmology, then he gets a glimpse into this great wonderful book. For man himself is the great psychological earth that must be subdued. In man move all the passions, all the great emotions symbolized as creeping things and animals. In the deep of man actually live the invisible states symbolized as fish. In the deep of man actually live all the unnumbered infinite ideas symbolized as the fowls of the air. It is this man that must be self subdued, for subdue it, then comes the promise and have dominion over this vast wonderful country that is man. If man does not know that he himself is the earth spoken of, he thinks he must go out into the world and conquer it. The world reflects the work done on man. And so when he looks upon this wonderful world round about him, he thinks himself so little.

The Bible also tells us he calls himself a grasshopper, and referring to himself as a grasshopper, he sees giants in the land, the giants of industry, the giants of economics, the giants all round about him, and he feels smaller and smaller because he does not know how to go about actually subduing the earth, which is himself. When man knows it, he will realize that man as an individual is supreme within the circle of his own consciousness, for within the circle of his consciousness the entire drama of life is re-enacted over and over again. He has to start with self and then he will see this outer wonderful world, this visible world, is not what he thinks it to be, a place of exile from God; it is the living garment of the Father, and although to many of us its discordant harmony needs some interpretation, to the wise it has a voice and the voice speaks of hidden things behind the veil hidden things behind the veil of man’s mind, for this whole vast wonderful world is a response to the arrangement of man’s mind. For when he knows it he will look within for the hidden causes, look into the deep to see the fish and how they swim and how they are related, for this arrangement of the deep is going to project itself as circumstances and conditions of life.

And so today, if you haven’t started, today is the time to start to really put into practice this teaching, and make of this violence a garden of God. It is called Eden and man was placed within it to keep it and to care it, for the garden of God is man. It is the mind of man. You never find a garden unless a man is present, for without a man there would be a forest of wilderness. But when a man is placed in it he begins to cut the trees or the seeds of wrong thinking; he clears the ground and he cultivates the ground, and then plants wisely. Then you will have dominion, for you will select the seed you will plant, the ideas you will entertain, and you will cultivate them. Knowing the outer world constantly bears witness of the inner arrangement of mind, you will only select the things you want to project into the living garment of your Father. For the whole vast world round about you is a living garment worn by your Father.

So how did he reap? He said He made man in His own image; well, the methods of mental and spiritual knowledge are entirely different. You and I can know a thing mentally by looking at it from the outside, by comparing it with other things, by analyzing it, by defining it, by even giving a description of it, but we can know a thing spiritually only by becoming it. We must be the thing itself if we would know that thing spiritually. We must be in love if we would know love. We must be God like if we would know what God is. For God made me, not out of something other than Himself; He made me perfect, so He made me by becoming me. There was no other way in the world that God could have made me unless He became me. So God became man that He may know man in the only way that He could know anything, for He knows all things spiritually and He calls them very good.

So He made me by becoming me, and now I am called upon to go and take care of the earth, and to subdue it, and take dominion. And I am the earth – I must learn to plant as He planted, and He planted the world by becoming the world. I must now plant as man, by becoming the man I want to be. So I will itemize all the things, name them, give a name to everything I want to express as a man, and then know it spiritually by becoming and I become it as He became me. I identify myself with it and live in that identity and I clothe it in flesh, I clothe it in fact. Not one thing in the world that is mine can be taken from me save by detachment from the state where that thing I love has its natural life. If I live in a world of beauty, if I live in a world of friendship, of comfort and all the lovely things that men enjoy, no power in the world can take one of them from me save I, who live among them, detach myself from the state where these lovely things have their natural life. When you and I know it, we begin to cultivate the earth, we actually weed the mind of all negative states, all unlovely emotions, and we bring into subjection not the outer but the inner, and then the outer reflects that cultivation on self.

Now, how is it done? You are told in the first book of the Bible how it’s done. For the promise is to the man who does it and the promise is a complete expansion beyond his wildest dreams of the state he plants. The one who first did it was called Jacob; well, I am Jacob. You are Jacob if you start to plant; every man is the potential Jacob, and Jacob did it by righteousness. As you are told, he did it through righteousness and he multiplied exceedingly, so that he increased a thousand fold his flocks, his cattle; he increased and grew beyond the measure of man in having all the maid servants and men servants and the camels. And this is what he said, “My righteousness shall speak for me in time to come.”

Righteousness is right consciousness. The only right consciousness is the consciousness of already being the man you want to be, for that attaches you with an invisible state. You can’t see it yet but you become attached to the state that you dare to assume you are, and you go fishing in the deep, you are beginning now to subdue the deep. You enter a state through the medium of feeling , through feeling that you are already what you want to be. And that is how you grow exceedingly great in your world, for you will be the Jacob expanding in your world.

The next one we come upon is Job. Here in the midst of all the trials and tribulations of a man, Job says, “I will hold fast to my righteousness and then my heart shall never judge me harshly as long as I live.” He will hold fast to righteousness in the midst of storm, in the midst of all the problems of the world he will assume that he is free and hold fast to that right consciousness knowing that not in eternity could his heart ever judge him harshly.

Then we are told, “The meek of the earth seek righteousness and it is to the meek of the earth that the earth is given. As you are told the meek shall inherit the earth. You might have been taught to believe it meant the beaten man, the man who falls and grovels like the grasshopper; it doesn’t. The word “meek” if translated actually means to be tamed as a wild animal is tamed. To the man who tames the mind, the man who tames his being that he can set it any task and have it execute that task, that man is meek and the meek inherit the earth. And the meek always seek righteousness, so if I today began to subdue this earth, I must make righteousness my watchword, and so if I were righteous I would now single out the nature of the trees I would plant, the nature of the flowers I would plant, the nature of the animals I would cultivate, the nature of the fish that I would catch, and I would name them as desirable states, called in the Bible beauty instead of ashes, called in the Bible the spirit of joy instead of mourning, called by all these lovely things. As you are told, all the things that are good, dwell on these things. To every good thing, for He called it very good. Every thing that I would call the good, which is a righteous judgment, will be the right judgment. I, in spite of the evidence of my senses that would deny it, in spite of reason that would tell me that it was impossible of realization, having discovered that I am the one planting my garden, that this is the only garden to cultivate, that this is the only earth to subdue, I would start now and boldly assume the good, first for myself – always start with Jerusalem – then go into the world and preach the goodness by knowing the goodness.

When you meet someone, regardless of what the appearance would reveal, know the truth for that one and set him free. Know that knowing as he ought to be known first by himself, but if he hasn’t known it as true of himself, you at least know it for him. And though you never meet him in the flesh again keep on knowing the truth that sets man free by knowing he is already free, and you are cultivating your garden. You are bringing it into subjection, you are subduing it and then you shall have dominion. So you are supreme in your world if you only know the world that you really are; so man is the psychological earth on which this wonderful whirl of events takes place. Man is the psychological earth on which all the animals move; every emotion is symbolized as the animal. Every fowl of the air is truly the idea you entertain. Every fish of the deep is the invisible state that you could catch if you only knew how to cast your net on the right side. For you fish all night and catch nothing, but then comes one who knows, who is righteous, and he casts it on the right side, always that right side, and the right side is righteousness or right consciousness. And I will catch it; I may not see them, I don’t have to see them. I don’t have to wait for the evidence of my senses to confirm, for I am told, “And faith was accounted unto him for righteousness.” So I will have faith in the reality of the deep; I will have faith in the reality of invisible states. So it’s now invisible, I know it, it’s a fish, but I have faith in the existence and the reality of the invisible state I want to externalize, knowing I can externalize it, for every time I externalize it I add to this wonderful garment of my Father, and that is my job, my duty.

So here, everyone of us, begin to believe that you are the only earth spoken of in the Bible. You are the one chosen to live in the center of the garden, but make it a garden, for the words are, “Keep it, keep it and plant it well”. You have dominion over every idea in your mind. You say you haven’t. Well, some may be to you disturbing, but you do have the choice of rejecting it or accepting it.

If you accept it, you identify with it and the state with which you are identified must, by the very law of your being, objectify itself within your world, that you may see by it how you plant that garden. Now, don’t wait one second beyond the time that you observe weeds instead of flowers. Start right at the moment of observation, and start to replant the garden. Start really to subdue it. Become the meek and the meek is the bold. The meek is the bold of heart who does not ask assistance. He walks knowing he can do it. He can fish. He can actually bring into subjection every bird of the air, every idea of the mind. He will begin to know these things spiritually. He will know them in the only way that you and I should know anything, by becoming it, not to have a world of information concerning objective things, and knowing these things only mentally. I must learn to know things spiritually; I must learn to know what love is spiritually by being in love. I must learn to know what security is spiritually be becoming conscious of already being secure. I must learn to know what health is by becoming conscious of already being healthy, and sustain these states in the name of righteousness, knowing that my righteousness shall answer for me in time to come.

Make me no promise for when the father-in-law said to Jacob, “What promise should I make you? ” “Just tell me that the offspring born in a certain manner shall be mine and no other promise, and no wages and no salary, all the spotted ones are mine. There isn’t a spotted one among the parents but every offspring that is spotted.. though the parents are not, that is mine. That’s my wage and my righteousness shall know it for me in time to come.” And he begins to assume that his world is peopled with the spotted calves, and everyone born that was healthy was born spotted. And he increased beyond the wildest dream of a man.

Well, become that man, and start from the simple beginning as he started. There wasn’t one thing in the world to encourage him that one calf could ever be born from parents that were not spotted and be a spotted calf. Yet he knew and he assumed that they had given birth to such things in numbers, they would come and they came a thousand fold. So in your case, maybe it’s business, maybe the doctors have given you a final, final verdict and it’s fatal. Well, I say in spite of this, and the doctor in his own way is doing his best, he would not have said it to hurt you or to frighten you. He firmly believed it, but you have another law and your law is that you can assume, in spite of that verdict, that you are well. And then, though tomorrow and the next day the tree doesn’t appear, know that in time your righteousness shall speak for you, and like Job in the midst of all the storms, when he should have gone to the grave, he held fast to the consciousness of already being what he wanted to be, that his heart may not in time speak harshly against him. Well, it didn’t – you know the story.

And so, all through we are told, “Break off the sins, break off missing marks by righteousness. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

Now you are told, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all things shall be added unto you.” Well, the kingdom of God is within you. You have been told that a number of times. The Bible affirms it over and over – “The Kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are within you.” They aren’t without. You see them seemingly without; that is the response to the within-ness where they are. Now, seek it and His righteousness. So assume within the mood that would be yours were you already the man that you want to be. Sustain that mood, occupy it as often as you can, and see how that righteousness shall draw things unto itself, and the things it draws are always in harmony with its nature. It never draws anything foreign to itself. If I assume that I am the man I want to be, I cannot then encounter events that are in conflict with my assumption. For my world mirrors the being I am.

So, here, today when you return read the whole chapter. It’s beautiful. But I started with the 27th verse, “And God made man in his own image, in the image of God made He him. Male and female made He them.” Then comes what is to be done. Then comes the promise if you do it. Then comes the judgment, “It is good and very good.” So you start knowing that you are the earth on which you now start to labor. If you do it, you shall be fruitful, and you will multiply, and you actually replenish this world, though it seemingly is barren you replenish it, if you subdue it. And the earth is self to be subdued, not by beating self as some people have misunderstood, not by isolating the self in some little secluded spot, not by running away from life, but in the midst of life is the opportunity to become meek: to take the violence that is man, it is individual man, and then bring it into the state of the meek, to transcend the violence by not fighting against conditions; know that conditions can only reflect what is within the one who observes that condition. So don’t rage against it; leave it just as it is. If conditions remain the same, that is a sure, sure sign that you have not been faithful to righteousness.

Had you been faithful to the consciousness of already being the man you want to be, conditions would have to change in harmony with that righteousness. So don’t rage against it; leave it as it is, and start today to take this wonderful earth, which is the foot stool of the Lord, which really is the mind of man, and start really to work upon it. Then you will not turn from left to right; you will keep the narrow path. You will go out knowing you can do it.

I know from experience it will not take long to see shoots appear; it will not take long to see the flowers appear. They will all appear, if you will take yourself in hand and by an uncritical observation of self watch the being you are; see the condition of the earth as it is now by the uncritical observation of your reactions to life. When you see who you are that is showing you the state of the earth as it is now. Don’t condemn it, just start to subdue it, and know that you do have dominion over all the fish of the sea, the fowls of the air, and all the animals that move upon the earth. Knowing them to be the moods of thought, the desires, the passions that move in you, start to entertain only the good and the very good.

Dwell upon them and you will re-people your earth for you are supreme within the circle of your own consciousness. Now you may say it’s a very little one; may I tell you that though you have a body and a life of your own, you are rooted in me, and you end in me, as I am rooted in God and end in God.

So every man can say the same thing no matter if you look into a world of 2,500,000,000 of them and every year they slip through the gates into the invisible state relative to this world, but as they come and go every man in the world is actually rooted in you and ends in you, and you are rooted in the ultimate that we call God, the Father. So the whole vast (world) is simply centered in you; start now to rearrange it that it may reflect the beauty that you want to live about and live in in this world. You do it by assuming the best. Always imagine the best of self; always imagine first with Jerusalem and then go out and radiate what you have given to self. If you live in that wonderful state yourself, you will only have the good to shower upon others, for you have one gift that is truly yours to give and that is yourself. You have no other gift. If you are good, you can give only the good. If you are not – well, whatever you are – that you give.

So the story is you may find today when you observe yourself, by observing your reactions, that it’s not a very pleasant land but it is still a fertile land; it can be cleared of all these trees of traditional wrong thinking and can be replanted in harmony with the beauty that you desire. And in the immediate present it will bear fruit in harmony with the seeds you plant.

So let us go out determined to bring about a better arrangement of our mind that we may produce more noble garments for our Father to wear. For this wonderful, visible, objective universe is only the living garment of my Father, it’s not a place of exile, as so many believe, talking about home and their going home, as though they are not now in the very midst of their Father. When you see me, you see my Father. Whenever you see me, you see the state of my mind, for you will see the world in which I live and the state of my mind, that inner arrangement, that’s my Father. When you see me projected, you then call it the Son, and my world round about me tells me where I am. All these inner states are places in this fabulous psychological consciousness. Inner state is equal to place and where I stand within myself determines what I see when I look outside the self. So, when I look out upon the world, that area of my Father’s garment, whether it be torn by reason of the inner place where I stand or whether it be lovely, I see only the inner arrangement of myself. I am forever surrounding myself with the true image of myself, and what I am in consciousness that only can I see. Knowing that, let me be determined today to seek righteousness, or right consciousness, that I may reap in the immediate present all the lovely things that I desire.

Now in summary, single out some noble aim in life. Having defined it clearly to yourself as a desirable state. the state you would like to externalize, ask yourself this very simple question, “What would the feeling be like were it true if I already embodied that noble state?” In response to your question will come a feeling; assume that feeling; it has reality outside of the present moment. Its being is in complete independence of present objective fact. It has real structure; it has reality in the deep of it. It came in response to your call when you said, “What would the feeling be like were it true?” And you named what you were thinking of – if it was security, if it was health, if it was any state, that fish came from the deep; it’s located and you took the “I” and placed it in that feeling. You were actually standing upon it though it is invisible. Now remain on it.

If you remain in that state, you are told in the Bible three days, you will be “spewed out on dry land.” “Three” doesn’t mean three days; “three” means fullness, “three” means complete. So if I will live within that fish for three days until the whole thing seems natural and seems real, and it has the sensory vividness of reality. I will then be spewed out as something objective, and something that is commonly called in the Bible “land” or “dry land.” But it does have reality, as you feel it, only people get away from it because it doesn’t have immediate objective fact to confirm it. But you ride it for your three days and you will know what it was to enter that fish and remain in it until fullness was attained, until reality was attained within. In that state you were righteous and your righteousness will speak for you in time to come. It will not fail you; it cannot fail you.

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Wisdom Is The Key To Getting, Health, Joy, Prosperity, Success And Wealth

Quick Links

Shop

Subscribe