neville goddard imagination creates reality

TRUTH, THE WORD OF GOD

Neville 11-24-1967

neville goddard imagination creates realityIf truth could ever be told so that it is understood, it will be believed. It is my hope that I can make the truth of scripture so understandable you will believe it. But whether you do or not, one day you will; for scripture will fulfill itself in you and then you will understand it perfectly.

Scripture speaks of two baptisms, baptism with the water of repentance, and baptism with the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us: “I baptize with the water of repentance, but there will come one after me who is mightier than I. He will baptize with the Holy Spirit.”

Now, repentance means a radical change of attitude towards life. If you change your thinking, and things in your outer world change, then you have been baptized with the water of repentance.

A friend recently shared these experiences with me saying, “I am in the computer business. Every year we hold a convention, and this year our company chose to demonstrate a million dollar computer. It was delivered on a Friday, giving us three days to be ready for the show’s opening the following Tuesday. On Sunday we discovered that some of the parts were not functioning and others were missing.

“Knowing that our subcontractors were scattered all over the nation, when I arrived Monday morning everyone was in a state of panic. Controlling my thoughts, I began to apply my imagination by claiming it was Tuesday morning and the computer was working perfectly. Then I checked the missing parts list and discovered that the company who manufactured the parts was located only fourteen miles from the Center. They delivered the parts that afternoon and by Tuesday morning the computer was functioning perfectly, just as I had imagined.

“One day an old computer which had been stored in our warehouse for sometime, was sold. No one had checked to make sure it was operating properly, so on the day of the delivery I imagined everything was perfect. But as I checked it out, I discovered that two vital parts were missing and could not be found.

“That afternoon the salesman came in, picked up a little package not more than ten feet from the computer and said, ‘Here are the parts.’ And he was right! Inside this little brown package were the missing parts that seemingly were not there before.” Here is a man who has been baptized with water by psychologically applying the truth!

Truth first appears as a stone. That is when everything is done literally. The head of a bull is cut off, and sacrifices are made to a God on the outside. Water comes from the stone when the literal facts take on psychological meaning. Then the water turns into the wine of spiritual truth, through experience.

One must see the whole vast world as a psychological drama. You may think you have never committed adultery, but the moment you lust after anything, the stage is set by your imaginal act. Restraining the impulse is not good enough. The moment you have the impulse to steal, the act is committed. The impulse to hurt is the act of hurting. You may be afraid to carry out any act, but when the impulse appears, the act is committed. Once you understand this, you will forgive all, for there is only one son (who you are), doing your Father’s will.

In the third chapter of the book of Matthew, John states, “I baptize with the water of repentance.” Repentance tests your ability to enter into and partake of the nature of the opposite. When you see another in want, you repent by persuading yourself he is affluent. To the degree you can believe this truth you bathe in the baptismal prime waters. Only when you act and prove repentance, in performance, are you baptized in the true sense of the word.

The baptism with the Holy Spirit is something entirely different. While living by the law of repentance, you will be called to unite into a single body, who is God. In the 12th chapter of 1st Corinthians we are told that, “By one spirit we are baptized into one body.”

When this baptism happened to me, I had the sensation of being taken for a long, long journey. I found myself standing in front of the Risen Lord, who asked me the simple question: “What is the greatest thing in the world?” I answered as though promoted from some depth of my own being, saying, “Faith, hope and love. These three, but the greatest of these is love.” With these words, the Risen Lord embraced me and we became one being.

No mortal eye can see the body of God I wear, but I feel it, for I wear it every moment of time. Now, when I tell my story some will resist me, for they are still filled with their own preconceived misconceptions of Christ. But I know that one day everyone will be embraced by this one spirit, thereby being baptized into the one body of Christ.

My wife’s oldest sister is a darling. We love and respect each other, but she cannot believe what I teach. Although she believes in the Bible, and calls herself a good Christian, she could not believe me when I said she would not die. That even the little flower which blooms once blooms forever, for I am a God of the living, not the dead.

Now, Alice would not believe me on this level, so I reached her on another level. In 1948, my secretary, Jack Butler, died quite suddenly. Six or seven months later, fully awake and aware of where I was and what I was doing, I visited Jack. Although he was 50 when he died here, he was a young man in his twenties, there.

Standing beside me, Alice said, “You know, I still don’t believe what you teach,” and I replied, “How can you say that when you see Jack here?” “What does he have to do~ with it?” she asked and I replied, “Don’t you remember, Jack died in August of last year.” With that remark Alice’s face took on an expression of complete amazement. Knowing I was telling the truth, seeing Jack denied her belief in non-survival.

Then Jack spoke saying, “Who’s dead?” and I said, “Jack, you are not dead, but you died. I gave you a good Catholic funeral and your body is buried in a Catholic cemetery.” “Oh” he said, “You’re stupid. You say I’m not dead but I died. That can’t be.” Then I said to Alice, “Come over here,” and I placed my hand on Jack’s thigh and said, “See, my hand doesn’t go through his flesh. It’s solid. If I cut him right now he would bleed. He would hurt as you would hurt.”

With this remark Jack took my hand and slapped it saying, “Get your hand off me,” just as he would do were he here. You see, there is no transforming power in death, and Jack did not know he had died. Not everyone knows of the transition. Some take years to discover it.

Although Alice was with me at the time, she didn’t remember the incident. If she had, it would have taken on the form of a dream, to her. But, being fully awake, I know exactly what I am doing every moment of time. Today Alice believes in survival, although she doesn’t realize that that experience was the beginning of the subtle change in her.

When you are sent, you will carry the message of the one who sent you. You will tell all who will listen that there is only one body, one spirit, one love who embraces and incorporates the individual into a single body who is the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the meantime, as you test yourself, you are being baptized with the water of repentance. Always creating on this level, when you change your attitude and allow it to become fixed, your outer world will reflect your change. Then one day you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

“Among you stands one who you do not know. I, myself did not know him,” said John. “But I saw the Holy Spirit descend as a dove and remain on him. He who sent me said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.”‘

The word “with” used here, is the preposition “in.” You are not sprinkled with water, but are incorporated into the Spirit of Love Himself; thereby being baptized in the Holy Spirit. At that moment you are no longer another, you are the body of Christ. He who is baptized into Christ puts on Christ and wears this body as his own.

As scripture unfolds in you, you feel yourself to be the being who first called and incorporated you into his body. Then God’s only begotten son calls you father, and you understand the wonderful story of baptism. And when you tell it with understanding, some will believe you, while others will disbelieve. Perhaps, because of prejudice, the engrafting will not be accepted at the moment, but it will come.

Now, if I dwell in you and the Father dwells in me, is not the Father in you? And if you are in me and I am in everyone, is not the Father in everyone? Are we not the same being? Will not the same infinite son call us father? Those who believe that Jesus Christ was a man who lived 2000 years ago cannot comprehend a cosmic Christ, dwelling in all, who is God the Father. But God, the Father of all life, is housed in every individual. And one day He will unveil Himself, not as another, but as the one in whom He reveals Himself!

In D. H. Lawrence’s poem “The New Heavens and Earth,” he said,
“I was so weary of it all and when death came, I died, to discover
I am in a body as of before, only
with a newness beyond the knowledge
of newness, and unaccountable.”

This is true, for if you do not know that the story of life is psychological, you cannot account for its newness. My friend Jack died at fifty, looking much, much older. But when I saw him six or seven months later, Jack was a young man of twenty, in a body with a newness beyond the knowledge of newness. The decomposition of Jack’s body which he wore while here, had advanced by then, yet Jack did not know he had died.

The body of a two-hundred pound friend can be turned into ash in the matter of an hour; yet when you meet him, he will not understand how he was renewed, for to him his body is solid and real. It breathes and grows old just as yours does here. It has problems there, as you do here; and if he doesn’t hear the story of baptism and awaken there, he will repeat the experience all over again.

While here, Jack did not know the story of life was psychological, and he doesn’t know it there. He attended my meetings only because he was interested in meeting people. He refused to assume any obligation of society. He wouldn’t get married, but loved all the ladies and they all loved him. He still loves them all, and has yet to realize that life is psychological and ever renews itself by the seed of contemplative thought.

Mr. Lawrence called his experience resurrection, but the word is restoration. He spoke of being restored to life with a newness beyond the knowledge of newness. This is true, for teeth or hair that are missing here are instantly renewed, but people do not stop to reflect upon this fact. They do not stop to realize that they were ninety when they died. That they didn’t go through the womb of a woman, yet are restored to life at the age of twenty. And, because life’s problems are upon them, they go blindly on trying to figure out how to pay the rent, eat, and care for their bodies’ needs just as you do here. They are in a terrestrial world, just like this one, but not in this section of time.

But when you are resurrected, you are born into the one body of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is heaven! And when you leave this body of darkness and decay, you enter an entirely different world, wearing a body endowed with creative power. You will no longer wear the limitations of the flesh or have need for food as you understand it. The normal functions of this body no longer exist, as you will wear a body of radiant light – the body you wore before that the world was!

Now let us go into the silence.

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

WALK BY FAITH

Neville Goddard 11-06-1967

neville goddard Imagination Is RealityBlake 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.

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

WALK ON THE WATER

Neville Goddard 06-20-1968

neville goddard Imagination Is RealityThe Bible is addressed to the Man of Imagination, he who is immortal and cannot die. “The Eternal Body of Man is the Imagination. That is God Himself. The Divine Body, Jesus, we are his members.” (William Blake)

Ted Kennedy recently gave a eulogy for his brother, in which he quoted a passage from George Bernard Shaw. The thought was this: “Some men see things as they are and say, Why? I dream of things that never were and say, Why not?” When you think of your birth into this world as an act of God, can anything be impossible to God? Not knowing how or why you are here, you sin against the Holy Ghost when you dare to put a limit on the power that brought you here! There is no sin against the Holy Ghost other than man’s belief that something is impossible to his own wonderful human imagination! I want you to go all out! To put no limit on God’s creative power. To imagine that which is unimaginable and to walk on the water, through faith.

Water symbolizes your acceptance of life as psychological, and its drama as taking place in the Imagination. When you cease excusing yourself or anyone for life’s experiences, and begin to rearrange the structure of your mind to feel your desire is fulfilled, you are walking on the water. Scripture speaks of the stone, the water, and the wind. Accept the facts of life and you are stepping down on stone. Change the facts in your imagination, and you have turned them into psychological truth, which then becomes a spiritual experience. When you live by this principle, you are walking on water, towards your birth from beyond.

Let me now share some experiences of a friend who practices the art of walking on the water. In his letter he said: “There is a lady in my office who was constantly talking about the absence of decent, eligible men in her life, claiming they were all riffraff and no good. Six weeks ago, while driving home from work, I revised her words. I heard her tell me she was dating a marvelous man and sharing the wonderful things they were doing. Recently this lady was so glum, I reminded myself to revise her words again, so I did. Yesterday she spent twenty minutes telling me of the perfect gentleman she is now dating. He must be terrific, for this lady is now walking in ecstasy.”

Then he continued, saying: “An associate asked me to write a news review for his client. I gathered all of the material together that I would need, put it in a folder and placed it on my desk, which was piled high with pending work. Then one Friday my associate said: ‘My client wants to see me next Monday at 9:00 A.M. in his office,’ and I realized that I must produce the news review at that time. Immediately I sat down and imagined it was 5:00 P.M. My review was completed, read by my associate, and approved. I heard him say: ‘It is just fine.’ Satisfied with that scene as my end result, I found the folder, sat down at my typewriter and typed four pages, as everything flowed smoothly. At 5:00 that afternoon my associate stopped by my office, read the report, and said the exact words I had heard him say in my imagination: ‘It is just fine.’”

When you truly believe that imagining creates reality, you will know there is no fiction. How can there be fiction when imagining is forever creating its reality? You may hear something you do not like, but because imagining creates reality what you heard was first imagined, or it could not have happened. When you revise the hearing by stopping the action and rewriting the script you are walking on the water, imagining the reality you desire to hear and appear in your world.

My friend continued his letter, saying: “There are certain things in my life I do not understand. Last Sunday, as my wife, our youngest son, and I were planting summer flowers, I realized that I was experiencing – in detail – what I had dreamed as happening last winter. At the time I thought the dream must have been symbolic, but not knowing the symbolism of flowers, I dropped it. Now I do not understand the relationship between a night dream – which I did not control, and last Sunday’s planting – which I did control.”

Every event in life contains within itself something beyond its physical experience. Flowers symbolize the growth of plantings. During winter, when nothing grows, he planted seeds, which he will harvest not only in the world of Caesar, but also in the world of the Spirit, as we all do. I urge you now to use your imagination and walk on the water. Plant the seeds of desire in the depth of your soul and allow them to flower on earth. If you do not see their harvest immediately, believe what you did, for it will come whether you recognize it or not. And do not sin against the Holy Ghost by saying something is impossible, for God is your own wonderful human imagination and nothing is impossible to imagine.

When someone tells you something, although you may deny its truth or possibility, you must imagine in order to understand their words. Unless, of course, they speak in a foreign tongue, then all is nonsense. As Paul said: “I would rather speak five words with understanding, than ten thousand words that cannot be understood.”

Don’t think of the reasons why you cannot have your desire; simply think you already have it! If you tell yourself it is not possible, you are sinning against the Holy Ghost.

I know of no limitation to the power of God. David is described in the Book of Samuel as ruddy, with beautiful eyes, and fair of skin. If you judge from appearance, then certain races would be excluded – but David is not of this world. David is he who rises in us because of the descent of the seed of God. Whether you are Caucasian, Negro, or Oriental, Christ – God’s seed – descends and plants itself in you. And when union between that descending, higher seed and that which is only an animated being takes place, you are individually lifted into a supernatural world, where you know yourself to be the father of God’s only begotten son, David.

I urge you to use your imagination for everything that is lovely and loving. I don’t care what your desire may be – your imagination will give it to you, for the human imagination is the divine body the world calls Jesus. Because you can imagine and I can imagine, we are members of that one divine body, and all things are possible to him. There is not a thing impossible to God. All you need do is imagine its fulfillment!

Faith is an experiment which ends as an experience. Experiment by believing you already have all that you desire, and you will have the experience. Test yourself like my friend did. He experimented with the thought that the lady had a wonderful boyfriend. He then imagined hearing her tell him about the new man in her life. Then his experiment became her experience. You are the center of the world in which you live. A seeming other is only an extension of yourself, for the center of your being is protean. It is he who plays the parts of all the seeming others. I challenge you to experiment with a new or better job, a husband or a wife, a new car or home. Don’t try to analyze your desires or blame yourself, for the moment you do, you discover unnumbered things which are unlovely, and the moment they are thought, they are formed.

No one is without sin. At some time everyone has mentally coveted or stolen. Describe a man in unflattering terms and you have stolen his good name. Everyone is guilty; therefore, do not analyze yourself, for if you do, you will miss your mark. To worry about what you may have done, is to waste your creative power. You will reap the tares as well as the wheat, as every imaginal act fulfills itself. But start now to plant something lovely – not only for yourself, but for your neighbor, friend, or child. Fall in love with the idea that he is happy and secure. Feel the satisfaction that comes when one recognizes his harvest, for if a harvest is not recognized, there is no satisfaction. But when you do something consciously and see your harvest, you will receive enormous satisfaction.

Prove your thoughts have creative power by consciously imaging constantly, and walk on the water. No matter what happens in the course of a day, revise it. Make the day conform to what you want it to be, and you are walking on the water.

Genesis tells the story of Jacob, who saw a well covered with a stone. Removing the stone, he drew water for his flock. And when he put the stone back, everything appeared to remain the same as before, so no one knew who had rolled away the stone and removed the water. In the New Testament, Jesus performed his first miracle by filling the stone jars with water and drawing out wine.

Facts blind the I of imagination. I have come to cure this blindness and show you how to remove the acts of nature. The woman in the office shared her facts, as well as the man who had been bawled out. Discovering imagination to be his well, my friend removed those stone facts from his mind, and drew the truth he desired to hear out of his imagination and placed it in another vessel – another fact. Pour water into any container and it will not care what shape or size the vessel may be. Freeze the container and the water will have taken on its shape. So if you remove the stone and draw out the water, you can place it into any shape you desire and it will externalize itself.

Do not let a day pass without practicing the art of walking on water. Every time you use your imagination lovingly on behalf of another, you are mediating God to the seeming other. So many people use their imagination un-lovingly, yet they are still mediating God to that other.

Millions of people believe that someone has placed a curse on the Kennedy’s. Do you know that such powers do exist, because imagining creates reality. William Butler Yeats once said: “1 will never be certain it was not some woman treading in the winepress who started the subtle change in men’s mind. Or that the pressing out of which so many countries were given to the sword, did not begin in the mind of some shepherd boy, lighting up his eyes for a moment before it ran upon its way.” Who knows who, this night – feeling hurt and betrayed by a friend – will set his thoughts of anger and revenge into motion, with no thought of regret. Perhaps he does not know the art of forgiveness or have the desire to forgive, thereby allowing his thoughts to move and build and build until they come to their inevitable end – by outpicturing themselves in his life. But as George Bernard Shaw said: “Some men see things as they are and say, Why? I see things that never were and say, Why not?” I tell you the incredible story of Jesus Christ, the pattern which man must follow in order to escape eternal death, and say, Why not?

How can we who were physically born by the grace of God, yet cannot make one hair on our head or fingernail grow, dare to put a limit on God’s power? If the grace of God gave us physical birth, cannot that same power give us spiritual birth into a higher world? The promise is: “You shall be born from above.” If God makes such a promise, he has the power to keep it. And he does, through his gift of vision. Born of flesh by a power beyond ourselves, we are destined to be born into a spiritual world by a power beyond ourselves, because God’s seed descended and united with us. It was planted by a creative act; and when that seed is fertilized, it erupts, the pattern awakens, and we move into an entirely different age. God’s pattern has erupted in me. I am telling you my story in the hope that you who hear it will believe and prove its truth for yourselves. I have told you of Caesar’s law, taught you how to walk on the water and use this psychological law to change your world – not only for yourselves, but for others.

No one needs to remain behind the proverbial eight-ball if he knows this truth. There is no need to beg or ask anyone for anything, for everything lives in the human imagination, ready to appropriate and be made visible.

Everyone will be born from above, for everyone is God and there is nothing but God. No one can fail; but God’s story must be heard and believed. So God sends himself as the messenger, by choosing an individual and impregnating him. The person may or may not know what is happening, but in the perfect interval of time, birth will take place. Everyone here is called for a purpose. If you have not been united with this seed – wait, for it is sure and will not be late. There are those who have been conscious when they received the seed. Others have not; but when the child is born does it matter whether the moment of conception is remembered or not?

It’s all the fulfillment of a perfect plan within God’s eternal body, each filling his specific order. There are those who will be the apostle, others the prophet, still others the teacher, the helper, and the healer. There are different levels in the body of God, but it doesn’t matter, because in that body we are all one.

Take me seriously. When you know what you want in life, construct a scene which would imply your desire is fulfilled. See it as clearly as possible. Feel its naturalness. Experiment until you know the scene and all it implies is real. Now, to the degree that you believe in its reality, your experiment will become your experience. Do not stop there. Keep on imagining and share your results with others. Tell them how to free themselves from this bondage to Caesar.

When you know who you really are, you will not envy anyone. How could you, when you know you are God, and they are only yourself pushed out?  If tomorrow, something comes into your life that is not to your liking, do not accept it, for this fact blinds the I of imagination. Remove the blindness by asking yourself what you would like, in place of what seems to be. Enter into that thought. Revel in it as though it were not a fact. Persuade yourself that it is. Believe in its reality and it will become your experience.

Now let us go into the silence.

neville goddard imagination creates reality

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

Neville Goddard 10-30-1967

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now let us go into the silence.

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

WHAT IS TRUTH?

Neville Goddard  03-31-1968

neville goddard Imagination Is RealityChristianity 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.

neville goddard imagination creates reality

YOU ARE A COSMIC BEING

Neville Goddard  05-02-1969

neville goddard imagination creates realityTonight 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 Imagination Is Reality

YOU CAN FORGIVE SIN

Neville Goddard  03-29-1963

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality“You Can Forgive Sin.” That, to most people, will be blasphemy as you will hear later on, quoting from scripture. It is so common among all of us to ascribe our ills and troubles to outward things – like the present conditions of the world, to our environment, or simply to things. And these things may be things that are absent from our world, or things we have in our world, but still things, while all along the real cause of our ills is sin. So we are told he was called Jesus because he came to save men from their sins; his only concern was the saving of men from sin.

Now what is sin? Sin means “missing the mark,” missing the road, “missing the goal” in life. If you haven’t a mark you can’t sin. If you have a goal in this world and do not realize it and miss it, then you have sinned. So his purpose is to show man how not to sin in this world. No condemnation. Tell me you sin – tell me your goal, and I will tell you God’s word. That is what he said. He has come only to show man how not to miss his objective in this world.

Now we turn to Mark 2:3 – or the same thing with a different twist in Matthew 9:2. It is the story of the paralytic. We are told he was preaching the word, that is, the story of salvation, and they brought in a paralytic carried by four men; and seeing their faith, he said to the paralytic: “My son, your sins are forgiven.” (2:5) And scribes sitting around thought in their heart, “Why does this man speak thus? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” And discerning in their hearts what they contemplated, he said, “Why do you question thus in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say ‘Rise, take up your pallet and walk?’ So he said to him, “Take up your bed and walk and go home” and he rose and went on his way. Then we are told, “. . . they were all amazed and glorified God . . .” who had given such authority to men, for it was a man who did it. We are that man. It is to us that this authority to forgive sin has been given. And the world thought they were simply the exclusive power of some being outside of man. Read it in Mark 2 and Matthew 9.

Now what is this ability to forgive sin? We know that “sin” means missing the mark. The one that forgave it called himself, “The Truth.” He said: “I am the Truth. If you know my word and abide in my word, then you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.” (John 8:31, 32) For the whole story begins he was teaching the truth – the word. Now, he calls himself “the truth.” If I said to you tonight, what would you like to be in this world? And you name it – I would like to be_____(no matter what it is) and I turned to you and said: You are that, you are it; right now you are it – you would say: I am it? I can’t believe it! Then you are denying the truth. He said: “I am the Truth” – I AM everything in this world; everything man can ever imagine, I AM. So, you imagine what you would like to be. If you cannot remain faithful and loyal to that vision of yourself, then you are sinning. Not to sin is to have a goal. What would it be like? If I remain faithful to that vision as though it were true, no power in this world could stop me from realizing it – but no power. I could realize it. How? Don’t ask me. But if it took the entire world of three billion to play parts to aid me in the fulfillment of my vision, they would play it without knowing they had played it. It would make no difference if they knew or did not know. They would have to contribute to the fulfillment of my vision, if I remain loyal to that vision.

So, what would it be like if I were the man I would like to be? If I said to you tonight: is there a man in this room who is rich? And no one said, I am rich – that is not your goal, and if it is, you are missing the mark. If there is a man in this room – general man – who is known, who is contributing to the world’s good, and no one replies, I am he, then either it is not your goal – or if it is your goal, you are missing it. So the name is “I AM he”, as told in John 8:24: “I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.” This is not a man talking to me. This is taking place in the depths of the soul of man. If you don’t believe now that I AM the one that I would be, then you are missing your goal and you are sinning. So it does not come from without; it is not caused by anything on the outside at all. My health problems are not caused by conditions and by environment, or anything else; it is caused only by sin – and sin is missing the mark. There is only one being – one person in the world – who can hit that mark, and it is God. God forgives sin, as told us in Isaiah: “I am the Lord, I am thy Savior, and there is no other savior.” “I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior. No one has formed before me or no one will be formed after me. I am the Savior.” (Isaiah 43:3; 43:11)

You will be saved from what you are. There is only one being in the world that can save you, and that Being is “I AM.” So, you save yourself. What would it be like were it true – if I were now the man or woman I would like to be? Assume it and dare to believe it and walk as though it were true, and no power in this world can stop it – but no power! There is no one greater than God. Say, “I am” – that is God. You stand in the presence of a being and because he has a little tag – or because he is the Premier of a certain country, or Queen, or President of a certain land, you think he is greater than you are? You are missing the mark. You can’t stand in the presence of anyone who is greater than you, if you know who you are. You are not going to lord it over them, knowing, but no one will be smaller, either – all are God. Then you are told to go and tell them. (Ezekiel 3:18, 33:8) – “go and tell them. If you do not tell them, and they sin and you do not tell them – they will die in their sin, but their blood will be upon your head. If you tell them and they do not repent, they will die in their sin, but the blood will not be upon your head. So tell them.” So Jesus is made to confess that he told them, that the blood might not be upon his head.

I Acts 20:26, 27 Paul makes the confession: “. . . for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” He told them that, that he may not carry that secret to the grave and not share it with the world. So I have told them all, that this is a principle that cannot fail.

Now let us come back to the paralytic. You came here tonight on your own steam, as it were. If I tell you we are the paralytic of scripture, you will be surprised. They were brought into the place by four men. Do you know who the four men are? The ancients always called us by the four senses – the four rivers that ran out of Eden. They did not speak of five, they spoke always of four. They joined taste and touch together because they depended upon contact. To taste something or touch something, it must be contacted. But they separated sight, sound, and scent. These three were separate in the great symbolism of scripture. But taste and touch were joined. They called them the four senses, and we came here tonight borne by these four men. I know my bank balance, and in two weeks Uncle Sam wants part of what I earned. I do not even know Uncle Sam. They tell me he exists somewhere, but I do not know where; so I am supposed to pay on the 15th of next month “x” number of dollars. Regardless of how I live, I must save something to pay him. It is the land of Caesar, I am fully aware of that. I can see my bank balance. I know what it is in my world. I can take my senses and bring it to play on what is taking place.

I was brought here tonight on the shoulders of these men. He tells me: your sins are forgiven, and, walk. How can I do it, knowing what I must pay on the 15th, knowing what I must do between now and the 15th? How will I do it? Your sins are forgiven, but who can forgive but God? Only God can forgive, and God is I AM. All right, I will now see the world as I would see it were it now May 1st and all things behind me, completely paid, paid in full.

Suppose I was unemployed. I was brought here tonight on the backs of these men. I know I have rent to pay and food to buy – all of these things – and he tells me my sins were forgiven, to rise and take up my bed and walk! How? I was brought in here on the backs of four men and called upon to rise – ignore these four and walk on my own steam now. Don’t walk based on what the four allow me to see, to hear, and smell, and to be. Walk out of here unaided by these four. Walk on my own. How? I ignore the evidence of the senses. They brought me in here. I completely ignore what they tell me I really have in this world, and I see what I would like to see and assume things are what I would like them to be, and influence every being in the world to play their part to fulfill what I am assuming that I am in this world. I came in a paralytic, and walk out on my own steam. That is the story.

Every being in the world is called upon to rise and walk out, for he forgives your sin. He comes into the world only to free man of sin, no matter what you have ever done in this world. Don’t look back on things as they are; look on things as they ought to be, the man or woman you would like to be, and assume that you are and see that only. And then you will know what it is to forgive sin. Who forgives? God forgives. He forgave you. I assumed. Who assumed? I assumed, that is – God. “I AM” is His name. I AM assuming I AM the man I would like to be. That is God. I begin to name it and walk in that state, and that is God. There is nothing but God. Forget what you have done. or what you are seemingly doing, and dream of the man or woman you would like to be and dare to assume you are it.

Now we are told by the great Blake: “The spirit of Jesus is continual forgiveness of sin” – forgiveness of sin every moment of time. Tonight when we go into the silence we can sit here for a minute and forgive each other. Suppose I could hear everyone here rise and tell the most fantastic story in the world about themselves or a friend, or a relative – or someone. Suppose I, really wanting it to be told from this platform, sit in the silence and listen to that and that only – the most fantastic story in the world that you could tell me individually. If I walk out of here tonight convinced that I heard it and remain loyal to what I have imagined I heard, I must hear it – no power can stop it, if I remain loyal. If anyone says it has not worked, I am not asking any questions, but as far as I am concerned, it has worked. I am sure when I know the vision I am holding for you “has its own appointed hour, it will ripen and it will flower. If it seems long in coming, wait. It is sure, it will not be late.” If I actually assume things are as I would like them to be of every being here, and I remain loyal, I either know the story is true or it is false. I know it is true. It can’t fail. There is no power in the world to make it fail.

Another word for sin in the Bible is “trespass.” In our wonderful Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” It is a minor infraction of this principle. “Trespassing” means an individual lapse, a temporary relapse. You and I begin to discuss a personality. What am I doing? He is only in a state. So, I must think he is unemployed when you and I get into the discussion. I discuss a man who is unemployed and we see him as unemployed and begin to say: Well, conditions are bad, or maybe he was not good enough for the job, and you and I are discussing a man that is unemployed and we see only the state. I am trespassing. He is in the state. But I may fall into this little trap. We all do it, every day, all day long.

We read the paper, and a man is called a great man because he happens to be President, or maybe some other person in this world. We read some columnist about him and you are carried away with what the columnist tells us, and suddenly we begin to think as he would have you think, and you are trespassing. “Lord, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” It is a slight departure from our goal. We are moved aside by what we read, or heard, or saw in this world. So, that is trespassing. So, I discuss someone who cannot find the job – well, will he qualify? I am asking all these things, and they are irrelevant to this principle. Not with this principle do they have any value whatsoever. What does he want? He wants a job. And how much does he want? He names a figure. Suppose that he had what he wanted – then let me assume it is true and I begin to see the world as I would see it for him were it true and feel the joy that would be mine were he now gainfully employed, earning that sort of money. This is either true, or it is false. I tell you: it is true.

If today you and I can say The Lord’s Prayer – but really say it – and ask forgiveness for our trespasses and let him show mercy for having gotten off the mark as it were. Read the story. He is brought in on the backs of four men. He himself had no faith. But in spite of what they knew, there was still a certain faith, and they brought him into the presence of God, knowing God could forgive sin. And he said: “Because of your faith” – he speaks now to those who brought him; he did not speak to the man at first, then he addresses the paralytic: “My son, your sins are forgiven you.” Here, a vicarious faith. So, I can have the faith for you if you do not have it for yourself. You can have it for me if I don’t have it for myself. Quite often vicarious faith is easier than the direct faith. If I can turn to you, if you really believe an imaginal act is a fact, and you could actually believe I am now what I would like to be, and although at the moment I doubt and am not faithful, you can say – in spite of myself you can pull me out – for a minute I would know faith. Those who brought him on their backs showed faith in bringing him into the presence of God. God commended them for their faith. And he turned to the paralytic and said: “My son, your sins are forgiven.” Those who heard thought it blasphemy. Who could forgive sin but God alone?

He did forgive sin, for he was the “I AM.” “Unless you believe I AM he, you die in your sins.” So, I ask you tonight, turn to your neighbor, and maybe you can hear what the other wants and rejoice in their good fortune, and they can rejoice in your good fortune Actually feel it is true, and see the world as it would be were they what they wanted to be – and they will become it.

So, this is the story of our ability to forgive sin. They were afraid when they saw what happened and then they crucified God because he had given such authority to men. We are told: “If you retain it, it is retained. If you release it, it is released.” I see a man and judge him by my senses. I retain it. But I could release him by seeing him standing on his own feet and moving in this world in a glorious manner. So the material I formerly would discard as no good, I don’t discard anymore. I take it and use it. I take the same man that formerly I would discard and see him as gainfully employed, loved, and loving, and believe that the thing I am seeing for him is true; and to the degree I am faithful to the concept for him, it becomes true in this world.

That is our power. We have power to forgive sin. If you don’t have a mark in this world, you can’t sin. If hasn’t a thing to do with moral issues. No. Do you have a goal? Do you have some objective in this world? Then this is how you realize it. Suppose it were true. In Romans 8:4: “. . .walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Flesh would be my senses. My senses deny that I am what I would like to be. Let us not walk by flesh – let us walk by the Spirit. Spirit is to see it in my imagination as though it were true. Tonight I may go home to find an empty cupboard or a notice at my door: “Tomorrow, or else.” It is all right. If I believe what I am imagining, it would make no difference what threat was given me – if I really believed. “Now believe it,” we are told. If you believe it, it will crystallize into fact. It does not really matter what threat at the moment my senses tell me -I have to ignore it. I have to ignore the four who brought me in this place. I will not now be borne anymore by these four. I will simply walk by spirit and not by flesh.

So, I ask you to try it. If you try it you can’t fail and – realizing your objective, may I also ask you to share it with me so that I may tell it to you. [the audience].

About three months ago a man sat in this audience, and he wrote me a sweet, wonderful letter which I received this morning. He expected a big bonus. He had worked hard with all the promise, and one who was never on the job, but by his estimate “one of the girl friends of the boss” – she got the big bonus. He, who had done all the work, got practically nothing. So, he and I agreed mentally that he would have the most wonderful job, with more money and everything. This is now going on April. It seemed a long while, but today he is on the job, with more money than he had – more than he expected – more responsibility and opportunity, and everything. I remained faithful to that letter I knew would come when he would write it. And all I did, I heard him tell me (mentally) what he would tell me were it true, and I never wavered.

So, I only ask you to be as faithful to any imaginal state in this world, no matter what it is. In everyone God resides. Everyone has to say, “I am.” That is God. I am Einstein, I am Neville. I AM is God. Neville is a tiny thing resting on the foundation that is God. I am rich – that is a tiny thing on the foundation of God, and God is Infinity, God is Everything. Therefore, whatever you say, before you say it, you say, “I am” – and you listen and you notice the four men who brought him in, brought him in paralyzed. He isn’t that at all. But they deny it – the four senses are bringing him in and the four senses deny it, the four senses ignore it.

When you call on the name of God, you don’t say in the name of God, so-and-so; you ask with the name of God, and to ask with the name of God you say: “I AM wealthy, healthy, secure” – then you believe it. If you ask with the name of God and believe it mentally, you will see the world as you have never seen it before you made the claim, and remain faithful to that claim and it must crystallize in your world.

This is this principle and it goes with every being in the world, regardless of nationality or pigment of skin. It is all God. Everyone has to say, “I am” before he says, “I am – this . . .” “I am a man” – you say, “I am” before you said, “man.” “I am American,” “I am Indian,” “I am Japanese,” “I am Chinese.” What kind of a being would you like to be? You name it. “I AM” is doing it. Take this fabulous world of ours and take all your dreams and put them on the only foundation – no other foundation than God – and God is I AM.

So, the paralytic came here tonight in all of us, and we were borne on the backs of four men, and the four are our four senses: sight, scent, [sound], taste, and touch. Taste and touch are joined into one because they depend on contact. These are the four streams – the four rivers of life that come from the Garden of Eden. Any moment of time we are in the presence of I AM! Let him forgive me my sin. I forgive myself by daring to assume I am what I would like to be and assuming that I walk in that assumption and it crystallizes into fact. No power in the world can stop it – but none!

When we speak of sin, don’t let anyone scare you about sin. He comes to forgive the sinner. His only interest is in the sinner. The so-called moral violations – forget it! I do not ask you to violate them, but forget them. Everything will be ironed out. It is my duty. Through the consciousness of Paul, Ezekiel, Jesus – “If I don’t tell you what I know of God’s law, then your sin is upon my head; but if I tell you and you still will not believe me, you will die in your sin, but your blood will not be upon my head.” So Paul said: “I will tell them. I have declared the entire counsel of God to them, so I am innocent of their blood.” Infinite states. A man falls into a state and so he is in the state, but he is not the state. Take him out of the state by saying while he is in the state: “What would you like?” and he names the state that he would like to enter. And you put him into that state by asking what it would be like if he were now the thing he would like to be; and you remain faithful – leaving him where he is – but you remain faithful to this concept and he comes out of it. On reflection, he might say: “It would have happened anyway.” It is all right – you know. Tell everyone the story, and tell them it is entirely up to them. If they believe it – as we are told: “If you do not believe I AM He you die in your sins.” (John 8) When you read it, you might think a man is telling you: I am God, and you are not. The whole story is taking place in the soul of man. That is the story.

Now he tells us the truth: “You shall know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.” And they complained: “we are free.” Here they are enslaved, and we thought we were free. We are Americans, we are free. To what extent are we free? You can’t pay the rent or buy the food, and we think we are free. I can only be free if I know the art of forgiving sin, and the only one that can forgive sin is God – and God’s name is “I AM.”

In this world today, in our wonderful land, there are hundred of thousands in prisons physically – but they are Americans. There are hundreds of thousands who are unemployed, who can’t pay the rent. Free? They are Americans. I say go and tell every being in the world the story of God – as told us in both the Old and New Testament – and set them free. They can be free if they know who they are. I must tell them the story. There is not one being in jail tonight, if you ask him who he is and how old he is, he will say: “I am John Smith, and I am . . .” and he will tell you his age. But before all these things, he tells you “I am.” I have seen this, you see. It frightens people, as you are told in Matthew 9:8: “When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.”

In San Francisco, when I told this story, a lady who sat in my audience had just received notice from the army that her brother had been tried, court marshaled, and sentenced to six months of hard labor. She went home and said: “If this man is telling the truth, I can set him free.” She sat in her hotel apartment where she would see if anyone came in. She lost herself in the imaginal state that the bell was ringing and she ran down the stairs, threw the door open, and embraced a brother who was waiting there. She did it for one solid week. The next Sunday morning, before she came to my meeting, it happened. When she came to my meeting, she could not restrain the impulse to rise and she jumped up in the audience of 1,000 and said she must tell the story, and she told it. He was honorably discharged, though he had been court marshaled and sentenced to six months at hard labor.

Everyone can be forgiven. He is not the same being he was – whatever he did to warrant the court martial – why should he pay the last ounce, if she could redeem him by pulling him out of the state that caused him to do whatever he did. If I am pulled out of the state into another state – if I had someone tonight who was the most horrible beast in the world and I am determined to make him a loving, nice person, then he comes into my world and demonstrates his kindness by his act, by everything – he is not the same being he was when I disliked him – the same immortal soul, but he is in a different state. Always I was judging the state, but should I keep him in that state and make him pay a price that belongs only to that state? You see, there is such a thing in this world as God’s mercy. No sins can be expiated unless God intervenes and is merciful – for you are God and you can intervene. He gave it to you. Only God can forgive sin, and you can forgive sin: therefore, are you not he? God is merciful. Can’t you be merciful and completely transform any being in the world? And oh! What a thrill it is to transform a being and see them different in a little while!

So I ask you to try it, it cannot fail. But believe the statement in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses.” We have actually trespassed. We have heard a rumor and we got off the beam. We see the signs all over the place: “No Trespassing,” but we step upon it. Don’t. No matter what you hear of anyone, have no ears to hear it unless it is something lovely, for they are only discussing a state, and they are keeping that being in a state. Don’t listen. Pull everyone out, but don’t forget to pull yourself out. Put yourself into the most glorious state of being successful, being wanted, being happy. You try it. I promise you it will not fail you.

Now let us go in to the silence.

neville goddard Imagination Is Reality

YOU CAN NEVER OUTGROW I AM

neville goddard Imagination Is RealityA man can never outgrow or lose the God he knows in a first person, present tense experience. And when he finds this God he tells his brothers, saying: “If I had not come and spoken to you, you would have no sin, but now you have no excuse for your sins.” God reveals himself to man as his eternal contemporary, saying: “Unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins,” but man finds it almost impossible to keep the tense. He thinks of God in the third person, addresses him in the second person, but can only know God in a first person, present tense experience. Just imagine – no one can sin until God reveals himself to the individual in a first person, present tense experience. Only then can man have no excuse for his sin. And when one who finds God tells his brothers, he receives no greater reception than the first one did, because they see him as a man of flesh and blood, and cannot see this invisible being who says: “I came down from heaven.” Man is looking for Christ to come from without, but his revelation is whispered from within.

“I tell you: I have been crucified with Christ. It is not I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” In that act he, whose name is I AM, became me. And if I do not believe that my I amness is he, I will die in my sin.

When asked to identify his Father, he said: “If you knew me, you would not ask, for no man can know me without knowing God, for he and I are one.” This is not a physical man speaking to another, but self speaking to self. What child is not aware that he (or she) is? And to be aware is to say, “I am,” the name God revealed to Moses on the mountaintop. All things are possible to God, but man has difficulty keeping the tense. He speaks of God in third person, prays to God in the second person, but can only know God in first person, present tense, for “I am the Lord, thy God and besides me there is no other God.” In the 50th Psalm these words are put into the mouth of David: “Against thee and against thee only have I sinned.” Only I, who must know myself in a first person present tense experience, have sinned and I have only sinned against myself!

Do you believe that Jesus Christ is in you as your very self? Are you willing to test yourself? Let me tell you of one lady who did. Many years ago while living in a rooming house in Brooklyn, with very little money, this lady started each day with these words: “I am a very wealthy woman. I have $50,000 in cash.” Every Sunday morning she would go to the corner and buy a Sunday Times for her neighbor, Miss Mead, who was a little old lady living frugally and rarely left the house. Within a year after this lady began starting her day claiming her wealth, Miss Mead died, leaving her $50,000 in cash, plus jewelry valued in excess of $30,000. She received an estate of over $100,000 by keeping God in the present tense.

My friend has now found him and I want all who hear me to find him, for when you find this God you will never outgrow – and therefore never lose – him, for you can never grow outside of self. You may believe in astrology, and outgrowing that belief you may then believe in tea leaves. Outgrowing that, you will find something else to believe in as you grow and outgrow, grow and outgrow; but you cannot outgrow the God you find in the first person, present tense, for when you find him to be your I amness, you have found the only God. One day everyone will find him and join their brothers who, already awakened, are in eternity contemplating this world of death, watching for the little stir of life.

I have been sent to tell you these things, for if I had not come and spoken to you, you would have no sin. You could not miss the mark because you did not have any, but now you have no excuse for missing it. I have revealed God to you in first person saying: “He who sees me sees him who sent me.” I was sent by my Father, he whom you call God, only I know my Father and you know not your God, for I know that I and my Father are one.

In the 1st chapter of Colossians, Paul tells us: “The gospel which you have heard has been preached to every creature under heaven,” and in the 3rd chapter of Galatians he states: “The scripture, foreseeing that all would be saved through faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” In the state of faith called Abraham we heard the story and then went astray. Falling asleep, we forgot our true identity and worshiped idols. Speaking of God in the third person, and to him in the second person, we have forgotten the God who gave us birth. Yet I tell you: God is eternally contemporary for he is our awareness of being.

Now, without faith it is impossible to please God, and faith does work on this level. Everything you possess was brought into being through faith, and the glory of faith lies in its power to link us to the heavenly realm. Having heard salvation�s story, can you have faith in this divine vision (which is the gospel) in the time of trouble? No matter what happens to you, can you center yourself upon the vision? Can you believe that, housed within you as your I amness, is the only creative power in the world? I hope so, because your faith in God is measured by your confidence in yourself.

When you imagine a state, do you believe that the scene has the power to externalize itself? Or do you feel you must pray to a being on the outside for help? I tell you: there is no being on the outside. The creative power of the world is housed within you now. Sit down and imagine a state of confidence that it must externalize itself. Believe that because all things are possible to imagine, the state you have imagined must become an external fact.

I have tried this time and time again, and it has always proved itself in performance. Now I share this knowledge with everyone who will listen. How many believe my words and put them into practice I do not know. I only know that man finds it hard to keep the tense. Religious leaders speak of God in the third person as if he were on the outside, yet I tell you he comes from within. When Moses heard the words: “I AM has sent me unto you,” it seemed to come from without, yet it was whispered from within.

There is no evidence of an historical Jesus Christ. We have the essence of Christ, but not an historical one. The being within me that is speaking, is the Christ, but that which is talking to you is only a garment. Everyone knows its background. Its parents are known, its physical brothers and its limitations; yet the being wearing this garment of flesh came out from God who is my Father, for I am from above. The body I wear is from below. I am in the world but not of it, for the being who awoke within me is the one speaking to you now. It is not the same being who entertains guests in our home or enjoys dining in a good restaurant, for this being is not in any way a part of this world. This is the being in you that I am trying to reach tonight, trying to stir and awaken to return to the one grand I AM.

Believe me when I tell you the only purpose in life is to discover who you are. Against thee, O Lord, and thee only have I sinned. Addressing him in the second person as “against thee,” he realizes the Lord is within him; that he is the “I” of man who inspired the prophets to write what they did. Having conceived the play and coming out from the Father to play it, “I” must fulfill what I foretold I would do, and I will.

Christianity is based upon the affirmation that a certain series of supernatural events happened in which God revealed himself in action for the salvation of man. I have experienced every one of these events. As each event took place I recorded the date in my bible, even to a simple little one like: “What you must do, do quickly.” Against that statement I marked the date of October 10, 1966, for I had been preaching to a group of twelve men, all seated on the floor, when one man jumped up and departed quickly. Then a man dressed in costly robes entered, approached me and unveiled my arm revealing the arm of the Lord. But the one who revealed it moved quickly, as that simple statement dictated.

The words of the Lord recorded in the red letter edition of the Bible will be fulfilled by you. Whether he quotes the Old Testament or relates to it, you are predestined to fulfill the red letters recorded there.

The entire drama has unfolded in me, so I know the perfect pattern that God sent into the world. We are told the first shall be last, and the last first. In the story the last act is recorded as the crucifixion yet it is the first. I have been crucified with Christ. It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loves me and gave himself for me by actually becoming me. His name is I AM. That’s the Lord God Jehovah, who is Christ. He is God the Father who became you. His death – in the sense of complete forgetfulness as to his true identity and belief that he is actually you – is your life. It is this being who tells you: “Unless I die thou can’st not live, but if I die I shall rise again and thou with me.” He rose in me. He proved that he could die and rise, for when he rose I rose knowing I AM He. He became me in the most intimate way by becoming my awareness. Then he talked to me and revealed himself to me from within my very self. In the beginning the words seemed to come from another, as though someone on the outside had spoken them; yet they were whispered from within as everything said of Jesus Christ unfolded in me.

Can you accept my words and keep the tense? It is so very important to do so, for if you turn to the second person, or the third, you have created a false God and a false Jesus Christ. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? For unless you believe that your I amness is He you will die in your sins. Put the little word ‘is’ in the sentence: “Unless you believe that I am is He, you die in your sins,” to give it meaning, for without it you may think a being on the outside is speaking and keeping you from missing the mark. If you want to be rich and do not believe that you are the cause of wealth, then you will go on missing the mark by remaining poor. The true goal is to know God is your own wonderful human imagination. This God you will never lose, for when he reveals himself within you it is in a first person, present tense experience.

As God unfolds himself within you he doesn’t call himself “God,” but “I AM.” It was “I” who awoke and rose in that tomb; no one else was there. I had no help getting out; “I” pushed the stone away myself. And when I looked back to see that out of which I came, I saw the three witnesses as recorded in Genesis. It is said that Abraham (the state of faith in which I started) was seated by the door of his tent in the heat of the day when the three men appeared. As one spoke concerning the child, Abraham knew he was the Lord. That child is Isaac, which means, “he laughs.” I found that promised child. Like Simeon, I took that promised child in my arms and he laughed.

So who is Christ? And who is the Lord? Did scripture not fulfill itself in me? I have come only to fulfill scripture, and this I have done. I know I am the temple of the Living God, for my body was torn from top to bottom. I found my son, He who was set up in the beginning to reveal me as the Father. This is not what the priesthoods teach; but I am telling you what I have experienced, for I have found David. He cried unto me: “Thou art my Father.”

I do not care what the priesthoods of the world may say; I am telling you what I know from experience. If they do not believe in me, they will continue to live in sin by worshipping a false God. All the priesthoods and rabbis worship an idol, for the true God cannot be worshipped in any tense other than the present. His name is I Am. No picture on a wall or statue in a garden is the Lord. “Make no graven image unto me.” If you do not see him as yourself you will not find him, and when he comes he reveals himself through his son calling you Father. This you set up in the beginning and then you agreed to play all the parts. Not one part can you condemn, for all contribute to the end when you find God. The goal of life is to find him, not on the outside, but within yourself in the first person, present tense. The world thinks I am insane when I tell them who I am, for they see the garment of flesh I wear and know I am subject to all its weaknesses. But because the drama of the scripture has unfolded within me, I know how true scripture is.

I cannot describe the joy that is yours when you awaken. I can only say that the world into which I go night after night is entirely different, and earth does not contain anything which I can use as an image to describe that world. I return through darkness into this world every day to share my experiences with everyone who will listen, while some believe me and some do not. My most intimate friends may not believe me, for they know and judge me by my human weaknesses. My brothers, knowing we were sired by the same father and came out of the same mother’s womb, cannot believe my experiences are related to scripture. But I am not asking you to believe in Neville, but to believe in God who is your own wonderful human awareness.

I have been sent to tell you who God is. He who sent me is one with me, for although he seemed to be another when I stood in his presence, when we embraced we fused and became one. The recording angel, the ledger, the being of love who embraced me, is within. In the beginning I foreknew myself. Through foreknowledge I was predestined to be called from the world of death, called from within myself by an infinite being of love, wearing the human form divine, to be embraced and sent. And the moment we embraced we fused, and I knew myself to be infinite love. There had been a seeming separation when I entered a world that was not mine, to experience all of its horrors until its end when I am called, acquitted, justified, and glorified. Now there is nothing left for me to do but tell it to everyone who will listen and urge them to set their entire hope upon this grace which is coming to all at the unveiling of Christ in each individual, in the first person, present tense.

While you are here you can become independently secure, certainly. All of these things are possible to you, but the real objective in your life is to find God, the cause of all life. To believe in God does not aid you. The question is: do you believe in yourself? Can you believe you are rich when you have no money? Can you continue to believe it throughout the day and fall asleep night after night as though you were? If you will, you will become rich. Then fulfill another desire and then another, and one day you will discover the one who made it possible. That one is God.

Millions of people claim to believe in God in the third person, but they do not know God. Only when God reveals himself in the first person, present tense can he be known. That God cannot be outgrown or lost, for you cannot outgrow I am. I am is the theme of the Book of John, which goes back to the 3rd chapter of the Book of Exodus, the 14th verse, as: “Go say, ‘I am has sent me to you.” As a man, I am revealing God’s true name, but those who hear my words know the outer garment I wear and judge it. They know my weaknesses, but they do not know the Lord. I tell you: when you know the Lord (or rather are known by him) you will experience a thrill that is beyond description. Your shock will turn to joy, however, as the drama of one called Jesus Christ unfolds within you.

In the meantime you can test him in the world of Caesar. There is no limit to his power, so take that power which became you and attach it to your desire. Sleep every night so attached to your desire that you feel its reality, and in no time you will prove my words. Within a year the lady in New York City received her $50,000, pressed down and running over. She knew exactly what she did and would never have guessed that the little old lady she bought the paper for every Sunday morning would be used as the means to give her the wealth she claimed. This lady has found God, yet she is still inclined to speak of him in the third person.

Man is in the habit of thinking of God and not as God. It is so easy to forget to keep the tense. Every good, well-trained Jew is familiar with the first five books of the Old Testament. They have read the Book of Exodus many times and believe God is the great I AM; yet they still think of him in the third person. They would think that anyone who boldly stood up and proclaimed, “I Am He” was arrogant; yet I tell you that is the only way you will ever find God.

But when he comes, there is no need to brag about it. You know who you are, and when they call you by your earthly name you respond. Perhaps you will have dinner together, but they will continue to be totally unaware of the being within you, and you don’t always throw pearls before swine, because they are not prepared to receive them. You will join their party and enjoy the evening as you let the outer man play his part, but you know the inner man, the one they know not of. That man is Jesus Christ.

There is only one Christ. Everyone has been crucified with that one Christ can make the statement: “It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in this body of flesh and blood, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” God actually became as you are, that you may rise to the one being called God the Father. As one power, we came down from God to become the gods. In order to descend in power and play these parts we had to enter complete forgetfulness. The actor cannot pretend. He must enter and become the part he has agreed to play. He cannot step upon the stage knowing he is a great actor who everyone recognizes. He must lose himself in the character by leaving his personality in the dressing room and entering the stage as the character he is to portray. So when God stepped upon the stage wearing this, he is Neville, one hundred per cent. He had to completely forget that he was God, yet knowing that he brought with him a pattern which would erupt and his memory would return. I agreed to play the part as Neville. He and I are one, but I am greater than he.

Look upon Jesus Christ as a pattern. I have told you how the pattern erupted in me in the hope that you will believe me. Although a few believe my words, the majority disbelieve fulfilling scripture. “He came unto his own and his own believed him not.” What I tell you and what you are capable of conceiving may be entirely different. Can you receive what I tell you as my own personal experience? I can tell you that scripture is true from beginning to end, but can you believe me enough to set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the unveiling of God within you? I hope so, for God is in you as your I am. And when he awakes you go through a series of supernatural events called Jesus Christ. Then you will tell your experiences to those who will listen in the hope that they will accept them; but it does not matter if they do or do not, for in the end, you take off your garment of flesh and return to an intimacy that is indescribable.

Eyes have not seen or ears heard the things that are already prepared for you. In that world you are in control of everything and everything is alive. Every night I pass beyond the world of dream to enter the world of reality, and I return each morning through the world of dream to reenter this world of death. This I do night after night, and will continue to do until that moment in time when it pleases the depth of my own being (who is the Father) to take off this garment of flesh and call it a day.

Remember, you can only sin against that self of you who is God. And any time you think of God in any tense other than the first person, present, you are entertaining an idol, no matter what you call it. If you leave this auditorium tonight conscious of being God, you are walking in the knowledge of the true God and all things are possible to you. Walk in complete trust that things are as you want them to be. This is loyalty to unseen reality. This is faith. There are only two things that displease God: One is lack of faith in I AM He, and the other is eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Before descending into the land of forgetfulness you made yourself a promise that one day your memory would return and you would realize you were the creator of it all, for God gave you himself. He actually became you, as told in the story of Melchizedek. He had no father, no mother, no beginning, and no end. In the end you become a priest after the order of Melchizedek, knowing the whole vast infinite universe was created by and sustained by you. Now, this is really incredible. I recently read that the great Einstein said: “I rejoice in the discovery of the uniformity of the laws of nature and whoever is behind it that we call the Lord. But that man should survive the disintegration of the brain, to me is unthinkable.” If a man as wonderful as Einstein feels that the story of the gospel is unthinkable, then condemn no one. You can’t deny Einstein’s greatness. He was tender, kind and sincere; but in spite of that gentility he was quite satisfied to dwell in the uniformity of the laws of nature and whoever is behind it.

I tell you there is one behind it all. He so loved you he became you and the day is coming when you will know that you are he. You will know you are not the creation of the city, but its creator. You are not the made, but the maker. Whether you are male or female, you are the emanation of the Lord yet his wife till the sleep of death is past. Then you will awake to know you never left your heavenly home, you were never born and never die, save in your dreams.

Now let us go into the silence.

neville goddard imagination creates reality

YOUR HUSBAND

Neville Goddard 02-02-1968

neville goddard imagination creates reality Probably one of the most misunderstood verses in the Bible is recorded in the 3rd chapter of Genesis, the 16th verse: “The Lord said to the woman, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you.”

In this fabulous world of ours, many accept this statement literally and believe that the children spoken of here come from the womb of woman and the male is the husband and ruler; however in the 54th chapter of Isaiah, you are told: “Your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name.”

Humanity (male and female) is God’s emanation, yet his wife, ’til the sleep of death is past’. Regardless of your sex you are the woman the Lord spoke to in this 3rd chapter of Genesis. Your children are not those brought forth from the womb of woman, but from your imagination! Your husband (the Lord of hosts) will sire every idea you fall in love with, no matter how horrible it may be. And being protean, God has the power to play every part and assume every shape in the world.

Let us take a vivid example. When Hitler and his Third Reich came into power, unnumbered happily married women who loved their husbands and children fell in love with the concept of a superior race – a Germanic race who would enslave humanity. And as the idea caught fire in their minds, these women had an affair with Hitler in their dreams. It was not the person, Hitler, that they had union with, but the state he personified – just as you, if you are completely honest with yourself, have fallen in love with an idea (a state) and met its personification in soft Beulah’s night and had an affair. Then in the morning you have looked at your husband and experienced pain, for not understanding the mystery of Christ, you thought you had an affair with a person. But the man involved could have been playing cards, getting drunk, or sound asleep in his own bed and be completely oblivious to you as a person. He was merely the personification of a state which you accepted and yielded to in soft Beulah’s night, but by that act you multiplied and replenished the earth with the same idea, the same state!

It is impossible to kill an idea, for the moment an idea is accepted, it is conceived and the earth replenished. You cannot kill a state by cutting off the occupant’s head, shooting [him], or putting the man in prison. The occupant may depart, but the state remains for anyone to fall in love with. These are false gods, which will multiply your pain and cause you to go through literal hell as you bring forth these ideas as your children.

Look into your own mind, and if you are perfectly honest with yourself you will remember having had union with someone other than your mate in this world, not knowing he (or she) was only a state of consciousness personified. You do not have union with the person, but the state the person represents, for your Maker is your husband who is playing the part of the person.

If this night you really believe what I teach and fall in love with it, you may find yourself in soft Beulah’s night having union with the being who personifies it. You may think it is with the personification called Neville, but it is union with the state. As Neville I may be entertaining someone at my home, enjoying a lovely drink, or reading the Bible as I do all through the day, and be totally oblivious of you and what you are doing. If you really believe what I say, accept it, and live by it, it is quite possible and highly probable that you will have union with this idea. And although he may wear my face, you are having union with God your Father, who is your own wonderful I Amness.

The Bible recognizes only one source, only one cause of all things. That one source is God, who – as a protean being – plays all the parts in history. He animates you, as you are his wife. And when you fall in love with something other than the true God and seek false gods, your sorrow is multiplied, and in pain you bring forth your children.

I recall a friend of mine who has now departed this world. Born in Boston to a very poor family, she hungered for the glamour of the theatrical life. Although she danced as one with two left feet, her mother brought her to New York City, where George M. Cohan was casting a show. Hiring a young dancer from Denmark, he was given the right to pick the girls for his chorus. Although this girl could not dance he chose her, and within a year they were married. This marriage produced three beautiful children.

The lovely girl had a desire for glamour, for pomp and circumstance, so during soft Beulah’s night she had affair after affair after affair with everyone from the Pope to the Prince of Wales, thereby perpetuating the belief in pomp and circumstance. Now, don’t blame the Pope, for he didn’t know her – or the Prince of Wales, as they only personified the state she desired to express. She loved seeing the Pope being carried on the back of strong, strapping men, extending his hand to be kissed. Wanting to be part of that world, she was always having union with those who personified it.

Now, if you are Catholic you may be shocked, but don’t think the Pope or the Prince of Wales is exempt from this action, as it is part of the great drama in which we all are cast. She has played her part and spent the last fifteen years of her life as a wino, giving her body to anyone for a bottle of wine. She wedded herself to a false god and greatly multiplied her sorrows. In pain she brought forth the children of her strange gods, yet her desire remained for her husband. God is your husband – your center and the very core of your being. No matter what you do, you are still seeking God. So while she was seeking wine for the last fifteen years of her life here, she was still seeking – not her husband, who came from Denmark, but her true husband, her Maker, who is the Lord of Hosts, the Father of the child!

In the 2nd chapter of Paul’s 1st Letter to Timothy, the statement is made: “Woman is saved by the birth of children.” This is false. The footnote in the Revised Standard Version gives you the Greek, and the true translation as: “by the birth of the child.” It’s not by bearing children (all these ideas) that one is saved, but by bearing the child! When you give yourself completely over to the gospel story you are ready, and God will assume the mask of the one who is expressing it at the moment. Then you will have union with that being and bear the child!

So when you have these dreams, don’t feel strange and condemn yourself. Everyone has had similar experiences. If you resist the union in dream it is because the idea represented there is foreign to you; but when your desire is something you really want to make alive and it is expressed – be it good, bad, or indifferent – you will have union with it and feel no shame, in spite of the whole vast world looking on, for this is the world in which we live.

In the 9th chapter of Luke, Jesus asked his disciples: “Who do people say that I am?” And they answered: “John the Baptist, or Elijah, or one of the risen prophets.” Then he turned to them and asked: “But who do you say that I am?” Peter then became the spokesman for the group and said: “You are the Christ of God.” Commanding them to tell no one, he said: “The Son of man must suffer and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes. He must be killed, but on the third day he will rise again.”

Jesus did not deny Peter’s confession, but declined to make it public until he had reinterpreted the popular messianic concept in terms of his own experience. From time to time, one who has experienced the true story of salvation comes into the world and tells it. Then all the elders, scribes, and priests, who carry on the traditions of men, will deny it. This is eternally so; that is why he declined to make it public. The scribes, teaching the traditions of men, claim Christ is coming from without – but I tell you he comes from within! I tell you that God became your very “self” that you may become God.

Playing all the parts, God lets you go anywhere and meet anyone. And when you fall in love with a state, he will play the part of the state expressed, and in soft Beulah’s night you will have an affair. He will play the part of a Stalin or a Hitler, a Pope or a prince, if you are in love with the state of consciousness. And you will give yourself willingly to him, thereby multiplying and perpetuating that state in the world. In the morning you may be ashamed of your act when you face the one who bears your name (or whose name you now bear), but at the time you had no choice in the matter, for God in you – who is your husband and Maker – played the part. Being protean, if you meet a dog or cat, see a bird or fish in your dreams, it is because God is playing their parts. No matter what the animal, remember: God is playing its part in order for you to become one, for in the end he will leave all others and cleave to you, his wife, until you become one being, one body, one Spirit, one hope, one God and Father of all.

Now let me share a letter I have been waiting to receive since the 15th of December. This lady’s home is in a small, rustic canyon. One day she spent the afternoon in Los Angeles with a casual acquaintance, and had just returned home, when she heard the phone ringing. She was being called by the casual friend, who appeared to be quite distressed. Inviting the lady to join her for dinner, she returned to Los Angeles, where the lady asked her to spend the night. It seemed strange to her to agree, but after spending several hours reading aloud to the lady, they retired and she fell asleep. Then she said: “At 3:30 in the morning a peculiar, cold wind caused me to awake. The room contained an eerie light, when out of nowhere my two brothers – whom I haven’t seen in over forty years – appeared, along with my landlord, who is like a brother to me. The three take their positions, two at my feet and one at my head. Picking up an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, my older brother said: “She is too old to have a baby.” Then he placed it in my arms, and as I looked at the child I began to smile. The child then responded and extended its arms toward me, when I awoke on the bed.”

Then she continues: “About five months later, I saw a young boy in his teens coming toward me out of the canyons. He had blond hair and blue eyes, and as I looked at him I knew he was David. Passing me, he headed for the sea, and I watched until he was out of sight. I didn’t have to ask him: ‘Whose son are you?’ because I knew he was mine.

“Four months later, again at 3:30 in the morning, I was awakened by the sound of an earthquake, followed by a loud bomb. Suddenly my entire being was broken from top to bottom. I felt myself outside of my body, looking at it as though I were another. The left shoulder had fallen a bit and when I returned to the body moments later, I felt pain on the left side. Now I await the fourth vision, which is the descent of the dove.”

I can’t tell you my thrill when I look over this audience and see how many are awakening. In the 9th chapter of Luke, it is said: “Truly, truly I say unto you, there are some here who will not taste of death until they have seen the kingdom of God.” The babe is the key to that kingdom! When Simeon held the child in his arms, he said: “Now Lord let thy servant depart in peace, for my eyes have seen the salvation of Israel.” So to have held the child is to have witnessed the kingdom of God. This kingdom is a character, an entirely different concept of creative power- not a place in time or space! And you are that character when you are one with your creative power, there to create what you want!

The child is a symbol of your entrance, and there are some standing here who will not experience the phenomenon that men call death before experiencing the kingdom of God! Although this audience can be counted on your fingers, there are so many here who have experienced the truth and so many on the verge of it, that my joy is boundless; for if you owned the entire world and were not awake, what would it matter! No matter how wealthy you are here, the day will come when you will depart to discover that you have left your billions behind. You will be in a body like this one, only incredibly young, in a terrestrial world just like this to continue to have blind unions with strange gods, not knowing that your Maker is your husband – the Lord of hosts is his name.

The search for your real husband is on! You have gone into strange lands and had union with strange states personified by man. Falling in love with a state, its personification always confronts you in a dream, the mask being worn by your husband, who did it without the person’s consent or knowledge. As an innocent bystander, the person will never know he was used. He was simply the personification of certain beliefs which inflamed your mind, and confronted by your real husband – who is the Lord of hosts – you submitted to them.

All of the characters in scripture are played by God. It is He who plays the part of the angel in the story of Abraham and Sarah. Read it carefully and you will notice that the voice changes from that of an angel to the voice of God. When Abraham is told: “Your wife will have a son,” Sarah laughed because they were both so old and it had long ceased to be with her after the manner of women. Now, the child promised to the Sarah in everyone is the child of which I speak. You are God’s emanation and he has promised that, in spite of your age, you will have a son. Blake put is so beautifully when he said:

“Whom God has afflicted for secret ends,
he comforts and heals and calls them friend.”

Although you go astray, following false gods, false beliefs, God will always bring you back; but you will suffer, for you must experience the messianic pains of childbearing. Then one day you will find the one husband and fall in love with his promise. And you will meet someone who personifies salvation’s story and have union with him. But he will be totally unaware of the fact that you so fell in love with the idea that he sponsors, and will never know of your experience unless you tell him.

Having been sent from on high to tell you who “I AM”, you may believe me or resent my message; but I, a person called Neville, am totally unaware, totally innocent of anything that happens to you in your dreams. Leading you now toward what you believe in, your husband will assume my mask and play the role I personify in your dream. Change your beliefs and he will assume another mask and play that part, as you multiply and replenish the earth with ideas of which you are in love!

Don’t think that communism or democracy can be destroyed. If I believe in democracy as a form of government, it is an idea. You can kill me, but you can never kill the ideas I entertain. This morning’s paper tells of those who have been stealing from the government. Why should we be taken aback when we see dishonesty among officials? From the very beginning they are encouraged by example to make what gain they can from their positions. Seeing what their superiors did and got away with, they have union with the idea and awaken to that state of consciousness. Then they suffer, for this is bearing the children of a false god.

Examine your thoughts. Are they ones you want to bear in this world? Are they calling forth false gods? False ideas? If so, “I will multiply your pain in childbearing, yet your desire shall be for your husband.” The Lord is always ruling, always willing to assume any role and play it for you as he leads you towards himself. And when you meet the true God you will discover that you were the actor all along, for you and He will be One. Blake said it so beautifully:

“Joy and woe have woven fine
a garment for my Soul divine.”

In Blake’s “Marriage of Heaven and Hell,” he gave us this true revelation: “God only acts and Is in existing Beings or men.” Let this thought burn itself into your mind. God is a thought in action! Imagine something and God is acting! God only acts and is. Every moment in time, whether in this the waking world or the world of sleep, God is and only God acts! At night in dream, God plays the part of the state you are attached to at the moment or falling in love with. If you like the state, God will assume its personification and you will yield to become one with him. Then in the morning you will awaken with the memory of what happened and multiply your world with the idea. You will give your life, if necessary, to get your idea over to the world, even though it is the most nonsensical thing possible. This you will continue to do until the child is born and your journey is over.

In the 16th chapter of John, we are told: “When a woman is in labor with all the pain that possesses her it is only because the hour has come. But after the child is delivered she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a child has been born into the world.” Life consists of the children you have borne and are bearing, and life is very painful. You must pay rent or bear the consequences. You must buy food or go hungry. You must buy clothes or be embarrassed. You must pay taxes, drink water, and breathe air. Man has discovered how to tax the water you drink, but as yet has not found a way to tax the air you breathe. Give him time and I’m sure he will! We are already taxed to the bursting point. You go to work, and at the end of the year you pay taxes to someone who doesn’t exist! We call him “Uncle Sam,” but he is invisible! There is no Uncle Sam, yet he puts his hands in our pockets and takes from us what we could spend in a far better way than he does. So you see: that 3rd chapter, the 16th verse of Genesis is true: “I will greatly multiply your pain in child bearing.” If you entertain the idea of war or famine, fame or fortune, you shall bring forth their children and your pain will be multiplied in child bearing, yet your desire will be for your husband who is the Lord, your Maker.

Even though you are not aware of it now, your husband is suffering with you and will continue to, until you hear the gospel with understanding and believe the incredible story that God actually became you that you could become God the Father. Then to prove that God actually gave himself to you, you will see his only son, David, and – like the lady – you will not have to ask: “Whose son are you?” You will know he is your son, and he will know that regardless of your sex here, you are his Father. When that experience is yours, you will stop giving yourself to false gods and obey your husband by fulfilling the divine formula of salvation.

Now let us go into the silence.

neville goddard imagination creates reality

YOUR SUPREME DOMINION

Neville Goddard 1953

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

neville goddard imagination creates reality

YOURS FOR THE TAKING

Neville Goddard  09-18-1967
neville goddard imagination creates realityThere is only one cause for the phenomena of life. That cause is God. Housed in you, God is a person in the most literal sense of the word. Believe me, for I know this from experience. God, the only creator, is pure imagination working in the depth of your soul. God began a good work in you and He will bring it to completion on the day God’s creative power is unveiled in you! God’s creative power and wisdom is defined in scripture as Christ. When Christ unveils himself in you, you will know you are God’s power and God’s wisdom.

God, your own wonderful human imagination, underlies all of your faculties, including perception, and streams into your surface mind least disguised in the form of creative, productive fantasy. When you ask yourself what you can do to transcend your present limitation of life, you are dwelling upon the means. God does not ask you to consider the means, but to define the end. Speaking to you through the medium of desire, God asks the question: “What wantest thou of me?” Then he tells you not to be concerned with the ways and means, for his ways are unsearchable. They are inscrutable and past finding out. This statement you will find in the 11th chapter of the Book of Romans. So don’t be concerned as to how God will fulfill the end, only know that He will. Can you believe your desire is fulfilled? Can you believe it is true? If you can, it is yours for the taking, for nothing is impossible to one who believes.

Now, let me share with you three stories which came to me during the summer. The first letter was from my friend Bennie. In it he told of lying prone on his bed, face down, when he felt as though someone grabbed his shoulders; and as he was lifted up he heard the words: “Take a stand!” Intuitively he knew he had to make the decision now as to whether he was going to believe that imagining creates reality or disbelieve it.

Scripture tells us, “He who is not with me is against me.” There is no neutral ground, for “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. To set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother.” Why? Because a man’s enemies are within him. Everyone must eventually take the stand that imagining creates reality and swim or sink with this concept.

Now, a few days later while in meditation, Bennie felt himself being held from behind by three men. As they raised him, he watched the sun rise and heard the words: “Look! Behold!” and “Recognition!” And he remembered a passage from my book, Your Faith Is Your Fortune: “Recognition of this truth will transform you from one who tries to make it so, into one who recognizes it to be so.”

Soon after this, a friend asked Ben to pray for him. He wanted to be the property manager of the company he worked for. Although he had been passed by year after year, Bennie told him what to do, and imagined hearing the friend tell him the job was now his. A few months later the job was vacated and his friend was given the position with an increase in salary and greater responsibility, just as he had imagined. What did Bennie do? He imagined! To whom did he pray? To his own wonderful human imagination! God, the creator of all life, is like pure imagining in you, underlying all of your faculties – including perception. He streams into your surface mind least disguised in the form of productive fantasy. Bennie took a stand. He prayed for his friend and believed his prayer was answered. He tested himself, and the windows of heaven opened and poured forth blessings for all to see. Now Bennie knows that with God all things are possible.

God is your mightier self. Emptying himself, God took on the form of a slave and is now found in the likeness of man. Abdicating his power, Pure Imagination took upon himself the limitations of flesh, thereby becoming human. It is God who weaves your every desire into cubic reality, waiting upon you effectively and swiftly, regardless of whether your desire is for evil or for good. The one who conjures thoughts in the mind of a Hitler or Stalin is the same power as the one conjuring thoughts in the mind of a pope or the Arch Bishop of Canterbury. There aren’t two Gods. There is only one!

The 14th and 53rd chapters of the Book of Psalms are identical, each telling us: “The fool says in his heart there is no God, but the Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of the many to see if there are any that act wise and seek the Lord.” Here we find that in the eyes of God, wisdom is equated with seeking the Lord. And if God is all-wise and all powerful, then any search other than for the Lord is stupid. You may be the greatest mathematician or scientist, the most intelligent and honored man among men, but if your search is not for God, you are stupid in His eyes.

Called upon to look for the cause of creation, what are you doing losing yourself in the phenomena of life? When something happens, search your thoughts and you will discover your own wonderful human imagination to be the cause of your experience, because God is a person. At the present time He is wearing a mask called Neville, but the one speaking to you now knows himself to be the Ancient of Days. Every being in the world is a mask worn by God; for housed in man, is man’s imagination.

A thought acted upon is an imaginal act. Think (imagine) a horrible earthquake and God will give it to you. Imagine (think of) a war and God will provide that, too. Imagine peace and you will have it. God will give you health if you will but imagine being healthy. Imagine success and you will have it. The moment you think, you are feeding your imagination, which is a person. I use the word person deliberately, for you are a person. You are the mask God is now wearing, for God became you that you may become God.

Now let me share another letter with you. Last year this lady, living about sixty miles north of San Francisco, was possessed with the desire to come to Los Angeles and attend my lecture. Leaving word at her office, she drove her car to the San Francisco airport, where she took a plane to Los Angeles. There she was met by a friend and immediately came to the lecture. After the lecture she joined a group of four women and one man for coffee, where she expressed her hunger, having missed lunch and dinner that day. The gentleman sitting beside her then said, “I’d like to buy you a steak.” And as she looked into his face she heard a voice within her say, “This is your husband.”

Now, this lady has been married and divorced four times, so she had specific desires for a husband which she felt must be fulfilled. She wanted to be happily married to a man who lived by this truth. She wanted him to love and respect her as well as her seventeen-year-old son. Having imagined such a man in September, she attended my meeting in October, and married the gentleman she met here the following January.

The gentleman added his story to her letter, saying: “Having played with the idea of being married, I went to a pawn shop last September and purchased a plain gold band which I placed on the third finger of my left hand. Every day I wore the ring and every night I slept in the feeling of being happily married. (My friend thought he could not get the feeling of being married without a physical aid, but you don’t need anything outside of your imagination to catch the mood.)

Having been an alcoholic, this gentleman imagined his wife never mentioned his past; for although he had not tasted alcohol for nine years, he had paid the price in his search for God. You see, the alcoholic is searching for truth. Thirsty, he finds a false spirit in the form of alcohol, while those who will not touch it – and criticize those who do – haven’t even started their search. But I have news for them. One day they, too, will know a hunger which will not be satisfied by bread. They will know a thirst so great they will make the mistake of clothing it in the form of a bottle. But because it will be a false thirst, the thirst will remain. Then they will discover the true hunger and the true thirst, which is for the hearing of the word of God.

Now, in the third letter a gentleman writes: “Having borrowed from the bank, every month when I sent in my payment I reduced the total amount in my record book. One day, as I was writing my check and recording its payment, I closed my eyes and saw two zeros under the balance due column. Then I gave a sigh of relief because the note was paid. For the next thee months I persisted in seeing those double zeros and rejoicing in being debt-free. Then came an unexpected surprise! Our company paid us all a mid-year bonus which was so large I was able to pay all of my bills, including the bank loan, and deposit the rest in the bank.”

Now I think this gentleman and I must be two peas in the same pod, because money seems to burn in his pocket, too. Instead of keeping the money in the bank as the rational mind would do, my friend began to think about how to spend it, so of course he found a way. He bought a tape recorder to bring and record my message!

To whom did my friend turn when he wanted the bank loan paid? He turned to God! He did not get down on his knees and ask some outside God to do it for him. He didn’t go to church and consult a priest, rabbi or minister. He didn’t contact a so-called truth teacher, but simply closed his eyes to the obvious and saw two zeros in the balance due column. Then for the first time in the history of his company a mid-year bonus was paid. This happened to him because of his use of the law, and his knowledge of who God is.

Not everyone who seeks God finds him, but there are those – like Philip -that when they find him, they bring their brother Nathanael. Andrew found Jesus and brought Peter. You, too, will find Jesus when you exercise your imagination, and bring those you love to his awareness. If great wealth befell you, would not your wife (or husband), your children, as well as those in your immediate circle benefit from your good fortune? And if it befell them, would it not befall you? So we benefit each other as we search out God and test him.

Revelation tells us to be either hot or cold, but never to be lukewarm. If you do not believe me to the point of testing the law, you are lukewarm. But one day, like Ben, you will take a stand. You will either be for me or against me. You will try to believe that imagining creates reality, or reject it. You will be hot or cold about it, and that is better than being lukewarm. I have discovered that those who hated me at first when I took from them their idols, the icon in their mind called Jesus, have become my finest students. So many people claim they believe in Jesus, but cannot define him. Unable to place him in time and space, they are defiant when I say: Christ in you is your hope of glory. Full of insults, they are cold. Some have even been violent. But one day they will find him of whom Moses and the prophets wrote, turn around, and be embraced by the Lord.

I started telling this story in the 1930’s and here we are in the 1960’s. During these thirty-odd years I have found those who really opposed me – those who were so moved and disturbed they were determined to disprove my words. But since they couldn’t do it, they too have found God to be their own wonderful human imagination. The Bible is addressed only to the human imagination. In Blake’s famous letter to the Rev. Dr. Trusler he makes this comment: “Why is the Bible more entertaining and instructive than any other book? Is it not because it is addressed to the imagination, which is spiritual sensation, and only immediately to the understanding, or reason?”

The Bible is imaginative instruction. When it unfolds in you it is more real than anything here, yet it is all imagined, for God is all imagination and so is man. The eternal body of man is the imagination, and that is God Himself. There is nothing but this one body called Jesus, who is the Lord God Jehovah.

I tell you, God became as we are that we may become as He is. No one took God’s life. He laid it down himself saying: “I have the power to lay it down and the power to lift it up again. The fall into fragmented space was deliberate. And He who fell has the power to gather us all together, one by one, into that single body who is all love. His body is above the organization of sex. In it there is no Greek, no Jew, no bond, no free, no male, no female. When you wear it you understand Paul’s statement: “I consider the sufferings of this present time not worth comparing to the glory that has been revealed in me.” In that body you know yourself to be the real Man, and this fleshly body as nothing. You will realize that you were never male or female, but have always been God.

Remember, everything is yours for the taking. If you want it, take it. If you cannot claim it for yourself, ask a friend for help. If you want to be happily married, do what my friends did. You want to pay off all of your debts? Whatever you desire is yours. All you have to do is imagine you have it, for everything in life is yours for the taking!

Now let us go into the silence.