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Neville Goddard Influential New Thought Teacher (1905-1972)

December 22, 2013

by Wisdom Master with 2 Comments Imagination Neville Goddard neville goddard feeling is the secret neville goddard law and promise neville goddard law of assumption neville goddard lectures neville goddard power of awareness neville goddard power of imagination neville goddard quotes neville goddard wisdom

Neville Goddard, better known as just Neville, was one of the quietly dramatic and supremely influential teachers in the New Thought field for many years…In a simple, yet somehow elegant one-hour lecture, Neville was able to clarify the nature of God and God’s relationship to every person. He spoke of God in intimate terms as though he knew God very well, which he did.

Joseph Murphy, a writer and lecturer, who studied with Neville in New York City, said of him: “Neville may eventually be recognized as one of the world’s great mystics,”

Born on Barbados in the British West Indies, Neville was the fourth child in a family of nine boys and one girl. One day some of them were playing near an old wind-swept hut by the sea. A seer lived in the hut and told them their fortunes, The older sons would go into the professions, into medicine, into business. The predictions for them came true. The Goddard family is one of the most prominent and influential families on the island.

“Do not touch the fourth one,” the seer said, pointing to Neville, “he has a special mission to perform in the world – from God.” And to Neville, “You will journey to a distant land and spend your life there.” This prediction also came true. As a young man he went to America and worked in some of the department stores in New York City. Later, he worked in the theatre with the Schubert’s.

Under unusual circumstances, he met a black Jew, named Abdullah, who lectured on Christianity. Neville went to hear him, somewhat under protest, to satisfy the constant urging of a friend, “Whose judgment I did not respect,” Neville said, “because he made such poor financial investments.”

Neville said he was seated in the auditorium waiting for the lecture to begin, when the speaker – who had never met Neville came down the aisle from the rear of the auditorium to the stage.

“You are late, Neville!” Abdullah said, “six months’ late! I have been told to expect you.” From this introduction, Neville studied with Abdullah seven days a week for seven years.

“Abdullah taught me Hebrew, he taught me The Kabbalah, and he taught me more about real Christianity than anyone I ever met,” Neville declared.

Neville originally came to the United States to study drama at the age of seventeen. In 1932 he gave up the theater to devote his attention to his studies in mysticism when he began his lecture career in New York City. After traveling throughout the country, he eventually made his home in Los Angeles where, in the late 1950’s, he gave a series of talks on television, and for many years, lectured regularly to capacity audiences at the Wilshire Ebell Theater. In the 1960’s and early ‘70s, he confined most of his lectures to Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco.

Neville once said that if he was stranded on an island and was allowed one book, he would choose, The Bible, without hesitation. If he could squeeze in more, he would add Charles Fillmore’s Metaphysical Dictionary of Bible names, William Blake, (“… Why stand we here trembling around, Calling on God for help, and not ourselves, in whom God dwells?”) and Nicoll’s Commentaries. These were the books he recommended at his lectures.

In his lectures and books, Neville dealt solely with The Law until the year 1959, “For I did not know of The Promise until I began to experience it and have it unfold within me beginning that summer and continuing during the next three-and-one-half years. And this is Scriptural,” he would say, “read it in the of Book of Daniel where it is referred to as ‘a time, times, and a half.’ It comes to 1260 days in your experience of it.”

In his use of The Law, he related how he made a sea voyage from New York to see his family in Barbados during the Depression, without any money of his own. He related how, by the use of imaginal power, he was honorably discharged from military service to continue his lectures during World War 11. He gave his audiences in San Francisco in the 1950’s and ‘60s accounts of how others had made use of The Law. He discussed it on television in the Los Angeles area, “Learn how to use your imaginal power, lovingly, on behalf of others, for Man is moving into a world where everything is subject to his imaginal power,” he taught.

In the latter part of the 1960’s and early ‘70’s Neville gave more emphasis to The Promise after he had experienced it. The use of imaginal power can change circumstances, but it is all temporary, “– and will vanish like smoke,” he asserted with another sweep of his hand. “Oh. – you can use it to make a fortune, to become known in the world – all these things are done – but your true purpose here is to fulfill Scripture,” so he subordinated it and became as eager to hear accounts by those who had experienced The Promise, and sharing such accounts, as he had of those with The Law.

In the last years of his life he said, “I know my time is short. I have finished the work I have been sent to do and I am now eager to depart. I know I will not appear in this three-dimensional world again for The Promise has been fulfilled in me. As for where I go, I will know you there as I have known you here, for we are all brothers, infinitely in love with each other.”

This discovery Neville called God’s “Promise.” There is nothing any person can do to earn it. It is sheer Grace and comes in its own good time.

If you do not experience it in this life, then what?

“You pass through a door — that’s all that death is,” Neville said, “and — you are restored to life instantly in a world like this — just this world,” he was fond of saying to his audiences with a sweep of his hand, “and you go on there with the same problems you had here with no loss of identity – not old, not blind, not crippled, if you depart this life that way, but young. They grow, and they marry, and they die there, too, with all the fear of death that we have here. And if they die there without experiencing The Promise, they are restored to life again and again in a place best suited to the work yet to be done on them. And it continues until ‘Christ be formed in you’ and as ‘sons of The Resurrection’ you leave this world of death never to enter it gain.”

“You are born once through the womb of woman, once from above,” Neville insists you don’t go through any womb again.

What about the fear many have of eternal hell and damnation? In response to this often asked question, Neville replied with a quote from Scriptures, “’Not one shall be lost in all my holy mountain.’ You are God and how could God eternally condemn Himself?”

Until we awaken and make this discovery, we are privileged to use a Law, given by God, to “cushion the blows of life.” The Law, stated succinctly is this, In Neville’s words: “Imagining creates reality,”

Neville spoke without notes and followed his lectures with questions and answers. When he was asked if he had tapes of his lectures for sale, he replied, “I have no tapes. Others here are making tapes for their own use, Perfectly all right. But I have no tapes.”

There are many tapes of his lectures In Los Angeles and San Francisco circulating, thanks to the loyalty and dedication of many of Neville’s students and friends who have preserved much of What he said. His books are also in print.

Neville departed from the Earth plane on October 1, 1972, in Los Angeles.

Although Neville’s career peaked in the late 1950’s and early 60’s, his message continues to find a place in the hearts of spiritual readers throughout the world today.

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HOW TO USE YOUR IMAGINATION

December 22, 2013

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

Neville Goddard 1955

The purpose of this record is to show you how to use your imagination to achieve your every desire. Most men are totally unaware of the creative power of imagination and invariably bow before the dictates of “facts” and accepts life on the basis of the world without. But when you discover this creative power within yourself, you will boldly assert the supremacy of imagination and put all things in subjection to it. When a man speaks of God-in-man, he is totally unaware that this power called God-in-man is man’s imagination. THIS is the creative power in man. There is nothing under heaven that is not plastic as potter’s clay to the touch of the shaping spirit of imagination.

Once a man said to me, “You know, Neville, I love to listen to you talk about imagination, but as I do so, I invariably touch the chair with my fingers and push my feet into the rug just to keep my sense of the reality and the profundity of things. Well, undoubtedly he is still touching the chair with his fingers and pushing his feet into the rug.

Well, let me tell you of another one who didn’t touch with her fingers and didn’t push that foot of hers onto the board of the streetcar. It’s the story of a young girl just turned seventeen. It was Christmas Eve, and she is sad of heart, for that year she had lost her father in an accident, and she is returning home to what seemed to be an empty house. She was untrained to do anything, so got herself a job as a waitress. This night it’s quite late, Christmas Eve, it’s raining, the car is full of laughing boys and girls home for their Christmas vacation, and she couldn’t conceal the tears.

Luckily for her, as I said, it was raining, so she stuck her face into the heavens to mingle her tears with rain. And then holding the rail of the streetcar, this is what she did: she said, “This is not rain, why, this is spray from the ocean; and this is not the salt of tears that I taste, for this is the salt of the sea in the wind; and this is not San Diego, this is a ship, and I am coming into the Bay of Samoa.” And there she felt the reality of all that she had imagined.

Then came the end of the journey and all are out.

Ten days later this girl received a letter from a firm in Chicago saying that her aunt, several years before when she sailed for Europe, deposited with them three thousand dollars with instructions that if she did not return to America, this money should be paid to her niece. They had just received information of the aunt’s death and were now acting upon her instructions. One month later this girl sailed for Samoa. As she came into the bay it was late that night and there was salt of the sea in the wind. It wasn’t raining, but there was spray in the air. And she actually felt what she’d felt one month before, only this time she had realized her objective.

Now, this whole record is technique. I want to show you today how to put your wonderful imagination right into the feeling of your wish fulfilled and let it remain there and fall asleep in that state. And I promise you, from my own experience, you will realize the state in which you sleep – if you could actually feel yourself right into the situation of your fulfilled desire and continue therein until you fall asleep. As you feel yourself right into it, remain in it until you give it all the tones of reality, until you give it all the sensory vividness of reality. As you do it, in that state, quietly fall into sleep. And in a way you will never know – you could never consciously devise the means that would be employed – you will find yourself moving across a series of events leading you towards the objective realization of this state.

Now, here is a practical technique: The first thing you do, you must know exactly what you want in this world. When you know exactly what you want, make as life-like a representation as possible of what you would see, and what you would touch, and what you would do were you physically present and physically moving in such a state.

For example, suppose I wanted a home, but I had no money – but I still know what I want. I, without taking anything into consideration, I would make as life-like a representation of the home that I would like, with all the things in it that I would want. And then, this night, as I would go to bed, I would in a state, a drowsy, sleepy state, the state that borders upon sleep, I would imagine that I am actually in such a house, that were I to step off the bed, I would step upon the floor of that house, were I to leave this room, I would enter the room that is adjacent to my imagined room in that house. And while I am touching the furniture and feeling it to be solidly real, and while I am moving from one room to the other in my imaginary house, I would go to sound asleep in that state. And I know that in a way I could not consciously devise, I would realize my house. I have seen it work time and time again.

If I wanted promotion in my business I would ask myself, “What additional responsibilities would be mine were I to be given this great promotion? What would I do? What would I say? What would I see? How would I act? And then in my imagination I would begin to see and touch and do and act as I would outwardly see and touch and act were I in that position.

If I now desired the mate of my life, were I now in search of some wonderful girl or some wonderful man, what would I actually find myself doing that would imply that I have found my state? For instance, suppose now I was a lady, one thing I would definitely do, I would wear a wedding ring. I would take my imaginary hands and I would feel the ring that I would imagine to be there. And I would keep on feeling it and feeling it until it seemed to me to be solidly real. I would give it all the sensory vividness I am capable of giving anything. And while I am feeling my imaginary ring – which implies that I am married – I would sleep.

This story is told us in The Song of Songs, or A Song of Solomon:

It is said, “At night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth. I found him whom my soul loveth, and I would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother’s house, right into the chamber of her that conceived me.” If I would take that beautiful poem and put it into modern English, into practical language, it would be this: “While sitting in my chair I would feel myself right into the situation of my fulfilled desire, and having felt myself into that state I would not let it go. I would keep that mood alive, and in that mood I would sleep.” That is taking it “right into my mother’s chamber, into the chamber of her that conceived me.”

You know, people are totally unaware of this fantastic power of the imagination, but when man begins to discover this power within him, he never plays the part that he formerly played. He doesn’t turn back and become just a reflector of life; from here on in he is the affector of life. The secret of it is to center your imagination in the feeling of the wish fulfilled and remain therein. For in our capacity to live IN the feeling of the wish fulfilled lies our capacity to live the more abundant life. Most of us are afraid to imagine ourselves as important and noble individuals secure in our contribution to the world just because, at the very moment that we start our assumption, reason and our senses deny the truth of our assumption. We seem to be in the grip of an unconscious urge which makes us cling desperately to the world of familiar things and resist all that threatens to tear us away from our familiar and seemingly safe moorings.

Well, I appeal to you to try it. If you try it, you will discover this great wisdom of the ancients. For they told it to us in their own strange, wonderful, symbolical form. But unfortunately you and I misinterpreted their stories and took it for history, when they intended it as instruction to simply achieve our every objective. You see, imagination puts us inwardly in touch with the world of states. These states are existent, they are present now, but they are mere possibilities while we think OF them. But they become overpoweringly real when we think FROM them and dwell IN them.

You know, there is a wide difference between thinking OF what you want in this world and thinking FROM what you want. Let me tell you when I first heard of this strange and wonderful power of the imagination. It was in 1933 in New York City. An old friend of mine taught it to me.

He turned to the fourteenth of John, and this is what he read: “In my father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also.” He explained to me that this central character of the Gospels was human imagination; that ‘mansion’ was not a place in some heavenly house, but simply my desire. If I would make a living representation of the state desired and then enter that state and abide in that state, I would realize it.

At the time I wanted to make a trip to the island of Barbados in the West Indies, but I had no money. He explained to me that if I would that night, as I slept in New York City, assume that I was sleeping in my earthly father’s house in Barbados and go sound asleep in that state, that I would realize my trip. Well, I took him at his word and tried it. For one month, night after night as I fell asleep I assumed I was sleeping in my father’s home in Barbados. At the end of my month an invitation from my family came inviting me to spend the winter in Barbados. I sailed for Barbados the early part of December of that year.

From then on I knew I had found this savior in myself. The old man told me that it would never fail. Even after it happened I could hardly believe that it would not have happened anyway. That’s how strange this whole thing is. On reflection, it happens so naturally you begin to feel or to tell yourself, “Well, it would have happened anyway,” and you quickly recover from this wonderful experience of yours.

It never failed me if I would give the mood, the imagined mood, sensory vividness. I could tell you unnumbered case histories to show you how it works, but in essence it is simple: You simply know what you want. When you know what you want, you are thinking of it. That is not enough. You must now begin to think FROM it. Well, how could I think from it? I am sitting here, and I desire to be elsewhere. How could I, while sitting here physically, put myself in imagination at a point in space removed from this room and make that real to me?

Quite easily. My imagination puts me in touch inwardly with that state. I imagine that I am actually where I desire to be. How can I tell that I am there? There is one way to prove that I am there, for what a man sees when he describes his world is, as he describes it, relative to himself. So what the world looks like depends entirely upon where I stand when I make my observation. So, if as I describe my world it is related to that point in space I imagine that I am occupying, then I must be there. I am not there physically, no, but I AM there in my imagination, and my imagination is my real self! And where I go in imagination and make it real, there I shall go in the flesh, also. When in that state I fall asleep, it is done. I have never seen it fail. So this is the simple technique upon how to use your imagination to realize your every objective.

Here is a very healthy and productive exercise for the imagination, something that you should do daily: Daily relive the day as you wish you had lived it, revising the scenes to make them conform to your ideals. For instance, suppose today’s mail brought disappointing news. Revise the letter. Mentally rewrite it and make it conform to the news you wish you had received. Or, suppose you didn’t get the letter you wish you had received. Write yourself the letter and imagine that you received such a letter.

Let me tell you a story that took place in New York not very long ago. In my audience sat this lady who had heard me, oh, numerous times, and I was telling the story of revision – that man, not knowing the power of imagination, he goes to sleep at the end of his day, tired and exhausted, accepting as final all the events of the day. And I was trying to show that man should, at that moment before he sleeps, he should rewrite the entire day and make it conform to the day he wished he had experienced.

Here is the way a lady wisely used this law of revision: It appears that two years ago she was ordered out of her daughter-in-law’s home. For two years there was no correspondence. She had sent her grandson at least two dozen presents in that interval, but not one was ever acknowledged. Having heard the story of revision, this is what she did: As she retired at night, she mentally constructed two letters, one she imagined coming from her grandson, and the other from her daughter-in-law. In these letters they expressed deep affection for her and wondered why she had not called to see them.

This she did for seven consecutive nights, holding in her imaginary hand the letter she imagined she had received and reading these letters over and over until it aroused within her the satisfaction of having heard. Then she slept. On the eighth day she received a letter from her daughter-in-law. On the inside there were two letters, one from her grandson and one from the daughter-in-law. They practically duplicated the imaginary letters that this grandmother had written to herself eight days before.

This art of revision can be used in any department of your life. Take the matter of health. Suppose you were ill. Bring before your mind’s eye the image of a friend. Put upon that face an expression which implies that he or she sees in you that which you want the whole world to see. Just imagine he is saying to you that he has never seen you look better, and you reply, “I have never felt better.”

Suppose your foot was injured. Then do this: Construct mentally a drama which implies that you are walking – that you are doing all the things that you would do if the foot was normal, and do it over and over and over until it takes on the tones of reality. Whenever you do in your imagination that which you would like to do in the outer world, that you WILL do in the outer world.

The one requisite is to arouse your attention in a way, and to such intensity, that you become wholly absorbed in the revised action. You will experience an expansion and refinement of the senses by this imaginative exercise and, eventually, achieve vision in the inner world. The abundant life promised us is ours to enjoy now, but not until we have the sense of the creator as our imagination can we experience it.

Persistent imagination, centered in the feeling of the wish fulfilled, is the secret of all successful operations. This alone is the means of fulfilling the intention.

Every stage of man’s progress is made by the conscious, voluntary exercise of the imagination. Then you will understand why all poets have stressed the importance of controlled, vivid imagination.

Listen to this one by the great William Blake:

“In your own bosom you bear your heaven and earth,

And all you behold, though it appears without,

It is within, in your imagination,

Of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.”

Try it, and you too will prove that your Imagination is the Creator.

MENTAL DIETS

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 1955

Talking to oneself is a habit everyone indulges in. We could no more stop talking to ourselves than we could stop eating and drinking. All that we can do is control the nature and the direction of our inner conversations. Most of us are totally unaware of the fact that our inner conversations are the causes of the circumstance of our life.

We are told that “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” But do we know that man’s thinking follows the tracks laid down in his own inner conversations? To turn the tracks to which he is tied in the direction in which he wants to go, he must put off his former conversation, which is called in the Bible the Old Man, and be renewed in the spirit of his mind. Speech is the image of mind; therefore, to change his mind, he must first change his speech. By ‘speech’ is meant those mental conversations we carry on with ourselves.

The world is a magic circle of infinite possible mental transformations. For there are an infinite number of possible mental conversations. When man discovers the creative power of inner talking, he will realize his function and his mission in life. Then he can act to a purpose. Without such knowledge, he acts unconsciously. Everything is a manifestation of the mental conversations which go on in us without our being aware of them. But as civilized beings, we must become aware of them and act with a purpose.

A man’s mental conversations attracts his life. As long as there is no change in his inner talking, the personal history of the man remains the same. To attempt to change the world before we change our inner talking is to struggle against the very nature of things. Man can go round and round in the same circle of disappointments and misfortunes, not seeing them as caused by his own negative inner talking, but as caused by others.

This may seem far-fetched, but it is a matter which lends itself to research and experiment. The formula the chemist illustrates is not more certainly provable than the formula of this science by which words are clothed in objective reality.

One day a girl told me of her difficulties in working with her employer. She was convinced that he unjustly criticized and rejected her very best efforts. Upon hearing her story, I explained that if she thought him unfair, it was a suresign that she herself was in need of a new conversation piece. There was no doubt but that she was mentally arguing with her employer, for others only echo that which we whisper to them in secret.

She confessed that she argued mentally with him all day long. When she realized what she had been doing, she agreed to change her inner conversations with her employer. She imagined that he had congratulated her on her fine work, and that she in turn had thanked him for his praise and kindness. To her great delight, she soon discovered that her own attitude was the cause of all that befell her. The behavior of her employer reversed itself. It echoed, as it had always done, her mental conversations with him.

I rarely see a person alone without wondering, “to what conversation piece is he tied? On what mysterious track is he walking?” We must begin to take life consciously. For the solution of all problems lies just in this: the Second Man, the Lord from heaven in all of us, is trying to become self-conscious in the body, that he may be about his father’s business. What are his labors? To imitate his father, to become master of the Word, master of his inner talking, that he may mold this world of ours into a likeness with the Kingdom of Love.

The prophet said, “Be ye imitators of God as dear children.” How would I imitate God? Well, we are told that God calls things that are not seen as though they were seen, and the unseen becomes seen. This is the way the girl called forth praise and kindness from her employer. She carried on an imaginary conversation with her employer from the premise that he had praised her work, and he did.

Our inner conversations represent in various ways the world we live in. Our individual worlds are self-revelations of our own inner speech. We are told that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof. For by their words they shall be justified, and by their words they shall be condemned.

We abandon ourselves to negative inner talking, yet expect to retain command of life. Our present mental conversations do not recede into the past as man believes. They advance into the future to confront us as wasted or invested words. “My Word,” said the prophet, “shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in all the things whereto I sent it.”

How would I send my Word to help a friend? I would imagine that I am hearing his voice, that he is physically present, that my hand is on him. I would then congratulate him on his good fortune, tell him that I have never seen him look better. I would listen as though I heard him; I would imagine that he is telling me he has never felt better, he has never been happier. And I would know that in this loving, knowing communion with another, a communion populous with loving thoughts and feelings, that my word was sent, and it shall not return unto me void, but it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

“Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.” It is only what is done now that counts, even though its effects may not be visible until tomorrow. We call, not out loud, but by an inner effort of intense attention; to listen attentively, as though you heard, is to create. The events and relationships of life are your Word made visible. Most of us rob others of their willingness and their ability to be kind and generous by our fixed attitudes towards them.

Our attitudes unfold within us in the form of mental conversations. Inner talking from premises of fulfilled desire is the way to consciously create circumstances.

Our inner conversations are perpetually out-pictured all around us in happenings. Therefore, what we desire to see and hear without we must see and hear within, for the whole manifested world goes to show us what use we have made of the Word.

If you practice this art of controlled inner speaking, you too will know what a thrill it is to be able to say, “And now I have told you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, ye might believe.” You will be able to consciously use your imagination to transform and channel the immense creative energies of your inner speech from the mental, emotional level to the physical level. And I do not know what limits, if any, there are to such a process.

What is your aim? Does your inner talking match it? It must, you know, if you would realize your aim. For as the prophet asked, “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” And of course the answer is, “No, they cannot.” The two who must agree are your inner conversation and the state desired. That is, what you desire to see and hear without, you must see and hear within.

Every stage of man’s progress is made by the conscious exercise of his imagination matching his inner speech to his fulfilled desire. As we control our inner talking, matching it to our fulfilled desires, we can lay aside all other processes. Then we simply act by clear imagination and intention: we imagine the wish fulfilled and carry on mental conversations from that premise. The right inner speech is the speech that would be yours were you to realize your ideal. In other words, it is the speech of fulfilled desire.

Now you will understand how wise the ancient was when he told us in the Hermetica, “There are two gifts which God has bestowed upon man alone and on no other mortal creature. These two are Mind and Speech, and the gift of Mind and Speech is equivalent to that of immortality. If a man uses these two gifts rightly, he will differ in nothing from the Immortals. And when he quits his body, Mind and Speech will be his guides, and by them he will be brought into the troop of the gods and the souls that have attained to bliss.”

With the gift of Mind and Speech you create the conditions and circumstances of life. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word, said Hermes, is Son, and Mind is Father of the Word. They are not separate one from the other, for life is the union of Word and Mind. You and your inner talking, or Word, are one. If your mind is one with your inner conversations, then to be transformed in mind is to be transformed in conversation.

It was a flash of the deepest insight that taught Paul to write:

“Put off the former conversation, the Old Man which is corrupt, and be renewed

in the spirit of your mind. Put on the New Man.” “Put on the New Man,” and “be

renewed in the spirit of your mind,” is to change your inner conversation, for

speech and mind are one – a change of speech is a change of mind.

The prophet Samuel said, “The Lord spake by me, and his Word was in my tongue.” If the Lord’s Word was in the prophet’s tongue, then the Lord’s mouth that uttered the Word must be the prophet’s mind, for inner conversations originate in the mind and produce little tiny speech movements in the tongue. The prophet is telling us that the mouth of God is the mind of man, that our inner conversations are the Word of God creating life about us as we create it within ourselves.

In the Bible you are told that the Word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.

“See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil, blessings and cursings. Choose life.”

The conditions and circumstances of life are not created by some power external to yourself; they are the conditions which result from the exercise of your freedom of choice, your freedom to choose the ideas to which you will respond.

Now is the accepted time. This is the day of salvation. Whatsoever things are of good report, think on these things. For your future will be formed by the Word of God which is your present inner talking. You create your future by your inner conversations. The worlds were framed by the Word of God, that is, your inner talking.

See yonder fields? The sesamum was sesamum, the corn was corn. The silence and the darkness knew! So is a man’s fate born. (The Light of Asia)

For ends run true to origins. If you would reap success, you must plant success. The idea in your mind which starts the whole process going is the idea which you accept as truth. This is a very important point to grasp, for truth depends upon the intensity of imagination, not upon “facts.” When the girl imagined that her employer was unfair, his behavior confirmed her imagination. When she changed her assumption of him, his behavior reflected the change, proving that an assumption, though false, if persisted in will harden into fact.

The mind always behaves according to the assumption with which it starts. Therefore, to experience success, we must assume that we are successful. We must live wholly on the level of the imagination itself, and it must be consciously and deliberately undertaken. It does not matter if at the present moment external facts deny the truth of your assumption, if you persist in your assumption it will become a fact.

Signs follow, they do not precede.

To assume a new concept of yourself is to that extent to change your inner talking or Word of God and is, therefore, putting on the New Man. Our inner talking, though unheard by others, is more productive of future conditions than all the audible promises and threats of men. Your ideal is waiting to be incarnated, but unless you yourself offer it human parentage it is incapable of birth. You must define the person you wish to be and then assume the feeling of your wish fulfilled in faith that that assumption will find expression through you.

The true test of religion is in its use, but men have made it a thing to defend. It is to you that the words are spoken, “Blessed is she that believed, for there shall be an accomplishment of those things which were spoken unto her from the Lord.”

Test it. Try it. Conceive yourself to be one that you want to be and remain faithful to that conception, for life here is only a training ground for image making. Try it and see if life will not shape itself on the model of your imagination.

Everything in the world bears witness of the use or misuse of man’s inner talking. Negative inner talking, particularly evil and envious inner talking, are the breeding ground of the future battlefields and penitentiaries of the world. Through habit man has developed the secret affection for these negative inner conversations. Through them he justifies failure, criticizes his neighbors, gloats over the distress of others, and in general pours out his venom on all. Such misuse of the Word perpetuates the violence of the world.

The transformation of self requires that we meditate on a given phrase, a phrase which implies that our ideal is realized, and inwardly affirm it over and over and over again until we are inwardly affected by its implication, until we are possessed by it. Hold fast to your noble inner convictions or “conversations.”

Nothing can take them from you but yourself. Nothing can stop them from becoming objective facts. All things are generated out of your imagination by the Word of God, which is your own inner conversation. And every imagination reaps its own Words which it has inwardly spoken.

The great secret of success is a controlled inner conversation from premises of fulfilled desire. The only price you pay for success is the giving up of your former conversation which belongs to the Old Man, the unsuccessful man. The time is ripe for many of us to take conscious charge in creating heaven on earth. To consciously and voluntarily use our imagination, to inwardly hear and only say that which is in harmony with our ideal, is actively bringing heaven to earth.

Every time we exercise our imagination lovingly on behalf of another, we are literally mediating God to that one. Always use your imagination masterfully, as a participant, not an onlooker. In using your imagination to transform energy from the mental, emotional level to physical level, extend your senses – look and imagine that you are seeing what you want to see, that you are hearing what you want to hear, and touching what you want to touch. Become intensely aware of doing so. Give your imaginary state all the tones and feeling of reality. Keep on doing so until you arouse within yourself the mood of accomplishment and the feeling of relief.

This is the active, voluntary use of the imagination as distinguished from the passive, involuntary acceptance of appearances. It is by this active, voluntary use of the imagination that the Second Man, the Lord from heaven, is awakened in man.

Men call imagination a plaything, the “dream faculty.” But actually it is the very gateway of reality.

Imagination is the way to the state desired, it is the truth of the state desired, and the life of that state desired. Could you realize this fully, then would you know that what you do in your imagination is the only important thing. Within the circle of our imagination the whole drama of life is being enacted over and over again. Through the bold and active use of the imagination we can stretch out our hand and touch a friend ten thousand miles away and bring health and wealth to the parched lips of his being. It is the way to everything in the world. How else could we function beyond our fleshly limitations? But imagination demands of us a fuller living of our dreams in the present.

Through the portals of the present the whole of time must pass. Imagine elsewhere as here, and then as now. Try it and see. You can always tell if you have succeeded in making the future dream a present fact by observing your inner talking. If you are inwardly saying what you would audibly say were you physically present and physically moving about in that place, then you have succeeded. And you could prophesy it from these inner conversations, and from the moods which they awaken within you, what your future will be.

For one power alone makes a prophet – ‘imagination’, the divine vision. All that we meet is our Word made visible. And what we do not now comprehend is related by affinity to the unrecognized forces of our own inner conversations and the moods which they arouse within us.

If we do not like what is happening to us, it is a sure sign that we are in need of a change of mental diet. For man, we are told, lives not by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And having discovered the mouth of God to be the mind of man, a mind which lives on Words or inner talking, we should feed into our minds only loving, noble thoughts. For with Words or inner talking we build our world.

Let love’s lordly hand raise your hunger and thirst to all that is noble and of good report, and let your mind starve e’er you raise your hand to a cup love did not fill or a bowl love did not bless. That you may never again have to say,

“What have I said? What have I done, O All Powerful Human Word?”

CONSCIOUSNESS IS THE ONLY REALITY

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard Lesson 1

This is going to be a very practical Course. Therefore, I hope that everyone in this class has a very clear picture of what he desires, for I am convinced that you can realize your desires by the technique you will receive here this week in these five lessons.

That you may receive the full benefit of these instructions, let me state now that the Bible has no reference at all to any persons who ever existed or to any event that ever occurred upon earth.

The ancient story tellers were not writing history but an allegorical picture lesson of certain basic principles which they clothed in the garb of history, and they adapted these stories to the limited capacity of a most uncritical and credulous people.

Throughout the centuries we have mistakenly taken personifications for persons, allegory for history, the vehicle that conveyed the instruction for the instruction, and the gross first sense for the ultimate sense intended.

The difference between the form of the Bible and its substance is as great as the difference between a grain of corn and the life germ within that grain. As our assimilative organs discriminate between food that can be built into our system and food that must be discarded, so do our awakened intuitive faculties discover beneath allegory and parable, the psychological life-germ of the Bible; and, feeding on this, we, too, cast off the form which conveyed the message.

The argument against the historicity of the Bible is too lengthy; consequently, it is not suitable for inclusion in this practical psychological interpretation of its stories. Therefore, I will waste no time in trying to convince you that the Bible is not an historical fact.

Tonight I will take four stories and show you what the ancient story-tellers intended that you and I should see in these stories. The ancient teachers attached psychological truths to

phallic and solar allegories. They did not know as much of the physical structure of man as do modern scientists, neither did they know as much about the heavens as do our modern astronomers. But the little they did know they used wisely and they built phallic and solar frames to which they tied the great psychological truths that they had discovered.

In the Old Testament you will find much of the Phallic worship. Because it is not helpful, I am not going to emphasize it. I shall only show you how to interpret it.

Before we come to the first of the psychological dramas that you and I may use in a practical sense, let me state the two outstanding names of the Bible: the one you and I translate as GOD or JEHOVAH, and the one we call his son, which we have as JESUS.

The ancients spelled these names by using little symbols. The ancient tongue, called the Hebraic language, was not a tongue that you exploded with the breath. It was a mystical language never uttered by man. Those who understood it, understood it as rnathematicians understand symbols of higher mathematics. It is not something people used to convey thought as I now use the English language.

They said that God’s name was spelled, JOD HE VAU HE. I shall take these symbols and in our normal, down to earth language, explain them in this manner.

The first letter, JOD in the name GOD is a hand or a seed, not just a hand, but the hand of the director. If there is one organ of man that discriminates and sets him apart from the entire world of creation it is his hand. What we call a hand in the anthropoid ape is not a hand. It is used only for the purpose of conveying food to the mouth, or to swing from branch to branch. Man’s hand fashions, it molds. You cannot really express yourself without the hand. This is the builder’s hand, the hand of the director; it directs, and molds, and builds within your world.

The ancient story-tellers called the first letter JOD, the hand, or the absolute seed out of which the whole of creation will come.

To the second letter, HE, they gave the symbol of a window. A window is an eye — the window is to the house what the eye is to the body.

The third letter, VAU, they called a nail. A nail is used for the purpose of binding things together. The conjunction “and” in the Hebraic tongue is simply the third letter, or VAU. If I want to say ‘man and woman’, I put the VAU in the middle, it binds them together.

The fourth and last letter, HE, is another window or eye.

In this modern, down to earth language of ours, you can forget eyes and windows and hands and look at it in this manner. You are seated here now. This first letter, JOD, is your I AMness, your awareness. You are aware of being aware — that is the first letter. Out of this awareness all states of awareness come.

The second letter, HE, called an eye, is your imagination, your ability to perceive. You imagine or perceive something which seems to be other than Self. As though you were lost in reverie and contemplated mental states in a detached manner, making the thinker and his thoughts separate entities.

The third letter, VAU, is your ability to feel you are that which you desire to be. As you feel you are it, you become aware of being it. To walk as though you were what you want to be is to take your desire out of the imaginary world and put the VAU upon it. You have completed the drama of creation. I am aware of something. Then I become aware of actually being that of which I was aware.

The fourth and last letter in the name of God is another HE, another eye, meaning the visible objective world which constantly bears witness of that which I am conscious of being. You do nothing about the objective world; it always molds itself in harmony with that which you are conscious of being

You are told this is the name by which all things are made, and without it there is nothing made that is made. The name is simply what you have now as you are seated here. You are conscious of being, aren’t you? Certainly you are. You are also conscious of something that is other than yourself: the room, the furniture, the people.

You may become selective now. Maybe you do not want to be other than what you are, or to own what you see. But you have the capacity to feel what it would be like were you now other than what you are. As you assume that you are that which you
want to be, you have completed the name of God or the JOD HE VAU HE. The final result, the objectification of your assumption, is not your concern. It will come into View automatically as you assume the consciousness of being it.

Now let us turn to the Son’s name, for he gives the Son dominion over the world. You are that Son, you are the great Joshua, or Jesus, of the Bible. You know the name Joshua or Jehoshua we have Anglicized as Jesus.

The Son’s name is almost like the Father’s name. The first three letters of the Father’s name are the first three letters of the Son’s name, JOD HE VAU, then you add a SHIN and an AYIN, making the Son’s name read, JOD HE VAU SHIN AYIN’.

You have heard what the first three are: JOD HE VAU. JOD means that you are aware; HE means that you are aware of something; and VAU means that you became aware of being that of which you were aware. You have dominion because you have the ability to conceive and to become that which you conceive. That is the power of creation.

But why is a SHIN put in the name of the Son? Because of the infinite mercy of our Father. Mind you, the Father and the Son are one. But when the Father becomes conscious of being man he puts within the condition called man that which he did not give unto himself. He puts a SHIN for this purpose; a SHIN is symbolized as a tooth.

A tooth is that which consumes, that which devours. I must have within me the power to consume that which I now dislike. I, in my ignorance, brought to birth certain things I now dislike and would like to leave behind me. Were there not within me the flames that would consume it, I would be condemned forever to live in a world of all my mistakes. But there is a SHIN, or flame, within the name of the Son, which allows that Son to become detached from states He formerly expressed within the world. Man is incapable of seeing other than the contents of his own consciousness.

If I now become detached in consciousness from this room by turning my attention away from it, then, I am no longer conscious of it. There is something in me that devours it within me. It can only live within my objective world if I keep it alive within my consciousness.

It is the SHIN, or a tooth, in the Son’s name that gives him absolute dominion. Why could it not have been in the Father’s name? For this simple reason: Nothing can cease to be in the Father. Even the unlovely things cannot cease to be. If I once give it expression, forever and ever it remains locked within the dimensionally greater Self which is the Father. But I would not like to keep alive within my world all of my mistakes. So I, in my infinite mercy gave to myself, when I became man, the power to become detached from these things that I, in my ignorance, brought to birth in my world..

These are the two names which give you dominion. You have dominion if, as you walk the earth, you know that your consciousness is God, the one and only reality. You become aware of something you would like to express or possess. You have the ability to feel that you are and possess that which but a moment before was imaginary. The final result, the embodying of your assumption, is completely outside of the offices of a three-dimensional mind. It comes to birth in a way that no man knows.

If these two names are clear in your mind’s eye, you will see that they are your eternal names. As you sit here, you are this JOD HE VAU HE; you are the JOD HE VAU SHIN AYIN.

The stories of the Bible concern themselves exclusively with the power of imagination. They are really dramatizations of the technique of prayer, for prayer is the secret of changing the future. The Bible reveals the key by which man enters a dimensionally larger world for the purpose of changing the conditions of the lesser world in which he lives.

A prayer granted implies that something is done in consequence of the prayer, which otherwise would not have been done. Therefore, man is the spring of action, the directing mind, and the one who grants the prayer.

The stories of the Bible contain a powerful challenge to the thinking capacity of man. The underlying truth — that they are psychological dramas and not historical facts — demands reiteration, inasmuch as it is the only justification for the stories. With a little imagination we may easily trace the psychological sense in all the stories of the Bible.

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him” Gen. 1:26, 27.

Here in the first chapter of the Bible the ancient teachers laid the foundation that God and man are one, and that man has dominion over all the earth. If God and man are one, then God can never be so far off as even to be near, for nearness implies separation.

The question arises: What is God? God is man’s consciousness, his awareness, his I AMness. The drama of life is a psychological one in which we bring circumstances to pass by our attitudes rather than by our acts. The corner-stone on which all things are based is mans concept of himself. He acts as he does, and has the experiences that he does, because his concept of himself is what it is, and for no other reason. Had he a different concept of himself, he would act differently and have different experiences.

Man, by assuming the feeling of his wish fulfilled, alters his future in harmony with his assumption, for, assumptions though false, if sustained, will harden into fact.

The undisciplined mind finds it difficult to assume a state which is denied by the senses. But the ancient teachers discovered that sleep, or a state akin to sleep, aided man in making his assumption. Therefore, they dramatized the first creative act of man as one in which man was in a profound sleep. This not only sets the pattern for all future creative acts, but shows us that man has but one substance that is truly his to use in creating his world and that is himself.

“And the Lord God (man) caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman.” Gen. 2: 21, 22.

Before God fashions this woman for man he brings unto Adam the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air and has Adam name them. “Whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.”

If you will take a concordance or a Bible dictionary and look up the word thigh as used in this story you will see that it has nothing to do with the thigh. It is defined as the soft parts that are creative in a man, that hang upon the thigh of a man.

The ancient story-tellers used this phallic frame to reveal a great psychological truth. An angel is a messenger of God. You are God, as you have just discovered for your consciousness is God, and you have an idea, a message. You are wrestling with an idea, for you do not know that you are already that which you contemplate, neither do you believe you could become it. You would like to, but you do not believe you could.

Who wrestles with the angel? Jacob. And the word Jacob, by definition, means the supplanter.
You would like to transform yourself and become that which reason and your senses deny. As you wrestle with your ideal, trying to feel that you are it, this is what happens. When you actually feel that you are it, something goes out of you. You may use the words, “Who has touched me, for I perceive virtue has gone out of me? ”

You become for a moment, after a successful meditation, incapable of continuing in the act, as though it were a physical creative act. You are just as impotent after you have prayed successfully as you are after the physical creative act. When satisfaction is yours, you no longer hunger for it. If the hunger persists you did not explode the idea within you, you did not actually succeed in becoming conscious of being that which you wanted to be. There was still that thirst when you came out of the deep.

If I can feel that I am that which but a few seconds ago I knew I was not, but desired to be, then I am no longer hungry to be it. I am no longer thirsty because I feel satisfied in that state. Then something shrinks within me, not physically but in my feeling, in my consciousness, for that is the creativeness of man. He so shrinks in desire, he loses the desire to continue in this meditation. He does not halt physically, he simply has no desire to continue the meditative act.

“When you pray believe that you have received, and you shall receive.” When the physical creative act is completed, the sinew which is upon the hollow of man’s thigh shrinks, and man finds himself impotent or is halted. In like manner when a man prays successfully he believes that he is already that which he desired to be, therefore he cannot continue desiring to be that which he is already conscious of being. At the moment of satisfaction, physical and psychological, something goes out which in time bears witness to man’s creative power.

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Our next. story is in the 38th chapter of the book of Genesis. Here is a King whose name is ]udah, the first three letters of whose name also begins JOD HE VAU. Tamar is his daughter-in-law.

The word Tamar means a palm tree or the most beautiful, the most comely. She is gracious and beautiful to look on and is called a palm tree. A tall, stately palm tree blossoms even in the desert — wherever it is there is an oasis. When you see the palm tree in the desert, there will be found what you seek most in that parched land. There is nothing more desirable to a man moving across a desert than the sight of a palm tree.

In our case, to be practical, our objective is the palm tree. That is the stately, beautiful one that we seek. Whatever it is that you and I want, what we truly desire, is personified in the story as Tamar the beautiful.

We are told she dresses herself in the veils of a harlot and sits in the public place. Her father-in-law, King Judah, comes by; and he is so in love with this one who is veiled that he offers her a kid to be intimate with her.

She said, “What will you give me as a pledge that you will give me a kid? ”

Looking around he said, “What do you want me to give as a pledge? ”

She answered, “Give me your ring, give me your bracelets, and give me your staff. ”

Whereupon, he took from his hand the ring, and the bracelet, and gave them to her along with his sceptre. And he went in unto her and knew her, and she bore him a son.

That is the story; now for the interpretation. Man has one gift that is truly his to give, and that is himself. He has no other gift, as told you in the very first creative act of Adam begetting the woman out of himself. There was no other substance in the world but himself with which he could fashion the object of his desire. In like manner Judah had but one gift that was truly his to give — himself, as the ring, the bracelets and the staff symbolized, for these were the symbols of his kingship.

Man offers that which is not himself, but life demands that he give the one thing that symbolizes himself. “Give me your ring, give me your bracelet, give me your sceptre.” These make the King. When he gives them he gives of himself.

You are the great King Judah. Before you can know your Tamar and make her bear your likeness in the world, you must go in unto her and give of self. Suppose I want security. I cannot get it by knowing people who have it. I cannot get it by pulling strings. I must become conscious of being secure.

Let us say I want to be healthy. Pills will not do it. Diet or climate will not do it. I must become conscious of being healthy by assuming the feeling of being healthy.

Perhaps I want to be lifted up in this world. Merely looking at kings and presidents and noble people and living in their reflection will not make me dignified. I must become conscious of being noble and dignified and walk as though I were that which I now want to be.

When I walk in that light I give of myself to the image that haunted my mind, and in time she bears me a child; which means I objectify a world in harmony with that which I am conscious of being.

You are King Judah and you are also Tamar. When you become conscious of being that which you want to be you are Tamar. Then you crystallize your desire within the world round about you.

No matter what stories you read in the Bible, no matter how many characters these ancient story-tellers introduced into the drama, there is one thing you and I must always bear in mind — they all take place within the mind of the individual man. All the characters live in the mind of the individual man.

As you read the story, make it fit the pattern of self. Know that your consciousness is the only reality. Then know what you want to be. Then assume the feeling of being that which you want to be, and remain faithful to your assumption, living and acting on your conviction. Always make it fit that pattern.

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Our third interpretation is the story of Isaac and his two sons: Esau and Jacob. The picture is drawn of a blind man being deceived by his second son into giving him the blessing which belonged to his first son. The story stresses the point that the deception was accomplished through the sense of touch.

“And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him…. And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.” Gen. 27:21, 30.

This story can be very helpful if you will re-enact it now. Again bear in mind that all the characters of the Bible are personifications of abstract ideas and must be fulfilled in the individual man. You are the blind father and both sons.

Isaac is old and blind, and sensing the approach of death, calls his first son Esau a rough hairy boy, and sends him into the woods that he may bring in some venison.

The second son, Jacob, a smooth skin boy, overheard the request of his father. Desiring the birthright of his brother , Jacob, the smooth skinned son, slaughtered one of his father’s flock and skinned it. Then, dressed in the hairy skins of the kid he had slaughtered, he came through subtlety and betrayed his father into believing that he was Esau.

The father said, “Come close my son that I may feel you. I cannot see, but come that I may feel.” Note the stress that is placed upon feeling in this story.

He came close and the father said to him, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” And feeling this roughness, the reality of the son Esau, he pronounced the blessing and gave it to Jacob.

You are told in the story that as Isaac pronounced the blessing and Jacob had scarcely gone out from his presence, that his brother Esau came in from his hunting.

This is an important verse. Do not become distressed in our practical approach to it, for as you sit here you, too, are Isaac. This room in which you are seated is your present Esau. This is the rough or sensibly known world, known by reason of your bodily organs. All of your senses bear witness to the fact that you are here in this room. Everything tells you that you are here, but perhaps you do not want to be here.

You can apply this toward any objective. The room in which you are seated at any time — the environment in which you are placed, this is your rough or sensibly known world or son which is personified in the story as Esau. What you would like in place of what you have or are is your smooth skinned state or Jacob, the supplanter.

You do not send your visible world hunting, as so many people do, by denial. By saying it does not exist you make it all the more real. Instead, you simply remove your attention from the region of sensation which at this moment is the room round about you, and you concentrate your attention on that which you want to put in its place, that which you want to make real.

In concentrating on your objective, the secret is to bring it here. You must make elsewhere here and then now imagine that your objective is so close that you can feel it.

Suppose at this very moment I want a piano here in this room. To see a piano in my mind’s eye existing elsewhere does not do it. But to visualize it in this room as though it were here and to put my mental hand upon the piano and to feel it solidly real, is to take that subjective state personified as my second son Jacob and bring it so close that I can feel it.

Isaac is called a blind man. You are blind because you do not see your objective with your bodily organs, you cannot see it with your objective senses. You only perceive it with your mind, but you bring it so close that you can feel it as though it were solidly real now. When this is done and you lose yourself in its reality and feel it to be real, open your eyes.

When you open your eyes what happens? The room that you had shut out but a moment ago returns from the hunt. You no sooner gave the blessing — felt the imaginary state to be real — than the objective world, which seemingly was unreal, returns. It does not speak to you with words as recorded of Esau, but the very room round about you tells you by its presence that you have been self-deceived.

It tells you that when you lost yourself in contemplation, feeling that you were now what you wanted to be, feeling that you now possess what you desire to possess, that you were simply deceiving self. Look at this room. It denies that you are elsewhere.

If you know the law, you now say: “Even though your brother came through subtlety and betrayed me and took your birthright, I gave him your blessing and I cannot retract.”

In other words, you remain faithful to this subjective reality and you do not take back from it the power of birth. You gave it the right of birth and it is going to become objective within this world of yours. There is no room in this limited space of yours for two things to occupy the same space at the same time. By making the subjective real it resurrects itself within your world.

Take the idea that you want to embody, and assume that you are already it. Lose yourself in feeling this assumption is solidly real. As you give it this sense of reality, you have given it the blessing which belongs to the objective world, and you do not have to aid its birth any more than you have to aid the birth of a child or a seed you plant in the ground. The seed you plant grows unaided by a man, for it contains within itself all the power and all the plans necessary for self-expression.

You can this night re-enact the drama of Isaac blessing his second son and see what happens in the immediate future in your world. Your present environment vanishes, all the circumstances of life change and make way for the coming of that to which you have given your life. As you walk, knowing that you are what you wanted to be, you objectify it without the assistance of another.

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The fourth story for tonight is taken from the last of the books attributed to Moses. If you need proof that Moses did not write it, read the story carefully. It is found in the 34th chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. Ask any priest or rabbi, ‘who is the author of this book?’, and they will tell you that Moses wrote it.

In the 34th chapter of Deuteronomy you will read of a man writing his own obituary , that is, Moses wrote this chapter. A man may sit down and write what he would like to have placed upon his tombstone, but here is a man who writes his own obituary. And then he dies and so completely rubs himself out that he defies posterity to find where he has buried himself.

“So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-poer: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.” Deut. 34:5, 6,7.

You must this night — not tomorrow — learn the technique of writing your own obituary and so completely die to what you are that no man in this world can tell you where you buried the old man. If you are now ill and you become well, and I know you by reason of the fact that you are ill, where can you point and tell me you buried the sick one?

If you are impoverished and borrow from every friend you have, and then suddenly you roll in wealth, where did you bury the poor man? You so completely rub out poverty in your mind’s eye that there is nothing in this world you can point to and claim, that is where I left it. A complete transformation
of consciousness rubs out all evidence that anything other than this ever existed in the world.

The most beautiful technique for the realizing of man’s objective is given in the first verse of the 34th chapter of Deuteronomy:

“And Moses went up from the Plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the Lord shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan.

You read that verse and say, “So what? ” But take a concordance and look up the words. The first word, Moses, means to draw out, to rescue, to lift out, to fetch. In other words, Moses is the personification of the power in man that can draw out of man that which he seeks, for everything comes from within, not from without. You draw from within yourself that which you now want to express as something objective to yourself.

You are Moses coming out of the plains of Moab. The word Moab is a contraction of two Hebraic words, Mem and Ab, meaning mother-father. Your consciousness is the mother-father , there is no other cause in the world. Your I AMness, your awareness, is this Moab or mother-father. You are always drawing something out of it.

The next word is Nebo. In your concordance Nebo is defined as a prophecy. A prophecy is something subjective. If I say, “So-and-so will be, ” it is an image in the mind; it is not yet a fact. We must wait and either prove or disprove this prophecy.

In our language Nebo is your wish, your desire. It is called a mountain because it is something that appears difficult to ascend and is therefore seemingly impossible of realization. A mountain is something bigger than you are, it towers over you. Nebo personifies that which you want to be in contrast to that which you are.

The word Pisgah, by definition, is to contemplate. Jericho is a fragrant odor. And Gilead means the hills of witnesses. The last word is Dan the Prophet.

Now put them all together in a practical sense and see what the ancients tried to tell us. As I stand here, having discovered that my consciousness is God, and that I can by simply feeling that I am what I want to be transform myself into the likeness of that which I am assuming I am; I know now that I am all that it takes to scale this mountain.

I define my objective. I do not call it Nebo, I call it my desire. Whatever I want, that is my Nebo, that is my great mountain that I am going to scale. I now begin to contemplate it, for I shall climb to the peak of Pisgah.

I must contemplate my objective in such a manner that I get the reaction that satisfies. lf I do not get the reaction that pleases then Jericho is not seen, for Jericho is a fragrant odor. When I feel that I am what I want to be I cannot suppress the joy that comes with that feeling.

I must always contemplate my objective until I get the feeling of satisfaction personified as Jericho. Then I do nothing to make it visible in my world; for the hills of Gilead, meaning men, women, children, the whole vast world round about me, come bearing witness. They come to testify that I am what I have assumed myself to be, and am sustaining within myself. When my world conforms to my assumption the prophecy is fulfilled.

If I now know what I want to be, and assume that I am it, and walk as though I were, I become it and becoming it I so completely die to my former concept of self that I cannot point to any place in this world and say: that is where my former self is buried. I so completely died that I defy posterity to ever find where I buried my old self.

There must be someone in this room who will so completely transform himself in this world that his close immediate circle of friends will not recognize him.

For ten years I was a dancer, dancing in Broadway shows, in vaudeville, night clubs, and in Europe. There was a time in my life when I thought I could not live without certain friends in my world. I would spread a table every night after the theatre and we would all dine well. I thought I could never live without them. Now I confess I could not live with them. We have nothing in common today. When we meet we do not purposely walk on the opposite side of the street, but it is almost a cold meeting because we have nothing to discuss. I so died to that life that as I meet these people they cannot even talk of the old times.

But there are people living today who are still living in that state, getting poorer and poorer. They always like to talk about the old times. They never buried that man at all, he is very much alive within their world.

Moses was 120 years, a full, wonderful age as 120 indicates. One plus two plus zero equals three, the numerical symbol of expression. I am fully conscious of my expression. My eyes are undimmed and the natural functions of my body are not abated. I am fully conscious of being what I do not want to be.

But knowing this law by which a man transforms himself, I assume that I am what I want to be and walk in the assumption that it is done. In becoming it, the old man dies and all that was related to that former concept of self dies with it. You cannot take any part of the old man into the new man. You cannot put new wine in old bottles or new patches on old garments. You must be a new being completely.

As you assume that you are what you want to be, you do not need the assistance of another to make it so. Neither do you need the assistance of anyone to bury the old man for you. Let the dead bury the dead. Do not even look back, for no man having put his hand to the plow and then looking back is fit for the kingdom of heaven.

Do not ask yourself how this thing is going to be. It does not matter if your reason denies it. It does not matter if all the world round about you denies it. You do not have to bury the old. “Let the dead bury the dead.” You will so bury the past by remaining faithful to your new concept of Self that you will defy the whole vast future to find where you buried it. To this day no man in all of Israel has discovered the sepulchre of Moses.

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These are the four stories I promised you tonight. You must apply them every day of your life. Even though the chair on which you are now seated seems hard and does not lend itself to meditation you can, by imagination, make it the most comfortable chair in the world.

Let me now define the technique as I want you to employ it. I trust each one of you came here tonight with a clear picture of your desire. Do not say it is impossible. Do you want it? You do not have to use your moral code to realize it. It is altogether outside the reach of your code.

Consciousness is the one and only reality. Therefore, we must form the object of our desire out of our own consciousness.

People have a habit of slighting the importance of simple things, and the suggestion to create a state akin to sleep in order to aid you in assuming that which reason and your senses
deny, is one of the simple things you might slight.

However, this simple formula for changing the future, which was discovered by the ancient teachers and given to us in the Bible, can be proved by all.

The first step in changing the future is Desire, that is, define your objective — know definitely what you want.

Second: construct an event which you believe you would encounter FOLLOWING the fulfillment of your desire – an event which implies fulfillment of your desire – something which will have the action of Self predominant.

The third step is to immobilize the physical body and induce a state akin to sleep. Then mentally feel yourself right into the proposed action, imagine all the while that you are actually performing the action HERE AND NOW. You must participate in the imaginary action, not merely stand back and look on, but FEEL that you are actually performing the action, so that the imaginary sensation is real to you.

It is important always to remember that the proposed action must be one which FOLLOWS the fulfillment of your desire, one which implies fulfillment. For example, suppose you desired promotion in office. Then being congratulated would be an event you would encounter following the fulfillment of your desire.

Having selected this action as the one you will experience in imagination to imply promotion in office, immobilize your physical body and induce a state bordering on sleep, a drowsy state, but one in which you are still able to control the direction of your thoughts, a state in which you are attentive without effort. Then visualize a friend standing before you.
Put your imaginary hand into his. Feel it to be solid and real, and carry on an imaginary conversation with him in harmony with the FEELING OF HAVING BEEN PROMOTED.

You do not visualize yourself at a distance in point of space and at a distance in point of time being congratulated on your good fortune. Instead, you MAKE elsewhere HERE and the future NOW. The difference between FEELING yourself in action, here and now , and visualizing yourself in action, as though you were on a motion-picture screen, is the difference between success and failure.

The difference will be appreciated if you will now visualize yourself climbing a ladder. Then, with eyelids closed imagine that a ladder is right in front of you and FEEL YOURSELF ACTUALLY CLIMBING IT.

Experience has taught me to restrict the imaginary action which implies fulfillment of the desire, to condense the idea into a single act, and to re-enact it over and over again until it has the feeling of reality. Otherwise, your attention will wander off along an associational track, and hosts of associated images will be presented to your attention, and in a few seconds they will lead you hundreds of miles away from your objective in point of space and years away in point of time.

If you decide to climb a particular flight of stairs, because that is the likely event to follow the fulfillment of your desire, then you must restrict the action to climbing that particular flight of stairs. Should your attention wander off, bring it back to its task of climbing that flight of stairs, and keep on doing so until the imaginary action has all the solidity and distinctness of reality.

The idea must be maintained in the mind without any sensible effort on your part. You must, with the minimum of effort permeate the mind with the feeling of the wish fulfilled.

Drowsiness facilitates change because it favors attention without effort, but it must not be pushed to the state of sleep in which you no longer are able to control the movements of your attention. But a moderate degree of drowsiness in which you are still able to direct your thoughts.

A most effective way to embody a desire is to assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled and then, in a relaxed and drowsy state, repeat over and over again like a lullaby, any short phrase which implies fulfillment of your desire, such as, “Thank you, thank you, thank you” as though you addressed a higher power for having given you that which you desired.

I know that when this course comes to an end on Friday many of you here will be able to tell me you have realized your objectives. Two weeks ago I left the platform and went to the door to shake hands with the audience. I am safe in saying that at least 35 out of a class of 135 told me that which they desired when they joined this class they had already realized.
This happened only two weeks ago. I did nothing to bring it to pass save to give them this technique of prayer. You need do nothing to bring it to pass – save apply this technique of prayer.

With your eyes closed and your physical body immobilized induce a state akin to sleep and enter into the action as though you were an actor playing the part. Experience in imagination what you would experience in the flesh were you now in possession of your objective. Make elsewhere HERE and then NOW. And the greater you, using a larger focus will use all means, and call them good, which tend toward the production of that which you have assumed.

You are relieved of all responsibility to make it so, because as you imagine and feel that it is so your dimensionally larger self determines the means. Do not think for one moment that some one is going to be injured in order to make it so, or that some one is going to be disappointed. It is still not your concern. I must drive this home. Too many of us, schooled in different walks of life, are so concerned about the other.

You ask, , ‘If I get what I want will it not imply injury to another?’ There are ways you know not of, so do not be concerned.

Close your eyes now because we are going to be in a long silence. Soon you will become so lost in contemplation, feeling that you are what you want to be, that you will be totally unconscious of the fact that you are in this room with others.

You will receive a shock when you open your eyes and discover we are here. It should be a shock when you open your eyes and discover that you are not actually that which, a moment before, you felt you were, or felt you possessed. Now we will go into the deep.

SILENCE PERIOD………

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I need not remind you that you are now that which you have assumed that you are. Do not discuss it with anyone, not even self. You cannot take thought as to the HOW, when you know that you ARE already.

Your three-dimensional reasoning, which is a very limited reasoning indeed should not be brought into this drama. It does not know. What you have just felt to be true is true.

Let no man tell you that you should not have it. What you feel that you have, you will have. And I promise you this much, after you have realized your objective, on reflection you will have to admit that this conscious reasoning mind of yours could never have devised the way.

You are that and have that which this very moment you appropriated. Do not discuss it. Do not look to someone for encouragement because the thing might not come. It has come. Go about your Father’s business doing everything normally and let these things happen in your world.

ASSUMPTIONS HARDEN INTO FACT

December 22, 2013

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

Neville Goddard Lesson 2

This Bible of ours has nothing to do with history. Some of you may yet be inclined tonight to believe that, although we can give it a psychological interpretation, it still could be left in its present form and be interpreted literally. You cannot do it. The Bible has no reference at all to people or to events as you have been taught to believe.The sooner you begin to rub out that picture the better.

We are going to take a few stories tonight, and again I am going to remind you that you must re-enact all of these stories within your own mind.

Bear in mind that although they seem to be stories of people fully awake, the drama is really between you, the sleeping one, the deeper you, and the conscious waking you. They are personified as people, but when you come to the point of application you must remember the importance of the drowsy state.

All creation, as we told you last night, takes place in the state of sleep, or that state which is akin to sleep — the, sleepy drowsy state.

We told you last night the first man is not yet awakened. You are Adam, the first man, still in the profound sleep. The creative you is the fourth-dimensional you whose home is simply the state you enter when men call you asleep.

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Our first story for tonight is found in the Gospel of John. As you hear it unfold before you, I want you to compare it in your mind’s eye to the story you heard last night from the book of Genesis. The first book of the Bible, the bock of Genesis, historians claim is the record of events which occurred on earth some 3,000 years before the events recorded in the book of John. I ask you to be rational about it and see if you do not think the same writer could have written both stories. You be the judge as to whether the same inspired man could not have told the same story and told it differently.

This is a very familiar story, the story of the trial of Jesus. In this Gospel of John it is recorded that Jesus was brought before Pontius Pilate, and the crowd clamored for his life, they wanted Jesus. Pilate turned to them and said:

“But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the Passover; will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews? Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.” John 18:39, 40

You are told that Pilate had no choice in the matter, he was only a judge interpreting law, and this was the law. The people had to be given that which they requested. Pilate could not release Jesus against the wishes of the crowd, and so he released Barabbas and gave unto them Jesus to be crucified.

Now bear in mind that your consciousness is God. There is no other God. And you are told that God has a son whose name is Jesus. If you will take the trouble to look up the word Barabbas in your concordance, you will see that it is a contraction of two Hebraic words: BAR, which means a daughter or son- or child, and ABBA, which means father. Barabbas is the son of the great father. And Jesus in the story is called the Saviour, the Son of the Father.

We have two sons in this story. And we have two sons in the story of Esau and Jacob. Bear in mind that Isaac was blind, and justice to be true must be blind folded. Although in this case Pilate is not physically blind, the part given to Pilate implies that he is blind because he is a judge. On all the great law buildings of the world we see the lady or the man who represents justice as being blindfolded.

“Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. ” John 7:24.

Here we find Pilate is playing the same part as Isaac. There are two sons. All the characters as they appear in this story can apply to your own life. You have a son that is robbing you this very moment of that which you could be.

If you came to this meeting tonight conscious of wanting something, desiring something, you walked in the company of Barabbas.

For to desire is to confess that you do not now possess what you desire, and because all things are yours, you rob yourself by living in the state of desire. My saviour is my desire. As I want something I am looking into the eyes of my saviour. But if I continue wanting it, I deny my Jesus, my saviour, for as I want I confess I am not and “except ye believe that I AM He ye die in your sins.” I cannot have and still continue to desire what I have. I may enjoy it, but I cannot continue wanting it.

Here is the story. This is the feast of the Passover. Something is going to change right now, something is going to passover. Man is incapable of passing over from one state of consciousness into another unless he releases from consciousness that which he now entertains, for it anchors him where he is.

You and I may go to physical feasts year after year as the sun enters the great sign of Aries, but it means nothing to the true mystical Passover. To keep the feast of the Passover, the psychological feast, I pass from one state of consciousness into another. I do it by releasing Barabbas, the thief and robber that robs me of that state which I could embody within my world.

The state I seek to embody is personified in the story as Jesus the Saviour . If I become what I want to be then I am saved from what I was. If I do not become it, I continue to keep locked within me a thief who robs me of being that which I could be.

These stories have no reference to any persons who lived nor to any event that ever occurred upon earth. These characters are everlasting characters in the mind of every man in the world. You and I perpetually keep alive either Barabbas or Jesus. You know at every moment of time who you are entertaining.

Do not condemn a crowd for clamoring that they should release Barabbas and crucify Jesus. It is not a crowd of people called Jews. They had nothing to do with it.

If we are wise, we too should clamor for the release of that state of mind that limits us from being what we want to be, that restricts us, that does not permit us to become the ideal that we seek and strive to attain in this world.

I am not saying that you are not tonight embodying Jesus. I only remind you, that if at this very moment you have an unfulfilled ambition, then you are entertaining that which denies the fulfillment of the ambition, and that which denies it is Barabbas.

To explain the mystical, psychological transformation known as the Passover, or the crossing over, you must now become identified with the ideal that you would serve, and you must remain faithful to the ideal. If you remain faithful to it, you not only crucify it by your faithfulness, but you resurrect it unaided by a man.

As the story goes, no man could rise early enough to roll away the stone. Unaided by a man the stone was removed, and what seemingly was dead and buried was resurrected unassisted by a man.

You walk in the consciousness of being that which you want to be, no one sees it as yet, but you do not need a man to roll away the problems and the obstacles of life in order to express that which you are conscious of being. That state has its own unique way of becoming embodied in this world, of becoming flesh that the whole world may touch it.

Now you can see the relationship between the story of Jesus and the story of Isaac and his two sons, where one transplanted the other, where one was called the Supplanter of the other. Why do you think those who compiled the sixty odd books of our Bible made Jacob the forefather of Jesus?

They took Jacob, who was called the Supplanter, and made him father of twelve, then they took Judah or praise, the fifth son and made him the forefather of Joseph, who is supposed to have fathered in some strange way this one called Jesus. Jesus must supplant Barabbas as Jacob must supplant and take the place of Esau.

Tonight you can sit right here and conduct the trial of your two sons, one of whom you want released. You can become the crowd who clamors for the release of the thief, and the judge who willingly releases Barabbas, and sentences Jesus to fill his place. He was crucified on Golgotha, the place of the skull, the seat of the imagination.

To experience the Passover or passage from the old to the new concept of self, you must release Barabbas, your present concept of self, which robs you of being that which you could be, and you must assume the new concept which you desire to express.

The best way to do this is to concentrate your attention upon the idea of identifying yourself with your ideal. Assume you are already that which you seek and your assumption, though false, if sustained, will harden into fact.

You will know when you have succeeded in releasing Barabbas, your old concept of self, and when you have successfully crucified Jesus, or fixed the new concept of self, by simply looking MENTALLY at the people you know. If you see them as you formerly saw them, you have not changed your concept of self, for all changes of concepts of self result in a changed relationship to your world.

We always seem to others an embodiment of the ideal we inspire. Therefore, in meditation, we must imagine that others see us as they would see us were we what we desire to be.

You can release Barabbas and crucify and resurrect Jesus if you will first define your ideal. Then relax in a comfortable arm chair, induce a state of consciousness akin to sleep and experience in imagination what you would experience in reality were you already that which you desire to be.

By this simple method of experiencing in imagination what you would experience in the flesh were you the embodiment of the ideal you serve, you release Barabbas who robbed you of your greatness, and you crucify and resurrect your saviour, or the ideal you desired to express.

Now let us turn to the story of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. Bear in mind that a garden is a properly prepared plot of ground, it is not a wasteland. You are preparing this ground called Gethsemane by coming here and studying and doing something about your mind. Spend some time daily in preparing your mind by reading good literature, listening to good music and entering into conversations that ennoble.

We are told in the Epistles, “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Phil. 4:8

Continuing with our story, as told in the 18th chapter of John, Jesus is in the garden and suddenly a crowd begins to seek him. He is standing there in the dark and he says, “Whom seek ye?”

The spokesman called Judas answers and says, “We seek Jesus of Nazareth.”

A voice answers, “I am He.”

At this instant they all fall to the ground, thousands of them tumbled. That in itself should stop you right there and let you know it could not be a physical drama, because no one could be so bold in his claim that he is the one sought, that he could cause thousands who seek him to fall to the ground.

But the story tells us they all fell to the ground. Then when they regained their composure they asked the same question.

“Jesus answered, I have told you that I am He: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way.” John 18:8.

“Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.” John 13:27

Judas, who has to do it quickly, goes out and commits suicide.

Now to the drama. You are in your garden of Gethsemane or prepared mind if you can, while you are in a state akin to sleep, control your attention and not let it wander away from its purpose. If you can do that you are definitely in the garden.

Very few people can sit quietly and not enter a reverie or a state of uncontrolled thinking. When you can restrict the mental action and remain faithful to your watch, not permitting your attention to wander all over the place, but hold it without effort within a limited field of presentation to the state you are contemplating, then you are definitely this disciplined presence in the garden of Gethsemane.

The suicide of Judas is nothing more than changing your concept of yourself. When you know what you want to be you have found your Jesus or saviour. When you assume that you are what you want to be you have died to your former concept of self (Judas committed suicide) and are now living as Jesus. You can become at will detached from the world round about you, and attached to that which you want to embody within your world.

Now that you have found me, now that you have found that which would save you from what you are, let go of that which you are and all that it represents in the world. Become completely detached from it. In other words, go out and commit suicide.

You completely die to what you formerly expressed in this world, and you now completely live to that which no one saw as true of you before. You are as though you had died by your own hand, as though you had committed suicide. You took your own life by becoming detached in consciousness from what you formerly kept alive, and you begin to live to that which you have discovered in your garden. You have found your saviour.

It is not men falling, not a man betraying another, but you detaching your attention, and refocusing your attention in an entirely new direction. From this moment on you walk as though you were that which you formerly wanted to be. Remaining faithful to your new concept of yourself you die or commit suicide. No one took your life, you laid it down yourself.

You must be able to see the relation of this to the death of Moses, where he so completely died that no one could find where he was buried. You must see the relationship of the death of Judas. He is not a man who betrayed a man called Jesus.

The word Judas is praise; it is Judah, to praise, to give thanks, to explode with joy. You do not explode with joy unless you are identified with the ideal you seek and want to embody in this world. When you become identified with the state you contemplate you cannot suppress your joy. It rises like the fragrant odor described as Jericho in the Old Testament.

I am trying to show you that the ancients told the same story in all the stories of the Bible. All that they are trying to tell us is how to become that which we want to be. And they imply in every story that we do not need the assistance of another. You do not need another to become now what you really want to be.

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Now we turn to a strange story in the Old Testament; one that very few priests and rabbis will be bold enough to mention from their pulpits. Here is one who is going to receive the promise as you now receive it. His name is Jesus, only the ancients called him Joshua, Jehoshua Ben Nun, or saviour, son of the fish, the Saviour of the great deep. Nun means fish, and fish is the element of the deep, the profound ocean. Jehoshua means Jehovah saves, and Ben means the offspring or son of. So he was called the one who brought the fish age.

This story is in the 6th book of the Bible, the book of Joshua. A promise is made to Joshua as it is made to Jesus in the Anglicized form in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

In the gospel of John, Jesus says, “All things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.” John 17:7. “And all mine are thine, and thine are mine.” John 17:10.

In the Old Testament in the book of Joshua it is said in these words: “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you.” Joshua 1:3

It does not matter where it is; analyze the promise and see if you can accept it literally. It is not physically true but it is psychologically true. Wherever you can stand in this world mentally that you can realize.

Joshua is haunted by this promise that wherever he can place his foot (the foot is understanding), wherever the sole of his foot shall tread, that will be given unto him. He wants the most desirable state in the world, the fragrant city, the delightful state called Jericho.

He finds himself barred by the impassable walls of Jericho. He is on the outside, as you are now on the outside. You are functioning three-dimensionally and you cannot seem to reach the fourth-dimensional world where your present desire is already a concrete objective reality. You cannot seem to reach it because your senses bar you from it. Reason tells you it is impossible, all things round about you tell you it is not true.

Now you employ the services of a harlot and a spy, and her name is Rahab. The word Rahab simply means the spirit of the father. RACE means the breath or spirit, and AB the father. Hence we find that this harlot is the spirit of the father and the father is man’s awareness of being aware, man’s I AMness, man’s consciousness.

Your capacity to feel is the great spirit of the father, and that capacity is Rahab in this story. She has two professions that of a spy and that of a harlot.

The profession of a spy is this: to travel secretly, to travel so quietly that you may not be detected. There is not a single physical spy in this world who can travel so quietly that he will be altogether unseen by others. He may be very wise in concealing his ways, and he may never be truly apprehended, but at every moment of time he runs the risk of being detected.

When you are sitting quietly with your thoughts, there is no man in the world so wise that he can look at you and tell you where you are mentally dwelling.

I can stand here and place myself in London. Knowing London quite well, I can close my eyes and assume that I am actually standing in London. If I remain within this state long enough, I will be able to surround myself with the environment of London as though it were a solid concrete objective fact.

Physically I am still here, but mentally I am thousands of miles away and I have made elsewhere here. I do not go there as a spy, I mentally make elsewhere here, and then now. You cannot see me dwelling there, so you think I have just gone to sleep and that I an still here in this world, this three-dimensional world that is now San Francisco. As far as I am physically concerned, I am here but no one can tell me where I am when I enter the moment of meditation.

Rahab’s next profession was that of a harlot, which is to grant unto men what they ask of her without asking man’s right to ask. If she be an absolute harlot, as her name implies, then she possesses all and can grant all that man asks of her. She is there to serve, and not to question man’s right to seek what he seeks of her.

You have within you the capacity to appropriate a state without knowing the means that will be employed to realize that end and you assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled without having any of the talents that men claim you must possess in order to do so. When you appropriate it in consciousness you have employed the spy, and because you can embody that state within yourself by actually giving it to yourself, you are the harlot, for the harlot satisfies the man who seeks her.

You can satisfy self by appropriating the feeling that you are what you want to be. And this assumption though false, that is, although reason and the senses deny it, if persisted in will harden into fact. By actually embodying that which you have assumed you are, you have the capacity to become completely satisfied. Unless it becomes a tangible, concrete reality you will not be satisfied; you will be frustrated.

You are told in this story that when Rahab went into the city to conquer it, the command given to her was to enter the heart of the city, the heart of the matter, the very center of it, and there remain until I come. Do not go from house to house, do not leave the upper room of the house into which you enter. If you leave the house and there be blood upon your head, it is upon your head. But if you do not leave the house and there be blood, it shall be upon my head.

Rahab goes into the house, rises to the upper floor, and there she remains while the walls crumble. That is, we must keep a high mood if we would walk with the highest. In a very veiled manner, the story tells you that when the walls crumbled and Joshua entered, the only one who was saved in the city was the spy and the harlot whose name was Rahab.

This story tells what you can do in this world. You will never lose the capacity to place yourself elsewhere and make it here. You will never lose the ability to give unto yourself what you are bold enough to appropriate as true of self. It has nothing to do with the woman who played that part.

The explanation of the crumbling of the walls is simple. You are told that he blew upon the trumpet seven times and at the seventh blast the walls crumbled and he entered victoriously into the state that he sought.

Seven is a stillness, a rest, the Sabbath. It is the state when man is completely unmoved in his conviction that the thing is. When I can assume the feeling of my wish fulfilled and go to sleep, unconcerned, undisturbed, I am at rest mentally, and am keeping the Sabbath or am blowing the trumpet seven times. And when I reach that point the walls crumble. Circumstances alter then remold themselves in harmony with my assumption. As they crumble I resurrect that which I have appropriated within. The walls, the obstacles, the problems, crumble of their own weight if I can reach the point of stillness within me.

The man Who can fix within his own mind’s eye an idea, even though the world would deny it, if he remains faithful to that idea he will see it manifested. There is all the difference in the world between holding the idea, and being held by the idea. Become so dominated by an idea that it haunts the mind as though you were it. Then, regardless of what others may say, you are walking in the direction of your fixed attitude of mind. You are walking in the direction of the idea that dominates the mind.

As we told you last night, you have but one gift that is truly yours to give, and that is yourself. There is no other gift; you must press it out of yourself by an appropriation. It is there within you now for creation is finished. There is nothing to be that is not now. There is nothing to be created for all things are already yours, they are all finished.

Although man may not be able to stand physically upon a state, he can always stand mentally upon any desired state. By standing mentally I mean that you can now, this very moment, close your eyes and visualize a place other than your present one, and assume that you are actually there. You can FEEL this to be so real that upon opening your eyes you are amazed to find that you are not physically there.

This mental journey into the desired state, with its subsequent feeling of reality, is all that is necessary to bring about its fulfillment. Your dimensionally greater Self has ways that the lesser, or three-dimensional you, know not of. Furthermore, to the greater you, all means are good which promote the fulfillment of your assumption.

Remain in the mental state defined as your objective until it has the feeling of reality , and all the forces of heaven and earth will rush to aid its embodiment. Your greater Self will influence the actions and words of all who can be used to aid the production of your fixed mental attitude.

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Now we turn to the book of Numbers and here we find a strange story. I trust that some of you have had this experience as described in the bock of Numbers. They speak of the building of a tabernacle at the command of God; that God commanded Israel to build him a place of worship.

He gave them all the specifications of the tabernacle. It had to be an elongated, movable place of worship, and it had to be covered with skin. Need you be told anything more? Isn’t that man?

“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ? ” I Cor. 3:16

There is no other temple. Not a temple made with hands, but a temple eternal in the heavens. This temple is elongated, and it is covered with skin, and it moves across the desert.

“And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testimony: and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until the morning. So it was always: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.” Num.9:15,16

The command given to Israel was to tarry until the cloud ascended by day and the fire by night. “Whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not: but when it was taken up, they journeyed.” Num.. 9:22

You know that you are the tabernacle, but you may wonder, what is the cloud. In meditation many of you must have seen it. In meditation, this cloud, like the sub-soil waters of an artesian well, springs spontaneously to your head and forms itself into pulsating, golden rings. Then, like a gentle river they flow from your head in a stream of living rings of gold.

In a meditative mood bordering on sleep the cloud ascends. It is in this drowsy state that you should assume that you are that which you desire to be, and that you have that which you seek, for the cloud will assume the form of your assumption and fashion a world in harmony with itself. The cloud is simply the garment of your consciousness, and where your consciousness is placed, there you will be in the flesh also.

This golden cloud comes in meditation. There is a certain point when you are approaching sleep that it is very, very thick, very liquid, and very much alive and pulsing. It begins to ascend as you reach the drowsy, meditative state, bordering on sleep. You do not strike the tabernacle; neither do you move it until the cloud begins to ascend.

The cloud always ascends when man approaches the drowsiness of sleep. For when a man goes to sleep, whether he knows it or not, he slips from a three-dimensional world into a fourth-dimensional world and that which is ascending is the consciousness of that man in a greater focus; it is a fourth-dimensional focus.

What you now see ascending is your greater self. When that begins to ascend you enter into the actual state of feeling you are what you want to be. That is the time you lull yourself into the mood of being what you want to be, by either experiencing in imagination what you would experience in reality were you already that which you want to be, or by repeating over and over again the phrase that implies you have already done what you want to do. A phrase such as, “Isn’t it wonderful, isn’t it wonderful,” as though some wonderful thing had happened to you.

“In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed. Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction. ” Job 33: 15, 16

Use wisely the interval preceding sleep. Assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled and go to sleep in this mood. At night, in a dimensionally larger world, when deep sleep falleth upon men, they see and play the parts that they will later on play on earth. And the drama is always in harmony with that which their dimensionally greater selves read and play through them. Our illusion of free will is but ignorance of the causes which make us act.

The sensation which dominates the mind of man as he falls asleep, though false, will harden into fact. Assuming the feeling of the wish fulfilled as we fall asleep, is the command to this embodying process saying to our mood, “Be thou actual.” In this way we become through a natural process what we desire to be.

I can tell you dozens of personal experiences where it seemed impossible to go elsewhere, but by placing myself elsewhere mentally as I was about to go to sleep, circumstances changed quickly which compelled me to make the journey. I have done it across water by placing myself at night on my bed as though I slept where I wanted to be. As the days unfolded things began to mold themselves in harmony with that assumption and all things that must happen to compel my journey did happen. And I, in spite of myself, must make ready to go toward that place which I assumed I was in when I approached the deep of sleep.

As my cloud ascends I assume that I am now the man I want to be, or that I am already in the place where I want to visit. I sleep in that place now. Then life strikes the tabernacle, strikes my environment and reassembles my environment across seas or over land and reassembles it in the likeness of my assumption. It has nothing to do with men walking across a physical desert. The whole vast world round about you is a desert.

From the cradle to the grave you and I walk as though we walk the desert. But we have a living tabernacle wherein God dwells, and it is covered with a cloud which can and does ascend when we go to sleep or are in a state akin to sleep. Not necessarily in two days, it can ascend in two minutes. Why did they give you two days? If I now become the man I want to be, I may become dissatisfied tomorrow. I should at least give it a day before I decide to move on.

The Bible says in two days, a month, or a year: whenever you decide to move on with this tabernacle let the cloud ascend. As it ascends you start moving where the cloud is. The cloud is simply the garment of your consciousness, your assumption. Where the consciousness is placed you do not have to take the physical body; it gravitates there in spite of you. Things happen to compel you to move in the direction where you are consciously dwelling.

“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14:2, 3

The many mansions are the unnumbered states within your mind, for you are the house of God. In my Father’s house are unnumbered concepts of self. You could not in eternity exhaust what you are capable of being.

If I sit quietly here and assume that I am elsewhere, I have gone and prepared a place. But if I open my eyes, the bilocation which I created vanishes and I am back here in the physical form that I left behind me as I went to prepare a place. But I prepared the place nevertheless and will in time dwell there physically.

You do not have to concern yourself with the ways and the means that will be employed to move you across space into that place where you have gone and mentally prepared it. Simply sit quietly, no matter where you are, and mentally actualize it.

But I give you warning, do not treat it lightly, for I am conscious of what it will do to people who treat it lightly. I treated it lightly once because I just wanted to get away, based only upon the temperature of the day. It was in the deep of winter in New York, and I so desired to be in the warm climate of the Indies, that I slept that night as though I slept under palm trees. Next morning when I awoke it was still very much winter.

I had no intentions of going to the Indies that year, but distressing news came which compelled me to make the journey. It was in the midst of war when ships were being sunk right and left, but I sailed out of New York on a ship 48 hours after I received this news. It was the only way I could get to Barbados, and I arrived just in time to see my mother and say a three-dimensional “Good-bye” to her .

In spite of the fact that I had no intentions of going, the deeper Self watched where the great cloud descended. I placed it in Barbados and this tabernacle (my body) had to go and make the journey to fulfill the command, “Wherever the sole of your foot shall tread that have I given unto you.” Wherever the cloud descends in the desert, there you reassemble that tabernacle.

I sailed from New York at midnight on a ship without taking thought of submarines or anything else. I had to go. Things happened in a way that I could not have devised.

I warn you, do not treat it lightly. Do not say, “I will experiment and put myself in Labrador, just to see if it will work.” You will go to your Labrador and then you will wonder why you ever came to this class. It will work if you dare assume the feeling of your wish fulfilled as you go to sleep.

Control your moods as you go to sleep. I cannot find any better way to describe this technique than to call it a “controlled waking dream.” In a dream you lose control, but try preceding your sleep with a complete controlled waking dream, entering into it as you do in dream, for in a dream you are always very dominant, you always play the part. You are always an actor in a dream, and never the audience. When you have a controlled waking dream you are an actor and you enter into the act of the
controlled dream. But do not do it lightly, for you must then reenact it physically in a three-dimensional world.

Now before we go into our moment of silence there is something I must make very clear, and that is this effort we discussed last night. If there is one reason in this whole vast world why people fail it is because they are unaware of a law known to psychologists today as the law of reverse effort.

When you assume the feeling of your wish fulfilled it is with a minimum of effort. You must control the direction of the movements of your attention. But you must do it with the least effort. If there is effort in the control, and you are compelling it in a certain way you are not going to get the results. You will get the opposite results, what ever they might be.

That is why we insist on establishing the basis of the Bible as Adam slept. That is the first creative act, and there is no record where he was ever awakened from this profound sleep. While he sleeps creation stops.

You change your future best when you are in control of your thoughts while in a state akin to sleep, for then effort is reduced to its minimum. Your attention seems to completely relax, and then you must practice holding your attention within that feeling, without using force, and without using effort.

Do not think for a moment that it is will power that does it. When you release Barabbas and become identified with Jesus, you do not will yourself to be it, you imagine that you are it. That is all you do.

Now as we come to the vital part of the evening, the interval devoted to prayer, let me again clarify the technique. Know what you want. Then construct a single event, an event which implies fulfillment of your wish. Restrict the event to a single act.

For instance, if I single out as an event, shaking a man’s hand, then that is the only thing I do. I do not shake it, then light a cigarette and do a thousand other things. I simply imagine that I am actually shaking hands and keep the act going over and over and over again until the imaginary act has all the feeling of reality.

The event must always imply fulfillment of the wish. Always construct an event which you believe you would naturally encounter following the fulfillment of your desire. You are the judge of what event you really want to realize.

There is another technique I gave you last night. If you cannot concentrate on an act, if you cannot snuggle into your chair and believe the chair is elsewhere, just as though elsewhere were here, then do this: Reduce the idea, condense it to a single, simple phrase like, “Isn’t it wonderful.” or, “Thank you.” or, “It’s done.” or, “It’s finished.”

There should not be more than three words. Something that implies the desire is already realized. “Isn’t it wonderful”, or “Thank you,” certainly imply that. These are not all the phrases you could use. Make up out of your own vocabulary the phrase which best suits you. But make it very, very short and always use a phrase that implies fulfillment of the idea.

When you have your phrase in mind, lift the cloud. Let the cloud ascend by simply inducing the state that borders on sleep. Simply begin to imagine and feel you are sleepy, and in this state assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled. Then repeat the phrase over and over like a lullaby. Whatever the phrase is, let it imply that the assumption is true, that it is concrete, that it is already a fact and you know it.

Just relax and enter into the feeling of actually being what you want to be. As you do it you are entering Jericho with your spy who has the power to give it. You are releasing Barabbas and sentencing Jesus to be crucified and resurrected. All these stories you are re-enacting if now you begin to let go and enter into the feeling of actually being what you want to be. Now we can go…..

SILENCE PERIOD ……..

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If your hands are dry , and if your mouth is dry at the end of this meditation, that is positive proof that you did succeed in lifting the cloud. What you were doing when the cloud was lifted is entirely your business. But you did lift the cloud if your hands are dry.

I will give you another phenomena which is very strange and one I cannot analyze. It happens if you really go into the deep. You will find on waking that you have the most active pair of kidneys in the world. I have discussed it with doctors and they cannot explain it.

Another thing you may observe in meditation is a lovely liquid blue light. The nearest thing on earth to which I can compare it is burning alcohol. You know when you put alcohol on the plum pudding at Christmas time and set it a flame, the lovely liquid blue flame that envelopes the pudding until you blow it out. That flame is the nearest thing to the blue light which comes on the forehead of a man in meditation.

Do not be distressed. You will know it when you see it. It is like two shades of blue, a darker and a lighter blue in constant motion, just like burning alcohol, which is unlike the constant flame of a gas jet. This flame is alive, just as spirit would be alive.

Another thing that may come to you as it did to me. You will see spots before your eyes. They are not liver spots as some people will tell you who know nothing about it. These are little things that float in space like a mesh, little circles all tied together. They start with a single cell and come in groups in different geometrical patterns, like worms, like trailers, and they float all over your face. When you close your eyes you still see them, proving that they are not from without, they are from within.

When you begin to expand in consciousness all these things come. They may be your blood stream objectified by some strange trick of man that man does not quite understand. I am not denying that it is your blood stream made visible, but do not be distressed by thinking it is liver spots or some other silly thing that people will tell you.

If these various phenomena come to you, do not think you are doing something wrong. It is the normal, natural expansion that comes to all men who take themselves in tow and try to develop the garden of Gethsemane.

The minute you begin to discipline your mind by observing your thoughts and watching your thoughts throughout the day, you become the policeman of your thoughts. Refuse to enter into conversations that are unlovely, refuse to listen attentively to anything that tears down.

Begin to build within your own mind’s eye the vision of the perfect virgin rather than the vision of the foolish virgin. Listen only to the things that bring joy when you hear them. Do not give a willing ear to that which is unlovely, which when you heard it you wish you had not. That is listening and seeing things Without oil in your lamp, or joy in your mind.

There are two kinds of virgins in the Bible: five foolish and five wise virgins. The minute you become the wise virgin, or try to make an attempt to do it, you will find all these things happen. You will see these things, and they interest you so that you have not time to develop the foolish sight, as many people do. I hope that no one here does. Because no one should be identified with this great work who can still find great joy in a discussion of another that is unlovely.

THINKING FOURTH-DIMENSIONALLY

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard Lesson 3

There are two actual outlooks on the world possessed by every man, and the ancient story tellers were fully conscious of these two outlooks. They called the one “the carnal mind,” and the other “the mind of Christ.”

We recognize these two centers of thought in the statement: “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” I Cor. 2:14

To the natural mind, reality is confined to the instant called now; this very moment seems to contain the whole of reality, everything else is unreal. To the natural mind, the past and the future are purely imaginary. In other words my past, when I use the natural mind, is only a memory image of things that were. And to the limited focus of the carnal or natural mind the future does not exist. The natural-mind does not believe that it could revisit the past and see it as something that is present, something that is objective and concrete to itself, neither does it believe that the future exists.

To the Christ mind, the spiritual mind, which in our language we will call the fourth-dimensional focus, the past, the present, and the future of the natural mind are a present whole. It takes in the entire array of sensory impressions that man has encountered, is encountering, and will encounter.

The only reason you and I are functioning as we are today, and are not aware of the greater outlook, is simply because we are creatures of habit, and habit renders us totally blind to what otherwise we should see; but habit is not law. It acts as though it were the most compelling force in the world, yet it is not law.

We can create a new approach to life. If you and I would spend a few minutes every day in withdrawing our attention from the region of sensation and concentrating it on an invisible state and remain faithful to this contemplation, feeling and sensing the reality of an invisible state, we would in time become aware of this greater world, this dimensionally larger world. The state contemplated is now a concrete reality, displaced in time.

Tonight as we turn to our Bible you be the judge as to where you stand in your present unfoldment.

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Our first story for tonight is from the 5th chapter of the Gospel of Mark. In this chapter there are three stories told as though they were separate experiences of the dominant characters.

In the first story we are told that Jesus came upon an insane man, a naked man who lived in the cemetery and hid himself behind the tombs. This man appealed to Jesus not to cast out the devils that bedeviled him.

But Jesus said unto him, “Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.” Mark 5:8.

Thus Jesus cast out the devils that they may now destroy themselves, and we find this man, for the first time, clothed and in his right mind and seated at the feet of the Master. We will get the psychological sense of this chapter by changing the name Jesus to that of enlightened reason or fourth-dimensional thinking.

As we progress in this chapter we are told that Jesus now comes upon the High Priest whose name is Jairus, and Jairus the High Priest of the Synagogue has a child who is dying. She is 12 years old, and he appeals to Jesus to come and heal the child.

Jesus consents, and as he starts toward the home of the High Priest a woman in the market place touched his garment.
“And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? ” Mark 5:30.

The woman who was healed of an issue of blood that she had had for 12 years confessed that she had touched him. ” And he said unto her, Daughter, Thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.” Mark 5:34

As he continues toward the home the High Priest he is told that the child is dead and there is no need to go to resurrect her. She is no longer asleep, but is now dead.

“As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe.” Mark 5:36

“And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.” Mark 5:39

With this the entire crowd mocked and laughed, but Jesus, closing the doors against the mocking crowd, took with him into the household of Jairus, his disciples and the father and mother of the dead child.

They entered into the room where the damsel was lying. “And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.” Mark 5:41

“From this deep sleep she awoke and arose and walked, and the High Priest and all the others were astonished. And he changed them straightly that no man should know it; and he commanded that something should be given her to eat.” Mark 5:43

You are this very night, as you are seated here, pictured in this 5th chapter of Mark. A cemetery is for one purpose: it is simply a record of the dead. Are you living in the dead past?

If you are living among the dead, your prejudices, your superstitions, and your false beliefs that you keep alive are the tombstones behind which you hide. If you refuse to let them go you are just as mad as the mad man of the Bible who pleaded with enlightened reason not to cast them out. There is no difference. But enlightened reason is incapable of protecting prejudice and superstition against the inroads of reason.

There is not a man in this world who has a prejudice, regardless of the nature of the prejudice, who can hold it up to the light of reason. Tell me you are against a certain nation, a certain race, a certain “ism,” a certain anything — I do not care what it is — you cannot expose that belief of yours to the light of reason and have it live. In order that it may be kept alive in your world you must hide it from reason. You cannot analyze it in the light of reason and have it live. When this fourth-dimensional focus comes and shows you a new approach to life and casts out of your own mind all these things that bedeviled you, you are then cleansed and clothed in your right mind. And you sit at the foot of understanding, called the feet of the Master.

Now clothed and in your right mind you can resurrect the dead. What died? The child in the story is not a child. The child is your ambition, your desire, the unfulfilled dreams of your heart. This is the child housed within the mind of man. For as I have stated before, the entire drama of the Bible is a psychological one. The Bible has no reference at all to any person who ever existed, or any event that ever occurred upon earth. All the stories of the Bible unfold in the minds of the individual man.

In this story Jesus is the awakened intellect of man. When your mind functions outside of the range of your present senses, when your mind is healed of all the former limitations, then you are no longer the insane man; but you are this presence personified as Jesus, the power that can resurrect the longings of the heart of man.

You are now the woman with the issue of blood. What is this issue of blood? A running womb is not a productive womb. She held it for 12 years, she was incapable of conceiving. She could not give form to her longing because of the running of the issue of blood. You are told her faith closed it. As the womb closes it can give form to the seed or idea.

As your mind is cleansed of your former concept of Self, you assume you are what you want to be, and remaining faithful to this assumption, you give form to your assumption or resurrect your child. You are the woman cleansed of the issue of blood, and you move towards the house of the dead child.

The child or state you desired is now your fixed concept of yourself. But now having assumed that I am what formerly I desired to be, I cannot continue desiring what I am conscious of being. So I do not discuss it. I talk to no one concerning what I am. It is so obvious to me that I am what I wanted to be that I walk as though I were.

Walking as though I am what formerly I wanted to be, my world of limited focus does not see it and thinks I no longer desire it. The child is dead within their world; but I, who know the law, say, “The child is not dead.” The damsel is not dead, she but sleepeth. I now awaken her. I, by my assumption, awaken and make visible in my world what I assume, for assumptions if sustained invariably awaken what they affirm.

I close the door. What door? The door of my senses. I simply shut out completely all that my senses reveal. I deny the evidence of my senses. I suspend the limited reason of the natural man and walk in this bold assertion that I am what my senses deny.

With the door of my senses closed, what do I take into that disciplined state? I take no one into that state but the parents of the child and my disciples. I close the door against the mocking, laughing crowd. I no longer look for confirmation. I completely deny the evidence of my senses, which mock my assumption and do not discuss with others whether my assumption is possible or not.

Who are the parents? We have discovered that the father-mother of all creation is man’s I AMness. Man’s consciousness is God. I am conscious of the state. I am the father-mother of all my ideas and my mind remains faithful to this new concept of self. My mind is disciplined. I take into that state the disciples, and I shut out of that state everything that would deny it.

Now the child, unaided by a man, is resurrected. The condition which I desired and assumed that I had, becomes objectified within my world and bears witness to the power of my assumption.

You be the judge, I cannot judge you. You are either living now in the dead past, or you are living as the woman whose issue of blood has been stanched. Could you actually answer me if I asked you the question:

“Do you believe now that you, without the assistance of another, need only assume that you are what you want to be, to make that assumption real within your world? Or do you believe that you must first fulfill a certain condition imposed upon you by the past, that you must be of a certain order, or a certain something?’

I am not being critical of certain churches or groups, but there are those who believe that anyone outside of their church or group is not yet saved. I was born a Protestant. You talk to a Protestant, there is only one Christian, a Protestant. You talk to a Catholic, why there is nothing in the world that is a Christian but a Catholic. You talk to a Jew, and the Christians are heathens, and the Jews are the chosen. You talk to a Mohammedan, Jews and Christians are the infidels. You talk to someone else and all these are the untouchables. It does not matter to whom you talk, they are always the chosen ones.

If you believe that you must be one of these in order to be saved, you are still an insane man hiding behind these superstitions and these prejudices of the past, and you are begging not to be cleansed.

Some of you say to me, “Do not ask me to give up my belief in Jesus the man, or in Moses the man, or in Peter the man. When you ask me to give up my belief in these characters you are asking too much. Leave me these beliefs because they comfort me. I can believe that they lived upon earth and still follow your psychological interpretation of their stories.”

I say, Come out of the dead past. Come out of that cemetery and walk, knowing that you and your Father are one, and your Father, who men call GOD, is your own consciousness. That is the only creative law in the world.

Of what are you conscious of being? Although you cannot see your objective with the limited focus of your three-dimensional mind, you are now that which you have assumed you are. Walk in that assumption and remain faithful to it.

Time in this dimension of your being, beats slowly and you may not, even after you objectify your assumption, remember there was a time when this present reality was but an attitude of mind. Because of the slowness of the beat of time here you often fail to see the relationship between your inner nature and the outer world that bears witness to it.

You be the judge of the position you now occupy in this 5th chapter of Mark. Are you resurrecting the dead child? Are you still in need of having that womb of your mind closed? Is it still running and therefore cannot be fertile? Are you now the insane man living in the dead past? Only you can be the judge and answer these questions.

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Now we turn to a story in the 5th chapter of the Gospel of John. This will show you how beautifully the ancient story tellers told of the two distinct outlooks on this world- one, the limited three-dimensional focus, and the other, the fourth-dimensional focus.

This story tells of an impotent man who is quickly healed. Jesus comes to a place called Bethesda, which by definition means the House of Five Porches. On these Five Porches are unnumbered impotent folk- lame, blind, halt, withered, and others. Tradition had it that at certain seasons of the year an angel would descend and disturb the pool which was near these Five Porches. As the Angel disturbed the pool, the first one in was always healed. But only the first one, not the second.

Jesus, seeing a man who was lame from his mother’s womb, said to him, “Wilt thou be made whole?” John 5:6

“The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool – but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.” John 5:7

“Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.” John 5:8

“And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked, and on the same day was the Sabbath.” John 5:9

You read this story and you think some strange man who possessed miraculous power suddenly said to the lame man, “Rise and walk.” I cannot repeat too often that the story, even when it introduces numberless individualities, takes place within the mind of the individual man.

The pool is your consciousness. The angel is an idea, called the messenger of GOD. Consciousness being God, when you have an idea you are entertaining an angel. The minute you are conscious of a desire your pool has been disturbed. Desire disturbs the mind of man. To want something is to be disturbed.

The very moment you have an ambition, or a clearly defined objective, the pool has been disturbed by the angel, which was the desire. You are told that the first one into the disturbed pool is always healed.

My closest companions in this world, my wife and my little girl, are to me when I address them, second. I must speak to my wife as, “you are.” I must speak to anyone, no matter how close they are, as “You are.” And after that the third person, “He is.” There is only one person in this world with whom I can use the first person present and that is self. “I am,” can be said only of myself, it cannot be said of another.

Therefore, when I am conscious of some desire that I want to be, but seemingly am not, the pool being disturbed, who can get into that pool before me? I alone possess the power of the first person. I am that which I want to be. Except I believe I am what I want to be, I remain as I formerly was and die in that limitation.

In this story you need no man to put you into the pool as your consciousness is disturbed by desire. All you need do is to assume you are already that which formerly you wanted to be and you are in it, and no man can get in before you. What man can get in before you when you become conscious of being that which you want to be? No one can be before you when you alone possess the power to say I AM.

These are the two outlooks. You are now what your senses would deny. Are you bold enough to assume that you are already that which you want to be? If you dare assume you are already that which your reason and your senses now deny, then you are in the pool and, unaided by a man, you, too, will rise and take your couch and walk.

You are told it happened on the Sabbath. The Sabbath is only the mystical sense of stillness, when you are unconcerned, when you are not anxious, when you are not looking for results, knowing that signs follow and do not precede.

The Sabbath is the day of stillness wherein there is no working. When you are not working to make it so you are in the Sabbath. When you are not at all concerned about the opinion of others, when you walk as though you were, you cannot raise one finger to make it so, you are in the Sabbath. I cannot be concerned as to how it will be, and still say I am conscious of being it. If I am conscious of being free, secure, healthy, and happy, I sustain these states of consciousness without effort or labor on my part. Therefore, I am in the Sabbath; and because it was the Sabbath he rose and walked.

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Our next story is from the 4th chapter of the Gospel of John, and it is one you have heard time and time again. Jesus comes to the well and there is a woman called the woman of Samaria, and he said to her, “Give me to drink.” John 4:7

“Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, asketh drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” John 4:9

“Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” John 4:10

The woman seeing that he has nothing with which to draw the water, and knowing the well is deep, says: Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?” John 4:12

“Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again- But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:13,14

Then he tells her all concerning herself and asks her to go and call her husband. She answered and said, “I have no husband.” John 4:17

“Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. ” John 4: 17, 18

The woman, knowing this to be true, goes into the market-place and tells the other, “I have met the Messiah.”

They ask her, “How do you know you have met the Messiah?”

“Because he told me all things that I have ever done.” she replies. Here is a focus that takes in the entire past at least, and tells her now concerning the future.

Continuing with the story, the disciples come to Jesus and say, “Master, eat.” John 4:31

“But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. ” John 4:32

When they speak of a harvest in four months, Jesus replies, “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” John 4:35

He sees things that people wait four months for, or wait four years for; he sees them as now in a dimensionally larger world, existing now, taking place now.

Let us go back to the first part of the story. The woman of Samaria is the three-dimensional you, and Jesus at the well is the fourth-dimensional you. The argument starts between what you want to be, and what reason tells you that you are. The greater you tells you that if you would dare assume you are already what you want to be, you would become it.

The lesser you, with its limited focus, tells you, “Why you haven’t a bucket, you haven’t a rope and the well is deep. How could you ever reach the depth of this state without the means to that end?”

You answer and say, “If you only knew who asks of you to drink you would ask of him.” If you only knew what in yourself is urging upon you the embodiment of the state you now seek, you would suspend your little sight and let him do it for you.

Then he tells you that you have five husbands, and you deny it. But he knows far better than you that your five senses impregnate you morning, noon, and night with their limitations . They tell you what children you will bear tonight, tomorrow, and the days to come. For your five senses act like five husbands who constantly impregnate your consciousness, which is the great womb of GOD; and morning, noon, and night they suggest to you, and dictate to you that which you must accept as true.

He tells you the one you would like to have for your husband is not your husband. In other words the sixth has not yet impregnated you. What you would like to be is denied by these five, and they hold the power, they dictate what you will accept as true. What you would like to accept has not yet penetrated your mind and impregnated your mind with its reality. He whom you call husband is really not your husband. You are not bearing his likeness. To bear his likeness is proof that you are his wife, at least you have known him intimately. You are not bearing the likeness of the sixth; you are only bearing the likeness of the five.

Then one turns to me and tells me all that I have ever known. I go back in my mind’s eye and reason tells me that all through my life I have always accepted the limitations of my senses, I have always looked upon them as fact; and morning, noon, and night I have born witness to this acceptance.

Reason tells me I have only known these five from the time I was born. Now I would like to step outside the limitation of my senses but I have not yet found within myself the courage to assume I am what these five would deny that I am. So here I remain, conscious of my task, but without the courage to step beyond the limitations of my senses, and that which my reason denies.

He tells these, “I have meat ye know not of. I am the bread that droppeth down from heaven. I am the wine.” I know what I want to be, and because I am that bread I feast upon it. I assume that I am, and instead of feasting upon the fact that I am in this room talking to you and you are listening to me, and that I am in Los Angeles, I feast upon the fact that I am elsewhere and I walk here as though I were elsewhere. And gradually I become what I feast upon.

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Let me give you two personal stories. When I was a boy I lived in a very limited environment, in a little island called Barbados. Feed for animals was very, very scarce and very expensive because we had to import it. I am one of a family of 10 children and my grandmother lived with us making 13 at the table.

Time and again I can remember my mother saying to the cook in the early part of the week, “I want you to put away three ducks for Sunday’s dinner. “This meant that she would take from the flock in the yard three ducks and coop them up in a very small cage and feed them, stuff them morning, noon, and night with corn and all the things she wanted the ducks to feast upon.

This was an entirely different diet from what we regularly fed the ducks, because we kept those birds alive by feeding them fish. We kept them alive and fat on fish because fish were very cheap and plentiful; but you could not eat a bird that fed upon fish, not as you and I like a bird.

The cook would take three ducks, put them in a cage and for seven days stuff them with corn, sour milk and all the things we wanted to taste in the birds. Then when they were killed and served for dinner seven days later they were luscious, milk fed, corn fed birds.

But occasionally the cook forgot to put away the birds, and my father, knowing we were having ducks, and believing that she had carried out the command, did not send anything else for dinner, and three fish came to the table. You could not touch those birds for they were so much the embodiment of what they fed upon.

Man is a psychological being, a thinker. It is not what he feeds upon physically, but what he feeds upon mentally that he becomes. We become the embodiment of that which we mentally feed upon.

Now those ducks could not be fed corn in the morning and fish in the afternoon and something else at night. It had to be a complete change of diet. In our case we cannot have a little bit of meditation in the morning, curse at noon, and do something else in the evening. We have to go on a mental diet, for a week we must completely change our mental food.

“Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Phil. 4:8

As a man thinketh in his heart so is he. If I could now single out the kind of mental food I want to express within my world and feast upon it, I would become it.

Let me tell you why I am doing what I am doing today. It was back in 1933 in the city of New York, and my old friend Abdullah, with whom I studied Hebrew for five years, was really the beginning of the eating of all my superstitions. When I went to him I was filled with superstitions. I could not eat meat, I could not eat fish, I could not eat chicken, I could not eat any of these things that were living in the world. I did not drink, I did not smoke, and I was making a tremendous effort to live a celibate life.

Abdullah said to me, “I am not going to tell you ‘you are crazy’ Neville, but you are you know. All these things are stupid.” But I could not believe they were stupid.

In November, 1933, I bade goodbye to my parents in the city of New York as they sailed for Barbados. I had been in this country 12 years with no desire to see Barbados. I was not successful and I was ashamed to go home to successful members of my family. After 12 years in America I was a failure in my own eyes. I was in the theatre and made money one year and spent it the next month.
I was not what I would call by their standards nor by mine a successful person.

Mind you when I said goodbye to my parents in November I had no desire to go to Barbados. The ship pulled out, and as I came up the street, something possessed me with a desire to go to Barbados.

It was the year 1933, I was unemployed and had no place to go except a little room on 75th Street. I went straight to my old friend Abdullah and said to him “Ab, the strangest feeling is possessing me.
For the first time in 12 years I want to go to Barbados.”

If you want to go Neville, you have gone.” he replied.

That was very strange language to me. I am in New York City on 72nd Street and he tells me I have gone to Barbados. I said to him, “What do you mean, I have gone, Abdullah ?”

He said, “Do you really want to go? ”

I answered “yes.”

He then said to me, “As you walk through this door now you are not walking on 72nd Street, you are walking on palm lined streets, coconut lined streets; this is Barbados. Do not ask me how you are going to go. You are in Barbados. You do not say ‘how’ when you ‘are there’. You are there. Now you walk as though you were there.”

I went out of his place in a daze. I am in Barbados. I have no money, I have no job, I am not even well clothed, and yet I am in Barbados.

He was not the kind of a person with whom you would argue, not Abdullah. Two weeks later I was no nearer my goal than on the day I first told him I wanted to go to Barbados. I said to him, “Ab, I trust you implicitly but here is one time I cannot see how it is going to work. I have not one penny towards my journey, I began to explain.”

You know what he did. He was as black as the ace of spades, my old friend Abdullah, with his turbaned head. As I sat in his living room he rose from his chair and went towards his study and slammed the door, which was not an invitation to follow him. As he went through the door he said to me, “I have said all that I have to say.”

On the 3rd of December I stood before Abdullah and told him again I was no nearer my trip. He repeated his statement, “You are in Barbados.”

The very last ship sailing for Barbados that would take me there for the reason I wanted to go, which was to be there for Christmas, sailed at noon on December 6th, the old Nerissa.

On the morning of December 4th, having no job, having no place to go, I slept late. When I got up there was an air mail letter from Barbados under my door. As I opened the letter a little piece of paper flickered to the floor. I picked it up and it was a draft for $50.00.

The letter was from my brother Victor and it read, “I am not asking you to come, Neville, this is a command. We have never had a Christmas when all the members of our family were present at the same time. This Christmas it could be done if you would come. ”

My oldest brother Cecil left home before the youngest was born and then we started to move away from home at different times so never in the history of our family were we ever all together at the same time.

The letter continued, “You are not working, I know there is no reason why you cannot come, so you must be here before Christmas. The enclosed $50.00 is to buy a few shirts or a pair of shoes you may need for the trip. You will not need tips; use the bar if you are drinking. I will meet the ship and pay all your tips and your incurred expenses. I have cabled Furness, Withy & Co. in New York City and told them to issue you a ticket when you appear at their office. The $50.00 is simply to buy some little essentials. You may sign as you want aboard the ship. I will meet it and take care of all obligations.”

I went down to Furness, Withy & Co. with my letter and let them read it. They said, “We received the cable Mr. Goddard, but unfortunately we have not any space left on the December 6th sailing. The only thing available is 3rd Class between New York and St . Thomas. When we get to St. Thomas we have a few passengers who are getting off. You may then ride lst Class from St. Thomas to Barbados. But between New York and St. Thomas you must go 3rd Class, although you may have the privileges of the lst Class dining room and walk the decks of the 1st Class.”

I said, “I will take it.”

I went back to my friend Abdullah on the afternoon of December 4th and said, “It worked like a dream.” I told him what I had done, thinking he would be happy.

Do you know what he said to me? He said, “Who told you that you are going 3rd Class? Did I see you in Barbados, the man you are, going 3rd Class? You are in Barbados and you went there 1st Class.”

I did not have one moment to see him again before I sailed on the noon of December 6th. When I reached the dock with my passport and my papers to get aboard that ship the agent said to me, “We have good news for you, Mr. Goddard. There has been a cancellation and you are going 1st Class.”

Abdullah taught me the importance of remaining faithful to an idea and not compromising. I wavered, but he remained faithful to the assumption that I was in Barbados and had traveled 1st Class.

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Now back to the significance of our two Bible stories. The well is deep and you have no bucket, you have no rope. It is four months to the harvest and Jesus says, “I have meat to eat ye know not of. I am the bread of heaven. ”

Feast on the idea, become identified with the idea as though you were already that embodied state. Walk in the assumption that you are what you want to be. If you feast on that and remain faithful to that mental diet, you will crystallize it. You will become it in this world.

When I came back to New York in 1934, after three heavenly months in Barbados, I drank, I smoked, and did everything I had not done in years.

I remembered what Abdullah had said to me, “After you have proven this law you will become normal, Neville. You will come out of that graveyard, you will come out of that dead past where you think you are being holy. For all you are really doing you know, you are being so good, Neville, you are good for nothing”

I came back walking this earth a completely transformed person. From that day, which was in February 1934, I began to live more and more. I cannot honestly tell you I have always succeeded. My many mistakes in this world, my many failures would convict me if I told you that I have so completely mastered the movements of my attention that I can at all times remain faithful to the idea I want to embody.

But I can say with the ancient teacher, although I seem to have failed in the past, I move on and strive day after day to become that which I want to embody in this world. Suspend judgment, refuse to accept what reason and the senses now dictate, and if you remain faithful to the new diet, you will become the embodiment of the ideal to which you remain faithful.

If there is one place in the world that is unlike my little island of Barbados, it is New York City. In Barbados the tallest building is three stories, and the streets are lined with palm trees and cocoanut trees and all sorts of tropical things. In New York City you must go to a park to find a tree.

Yet I had to walk the streets of New York as though I walked the streets of Barbados. To one’s imagination all things are possible. I walked, feeling that I was actually walking the streets of Barbados, and in that assumption I could almost smell the odor of the cocoanut lined lanes. I began to create within my mind’s eye the atmosphere I would physically encounter were I in Barbados.

As I remained faithful to this assumption, somebody canceled passage and I received it. My brother in Barbados, who never thought of my coming home, has the commanding urge to write me a strange letter. He had never dictated to me, but this time he dictated, and thought that he originated the idea of my visit.

I went home and had three heavenly months, returned lst Class, and brought back quite a sum of cash in my pocket, a gift. My trip, had I paid for it, would have been $3,000, yet I did it without a nickel in my pocket.

“I have ways ye know not of. My ways are past finding out.” The dimensionally greater self took my assumption as the command and influenced the behaviour of my brother to write that letter, influenced the behaviour of someone to cancel that 1st Class passage, and did all the things necessary that would tend toward the production of the idea with which I was identified.

I was identified with the feeling of being there. I slept as though I were there, and the entire behaviour of man was molded in harmony with my assumption. I did not need to go down to Furness, Withy & Co. and beg them for a passage, asking them to cancel some one who was booked 1st Class. I did not need to write my brother and beg him to send me some money or buy me a passage. He thought he originated the act. Actually, to this day, he believes that be initiated the desire to bring me home.

My old friend Abdullah simply said to me, “You are in Barbados, Neville. You want to be there; wherever you want to be, there you are. Live as though you are and that you shall be.”

These are the two outlooks. on the world possessed by every man. I do not care who you are. Every child born of woman, regardless of race, nation, or creed, possesses two distinct outlooks on the world.

You are either the natural man who receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, because to you in the natural focus they are foolishness unto you. Or you are the spiritual man who perceiveth things outside of the limitations of your senses because all things are now realities in a dimensionally larger world. There is no need to wait four months to harvest.

You are either the woman of Samaria or Jesus at the well. You are the man waiting on the Five Porches for the disturbance and someone to push him in; or you are the one who can command yourself to rise and walk in spite of others who wait.

Are you the man behind the tombstones in the cemetery waiting and begging not to be clean, because you do not want to be cleansed of your prejudices? One of the most difficult things for man to give up is his superstitions, his prejudice. He holds on to these as though they were the treasure of treasures.

When you do become cleansed and you are free, then the womb, your own mind is automatically healed. It becomes the prepared ground where seeds, your desires, can take root and grow into manifestation. The child you now bear in your heart is your present objective. Your present longing is a child that is as though it were sick. If you assume you are now what you would like to be, the child for a moment becomes dead because there is no disturbance any more.

You cannot be disturbed when you feel you are what you want to be because if you feel you are what you wanted to be, you are satisfied in that assumption. To others who judge superficially you seem no longer to desire, so to them the desire or damsel is dead. They think you have lost your ambition because you no longer discuss your secret ambition. You have completely adjusted yourself to the idea. You have assumed that you are what you want to be. You know, “She is not dead, she but sleepth.” “I go to awaken her.”

I walk in the assumption that I am, and as I walk, I quietly awaken her. Then when she awakens I will do the normal, natural thing, I will give her to eat. I will not brag about it and tell others I simply go and tell no man. I feed this state I now like with my attention. I keep it alive within my world by becoming attentive to it.

Things that I am not attentive to fade and wither within my world, regardless of what they are. They are not just born and then remain unfed. I gave them birth by reason of the fact that I became conscious of being them. When I embody them within my world that is not the end. That is the beginning. Now I am a mother who must keep alive this state by being attentive to it. The day that I am not attentive, I have withdrawn my milk from it, and it fades from my world, as I become attentive to something else in my world.

You can either be attentive to the limitations and feed these and make them mountains, or you can be attentive to your desires; but to become attentive you must assume you are already that which you wanted to be.

Although today we speak of a third-dimensional and a fourth-dimensional focus, do not think for one moment these ancient teachers were not fully conscious of these two distinct centers of thought within the minds of all men. They personified these two, and they tried to show man that the only thing which robs him of the man he could be, is habit. Although it is not law, every psychologist will tell you that habit is the most inhibiting force in the world. It completely restricts man and binds him and makes him totally blind to what otherwise he should be.

Begin now to mentally see and feel yourself as that which you want to be, and feast upon that sensation morning, noon, and night. I have scoured the Bible for a time interval that is longer than three days and I have not found it.

“Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it Up.” John 2:19

“Prepare you victuals; for within three days ye shall pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which the Lord your God giveth you to possess it.” Joshua 1:11

If I could completely saturate my mind with one sensation and walk as though it were already a fact, I am promised (and I cannot find any denial of it in this great book) that I do not need more than a three day diet if I remain faithful to it. But I must be honest about it. If I Change my diet in the course of the day, I extend the time interval.

You ask me, “But how do I know about the interval?” You, yourself determine the interval.

We have today in our modern world a little word which confuses most of us. I know it confused me until I dug deeper. The word is “action.” Action is supposed to be the most fundamental thing in the world. It is not an atom, it is more fundamental. It is not a part of an atom like an electron, it is more fundamental than that. They call it the fourth-dimensional unit. The most fundamental thing in the world is action.

You ask, “What is action?” Our physicists tell us that it is energy multiplied by time. We become more confused and say, “Energy multiplied by time, what does that mean?’, They answer, “There is no response to a stimulus, no matter how intense the stimulus, unless it endures for a certain length of time.” There must be a minimum endurance to the stimulus or there is no response. On the other hand there is no response to time unless there is a minimum degree of intensity. Today the most fundamental thing in the world is called action, or simply energy multiplied by time.

The Bible gives it as three days; the duration is three days for response in this world. If I would now assume I am what I want to be, and if I am faithful to it and walk as though I were, the very longest stretch given for its realization is three days.

If there is something tonight that you really want in this world, then experience in imagination what you would experience in the flesh were you to realize your goal and deafen your ears, and blind your eyes to all that denies the reality of your assumption.

If you do this you would be able to tell me before I leave this city of Los Angeles that you have realized what was only a wish when you came here. It will be my joy to rejoice with you in the knowledge that the child which was seemingly dead is now alive. This damsel really was not dead, she was only asleep. You fed her in this silence because you have meat no one else knows of. You gave her food and she became a resurrected living reality within your world. Then you can share your joy with me and I can rejoice in your joy.

The purpose of these lessons is to remind you of the law of your own being, the law of consciousness; you are that law. You were only unconscious of its operation. You fed and kept alive the things you did not wish to express within this world.

Take my challenge and put this philosophy to the test. If it does not work you should not use it as a comforter. If it is not true, you must completely discard it. I know it is true. You will not know it until you try either to prove or disprove it.

Too many of us have joined “isms” and we are afraid to put them to the test because we feel we might fail; and, then, where are we? Not really wanting to know the truth concerning it, we hesitate to be bold enough to put it to the test. You say, “I know it would work in some other way. I do not want to really test it. While I have not yet disproved it, I can still be comforted by it.

Now do not fool yourself, do not think for one second be that you are wise.

Prove or disprove this law. I know that if you attempt to disprove it, you will prove it, and I will be the richer for your proving it, not in dollars, not in things, but because you become the living fruit of what I believe I am teaching in this world. It is far better to have you a successful, satisfied person after five days of instruction than to have you go out dissatisfied. I hope you will be bold enough to challenge this instruction and either prove or disprove it.

Now before we go into the silence period I shall briefly explain the technique again. We have two techniques in applying this law. Everyone here must now know exactly what he wants. You must know that if you do not get it tonight you will still be as desirous tomorrow concerning this objective.

When you know exactly what you want, construct in your mind s eye a single, simple event which implies fulfillment of your desire, an event where in self predominates. Instead of sitting back and looking at yourself as though you were on the screen, you be the actor in the drama.

Restrict the event to one single action. If you are going to shake a hand because that implies fulfillment of your desire then do that and that only. Do not shake hands and then wander off in your imagination to a dinner party or to some other place. Restrict your action to simply shaking hands and do it over and over again, until that handshake takes on the solidity and the distinctness of reality.

If you feel you cannot remain faithful to an action, I want you now to define your objective, and then condense the idea, which is your desire, into a single phrase, a phrase which implies fulfillment of your desire, some phrase such as, “Isn’t it wonderful?”

Or if I felt thankful because I thought someone was instrumental in bringing my desire to pass, I could say, “Thank you,” and repeat it with feeling over and over again like a lullaby until my mind was dominated by the single sensation of thankfulness.

We will now sit quietly in these chairs with the idea which implies fulfillment of our desire condensed to a single phrase, or to a single act. We will relax and immobilize our physical bodies. Then let us experience in imagination the sensation which our condensed phrase or action affirms.

If you imagine yourself shaking another person’s hand, do not use your physical hand, let it remain immobilized. But imagine that housed within your hand is a more subtle, more real hand, which can be extracted in your imagination. Put your imaginary hand into the imaginary hand of your friend who stands before you and feel the handshake. Keep your physical body immobilized even though you become mentally active in what you are now about to do.

Now we will go into the silence.

NO ONE TO CHANGE BUT SELF

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard Lesson 4

May I take just a minute to clarify what was said last night. A lady felt from what I said last night that I am anti one nation. I do hope that I am not anti any nation, race or belief. If perchance I used a nation, it was only to illustrate a point.

What I tried to tell you was this — we become what we contemplate. For it is the nature of love, as it is the nature of hate, to change us into the likeness of that which we contemplate. Last night I simply read a news item to show you that when we think we can destroy our image by breaking the mirror, we are only fooling ourselves.

When, through war or revolution, we destroy titles which to us represent arrogance and greed, we become in time the embodiment of that which we thought we had destroyed. So today the people who thought they destroyed the tyrants are themselves that which they thought they had destroyed.

That I may not be misunderstood, let me again lay the foundation of this principle. Consciousness is the one and only reality. We are incapable of seeing other than the contents of our own consciousness

Therefore, hate betrays us in the hour of victory and condemns us to be that which we condemn. All conquest results in an exchange of characteristics, so that conquerors become like the conquered foe. We hate others for the evil which is in ourselves. Races, nations, and religious groups have lived for centuries in intimate hostility, and it is the nature of hatred, as it is the nature of love, to change us into the likeness of that which we contemplate.

Nations act toward other nations as their own citizens act toward each other. When slavery exists in a state and that nation attacks another it is with intent to enslave. When there is a fierce economic competition between citizen and citizen, then in war with another nation the object of the war is to destroy the trade of the enemy. Wars of domination are brought about by the will of those who within a state are dominant over the fortunes of the rest.

We radiate the world that surrounds us by the intensity of our imagination and feeling. But in this third-dimensional world of ours time beats slowly. And so we do not always observe the relationship of the visible world to our inner nature.

Now that is really what I meant. I thought I had said it. That I may not be misunderstood, that is my principle. You and I can contemplate an ideal, and become it by falling in love with it.

On the other hand we can contemplate something we heartily dislike and by condemning it we will become it. But because of the slowness of time in this three-dimensional world, when we do become what we contemplated we have forgotten that formerly we set out to worship or destroy it.

Tonight’s lesson is the capstone of the Bible, so do give me your attention. The most important question asked in the Bible will be found in the 16th chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew.

As you know, all of the Bible stories are your stories; its characters live only in the mind of man. They have no reference at all to any person, who lived in time and space, or to any event that ever occurred upon earth.

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The drama related in Matthew takes place in this manner Jesus turns to his disciples and asks them, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” Matt. 16:13

“And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”

“He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?”

“And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

“And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”

“And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.” Matt. 16:14-18

Jesus turning to his disciples is man turning to his disciplined mind in self-contemplation. You ask yourself the question, “Whom do men say that I am?” In our language, “I wonder what men think of me?”

You answer, “Some say John come again, Some say Elias, others say Jeremiah, and still others a Prophet of old come again.”

It is very flattering to be told that you are, or that you resemble, the great men of the past, but enlightened reason is not enslaved by public opinion. It is only concerned with the truth so it asks itself another question, “But whom say ye that I am?” In other words, “Who am I?”

If I am bold enough to assume that I am Christ Jesus, the answer will come back, “Thou are Christ Jesus.”

When I can assume it and feel it and boldly live it, I will say to myself, “Flesh and blood could not have told me this. But my Father which is in Heaven revealed it unto me.” Then I make this concept of Self the rock on which I establish my church, my world.

“If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins.” John 8:24

Because consciousness is the only reality I must assume that I am already that which I desire to be. If I do not believe that I am already what I want to be, then I remain as I am and die in this limitation.

Man is always looking for some prop on which to lean. He is always looking for some excuse to justify failure. This revelation gives man no excuse for failure. His concept of himself is the cause of all the circumstances of his life. All changes must first come from within himself; and if he does not change on the outside it is because he has not changed within. But man does not like to feel that he is solely responsible for the conditions of his life.

“From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”

“Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?”

“Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” John 6:66-68

I may not like what I have just heard, that I must turn to my own consciousness as to the only reality, the only foundation on which all phenomena can be explained. It was easier living when I could blame another. It was much easier living when I could blame society for my ills, or point a finger across the sea. and blame another nation. It was easier living when I could blame the weather for the way I feel.

But to tell me that I am the cause of all that happens to me that I am forever molding my world in harmony with my inner nature, that is more than man is willing to accept. If this is true, to whom would I go? If these are the words of eternal life, I must return to them, even though they seem so difficult to digest.

When man fully understands this, he knows that public opinion does not matter, for men only tell him who he is. The behaviour of men constantly tell me who I have conceived myself to be.

If I accept this challenge and begin to live by it, I finally reach the point that is called the great prayer of the Bible. It is related in the 17th chapter of the Gospel of St. John, “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” John 17:4

“And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” John 17:5

“While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition.” John 17:12

It is impossible for anything to be lost. In this divine economy nothing can be lost, it cannot even pass away. The little flower which has bloomed once, blooms forever. It is invisible to you here with your limited focus, but it blooms forever in the larger dimension of your being, and tomorrow you will encounter it.

All that thou gavest me I have kept in thy name, and none have I lost save the son of perdition. The son of perdition means simply the belief in loss. Son is a concept, an idea. Perdido is loss. I have only truly lost the concept of loss, for nothing can be lost.

I can descend from the sphere where the thing itself now lives, and as I descend in consciousness to a lower level within myself it passes from my world. I say, “I have lost my health. I have lost my wealth. I have lost my standing in the community. I have lost faith. I have lost a thousand things.” But the things in themselves, having once been real in my world, can never cease to be. They never become unreal with the passage of time.

I, by my descent in consciousness to a lower level, cause these things to disappear from my sight and I say, “They have gone; they are finished as far as my world goes.” All I need do is to ascend to the level where they are eternal, and they once more objectify themselves and appear as realities within my world.

The crux of the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel of St. John is found in the 19th verse, “And for their sake I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.”

Heretofore I thought I could change others through effort. Now I know I cannot change another unless I first change myself. To change another within my world I must first change my concept of that other; and to do it best I change my concept of self. For it was the concept I held of self that made me see others as I did.

Had I a noble, dignified concept of myself, I never could have seen the unlovely in others.

Instead of trying to change others through argument and force, let me but ascend in consciousness to a higher level and I will automatically change others by changing self. “There is no one to change but self; that self is simply your awareness, your consciousness and the world in which it lives is determined by the concept you hold of self. It is to consciousness that we must turn as to the only reality. For there is no clear conception of the origin of phenomena except that consciousness is all and all is consciousness.

You need no helper to bring you what you seek. Do not for one second believe that I am advocating escape from reality when I ask you to simply assume you are now the man or the lady that you want to be.

If you and I could feel what it would be like were we now that which we want to be, and live in this mental atmosphere as though it were real, then, in a way we do not know, our assumption would harden into fact. This is all we need do in order to ascend to the level where our assumption is already an objective, concrete reality.

I need change no man, I sanctify myself and in so doing I sanctify others. To the pure all things are pure. “There is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.” Rom. 14:14. There is nothing in itself unclean, but you, by your concept of self, see things either clean or unclean.

“I and my Father are one.” John 10:30.

“If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.”

“But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.’ John 10:37, 38

He made himself one with God and thought it not strange or robbery to do the works of God. You always bear fruit in harmony with what you are. It is the most natural thing in the world for a pear tree to bear pears, an apple tree to bear apples, and for man to mold the circumstances of his life in harmony with his inner nature.

“I am the vine, ye are the branches.” John 15:5. A branch has no life save it be rooted in the vine. All I need do to change the fruit is to change the vine.

You have no life in my world save that I am conscious of you. You are rooted in me and, like fruit, you bear witness of the vine that I am. There is no reality in the world other than your consciousness. Although you may now seem to be what you do not want to be, all you need do to change it, and to prove the change by circumstances in your world, is to quietly assume that you are that which you now want to be, and in a way you do not know you will become it.

There is no other way to change this world. “I am the way.” My I AMness, my consciousness is the way by which I change my world. As I change my concept of self, I change my world. When men and women help or hinder us, they only play the part that we, by our concept of self, wrote for them, and they play it automatically. They must play the parts they are playing because we are what we are.

You will change the world only when you become the embodiment of that which you want the world to be. You have but one gift in this world that is truly yours to give and that is yourself. Unless you yourself are that which you want the world to be, you will never see it in this world. “Except ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” John 8:24

Do you know that no two in this room live in the same world. We are going home to different worlds tonight. We close our doors on entirely different worlds. We rise tomorrow and go to work, where we meet each other and meet others, but we live in different mental worlds, different physical worlds.

I can only give what I am, I have no other gift to give. If I want the world to be perfect, and who does not, I have failed only because I did not know that I could never see it perfect until I myself become perfect. If I am not perfect I cannot see perfection, but the day that I become it, I beautify my world because I see it through my own eyes. “Unto the pure all things are pure.” Titus 1:15

No two here can tell me that you have heard the same message any one night. The one thing that you must do is hear what I say through that which you are. It must be filtered through your prejudices, your superstitions, and your concept of self. Whatever you are, it must come through that, and be colored by what you are.

If you are disturbed and you would like me to be something other than what I appear to be, then you must be that which you want me to be. We must become the thing that we want others to be or we will never see them be it.

Your consciousness, my consciousness, is the only true foundation in the world. This is that which is called Peter in the Bible, not a man, this faithfulness that cannot turn to anyone, that cannot be flattered when you are told by men you are John come again. That is very flattering to be told you are John the Baptist come again, or the great Prophet Elias, or Jeremiah.

Then I deafen my ears to this very flattering little bit of news men would give me and I ask myself,
“But honestly who am I?”

If I can deny the limitations of my birth, my environment, and the belief that I am but an extension of my family tree, and feel within myself that I am Christ, and sustain this assumption until it takes a central place and forms the habitual center of my energy, I will do the works attributed to Jesus. Without thought or effort I will mold a world in harmony with that perfection which I have assumed and feel springing within me.

When I open the eyes of the blind, unstop the ears of the deaf, give joy for mourning and beauty for ashes, then and only then, have I truly established this vine deep within. That is what I would automatically do were I truly conscious of being Christ. It is said of this presence, He proved that He was Christ by His works.

Our ordinary alterations of consciousness, as we pass from one state to another, are not transformations, because each of them is so rapidly succeeded by another in the reverse direction;
but whenever our assumption grows so stable as to definitely expel its rivals, then that central habitual concept defines our character and is a true transformation.

Jesus, or enlightened reason, saw nothing unclean in the woman taken in adultery. He said to her, “Hath no man condemned thee?” John 8:10

“She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more.” John 8:11

No matter what is brought before the presence of beauty, it sees only beauty. Jesus was so completely identified with the lovely that He was incapable of seeing the unlovely.

When you and I really become conscious of being Christ, we too will straighten the arms of the withered, and resurrect the dead hopes of men. We will do all the things that we could not do when we felt ourselves limited by our family tree. It is a bold step and should not be taken lightly, because to do it is to die. John, the man of three dimensions is beheaded, or loses his three-dimensional focus that Jesus, the fourth-dimensional Self may live.

Any enlargement of our concept of Self involves a somewhat painful parting with strongly rooted hereditary conceptions. The ligaments are strong that hold us in the womb of conventional limitations. All that you formerly believed, you no longer believe. You know now that there is no power outside of your own consciousness. Therefore you cannot turn to anyone outside of self.

You have no ears for the suggestion that something else has power in it. You know the only reality is God, and God is your own consciousness. There is no other God. Therefore on this rock you build the everlasting church and boldly assume you are this Divine Being, self-begotten because you dared to appropriate that which was not given to you in your cradle, a concept of Self not formed in your mother’s womb, a concept of self conceived outside of the offices of man.

The story is beautifully told us in the Bible using the two sons of Abraham: one the blessed, Isaac, born outside of the offices of man and the other, Ishmael, born in bondage.

Sarah was much too old to beget a child, so her husband Abraham went in unto the bondservant Hagar, the pilgrim, and she conceived of the old man and bore him a son called Ishmael. Ishmael’s hand was against every man and every man’s hand against him.

Every child born of woman is born into bondage, born into all that his environment represents, regardless of whether it be the throne of England, the White House, or any great place in the world. Every child born of woman is personified as this Ishmael, the child of Hagar.

But asleep in every child is the blessed Isaac, who is born outside of the offices of man, and is born through faith alone. This second child has no earthly father. He is Self-begotten.

What is the second birth? I find myself man, I cannot go back into my mother’s womb, and yet I must be born a second time. “Except a man be born again he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” John 3:3

I quietly appropriate that which no man can give me, no woman can give me. I dare to assume that I am God. This must be of faith, this must be of promise. Then I become the blessed, I become Isaac.

As I begin to do the things that only this presence could do, I know that I am born out of the limitations of Ishmael, and I have become heir to the kingdom. Ishmael could not inherit anything, although his father was Abraham, or God. Ishmael did not have both parents of the godly; his mother was Hagar the bond-woman, and so he could not partake of his father’s estate.

You are Abraham and Sarah, and contained within your own consciousness there is one waiting for recognition. In the Old Testament it is called Isaac, and in the New Testament it is called Jesus, and it is born without the aid of man.

No man can tell you that you are Christ Jesus, no man can tell you and convince you that you are God. You must toy with the idea and wonder what it would be like to be God.

No clear conception of the origin of phenomena is possible except that consciousness is all and all is consciousness. Nothing can be evolved from man that was not potentially involved in his nature. The ideal we serve and hope to attain could never be evolved from us were it not potentially involved in our nature.

Let me now retell and emphasize an experience of mine printed by me two years ago under the title, THE SEARCH. I think it will help you to understand this law of consciousness, and show you that you have no one to change but self, for you are incapable of seeing other than the contents of your own consciousness.

Once in an idle interval at sea, I meditated on “the perfect state,” and wondered what I would be were I of too pure eyes to behold iniquity, if to me all things were pure and were I without condemnation. As I became lost in this fiery brooding, I found myself lifted above the dark environment of the senses. So intense was feeling I felt myself a being of fire dwelling in a body of air. Voices, as from a heavenly chorus, with the exaltation of those who had been conquerors in a conflict with death, were singing, “He is risen -He is risen,” and intuitively I knew they meant me.

Then I seemed to be walking in the night. I soon came upon a scene that might have been the ancient Pool of Bethesda for in this place lay a great multitude of impotent folk — blind, halt, withered -waiting not for the moving of the water as of tradition, but waiting for me.

As I came near, without thought or effort on my part, they were one after the other, molded as by the Magician of the Beautiful. Eyes, hands, feet — all missing members — were drawn from some invisible reservoir and molded in harmony with that perfection which I felt springing within me. When all were made perfect the chorus exulted, “It is finished.”

I know this vision was the result of my intense meditation upon the idea of perfection, for my meditations invariably bring about union with the state contemplated. I had been so completely absorbed within the idea that for awhile I had become what I contemplated, and the high purpose with which I had for that moment identified myself drew the companionship of high things and fashioned the vision in harmony with my inner nature.

The ideal with which we are united works by association of ideas to awaken a thousand moods to create a drama in keeping with the central idea.

My mystical experiences have convinced me that there is no way to bring about the perfection we seek other than by the transformation of ourselves. As soon as we succeed in transforming ourselves, the world will melt magically before our eyes and reshape itself in harmony with that which our transformation affirms.

We fashion the world that surrounds us by the intensity of our imagination and feeling, and we illuminate or darken our lives by the concepts we hold of ourselves. Nothing is more important to us than our conception of ourselves, and especially is true of our concept of the deep, dimensionally greater One within us.

Those that help or hinder us, whether they know it or not, are the servants of that law which shapes outward circumstances in harmony with our inner nature. It is our conception of ourselves which frees or constrains us, though it may use material agencies to achieve its purpose.

Because life molds the outer world to reflect the inner arrangement of our minds, there is no way of bringing about the outer perfection we seek other than by the transformation of ourselves. No help cometh from without: the hills to which we lift our eyes are those of an inner range.

It is thus to our own consciousness that we must turn as to the only reality, the only foundation on which all phenomena can be explained. We can rely absolutely on the justice of this law to give us only that which is of the nature of ourselves.

To attempt to change the world before we change our concept of ourselves is to struggle against the nature of things. There can be no outer change until there is first an inner change.

As within, so without.

I am not advocating philosophical indifference when I suggest that we should imagine ourselves as already that which we want to be, living in a mental atmosphere of greatness, rather than using physical means and arguments to bring about the desired changes.

Everything we do, unaccompanied by a change of consciousness, is but futile readjustment of surfaces. However we toil or struggle, we can receive no more than our concepts of Self affirm. To protest against anything which happens to us is to protest against the law of our being and our ruler ship over our own destiny.

The circumstances of my life are too closely related to my conception of myself not to have been formed by my own spirit from some dimensionally larger storehouse of my being. If there is pain to me in these happenings, I should look within myself for the cause, for I am moved here and there and made to live in a world in harmony with my concept of myself.

If we would become as emotionally aroused over our ideas as we become over our dislikes, we would ascend to the plane of our ideal as easily as we now descend to the level of our hates.

Love and hate have a magical transforming power, and we grow through their exercise into the likeness of what we contemplate. By intensity of hatred we create in ourselves the character we imagine in our enemies. Qualities die for want of attention, so the unlovely states might best be rubbed out by imagining “‘beauty for ashes and joy for mourning” rather than by direct attacks on the state from which we would be free.

“Whatsoever things are lovely and of good report, think on these things,” for we become that with which we are en rapport.

There is nothing to change but our concept of self. As soon as we succeed in transforming self, our world will dissolve and reshape itself in harmony with that which our change affirms.

I, by descent in consciousness, have brought about the imperfection that I see. In the divine economy nothing is lost. We cannot lose anything save by descent in consciousness from the sphere where the thing has its natural life.

And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” John 17:5

As I ascend in consciousness the power and the glory that was mine return to me and I too will say “I have finished the work thou gavest me to do.” The work is to return from my descent in consciousness, from the level wherein I believed that I was a son of man, to the sphere where I know that I am one with my Father and my Father is God.

I know beyond all doubt that there is nothing for man to do but to change his own concept of himself to assume greatness and sustain this assumption. If we walk as though we were already the ideal we serve, we will rise to the level of our assumption, and find a world in harmony with our assumption. We will not have to lift a finger to make it so, for it is already so. It was always so.

You and I have descended in consciousness to the level where we now find ourselves and we see imperfection because we have descended! When we begin to ascend while here in this three-dimensional world, we find that we move in an entirely different environment, we have entirely different circles of friends, and an entirely different world while still living here. We know the great mystery of the statement, “I am in the world but not of it.”

Instead of changing things I would suggest to all to identify themselves with the ideal they contemplate. What would the feeling be like were you of too pure eyes to behold iniquity if to you all things were pure and you were without condemnation? Contemplate the ideal state and identify yourself with it and you will ascend to the sphere where you as Christ have your natural life.

You are still in that state where you were before the world was. The only thing that has fallen is your concept of self. You see the broken parts which really are not broken. You are seeing them through distorted eyes, as though you were in one of those peculiar amusement gallery’s where a man walks before a mirror and he is elongated, yet he is the same man. Or he looks into another mirror and he is all big and fat. These things are seen today because man is what he is.

Toy with the idea of perfection. Ask no man to help you, but let the prayer of the 17th chapter of the Gospel of St. John be your prayer. Appropriate the state that was yours before the world was.

Know the truth of the statement, “None have I lost save the son of perdition.” Nothing is lost in all my holy mountain. The only thing that you lose is the belief in loss or the son of perdition.

“And for their sake I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” John 17:19

There is no one to change but self. All you need do to make men and women holy in this world is to make yourself holy. You are incapable of seeing anything that is unlovely when you establish within your own mind’s eye the fact that you are lovely.

It is far better to know this than to know anything else in the world. It takes courage, boundless courage, because many this night, after having heard this truth will still be inclined to blame others for their predicament. Man finds it so difficult to turn to himself, to his own consciousness as to the only reality. Listen to these words:

“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” John 6:44

“I and my Father are one.” John 10:30

“A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.” John 3:27

“Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.”

“No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.” John 10:17,18.

“You did not choose me, I have chosen you.” My concept of myself molds a world in harmony with itself and draws men to tell me constantly by their behaviour who I am.

The most important thing in this world to you is your concept of self. When you dislike your environment, the circumstances of life and the behaviour of men, ask yourself, ” Who am I?” It is your answer to this question hat is the cause of your dislikes.

If you do not condemn self there will be no man in your world to condemn you. If you are living in the consciousness of your ideal you will see nothing to condemn. “To the pure all things are pure.”

Now I would like to spend a little time making as clear as I can what I personally do when I pray, what I do when I want to bring about changes in my world. You will find it interesting, and you will find that it works. No one here can tell me they cannot do it. It is so very simple all can do it. We are what we imagine we are.

This technique is not difficult to follow, but you must want to do it. You cannot approach it with the attitude of mind “Oh well I’ll try it.” You must want to do it, because the mainspring of action is desire.

Desire is the mainspring of all action. Now what do I want? I must define my objective. For example, suppose I wanted now to be elsewhere. This very moment I really desire to be elsewhere. I need not go through the door, I need not sit down. I need do nothing but stand just where I am and with my eyes closed, assume that I am actually standing where I desire to be. Then I remain in this state until it has the feeling of reality. Were I now elsewhere I could not see the world as I now see it from here. The world changes in its relationship to me as I change my position in space.

So I stand right here, close my eyes, and imagine I am seeing what I would see were I there. I remain in it long enough to feel it to be real. I cannot touch the walls of this room from here, but when you close your eyes and become still you can imagine and feel that you touch it. You can stand where you are and imagine you are putting your hand on that wall. To prove you really are, put it there and slide it up and feel the wood. You can imagine you are doing it without getting off your seat. You can do it and you will actually feel it if you become still enough and intense enough

I stand where I am and I allow the world that I want to see and to enter physically to come before me as though I were there now. In other words, I bring elsewhere here by assuming that I am there.

Is that clear? I let it come up, I do not make it come up. I simply imagine I am there and then let it happen.

If I want a physical presence, I imagine he is standing here, and I touch him All through the Bible I find these suggestions, “He placed his hands upon them. He touched them.”

If you want to comfort someone, what is the automatic feeling? To put your hand on them, you cannot resist it. You meet a friend and the hand goes out automatically, you either shake hands or put your hand on his shoulder.

Suppose you were now to meet a friend that you have not seen for a year and he is a friend of whom you are very fond. What would you do? You would embrace him, wouldn’t you? Or you would put your hand upon him.

In your imagination bring him close enough to put your hand upon him and feel him to be solidly real. Restrict the action to just that. You will be amazed at what happens. From then on things begin to move. Your dimensionally greater self will inspire, in all, the ideas and actions necessary to bring you into physical contact. It works that way.

Every day I put myself into the drowsy state; it is a very easy thing to do. But habit is a strange thing in man’s world. It is not law, but habit acts as though it were the most compelling law in the world. We are creatures of habit.

If you create an interval every day into which you put yourself into the drowsy state, say at 3 o’clock in the afternoon do you know at that moment every day you will feel drowsy. You try it for one week and see if I am not right.

You sit down for the purpose of creating a state akin to sleep, as though you were sleepy, but do not push the drowsiness too far, just far enough to relax and leave you in control of the direction of your thoughts. You try it for one week, and every day at that hour, no matter what you are doing, you will hardly be able to keep your eyes open. If you know the hour when you will be free you can create it. I would not suggest that you do it lightly, because you will feel very, very sleepy and you may not want to.

I have another way of praying. In this case I always sit down and I find the most comfortable arm chair imaginable, or I lie flat on my back and relax completely. Make yourself comfortable. You must not be in any position where the body is distressed. Always put yourself into a position where you have the greatest ease. That is the first stage.

To know what you want is the start of prayer. Secondly you construct in your mind’s eye one single little event which implies that you have realized your desire. I always let my mind roam on many things that could follow the answered prayer and I single out one that is most likely to follow the fulfillment of my desire. One simple little thing like the shaking of a hand, embracing a person, the receiving of a letter, the writing of a check, or whatever would imply the fulfillment of your desire.

After you have decided on the action which implies that your desire has been realized, then sit in your nice comfortable chair or lie flat on your back, close your eyes for the simple reason it helps to induce this state that borders on sleep.

The minute you feel this lovely drowsy state, or the feeling of gathered togetherness, wherein you feel- I could move if I wanted to, but I do not want to, I could open my eyes if I wanted to, but I do not want to. When you get that feeling you can be quite sure that you are in the perfect state to pray successfully.

In this feeling it is easy to touch anything in this world. You take the simple little restricted action which implies fulfillment of your prayer and you feel it or you enact it. Whatever it is, you enter into the action as though you were an actor in the part. You do not sit back and visualize yourself doing it. You do it.

With the body immobilized you imagine that the greater you inside the physical body is coming out of it and that you are actually performing the proposed action. If you are going to walk, you imagine that you are walking. Do not see yourself walk, FEEL that you are walking.

If you are going to climb stairs, FEEL that you are climbing the stairs. Do not visualize yourself doing it, feel yourself doing it. If you are going to shake a man’s hand, do not visualize yourself shaking his hand, imagine your friend is standing before you and shake his hand. But leave your physical hands immobilized and imagine that your greater hand, which is your imaginary hand, is actually shaking his hand.

All you need do is to imagine that you are doing it. You are stretched out in time, and what you are doing, which seems to be a controlled day dream, is an actual act in the greater dimension of your being. You are actually encountering an event fourth-dimensionally before you encounter it here in the three-dimensions of space, and you do not have to raise a finger to bring that state to pass.

My third way of praying is simply to feel thankful. If I want something, either for myself or another, I immobilize the physical body, then I produce the state akin to sleep and in that state just feel happy, feel thankful, which thankfulness implies realization of what I want. I assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled and with my mind dominated by this single sensation I go to sleep. I need do nothing to make it so, because it is so. My feeling of the wish fulfilled implies it is done.

All these techniques you can use and change them to fit your temperament. But I must emphasize the necessity of inducing the drowsy state where you can become attentive without effort.

A single sensation dominates the mind, if you pray successfully.

What would I feel like, now, were I what I want to be? When I know what the feeling would be like I then close my eyes and lose myself in that single sensation and my dimensionally greater Self then builds a bridge of incident to lead me from this present moment to the fulfillment of my mood. That is all you need do. But people have a habit of slighting the importance of simple things.

We are creatures of habit and we are slowly learning to relinquish our previous concepts, but the things we formerly lived by still in some way influence our behaviour. Here is a story from the Bible that illustrates my point.

It is recorded that Jesus told his disciples to go to the crossroads and there they would find a colt, a young colt not yet ridden by a man. To bring the colt to him and if any man ask, “Why do you take this colt?” say, “The Lord has need of it.”

They went to the crossroads and found the colt and did exactly as they were told. They brought the unbridled ass to Jesus and He rode it triumphantly into Jerusalem.

The story has nothing to do with a man riding on a little colt. You are Jesus of the story. The colt is the mood you are going to assume. That is the living animal not yet ridden by you. What would the feeling be like were you to realize your desire? A new feeling, like a young Colt, is a very difficult thing to ride unless you ride him with a disciplined mind. If I do not remain faithful to the mood the young colt throws me off. Every time you become conscious that you are not faithful to this mood, you have been thrown from the colt.

Discipline your mind that you may remain faithful to a high mood and ride it triumphantly into Jerusalem, which is fulfillment, or the city of peace.

This story precedes the feast of the Passover. If we would pass from our present state into that of our ideal, we must assume that we are already that which we desire to be and remain faithful to our assumption, for we must keep a high mood if we would walk with the highest.

A fixed attitude of mind, a feeling that it is done will make it so. If I walk as though it were, but every once in a while I look to see if it really is, then I fall off my mood or colt.

If I would suspend judgment like Peter I could walk on the water. Peter starts walking on the water, and then he begins to look unto his own understanding and he begins to go down. The voice said, “Look up, Peter.” Peter looks up and he rises again and continues walking on the water.

Instead of looking down to see if this thing is really going to harden into fact, you simply know that it is already so, sustain that mood and you will ride the unbridled colt into the city of Jerusalem All of us must learn to ride the animal straight in to Jerusalem unassisted by a man. You do not need another to help you.

The strange thing is that as we keep the high mood and do not fall, others cushion the blows. They spread the palm leaves before me to cushion my journey. I do not have to be concerned. The shocks will be softened as I move into the fulfillment of my desire. My high mood awakens in others the ideas and actions which tend towards the embodiment of my mood. If you walk faithful to a high mood there will be no opposition and no competition.

The test of a teacher, or a teaching, is to be found in the faithfulness of the taught. I am leaving here on Sunday night. Do remain faithful to this instruction. If you look for causes outside the consciousness of man, then I have not convinced you of the reality of consciousness.

If you look for excuses for failure you will always find them, for you find what you seek. If you seek an excuse for failure, you will find it in the stars, in the numbers, in the tea cup, or most any place. The excuse will not be there but you will find it to justify your failure.

Successful business and professional men and women know that this law works. You will not find it in gossip groups, but you will find it in courageous hearts.

Man’s eternal journey is for one purpose: to reveal the Father. He comes to make visible his Father. And his Father is made visible in all the lovely things of this world. All the things that are lovely, that are of good report, ride these things, and have no time for the unlovely in this world, regardless of what it is.

Remain faithful to the knowledge that your consciousness, your I AMness, your awareness of being aware of the only reality. It is the rock on which all phenomena can be explained. There is no explanation outside of that. I know of no clear conception of the origin of phenomena save that consciousness is all and all is consciousness.

That which you seek is already housed within you. Were it not now within you eternity could not evolve it. No time stretch would be long enough to evolve what is not potentially involved in you.

You simply let it into being by assuming that it is already visible in your world, and remaining faithful to your assumption. it will harden into fact. Your Father has unnumbered ways of revealing your assumption. Fix this in your mind and always remember, “An assumption, though false, if sustained will harden into fact.”

You and your Father are one and your Father is everything that was, is and will be. Therefore that which you seek you already are, it can never be so far off as even to be near, for nearness implies separation.

The great Pascal said, “You never would have sought me had you not already found me. “What you now desire you already have and you seek it only because you have already found it. You found it in the form of desire. It is just as real in the form of desire as it is going to be to your bodily organs.

You are already that which you seek and you have no one to change but Self in order to express it.

REMAIN FAITHFUL TO YOUR IDEA

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard Lesson 5

Tonight we have the fifth and last lesson in this course. First I shall give you a sort of summary of what has gone before. Then, since so many of you have asked me to elaborate further on Lesson 3, I shall give you a few more ideas on thinking fourth-dimensionally.

I know that when a man sees a thing clearly he can tell it, he can explain it. This past winter in Barbados a fisherman, whose vocabulary would not encompass a thousand words, told me more in five minutes about the behaviour of the dolphin than Shakespeare with his vast vocabulary could have told me, if he did not know the habits of the dolphin.

This fisherman told me how the dolphin loves to play on a piece of drift-wood, and in order to catch him, you throw the wood out and bait him as you would bait children, because he likes to pretend he is getting out of the water. As I said, this man’s vocabulary was very limited, but he knew his fish, and he knew the sea. Because he knew his dolphin he could tell me all about their habits and how to catch them.

When you say you know a thing but you cannot explain it, I say you do not know it, for when you really know it you naturally express it.

If I should ask you now to define prayer, and say to you, “How would you, through prayer, go about realizing an objective, any objective?” If you can tell me, then you know it; but if you cannot tell me, then you do not know it. When you see it clearly in the mind’s eye the greater you will inspire the words which are necessary to clothe the idea and express it beautifully, and you will express the idea far better than a man with a vast vocabulary who does not see it as clearly as you do.

If you have listened carefully throughout the past four days, you know now that the Bible has no reference at all to any persons that ever existed, or to any events that ever occurred upon earth.

The authors of the Bible were not writing history, they were writing a great drama of the mind which they dressed up in the garb of history, and then adapted it to the limited capacity of the uncritical, unthinking masses.

You know that every story in the Bible is your story, that when the writers introduce dozens of characters in the same story they are trying to present you with different attributes of the mind that you may employ. You saw it as I took perhaps a dozen or more stories and interpreted them for you.

For instance, many people wonder how Jesus, the most gracious, the most loving man in the world, if he be man, could say to his mother, what he is supposed to have said to her as recorded in the second chapter of the Gospel of St. John. Jesus is made to say to his mother, “Woman, what have I to do with thee?” John 2:4.

You and I, who are not yet identified with the ideal we serve, would not make such a statement to our mother. Yet here was the embodiment of love saying to his mother, “Woman, what have I to do with thee?”

You are Jesus, and your mother is your own consciousness. For consciousness is the cause of all, therefore, it is the great father-mother of all phenomena.

You and I are creatures of habit. We get into the habit of accepting as final the evidence of our senses. Wine is needed for the guests and my senses tell me that there is no wine, and I through habit am about to accept this lack as final. When I remember that my consciousness is the one and only reality, therefore if I deny the evidence of my senses and assume the consciousness of having sufficient wine, I have in a sense rebuked my mother or the consciousness which suggested lack; and by assuming the consciousness of having what I desire for my guests, wine is produced in a way we do not know.

I have just read a note here from a dear friend of mine in the audience. Last Sunday he had an appointment at a church for a wedding; the clock told him he was late, everything told him he was late.

He was standing on a street corner waiting for a street car. There was none in sight. He imagined that, instead of being on the street corner, that he was in the church. At that moment a car stopped in front of him. My friend told the driver of his predicament and the driver said to him, “I am not going that way, but I will take you there.” My friend got into the car and was at the church in time for the service. That is applying the law correctly, non-acceptance of the suggestion of lateness. Never accept the suggestion of lack.

In this case I say to myself, “What have I to do with thee?” What have I to do with the evidence of my senses? Bring me all the pots and fill them. In other words, I assume that I have wine and all that I desire. Then my dimensionally greater Self inspires in all, the thoughts and the actions which aid the embodiment of my assumption.

It is not a man saying to a mother, “Woman what have I to do with thee?” It is every man who knows this law who will say to himself, when his senses suggest lack, “what have I to do with thee. Get behind me.” I will never again listen to a voice like that, because if I do, then I am impregnated by that suggestion and I will bear the fruit of lack.

We turn to another story in the Gospel of St. Mark where Jesus is hungry.

“And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find anything thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.”

“And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.” Mark 11:13, 14

“And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.” Mark 11:20

What tree am I blasting? Not a tree on the outside. It is my own consciousness. “I am the vine.” John 15:1. My consciousness, my I AMness is the great tree, and habit once more suggests emptiness, it suggests barrenness, it suggests four months before I can feast. But I cannot wait four months. I give myself this powerful suggestion that never again will I even for a moment relieve that it will take four months to realize my desire. The belief in lack must from this day on be barren and never again reproduce itself in my mind.

It is not a man blasting a tree. Everything in the Bible takes place in the mind of man: the tree, the city, the people, everything. There is not a statement made in the Bible that does not represent some attribute of the human mind. They are all personifications of the mind and not things within the world.

Consciousness is the one and only reality. There is no one to whom we can turn after we discover that our own awareness is God. For God is the cause of all and there is nothing but God. You cannot say that a devil causes some things and God others. Listen to these words.

“Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut.”

“I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron.”

“And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.” Isaiah 45: 1, 2, 3

“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.” Isaiah 45:7.

“I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.”

“I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the Lord of hosts.” Isaiah 45:12, 13

“I AM the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me.” Isaiah 45:5.

Read these words carefully. They are not my words, they are the inspired words of men who discovered that consciousness is the only reality. If I am hurt, I am self hurt. If there is darkness in my world, I created the darkness and the gloom and the depression. If there is light and joy, I created the light and the joy. There is no one but this I AMness that does all.

You cannot find a cause outside of your own consciousness. Your world is a grand mirror constantly telling you who you are. As you meet people, they tell you by their behaviour who you are.

Your prayers will not be less devout because you turn to your own consciousness for help. I do not think that any person in prayer feels more of the joy, the piety, and the feeling of adoration, than I do when I feel thankful, as I assume the feeling of my wish fulfilled, knowing at the same time it is to myself that I turned.

In prayer you are called upon to believe that you possess what your reason and your senses deny. When you pray believe that you have and you shall receive. The Bible states it this way:

“Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

“And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

“But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” Mark 11:24, 25, 26

That is what we must do when we pray. If I hold some thing against another, be it a belief of sickness, poverty , or anything else, I must loose it and let it go, not by using words of denial but by believing him to be what he desires to be. In that way I completely forgive him. I changed my concept of him. I had ought against him and I forgave him Complete forgetfulness is forgiveness. If I do not forget then I have not forgiven.

I only forgive something when I truly forget. I can say to you until the end of time, “I forgive you.” But if every time I see you or think of you, I am reminded of what I held against you, I have not forgiven you at all. Forgiveness is complete forgetfulness. You go to a doctor and he gives you something for your sickness. He is trying to take it from you, so he gives you something in place of it.

Give yourself a new concept of self for the old concept. Give up the old concept completely.

A prayer granted implies that something is done in consequence of the prayer which otherwise would not have been done. Therefore, I myself am the spring of action, the directing mind and the one who grants the prayer.

Anyone who prays successfully turns within, and appropriates the state sought. You have no sacrifice to offer. Do not let anyone tell you that you must struggle and suffer. You need not struggle for the realization of your desire. Read what it says in the Bible.

“To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.”

“When ye come to appear before me, who hath required that at your hand, to tread my courts?”

“Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.”

“Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates: they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them” Isaiah 1:11-14

“Ye shall have a song as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord, to the mighty One of Israel.” Isaiah 30:29

“Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth.” Isaiah 42: 10.

“Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.” Isaiah 44:23

“Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head. They shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.” Isaiah 51:11

The only acceptable gift is a joyful heart. Come with singing and praise. That is the way to come before the Lord — your own consciousness. Assume the feeling of your wish fulfilled, and you have brought the only acceptable gift. All states of mind other than that of the wish fulfilled are an abomination; they are superstition and mean nothing.

When you come before me, rejoice, because rejoicing implies that something has happened which you desired. Come before me singing, giving praise, and giving thanks, for these states of mind imply acceptance of the state sought. Put yourself in the proper mood and your own consciousness will embody it.

If I could define prayer for anyone and put it just as clearly as I could, I would simply say, “It is the feeling of the wish fulfilled.” If you ask, “What do you mean by that?” I would say, “I would feel myself into the situation of the answered prayer and then I would live and act upon that conviction.” I would try to sustain it without effort, that is, I would live and act as though it were already a fact, knowing that as I walk in this fixed attitude my assumption will harden into fact.

Time does not permit me to go any further into the argument that the Bible is not history. But if you have listened attentively to my message these past four nights, I do not think you want any more proof that the Bible is not history. Apply what you have heard and you will realize your desires.

**************

“And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.” John 14:29

Many persons, myself included, have observed events before they occurred; that is, before they occurred in this world of three dimensions. Since man can observe an event before it occurs in the three dimensions of space, then life on earth proceeds according to plan; and this plan must exist elsewhere in another dimension and is slowly moving through our space.

If the occurring events were not in this world when they were observed, then to be perfectly logical they must have been out of this world. And whatever is THERE to be seen before it occurs HERE must be “pre-determined” from the point of view of man awake in a three-dimensional world. Yet the ancient teachers taught us that we could alter the future, and my own experience confirms the truth of their teaching.

Therefore, my object in giving this course is to indicate possibilities inherent in man, to show that man can alter his: future; but, thus altered, it forms again a deterministic sequence starting from the point of interference — a future that will be consistent with the alteration.

The most remarkable feature of man’s future is its flexibility. The future, although prepared in advance in every detail, has several outcomes. We have at every moment of our lives the choice before us which of several futures we will have.

There are two actual outlooks on the world possessed by everyone — a natural focus and a spiritual focus. The ancient teachers called the one “the carnal mind,” and the other “the mind of Christ.” We may differentiate them as ordinary waking consciousness, governed by our senses, and a controlled imagination, governed by desire.

We recognize these two distinct centers of thought in the statement: “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” I Cor. 2:14

The natural view confines reality to the moment called NOW. To the natural view, the past and future are purely imaginary. The spiritual view on the other hand sees the contents of time. The past and future are a present whole to the spiritual view. What is mental and subjective to the natural man is concrete and objective to the spiritual man.

The habit of seeing only that which our senses permit renders us totally blind to what, otherwise, we could see. To cultivate the faculty of seeing the invisible, we should often deliberately disentangle our minds from the evidence of the senses and focus our attention on an invisible state, mentally feeling it and sensing it until it has all the distinctness of reality.

Earnest, concentrated thought focused in a particular direction shuts out other sensations and causes them to disappear. We have only to concentrate on the state desired in order to see it.

The habit of withdrawing attention from the region of sensation and concentrating it on the invisible develops our spiritual outlook and enables us to penetrate beyond the world of sense and to see that which is invisible. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen.” Rom. 1:20. This vision is completely independent of the natural faculties. Open it and quicken it!

A little practice will convince us that we can, by controlling our imagination, reshape our future in harmony with our desire. Desire is the mainspring of action. We could not move a single finger unless we had a desire to move it. No matter what we do, we follow the desire which at the moment dominates our minds. When we break a habit, our desire to break it is greater than our desire to continue the habit.

The desires which impel us to action are those which hold our attention. A desire is but an awareness of something we lack and need to make our life more enjoyable. Desires always have some personal gain in view, the greater the anticipated gain, the more intense is the desire. There is no absolutely unselfish desire. Where there is nothing to gain there is no desire, and consequently no action.

The spiritual man speaks to the natural man through the language of desire. The key to progress in life and to the fulfillment of dreams lies in ready obedience to its voice. Unhesitating obedience to its voice is an immediate assumption of the wish fulfilled. To desire a state is to have it. As Pascal has said, “You would not have sought me had you not already found me.”

Man, by assuming the feeling of his wish fulfilled, and then living and acting on this conviction, alters the future in harmony with his assumption. Assumptions awaken what they affirm. As soon as man assumes the feeling of his wish fulfilled, his fourth-dimensional Self finds ways for the attainment of this end, discovers methods for its realization.

I know of no clearer definition of the means by which we realize our desires than to EXPERIENCE IN THE IMAGINATION WHAT WE WOULD EXPERIENCE IN THE FLESH WERE WE TO ACHIEVE OUR GOAL. This imaginary experience of the end with acceptance, wills the means. The fourth-dimensional Self then constructs with its larger outlook the means necessary to realize the accepted end.

The undisciplined mind finds it difficult to assume a state which is denied by the senses. But here is a technique that makes it easy to “call things which are not seen as though they were,” that is, to encounter an event before it occurs. People have a habit of slighting the importance of simple things. But this simple formula for changing the future was discovered after years of searching and experimenting.

The first step in changing the future is DESIRE, that is, define your objective — know definitely what you want.

Secondly, construct an event which you. believe you would encounter FOLLOWING the fulfillment of your desire — an event which implies fulfillment of your desire — something which will have the action of Self predominant.

Thirdly, immobilize the physical body, and induce a condition akin to sleep by imagining that you are sleepy. Lie on a bed, or relax in a chair. Then, with eyelids closed and your attention focused on the action you intend to experience in imagination, mentally feel yourself right into the proposed action; imagining all the while that you are actually performing the action here and. now.

You must always participate in the imaginary action; not merely stand back and look on, but feel that you are actually performing the action so that the imaginary sensation is real to you.

It is important always to remember that the proposed action must be one which FOLLOWS the fulfillment of your desire. Also you must feel yourself into the action until it has all the vividness and distinctness of reality.

For example, suppose you desire promotion in your office. Being congratulated would be an event you would encounter following the fulfillment of your desire. Having selected this action as the one you will experience in imagination, immobilize the physical body; and induce a state akin to sleep, a drowsy state, but one in which you are still able to control the direction of your thoughts, a state in which you are attentive without effort. Then visualize a friend standing before you. Put your imaginary hand into his. Feel it to be solid and real, and carry on an imaginary conversation with him in harmony with the action.

You do not visualize yourself at a distance in point of space and at a distance in point of time being congratulated on your good fortune. Instead, you make elsewhere HERE, and the future NOW. The future event is a reality NOW in a dimensionally larger world and oddly enough, now in a dimensionally larger world is equivalent to HERE in the ordinary three-dimensional space of everyday life.

The difference between FEELING yourself in action, here and now, and visualizing yourself in action, as though you were on a motion-picture screen, is the difference between success and failure. The difference will be appreciated if you will now visualize yourself climbing a ladder. Then, with eyelids closed imagine that a ladder is right in front of you and FEEL yourself actually climbing it.

Desire, physical immobility bordering on sleep, and imaginary action in which Sell feelingly predominates HERE AND NOW, are not only important factors in altering the future, but they are also essential conditions in consciously projecting the spiritual Self.

When the physical body is immobilized and we become possessed of the idea to do something — if we imagine that we are doing it HERE AND NOW and keep the imaginary action feelingly going right up until sleep ensues — we are likely to awaken out of the physical body to find ourselves in a dimensionally larger world with a dimensionally larger focus and actually doing what we desired and imagined we were doing in the flesh.

But whether we awaken there or not, we are actually performing the action in the fourth-dimensional world, and will in the future re-enact it here in the third-dimensional world.

Experience has taught me to restrict the imaginary action, to condense the idea which is to be the object of our meditation into a single act, and to re-enact it over and over again until it has the feeling of reality. Otherwise, the attention will wander off along an associational track, and hosts of associated images will be presented to our attention, and in a few seconds they will lead us hundreds of miles away from our objective in point of space, and years away in point of time.

If we decide to climb a particular flight of stairs, because that is the likely event to follow the realization of our desire, then we must restrict the action to climbing that particular flight of stairs. Should the attention wander off, bring it back to its task of climbing that flight of stairs, and keep on doing so until the imaginary action has all the solidity and distinctness of reality. The idea must be maintained in the field of presentation without any sensible effort on our part. We must, with the minimum of effort, permeate the mind with the feeling of the wish fulfilled.

Drowsiness facilitates change because it favours attention without effort, but it must not be pushed to the state of sleep, in which we shall no longer be able to control the movements of our attention, but a moderate degree of drowsiness in which we are still able to direct our thoughts.

A most effective way to embody a desire is to assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled and then, in a relaxed and sleepy state, repeat over and over again like a lullaby, any short phrase which implies fulfillment of your desire, such as, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, ” until the single sensation of thankfulness dominates the mind. Speak these words as though you addressed a higher power for having done it for you.

If, however, we seek a conscious projection in a dimensionally larger world, then we must keep the action going right up until sleep ensues. Experience in imagination with all the distinctness of reality what would be experienced in the flesh were we to achieve our goal and we shall in time meet it in the flesh as we met it in our imagination.

Feed the mind with premises — that is, assertions presumed to be true, because assumptions, though false, if persisted in until they have the feeling of reality, will harden into fact.

To an assumption, all means which promote its realization are good. It influences the behaviour of all, by inspiring in all the movements, the actions, and the words which tend towards its fulfillment.

To understand how man molds his future in harmony with his assumption — by simply experiencing in his imagination what he would experience in reality were he to realize his goal – we must know what we mean by a dimensionally larger world, for it is to a dimensionally larger world that we go to alter our future.

The observation of an event before it occurs implies that the event is predetermined from the point of view of man in the three-dimensional world. Therefore to change the conditions here in the three dimensions of space we must first change them in the four dimensions of space.

Man does not know exactly what is meant by a dimensionally larger world, and would no doubt deny the existence of a dimensionally larger Self. He is quite familiar with the three dimensions of length, width and height, and he feels that, if there were a fourth-dimension, it should be just as obvious to him as the dimensions of length, width and height.

Now a dimension is not a line. It is any way in which a thing can be measured that is entirely different from all other ways. That is, to measure a solid fourth-dimensionally, we simply measure it in any direction except that of its length, width and height. Now, is there another way of measuring an object other than those of its length, width and height?

Time measures my life without employing the three dimensions of length, width and height. There is no such thing as an instantaneous object. Its appearance and disappearance are measurable. It endures for a definite length of time. We can measure its life span without using the dimensions of length, width and height. Time is definitely a fourth way of measuring an object.

The more dimensions an object has, the more substantial and real it becomes. A straight line, which lies entirely in one dimension, acquires shape, mass and substance by the addition of dimensions. What new quality would time, the fourth dimension give, which would make it just as vastly superior to solids, as solids are to surfaces and surfaces are to lines? Time is a medium for changes in experience, for all changes take time.

The new quality is changeability. Observe that, if we bisect a solid, its cross section will be a surface; by bisecting a surface, we obtain a line, and by bisecting a line, we get a point. This means that a point is but a cross section of a line; which is, in turn, but across section of a surface; which is, in turn, but a cross section of a solid; which is, in turn, if carried to its logical conclusion, but across section of a four-dimensional object.

We cannot avoid the inference that all three-dimensional objects are but cross sections of four-dimensional bodies. Which means: when I meet you, I meet a cross section of the four-dimensional you — the four-dimensional Self that is not seen. To see the four-dimensional Self I must see every cross section or moment of your life from birth to death, and see them all as co-existing.

My focus should take in the entire array of sensory impressions which you have experienced on earth, plus those you might encounter. I should see them, not in the order in which they were experienced by you, but as a present whole. Because CHANGE is the characteristic of the fourth dimension, I should see them in a state of flux — as a living, animated whole.

Now, if we have all this clearly fixed in our minds, what does it mean to us in this three-dimensional world? It means that, if we can move along times length, we can see the future and alter it if we so desire.

This world, which we think so solidly real, is a shadow out of which and beyond which we may at any time pass. It is an abstraction from a more fundamental and dimensionally larger world — a more fundamental world abstracted from a still more fundamental and dimensionally larger world — and so on to infinity. For the absolute is unattainable by any means or analysis, no matter how many dimensions we add to the world.

Man can prove the existence of a dimensionally larger world by simply focusing his attention on an invisible state and imagining that he sees and feels it. If he remains concentrated in this state, his present environment will pass away, and he will awaken in a dimensionally larger world where the object of his contemplation will be seen as a concrete objective reality.

I feel intuitively that, were he to abstract his thoughts from this dimensionally larger world and retreat still farther within his mind, he would again bring about an externalization of time. He would discover that, every time he retreats into his inner mind and brings about an externalization of time, space becomes dimensionally larger. And he would therefore conclude that both time and space are serial, and that the drama of life is but the climbing of a multitudinous dimensional time block.

Scientists will one day explain WHY there is a Serial Universe. But in practice HOW we use this Serial Universe to change the future is more important. To change the future, we need only concern ourselves with two worlds in the infinite series; the world we know by reason of our bodily organs, and the world we perceive independently of our bodily organs.

I have stated that man has at every moment of time the choice before him which of several futures he will have. But the question arises: “How is this possible when the experiences of man, awake in the three-dimensional world, are predetermined?” as his observation of an event before it occurs implies.

This ability to change the future will be seen if we liken the experiences of life on earth to this printed page. Man experiences events on earth singly and successively in the same way that you are now experiencing the words of this page.

Imagine that every word on this page represents a single sensory impression. To get the context, to understand my meaning, you focus your vision on the first word in the upper left-hand corner and then move your focus across the page from left to right, letting it fall on the words singly and successively. By the time your eyes reach the last word on this page you have extracted my meaning.

But suppose on looking at the page, with all the printed words thereon equally present, you decided to rearrange them. You could, by rearranging them, tell an entirely different story, in fact you could tell many different stories.

A dream is nothing more than uncontrolled four-dimensional thinking, or the rearrangement of both past and future sensory impressions. Man seldom dreams of events in the order in which he experiences them when awake. He usually dreams of two or more events which are separated in time fused into a single sensory impression; or else he so completely rearranges his single waking sensory impressions that he does not recognize them when he encounters them in his waking state.

For example, I dreamed that I delivered a package to the restaurant in my apartment building. The hostess said to me, “You can’t leave that there,” whereupon, the elevator operator gave me a few letters and as I thanked him for them he, in turn, thanked me. At this point, the night elevator operator appeared and waved a greeting to me.

The following day, as I left my apartment, I picked up a few letters which had been placed at my door. On my way down I gave the day elevator operator a tip and thanked him for taking care of my mail, whereupon, he thanked me for the tip.

On my return home that day I overheard a doorman say to a delivery man, “You can’t leave that there.” As I was about to take the elevator up to my apartment, I was attracted by a familiar face in the restaurant, and as I looked in the hostess greeted me with a smile. That night I escorted my dinner guests to the elevator and as I said good-bye to them, the night operator waved good-night to me.

By simply rearranging a few of the single sensory impressions I was destined to encounter, and by fusing two or more of them into single sensory impressions, I constructed a dream which differed quite a bit from my waking experience.

When we have learned to control the movements of our attention in the four-dimensional world, we shall be able to consciously create circumstances in the three-dimensional world. We learn this control through the waking dream, where our attention can be maintained without effort, for attention minus effort is indispensable to changing the future. We can, in a controlled waking dream, consciously construct an event which we desire to experience in the three-dimensional world.

The sensory impressions we use to construct our waking dream are present realities displaced in time or the four-dimensional world. All that we do in constructing the waking dream is to select from the vast array of sensory impressions those, which, when they are properly arranged, imply that we have realized our desire.

With the dream clearly defined we relax in a chair and induce a state of consciousness akin to sleep. A state which, although bordering on sleep, leaves us in conscious control of the movements of our attention. Then we experience in imagination what we would experience in reality were this waking dream an objective fact.

In applying this technique to change the future it is important always to remember that the only thing which occupies the mind during the waking dream is THE WAKING DREAM, the predetermined action and sensation which implies the fulfillment of our desire. How the waking dream becomes physical fact is not our concern. Our acceptance of the waking dream as physical reality wills the means for its fulfillment.

Let me again lay the foundation of prayer, which is nothing more than a controlled waking dream:

1. Define your objective, know definitely what you want.

2. Construct an event which you believe you will encounter FOLLOWING the fulfillment of your desire — something which will have the action of Self predominant — an event which implies the fulfillment of your desire.

3. Immobilize the physical body and induce a state of consciousness akin to sleep. Then, mentally feel yourself right into the proposed action, until the single sensation of fulfillment dominates the mind; imagining all the while that you are actually performing the action HERE AND NOW so that you experience in imagination what you would experience in the flesh were you now to realize your goal. Experience has convinced me that this is the easiest way to achieve our goal.

However, my own many failures would convict me were I to imply that I have completely mastered the movements of my attention. But I can, with the ancient teacher, say:

“This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize.” Phil. 3:13,14

‘*’*************

Again I want to remind you that the responsibility to make what you have done real in this world is not on your shoulders. Do not be concerned with the HOW, you have assumed that it is done, the assumption has its own way of objectifying itself. All responsibility to make it so is removed from you.

There is a little statement in the book of Exodus which bears this out. Millions of people who have read it, or have had it mentioned to them throughout the centuries have completely misunderstood it. It is said, “Steep not a kid in its mothers milk.” (King James version, “Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mothers milk.” Exodus 23:19).

Unnumbered millions of people, misunderstanding this statement, to this very day in the enlightened age of 1948, will not eat any dairy products with a meat dish. It just is not done.

They think the Bible is history, and when it says, “Steep not a kid in its mother’s milk,” milk and the products of milk, butter and cheese, they will not take at the same time they take the kid or any kind of meat. In fact they even have separate dishes with which to cook their meat.

But you are now about to apply it psychologically. You have done your meditation and you have assumed that you are what you want to be. Consciousness is God, your attention is like the very stream of life or milk itself that nurses and makes alive that which holds your attention. In other words, what holds your attention has your life.

Throughout the centuries a kid has been used as the symbol of sacrifice. You have given birth to everything in your world. But there are things that you no longer wish to keep alive, although you have mothered and fathered them. You are a jealous father that can easily consume, like Cronus, his children. It is your right to consume what formerly you expressed when you did not know better.

Now you are detached in consciousness from that former state. It was your kid, it was your child, you embodied and expressed it in your world. But now that you have assumed that you are what you want to be, do not look back on your former state and wonder HOW it will disappear from your world. For if you look back and give attention to it, you are steeping once more that kid in its mother’s milk.

Do not say to yourself, ‘I wonder if I am really detached from that state,” or “I wonder if so and so is true.” Give all your attention to the assumption that the thing is so, because all responsibility to make it so is completely removed from your shoulders. You do not have to make it so, it IS so. You appropriate what is already fact, and you walk in the assumption that it is, and in a way that you do not know, I do not know, no man knows, it becomes objectified in your world.

Do not be concerned with the how, and do not look back on your former state. “No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62

Simply assume that it is done and suspend reason, suspend all the arguments of the conscious three-dimensional mind. Your desire is outside of the reach of the three-dimensional mind.

Assume you are that which you wish to be; walk as though you were it; and as you remain faithful to your assumption — it will harden into fact.

A DIVINE EVENT

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 12-08-1969

Christmas is the proclamation of a divine event to which all creation aspires. It is an event which puts an entirely different light upon human life, for it proclaims that man has been saved. I question seriously whether an nth part of one per cent of those who call themselves Christians know what this event is about. Tonight I will tell you from my personal experience.

Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthians that “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.” Now, the Holy Spirit is nothing more than the individual’s personal experience of the event, for in the Book of John, the Risen Christ proclaims that he will “send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who will lead you into all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” In the beginning you were told that which seemed incredible, and the Holy Spirit is your experience of that event, for only then can you know that Jesus is Lord.

Now, who is Jesus? He is your awareness, your I AMness. In the Book of Exodus, Moses was told to “Say unto the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent you.’ This is my name forever. By this name I shall be remembered throughout all generations, and besides me there is no other Lord.” Jesus is the Lord, your I AMness; your consciousness of being. “Joshua” is the Hebraic form of our word “Jesus” and means “Jehovah is savior.” There is no other Lord than I am. “Our God is a God of salvation. To God, the Lord, belongs escape from death.” God is buried in humanity to make man a living being. And he will rise in the individual as his own wonderful human imagination.

The discovery of the God within is the one far-off divine event to which creation moves. The only resurrection spoken of in scripture is when he rises in you, and the only birth spoken of there is when he comes out – and that is Christmas. The event seems to be single and separate from the other events, but they are all part of a complex whole. We are now approaching one part we call Christmas: the birth of God, the birth of I am!

Where could you go that you are not aware of being? Therefore, where can you go and not find God? If you lived in hell would you not be aware of being there? So God is in hell. If you lived in ecstasy you would be aware of your ecstatic mood, and that awareness is God, for I am is the only name of Jesus.

In his Book called Acts, Luke said: “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” To call Jesus? No! To be aware! Without using words, when you are aware you are saying I am. That is Jesus, who is buried and rises in you. And when he escapes from the tomb of your skull, Christ is born. We are taught that this happened 2,000 years ago among people who are long gone from the world, but I know from experience that when it happens in you it is strangely contemporary. Yes, Christ was born. That is a fact, but it is not over, as it is still taking place in the individual the world over. Christmas is that one far-off great divine event to which the whole vast world is moving.

If you ask someone who calls himself a Christian, who Christ is, the chances are he would tell you that Jesus is the son of God. And if you told him that he must be God to know that, he would be horrified and tell you that you are blasphemous to suggest such a thing. But if you return to the proclamation of the great event, you will find that “No one knows who the son is except the Father.” So if you know God’s son is Jesus Christ, then you have to be God the Father. And, since no one knows who the Father is except the son, Jesus Christ must have revealed you as his Father. Well, man cannot rationalize this because he has not had the experience; for no one can know that Jesus is Lord (which is God the Father) except by the Holy Spirit, for it is he who brings you the experience of the great mystery.

We are told that when Paul rose up into the third heaven he heard unutterable words. Some translations say they were “words which man may not utter,” but it isn’t that. What Paul saw and heard was incapable of expression in words. There are no words to express a body that one wears when he rises within himself, for it is not a body of flesh and blood, but an indescribable form divine. In his 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul said: “What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body which is to be, for God gives it a body as he has chosen.” I will know you in eternity, but for all the identity of purpose there will be a radical discontinuity of form.

Yesterday morning when I returned to this level of my being, I arrested the body I was wearing to spend some ten to fifteen minutes right on the surface of my being. The form is alive. It is all energy, all power, all wisdom, and all love. I wear that body as I do the suit I am wearing now, only I know it to be my very self. I am always in control, by intensifying my energy or modifying it. In that body I looked out over glorious scenes never seen on earth. They were all three-dimensional visions in vivid colors and indescribable forms. I would observe one, then let it go to observe another – all heavenly treasures which are in me.

When your eyes begin to open inwardly into the world of thought, into eternity, you will see what no mortal eye turned out could ever see. There are no images in this outer world to describe the eternal world which is imperishable, the world you will see when you are wearing Christ, the New Man.

This is an indescribable, ineffable, mystery; for God comes to us as one unknown, yet one who will allow the individual to experience who he is. When you experience Christ, you are experiencing who you are, for you are the Jesus of scripture. You are the Lord God Jehovah. The event toward which you are moving is the awakening of the Lord in you. Then and only then will you know who you are.

Christmas is simply the proclamation of this one far-off divine event to which creation moves. It is not about one who lived a long time ago, but about you. The Bible is very personal. It is your own spiritual biography, your salvation history. To see the characters of scripture as characters of history is to see truth tempered to the weakness of the human soul. They are not characters on the outside, but within you, for the drama unfolds in your imagination. You are buried in yourself and do not know it. But when you reach the fullness of time you will awake to Christmas.

Last lecture night I told you of an experience of a friend who tasted of the power of the age to come. She had found herself, in dream, in the home of people who have not changed the fashion of their outer garments for 300 years. The woman’s second husband had been killed by the group and she tried to persuade them that what they had done was wrong, but they would not believe her. A group of men all dressed in black and carrying machine guns arrived, ready to kill everyone, and when she tried to persuade them that it was wrong they could not understand. Then she began to awake in her dream to realize that, although they all seemed to be independent of her perception of them, they were only aspects of her dream. Arresting her power of perception, everything froze. She changed their intentions, released the activity in her which allowed them to become reanimated again, and watched as the man put down his gun and with outstretched arms went over to embrace the woman.

This is the power of which I speak. It is a power unknown to the mortal, rational mind. We think power is in the atom bomb, in hydrogen energy, money in the bank, or securities. Tonight, undoubtedly a dozen or more very wealthy men will die and not take one penny with them. They simply left the garment of flesh and blood they made so real, along with their securities. But you can never lose the power of which I speak, for it is forever. These bodies die, and all that they possess will die with them; but the power of imagination is imperishable, for it is the power of God in man, called Christ. Man is slowly awakening to this power and when he hears and senses it, this is the power he will exercise.

Now, in my friend’s case, she awoke in her dream to discover that, although everything seemed to be taking place independent of her perception of it, the dream was only herself pushed out. Knowing that she could control the dream, she changed the motivation of the man from murder to love. Then she released the activity which allowed them to become reanimated again, and they obeyed her command. This is your future, your inheritance where everything is under your control.

These bodies of flesh and blood are only garments God wears. Even though they are consumed in a furnace (called cremation), the bodies are restored for others to occupy. The world is restored, but you – the actor in the drama – move up until you finally awake, and that is what we call Christmas.

Christmas is the awakening of God in man. It’s not an event which took place 2,000 years ago, but is taking place all over the world in those who have reached the fullness of time. When the fullness of time has come for you, you begin to stir, to awaken from this dream of death and come out of your skull, which is your birth from above. These two events take place the same night. We separate them by three and a half months, and then add a few months to the discovery of the fatherhood of God, then more time to the ascension of the spirit; but there are four parts of the one grand event. The first is resurrection. The second is birth. The third is the discovery of the fatherhood through the son, and the fourth is the ascension: the rising of the son of man (who you are) into heaven in a serpentine form.

Tonight many are preparing for the great event and singing their heads off on Christmas morning. I’m all for it. Let them have fun. But they will be singing of one they do not know. They will sing their hallelujahs thinking that someone in time and space is responding to their adulation – but that’s not Christmas. In the world, moving among them walk those who have experienced the event. They know that Jesus is Lord and that he is their wonderful human imagination, their I AMness.

I am is Jehovah’s name forever. By this name I shall be remembered throughout all generations. You are now a living being because Jehovah is buried within you. And you are destined to become a life-giving spirit, as my friend discovered she was. Stopping the activity in herself which allowed others to be alive, she changed their motivation by giving a command which was in conflict with their intentions. Then she released the activity in her and they became reanimated once more – not to carry out their former intention, but to execute her command. She has now tasted of the power of the age to come.

On this level we argue, trying to persuade the other that he is wrong when he knows he is right, so we end up just where we stand. This is life in a world of death where everything waxes, wanes, and vanishes.

But you are destined to enter the world of which I speak. It is eternal and cannot be entered with a body of flesh and blood, but requires a new body. So unless what you sow dies, it cannot be made alive. And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but God (who is yourself) gives you a body as he has chosen. It is a glorious body of power and wisdom and called the body of Christ. It is worn as you would a garment, only you are in control of your power through your innate wisdom – a wisdom to which no doubt is attached. This proclamation is not discovered by some rational argument. The gospel is not discovered, it is disclosed. It is not something you can logically prove, but a self-revelation of God. Scholars can study the life and teachings of Jesus until the end of time but never find in the study who the Father or the Son is. If they did, they would not tamper with the Bible.

In the earliest of all the books, the Book of Mark, the statement is made: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God.” The phrase, “the son of God,” is an addition by a scribe. The earliest and best manuscripts that we have, omit the phrase, “the son of God,” and read: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

The word “gospel” means “good news.” This is the good news, that Jesus is the Lord Jehovah and Christ is his power and wisdom. He is buried in us and he will rise in us. You will know of his rising because the day he rises in you, the very imagery of scripture will surround you, and you will know that you are the one spoken of as the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you will discover who the son is, for you will not know that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit (by experience.) And you can only know your son from experience. David, the personification of humanity fused into a single being, stands before you and calls you Father

You are told at the end of the Old Testament that “A son honors his father. If then I am a father, where is my honor?” In other words, where is my son? The New Testament begins by revealing the son, but man cannot understand. He does not know that Jesus is the Lord who is God the Father, until he has the experience of waking and rising in his skull. Of coming out of that skull and holding the Christ child, the sign of his resurrection, in his own hands. He must stand before the son of God and David must call him Father. And may I tell you: at that moment there will be no doubt in his mind as to who the son is and who he is relative to that boy. He will know he is David’s father and David will know he is his son.

In the Book of Samuel we read: “When you lie down with your fathers I will raise up after you your son, who will come forth from your body. I will be his father and he shall be my son.” Now we jump to the Book of Revelation, where the Lord is speaking, saying: “I am the root and the offspring of David.” I am the root, the cause which is the father. And I am the offspring of my son, David; therefore I am one with my grandson. All of the members of the human race are fused together into a single being called David. And what comes out of that? David’s offspring. If David’s root is the Lord, what comes out of David must be one with his root, so I am the root and the offspring. I am the grandfather and the grandson and David is my son. Man matures when he becomes his grandfather, for the grandfather is the Lord.

We are dealing with a mystery. If you think when you read the story of the Old or New Testament that you are going to reach truth by some rational argument, you are searching in vain. The wisest of the wise cannot see it, and because it isn’t rational they call it a myth. But I tell you: he gives himself to whomever he will, even the lowliest among men. Those who have all their degrees, honors, money, and reputation are dead but do not know it. I do not condemn them or argue with them, but simply walk by, looking for willing ears to tell my story to, and usually it is to those who are not the scholars of the day. Those who hear my words may not understand them, but locking my message in their hearts, they ponder it; and one day, believing as I hoped they would, it will erupt within them. Then they, too, will know that the Lord Jesus is he who the world calls the God of the universe. They will know it because the Holy Spirit brought to their remembrance all that I have told them.

Let the world go blindly on, as it will. Eternity awaits. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. Everyone eventually will come into this knowledge. But no one will come until he hungers, until he thirsts after God with a thirst that only an experience of God can satisfy.

The world, not understanding scripture, thinks that God will send a physical famine. Oh, that is possible, it happens all over the world anyway. It’s not because we cannot supply the food – the problem is economic. We are told to curtail production, as we cannot find bins large enough to house our supply. We put an enormous weight on the taxpayer because we allow food to rot, as we do not know how to give it away. People are paid not to grow food, while our government talks about not being able to supply. Our southern states alone could grow enough to feed and clothe the world, but how to do it under the present economy? I am not an economist so I cannot tell you how; but I do know it is not a lack of production, but rather a lack of economy.

The economic problem I cannot solve, but I can tell you that Christ in you is your own wonderful human imagination, that the God of scripture and the Lord Jesus Christ is your I am. Let the world scoff at it. That is perfectly all right; they are only fulfilling scripture. “Scoffers will come scoffing saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the foundation of the world.”’ So let them scoff, but you accept my message and put your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you. Hope it will erupt within you now, in the not distant future; and then – when you shed this garment of flesh (as you must), you will be clothed in power; clothed in wisdom; clothed in love.

Those who have not had the experience before they depart this world are restored to life to find themselves in a world just like this. They will be faced with all the problems they have neglected here. They may leave the garment of a billionaire to find themselves a shoeshine boy or one who cleans latrines, if that is what must be done to rouse them to believe the incredible story.

Don’t think that your present position in life is any indicator of what you will be when you leave here. If Christ has not awakened in you, you will find yourself in a terrestrial world like this, in a body like these, new and young, but not a baby. You will be doing something best suited for the work yet to be done in you. Until that power in you awakes, you will continue using your rational mind in a rational world just like this.

The Christmas that we now look forward to celebrate is one aspect of the great event. There are four definite acts in the single event, which begin with your resurrection. This is followed by your birth from above. Then David reveals your fatherhood, and the fourth and final act appears when you ascend into heaven in a serpentine form and enter it violently, clothed in power.

Now let us go into the silence.

A LESSON IN SCRIPTURE

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 10/23/1967

In the second chapter of the Book of Luke the story is told of Jesus’ parents, worried and seeking him for three days, finding him and complaining, to which Jesus said: “How is it that you sought me? Know you not that I must be about my Father’s business?” I ask you not to put yourself in that frame of mind. Your earthly parents seek you and, at the tender age of twelve, you dare to say to them: “I must be about my Father’s business.”

This statement has reference to the 40th Psalm and the 4th chapter of John. In the 40th Psalm you are told: “In the role of the book it is written about me.” Every man is destined to discover that scripture is his autobiography. It’s not written about individual beings like Jesus Christ, Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so on who lived unnumbered years ago, but about the individual you! The 4th chapter of the Book of John begins with a discussion between the Lord Jesus Christ and a woman of Samaria about a well and water. After this discussion the disciples say to Jesus: “Master you have had nothing to eat” and he replies: “I have food you know not of. My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”

This is true. You have come into this world only to finish the work of him who sent you. And who is he? The Father. “He who sees me, sees he who sent me. I came out from the Father and came into the world. Again I leave the world and return to the Father. He who sees me sees the Father, for I and the Father are one.”

Conceiving the thought in the beginning, God had to have an agent to express it. Everything in this world needs man to express it and may I tell you: God is man. In the beginning God made man in his image. “Male/female made he them and called their name Man.” Read it carefully in the 5th chapter of Genesis. Creating Man to express himself, God comes into the world to express and finish what he conceived in the beginning. Conceiving a state and knowing it takes a man to express it; God sent himself from the depth of his own being into this world to fulfill the state.

“In the beginning was the Word (the purpose) and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” The Old Testament is God’s Word (his plan) which he made known through his servants, the prophets. The New Testament interprets the Old. The story of Jesus Christ is the interpretation of the prophecy recorded in the Old. Read it carefully, for everything said of Jesus Christ, you are going to experience. It is said: “His name shall be called the Word of God.” Called God’s Word, his seed, his creative power, your imagination is God’s creative power and wisdom. Can you conceive of any greater wisdom than your own wonderful human imagination? Think of something. The moment you do, it’s right before your mind’s eye. Maybe you can’t draw a straight line, yet you can imagine your mother even though she is gone from this world. Think of anyone and they instantly appear before your mind’s eye. That is your own wonderful creative power-filled imagination who is Jesus Christ in you. It is he who has come into the world to fulfill the Word of God, and everything must be fulfilled by the Jesus Christ in you, who is your hope of glory.

We are told in the 22nd chapter of the Book of Luke: “Scripture must be fulfilled in me,” so you must be about your Father’s business by experiencing everything said of Jesus Christ in scripture. The miraculous birth will be yours, the discovery of the Fatherhood, the ascent into heaven and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon you in the bodily form of a dove. Then like the psalmist you will say: “Thou hast delivered me from the world of death,” for you will know from experience that in the volume of the book it was all about you!

I have been sent from the depth of my soul to act as a magnet to those who are about to fulfill scripture, and they come, each in his own order. Last Friday morning my friend Bennie found himself cataleptic. Unable to open his eyes or move his body, Ben could hear within himself the cry of a child as he felt an unearthly wind in his skull. Then a star exploded from his skull and a child wrapped in swaddling clothes fell into his arms. Looking at the child he said: “Oh, my darling” and knew that no one in eternity could care for that child but himself. As the vision faded he was given a photograph of the child.

The birth from above came to Bennie that way. He was left with a photograph. This happened on the 20th day of October. Now, if the current record of order is correct (and it has happened to my friend Bob and myself), five months from now Bennie will experience the coming of God’s only Son, David, who will reveal him as the Father. I am basing my interpretation from what he told me, and I say the birth has happened to him. Why should the birth occur in the same manner to any two when God is infinite in his creation? Of all the children who come into the world, seemingly from the womb of woman, no two births are exactly alike, there is always something different.

Only a couple of days before this happened to Bennie, he said:, “In the spirit you were teaching the word of God when someone said: ‘Tell us the story of Jesus’ and you replied: ‘The story of Jesus is a persistent assumption that you are what you want to be, that things are as you desire them to be.’“ This is true, for unless you believe that you are the being you now worship on the outside, you remain desiring and die in your sins of unfulfilled desires. You’ve got to begin to believe that you are Jesus Christ, the Word of God, which – having gone out will not return empty, but will fulfill your purpose and accomplish that which you sent yourself to do. What is that? To fulfill scripture. That’s all you are here for.

On this level you can be rich if that is your desire, but remember the story of Jesus is persistent assumption. You can persist in the assumption that you are wealthy. I have many friends across this country who are very, very wealthy, yet I would say ninety-nine percent of them are miserable; but they will all tell you the same thing. I think of one in particular now. She has a fortune in diamonds. Tiffany, who sells diamonds marked up 300-400%, offered her $100,000 for one piece. When she joins us for dinner in New York City she wears a broach, a ring, and a pendant, worth a half million dollars. Ruth was born a very poor girl and – desiring wealth – she persistently assumed she was married to tremendous wealth. She had no money. Her only claim to any social status was that she was a descendant of the Adams who were in the White House. He, on the other hand, came out of a line of rascals. His great-grandfather was a bishop in New York; therefore, had good advice as to his descent and how to guard it. Ruth married and lived in hell for twenty-odd years, bearing him three sons. Now well into her seventies, her only desire is to marry more wealth and have more diamonds.

That is all right. The story of Jesus is a complete and undeviating persistence in the assumption that you are what you want to be. If you haven’t experienced wealth and that is what you want, persistently assume “I am wealthy.” If you have not experienced fame, assume you are famous, but “The day will come,” saith the Lord “when I will send a famine upon you. It will not be a hunger for bread or a thirst for water, but for the hearing of my Word.” If that hunger hasn’t come to you, then take the same story of Jesus and fulfill your every desire.

When I am in New York, my friend comes to every meeting. She is a delightful person, but she is brutally honest with her desires. She wants more and more diamonds, more emeralds, more museum pieces. She confessed that she had no hunger to hear anything about David, but wants more and more money to leave her two sons. She wants more and more worldly illusions; but it is my hope that the hunger has come to you who are here – not for more and more bread and water, but for hearing the word of God with understanding.

The Book of Luke begins: “I have come to fulfill scripture. Then beginning with Moses in the law and the prophets and the psalms, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” Questioning his earthly parents, he asks: “Why do you seek me? Do you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?”….fulfilling scripture? Entering the temple, he is given a book which he opens and reads the first verse and half of the second of the 61st chapter of Isaiah, saying: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor and suffering. To open the prison doors to all who are in prison.”

Now, claiming to have come only to fulfill scripture, he tells you that the Spirit of the Lord God was upon him that day. It is not expressed that way in Luke, but he says – as you heard it “this day” – it was fulfilled. What does he mean? That he saw the Spirit descend in bodily form as a dove. It has been fulfilled in him and he is urging everyone to follow his pattern, for no one comes to the Father save by this pattern. The Spirit of the Lord God descended in bodily form as a dove. The same dove who returned to Noah in the ark. Man is the ark of God and the dove – coming to bring assurance that everything is all right – descends upon one, and as it remains he is told to “Rise and anoint him, for this is he.” Luke tells you how he is fulfilling scripture, for he knows that “In the volume of the book it is all about me.”

Like Paul, I have not restrained my lips. I have told of your deliverance. I have told of your everlasting love to anyone and everyone who will listen. They may not accept my words, but I do know that within a certain group the hunger is there and they will all begin to awake.

Now, in the 30th chapter of the Book of Jeremiah, the Lord speaks, saying: “Can a man bear a child? Why then do I see every man with his hands pulling himself out of himself like a woman in labor.” The Hebrew word “chalatz” (translated in both the King James Version and the Revised Standard Version as “loins”) means “to take off; to pull oneself out of oneself; to deliver.” When the Psalmist said: “He has delivered my soul from death” he was speaking of the physical body. It is a garment of death which appears in the world, waxes, wanes, vanishes, and turns into dust. The word translated “delivered” in the Psalms, is the same word which was translated “loins” in Jeremiah.

So, can a Man bear a child? Yes. Let us go back to what I quoted earlier. “Male/female made he them and called their name Man.” There is a womb in the male/female unlike that of an earthly woman. This womb is the skull of generic Man. It is there that God has planted His Word which cannot return unto him void, but must accomplish that which is His purpose and prosper in the thing for which he sent it. That purpose is to fulfill scripture, for God has an entirely different world awaiting those who fulfill His Word.

We are told: “This Word is truth.” Everyone enters the world to fulfill the truth and will not depart until God’s Word is accomplished. If God’s Word has not been fulfilled in you when the world calls you dead, you are restored to a life just as real as this, in a world just as real as this, to continue your journey until the hunger comes upon you and you will be drawn to that final point.

In his book called Urizen, William Blake tells of the serpent in the womb of Enitharmon who, shredding the scales of death, his hissing changes into the cry of a child and

“The dead heard the voice of the child

And began to awake from sleep

All things heard the voice of the child

And began to awake to life.”

You actually hear the cry of the child in your skull. It seems impossible, but may I tell you: it is true.

Now, to encourage those who are not interested in that aspect of the truth, let me go back to what Bennie heard me say in the spirit: “The story of Jesus is a persistent assumption.” This is true in every aspect of your life. You want to be rich? That’s the story of Jesus, which is a persistent assumption in the conviction that “I am rich,” for unless you believe that “I am rich” you die in your sins and continue to claim “I am poor.” You want to be known? Then persistently assume: “I am known.” Want to be healthy? “I am healthy!” Regardless of what you want to be, you must declare you already are it and persist in that assumption. An assumption is an act of faith, and without faith it is impossible to please God. Your reasoning mind may deny wealth. Your senses deny it too, but if you have faith you will dare to assume wealth, thereby becoming the man you want to be.

Maybe, tonight you would rather continue to worship a Jesus Christ on the outside. Maybe you would rather continue to walk with the sheep of the world and not be the shepherd, but you would like to feed on green pastures by still waters, instead of climbing the steep hills of doubt and fear as most people do. You can, if you will persistently assume: “I am well fed. I am wanted. I am known and everything is as I want it to be.” But remember: to bring all these things into being, there must be a persistent assumption. That’s the story of Jesus.

Now we are told in Jeremiah that God’s word will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his mind, which is that you become God. “In the later days you will understand it clearly.” It is God’s purpose to give himself to man and he will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his mind. So in the final days he sends a hunger unto your heart – not for bread, a larger home or jewelry – but for the hearing of the Word of God. When this hunger possesses you, nothing will satisfy you but an experience of God. And if it is God’s purpose to give you himself as himself, when you have experienced his Word you are God!

Here is the story: “What is the greatest commandment, master? “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” In the original manuscript the word “hear” is “sh’mA” whose last letter is larger than the other letters in the word. This is also true of the world “echaD” (translated “one”) at the end of the sentence. Put the two words together and they spell a word meaning “witness.”

At the very end of the Book of Luke you read: “You are witnesses of these things, but remain here until you are endowed with power from on high.” What power? The power of God called Jesus Christ. You are destined to put on and wear the Lord Christ Jesus as you would a garment. Wait for it, for it will be born within you. And when God’s power and wisdom is born, you will find the sign of his birth in the form of a little child. Then all of these signs will unfold in you and you will wear the garment of Jesus Christ. So I tell you, you will be witnesses of all that I have told you, for now I am returning to the very source out of which I came.

I came into the world completely forgetful of the being that I AM. I had to. When I first met my friend Abdullah back in 1931 I entered a room where he was speaking and when the speech was ended he came over, extended his hand and said: “Neville, you are six months late.” I had never seen the man before, so I said: “I am six months late? How do you know me?” and he replied: “The brothers told me that you were coming and you are six months late.”

I was late because the one who told me of Abdullah was a Catholic priest. I loved him dearly, but I thought he was almost a moron. His father, a rumrunner in the days of prohibition, left him two million dollars, which he proceeded to lose on Wall Street the first year. The only wonderful thing he did was to take the last $15,000 and give it to a Catholic organization to care for his mother the rest of her earthly days. So, having no respect for his judgment, when he told me about Abdullah I postponed going to hear him until one day I could find no excuse. When Ab called me by name I said: “I don’t know you” and he replied: “Oh yes you do, but you have forgotten. We were together in China thousands of years ago, but you promised to completely forget in order to play the part you must play now.”

Last Friday night a lady gave me a letter saying: “The previous Monday as you stood on the platform I could not see you as Neville, but as an ancient Chinese philosopher. I have seen my friends change from moment to moment, but you remained changed during your entire lecture. This bothered me, so I questioned the experience on the way home and then I remembered. Several years ago in a psychic experience, I was walking up a hill with other students to attend a class. Falling away from the group, I saw an ancient Chinese in a white garment at my side. Beckoning me to follow him, we approached a cave where I saw huge granite stone with a peak at the top. Two hands containing a cocoon covered the top of the stone. Removing the cocoon, the ancient Chinese broke it on the peak of the granite, and water, mixed with colorful oil, came out as life took on the sense of heat rising. Then the ancient Chinese took my hand and led me back to the group, where they had not realized that I had been away. “Now I know whose face you wore last Monday night.”

Well, that’s what Abdullah told me in 1931, but to this day I have no knowledge of it, because I swore in the beginning to empty myself completely of all memory and take on the form of a slave, but to have faith in him who sent me. Now knowing that he and I are one, I have no other place to go but back to myself, the sender. Having played every part I have completely wiped out the memory, but I know that no one can arrive at the end of the road until he has played it all. I do know from my intuitive knowledge that, just as an actor must feel the part he is playing and imagine himself the character he is depicting, you will imagine yourself into every part, and when the play is over for you, the signs will come to show you the being that you really are.

You who are here are hungry for the Word of God. You are thirsty for the Word of God. You could be at home this night watching TV and it would cost you nothing, but you have given up your time and your money to be here because of your hunger. I have been sent to tell you not only that you become God when he is fulfilled in you, but how to cushion the blows in this world of reason by delighting in his law. His law is simply a persistent assumption in the claim: “I am what I want to be.” Do not judge one who does not have the hunger for the Word of God, but tell him how to become what he wants to be.

Tell him that the story of Jesus is a perpetual, persistent assumption in whatever he wants to be. That Christ in him is the power of God and his imagination is that power and wisdom. Tell him that imagination knows how to bring his assumption to pass, but that he must persist.

Now I ask you: are you willing to persist in the assumption that you are what you want to be? Or are you going to go home tonight and say: “That was a nice little talk he gave, but after all he has a million dollars in the bank and I have nothing.” If you think that, you are disobedient, for by that thought you have lack of faith in “I am he!” That’s the fundamental sin of the universe. There are only two sins recorded in scripture that offend God. One is: “Unless you believe that I am he you die in your sins,” and the other is eating of the fruit of tree of knowledge of good and evil. Ask our generals tonight if it would be good to stop bombing Vietnam and they would say No. Go across the ocean and ask the Vietnamese and they would say Yes – so what is good and what is evil?

I am not asking anyone but you! What would be good for you? Tell me, because in the end every conflict will resolve itself as the world is simply mirroring the being you are assuming that you are. One day you will be so saturated with wealth, so saturated with power in the world of Caesar, you will turn your back on it all and go in search for the Word of God. I remember when I had so much wealth. I did not have one home, but many, each fully staffed from secretaries to gardeners. That was a life of sheer decadence. I recall walking out of it and not returning. Whether they ever found the body I do not know, but I do know I deliberately walked away. Then about ten years ago in one of my journeys in spirit, I walked back into the world and saw it just as it was before. Strangely enough, everyone recognized me and welcomed me with open arms, but I stayed only for a moment then returned here bringing with me its vivid memory. So I do believe that one must completely saturate himself with the things of Caesar before he is hungry for the Word of God.

I am convinced you are here because of your hunger. I know you have obligations to society, you must pay Caesar’s debts, so you want more money, but your hunger is greater for the hearing of the Word of God than for things of Caesar. That is why you are here, and you are blessed by it.

Now let us go into the silence.

A MOVEMENT OF MIND

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 11-24-1969

In the 33rd chapter of the Book of Job we are told that God speaks to man in two ways, but man does not perceive them. It is said: “In a dream, in a vision of the night when deep sleep falls upon men while they slumber on their beds, he opens the ears of men and seals their instructions.”

Tell that to a psychiatrist and, because he separates the dreamer from God, he will tell you that all dreams come from the individual dreamer and not from God. But I tell you: God’s eternal name is I AM, and if I asked who is dreaming the dream would the individual not say, “I am?” And are we not told that that is God’s name forever and ever?

You cannot separate the dreamer from God, and all dreams proceed from Him. Some are simple and need no interpretation, while others are revealed in a symbolic language and need an interpreter, as told us in the story of Joseph. His true identity is revealed when he looked into the faces of those who had had a dream and saw they were disturbed, for he said: “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dream.” Then he interpreted the dreams of the butler, the baker, and even Pharaoh himself, and they all came to pass just as he had said they would. Now, if only God can interpret a dream, why tell Joseph? Because he is a personification of God. His name was changed from Joseph (meaning “salvation”) to Joshua, which means “Jehovah is salvation.”

Now back in 1954, I awoke from a dream hearing these words: “You do not move in waking any more than you move on your bed in sleep. It is all a movement of mind. The intensity is determined by the strength of the vortex you create, which is just like a whirlwind with a center of perfect stillness. You only believe that you are moving when you are awake, as you think you move in sleep.” Well, I am a rational being and reason could not accept that statement, but I wrote it down and placed it in my Bible to await further revelation.

Psychiatrists would say this message came from myself. I will not deny that, but I do know that it came from a depth of my own being which my rational mind does not reach. Today our three astronauts returned from a trip of half a million miles. You and I came here tonight in our cars, and throughout my lifetime I have traveled all over the world in ships and planes. And like Blake, in my dreams “I have traveled through a land of men, a land of men and women, too. And heard and seen such dreadful things as cold earth wanderers never knew.” We have all traveled, yet I know what I heard and wrote down. I know that I have traveled in my dreams and yet I know I have not physically left my room, for when I awoke in the morning I was still on the bed upon which I fell asleep. So I ask you: is this waking state no more than a dream? Is there a dreamer in the depths of my being who looks upon this world as a dream, just as I who – having gone to a little lower of the dream at night – awake to find I haven’t left my bed at dawn?

Paul tells us that “We are born anew through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” I remember that night, for I felt myself waking from a deep, deep sleep, feeling a vibration which, although centered in my head, it seemed to be coming from without. Then I awoke within the sepulcher – the skull – in which I was buried, to come out to find all of the symbolism of the Christian mystery surrounding me. I saw the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and the three witnesses to the event. Although unseen, as I was spirit, the witnesses spoke of me as the father of the child – the sign that my savior was born, fulfilling scripture: “This shall be a sign unto you, you shall find a child wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”
That night I awoke from a far deeper level of my being to find the symbolism of my waking from the dream of life, just as day after day I wake from the dream of the night. So, could it be that the revelation I heard back in 1954 is literally true? Reason questions it, reason doubts it, and reason rejects it. So if the vision is true then reason is rejecting Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ defines himself as the truth, saying: “I am the truth…” If the revelation is true, and reason rejects it, is not reason Satan, the doubting one?

This statement cannot be logically proved. Its truth must be experienced. I had completely forgotten it until I discovered my note today while looking in my Interpreter’s Bible, and there it was – the note I wrote on the 28th day of November 1954: “You do not move in waking any more than you move on your bed in sleep. It is all a movement of mind. The intensity is determined by the strength of the vortex you create, which is just like a whirlwind with a center of perfect stillness. You only believe that you are moving when you are awake, as you think you move in sleep.”

Scripture speaks of two ages: this age of darkness and decay, and that age of light and eternal life. This age is one of motion and violence, turbulence and storms, as the dreamer in men is sound asleep and does not know that he is God. In the 44th Psalm, however, he is urged to “Rouse thyself, why sleepest thou, O Lord. Awake! Do not cast us off forever.” While occupying his dream God has the sensation of travel, motion and violence; but when he awakes he will find himself in the sepulcher, the skull of Man, where he deliberately laid himself down to sleep and was buried. God crucified himself on the cross of man and is dreaming this dream of life so that man may become God.

Now I want to clarify a few points. In the Book of John this statement is made: “His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, neither does his word abide in you because you do not believe him whom he has sent.” Many of you have completely accepted the fact that I have been sent. You believe me when I tell you that I stood in the presence of the Risen Lord, who embraced me and I became one with. Having been incorporated into the body of Love, Almighty God sent me to tell my experience. Having accepted my words, many of you have had a sexual experience with me, in vision, and have interpreted this to be a physical experience on this level; but it is not, as this is a shadow world. Your acceptance brought about this union, yet I – the speaker – am totally unaware of it. The true story of Christ which I have brought you has now been made alive in you. It will erupt in time and your experience of scripture will be identical to mine.

The males who have completely accepted my words will not experience a sexual act, but an embrace. Wearing the body of the Risen Lord, who is Infinite Love and with whom I am now one, you will see my face. You will be asked to name the greatest thing in the world and, as though divinely inspired, you will quote the words of Paul saying: “Faith, hope, and love; these three, but the greatest of these is love.” I will embrace you, and you will fuse with the one body of the Risen Lord, and he who is united with the Lord becomes one Spirit with him.

All of these are symbols, telling you that, having believed him whom he sent, you will hear his voice and see his form as his word is now abiding in you. It’s a complete break with the past, as told us in the first words the Risen Lord spoke in the Book of Mark: “Repent and believe in the gospel.” The gospel is the good news that man is not lost; that scripture is not secular history, but divine history, which was plotted and planned before we came out from the Father and came into the world to enter our own creation and play all the parts.

It is God who awakes in you. One man, containing all, fell into diversity as told us in the 82nd Psalm: “I say, ‘You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you shall die like men, and fall as one man, O princes.”’ (I have quoted the Revised Standard Version in the marginal setup which is the true translation of the Hebrew.) It takes all the sons who fell, to form God the Father; so we are gathered together one by one into that same body which fell into humanity. And from humanity, God extracts himself individually because we are all so unique. No one can be duplicated or lost, because God is buried in all and God is redeeming himself.

Today I watched the exciting touchdown of the astronauts who had traveled to the moon and back. Then I reread what I had written back in 1954: “You do not move in waking any more than you do on your bed in sleep.” Now, reason could not accept that statement. I saw the astronauts return. We have a record of their journey of a half-million miles, yet they did not move? Well, I must confess that I have traveled in my dreams, as I am sure you have; yet we always wake on our bed in the morning, do we not? Could there be a dreamer far deeper than the one who is dreaming this seeming waking state? And when he awakes from the dream of life, would he not look upon it as you look upon the dream of the night?
I know that when I awoke from within, I realized that I had been there for unnumbered centuries, dreaming violence, love, hate, concupiscence, and pain – dreaming everything to be real, just as I did in any dream. I awoke to discover that I had been in that skull for centuries, dreaming I was a man walking the earth, dying, being restored to life to die again. This I continued to do until that moment in time when I awoke in Golgotha, the sepulcher where I was buried in the beginning of time. That’s my Calvary.

I seem to move here. I get up and shave in the morning, bathe, eat, make an effort to earn a dollar to pay the rent, and do all sorts of things; yet it’s all a dream, a dream with a purpose. God limited himself to the limit of contraction and opacity called man and began to dream this world into being. Now believing himself to be you, you can dream noble dreams or ignoble ones. I urge you to dream noble dreams, because when you know you are the dreamer you can make all of your dreams come true.

A dream is a very fluid state. Knowing what you want to dream, bring your inner circle of friends before your mind’s eye and allow them to see you as you want to be seen. When you are self-persuaded this is now a fact, relax in the vision’s gestation period. There is an interval of time between impregnation and birth. Having seen the expressions on their faces and heard the sound of their voices, break the spell and wait for that impregnation to take place in the world of dreams, while you live in the world of Caesar awaiting its coming.

I have told you that the story of Jesus Christ has unfolded itself within me. What I shared with you tonight is not recorded in scripture; but in the very last verse of the 21st chapter of John he makes this statement: “Many other things Jesus did which are not recorded here. Were every one of them to be written, the world itself could not contain the books.” There was no need to record the words which were revealed to me; so it does fit in with the very last verse of the epilogue of John, for John ends on the 20th verse and the 21st is the epilogue. All of these things happened and many more, but only these were recorded that you may believe.

Thank you for sharing your visions with me, as they are showing me that you have completely accepted the story as I have told it. I have shared with you the true story of Jesus Christ. Over the centuries, barnacles have gathered around the ship. Men, in the interest of their own doctrines, have added to the scriptures. In spite of the warning not to add to or take from the words of the prophecies of the Bible, men have added to, to support their own traditions and conventions. When the original text was written, the one who had the vision simply recorded it. He did not understand it, but wrote it down, as I did, knowing that a greater revelation would come.

I could not understand what I heard in 1954; but in 1959 I knew its truth, for I awoke from a profound dream to discover that I was not on my bed, but in my skull and completely alone. I came out of my skull to find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and the witnesses to the event. Seeing the babe, they witnessed the sign of my spiritual birth, but they could not see me as having been born of the spirit. I am Spirit, while they, not yet born of the spirit, are flesh. I didn’t bring forth a little baby; the child is but a sign that God is born. Having begotten himself, he brings forth that which he buried in humanity, for God is redeeming himself, as there is only God in the universe.

The Bible hasn’t a thing to do with any morals as the pulpits teach. It makes no attempt to change the world, as it is a schoolhouse. You don’t turn a schoolroom into a home. This is a school of educated darkness, where we travel towards the light. Scripture does not attempt to change things; rather it urges all to “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.”

To try to make this world a nice, sweet little place in which all are happy and have enough to eat and drink is fine, but that hasn’t a thing to do with the mystery of Christ. Were there no struggle, no effort would be made to awaken from the dream of life. Rather, the sleeper would fall deeper into sleep. So, let them march along telling the world how to become good and kind. It’s all nonsense, for as long as man wears the garment of the animal he must express it. Taking from himself the heart and mind of Love, God took upon himself the body, heart, and mind of the animal, as told us in the 4th chapter of Daniel. This is an animal world, but while in this world of violence Jesus Christ awakes to discover it was only a dream. Were it not that Jesus Christ was in you, you could not breathe, for your very breath is his life.

The day will come when you will awake to know this to be true; for David, the sum total of all of the experiences you have had in your dream of being man, will stand before you and call you “Father”. Then you will fulfill the 89th Psalm knowing, “I have found David. He has cried unto me, ‘Thou art my Father, my God and the Rock of my salvation.’ “Having played all the parts of Man, humanity, fused into a single youth, reveals your Godhood.

As the Father, you will know that your son has always done your will; for you will have found in David, the son of Jesse (I AM) one who has done all your will. You, the Father, dreamed it and you, the son. played all the parts. And when the play is over you awake to come out of Golgotha to be born from above. Peter tells us: “We are born anew through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” While the world worships him as someone coming from without, you will find him rising from within – not as another, but as your very Self, the dreamer of life.

The great poet, Shelley, saw it so clearly when he said: “He has awakened from the dream of life. ‘Tis we who, lost in stormy visions, keep with phantoms an unprofitable strife.” That’s what the world is doing, fighting self-created phantoms. The world is yourself pushed out and you are in conflict with yourself until that day when an unearthly wind possesses you and you awake in your skull with the consuming desire to get out. With your innate knowledge, you will push the base of your skull and something will move. Then you will come out just as a child comes out of the womb of a woman; but this time you are being born, not from below, but from above -from the skull of Self. The word “anothin” is translated “from above.” When Pilate said: “Do you not know that I have the power to crucify you or the power to set you free,” the Risen Lord replied: “You have no power over me unless it were given to you from above.” Here is the same word “anothin.” The power to kill or make alive comes from within.

Everything is taking place from within. Having fallen into a profound sleep, you are the Lord Jesus Christ, dreaming the dream of life. And because there is only one Being, everyone will awaken as Jesus, for everything else will vanish and leave Jesus only. And no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Wind. When that wind possesses you, you awake within yourself. Only then will you know you are the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now let us go into the silence.

A MOVEMENT WITHIN GOD

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 10-16-1967

If you find yourself miserable or helpless here, may I tell you that you are not condemned to the state by a deity outside of yourself, for everything that takes place in your world is but a movement within God.

We are told that in the very beginning the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and things came into being. Everything – your misery, your helplessness, your joy, your sorrow – no matter what it is, comes into being by a movement within God, and he is not a deity outside yourself. You are not a helpless being, but the operant power of God. Seated as you are now, you can move without moving physically because your eternal body is all Imagination. Called Jesus Christ in scripture, you are God’s power and wisdom. So if you find yourself in a place where you are miserable and feel helpless, it is because you either knowingly or unknowingly fell into that state, and not because of the condemnation of some deity outside of you.

Every conceivable situation that you could ever think of exists now as a fact in God but cannot be made visible to you until you occupy it, for you are God’s operant power. Everything in this world needs man as the agent to express it. Hate or love, joy or sorrow, all things require man to express it. We glorify or condemn the man, but he simply represents a state which God entered knowingly or unknowingly and remained there until the state was externalized. Everyone is free to choose the state he wishes to occupy. You imagined yourself into your present state. If you don’t like it, you must imagine yourself out of it and into another. It is all a matter of movement.

We are told that “He chose us in him before the foundation of the world.” Collectively forming one glorious being, we conceived a play and speaking as one being, we said: “It is time for the play to begin.” Then individually we said: “I AM,” and the play began. We conceived a play containing every horrible thing as well as every lovely thing in the world. Every problem and its solution were conceived. In fact you cannot think of something that was not in that original conception. Then it was time to start, and saying simply: “I AM,” God took upon himself that which He had conceived, and your journey into this fabulous world began. So no matter what you are experiencing now, you are not condemned by some being outside of yourself, for you either wittingly or unwittingly fell into the state, be it good, bad, or indifferent. Now, how to move?

We are told in the very beginning of Genesis that “The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” And in the Book of Joshua (which is the Hebraic name for Jesus) the Lord said: “Wherever the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given you.” Now, you can choose where you want the sole of your foot to tread, for the world is yours and all within it; but remember: whatever you tread upon will be given you!

When I speak of Joshua or Jesus, I am not speaking of any historical creature, but the Christ in you who is the hope of glory! I am trying to get you to realize that Jesus Christ is in you as your own wonderful human imagination. So when I say: “God became Man that Man may become God” I mean: “Imagination became you that you may become all Imagination.” Man has difficulty associating Imagination with God. Somehow the word “God” denotes some being that created the world, yet remained apart from it, but when I use the word “Imagination” it is my hope that the separation ceases to be. May I tell you: the whole vast world is all imagination. Our realists think they are nearer to the truth, yet they do not realize they are dictating nothing more than their imagination. They laugh at those who are mystically inclined, but may I tell you: leave them alone and go your way in confidence that what you are imagining you already are, you will become.

You imagined yourself into the state you are now occupying, and you can imagine yourself into any state you desire to express. No outside deity moved you into the state of misery you are now expressing; you did it yourself because you forgot who you are. You are the being who conceived every state in the beginning and deliberately started your journey by moving into a state, for you are Jesus, the Lord.

When I speak of Jesus, I am not speaking of some holy person as the world calls holy. The true story of Jesus is not as the churches teach. Their teaching is as far removed from the truth as Dante’s “Inferno” is from The Sermon on the Mount. Dante had the capacity to spin beautiful worlds together, but what a state he fell into when he wrote his words. He was supposedly writing scripture and that is what the churches follow, yet it is so completely different from the real, true story of Christ.

Jesus is the very being of everyone in the world. The word “Jesus” means “Jehovah saves,” and there is only one savior. Jesus is He who fell and He who saves himself. No one else saves you. You are saved by your own being. Becoming aware, you begin to remember; and remembering, you turn around and come out of the very play in which you sent yourself. And in the end all are united to form once again the single being that fell. The Lord God Jehovah, containing all, fell into diversity. In the end not one will be lost, but all will be gathered into the unity that is the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the story.

This week I received some beautiful letters. One was from a lady who said: “I heard you ten years ago and shortly after hearing your message I found myself in vision on top of the highest mountain in the universe. I was looking towards the horizon into a fantastic vastness without a shore. Clouds were below me, but as I looked into the distance I saw a little flicker of light, then a spark, and then others. As I watched the flickering lights round about me, I noticed that the cloud below me was making an imperceptible forward motion. Then a burst of white light came through the clouds and filled infinity. The clouds began to disburse, and pointing to the light, I said: “That’s Paul.” Then the light diffused and a burst of light appeared in living colors, and, pointing to it, I said: “That is Neville.” Then came a shower of golden needles which penetrated my brain, and I awoke to write it down. For years I have contemplated this vision, not understanding its meaning until last Monday night, when you spoke of the being of light who shoots his fiery arrows into the brains of those who are called.”

May I tell you: it’s the same story over and over again. You are the only Christ, the only Lord, the Only God and Father of all! Having conceived the play, you are playing every part and each in his own wonderful time will play the part of Jesus Christ, for in the end we will all know that we are God. Then you will hate no one, for you will realize that we agreed to play all the parts while hiding behind the masks we wear. Now completely masked, we think we are many and do not recognize ourselves as the one who conceived and predicted the play of life.

You are not now in a fatalistic state. You fell into the state because it was arranged in the beginning that you could fall into and move out of every state. So keep on going and complete the play, for when the play is finished, you turn around and return to the very being you were in the beginning!

Now, a gentleman wrote, saying: “I saw a man, about 26 years of age. He had golden curls on his head and seemed to be sunk into the ground. Two men appeared to be working on the top of his head towards the back of his skull. As I watched the young man raised his arm, and touching his head he put his hand into his skull. Curious, I came closer to see an enormous skull made of clay or some form of plastic, which was completely empty. Moving to look at the front of the man, the scene changed, and now I see his chin resting on the sands of the desert. The mask looked like those shown in Africa or Hawaii, where you only see the mask but never the wearer. I knew I was seeing a mask, but its wearer was unseen.”

That is the world! You don’t know it, but when you are looking at a seeming other you are seeing an intimate being, one you knew in the beginning, one you will remember when all of the masks are removed – for we are all wearing masks in order to play this play called life. In this world Imagination plays the role of the weak man, the strong man, the poor man and the rich man, for the roles were conceived in the beginning by Imagination, and Imagination is playing all the parts.

You, imagining, are God – who is all Imagination. That’s all there is. The universe is nothing more than Imagination creating while it is fast asleep! You and I move from state to state, either deliberately (by knowing what we are doing), or unintentionally (by falling into a state as we read the headlines of the paper). Listen to the radio or watch TV tonight, and although you may know none of the facts, if you accept what is said you will fall into a state and buy things you do not need. You will fill your house with all kinds of trivia that you have no room for because Imaginations is operating! Someone conceived a plan to get you to empty your pockets and buy their products, and you will, because Imagination is sound asleep. And Imagination will continue the journey until you turn around and head for home by becoming more and more awake!

Those who think they are so very wise in this world know nothing about Jesus. Only the seers, the mystics, know who He is. Only those who have seen the light he claims he is and know his form without seeing the face, know him. There are not thousands of lights, but only one vast, infinite light. If one takes on a white light and another multi-colored lights, it’s still the same wonderful light of Jesus only. There is only God who is playing all the parts, and in the end you will know that you are light, that you are Spirit, that you are God, from personal experience.

But tonight as you sit here, you can mentally shut out the facts of life and move anywhere in your imagination. Do that and no one looking at you physically can tell where you have mentally moved. And if you dwell in imagination where you would like to be, and see what you would see were you there, you will have moved within your own being. Persist and everything here will die because of your move within God.

In the beginning, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, saying: “Wherever you go and stand, I will give you.” You were given everything in the beginning, and one day – having finished the play – you will begin to awaken. Then I who came out first will stand there as an anchor for all to come through by performing the same deed. You will be drawn by a fiery brooding upon this wonderful mystery, drawn to the Risen Christ, who is formed out of all. As you enter we fuse, and the mortal you reassumes immortality. You fell into the mortal state in order to experience death, and when you turn around, you rise to become one with immortality.

I tell you: you are the Lord God Jehovah, who conceived the play and deliberately entered it. You did nothing wrong. It was an adventure and without adventure, what is life? If someone left you a billion dollars so you could be cushioned for the rest of your life here, they would be robbing you of your creative adventure. In the beginning you left all by emptying yourself of all that you were aware of being. Then you took upon yourself the form of a slave. Wearing a slave-mask right now, no one knows who you really are, and you cannot recognize those who you have known throughout all eternity.

Bennie came to my home a week ago, and sitting beside him I could see nothing but love pouring forth from him. I couldn’t see his face, for his skin is dark, but when I looked at Bennie all I could see was the being of love I knew in eternity. In the beginning we were all the elohim, which is a compound unity of one made up of others. Bennie has as dark a skin as I have ever seen on a man, and I am as fair as man can be, so you might think we came out of different beings – but these are only masks we wear. Bennie has turned around and now knows he is the light of the world. He knows he is infinite love.

May I tell you: when you see infinite love you will see Man. You will see he who is the gathering togetherness of all! I will know you by the light and you will know me by the light; but when we know each other as One, it will be as Love, and that is Man. Everyone is gathered into the human form divine! Not one will be lost, for in the beginning we agreed to dream this world into being, in concert. Then we went our separate ways, to falling into different states of consciousness and blaming others for the discords in our world. That’s all right, for one day we will return and all the discords will be resolved into perfect harmony, as we expand beyond what we were prior to the play.

You can put me to the test tonight by learning how to move. My brother Victor learned how to move into riches when he had nothing. Living on borrowed money and trying to operate a little shop on a side street, Victor would stand before one of the largest buildings in the island and see “J.N. Goddard and Sons” on the marquee, rather than the existing “F.N. Roach and Company”. This he did every day until the idea was fixed in his mind’s eye. Two years later, the business failed. (You may think that was wrong, but nothing is wrong in God’s name. We ate of the tree of millennium and fell into right and wrong). When the building was put up for sale, a man we hardly knew bought it for my brother, and the sign was changed from “F.N. Roach and Company” to “J.N. Goddard and Sons”.

What did my brother do? He moved his imagination. He had no money when he purchased the building in 1922. Now, in 1967, I don’t think you could buy the family out for $25 million. I own ten per cent of the stock, but I do not know its value. I came here to tell you, not how to make money, but how to operate the law of identical harvest so that if everything is taken from you tonight you can rebuild it tomorrow.

This is how it works. I imagined myself into what I am, and I can imagine myself into what I want to be. I am forever becoming what I imagine myself to be, be it good, bad, or indifferent. There is no deity on the outside who condemns and causes you to do what you are doing. You moved into the state you are now occupying either wittingly or unwittingly, for God and your own wonderful human Imagination are one. So when you say: “I and my Father are one” you are speaking of your human imagination!

I have been sent to clarify scripture and take off the barnacles off the story called Jesus Christ. This is a small beginning, but what does it matter? You who hear me will tell the story and bring it back to somewhere near its original form, for the story as interpreted by the churches of the world is not anything near the truth. This morning I read Buckley’s column. I enjoy his use of words and I find him quite an interesting fellow. Today he wrote about the Bishop of Canterbury, saying: “I don’t believe the good Bishop would recognize a Christian if he met one, or scripture if he read it.” I don’t always agree with Buckley, but this time I agreed, after reading what he quoted the Bishop as having said. Now, this is not only true of the present bishop but of all the bishops I have met, whether they call themselves cardinals or popes, for their rituals, beliefs, and teachings are so far removed from the true story of Jesus.

I am here to tell you that God became you! How? By seeing the mask (one like you see in Africa or in Hawaii) and identifying himself with it. Now disguised as that which God wears, you can no longer see who you really are. But I tell you: the being behind the mask you now see as your brother, your sister, your wife, your husband and children – is a part of the elohim who created the play and is playing every part. One day that being will take off the mask and you will resurrect and leave your empty skull. So I say to my friend who saw the mask with the empty skull made of plastic: the day will come when you will ascend with one of us whose mask is already taken off, and pointing to that skull, you will say of it: “I once dwelt there.” Then you will know as I do that you were never the mask you wore. And in eternity we will all know each other and all be enhanced beyond what we were, by reason of the journey that we made.

Tonight you try this. Test it. Learn how to move. The test is simple. Just like my brother, take a simple little thing like asking yourself: “What do I want?” Now, looking at the world as you now see it, if you had what you wanted, would you continue to see the world as it is now? I doubt it. It need not be a change from where you live, but if there were a change you would see the world differently and, naturally your closest circle of friends would see a changed you. Well, begin to move in God by seeing your world from a different angle, and let your friends see you there. You are the operant power and move in your own being.

If you move from where you are to where you would like to be, you could detect that motion only by a change of position relative to another object. Motion in itself cannot be done without some frame of reference from which it moves. If your income had just been increased to say $30,000 a year from your present income of less than $10,000, how would you feel? How would your present circle of friends see you? Would they know it? Would they discuss it? Would they speak of the change in your life? Tell them, and then eavesdrop and hear your friends discuss you as one who is now making $30,000 a year. That’s a motion in God and that movement will produce results! Everything in this world is nothing more than the result of a movement in God, which is a motion in your wonderful imagination. The slightest imaginal act that is a change (I don’t mean just an act, for you can imagine things you don’t believe), but if you imagine something you believe is a change, a thrill is sent through divine being. At that moment you have actually entered another state and made it alive and real in your world!

Try it tonight. It costs you nothing, not even a nickel. But may I tell you that when you stand in the presence of the one being who is drawing all towards itself, you are sent into the world to tell them your fantastic story; and if they do not apply what you tell them, they become disillusioned and hate you who invited them to dream. I am sent to invite everyone to dream consciously, to dream deliberately, for this is a dream world. They say that where he comes, he is always rejected, for he tells man: “Whatever you desire, believe that you have received it and you will.” Anyone who makes that bold assumption and gets the confidence of those whose sphere he reaches, runs the risk of rejection, for when they try it and do not quite know how to do it, they become disillusioned and invariably hate the one who invited them to dream. That’s the risk every teacher who is sent must run.

But I tell you: it’s true anyway, and if one fails to bring their dream into being and becomes embittered, I say to myself: “How often must I tell them? Seventy times seven.” I must tell them until they really understand, and those who hear me, will carry my message forward. They will be heard and in the end we will all be gathered back into the one being, to know that we were that one being who conceived the play and took the plunge. So when we said in the beginning: “It is time for the play to begin,” not one of us failed to respond in the first person, present tense: “I AM”.

Now let us go into the silence.

A PARABOLIC REVELATION

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 06-06-1969

It is in you as a person that the nature of God is revealed, for a scriptural episode is not a record of an historical event, but a parabolic revelation of truth. To see Jesus or David as an historical character is to see truth tempered to the weakness of your soul. You must see what the characters represent, rather than the characters themselves. This is true for every story in scripture, for every episode will unfold within you.

The title of the 54^th Psalm is translated as “David is hiding with us” in the King James Version, and “David is in hiding among us” in the Revised Standard Version; but the title should read: “David is in hiding within us,” for that is where he is, as well as every character in scripture. When I say, with Blake: “All that you behold, though it appears without it is within, in your Imagination of which this world of mortality is but a shadow,” I mean that literally, for the drama of life unfolds from within.

The characters Jesus, David, Abraham, and Moses are but personifications of eternal states, which you individually will encounter as you move towards the ultimate awakening of being God himself. In his poem, “Saul” Robert Browning tells the story recorded in the 16^th chapter of the Book of First Samuel, of how David cured Saul of the evil spirits which the Lord had sent upon him.

Do not see Saul as a man, but as humanity. He is the human being referred to in the 4^th chapter of the Book of Daniel: “And the great watcher said ‘Hew down the tree, cut off its branches, scatter its leaves and its fruit, but leave the stump.’” Then the tree becomes personified as: “Let him be watered with the dew from heaven; and let him move with the beasts of the earth. Take from him the mind of man and give him the mind of a beast. Let seven times pass over him until he knows that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will, even the lowliest of men.” Saul personifies the mind of the beast, for Saul went insane; he was violent and could not remember who he was. Then David appears and cures him of his insanity by telling him of the coming of the Messiah, saying:

“O Saul, it shall be

A Face like my face that receives thee; a Man like to me,

Thou shalt love and be loved by, forever: a Hand like this hand

Shall throw open the gates of a new life to thee! See the Christ stand!”

You may think this is an episode in the pages of history, but it is a drama, which will take place in you. As an insane being who is looking for an external savior, one day you will encounter David – he who never walked the face of the earth – and save yourself!

All revelations have the mode of certainty about them. When David stands before you, you who were insane only a moment before, having forgotten who you are, will remember. Then, as Saul, you will see the true relationship between you and your son, and the revelation as to who you really are. Then you who were formerly Saul will become Paul, and say: “Henceforth I regard no one from the human point of view, even though I once regarded Christ from the human point of view, I regard him thus no longer.”

Paul was trained to believe in an external, historical past of Israel. To him David was the king of kings. But when God revealed his son in him, Paul claimed he did not see anyone as flesh and blood. What man, believing in the historicity of scripture, could understand what Paul was talking about, when he was the one who formerly tormented anyone who would not accept the historicity of the Old Testament! But, when discussing the Messiah, Paul confessed that he could no longer believe in any historical character of the Old Testament. (The New, of course had not been written yet). Through revelation Paul knew who the Messiah was and who the Lord was. Seeing himself as the Lord, the one the world believes to be Jesus, Paul knew that what the world believed to be a mighty king was his only begotten son who was never flesh and blood. He knew the entire episode took place in the spirit, and said: “When it pleased God to reveal his son in me, I discussed it not with flesh and blood.”

To see Jesus, Abraham, Moses, Jacob, or any of the characters of scripture as men of flesh and blood and external to yourself in the pages of history, is to see truth tempered to the weakness of your soul, because until the revelation takes place, you are unable to stand the force of the light of revelation. There is nothing more difficult than to give up a fixed idea, especially concerning religion or politics. Born into a certain religious group, your mother taught you what she was taught by her mother. The school and church you attend confirms your mother’s words and you believe that the characters of scripture lived in time and space and left behind a record of their physical existence – when it isn’t so at all. These are all revelations of an eternal drama which is in you, for your true being is your own wonderful human imagination.

Many times I have been asked if I believe there was once a man called Jesus, and I always answer, “No.” I did believe it, but I no longer believe in the historicity of any character of scripture, for I encounter them as personified states. I have entered the final state, which is Jesus, and in that state it was revealed to me that I am Jesus and Christ is my son. Christ, my creative power and wisdom, is the one who was anointed with the oil of gladness and called David. It was in the spirit that David called Jesus, Father. He does not do this in flesh for, if you take the events chronologically you will see that they are separated in time by one thousand years – and I tell you the story is contemporary. It is not something of the past. The Lord Jesus is with you now at this very moment, for he is your very being, your reality. We are told that he is a Father in the 17^th chapter of John, as: “Holy Father, keep them in thy name that thou hast given me, that they may be one even as we are one.” The Father/son is an inner action relationship. At one moment the son is speaking, and the next moment it is the Father who speaks; then without warning he jumps back to that of the son, and man is confused. Man thinks of one being of flesh and blood when it is an inner-relationship of Father/son.

I received a letter this week from a lady who is here tonight. In a vision she saw a man and his young son sitting at a table. At that moment she knew she was the son and the father and that they were one. Now, this same lady had another vision in which a friend proclaimed to the crowd in a very loud voice that the lady was pregnant and was bringing forth the Son of God. She is right, for this lady is bringing forth the Son of God, as she isGod. This son will be born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. She is the Jesus of scripture, bringing forth God, and because God is a Father his last gift to her is himself.

If God is the Father and he gives you himself, he gives you his son to reveal it. So he sends the Spirit of his son into your heart, crying: “Father.” And if God’s son calls you Father, then you must be God. And if God the Father is the Lord Jesus and Christ is his anointed one, then your son is David, for he is the one the Lord anointed, and proclaimed: “Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee.” This comes as a great shock to those who were raised in the Christian or Jewish faith, for there is no more historicity in the characters of the Old Testament then there is in the New. Every character represents an eternal state through which you, an individual, must pass in your journey from darkness to light. And when you come to the journey’s end you move into the state personified as God the Father.

David is in hiding within us. This we are told by the Ziphites, of the tribe of Judah. If you read scripture correctly you will see that the only son of Jacob mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus is Judah. This brings us to Saul, who was notified that David was hiding within him. As an insane man, Saul could not understand. If David is hiding within me, where do I look for him? But wait. David will come out. I know. At one moment in time there will be an explosion within you which will release David, who is hiding in you, for we are all the insane of Daniel. Look at the world today and ask yourself if we aren’t all insane, when we murder each other and cheat one another – when there really is no other. The prayer is that they be one as we are one. That is because they do not realize we are all one being. Nothing can bring you to this realization other than the revelation of the son to the Father.

I know so many of you are bringing forth the Son of God. Another lady in this audience tonight wrote saying she was sleeping at the home of a friend, when she sees a baby boy, devoid of clothes, lying on a blanket. As she picks it up she hears the doorbell ring. Answering the door with the child in her arms, she sees her daughter, who says: “Mother, put some clothes on your baby because I have brought a friend.” As they enter the house the friend pats the baby on the back and says: “What a beautiful child.” She returns to the room and as she covers the baby with a blanket (the swaddling cloth) she awakens. This is a wonderful adumbration forecasting the real event recorded in scripture. Then she will know the truth concerning the birth of God.

Another lady saw the child as her sister’s boy. Holding it close she looked into its face, which turned into that of a cherub, who smiled at her. Then she knew she could not give the child up as it was hers. This, too, is an adumbration. All of these are foreshadowing. These ladies are all mothers with children of their own. The last lady has five children; yet the child of their vision is spiritual, for the whole Bible from beginning to end is a supernatural document and not an historical fact as man has been led to believe.

If you see Jesus as an historical character, it is because you do not have the courage to face the brilliant light of the revelation of truth. I know when it came to me, everything within me fell. We are told that in the end all of the buildings will fall. These buildings are the structures of the mind by which we live. The belief in the historicity of Jesus is a building; the belief in the historicity of the Bible is a building. Externalized as churches and cathedrals, they are beautiful, but they will all fall within you in your last days. And from their ashes that which is permanent will rise, for from then on you will not live by any external belief. You will know that everything unfolds from within.

The story is told that Judas would go into a garden and give a sign designating the one who holds the secret. The sign was a kiss. You will find this story in the 14^th chapter of the Book of Mark. When you read it you may think this is an episode which took place in some historical past, but it is not. It is something you will experience. Then you will discover that the drama is contemporaneous. It is with us now, for I have had that experience.

I am teaching the word of God from experience, therefore, I am the word that went out. I sent it out from myself by clothing myself in flesh (for the Word became flesh and dwells within). When all that the Word implies unfolded in me I told my experiences to a group of twelve men, and when one departed I knew he was going to reveal my teaching. Then a handsome, wonderful man entered to fulfill the 14^th [chapter] of Mark: “This is the sign I give you. The one I shall kiss is the man. Treat him kindly, but do not let him go.” (If this is the truth don’t let go, for it is the truth that I am going to kiss.) Approaching me, the man extends his arms in adoration, embraces me, and kisses me on the left side of my neck.

Now, the word “Judah” means, “to praise with extended arms.” It was Judah who embraced and kissed me, he severed my sleeve revealing the arm of the Lord, thus fulfilling scripture. “And who has believed our report? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” The arm is the symbol of the creative power of God. That is what was revealed in its beautiful imagery. Here was a handsome man, about forty, gloriously dressed, fulfilling everything scripture said he would do when he comes. Believe my words, for they are true. Let everything you formerly believed in go – but do not let the word of truth go.

I know it is difficult to give up the belief in the historicity of scripture. When I first came to Los Angeles it was back in 1945. At the time I was invited by a very prominent man in the metaphysical field to conduct a series of lectures on the Bible. The night I arrived, I was to address 400 or 500 of his graduates. About five minutes before I took the platform, the man took me aside and told me that I could not speak on the non-historicity of the Bible, because he teaches the Bible as history and did not want his people disturbed. I thanked him, told him that because I was his guest I would abide by his decision this night, but in the future he could not tell me what to say. Then I reminded him of scripture: “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge.” I can only speak of what I have seen and heard. I know the Bible is not historically true, but is eternally true. The records recorded there are forever and to be experienced by all.

Scripture is a revelation of truth which carries with it such certainty it cannot be denied. Having heard the truth from someone who has experienced it, you may feel my message is too much to grasp; but when it happens in you doubt leaves, for you know the truth from experience. Every story is true, but not as recorded. They were not writing secular history, but divine or sacred history, which is forever. It is not something that happened in the past or that will come; the climax has been reached and is always being reached every moment in time.

The Jesus of scripture is seated here tonight. And his son, bearing witness to his Fatherhood, is hiding in you. In the 54^th Psalm, Saul was told that David was hiding within, just as I am telling you now. David is hiding in you and will come out when an explosion takes place within you. And when you see David he will be standing. That is why I believe Browning had the experience, because the symbolism he used is perfect. “See the Christ stand!” When I saw David I was seated but he was standing.

The word “Christ” means the “the messiah.” Standing before Saul, David tells of the coming of the messiah, saying: “His face will be like my face. He will be a man like me. You are going to love the messiah and he will love you forever.” This relationship between you and David is one of infinite love and it is forever. Here David is telling Saul that he is the messiah, for he is the Christ, the anointed of the Lord. Then he said: “A hand just like this hand will open the door of a new life to you.” And standing before him, he says: “See the Christ stand” – but Saul could not understand.

Those who read Browning miss this point because it is in conflict with their fixed ideas concerning Jesus. They think he is the Christ, but I tell you: Jesus is God the Father whose final revelation to man is the gift of himself. God gives himself to you by sending his son into your heart, crying: “Father,” thus revealing your true identity. Until then you do not know that you are Jesus and remain confused by the hearing of many different beliefs.

I speak of this only from the platform where you come to hear it, but I would never go into your home and volunteer this information. That would be silly and completely out of order. I would be taking my pearls and throwing them before those who are not yet qualified to receive them, so I do not disturb them. But you who know it are called upon to voice what you know. And you who are moved to teach – teach the true words of the pattern which I have given you, but do change the pattern. Paul called the pattern “my gospel.” Paul was very proud of the fact that he was born a Jew, saying: “I was born of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee of the Pharisees.” Then the whole thing unfolded within him and he realized the non-historicity of his own great Book, yet its truth. He recognized the characters recorded there as eternal state through which every individual must pass.

One day you will experience the state of Abraham and know what faith really is. When you see that giant of a man leaning against a tree, you will see a serpent wound around its trunk. The serpent will have a human face with the wisest expression. (In Genesis the serpent is recorded as the wisest of all of God’s creatures.) And you will see Abraham’s eyes are looking into time, as recorded in the Book of Galatians: “The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify all by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham.” So, before the events took place Abraham was shown the end, and when you look at him his attention is focused, not on the distance of space, but of time. And the tree under which he stands looks like the human brain. When you see Abraham you will know you are seeing the beginning of the journey. Wisdom is present in the form of a serpent and faith is present in the form of Abraham. His name is changed from Abram – which means “exalted Father” to Abraham – which means “father of the multitude.” The change occurred when the letter “He” was added. This letter carries the symbol of grace. So grace was put into the name to indicate that God had given himself to his creation (the work of his hand.) Putting the gift of grace into the name of the father of the multitudes, the journey begins.

So, when you read scripture try to bear in mind that you are reading about infinite states of consciousness, which are eternal. Remember you are Jesus, and when you find the Christ you have found the Lord’s anointed, who is David. You will know him for he will come to you in the spirit and call you Father. How then can you be his son? Because the words Father/son are interchangeable. “I and my Father are one. He who sees me (the son) sees the Father.” Always keep this in mind when reading scripture.

If you will accept what I have told you this night, life will be much easier for you. Knowing this truth, you can’t pass the buck any more; but knowing you are the Lord you can do anything, because you are all imagination and imagining creates reality. You can imagine anything and sustain it with faith. As you walk in the faith that that which you have imagined is so, it will become so. This I know from experience.

Back in 1943 when I came out of the army I was looking for an apartment. My wife and I had determined how much we were going to pay for it, but when we found the apartment the rent was more than we had planned to pay. Realizing this, my wife said: “Well, that’s not demonstrating this principle, is it.” I said nothing. I simply paid the months of September and October, but when I went to pay the November rent the manager said: “I have an apology to make to you. An authority of the city came in and looked over my books. He discovered that the apartment you have was formerly rented for less.” Then he quoted the new rent figure to me, which was to the dollar the amount I had originally chosen to pay. It took me three months of being faithful to what I had imagined I was paying, even though during that time I was paying more. But, since the reduced rent was retroactive to the day I moved in, I got it all back at the beginning of the third month.

I committed myself in my imagination, to what I was going to pay. I went looking, and because I was going to pay more – in his eyes – he gave me all kinds of concessions he would not have done had I paid him what the former tenant did. First of all he allowed us to pick out the wallpaper, the colors and rooms we wanted painted. He even built a bookshelf for me which covered an entire wall, for all my books. He did everything I wanted; but if I had gone in there and gotten the rent for the amount I said I would pay, he would not have built the bookcase for me, given me the wallpaper, or painted the entire apartment to my specifications. Only then was the rent reduced to the amount I had imagined it to be, and we remained there almost fourteen years.

I tell you: imagination will not fail you if you are faithful. What could I say when I was confronted with the negation of my assumption? Nothing. I simply would not give up, and when the time was right my assumption became a fact. I urge you to set your goal high. Assume the feeling it has been reached and sleep in that feeling. Persist and I promise you that not one thing in this world can rob you of that which you have assumed. But the most important thing is to know that which is housed within you is God’s plan of redemption, and he only redeems himself. God came down into the world and housed himself in you. Now he is going to discover who he is, for it is in you as a person that the nature of God is revealed.

Now let us go into the silence.

A PROPHECY

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 12/16/1968

In his poem called “Europe,” which is a prophecy about you, William Blake said: “Then Enitharmon woke, nor knew that she had slept, and eighteen hundred years were fled as if they had not been.”

Told in the form of a story, Blake used the name “Enitharmon” to express any emanating desire or image. Enitharmon is the emanation of Los, who – in the story – had the similitude of the Lord and all imagination. Entering into his image (his Enitharmon), Los dreams it into reality; and when he awoke he knew not that he had slept, yet eighteen hundred years had fled.

In my case, 1,959 years had fled as though they had not been. And I had no idea I had entered into an image called Neville and made it real. But I, all imagination, so loved the shadow I had cast, I entered into it and made it alive.

To those in immortality I seemed to be as one sleeping on a couch of gold, but to myself I was a wanderer. Although lost in dreary night, I kept the divine vision in time of trouble. I kept on dreaming I was Neville until I awoke, not knowing I had slept; yet 1,959 years had fled as though they had not been.

Blake tells us that in the beginning we were all united with God in a death like his. Then we heard the story and entered into our shadows. Now, a shadow is a representation, either in painting or drama, in distinction from the reality portrayed. Paul recognized the shadow when he asked the Galatians: “Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish, having begun with the spirit are you now ending with the flesh, by seeing Jesus Christ as someone on the outside?”

Having heard the story of Jesus Christ, you are called upon to enter into it as the central character and remain there until the story externalizes itself.

God destined us, in love, to be his sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will. Falling in love with his image, God entered it and became his son. Having declared what he was going to do, God does it through his pattern called Jesus Christ.
Knowing what you want, when you conceive a scene that implies you have it, that objective becomes the pattern for your desire to unfold. Jesus Christ is God’s pattern, his purpose which he set forth for the fullness of time. Christ is the plan, the image God entered and made so real he claims he is the image.

God’s plan has completely unfolded in me. When I awoke I knew not that I had slept, and 1,959 years were fled as though they had not been. This is true for every child born of woman, for we were all gathered together and united with him in a death like his; therefore, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Blake, writing in 1794, knew that 1,800 years had fled when he – Enitharmon – awoke. Blake knew he was the emanation, the shadow God entered and identified himself with. Blake tells us it was the image that awoke, knowing not that she had slept.

The emanation is always feminine. Eve came out of Adam. Every desire is feminine, regardless of what it is, be it a house, money, or a new car. Imagination is the male, which must leave every doubt, every thought of impossibility behind, and cleave to the desired emanation until they are one. To do this, imagination must enter into the shadow and remain there until there is only the awareness of being or possessing the fulfilled desire.

In this world of Caesar it could take an hour, a day, a week, or a month, to awaken the desire within and project it on the screen of space. But you must enter into the image and remain there, just as God did in the foundation of time, in order to make you, himself. God so became me, that when He awoke in the tomb, I did not know I had slept. In fact, I did not know I had been placed there, as I had become so one with it.

In his book of Milton, Blake tells us that when he entered into his shadow, he appeared to those in immortality as one asleep on a couch of gold. But to himself he was a wanderer, lost in dreary night. Is that not the story of everyone? Lost and confused, imagination is faithful to the image he has assumed, saying: I am John, I am Ray, or I am Natalie.

Now in the image of the being I fell in love with, Neville is my emanation, my shadow, and the image I have been faithful to. Many a time I have thought myself a wanderer in dreary night, confused and not knowing where to turn for a dollar. But those who contemplate on death saw me as one asleep on a couch of gold. They knew the purpose behind my entering into the state of sleep, but they did not know what I was experiencing.

You are in this world because you are in love with the being you believe yourself to be. You may say that is not true, but I say it is impossible for thought greater than itself to know. Do not believe anyone who claims to know. Do not believe anyone who claims to love someone else more than they do themselves, for they do not. It is impossible for thought to be greater than the image it believes itself to be. Yes, you want companionship, security, and health, for these are all part of the image you fell in love with and entered.

You are now alive because you – a living being – have given the image called by your earthly name, life. And you will transform it into a life-giving spirit, because that is what you really are. Before this drama called life began, you predetermined a perfect pattern called Jesus Christ, which would lead you back to where you were prior to entering into the image.

Now, in this world a man who wants to be a success in business can sit down and map out a pattern (a scene) which would imply he has the success he desires. Then if he enters the scene and believes its truth, the pattern of success will unfold and the world will confirm it. But he must persist in the image of success, just as God has persisted, for the day will come when God will awaken and express the success he believes himself to be.

God enters into the image of every child born of woman to give it life. At that moment God’s real and immortal self is – to those who dwell in immortality – as one sleeping on a couch of gold; but to himself he seems a wanderer, lost in dreary night. The day will come when he will awake and – unknown to him, 1800 or 2000 years will have fled as if they had not been.

Use the same technique God used to become you. As one whose name forever is I AM, God fell in love with you, his image, and entered it. Now knowing you are, you say I am; so God is occupying his image and now answers to the name you were given at birth.

Intrigued by the idea of expressing himself in a body of flesh and blood, God entered this body by dreaming he is Neville. God laid himself down within me to sleep, and as he slept he dreamed he was I; for 1,959 years later, when God awoke, I knew not that I had slept. And, upon reflection, it was as though it had not been; for when God achieved his objective (which was to awake) and was conscious of the fact that he was the one he loved, all time vanished.

Before awakening there are barriers that separate God and his image, but once his objective is achieved, God awakes to the awareness that He and his image are one. This is the story the world celebrates and calls Christmas.

Christmas is not the incarnation of God, but the awakening of man as God. Having fallen asleep and entering his image, God made it a living being. In Blake’s case it took 1800 years. Why does it take one 2,000 and another 1,000 years to awaken? It depends upon the degree God is lost in the dream.

To what degree are you lost in your dream of success? Your world is your dream pushed out. When you can persuade yourself 100% that you are successful, success is yours! You must become so intense that you completely forget it was only a desire. You must tame the wild, new state you have entered until its naturalness causes you to forget all else. That is how God became you.

Jesus Christ, God’s pattern of salvation begins to unfold as you awake and resurrect from the tomb God entered. Being life itself, God entered you – his shadow, which has no life of its own – and made it alive. Entering death’s door, his image – God – lay down in the grave of that image, in visions of eternity until he awakes.

In the Old Testament, the question is asked: “Rouse thyself, O Lord, awake. Why cast us off forever?” And in the New Testament, the Lord awakens to discover he is one with the image he fell in love with. Having fallen in love with being you, individually, when God awakes, you are He. That is Christmas.

When God incarnated himself in the image he so fell in love with, time was divided between BC and AD. Blake tells us that for him, it took 1800 years for God to move from BC to AD. In my case it was 1,959 years. Each case is different, as we are told: “Each in his own order.” I do not know whether this order was predetermined or not, for the Book of Ephesians tells us that he destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will.

The God that dreamed in me is the same God that dreams in you. Was it really an order that I could not have awakened before 1959? I do not know. I only know that was the year in which God awoke in me, yet I did not know I had fallen asleep in that skull. But when I emerged, the symbolism recorded as revealing the birth of God surrounded me. That was the moment God awoke and was born into a higher region of his being. Having identified himself with the one he loved, that one was raised and born as God.

God is in love with his image, his shadow, which – like a reflection on oil or water – is dead. Having no life in itself, God so loves his shadow he enters it and dreams he is it. Being a life-giving spirit, God first animates the shadow and it becomes solid and real in his world. He walks and talks, knows sorrow and joy, sickness and health, until the dream is complete. Then God awakens a pattern by which he will know he has arrived at the end.

This pattern was predetermined. The first segment is to awaken and rise from his sleep of death, to be designated Son of God in power. Then he discovers his fatherhood when his son calls him father. A short interval later he cuts himself in two. This is his sacrifice for this wonderful accomplishment. Fusing with his blood, which he finds at the base of his spine, God ascends as a fiery serpent. Then the final sanctification comes in the form of a dove, which descends and smothers him with love, for God has now accomplished what he set out to do.

You can imitate God while here in this world. If, for example you desire to be a great artist, acclaimed throughout the country, map out a plan of success, just as God mapped out a plan of fulfillment which he called Jesus Christ. There are multiple ways to imagine success. Choose a scene which would imply you already have achieved success and when it unfolds, you will know how it came about. Do this, and you are testing the infinite power that you really are.

Having entered the shadow that I conceive myself to be, I walk the earth wondering where the next dollar is coming from; yet those in great eternity see me as dreaming on a golden couch. But I am still faithful and keep the divine vision in time of trouble. Then, like a woman in labor who bears its pains, after the child is born the pain is forgotten in the job of fulfillment, so it is when Christmas comes and you – individualized – become God.

The same technique God used to make you real can be used to bring your desire into being. Blake said: “If the spectator could only enter into the image in his imagination, approaching it on the fiery chariot of contemplative thought; if he could only make a friend and companion of one of these images, he would rise from the grave and meet his Lord in the air and then he would be happy.”

God entered into his image, therein giving us life. Being a life-giving spirit, God wants us to be just as he is, so he mapped out the pattern that through it we may be God. When we completely fulfill his predetermined pattern, the barrier will be torn down and we will be one with infinity.

Christmas as celebrated by the Christian world is not Christmas. It is not something that takes place on the outside. Christmas consists of a series of events which begin when God awakens within the shadow He entered. Rising, God desires to come out; and since all things are possible to God, He pushes, and a seemingly unbreakable seal falls away and infinite power comes out.

The predetermined symbolism must be there. If it isn’t, then the vision is an adumbration indicating nearness. It is a shadow cast before coinciding with the actual vision.

These visions are recorded in the four gospels, of which three were written in or about 150 AD. Scholars believe the Book of John was written at the end of the first century, however, making it possible for him to draw on the source material of all the others.

John eliminates the story of a genealogy, or virgin birth, but emphasizes the need of rebirth. He doesn’t tell you how it is done, but using the word anothin, he tells you the birth is from above.

There are two births: The first is from the womb of woman and the second from the tomb above, and each birth is essential. Also, you must rise in the same manner as Moses raised the serpent in the desert.

John claims that God Himself became you, saying: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and dwells in us.” Here we see that God became flesh – as you are – and says, “I am”. So God is incarnated as an animated being, but that is not enough. He wants you to be as He is, and God is a life-giving spirit. In order to do this his pattern must be fulfilled. And when it is, you enter an entirely different sphere, called the kingdom of heaven.

Having fallen in love with your image, God entered that shadow and made it alive by falling asleep. Now dreaming he is human, he loves you – the being you identify with today. You may not be in love with being poor, but that is not you! You could be rich if that is your desire, but you are in love with being yourself! You would not give up your individuality for any other being. You may desire to have what someone else has, but not if you have to give up your identity.

At one time, that which you have so identified yourself with was only a shadow, an image God entered. It was dead, and by God’s entry, He made it a living being. And when God awakes, that living being becomes a life-giving spirit.

If it is a true awakening, and not just a fore-shadowing, the drama called Jesus Christ will unfold in 1,260 days, as foretold in scripture. Do not be discouraged if your visions are fore-shadowings; the promise will be fulfilled, for you are keeping the vision in time of trouble. At times, like Peter you may have denied that you are God, but you are still keeping the divine vision.

I fell in love with being Neville, as you fell in love with the being you are now. You have dreamed poverty into being, health, being loved, being ignored, but you have never lost your vision of individuality You will never lose it, for that is the one you fell in love with. And in the end you will awaken as God, individualized. You will know yourself to be a life-giving spirit as you move towards ever greater and greater individualization. That is the purpose of the entire drama, and that is what Christmas means.

When it will happen I do not know. Blake certainly was not 1800 years old judged by the world of Caesar. He was born in 1757 and wrote his poem, “Europe” in 1794. Blake was speaking of that second birth, believing that if we have been united with Christ in a death like his, we shall be united with him in a resurrection like his. Blake looked upon this division of time between BC and AD as the beginning, claiming he was one with God when, falling in love with his image, he became universally diffused individuality. Starting as we did, the God in him took 1800 years to complete the drama and awaken.

In his poem, “Europe,” Blake speaks of the cavern man and his five openings. His eyes, which see only a small section of infinity. His ears, which will hear the music of the heavens. His breath and mouth, totaling four; but Blake does not tell us where the fifth one is. He does, however, tell us that through this opening man may leave at any time and return, but man does not choose to do so. What is that one but imagination? Standing here, I can imagine myself elsewhere. What opening do I use to imagine myself there? The fifth one of the five openings of the cavern man.

Soon the Christian world will celebrate this wonderful mystery, which is completely misunderstood. But one day you, individuality, will experience scripture and know the true mystery of Christmas. Then you, too, will say I woke and knew not that I had slept.

The sensation is one of waking, not resurrection. You know you are in your tomb, yet your skull. Because of an innate knowledge, you will push from within, and the stone will roll away as you are born from above.

Three witnesses will be there; two will deny your birth, and one will confirm it, for you are fulfilling scripture: “Where two or more persons agree in testimony, it is conclusive.” One witness declares you as the father of the sign, the child wrapped in swaddling clothes. You – the father – witness the event, and scripture – the written word of God – bears you out; so you have three witnesses, all agreeing in testimony: the Bible, you, and a third.

This is the story of Christmas, the time when the prophecy made to you before that the world was, is fulfilled.

Now let us go into the silence.

ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 11-03-1967

Jesus Christ is the true identity of every one! His name, forever and ever is I am! Therefore, when you say I am, you are declaring your true identity! Do you believe that all things are possible to someone called Jesus Christ, but not yourself? If you do it is because you do not know who you are!

In 1929, believing Jesus Christ to be another, I stood in His presence. We embraced and I became the infinite love that I beheld, for at that moment I was incorporated into His body and became one with the Risen Lord.

Scripture tells us: “No one has ever seen God except his only Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.” This is true, for thirty years later God’s only Son made himself known to me. When I was incorporated into the body of God, I thought I was Neville. But thirty years later, when David of Biblical fame exploded from within and called me father, I knew I was God.

Although to me the David who said – “I will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me, ‘Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee,”’ – lived 1000 B.C., and was not in any way related to me. Yet now I know the truth of the words: “No one has ever seen God until he who is in the bosom of the Father makes him known.” Only when my whole being exploded and God’s Son David appeared in the spirit and called me father, did I know my true identity.

Now I know from experience that I am Jesus Christ and that there is no other God, no other savior. I also know that you and I came out of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is to that one body, one Spirit, one Lord, and God and Father of all, that we return via these experiences which take place within.

Let me explain it in this manner. At the end of the 7th chapter of Luke it is said that Jesus forgave a woman of her sins, at which time those who sat at the table with him said: “Who is that who forgives sins?” Then he went from village to village, teaching the good news of the kingdom of God. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna went with him, providing for him out of their means.

The scholars of the great Interpreter’s Bible, considered the most scholarly work as of the moment, made this observation regarding this passage (and I am quoting accurately): “Jesus did not depend upon chance hospitality, but was supported by wealthy women.”

Can you believe that? They are speaking of the man who said: “Whatever you desire, believe you have received it and you will,” and: “All things are possible to him who believes.” Yet we are asked to believe that Jesus depended upon others! Why would these scholars say such a thing? Because they had not experienced Jesus Christ!

This is not a story of three wealthy women, but of those who saw the empty tomb. These characters are eternal. They are those who told what they had seen by relating their own experiences! It is said that the apostles who heard did not believe, as it seemed to them but an idle tale.

This is followed by a story that the Risen Lord walked with these women and – although they did not recognize him – he asked: “What is it all about?” and one replied: “Do you not know they crucified the great prophet who was delivered into the hands of the elders and the authorities?”

Then he said: “Is it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things and then come into his glory?” And, beginning with Moses in the law and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Since it was late they asked him to remain, and while seated at the table he took bread, blessed and broke it. As he handed it to them they recognized him and he vanished out of their sight.

This is not a story of a man who while dining breaks a piece of bread. I am the bread of life. One day, like a seed bursting itself, the bread of life will erupt, and the plan of salvation contained within that seed will unfold from within.

When the bread of life breaks in you, David will call you Father in the spirit. Prior to this revelation you will stand in the presence of the Risen Lord, embraced and incorporated into his body. This incorporation is your baptism, for it is then that you are united; and remember: “If you have been united with him in a death like his, you certainly shall be united with him in a resurrection like his.” Notice the difference in tense. You have been united with him in death, and shall be united with him in resurrection.

The seed has been broken and is breaking in all. You came out of yourself to enter this world, and you will return to yourself enriched by the experience.

The word translated “suffer” in the sentence: “Is it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things and then come into his glory?” means “to experience sensations.” In order for you to experience sensations, you emptied yourself of your Divine Being and accepted the limitations of a slave. You committed yourself unto death, to experience its sensations. Becoming one with death, you overcome it when you break this bread and are born from within; for unless this happens, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. When this happens, you will have lifted the son of Man to the knowledge that I am He! Unless you know that, you will remain missing your goals and continue to die in your sins.

There is no being talking to you from the outside, as Jesus Christ is not another. You and I fulfill everything said of him individually, because of our uniqueness. There is no one else like you and you cannot be replaced in the kingdom of God. Although what I tell you seems like a wild, wild tale it is true, for in my Father’s house are many rooms. Were it not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

Now, the women mentioned in Luke’s story are witnesses! You shall be my witness. I will take you into the Father’s house, where I will instruct you and tell you who I am. I can take you no farther. You must find the Father in you, and this you will never do while looking at me as another. When you see me, you see the Father; but I am not the Father when you look at me. You will find the Father only when his only begotten son, David, calls you Father!

The Old Testament is a prophetic blueprint, and the New Testament interprets its prophecy. When this prophecy is experienced it is so unlike what appears to be on the surface, for the Old Testament is simply a foreshadowing – an adumbration – in a not altogether conclusive or immediately evident way. When it happens in you (and it will) you will be born from above and discover God’s Son, who reveals you as his Father. The temple of your spiritual body will be torn from top to bottom and the Holy Ghost will descend upon you in bodily form as a dove. Then God’s plan of salvation will have fulfilled itself in you.

Men, thinking themselves so very good, are saying that Jesus was kept by wealthy women, and millions of people believe them. There are those in my own profession who will point to this passage and get wealthy women to support them – and they will. Believing they are doing God’s work, as you would milk cows. How could a man who said: “Whatever you desire, believe you have received it and you will,” depend upon wealthy women for support!

I have been offered diamonds, jewels of all kinds, money, my rent paid for five years at a time, all kinds of things – but I have never accepted any of these. I have paid all of my debts but not through gifts such as these. When they told me this was common practice, I assured them that I was not common and was not in the market for what they offered.

But the women spoken of in Luke were his witnesses, those who recorded their visions to support his claim; for one must have proof that everything said of Jesus Christ, in scripture, has been experienced by him. Should not Christ experience these sensations, these emotions, and then enter into his glory?

I have to have scripture confirmed, for I am not just talking to you on this level, but on every level of your being. One friend followed me from place to place, from level to level, as I taught scripture. In her letter she said: “At each lecture I became so excited my heart began to split, and at the very end I could hardly contain myself.” Are we not told: “Did not our hearts burn within us when he opened unto us the scriptures?” What else is there?

If you read a doctor’s report in the morning paper and remember what the same doctor reported a year ago about the same condition of the human heart, you would find that the doctor had completely contradicted himself. Or, perhaps he is only quoting another doctor. Well, if there are one-million doctors, do you know you will find one million different treatments for the same disease? Treatments are more fashionable than the clothes you wear, changing often – but the word of God is forever!

We are told: “I am from above. You are from below. You are of this world. I am not of this world.” If this is true, how can scripture be secular? He is telling you that he belongs to an entirely different region. That he is from the skull, where he was buried in the beginning of time, and not from the womb of any woman who bears children into time!

Everything you have ever done was done by Christ! He is your life and without Jesus Christ in you, you could not breathe. Allowing everything to happen, he will experience it all, as you!

Believe every precept literally, for it will be fulfilled literally. Believe that all things are possible to you and that you are what you want to be. Persist in that assumption and it will harden into fact. Having assumed the life you now live, no one can take it from you but yourself! You have the power to lay it down by no longer being conscious of it, and the power to pick it up again through consciousness.

You are the Cosmic Christ who nailed your power on humanity in six vortices as the six-pointed Star of David. At the moment of sheer ecstasy God began a good work in you, and He will bring it to completion as His predestined state unfolds from within!

Now let us go into the silence.

ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 05-12-1969

In the 9th chapter of the Book of Mark, it is said: “All things are possible to him who believes,” and in the 19th chapter of the Book of Matthew we are told: “With God all things are possible.” Here we see God equated with the believer.

Seated here tonight you believe you are a man or a woman. You believe you are here, but are you willing to believe you can go beyond what your reason and senses dictate? You do not have to limit your power of belief to what your reasonable mind dictates. The choice and its limitations are entirely up to you, for all things exist in the human imagination and it is from your imagination that your belief stems. If you go beyond the dictates of reason, it must be via your imagination, and since all things now exist there, you can at any moment go beyond what your reason and senses dictate.

We have just had an eruption in the Christian world concerning the little icons people have made and worshiped for over a thousand years. The 115th Psalm described them as: “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have eyes but do not see; mouths that do not speak; ears that do not hear; hands that do not feel; feet that do not walk and no sound is heard in their throats. Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them.”

In today’s paper the story is told of a famous actress who had an accident while in her Rolls Royce. She was injured, but not seriously and attributed her luck to the little icon she called St. Christopher. She is just like the one who made it and sold it to her, but she doesn’t know it. Don’t judge another by their worldly possessions. They received them through belief, but they do not know their very being is the one who created it for them. She believed her little gold icon saved her from a fatal accident. Nothing saved her but her belief in it. She bought and believed in her little icon because she does not know the one in whom she should trust.

All things are possible to him who believes and “with God all things are possible.” Here we see that God and the believer are one. When you leave here tonight, you expect to find your home where you left it. You will go to sleep there and believe you will wake up in your bed tomorrow morning. You believe you are clothed right now. I tell you: your capacity to believe is the human imagination, which is the only God. All imagination, you have restricted yourself by the body of sense and reason you wear. Reason says you are in this room, that you have a certain amount of money and can have no more unless you make a physical effort to get it. But you would wish you had more wouldn’t you?

Assume your wish through the sense of feeling. That assumption, subjectively appropriated and believed to be true, is faith. Can you believe in its reality? Knowing all things are possible to him who believes, can you persuade yourself that, although your reason and senses deny it, your assumption will make it so? Blake, in his wonderful “Marriage of Heaven and Hell,” said: “I dined with Isaiah and Ezekiel and asked: Does a strong persuasion that a thing is so, make it so? and Isaiah replied: All prophets believe it does, and in ages of imagination a firm persuasion moved mountains, but many today are not capable of a firm persuasion of anything.” Everything here was once only a desire, believed. This building, the clothes you wear or the car you drive were first a desire, then believed into being.

Yes, I believe there is a man named Neville. He may work for you to aid the fulfillment of your desire, if you believe you have it. Many men can and will come to aid you, even without knowing they are doing it, if you believe. You do not have to persuade others to help you; all you need do is believe you are what you want to be and then let the world (which is nothing more than yourself pushed out) go to work to make your assumption possible. I promise you: your desire will be fulfilled, for all things are possible to him who believes.

The late Robert Frost said: “Our founding fathers did not believe in the future, they believed the future in.” The most creative power in you is your power to believe a thing in. Our founding fathers did not believe that the passage of time would produce this country as they desired it. They wanted democracy, not a monarchy, and knew that sitting down and hoping it would come to pass wouldn’t do it – they had to appropriate it, so they simply believed it in. How? By faith. They subjectively appropriated their desire.

Let us say you would like to be in San Francisco now, but you don’t have the time or the money to make the trip. What do you do? You ignore the present moment and subjectively appropriate your objective hope by sleeping in San Francisco tonight. As you lie on your bed, look at your world through the eyes of one who is sleeping in San Francisco. You may wake in the morning to find you are still physically in Los Angeles, but while you slept changes were taking place which will compel you to make the journey. I tell you: you will always go physically to the subjective state you have appropriated.

Remember: all things are possible to him who believes, and with God all things are possible. Man believes that God created the world and all within it, but he does not equate God with himself, the believer. But the Bible equates God, the creator of everything, with one who believes. And belief need not be restricted, but can go beyond the evidence of sense and reason.

In the world you must go on the outside to light your way. You may light a candle, a lamp, or use electricity; but one day you will turn within to discover that you are the light of the world. Then you will know you are God, the light of infinite love, infinite power, and infinite wisdom. You will expand into these states as you break the barriers of reason and senses. I challenge you to examine yourself. Are you holding to the state you desire to experience? Test yourself, and as you do you are testing Christ, for he is God’s power and wisdom. It doesn’t cost anything to test him, so try it.

We are told that imagination speaks to us through the medium of dreams and reveals himself in vision. One night I was shown how to test myself. That night I found myself in an enormous mansion on 5th Avenue in New York City at the turn of the century. Everything that money could buy was in that mansion. Although I was invisible to the two generations who were present, I could hear everything they said. The older gentleman spoke, saying: “Father used to say, while standing on an empty lot, ‘I remember when this was just as empty lot,’ then he would describe the building he wanted to be there as though it were already solid and real.” Then the scene shifted and I saw the building, now complete, standing where only a moment before had been an empty lot. The grandfather was now standing next to his son and grandson and said: “I remember when this was an empty lot.”

This dream taught me a marvelous lesson. I was the grandfather, the son, and the grandson. It was up to me now to pass this knowledge on to other generations. While standing in a barren state you can say: “I remember when this was barren.” If it was barren, you are implying it is no longer so. Then you can – by exercising your inner sense of sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch – occupy the state and allow it to externalize itself for you. I tell you, it does not matter what you have or who you are in this world, all things are possible to you when you believe.

You may believe in one or more of the ninety odd so-called saints which have now been demoted, but if you believe, they have served their purpose. Now those who formerly believed in icons on the outside must turn around and learn to believe in themselves. It has taken a long time, for more than a thousand years men have believed this nonsense. You don’t have to cover your head any more to enter the church – so was it ever necessary? You don’t have to believe in St. Christopher any more. It never was necessary; but man, in his child-like state, could not believe in himself, so he created something with his human hands to believe in and his belief produced itself. The icon did not do it for the individual. His belief did it for him.

All things are possible to him who believes and with God all things are possible, so is God not one with the believer? His name forever and forever is I am. Do you not know that you are? Knowing that, are you not saying: “I am”? If your name is John, you must be aware of it before you can say: “I am John.” I say: “I am Neville.” I may not always say “I am” before I say “Neville,” but I am aware of being Neville before I say the word. I have given my awareness of being a name. It is Neville. I do not have to repeat the words “I am” to define what I am aware of; but my awareness is God, the believer, and there is no other God.

Now, all things exist in the human imagination – not just the good things, but all things. Listen to these words from the 32nd chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy: “See, I, even I am he and there is no God besides me. I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal and no one can deliver out of my hand.” Who can kill but God? You may say: “I killed him,” but that is God’s name. Your own wonderful human imagination has the power to kill and make alive, to wound and heal and there is none that can deliver out of your hand, for there is no god besides your own wonderful human imagination.

As you are seated here you have the capacity to believe. You may believe in something stupid, but you believe and your belief will make it work. The one I speak of as God is your mightier self, yet your slave, for purposes of his own. He waits on you as indifferently and as swiftly when your will is evil as when it is good. He does it by conjuring images of good and evil just as though they were real. Allowing you to imagine whatever you desire, he projects it upon this screen of space in order for you to experience it. You can move into it so naturally and so easily you can forget the thoughtless moment when the seed was planted, and therefore do not recognize your own harvest.

The being you really are is the God in scripture who is your own wonderful human imagination. Can you leave this auditorium tonight in the deep conviction that you are what you want to be? Are you willing to assume its joys and woes? Your assumption is your subjective appropriation of an objective fact. That is faith and without faith it is impossible to please him.

Tonight, when I leave this building I will ride home with my friend. As we travel we will pass certain streets and see familiar objects because we will be traveling by sight. But when I walk by faith my steps are invisible, for I will be walking in the assumption of my fulfilled desire. Paul tells us to “walk by faith and no longer by sight.” We all know what it is like to walk by sight, but now we are called upon to break that spell and walk by faith.

I tell you it is possible to be anything you want to be, for the believer and the God of the universe are one. Don’t divorce yourself from God, for he is your I Amness. Believe in your I Amness, for if you do not you will never fulfill your desire. Only by assuming you already are the one you would like to be will you achieve it. It’s just as simple as that.

I am not saying it’s easy, but it becomes easier with practice. If I gave a Stradivarius to one who had mastered the violin he could lift me to the nth degree of joy, but if I put the same violin in the hands of one who could not play it, he would shortly drive me insane. It’s the same violin, yet one brings harmony while the other brings discord. You kill and make alive out of the same instrument, which is your own wonderful human imagination. You may make many discords until you 1earn how to play. We are here in this world of educated darkness learning to play the instrument which is God. You may not know anyone who would give you $10,000 right now, but if you believe a11 things are possible to God and you know that God is your human imagination, you can imagine you have the money, persist in your belief and you will have it. How, I do not know; I only know that according to your belief will it be done unto you.

Do you believe that all things are possible to God? And do you believe that he is your own wonderful human imagination? Knowing that God is all love, and you are capable of imagining unlovely things, you may not believe your imagination is God, but if that is true then God is not all-powerful. If you can imagine something that God cannot, then you transcend him. If God strikes only harmonious notes and you can strike chords that produce discord as well as harmony, then you are greater than he because you can do something he can’t. But I tell you: your own wonderful human imagination kills and makes alive, it wounds and heals, for all things come out of the human imagination. While learning to use and believe in your human imagination you may make alive that which you do not want. You may wound yourself in the process, but what you create in your imagination you can uncreate.

Everything can be resolved, even though while learning, horrible mistakes are made. Don’t condemn yourself for anything you have ever done, are doing, or may do, as you learn to play the instrument who is God himself and your own wonderful human imagination, for there is no other creative power.

What is now proved was once only imagined. My tailor uses his imagination to execute my suits for me. They must first be imagined before the cloth is cut. My tailor doesn’t take his scissors and start cutting the cloth in the hope that something will come out; he imagines it first. And when I sit in my barber’s chair he sees what ought to be on my head instead of what is there. Everything must first be imagined before it can become a fact, and that capacity to imagine is God.

Now, you do not observe imagining as you do objects in space, because you are the reality that is called imagination. You can observe this room, which was once only imagined, but you cannot observe the creative power that conceived it. The things created are seen, but you – the creator – are not seen, and you will never know you are He, until God’s only son, David, stands before you and calls you Father. Not everyone will accept this knowledge, for they would rather have their little icons. I’m quite sure this Italian actress who had the accident would not be interested in or believe my words, and she is not alone. There are hundreds of millions tonight who would not give up their little medals. I saw where Cardinal McIntyre had put his seal of approval on the reverse side of the little St. Christopher medal, thereby giving it his blessing. On one side is a face that never existed and on the other, a priest of the church gives his approval. What nonsense, yet the medals work because people believe they do.

It’s time for man to stop believing in something on the outside and start believing in his human imagination. It’s time to stop all the outside icons. “You shall make no graven image unto me, or have no other gods besides me.” You may have no education, no money or social background, and find it difficult to believe in yourself; but because all things are possible to him who believes, and with God all things are possible, you can go outside of your senses and believe anything into being. Test your imagination, and if it proves itself in performance, what does it matter what the world thinks?

Through testing I have proved imagination. I have found him and now I share my findings with another. He is called Philip, the lover of horses, the symbol of the mind. Knowing Philip loves learning about how the mind functions, I tell him that “I have found him whom Moses and the law and the prophets spoke – Jesus, the Messiah. I will take you to him.” You are here because, as Philip, you desire to know more about the mind and its functions. I can take you to Jesus by telling you who he is, but I cannot show him to you, for he is invisible.

Your I AMness is he. Say: “I am secure, I am wealthy, I am free.” This may not be true based upon your senses, but I am simply asking you to say the words, for the moment you do you are subjectively appropriating security, wealth, and freedom. Reason will try to take these from you, so I ask you to play a little game with me. Go through the door and walk as though you are secure, wealthy, and free. Sleep this night as though it were true. If you do, you will not fall asleep seeing the world as you did last night, you will see it differently. If this morning someone gave you a check for $20,000 and you deposited it to your account, you would be $20,000richer, therefore you could not sleep tonight as you did before. Now, without waiting for someone to physically give you the money, go to bed as though it were true. Put Christ to the extreme test. If all things are possible to God and if all things are possible to the believer, can you believe? I am not saying you will succeed the first night, or even the second. Having been trained to accept only what your reason and senses dictate, you may find it difficult, almost impossible, to believe what you could believe – but you can!

This morning as I was returning to this world I came upon a scene of shadows of beings. The first one was blind, unable to see the world round about him. The second one saw, but his vision was limited. The third saw more than the second, and the fourth could see, hear, and do more than the third. I awoke, saying to my friend Bob Crutcher: “With your talent to write, you could write a movie about this series of events. If you did, you would receive $3,000 for it.”

I knew that just like an actor I had identified myself with every shadowy being I had seen. Although shadows, I, the perceiving one, had assumed one after the other to find myself limited by the state perceived. As I assumed the first one I was totally blind. As the second I could see a little, and as the third a little more. Then I woke urging Bob to write it, to show how man is restricted by what he is wearing.

In order to play a part you must fee1 the part. As the blind man I had to feel my way about. When I put on another garment I could see and did not need to feel any more. With each garment I wore, I sensed more and more, and awoke urging my friend to show this in picture form in the hope that those who would see it would understand that man is only playing a part. The part need not be that which was given him at birth. He could pick a part and enter it at any point in time.

Right now you are playing a part. If you don’t like it you can change it. You could play the part of a man wealthier than you were twenty-four hours ago. It’s only a part for you to play, if you desire it.

Everything I am telling you is from the Bible. “I kill and I make alive. I wound and I hea1 and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. I, even I am he and there is no God besides me. I am the Lord your God, the holy one of Israel, your Savior and besides me there is no savior.” These are the words of God, revealed through his prophets of old. Their prophecy is fulfilled in the New Testament as: “Whatsoever you desire, believe you have received it and you will.” That’s how easily you apply it, for an assumption, though false and denied by your senses, if persisted in will harden into fact.

I am telling you: you are God and there never was another. The being in you is God, and you and I are one, because there is only one God. In the end you will know that you and I are one, for you will discover you are the father of my son, who you will know to be your son. In fact, it will not be the son revealing you as the Father, but you, the Father, revealing your son.

Now let us go into the silence.

ALL THINGS EXIST

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 05-24-1968

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

(William Blake)

The world of imagination is infinite and eternal, whereas the world of generation is finite and temporary. In that eternal world, the permanent realities of everything exist. Their reflections are here, cast in a glass called nature.

“The oak is cut down by the ax
And the lamb falls by the knife,
But their eternal forms exist forever,
And are renewed by the seed of contemplative thought.”
(William Blake)

The permanent realities of an extinct bird, animal, or fish, live! They can be resurrected and externalized by the seed of your contemplative thought, for everything lives within you!

This world of generation I call the world of Caesar should not be neglected, as it is an important aspect of reality, even though it is only a shadow. Scripture urges us to revise, to forgive, and change our thoughts, thereby changing the conditions of our life. This is how it is done.

A friend recently wrote saying: “Three weeks ago a friend called, saying he was afraid he was going to be fired. I instantly revised his call. Hearing his voice bubbling with excitement, he told me how he had been praised for his work and I felt the thrill of rejoicing with him. Today he came to my office and said the very words I heard in my imagination.
“This morning, while dressing I was thinking about an ad I was working on which carried the name of a very prominent man in San Francisco. As I ran the ad through my mind I said to myself, I want to put the word ‘Mister’ before his name. I did it and it felt right. I made a mental note to do it when I arrived at the office, and promptly dropped the thought. That afternoon the man called, asking that I insert ‘Mister’ before his name – not in the ad, but in a radio commercial where his name was used.”

Then my friend added this thought: “I stand in awe at the operation of this law. You asked about the little pig I saw. He was small, but fat, and the way I am stuffing him today, in no time at all he will be so large he will fill this room.

For those who are not familiar with this symbol, the pig is the symbol of Christ, the power and wisdom of God. Every time you exercise your imagination lovingly on behalf of another or yourself, you are feeding Jesus Christ. My friend is stuffing his pig, because every moment of time he is alert and putting this law into practice.

Now a lady wrote, saying: “I found myself looking at an enormous building at the edge of a vast body of water where your classes were held. A man at my side asked: ‘How do the students get to the classes?’ Pointing to another student who was walking on the water towards her destination I answered: ‘That’s how it is done.’” “Unwilling to accept my answer the man said: ‘But how do you do it?’ and I confessed: ‘I have placed stones just below the water.’ Then the scene changed and I am with a friend who said: ‘I am pregnant.’ Shocked, because I knew she had no husband I asked: ‘By whom?’ and before she could answer, I awoke.

“Three nights later I found myself in a very large building containing a theater, where you were the one actor who was playing every part. As you assumed the role of the blind man, I realized there was no one to lead you, so I ran to help. As we walked, we came upon a young boy sound asleep. Then you said: ‘I told him to meditate and he has fallen asleep again.’

“The scene changed, and I am viewing paper decorations hanging above a door. I reached up to pull them down, when an enormous wind caught me and I felt as though I was borne in the arms of a very strong man and awoke saying, ‘I love thee, O Lord.’”

This marvelous series of dreams revealed much. This lady admitted crossing the water while walking on a solid foundation. Now the Bible is a parable from beginning to end, and water is the symbol of its psychological truth. The literal interpretation of a parable is solid as a rock. When the meaning behind the parable is discovered, the stone is rolled away and the water found. However if a little solid reality in this world is desired while playing with this psychological truth, it becomes stepping-stones below the water. Loving what is heard is not enough. One must be willing to go all out and walk on the water. Instead, feeling she must be practical as she was living in a world of reality where rent must be paid, food bought, and clothes purchased, she is unable to walk by faith at the present time.

Let me give you a definition that came to me concerning the word faith. Faith is the subjective appropriation of an objective hope. When my friend revised the first telephone conversation, he subjectively appropriated what he hoped would objectify for his friend. He remained faithful to his imaginal act, and confirmation came.

Do as my friend does, and you will experience the glorious sensation of walking on the water in your mystical world. In my own case I was pulled by a wonderful goose, the symbol of the Holy Spirit. Having lassoed him with a silver chain – the symbol of knowledge – he propelled me over this fabulous water. This is He who will lead you into all things, as recorded in the 14th chapter of the Book of John.

The lady saw the protean man when she saw me playing all the parts. As the dreamer of the dream, she has been impregnated by the one she spoke to when she awoke, saying: “I love thee, O Lord.” Mary did not know the name of the one who impregnated her, yet it was the same Lord, the same I AM.

In this lady’s dream she was so brutally honest with herself when the man insisted that she tell him how she crossed the water. She could have said she walked on the water. Instead she told him exactly how it was done, thereby admitting to herself that she has not gone all out and lived by the law, but has a little anchor on the side, in the event it doesn’t work.
In Barbados we have a saying: “I have a hind-claw,” meaning there is some money tucked away in the bank, a little income from the family, or something I can fall back on just in case. We have these beach crabs on the island that are almost impossible to catch. Running at top speed, the crab can run right over a precipice and disappear. If you followed him you would break your neck in the fall, but the crab has a hind-claw that stops his fall. He grabs the earth just below the surface, and there the crab can pause and get his breath before climbing back and entering the race again. I urge you not to have a hind-claw. Be for me or against me, but be one way or the other.

Now, I want to share an experience of a lady who wrote, saying: “About a year ago I was deeply concerned for my mother. While lying on my bed, I began to imagine her face radiantly happy, and hear her tell me she had never known such happiness before. As I listened, I heard my name whispered softly three times.

“Startled, I raised myself off the pillow to see you standing in mid-air. Dressed in a gray suit, you smiled, raised your arms, and removed the eyes from your head. Then you came over and calling me brother, you pressed them into my eyes. Bending your head, I watched it grow transparent and enormous in size. Then I saw that every living thing in the universe was there. You straightened up, and as you did your head returned to its normal size. Again, raising your right hand, you took off the top of your head and handed it to me, where I saw the greenest of green grass growing there, and you vanished.”

Yes, I called this lady brother advisedly, for regardless of the sex worn here, we are immortal brothers, all of us. So I say: “Go unto my brothers and say to them, ‘I have ascended unto my God and your God, unto my Father and your Father.

It was over a year ago when I placed my eyes into her sockets and gave her sight. Now she has become the incurrent eyewitness. In her vision she saw a long table. A man dressed in the white robe of a judge, carrying a gavel in his hand, entered the room. Looking directly at her, the gavel hit the table and he said: “I pronounce you the incurrent eyewitness.”

The word incurrent means, giving passage to a current that flows inward. This lady is now so conditioned that I can reveal all things to her so that she can know the truth of the statement: “All that you behold, though it appears without it is within, in your Imagination, of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.” She saw that every living thing was contained in my immortal head. Destroy the garment I now wear or anything in my world and I will reproduce it again, for my immortal head cannot be destroyed.

Start now to practice what the Bible calls repentance, which is a radical change of attitude. No matter what it is, if it does not conform to your ideal change it by subjectively appropriating your goal. Remain faithful to it and no earthly power can keep you from attaining it.

Go all out and walk on the water! Don’t be like Peter, whose understanding told him imagination didn’t make sense (symbolized as his feet), or you will drown in the sea of illusion. Imagination, speaking to his faith, said: “Peter, come,” and as Peter walked, he looked down to see how this was possible, and sank. My friend, who did not look down, walked on the water in the direction of his wish fulfilled – and it was.
All of the Bible stories will be fulfilled literally on different levels of your being. You will experience them all, because you are Jesus Christ. Blake tells us so beautifully: “Desires and perceptions of Man, untaught by anything but organs of sense must be limited to objects of sense; therefore, God becomes Man that Man may become God.”

If you only knew what your organs of sense reveal, you would never perceive anything beyond them. It would be horrible to remain an organ of sense and never transcend it. But God brought creation with him when he became humanity, and you are here to awaken to that fact! If God did not become you, you would be an animated body, limited to all that your sense organs would reveal. But having become you, God is awakening and will give you desires and their fulfillments, far beyond the wildest dreams of those who are still limited to the organs of sense.

When Blake said: “All that you behold, though it appears without, it is within you,” he meant it. Being an incurrent eyewitness like my friend, Blake saw God’s mystery of salvation clearly.

I urge you to exercise your divine right by using your imagination. Be like my friend who is now consciously feeding his pig. Every moment of time you have the opportunity to feed your pig. When someone phones to tell of their misfortune, revise their words. Go about your business of creation on the inside, and do not do a thing on the outside. Use your imagination and let your words come into being!

All things are possible to you, because you are all imagination and imagination creates reality. Knowing what you want, imagine you have it. Knowing what you want to be, imagine you are it. Subjectively appropriate your objective hope and you have assumed a virtue you did not have. Ask no one to help, and do not feel below the water for something to fall back on if imagination doesn’t work. Instead, learn to count on your true Self, who is Jesus Christ!

Jesus, your own wonderful human imagination, is your hope of glory, and there is no other Christ. Defined as God’s power and wisdom, Imagination is in travail until Christ is formed in you. On that day your history will be changed from BC to AD, and every year thereafter will be the year of the Lord. Having been formed in you, Christ is born, and the words of Isaiah become yours: “For to you a child is born and a son is given. The government shall then be upon your shoulders, and you will be the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And of your reign there shall be no end.”

Start now to look upon the great mystery of creation as the subjective appropriation of your objective hope. Dwell upon my words. Put them into practice, and you will experience their fulfillment, for all things exist within you!

Now let us go into the silence.

AN INNER CONVICTION

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 03-15-1968

I tell you that imagination creates reality and I ask you to imagine a state, any state, which would imply the fulfillment of your desire. It doesn’t really matter what anyone else thinks; it’s what you think that matters to you! If you create a scene which implies the fulfillment of your desire and dwell in it until you have an inner conviction that it is real, what does it matter what another thinks?

In the Book of Habakkuk (which means “to embrace”) the prophet speaks to the Lord as: “Thou who art of purer eyes than to behold evil.” Then he asks the question: “Why are you silent when the wicked swallows up the righteous? I will take my stand upon the watchtower, to see and hear what people say to me and what I will answer.” Now the Lord speaks, saying: “Write the vision plain upon the tablets so that he who runs may read it. For the vision has its own appointed hour; it ripens and it will flower. If it be long, then wait, for it is sure and it will not be late.”

There are those who try to rush everything into being. They try to force birth from conception, but it cannot be done. There are many experiences not recorded in scripture, and I am not here to stand in judgment of anyone as to whether they have experienced scripture or not. But I do know from experience that on this level, if you dare to assume you are what you want to be, your inner conviction, your feeling of certainty will bring it to pass. When you embrace the desired state, you have assumed its impregnation, and its fulfillment has its own appointed hour. It will ripen and flower. If the state is slow in objectifying itself wait, for it is sure and will not be late.

I know that when I was told I could not get out of the island of Barbados for at least six months and I desired to leave immediately, I assumed I was walking up the gangplank of the ship. I felt the dampness of the rail and tasted the salt air of the sea with the feeling of certainty that I was leaving for America. I made that gangplank so real that I hadn’t even broken the spell before the phone rang and I was offered passage for the following week. Although I had been told that I was on the bottom of a list of over two thousand names, my family and I were singled out to board that ship. So I know that the truth of any concept is known by the feeling of a certainty, a peculiar knowingness that it is true.

You can take this same concept into all levels of your being, for any desire is a concept. You can move into any desire and express it. Ask no one if you are entitled to it or if you did it – only you know what you did. It happened to you. Now wait for the vision (the desire’s fulfillment) for it has its own appointed hour. It ripens, it will flower. If it seems long then wait, for it is sure and it will not be late.

Returning to the overall picture of God’s rising in Man, let us go back to the Book of Exodus, where we are told: “The time that the people of Israel dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, on that very day all the hosts of the Lord departed from Egypt. It was a night of watching by the Lord.” Then Moses is told to keep this night in memory.

Scripture teaches a mystery. “Great indeed is the mystery of our religion.” The word “mystery” is defined as “a religious truth revealed by God that man cannot by reason alone discover.” Here is a doctrine of revealed truth.

We are told in the 15th chapter of Genesis that “You and your descendants will be enslaved for four hundred years.” Now, the number four hundred is the twenty-second letter of the Hebrew alphabet whose symbol is the cross. Your body (of beliefs) is the cross referred to as four hundred, and as long as you wear it you are enslaved in a land that is not yours. But in the end you will be brought out with great possessions!

In the 12th chapter of Exodus, thirty years has been added to the four hundred, and in the New Testament it is said that Jesus began his ministry when he was about thirty years of age. In this world you are enslaved, and here you remain playing your part until you are embraced, impregnated, and thirty years later Christ is born in you and your trials and tribulations are over! So four hundred does not mean years, but thirty does. Four hundred records the length which Blake calls 6,000 or 8,500 years. Call it what you will, it is the period of time man plays his part in this world. Then comes the moment when, as Man, you are selected, called and embraced, and told to stand upon your watch; for the sign has its own appointed time to ripen and to flower, and that time is thirty years!

My friend, Benny, does not remember the embrace, but I remember it well. It was in 1929. I was fully aware of the embrace, just as I was fully aware of its fulfillment in 1959, so I can tell anyone from my own experience how it happens, but I can’t tell you when if you cannot remember the embrace. Only after impregnation can I prophesy as to what, and when these things will come into being.

But I do know that God’s law reflects all the way down to this world of Caesar. I do not know how long it takes for each egg to hatch in a nest, but I do know each one will hatch in its own time. And so it is with an assumption. If I desire to be wealthy, I may not know how long it will take me to reach the conviction that I possess great wealth, but when I feel wealth is mine I have conceived. Conception is my end. The length of time between my desire and its conception depends entirely upon my inner conviction that it is done. A horse takes twelve months, a cow nine months, a chicken twenty-one days, so there are intervals of time; but it comes down to the simple fact that the truth concerning every concept is known by the feeling of its certainty. When you know it, not a thing can disturb your knowingness!

In my own case, as I felt the gangplank under my feet and the salt mist on the rail of the ship in Barbados, the phone rang and passage was mine. There have been other times when it has taken longer. Unfortunately we do not keep an account to see how long it takes to come about after we have done it. But a concept is an egg and remains so until occupied. Occupy your desire! Feel its certainty and you can prophesy its fulfillment.

Although I did not know what would become of it, I kept a record of what happened to me in 1929, so when I was born from above and raised from within myself in 1959, I looked back to discover that it was thirty years. I discovered that Jesus began his ministry when he was thirty years of age, and that Israel made their exodus thirty years after the four hundred recorded in Genesis. We are going to celebrate this exodus in the immediate future as the Passover, “a day to keep in memory forever.” For “this is a night of watching by the Lord. On this day the Lord will bring the entire host of Israel out of the land of Egypt” and they will come out one by one. So if someone tells me a story that is not part of my experience, I cannot confirm it or deny it; I only know that my experiences parallel scripture.

But I say to you: everything has its own appointed time. It ripens and will flower. If fulfillment seems long, wait, for it is sure and will not be late. Everything comes on time, but we do not know the time interval because we do not record the conception. In my case, I keep a diary. I check scripture to find out where the passage is that I have experienced and record the date beside it. Now I know the length of time it takes to fulfill scripture. I also know that when it comes to the world of Caesar, I have received confirmation while in the silence. I have exploded right into the now and, having felt the thrill I knew it had to happen, but I did not know when. It could be a day, a week, or a month. Three weeks ago I heard good news for a friend, and today I received confirmation that it was completed. I will not catalog that event to say that particular desire equals all desires, because a desire can be as different as a chicken’s egg is from the egg of an elephant. I do know, however that events of scripture do have definite time periods. Scripture fulfills itself in God’s time, and you cannot delay it or hasten its coming.

A friend wrote me this week, saying: “I found myself sitting at a table looking at a beautiful plate containing a raw steak, when I heard the words, ‘Eat it’. Obeying the command I then heard voice say, ‘You have eaten the body of God.’” This lady has fulfilled the 51st to 56th verses of the 6th chapter of the Book of John: “My flesh is the bread of life. He who eats thereof has eternal life.” She has completely eaten the body of revealed truth and eternal life is now hers. I cannot tell her when she will be called, but she has accepted the revealed truth, which is the body of God.

Another letter came, telling of how this lady spent the day working on her husband’s books. She was so very tired that as she fell asleep, she said: “Father, I cannot take every aspect of the day and change it, but I can imagine that it never happened.” So she began to create a scene which would imply that all the problems of the day were resolved, when out of the nowhere she saw an enormous scene of mountains clothed with magnificent trees. As she watched, she discovered that her mental activity caused the trees to move. And that the world pictured on the outside adjusted itself to be in harmony with her thoughts. Then she said “I came to the conclusion that my God is a God of action, for I saw everything I was imagining taking place now. I feel as though the world is moving in me like being on parade.” That’s how God sees Man. We are forever adjusting to his perfect being. He is looking out, yet everything is taking place within.

Tonight I ask you to take the most fantastic thing in this world and find an inner conviction within yourself that it is yours, for the truth of any concept is known by the feeling of certainty which that conviction inspires. Once you have that inner feeling of certainty, don’t ask me to confirm it. What would it matter what I think? Do not be disillusioned if your experience has not been mine. Believe in yourself and trust your inner feeling. Test yourself and if it works on this level it will work in the depths of your being.

If, in my imagination I climb a gangplank, and as I look with nostalgia at the little island of Barbados and the phone rings, offering me the passage I desire, am I not influencing my outer world? Was the phone call not reflecting my mental activity? I arrived at the point of feeling a peculiar certainty, and that certainty was its inspiration.

You can always tell the truth of any concept by the feeling of certainty which it inspires. When you imagine seeing the world as you desire it to be and are inspired as to its truth, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. I don’t care what it is; when you know what you want, you can make your desire so real, so natural that you will reach a feeling of certainty which no power in the world can stop. When that feeling is yours, drop it. Don’t ask anyone if what you did was right or wrong; you did it and that’s all that is necessary.

Now let me share the letter I received from Benny. He said: “Friends of mine (Negroes), a man and his wife, invited me to a party. On the way we stopped at their home, where a group of Caucasians in their teens were having a party. Suddenly my friends appeared in the doorway, coat and hat in hand, and said, ‘You stay and mind the children.’ I was shocked, but turned to look at the boys and girls, when out of the nowhere a blond, blue-eyed, fair skinned lad came toward me, and as I looked at him I knew he was David. He looked me in the eye and said, ‘I know that our Father will never leave us.’ At that moment I knew my son David, yet I also knew I fathered them all. This was on Wednesday. The following Friday as I told this experience to my friends, I awoke to discover that I had been dreaming, for I awoke on my bed.”

Here is the doubling of a dream, the confirmation as told us in the 41st chapter of Genesis. Now, you cannot violate the story of scripture. David is described in the 16th chapter of 1 Samuel, and you will not change this description no matter who you are. The Christ child is not described, for he can be black, pink, white, or yellow. There is no description of Jesus either, but I will tell you who he is. He is the Ancient of Days as described in the Books of Daniel and Revelation. When you see David, he is the youth of the ancient one he observes. Benny is now wearing a very dark skin, but in the eyes of his fair skinned, blond and blue-eyed son David, Benny is the Ancient of Days, the Holy One of Israel. The one we recognize and call Benny now knows himself to be the Risen Lord. Now I will tell him that on the 8th day of July he will be split in two from top to bottom. I know, for the vision has its own appointed hour, it ripens, it will flower. If it seems long, wait, for it is sure and will not be late.

Now the Book of Ezekiel begins: “In the thirtieth year the heavens opened and I saw visions of God.” Ezekiel gives you a day and a month, meaning nothing. The important thing is that in the 30th year the heavens opened and visions of God were his. “And as I looked, behold, a stormy wind.” That’s exactly what happens. An unearthly wind comes in that thirtieth year, and you are born from above, born anew through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Jesus Christ is God’s pattern of salvation buried in you. His death in the most literal sense is your life, and his resurrection is possible only after he impregnates himself.

God the sender and Man the sent are one. Falling in love with the one he sent, God impregnates him. He plants his seed, which takes thirty years to germinate and [is] his mission to start. This experience comes to Man after he has borne his cross in this wilderness world for thousands of years. In spite of the horrible things that take place in the world, when the individual is called and embraced, what does it matter what he has to go through before he awakens? In a short period of only 30 years he will be born into an entirely different age, for during that time he is taken out of this age and placed in that age, the age of the kingdom of heaven.

Now, because you know this concept, don’t feel that you are better than someone else, you are creative power. Stand upon your tower and watch to see what God will say and how you will answer. Do this by assuming you are the person you want to be and seeing what you would see if your assumption was real. Remain there until you feel its certainty, until you reach the point of satisfaction, until you are convinced of its truth; and although the world may collapse around you, you will become that which you have assumed you are.

In the 21st chapter of the Book of John it is said that if all things were told concerning Jesus Christ, the world itself could not contain the books; so do not think that because I have not had your experience, that it is not true – but do not try to force me into accepting it. Believe what you choose and go your way this night. My pattern has followed scripture completely, from the embrace to the descent of the dove, but I am not saying it is the only way.

I am saying, however, that you can be the man (or woman) you want to be, but not by simply wishing. You must make the effort to look at the world mentally and see it reflect your fulfilled desire. And when it does you must remain in that state until you reach the inner conviction that what you are seeing, touching, tasting, smelling, and hearing is true, clothe yourself in the feeling of its reality – and explode! Do that and you are pregnant. And what do you do after pregnancy? Nothing! You simply wait for its birth to appear in its own appointed hour. And it will! When you least expect it your desire will objectify itself in the world for you to enjoy, whether it be health, wealth, or fame. That’s how God’s law works.

Now, to the one who had this experience the other night, I know you are anxious to give it birth right away, but what is thirty years in this fabulous eternity? You were awake when it happened, and you will never lose its memory. Should you depart tonight to find yourself a young lady of twenty, you would only be fifty when you brought forth the Christ child. Then you would see the complete pattern fulfill itself in three and a half years and enter a new age, which is the world of eternity. My dear, you are destined to know departure from this world of death and entrance into the world of eternal life as you move from darkness into light. But your reaction was natural.

It reminded me of a story I heard in New York City. This young girl came rushing into the subway, and standing in front of a gentleman she said: “Would you please let a pregnant lady have your seat?” Jumping up, terribly disturbed, the gentleman said: “When is the baby expected?” And she replied: “I don’t know, it just happened.” But this lady knows it will be thirty years, but what is thirty years when you have been called, you have been selected, you have been chosen. You are one of the elect!

Now let us go into the silence.

ARISE

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard

When our great scientist, Dr. Robert Millikan was young and very poor he set a goal for himself. Condensing his dream of greatness and security into a simple statement, he silently repeated the thought over and over again. This he did until the feeling of greatness and security crowded all other thoughts out of his consciousness.

These are his words: “I have a lavish, steady, dependable income, consistent with integrity and mutual benefit”
As I have said repeatedly, everything depends upon your attitude towards yourself! That which you will not affirm as true of yourself cannot develop in your life!

Dr. Millikan wrote his dream of greatness and security in the first person, present tense. He did not say, “I will be great,” or “I will be secure,” implying that he was not great and secure. Instead, he made his future dream a present fact by saying, “I have a lavish, steady, dependable income, consistent with integrity and mutual benefit.”

If you seek to realize your future dream, it must become a present fact in your mind. You must experience, in imagination, what you would experience in reality if you had achieved your goal, for the soul, imagining itself into a situation, takes on the results of that imaginary act. If it does not, the goal remains unfulfilled.

The purpose of this teaching is to stir the highest in you to confidence and self assertion. The command constantly given us in scripture is to arise. If we are to understand the reason for this, we must recognize that the universe, understood internally, is an infinite series of levels, and man is what he is according to where he is in that series.

As we lift up our consciousness, our world reshapes itself in harmony with the level to which we have risen. One whose prayer has been granted, rises from his prayer a better man.

To change your present state you, like Dr. Millikan, must rise to a higher level of consciousness. This rise is accomplished by affirming that you already are what you want to be, and assuming the feeling of your fulfilled desire.

The drama of life is a psychological one, brought about by your attitudes rather than by your acts. There is no escape from your present predicament other than a radical psychological transformation. Everything depends upon your attitude towards yourself, as that which you will not affirm as true of yourself, will not develop

in your life.

The meek men of the gospels are not the proverbial poor, groveling door mats, as a meek man is generally conceived to be, but the Dr. Millikan’s of the world who, while poor and unproven, dare to assume wealth and greatness.

These are the men who inherit the earth. Any concept of self less than the best robs you, and the promise is, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

In the original text, the word translated “meek” means “tamed, as a wild animal is tamed.” A tamed mind may be likened to a pruned vine of which it is said, “Behold this vine. I found it a wild tree whose wanton strength had swollen into irregular twigs. But I pruned the plant and it grew temperate in its vain expense of useless leaves, and knotted as you see into these clean, full clusters to repay the hand that wisely wounded it.”

A meek man is so self-disciplined he sees only the finest and thinks only the best. He is the one who fulfills the statement, “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

We rise to a higher level of consciousness, not because we have curbed our passions, but because we have cultivated our virtues. In truth, a meek man is one who is in complete control of his moods. And they are the highest, for he who desires to walk with the highest, must keep a high mood.

It is my belief that all men can change the course of their lives. I believe that Dr. Millikan’s technique of making his desire a present fact is of great importance. His high purpose was to be of mutual benefit which is, inevitably the goal of us all. It is much easier to imagine the good for all, than to be purely selfish in our imagining. By our imagination we can change our future, and to the man of high purpose, this is a natural measure.

If you are observant, you will notice the swift echo or response to your every mood and key it to the circumstances of your daily life. When you understand the relationship between circumstances, you will know that everyone you meet is part of yourself.

In the creation of a new life, you must begin with a change of mood which opens the door to a higher level. Start now to mold your life around a community of high moods.

Individuals, as well as communities, grow spiritually in proportion to their higher ideals. If your ideal is low, you sink to its depths, but if it is exalted, you are elevated to heights unimagined. You must keep a high mood if you would walk with the highest.

All forms of creative imagination imply elements of feeling, for it is the ferment without which no creation is possible. There is nothing wrong with the desire to transcend your present state. The world would not progress without man’s dissatisfaction with himself.

It is natural to seek a more beautiful personal life. It is right to wish for greater understanding, health and security. This is so beautifully stated in the 16th chapter of the Book of John, “Heretofore you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you shall receive that your joy may be full.”

Accept my challenge! Embody a new and higher value of yourself as Dr. Millikan did. A nation can exhibit no greater wisdom in the mass than it generates in its units. For this reason, I have always preached self-help. Knowing that if we embody a new and higher concept of ourselves, all other help will be at our service.

The ideal you serve and hope to achieve is ready and waiting for a new incarnation, but it is incapable of birth unless you offer it human parentage. You must assume that you already are what you hope to be and live as though you were.

You must know, like Dr. Millikan did, that your assumption, though false to the outer world, will harden into fact by your persistence. The perfect man judges not after appearances, but judges righteously. He hears what he wants to hear and sees only the good. Knowing the truth that sets him free, he is lead to all good.

Character is largely the result of the direction and persistence of voluntary action; therefore, think truly and your thoughts shall the world’s famine feed. Speak truly and each word shall be a fruitful seed. Live truly and your life shall be a great and noble creed.

AWAKENED IMAGINATION

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 1954

As you have heard, this morning’s subject is “Awakened Imagination”. It is my theme for the entire series of nineteen lectures. Everything is geared towards the awakening of the imagination. I doubt if there is any subject on which clear thinking is more rare than the imagination. The word itself is made to serve all kinds of ideas. many of them directly opposed to one another. But here this morning I hope to convince you that this is the redeeming power in man. This is the power spoken of in the Bible as the Second Man. “the Lord from Heaven”.

This is the same power personified for us as a man called Christ Jesus.

In the ancient text it was called Jacob, and there are numberless names in the Bible all leading up and culminating in the grand flower called Christ Jesus.

It may startle you to identify the central figure of the Gospels as human imagination, but I am quite sure before the series is over, you will be convinced that this what the ancients intended that we should know, but man has misread the Gospels as history and biography and cosmology, and so completely has gone asleep as to the power within himself.

Now this morning I have brought you the means by which this mighty power in us may be awakened. I call it the art of revision. I take my day and I review it in my mind’s eye. I start with the first incident in the morning. I go through the day; when I come to any scene in my unfolding day that displeased me, or if it didn’t displease me if it was not as perfect as I thought it could have been, I stop right there and I revise it. I re-write it, and after I have re-written it so that it conforms to the ideal I wished I had experienced, then I experience that in my imagination as though I had experienced it in the flesh. I do it over and over until it takes on the tone of reality, and experience convinces me that that moment that I have revised and relived will not recede into my past. It will advance into my future to confront me as I have revised it. If I do not revise it, these moments, because they never recede and they always advance, will advance to confront me perpetuating that strange, unlovely incident. But if I refuse to allow the sun to descend upon my wrath, so that at the end of a day I never accept as final the facts of the day, no matter how factual they are, I never accept them, and revising it I repeal the day and bring about corresponding changes in my outer world.

Now, not only will this art of revision accomplish my every objective, but as I begin to revise the day it fulfills its great purpose and its great purpose is to awaken in me the being that men call Christ Jesus, that I call my wonderful human imagination, and when it awakens it is the eye of God and it turns inward into the world of thought and there I see that what formerly I believed to exist on the outside really exists within myself. No matter what it is, I then discover that the whole of Creation is rooted in me and ends in me as I am rooted in and end in God. And from that moment on I find my real purpose in life and my real purpose is simply to do the will of Him that sent me, and the will of Him that sent me is this –that of all that he has given me I shall lose nothing but raise it up again.

And what did he give me? He gave me every experience in my life. He gave me you. Every man, woman and child that I meet is a gift to me from my Father, but they fell in me because of my attitude towards society, because of my attitude towards myself. When I begin to awaken and the eye opens and I see the whole is myself made visible, I then must fulfill my real purpose, which is the will of Him that sent me, and the Will is to raise up those that I allowed in my ignorance when I slept to descend within me.

Then starts the real art of revision; to be the man, regardless of your impressions of that man, regardless of the facts of the case that are all staring you in the face, it is your duty when you become awakened to lift him up within yourself and you will discover that he was never the cause of your displeasure. When you look at him and you are displeased, look within and you will find the source of the displeasure. It did not originate there.

Now let me give you a case history to illustrate this point. I know a few of you were at the banquet and maybe a few of you heard me last Thursday on T. V. but I doubt in this audience of say twenty-three or twenty-four hundred of us, that more than say a hundred and fifty heard it, and even if you heard it you can hear it time and time again for it is this, that if you hear it will cause you to act upon it because as I told you, and I think I did last Sunday, but if I didn’t let me tell you now; if you attended the entire nineteen and you became saturated with all that I have to tell you, so that you had all the knowledge you think it takes to achieve your objectives, and you did not apply what you received, it would avail you nothing; but a little knowledge which you carry out in action, you will find to be far more profitable than much knowledge which you neglect to carry out in action. So by repeating this case history this morning, though say a hundred or two hundred of you have heard it, it will help you to remember you must do something about it.

This past May in New York City, there sat a lady who had been coming for years and I made a simple observation that people must become doers of the word and not mere hearers only. For if a man only hears it and never applies what he hears he will never really prove or disprove what he has heard; and then I told the story of a lady who had only heard me three or four times and how she transformed the life of another, and this lady hearing what one who came only three times and this miracle took place in her life, she went home determined that she would really apply what she had heard over the years, and this is what she did.

Two years before, after a violent quarrel, she was ordered out of her son’s home by her daughter-in-law. Her son said “Mother, you need no proof from me that I love you: it’s obvious: I think I have proven that every day of my life, but if that is Mary’s decision, and I regret it, it must be my decision, for I love Mary and we live in the same house and it is our house: it is our little family, and I am sorry she feels this way about it, but you know these little things that culminate in an explosion as took place today. If that is her decision, it is mine”. That was two years ago. She went home and she realized that night after night for over two years she had allowed the sun to descend upon her wrath. She thought of this wonderful family that she loved and felt herself ostracized from it, expelled from the home of her son. She did nothing about revising it and yet I had been talking revision to my New York audience for the past year.

This is what she did now. She knew the morning’s mail brought nothing. This was a Wednesday night. There had been no correspondence in two years. She had sent her grandson at least a dozen gifts in the two years. Not one was ever acknowledged. She knew they had been received for she had insured many of them; so she sat down that night and mentally wrote herself two letters–one from her daughter-in-law, expressing a great kindness for her, saying that she had been missed in the home and asking her when she was coming to see them; then she wrote one from her grandson in which he said “Grandmother, I love you”. Then came a little expression of thanks for the last birthday present, which was in April, and then came a feeling of sadness rather because he hadn’t seen her and begging her to come and see him soon.

These two short notes she memorized and then, as she was about to sleep, she took her imaginary hands and held these letters and she read them mentally to herself until they woke in her the feeling of joy because she had heard from her family; that she was wanted once more. She read these letters over and over feeling the joy that was hers because she had received them and fell asleep in her project. For seven nights this lady read these two letters. On the morning of the eighth day she received the letter: on the inside there were two letters–one from her grandson and one from her daughter-in-law. These letters were identical with the letters she had mentally written to herself seven days before.

Where was the estrangement? Where was the conflict? Where was the source of the displeasure that was like a running sore over two years? When man’s eye is opened he realizes all that he beholds, though it appears without, it is within–within one’s own imagination, of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.

She gave me permission to tell that story. When I told it, and we came to the period of questions and answers, there was a strange reaction from that crowd. They wondered what joy life would hold for any of us if we had to write our own letters; if we had to do everything to ourselves that seemingly is done in joy; that seemingly is spontaneous coming from another; but I don’t want to write myself a love letter from my wife, or my sweetheart or my friend. I want that one to feel this way towards me and to express it unknown to me that I may receive a surprise in life.

Well, I am not denying that sleeping man firmly believes that is the way things happen. When a man awakes he realizes that everything he encounters is apart of himself, and what he does not now comprehend, he knows, because the eye is opened, that it is related by affinity to some as yet unrealized force in his own being; that he wrote it but he has forgotten it, that he slapped himself in the face but he has forgotten it; that within himself he started the entire unfolding drama, and he looks out upon a world, and it seems strange to him, because most of us in our sleep are totally unaware of what we are doing from within ourselves.

What that lady did, every man and woman in this audience today can do. It will not take you years to prove it; what I tell you now may startle you; it may seem to be bordering on insanity for the insane believe in the reality of subjective states and the sane man only believes in what the senses will allow, what they will dictate, and I’m going to tell you when you begin to awake, you assert the supremacy of imagination and you put all things in subjection to it. You never again bow before the dictates of facts and accept life on the basis of the world without.

To you Truth is not confined by facts but by the intensity of your imagination. So here we find the embodiment of Truth, which I say is human imagination, standing in the world drama before the embodiment of reason personified as Pontius Pilate. And he is given the authority to question truth and they ask him, “What is the truth?” and Truth remains silent. He refuses to justify any action of his; he refuses to justify anything that was done to him, for he knows no man cometh unto me save I call him: no man takes away my life, I lay it down myself.

You didn’t choose me, I have chosen you. For here is Truth seeing nothing hereafter in pure objectivity, but seeing everything subjectively related to himself and he the source of all the actions that take place within his world; so Truth remains absolutely silent and says nothing when reason questions him concerning the true definition of Truth. Because when the eye opens it knows that what is an idea to sleeping man is a fact to the awakened imagination, an objective fact, not an idea. I entertain the idea of a friend and I make some wonderful concept of him in my mind’s eye and when I sleep it seems to be a wish, it seems to be the longing of my heart, but purely subjective, just an idea. And the eye within me opens, and he stands before me embodying the quality that I desired in my sleep to see him express. So what is an idea to sleeping man, the unawakened imagination, is an objective reality to awakened imagination.

Now, this exercise calls for, I would say, the active, voluntary use of imagination as against the passive, involuntary acceptance of appearances. We never accept as true and as final anything unless it conforms to the ideal we desire to embody within our world, and we do exactly what the grandmother did. But now we start it and we do it daily. You may get your results tomorrow; it may come the day after; it may come in a week, but I assure you they will come.

You do not need some strange laboratory, like our scientists, to prove or disprove this theory. Here in 1905 a young man startled the scientific world with his equation that no one could even test. It is said not six men lived who could understand his equation. It was 14 years later before Lord Rutherford could devise the means to test that equation and he found that it was true, not 100%, because he did not have the means at his hand to really give it a complete test. It was another 14 years before further tests could be made. And you know the results of that equation that Einstein gave us in 1905. For today man, not knowing the power of his own imagination, stands startled at the results of that unlocking of energy. But he was the man who said, and I put it in the first page of my new book–“Imagination is more important than knowledge”

That was Albert Einstein. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For if man accepts as final the facts that evidence bears witness to, he will never exercise this God-given means of redemption, which is his imagination.

Now I’m going to ask you to test this: you will not take the three weeks that I am here to prove it or disprove it, but the knowledge of it cannot prove itself, only the application of that knowledge can prove it or disprove it. I know from experience you cannot disprove it. Take an objective, take a job, take some conversation with your boss, take an increase in salary. You say well, the job doesn’t allow it, or maybe the Union will not allow it. I don’t care what doesn’t allow it.

Yesterday morning’s mail brought me one, where, in San Francisco, this captain, a pilot, and he writes me that I saw him backstage after one of my meetings, and there he said, “But Neville, you are up against a stone wall. I am a trained pilot; I have gone all over the world, all over the seven seas; I’m a good pilot and I love the sea, not a thing in this world I want to do but go to sea; yet they restrict me to certain waters because of seniority. No matter what argument I give them the Union is adamant and they have closed the book on my request.” I said, “I don’t care what they have done, you are transferring the power that rightfully belongs to God, which is your own imagination, to the shadow you cast upon the screen of space.

“So here, we are in this room; need it remain a room? Can’t you use your imagination to call this abridge. This is now a bridge and I am a guest on the bridge of your ship, and you are not in waters restricted by the Union; you are in waters that you desire to sail your ship. Now close your eyes and feel the rhythm of the ocean and feel with me and commune with me and tell me of your joy in first proving this principle. and secondly in being at sea where you want to be. He is now in Vancouver on a ship bringing a load of lumber down to Panama. He has a complete list that will take him through the year what this man has to do. He is going into waters legitimately that the Union said he could not go. This doesn’t dispense with unions, but it does not put anyone in our place- -no one, kings, queens, presidents, generals, we take no one and enthrone him and put him beyond the power that rightfully belongs to God. So I will not violate the law but things will open that I will never devise.

I will sit in the silence and within myself I will revise the picture. I will hear the very man who told me “No, and that’s final” and hear him tell me yes, and a door opens. I don’t have to go and pull strings or pull any wires whatsoever. I call upon this wonderful power within myself, which man has forgotten completely because he personified it and called it another man, even though it is a glorious picture of a man but that is not the man: the real man is not in some other world. When religion speaks, if it’s a real religion, it speaks not of another world; it speaks of another man that is latent but unborn in every man that has attunement with another world of meaning, so that man sat and he tuned in with another world of meaning and brought into being a power that he allowed to go to sleep because he read the laws of man too well. He accepted as final the dictate of facts for they read him the by-laws, they read him the laws of the Union. And here today he is flying the ocean as he wants to do it. The grandmother is no longer locked out from the home she loved, but she is in communion, but she was locked out by herself for two years. And he was locked out by himself for well over 18 months, and burning up day after day allowing the sun to descend upon his wrath when he had the power within himself and the key to unlock every door in the world.

I say to each and everyone of you I wouldn’t take from you your outer comfort, your religion, for all these things are like toys for sleeping man, but I come to awaken within you that which when it awakes it sees an entirely different world. It sees a world that no man when he sleeps could ever see, and then he starts to raise within himself every being that God gave him; and may I tell you God gave you every man that walks the face of the earth. He also gave it for this purpose that nothing is to be discarded. Everyone in the world must be redeemed and your individual life is the process by which this redemption is brought to pass.

So we don’t discard because the thing is unpleasant, we revise it; revising it we repeal it, and as we repeal it it projects itself on the screen of space bearing witness to the power within us, which is our wonderful human imagination. And I say human advisedly–some would have me say the word divine. The very word itself means nothing to man. He has pushed it off from himself completely and divorced himself from the thing that he now bows before and calls by other names. I say human imagination. As Blake said “Rivers, mountains, cities, villages all are human”. When the eye opens you see them in your own bosom, in your own wonderful bosom they all exist, they are rooted there. Don’t let them fall and remain fallen; lift them up for the will of my Father is this, that of all that he has given me I should lose nothing but raise it up again, and I raise it up every time I revise my concept of another and make him conform to the ideal image I myself would like to express in this world. When I do unto him what I would love the world to do unto me, and see in me I am lifting him up.

And may I tell you what happens to that man when he does it? First of all, he is already turned around within himself. He no longer sees the world in pure objectivity, but the whole world subjectively related to himself, and hang it upon himself. As he lifts it up do you know he blooms within himself. When this eye of mine was first opened I beheld man as the prophet saw him. I saw him as a tree walking: some were only like little antlers of a stag, others were majestic in their foliage, and all that were really awake were in full bloom. These are the trees in the garden of God. As told us in the old ancient way of revision in the 61st chapter of the Book of Isaiah—“Go and give beauty for ashes, go and give joy for mourning, give the spirit of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may become trees of righteousness, plantings to the glory of God.”

That is what every man must do, that’s revision. I see ash when the business is gone; you can’t redeem it, you can’t lift it up, conditions are bad and the thing has turned to ash. Put beauty in its place; see customers, healthy customers, healthy in finances, healthy in the attitude towards you, healthy in every sense of the word. See them loving to shop with you if you are a shopkeeper; if you are a factory worker, don’t see anything laying you off, lift it up, put beauty in the place of ash, for that would be ash if you were laid off with a family to feed. If someone is mourning, put joy in the place of mourning; if someone is heavy of spirit, put the spirit of praise in place of the spirit of heaviness, and as you do this and revise the day you turn around, and turning around you turn up, and all the energies that went down when you were sound asleep and really blind now turn up and you become a tree of righteousness, a planting to the glory of God. For I have seen them walking this wonderful earth, which is really the Garden; we have shut ourselves out by our concept of self and we have turned down.

As told us in the Book of Daniel, we were once this glorious tree and it was felled to the very base, and what formerly sheltered the nations and fed the nations and comforted the bird and gave some comfort to the animals from the sun of the day, of the heat of the day; and suddenly some voice said from within, “Let it lie, let it remain as it is, but do not disturb the roots; I will water it with the dew of heaven and as I water it with the dew of heaven it will once more grow again, but this time it will consciously grow, it will know what it really is and who it is. In its past it was majestic but it had no conscious knowledge of its majesty, and I felled it- -that was the descent of man. And now, he will once more spring from within himself and he will be a tree walking, a glorious, wonderful tree.

Now to those who are sound asleep this may seem to you too startling: this may be just as startling as Einstein’s equation was; that was startling too. But I tell you I’ve seen it and I see it–men are destined to be trees in the garden of God. They are planted on earth for a purpose and they don’t always remain men, they are transformed as they turn in and turn up. This is the true meaning of the transfiguration. There is a complete metamorphosis taking place like the grub into the butterfly. You don’t remain what you appear to be when man is asleep, and there is no more glorious picture in the world than to see this living animated human being, for every branch within him is represented by an extension of himself called another, and when he lifts the other up that branch not only comes into leafage but it blossoms and the living human blossoms that blossom upon the tree of man who awakens.

So that’s my message for you this year; I’ll give it to you to stir into being that which sleeps in you, for the son of God sleeps in man and the only purpose of being is to awaken him. So it is not to awaken this, nice as it appears to be, but this man of sense-is only a casing: it is called the first man, but the first shall be last and the last shall be first. So that which comes into being second, like Jacob coming second from his mother’s womb, he takes precedence over his brother Esau who came first. Esau was the one like this, he was made of skin and hair, and Jacob was made a smooth skinned lad, but that one that comes second suddenly becomes the lord of all the nations and that one sleeps in every man born of woman, and it is the duty of a teacher or a true religion to awaken that man, not to talk of another world, not to make promises to be fulfilled beyond the grave, but to tell him as he awakens now he is in heaven and the kingdom is come now, this day, on earth. For as he awakens he revises his day and he repeals his day and projects a more beautiful picture onto the screen of space.

BEHOLD THE DREAMER COMETH

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 09-19-1969

In the 37th chapter of Genesis we read the story of Joseph, a dreamer whose dreams always came true. His father, Israel, loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, and made him a long robe with sleeves. Now I ask you, who is Joseph? He is the foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, your true identity. Historical evidence for Jesus, the man, is nonexistent, yet he is the only reality and the true identity of every child born of woman. When you say within yourself, “I am,” that is Jesus Christ, he who is dreaming this whole vast world into being.

One day you will understand this truth, for:

“Real are the dreams of gods
And smoothly pass their pleasure
In the long, immortal dream.”

Your thoughts are your dreams, which weave your world into being and sustain it. You and I are inserted into the dream. “`Tis we who, lost in stormy visions fight with phantoms, an unprofitable strife.” And we will continue the dream until we awaken to discover that we are the dreamer, who is God himself.

This is not an idle dream, but one designed for the divine purpose of extending imagination’s creative power. Expanding by entering his dream, God appears as you and I. And he is going to awaken from his dream, and, because there is only God, although we number into the billions we will all be resolved into the one Lord God Jehovah, who is Jesus Christ.

Now, Joseph could dream and interpret the dreams of others, regardless of their complexities. Certain dreams are simple and need no interpretation, but most of our dreams are symbolic and few understand the language of symbolism. Joseph understood and interpreted the dream of the sheaves as well as his dream of the sun, the moon and eleven stars bowing before him. When his father heard the dream he said, “What is this dream? Shall I and your mother and brothers bow down to you?” He didn’t criticize him, but set these things in his heart.

Now, in the state of Moses the name Joseph is changed to Joshua, which is the Hebraic form of the Anglicized word, “Jesus”, or “Jehovah saves.” So here we find Joseph the dreamer, becoming Jesus the savior, by awakening from the dream he dreamed, interpreted, and fulfilled.

Right now you think this room is real, and tonight you might have a dream and – if you are lucky – remember it as a dream, but not as reality. Well, if to dream is to dwell in unreality not knowing it as such, what is life but one uninterrupted dream? Until you have certain experiences, you will no doubt question my sanity, but when you have them you will know that this which seems real is no less a dream than the dream of the night.

Travel with me in your mind as we read the morning paper. On the first page we read of an air crash, a war, a hold-up, a murder, and embezzlement. Turn the page to the social column. See the pictures of the bride and groom and read all about their wedding and the guests attending. Another page lists the deaths, and finally we turn to the financial page, which tells us who is making money and who is losing it. Isn’t that disjointed? Lost in the reading, we have traveled from violence to a wedding, to gossip, deaths, and finance. All written by ten or twelve men who are sound asleep, and dreaming their columns into being, while you – and the millions who read the paper – will see the outpicturing of all that you thought during the reading.

How do I know this? Because I have awakened from the dream of life. I know that God laid himself down within me to sleep, to dream that he is I; for when he awoke, I was he! How do I know that I am he? Because his only begotten son, David, called me father.

While I remain in this body of blood and flesh, I must abide by its restrictions and limitations; yet remembering it is a dream, I can change it. If this world is reality I cannot change it; but if I am its reality, I can change my world relative to myself. I can imagine a desire fulfilled and watch it come to pass in my outer world. But first I had to know it was a dream. This I do know, for he who is in the depth of my own being said to me: “I laid myself down within you to sleep and as I slept I dreamed a dream. I dreamed that I am you.” Yes, he dreamed that he is I, for he awoke and he was I. A few months later he revealed his mystery to me by bringing his son David to call me father. Through an innate wisdom I knew he wasn’t just a boy who called me father, but the David of Biblical fame who is God’s only son.

When God awakes within you he is the same God who awoke within me. There aren’t two Gods. You and I are really one. Although there appears to be billions of us here, we are all one being, one God acting out this play, to expand our creative power and wisdom.

A very dear friend of mine is in the audience tonight. I am so thrilled for him and for anyone who comes and has such an experience and shares it with me. This is his experience. While in his living room watching TV he felt drowsy, closed his eyes, and allowed himself to fall asleep. Remembering he was watching TV, he finds himself driving his car with his wife at his side. Feeling a sense of impending disaster, as his wife grabbed the wheel he awoke in the dream, and succeeded in getting control of the wheel again. Up ahead he saw a man he recognized as a great actor, and suddenly remembering where he was when the dream began, he inwardly proclaimed I AM. At that moment he awoke seated on his chair facing the TV. Then he said, “Since this is the first time I awoke in a dream to know who I am and where I am, I can’t help but be pleased with myself.” Well, he should be. All of these experiences are little breakages to the brain that bind us to the dream, which means that he is on the verge of awakening from this dream of life.

Unnumbered times I have sat in my chair and found myself slipping into what reason tells me I should not see. I have stepped into that world; it closes around me and becomes just as real as this. I am in a terrestrial world, talking to people who are just as solid and real as you are and I am. Awake, I am aware of where I was when I entered this section of time. and I also know that there is no road to take me back to the year and place I left.

You see, all things are taking place now. Eternity exists and all things in eternity independent of creation, which was an act of mercy. Entering a certain section of the dream, we animate it and become aware of that which already is. The past has not ceased to be. It is taking place as it took place and still takes place when anyone enters that section of time. The same is true with the future. The year 1969 finds us standing on the moon. It always has been so. The world is, and we are placed upon this little space called earth to learn to bear the beams of love, for God is infinite love. I know, for I stood in His presence, then came down and entered a specter in order to learn to love and take on substance.

Not long ago I was in another section of time instructing a group of maybe a dozen men all seated around me. In the center with me was a spectrum, a shadow of a man. I could move him about and do with him as I willed. Then I said to him, “Go and love. To the degree that you love, you will acquire substance. Only then can you take part in the drama and awake with life in yourself.”

What I said to those men I say to you now. At the present time you are only an animated being, not a life-giving spirit. One day you will acquire substance (acquire love) then you will become one with life in your self, knowing that all things were made through the creative act of love (the act of mercy) and without it was not anything made. As life-giving spirits we all return to the one being as that one being, yet retaining our own identity. We will never lose our identity, but rather we will grow ever-greater individualization.

While In San Francisco, a chap who attended my meetings there told me a story. One hot summer’s day he stopped in a bar for a nice cold beer. Taking the only unoccupied seat at the bar, he was soon visiting with the man sitting next to him who told him this story. “The strangest thing happened to me years ago and it haunts me still. I was wounded during the Korean War and shipped to a hospital in Japan. While lying on that bed in the hospital and knowing I am an American, I felt the room fade from my view and suddenly I am in Europe, dancing with a lady who is dressed, like all the other ladies there, in hoop skirts. Knowing who I am, I said to my dancing partner, `You know, this is a dream,’ and with that remark she became frightened. As people gathered around me I told them that I was really an American soldier who was wounded in a hospital in Japan. I even told them what year it was, but to them the year had not yet arrived so the crowd became angry and I decided it was time to leave. So I simply assumed I was on my bed in the hospital in Japan, and when I opened my eyes, I was there.”

This man hasn’t yet completely awakened, but one day he will awaken from this dream that seems so consistent, just as you will. And when you do, you will experience every precept of scripture in what the world will call a dream.

Now, the 6th chapter of I Timothy tells us that “The love of money is the root of all evil,” and in the 13th chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews, Paul tells us to: “Keep your life free from the love of money.” When I was a little boy in the island of Barbados, every Sunday four of us boys would ride a big male donkey we used to sire horses to produce mules, down to my grandmother’s house, where she would give each of us a coin. I received a penny. When we got out of my grandmother’s sight, a man would meet us with a female donkey, and for my penny he would get on the back of his donkey and we would have wild ride home as our jackass chased his female donkey. This went on for a long time before my mother found out, and then she said: “You know, Nev, you aren’t going to have anything, for you give everything away.” I knew, intuitively, that the love of money was the root of all evil.

Now, to show how scripture fulfills itself in experience, I will share with you now a recent waking dream of mine. I knew where my physical body was, and I knew what year it was, but I found myself standing on a street corner holding an enormous packet of bills of all denominations. As a woman passed by she reached over and grabbed some of my money. In her eagerness, several bills floated away from her and were grabbed by the other people passing by. Suddenly this lady became very angry and demanded that they all give her money back to her! She had just stolen it from me, but was now accusing the others of stealing it from her! Isn’t that life? A man can trace the ownership of his property back to his forefather’s who stole it, but he would be as mad as can be if a relative of the original owner tried to reclaim his property.

Now, in my dream I kept on moving through the labyrinthine ways of my mind, objectifying what I am encountering. Suddenly a man approached and asked if I wanted a taxi. Still holding my money I refused his invitation. Then many men began to gather around me and when I saw their faces, and their knives, I realized they were going to take my money as well as my life, so I reminded myself of where I was when I began the dream. I knew that if I awoke I would defeat their intention. I would survive, but none of us would get the money. The moment my decision was made, I dropped the money and returned to my bed. Now I know the truth of the statement, “The love of money is the root of all evil” for my vision is part of the eternal structure of the universe.

You, too, will have a vision such as mine after you have lost all desire for money. Yes, you will desire the necessary means to meet the needs of Caesar: to pay rent, taxes, and buy food and clothing; but you will know that you don’t need a billion to meet them. Those who are hungry for more and more billions are sound asleep. If they heard what I am telling you now they would think me insane; but I would tell them that their dreams reveal a far deeper insanity, for they are sound asleep, believing their dreams to be reality.

Now, in the story, Jesus [sic] was a dreamer whose father so loved him he made him a robe with long sleeves. I wondered what was the importance of the sleeves, and then one night I had this experience. I was teaching the great mystery of God when a man entered the room and severed the sleeve of my robe to expose my right arm from the shoulder to my fingertips. The next morning I turned to the Book of Isaiah and read, “Who will believe our report? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” That night the sleeve of the robe worn by Joseph the dreamer, was severed, revealing my arm – the symbol of my imaginative power.

I know, now, that I – all imaginative power – have awakened from the dream. I know that is what you are also. I am trying to convince you of this, and ask you to test yourselves. If this world is real, you can’t change it, for you cannot change reality; but you can change a dream. Feel the changes have now come upon you. Immerse yourself in that feeling and sustain it. If this is a dream, that which you are feeling will produce objective facts for others to see as real. But you will remember its origin was a dream. Once it becomes objective and real, don’t get lost in the dream, for like all dreams, it will fade away. Everything comes into being, waxes, wanes, and vanishes. A tree may be 8000 years old, but it will eventually die. The stars are melting away because they are the dreams of the gods and

“Real are the dreams of gods
And smoothly pass their pleasure
In a long, immortal dream.”

Imagination (gods) brought the world into being and sustains it while this grand experiment is taking place. We are those gods (called sons) who collectively form God the Father.

No child is born that is not clothing a son of God, as told us in the 32nd chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy. “He has put bounds to the people according to the number of the sons of God.” A child could not breathe without God’s entrance as his breath. “God himself enters death’s door, the human skull, and lays down in the grave of man in visions of eternity until he awakes and sees the linen clothes lying there that the females wove for him at the gate of his Father’s house.”

When I entered this garment that my mother – a female – wove for me, God – whose name is I AM – entered with me and began his dream. My mother called me Neville, and as time went by, I began to claim that I am Neville. Then one day we became one new being, for the “I” who entered the garment named Neville awoke to discover I am God. Then to prove to myself that I truly am He, God’s son appeared before me and called me Father. Now, restrained by the body that I wear, I am limited and weak. But when I take it off and the world calls me dead, I will return to the one being out of which I came, for I came out from the Father and came into the world. Again I am leaving the world and returning to the Father.

If you know that you are God the Father, you will know that it does not matter what the world dreams. No matter how horrible the dream may appear to be, the dreamer is untouched by his dream. He who dreamed he was Stalin and murdered millions, is untouched by his dream and in the end will discover that all things work towards God’s awakening.

The plea in the 44th Psalm “Rouse thyself, why sleepest thou O Lord. Awake. Do not cast us off forever,” is directed to God, the God in everyone who is struggling to awaken. He is waking in my friend Bill, who had the experience of driving his car, knowing he was seated in his living room. These kinds of experiences break the threads that bind one to his dream, and as these threads begin to break he awakes within his own skull, for that is where the drama takes place.

Now in the story, when Joseph joined his brothers, they said to one another: “Let us kill him.” But his brother, Judah pleaded for his life, saying: “No, he is our flesh and blood. Do not let his blood be upon us. Let us sell him into slavery.” So they stripped him of his robe and threw him into a pit. Then a caravan, on its way to Egypt carrying gold, incense, and myrrh (the same things the kings brought to the Christ child at his birth) agreed to buy him; and Joseph was taken into Egypt, where he rose to the power of Pharaoh. Joseph then saved civilization from starvation. And when the brothers were sorry for what they had done, Joseph said: “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” Then his name was changed from Joseph to Joshua, which means Jesus.

Remember, scripture unfolds within you. The dreamer in you has been thrown into a pit. Now, in the 40th Psalm (which is so often used in the New Testament concerning Jesus) the 2nd verse reads: “They raised me up from the pit, out of the miry bog and placed my feet upon the rock, making my steps secure.” The word “mire” is defined as “spongy earth.” Can you think of anything that better describes the human brain? And man is called the earth, for the word “Adam” means “red earth.” So the dreamer is taken out of the pit – the skull where he has been locked in – by awakening from his dream and being born from above.

You must experience two births: a physical one and a spiritual one. You are spiritually born through the awakening and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It is not another being born; you are he; for you are all alone, and when you leave your tomb is empty.

The New Testament is all about the dreamer in you who awakens as Jesus Christ, and everything said of him is true. His history is divine, not secular.

You will never find any evidence of an historical Christ here on earth. Bishop Pike went looking, yet never found who Christ really is. The Pope, as well as the leaders of all Christian religions, have millions of people looking to them as guides; yet they are all blind leaders of the blind. The historical evidence of Christ as a man is nonexistent, yet he is the only reality and the true identity of every child born of woman.

You are Jesus Christ, sleeping, dreaming horrible dreams mixed with lovely ones; but in the end you will awaken from the dream to know you are Jesus Christ. You will then remain a little while to tell your experiences to those who are willing to be disillusioned and will allow their false ideas of the past to fall away; then you will leave this little shadow that walks across the earth to enter eternity as God.

What I have told you will live in your minds. Hold fast to the visions I have shared with you, for in time my Word will take root and grow within you. Then this wonderful story will erupt in you, and you will know you, too, are Jesus Christ. And, because there is only one Jesus Christ and only one son, when God’s son calls you Father, you and I are one. That is the fantastic mystery. How we, retaining our individuality, are one!

Now let us go into the silence.

BELIEVE IN HIM

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 2-28-1969

When asked: “What must we do to be doing the work of God?” he answered: “Believe in him whom he has sent.” That’s all you have to do. Salvation is yours when you believe in him. There is no aristocracy of privilege, and to believe that Jesus exists means nothing. The question is: can you believe in his story?

He tells us he was sent, and everyone who is sent is Jesus, the sender. Those who are called from the world of death do not volunteer or choose the task. They are selected, called, incorporated into the body of the Risen Lord and sent as the sender, and can say: “He who sees me sees him who sent me.” After incorporation into his being, the individual is sent – not to tell that he has a large family, a lovely home, or lots of money, but that he has fulfilled scripture.

When Jesus entered the synagogue he began to teach, and those who heard him wondered how he had such learning, since they knew he was only the carpenter’s son. They knew his mother’s name was Mary, his brothers’ James, Jose, Simon, and Judas, as well as his sisters.

Here we see a large family, and a man with little or no learning teaching the scholars of the day. He tells them that he was sent – not to build a house or to tell others how to do it, but to fulfill scripture. Then, beginning with Moses and the law and all the prophets and the psalms, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Not realizing that scripture was all about him, a normal man from a large family whose trade was that of a carpenter was called, incorporated into the Risen Man, and sent, knowing he was one with the one who sent him.

I can’t divorce myself from the being that incorporated me into his body. He sent me to tell you that if you believe my experiences, you will also do the works that I do. If not, you will not do them, for there is no other way to salvation. Unless these mystical experiences unfold in you, you will never leave this world of death to live in the world of life.

In Adam all die. In Jesus all are made alive. He made me alive, in him, and sent me to tell you of my experiences – for the need was great – and to say that if you believe me, you will experience them and be saved, as they are your departure from this world of death and your entrance into the world of life.

I tell you: in spite of the fact that I have an earthly father and mother, brothers, and a sister, I am no longer of this world. I am from above and you are from below. If you will believe me, you, too, will be born from above. Then you will no longer be from below, but will be an entirely different being, living in an entirely different world.

Now, in the 16th chapter of Acts, we read the story of a slave girl who possessed the spirit of divination and was making a lot of money for her owners as a soothsayer. And when Paul came by with his associates, she said: “These men are proclaiming the way of salvation,” and she followed them for many days. This story is followed by the imprisonment of Paul and a mighty earthquake, which awakened the jailer, who – trembling with fear – said: “What must I do to be saved?” And he was told to believe in the Lord Jesus.

To believe in a man? No. The Lord Jesus is only a pattern of salvation which is now encrusted with barnacles. I was called, incorporated into the body of love, and sent into the world to scrape off the barnacles by telling the path of salvation I have experienced.

You may think that the few hundred or thousand people I have told would mean nothing against three billion people in the world; but I know a remnant has been prepared, and they believe. That is all that is needed. Having heard, their belief causes it to happen in them; and salvation’s story spreads once more, until those without vision organize and make a business out of it. Then it will once more grow barnacles and become a tradition, minus the spirit.

In 1929 I did not volunteer, but was called. I stood in the presence of Infinite Love, who incorporated me into his body. I was sent as love – the body of the Risen Lord – back to a physical garment which is fragile, to tell those who are equally fragile that God is their own wonderful human imagination. Many, knowing my biological background, my large family with its limitations, reject my words. A few, however, have accepted them, and to that remnant it will happen.

So what must you do to be doing the work of God? Believe in him whom He has sent. I tell you He has sent me. You may or may not believe me, that is your privilege. But I tell you: the experience so changed me that I have walked by faith in this vision through the mire of doubt, even when it came from my intimate circle.

One is first called, incorporated into the body of love, and then sent. This goes on eternally until all are redeemed, for not one will be lost. Just as by Adam all die, so also by Christ shall all be made alive. This Christ is a pattern of the eternal purpose of God, for there is only one way to escape this world.

The pattern begins by your birth as spirit. This is followed by the discovery of the fatherhood of God. Your spiritual body will be torn from top to bottom as you ascend into heaven. And the symbol of the Holy Spirit will descend upon you to smother you with love, completing the pattern.

Jesus Christ is not a man, but a pattern, which I have come to renew. To believe that Jesus Christ existed is not a belief in him, for he is the way to salvation!

Now, once the ship is encrusted with barnacles, one is called and sent to scrape them off by retelling the story as something that happened to him. When I told my family, they could not believe me and questioned me, saying: “Neville, you mean you do not believe in Jesus Christ?” And I replied: “I believe in him far more than you do!” “Don’t you believe that he existed?’’ ‘‘Yes, but not as a man.”

To believe in Jesus Christ, you believe in the pattern of salvation of which he is. If you believe in a man, you believe in Neville, and Neville means nothing. If Neville was called and incorporated into the spiritual pattern of salvation, he is sent bearing the pattern which erupts within him. This pattern has erupted in me and I have told my story as I was sent to do.

It is said that Jesus began his ministry when he was about thirty years of age. That doesn’t mean thirty physical years, for he was not speaking as a biological man. Thirty years after he was incorporated into the body of love, he was qualified by the eruption to tell what had happened to him. He told his visions and pointed out their fulfillment of scripture, and some believed while others – so conditioned to believe in a physical Christ – could not understand.

The splitting of God’s temple is told in its symbolic manner in the 14th chapter of Zechariah, as: “The Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west as one half moves north and the other half moves south leaving a very wide valley.” It is told as a metaphor, but you are its reality. Scripture is all about you, and that splitting is yourself. Taken in a secular manner, David lived unnumbered years ago; but in the spirit, he will call you father.

When I share my visions and their scriptural confirmation, some believe me, but the majority think I am sharing a fantasy; yet I still walk with faith through the mire of doubt as I tell my story. My background is known. I have no education, no wealth or social position, yet I do know that I was chosen to be called and incorporated into the body of love and sent.

Love could have called a financial or intellectual giant, or someone handsome and wonderful, judged by human standards; yet he called me in the spirit. I was not initiated in the flesh, but was taken in spirit; for God is spirit, and those who worship him do so in spirit and in truth.

It was a spiritual incorporation into the body of love, yet it seemed to be solidly real. As Spirit, I returned to the garment I had left on the bed. It was that spiritual body which unfolded his plan of salvation. Now I know that this is the only way man can depart this world of death, and his departure begins by simply believing the story.

Don’t believe in Neville as a man, for he is frail and subject to all of the weaknesses of the flesh. Rather, believe in what I have experienced. I have unfolded scripture for you and shown you where my experiences were foretold. I have repeated this over and over in the hope that those who hear my words will believe them, for I have tied the gospel to its reality.

The Book of Acts, once part of the Book of Luke, was detached for a purpose. The story of Jesus, the pattern man, is not found in the Book of Acts. Rather, the story of the apostles is recorded there; for the apostles are sent to tell exactly how it happened in them. I do not know, however, of any part of scripture where the story is told as graphically as I have told it to you.

In the Old Testament, the question is asked: “Can a man bear a child? Why then do I see every man with his hands pulling himself out of himself just like a woman in labor. Why does every face turn pale?” “To us a child is born; to us a son is given.”

When a woman forms a child within herself, is that child not part of her body? And when she is in labor, does she not pull a part of her body out of herself? Primitive women did not go to a hospital. While working in the field, these women would stop for a moment and pull that which they had formed within themselves, out of themselves. This is exactly what I did. I pulled myself right out of myself.

Five months later I fulfilled the 89th Psalm. When David stood before me, I knew I was his father, as there was no uncertainty as to this relationship. I am telling you what I have experienced. Scripture foretold these visions, which must take place before you can depart this world. What must you do to bring them about? Believe in the story I have been sent to tell; for if you do, and set your hope fully upon having these experiences, your salvation is assured. Eventually everyone will believe. Rejection delays the birth, however, for it comes only after acceptance of the story told by the one who was sent.

I did not choose to be sent. When I fell asleep that night, I would have been the last person I would have chosen as worthy to be called into the presence of the Risen Lord. The Beatitudes tell us that only the pure in heart will see God, and I certainly did not feel myself to be pure in heart. My wife and I were separated, and my little boy was moving back and forth between us. With the conflicts which go with all these silly little things, I would never have judged myself worthy of being pure in heart.

But God does not see what man sees. God sees the heart. He sees the motive behind the act, never the outer picture. Was the thought brought forth in love, or to get even? Was its motive to inflict pain, or to express love? God sees the heart, and when He judges it as pure, that individual is called.

In 1929 I was called, and for thirty years I only taught the law. The promise was there in scripture, but I did not know it until it erupted in me thirty years later. From that moment on I could do nothing but think about it, talk about it, and share my experiences of it; for that is what I was sent to do.

My genealogy is known. My biological background – my father, mother, brothers, and sister, as well as my lack of education – is known; yet it is all recorded in scripture. When I shared my experiences with my family, they rejected them one hundred percent! My earthly father came the closest to understanding. One day a minister was at the house, and when he could not answer my questions, or throw any light upon my visions, my father said: “Son, you must be an apostle.” My mother felt it in her womb when I was coming into this world; but she had no confirmation, as I became a dancer – and she had thought I would be a minister in the Anglican church.

But I tell you: this is the only way to salvation. Don’t believe in Neville. He is not the way. I could go out with you every night and thoroughly enjoy matching you drink for drink. No food is distasteful to me, as I enjoy it all.

I am told I am not discriminating enough, for I can find nothing to condemn. I do, however, admit to all of my weaknesses of the human flesh; yet in spite of that I was called and sent. At the time I did not know God’s purpose; but after his message erupted within me, I knew I was sent to refresh the atmosphere, and clean it up after centuries of misunderstanding of the Christian mystery.

Christianity fulfills the promise of Judaism. Fulfilling the pattern called Jesus, we are gathered one by one into that one resurrected man, to be that one being in Christ. I don’t care what name you bear on earth, you will be sent as Jesus. You will play his part and share your experiences with all who will listen. Do not elaborate; but tell them that unless they believe, it will not happen to them and they will remain in the world of death.

It is not enough to believe only that Christ existed. That is like saying to a friend: “I believe you exist.” What an insult! The question is: do you trust Christ? Do you believe in him? Now I – a man – tell you the story of salvation as I have experienced it. Do you believe in my story? If you do, you believe in me; then forget all you hear about me as a man.

A friend recently told an acquaintance the story of my experiences, then later mentioned that I had been divorced and had remarried. The moment the lady heard I was divorced, she closed her mind and could not accept the story that I was called, incorporated into the body of God, and sent to tell. She judged the outer man and could not believe in him whom God has sent. She could go across the street, however, and believe that if she only ate corn she would be saved, because the person who told her so wasn’t divorced.

I tell you: you can eat corn from now on, but you will still remain in this world of death until you believe salvation’s story as I have experienced it. I don’t care what you have done or are doing; if you believe my story and set your hope fully upon that grace which is coming to you, He who sees your belief will call you and erupt within you. God sees your heart. He sees that you are capable of believing the incredible story of Christ and fulfills it.

Ask the doctor who brought you out of your mother’s womb to explain how the bones grew there, or how they were covered with flesh; and – although he can give you reasons why they appeared – he cannot tell you how it is done; as we are told in the books of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs: “Who knows how the bones grow in the womb of woman?

Now I tell you of another birth, which is greater than that which comes out of woman. No one sees this birth, yet it is real, for it is the birth of God. He is born out of this body of death and takes you with him into the body of life. It is not necessary to understand this birth, only to believe in it. So, what must you do to be doing the work of God? Believe in him whom he has sent. And what must you do to be saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus, who is the pattern you have heard [about] from me. Then go about your business and live fully; enjoy life and all that it has to offer.

A lady recently called, who had heard me many years ago in Detroit and Minneapolis. Although she and her husband had nothing, she believed what I said and imagined having lots of money. Her husband spent many years in different mental hospitals, depleting the little money they had, and then one day he took his own life.

Her only brother was a very thrifty businessman, who lived frugally. He died, and three weeks later his wife died, leaving everything to this lady. Now she has the money to live in luxury, just as she had imagined. This lady assumed wealth without knowing where it would come from, and now she has it.

The law will not fail you here or in the world of God, for you must believe both stories. I tell you: an assumption, though false, if persisted in will prove itself in the world of Caesar, as it did in her case. I also tell you an incredible story: that you will awaken in your skull and experience a spiritual birth as described in scripture; for you are the one spoken of there.

Can you believe both stories? If you believe one enough to test it, and it proves itself in performance, try to believe the other; for unless you believe both, you cannot prove them. If you believe the one in the world of Caesar, you can have money as this lady has. But you must believe the other in order to live where you do not need money, for there you know that the earth is yours and all within it. When you are incorporated into the body of God, you know you are God and everything is yours. Then you will tell your story, depart this world, and return to the Father – who is yourself!

But while you are here, where you do not know the world is all yours, apply the law of assumption. Assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled and let God’s law work for you. Learn to believe the story on this level through application, and one day you will believe the incredible story on the higher level.

What must we do to be doing the work of God? Believe in him whom he has sent. Though born of flesh and blood, with four brothers and sisters, and a carpenter by trade, after the second birth he was no longer the man one knew, but an entirely different being. After telling you what happened in him, he asks you to believe it. If you do, you believe in the way you are saved. If you do not, you believe in and will remain in the world of death with its many blows.

Hundreds of millions of people call themselves Christians and believe in the existence of Jesus; but they do not believe in him, for if they did they would believe his story. I have told it in my book, Resurrection. The story is true. I have come to bear witness to it. God incorporated me into his body and sent himself with me, so whoever sees me, sees him who sent me. You will never see the one who sent me by looking at the outer man. It is only the inner man who bears God’s likeness, for that is who I am!

Now let us go into the silence.

BELIEVE IT IN

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 10-06-1969

The objective reality of this world is solely produced by the human imagination, in which all things exist. Tonight I hope to show you how to subjectively appropriate that which already exists in you, and turn it into an objective fact. Your life is nothing more than the out picturing of your imaginal activity, for your imagination fulfills itself in what your life becomes.

The last year that Robert Frost was with us, he was interviewed by Life Magazine and said: “Our founding fathers did not believe in the future, they believed it in.” This is true. Having broken with England, our founding fathers could have established their own royalty here by making one of them the king, thereby perpetuating a royal family. They could have chosen a form of dictatorship, but they agreed to imagine a form of government that had not been tried since the days of the Greeks. Democracy is the most difficult form of government in the world, yet our founding fathers agreed to believe it in. They knew it would take place, because they knew the power of belief – the power I hope to show you that you are, tonight.

To say: “I am going to be rich,” will not make it happen; you must believe riches in by claiming within yourself: “I am rich.” You must believe in the present tense, because the active, creative power that you are, is God. He is your awareness, and God alone acts and is. His name forever and ever is “I am” therefore, he can’t say: “I will be rich” or “I was rich” but “I am rich!” Claim what you want to be aware of here and now, and – although your reasonable mind denies it and your senses deny it – if you will assume it, with feeling, your inward activity, established and perpetuated, will objectify itself in the outside world – which is nothing more than your imaginal activity, objectified. To attempt to change the circumstances of your life before you change its imaginal activity, is to labor in vain. This I know from experience. I had a friend who hated Roosevelt, yet wanted him to change. Every morning while shaving, my friend would tell Roosevelt off. He found great joy and satisfaction in this daily routine, yet could not understand why Roosevelt stayed the same. But I tell you, if you want someone to change, you must change your imaginal activity, for it is the one and only cause of your life. And you can believe anything in if you will not accept the facts your senses dictate; for nothing is impossible to imagine, and imagining – persisted in and believed – will create its own reality.

Now, all things exist in God, and he exists in you and you exist in him. Your eternal body is the human imagination, and that is God Himself. Your imagination is an actual body in which everything is contained. When you imagine, the thing itself comes out of that divine body, Jehovah. The story of Jesus is a wonderful mystery that cannot be solved until you discover, from experience, that he is your own wonderful human imagination.

We are told that God speaks to man in a dream and unveils himself in a vision. Now, vision is a waking dream like this room, while a dream occurs when you are not fully awake. A few years ago this vision was mine: I was taken in spirit into one of the early mansions on 5th Avenue in New York City at the turn of the century. As I entered, I saw that three generations were present and I heard the eldest man telling the others of their grandfather’s secret. These are his words: “Grandfather used to say, while standing on an empty lot: `I remember when this was an empty lot.’ Then he would paint a word picture of what he wanted to build there. He saw it vividly in his mind’s eye as he spoke, and in time it was established. He went through life in that manner, objectively realizing what he had first subjectively claimed.”

I tell you: everything in your outer world was first subjectively appropriated, I don’t care what it is. Desire can be your empty lot where you may stand, remembering when that which you now have, was only a desire. If I now say: “I remember when I lectured at the Woman’s Club in Los Angeles” I am implying I am no longer there, and am where I want to be. Remembering when you were poor, I have taken you out of poverty and placed you in comfort. I remember when you were sick, by taking you out of sickness and placing you in the state of health. I remember when you were unknown, implies you are now known. By changing my memory image of you, I can now remember when you, with all your fame and fortune, were unknown and broke. That was the secret of grandfather’s success.

This is what I learned in vision. Do not put this thought aside because it came to me in vision. In the 12th chapter of the Book of Numbers it is said that God speaks to man through the medium of dreams and makes himself known through vision. If God makes himself known to you through vision, and speaks to you in dream, what is more important than to remember your dreams and visions? You can’t compare the morning’s paper or any book you may read, to your vision of the night, for that is an instruction from the depth of yourself.

God in you speaks to you in a dream, as he did to me when he took me on a trip in time to that beautifully staffed mansion at the turn of the century. As spirit, I was invisible to those present; but I heard more distinctly than they, and comprehended the words more graphically then they, because they had their millions; and who is going to tell one who already has millions how to get them. I entered their environment to hear their story, in order to share it with those who will hear and believe my words and then try it.

This doesn’t mean that, just because you heard my vision you are going to enjoy wealth; you must apply what you heard, and remember when. If you would say: “I remember when I couldn’t afford to spend $400 a month for rent,” you are implying you can well afford it now. The words: “I remember when it was a struggle to live on my monthly income,” implies you have transcended that limitation. You can put yourself into any state by remembering when. You can remember when your friend expressed her desire to be married. By remembering when she was single, you are persuading yourself that your friend is no longer in that state, as you have moved her from one state into another.

When I say all things exist in the human imagination, I mean infinite states; for everything possible for you to experience now, exists in you as a state of which you are its operant power. Only you can make a state become alive. You must enter a state and animate it in order for it to outpicture itself in your world. You may then go back to sleep and think the objective fact is more real than its subjective state into which you have entered; but may I tell you: all states exist in the imagination. When a state is entered subjectively, it becomes objective in your vegetative world, where it will wax and wane and disappear; but its eternal form will remain forever and can be reanimated and brought back into being through the seed of contemplative thought. So I tell you: the most creative thing in you is to enter a state, and believe it into being.

Now, causation is the assemblage of mental states, which occurring creates that which the assemblage implies. Let us say that I have two friends who would empathize with me (not sympathize) if they heard my good news. I put them together and listen (all in my imagination) as they talk about me and what has happened in my life. Being true friends, I hear their words of joy and see their happiness reflected on their faces. Then I allow myself to become visible to them and feel their handshake and embrace as I accept their congratulations as a fact. Now I have assembled a mental state, which occurring, created that which the assemblage implied; therefore I am its cause. As I walk, firmly believing in the reality of what I have done, and that imaginal act becomes a fact, I may question myself as it how it came about. Then, remembering my imaginal act I would say: “I did it.” If I did it, then did not God do it? Yes, because God and I are one “I am”.
Are you going to continue to believe there is another on the outside; or are you going to believe the great confession of faith, which I would urge you to accept? It’s the great Sh’ma: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” If the Lord is one he can’t be two; therefore, if his name is I am and you say “1 am,” you must be one with the Lord who brought the world into being.

Listen to these words: “By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that things that are seen were made out of things which do not appear.” Here we see that the word of God is an imaginal activity, which -joined by faith – created the world. And faith is nothing more than the subjective appropriation of an objective hope. Now, when you discuss your desire with me, you cannot see my imaginal act relative to you. If you tell me you need a job and I accept that thought, when I think of you I remember your need. But if I changed your words and heard you tell me you loved your job, I could remember when you needed one; for now my memory bank contains the fact that you have a job you like very much. And when we meet again you tell me that you have it, you are only bringing confirmation of my imaginal, creative act.

Now, if imagination works this way, and it proves itself in the testing time and time again, what does it matter what the world thinks? It costs you nothing to try it, and what a change in life it will produce for you. Try it, for you will prove it in performance.

This may be in conflict with what you believe God to be. Maybe you still want him to be someone on the outside, so that there are two of you and not one. That’s all right if you do, but I tell you: God became you that there would not be you and God. He became you, that you may become God. If God became you, his name must be in you, and it is; for if I ask you anything, you must first be aware of the question before you can respond, and your awareness is God.

You may not be aware of who you are, where you are, or what you are; but you do know that you are. Aware of what your senses and reason dictate, you may believe that you are limited, unwanted, ignored, and mistreated; and your world confirms your belief in your imaginal activity. And if you do not know that your awareness is causing this mistreatment, you will blame everyone but yourself; yet I tell you the only cause of the phenomena of life is an imaginal activity. There is no other cause.

If you believe in the horrors of the world as they are given to you in the paper and on television, your belief causes the horrors to continue. Believing the news of a shortage, you will buy what you do not need, blindly accepting the pressure to perpetuate an imaginal activity that keeps you frightened. All through scripture you are told to let not your heart be troubled, be not afraid, and fear not. If fear could be eliminated, there would be no need for psychologists or psychiatrists. It’s a bunch of nonsense, anyway. Every day this branch of medicine changes their concepts and they are always in conflict as to what a man’s attitude towards life is.

I say to everyone: the whole vast world is now in your human imagination, and you can bring any desire out of it by believing it into being.

First, you must know what you want, then create an image that fulfills it. Would your friends know and talk about it? Imagine they are with you now, discussing your fulfilled desire. You could be at a cocktail or dinner party that is being given in your honor. Or maybe it’s a little get-together over tea. Create a scene in your mind’s eye and believe its reality in! That invisible state will produce the objective state you desire, for all objective reality is solely produced by imagination.

The clothes you are now wearing were first imagined. The chair in which you are seated, the room that surrounds you – there isn’t a thing here that wasn’t first imagined; so you can see that imagining creates reality. If you don’t believe it, you are lost in a world of confusion.

There is no fiction. What is fiction today will be a fact tomorrow. A book written as a fictional story today comes out of the imagination of the one who wrote it, and will become a fact in the tomorrows. If you have a good memory or a good research system, you could find today’s facts. Not every fact is recorded, because not every thought is written; yet every person imagines. A man, feeling wrongfully imprisoned and desiring to get even, will disturb the world, because all things by a law divine in one another’s being, mingle. You can’t stop the force that comes from one who is imagining, because behind the mask he wears, you and he are one. Start now to become aware of what you are thinking, for as you think, you imagine. Only then can you steer a true course to your definite end. If you lose sight of that end, however, you can and will be moved by seeming others. But if you keep your mind centered in the awareness of dwelling in your destination, you cannot fail.

The end of your journey is where your journey begins. When you tell me what you want, do not try to tell me the means necessary to get it, because neither you nor I know them. Just tell me what you want that I may hear you tell me that you have it. If you try to tell me how your desire is going to be fulfilled, I must first rub that thought out before I can replace it with what you want to be. Man insists on talking about his problems. He seems to enjoy recounting them and cannot believe that all he needs to do is state his desire clearly. If you believe that imagination creates reality, you will never allow yourself to dwell on your problems, for you will realize that as you do you perpetuate them all the more.

So I tell you: the greatest thing you can do is to believe a thing into existence, just as our founding fathers did. They had no current example of democracy. It existed in Greece centuries ago, but failed because the Greeks changed their imaginal activity. We could do that too. Don’t think for one second we have to continue as a democracy. We could be under dictatorship within twenty-four hours, for everything is possible. If you like democracy, you must be constantly watchful to keep its concepts alive within you. It’s the most difficult form of government. A man can voice an opinion and stage a protest here, but in other forms of government he cannot. If you want to enjoy the freedom of a democracy, you must keep it alive by being aware of it.

Now, if you keep this law, you don’t have to broadcast what you want; you simply assume that you have it, for – although your reasonable mind and outer senses deny it – if you persist in your assumption your desire will become your reality. There is no limit to your power of belief, and all things are possible to him who believes. Just imagine what an enormous power that is. You don’t have to be nice, good, or wise, for anything is possible to you when you believe that what you are imagining is true. That is the way to success.

I believe any man who has been successful in his life’s venture has lived as though he were successful. Living in that state, he can name those who aided him in achieving his success; and he may deny that he was always aware of success, but his awareness compelled the aid he received.

To believe your desire into being is to exercise the wonderful creative power that you are. We are told in the very first Psalm: “Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the Lord. In all that he does, he prospers.” This law, as explained in the Sermon on the Mount, is psychological. “You have heard it said of old, thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto you, anyone who lusts after a woman has already committed the act of adultery with her in his heart.” Here we discover that it is not enough to restrain the impulse on the outside. Adultery is committed the moment the desire is thought!

Knowing what you want, gear yourself towards it, for the act was committed in the wanting. Faith must now be added, for without faith it is impossible to please God. Can you imagine a state and feel that your imaginal act is now a fact? It costs you nothing to imagine; in fact you are imagining every moment in time, but not consciously. But, may I tell you: if you use your creative power by imagining a desire is already fulfilled, when you get it, the circumstances will seem so natural that it will be easy to deny your imagination had anything to do with it, and you could easily believe that it would have happened anyway. But if you do, you will have returned to sleep once again.

First of all, most of us do not even realize our own harvest when it confronts us. And if we do remember that we once imagined it, reason will tell us it would have happened anyway. Reason will remind you that you met a man (seemingly by accident) at a cocktail party who was interested in making money. When he heard your idea, he sent you to see his friend, and look what happened – so really, it would have happened anyway. Then, of course, it is easy to ignore the law, but “Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the Lord. In all that he does he prospers.”

Don’t forget the law while you are living in the world of Caesar, and apply it wisely; but remember you are not justified by its use. Justification comes through faith. You must have faith in the incredible story that God promised to bring himself out of you, as you! This is God’s promise to all, and all are asked to believe it.

It is not what you are, but what you trust God to do, that saves you. And to the degree that you trust God to save you, you will be saved. But he has given us a psychological law to cushion the inevitable blows of life. The law is simple: “As you sow, so shall you reap.” It is the law of like begets like. As you imagine, so shall your life become. Knowing what you want, assume the feeling that would be yours if you had it. Persist in that feeling, and in a way you do not know and could not devise, your desire will become a fact. Grandfather made his fortune by standing on an empty lot and saying to himself: “I remember when this was an empty lot.” Then he would paint a beautiful word picture of the structure he desired there. This is a wonderful technique. You can remember when you were unknown, penniless, and ill, or a failure. Remembering when you were, implies you are no longer that, and your power is in its implication.

Use the law and it will take you from success to success, as you conceive success to be. As far as I am concerned, success is to fulfill the promise, and you cannot do that through the law. The promise is fulfilled through faith. Are you holding true to the faith? Examine yourself to see if you are. I have told you an eternal story. Believe it, but do not change it. The story is this: God became you that you may become God. Use the law to cushion the blows while God keeps his promise; and then one day, when your journey is over, you will say: “Into thy hands I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.” That’s the cry on the cross. Commit your spirit to your imaginal act, relax and fall asleep knowing its redemption is assured. Then when you least expect it, God will prove to you that he has redeemed you by awakening in you, as you. Then you will be born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

Now let us go into the silence.

BIBLICAL LANGUAGE

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 09-26-1969

“All are Men in Eternity. Rivers, Mountains, Cities, Villages,

All are Human, and when You enter into Their Bosoms,
You walk In Heavens and Earths;
Just as in Your own Bosom You bear Your Heaven And Earth,
and all that You behold, though it appears Without, it is Within,
In Your Imagination of which this World of Mortality is but a Shadow.”

(William Blake’s Jerusalem, Plate 71:17)

You may ask yourself what Blake is talking about, yet this is the language of the Bible. Biblical language evokes rather than describes. It is telling of another world, another Man and another age; for in truth, all of the places in the Bible are human.

In the Book of Revelation, John sees Jerusalem become a woman, descending out of heaven adorned like a bride for her husband. And in the 5th chapter of Micah we are told that Bethlehem is that woman out of which God comes. Listen to the words carefully: “You, O Bethlehem, are so little to be among the thousands of Judah, yet from you will come forth for me, one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient times. Therefore, he will give them up until that time when she who is in travail has brought forth.” Then we read in the 63rd [Chapter] of Isaiah, “O Lord, thou art our Father, our Redeemer from of old is thy name.” Here we see the Ancient of Days as our Father and Redeemer and, like Bethlehem, we are all in travail, redeeming everything and bringing forth the Father of all life as our very self!

One day you will know an imaginative world where the mountains, rivers, cities, and villages are human. Everything will be possible to you there, for when your imaginative faculties awaken, every thought is objectively real. I don’t care what it is, your every imaginal act will instantly become an objective fact. This we are told throughout the Old Testament, but its language evokes and man finds it difficult to understand.

In the 14th chapter of Jeremiah you will find these words: “Thou, Lord are in the midst of us. We are called by thy name; leave us not.” The Lord’s name is “I am.” How could anyone exist and have the name “I am” taken from him? If you couldn’t say “I am” you would cease to be. You could suffer from total amnesia and not know where you are, who you are, or what you are; but, because God remains faithful to his pledge, you can’t stop knowing that you are. And that which is buried in your soul must come forward, and when it does, you are God.

You don’t boldly claim, “I am God” without any assurance that you are. That would be silly. To walk the streets proclaiming, “I am God,” not having had his plan of salvation unfold within you, would be the height of insanity. But when he reveals himself in you, you don’t proclaim it to anyone, you simply know it and live by this knowledge. And the only way he will ever reveal himself in you, as you, is to have his son stand before you and call you “Father.” Then, having fulfilled the 89th Psalm, you too will say: “I have found David. He said unto me: ‘Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my Salvation.'” When this lad stands before you, you know exactly who he is and who you are, for this relationship was established before that the world was.

Knowing you are the Eternal God who is Father, you will share this fantastic knowledge, not expecting a hundred percent acceptance, but allowing everyone to respond to what you say. Seeing your weaknesses and limitations, some will believe you and some will disbelieve. Don’t let it matter to you, simply tell it and go your way until the end of your allotted time. Then, with the discarding of your garment of flesh and blood, your weaknesses are removed and you awaken as God. Those who heard and accepted your experiences will prove your words in the not distant future and they, too, will awaken as the Ancient of Days.

Mortal eyes cannot see the being I really am. I know I am the Ancient of Days. I never began and I will never end. I appear to have begun in time. That is because I buried myself in my creation, in time. I am the Melchizedek of scripture – he who has no father, no mother, no genealogy, no beginning of days, or ending of days. I am eternity, buried in and waking in my creation. And because I am the Father of all life, my son, David – the personification of everything I have given life to, through experience – will stand before me to witness my fatherhood. David’s father was called Jesse, which means “I am.” It is that father who, recognizing David, says: “Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee.”

This experience will be yours when you come out of the fiery furnaces, which each one of us must and will go through. Did the Lord not tell us: “I have tried you in the furnace of affliction (experiences) for my sake; for my own sake I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.” There is only God, so he cannot give his glory to another. Having buried himself in his creation, when he rises from his burial place, he is still God, but enhanced beyond measure by reason of becoming his own creation and rising in it, individualized. We are all members of a body which shares in this grand play of rivers, mountains, cities, hills, and villages – all of which are humanity, all men in eternity.

Have you ever reclined in a chair with your eyes closed as in sleep and pictured a stream of water so real you could put your mental hands in it and they are wet? When you cupped your hands and brought them to your mouth, could you feel the water going down your throat? If you have, you know that the state you have entered is very real and personal. That is the power which is in store for you. That is your power tomorrow, when everything will be at your disposal, all based upon your own wonderful human imagination, for that is God.

Taking upon himself all the weaknesses and limitations of the flesh, God became as you are, that you may become as he is. And when he awakens within you, you are he. If you will believe in your own wonderful, imaginative world, everything will be under your control – but everything! And you will know that everyone in your world is within you, to be contacted at will. That no one can escape you; and when you rise within yourself, everyone rises with you. That is the story of scripture.

While you are here you can test your creative power based upon your desires. You may desire something you think you cannot afford, or you don’t have the time or the know-how to enjoy it. You can think of a thousand reasons why its possession is impossible; but – hearing that imagination creates reality – you can imagine you have it. But to imagine is not enough; you must have faith enough in your imaginal act to believe in its reality. When you imagine you are the person you want to be, you must firmly believe you already are it; then wait in faith for your assumption to appear in your world, for that imaginal act has its own appointed hour. It will ripen and flower. If it seems long to you – wait, for it is sure and will not be late.

The link between your imaginal act and its fulfillment is your faith, which is nothing more than your subjective appropriation of your objective hope. Hoping your desire – subjectively appropriated – is true, faith is your link to its objectivity. Act as God, and simply let it be so. God said: “Let there be light, Let the sun appear. Let the moon appear.” After his imaginal act, God let everything appear, sustaining it by faith, knowing that without faith it is impossible to bring it to pass. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen.” If you have faith in the reality of your imaginal act, it must objectify itself in your world.

Now, in order to really understand scripture, you must have some knowledge of the experiences recorded there, because they are not of this world. The Bible speaks of the New Man who is in you. It is that Man of Spirit that I am appealing to, as he can believe in the reality of an imaginal act. The outer you knows a reality which it can touch, see, and hear. Its belief is based upon the evidence of its five senses and reason. But I am appealing to the Christ in you, who is your own wonderful human imagination, and one with the Lord. This magnificent creative power is buried in you and will rise in you – not as another, but as your very self. This will be done when the wall of perdition, which divides the two of you, is broken down. If I speak of him I am implying the existence of two; but when I say, “I am,” I am speaking of only one. So Christ becomes one with me by becoming my very self. But I will not know that I am he until I have experienced everything scripture tells me only happened to him.

My rebirth is the result of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, for it is said that he rose from the same grave in which he was buried. Since there is only one skull, only one grave, and I awoke within my skull to discover I am alone, am I not the one who lay down there to sleep? If asked who was having this experience, I would answer, “I am,” and “I am” is not two – “I am” is one. I awoke in Golgotha – my own skull – and I came forth from that skull, as it is said that Bethlehem will bring forth someone for me, one who will rule as God.

Try ruling as God! Knowing that all things are possible to your imagination, imagine something that your reason and senses deny, and see if it works. If it does, then did you not rule your world as God? That’s how God acts. He imagines and lets it appear. And who is he? The Ancient of Days.

In the Book of Daniel, you are told: “There came one, like a son of man, who was presented to the Ancient of Days and they became one.” The word translated “son of man” is the Aramaic for the word “I” or “one.” That’s all it means. So when Jesus uses the word, “son of man” he is designating his function as the mediator between the world of man and the kingdom of God. In the Book of John he says: “O Holy Father, I have made known unto them thy name, the name thou gavest me.” Here he tells you the name is “Father,” saying, “Holy Father.” Now he wants something else. “May the love with which thou hast loved me be in them and I in them,” for the Holy Father wears the body of love.

When you step into the presence of the Ancient of Days, you see God in the human form divine, which is infinite love. And when he incorporates you into himself through an embrace, you fuse with love, thereby becoming the Ancient of Days. You know this because you feel it, but love cannot be seen with mortal eyes; and when you tell your story, those who hear you will say: “You? Why you are not yet fifty.” In the speaker’s case they would say: “You are not yet seventy, yet you know Abraham?” And I would answer, “Before Abraham, was I am.” They would then pick up stones to stone me with the facts of life.

Your birth certificate, place of birth, your social, intellectual, and financial backgrounds, are all cataloged, all available as stones to be thrown when you dare to claim that you are known by one who – as a forefather – lived unnumbered centuries ago. One who not only rejoiced to see your day, but saw it and was glad. To claim that you not only know him, but came before him, does not make sense, but is true. That which has no origin, buried itself in that which began in time, in order to raise that which began in time to its own level – which has no origin.

Here we find the story of Nebuchadnezzar and Melchizedek all rolled up into one. Nebuchadnezzar was an insane king – just like Man in this world. And Melchizedek, who has no father or mother, no origin, no beginning or ending in time, is buried within Nebuchadnezzar. Rising in that which began in time, he transforms time into eternity. Here again we have the story of the coming of the Father.

To find the Father of all life is all that is worthwhile. What else is worth finding? To find a million dollars would be wonderful for the moment, but one day the money will be gone, for everything dies here. Even the very heavens are dissolving; but your imagination cannot dissolve, for he is the Father who was before that the world was. So when imagination rises in you, you are God, even though you are still in a garment which wears out. And when the world calls you dead, it is because you have returned to the Father, as the Father.

As imagination rises in you, you understand the words: “I came out from the Father and I have come into the world. Again I am leaving the world and returning to the Father.” Now the same “I” makes this statement: “Go to my brothers.” If we are all brothers, we do not differ from this one “I” in whom the whole thing took place. The gospel is only the record of experiences seen and heard in the soul. So, “Go and tell my brothers I am ascending unto my Father and their Father, to my God and their God.” There is no other Father but the one Father, and no other God but the one God, who is in us all as our own wonderful human imagination. When you say, “I am,” that’s he, and there is no other God.

You will not know you are God, however, until scripture becomes alive and fulfills itself in you. For that purpose and that purpose only did you come into the world. You did not come here to put things right, as the priesthoods would say. This world is a schoolroom, where man is searching for his father; and how long, vast, and severe the anguish before he finds his father, is long to tell. I do not know when God will awaken within you; but I do know that he will, and then you will see the reason behind it all. So leave the world just as it is and make no attempt to change it.

Every day politicians are trying to change the world. We have many who claim to be our saviors, yet each – like the Hitlers and the Stalins of the world – have clay feet. Still, people will believe in them and you can’t stop them, because they are dreaming. Being all imagination, you can’t stop man from imagining, and imagining creates reality. Tonight they are trying to stop cigarette smoking. They tried to stop alcohol back in 1919, and in their doing, those who lived in the gutter became billionaires, making billions that they could not – and did not – declare for taxes. Al Capone made 130 million dollars net a year for fourteen years without paying taxes. They got him for a few thousand on some small infraction – but what happened to the 130 million a year? So, the do-gooders will do it all over again. Now they are going to start banning cigarettes; and instead of receiving six billion dollars in taxes from the industry, the money will go into the hands of those who will see to it that those who want cigarettes get them.

Man never learns his lesson. I can remember prohibition well. I came to New York City in 1922 and remained there until 1952, so I know New York City well. Old man Rockefeller, the one who really made the fortune, owned about six blocks between 5th and 6th Avenue. His entire family occupied one block on 54th Street. Before Radio City was built, he owned and rented out the two- and three-story buildings there. One day his son said: “Do you realize that all of those buildings are speakeasies?” Here was a Baptist – who gave millions for the dry campaign – renting houses to be used as speakeasies. So you see, you can blind yourself to anything.

I tell you: prohibition is stupid. You can educate a man out of a state, but you cannot prohibit him from occupying it. If I told you I would give you the earth if you would not think of a monkey for the next 24 hours, I would keep my earth, for you could not do it. Every commandment that is negative will be broken, for “God has consigned all men to disobedience that he may have mercy on all.” The moment I give you a command that is negatively worthy, I have consigned you to disobedience. There is only one commandment which is not negative. That one is “Love thy father and mother.” Every commandment has to be broken, yet man thinks he is so holy.

A man who recently celebrated his 100th birthday was asked what he thought contributed to his longevity, and he answered, “Smoking! I have been smoking every day of my life since I was eight years old.” Another lady, dying of throat cancer at the age of 30, told reporters that she had never smoked a cigarette in her life. My mother never smoked or drank, yet she died a very painful death at the age of 62. My father drank like a fish. He broke every health code. He never read anything concerning what he should eat in order to live, he just lived. He ate what he wanted when he wanted it. He drank what he wanted when he wanted it, and died at 85 from sheer exhaustion. Having these two examples before me, I don’t believe in this nonsense relative to what I should eat and drink. I will wear out this body just as I have a suit of clothes, and when I do, men will call me dead; but I will not be dead, I will be one with the Awakened Christ, for I have experienced scripture. David, in the Spirit, called me Father, so now I know my name and will return to that awareness.

Remember, the Bible evokes, it does not describe. There are three kinds of writing: journalism, literature, and scripture. You can study journalism or literature, but not scripture; for it is all revelation, all vision – written to evoke, not describe. As the visions possess you, you will discover that everything in scripture becomes man. The rivers, mountains, cities, villages – all are man.

In the 4th chapter of his book, Daniel shared his vision, saying: “I saw a watcher, a holy one come down from above and heard him say, ‘Cut down the tree, cut off its branches, strip its leaves, scatter its fruit, but leave the stump bound in iron and bronze.'” Now the tree becomes a person. “`Water him with the dew of heaven. Take from him the mind of man and let his habitation be among the beasts until seven times pass over him and he learns that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will, even to the lowliest among men.’ “The tree spoken of here is the tree of life, which grows in the human brain. It has been cut down to the root; but out of that tree of life (called Jesse) will come a shoot, which is what the Father is waiting for. He is waiting for himself to come out of man, individualized as the man he is bringing with him.

So God – he who created the world and all within it – descended into his creation. And when he rises, in all, he wipes away time and space as we know it, and becomes the only reality.

Now let us go into the silence.

BLAKE ON RELIGION

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 03-26-1963

When you are discussing Blake you are discussing one of the greatest spiritual giants of all time. You might just as well discuss St. Paul, for they had the identical visions, the vision of reality. Tonight we can cover only a portion of his gift to the world. In his “Auguries of Innocence” he says:

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.”

What is the sequence? The most inanimate thing in the world, a grain [of] sand, and in it to see a world. Then he moves to the first animation, a flower; and then to see harmony, which is Heaven – to see a “Heaven in a Wild Flower.” And now he comes to space: “Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand.” And then to time: “And Eternity in an hour.”

He moves on now to the bird world, to show us the relationship of the whole vast world, the unity of the world, that we are all actively related. That you can’t disturb anything at this moment in any way and not actually affect the whole.

“A Robin Red breast in a Cage
Puts all Heaven in a Rage.”

We think we can catch the little bird and cage it for our amusement, that which should be set free. He said:

“How do you know but ev’ry Bird that cuts the airy way,
Is an immense world of delight, clos’d by your senses five?”
(“Marriage of Heaven and Hell”)

So, the little

“Robin Red breast in a Cage
Puts all Heaven in a Rage.
A dove house fill’d with doves and Pigeons
Shudders Hell thro’ all its regions.”

Then he moves on to the next state, in what the world would call evolution, but he doesn’t call it that. Now into another aspect of the animal world:

“A dog starv’d at his Master’s Gate
Predicts the ruin of the State.
A Horse misus’d upon the Road
Calls to Heaven for Human blood.”
(“Auguries of Innocence”)

And he takes the stages right through. You will read it as you go along. (“Annotations to Berkeley’s Siris” in his Pickering MS.) Here is this mental giant who saw the complete relationship of all of us. So I think I could be isolated were I in a dungeon and I thought of you – my thought is affecting the entire universe. I thought of you with envy, or with hate, or with love, whatever the thought was as I conjured you in my mind’s eye and represented to myself as I want you to be, whether it is in hate or in love, I am affecting the whole vast world. And if I believe in the reality of what I have done, it will come to pass. And because we are all one, all interwoven, I will use you without your consent, your knowledge, to fulfill that which I have imagined at that moment.

Then he makes this statement:

“What seems to Be, Is, To those to whom
It seems to Be, and is productive of the most dreadful
Consequences to those to whom it seems to be, even of
Torments, Despair, Eternal Death; but the Divine Mercy
Steps beyond and Redeems Man in the Body of Jesus.”
(“Jerusalem,” Plate 36)

He steps beyond. Because of this principle man could be lost forever, not knowing what he is doing, but “Divine Mercy Steps beyond and Redeems Man in the Body of Jesus.” “God is Jesus” and we are but members in this divine body, therefore, only one name – we are he. So Blake made this statement: “Man is all Imagination. God is Man and exists in us and we in him.” (“Annotations to Berkeley’s Siris”)

“The Eternal Body of Man is The Imagination, that is, God himself,
The Divine Body, Jesus; we are his Members.”
(“The Laocoön”)

He makes every world, and now he asks us to join with him in putting this to the test. When you read his works from beginning to end, he never waivers from this premise. One thing he asks us all to do and to always bear in mind at every moment in time – to distinguish between the immortal man, which he saw… He said: “When I first did distinguish the immortal man that cannot die. . . that immortal man was Imagination.” Imagination has a body and he describes that body when he begs us to always discriminate between this immortal man — your wonderful human Imagination —and the state into which it has fallen.

And so, you may be this night in the state of love (I hope you are), the state of tenderness, the state of affluence. I don’t know, but you may not be. You may be in the opposite state. But were you in the opposite state, or some friend of yours, or some total stranger in the opposite state, he begs you, he begs all of us, to always bear in mind the distinction between the occupant of the state and the state, and lift everyone out of the state if it is an unlovely
state. For man is like a pilgrim passing through states, as though I pass through the states of this country. If this night I pass through Chicago, Chicago remains, but I — the pilgrim — pass on. If I pass through any state — the state of poverty, when I leave poverty it doesn’t really dissolve, it hasn’t disappeared. I left it for anyone to enter. I hope they will avoid it, but anyone may fall into it or deliberately go into it by feeling sorry for himself, feeling unwanted. And so he tells us of these enormous states, infinite states in the world. That everything possible that could happen to man is already created in the form of states. When man enters the state, the state unfolds because he — the operant power — has entered the state, and unknowingly he simply unfolds the state. If the state is one of wealth, in a way he does not know everyone in the world that can aid the unfolding of that state must aid it. If he enters any state — the state of poverty — though at the moment when he enters it he may have everything in the world, in no time he will grow the fruits of poverty in this world, for he is in the state of poverty. But he, the occupant of the state, is neither rich or poor.

So, Blake calls upon everyone to bear this in mind constantly and forgive every being in the world. For he says: “Mutual forgiveness of each sin, such are the Gates into Heaven in our world.” If I could only remember every moment of time when I see someone I dislike, that he is only in a state. That is why I dislike him – I dislike the state. I identify him with the state I dislike, but I think it is the occupant. It is not the occupant. He could come out at any moment in time, or I could get him out if I pulled him out and put him into another state, and I wouldn’t dislike him. If I bear this in mind, knowing my power to pull him out of the state I could save him, at least temporarily, until he is actually redeemed by this “Divine Mercy that steps beyond and Redeems Man in the Body of Jesus.” And that is a true vision. We are “Redeemed in the Body of Jesus.” The day will come when you actually will be pulled into his presence, for it is he, divine mercy, that steps beyond, in spite of what we have done, and pulls us right into his presence.

Then we are asked a very simple question. The world will answer correctly or he would not have told us. It is automatically done — we are divinely prompted what to answer, what to say when the question is asked. We cannot make a mistake, for we are actually prompted from the depths of our soul and we answer. At that very moment he embraces us and we become one with him – Jesus. We are fused into the body of Jesus.

And you say: “Is Jesus a man?” Yes, he is a man. So Blake makes the statement:

“If Thou Humblest Thyself, Thou humblest Me;
Thou also dwell’st in Eternity.
Thou art a Man, God is no more,
Thy own Humanity learn to adore.”
(“Everlasting Gospel”)

So when you stand in his presence you are standing in the presence of Man and it is Infinite Man. It is Jesus, and you are actually saved in the body of Jesus, because he embraces you and you are locked in his body, one with his body. You are the body. You aren’t locked in the sense that you disappear — you are that being. You become one with Jesus, yet you do not lose your identity. No loss of identity and yet one with God, for God is Jesus. Now this is Blake’s teaching and I have proven much of it to my own satisfaction by my own mystical experiences.

Now he comes to discuss the story of the “Virginity of the Virgin.” For are we not told in Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” The word Immanuel means “God is with us.” Listen to it carefully: “She will conceive and bear a son, and call his name Immanuel.” The child will be given the name as a token. The child is not the great event; the child will be given a name and is the token of deliverance. The child himself is not the deliverer. The child is simply the sign of an event taking place. Now Blake writes one single little verse and he speaks of it as the “Virginity of the Virgin.” You are the virgin, whether you be male or female, I am the virgin, we are all the virgin. I didn’t know what was happening to me any more than you will know what is happening to you. He puts it in four little lines:

“Whate’er is done to her she cannot know,
And if you’ll ask her she will swear it so.
Whether ‘tis good or evil none’s to blame:
No one can take the pride, no one the shame.”
(“Poems from the Note-book”)
[On the virginity of the Virgin Mary and Johanna Southcott]

So we said in the story: “How can this thing be, seeing that I know not a man?” And through the centuries thousands of columns have been written condemning the act, for it was out of wedlock and they take it on this level. It is not on this level. You are the bride of God, as told us in Isaiah 54:5: “For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name.” So the one who made me is going to sire me, without my knowledge, without my consent. So

“Whate’er is done to me I cannot know,
And if you’ll ask me I will swear it so
Whether it is good or evil, none’s to blame:
No one can take the pride, no one the shame.”

No one can take the pride when I confess openly I gave birth to a child out of wedlock. For no one sired that child and no one can claim he sired it. Now whether it was a shameful thing to perform — well, the world must judge. Whether it be good or evil, well, who knows? But one thing I know: no one can claim they did it, therefore “No one can take the pride, no one the shame” — if it’s shame. So the prophecy was made and he writes in four little lines the story of the “Virginity of the Virgin.”

He is telling every being in the world that they are that virgin. And you will be sired by the Holy Spirit, and you will produce in visible form an infant, just as told us in the Gospel. Having produced it you stand amazed because how could you produce it in such an unnatural way? It doesn’t happen in a natural way. Therefore, you were the virgin who conceived unknowingly, for she said: “How can I conceive, how can I have a child seeing I know not a man?” Then you are told the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the child will be the child of God. But it will only symbolize an event that is taking place, and you will be the son of God. In that act you were the child, who symbolized your acceptance. But the son of God is also God the son, and the son of God is made to say: “I and my Father are one.”

Blake saw the whole vision so perfectly, so clearly, and told us in his fabulous works. Said he of the Bible: “I know of no other Christianity and no other Gospel than the liberty both of mind and body to exercise the Divine Arts of Imagination. Imagination the real and eternal world into which we shall all go after the death of this vegetable mortal body.” He would accept no other form of Christianity. And he said: “All ritual, all creeds,” everything in the form of a ritual “was anti-Christ.” No religion means by definition a time, devotion to the most exalted reality that one has experienced. But religion as practiced is simply artifice, creed, ceremony, confession, and all outward show, and Blake would have none of it. The whole thing to him was anti-Christian, because to him the whole thing was from within, something the individual experienced that no one by argument could shake.

Years later, another brilliant mind, William James, made this observation and wrote it in a letter (not in a book) to his son. The son allowed it to be published in 1920 in The Atlantic Monthly. In this letter, James said: “The mother seed, the fountain-head of religion, begins in the mystical experience of the individual. All theology, all ecclestiastism, are secondary growth, superimposed. These experiences belong to a region that is deeper, wiser and more practical than that which the intellect inhabits. For this they are indestructible by intellectual arguments and criticism.” Blake would have endorsed that one hundred per cent.

You couldn’t disturb him. They called him a mad person. Even to this very day they speak of him as one who was unbalanced. He confessed in one of his letters that William Cowper [came to him. Cowper was] one of the great poets and himself considered one of the six greatest of all writers of letters in the English tongue. He was a contemporary. He died in 1800, Blake in 1827. He was much older than Blake, and Blake in his letter did not say whether Cowper came to him while he walked this earth or after he made his exit from this earth, because Blake could not conceive of death in any sense of the word — nothing died, all things survived. He said: “Cowper came to me and said to me: ‘Would that I were mad always, I cannot rest. Would you not make me truly mad?’ Then he said: ‘Look at you, you are healthy, and yet you are more mad than all of us. Would that I were as mad. I cannot rest until I am as mad as you are.’” He claimed that was what Cowper said to him. That he would now be a “refugee from unbelief.”

We think we are sane when we believe in the evidences of the senses, when we believe in some mathematical state that proves itself in performance. He spoke of Blake as one who was a “real refugee from unbelief.” I tell you a fantastic story and you don’t believe it. Would that you would believe! Believe it, though reason would deny it and your senses deny it. Just to believe it and become a refugee from unbelief, because true religion cannot be analyzed. You can’t rationalize it; it is based upon these mystical experiences in the depths of the soul.

Blake said of the Bible: “The entire Hebrew Bible” . . . he did not mention a few of the works. He didn’t mention Ruth, Nehemiah, and things of that sort, but he said: “The Five books of the Decalogue; the books of Joshua and Judges, Samuel , a double book, and Kings , a double book, the Psalms and Prophets, The Four-fold Gospel, and the Revelations everlasting.” (“Jerusalem,” Plate 48) He did not name the prophets, which he called the latter prophets (also the major): Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. He said these are true vision. He did not mention the Epistles, but he said the four Gospels, Revelation, and the Hebrew Bible are eternal visions of what really exists. He saw it so clearly, that all these characters are personifications of eternal states and communed with these states, for when you commune with them they seem as real as you are. But they are personifications of God’s infinite mind; every aspect of his mind is personified. You are not an aspect of the mind, something entirely different. You are one with God. “Man is All Imagination. God is man and exists in us and we in him.” (“Annotations to Berkeley’s Siris”)

“The Eternal Body of Man is The Imagination, that is God himself; The Divine Body Jesus; we are his Members” — part of the body of Jesus, and because there is only one name, we are he. So we pass through a process, a simple process which you can’t evoke, you can’t hasten it. But when you least expect it, divine mercy steps beyond and redeems man right into the body of Jesus. Then he passes through these stages, where he is born from above, where suddenly he beholds the divine Son [David] as his son; then the great woven structure of the body, the temple, is torn from top to bottom and he ascends to be one around this infinite throne of Jesus, who is God.

I actually believe it. I can’t prove it to you and I can’t take you with me into that moment of time where I experienced it. I can only tell you I have experienced it and ask you to believe it and share with me in belief, that you yourself may become a refugee from unbelief. For the man who cannot leave what he can touch with his hands and rationalize, cannot believe. And this is something you are called upon, although you have not seen it. “Blessed is the man who has not seen and still believes.” That is how the Gospel of John 20:29 ends. Those who heard about it, who would eventually experience it, like Job (42:5) — he said: “I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear but now my eye sees thee.” He heard about it and then came the experience, and he saw exactly what Blake is talking about, because Blake saw it.

I ask you to believe with me and take his works. I wouldn’t attempt to interpret for you. I have so many commentaries of Blake and they cost much more than all of Blake’s works put together, any one of them. You can buy Blake for $5.00, all this including his letters. I have invested in Blake’s works at home close to a thousand dollars in commentaries, and no two agree as to what Blake means by his fantastic experiences. But I bought all these commentaries of Blake before I had the experience. I could have saved a thousand dollars. I don’t regret it. I have them at home and there they stand in my library. Three volumes I paid $100.00 for, published by a dealer just back from England. These are rare volumes. Others he made me pay $55.00 and $65.00 for single volumes. And I have the whole of Blake in a nonesuch volume.

So you read him and all of a sudden you see exactly what he is trying to tell you, because you had a similar experience. Then comes the unfolding of the flower within you, the tree, and you have the experience, the same thing because all will have the identical experience, colored a little bit differently because we are all unique in God’s eye. So we have the same experience as we unfold on this great tree of life. Just think of it. If I can tell you what I would feel from Blake. Someone said: “He was the last civilized man.” Well, I hope not, but that is what was said of him. Blake had no venom in him, no impulse to hurt. He didn’t have to restrain the impulse; being all virtuous he acted from impulse and not from rules. He was simply a virtuous man in the sense that he loved people.

If I would take a summary of Blake and tell you what I get out of it, I would say tell your children while they are little tots and teach them: never unnecessarily hurt a creature or desecrate a flower. That is the beginning of reverence, and reverence is the beginning of wisdom. If you couldn’t hurt a flower, you couldn’t desecrate it. You see little children — not knowing what they are doing but in the presence of adults who should know better — and they will take a lovely rose and tear it and desecrate it. If the parent at that moment (or the adult, whether he is the parent or not) would stop the child and explain not at any time to unnecessarily hurt a creature, take the wings from a butterfly. I did it myself. To take the wings from a fly, to take the wings from something else. No reason for it, but I did it as a child. But I did it when possibly there was no one around like my father or mother to stop me in the act. But I know today from experience: you can take a child in its youth, in its infancy, teach it never unnecessarily to hurt a creature or desecrate a flower. That would be to it the beginning of reverence, and reverence is the beginning of wisdom.

Take George Washington Carver, who would take a flower in his hands and talk to it. The man couldn’t hurt it, he was incapable of hurt. He would talk to a sick flower and ask the flower what was wrong with it and try to tell him, that he in turn may bring in the solution to that rose bush — which he did. And he gave us, because he couldn’t hurt, this synthetic world of ours. He took the ordinary little peanut. He talked to the peanut and wondered “What are you for why did God make you? He made you for a purpose.” And then the peanut communed with George Washington Carver. And today we have 300 by-products from the peanut and hundreds of by-products from the southern pines, and from other things. I heard that gentleman the year he died. Just before he died he spoke in New York City at the forum held every year by the Herald Tribune, always held at the old Waldorf Astoria. He said (and I heard him, I saw him) that: “This concern about tomorrow’s not being able to feed the world. From the southern states of this country, forget the northern states, the southern states, we could feed the entire world, and clothe the entire world from the by-products. What we could extract from the southern pine and the peanut and all things, the synthetic world.” (He called it “the synthetic world.”)

Today you can go into a store and they brag about the synthetic garments. They call it Dacron or some other name and tell you how much better it is than the so-called natural thing that you would normally wear. All these are synthetic garments and they claim they are better in feeling, lasting wear, and everything else. All that goes back to a man who couldn’t hurt. And he was born a slave (I think he was sold for a horse or something). So we have to redeem him. Here was a man born into slavery who couldn’t hurt, and he is one of the mental, spiritual giants of the world. If you met him beyond the grave you would see a glorious being like a Blake, because he couldn’t hurt.

So I would say to everyone here who is in contact with tomorrow’s children: start it. If you start and tell the children never hurt unnecessarily. By that I mean if a horse breaks its foot then you have to destroy it. You can’t mend it and the merciful thing to do would be to blow its brains out. That would be a merciful act, but then you would do it not unnecessarily. Blake said:

“A Horse misus’d upon the Road
Calls to Heaven for Human blood.
A dog starv’d at his Master’s Gate
Predicts the ruin of the State
A Robin Red breast in a Cage
Puts all Heaven in a Rage.”

To take this wonderful thing and cage it for your own amusement when it should cut the airy way. And then he says:

“A Skylark wounded in the wing,
A Cherubim does cease to sing.”

You wouldn’t think a cherub, one with the seraphim around the throne of God, would — at that very moment when we wound the skylark in its wing — would be silent. But in the inter-related world, all things by a law divine in one another’s being mingle. So you could not wound a skylark in the wing and expect a cherubim to continue to sing. All of a sudden things come to an end by our misuse of this fantastic power that is ours. For being all imagination, as we misuse the power that is imagination we cause cherubim to become silent. We cause the whole of heaven to cry out when we cage something that should be set loose and free in this world.

But you start, and I am quite sure it wouldn’t take more than one generation, if the world would believe it, if you start it in the home with children. Take them into the garden and let them see and then watch their reactions. Some may be more violent and tear it off, but stop them right there. Don’t hit them, just stop them and explain to them that it is a creation of God — the one who made the stars made this for your enjoyment, not for your destruction — and explain they should not desecrate the flower. Then if you see them taking off the wings of the butterfly, because they are human that way, explain they should never unnecessarily hurt a creature. They would believe it, they trust you, and then suddenly that’s part of their structure. They couldn’t violate that conditioned mind. Why, it wouldn’t take any time to really become a world like a Blake, and what a world that would be!

So I say to you: Blake, read him. I could talk about him from now to the end of time and never exhaust him. He lived to be seventy years old. He never went to school. His visions began at four, and he thanked his father for not sending him to school to be flogged into memorizing the works of a fool. Even in today’s paper, the New York Times, a science editor wrote the story of a man’s new concept of the universe – radical departure from what was held last year. Well, this is not final you know. This will be a radical departure from what it will be called next year, and that is man’s concept. Whether the thing is really expanding to the limit of complete explosion, or whether it is like a breath — where it will go to a certain point and then once more begin to contract, taking unnumbered trillions of years — they don’t know and they hope to find it out through telescopes. So they are experimenting through the telescope to the mathematical concept. But Blake made this observation:

“God is not a Mathematical Diagram.”
(“Annotations to Berkeley’s Siris”)

Not in eternity will you find God as a mathematical diagram. When you find him you’ll find him as man. So he said:

“God Appears and God is Light
To those poor Souls who dwell in Night,
But does a Human Form Display
To those who Dwell in Realms of day.”
(“Auguries of Innocence”)

When you meet him, it’s man. But how can I describe him when he himself describes the body and the form as love. (How do you describe love? Yet I stood in the presence of love and he was human.) But he said:

“For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face
And Love, the human form divine.
(“The Divine Image”)

So how are you going to describe love? When I stood in the presence of love it was human and it was Jesus and it is form, but it is infinite love. Then you understand the words concerning forgiveness:

“In Heaven the only Art of Living
Is Forgetting and Forgiving.”
(“Notes,” Plate 81)

And you stand in his presence and you hear these words ring out: “Forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34) “Mutual forgiveness of each vice; such are the Gates of Paradise.” No one can get through holding any resentment, because you are holding it against a being when it should be a state, and the states are fixed forever through which we pass.

I would encourage everyone to read Blake. He grows every year bigger and bigger in the minds of men, yet he died and is buried in an unknown grave. I doubt if anyone truly knows where he is buried. Possibly, because he was poor in those days in England, they buried the paupers four and six to a grave. So who knows where he is buried? At least we have his works, those that survived. And so, after 200 years here is this giant, and in his day we had men that can only be remembered because there was certain violence, like George III, who reigned where he lived, when this was a colony. And here this mad George, truly mad, and nothing was more sane than Blake. And George who was then King of England – we founded his colony – could give away sections of it, vast areas to those that he favored – mad as a hatter! And they called Blake the madman! And Cowper, who did go mad (three times he was put away) – he appeared to Blake and asked Blake to make him truly mad. Not mad as the world judges it, because there are unbalanced mental states, no question about it. “Make me as mad, Blake, till I become like you, a refugee from unbelief.” He was torn between the two.

If I could only go all out and believe in the reality of my imaginal act and not look back. Just go all out, and believe that things are as I desire them to be. But don’t look down now to my understanding to see if it is really happening, like pulling up the little seed to see if it is taking root. Really believe that it is going to take root and in its own way it unfolds within itself and grows. But don’t pull it up; walk right out in the belief that things are as I desire them to be, even though at the very moment it seems darker than ever. And if I do that, that is what Blake did.

They said that many a day he had not a potato in the house and no money. His wife must have been an angel of angels. To remind him there was no food in the house – and then he would have to go out and sell one of his paintings, or get a commission to make a painting – she would put before him on the bare table an empty plate and a spoon, so when he came to dinner, well, that’s it. He took the hint and then would go out and either borrow a pound or a few shillings, or try to get a commission for a picture he had not yet painted. He lived in that so-called dream world. But what he has done to posterity! How he has affected the entire world. And when you think today that no one who understands the English tongue, called upon to make a list of the six greatest users of English tongue of all times, has the same order of value, but within six they could not omit the name of Blake. And he never went to school. Just that inspired mind, the greatest most wonderful mind.

He said he talked to Isaiah and Ezekiel and he asked them about Imagination and they said: “In ages of imagination this firm perswasion removed mountains; but many are not capable of a firm perswasion of any thing.”
(“Marriage of Heaven and Hell,” Plate 12)

Well now, I could not if I told you for the rest of my days exhaust or do justice to Blake, but just enough to encourage you to read him for yourself. And take my experience, having paid one thousand dollars for the works of Blake, you buy Blake and omit the commentaries. I have them at home and I read them and they remain read but not to be re-read. But I make Blake my daily companion as I do the Bible. So take Blake and take the Bible and read it. If you don’t understand him at first reading, re-read it and keep on re-reading. I’ll tell you one thing it will do for you: it will increase your vocabulary and lift your use of words to the heights.

Now let us go into the silence.

QUESTION: What is the symbol of the Lark?

ANSWER: When he said: “A Skylark wounded in the wing, a Cherubim does cease to sing,” he identifies that skylark as but the externalized shadow of the song of a cherubim. He calls this the world of shadows (“Jerusalem,” Plate 71) faintly reflecting an activity that cannot be seen by mortal eye; that the heavenly world enacted has thrown its shadow to interest man in some strange way in this world. For man is in a world of sea, it is on the sea. His greatest poem, “Jerusalem,” begins on the theme: “Of the Sleep of Ulro!” This fantastic world is called “Ulro” by him, where we are so sound asleep it is likened unto “Eternal Death.” And he calls upon us to “Awake.” So all these will aid us to awake. So, if the cherubim by his song in this world, through the shadow of a bird called the “Skylark”…

But we go out and we doubt, for instance, as friends of mine (I call them my friends) – wait eagerly for the dove season. And of course, I have always refused their dinner invitations to come and dine on doves. I love the doves. They come all over my place, and when the mourning doves are beginning to coo… And coming from Barbados as I did we have a certain native feeling toward the dove, and so they are fed. If you listen to him carefully the male dove is actually saying: “Moses spoke God’s word,” and then the female answers: “He did, he did.” I listen to it every morning. And then someone shoots him and asks me to come and dine! He tells us of the little lamb: “The Lamb misus’d breeds Public Strife and yet forgives the Butcher’s knife.” For that purpose, to feed these vegetable bodies — the shadow, the mortal body — you forgive them that use of the knife. But to abuse it: “The Lamb misus’d breeds Public Strife, and yet forgives the Butcher’s knife.”

BRAZEN IMPUDENCE

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 09-27-1968

A new idea will not become part of your common currency of thought until it has been repeated over and over and you begin to live by it.

You have been taught to believe that God exists outside of you, but I say you are all Imagination. That God exists in us and we in him. That our eternal body is the Imagination, and that is God Himself. I mean every word I have just said, but it is a new thought. Until this new idea becomes a part of your thinking, every time you hear the word, “God,” your mind will go out to something you have conceived God to be.

When I say I am, I am speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ of the New Testament and the Jehovah of the Old. When you go to bed tonight and put your head on a pillow, you are aware of being. That awareness is God! I want to show you how to use your awareness as brazen impudence.

In the 11th chapter of Luke, it is said that Jesus was praying when one of his disciples said: “Lord, teach us to pray,” at which time he gave them the Lord’s Prayer. Now, the Lord’s Prayer that you and I have is translated from the Latin, which does not have the imperative passive mood necessary to convey the meaning of the prayer. In its original Greek, the prayer is like brazen impudence, for the imperative passive mood is a standing order, something to be done absolutely and continuously. In other words, “Thy will be done,” becomes “Thy will must be being done.” And “Thy kingdom come” becomes “Thy kingdom must be being restored.”

That is not what is being taught, however, as he taught in the form of a parable such as: “Which of you who has a friend would go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him,’ and from within he says, ‘Do not bother me; the door is shut and my children are in bed. I cannot rise and give you anything.’ Yet I tell you, although he will not rise because he is a friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him whatever he needs.” The word importunity means brazen impudence. In other words, he would not take No for an answer!

Jesus was not teaching a disciple on the outside how to pray. He was telling you how to adjust your thinking so you will not take No for an answer. In the story the friend knew what he wanted. He assumed he had it and continued to assume he had it until his assumption took on the feeling of reality and he got it. This is how you find God in yourself, by being persistent in your assumption.

Then this story is told to show how you should pray and not lose heart: “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor regarded man. There was a widow in that city who came constantly, asking him to vindicate her against her enemies. At first he refused, then he said to himself, ‘Although I neither fear God nor regard man, yet because this woman bothers me I will vindicate her before she wears me out.’” Again we see the need for persistence in prayer.

When you know how to pray, you will discover that everyone in the world can be used as an instrument to aid the birth of your prayer. They may be condemned in the act and pay society’s price, while you are saved; yet you are the cause of their action.

I will now share with you a very personal story. I tell it to illustrate a principle. Society blamed this lady for what she did, and she paid the price, but I was the cause of her misfortune. I am not going to justify my story and if you can’t take it, I’m sorry. When I first told it, one lady was very upset and I regret that; but I have noticed that when someone has recently given up alcohol, tobacco, meat, or sex, they invariably condemn the state. They feel too close to it to feel secure. I am not saying that this lady had a similar experience where she was the victim; I am only speaking of a principle. Now here is my story:

When I decided to marry the lady who now bears my name I applied this principle. At the time I was terribly involved. I had married at the age of eighteen and became a father at nineteen. We separated that year, but I never sought a divorce; therefore, my separation was not legal in the state of New York. Sixteen years later, when I fell in love and wanted to marry my present wife, I decided to sleep as though we were married. While sleeping, physically in my hotel room, I slept imaginatively in an apartment, she in one bed and I in the other. My dancing partner did not want me to marry, so she told my wife that I would be seeking a divorce and to make herself scarce – which she did, taking up residence in another state. But I persisted! Night after night I slept in the assumption that I was happily married to the girl I love.

Within a week I received a call requesting me to be in court the next Tuesday morning at 10:00 A.M.. Giving me no reason why I should be there, I dismissed the request, thinking it was a hoax played on me by a friend. So the next Tuesday morning at 9:30 A.M. I was unshaved and only casually dressed, when the phone rang and a lady said: “It would be to your advantage, as a public figure, to be in court this morning, as your wife is on trial.” What a shock! I quickly thanked the lady, caught a taxi, and arrived just as court began. My wife had been caught lifting a few items from a store in New York City, which she had not paid for. Asking to speak on her behalf I said: “She is my wife and the mother of my son. Although we have been separated for sixteen years, as far as I know she has never done this before and I do not think she will ever do it again. We have a marvelous son. Please do nothing to her to reflect in any way upon our son, who lives with me. If I may say something, she is eight years my senior and may be passing through a certain emotional state which prompted her to do what she did. If you must sentence her, then please suspend it.” The judge then said to me, “In all of my years on the bench I have never heard an appeal like this. Your wife tells me you want a divorce, and here you could have tangible evidence for it, yet you plead for her release.” He then sentenced her for six months and suspended the sentence. My wife waited for me at the back of the room and said: “Neville, that was a decent thing to do. Give me the subpoena and I will sign it.” We took a taxi together and I did that which was not legal: I served my own subpoena and she signed it.

Now, who was the cause of her misfortune? She lived in another state, but came to New York City to do an act for which she was to be caught and tried. So I say: every being in the world will serve your purpose, so in the end you will say: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” They will move under compulsion to do your will, just as my wife did.

I tell this story only to illustrate a principle. You do not need to ask anyone to aid you in the answer to a prayer, for the simple reason that God is omnipotent and omniscient. He is in you as your own wonderful IAmness. Everyone on the outside is your servant, your slave, ready and able to do your will. All you need do is know what you want. Construct a scene which would imply the fulfillment of your desire. Enter the scene and remain there. If your imaginal counselor (your feeling of fulfillment) agrees with that which is used to illustrate your fulfilled desire, your fantasy will become a fact. If it does not, start all over again by creating a new scene and enter it. It costs you nothing to imagine consciously!

In my own case the scene was a bedroom of an apartment, with my wife in one bed and I in the other, denoting that I was no longer living in a hotel alone. I fell asleep in that state, and within one week I had the necessary papers to start action on a divorce.

This is what the Bible teaches. It is my text book. “Whatever you desire, believe you have already received it and you will!”

There is no limit to the power of belief or to the possibilities of prayer, but you must be brazenly impudent and not take No for an answer. Try it! When I say you are all imagination, I mean it. While standing here on the platform I can, in a split-second, imagine I am standing on the outside, looking at this building. Or, in another second be in London and view the world from there. You say that’s all hallucination? That it is all in my imagination? All right, now let me share another experience with you.

I was in New York City when I heard that my seventeen-year-old nephew, my sister’s oldest child, was in a terminal state of cancer. I knew how she felt and wondered what I could do to comfort her – to show her that the boy she so loved was not flesh and blood, but spirit. So while in New York City, I went to my bedroom, closed the door, and lay down on my bed. Knowing that my sister lived in the old family house in Barbados, I assumed I was on the bed where I knew Billy to be. I assumed my sister entered that room but could not see her son, only her brother, Neville. I lost myself in that assumption until my sister, Daphne, entered the room. Looking startled, she came forward, stared at me, then turned and left the room. When I was satisfied that I had seen her, and she had seen me and not her son, I broke the experience and returned to our living room to be with my wife and a friend who had come for cocktails.

Ten days later I received a letter from my sister, in which she said: “Nev, I just can’t understand it.” Giving the day and the hour which coincided with mine in New York City she said: “I went into Billy’s room and I was startled to see you there. I knew you were in New York City, yet I could not see Billy on the bed, only you. I must confess I was a bit afraid, so 1 left the room and when I returned I could see Billy again. She could see Billy because by then I had departed. If I am all imagination, I must be where I am in imagination. When I gave the scene sensory vividness, with all the tones of reality, I was seen by my sister two thousand miles away. No, I didn’t save Billy. He died, but my presence did convince my sister that her son was not flesh and blood. If her brother, in New York City, could appear to her in Barbados, she knew there was something that inhabits a body which cannot go to eternal death.

I tell you: there is an immortal you that cannot die. That night I gave my sister the conviction of a reality in her son that would survive when the doctor said he was gone. Gone where? Restored to a terrestrial world like this as a young lad, to continue a journey that was set up for him in the beginning. And that is to form the image of Jesus Christ in him. When that happens, Billy will awaken as Jesus Christ, the one being who is God the Father.

Practice the art of movement. In New York City, my telephone was in the hallway and my chair in the living room. While sitting in my chair, I would assume I was at the telephone. Then I would assume I was looking into the living room. I practiced this exercise. until I discovered I could move anywhere in a split second of time. Try it and perhaps, like my sister, someone will have the strange experience of seeing you where you have not physically been. Make it fun. I do it all the time.

A lady, thinking I was still in Barbados – where she last saw me painfully thin and weighing only 138 pounds – was hoping I was feeling better, when I instantly appeared in her living room. I was brown from the Barbados sun, wearing a gray suit (which I did not own when I left here, but purchased in New York City) when I said: “There is no time,” and vanished. Well, she is accustomed to these things, so she was not afraid.

I urge you not to limit yourself to a little body of flesh and blood, for you are spirit. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, so one day you must take it off. And he who takes it off is immortal. He is your own wonderful human imagination who is God, the Father of all life. When you learn to live this way, life becomes so exciting. Your days are full and you are never alone. I spend all day at home reading the Bible and meditating. I close my eyes and travel the world. It’s fun and educational. It expands me and makes me become more aware of the infinite being that I really am.

Now, the two stories from scripture that I have shared with you show the importance of persistence. When you pray, do not get down on your knees and pray to any unknown God. Instead, go to bed and dare to assume you are now who you want to be. Fall asleep assuming it is true and you will be on the road to success, for this is how things are brought into being.

Right now imagine something lovely for another. They need never know who was the cause of their fortune – but you will. My first wife did not know I was the cause of her action. Had she thought that her act would mean my freedom and her disgrace do you think she would have done it? She moved under compulsion, and I was the compelling force. When you realize this, you forgive everyone for everything they have ever done, because you may have been the one who was the cause of their action.

Blake said: “Why stand we here trembling around calling on God for help and not ourselves in whom God dwells.” Why call on any god, when the only God dwells within you? He is not pretending, but actually became you. When you confine yourself to the little garment you wear, you are confining God, because it is he who is wearing it.

You need no intermediary between you and yourself, who is God. Don’t run from this city to another in the hope of finding something better, because the one person you are going to take with you is yourself; so resolve your problems here. Do not compromise. Decide exactly what you want and assume you have it. If your world would change, determine what it would look like; then construct a scene which would imply you are there. If your mental construction comes close to your fulfilled desire, your little day dream will become a fact! And when it does, will it matter what others think about your principle? Having proved itself in performance, share your experience with another that they may share theirs. Keep sharing this principle, because in the end we are all the one being who is the Lord Jesus Christ. One body, one Lord, one Spirit, one God and Father of all. Don’t be ashamed to claim it. Man sees the Lord Jesus Christ as some little being on the outside; but he is in you, and when you see him, he will look just like you!

A friend recently shared this sweet vision with me. She said: “I saw a man in a white robe standing on a hill, building a canopy over the entrance to a temple. As I approached I could see that the stripes used for the canopy were translucent green and I remarked how radiantly beautiful they were. The man turned to look at me and I realized it was you, Neville, and yet you were Michelangelo. Then you addressed me saying: ‘I have been working on this throughout eternity and it still remains invisible to others’. Taking the stripes, I wove them into the form of a basket and you thanked me and said: ‘Great work’ and I awoke.” That was a beautiful dream. I have been telling the story of the resurrection throughout eternity, but it has never been put into living form. It still remains dead, like Michelangelo’s Pieta, or his David made out of marble.

Let David become alive in the minds of others. Give life to the Pieta, the crucified one on the mother’s lap. The story is public property, now a dead written code awaiting life in the imagination of men. Dramatize salvation’s story. Make it into a play or a television show and let Michelangelo’s Pieta become alive. I have made the story alive because I have experienced it.
Michelangelo, with his tremendous know-how of the human form, created the dead forms made of marble. I came along, unable to mold a stick, to find the dead forms taking on life in me. It is my hope that one day this wonderful story will be told as it really is, against the story that we have heard for over two thousand years.

Now let us go into the silence.

BUILDING YOUR TEMPLE

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 11-20-1967

William Blake, in his poem “The Four Zoas: a Dream of Nine Nights,” tells of God’s fall into division and his resurrection to unity – his fall into generation, decay, and death and his resurrection into the unity of the one Father. Associating his poem with the 6th chapter of Ephesians, the 12th verse, he states: “We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places.” So we see that the fall into division and the resurrection into unity is mental.

From beginning to end, the Bible speaks of a certain temple that is being constructed. And every day we are building our temple for the dwelling place of God the Father. In the 2nd chapter of the Book of Ephesians, we are told: “The whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it as a living structure of God in the Spirit.” In other words, as you bring your building and I bring mine, we are fitted together as living stones in the building of God.

Let me explain this with a story told me just this past week. This is an experience of a lady who is very much a lady and only recently had a little baby. She said: “In my dream I am three people. I am myself, yet I am a man. As myself, I long for a little green dog. Becoming another, I see my dog standing among others. He shines like the sun and because I have ordered him I know all I have to do is wait for his arrival.

“Now, in my dream I am always the sender. When something is to be told, I tell it to another (which is myself), then I become the other in order to retell the story to the third. Becoming the third, I then tell the second to tell the first. I know it doesn’t make sense on this level, but as the third person speaking, I hear the message as the second, and say to myself – the first: ‘The dog is yours now.’ And as the first I am so happy to hear the news.

“Again as the third person, I tell the second to say to the first: ‘Your building is finished. All you have to do is turn around to take it.’ Now as the first person, my little dog disappears and I am looking at my many new buildings being constructed. Then I remember that my building is finished and all I have to do is turn around and claim it – when my little baby cries and awakens me.”

On the surface her vision appears to be nothing, but it has tremendous significance. Her green dog shining like the sun is Caleb in scripture. Caleb is he who goes with Joshua into the Promised Land. In the story, Caleb – having faith in the God who promised Israel land – was sent by Moses along with other spies into Canaan. Upon returning, Caleb said: “Attack immediately” but the men who had gone with him were afraid; so only the two, Caleb and Joshua (the Hebraic form of the word “Jesus”), entered.

In her dream she is waiting for a little green dog. The word “green” in this dream means “pressing with sap; luscious; health.” Bursting with all that is mine, I will take you to lie down in green pastures. Full of faith in the God who promised land to Israel, Caleb is highly recommended, as only two can enter. Others had the dog and others will find him, for she is not the only one who enters the promised land. Now, who was waiting for his companion? God! As the third, the second is told and tells the first that the dog is now hers. Then the experience is repeated, as she once more becomes the sender (the teller), but she is never the receiver, for God only acts and is in existing beings or men.

Now, as the first person she realizes that the little dog has disappeared. Why? Because she has already entered the promised land. Seeing the fabulous construction going on, she is reminded that her building is finished and all she had to do is turn around and see it. There are two passages in scripture, one in the 12th chapter of Acts and the other in the 15th chapter of Luke, where the Greek word “heautou” is translated “he came to himself.” In the Book of Luke these words were spoken of the prodigal son. And in the Book of Acts, Peter was imprisoned and shackled in chains. His garments were sold and he was alone in the cell, when the angel of the Lord entered, touched him, and as he rose, it is said: “he came to himself.” Now, this word “heautou” could have been translated, “he turned around; it is fulfilled; it is finished; to be married.” And she heard the words: “All you need to do is turn around.” Turn around and you will behold the finished structure. As a living stone you have now contributed to the overall structure, which is the temple of the Living God. I know from my own experience, everyone contributes to that one Living Stone called the kingdom of heaven! You will be turned around by a force that is greater than anything known to man, but it will not happen until the end. You cannot physically turn around, nor can you force the mind to do it.

Now, Blake tells us: “God fell into division” and this lady divided herself into three. Now heading for the end of the journey, when the force that is holding you to this world is relieved, you will turn around to see the structure your Father built and you will know that you are He. Your temple is not built by another. “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Who is he? I am he who began the good work in you. “I have tried you in the furnaces of affliction. For my own sake I do it, for my own sake, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.” Your journey is at its end, my dear. You saw the perfect vision. Your building is finished and all you have to do is turn around. This will come at the end, for if you should turn around you will vanish, for, like Paul, you have fought the good fight. Let no one tell you Paul was exaggerating; it is a fight, for we are contending not with flesh and blood.

At the present moment someone is treading the wine press of hate, and – unrestrained – the thought is sent on its wings of feeling. Perhaps sitting in a dungeon this night, someone is treading the wine press of war, and some little boy out in the field catches the idea and wanting to be a hero dreams of becoming a great general, commanding the destruction of the world. He is dreaming and you can’t stop his dream. So you are not warring against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers and spiritual wickedness in heavenly places, and heaven is within. In the inside of your mind these abominable, loathsome beings are carved. They are unseen forces impinging upon you morning, noon, and night.

But oh, what a thrill to get a letter of this nature! Her building is finished. She now knows that she only sends! She gave the order, saw herself as another, receiving, but when the message must be retold she once more became the teller. And when it is to be experienced, she will be the one who experiences it. So God only acts and is in existing beings or men, for God is playing all the parts.

In the end everyone brings his living temple to the house of God. Ephesians tells us how the structure is joined together and how the holy temple grows in the Spirit. It’s a spiritual temple, not one in this world. Scripture calls the church “the body of Christ”, but the word translated “church” is “communion of the assemblage of the redeemed.” It’s the assemblage of those whose building is finished. Playing the part of the receiver, we are the one being who is the builder. Finding Caleb, you (as Joshua, who is Jesus) are led into the Promised Land, as scripture is fulfilled. Having shone like the sun in order to lead you in, Caleb disappears leaving Jesus only. And who is Jesus? Your own wonderful human imagination!

Now let me share another story. Three years ago, in a dream, this lady saw a man who embodied everything she could ever desire. They fell in love and an engagement was announced. Then, thinking she was awake, she put on her nightgown and retired in the hope that he would join her. But as he entered the room the man shook his head and said: “Not yet, but I will return.” This month the same man returned and implied by his look that he had come to complete the promise of marriage. I can tell her that, although it hasn’t been accomplished, she had the perfect revelation of that which is coming to her. She now has the assurance that: “I will come again and receive you into myself, that where I am there, you shall be also.” This is all beautiful symbolism. This lady is not about to be married in this world of ours to a flesh and blood man of such magnitude. No, he is the symbol of the being spoken of in Isaiah: “Your maker is your husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name.” The promise is being kept in her. and one day she will turn around within herself and become that living temple of the Risen Lord.

I have seen the temple, and when I leave the garment relative to this age I will enter an entirely different age. And like Paul it is my desire to depart and be with Christ, but it is more important at the moment to remain and encourage you, even though you are fighting against principalities, powers of darkness, and all the horrors of the world. But I have seen the building being constructed for you, not by another, but by your deeper self, who is God the Father.

In 1952, while living in New York City, I had a thirst that only an experience of God could quench. “As the hart panteth after the waterways, so panteth my soul after thee, Oh God.” Then one night out of the blue I found myself fulfilling the 42nd Psalm: “These things I remember, as I pour out my soul. How I went with the throng and led them in procession to the house of God.”

That night I found myself leading an enormous procession toward the house of God. It was still in the distance, but as I led them a voice rang out: “And God walks with them.” A woman at my side questioned the voice, saying: “If God walks with us, where is he?” And the voice replied: “At your side.” Looking at me and seeing a man of flesh and blood, she said: “You mean Neville is God?” and the voice replied: “Yes, in the act of waking.” Then the voice spoke only to me, saying: “I laid myself down within you to sleep and as I slept I dreamed a dream. I dreamed…” and suddenly I knew that he was dreaming he was me. At that moment memory returned, and I became six vortices, which I felt enter my hands, my feet, my head, and my side. That was when I knew the ecstasy of the crucifixion.

Paul, in his letter to the Romans, divided the tenses, saying: “If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” The crucifixion is past. “He chose us in him before the foundation of the world.” If this is true, then the universal Christ gave us himself, for did he not say: “No man takes my life, I lay it down myself. I have the power to lay it down and the power to lift it up again.” And we are laid down with him, because he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. So, if you are united with him in a death like his, you will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. I know this is true, for he was resurrected in me, confirming the story of scripture. This is how the structure is enhanced and grows in God. And when the final curtain comes down and the temple is perfect, you will be God the Father and I will be God the Father, yet none of us will lose our identity!

Now I ask you to continue to test your creative power by practicing revision. If you hear something that is unlovely, don’t accept it, but instantly revise it. Hear the words that ought to have been spoken and persuade yourself, to the best of your ability, that it is so. What would it matter if you owned the world tonight and departed tomorrow to find yourself working as a fry cook, serving up flap cakes? Live your life fully while here, but remember you can’t take your money with you.

So, enjoy the things of this world and apply this wonderful law for yourself and others, for imagining truly does create reality. And remember: you are not wrestling against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and darkness of the rulers of this world and spiritual evil in heavenly places. And one day, you who have fallen into division will resurrect into unity!

Now let us go into the silence.

BY WATER AND BLOOD

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 6-24-1956

My subject this morning is taken from the First Epistle of John. Now these twenty-one letters (or as we call them, epistles) are not really addressed to individuals or groups. They are mysteries, as is the entire Bible. Whether the Bible in the Old Testament tells the story in the form of history, or whether they tell it in the form of a parable, or whether in the form of a letter, they are all revelations of the mind of God expressed in symbolism.

Now, I do not claim that I can give you an exhaustive interpretation of any single story of the Bible. Because they are revelations of the mind of the Infinite, no single interpretation could ever be exhaustive. On one level it may be true, and then you and I expand in consciousness and we re-read the letter and see it differently, and a further expansion in consciousness causes us – even when we re-read it for the fiftieth time – to still see the letter in a different light. So in this morning’s interpretation I will try to keep it on a level that is most practical.

We are told in the First John, 5: “This is He that came by water and blood even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water and blood.” So these are symbols of birth. Every natural birth in the world is accompanied by the flowing of water and blood. It’s trying to tell the individual of a certain mystery of birth, but he uses the words Christ Jesus and that is the symbol of a truly mysterious birth – something out of nothing. That is the mystery. Out of death, life. Man cannot conceive it. How can something alive come out of that which is dead – how can something come out of nothing? Man accepts it in the mineral world, for he sees, if he goes back far enough in time (he could push the mystery in some remote past), he will accept the fact that sometime, in a way not known to modern science, out of non-organic substance came organism. He will call it by some little tiny name: an amoeba, and that will satisfy his mind. But he stops; he still will not admit that he stated that there was a non-organic substance, or nothing, or something that was dead, out of which came life, out of which came something. He doesn’t want to wrestle with that problem, so he leaves that, jumps over the pages of history, and comes to some little thing more complex. Then he teaches evolution from that state. But when he goes far enough back he finds no answer for the appearance of life out of nothing or death.

So here is the mystery. It comes by water and by blood – not by water only, but by water and blood. This is the great mystery of the incarnation, the death, and the resurrection. What incarnation? What death, and what resurrection? The mind instantly thinks in terms of 2,000 years ago and we think that was the great mystery. But before I jump into the mystery let me quote you the very last verse of this wonderful 5th chapter: “Little children keep yourselves from idols.” No matter how officialdom justifies them and tells you this is the image of your savior revealed through the minds of a saint or a great artist, you are warned in this chapter to keep yourselves free of idols, in harmony with the second commandment: “Thou shall make no graven image unto the Lord thy God.” No matter how it is justified by officialdom or orthodox society, you are asked please not to make anything external to your own mind and bow before it as creative power, for here he is trying to reveal the true creative power that is in man. It sleeps in man as his passive mind. As you unfold the mystery, it awakens from its passive state into its active state, and the birth of active mind is truly the resurrection of Christ in man. It is Christ in man. It is Christ in man that is the hope and the glory.

Now, here in another verse he gives you a test. He asks you to ask whatsoever thing in this world in my name, that the Father may give it you. He did not restrict you to one desire; ask whatsoever thing you desire in my name and the Father will give it to you. Now, if you take it literally, as I have heard thousands of prayers in my own homeÂ… Raised in a Christian atmosphere, we said grace at meals and Mother invariably said it, and invariably ended with the words: “For Jesus’ sake, amen” – but nothing happened. We ate the food and enjoyed the food. And you will say prayers, long verbal appeals to God for something, always ending: “For Jesus’ sake, amen,” thinking that if I said it was for his sake that I would [thus] tempt my Father to give it to me. For did he not say: “Whatsoever thing ye desire, ask it in my name, and the Father will give it to you”? Well, you ask it forever in that name, and nothing happens – therefore, he didn’t understand the mystery. So what is the mystery? Even Jesus Christ, who came not by water only, but by water and the blood.

We have put it into the most practical manner in the world – something out of nothing, life out of death. Conceive of something you desire. Just think of it. The mere thinking of something – that is a conception unaided by another. Is that not an “immaculate conception?” You knew no one in the formulation of your desire. Now you intend to “realize it.” It is clear in your mind’s eye; it is a holy conception, it is a virgin conception. Can you bring about that something that seemingly is not existing – it is non-existent, it has no existence in fact – and embody it? Can you incarnate it? For this is the mystery of the incarnation that comes by water and blood. Here is a birth that could take place if I am willing to give it human parentage. I must give it human parentage. It cannot of itself be born, for unless I myself become it, it cannot be born; so I desire to be something other than what I am.

Now what is the water? The water is the great mystery, the great psychological truth that I must discover which will enable me, if I accept it, to live a life according to that truth and give expression to my desire. For water is the truth and the blood is the application of that truth. I could know everything in the world to be known of the mystery, but never live by it – still continue to live as I have always lived, passively accepting the evidence of my senses as fact, accepting the dictates of reason as my guide. I could overhear a conversation or could read it in a book, or hear it in a place like this on Sunday morning. That if you desire something intensely and you truly desire it, and you have a clear mental picture of what you would like to be or what you would like to accomplish, or what you would like another friend to realize – you know exactly what you would like in this world. Now, this is the water by which it could be born. But it cannot be born of water only; it must be born of water and blood. So I will give you the water. When you know what you want, you make as vivid and as lifelike a representation of what you would see, of what you would hear, and what you would do, were you physically present and physically moving about in such a situation.

To take an example: Suppose I desired a certain apartment, or home, or business. (Take one, so you will not be confused. We will take an apartment.) But reason tells me I cannot afford it. Reason tells me I haven’t enough furniture for so big an apartment. Reason tells me a thousand things that would deny that I could ever realize it, but I still would like it. Now this is what I would give you in the form of water, for something must come out of nothing and life out of death. To embody that state I make it real. You pull it seemingly from a state that is non-existent, therefore something out of nothing. To make it real and to incarnate it and to become alive to it and it to you, you are pulling life out of death.

Now this is what you do. There is a death involved but it is not the kind of death that men call death. There is a death – there is a radical change of state of mind. You completely give up the belief that you are not living in such a place. That is irrational. But that is what you are called upon to do, to completely deny the evidence of your senses and to boldly assume that you are already in that state that you occupy. There you dwell in a state that reason denies. You dwell in an assumption that your senses deny. That is [not] just the water. If you do it, you are applying the blood. If you are told to do it you are given the truth, for it will work. That water, if you could only add the blood to it, will bring the invisible state into the visible world, and what seemingly is non-existent will crystallize and harden into fact. But if you only know it as too many of us know it, and think the mere knowledge is enough, we will come here on Sunday and thoroughly enjoy this wonderful hour – the music, the message, the meditation, the feeling of companionship you find here. And the whole thing is a thrill for an hour – but such knowledge cannot bring Christ Jesus to birth. In this state, Christ Jesus (now I’ll analyze it for you)… on a lower plane the word, “Jesus” (Heb. Jeshua) means “salvation, to save.”

So if I desire something and I don’t realize it, then I simply continue a life of frustration. If I realize my objective, I have been saved from frustration. Take a simple matter: Suppose I wanted a suit of clothes because I was in need of raiment. If I don’t realize the suit of clothes, I am not saved from my nudity. If I realize the suit of clothes, I have been saved. For this is an all- inclusive savior, not just a man. If I wanted water, literal water, a lecture will not quench my thirst. If I wanted food, literal food, the most wonderful revelation would not actually satisfy my hunger. So Jesus is all-inclusive, meaning everything you desire. He is it, because if you embodied that desire, you embodied your Jesus. Now, to embody Jesus, he cannot be embodied by the knowledge of what to do only. He can only be embodied by the application of that knowledge. So the knowledge of what to do is called water, the “water of truth”; but the use of that lovingly is called the flowing (shedding) of the blood.

So here we find the symbols that always accompany birth, that which is presented in this mystery. You are told the limit is within you. You make the limit; there is no limit. Whatsoever you desire, ask in my name, for name simply means nature. If I wanted to be in a house and to feel that I am the occupant of that house, there is a certain feeling, a certain nature that goes with it. I must appropriate it as though it were true. Here I am called upon to bring something alive out of a state that is dead. For if I told you what I have done, you would question my sanity and you would feel I am trying to give expression to something that is being pulled out of nothing. For you cannot see it -you don’t see me in the house, you don’t see me actually occupying and enjoying the life that you know I desire to enjoy. So if I persist in that assumption, to you (if you should know my persistence) you might think I am headed towards a form of insanity. But if tomorrow the house becomes an embodied fact and I the occupant, then you look at it passively and you will still try to justify it by tracing its appearance back to a visible cause. You will see that in some way, unknown to you, my resources were lifted up, that in some way I became more eligible for that house and you will trace it back to a change in my fortune. You will trace it back to a change in something in my world, but you won’t trace these changes back to the unseen assumption in which I dwell.

So, as the mystic tells us in Hebrews 11: “Things unseen were not made of things that do appear.” Man refuses to accept it, so he takes everything in his world and tries to take it back to some visible cause, even with the aid of his microscope. He takes the microscope and he will peer through it to prove to his own satisfaction there is a visible, tangible cause; or he goes off into space with his telescope. He must find in the outer world causes of the changes in the outer world. He cannot believe that the whole vast outer world is held together from within. And if we are only on the surface looking at it from without – trying to analyze it and to understand it from without and all that appears without – though it seems there, it isn’t. It is all from within, all within the mind of man, and that is the mystery!

So do not make an idol, no matter who makes you the idol, no matter what holy man tells you this is a wonderful thing that will bless you. There is no blessing in states on the outside. Bow to nothing on the outside. We have wondered why throughout the centuries a certain race of people did not become greater sculptors, greater artists in the form of painting, great religious teachers. Maybe they were really taking that second commandment very, very seriously. Make no graven image – no not one- unto me. Make nothing that is graven, that is objective, as image of your Father that is free, for I AM Spirit. If you were to worship me, worship me in spirit and in truth but not in anything that you can turn to on the outside and bend the knee before, whether it be a church, a synagogue, or some statue that hangs upon your wall. He is not there. He is in your mind. He is housed within you; there is the living God within the temple and the temple is man. “Ye are the temple of the living God.”

So when I speak of the water and the blood, I speak not of the things that you can see with the eye, such as water and blood. They are only symbolized functions of the mind and the function first comes with water. I must first know what to do before I can do it. So water comes first. He takes water and puts it into a stone jar gives it something like a shape, and from that stone jar filled with water, he draws – not water, but he converts it; he draws wine (blood).

So here is the first miracle. I know what to do. I take this little world of mine that is one, and then I extract from it something that is not seen. Not quite as hard as that – I call it water. I see something bringing all this into being. I know how it’s brought into being. That a man living in luxury is not to be judged harshly because he has it and you haven’t it. He is living in a state of consciousness that solidifies in the form that you see now and call luxurious. One in a state of health, one who is recognized, one who is accomplished, one who is contributing much to the world -don’t judge them. These are states made visible. Find out if you can. Get into a similar state. He is not occupying the only state in the world. There are infinite states and if you try even to duplicate that state (if it can be duplicated, or you can get close to it or you can transcend it) find out within your own mind’s eye what you want. Don’t be envious of him. Leave him alone for he is applying the law. He is entitled to everything in this world that he can actually conceive and desire and put himself into and live it, for man is living in an infinite world of invisible states and an individual wisely or foolishly occupies a state. While he remains faithful to the state, the state will externalize and become the circumstances and the conditions of his life. The moment he detaches himself in consciousness from that state, the things that he enjoyed before vanish from his world.

Now, if everything in my world depends upon a state of consciousness, it would be the height of insanity to seek the thing before I actually fix within myself the state on which the thing depends, for that which requires a state of consciousness to produce its effect cannot be effected without such a state of consciousness. So when I know what I want, to support that there is an invisible state of consciousness. The world calls that invisible state a non-existing nothingness. They cannot even call it a thing, for to them it has no existence, no reality. That is the mystery: a self-begotten child conceived unaided by another and carried faithfully in the womb of God – which is the mind of man. It was placed there without the aid of another, by man’s desire. That was the immaculate conception; that’s the virgin conception.

Now, the virgin birth – can I bring it from its invisible state and really make it a tangible fact within my world? Try it! As you try it with one thing and you succeed, you will try it with two and four and eight and so on, and eventually the sleeping giant in man – which is the Son of God in man called Christ – will awaken. He will awaken by moving from the passive state to the active state. The passive state is simply the complete and utter surrender of man to appearances, to live believing that life is on the outside, and he moves from that state where he surrenders and believes all these things to be causes to the active state, where he puts everything in subjection to that something within himself which is his awakened imagination. He imagines a thing to be so; he persuades himself that it is so and walks faithful to his assumption.

Then you will know why in Romans 14 he tells us that every man be fully persuaded in his own mind (don’t persuade her, leave her alone). You persuade yourself of the changes you desire expressed in her. If you desire a change in your relationships at home or in business, you don’t argue, you don’t persuade them. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. So can I persuade myself that you are as I desire to see you? Then, to the degree that I can persuade myself, you will conform in the outer world to that persuasion. If I hope to see changes there before I myself will start the change on the inside, the chances are I will hope in vain. You, yourself, may desire certain changes and I might see them change in my world, but they were not caused because I moved into an active state. I am still reflective, and most of us in this world are reflecting life; and the purpose of a church of this nature is to make us not reflect but to affect life. If I affect, then Christ is awakened within me. If I only reflect it, then I sleep with Adam, and the purpose is to move from the sleep of Adam to the wakefulness of the Son of God called Christ. Adam too, is called the son of God but in the state of profound sleep. But he moves from that state of sleep – or the passive state of mind – to the active state, will be no nearer the proving of it than you are now. But if you took a little bit, one drop of this water, and went out even to disprove it – in order to disprove it, you must seriously and sincerely try it. If you try it, you won’t disprove it. You will be encouraged to drink more water and still more and bring about this birth of your savior, and you decide what will save you today from your present predicament. It may be a job, it may be an increase of funds, it may be companionship, it may be something I don’t know – but whatever it is that you this day desire (and unless you get it you feel thwarted, you feel frustrated), then it would save you if you got it. Now take that as your savior. Look into your mind’s eye and see it clearly. It may seem almost sacrilegious to the orthodox mind to tell you that when you see clearly in your mind’s eye the state desired – either for self or another – you are actually looking into the face of Jesus, for you are seeing the state that could save you from where you are or what you are.

So you try it and the mind will expand. You will find yourself not only increasing in this world, in the outer world, but you will find mystical revelations taking place within you, which is the purpose of the teaching. It is not just to bring about changes in the inner that man ascends on higher levels of consciousness. The purpose of the whole appearance is to awaken from the lowest descent on the ladder to the highest. He is ascending to the highest, for we are told in the vision of Jacob: above it all stood God – on the ladder stood these heavenly beings ascending and descending – but above all stood God. So the real destiny of man is to reach the height that he may awaken as God.

So the mystery is: God became man that man may become God. He came down as man. Take the same verse and give it a higher interpretation. So here God died – yes, died – to become man. The death of God is complete forgetfulness of the fact that he is God. He had to completely forget that he is God, therefore died to awaken as man. If he remembered he was God, he just couldn’t be as man, but a complete and utter death, which is forgetfulness that I am God to become man. So the poet wrote it beautifully and said: “God became man that man may become God.” He said: “Unless I die you could not live, but if I die I shall arise again and you with me.” Then he goes on to ask a man: “Could you love one who had never died for thee or could you die for one who had not died for thee,” and so he is putting this into the most wonderful poetical mystery in the book, “Jerusalem” by Blake.

He reveals to the mind who can see it, that you who believe yourself because you are visible, and you must do what man passively must do – he traces your origin back to a germ. As long as you began as a germ, you are no more than a big germ. If you begin as something else, you are only something enlarged of the same thing. For all ends run true to origins. If I can take you back where you cannot see it, and take you back to the great mystery that you are actually begotten of God – if your origin is God, your end is God. If your origin is a bug then your end is a bug. So you have the “choice.” The passive mind (which is really the scientific mind) must still insist on finding causes external to itself. It cannot find causes in that passive state within itself.

I tell you: the great mystery is that you came out of a seeming death. It is a death. God died to become man, because he desired the companionship of men as Gods, as the poet told us:

Man should not stay a man.
His aim should higher be.
For God will only Gods accept as company.

So you cannot in your present state of the passive mind be companions of your Father, who longs and desires that every son, every child, awakens to become companions of Deity. So to do it, he had to die as God, and became his creation in the hope that the creation would awaken and become his companion.

But you see he gave us such a gift. He completely freed me of the responsibility of returning. I don’t have to awaken; I am as free as the wind. He gave me complete freedom of will. I may hurt myself, ruin myself, but because of the gift of God to me, to make me alive, he cannot interfere and make me awake. He may appeal through awakened children and they may appeal to their sleeping brother, but they cannot by the same law interfere and make me awake. They can only appeal and try in some subtle way to suggest, but the gift was absolute. God gave himself to become me, finding myself, man. I think my origin was man, so my destiny – no matter how big a man I become, no matter how wise a man – it will still be a man. But if my origin is God my destiny is God, and I will awaken one day to discover this wonderful unfolding mystery within me.

CATCH THE MOOD

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard

You will find tonight’s message a very practical one. I don’t think it will disturb anyone, but there are adjustments to be made concerning what man believes God to be, and what God really is. We are told in Scripture, in the birth of the twins, which begins the great drama as told in Scripture, “In your limbs…” and I am speaking now, not of anyone, but of you individually:

“In your limbs lie nations twain, rival races from their birth; one the mastery will gain, the younger o’er the elder reign.” (Genesis 25:23, Moffatt translation)

These are in you individually. We are told that the younger, which naturally is the second – the “second man” – is the Lord from Heaven. That’s the Second Man; He sleeps in you. You will rouse Him, and He will become the Master. He will reign. At the moment, in the majority of the world, they are totally unaware of it. So, He sleeps, and so He doesn’t reign. That one known in Scripture is called Jesus Christ; The Lord Jesus Christ is your own wonderful human imagination. That is God!

Now, the whole vast world, and all within it, is nothing more than the appeasement of hunger. That’s the whole of life: the appeasement of hunger. And there are infinite states from which the Lord may view the world to appease that hunger. The “first man” can’t do it. He can only feed upon what his senses dictate. Wherever he is, he feeds upon the facts of life as he sees the facts.

It takes the “Second Man” to disengage Himself from that restriction and enter into a state – any state in the world – and feed upon it, and then – in time – bring the “first man” to feed upon it.

We are told in the 14th chapter of John: “Let not your heart be troubled, neither be afraid. Ye believe in God, Believe in me also.” (John 14:1) Now, this is not a man talking to you from the outside. “Believe also in me.” “You believe in God, believe also in me.” In the same chapter He is going to tell you He is God! But what man would actually believe that this Presence within himself is God?

Now, He tells you: “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) This is not another man speaking to you, other than yourself, “Be still, and know that ‘I Am’ is God.” Can you believe that? If you can believe that, then all things are possible to you. For, “all things are possible to God.” (Matthew 19:26) Can a man really believe that? That’s what I am told in the 46th Psalm, “Be still, and know that – I…”. Put the little word is in there now.

Now we are told, He sleeps, and then came the call, “Rouse thyself. Why sleepest thou, O Lord? Do not cast us off forever.” (Psalm 44:23) This one sleeps in man. Man has to rouse Him. He doesn’t know that his own wonderful human imagination is God!

Now, “In my Father’s house are many mansions. Were it not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? When I go I will come again, and I will receive you to myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:2, 3) Now, this conversation takes place in you individually, between the two.

I am speaking now to my self, “In my Father’s house” – I am the Father “…are unnumbered mansions” – states of consciousness. “Were it not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go, I will come again, and I will receive you to myself, that where I am there ye may be also.”

I am standing here, and my senses tie me here in this room but I don’t want to be here. I want to be elsewhere. I know my bank balance. I know my obligations to life. I’m tied by what I know. The “outer man” feeds upon that, but he wants more than that. There is something in me – the “Second Man” who is born from Heaven – who is telling me there are “unnumbered mansions” into which I can go – you can’t go – I can go and prepare it for you. But, “when I go to prepare it for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there ye shall be also.” Now, how do I do it?

I take a look at my world, and I am very restricted. Everything about me is something I would like to break through – transcend it, become a bigger person, a more secure person, where I’m doing a greater job in the world. All these things I would like to do but reason tells me I am not doing it, and my senses confirm my reason. Now, is there something in me that is my True Self that can do it? Yes, my imagination can do it.

In my imagination, I go and prepare the state. I actually go into the state and fill that state with my own being, and view the world from that state. I don’t think of it; I think from it. When I think from it, I’m actually preparing that state.

Then I return to where I left this – “the outer man,” and once more fuse with it, and we become one, once again. Now I take him across a bridge of incidents – some series of events – that takes me towards the thing that I’ve prepared, and I take him with me and enter into the very state itself. He feeds now, literally, upon that state. This is what I call prayer. I don’t vote for it; I don’t petition, I ask no being in the world – no one, including what the world would say is God. For, when you find God by being still, and know that “I Am” is God, then to whom can you turn for anything in this world, if you really believe Scripture, “Be still and know that I am God”? (Psalm 46:10) If you are not familiar with Scripture, read it in the 46th chapter of the Psalms of David, the 10th verse “Be still, and know that I am God,” – then, to whom could you turn? It’s an inner communion with Self. But man talks to an outside god and pleads with an outside god, and begs an outside god.

This reminds me of a dinner party that William Lyons Phelps gave. If you do not know who he is – in fact, who he was, he was one of the truly great educators in our country in this twentieth century: William Lyons Phelps. He and Mrs. Phelps entertained Edna Ferber, the writer. As they sat down to dinner, Mrs. Phelps said to him, “William, will you please say grace.” He closed his eyes, bent his head, and after maybe ten or fifteen seconds he said, “Amen.” And she said to him, “Why, William, I did not hear one word that you said”; and he said to her, “I was not talking to you, my Dear…”.

People sit down to say grace as: “Bless the hands that prepared this food,” all these words meaning nothing. You go within, and you don’t petition: you appropriate. Prayer is nothing more than the subjective appropriation of the objective hope. I hope for so-and-so; I want it as an objective fact. Now, I must go within and appropriate it subjectively..

So, prayer is the subjective appropriation of the objective hope. That is what I call “faith in God,” which is nothing more than faith in my Self, for the Self of man – the true identity of man – is God! That is the “Jesus Christ” of Scripture..

“Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? Test yourselves and see.” That is what we are told to do in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. Read it in the 13th chapter, the 5th verse, of II Corinthians. “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” (II Corinthians 13:5, Revised Standard Version).

Well, if He is in me, then where will I go to meet Him? How will I address Him? He is in me. He is in my very Self. I simply commune with my Self..

There are unnumbered states in the world, so I single out the state that I want to express in this world, and I don’t ask you or anyone else in the world if it is good for me. I don’t consult anyone. Does it come within the frame of the Golden Rule? What I am now asking, would I ask it for another? Would I ask another, if what I am seeking now for another is something I would ask for myself? Well, the Golden Rule is: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” If you keep that in mind, you cannot go wrong..

What’s wrong with asking for anything in this world for another that you would ask for yourself? Is there anything wrong in being secure? Nothing. Anything wrong in being clean and wholesome and decent? Anything wrong in being one who contributes to the world’s good? What’s wrong with that? Is there anything wrong in being happily married, proud of the girl who bears your name, or she proud of the man whose name she bears? What is wrong with that?.

Forget that. The whole vast world is a field to reap. You don’t pick out this woman or that woman. Pick out the state. I want to be blissfully happy, and if I were, how would I see the world? And how would the world see me? Well, shut out the world and go within and appropriate that state. And from within, you let your friends see you, as they would have to see you if what now you are assuming that you are is really true..

That is why I have titled tonight’s talk, “The Mood” – catching the mood. This whole thing is based upon that mood. The 25th chapter of the book of Genesis: and she brought forth twins, for in her limbs were these rival races – rival races from their birth, called in Scripture “Esau” and “Jacob”; and you think they were two individuals who lived thousands of years ago. No, they are right here in everyone in this world! These are the eternal states of consciousness personified in Scripture as two little boys..

Scripture is not secular history. It is salvation history. And, so, they did not live thousands of years ago; they live now in you, and you have to give birth to both of them. You have given birth to the first one. The first one is your “outer man,” the man who is now a man of the senses – a man who is covered with hair, as we are told. Esau came out first, and he was covered with hair all over. Whether you be female or male, you are covered with hair all over. That is the external you, the man of the sense world..

Then in comes the “Second Son,” and he is the smoothest skin lad, called Jacob. The name “Jacob” means to supplant. He is going to supplant his brother; he is the second, but he will come first. The Second Man is the Lord from Heaven, and the Second Son is your own wonderful human imagination. When you stir it and rouse it and make him come into being, you can do wonders in this world..

Try it right now. You sit here in this room – I stand here; I could, in the twinkling of an eye, put myself outside of this room and view it from there, and see the interior of this room, not from this lectern, but see it from the outside. That is exercising the Inner Man. Go outside mentally, not physically, and view this room from the outside. While seated here, I can put myself in my hotel room downstairs, and then view this room and think of it, but thinking from my room downstairs. I can put myself in any part of the world and think from it, and think of the world and everything else. That is the secret: thinking from what I want, instead of thinking of what I want..

When I know what I want in this world, when I am thinking of it, it is always beyond me. When I know what I want, I enter into that state and think from it. Put yourself mentally into your own home tonight now, and view this building – this club – from your home, and you see this building, not from it; you think of it, and you are viewing it from your room..

Now, the state of consciousness to which you most constantly return is the place you really dwell – that habitual state from which you view the world. Do you view it from poverty, saying, “I am poor?” Do you walk the street feeling, “How poor I am?” You are then viewing the world from the state of poverty. Am I viewing the world from the state of one who is completely unknown and unwanted? Well, that’s my home. The place to which I habitually return constitutes my dwelling place. I need not dwell there..

“In my Father’s house are unnumbered mansions. Were it not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” And when I go and prepare the place, I will return again and take you with me, that where I am – in that state prepared – you shall be also. So, I now take a state. I want to be known. I want to contribute to the world’s good. I want also to live well – and I mean well. I want to feel secure, not only financially, but secure socially, that when I enter a room I am not embarrassed, no matter who they are. They can have all the degrees in the world. They can come from all the great universities in the world and be honored by the world. But I want to stand in their presence and not feel little. I want to feel a man. I am not to bow my head in shame because of any restriction in my past. If I were born “behind the 8-ball” socially, financially, intellectually, it doesn’t matter. I want to feel important; I want to feel great. I want to feel right..

All right, what state would that be if it were true? I conceive a state that, if it were true, that would make all my wishes come true. I go into that state. Now, the first time I enter the state and view the world from it, it is wonderful, but I may never re-enter that state. Therefore, it is not my home. I want to make that state my perpetual home, so I automatically dwell in that state, and if I dwell in it so that automatically I am in that state, it becomes my dwelling place. So, “I will go and prepare a place for you.” I am not talking to you; I am talking to myself: “I will take you, Neville, born behind the 8-ball – born unknown, unwanted, poor – everything that is simply behind the 8-ball, and I am going to take you, Neville – now that you have found me, the Second Man, the Lord from Heaven, your own wonderful human imagination – now that you rouse me, I will go.”.

And I will dwell in the state and feel myself to be Neville – that “outer man” I just left on the chair or left on the bed, and I will see the world as Neville would see it if he were with me now. I view the world from that state. And, then, when it seems natural to me, I return to the physical “outer man” that I left on a chair – that I left on the bed and as I return, we fuse and become one person, not two. Then I move across a bridge of incidents that I don’t really, rationally build – it simply appears, and I move across a series of events that I do not reasonably determine – they simply happen. I will move across this bridge of events up to the state where I entered and now dwell. But when I get there, it seems so natural!.

The man that thought, because of his past limitations, he could never enter that state – now he finds himself in that state. No matter whom he meets, he meets them from that state, and it is perfectly natural to him. This is the story that Scripture teaches to you, to me, and to every one in the world. But until you find God, which is your own Self, you aren’t going to do it. “Be still, and know that ‘I Am’ Is God.” There is no other God!.

And you think that’s blasphemy? All right, the one who teaches the story was also accused of blasphemy, for he said, “I am God,” and they picked up stones to stone him. It doesn’t mean a man is making a bold statement on the outside. The “outer man” takes the facts of life – these are the “stones” – to stone him, and then he quotes Scripture, and he quotes the 82nd Psalm:.

“Is it not written in your scripture that I say, ‘Ye are gods, all of you sons of the Most High’? If, then, I say that I am the Son of God, and the Son of God and God are one and the same Being, why do you stone me when scripture teaches you, you are the sons of God?” (See John 10:34-37).

So they could not stone him then because he was only quoting their book. Well, I am only quoting tonight your book, which is my book. It’s the book to set every man in this world free if you know Who-You-Are. Your true identity is Jesus Christ! And Jesus Christ is not a being who came two thousand years ago and then departed. He said, “I am with you always, even unto the very ends of time.” (Matthew 28:20).

If He is with me always, where is He? He said, “I am with you always, to the very ends of time.” Then where is He? I surely know where He is..

The conversation now – I am quoting from the 8th chapter of the book of John. It is taking place in you. No one else is hearing it. I am only now quoting from a passage from the 8th [chapter] of John, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. I say you will die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am He.” (John 8:23, 24) I am only quoting from the 8th chapter of the Gospel of John..

In Scripture, above and within are the same; below and without are the same. So, when you read, “I am from above,” he’s telling you, “I am from within”, for he tells you, “the kingdom of heaven is within you.” (Luke 17:21) So, I am from above, therefore I am from within. You, the ‘outer man’ – you are from without, therefore you are from below. You are of this world. I don’t have to remain anchored to what my senses dictate and tell me that I am. I need not be here. You, looking at me from the outside, as the “outer man,” will say, “Neville is on the platform.” Knowing my complete outer world, you would know my restrictions, my limitations. You do not know my ambitions, my dreams, my wishes. I, and I alone, know my ambitions and my wishes. The “Inner Man” knows them, and He knows how to enter these states and prepare a state for the “outer man” to fulfill it. The “outer man” can’t do it. The “outer man” is completely anchored by his senses and confirmed by his reason..

Now, let me share with you a simple story. At the time that it happened, it seemed an impossible thing. Right after the war was over, I took the first trip out with my wife and little girl to the Island of Barbados in the West Indies. I made no preparation for return. I sailed from New York. I thought I would go and stay a few months in the island with my family, who were all in Barbados, making no preparation for my return..

Then it came time for my return, for I had a schedule in New York in the first week of May. I arrived in Barbados the last of December and had these four heavenly months – or almost four. When I went to the steamship company, they showed me a list which was as long as from here to there [indicating] of people waiting to get on the boat. That was only in the Island of Barbados. There were lists equally long in all the other islands: Trinidad, St. Vincent, Grenada – all the islands, and only two ships servicing all the islands: one little one taking sixty passengers, and one taking a hundred and twenty-five passengers; and hundreds and hundreds in each island waiting..

Well, they said, “Why, Mr. Goddard, you couldn’t get out of this island until the month of October at the earliest.” I said, “Is that your final verdict?” They said, “Why, that’s final. Look at the list, and this is only in Barbados.”.

This is the month, now, of April. I never thought of applying before that. My brother Victor said, “How on earth could you have left New York, the capitol of the world – the financial capitol of the world – they know everything there how to do these things. Why didn’t you arrange there when you left for return?” I said, “It never occurred to me. It doesn’t really matter.”.

I sat in my hotel room in Barbados and got comfortable, and then I assumed that I was in a little boat – a little tender, taking me off to the waiting ship in the bay. I could feel the rock of the little boat. In that boat I placed my family – a few members of my family: my brother Victor, my sister Daphne, and one or two others, and naturally my wife and my little girl. Then I felt the ship come alongside the main ship that would take us back to New York. And, then, in my imagination I assumed that my brother Victor took my little girl and stepped on the gangplank and walked up with her and I aided my wife next, and then my sister Daphne, and then I got on, and we went up. When I got to the top of the gangplank – all in my imagination, giving it all the sensory vividness, giving it all the tones of reality – I have no committed stateroom, so I could not go down to the stateroom. I simply turned at the top of the gangplank, walked three or four steps, and then put my hands on the rail, so I could smell the rawness of the sea, I could feel the salt driven by the wind. I could feel it on the rail, and then I looked towards the island with nostalgia. I was leaving a perfectly lovely island with so many members of my family, and yet it was a divided feeling. I was happy to be leaving because I had to get back to New York on my way to Milwaukee, and then, at the same time, I was split in my emotion because there was a sadness – like a sweet sadness leaving them and still happy to go. And that’s the mood that I caught. I caught that feeling. I can’t tell you if you haven’t had the experience of going any place being divided between wanting to go and yet reluctantly so, because you are leaving something precious behind you. Well, that was my mood. I caught the mood. And then I kept on looking at the island, and then I broke it and here I am, sitting in my chair in the room in the hotel in Barbados!.

The next morning the phone rang. As I answered, it was the Alcoa Steamship Company calling: “Mr. Goddard, we’ve Just received a cable from New York canceling a passage sailing on the next ship, which could put you in New York on the first day of May. Would you like it for you, your wife and your daughter? It’s a smaller stateroom, really, there are only two bunks, but your little girl is only three years old, and so she could sleep either with you or with Mrs. Goddard, but there are two bunks, and there is a private bath. Everything is perfect but you know; the ship is small. It will only carry sixty passengers.”

I said, “I’ll be right down.” So, I went down, and I thought I would find out some more details. I asked the agent, “Why the cancellation?” “Well,” she said, “I could only speculate. They didn’t tell us: they cabled us. There was a cancellation for the return trip.” I said, “All right, it’s canceled. Why didn’t you give it to any of the others waiting?” There were hundreds and hundreds waiting. “Well,” she said, “we have one lady here – an American lady who has been bothering us week after week to get her out of Barbados back to New York, so we called her first, and she said, ‘It’s not convenient for me to go now.’ So, then we called you because you have three to go, and I thought you could use the room for the three of you. And we will not notify any of the other hundreds waiting.”

So, I asked no further questions. I took it and got back in time for my place in New York and then my place in Milwaukee.

When I first tell that story, the usual reaction is: Was that a fair thing to do? Can you imagine that! Was that a fair thing to do with all the others who were waiting? I wasn’t running the Alcoa Steamship Company. I was applying the principle of God. I wouldn’t care if one million people were there; I’d jump over one million. That’s not my concern. I am simply applying the Law of God: “When you desire, believe that you have received it, and you will,” as I am told in the 11th chapter of the book of Mark, 29th verse, and whatever you do, whatever you say, if you do not doubt that it will come to pass, it will be done for you. Well, I did what I’m told in Scripture I ought to do, believe that I had received it, and act upon that belief. So, I acted upon the belief. What would I do if it were true? I would go up the gangplank.

In those days, back in 1945, we did not have a deep-water harbor; we have one now. But then you had to go out to the ship by a little tender, so I did exactly what I would have to do if I went aboard the ship. So, I got aboard the little ship, and then, as we got to the big ship, strangely enough, my brother Victor went up with my little girl in his arms – the very first one to step off. And then here came my wife, here came my sister, just in the order that I had imagined it. I wouldn’t care if that order was broken or not, but it did happen in the order that I imagined it. So, I tell you, I have found Him. Who? Found who? I have found the Lord Jesus Christ. You did? What does he look like? He looks just like me! Have you found Him? Well, don’t look at me, because when you find Him, He’s going to look just like you! That’s the Lord Jesus Christ – just like you. There is no other Lord Jesus Christ.

He actually became you, that you may become the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you see Him, He is just like you.

So, do not turn to any one in this world and say, “There he is,” for that’s a lie, or, “Here he is” – that’s a lie. So, anyone telling you that Neville is the Lord Jesus Christ – your Jesus Christ, deny it! Deny it completely. Neville is not the Lord Jesus Christ for you. But I have found the Lord Jesus Christ in me as my own wonderful human imagination. And I share with you what I have found. One day you will find Him as your own wonderful human imagination. Then will come the day that everything said of the Lord Jesus Christ in Scripture, you are going to experience in the first-person, singular, present-tense experience – everything said about him. Then you will know who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Then you will know who the Father is, who – really – God is!

Meanwhile, test him. Go to the extreme test. I tell you, you will find Him never failing. He’s your own wonderful human imagination.

Well, in this story that we started tonight, the two sons are brought now to the father. The father is Isaac, and Isaac is blind. There were two sons; the first one is Esau. He is covered with hair. That’s every child born of woman; that is the “outer man,” for hair means the most external, objective thing in the world. In man, the hair comes first, then you get the skin, then you get the fat, then you get the bones, but the hair is the most external part of man. So, he is covered with hair. The next one has no hair. He is hairless. He is Jacob, The word means supplanter.

The father has requested a meal. That is why I told you earlier the whole vast world – the whole of life is nothing more than the appeasement of hunger. So, the father is hungry, and he wants venison properly prepared as he always loves it and he gives that command to his first son, Esau. Esau was a hunter. He goes hunting for the venison, and prepares it to please his father.

Jacob overhears the request of his father. Remember, his name is supplanter but the command was given to his brother Esau, So, he slays a goat and skins it, and puts the skin upon his body to deceive his father into believing that he is Esau. He prepares the goat and brings it to his father, and he says, “Father,” and Isaac answers, “Yes, my son.” Then Isaac said, “I am blind, my son. I cannot see. Come close that I may feel you, that I may touch you.” And covered with the skin of the goat, he comes close, and Isaac stretches forth his hand and touches him. He said, “You know, your voice sounds like my son Jacob, but you feel like my son Esau,” and then he gave him the blessing. And, then, having been given the blessing, Jacob disappears.

Then his son Esau comes with the venison, and he said, “Who are you?” He said, “I am your son Esau.” “Well,” he said, “it must have been your brother who came, and I thought him to be you, and I gave him the blessing; and I cannot reverse it. I cannot take it back. I have blessed him, and the blessing remains his.”

So, you close your eyes, and you are Isaac; you cannot see. Isaac is blind. Shut your eyes, and you can’t see the room. Now, inwardly you have the two sons. The outer room is your Esau. You shut it out completely, and they both go hunting. Esau comes after; Jacob comes first, and he gives the tones of reality to his father. His father is his own wonderful “I AM.” Well, that’s God! God’s name forever is “I AM.” So, I AM is waiting to feel the tones of reality of what he wants, and he feels it to be so real, so natural.

Now, he knows this thing is subjective, so he said, “You sound like Jacob, but come closer, my son, that I may feel you”, and he feels him as I felt the rail on the ship, as I could smell the salt of the sea in the wind, as I could see mentally the island, as I could feel the ship rolling a little under my feet. All this was the tone of reality. This, now, is Esau; it seems real, and so I am giving a reality to this state – I am giving a blessing to it.

Then I open my eyes to find I am sitting on a chair in my hotel room. Well, suddenly Esau returns. Well, Esau was the place that I left. The room that I sat in was my Esau; that was the objective world. It comes back. And I say, “What have I done?” I went into a state and I clothed it with reality. I gave it all the tones of an objective world, and it seemed so real to me that I gave it the blessing to be real – to be born. Now this comes back, and without one word spoken, it is telling me, “You deceived yourself. You were deceived by my brother, the subjective state called Jacob.” And I say to myself – knowing who God really is, He can’t take back His blessing. He gave it the right to be born – the right to become objective – the right to become real, and in 24 hours it was born, – it was real.

And, then, three weeks later I sailed on that ship and completed the entire journey. I’ve repeated it over and over again, and it never fails. And those who will believe it and who will put it to the test cannot fail. They cannot fail. This is the principle of Scripture.

So, will you actually give it the tones of reality? Will you actually, first of all, believe that the God that you now worship as something without, actually exists within you as your own wonderful human imagination? If you will believe that, and not think me blasphemous for telling it and think me something accursed for having spoken it – but may I tell you, I hope for your sake you will believe it. But really, in my heart of hearts, whether you believe it or not, I am not concerned, because the day will come you will have to believe it, because you will experience it. If only I can aid you to hasten the day – that’s why I am here. But to actually say I am going to hit you over the head and make you believe it – no. I am not indifferent to your believing it; I can only appeal to you to believe it for your own good, that you may take whatever you have and transcend it by the use of this Law. Whatever you have in this world, may I tell you, no one is really satisfied! I dined well today, but tomorrow I am going to be hungry. And hunger is forever with man, and God is the ultimate satisfaction of hunger, but that hasn’t yet come upon the majority.

He tells us in the 8th chapter, the 11th verse, of Amos: “I will send a famine upon the world; it will not be a hunger for bread, or a thirst for water, but for the hearing of the word of God.” Now, that comes at the very end, for the average man is not hungry for the word of God. He is complacent. He will say, “I am a Christian!” So, what! “I am a Christian. I go to church. I contribute to the church,” and so he thinks that means all that he does as a Christian – it stops right there.

Well, the hunger is not satisfied, because when He sends that hunger upon the individual, nothing but an experience of God can satisfy that hunger. Well, until He sends that hunger, all the other hungers can be satisfied, like the hunger for security, the hunger for a better job, the hunger for a raise in authority in your present position, the hunger for – you name it. Every hunger can be satisfied if you apply this principle. But then will come that day He will send the famine upon you, for you are the earth of which He speaks. It hasn’t a thing to do with the world, the famine in the world, or whether there is famine all over the world, because they don’t know how to satisfy their hunger. There is famine, but that is not the famine of which he speaks. He says it’s not a hunger for bread; it’s not a thirst for water, but for the hearing of the Word of God!

So, I am giving you the Word of God as I personally have experienced it. So, tonight you try it. Close your eyes to the obvious. That’s Esau; send him hunting. And, then, become self-deceived. In his absence, bring in the “second son,” who is the Lord from Heaven, and clothe him in the tones of reality, and feel how real it is. Give him all sensory vividness, and when it takes on the tones of reality, open your eyes! Then Esau comes back from the hunt, and then you tell him what you’ve done, and he cries out because your son – the “second man” – has deceived you and betrayed him the second time.

Every day you can apply this principle and become self-deceived, but it works. But always keep it within the frame of the Golden Rule, so that no one will be hurt. I do not care who did not get the passage north. I do not care what prompted the woman not to take it. I do not care what prompted the passenger from New York to cancel it. I have no complaints, no words; I simply did what I was called upon to do. I wanted to get out. I found myself locked in – locked in until October at the earliest, with my commitments in Milwaukee going. I couldn’t do that. I had to get back, and get back, I did!

So, I tell you, this principle cannot fail you. But we are the operant power. And you do not get down on your knees and pray to an external god. Do exactly what the great William Lyons Phelps did, and say to the whole vast world, “I am not talking to you, my Dear,” – I am communing with my Self. And if I give thanks for what has happened, I don’t give it to you; I give it to the Being-within-me – constant praise for this miraculous power that is housed within me. And you walk in the consciousness of being constantly praiseful for this miraculous power that became you, that you may become It! And that power is the Lord Jesus Christ who is in you, and there is no other.

So, when the whole vast world is looking for Him to come from without, as the great evangelist today has said, “It is immanent. He is on us. He is coming. I am here to greet Him.” He will wait forever in vain. For when He comes, He is not coming from without. When He comes, He rises from within, and you are He! So, he’s reaching millions of people, but he’s in kindergarten. And what do you expect? He cannot give them more than milk. But in time, you have got to be weaned from milk, and take meat, and then the true meaning of the great mystery of the Christian faith.

So, the world has accepted it in a little story. All well and good, but don’t forever and forever go on seeing only the little story. Learn to extract the meaning of the story, and hope it unfolds within you.

Meanwhile, you apply what you have heard tonight, and before I leave the City at the end of next week, you should be able to tell me that what you tonight desire you have.

Now let us go into the Silence.

neville goddard imagination creates reality

CHANGING THE FEELING OF “I”

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 1953

For the benefit of those who were not present last Sunday, just let me give you a quick summary of the thought expressed here. We claimed that the world was a manifestation of consciousness, that the individual’s environment, circumstances and conditions of life were only the out picturing of the particular state of consciousness in which that individual abides.

Therefore, the individual sees whatever he is by virtue of the state of consciousness from which he views the world. Any attempt to change the outer world before he changes the inner structure of his mind, is to labor in vain. Everything happens by order. Those who help or hinder us, whether they know it or not, are the servants of that law, which constantly shapes outward circumstances in harmony with our inner nature. We asked you last Sunday to distinguish between the individual identity and the state they occupy. The individual identity is the Son of God. It is that I speak of you or to you, or speak of myself, I mean really our imagination. That is permanent. It fuses with state and believes itself to be the state with which it is fused, but at every moment of time it is free to choose the state with which it will be identified.

And that brings us to today’s subject, “Changing the Feeling of I”, and I hope I will not get the same reaction that is recorded in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. For we are told that when this was given to the world they all left him, leaving just a handful behind. For when he told them there was no one to change but self, they said this is a hard, hard teaching. It’s a hard thing. Who can hear it? For he said, “No man cometh unto me save I call him.” And then it’s recorded when he repeated it three times they left him, never again to walk with him. And he turned to the few who remained and asked them, “Would you also go?” And they answered and said, “To whom would we go ? You have the word of eternal life. ‘I In other words, it’s so much easier when I can blame another for my misfortune, but now that I am told that no man cometh unto me save I call him, that I am the sole architect of my fortunes and misfortunes, it’s a difficult saying, and so it’s recorded “It’s a hard saying. Who can hear it? Who can grasp it? And who will believe it?” And so he said, “And now I sanctify myself that they also be sanctified through the truth, for if this is the truth, then there is no one to change, no one to make whole, no one to purify but self.”

And so we start with the “I” . Most of us are totally unaware of the self that we really cherish. We have never taken one good look at the self, so we don’t know this self, for the “I” has neither face, form nor figure, but it does mold itself into structure by all that it consents to, all that it believes, and few of us know really what we do believe. We have no idea of the unnumbered superstitions and prejudices that go to mold this inner, formless “I” into a form which is then projected as a man’s environment, as the conditions of life.

So here, read it carefully when you go home, “No man cometh unto me save I call him. You didn’t choose me; I have chosen you. No man can take away my life; I lay it down myself . There is no power to take from me anything that is part of the inner arrangement of my mind. All that you gave me I have kept and none is lost save the son of perdition or the belief in God, and because nothing can be lost but the belief in loss, I will not now assume loss of anything you have given me that is good. And so I sanctify myself that they be sanctified through the truth”.

And now, how do we go about changing the “I”. First of all, we must discover the “I” and we do this by an uncritical observation of self. This will reveal a self that will shock you. You will be altogether, I wouldn’t say afraid, but ashamed to admit you’ve ever known such a lowly creature. And had it been God Himself who drew near in this despicable form, you would have denied him a thousand times before a single cock would crow. You couldn’t believe that this is the self that you’ve carried around and protected and excused and justified. Then you start changing this self after, by an uncritical observation, you make the discovery of that self. For the acceptance of self is the essence of the moral problem of the world. It is the epitome of a true outlook on life, for it is the sole cause of everything you observe.

Your description of the world is a confession of the self that you do not know. You describe another, you describe society, you describe anything, and your description of the thing you observe reveals to one who knows this law the being you really are. So you must first accept that self. When that self is accepted, then you can start to change. It’s so much easier to take the virtues of the Gospel and apply them as the word of life, to love the enemy, to bless those who curse us, and to feed the hungry. But when man discovers the being to be fed, the being to be clothed, the being to be sheltered, the greatest enemy of all is that self, then he is ashamed, completely ashamed that that is the being, for it was easier to share with another something that I possess, to take an extra coat and give it to another, but when I know the truth it’s not that. I start with the self, having discovered, and start with change of that self.

Now, let me tell you a story. A few years ago in this city I was giving a series of lectures down near that lake – I can’t even recall the name of the lake but it was some Parkview Manor was the place where I spoke, and in that audience was a gentleman who sought an audience before the meeting. And we went across the street into the little park there, and he said to me that he had an insoluble problem. I said, “There is no such thing as an insoluble problem. “But”, he said, “you do not know my problem. It’s not a state of health, I assure you; it is look at the skin that I wear” . I said, “What’s wrong with it; it looks lovely to me”. He said, “Look at the pigment of my skin. I, by the accident of birth, am now discriminated against. The opportunities for progress in this world are denied me just because of the accident of birth, that I was born a colored man. Opportunities for advancement in every field, neighborhoods that I would like to live in and raise a family I couldn’t move in, where I would like to open up a business I couldn’t move into that area.”

Then I told him my own personal experience, that I came to this country. Well, I didn’t have that problem but I was a foreigner in the midst of all Americans. I didn’t find it difficult. “Yet”, as he reminded me, “but that’s not my problem, Neville. Others have come here speaking with an accent, but they haven’t my skin, and I was born an American” . Then I told him an experience of mine in New York City. If I were called upon to name a man that I would consider my teacher, I would name Abdullah. I studied with that gentleman for five years. He had the same color skin, the same pigment as this gentleman. He would never allow anyone to refer to him as a colored man. He was very proud of being a negro didn’t want any modification of what God had made him. He turned to me and he said, “Have you ever seen a picture of the Sphinx?” I said, “Yes”. He said, “It embodies the four fixed quarters of the universe. You have the lion, the eagle the bull and man. And here is man that is the head. The crown of that creature called the Sphinx, which still defies man’s knowledge to unriddle it, was crowned with a human head. And look carefully at the head, Neville, and you will see whoever modeled that head must have been a negro. Whoever modeled it had the face of a negro and if that still defies man’s ability to unravel it, I am very proud that I am a negro.” I have seen scientists, doctors, lawyers, bankers, from every walk of life seek an audience with old Abdullah, and everyone Who came thought themselves honored to be admitted to his home and to receive an interview. If he was ever invited out, and he was, he was always the honored guest. He said, “Neville, you must first start with self. Find self, don’t be ashamed ever of the being you are. Discover it and start the changing of that self”.

Well, I told this gentleman exactly what Abdullah had taught me, that there was no cause outside of the arrangement of his own mind. If he was discriminated against, it was not because of the pigment of his skin, though he showed me signs as large as all outdoors denying him access to a certain area. The sign is there only because in the minds of some men such patterns are formed and they draw unto themselves what now they would condemn; that there is no power outside the mind of man to do anything to man, and he by the arrangement of his own mind, by consenting to these restrictions in his cradle and being conditioned slowly through his youth, waking into manhood believing himself set upon would have to be set upon, but “no man cometh unto me save I call him”. So then someone comes to condemn or to praise. They couldn’t come unless I call them. Not a man called Neville, but that secret being that is not called Neville. The secret being that is the sum total of all of my beliefs , all of the things that I consent to, that form a pattern ofstructure, that secret being draws unto itself things in harmony with itself. Well, that man went away and wrestled with himself. He couldn’t believe everything I told him, not that night, but last Sunday morning in the lobby, he came forward and we renewed the friendship. He took me next door to show me the fruit of this teaching .

He said, “Neville, it took me almost three years to really overcome that fixed idea that I, by the accident of birth, would be a secondary citizen, but I overcame .it. Now here is my office on Wilshire Boulevard. I picked this one not because it was the only one offered; four equally wonderful spots were offered me. I took this one because it had greater telephone facilities , but the others were equally good. Now here is my office. Now you couldn’t judge my income from this office, lovely as it is. Everything is nice about it, but, Neville, this year I will net a quarter of a million dollars”. Well in America that is still a fabulous sum of money. It would be staggering in any other part of the world, but even in fabulous America a man to net a quarter of a million is really up in the very highest of brackets. And that was the man that a few years ago told me the whole vast world was against him by reason of the accident of birth. He knows now he is what he is by virtue of the state of consciousness with which he is identified, and the choice is his to go back to the restrictions of his childhood when he believed the story or to continue in the freedom that he has found.

So you and I can be anything in this world we desire to be if we will clearly define our aim in life and constantly occupy that aim. It must be habitual. The concept we hold of self that is noble must not be put on just for a moment and taken off when we leave this church. We feel free here; we feel that we have something in common, that’s why we are here, but are we going to wear the noble concept we now hold of self when we go through the door and enter that bus, or are we going to return to the restrictions that were ours prior to coming here? The choice is ours and the hardest lesson to learn is that there is no one in this world that can be drawn into your world unless you, and you alone, call him.

So do not do what they did thousands of years ago, for that is the beginning of the secession of the great truth. So we are told they turned away from it, never again to walk with it, and the few who remained didn’t like it either, but where would they go if this is the word of eternal truth? Not that it’s true for this day and age, but if this is the law of being, and in all the dimensions of my being it holds good, if this is eternally true, then let me learn the lesson now, though I wrestle with myself as he did for three years.

So, the changing of the feeling of “I” is a selective thing because unnumbered states are infinite states, but the “I” is not the state. The “I” believes itself to be the state when it enters and fuses with it, so he was presented with a state and without the faculty of discrimination in his youth, he fused with the state and believed these restrictions were true, and it took him three years to disentangle the “I” from these fixed ideas with which he had lived for so many years. Now you may take only a moment or you, too, may take your three years. I can’t tell you how long it’s going to take you but I’ll tell you this much. It can be measured by the feeling of naturalness. You can wear a feeling until it’s natural. The moment the feeling becomes natural, it will begin to bear fruit within your world.

So I told this story at a small gathering here in the city, and not very many asked questions about it, but three people asked, “But he must have had money before. He must have known the right people. He must in some way have had some substance to start it, because how can you go out to loan a hundred million dollars and call that a real fact of being that you have that to loan and tell me you didn’t have some one who had it or you, yourself, didn’t have it”. I did not ask the gentleman about the individual facts of the case. I went into the office, I saw it, I didn’t look at his books; he volunteered this information, and gave me the figure of a quarter of a million net for the year. I have not checked or in any way verified the statement; I believe it implicitly. But I will not go along with those who believe that unless you have certain things to start with you can’t apply this law.

You can start now from scratch and choose the being you want to be. You aren’t going to change the pigment of your skin but you will find your accent or the pigment of skin or your so-called racial background will not be a hindrance, for if a man is ever hindered it can only be the state of consciousness in which he abides that hinders him. Man is freed or constrained by reason of the state of mind in which he persists. If you persist in it, well, then I will say, “persist in it”, but I warn you no one cares and that is an awful blow when a man discovers that no one, no one but himself really cares. So we find ourselves weeping with ourselves in the hope of getting others to weep with us. And what an awful shock when the day arrives we discover that no one really ever cared. They will give us some little listening ear for a moment just as they were passing by, but they really didn’t care.

When we make that discovery we shake ourselves out of it and boldly appropriate the gift our Father gave us before that the world was. So let me show you the gift. You’ve read your Lord’s Prayer possibly daily, but you read it as a prayer from a translation of a translation which does not reveal the sense of the evangelist. The real translation, you will find in Farrar Fenton’s work where in the original it is written in the imperative passive mood, which is like a standing order, a thing to be done absolutely and continuously. So that you can look now upon your universe as one vast inter-knit machinery where all things happen.

There isn’t a thing to become; all things are taking place, so it is written in this manner, “Thy will must be being done. Thy kingdom must be being restored.” It is the only way you could express it if you would express the imperative passive mood. But from the Latin from which our translation was made there is no first aorist of the imperative passive mood. So we have it in the way we have it but it does not reveal the intent of the mysteries. If you will see all things are now, you don’t become, you simply select the state that you would occupy. Occupying it you seem to become but it is already a fact, every aspect of that state in its most minute detail. It’s worked out and taking place. You by occupying the state seem to go through the action of unfolding that state, but the state is completely finished and taking place. So now you can choose the being you want to be and by choosing a being other than what you are now expressing you start the change of the feeling of “I”.

Now, how will I know that I have changed the feeling of “I”? By beginning first with an uncritical observation of my reactions to life and then noticing my reactions when I think I am identified with my choice. If I assume that I am the man that I want to be, let me observe my reactions. If they are as they were, I have not identified myself with my choice, for my reactions are automatic and so if I am changed I would automatically change my reactions to life. So the changing of the feeling of “I” results in a change of reaction, which change of reaction is a change of environment and behavior. But let me warn you now. A little alteration of mood is not a transformation; it’s not a real change of consciousness. Because as I change my mood for the moment it can quickly and rapidly be I would say, replaced by another mood in the reverse direction. When I say that I was changed, as that gentleman changed his mood, his basic mood, his state of consciousness, it means that having assumed that I am what the moment denied, what my reason denied, that I remain in that state long enough to make that state stable. So that all of my energies are flowing from that state. I am no longer thinking of that state. I am thinking from that state. So that wherever a state grows so stable as to definitely expel all of its rivals, then that central, habitual state of consciousness from which I think defines my character and is really a true transformation or change of consciousness. Whenever I reach that state of stability, watch my world mold itself then in harmony with this inner change. And men will come into my world, people will come to aid and they will think they are initiating the urge to help. They are playing only their part. They must do what they do because I have done what I did. Having moved from one state into the other. I have altered my relationship relative to the world round about, and that changed relationship compels a change in behavior relative to my world. So they have to act differently toward me.

So in changing the “I”, you start with desire, which we will unfold and elaborate on tomorrow night. For it starts with desire. Desire is the spring of action, for you must want to be other than what you are. We fail because we do not fall in love enough with an idea. We aren’t, I would say, moved enough to want to be other than what we are. If I could get you to be completely in love with some state to the point where it haunted the mind, I could almost prophesy that you would in the not distant future externalize that state within your world. And the reason we fail we aren’t hungry enough to change. For either we do not know the law or we haven’t the urge or the hunger to really bring about the change.

For the changing of the feeling of “I” results in the change of reaction, which change of reaction results in a change of world. If you like your world and you are complacent about it, you haven’t started on the road of the mysteries, for the very first beatitude appeals to one who is not complacent. “Blessed are the poor in spirit”. You must be poor in spirit, not complacent, not satisfied. The man who thinks that by reason of birth, the religion that he inherited at birth, is good enough for me, that he is not dissatisfied, he is not, I would say moved that being is complacent and therefore he is not poor in spirit; he is very rich in spirit. Theirs is not the kingdom of God. For if I could stir you, make you dissatisfied with self, then you will recognize that self and set about to change it. For the only field of activity for man is within himself and on himself. You do not work on the other. The day you change self, that day you change your world.

Now I see my time is going to its quick end. And so in the remaining minute I have left here let me not urge you, because if you come to the meeting tomorrow night not really hungry, you wouldn’t benefit, but I do hope that many of you are there. Even if you are stirred to the point of trying to, I would say, disprove what I told you, I would accept that challenge for in the attempt to disprove it, I know if you were sincere in your attempt, you would prove it. So I hope many of you will come and take this feast with us. We are here in the city at the Ebell for 15 nights, Monday thru Friday, as Mr. Smith told you, for three consecutive weeks. If you can’t take all, and I do hope many of you will take all, then pick out the title s that appeal to you. Tomorrow night to me is basic; it is the importance of defining an aim in this world, having a goal, for without an aim you are aimless. And you were warned in the Book, or I would say, in the Epistle of James that “the double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let not such a man believe that he shall receive anything of the Lord; for he is like a wave that is driven and tossed by the wind.” That man never reaches his goal. So you must have an aim, and tomorrow night we will show you the importance of defining desire. There are certain schools who teach you to kill out desire; we teach you to intensify desire and show you the reason for such teaching, show you what the Bible teaches about desire.

And now we will come to the help that many of you have asked for today. Those who were not here on Sunday let me remind you it is a very simple technique. As I told you on Sunday, any time that you exercise your imagination, and do it lovingly on behalf of another, you are mediating God to man. So we sit quietly and we simply become imitators of our Father. And He called the world into being by being the thing he would call. And so we sit and we listen as though we heard someone congratulating us on having found what we seek. So we go to the end of the matter and we listen just as though we heard, and we look as though we saw, and we try in this manner to feel ourselves right into the situation of our answered prayer, and there we wait in the silence just for about two minutes, and so they will lower the lights to aid you. And let me remind you if you want to clear your throat, please do so. If you want to shift your position in the chair, do so. Feel as though you are alone at home, because if you don’t and you try not to disturb the neighbor, you will not be able to exercise your imagination on behalf of anyone. So now I will take the chair and just simply listen attentively, just as though you heard. I’ll make you this promise – the day you are very still in mind and really become attentive, you will hear as coming from without what really you are whispering from within yourself.

FEEL DEEPLY

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 05-30-1969

What you feel deeply is far more important than what you are thinking. You may think about doing something for a long time and never do it, but when you feel something deeply you are spurred to act – and God acts! He who is the cause of all life acts through the sense of feeling. You can think of a thousand things, yet not be moved to act upon one of them. A deep conviction – felt, is far more important than anything you could ever think.

Let us turn to the first chapter of the epistle of James. “Ask in faith with no doubting, for he who doubts is like the wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. Let not that person believe that a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways, shall receive anything from the Lord. But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself. For if you are a hearer only and not a doer, you are like a man who observes his natural face in the mirror and then goes his way, forgetting what he is like. But if you are a doer of the word and not just a forgetful hearer, you will look into the perfect law of liberty, and persevere. That man shall be blessed in all his doings.”

How do you go about being a doer in place of a hearer only? By acting in faith. Scripture’s central character, called Jesus, set no limit upon the love of God and the power of faith. In fact all of his great deeds were prefaced with the words: “According to your faith.” Now, faith encompasses feeling. If you have faith you will act, and if you act God in you is acting, for God is your own wonderful human imagination whose eternal name is I AM. He acts only when you feel it. This is true even in the most practical way.

If I tell you what I would like to be and you tell me to go my way, as I am already it – and for one fleeting moment I see the world as I would see it if it were true, then turn and walk away, forgetting what the world looked like only a moment before – I am a forgetful hearer. But if I am a doer of the word and not a hearer only, I persevere; or – as the word is translated in the King James Version – I “continue in” the state, for all things are possible to the power of the word.

Look in a mirror and you will see your face reflected there, but you have another mirror which you can look into. That is the mirror of your friends; if they heard your good news, their faces would reflect it would they not? Assume your desire is now a fact. Feel its substance and reality. Then let your friends see you in that state. They are your living mirror.

Now persevere in that state and do not turn away and quickly forget what you are like. Walk through this door tonight in the assumption that you are the man (or woman) you want to be. It doesn’t make any difference if the outside denies it; you have seen the expression on the faces of your friends and heard their congratulations on the inside, with faith. Now, carry this feeling into the deep and persevere. Conjure a living mirror of friends and acquaintances who have heard your good news and accepted it as permanent. See your face reflected in theirs. If they love you, you will see empathy. They will be rejoicing because of your good fortune. Now, persevere in that awareness and do not forget what you have seen in your living mirror. If you do, you will be blessed in the doing, as you are told in the first chapter of the Book of Psalms: “Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the Lord; the perfect law of liberty, for in all that he does, he prospers.”

Were you not liberated from your past when you saw your friend’s faces reflecting what you wanted them to see? If you had left the state of poverty, sickness, or weakness behind and moved into the state of wealth, health, or strength – and your friends knew it – you would be set free from your former limitation. So, looking into the perfect law of liberty and persevering, you are blessed in all that you do.

I tell you from personal experience that this works, but we are the operant power. It does not operate itself. You may have heard this law by the hearing of the ear and read of it in a book, but do you know that the law works from experience? Have you put it to the test? Have you proved it? If you have, then you can speak with an authority, which was not yours prior to the proving. May I tell you: through the use of this law you are completely set free.

I have been in many places where I was forced to test this principle. While on the little island of Barbados, which had only two small ships servicing it as well as the hundreds of islands nearby, I made a commitment to give a series of lectures in Milwaukee on the first of May. When I called, the shipping agent informed me that due to the fact that the ship sailing out of New York City carried only sixty passengers and the one from Boston carried only one hundred, that there was no passage available before the first of September. He promised to put my name on the waiting list, but gave me no encouragement as the list was very long.

I hung up the phone and sat in my chair in the hotel room, closed my eyes and assumed I was aboard a ship heading toward New York City. I assumed eight or ten of my family were coming aboard with me, and that my brother Victor was carrying my little girl. I could feel the motion of the plank. Having no stateroom committed, I remained on deck and placed my mental hands on the rail and felt the salt of the sea there. Then I looked back nostalgically at the little island. I repeated that action over and over again, feeling every step I made on that gangplank. I felt the rail and smelled the salt of the sea. I did everything that feeling could be brought to bear upon, and when my actions seemed natural, I broke it.

The very next day I received confirmation that I would be sailing on a ship which would land in New York City one week before my commitment in Milwaukee, which I did. When I asked the agent how I obtained the tickets, he said they had a cancellation in New York and the one person he had called on the waiting list felt that the timing was inconvenient; so – knowing he could accommodate my wife, our little daughter and myself in one cabin – he let us in. I never heard why someone canceled in New York or why the one he called in Barbados could not take the ship at that time, or why the agent did not call all the others on the waiting list. I only know that I got the reservation I had imagined.

I have told this story before, and someone in the audience once said; “Was that a Christian thing to do? You might have caused someone to cancel their trip.” But I tell you, as I told her: it was the only Christian thing to do, for I used the Christian principle of fulfilling God’s law. How it is going to be fulfilled is not my concern. I am told that whatever I desire, if I will but believe I have received it, I will. God never creates a desire in the human heart that he has not already provided its satisfaction. This is true of every desire in this world, as well as the greatest of all desires, which is the thirst for God.

Do you really want an experience of God? Apply this principle towards it. Do what I did when I wanted to leave Barbados and come to America. I looked into the perfect law of liberty and persevered. God doesn’t give you one law for your desires of this world and another law for your search for him. It’s the same law. If you have had the experience of which I speak, would you tell someone about it? Is it a consuming desire, or do you want something other than that first? Perhaps you want a lovely home, security in the sense of money in the bank that you can touch, or stocks and bonds that pay dividends. If you want to feel wealthy, travel, and have lots of things before you thirst for an experience of Christ, it is secondary, so don’t try it. But if an experience of Christ is your consuming desire then don’t hesitate to put it to the test. Put first things first. If your first desire is to be recognized in the work that I am doing, then apply this principle towards it and let that thirst for God take its own good time to envelop you, and when it does apply this principle towards it.

Feel in depth, for what you feel deeply is more vital than what you think. Every day you can think about how wonderful it would be if – and never act. But if every day you would feel how wonderful it is now, it will become true. Shakespeare said: “Assume a virtue if you have it not.” A virtue must be felt to be assumed. Refrain from the assumption tonight and it will be easy to refrain next week and still easier the next. But if you will assume your desire is fulfilled now, and persevere in that assumption through the sense of feeling, it will be externalized as a literal fact in your world.

I am calling upon everyone to put this into practice. Every desire contains its own satisfaction to be fed upon. It’s entirely up to you. You may feed your hunger by thinking of your desire, or feed its satisfaction by thinking from its fulfillment. It is God who gives you every desire, be it for things of this age or the age to come – as told us in the Book of Amos: “I will send a famine upon the world. It will not be a hunger for bread or a thirst for water, but for the hearing of the word of God.”

When you want to speak the word of God, your hunger is not for the hearing of the word, but for the glamour connected with the teaching. It is the spotlight you desire and that too has been provided for. Every desire can and will be satisfied if you will look into the law of liberty and persevere. Then you will be blessed in all you do.

A chap came to see me from New York City yesterday. When I heard his request I would not tell him my reaction to it, but that I would hear that he had it. This chap, now retired from the antique department of Macy’s, has been teaching in one of these isms back East. Then he started corresponding with a group out here, who – unable to believe in themselves – wants a leader; so they have asked him to come lead them. When he told me the nature of his desire I was sorry that all he could see in life was the spotlight, but I granted it to him. He is tired of playing third, fourth or fifth fiddle to a leader who has milked a million dollars out of those who are buying bricks into heaven. Having nothing, this man’s followers are building heaven for him and giving it to him as their gift. They have bought valuable land in New York City and built a building on it. Then he threw a banquet at a large hotel and they paid $50 for the privilege of seeing the mortgage they paid for burned, but the land and building are in his name.

Back in 1943, this same man told me he was coming to New York for only one purpose and that was to make money in the so-called New Thought movement. When I heard him say this, I thought he was in the wrong profession. If he wanted to make a lot of money he should go into steel, oil, or coal. If you want to do this work you can live well, but will not have the ambition for millions. Well, he wanted lots of money and now he has it, as well as homes in the country, an apartment in the city, and a lovely, large building in New York City – which those who love to be milked paid for. The chap who came to see me assisted this man. He has seen how phony it has been, but he hasn’t completely overcome it. He still wants the spotlight and now he has the opportunity to get it. I will pray for his success – not as a teacher for he is not one – but for the glamour he will receive by those who want the nonsense, as they are going to start off by not eating meat, smoking, or drinking – in fact a complete loss of the palate.

His request does not offend my moral code, so I can easily say that he is successful; but I urge you who are sincere to try to create within yourself a longing for the deepest of all desires, and that is to know God from experience. If you can really thirst for God above everything else, then use the same law of liberty. Look into the faces of your friends and say with deep conviction and feeling: “I have had the experiences of which Neville speaks. The entire series, from the resurrection through the descent of the dove, has unfolded within me.” Then persevere, for God has provided a satisfaction for that hunger and you will know it. But if this hunger is not yet upon you and you sincerely want a better way of living that is not wrong, simply use the same principle of the perfect law of liberty and persevere. Having acted, don’t turn and forget what you have done but sleep in that conviction, and in a way you do not know, it will be yours.

Tonight many of our friends are not here because it is Memorial Day. But I tell you: not one moment in time is holier than another and there is no earthly place more sacred than the other. Wherever you stand is sacred ground because you are there. Today millions are celebrating Memorial Day, remembering the dead and placing flowers on a grave their loved ones do not occupy. This morning just prior to waking, I saw my brother Lawrence. He died at the age of sixty-two, but looked much older because he had suffered so much before his departure. This morning he was only about twenty-three years of age. We were both fully awake and he asked me to tell his wife that the money he left her was for her, and not to save it for the children. I said: “Lawrence, you don’t have to go through me to tell Doris, she wouldn’t give one penny to anyone anyway. She never has. Do you think she would change now? Her only concern is that you did not give it all to her, but shared equally with your four children.” But I was with Lawrence. He was strong, strapping and handsome, blond with brown eyes. He is the same Lawrence, with the same intelligence he had when he left here. He is younger now, but he still has the memory of the family he left behind. The veil is no clearer to him there than it is to those on this side. Only one who is awake can penetrate the veil consciously. It is easy now for me to go beyond the world of dream and enter the world of spirit waking and meet my friends there.

But on Memorial Day men think of the dead, while I am speaking of life everlasting. “Let the dead bury the dead,” and follow me, for I have risen from the dead and I speak of a Living God who is real. I cannot go to a cemetery and put flowers or a flag on that which is not there. The body may have been placed there, but not the spirit.

You are buried in the skull and in that skull you will remain, dreaming your dream of life until you awaken and are born the second time. It is from there you are going to find David, who reveals you as God the Father. It is from there you are going to be split in two and ascend into the Holy of Holies. You were begotten in that skull and you will end the drama there, to know you are one with the one and only Living God.

In the 25th and 27th chapters of the Book of Genesis, the story is told of Isaac, who had two sons. The first son, Esau, had hair all over while the second son, Jacob, was hairless. Being blind, Isaac calls Esau and asks him to go get some venison for dinner. Jacob, having overheard the request, clothed himself in the skins of his brother Esau and took the venison to his father. Isaac, hearing Jacob’s voice began to doubt, until he felt his reality and caught his odor. Satisfying himself that the son was real, Jacob was given the father’s blessing. When Esau returned from the hunt Jacob disappeared, but Isaac said: “Although your brother came through deception, I have given him your blessing and I cannot take it back.”

After smothering yourself in feeling, you have sent it on its way and cannot take it back, for prayer is nothing more than the subjective appropriation of an objective hope. Imagine by giving objective reality to your hope. Hair is the most objective thing on a man. Bring your hope so close that you can feel what it would be like if it were objective to you.

Clothe yourself in that feeling – and you have clothed yourself in the reality of an Esau. The world will not immediately reflect your feeling, but you have set your desire in motion and cannot take it back. You have given a subjective state your blessing by giving it objective reality. Now it must fulfill its destiny so that you will be blessed in all that you are doing.

If you don’t give your subjective hope objective reality, you can’t be blessed in its fulfillment. You must clothe yourself in the feeling that your wish is fulfilled. Jacob is your desire, waiting to be clothed in the feeling of external reality. Catch the feeling, and you have clothed Jacob with the external reality of Esau. Now deceive yourself into believing that your desire is externally real, and give it your blessing by subjectively appropriating your objective hope. Who is the blind Isaac? You are, for you cannot see what you are asking for in your outer world. It’s a hope and you are blind to it. But when you clothe yourself in the feeling of its fulfillment, you are eating the feeling of satisfaction. Feast upon this feeling morning, noon, and night, and in a way you do not know your desire will become an objective reality in your world.

In this story we see the importance of feeling. Isaac asked Jacob to come close and kiss him. The word translated “kiss” means, “to set on fire; to burn; to touch.” That’s an emotion, an intense feeling. Reality is felt through the sense of touch. Feeling is touch. Tasting is touch. Scripture tells us he tasted death for all of us. How do you taste death? By experiencing it. Jesus tasted death by dying in all, that all may know who he is.

Now I urge you to put his teaching into practice. He taught you to simply appropriate a subjective state which is your objective hope, and know it must externalize itself in your world. Do that and it will. Ask in faith, without a doubt, for those who doubt are like the wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. They are double-minded, for they know what they are while desiring to be something else. You must be single-minded by dropping what you believe you are and assuming that you are already what you desire to be, for you cannot desire something you already possess. Look into the wonderful law of liberty which sets you free, and you will see your freedom in the faces of your friends. Persist in your assumption and it must come to pass.

Now let us go into the silence.

FOLLOW THE PATTERN

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 03-25-1968

“Man is all Imagination and God is Man and exists in us and we in him. The eternal body of Man is the Imagination and that is God Himself.” (William Blake) We are told that the Bible is the word of God; therefore, if God and man are one, it must be man’s word. Now, a scriptural episode is not a record of an historical event, but a paradoxical revelation of truth. Accept this, even though you may not understand it, for when scripture is experienced, you will know it is literally true!

Paul tells us to follow the pattern of the sound words which you have heard from me. Guard the truth which has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit which dwells within us. (II Timothy) Here we are called upon to guard this truth, for only as we follow the pattern – which is the truth – are we saved. If all things are possible to your imagination, and you are all imagination, you should be able to accomplish anything and fulfill every desire. But first you must be willing to believe you are all imagination! It’s entirely up to you. Do you believe you are mortal man – or all imagination?

Living in infinite states, the basic state from which we operate is our body of belief. If you believe you are limited, your thoughts flow from that belief. But if this principle is true, and you place a modification on that body of belief, you should produce a corresponding change, as your outer world is forever reflecting your inner thoughts.

Genesis tells us that the serpent, the symbol of our fall, is the most subtle (often translated as “wisest”) of all of God’s creatures. In Proverbs, the personification of wisdom says: God created me at the beginning of his ways, the first of his acts of old. Then in 1 Corinthians, Christ is defined as the power and wisdom of God. If this is true, then who is the serpent? The churches teach that some strange dragon led man into this world of sin and death. But when you understand scripture you will realize that Jesus Christ (God’s power and wisdom) is the serpent! It is he who brought us into the world of generation, and it is he who redeems us by raising us into the world of regeneration. This I know to be literally true. John tells us: “No one ascends into heaven but he who first descended, even the Son of man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up.” (John 3) Here we see that infinite power and wisdom took the form of man – the limit of contraction, by entering the state called Satan – the limit of opacity. To Satan there is nothing beyond the physical sense of sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touch, as he is confined to the limit of opacity and contraction.

We are called upon to exercise this power that sacrificed itself and became us. As Blake said: “I know of no other Christianity, no other gospel than the right both of body and mind, to exercise the divine art of Imagination.” By exercising the divine art of imagination, you can prove to yourself that you can go beyond what your eyes, reason, and senses dictate. Exercise this art by daring to assume you are what your reason and senses deny you. Persist, and to the degree you are self-persuaded of its truth, the outer world will change, for it is forever conforming to the belief housed within you.

Infinite power and wisdom took on the form of a person by descending into you. His descent is your capacity to generate here. One day he will turn around and, as the son of man, you will ascend into heaven. But no one can ascend into heaven who has not first descended. He who descended came in the form of a serpent. This I know from experience. You, too, will know this to be true when your body is split from top to bottom, and the furnaces of affliction become fountains of living water. We came here to experience our own, individual furnaces of affliction. But when your spiritual body is split, you become living water springing from humanity, and like a fiery serpent you ascend your spinal cord. The 21st chapter of Numbers tells us: “The Lord God said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent and set him on a pole and it shall come to pass that everyone who is bitten, when he looks upon it, shall live.’” Why? Because he enters into life in himself! This statement, as every little episode in scripture, is a rough sketch, an adumbration, a foreshadowing for time to fulfill in experience.

Now let me share an experience of a friend. In his dream he is constructing a large building, knowing that his father is creating one greater than his. Although he never sees his father, he knows that one day he will be as great as he. Suddenly he sees a black and white tree snake, picks it up and watches it coil around his right arm. Then the snake began to speak, telling him of the husband she loves, but has lost. The scene changes and my friend is now standing on a new building site with a pole standing upright in the center. Ascending the pole is the same snake, who turns around and starts its descent as he awoke. Here is a perfect adumbration, for only that which descends can ever ascend. I know it doesn’t make sense on this level; but just as Moses lifted up creative power in the wilderness, so have I, as the Son of man, been lifted up. How? In the form of a serpent! The creative power of Imagination descended by turning his head down into generation. His power, now reflecting in this world, must be reversed. This cannot be done by any conscious effort. The reversal takes place when the spiritual body is split in two from top to bottom. Seeing the fountain of living water, your creative power fuses with it, and up you go into heaven, just like a serpent. Blake described this as: “The furnaces of affliction suddenly become fountains of living water, all springing from humanity.” Everyone is destined to enter that fountain of living water, rise from this level into which he descended, and understand the words of Blake: “I do not consider the strong man, the weak man, the rich man or the poor man, to be in an ideal, supreme state, but to be everyone of them states of the sleep which the soul may fall into in its deadly dreams of good and evil when it left paradise following the serpent.”

In the third chapter of Genesis, wisdom (the serpent) speaks, saying: “Did God say you would die? You will not surely die.” And in that same chapter God declares: “Behold, man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil.” Now, knowing good and evil, the serpent promised that if you would descend and partake of this knowledge, you would awaken like the gods. Simply automatons, knowing nothing, you lived in a dreamlike state until infinite wisdom said: Follow me. So you left the world of innocence, and entered the world of experience to return to the world of Imagination, from whence you started. And when you return, you are all Imagination, and nothing is impossible to you. But before you do, you can test your creative power knowingly. Do you know someone who is in need? Bring him before your mind’s eye and see his need fulfilled. Lose yourself in the thrill, the feeling of joy for your friend. Do nothing on the outside to make it so, simply persist in seeing him in his new state, and no power on earth can stop it from being so. If you think he can oppose you, you are looking at the world of Satan, for there is no physical other. God is one. There is no opposition save that which you create for yourself!

Try to follow the pattern of these words which you have received from me. It is the same pattern as recorded by Paul, as the same God who revealed his Son in Paul revealed his Son in me, revealing me as the Father. Paul knew he was God the Father when he said: “When it pleased God to reveal his Son in me.” This truth comes from revelation; so, like Paul, I am asking everyone to follow the pattern of the true words which you have heard from me, for I have experienced scripture and know it is not secular history. The stories of scripture are paradoxical revelations of truth, which happen naturally. The golden liquid light you see is the living water which you become as you merge with it. Then, as a living fountain, you ascend from humanity in a serpentine motion.

Now, another friend wrote saying she found herself in the depths of the earth, in a cave whose walls were hewn out of rock. The only object present was a jar with a human face carved upon it. As she became aware of moving in and out of the jar, she realized that the jar itself was a head with its top removed. Returning to investigate, she found it empty, and awoke. Again I go back to Blake: “He has a sepulcher hewn out of a Rock ready for thee. And a death of eight thousand years which he has forged for thyself.” Blake saw the sepulcher forged out of rock, ready to receive the death of eight thousand years. In Blake’s symbology 8000 does not necessarily mean years. Eight is resurrection, a new beginning. The Sabbath is the seventh day, the day prepared to lead one up to the eighth day, called resurrection.

This lady entered the sepulcher in which Man is placed, to meet the one who sent her, who is the Lord of the air! Blake, whose works are all vision, said: “God Himself enters death’s door with all who enter, and lays down in the grave with him in visions of eternity until they awake.” So her vision was perfect, as it parallels those of Blake. The Book of Mark begins: “Repent.” That’s revision! That’s changing your thinking, thereby changing your belief, which causes a corresponding change in your world. In this lady’s vision, she reminded herself to revise now and not put it off until a later date. This is so true! Imagining creates reality, for waiting will cause you to find the problem more difficult to overcome, so change it the moment you sense it. Always revise now! Let me repeat. You are destined to awaken as God! Although the serpent – the symbol of your redemption – seems to have betrayed you, he has led you from innocence to experience, to one grand Awakened Human Imagination.

Learn to adore your humanity, your spirit of life! Worship God by worshipping your own wonderful Human Imagination! You want to love God? Love your own spirit, for he is Christ. Remove humanity from you and you will not exist, so learn to adore your humanity, for that is your spirit of life. You may not be able to draw a straight line, yet you can create a smile on the face of a friend, or erase the lines of worry or age. You can do all these things, not by turning to another, but by using your creative power, the only God! Blake makes this statement: “Thou art a Man, God is no more, thine own Humanity learn to adore.” Humanity is your spirit of life! Turn to the only God, who is your own wonderful Human Imagination! Learn to adore him. All things are possible to God, therefore, all things are possible to imagine! Knowing what you want, ask yourself if you believe that your imaginal acts are committed by God. I tell you, they are!

In his 14th chapter, John tells you that imagination is his spirit of life, saying: “You believe in God? Believe also in me.” Can you believe your imaginal acts will come to pass? That your desire is real, and live as though it were? If you imagine – and imagining does create reality – you will see your desire appear in your world. If it does not, then you have proved that the principle is false. I tell you the principle is true – according to your belief! There is no limit placed on your ability to believe or on what belief can accomplish. No matter what you desire, when you believe you have received it, you will. Can you believe that the only true God is in you? That you can follow the pattern of the sound words you have heard from me? I urge you to guard this truth which has been revealed to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. Don’t look for any Holy Spirit on the outside! There is no one to run to but self, for everything is within you!

Now let me share another experience of the man who had the dream of the pole and the serpent. He said: “I wanted to make more money, but I did not feel qualified for a better position. Regardless of this fact, I decided that I wanted to earn twice as much as I was presently making, and I imagined having it now! Within two weeks I was contacted for an interview. In the past, I have had to sell myself, but this time the company was urging me to take the position offered, which included a salary greater than double the present one. Strangely enough, the man who had recommended me was a man who formerly worked for me, and when he left, there was intense dislike on both our parts. After the interview we met on the outside, and when I told him of my fears he said, ‘I know you are the best man for the job.’”

I tell you: there is only one cause, and that is the Human Imagination. When you change your body of beliefs, everyone must and will play their part to produce evidence of that change in you. One who was formerly an enemy will play the part of a friend. I thank my friend for sharing this story with me and urge you to follow his example. Dream nobly! Think of lovely things you want to recall, and you will experience them in your tomorrows.

Blake was so awake! It was he, who said: “Everything is Man. The lion, the tiger, the horse, the elephant, mule, dove, fly and worm, all are glorious persons. Clothed in gems, they fly away to humanize in the forgiveness of sins according to thy covenant, O Jehovah.” Awakened Imagination knows there is nothing but God, and God, being Man, becomes the worm to feed the weak. Knowing there is nothing but Imagination, Blake said:

“Double the vision my eyes do see.
Double vision is always with me.
With my inner eye it is an old man gray,
with my outer a thistle across the way.”

Every day, with my old friend Abdullah I would practice this art. At dinner he would ask me to look at the lampshade. He didn’t mean for me to see the lampshade – anyone can do that – but to focus my attention through it. Looking beyond, I would see living, breathing human faces. Other times he would ask me to look at a car, a house, a wall – not with my outer eyes but with my inner eye; and when I did, I would always see Man. When I first began to do this I had to break it, because I could feel myself moving through and beyond this world, to see an entirely different world. That’s Imagination!

Although this world seems to be the only reality, it is but a gossamer dream. And when you leave here, you will once more feel that where you are is the only reality. This you will do over and over again until God’s pattern of salvation unfolds in you. Then you will follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me and guard the truth which will be imparted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells in all. He has revealed salvation’s pattern to me. Having entrusted me with that truth, I have told it and will continue to do so until I can tell it no more. Then someone else will pick it up and continue the pattern.

The Bible, from beginning to end, is simply a book of patterns. Claiming there is only one source of all dreams, who is God, the story is told of a man called Joseph, the dreamer who was placed in a coffin in Egypt. So who was placed in that coffin, but God! It is God who descends and takes upon himself this concrete, opaque state called Joseph. It is recorded that Joseph was the third son of Jacob, born to him in his old age. And Jacob was the son of his mother’s old age. And Jacob’s father was the son of his mother’s old age. Do you see the pattern repeating itself over and over again here?

This book of patterns will unfold in each one of us. How long it will be before the pattern unfolds in you, individually, only your heavenly Father knows. I can tell you this, however: it will happen in your old age! When you have had all of the experiences life here can give you and you seem to be barren, the child will come. That is my promise!

Now let us go into the silence.

He Is Dreaming Now

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard

Tonight’s title is: “He is Dreaming Now.” God’s name―His real presence―is within us, in the very midst of us, for His real presence is concentrate in His name.

“Come, let us go and look at him,” said the brothers, and each took one of Alice’s hands and led her up to where the king was sleeping.

“He is dreaming now.” said Tweedle-Dee, “and what do you think he is dreaming about?”

Alice said, “Why, nobody could guess that.”

Then Tweedle-Dee said, “He is dreaming about you; and if he left off dreaming about you, where do you suppose you would be?” (from “Through the Looking Glass” by Lewis Carroll)

Now, to us, that seems a fairy story; and, yet, it is so altogether true. If the Dreamer in you left off dreaming anything that you now entertain, where do you think you would be? Is not the Dreamer and the “I” of waking a pair of identical twins?

We think this is the real world, and then we speak of the “dream world.” To us, that isn’t real, and yet we are told in Scripture: “God speaks to us through the medium of dreams, and makes Himself known through vision.” (Numbers 12:6) And, yet, we say that is not real, and yet: “God speaks to man through the medium of dreams”; and He is the Dreamer in man, identical with the “I” of waking.

When we really wake, we will not be God and man. It will just be you; and you will be God, who was the Dreamer. The whole will simply awaken within you. it will not be a twin. The wall of separation will be broken down. It will only be God; and God-and-you will be the One.

“God becomes as I am, that I may be as He is.” (from “There Is No Natural Religion” by William Blake)

When the promise was made that God and an Angel would lead Israel, this promise was given special force by Jehovah’s assurance that “My name is in him.” That is, Jehovah Himself would lead them. Well, who is Jehovah? In Scripture we are told His name really is “I AM.”

“Go, say to them that I AM hath sent me unto you…This is my name forever, and by this name I will be known throughout all generations.” (Exodus 3:14-15) “There is no other name.” (Acts 4:2)

Now, here in this room―take this simple little object here. My simple apprehension of this corporeal object we call sense. It is now a “sense” object. It is “real,” for I can see it, I can touch it; if I strike it, I can hear it. So, this is called “sense” because it’s present. If absent, it’s imagination.

What I want to teach everyone who will listen to me is to tell them―to convince them―that the so-called “absent” states are just as real as the present states. If man, the spectator, could only enter into these so-called “absent” states―these images in his imagination,–“approach them on the fiery chariot of his own contemplative thought” (from “A Vision of the Last Judgment” by William Blake)―if he could enter into these states and give to the state the sensory vividness that he now gives to this, and give it all to his imagination; if he could give it all the tones of reality we now give to this, using our senses, it would clothe itself in what we call “objective” reality.

Here in this audience tonight there is a gentleman. He started a business in Chicago in March of this year. If you knew the market in the month of March as you know it today, it was at the lowest point in years. Stocks tumbled and tumbled day after day, many dropping ten or fifteen points a day; and on paper billions and billions were lost. As far as the mind goes, they were lost. There was no market to raise money for business. He needed two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to launch this business. It is a manufacturing business, manufacturing special instruments―technical. No one had any money,–no individual, no group.

He went through the month of March, April; and then in May he called me from Chicago to tell me he was too close to picture. He couldn’t use his imagination because he was too close to it, and all the negative arguments the papers gave you, the brokers gave you, friends would give you,–everything printed that the financial situation gave you looked forward to a greater and greater depression. He couldn’t stop it. So, I heard what he had to say: he wanted two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. I said, “All right, I will hear it for you. I will now reverse the entire conversation from you wanting two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to a conversation that tells me that you have your two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and I will persuade myself of this so-called ‘invisible,’ and therefore unreal state. When I am self-persuaded of the reality of what the world would say to be unreal, it’s done, and it will not fail! I will do it now.”

So, he hung up. I did not leave the ‘phone until I was self-persuaded that he had called me and told me of the good news that he had his two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, to launch this new venture in these special things that he is making.

Well, he is here in the room tonight, and last night he gave me a letter setting forth the highlights of this entire state. I have given you the first three: it was incorporated in the month of March. The need was two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. March and April went by; and in May he didn’t panic, but everyone simply turned him down. There was no such thing as a money market.

Then he called me, and I’ve told you the exact conversation between the two of us. He is here in this City now; and in this statement he said: “Out of the blue, a broker called me and told me he heard of this new venture, he had investigated it, examined it, and he would like to underwrite it for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,” which he agreed to.

As he agreed to have this company underwrite it for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, friends then called and asked if they could buy a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of shares when he had shares to sell; and to that, he agreed.

So, his need was two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and he has raised between the call in May and this day three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. And they say because of the market, because of this, or because of that, it can’t be done.

“All things are possible to God” (Matthew 19:26), but man worships a false god. Man hasn’t the slightest concept who God is! “God is not a God afar off”; God is not even near, for nearness implies separation. And He is in the very midst of me. He is my own true identity! My own I-AM-ness,–that’s God! He actually, literally became as I am with all of my weaknesses―with all of my limitations, that I may be as He is without limitations, without weakness. So, He is not pretending that He is me. He is not pretending that He is you. He literally emptied Himself of His infinite wisdom and power, and assumed the restrictions of man; and then finally He awakes within man, and Man is the one that awakes within Him. God and man are One. That little line of demarcation between the two when man in his dream worships a false god is all removed, and then hen knows who God really is.

So, He’s dreaming now―dreaming your life. One day He will awake from the dream of life, and then you will know Who-You-Are! You will know that you are that central figure in Scripture called the Lord Jesus Christ, for the name will unfold itself within you, and the ultimate revelation of that name is “God the Father”! And because He is God the Father, you will see His son in your presence calling you, “Father.” You will know you are his father, and he will know that he is your son, and there will be no uncertainty as to this relationship between you and the Son of God, whose Son is your son.

Now, until it happens, test it. We are invited to test Him. “Come, test yourself and see. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in thee?” (Second Corinthians 13:5, Revised Standard Version)

Does man realize it? If he is honest with himself, he will say, “No, I don’t realize it.” But nevertheless, he is invited to test it to see if he really is in him. Why? Because “all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.” (John 1:3)

Well, if that is true and someone tells me that my own wonderful human imagination is God, and that what is imagined is as real as what my senses now dictate; that I can give to that unseen state a reality that will project itself upon the screen of space and become as real as anything now on the screen of space, and share that reality with others, can I do it? Well, I did it in this case. I did morning, noon and night; and I am not different from any person born of woman. I have found the True God!

As we are told: “Choose this day whom you will serve.” Joshua answered himself: “I have chosen the Lord, I and my household.” (Joshua 24:15) Then Israel said, “We, too, will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:18) He said, “You are witnesses against yourselves. You will serve the Lord?” (Joshua 24:22)

You cannot bow your knee before anything in this world when you have chosen the True God. The True God is within you, and that Being within you is your own wonderful human imagination.

Now, give to your imaginal acts tones of reality, and see how they project themselves in your world and become real. But if they do it and it will become a fact, well reason tells them, No, it would have happened anyway.

A friend of mine, my dentist, bought his home seventeen years ago. It was his first home. he got it for twenty thousand dollars in the hills of Hollywood. It was a lovely home; it was once owned by Kaiser’s son. In fact, I think he built it. it was very, very big, nicely constructed; not a large area, but―oh, what a view! A beautiful view. He did improve it somewhat; he put in a swimming pool and made a few structural changes, but he didn’t spend in excess of ten thousand dollars in the seventeen years that he lived there in making certain changes. That meant he had a home of thirty thousand dollars.

Then came the present moment that he wanted to unload it; but, like all people, they read the papers and make concepts of what a thing is valued at. He paid twenty and spent ten; but he lived there, and naturally he paid taxes and these things, but he didn’t have rent to pay. So, he began to put more and more value on the house, and he finally got it to seventy-five thousand dollars. That’s what he wanted for it.

Then he spoke to me about it. I said: “I haven’t the slightest concept of the value of a home. the only home that I have called ‘my home’ was really my Mother’s home. I left home when I was seventeen and a half; it was the only home I’ve ever really felt was home, for I’ve only rented since then. I have rented apartments, rented homes; but they have never been my ‘home.’ So, I have no concept of the value of these homes. You are asking seventy-five thousand for it.”

Well, for one solid year he gave it up to this party, to that party, to the other party; they all showed it, but no one came up with anything near seventy-five thousand. I said to him one day at the pool, “Do you really want to sell it?”

He said, “Deep down in my heart, no. it has been a lovely home.”

I said, “Do you sleep in it every night? I know you do physically, but do you sleep elsewhere in your imagination, and view this home from that assumed state? Well, if you had sold it, you couldn’t sleep in it,–you would have sold it. And if you sold it, you would be sleeping elsewhere; and because you had had the experience of this house, you would view it from the place that you now occupy, and see it as something you had formerly owned that is now owned by someone else. If tonight you sleep in a state other than this state and view this house from that state, you will sell it. But you must, first of all, want to sell it. You want to let it go.”

Well, the husband wanted to sell it. I said, “Where would you go?”

“Well, at our age we would not get another home. We’d move into an apartment. It would be cramped for us, but nevertheless we would move into an apartment.”

So, they went down to see the Le Brea apartments, and they saw one they liked on the tenth floor, and it was just the answer to their prayer, but they wouldn’t move unless they sold.

I said, “Well, now, sleep there tonight. You’ve seen the place. You can’t take all of this furniture, but you are going to take the best pieces; you’ll make a lovely job of it, and you will sleep in that place. There are two bedrooms and two baths, and it is adequate for the two of you. You have no offspring. You can’t take your animals there. That, I do know. So, you will have to let go of the dogs, let go of the turtle, let go of the parrot,–let go of all these things that you have around you. You will find homes for them. But you must sleep there tonight and view this home from that place.”

A total stranger, within the month,–no agent came,–a total stranger [he didn’t have to pay an agent] came and saw it, like it, and paid him in cash to get out within thirty days. Now he is in the new apartment where I saw him and dined with him just about a month ago. He unloaded the house within one month at seventy-five thousand dollars in cash; and this is supposed to be a depressed market where you can’t find people with cash because all the things have gone down. He found it!

You will find it first in your imagination. That’s where you find it. And then you clothe it with the tones of reality, and you clothe it with all the sensory vividness that you can give that image.

“If the spectator could enter into these images in his imagination, approaching [that image] on the fiery chariot of his [own] contemplative thought, [as if he made] a friend and a companion of one of these images,…then he would rise from his grave,”―Well, this is a grave,–“then he would be happy in it [his new choice, his new state].” (from “A Vision of the Last Judgment” by William Blake)

So, in one month he sold it for the seventy-five thousand and moved out. He had to give up half of the things he had, because he couldn’t use them in the smaller area. Now in seventeen years you know, if you have a home or even an apartment, what you accumulate. We accumulate and accumulate like a pack rat! Well, that’s what he did. Now he has this lovely apartment, and he’s blissfully happy, so he tells me.

So, my friend here tonight, he got his three hundred and fifty thousand, and Jim unloaded his home that he only paid twenty for, for seventy-five thousand. I don’t question people’s right to ask seventy-five thousand or a hundred thousand or a million. I only ask that they do it within the frame of the Golden Rule. Would you have it done unto you? Well, then, you can do it.

When I start a business―I have no desire to start a business; but if I had a desire to start a business and it needed two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, I wouldn’t’ think that strange. I would go into a bank, if I had confidence in what I could do, and try to raise the money. Well, he couldn’t raise it. But, “out of the blue,” a broker now underwrites the whole thing for two hundred and fifty thousand. And then friends want to buy; and they have investigated the nature of the business, and they want to buy another hundred thousand dollars’ worth of stock, which he agreed to. He has this three hundred and fifty thousand pledged.

So, I say the Dreamer in man is God, and He is the dreamer,–not one with the “I” of waking. The “I” that wakes is confined to the senses, and he thinks this is the real world, and he rationalizes everything in the world; when, really, everything you see in the outer world was first only an image in the imagination. There isn’t a thing that is now true as fact that was not once only imagination―not a thing in the world. Every external so-called concrete fact has a spiritual cause, and not a so-called physical cause. The physical cause only seems; it is a delusion of the fading memory.

Now today, even after a month, Jim now thinks that it didn’t happen because he slept in his apartment before he physically occupied it. He thinks it would have happened anyway. Well, he thinks, now this man―out of the blue―he heard of this thing―he wanted to get away from Bel Aire,–he wanted to leave that environment and come to the hills of Hollywood all by himself because the place is all alone right up on the very top of these mountains. Now he justifies it, and he thinks that this thing would have happened anyway, “in spite of what Neville said.” And it’s only a month!

Well, you give him six more months and he’ll be convinced beyond a doubt that what he did in imagination and what his wife did had no bearing whatsoever upon the sale. But that is the story told throughout the Bible.

“Were there not ten of you, and only one has returned to say thanks?” (See Luke 17:14-18) Well, the other nine thought it would have happened anyway. No, not a thing could cure them of their leprosy; and one spoke and it became a fact. And he kept on going. It wasn’t done because he did it,–it would have happened anyway.

That’s what the nine said, but one Samaritan came back and said, Thank you. That’s the whole vast world in which we live. We are so sound asleep, we could never believe in these irrational things of which I speak. “Why, that doesn’t make sense!”

I could tell you unnumbered stories where I know the cause. I know the beginning―the conversation that took place, and the kind of a prayer that took place, where they didn’t beg anyone in the world for anything. You don’t turn to any god on the outside and appeal to him to help you. You turn to the inside, and you appropriate what you want. It is a subjective appropriation of the objective hope.

What do I want in the object world? I hope for that. Well, I must now subjectively appropriate that state. I don’t beg for it. I simply appropriate it. if God is my own wonderful human imagination, to whom can I turn? I turn to God by, in my own imagination, appropriating this state. That is what I am told to do.

“When you pray, believe that you have received, and you will.” (Mark 11:24) And whoever says a thing, believing that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Well, is He not speaking to me? Is He not telling me that He dwells within me?

“I dwell in you, and you dwell in me, and we are one. And the things that I have done, you will do also.”

Well, what have you done? I have found the Father. Who is he? He said, “I am the Father.” I am going to find that, too, for that is what I am told. “All the things that I have done, ye shall do, and even greater than these because I go and leave the world. I am returning to my Father, from whom I came; and so you will remain here until you reach the end of the journey.” Not at the end of history, but within history, you will know the truth of the things that I say, for you will know the Father; and when you know the Father, you’ll know yourself because you are the Father!

Well, if He tells me that, do I believe it? Or, is He a liar? Well, I know from my own personal experience that it is all true. The whole thing is true. The truest story ever told is the story of the life of Jesus Christ; but it’s not as the world believes it. It hasn’t a thing to do with a man in time. It has all to do with that Supernatural Being in you, Who unfolds Himself within you as you. And, then, you know Who-You-Are. And you are the Lord Jesus Christ.

Every child born of woman has that Being within that child. The true identity of the child is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God the Father. But while we are here in the world of Caesar, exercise the talent that He gave us. He gave us Himself. That talent is to exercise your imagination lovingly on behalf of others, on behalf of yourself.―don’t neglect yourself; but certainly on behalf of others. Anytime you exercise your imagination lovingly on behalf of another, you have literally mediated God to that “other.” Well, God was your own wonderful human imagination. And, so, when you began to imagine lovely things about another, and you became persuaded that the thing imagined is true, you have mediated God to another. And then he will come to you if he has any heart within him and say, “Thanks.” My friend said to me, “Thanks.” All I ask of him,–not one penny; I don’t want a nickel,–I would like to know that it happened.

Now, it could have happen and he could have left this City and not have told me one word. But, no; he was big enough to write it out on his own paper, for he is the president of the corporation; and the paper bears his signature. He didn’t dictate it to a secretary; he wrote it in longhand and signed it himself. So, I have his own record giving the seven stages; the incorporation in March of 1970; with no funds in April, none in May; and the telephone call to me in Los Angeles from Chicago; and then in the month of July to raise “out of the blue”―that is his expression―“out of the blue” came this broker and underwrote the thing for two hundred and fifty thousand; and then friends asked,–he didn’t persuade the friends,–they asked dot let them have a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of the stock when he was selling stock in the new company.

So, I tell you, the Dreamer-in-you, as Lewis Carroll put it in this lovely poem, “Through the Looking Glass,”―and what a marvelous name for it! It is truly the “looking glass.” She went right through it into a world just as real as this. You go right through the image and occupy the image. You can sit right here now and assume that you are elsewhere. Your body is here, but you are only occupying this body for a moment.

You are all imagination, and you must be wherever you are in imagination. And the whole thing is done by a motion in mind. The motion on the outside is under compulsion. The causative motion is within the mind. So, I move from where I am physically to where I would like to be physically; and if I really do the motion―if I really succeed, how would I know? Well, then, look at the world. Would I see it from there? I should. Well, then, view the world from that assumption. I should see the whole vast world from that position in space if I have assume that I am there. At his very moment I assume that I am now in New York City, standing at a certain spot in the City; close my eyes to the obvious, and then think of San Francisco. Well, I should see it three thousand miles to the west of me. I should see it away beyond where I am standing if I am standing, in my imagination, in New York City.

Well, what would that do to me? That motion in mind would compel a physical motion to correspond to it; and you will awake to find the whole thing is changed. The whole structure of your world has changed, your plans have changed; and it will compel that physical journey. And you will walk across a bridge of incident―some series of events that you do not consciously plan. You will be compelled to make the journey. I speak from experience.

Back in 1941, when my Mother died, I had no idea Mother was that sick, for I lived in America, and she with the rest of my family lived in Barbados. And, so, they never told me how sick Mother was. She had been sick for two years, and I didn’t know it. Always these lovely letters. First of all, the War was on―not our country, but Britain was at war beginning in September of 1939. That was a British possession, and so there was no contact with little Barbados, save a slow freight taking mail. And here, I didn’t realize it, and I had no plans to go to Barbados. I had planned to go to Maine for a vacation of a month. My wife and I even sent off and made the reservations to go to this place in Maine. Then one day in the month of August I received a letter from my brother, and he said; “Mother is dying. There is no possibility of saving her; and I know it’s difficult to get passage to come here; but if you can, she want to see all of her children around that bed of hers before she dies. If you can possibly make it, try and make it.”

We sailed the very next day on the Argentina. It sailed at midnight; and without getting passports or anything, we simply rushed aboard. We bought the ticket, and we got it. We were in such a hurry, I didn’t even get my return passage. I didn’t get any papers. Finally, I had to get them from the U.S. Consul in Barbados when I came back.

Meanwhile, a friend of mine had sent on my passport and the things I left here. So, I had duplicates. So, when I came back, the man at the dock said to me, “You know, you could be arrested for this. You are not supposed to have two passports and two of everything, and here you have two of everything.” Well, here, I didn’t realize what I was doing, but this is what happened. The night that I brought out my book called, “Your Faith Is Your Fortune,” it was in the month of February, and it was snowing―about twelve to fourteen inches of snow on the ground. Naturally, I brought out, and I was very proud of, the book; and I expected the usual audience of about a thousand people.

We used to have about a thousand people three times a week: Wednesday, Friday and Sunday nights, in a little church off Times Square. Well, this night in question they couldn’t get there; and maybe a hundred people came, which was a good crowd for that sort of weather. But the book sale was simply nil, and I was a little bit disappointed in that.

So, this night in question in the month of February I slept in Barbados, just as though I were there in the flesh. Here, I went to bed in New York City with the snow on the ground and still coming, and I assumed that I am in my Mother’s home; and here I am in Barbados with the warm tropical air in Mother’s home, and the whole thing was so natural to me. I went sound asleep in Barbados in my Mother’s home. When I woke the next morning the snow was higher, just the opposite of the state into which I fell when I went to sleep. Well, I didn’t’ know Mother was ill. And, then, came the month of August; and here I was under compulsion―I had to go. I had “gone and prepared the place.”

He said, “I will go and prepare a place for you; and when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye shall be also.” (John 14:2,3) Well, this is a conversation that takes place within us. The “I” in me, the Dreamer,–it goes and prepares a place, and it leaves the “outer” man wherever he was; and when the place is completely prepared, the Dreamer returns and picks up the garment of flesh where it had left it and takes it across a bridge of incidents which it will prepare―my rational mind could never have devised the means. It prepares it and compels me to make the physical journey and ithad made all in imagination.

So, I can tell you that I went to bed and prepared that place; and then, not knowing of my very sick Mother, my wife and I sent off to Maine and made reservations to spend a month in the State of Maine. That had to be canceled because I had already prepared the place to go out to Barbados.

Anyone can do it. In fact, you’re invited to do it, for we are told: “Come, test me and see” (Second Corinthians 13:5) We are invited to test Him. Well, how would I test you, if you and I are one, and you are the Dreamer in me? Here, I assume to be the weaker one, and this is sound asleep. Well, the true reality of my Being is that Dreamer-in-me―the One Who is dreaming the dream of life. “Everything is possible to God” (Matthew 19:26), and God is in man as man’s own wonderful human imagination.

“Well, let us go and look at him. Well, he is sleeping now and he’s dreaming. And what do you suppose he is dreaming about?…Well, he is dreaming about you.” (“Through the Looking Glass” by Lewis Carroll)

Well, that is a shock to Alice. “Dreaming about me? Nobody could know that!”

“If he stopped dreaming about you,” said Tweedle-Dee, “where do you suppose you would be?”

If you stopped dreaming of being poor, where do you suppose poverty would be? If you stopped dreaming about anything that you now think you are,–it could be poverty, it could be limitations of the flesh, limitation socially, limitations of anything; if you stopped dreaming that, where do you think that would be? It exists only in your imagination. If you stop dreaming about it, it has not life in itself, for life is in you, and you animate it and keep it alive.

So, the poor man is poor only because he is dreaming, “I am poor.” And whatever I say I am, that I become, for His name is in me. And that’s the Guardian Angel that leads me from darkness to light, from bondage to freedom; and He is Jehovah Himself! And Jehovah’s name is the concentration of His very Self.

If His name is in me, He is in me. Well, what’s His name? I AM. He has no other name. Well, then, He is the Father. That is the ultimate revelation of God-in-man. When He unveils Himself as God the Father, then His Son stands before you and calls you, “Father.” And you know who you are, because His son calls you, “Father.” And you know this wonderful relationship between yourself (the Father) and the son of God who now is yourson.

So, this is the great mystery as revealed in Scripture. So, here in this world, even though the papers will tell you, the TV will confirm it, and all the magazines will add to it, that a depression is on, and they are letting people out, and you can’t get a job, and you must take a cut in salary in order to hold your job―well, you listen to that, and you will simply confirm everything they suggest, for you are simply applying the same law. If you believe it, you are applying it.

If you do not accept it, and will not dream that dream―don’t let them give you that kind of a dream; you hold onto a new kind of dream, a better dream; this Dreamer-in-you can do everything, and it does everything. “For by Him all things were made, and without Him was not anything made that was made.” (John 1:3)

“I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal.” Yes: “I, even I am He.” That’s what we are told in the 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy.

So, the One in you―the Dreamer―kills and makes alive. Don’t think for one moment that there is a God who makes alive and another being who kills. There’s only one Creator. There is only one Being that can create anything, and that Being is in you as your own wonderful human imagination.

Now, the world, being a rational state, will tell you that that’s irrational, it isn’t sound, it doesn’t make sense. I’m not telling you it makes sense, but it proves itself in performance. And if there is evidence for a thing, what you think about it, or what somebody else thinks about it, doesn’t really matter. What does it matter tonight if my friend tells his friends in Chicago what he did or what he asked of me or what I did, and then what happened? They may never believe what happened or what I did. He does. That’s all that matters. They may go blindly on saying, “No, that would have happened anyway, Jerry.” It doesn’t make any difference what you know tell me, and what he said he did; this is a rational world; and so the broker saw a profit for himself. He, first of all, heard of it, he investigated it and approved of what he found, and now he wants to underwrite it. That’s a rational thing. Then friends of his, with money to invest―they, too, investigated; then finding what they had hoped to find, they want to put their money into something that they think is good and solid. Therefore, be rational about it. He knows tonight―he may forget tomorrow; but he knows tonight what we did, and he knows tonight between May and July he raised three hundred and fifty thousand dollars on an entirely new venture.

I know from my own experience with my family what they have done. They started behind the 8-ball. Today, as head of all the big corporations, they are not paying very much. No; profits are down, and therefore dividend checks are down. My brother Victor, who does exactly what I am talking about―it’s all in his imagination―started behind the 8-bal; so this year he did a forty-million-dollar business, and so I got my dividend check. It was a twenty-per-cent dividend. How many companies are paying twenty per cent? He paid me twenty per cent on my stock; and all the other ones, they are going down and down and down, but I got a big check, twenty per cent. That’s unheard of, but we are a private company; therefore, we can pay what we want. It’s not public; every share of stock is owned by the family. So, my dividend check was twenty per cent of the value of my stock, because he didn’t read the papers, and he doesn’t have a TV set, and he’s not influenced by rumors. He can dream as much as anyone can dream.

There is a man who is paid a huge salary to write in the newspapers to scare people to death. He writes headlines. That’s all that he does as a job, to scare you to death every morning, if you will buy the paper. Something good―some wonderful bit of news is buried in the last page or on some other page. But some horrible thing about someone you do not know―a big headline. They go all over the world to find an accident. Not satisfied with those they can find here, they go all over the world to find them; and then huge big headlines, and scare you. so, you pick it up and read it, and you start dreaming. Well, my brother didn’t do that. When they said that things are down and you can’t get this and you can’t get that, he doesn’t agree with that; he just simply has his own dreams. So, he ended the year and he could give me twenty per cent of my money.

So, I say to everyone: it is entirely up to you, because if you know Who-You-Are, you cannot turn to another, if you know who you are.

“Choose this day whom you will serve.” “I have chosen to serve the Lord,” said he. His name is Joshua. Well, “Joshua” is the Hebraic form of the Anglicized name “Jesus.” It’s the same thing,–the same meaning. It means “Jehovah-Saves.” So, “Joshua” and “Jesus” are identical in meaning. So, it is Jesus who is speaking: “I chose the Lord,” and he tells you: “I am the Lord.” “He who sees me sees the Father.” (John 14:9) “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)

And, so, your imaginal acts are coming into your world. May I tell you? they are not receding into the past, as people think; and you will say, “It was just my imagination.” No, they are advancing into the future, and they will confront you. Well, when they confront you as a harvest, you do not even recognize your own harvest! You will say, “I don’t know this; I never did this.” Yes, you did. The whole vast world is simply the harvest of men who cannot stop imagining. You can’t stop it. That is life itself.

So, morning, noon and night you are imagining; and morning, noon and night you are harvesting. So, you can plant good seed or evil seed. It is entirely up to you. you can plant seed that frightens you to death or seed that is so altogether lovely when it comes into the world. so, I would say to my friend Jerry: “You know how it worked; don’t forget it. And may it now grow in your mind’s eye to a huge, huge business.”

We started with a few little pennies borrowed―borrowed money―back in 1922. My father didn’t have one red cent. What he did have that he valued more than a red cent,–he had ten children: nine sons and a daughter; and, to him, they were the most precious possession in his world. but he had to feed them, shelter the, and clothe them; and he had no money. So, on a little borrowed bit he started, but my brother Victor was the Dreamer. He was consciously dreaming.

He knew exactly what he wanted. He picked out the building on the main street. It was owned und the full name of “___ N. Roach & Company.” My family’s name would be J.N. Goddard & Sons, which would imply the family owned it.

Two years later a stranger came in,–it was for sale,–and said, “Are you going to buy the building?

And Vic said, “With what?”

He said, “Well, I have money. It’s in the bank, pays me nothing.”

“But,” he said, “I’ve got no collateral.”

“I’m not asking for any collateral.” He said, “Do you want the building?”

Vic said, “I would love it, but I have no money and I have no collateral.”

He said, “I will tell my lawyer and he will bid for me, because if they know I am bidding for it, they are going to bid it up.”

And, so, the lawyer bid that day. He represented many clients; so they did not know which client he represented. When the sale was over, he―on the surface―was the owner, but we were the owner. All he got from us as collateral was my brother’s signature and my father’s signature.

They paid back the money that he paid for the building in ten years at six per cent, reducing the equity every year by so much; so at the end of ten years it had been paid. It was reduced year after year after year, which we did. We kept our promise. When that man died, he left my brother, in cash, a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, three homes, many personal possessions. He said, “You are my best friend. You advised me how to invest and what to do; and so I leave you now a hundred and fifty thousand dollars in cash, tax exempt,”―no taxes to pay on it. And from that little beginning, with borrowed capital, it grew and grew and grew and expanded from one island to another island to another island; it’s all over the islands now, and not one person outside of the immediate family owns one share in the business. And it is still growing, in spite of the depression. He doesn’t listen to any arguments about depressions and recessions and what-not. He is simply growing.

I tell you, it’s entirely up to us if you know Who-You-Are. You and God are One. God literally became as you are, that you may be as God is. And to do that, He emptied Himself and took upon Himself the form of a slave, and this (indicating the body) is the form of the slave, and found Himself in the form of man, and became a billion, with all the weaknesses and limitations of man; but He has no limitations when He wakes; so when He wakes in you, you will have no restrictions, no limitations. But until He wakes, believe Him and exercise the talent that He gave you. It is Himself, which is your own imagination, and simply exercise it, and see how He wakes in your world. “Nothing is impossible to God,” and God is your own wonderful human imagination.

So, He is dreaming now. Oh, yes, I know He’s dreaming―dreaming it all, but dreaming horrible dreams. What horrible dreams they are dreaming: getting even with this, and getting even with that. You can stop it now, regardless of what the world tells you, and start a new record―a new dream. Leave it alone, and start dreaming something entirely different.

Well, how do you do it? What would it be like if I were the man I want to be? So, you start with wanting to be. You desire to be other than the man that you seem to be. Well, now, is it true that I could be? Well, if it were true, what would you see? And how would you see the world? And how would your friends see you? What would you say when you meet them, and what would they say if all the things that you now would like to be, you are? And where would you live if it were true? Would you still live in the limited state, or would you live in a more wonderful place, in a better state? Well, then, live there mentally.

You say, “I have never been in such a place. I wouldn’t have the courage to go into that place.” Mentally sleep in it.

I have told this to my friends time and again. In New York City we have a place called Tiffany’s, and we speak of “a Tiffany.” Well, that is the height for certain things. I am not speaking against Macy’s or Gimbel’s; they serve a purpose. But people will pass by Tiffany’s and go into Macy’s or Gimbel’s to buy a wedding present of, say, eight or a dozen glasses. It is sent off to the Bride-to-be in a Macy box, cost more than twelve lovely glasses from Tiffany that would be sent in a Tiffany box. I know that from experience.

There are people who were born on the east side of New York who have never crossed the barrier; they are embarrassed to leave their little place and come as far as Fifth Avenue. Those born on the west side never come to Fifth Avenue. They were born, and they die, there. People live in Brooklyn. They were born in Brooklyn and they die in Brooklyn seventy or eighty years later and never see Manhattan. They are embarrassed to go out of their own little shell. If they will not go out physically, just imagine trying to go out mentally! They are embarrassed. They wouldn’t go into a Tiffany; they wouldn’t go into a smart shop. And I’ve always said you can buy better things in the better stores, and not at these inflated prices that people tell you.

But, it takes some bold step in the mind to have you change your pattern of thinking, and therefore your pattern of living.

Tonight, if you really would like to transcend the world in which you live, transcend it first in your imagination, and don’t ask how it’s going to happen, how will things move in your world to permit it to happen. They will move. But first, in your mind’s eye, be the person that you want to be, and walk as though you were; and in a way that no one knows, you will become that person.

Well, soon or late, we become,–and we start to be and do our fixed beliefs―what we really believe that we are. Soon or late, we believe and we are and we do.

Well, tonight, you want to be noble―I mean, a noble being―not one born to the purple, not one born by physical descent; I mean noble in spirit, noble in mind. As far as I am concerned, I accept no aristocracy of the flesh―only the aristocracy of the Spirit. I refuse to accept any aristocracy of the flesh. We are not race horses! They do that way. First of all, they are not bred that way―those who claim to be of the aristocratic world. They simply breed them within their own sphere. That’s not breeding them physically. And I do not accept the physical descent. I accept the spiritual descent.

So, in your own mind’s eye, find Who-You-Are. Can you go higher than the Lord? You can’t go higher than the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is the true identity of every child born of woman. Let him know that he is that Being. He begins to dream nobly. If he really is the Lord Jesus Christ, he will not entertain any unlovely thought in this world. He will become incapable of entertaining any unlovely thought.

So, if I tell you that you are, you may not believe it, but I know I am telling you the truth. So, when you sleep this night, sleep as if it were true, and daily walk in that assumption; and that assumption, though false at the moment, if you persist in it, it will harden into fact.

SPIRITUAL SENSATION

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 05-16-1969

The Reverend Dr. Trusler saw the Bible as secular history, and criticized Blake, saying he needed someone to elucidate his ideas. Blake responded by saying: “You ought to know that what is Grand is necessarily obscure to Weak men. That which can be made Explicit to the Idiot is not worth my care. The wisest of the ancients considered what was not too Explicit as fittest for Instruction because it rouses the faculties to act.

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.”

Tonight I will use scripture, but my premise will not be along any orthodox concept of Christ, for scripture is a mystery. It is God’s secret, which cannot be read with complete understanding, but must be experienced.

When you read in the Book of Revelation, “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born from the dead,” you may think – as the world does – of a unique being who came into the world two thousand years ago. But the word “Christ” means “the Lord’s anointed.” This is not one man called ‘the Lord” and another man called “the anointed,” but one who knows himself to be the Lord’s anointed. Who is the anointed? Your own wonderful human imagination! That’s the only Jesus and the only God. When a friend asked Blake what he thought of Jesus, Blake replied: “He is the Only God, but so am I and so are you.” This statement is true, but man will not accept the fact that his human imagination is God. He cannot grasp the idea that the God who created and sustains the universe is one with his human imagination, but Blake meant his statement to be taken literally. Your own wonderful human imagination is Jesus, the Only God – and so am I.

Matthew made this statement: “Thank you Father that you have hidden these things from the wise and the understanding and revealed them to babes.” God chooses the unlearned (the babes in faith) to confound the wise, for such is His gracious will. Then Matthew adds this thought: “And no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” I ask you to take my yoke (my understanding of scripture gained from personal experience) upon you and learn from me. My yoke is easy and the burden is light, but you must be willing to take that which is in conflict with the teachings of the world, and follow me. We recently saw ninety man-made saints defrocked by the church.

After making hundreds of millions of dollars out of the poor people by selling little medallions and statues of these saints, the church now proclaims they never existed. They were all one grand myth, started by the church for monetary purposes. Millions of these little medallions were sold as intermediaries between man and God, when the human imagination is God, whose name is I AM!

Christ is the faithful witness, the first-born from the dead. The word “Christ” means “the anointed.” Proclaiming to come into the world only to fulfill scripture as recorded in the Old Testament, we must turn to the first book of Samuel to find who the anointed is. In the 16th chapter we read: “Rise and anoint him; this is he.” Then Samuel takes the holy oil and anoints David. And in the 89th Psalm the Lord speaks, saying: “I have found David. With my holy oil I have anointed him. He has cried unto me, ‘Thou art my Father, my God and the Rock of my salvation.’ I shall make him the first-born and scripture cannot be broken.” David, the anointed of the Old, is the Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, of the New. The Jesus of scripture is the I am of every child born of woman, who is God Himself. It is God who wears these garments of flesh you and I believe ourselves to be, for our awareness is He. Having made a garment for man out of the dust of the earth, and taking upon himself all of its weakness and limitations, God proclaims: “When I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all men unto me.” The word “men” has been added. The original script reads, “When I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all unto me.”

Now, God only acts and is in existing beings or men. Acting as your imagination, God will play every part He created in the beginning. And when every part has been played, the sum total of all the parts will appear as eternal youth, personified and called David, the anointed, the Christ-head, the messiah. No one can complete his journey in this world of death until he has played all the parts, because only then can David be resurrected.

In the Book of Psalms, David cries out to the Lord for help, saying: “Thou hast put me in the desolate pit.” Then these words are proclaimed: “Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.” The human imagination is the God who redeems David. It is that God who wears your garment of flesh and answers to your name. Imagination’s mighty power is buried in you. He is your son, who will erupt within you when you have played all parts, to reveal you as his Father and the Rock of his salvation. The Bible is sacred history, not secular history, and the events recorded there go on forever and ever.

The being that you really are is God. There never was another and never will be another God, for He is one, not two. You say “I am” and I say “I am,” yet you cannot divide I am. We are the Elohim who fell into division and will resurrect into the unity of the grand I AM. The crucifixion is over, for you have been crucified with Christ. Your death and burial is past. You have entered hell (this world) and you will rise from it after you have played all the parts you promised in the beginning.

You and I as brothers form the one who is called the Lord, the I AM, the Father of David. The word “Jesse” is any form of the verb “to be”, or “I AM.” One day you will find David, the son of Jesse, and know him to be a man after your own heart – who will do, has done, and will continue to do, all of your will. I cannot condemn anyone for what he has done, is doing, or what he may do, for I have found David. My memory has returned, and I know there is not a part, personified in this world, that I have not played. David, he who was promised before the foundation of the world, is made manifest at the end of time. Then you will realize that he is not secular, but sacred.

The Bible records sacred history and the David spoken of there is sacred. When he stands before you and calls you Father, there is no uncertainty as to your relationship. You know your son and he knows his father. The story is not how the Son reveals the Father (which he does) but how the Father reveals the Son. In the Book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, the question is asked: “A son honors his father. If I am a father, where is my honor?” It takes unnumbered years before the Son is found in the New Testament, which is only the fulfillment of the Old. There could be no New without the Old, for the New is its fulfillment. And the Old, being a sacred promise, finds its fulfillment in the New. The drama of the Old makes sense as it begins to unfold in the New, in you.

I am a man, born in the year 1905. If I could trace scripture as I can my ancestral background, what relationship would I have with Solomon, when I don’t know what Solomon, what David, or what Abraham? I tell you, these are eternal states of the mind, personified, and not physical flesh and blood beings. They are states through which God passes as you and I, because God became us that we may become God.

Our journey of self-imposed limitation began when we said: “No one takes away my life, I lay it down myself” yet we have condemned a race of people for taking the life of one, who – like St. Christopher – never lived. The Jesus of scripture is the human imagination in which the Christ of scripture unfolds, and the Christ of the New is the David of the Old. He is the anointed.

When your imagination has finished the work he came to do, the sum total of all the parts he has played becomes personified and stands before you – his Father – to look into your face and see the one he knew before that the world was. And when you see David, you see your reflection, the end result of your imagined journey through death.

This is the great mystery of the seed. Unless it falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit. God died by restricting himself to the limit of contraction and opacity of man in order to go through this world of generation and decay. He is now buried in Zion (your skull), which is the stronghold David takes by going up the spiral water-shaft. One night I felt an explosion in my skull, and when everything settled, I, God, observed my son David, my beloved in whom I am well pleased. I found my anointed and fulfilled scripture. I tell you: you are not predestined to be rich or poor, known or unknown. You are here only to fulfill sacred history.

Right now you can use your powerful imagination to assume you are what at the moment your senses and reason deny. Walk in this assumption, knowing you are all imagination, and all things are possible to you. Dare to believe in the reality of your assumption and watch the world play its part relative to its fulfillment. Your assumption may appear to be false when first imagined; but if you will persist, it will harden into fact, because God is he who is doing the assuming. All of the objective facts you see here on earth are only shadows, which fade because imagination is their reality.

But the real predestination spoken of in scripture is not secular, but sacred. It was proclaimed before that the world was. Then God died in order to assume these garments of flesh, and play all the parts. I know, for I speak from experience. I ask you to take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Believe my experiences, for “If I be lifted up I draw all men unto me.” I have been lifted up out of this world and out of this earthly body. I ascended in a spiral motion to find myself clothed in a body of fire and air. I needed no sun, moon, or stars, at the time, for I knew myself to be the light of the world. As Spirit, I glided above the earth, where I came upon a scene of human imperfection. The blind, the lame, the halt, and the withered, were waiting for me there; and as I glided by, each was made perfect because I was perfect. Then these words came to my mind: “Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.” That night, in that experience, who played that part? The Father. And who is the Father? I am! And when each was made perfect, the heavenly chorus sang out the last cry on the only cross God ever wore, saying: “It is finished.”

Man has nailed God to a wooden cross by his concept of scripture, but God was never nailed to any wooden cross. He is nailed to your garment of flesh. As that heavenly chorus sang out: “It is finished,” I felt myself once more congeal to this little garment (my cross) in order to tell my story to all who will listen. Some will believe me and some will not, but I will tell it anyway to encourage those who may be persuaded to modify their inherited, fixed ideas. Being born into a certain environment, they inherited their religion and find it difficult to modify it; but I tell you: the Bible is within you and must unfold within you at the journey’s end. Then you will discover that the Father is yourself. This will be revealed to you by your Son, David, who comes to you in the Spirit; and you, too, will say: “Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee.”

Now, the names Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are titles to books whose authors are unknown, but we do know that the Book of Luke is written by the same man who wrote the Book of Acts. In it we read: “Thou, Lord, who by the mouth of thy servant David has said, ‘Why do the nations rage and the people imagine vain things against the Lord and his anointed?’ The word translated “servant” here, is translated “son” or “child” every other place in scripture. If it is found before the word, “Jesus,” it is translated “son;” but if found before the word, “David,” it is translated “servant” – which is error.

In the 2nd Psalm, David declares: “I will tell of the decree of the Lord; he has said unto me, ‘Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee,’ and the Word of God cannot be broken.” We are told not to add to or take from His Word, but to fulfill it. Your worldly accomplishments will all vanish like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment and all within it likewise; but your salvation will be forever, and your redemption will have no end. Today, men are making fortunes to leave behind some monument to themselves. Our new president is doing this very thing. He hasn’t made a dent so far, upon the world, but wants to leave his little footprint on the sands of time by building a library in his name – not realizing that one day the tide will come in and wipe his footprints away, as though they never existed. Bless him. May he have his desire fulfilled, even though it is such nonsense, when the only purpose for life is to fulfill scripture.

I have come only to fulfill scripture. I have taken the Bible, and beginning with Moses and the law, the prophets, and the psalms, I have explained all the things concerning myself, for it is all about me in the volume of the book. Here I am a simple man, telling all who are born as I was born, that the Bible is written – not about the garment I am wearing, called Neville, but the Being within me. It is that Being who has experienced scripture.

I invite you to take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Don’t take the traditional concepts which have been handed down year after year, for they are false. What Christian, this night, hearing the words “Jesus Christ”, would not think of a unique, single being, who was born in some unusual manner two thousand years ago; yet it isn’t so at all.

Yes, there is an unusual experience within the individual, but it is going to happen in everyone. It is a birth, but not from the womb of a woman called Mary, or any other name, but from the womb of one’s skull. Coming out of your own skull, all of the imagery as described in Matthew and Luke surrounds you. You will then realize that the Bible was written of you. Beginning with your awakening within your skull, you discover you are entombed in it, and you come out of that skull just as a child comes out of the womb of a woman. At that moment God (your human imagination) is born to a higher expansion of yourself, for there is only God, who is forever expanding.

There is a limit to opacity, but no limit to translucency. Taking upon himself the limit of opacity (which is this world), imagination plays every part known to man, breaks its bonds; and God, individualized, has expanded beyond what He was prior to his descent into this hell. No, God is not absolute. If that were true, there would be no joy, no fun – for Imagination could not expand. If you were beyond expansion you could never know anything greater than yourself, and that sameness would be hell beyond measure; but truth is an ever increasing illumination.

You cannot pigeonhole truth, for its expansion goes on forever. Having united all of the experiences of being man within myself, I am greater by reason of the experience. Now I can conceive another play -a far more difficult one, and take upon myself the limitations of it to burst its bonds and resurrect once more; for resurrection is God’s mightiest act.

When I say I am God, I don’t mean this little tiny thing called Neville, but the being who is speaking to you, for he is the one who had the experiences. This thing called Neville is subject to all the pains of mortality. It can drink too much, go to sleep with a big head, and wake tomorrow with an even bigger one. If you are going to judge me by what I do physically, you will never know the being that I am, or the being that you are; for the being who is so identified with you, who answers to your name and feels your pain and joy, is God. God only acts and is in existing beings or men. He is acting in me as my human imagination, as he is acting in you as yours. There never was another God and there never will be another.

Take my yoke (my experiences) upon you and learn from me, for you are here for only one purpose, and that is to fulfill scripture. The part you are now playing is adding to your whole; and when you have played every part you agreed to play in the beginning, your immortal Son, David, will bear witness to your Fatherhood. He is the result of your experiences in this world of death, and will only be found when death has been conquered.

Now, on this practical level, you can put your human imagination to the test; for I tell you: all things are possible to him. Test yourself by determining what you want. I am telling you a principle and leave you to your choice and its risk. You may want to hurt someone. I hope you do not, for there is no other, and you are only hurting yourself.

There is only one God who is playing all the parts, so when you pray for another, you are – in truth – praying for yourself. Job prayed for his friends by forgetting himself. In his love for and sincere desire to have them succeed, Job entered into a state of empathy for his friends. In that state his own captivity was lifted, and he became twice as rich, twice as great, as he was prior to the horrors that he experienced.

Name your goal. Imagine you have reached it, and persuade yourself it is true. Believe in the reality of your imaginal act, for it is God in action. An imaginal act is God’s Word, which cannot return unto him void, but must accomplish that for which he sent it. If your imagination is God, then your imaginal act is God in action. Everything in the world was first imagined. The clothes you wear, the chair upon which you are seated, your car, your home, the pictures on the wall – all were first imagined. When I told my tailor what I wanted in the way of a suit, he took a piece of cloth which had no shape and used his imagination, before he even started cutting the cloth. Then he produced what was once only imagined.

Let no one tell you that one man can, in any way, enslave the world, because no one can stop men from imagining. A tyrant like Hitler or Stalin frightened men into accepting their leadership; but the minute men stopped being afraid of them, they were afraid. The minute you are not afraid, you are not enslaved. So, be not afraid. That’s the story of the world. Our economy is based upon fear. The war scare, the peace scare, the market scare. If you can lose all fear, and imagine what you would like to have in spite of what seems to be, and persist in that awareness, your persistence will bring your desire to pass.

If it takes unnumbered tens of thousands to play their part to aid the birth of your imaginal act, they will, not even knowing they are playing the part you assigned them. You don’t need to know who they are. All you are required to do is persist in your imaginal act, because that is God in action; but if you quit, then you do not know who God is. You are told: “The word that goes forth from my mouth shall not return unto me void, but must prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” That word is an imaginal act. It must return to you and bring you the fruit of that which you intended when you sent it out.

Believe me, the Jehovah of the Old Testament and the Jesus of the New is your own wonderful human imagination. That is God. The Christ of the New is the messiah of the Old. The word “messiah” means “the anointed,” who is David. When David stood before me and I looked into his eyes, my memory returned. It was as though I had suffered from amnesia, for when David stood before me I knew I was his Father.

Now, like Paul, I can say: “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race, for I have kept the faith. Now there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness.” What is that crown? My Son, my honor. I cannot enter a more exalted state than that which I left, unless I bring the result of my journey with me. That result is David.

The world may not believe me, but it does not matter, I know that each and every one must experience all the parts, so I forgive all. I cannot condemn a part when I know I am its author. Having written all the parts, I could find no one to play them; so I came down, diversified myself, and played them all. Having resurrected into unity once more, I returned with David – the result of my having played all the parts.

Now let us go into the silence.

SUMMARY

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 01-29-1963

We have been talking about God’s law and God’s promise. God’s law is conditional. You cannot be in one state and not suffer the consequences of not being in another state, and you and I are free to imagine any state in the world, and imagining that state we can occupy it. Occupying the state, we fertilize it; having fertilized it, it has its own appointed hour for fulfillment. Every vision has its own appointed hour it will flower; if it seems long, wait for it – it is sure and it will not be late. Some things will grow overnight, and some things will grow in a week, then in three weeks, and then in a month, and some things will take years. It could be a problem over which we seem to have no control. We have told you the story here, where on one occasion it took five years, but oh! the joy of reaping the fruit then. It was the relationship of a mother and son-in-law. I have told you unnumbered stories where it took intervals of time, but it doesn’t matter, if we apply the principle.

Now today if you read in the headlines: “England denies union with Europe,” and you may be inclined to resent De Gaulle – restrain your resentment. I was born and raised a Britisher, born under the Union Jack. All my family are still living under the Union Jack. I am very proud I was born with that background, a rugged, rugged background of Scotch, English, and Irish. My forefathers were from Cornwall, that rugged English setup. I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. They were adventurers when they ventured and re-adventured across all the seas of the world. Nothing could be more clear than my background.

Last Sunday in the English paper, there came a little note, held in the secret archives of the British foreign office for forty-three years. It was dated, May 1, 1920, not yet made public to anyone, but conceived by the British minds in the Foreign Office. They conceived it and wrote it. De Gaulle didn’t write it, no Frenchman wrote it – they wrote it, but they didn’t think it wise to make it public on the first day of May, 1920, which was only a matter of a year after that frightful First World War, when England’s flower of manhood was slaughtered in the trenches. The universities were empty and all the brains of England went down. Then came the Second World War and after four weeks, France collapsed, collapsed like a little paper doll. And England – and England alone – held until America came in, but she held it alone, or today there would be no France. There would only be a unified Germany under Hitler, we know that. And so today you are inclined to judge too harshly, for his attitude, the one who made it possible for today to have a France.

Let me quote now from this memorandum, dated May 1, 1920: “We must not insist now or in the future on the friendship of France. Nothing can alter the fundamental fact that they do not like us in France and never will…” I am quoting accurately: ” and they never will, except for the advantages of the French people as they can extract them from the English.” Now a Frenchman didn’t write that. Englishmen wrote that from the Foreign Office, which is like our State Department, for they determine foreign policy. That was considered judgment of the brains of England of 1920, and it took forty-three years to hatch out. So having read it in the English press printed last Sunday, and requoted here in Monday morning paper, I can only give praise to the Lord God that he is completely impersonal.

It doesn’t matter whether he is an Englishman, Frenchman, American, or Russian – it is only law. If that is what they believe, that is what they are reaping: the law of identical harvest. They believed it and checked it in the secret archives of the Foreign Office, and then forty-three years later out comes the opposition – when you would think (judged by human levels) that anything in this world that France would have done, would be to welcome with open arms England, who made it possible for there still to be a France today. But England planted the seed and planted it firmly and it was watered over the years. And then comes one -God never forgets, he can’t forget, he watches all, he sees all; nothing is hidden from God, he sees exactly what you are doing. “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, every man in his room of pictures?” (Ezekiel 8:12) We think that no one sees us. I say: nothing is hidden from God. If it had not been printed in the English papers on Sunday, you and I would not know that some English group had planted it.

I am an American by adoption, but I cannot rub out my love of England. All the physical blood that flows through me comes from Scotland, England, and Ireland. A little bit of Holland Dutch got in from my mother’s side, for they were rugged individualists too, living on dykes (living on water, really). But though physically I would like to resent it, I am happy I saw it. I knew that somewhere the seed had been planted, for you can’t have something grow in this world and not have a root from which it springs. So I ask you: knowing this law (for those who did it, know nothing of this law which you know, which is the law of falsification of the record) – had they known the scriptures as you know them: the story of the unjust steward (Luke 16), keeper of the pigs, and the pig is the symbol of Christ.

I have told you my vision of the pig. I found him and then came the growing of the pig, but I hadn’t fed it as well as I should have fed him in the interval of discovery, and when I saw the same pig years later I found it . . .What did I find? I found that imagination creates reality, and in the interval of that discovery that imagination creates reality, I forgot it, so he was not well fed. But I always remembered that imagining creates reality. No matter what you tell me in fact, I would actually change the fact, for truth depends not upon fact, but upon the intensity of imagining. The real record is my memory.

Functioning on this level, it takes a little while to persuade ourselves when reason denies it and our senses deny it. Were we functioning on higher levels, everything would be immediately subject to our imaginative power. On this level it takes a little while, and so it takes persistence, it takes patience, it takes diligence. These are the things we pay, the price we pay for the fruits we are seeking to reap in this world. Here we always bear in mind the distinction between states and the occupant of the state. You are an immortal being occupying a state. That state may be poverty, wealth, health, sickness; it may be to be known in this world or to be unknown -but they are only states. You are neither known or unknown – you are immortal; you are neither rich or poor -these do not really define you at all. You can assume that you are, and to the degree that you are persuaded you are, you bear the fruit of that state – but you are neither rich or poor. You are immortal, destined eventually to inherit the whole vast universe, for it is God’s purpose to give you himself as though there were no other in the world, just God and you – and not even God and you – just God, and you are he. That is the purpose.

Listen to these words: “Holy Father, Keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” (John 17:11) The name he gave me is his name, and he is addressed as, “Holy Father.” How could he give me the name of “father” – “Holy Father” – unless at the same time he gives me the Son who makes me [a] father? I can’t be a father and [have] no son. There must be a son to bear witness of my fatherhood. So he gives me his Son, his only begotten Son, and in doing this he gives me fatherhood. The “Holy Father keep them” (those who shall be brought to that level) “in thy name,” is the name that he gives me – the same name, your name, you give to me. What is the name? The name is “father.” And he does it in the most marvelous way: he presents his only begotten son and no one tells you who he is. You know who he is, and you know he is your son, and you know that he is not only your son, but he knows you are his father. At that very moment you inherit the glory that is the Father; but the glory of this heavenly inheritance – which is the whole vast universe -cannot become actual, or at least not fully realized in the individual, as long as he is in this physical garment. But when he takes it off for the last time after that experience, automatically he is one with God the Father: “That they may be one, even as we are one.” And that is every child’s destiny in the world.

But you pass through all kinds of trials and tribulations, and he gives us a law – a law by which we may live wisely and happily. As we are told: “Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the Lord, for in all that he does he prospers.” Not in a few little things, but in everything that he does he prospers – if he knows. Were you sitting in that cabinet forty-three years ago when this decision was brought in and typed and filed, if you knew what you know today and you sat there, you would say to the gentlemen: “I know gentlemen, these are the facts based upon reason.” It is like they hate, as you hate the man who feeds you, because you are embarrassed to be fed, so after a while you are waiting to get even. You don’t want to be fed, and so when he keeps on feeding you, you feel yourself a slave. As a slave feels his power, he wants to cut the throat of the one who fed him. That’s automatic.

So if you were there you, would have said: “Gentlemen these are the facts, but let us now modify the facts, let us falsify the record and rewrite that memorandum, and let us persuade ourselves that they love us, that we can one day become a unified body – all of us – regardless of the differences of tongues, and let us file that report.

Maybe they would not have done it, but one individual in that group would have done it in his mind’s eye. But they didn’t know what you know. As we are told: “The wise men of old, the prophets and the kings would have given anything to have heard the things that you have heard and to see the things you have seen, and they did not.” And so in our State Department – or the Foreign Office of England, or in the foreign office of any power in the world – they are not hearing what you are hearing. This doesn’t make sense to them; they must be rational beings and play the game as they played it for unnumbered centuries, with all the mistakes and replaying all the silly things all over again. I tell you: don’t forget it, because God doesn’t forget it, and we create by our imaginal acts.

What are you tonight imagining? I don’t care what it is; one day you are going to be shocked beyond your wildest dreams when you see the other side. Like the story of “Lazarus laughs.” He returns from the dead and all the values were changed, and the rich were poor, and the poor were not poor. All the values on this side were completely reversed on that side and everything was changed when Lazarus returned, and he laughed at some things we are doing here. So I tell you: don’t forget God’s law, for “Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the Lord, for in all that he does he prospers.”

Now tonight you take it, though everything in the world denies it. Reason denies it, your friends will deny it, and you dare to assume you are the man – already the man, already the woman – you would like to be, and that things are already what you would like them to be. And as you dare to assume that you are, and you walk in that assumption just as though it were true, in a way that no one knows you will be led across a series of events toward the fulfillment of that assumption, and no power in the world can stop it if you are persistent in that assumption. Believe that imagining creates reality. “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will.” (Mark 11:24) Just as simple as that – but how to believe that I receive it? If at this very moment I believe that I have received what today I deny, I would look at the world differently. I wouldn’t see it prior to that fulfillment. I would now mentally look at the world, and I should see it as I would see it, were it true that I have become the man I want to be. I would commune with my wife, my daughter, my friends, from that assumption, and though no physical thing in the world could force me, I still should persist in the belief it is done, and carry on that assumption, and sleep in the belief that it has taken place just as though it were true. And if I do, may I tell you: I know from experience it will come true on this level. It is already true the very moment I believe it; at that moment is the creative act. But man’s memory is very short and he doesn’t remember the act, so when he reaps the harvest he denies that it is his. He didn’t plant it, and yet we have a law established in the very beginning called the law of “identical harvest.” “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” (Genesis 8:22) Everything will bear according to its nature; it cannot bring forth other than its nature.

That which ye sow ye reap. See yonder fields!
The seasum was seasum, the corn
Was corn. The Silence and the Darkness knew!
So is man’s fate born.

So when I reap these things in the world, I may deny it and try to argue my way out of it, but it confronts me and there it is. It would not have been brought into the world were it not planted as it was planted, because there it is, there’s the fruit. And so if today I am unwanted by the world, sometime in the past I must have felt very sorry for myself and felt unwanted. I feel they should really want me, because I had been so kind to them in the past. After all my kindness, this is what they do. Then I feel a reaction, then I feel unwanted. That’s what nations do, individuals do, families do – don’t you do it! Do God’s law. God’s law is no respecter of persons. He doesn’t care whether you are an American or Russian or Chinese or African. He made all and he is sunk in all and the same law operates in all.

We are all one and eventually we will all awake, and our name will be one and our name will be “father” – “Holy Father” – looking at our own beloved son, and his name is David, the only begotten son and there he is and you are his father. And if I am his father and you are his father, then we are one. If the whole vast world becomes the father of the only begotten son, then we are one – though we are individualized.

May I tell you from my own visions: you haven’t the slightest concept of what is in store for you – the beauty, the joy that is yours. You are not this. If you want any comfort or any slight vision, read the 1st and 8th [chapters] of Ezekiel. You get a glimpse of what is in store for you, for the being spoken of there implies it is God – the only God – is you. And for all the identity of your person, your face will be glorified beyond your wildest dreams. We will be glorified; nothing will be left impermanent. I will recognize you and you will recognize me. But – for all this identity of person, there will be a radical discontinuity of form.

The vision of Ezekiel saw a glimpse of it. As he describes it: “Then I beheld, and, lo, a form that had the appearance of a man; below what appeared to be his loins it was fire.” (Ezekiel 8:2) I’ve seen it -it is a fire – a glorious burning, liquid, golden light. “And above his loins it was like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming bronze.” He’s right – no stomach, no need for any of this; you now know, for you are life in yourself. You don’t need any cure from outside yourself. You are a life-giving being – a seraphim [sic] -that is your destiny. Everyone is destined to be that being, though human in face, human in hands, human in feet, but nothing else. You are a fiery being. You differ as much from what you appear to be now as the butterfly from the caterpillar, and yet out of the caterpillar comes the butterfly. Out of this will come the being you are destined to be, but not until you are made perfect and all these things we are going through. It takes all of it to hatch us out, as it were. But you apply the law.

I was reading today that in the day of Coolidge (which goes back into the twenties) there were eight men who met in Chicago. They had a greater wealth among the eight of them than the national income from taxation of this country. Within eight years, seven of them either died in poverty, or were in prison, or committed suicide. Seven of the eight. Their names were not mentioned, but together they controlled greater wealth than our national tax produced, and yet within eight years seven had made dishonorable exits from the world – suicide, prison, and right into the dregs of poverty. Don’t you do that! Know this law and use God’s law wisely, hurting no one in the world, just assuming you are the man you want to be, just as though it were true. Your friends will argue with you, but you don’t argue back. Let them argue if they want, but you persist in the assumption that things are as they ought to be and go about your business, telling to others what you want to. In fact if you are inwardly convinced of it, you can’t restrain the impulse to share it with others. As Lord Lindsley said to a group of ministers once: “You ministers are making a mistake. In your pulpits you are arguing for Christianity and no one wants to hear your arguments. You ought to be witnesses. Does this thing work? Then share it with the rest of us.” That’s what I have been trying to tell you: how it works.

When it comes to the promise, I share it with my visions. You can’t misuse it, for that is unconditional. The law…yes, you can produce the results, because that is conditional. You get into a state, remain in a state, and it produces a result. When it comes to God’s promise you cannot produce it; God gives it to you, it’s grace, it’s unconditional. And may I tell you: all that is said in the scriptures of Jesus Christ, one day will be said of you. It’s the model of every child born of woman – everyone will play that part. Don’t be concerned – the crucifixion is over. Don’t think you are moving towards that disastrous end – it’s over. Listen to the words: “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:5) So the death is over; the resurrection takes place individually, one by one. Don’t be concerned about the cruel end – that is over. Let your hope be fully placed upon that gift, then you are resurrected from the grave – for you are going to be, every one will be. In the meanwhile play fully and grant to everyone the good he asks of you, without putting your hand in your pocket. Grant it by an imaginal act on your part. Try to be as faithful as you can to that imaginal act; believe in the creativity of that imaginal act, and as you do it, they will all become the embodiment of what they asked of you.

Bear in mind what we told you earlier. These great nations led by wise men did not hear what you are hearing, and if they heard it they didn’t have ears to hear it, because they didn’t act upon it. They were convinced they were unwanted, and then, in time – all visions having their own appointed hour -that vision flowered, and today they are reaping the fruit of a seed they themselves planted forty-three years ago. But don’t be carried away tonight when you read the headlines or listen to the radio, that the ungrateful Frenchman did so and so; they had no choice in the matter whatsoever, if you know this law. He was pushed up to play the part he is playing because England planted the seed they planted. They could tonight plant another seed, and be so welcome tomorrow that they would simply embarrass the French to offer. It could be, if they only knew how to plant the seed. They could plant a seed of being welcome and wanted in that wonderful body of men, because they are wonderful. They have all given so much to the world. The French have, the Germans have, the Danes – all of them. There isn’t one in that huge combine that haven’t given so much to the world. And so they could with open arms bring them all in, and they could make a bigger world. But someone has to plant the seed, and I am glad that someone printed that in the “Los Angeles Times.” It came out only the day before in the English “Times” and I quoted it accurately. It not only said that this would not be changed – it was fundamental, a fundamental fact they were unwanted, unwelcome – but they would always be. That’s a stupid concept. There is nothing “always.” The only thing that is eternal and always, is that you will get God’s gift – which is himself.

Outside of that there is nothing fatalistic in God’s world. The only fatalistic thing is given to us so clearly stated in the Book of Romans (8:29, 30) when he calls us one by one: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.” So we are foreknown and predestined, predestined and called, called and glorified, glorified and then justified. That is the only predestination that I can find. Yes, there are other passages, but that hasn’t a thing to do with you being rich. You aren’t predestined to be rich and you aren’t predestined to be poor, to be known or to be unknown – that is your choice. But when it comes to the other, that is God’s predestined gift. He’s going to give you himself. God is determined to give us – all of us – himself, as though there were no other in the world. Just God in you and God in me, and then just God – individualized. And not in eternity will we be absorbed into a God, losing our individuality – never. I am individualized, you are individualized, and we tend forever toward greater and greater individualization – and yet, God.

Now let us go in to the silence.

THE FIRST PRINCIPLE

December 22, 2013

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

Neville Goddard 06-09-1969

Do not accept any statement from scripture, the church, or an individual (including the speaker) as true until you have found God or a living truth in what is being said. What I tell you I know from experience, but I ask you not to accept my words without questioning them within yourself. It is silly to accept something simply because the church said it, or you read it in the Bible, or heard it from Neville. You must pursue the thought ceaselessly by questioning yourself.

Why do I stress this? Because among the spirit world there are many Babel’s where no two speak with the same tongue. One may tell you to give up meat, while another will tell you something entirely different. This we are told in the 11th chapter of the Book of Genesis. I am not speaking of multiple tongues as the many languages we have today. We can overcome those with an interpreter; but if someone tells you: “This is the way,” and another says: “No. This is the way,” and they don’t agree – you are in Babel, a city of confusion in the pathway of the spirit.

So tonight I want to talk to you about the first principle, which you can always fall back on when in doubt. This first principle is: “Be still and know that I am God.” No matter what happens turn within and be still. Know that your awareness is God and that all things are possible to you. Test yourself and you will prove this statement in the testing; then you will be free from your former limitations of belief. No matter what is happening on the outside turn to the first principle. Start by being still, then claiming: “I am God.” Ask yourself: “Is this true?” You will never know the truth until you test it.

Let us now look at some of the “I am” statements of scripture. I am the resurrection. I am the life. I am the way. I am the truth. Are these statements really true? Yes, I have stilled myself and know that every statement is true, from experience. Being human I wanted things in the world of Caesar, as undoubtedly you do, too.

I wanted a trip I could not afford, yet I traveled over 5,000 miles by being still and saying to myself: “My awareness is God and all things are possible to him. therefore what I am imagining will come to pass.” Then I began to imagine I was on a ship sailing towards Barbados. I remained faithful to that act, when suddenly – after twelve years – I received a letter from the family saying they would take care of all of my expenses if I would come home for Christmas. So I proved it. Then I tried it again and again, and the more I tried it the more I realized that the statement in the 46th Psalm was true: that God really is my own wonderful consciousness, for I learned to be still and know that I am God.

I couldn’t prove the other fantastic ‘I am’ claims by taking the same action. I had to wait, and then one day I proved that I am the life. That night I moved in spirit into an environment where I intuitively knew that, although what I was seeing seemed to be independent of my perception, if I arrested that feeling within me everything would stand still. I did it and discovered that not only the animate, but the so-called inanimate objects stood still. The falling leaves stopped in mid-flight. The blades of grass ceased to move. The bird in flight, the diners as well as the waitress – all were frozen as I stopped the feeling within me. Then I knew the truth of the statement: “I am the life.”

After proving to myself that I am the life of a state, I questioned the statement: “I am the resurrection.” Then came the day when I felt myself resurrect within the grave of my own skull. I proved that I am the Father, when my son came in the Spirit and called me “Father.” I discovered that I am the one who was sacrificed, for – knowing I am the Father – my spiritual body was split from top to bottom. Then I discovered that I was the one upon whom the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form as a dove.

These things I now know to be true from experience, therefore I speak with authority. But I say to everyone: whether you hear it from me, a church, or the Bible – question yourself ceaselessly until you have found the living truth in that which was said. Accept the words but then go back to first principle and ask these eternal questions to the only one who can answer them: your own wonderful I AMness.

Relax. Be still and question yourself, saying: “Are you really God?” Address yourself as though you were two. “If you are God and can do all things, prove it to me by giving me my desire so I can feel its presence now.” See if he will prove himself in performance and when he does, do it again. Keep on asking and when he proves himself here on this level, then let these things which can’t be put to the test come through, for they will.

Now, the Bible tells us that Christ is in us and that we are in Christ. On the surface it seems to mean the same thing, but there is all the difference in the world. Christ in us is our hope of glory. That’s a universal assumption, for Christ has assumed the body of every child born of woman. But when you are in Christ you are a new creature.

Christ in you does not make you new. Christ in you is your life, for in him is life and his life is your consciousness of faith. But when you are in Christ you are called and incorporated into the body of the Risen Lord. Because Christ is in you, you are a son of God; but when you are elected – called into the presence of the Risen Lord and incorporated into his body – you are in Christ. There is all the difference in the world, for from then on scripture begins to fulfill itself within you.

If you question everything you hear from any pulpit, the speaker, or the Bible, you will find God or the living truth in what you have heard or read. I hope that you trust me, but even though you do, question everything I tell you. Don’t question me or some priest or rabbi, but turn to the first principle. Be still and say to yourself: “I am God. I heard this statement tonight – is it true?”

I tell you: although it is difficult to believe, we are living in a fabulous world of shadows. This past Thursday morning as I was returning to the surface, I saw the finish of the Triple Crown race at Belmont in detail. Now this was Thursday and the race was not to be run until Saturday, but I saw the finish so clearly that if I had a million dollars I would not have hesitated to bet it all on the one I knew to be the winner. In fact I knew the race could not be reversed. It was fixed and finished. Then I asked myself: “What is this world? Is it not a school of educated darkness?”

Man thinks that in some strange way he is going to improve this world, but it is a schoolroom and will remain just that. The kingdom of heaven is not interested in improving this world; it is only interested in taking people out of this world by drawing them into itself – which is an entirely different world. But we can change the events in this schoolroom through the act of revision.

I had no desire to revise that race. I could have, and that which was completely finished, in detail, would have been changed. In scripture the word is “repentance,” which means “a radical change in thinking.” Tomorrow morning as you come to the surface mind, observe and record what you are seeing, for you are observing that which will take place tomorrow or next week in this world of shadows. And if you don’t like what you see, change it. Don’t do as you normally do, by jumping out of bed, washing your face, and once again find yourself locked in this world of shadows; take a moment and observe your future.

I urge you to question everything that I tell you, everything you read in the Bible, and everything you hear from some pulpit, ceaselessly. Keep on questioning and questioning until you find God or the living truth in what is being said. I am telling you what I know from experience. It is true. One day you will discover that you are the life of the world, that everything you think of as permanent and independent of your perception is within you. You will know that the world reflects your thoughts.

It is a shadow and you are its life. You will realize that its activity is not out there, but in you; and you will stop it and start it again, all within yourself. So when you read: “In him was life, and his life was the light of men,” you will know its truth. God is in you, yet you know him not. But when he begins to stir in you, as you, you will say: “I am the way, the truth and the life, and besides me there is no other.”

Then comes that moment in time when you know the truth of the statement recorded in the 11th chapter of John as: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.”

Knowing you are the life, you will resurrect from the dead to die no more. You will still not know you are the one the angels spoke of, when they told the shepherds they would find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, until you hold that sign in your arms. God’s son, David, will call you Father, and your spiritual body will be split in two from top to bottom. Then you will know you are the sacrificed one. And finally, you will discover you are the one upon whom the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form as a dove; then you, too, will have found the truth.

I know scripture is true, because I questioned it. I started questioning the law because I was interested in things. Having no money, I wanted a trip and I got it. Then I began to tell others, as I wanted to see them take the same principle and test it. As they proved it they told others. I invite you to prove the truth on this level, and have faith that the truth is equally true on the higher level of your being. Continue to test the law for things in this world and accept God’s promises on faith, based upon what you have proved by the law.

Do you know what you want? I will tell you a simple way to get it. Simply catch the feeling that you have it and sustain that feeling. Persist in acknowledging the joy of fulfillment. In your imagination tell your friends your good news. Hear their congratulations, then allow him who heard your friends and felt your joy of fulfillment, bring it into your world, for he who can do all these things is within you as your own wonderful I AMness, your Imagination, your consciousness. That is God.

Test God, for he will not fail you. Then, when he proves himself in performance, tell a friend, and continue telling others as you exercise this law. And walk knowing all the other I am statements are yours. Prove this in the world of shadows and you will prove the other in the world of reality.

Your I AMness is the true eternal reality. Living in a world of shadows, as you declare your I AMness you are declaring eternal truth. When you say, “I am the resurrection,” that is eternal truth. “I am the life” is eternal truth, as well as “I am the way.” All of these bold certainties preceded with the “I am” are eternal truths.

So, do not listen to anyone who screams at you from their tower of Babel and tells you of another way, for there is no other way. You don’t have to give up meat or only eat fish on Friday in order to enter the way, for the way to the cause of all life is within you. Believe in your I AMness for there is no other God.

In First Timothy, we are told that it is God’s desire that every man be saved. If it is God’s desire and God is in every man, then God is saving himself. This I know to be true, for I have proved to myself that I am God. I know I am the life, the resurrection, and God the Father; yet I do not differ in any way from any other. I have shared my experiences with you in the hope that you will test my words and prove them in the testing.

Ceaselessly question yourself. Don’t go to a priest and ask him if I am telling the truth, for he is Babel, screaming his belief, as is the rabbi. Do not go to another; turn within and apply the first principle by being still and claiming: “I am God.”

The 46th Psalm is truly a beautiful psalm. I have read where certain people in their little jokes, claim Shakespeare wrote it, incorporating himself into the chapter by making the 26th word “shake” and the 46th word from the end “spear.” Others claim it was Rufus’ song. Living in the 16th century, Rufus did claim that this psalm inspired his majestic hymn, which moves everyone who hears it, but he certainly did not lay claim to the psalm itself. It is “A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.” Who knows who the Sons of Korah are; I do not know. The word “Korah” means “a shaved head.” But you and I know it is a fantastic psalm; and in the 10th verse it is said: “Be still and know that I am God.”

Tonight when you go to bed just say: “I am.” Add any condition you want to that I am and believe it. Speak to your imagination as though you are speaking to the God who created the universe and sustains it, for you are. When you imagine something ask yourself who is imagining it, and you will say: “I am.” That’s God’s name forever and ever.

Imagine and fall asleep imagining. Believe that all things are possible to your own wonderful human I AMness. Test yourself! You don’t need to get down on your knees and pray to anyone on the outside. There is no need to cross yourself before any icon, for the Lord is your human imagination, your consciousness, your own wonderful I AMness.

Nothing can ever cease to be, for God – he who is in you as your consciousness – created it in love. At the present time Christ is in you, making you a son of God. But one day scripture will unfold within you and you will be in Christ, knowing yourself to be God the Father.

Do not take anything on face value. I have proved that the Bible is true, but you prove it to yourself. Ask yourself what is meant by the statement: I am the resurrection. I am the life. I am the truth. I am the way. Question yourself and you will discover the answers unfolding within you.

In the 25th chapter of Matthew, the story is told of ten virgins. Five, having no oil, are told there is none to spare, so they must go get their own. Ask yourself why they did not give to those who had nothing and it will be revealed to you that, prior to the coming of the bridegroom (who is the Lord), you thought there was a limit to that which you could give; but when you have union with the true bridegroom – who is all love – you know no limits, for everything is possible to you.

In his Book, Mark speaks of the adulteress generation. Do you know what an adulteress is? One who turns away from the truth, for when you turn from the truth you turn from the Lord. Anyone who has heard the truth and still looks for an outside cause, rather than to his inner thoughts, has committed adultery. He has turned from his spouse, whose name is “I am.” It’s just as simple as that.

If you watched the race last night, you would have heard all these wise men tell of what should have happened, yet the race was perfect. Not one person on that field could have done anything other than what he did. I could have told them, but who would listen to one who can’t even ride a horse, let alone train one. Having seen the race prior to its running, I couldn’t get excited when I watched it on television, for I knew exactly who was going to win. Then I realized that if everyone knew the end there would be no excitement.

We live in a wonderful world, thinking we are going to change things, but nothing is changed on the outside. They can only be changed from within. I had no desire to change the race, so I saw it just as it would have to come out unless someone who knows the law had changed it from within.

I ask you to apply the law and change the seemingly inevitable ends – from within. I am telling you the truth based upon my own experiences. Your I AMness is God, he who is the resurrection in you. He is the life of your physical body, the life of the bird in the air and the leaf on the tree. One day you will feel a vibration within you and know that if you arrest it everything you perceive will die, yet not vanish. It will not decay, but will remain frozen in time and space forever, for it has no life. You – life itself – animate it. Then you will release that vibration and everything will become animated once more.

In the 4th chapter of the Book of Luke, we read the statement made in the 61st chapter of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.” This statement I know to be true, yet I ask you not to accept my experiences, but to question them by questioning the one being who can give you all the answers. He will, when he feels himself in you. Then he will reveal himself to you in the first person singular in a present tense experience.

Everyone is going to have these experiences, but when I do not know. Don’t let anyone tell you that you have so many days, months, years, or lifetimes to come. Challenge it now! I have experienced scripture. Take my words and ask yourself to prove them to you now. Then let him unfold within you, and when he does, this world will lose its value to you. You will wonder what the fighting is all about. Why should anyone fight over shadows? Don’t criticize anyone. If those who have a billion want two – so that they can be the richest dummy in the grave – pray for them by asking the only being who can grant your prayer, and that being is your own wonderful human imagination.

Don’t struggle doing it. Ask yourself who is hearing the good news you just heard and you will answer: “I am.” That’s God. That’s the being who heard the request. Now grant it and let it happen. God heard it when you heard it because God is your own wonderful I Amness, and remember: all that you ask in your Father’s name he will grant you and your Father’s name is I AM.

Now let us go into the silence.

THE FORMING OF CHRIST IN YOU

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 06-23-1969

That which is profoundly spiritual is in reality most directly practical. Tonight I will tell you a story from scripture which is profoundly spiritual. It is misunderstood in the world, but I know its inner meaning and will show you how altogether practical it is.

In all the revelations which await you, there is none so fundamental as the forming of Christ in you. How is it formed? By whom and where is the sphere of the forming? In order to answer these questions we will turn to scripture. In the 9th chapter of Romans, Paul takes an old story whose chronological time is placed at 1856 BC. He ties it in with another story, which time has placed at 400 BC, then gives his interpretation of what took place in the first century AD. Here we find a stretch of 2000 years. Paul tells the story of the twins in the womb of Rebecca. Having prayed for a child, the Lord heard Rebecca’s prayers and answered them. Then there was a conflict within her, and as the two began to form there was a struggle and she asked the Lord why she should live; and the Lord replied:

“Two nations are in your womb and two peoples born of you shall be divided. One shall be stronger than the other and the elder shall serve the younger.” And when the twins were born, the first one was covered with hair and named Esau. The second, smooth-skinned lad was called Jacob, and later renamed Israel by the Lord. In telling the story, Paul speaks of predestination – not of the outer man, but of the inner man. Listen to his words carefully: “Though they were not yet born and had done nothing either bad or good, in order that God’s election should continue, not because of works but because of his calling, he made one he loved and one he hated saying, ‘Jacob I love and Esau I hate.’” They had not yet been born and had done nothing that was either good or bad, but in order for God’s election to continue he loves the one he calls and hates the other.

Now Jacob, he who is called and loved by God, becomes Israel; so you see, Israel cannot be those who are descended from Abraham in a physical state. Israel is the inner man, the feminine part of your nature. I have seen that inner man and know he is my own wonderful human imagination. That inner man is he who is loved by and wedded to God. “Your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name. The Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. The God of the whole earth he is called.” Your human imagination is the Israel of scripture. That’s your inner man, the feminine part of your nature, to whom God is wed. It is to your imagination that God cleaves, and leaves all until the two of you become one. It is in this sphere that Christ is formed. He is the son, bearing witness to the union of your human imagination and the creator of the universe.

Your imagination is God’s emanation, yet his wife, till the sleep of death is past. But how will he know that this union is productive? By the forming of Christ in you, for your son is your hope of glory! Paul tied the 25th chapter of Genesis with the 1st chapter of Malachi (a separation of over fourteen centuries). Then he began to show the predestined you, not the outer you – for it is not loved by your Father, but the inner you – who is your human imagination.

God hates Esau – the outer man whose senses anchor him to his financial, social, and educational world; but he loves the one within – who can, in the midst of hell, visualize harmony, health, and success. The Lord of the whole earth is omnificent, with unlimited sperm. He so loves you – his wife, that if you dare to assume anything that Esau – the outer you – denies, he will accept your vision and give it to you; for your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name. The Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.

Your human imagination is God’s emanation, his wife that he cleaves to until you become one reality. Desiring your union to be productive, the Lord asks you this question: “If a son honors his father and I am a father, where is my honor?” When that son is completely formed there will be an explosion and he will come out. But by then he is not the son of a little bride and the fabulous Lord of Lords. No. Your son appears, to show you that you are now the one being that man worships as the Lord. Now the Risen Lord, I appear to individuals according to their sensitivity and needs. I may appear as the spirit of holiness, the spirit of truth, the spirit of power, or the servant of the Lord.

You may not believe my words on this level because you see the weaknesses and limitations of the outward man the Lord hates, for you cannot see the inner man that is now one with the body of the Risen Lord. But you will meet me in spirit according to your needs, because I have been sent to help the universe and I am a protean being.

Whether I am proclaiming the word of God or implanting the seed of God, I appear as power most of the time, but I am not confined to that appearance. One lady here tonight still thinks of an historical Christ, and – because of her need to believe that I am telling the truth, she saw me crucified on a cross. She saw me in that position to encourage her to believe me, even though she cannot understand my words. Being protean in that dimension of myself, I can appear to fill a need; but after fusing with love I was sent back into the world by power. Whether I am speaking the word of God in this other dimension of my being, or implanting the word through union, most of the time I am seen clothed in power.

So, in this world that profound story of the twins is not understood because it does not make sense, but it is so very practical. The outer world may tell you that you can’t have what you want, that you do not have the necessary education, experience, or means to achieve your goal. But your husband hates that outer you, and loving his bride (your human imagination), he gives you whatever you want. He will give you a home if that is your desire. Today I don’t want the responsibility of owning a home. I like living as we do in an apartment owned and cared for by someone else, and my wife agrees. She has no feeling that a home will give her security. She knows that she either finds security in what I am talking about or she will not have it. I could give her monetary security, but a revolution in our little island could wipe out the family fortune – so where is the security? You may think you are secure because you own property or have money in the bank; but your only security is in your Maker, who is your husband.

He is the Lord of the universe and loves his emanation, your human imagination (who is clothed in outer flesh) called Esau. He hates Esau and loves his Jacob, his Israel, who will one day rule as God. So carefully define what you want, then trust your lover – who is the Lord of the universe – by accepting his gift of it as a completed fact. Walk in the assumption you have what you want, and let your husband give it to you. Now, you will discover that Christ is not only formed in you, but by you, for – being united with the Lord – you are one with him. If the Lord forms his son in his bride by cleaving to you until you become one being, and he is forming Christ, are you not forming Christ, too? He is formed in you and by you in that one body, the human imagination. In all the revelations that await you, none is so fundamental as the revelation of Christ in you. His beauty is indescribable, and you will know that he is your eternal son who now honors his Father. If you are a man, don’t be ashamed of speaking of this being in you as feminine, for it is more you than what you see reflected in the mirror.

Your awareness is the bride of the Lord. She can’t conceive without the embrace and seed of her husband. So Israel owes his uniqueness to his covenant marriage. Christ is formed from that union and a new state is born. Jacob (desire) becomes Israel (fulfillment) when David reveals himself as your son. The story told in the 25th chapter of Genesis – which doesn’t make sense to the outer, reasonable you – is understood perfectly by your inner, powerful imagination.

Rebecca struggled within herself, just as you do and I do; and she was told of the conflict between the outer reasonable mind (called the elder) and the human imagination (called the younger). Now, make the elder serve the younger.Your elder, reasonable power will say it can’t be done, it’s impossible; but when it is done he adjusts to it. Esau will tell you that you cannot own a certain home because it is beyond your means. But your imaginal power moves in and so occupies the home, the outer one sleeps in it and adjusts very nicely to the change. Esau will resist everything Jacob desires because he can’t believe it is possible. He does not know that Jacob – the feminine part of your nature – is wedded to the Lord, and the Lord so loves his wife that he has left all thoughts of another and is making the two of them one. This is the most practical thing you would ever hear.

Test your Self, he who is forming Christ in you, by conceiving a scene which would imply the fulfillment of your dream. What would you see if it were true? What would you hear? What would you do? Now, begin to look, hear, and do it all in your imagination; and when you go to bed tonight, sleep as though it had already come to pass. Always bear in mind that God is a protean being. He can appear in many forms. A friend and father of five children came to see me the other day. One of his little girls has a pet rabbit, a doe, who was sick. She asked her father to ask me to pray for it. This I did. The following week the vet treated the rabbit and it is now home and well. The following morning, the father saw a tall man standing at the foot of his bed, whose head was that of a rabbit.

Then he spoke saying: “Thank you for helping my people.” The vision was so real the father said to himself: “This must be “Midsummer Night’s Dream”, but I am seeing a rabbit instead of a donkey.” Now, who do you think wore the form? God. He sends himself in everyone that he sends, and the one sent is one with the sender. He too then is protean, and can assume any shape or form. My friend asked for help and received it, and is now encouraged to believe all the more. Like all fathers he could use more money to buy clothes, food, and pay for an education for his children. Now he knows what happened and will not forget it. He saw the one sent, clothed as a rabbit, but it was in the form of Man, for God is Man and he was thanked for helping his people. This is how God speaks to all to encourage faith, for by faith all things are made and faith is simply loyalty to unseen reality. If you imagine a state, it is unseen by others, but if you assume it is true, your husband – who is a god of truth – will give it to you. He so loved you he became you, and when you imagine, he imagines. Then one day the fusion will be complete and then there will no longer be you and God: you will know yourself to be God, who actually became you that you might become God. This is the story of scripture.

Now, God does not become this body of flesh. It is Esau – the hairy outer form – he hates. He is in love with Jacob – the human imagination – who is the subjective, feminine part of your nature. So don’t be ashamed to admit there is in you that which is feminine and loved by God, for only by fusion with this feminine part of your nature can Christ be formed. Start now to use your talent, which is your imagination. Use it consciously every day, for any time you use your imagination you are pleasing God; and when you do not use it God is displeased. You don’t have to sit down and burst a blood vessel pounding out the details of your desire.

You can imagine as you walk down the street. A simple assumption is easy and can be lots of fun. A friend called today to thank me for aiding her in the selling of her home. It was an enormous house in Highland Park, which had been empty for sometime. She had hired a lady to go to the house and do some cleaning there, when a man came to the door and asked to buy it. Two weeks later the house was sold. What did I do? I imagined hearing her tell me the house was sold. That’s all I did. There was nothing else I needed to do; for all things are possible to God, and he so loves me he abides by any request I make of him. Try it. You will never disprove God’s law; and the more you consciously use your imagination, the more you please your husband, for you are wedded to the God of the universe – He who is omnificent to achieve any purpose, be it the sale of a house or the health of a rabbit. Certainly it matters little to me if the rabbit lived or died, but the child wanted me to pray for it. I know there are many rabbits and she could have had another had this one died; but she wanted this one, so I didn’t modify her request.

Do not modify the request of another if it is within your ethical code, and certainly her request came within my ethical code. So, the Risen Lord can appear as the Spirit of Holiness or the Spirit of Love. When my Father fused himself with me he appeared as the Spirit of Love, but he sent me wearing the form of power. That is the part I have played most of the time. Martha, who has now gone from this sphere, saw me as power. That, too, was done for a purpose, so that Martha would know the power of truth. But on this level of my being I am just a normal man with the human weaknesses of any outer man. Money doesn’t give you power. They just buried a man who possessed millions. He left behind $500 million, and could not take one million of it with him. He is now probably the richest spirit in the graveyard. Now, the story of Paul begins in the 8th chapter of the Book of Acts, but his name does not appear until the beginning of the 9th. In the 8th, a eunuch is reading the 53rd chapter of the Book of Isaiah, when Philip approached him, and said: “Do you understand what you are reading?” and he answered: “How can I without a guide?” Then Philip interpreted the chapter on the suffering servant, and the eunuch – not understanding – asked: “Is the prophet writing about himself or another?” Isaiah was not writing about a man of flesh, but was telling an eternal, immortal story.

God himself is the suffering servant. He so loves you, he will not alter your imagination. If you imagine some horrible thing he will fulfill it, and because you have to experience all that you imagine he will suffer with you. Always allowing you to imagine, be it wisely or unwisely, he fulfills it with you. That is your suffering servant. But in the end, having gone through hell with you – the one he loves most – he rejoices, for when he comes out he and his emanation are one. This story makes no sense if seen only on the page of a book.

It must be experienced to be understood. Let me put this in a simple way: Tonight, when you look in the mirror, you will see Esau. The one who is looking in the mirror is Jacob. The word “Jacob” means “to supplant.” Jacob can supplant his physical reflection by replacing the one there with one he desires to experience. Loving Jacob, the Lord will mold Jacob into the likeness of what he is seeing, and you will become what you have been beholding. Now, I have told you that when a man dies he finds himself in a terrestrial, solid, and real world like this one. The lady who saw me in the crucified form told me of seeing her mother (who has been gone from this world many years) as a young girl. Her mother spoke and introduced her to her present husband. Now this lady knows from experience that there is no death, but worlds within worlds, where people marry, grow old, and are just as afraid to die there as they are here, until the union is complete.

Then there is no need for any marriage, for they are married to the Lord and are one with God. When the two become one flesh, there is no need for any marriages. But until the son of God bears witness to this union, man leaves this world to enter another, to marry and continue the struggle, just as it is done here. I am telling you the truth. I take the Bible and let my intuition play upon it, then the meaning comes to the surface. Scripture will last forever in the form in which it is written because of its simplicity. But its revelations will not come unless you dig for the words’ deeper meaning. One day you will know why I am telling you about the forming of Christ in you, for of all the revelations this is the most fundamental. There is no other way for you to know that you are God. You can be split in two from top to bottom, come out of the grave of your skull, and find the little child who symbolizes your birth from above – but you will still not know you are God the Father. Only when you find the Christ which was formed in you will you know who you really are.

Then you too will decree to David: “Thou art my son. Today I have begotten thee.” No one has ever seen God, but the son who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known. When Christ appears it is because he has been formed in you, by you, because by then you have been born – not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man – but of God. You will know you are Spirit and your son is Spirit, and together you form the Lord Jesus Christ. There isn’t one nth part of one per cent who will accept this, but I will not change it one iota because I know the day will come when everyone will experience it. Then their married state will be over. They will know they have only one husband, who is their very self. This coming of marriage is your redeeming power, for your husband – the God of the whole earth – is your redeemer. He has been so long with you, yet you have not seen him; but I tell you, when you see me you have seen the Father.

God the Father is Spirit, Imagination – which can take on any form. You meet him, and his outer form is a faint resemblance; but he is the inner one and perfect – while the outer man is only a faint shadow that can never reach perfection. Bear in mind the sphere in which Christ is formed. It is the inward man – the feminine part of your nature, for it takes woman to conceive. Imagination is the great power and that is the bride of the Lord. So let every one be bold enough to claim that within him is an eternal woman, who is his bride. He left everything for her, and brought her into himself to make the two one flesh. And to prove that they are mated and one in love, their son appears, bearing witness to that union. Christ is being formed in you, by you; and when your journey is over you will take off your garment of flesh for the last time and return to the heavenly sphere as God the Father. Now let us go into the silence.

THE FOUNDATION STONE – IMAGINATION

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 12-1-1959

We believe that man can create anything he desires. We believe the Universe is infinite response and the one who causes it is the individual perceiver. Nothing is independent of your perception of it. We are so interwoven we are part of the machine, but as we awake we detach ourselves from this machine and make life as we wish it to be. “For man is all Imagination and God is man and exists in us and we in him.” “The eternal body of man is the Imagination: that is God himself.” You can imagine and I can imagine, and if we can be faithful to the state imagined it must appear in our world. This is not new. This was given centuries ago, for we have it in the Bible; but people do not know how to read the Bible, so they got together and organized it into an “ism.” It is not an “ism,” but it is the great plan to free man. The Bible shows this plan in detail. We will turn to a few passages and show you what those who wrote it intended we should see.

Isaiah 28:16: “Thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: He who believes will not be in haste.'” Now, we are told in the Book of Psalms that the world rejected the stone. “The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.” “You cannot lay any other stone.” “On this stone you may build gold, silver, hay or stubble and the day will reveal it.” I tell you that this stone is your Imagination, and it is called in the Bible: Christ Jesus, or God, or the Lord. It is your Imagination, which is one with the Divine Imagination which created, sustains, changes, and even destroys parts of the creation. This is the stone that is tested and it is a sure foundation, and he who believes in it will not be in haste. If I can but imagine and know that imagining creates reality I will not be impatient or lead a superficial life. When a man does not live in his Imagination he will become impatient of the outcome of what he desires, and finally he will become violent in his effort to get things.

Here is one who asks the question: “Who do men say that the Son of Man is?” Some said this and some that, but again he asked: “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:13) “And Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in Heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.”

The churches tell you that it means a man called Peter. It is not an individual. The whole thing takes place in the mind of you the individual. You imagine a certain state and it is called Peter. If it were a man called Peter, you would not find what you find six verses later. For there he turns to the same character, Peter, and says to him: “Get behind me Satan: You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men.” That is what every man in the world does. He gets a revelation and he realizes the foundation stone is Imagining. He sees a friend who needs help and he imagines he has what he wants. If he believes it, he is not in haste. He is imagining what he wants and he is not violent, and he is not concerned, and he does not give suggestions to the friend as to what to do physically to bring his desire to pass. If the foundation stone is true, there is only one power to support it. If he knows that, he will not allow himself to be turned; he will remain faithful to his assumption. But we are told in the Bible story that the one who had been commended, Peter, turned and became violent, and then Jesus said to him, “Get behind me, Satan.” You turn back to the ways of men to get things to go as you want them to go. You pull all the wires and therefore you have turned from the only foundation in the world, and that is Christ Jesus, which is human Imagination. If you believe this you will not reject the stone.

“Stone” is “even” [in Hebrew] and it means to create, or build, or beget children. Here is a stone in “Zion” (which means a high pinnacle or a barren place). That is man, before the stone is sunk in him. He is the waste, the desert. Sunk in man as his Imagination is the only foundation stone, for [there is] no other foundation of the living God and he has sunk himself in me. Therefore, I am the son of the living God, for there is only one and I Am he. If I believe this, I will not be impatient. “He who believes it will not be in haste.” This is the Lord’s way. I ask you to test it. Bring before your mind’s eye what you want to see in this world. It may be business or a friend’s good fortune. It can be anything, for on this foundation you can put stubble, or wood, or hay. You are building with hay when you say of someone: “I know – he was no good.” They lived in that state concerning another and then it came to pass – and they say: “I always thought he was like that.” Some of us build strange things for another. We were imagining on the only foundation, but we have put stubble on it instead of gold or silver, and the day revealed it, and then we cannot relate what happens to anything we have done.

The Hebrew meaning of the “stone” is to beget children. All the events of my life are my children. Everyone can build on this one foundation. “I am laying in Zion a stone.” What stone? God is burying himself in everyone in the world. It is a true stone, a precious cornerstone, and one who believes will not be in haste. I have seen an imaginal act take two years to come forth, but when it appeared – what a giant! I have seen it come in an hour. But do not be in haste or think there is any other foundation and – like Peter – turn to another foundation, growing violent toward those who would lead Jesus to the cross. But Christ said: “I came to move toward the cross. Get behind me, Satan. You are a hindrance to me.”

If I am still in the machine, I think the good things come only by accident or chance. Let the wheel turn, for each must go through all the furnaces until he awakens and sees the whole universe as infinite response. The day will come when every person, at a certain degree of awakening, will freeze an activity within himself, and as it comes to a stop within him, that whole section is “dead.” The laws of nature are only free action, repeated until they become accepted as a law. Yet you will see leaves in mid-air not falling, and people moving in space will cease to move but will not fall, for as you stopped the action within yourself the whole thing stopped. And you will see the whole thing as Zion – the desert – and the only thing that makes it alive is the stone buried in it. But man becomes lost in the things he has made and gives to them the power. For example, through the use of his Imagination he brings money into his world; then he forgets that it was the activity of his mind that did this, and he sees in the money itself the power to get what he desires. But when he awakes he will no longer lose himself in his own creation.

I say to everyone here: there is only one stone. If tonight there is someone very ill who needs your help and you imagine the best for him and then you get news that he is worse tomorrow, do not be impatient, but remain faithful to the one stone laid in Zion. What more can you do after you have imagined? Someone writes to you about a problem. Imagine for them what they desire and then do not turn aside to do anything to make it come true. You remain faithful, and it will create the conditions necessary to bring fulfillment.

You can look at someone with deep concern and want a change. You do not voice it, but lock it in, and then forty-eight hours later there is initiated what you set in motion. And they wonder: “Could my problem be traced to so-and-so?” Just the very thing you had been thinking! You entertained their problem with deep concern, and then you will ask: “Did you influence me or did I influence you? When did you entertain this thought?” And they say: “Just now,” and then you say: “Forty-eight hours ago I entertained this thought, but I did not say it aloud.” That makes no difference. All things by a law divine in one another’s beings mingle. We all influence each other. We are all interpenetrated, and the more one is deeply concerned for another, the more he is penetrated by another.

I say the universe is infinite response, but it also gives back more than you imagine. It is pressed down and running over. Therefore, to be negative can be frightening. The good will come back a thousandfold, but so will the negative. But if I am optimistic and do not waver, I will bring that also pressed down and running over. It is something wonderful; it will come like a gusher. The world responds more than it takes, and it gives to the individual more than he imagines – good or bad.

I say to everyone that the greatest of books is the Bible, but people have organized it, and even say they have found the remains of Peter or some other Biblical character. Peter is not a man, but a state. You rise up to the crown of it all and that is Christ. States are permanent but I am not fixed; I am a living moving being. I can be praised for one state and then I see a morning headline, say, and move from that true foundation, and then the power rebukes me as Satan, for I reacted instead of acted. Would you like to be in the state called Peter, the one addressed in Matthew 16? How? Let me say, and mean it: “My Imagination is God and there is no other.” It is one with the supreme power and let me live in that state, and then I am being addressed: “You are blessed, Simon Bar-Jona.” It means the depth of my being is giving it to me. Can I do it? The day that you do it and remember you did it, at that moment you are relating that story. When Peter confessed: “Thou art the Christ,” that is the stone on which the whole thing rests, but when he got away from that and reacted, then he was called Satan, or the re-actor.

God is begetting sons by means of the stone. He buries himself in every man in the world, but he is rejected. I can tell you these things here, but if I told them across the airways I would be immediately turned off. People cannot believe they are responsible for their imaginal acts. They do not want to believe it. I cannot be free of the results of what I imagine. Go out determined to prove it, and having proved it, keep the stone alive. There is no other stone. “No other can any man lay, which is Christ Jesus,” But on this build anything – but build gold, do not build hay or stubble. I want everyone here to test it. Take someone who is really distressed, and if you believe in the foundation you will leave here tonight without any concern for them, even if you receive wires stating things are worse. It might take a week or a month, but that which you have imagined, if you remain faithful to the stone, will come.

I have seen a man looking at a building – which is an inanimate thing – and you would say it could not respond. How can he look at it and see his name on it when he does not have a nickel? But he did it. I know the man. [Neville’s brother] and in a way he could not have devised, the building became his. Let no one tell you that something cannot respond, but when we are still part of the machine, we cannot quite see that we are the cause of everything in our world, and we hope good fortune will smile on us. Then when you set something bad in motion, as the machine turns you cannot see what caused it, but when you become awake you can control the machine. It responds to the imaginal acts of the awakened man, for the awakened man is in control.

A thrill is in store for you when you can finally stop all activity and the whole thing will freeze. You will know what the so-called wise men say, but you will hear only these words: “I thank you Father that you have hid these things from the wise and pious and revealed them unto babes.” For you will know that it is the perceiver who is making everything alive. For you will find that nothing is independent of the mind of the perceiver. A truly awakened teacher could freeze certain sections for the edification of his students if he chose. By normal standards everything would die if you suspended activity; but it does not die, for there is nothing outside of your perception of it. Take your boss or an employee and represent them to yourself as you want them to be, and believe in the reality of the foundation stone, and then you will not make haste to bring it to pass. For Imagination is creating reality, and in a way no one knows it will be brought to pass if you remain faithful to that foundation stone. It makes no difference who you are or what you have. The man who cannot always sign a check to realize a dream is better off, for he is more awake; for he must use the talent God gave him, which is God himself. If I can always put pressure on someone to get what I want, I will never know I am this machine. But if I have to do it all within myself, then I know.

A story was told me tonight of a man who had lost his wife at the birth of his son, and the child was taken to St. Louis to be brought up by his wife’s sister. This man had tried for seven years to get enough ahead to take a trip to St. Louis to see the child. He constantly tried to see himself getting a job with more money so he could make the trip. He was told that by the right use of this law he should only see himself with his child and let the way be left to God. Following this he was given a job that took him from Los Angeles to New Orleans. But that was not near St. Louis. He took the job and persisted in his dream, and in three months he was transferred to the St. Louis run and given a twenty-four hour layover there every week.

The best thing that ever happened to me was when I was fired from Macy’s during the depression. I might be captain of the elevators if I had stayed there. My father lost everything he owned, and that proved to be the beginning of the great dream he brought to pass. One person believed in him and he started on that, and when he made his exit last October, he had given to his community much that no one had ever given before. The blackest day of his life turned out to be the bright day of his life. No matter what you have done, forget it. You are God and God is untarnished, for he is all imagining.

Now, you start to imagine and make it something of which you can be proud. Make it big. If it is truly the stone being laid in Zion, do not turn to any argument of man. You be faithful, and whatever you put on the stone as an imaginal activity will come into your world. Of course, you may go back to the world of men, like Peter. He denied the stone three times but he did then return to it again. You may do that, but in the end you will learn, for in the depth of your being the words are being said: “Get behind me, Satan.” But I have seen people forget. I have seen them rise from nothing to great heights and then say: “It would have happened anyway.” They do not believe that their imaginal activity was the foundation on which they built that structure. There is only one stone and that is your wonderful Imagination.

This works better if you do not try to aid it on the outside, for it is not flesh and blood that revealed it to you. You got it from the Christ.

Now let us go into the silence.

– – – – – – – – –

Notes by the Transcriber:

The “Stone” is Jesus or the Foundation, your Imagination
Laws of nature are only habits of Imagination.
Only one stone laid in Zion.
Look with deep concern but don’t show concern.
The more one is deeply concerned for another the more he is penetrated by another.
We must not be impatient or waver from the stone.

Concept of being Awake:

The awake man is in control. Now you can leave a state and cancel out the furnace process.
The more awake the man, the less he needs to use political, social, or economic pressures.
As you awaken more and more, you go more and more into detail.

THE FOURFOLD GOSPEL

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 3-5-1963

As you know, and I think you do, the Bible is a mystery. A mystery to be known only by revelation. As I told you in the past, a mystery is not a matter to be kept secret but a truth which is mysterious in character. The four Gospels are the flower of the entire Bible. Everything that was promised Israel, as we have it recorded in the 39 books of the Old Testament, came into flower – in the fulfillment of the four Gospels. But even to this day, 2000 years later, many women came seeking, – in the Bible, – for the Christ of whom the prophets spoke and whose coming is told. As we are told, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours inquired and searched about that salvation. They inquired what person or time was indicated by the Spirit of Christ within them when predicting the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glory, but they could not find him. They are all looking for a man, and today the whole vast Christian world turns to a man. Those who deny it think in terms of a man that they deny, but they do not know the Christian mystery.

Paul makes the statement: “From now on we will regard no one from the human point of view, even though we once regarded Christ from a human point of view we regard him thus no longer.” Yes, even though I once thought of Christ from a human point of view I think of him so no longer. It is something entirely different.

To understand this mystery we have to find the root, and that is in the Old Testament. What did they promise? They found it in the Messianic Book, – Isaiah 11:1-3, – one of the many chapters – but this one is prominent. “There shall come forth a stem from the stump of Jesse and a Branch will go out of that root, and the Spirit of the Lord shall be upon him: The imagery turns from a root, – from a Branch, from a stem, into a man. “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him; the Spirit of understanding, the Spirit of Knowledge, the Spirit of Counsel, the Spirit of the fear of the Lord.” All these will be upon him. “And he shall not judge by what his eyes see, or desire by what his ears hear.” So here, something is said about a Branch, something is said about a stump out of which the Branch will come. We search the Scripture and we find in the Book of Daniel: “And the king said: ‘I beheld in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven. He cried aloud and said this, “Hew the tree down, cut off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. But leave the stump.” Do not disturb the stump. And now he turns from the imagery of the tree with its branches, leaves and stump, to that of a man. “Let him be watered with the dew of heaven,” speaking now of the stump, – and it becomes now a man. “Let him dwell with the beasts of the field. Take from him the mind of a man and give to him the mind of a beast. And let seven times pass over him until he knows that the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom he will.” And you ask: “What is it all about?” This is the prophecy that is fulfilled in our Gospel.

The word Jesse means “I AM”. It is called “The stump of Jesse.” The word “I AM” which we call Jehovah, – the name of God. In its root meaning means “to fall” or “To cause to fall.” The only Being that fell, – this tree of life, – is God Himself, and for us God fell. He sacrificed Himself to redeem us, to give us life in ourselves. The mystery of life through death, – the death of God, – is that stump. So I am this branch. Now we turn and study the word “Branch”. The stump is “I AM”. The Branch comes out of the stump of Jesse.

The first presentation is in Matthew. Matthew presents the Lord as a king. So where is the Branch identified in the Bible as a king? You find it in Jeremiah 23:5: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king.” So here we find the presentation of this Branch, which is not a tree, – we see now it is a man. Here he is presented as a king. So Matthew gives him the genealogy of a king. He comes down through the royal line. Matthew begins the book: “This is the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David.” David is the source of the dynasty. The first king of Israel was Saul, chosen by the people, but Jehovah rejected Saul and chose David, and David is the first king of Israel, as chosen by God.

This is the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David. When I trace the genealogy of a king I must always begin at the source of the dynasty and come down and finish with the king. When I trace the genealogy of a man, I begin with his father and go back as far as I may; but not with a king. You do not say: “This is king so and so, the son of so and so.” You go right back to the source of the dynasty then you bring it forward and it culminates in the king himself. That is how we get the genealogy of a king. That is what Matthew does in presenting the Lord as king to fulfill Jeremiah 23:5.

Mark presents him as a servant, therefore there is no need for a genealogy. The perfect, the ideal servant. So God is now presented as a servant. And here, – where is the branch of the servant? Zech. 3:8. “Behold I will bring forth my servant, the Branch. All this is prophecy, it hasn’t brought him forth, he is bringing him forth. So, Mark does not have a genealogy. Who are you? “I am the servant of the Lord.” Well, that’s good enough. If you are the servant of the Lord there is no need for any further credentials. So his credentials are simply his position in life as the ideal servant, – that’s Mark. In Mark 10:5 he makes this statement: “I come not to be served but to serve.” He is the servant.

Luke presents him as the ideal man, – Jehovah’s man. Where is the Branch concerning it? Read Zech. 6:12. First of all Isaiah claims it in the 40th Chapter: “Behold the man”. He doesn’t use the word Branch, but Zechariah to fulfill the prophecy brings in the Branch: “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch.” So, Luke presents him the ideal man and should have a genealogy. When you read the two genealogies in Matthew and Luke they differ.

At the beginning of David, the king, they part, and David’s older son, Nathan becomes the line through which Luke takes Jesus Christ. His younger son Solomon becomes the one he takes bringing him into a king. Here you find a complete different genealogy for fourteen generations and another fourteen following them. Here you have these many generations where they are entirely different background and people think you can’t be telling the story of the same person, but people don’t know the mystery. You are presenting not a person, you are presenting, not a man, you are presenting something altogether different. Christ is not a man, a king, a servant. Christ that saying, is a series of mystical experiences through which God reveals Himself for the salvation of man, – that is Christ.

The whole vast New Testament is based upon the assumption that a certain series of events happened in which God revealed Himself in action for the salvation of man. Did they happen? We are told in the Scripture they did happen. I claim the evangelists were telling their own story, as told us in the end of Luke: “And they told what had happened.” Moffitt takes that phrase and describes it and translates it; ‘They related their own experience.” They are relating a series of mystical happenings in the soul of the individual where God revealed Himself in these actions for the salvation of that individual. So, Luke presents God as the ideal man: “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch.” He must have a genealogy and this goes all the way back unbroken to Adam, the son of God.

John, on the other hand, presents him as God Himself, – no need of a genealogy. Now, this you find is Isaiah 4:2. “And the day is coming,” it’s always in the future, it’s all prophecy, – “When the Branch of Jehovah will be beautiful and glorious.” And men are still looking for this Branch to flower in some mighty conqueror who will come and save humanity from the tyrants who are loose in the world. He doesn’t come that way. They denied he was a king because they did not read carefully. “My kingdom is not of this world.” They are still expecting him in some way to entrench himself in the world and establish a kingdom; and reveal what they believe to be David’s kingdom, – and all these must be spiritualized.

All the characters mentioned as his background, his genealogy, are states of consciousness. Here it begins: “This is the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David.” The very end of the genealogy Joseph’s father is called Jacob. Matthew 1:17 and two verses on the 20th verse: “The angel of the Lord appears unto Joseph in a dream and says: “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife.” Three verses before it is said in the genealogy that his father was Jacob, and just a few verses down the angel of the Lord addresses him as “Joseph, son of David.” Here in the genealogy Joseph is called the father, and the genealogy begins with “Jesus Christ, son of David.” Don’t you see it? You have to spiritualize all of these characters. They are states of consciousness. They are not persons any more than Jesus Christ is a person. Jesus Christ is that series of events unfolding like a tree in man for the salvation of that man in whom this series unfolds. But man cannot think that way if he wants to personify it and put it in a wall, or in some little hole and do something with it. And it isn’t that.

So, here in Mathew we find the presentation of God as a king. In Mark he is presented as the ideal servant. In Luke God is presented as the ideal man and in John – God Himself. So in John he speaks and calls Himself constantly “I AM”. “I am the vine; I am the way; I am the truth; I am the resurrection; I am the door.” All through he is emphasizing who He really is, the Being that you are. But the series of events, I promise you, will unfold within you. When they unfold within you, you know who you are, and you could no more keep it to yourself than the evangelist who experienced Christ could have kept it to himself. They couldn’t. Having experienced Christ, they could not keep their experience of Christ to themselves, so they told it.

Now let us show you what Luke tells us in his own words. Why they translated it this way I do not know. Luke begins his book: “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to encircle a narrative of the thing which have been accomplished among us, as it was revealed to us by those who were eye witnesses from the beginning, it seemed good to me also, having observed closely for sometime past.” Now that phrase, “For sometime past”, is a translation of the Greek word Zecharias, which means “from above”. When it is used in the 3rd chapter of John it is used “From above”, when he said to Nicodemus: “You must be born from above. Except you be born from above you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” Yet here in the book of Luke the same words, no alteration, the identical word is translated in this phase: “For sometime past.” So he is telling you if you go back to the original tongue where he got it. “Having observed all things closely from above it seems good to me also to write an orderly account to you Theophilus, – a lover of God, one who seeks God, – and he is telling him where he got it. He is not making any claims that his arrangement is a greater chronological arrangement of the false material. What he is telling us is he got it from above and he is going to write it in an orderly arrangement which he claims is a better arrangement, better understood by man. So he begins with a birth and he ends, for man’s sake, with a crucifixion.

That is not the way in which Luke got it, for Luke is not his name. All this is anonymous. Whoever calls himself Luke did not receive it in that order. But he thinks it is a better arrangement to be understood by mortal mind, until they themselves have the experience. So, what the Gospels are telling us, believe it. Believe it for the works’ sake.

Now he tells us how to prove the Law of God and in proving the Law of God you may believe his Promise. Then he tells us what to do about the Law of God: “Ask anything in my name” – don’t forget the name, – the name is “I AM”, – “And it will be done unto you.” Don’t call it by any other name, and when you call upon my name, call with my name. Don’t say: “In the name of I AM.” Just declare yourself to be “I AM”. I am what? You name it. Whatever you want to be just name it, but call with my name. So, call “I am healthy, I am lovely, I am loved, I am anything you think lovely in your world, call upon it by calling with the name.

Then he tells them: “I come to testify of things that I know and that I have seen. If you will not receive the testimony that I bring from things of earth, how will you receive the testimony of mine if I tell you of things of Heaven.”

Let me give you a vision of mine that happened many years ago to show you how it was revealed to me long before it began to awaken in me. Just like the vision of the 4th of Daniel, only in my case it wasn’t a tree. But just as he starts off the vision: “The visions of my head as I lay in bed.” Suddenly I saw this fabulous field, and consciousness followed vision and I entered the field. It had no limit, it was infinite. At first I thought them to be flowers, long tall flowers like sunflowers. As I approached them they were not flowers, they were all rooted like a flower into the earth; but they were human faces, everyone was a face. As I came upon them they moved in concert as though someone led them in some orchestra, and they all moved and bent over. If one smiled they all smiled. They all did everything in concert. While I walked among them admiring these beautiful human faces, that were anchored like a flower, I realized right at that moment that I, – not comparable to them in beauty, – nothing in that rhythm and yet I enjoyed greater freedom, limited as I was, than all of them put together. They moved in concert and I had freedom of movement even though my motion was not in harmony. I had freedom of choice even if I made the wrong choice. I could choose evil, they could do nothing. They could do nothing of themselves. And I realized that with all of my limitations, I was greater. I could make a mistake and they couldn’t. I could actually move without the consent of another; they couldn’t. And beautiful as they were, I realized how much infinitely greater I was, limited as I was, because I was detached from that field. And I thought in the depths of me that at one time I must have been one of that orchestra. And God in his infinite mercy, fell with me, and then took up residence in me.

Then seven times had to pass over me, the fiery ordeal. I had to be given a human face, – “Take the mind of man from him and give him the mind of a beast.” Let him know this was the beast of the field. “Sever everything from him; cut off the branches, strip the leaves, scatter the fruit but don’t disturb the roots,” – and the root is God Himself. That is Jesse. But, “Seven times must pass over him until he knows that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will.” And He gives it in that moment that He gives us Christ; and Christ is that series of mystical experiences taking place in the individual soul, for the soul’s salvation.

I can see that field of flowers now, perfectly beautiful human faces, – not a blemish, everything perfect, everything in perfect rhythm as if some invisible director directed them. You and I were once part of that harmony and then the harmony became broken for our salvation, and we descended because God descended with us. He didn’t push us out. The word He Vau He means “to fall” and that is the root of the verb Yod He Vau He, which we call Jehovah, the great sacred name. The name by which all things are made.

So, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John presents this mystery of the Branch. I tell you it grows in us. As Blake said: “The Gods of the Earth and the Sea sought through Nature to find this Tree, but their search was all in vain, there grows one in the human brain.” And that tree is turned down. If you saw the human being and take off the skin and see just the nervous system, it is just like an inverted tree. Where the brain is, is the root, and the whole tree grows down. But that tree is going to be turned up, and one day you will see it turned up and there will be a complete severance of your being, called the “Curtain of the temple”, – and then you, that was living down not even knowing it, will be turned right up and all the currents of eternity are now reversed in you, and from then you grow up.

The vision I had of this many years ago startled people. I first told it in San Francisco. Why the reaction was horrible. Yet the Book of Mark, speaking of the servant of the Lord, who is the Branch, speaks of it. When the Lord opened the eyes of the blind man and said: “What do you see?” He said: “I see men like trees walking.” There it is: “I see men like trees walking.” That night I had this vision of the majesty of man when he is turned up. You will think, “How can I be a tree?” The beauty, the joy when you see it, – something altogether different; but how can you describe it? You can’t describe it to the satisfaction of anyone because who wants to be a tree? And yet, here inverted, – and we are called the Branch. Don’t forget it. “And there shall come forth from a stem from the stump of Jesse,” from the stump of “I AM”, “and a branch will grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. (Isaiah 11:1-3) “Fear” means “the reverence of the Lord.”

Again these same four, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is revealed to us in a strange way when the child is given a name. Isaiah 9:6. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor.” Two entirely different experiences; – a child is born, a son is given. Don’t put a comma between Wonderful and Counselor as so many Bibles have. Bear in mind there were no punctuation marks in the ancient Hebrew, not even breaks or paragraphs, it is all continuous. There are four names given in keeping with the fourfold Gospel. “His name shall be called; Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” There are four titles.

Wonderful Counselor, – that is Omniscience itself. You can add nothing to a Being who is completely awake; they would not have the automatic answer. So, here is Omniscience. Mighty God, – Divine Omnipotence. That is when the third title comes. Then, Prince of Peace, that is at the very end when you are about to take off the garment for the very last time, as told us in the book of John. “My peace I leave with you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” He gives us peace that is beyond understanding. You can’t disturb that peace for he is the “Prince of Peace.” He is an “Everlasting Father”, – he is Father forever. “When you see me you see the Father.” “Almighty God.” – A might beyond the wildest dreams of anything you have ever seen. And when you see that Might you see it personified as a man. You look into his eyes and you see might as you have never known it before – and it is a man. Then “Wonderful Counselor”. He promises he will send the Counselor. When he withdraws he will send the servants who have the understanding to follow him as he reveals what happened to him.

So when you read the Gospels, whether it be Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, do not see a man walking through the pages, see the magnificence of Christ the Branch unfolding in you, and it takes root. There will come out a root from that stump. How does it take root? Well, you first hear the story and you believe it. Then the Word is planted. When one believes it, he has accepted the Word. The Word as translated in the Book of John is called Logos. “In the beginning was the Word,” that is the Greek Logos: “And the Word was with God and the Word was God.” That is really the translation of the Hebrew which means “The word of God, which contains within itself the power of it’s own expression.” That “Word” in the first verse of the Book of John is Christ. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”

Now turn to Isaiah 55:11. “So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purposed and fulfill that where I sent it.” So the word when it comes is The Word called Christ. I tell you the story, believe it. The minute you believe it you have accepted it, it has fallen on fertile ground. It will then take root; and the word contains within itself the power of it’s own expression. The whole vast program of God for man’s salvation is contained in that Word, “the seed”, and it falls upon man and man hears it. He either believes it or he rejects it.

Here we move across the world and seven times pass over us until one day we hear it with acceptance and then the little root takes place in that stump of Jesse, the stump of “I AM.” Then out of it comes the Branch, and then the Spirit of the Lord descends upon him. From then on he moves and you can’t stop him. You can’t earn it, – accept it. Believe the story as it was intended when you first listened; completely misunderstood through the centuries.

He tells it of a certain individual who was born in a strange way; raised in a strange way and died a horrible death. That’s not the story at all. If I would comfort you with the death it is Romans 6:5: Here we are told: “If we have been united with Christ in a death like his, we shall be united with him in a resurrection like his.” He uses the past tense when it comes to death, the future when it comes to resurrection. So the unity took place in his death, or He fell, and all of us are in it and now he is asking us for acceptance of the Word. We have union with him in a death like His, we shall have union with him in a resurrection like His. And He resurrects us one after the other by a series of fantastic, wonderful mythical experiences one after the other. We can’t contrive them, they come like a thief in the night when least expected. Everything said in the Gospel concerning the central figure is all about you, from beginning to end.

I tell you the death has already taken place, even though the death took place to free us all. It has been felled. You downed the tree, cut off the branches, that is all over. Stripped the leaves, scattered the fruit, given the mind of a beast. Well, haven’t we the mind of a beast? Go back 20 years. What beast in the world would have conceived by ovens to burn innocent people by the millions? Isn’t that the mind of a beast? Have you read here recently the current stories of Stalin, the things the man did with those even in the most intimate circles? That no one felt at ease in his presence? From Molotov down, all like little children shaking, everyone of them. It came out last Sunday in the Times, in yesterday’s Observer, in today’s New York Times. All these stories because today is the tenth anniversary of his death. There is no beast that would have done the things the man did to his own people. He hated everything in the world and so did Hitler. So, “Take the man’s mind from him and give him the mind of a beast.” Who gave the order? God. And this is the order from on high.

Now in the eyes of the world they seemed to be so far advanced because they were so powerful. In the exercise and misuse of power they are on the down, they are descended. Seven times must pass over the mind of the beast before they could accept the story of Christianity. Both rejected it, both called it foolish, said the whole thing was stupid, the opium of humanity, said one, quoting his master, Karl Marx. The other looked upon Christianity as the weakest thing in the world. The Christ to him was nothing but a weakling because he couldn’t kill. He said “Put up the sword” and “Turn the other cheek” and “Father forgive them they know not what they do.” So here you see the beast of beasts and all at God’s command. “Take from him the mind of a man and give him the mind of a beast, and let his lot be among the beasts, but do not disturb the root, leave the stump and let it be watered with the dew of Heaven.”

And then there is a reversal and all of a sudden the stump puts out a shoot. It can’t put out the shoot until it first heard the Word of God. We must all go and tell the world and it must start in Jerusalem and spread to Judea, to Samaria, to the ends of the earth. Go and tell it. And some will accept it and some will reject it. Those that reject it, alright, because seven times must pass over. And what are the seven times/ Read the 3rd Chapter of the Book of Daniel. “And heat the furnaces seven times more than they were wont to be.” Then comes the three Hebrew boys and they are put into the furnace, clothed. Then the king said: “Were there not three?” They answered “Yes”. “But I see four and the fourth has the form of the Son of God.” Three were put in, the three-fold man, the three dimensional man, but goes with them the fourth, God Himself. For the fourth is God Himself. When they came out, “Their hair was not singed, nor even the smell of fire upon their garments.” Then he, Nebuchadnezzar, worshipped the God of Israel, worshipped the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

The whole thing is a mystery to be unfolded in the simple way it began by telling you of Christ of the Scripture. He is unfolding in you in a series of events, revealing to you your salvation. Peter in his Epistle said: “The prophets told how they searched and inquired about the grace that was to be yours: and how they inquired about their salvation, asking what person, what time was indicated by the Spirit of Christ within him when prophesying and predicting of the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glory.” But they didn’t find it. They couldn’t find the Christ of whom they wrote and whose coming they foretold, because they were looking for a man. Today they are still looking for a man, and looking for a time. They think maybe 1963 will bring it, or 1964. All through the ages people have thought a certain moment in time was the coming of Christ, or the coming of a person; but he doesn’t come that way. He comes in you and when you have him, you share him with everyone who will listen. Many will say, because they know you so well: “Don’t I know him? Isn’t he Mary’s child? Isn’t his father named George? Doesn’t he work in the factory with me. I know him so what is he talking about?” They expect an entirely different kind of person to come. They don’t expect the garment to have in it an experience that no mortal man could possibly have. It all happens in the depths of the soul of a man. Then he goes back and he sees where it was all foretold but: “Naught could he himself foresee.”

It’s all there but he couldn’t dig it out anymore than the scholars can until it happens. And after it comes to the surface in him he is bewildered. When the dust settles so that he really can talk about it without excitement, a few will listen and the majority will turn their backs. They say: “He’s talking about a Christ I never heard of before. I’d rather have my old Christ, because to him I can kneel, to him I can say a prayer in the hope that he will have compassion on me and respond; but this Christ.” A series of mystical experiences in the soul of man where the whole tree has fallen, and suddenly the tree that was felled and downed turns around? And then the whole thing goes back into the stump itself, the skull of man, and from then on it begins to really grow; and then he knows what the glory is Paul spoke of?” “For there is laid up for me in Heaven a crown of glory.” He himself grows it, no one puts it upon him. It is a living crown, not a crown as the human eye sees when they see the queens crown. Do you know of any crown comparable to the antlers of a stag? Did you ever see such majesty in your life when you see this beautiful thing. Did you ever see such majesty as a tree in full bloom? No. Don’t even try to visualize it, because it frightens people. The writer of the Book of Mark could see it correctly. What do you see now with the eye open: “I see men like trees walking.”

Believe the story as I told you this night concerning Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. You are the fourfold man. One presents you with a king to fulfill the 23rd Chapter of Jeremiah. He said: “I have come to fulfill the Scripture. Scripture must be fulfilled in me. “And beginning with Moses and all the prophets he interprets with them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” It was all about this being that you are.

Then comes the presentation of the ideal servant. Zech. 3:8 “Behold, I will bring my servant the Branch.” (6:12) “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch.” Then comes the fulfillment of the 4th of Isaiah. All must be fulfilled. So, these four branches must take root and all grow and mature in man. We have king, servant, the ideal man and God Himself.

THE PATTERN MAN

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard

Tonight’s subject is “The Pattern Man.” Paul, in his final letter to Timothy, — when he felt that he was about to depart this world, he wrote Timothy, and he said: “Follow the pattern of the sound words which you have heard from me. Guard the truth which has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.” [II Timothy 1:13, 14]

Paul’s Letters were written twenty-odd years before any other part of the New Testament. The earliest Gospel is Mark; that came twenty-odd years after the Letters of Paul. It was in Paul that the entire story unfolded itself. Paul said: “When it pleased God to reveal His Son in me, I did not confer with flesh and blood.” [Galatians 1:16,17] To whom would he turn? And he spent his last days, as told us in the Book of Acts, expounding the matter to them [Acts 28:23], “trying to convince them about Jesus, then from the law of Moses and from the prophets. And some were convinced by what he said, while others disbelieved.” [Acts 28:23,24]

He found the Pattern. Like every one, we are looking for a man, — some strange being coming out of space to save humanity; and he was one of those who looked for a man. Then he found it was not a man, but a pattern that was buried in man; that God had prepared the way for His sons to return, and the “way” is buried in man as a pattern.

When that pattern unfolded in man, then the one in whom it unfolds realized Who the Coming One really was.

If you take the 39 books of the Old Testament; although they are written across the centuries, they form one book, and events that are widely separated in time are welded into a pattern, and that pattern unfolds within the individual, forming what we call in Scripture “Jesus.” Jesus, then, is the pattern. I call Jesus the Pattern Man.

The first one to use the word “Jesus” is Paul. The first one to use the word “Christ” is Paul. He speaks of Jesus Christ. Well, “Jesus” has the same root as the word “Jehovah,” — the Lord God Jehovah, the same root as that of Jesus; and the word “Messiah” and the word “Christ” are one and the same. So, when he speaks of Jesus Christ, he is speaking of the Lord God Jehovah and His Messiah.

Now, where did he find it in the Old Testament? In the Second Book of Samuel, the 7th chapter, we read these words: “Go to my servant David, and say to David, “When your days are fulfilled, and you lie down with your fathers, –’” which is a euphemism for “Death” — when you are dead and you are buried with your fathers, your forefathers, “‘I will raise up your son after you, who will come forth from your body, . . . I will be his father, and he shall be my son.’” [II Samuel [7:12,14J

Here He tells David that He is going to raise up a son that will come forth from his body, and that He the Lord will be the father of that boy. That son will call Him “Father.”

Now, everyone was looking for the physical descent of someone called David, because they did not understand the great mystery of Scripture. David symbolizes Humanity. The whole vast world of man is symbolized as David, and he will raise up out of man That which will be the Son of God.

Well, you are a man. I am a man. Regardless of our sex, generically we are all Man, whether you be male or female; so, I will raise up out of Man a son that will come forth from his body, but I will be his father, not the man out of which he is raised! I, the Lord, will be his father.

Well, how on earth would you know this unless it happened to you? You can hear it from others, as they heard it from Paul, — as you are hearing it from me. In the early church Paul was known as the Apostle, — not just an apostle, but the Apostle, as though there were no others, because Paul — whoever Paul was; but Paul is that state that everyone must reach. When he reaches that state called “Paul,” then it happens in him, and he is sent to tell it. So, he tells it, hoping to convince those who will listen to him, concerning this great mystery. “And some were convinced by what they heard, while others disbelieved.” [Acts 28:24] He used Scripture to persuade them. He showed them in Scripture what he really meant. As it unfolded in him, then he took Scripture, and this is what it meant. For in me something was raised, but it wasn’t another; it was myself. I found myself buried in myself. When I rose in myself, I came out of this thing you call a man; so the son was raised out of man, which is David. Now, that which came out is my very Being! I came out.

And then in time — in the not-too-distant time after coming out, here I found Humanity personified as the David out of which I came. And Humanity then became my son, but I then was the Father. He simply raised up Himself out of Man. It was the Father who was buried in Man. He raises up out of Man Himself. So that man who was raised can say, I and my Father are one.” [John 10:30]

So, “when you see Me, you see the Father,” for: “I and my Father are one.” [John 1O:3O] We are not two. First there is a father and then a son, and then it is David. — The whole of humanity personified will come out as David.

So, the pattern is buried in man, and God has prepared the way through that pattern for Himself to return. It was God Who came down into humanity. It is God who actually became as we are, that we may be as He is, because it is God who is buried in man.

Now you may say: “Will he suffer as I have suffered?” Well, we are told in Scripture: “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.” [Matthew 8:17] Well, someone said to me: “After all, he bore my disease, and he took upon himself my infirmities? It is I who suffer. I am suffering — not any other.” And they repeated it: “I am suffering.” Well, who do you think God is? What is His name forever and forever? Is it not revealed in Scripture, “My name forever and forever is I AM” [Exodus 3:15]? And when you go to the people of the world, called Israel, and they ask you: “What is His name?” say to them: “I AM. That is who I AM. This is my name forever.”

So, you say that you are suffering, and not God? You have a false god when you say, “I am suffering, but He is not.” Who is He? His name is I AM. He isn’t pretending that He is you. If He pretended that He is you, that would be God masquerading under a veil of flesh — masquerading as a man. He’s not masquerading as a man; He became man — actually became as you are, that you may be as He is.

So, when He raises up His son through the body, it is you that He raises. And to show you that you are God, He has one more marvelous experience. There are four Mighty Experiences: The first one, He raises up in you as you. That one is simply one side of the coin. The same night that you awake within yourself is the night that you are “born from above.” As you are told in Scripture, “You cannot enter the kingdom of heaven unless you are born from above. You must be born again.” [John 3:3] So, that is told you.

So, the first night that you awake within yourself, that same night you are “born from above.” Then He unfolds in the next great drama which comes about 139 days later — in my own case it did; so I would say approximately five months later this thing happens, when actually you realize what came out. He raised himself, because it is God.

If God is a father, then God has a son. Then you find His son; and in finding His son as your son, — now you know who He raised up. At first you are aware of being John, if your name is John. And that’s who came out. Then, five months later, when He raises up now His son and you are the father of that son, then you know who actually He raised. He raised Himself as you!

So, there is only God buried in Humanity; therefore there can only be God to be raised. And if God is a father, He has to raise up His son; so the son is made to say in Scripture, “Thou wouldst not leave my soul in hell.” [Acts 2:27] “Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.” [Psalm 31:5]

So, here out of man comes the meaning of His promise: “I will raise up your son after you, when you lie down with your fathers.” [II Samuel 7:12] I will be His father, and He shall be my son! So, when you are raised up, you think then: “Am I now the son?” No, not yet. You are the Father, but you do not know it yet; and then 139 days later another explosion of the mind, and this time He raises up the son. But He first raises Himself. You are the Self. Then He raises the son, and you are the father of that that He now raises. Therefore, you are God the Father!

Every one is going to experience it! I don’t care what you have done or what you are planning to or what you are doing now; it’s irrelevant. You may have a dream that you are a billionaire, — well, that is all right. It will all pass away. It means nothing. You may have the dream of being the greatest scientist in the world and bring something into the world completely unknown to man, and receive all the plaudits of the world. It will pass away. It means nothing. This is the only reality: God redeeming Himself. God ventured into death. This world is the world of death. Everything dies. It appears, it waxes, it wanes, and then it vanishes.

Everything in this world comes in, grows, wanes, and disappears. But that which I am talking about is forever.

Eternity came down into Time and buried itself in Time — in man. And He is buried in man. Then in the fullness of time He redeems Himself through a pattern. So, Jesus of Scripture is the Pattern Man! The eternal pattern. There is no other way to the Father. He said, “I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life; no man cometh unto the Father, except by me.” [John 14:6] There is no other way.

So, when people tell me: “Can it be in this religion, or that religion, or the other religion, or in something other than this?” I reply: “There is no other. There is only one way to the Father, and that way is through this Pattern Man. And Jesus Christ is the Pattern buried in every man.”

Well, Jesus is the Lord God Jehovah — God the Father. And Christ is His Son, the Messiah called David. And David calls him “Father,” calls him, “My God,” calls him, “my Lord.” So, he said, “How did David call me? He called me in Spirit.” “Well, what did he call me? He called me, ‘my Lord.’” Read it in Scripture.

“What think ye of me?” And they answered, “The son of David.” The son of David, — “Then why did David In the spirit call me, ‘my Lord’? If David thus calls me, ‘my Lord,’ how can I be his son?” He is my son, and he symbolizes Humanity, for I, the Pattern Man, — I am buried In every child born of woman, regardless of his race, regardless of his nationality, regardless of anything — I am buried in every one. And in every one, in the fullness of time, I will rise, and will awaken in man as the man in whom I awaken.

He will know it at that moment when I awaken in him; he will simply know that something happened. He will know that he came out of his own skull, which was to him a tomb. He came out of that skull, and he was “born from above”; but he is bewildered. He tries to tell others, and they have no ears to listen to him, for to them he has some strange hallucination. It’s not what they were looking for. “So, don’t bring me any nonsense,” they will say.

Thus, he spent every day from morning to evening just simply expounding the matter to them, trying to testify to them concerning the Kingdom of God, trying to convince them concerning Jesus. [See Acts 28:23] Well, they never heard of Jesus, for the word “Jesus” came into the language only through Paul. But he knew “Jesus” meant “Jehovah.” He’s trying to convince them of the reality of this Self-existent Being called Jehovah. He named it “Jesus.” YOD HE YAU is the root of it. And then some were convinced by what he said, because he used Scripture. Well, the only Scripture he could have used in those days was the Old Testament, for there was no New Testament. The first books of the New Testament are the 13 Letters of Paul, and they preceded the next book of the New Testament by at least twenty-odd years, which is the Gospel of Mark. That book was written twenty-odd years after these Letters of Paul. And Paul’s first letter is Galatians.

In Galatians he tells us, “When it pleased God to reveal His son in me –” The preposition is “in,” not “to,” — but “in me.” “– I did not confer with flesh and blood.” [Galatians 1:16] To whom could I turn? A Freudian? To one who studied with Jung or one who studied with Adler? What could they tell me? What on earth could any man in this world tell me if he is going to rationalize based upon his concept of Jung or Adler or Freud or any other doctor? They do not know. Well, here, the whole thing is buried in man.

So, just imagine someone who knew his Old Testament backwards, he had committed it to memory, he knew it; a learned man was Paul. And then he studied and studied but couldn’t find it. He couldn’t find the answer as he studied it. But, then, it erupted within him. That tree had never yet borne fruit, and suddenly the Tree of Life began to unfold within him, and the fruit unfolded within him. Well, he is the Tree of Life, and he is bearing fruit, — he is bearing a son; and the son is Humanity calling him “Father”.

I say to you, what I’ve told you tonight and will continue to tell you to the ends of time, — I see no other reason for my being here, other than to tell my experience. I was sent, as he was sent, — whoever he was. He was called by the word “apostle” because he was sent. That is what the word “apostle” means; one who is sent. You don’t volunteer. You don’t do it for yourself. You can’t send yourself. You are sent. You are called and sent. So, to be called is also to be sent. I was called into that assembly and sent. At the moment, I did not know why I was sent. I only knew I was sent. Then came the experience thirty years later. That’s why I was sent, in preparation for the experience, that I simply may take the barnacles off this ship and set it once more straight, even though there are only a few to hear it. What does that matter? There were only a few who heard him, if you read Scripture carefully, — just a few.

At the end of his days, he spent the time in his own little home from morning till night; and those who would come, he simply took Scripture and showed them where what happened to him was foretold In Scripture. But no one reading Scripture could have seen it that way, for trained as they were, they were looking for a man — some unique man to come from without, and were told that, by some miraculous, fantastic way, was the leader of men, and that he would save man, — as Hitler said he would and as Stalin said he would, and Karl Marx said he would. They were all “outside” saviors. There is no “outside” savior. The Savior is within you. He is buried within you as a pattern; and when the pattern unfolds, it is not another unfolding, it is you unfolding. He unfolds in you as you.

You are the one who finds himself awakening within your own grave, which is your skull. It is you who comes out of that skull like one being born. It is you who stands before Humanity personified as the son called David, and he calls you — not another; he calls you “Father.” Then you read Scripture, and in Scripture David calls God “Father,” fulfilling what God said he would do.

He said, “I will raise up your son after you. He shall come forth from your body. I will be his father, and you [sic] shall be my son” [II Samuel 7:12,14]; and then David is made to say: “I will tell of the decree of the Lord: he said unto me, ‘Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee.’” [Psalm 2: 7]

So, the whole thing unfolds, and you go back and read Scripture — you have read it before. How on earth could any man ever have understood it until in the fullness of time it unfolded within him? When it unfolded in a man, that man knew what Scripture intended all along. Then you tell it to those who are still looking for some external savior, and they are still looking for him; so they turn their backs upon you, and they will not believe you.

This is a repeated pattern over and over and over. Some believed — a few believed, but others disbelieved. I’ll find that until the ends of my days. He returns to Timothy and tells Timothy to “follow the pattern of the sound words –.” [II Timothy 1:13] He took the entire 39 books and events widely separated in time, and he brought them together to form the pattern. He found some in the early parts of Genesis, and then some in the Book of Samuel; then he found some in the Book of Psalms, in Jeremiah; he took these patterns and wove them together, and they all unfolded within him.

There was a promise in the beginning. He found that in the early parts of Genesis. He promises a child — a child that would prove something. That’s the son coming, just a son. Then he tells you: “Here’s another sign: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” That is in the Book of Exodus. And, then, that happens to you. “To me in this same manner?” Yes, it’s going to happen to you.

It happened to me. Like a fiery serpent I was lifted up; and here is something that recorded it thousands of years ago. The whole thing is contemporary. It is an eternal drama that is taking place. One is drawn into that eternal drama, and then it unfolds within him.

I like to repeat it in this manner: If you can conceive of an action — a simple action that is forever taking place, like an eternal command, — something to be done absolutely and continuously. It’s like — well, the imperative passive mood; something that is done absolutely, but at the same time continuously, without reference to the completeness of the action or the incompleteness of the action, without reference to its duration, without reference to its repetition, without reference to its position in time. It is simply taking place in Eternity. And then you are drawn by this like a magnet; and as you are drawn into it — because it is a simple act talked about in Scripture, the action unfolds within you, for it is already in you. You are drawn into it, and it unfolds within you. You are the one having the experience.

You don’t see it as something on the outside. You are experiencing the action. And when the whole thing unfolds within you, you go back to Scripture, and then you see that this is what was said anyway. This is what was prophesied would happen, but you thought it was going to happen to another.

I thought it happened two thousand years ago to one called Jesus. Now I see that Jesus is a pattern. Jesus is the Pattern Man buried in every man; and when that pattern unfolds in man, man is Jesus! Well, Jesus is the Lord, — the Lord God Jehovah. So, there is no room for another god. There is only God.

So, when asked, “What is the greatest commandment in the world?” he replied: “Hear, 0 Israel. The lord, our God, the Lord is one. There is no greater commandment.” You can’t have two gods — only one. But one God becoming us unfolds in us, and we are that one God! So, in the end, we are all one; for if the same son calls you “Father” that called me “Father,” are we not one?

You are not going to have another son. You are going to have the same son — the identical son calling you, “Father.” Well, if he calls you, “Father,” and he really is your son, and he has already called me, “Father,” and I know he is my son; then you and I, though we differ in identity, — we still are one. We simply are only one. “Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one.”

There can’t be a second god, or other gods. But in the end, everyone in this world will form “one body, . . . one spirit, . . . one Lord, . . . one God and Father of all.” [Ephesians 4:4]

Now, this is far more important than to tell you how to make a million, which is a simple thing for you if you really want it and you are willing to give the time to it. Those who came here tonight, thinking that that would be part of tonight’s talk, — then for your benefit, I will tell you a story. I have repeated it unnumbered times, but I will tell it again if you are here for that purpose:

Your own wonderful human imagination is the being that I speak of when I speak of God. When I say, “God became as we are, that we may be as He is,” I am speaking of your imagination. And you cannot get away from your imagination. “And by Him all things were made, and without Him was not anything made that was made.” [John 1:3] That’s your imagination.

There isn’t a thing in this world that you see now and call it a fact that wasn’t first only imagined: the building; the clothes you wear; the chairs on which you are seated; this little mike; — everything was first only imagined, and then executed. Well, if all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made, — good, bad or indifferent, try to find some other maker than your own wonderful human imagination. Try to find it. You may say: “Edison did it” — in his imagination; “Einstein did it” — in his imagination. Show me one other instrument other than the human imagination that conceived anything in this world, and that is God. “If all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made,” then you conclude that He must be the human imagination.

So, I tell you, your own wonderful human imagination is the God of Whom I speak! That is the Being that actually will awaken within you. But, now, to get things in this world, assume that you are. “All things are possible to Him.” Assume that you are the man that you want to be — or the woman that you want to be. And, although at the moment of your assumption your reason and your senses deny it, if you dare to persist in that assumption as though it were true, that assumption — in a way unknown to your rational, conscious mind — will harden into fact. It knows how to actually build that series of events necessary to make it so in your world.

If you really want to be what you call “secure”, — say, in finances, dare to assume that you are secure, and live as though you were; sleep as though you were; and then it will happen in your world that will cause you to leave your present environment and move on into the state that you have assumed. If you wait for things to change before you dare to assume, you will wait forever. Circumstances cannot change of themselves. You change them by changing your concept of Self.

To attempt to change the world before you change your own imaginal activity is to struggle against the very nature of things. Now, you say: “Well, I am reaping these things in my world, and I didn’t make them.” No, — you have forgotten the blossom time. What you are now reaping is simply the fruit of some forgotten blossom time. You have a very faulty memory. We all have. We can’t remember when we set in motion what we are now reaping as a harvest; but everything in our world was once planted as an imaginal act, and it has not a physical cause, — it has an imaginal cause. Every natural effect in this world has an imaginal cause, and not a natural cause. A natural cause only seems; it is the delusion of a faulty memory, because man cannot remember the blossom time when he actually set it in motion.

If you will try that; then if you came tonight to hear something more practical, then that is the practical side of this teaching. But may I tell you, I consider that what is most profoundly spiritual is most directly practical. For, if you really give all your attention to this pattern, “and set your hope fully on this unveiling of The Christ you,” it will be far more profitable than seeking to become rich in the world. If this thing should only unfold within you, then the world is yours. You don’t have any desire for the fantastic claims that people make in this world.

So, if you really give all your attention to the hope, as Peter said, — “Set your hope fully upon the glory, upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” [I Peter 1:13] If Jesus Christ is already in me, as told me in the Letters of Paul, then I can only wait for the unveiling of that Jesus Christ within me. And this is the hope that makes it wisdom to go after the burdens of this long, dark night of time.

So, you find yourself in pain, find yourself limited by some infirmity for a little while; bear in mind: “He took upon Himself our infirmities and bore our diseases.” and His name is I AM. So, when you say that I am doing it all by myself and He is not bearing it with me, remember: His name is I AM. And I AM, which is the real name of God, became as limited as you are, and now bears your infirmities and your diseases; and He does the suffering. But in the end, He will awaken in you as you, and you will be the Lord Jesus; and your son will bear witness of your fatherhood, and He is the Messiah in Scripture, as told us in Samuel and told us in the Psalms. And when you meet him, his name is David. You are the Lord Jesus, and David called you — the Lord Jesus — “my Father.” He calls you, “my Lord.” He calls you, “my God,” for that is the story of Scripture.

Man has been completely educated out of it and he brings his prefabricated misconceptions of Scripture to a message of this nature. Well, it doesn’t dovetail with what he has been taught; therefore, he goes away saying, “I didn’t hear it,” or “I don’t care for it.” He still wants his external god to whom to pray; and if his prayers are not answered, then he will say to himself that God did not think it wise to grant his prayer, — in spite of the fact that we are told whatever we ask for will be granted. He didn’t say if it was good for you; he just said you should ask for it, but he made this statement: “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and you will.” Read it in the 11th chapter of the Book of Mark. [Mark 11:24] “Whatever you ask, believe that you have received it, and you will.”

“If we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know we have obtained the request made of Him.” Read that in the First Epistle of John, the 5th chapter, 15th verse. These are statements made by the Awakened Man. Therefore, if the prayer is not answered, you are praying to a wrong god. But if you know that the God to Whom you pray is your own wonderful human imagination, then instead of begging, you appropriate.

You appropriate the state; so I call it the subjective appropriation of the objective hope. What is my objective hope? Well, I appropriate it subjectively. I “go within” and I simply appropriate it. I simply assume the feeling of my wish fulfilled. I appropriate it; and if my wish fulfilled were true, how would I see the world in which I live? and then do everything to make me see it as I would see it if it were: see the people in my world as I would have to see them, and let them see me as they would be compelled to see me if what I am doing is an actual external fact. If they know me and I know them, and something happens in my life that becomes public knowledge, — well, then, they would know it. Then let them see me as they would have to see me if it were true. So, the subjective appropriation of the objective hope is prayer. You don’t beg any one. Don’t ask anyone. You simply appropriate it. For, if He is in me, where would I go to ask Him?

As we are told, “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” [II Corinthians 13:5] Then test yourselves to see if you really realize it. Put yourself to the test If I say, “Jesus Christ,” and your mind jumps on the outside to something other than yourself, you have failed the test, for you are told: “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? — unless, of course,” said he, “you fail to meet the test!” Well, you have just had the test. So, when I use the words, “Jesus Christ,” and something on the outside comes to you, you have failed the test!, for Jesus Christ is in you. If I go to Him in my prayer, where would I go but to myself? He became as I am, that I may be as He is. He actually became me. He is in me as my own wonderful human imagination, for “by Him all things were made, and without Him was not anything made that was made,” [John 1:3] so I go within and appropriate the state.

So, the subjective appropriation of my objective hope is my prayer. And having appropriated it, I drop it, as I would the seed into the earth. The seed must fall into the earth and rot before it can be made alive. Well, just drop it, and then in its own good time it will come into harvest. It takes an interval of time between my appropriation and its fulfillment; so having done it, I drop it, and go about my “Father’s business” appropriating other states — not only for myself, but for myself pushed out,” which I call “others.” For, in the end, there is Only One.

One day we will know that you and I are one, for you must be the same Being that I am, though we are individualized, and we will remain individualized. But you must be the Being that I am, because you are the Father of my son. How on earth could you be the Father of my son and not be as I AM? So, I will know you — know you in Eternity as who you are, a friend; I will know you as my brother, but I will also know you as God. Every one, in the end, I will know as God — the Only God, but I will know them as my brother and know them as my friend. All will be God. Not one will be lost, — in spite of all that is said to the contrary.

There is no hell waiting for you. There is only an infinite body of Love — an infinite body of Perfection, which one day you will wear; and wearing it, nothing can remain in your presence that is imperfect. As you walk by — as you glide by, everything will be molded in harmony with the perfection that is springing within you. You do not need a realm called Heaven. You are Heaven. The body you will wear will be perfect, and in it presence nothing can remain imperfect. And that’s Heaven!

So, if you went into the hell of hells, it would be automatically and instantaneously transformed into Heaven. So, you don’t need love; all you need is the Body of the Risen Lord within you. And when He rises within you, that body is an infinite body of Love and Perfection.

So, here the Pattern, I know from experience, is buried in man. It’s the way of escape from the world of death into the world of Eternity. And that Pattern was built into man before the foundation of the world. He prepared the way for His own escape; end when the time is fully come to depart this world, as Paul said, “The time for my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness,” [II Timothy 4:6-8] and now Paul is about to depart. But in his departure he spends his time from morning to evening expounding the matter to them, trying to convince them about Jesus, trying to testify to the Kingdom of God, and using Scripture to support his argument — both from the law of Moses and from the prophets. And some believed what he said and some disbelieved; and everyone who comes into this same state of consciousness where the Pattern unfolds within him is going to find the same crowd, some believing and some disbelieving, until one day it happens in them; and they too will be confronted with those who will believe them and disbelieve them. And it will go on and on until the end when all are redeemed. When all are redeemed, it is by the one Pattern; so I say there is no other way of redemption.

When people tell me diets will do it or meditation will do it or this other -ism will do it, or some other savior, — there is no other savior. The Savior is a Pattern, and the Pattern is in man, and it’s called in Scripture. “Jesus.” There is no other way. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” [John 14:6] “I am the resurrection and the life.” [John 11:25] No one comes to the Father, except by me.” [John 14:6] The one speaking in these quotations is the Pattern Man, and until this Pattern unfolds in man, he remains in the world of death. Well, when it unfolds within him, he is that which unfolds within him. He is the Lord Jesus. Jesus is the Lord God Jehovah.

And because He is the Father, there must be a son; and the son stands before him, which is the sum total of Humanity with all its experiences personified, and that infinite beauty is called David. He is the David of Biblical fame, and he calls you “Father.”

Now let us go into the Silence.

Last night after the meeting a lady asked me if I would touch on what I said earlier about who saw Him. He appeared first to Peter, and then to the Twelve, then to five hundred, and then to James, then to the Apostles, and finally to Paul. Well, I will touch it just briefly, for her sake.

When He appears, it is simply the man in whom the Pattern has awakened. It is that man, whether you can him by a Biblical name or by any other name, — anyone in whom the Pattern of Redemption awakes is that man called “Jesus.” But you may know him in this world as George or Peter or Neville, or any other name. I know in my own case they must now start. It has already started. Those who see me in spirit as the Being that I am claiming that I am — I am claiming it only because it has happened in me. I am not speculating. I am not theorizing. The whole thing has unfolded itself in me.

There is a gentleman here tonight whose wife had this experience this week and wrote me this letter. She says, “I had this wonderful experience where you gave this banquet. It was beautifully done and very formal. On your right sat one who seemed to have been, or should have been, an apostle. He was well dressed. I sat to your left. I knew the truth of what he was saying, but he was hysterical, because it struck him funnily. He told you that he had a dream that you were Jesus Christ, and then he started to laugh in a strange, disbelieving manner; and he kept on laughing as he repeated the dream that he had.”

She said, “I knew that the dream that he had was true, and in spite of the fact that it was a dream, he didn’t think it true. He disbelieved it completely. But I knew it was true.”

Well, that’s Scripture. She is a lady. In the end of the Book of Luke it is the woman who comes to the Apostles, and it is the woman who said, “He is risen,” [Luke 24:34] and the apostles thought it an idle tale [See Luke 24.11], and they did not believe it. There’s your story. She believed it, and she was not judged among the apostles. He was judged among the apostles, the man who sat at my right, the honored position at the table, and did not believe it.

The apostles named in Scripture were not sent until after. They were told, “Remain in the city until you are imbued with power from above.” They had not yet received the gift of the Holy Spirit; so they could not be sent.

So, they are coming. One after the other are coming to make that number. First He appears to Peter. Well, I told you who was Peter in my case — a little girl 8 years old, Maylo. She was the one who saw the thing in detail. Then came others. Now they are gathering. No bragging about it. If it happened in me, it happened in me. There is not a thing I’ve done to warrant it. It’s Grace. It is a gift — unwarranted, unearned. It is God’s gift.

Grace is God’s gift of Himself to man which man did not earn. He did not merit it. It’s a gift. So, no one can brag. So, if it happened in me, which it has, I cannot brag; but I do know there must be witnesses to confirm that it did happen in me. And his wife — he is sitting right here; his wife was one who actually witnessed it this past week.

Are there any other questions, please?

LADY: Yes. When you meditate, I understand you raise your chin.

NEVILLE: It has no significance. If I raise my chin for one moment, it really has no significance. If I do it, I am not aware of it. I turn my attention inwards — into my skull, and I ask no favors of any one. I simply go in. If I have nothing at the moment to appropriate, I just simply — for the joy of looking on the inside to watch the golden clouds form. They always form like a halo around the head. It’s a simple matter, as though the whole dark convolutions of the brain grow luminous. And it takes no time for them to become luminous. So, I simply observe them. If I go for a purpose, while there I appropriate my gift or appropriate my wish. But if I raise my chin, my dear, don’t think for one second that it has any significance. So, don’t duplicate any physical action. Imitate the action in this sense: Go within. Close your eyes to the outer world. Go within, and center your entire attention within your skull. That’s where He is! That is where your True Being is.

THE LADY: (A further question about meditating, and that in a class a bishop told her not to lower her head, but keep her chin up when she meditates.)

NEVILLE: Well, my dear, if he said it to you and you believed it, I personally have nothing to say. I only will tell you this much: Your physical posture means nothing. There are people here in the western world who have no training for the lotus posture, and yet there are people coming from the East who insist that they get on the floor and sit right on the floor and get into a tight posture and they cannot even unlock themselves afterwards. Now, I would like to take the same Eastern man and put him into a western posture, and he won’t be able to unlock himself either! It’s all nonsense. So, I must do what the Eastern man does!

He comes over here, and he came to L.A. and got $500 from each person to take a course with him. He was the “holy of house.” So, someone asked him on TV. “Why do you advertise yourself so? Jesus never did.” And he giggled and giggled and said, “Well, that’s why he took so long to get started!” And he’s a holy man! And all these people with lots of money — well, you see, money doesn’t care who owns it; so they have fortunes and they give him $500 to teach them how to sit in the lotus posture and become holy. They are just as unholy today as when they gave him the $500, — only he is richer. He has gone back to his little ashram in India with all of the tens of thousands that he got from the people here who were as stupid as they come.

No physical posture. If you feel comfortable lying on your back, lie on your back. If you are a Catholic — as you said, you were raised a Catholic and you bowed your head in a certain adoration, with a certain feeling of devotion, go ahead. Do anything that is to you natural. If you want to put your hands on your knee and they will remain comfortable and alert, put them on your knee. Do whatever is natural to you. But all this nonsense that you must do this, do that, — and they all live double lives anyway. You must eat that, and you can’t eat the other thing. But don’t follow him into his little ashram, because you will see him eating what he has told you not to eat!

I recall a man who was the physical culturist of the day. I am going back now to the 20’s. He was quite the boy. He had a magazine called “Physical Culture,” and he had all these things. He was against eating meat, and he was going to live to be a thousand, but he didn’t; he dropped off when he was 68 or so. And he did all kinds of things.

Well, a friend of mine was a waiter in the rooms, and this man had a huge suite of rooms. Well, he put in his order, and my friend — being the waiter — carried his order. He had a steak that big; but he ate it behind locked doors. So, he had his huge big steak and all the things that washed it down, while in his magazine he said meat was anathema, — you must not do these things. So he sold the magazines to all the people, and they believed he did what he preached.

A GENTLEMAN: What does the scripture “to one untimely born” mean?

NEVILLE; “To one untimely born”; that is what Paul said in the 15th chapter of I Corinthians. He meant that it came so shockingly suddenly that there was no warning of labor pains. “One untimely born, and God revealed His son to him.” It came just like that — as told us, “like a thief in the night,” — no warning. So, let no one tell you they can see your aura and therefore you are right on the verge of it. What nonsense! I can see all kinds of auras for you if you pay me enough! So, they see this, see that, see the other. Forget all this nonsense. When it happens, it happens suddenly and unexpectedly, so that as Paul said, “It came to me as one untimely born,” — because in my own case twelve years ago in this city I, too, could have said, “untimely born,” for here I

End of source document.

THE PERFECT IMAGE

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 04-11-1969

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE POWER OF AWARENESS

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 1953

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE PROMISE EXPLAINED

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 26 June 1970

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE PRUNING SHEARS OF REVISION

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 1954

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE PURE IN HEART

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 03-01-1963

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now let us go into the silence.

* * * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE ROCK

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 2-19-1969

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now let us go into the silence.

THE ROLL OF THE BOOK

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 11-01-1968

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now let us go into the silence.

THE SECOND VISION

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 9-11-1959

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now let us go into the silence.

THE SECRET OF CAUSATION

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 12-05-1969

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now let us go into the silence.

THE SECRET OF PRAYER

December 22, 2013

Neville Goddard 10-06-1967

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now let us go into the silence.

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