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.