Neville Goddard 09-09-1968
Sit
quietly and ask yourself who you are, where you are and what you are.
Your answers will reveal your state of consciousness: your body of
belief. Paul said, “We do not look to the outer things, but to
the things unseen, for the outer things are transient, but the unseen
things are eternal.” Your beliefs, seen by the mystic, are
personified. They form a state, which completely controls your
behavior. Any modification within your body of belief will result in
a change in your outer world.
Blake tells us, “Eternity
exists and all things in eternity independent of creation which was
an act of mercy. By this you will see that I do not consider either
the just or the wicked to be in a supreme state, but to be everyone
of them states of the sleep which the soul may fall into in its
deadly dreams of good and evil when it leaves paradise following the
serpent.”
Now, Blake uses the word “mercy”
only as one who sees that states are eternal; that in God’s
mercy he created all things, not just a few, so that any situation
which can be conceived, already exists in eternity. When Blake said,
“Eternity exists and all things in eternity independent of
creation which was an act of mercy,” he meant that everything
you see is dead, a part of the eternal structure of the universe. You
are its operant power. When you enter a scene it becomes animated.
Then you become lost in your own animation and think it is
independent of your perception. Looking at it, you cannot believe you
are causing the animation, but you are.
You and I are
living souls, buried in a world of death. We are destined to be
life-giving spirits through an act of mercy, but until that time we
animate what we perceive. Questioning self, Blake asks: “O
miserable man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of
death?” May I tell you, no earthly power can do it, only
God.
Peter tells us, “Blessed be the God and
Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. By his great mercy we have been born
anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead.” This is true, for only by God’s act of great
mercy can we be born anew. Now buried in a world of eternal death,
you are animating dead forms, believing they are independent of your
perception of them. This you will continue to do until God’s
great mercy awakens Jesus Christ within you. If Christ was not buried
in you, he could not awaken in you, and if he is not in you he could
not emerge from you. Therefore, like Paul, you carry in your body the
death of Jesus. It is the tomb in which he is buried. His awakening
delivers you from a body of death, but until that time you must live
in, and adjust to, the dead body you wear.
Now, until
you are born from above, you operate the power which gives life to
this world. For the world is a dream filled with dead scenery, while
you are Proteus. As you enter the scene you cause the parts to be
made alive. Not knowing this, you think there are others, and fight
the shadows of your own being.
All things exist in the
human imagination, and all phenomena are solely produced by
imagining. Where there is no imagining, everything vanishes. If lack
is now in your world, and you cease to be aware of it by imagining
plenty, lack disappears; therefore, any modification in your body of
belief will cause a change in your life.
Now embedded in
death, we resurrect into life by the act of mercy. Scripture calls
this transformation Jesus Christ, for it is he who is buried in us;
and when he awakens and rises, we are born from above, thereby
setting us free from this body of death. Until that moment in time
you can enter a state, partake of it and move on to another. This is
how it is done. Although I am living here in Los Angeles, I desire to
be in New York City. While lying on my bed tonight, I close my
physical eyes to the room surrounding me and assume I am in New York
City. Then I ask myself these questions: lf I were now in New York
City, what would I see? Would I think of Los Angeles as three
thousand miles to the west of me? Where are my friends and loved
ones? How are my finances now that I am here? Then I would answer
these questions carefully and fall asleep in New York City.
Now,
an assumption is an act of faith, and without faith it is impossible
to please God. “By faith we understand that the world was
created by the word of God, so that things seen were made out of
things that do not appear.” Someone looking at my physical body
would see me sleeping in Los Angeles, yet I would be sleeping in New
York City, for I am all imagination and must be where I am imagining
myself to be. By this action I am adjusting myself imaginatively to a
state I desire to objectively realize. And if I have imagined with
conviction, by giving New York City all of the sensory vividness of
reality, things will immediately begin to happen to compel me to make
the journey. I do not imagine lightly anymore, because I now know
every imaginal act will come to pass.
When I first stumbled
upon this principle, I thought it was stupid. The idea that imagining
creates reality was nonsense. How could anyone believe a thing into
being without any external evidence to support it? How could any
imaginal act be the causative fact, which fuses and projects itself?
Although I did not believe it could, I imagined, and got that which I
did not want! So I acquaint you now with what I know about this
principle of imagining and lead you to your choice and its risk.
There is always a risk, for you may not want what you have imagined
after you get it, so I warn you to select wisely.
Do you
know what you want from life? You can be anything you want to be if
you know who you are. Start from the premise, "I am all
imagination and pass through states," for eternity (all things)
exist now! Having experienced a state and moved into another one you
may think the former state has ceased to be, but all states are
eternal, they remain forever. Like the mental traveler that you are,
you pass through states either wittingly or unwittingly, but your
individual identity is forever. Whether you are rich or poor, you
retain the same individual identity when you move from one state into
another. If you are not on guard, you can be persuaded by the press,
television, or radio, to change your concept of self and unwittingly
move into an undesirable state. You can move into many states and
play many parts, but as the actor, you do not change your identity.
When you are rich, you are the same actor as when you are poor. These
are only different parts you are playing.
You annexed
your physical body for the experiences you are now having, but you
are not the body you wear. The day will come when you will awaken to
this fact. Then, like Proteus, you will assume any shape for the part
you want to play. If it takes a fish, you will be a fish. If it takes
a man, you will be a man, for that is who God is. Learn to adjust
your senses to what you desire to be. Just as I moved to New York
City, you can move into the state of wealth, fame, or any state you
desire. Determine what it would feel like, and adjust your thinking
by assuming you are feeling it now.
Look at your world
mentally. Your present level of objective fact may be the same as it
was before, but in your imagination hear your friends congratulate
you on your good fortune. Then believe in the reality of this unseen
experience. Like Paul, look not to things seen, but to things unseen;
for the things seen are temporal, while the things unseen are
eternal. Two hundred years ago Blake made the statement, “Eternity
exists and all things in eternity, independent of creation which was
an act of mercy.” Three thousand years ago the unknown writer
of Ecclesiastes said it even more beautifully: “There is
nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing for which it is said,
‘This is new?’ It has been already in ages past, but
there is no remembrance of things to come after, among those who will
come later.”
This past year one of our great
physicists, Professor Richard Feynman of Cal Tech, said the same
thing, yet not as beautifully as Blake or the unknown author of
Ecclesiastes. This is what Professor Feynman said: “The entire
space/time history of the world is laid out and we only become aware
of increasing portions of it successively.” For this Professor
Feynman received the Nobel Prize and maybe $50,000, while Blake, who
saw it mystically and recorded it poetically, went to an unmarked
pauper’s grave. Professor Feynman based his conclusion on his
study of the disintegration of the atom. Noticing the peculiar
behavior of a little positron when placed in fluid, he realized that
the entire space/ time history of the world is already laid out, and
man only becomes aware of portions of it successively.
I
have seen the same thing in vision and know that the world is dead. I
have entered a room such as this, to discover that I am the spirit
animating it. By arresting the activity in me that caused the scene
to become alive, everything froze. The waitress walked not. The birds
flew not. The diners dined not. Then I knew that when I released its
activity in me, everything and everyone would continue to complete
their intention. Releasing my power, the waitress completed the
serving, the bird flew to the limb of the tree, and the grass began
to wave, as the leaf which was arrested in space fell to the ground.
Now I know I am the center of creative power. The day will come when
you, too will awaken and exercise your creative power, knowingly.
That is our destiny, for we all will awaken as God and use this power
to create in the true sense of the word.
Try to remember
that there is no limit to God’s creative power, or your power
of belief. Persuade yourself that things are as you desire them to
be. Fall asleep in that assumption, as that is your act of faith.
Tomorrow the world will begin to change, to make room for the garment
of your assumption. If it takes one person or ten thousand to aid the
birth of your assumption, they will come. You will not need their
consent or permission, because the world is dead and what would be
the purpose in asking dead people to help you? Simply know what you
want, animate the scene and those playing their parts will begin to
move towards the fulfillment of your desire.
Try it
before you pass judgment upon it. I know it doesn’t make sense,
but it will prove itself in performance and then it will not matter
what the world thinks. If there is evidence for a thing, does it
really matter what someone else thinks about it? I encourage you to
try it, for if you do you will not fail.
Now let us go
into the silence.