Neville Goddard 01-18-1968
GOD SPEAKS TO MAN
"In a vision of the night when deep sleep falls upon men, while they
slumber on their beds, he opens their ears and seals their instructions."
(Job 33)
Tonight you may find yourself in a terrestrial world like this one, and you feel
just as real to yourself as you do here. And when you return with its memory you
may think it was a dream, but it was a vision. You are dreaming right now, for
this world is the dream you and I agreed to complete. Its end will appear when
we turn around through a series of visions.
The Old Testament outlines the dream, interspersed with vision, while the New
Testament tells of the awakening. The trinity which the churches refer to as God
the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, can be taken in a simple way as
Mighty Father, the proceeding Son, and the returning Holy Spirit - for they are
all one.
The dreamer in you is God. Tonight as you dream ask yourself where you are. Many
times while lying on my bed I have left this body I know so well, to enter a
world just as real as this. Remembering where my body was when I started my
journey, when I desired to return I had to feel myself in the body - now
cataleptic - on the bed. I could not move it or open its eyes. The body felt
dead, yet I was very much alive. Gradually I was able to move a finger, then the
toes. But only as I opened my eyes and saw the familiar objects on the wall and
dresser did I know I was back. But was I really? Am I not dreaming this world
just as much as I was dreaming that one? If so then where am I right now?
Man cannot remember where he laid himself down to dream this dream of life. If
he could, he would return through the secret of feeling. Finding myself in a
world like this, I remembered where I left my body and felt myself back into it.
I returned with the memory of people who were there. They were clothed and real
and the world was terrestrial, just as it is here. I talked to them and they
answered. Now if that world was a vision then this one is also, for one world
does not differ from the other. So God has two ways of speaking to man, but man
does not perceive it.
A dream contains one central thought. Like a thank you note. You don't try to
interpret every word in it, just the message it is trying to convey.
I have a friend who dreamed it was his birthday and many people had arrived to
attend his party. There were two large cakes, with one lady very adamant about
the design she had placed on hers. (This is not significant to the dream, but
only part of getting the story started.) Leaving to find candles for the table,
my friend returned to discover one cake was missing, as well as all of the
guests. Disappointed because he had not seen or heard me speak, the dream ended.
Suddenly he finds himself on a beach with a friend. Asking where everyone was,
his friend points to a rock in the middle of the water, and said: "There
they are, away out to sea." Seeing another rock near it supporting a child,
afraid and alone, he said: "How did they get there?" and his friend
answered: "Mentally." Then he mentally went to the child, took her by
the hand, and placed her on the big rock. Now the dream changes and my friend
finds himself in a lecture hall with a stairway in the center of the stage.
Coming down the stairs, I place his hands in mine and say: "I'm glad you
have made it, chosen one." Then he awoke.
This is a very significant dream, whose single jet of truth is the rock. It's
not the birthday, the party, or the cake, but the language of scripture that
will reveal the truth of any dream. The journey of life is a mental one, which
is taking place in the sea of illusion. And only when you find yourself on the
Rock will your journey be at its end.
We are told: "You are unmindful of the Rock that begot you and have
forgotten the God who gave you birth." (Deuteronomy 32) This passage of
scripture tells us that the Rock is equated with God. And in the New Testament
it is said: "They drank from the supernatural Rock that followed them and
the Rock was Christ."
This gentleman is now standing on that Rock. Since all dreams are egocentric, he
conjured me from within himself Containing the whole vast world within him, he
called forth those he chose to play a part he wrote for himself. This he did
without our knowledge or consent. My friend has now reached that foundation
stone upon which he will build his house. No longer will he build on shifting
sands, where the winds and storms destroy the structures, but upon the Rock who
is Christ; and Christ is God who is the Human Imagination.
The central figure of Christianity is the Human Imagination. When you accept
this as the first principle of religion, then all governments, rituals, and
external worship will have heard the trumpets of Joshua. All of the buildings
that are of any structure than that Rock - which is your own wonderful Human
Imagination - will fall. This gentleman had a wonderful experience. He is on the
Rock, but he may move from it. He may turn his back and forget that the cause of
all of the phenomena of his life is the Human Imagination. It is my hope that he
will not.
There is only one source of all creation. "By him all things were made, and
without him was not anything made that was made." If anything or anyone
comes into your world, remember the cause is your Human Imagination, who is the
God of scripture and the dreamer in you.
Stand upon that Rock, knowing you are God the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, as these three are the chosen One. In the 1st Epistle of John, the 5th
chapter, these three are called the Spirit, the water, and the blood.
Knowing that God is spirit and there is life in the blood, the Risen Christ
calls himself the Living Water, saying: "If you had asked, I would have
given you living water that you would never thirst again." Living water is
the truth. Once truth has been experienced, you will hunger and thirst no more.
"I will send a famine upon the land. It will not be a hunger for bread or a
thirst for water, but for the hearing of the word of God." This gentleman
has found the word of God, for he has found the Rock.
Another friend shared this vision with me. (I call this a vision rather than a
dream, for it was her own back door.) Although it was early in the day, my
friend became so sleepy, she lay down on the couch and closed her eyes. Suddenly
she heard a knock at the back door. Upon opening it she found a pleasant looking
young man there, obviously hungry. She invited him in and as she was preparing
his food, she realized it was 5:30 P.M. and her husband would be home shortly.
Wondering how she was going to explain the stranger's presence, her little
daughter woke her, to discover that it was only 11:00 a.m. in the morning. Lying
there she remembered she had not fed the man, so she did so in her
Imagination.
That's what I mean when I tell you to carry Imagination to the extreme point and
feed the world. Although my friend did not feed the man in her vision, she did
so in her Imagination, knowing she was feeding Christ. She knows that when she
does this to the least of one of these, she is doing it to Christ. And when she
does not do it, she is not doing it to Christ - who is her very self. My friend
has learned her lesson, and is at the end of her journey. Having a vivid memory
of what had transpired, she carried through her intention and fed the man in her
Imagination.
All of this may seem insane to the world, because they do not understand this
great mystery. In 1946 I wrote a little booklet called The Search. I ended it on
this note: "The universe which we study with such care is a dream and we
the dreamers, dreaming non-eternal dreams. One day, like Nebuchadnezzar, we
shall awaken from our nightmare in which we fought with demons, to discover that
we have never really left our eternal home; that we were never born and have
never died - save in our dream."
Since that time nothing has happened to cause me to change one word in that
little book for, like Nebuchadnezzar, I have awakened from this dream of life.
Now when I close my eyes in meditation, I sometimes have a little dream; or
other times I enter a world just like this, where I am totally awake and aware
of what is happening.
You see, one day the being that is really dreaming your life will awaken, and
you will be enhanced beyond your wildest dreams because of your
experiences.
You never descended in body, but in consciousness. Descending in your dream, you
entered this world called eternal death to see things appear, wax, wane, and
vanish. They appear to die, yet you are dreaming their death. One day you will
discover that you have never gone anywhere, save in your dream.
This past weekend I was visiting with a doctor, who told me that he was
fascinated with anthropology, and if he ever came back again, he was going to be
an anthropologist. He said: "Neville, in spite of what you say, we go back
millions and millions of years." And I asked: "Are you proud of the
fact that your ancestor was an ape? If all ends run true to origin, and your
ancestor was an ape, no matter how wise you are, you are still only a wise ape.
Well, my origin is God. I assumed this limitation for a purpose, and when that
purpose is revealed, my end is God."
I cannot see any relationship between the physical body and the ape, as there
are still apes with us. Did it ever occur to you that change does not need to be
gradual, but can be a combination in a sudden mutation? Think about it. God is a
dreamer. He could take a root or a branch, and by forcing mutation among members
of a certain colony of apes, when they multiply the new feature is transferred,
and man suddenly appears.
Man thinks in terms of millions and millions of years; yet one generation could
be more instantaneous than the nth part of a second, if you are going to measure
life in terms of time.
I'm not saying this is true. I am only giving you something to think about. If
you do, you will change your mind about having an ape for an ancestor.
As God, you started your dream by coming down in consciousness to the level
called man. You died in order for humanity to be made a living soul. Now, bound
by what you took upon yourself, you are dreaming a predetermined, horrible
dream; yet the results of these experiences will transcend your wildest dreams.
The story of Jesus Christ is your story, which you will fulfill - in vision - in
a three-dimensional world.
Now, I used the word mutation for a purpose. We are told that at the end:
"In the twinkle of an eye, our lowly bodies will be changed to be one form
with His glorious body." This does not take time. The moment you are
embraced by the Risen Lord, your lowly body is transformed to be one form with
His glorious body of light, of love, and wisdom. These bodies of flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God. You need an entirely different body to
function in that age. That body is a mutation, as it comes suddenly.
When I stood in the presence of the Risen Christ I was asked to define the
greatest thing in the world. I answered with the words of Paul, "Faith,
hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love." Then
Infinite Love embraced me. We fused and I became one with the Risen Lord.
There is no creative power comparable to love! I know, for I am one with that
body; and when this aspect of myself is called dead, I will wear that body, for
my dream is over. Then you can say of me what Shelley said of one who had
departed: "He has awakened from the dream of life. `Tis we who, lost in
stormy vision, fight with phantoms, an unprofitable strife."
Everyone will awaken from this dream to know he is love; for there is nothing
but God and God is love. The most horrible being is God, as the most glorious.
In the end, when the curtain comes down, we will collectively form the one Man,
the one Spirit, the one Body. Then we will understand why we conceived the dream
and played it, as we will have expanded into a further existence as a result of
this experience of coming down into the world of eternal death.
I know that when I have entered other sections of time, in vision, the
experience was real, just as this is now. The world may say my experience was
just a dream. But if this is reality and that just as real as this, then this is
a dream. The difference is that when I was there, I remembered where my body was
and was able to return to it.
Could you remember the being you were before you started this dream of life, and
use the same technique, you would feel yourself there and vanish from sight to
awaken in that body.
For myself, I have worn that wakened body since 1929, when I was embraced by the
Risen Lord. At that time we became the one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one God
and Father of all, who is above all, through all, and in all. I have heard Him
say: "I laid myself down within you to sleep, and as I slept I dreamed a
dream. I dreamed . . ." and I knew exactly what He was saying: "I am
dreaming I am Neville."
One day you will know that the visions of the day are no more real than those of
the night, for you will know you are their reality. You will realize that you
cannot encounter strangers, regardless of whether they be harmful or helpful, as
they came out of you to play the part you had already played from within.
The world and all of its conflicts appear to show us that Imagination can and
does run amok. Imagination is the only foundation. It is the Rock upon which one
builds his house. No matter what happens, blame no one, but remain on that Rock;
for Christ (your own wonderful Human Imagination) is He, and the only cause of
the phenomena of life. Accept this truth and you will have a firm foundation
upon which to build.
As you dwell upon this power vested in you, you will discover it will help you
far beyond your wildest dreams. You will realize that you do not need the help
of anyone. All you need do is assume you have what you want. Then dare to walk
in that assumption; and if it takes a thousand people to aid its birth, they
will appear and play their parts, not knowing why or what they do. They will do
it without their permission or consent, just as I did in my friend's
dream.
Man prays to an outside Jesus and believes in an outside God, because he has
forgotten the God who gave him birth. Scripture tells us that when Moses
revealed the true God as I AM, he hadn't been gone more than moments when the
people once more turned and worshipped the golden cow as the cause of their
fortunes, good or bad. They started worshipping things made with the human hand
in violation of the eighth commandment: "Make no graven image unto
me," either with your hands or in your mind!
If you see a Jesus Christ as other than your own wonderful Human Imagination,
you have made a graven image. But when you find the true Christ - called the
Rock - and start building on it, no rumors or arguments can knock your house
down. Build on the sand and your house will slip away, but if you create your
world believing in your own wonderful Human Imagination - called Jesus Christ -
nothing will destroy it.
Your Imagination is Christ, dreaming in you and creating your world. Feed him
noble thoughts. Become selective and dare to assume something wonderful for
yourself. Our newspapers are telling us how to transcend death and live to be
one hundred, adding years to life - yet no one thinks of adding life to
years!
Schubert lived only thirty-one years, yet he gave us a thousand pieces of music.
Keats died at twenty-six. So many of the great poets died young but look what
they gave us! They didn't add years to their life, but crowded a lifetime into a
few years. Now there are those who are trying to have transplants in order to
live to be one hundred, and vegetate.
Well, that's not what we are here for. We're here to fulfill scripture, and no
matter what appears on the outside I promise you: you will not die. You cannot
go to eternal death in that which cannot die. You are the God of the living, not
the dead - dreaming of death, of birth, health and illness, poverty and wealth.
You have never left your eternal home. Your descent was in consciousness and it
is in consciousness that you will ascend.
Now let us go into the silence.