More From Neville

I've been continuing my reading this last week of the works of Neville Goddard. This afternoon I came upon a passage that really seems to put his method on how to manifest into a nutshell. So here it is from his book Out Of This World (he suggests doing this just as you're going to sleep)...

"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 that will have the action of self predominant. Thirdly: immobilize the physical body and induce a condition akin to sleep-lie on a bed or relax in a chair and imagine that you are sleepy; 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 you must 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; and, also, you must feel yourself into the action until it has all the vividness and distinctness of reality. For example: suppose you desired promotion in 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. Now, imagine that a friend is standing before you. Put your imaginary hand into his. First feel it to be solid and real, then carry on an imaginary conversation with him in harmony with the action. 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, 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."

"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."

Neville suggests doing this right as you're going to bed for the night, and continue to imagine your chosen short scene over and over until you drift off to sleep. Also, you will most likely need to do this night after night, until you reach the feeling of it becoming an actuality. He gives various examples of success stories in his books, some manifested their desire after only a few nights, others took several weeks of nightly imagining.

Neville and His Imaginal Activity

I've recently been reading two of Neville Goddard's books, Power of Awareness published in 1952 and The Law and The Promise published in 1961. He was part of the New Thought Movement, which first began developing in the late 19th century. His work is sort of a mystical look at Law of Attraction. I've been a huge fan of Abraham-Hicks for a long time, and this has given me a new--or older, depending on how you look at it--twist on these ideas. Neville explains what he calls imaginal activity as experiencing in your imagination what you would experience in reality had you achieved your goal.

Often Neville uses Bible verses to support his ideas. Now if you're not into Christianity--and I'm not--before you go off running and screaming, this is a very different interpretation of these Bible passages. Its one that I've never encountered before--a mystical, metaphysical, symbolic interpretation. If you're a fundamentalist or conservative Christian, you can go off running and screaming, because you won't like this at all!

Here are some of Neville's main points...

You are Consciousness, and Consciousness is the only reality

Man's chief delusion is his conviction that there are causes--in the physical world--other than his own state of consciousness

Imagination is the instrument by which you create your world

You make your future dream a present fact by assuming the feeling of your wish fulfilled

Neville suggests engaging in imaginal activity every night as you're going off to sleep.

Here are some passages from his books...

Assert the supremacy of your Imaginal acts over facts and put all things in subjection to them. Hold fast to your ideal in your imagination. Nothing can take it from you but your failure to persist in imagining the ideal realized.

The world in which we live is a world of imagination. In fact, life itself is an activity of imagining.

Events happen because comparatively stable imaginal activities created them, and they continue in being only as long as they receive such support.

The man who is aware of what he is imaging knows what he is creating.

An awakened Imagination works with a purpose.

Do not bow before the dictate of facts and accept life on the basis of the world without.

To attempt to change circumstances before you change your imaginal activity, is to struggle against the very nature of things. There can be no outer change until there is first an imaginal change. Everything you do, unaccompanied by an imaginal change, is but a futile readjustment of surfaces.

A note about the art featured on this post. I've been painting and drawing my whole life, but the idea for this painting came about in a new way for me. It was about 20 years ago, and I was deep in meditation, when images started popping up spontaneously in my mind's eye. I saw a woman in the sky. She was dreaming, and the earth was her dream. This watercolor was my attempt at putting down what I saw in a painting.

My First "Strange" Experience or There Is No Death

It was just a couple of months before my 21st birthday when something unusual happened. I had been using Betty Bethard's meditation technique for a few months, which I believe opened me up to vibrations I normally couldn't have perceived. I was in bed asleep, and I woke up around 3 a.m. to find some sort of being or spirit hovering over me and talking to me.

It was wearing a sort of cloak that was black, and I couldn't see much of a face. It was speaking to me in a deep, gruff, Darth Vader-like voice. It had a hold of me by the upper arms--very tight, so that it kind of hurt. I did not feel threatened and I never felt that this was an "evil" being that meant me harm. However, I was a bit startled by this turn of events because it was so sudden and so unusual.

This being started telling me, in a deep voice and insistent tone, "You are dead." It repeated this a few times, but I felt a bit perplexed by this statement, as I didn't feel in the least bit dead. So I thought to myself, "Maybe it means that I'm going to die." This being could hear my thoughts, and in response to my thought it said, "No, it doesn't mean you are going to die. You are dead right now. Right now, you are dead." I felt kind of awestruck and speechless by this, and didn't know what to think. Then I noticed a second being of similar appearance over to my left, but this one never spoke to me. Almost immediately after this, these beings just disappeared. Quickly, I reached over to turn on my bedside light, and looked around the room to see if they were still there, but they were gone.

When I next met Betty Bethards, I told her of my experience. She thought that it was my spirit guides, just being a bit dramatic in order to gain my attention. I've never been sure who or what they were, but I did come to a conclusion about their purpose. I believe that they were doing their best to demonstrate to me that there is no death. Of course, our physical bodies die, but that our consciousness lives on.

Meeting Betty Bethards--My First Exposure to the Metaphysical Via Meditation and Dreams

It all started in the mid-1980's, when I was an art student in San Francisco, CA. I had an interest in dream interpretation since I was a teenager, reading a book or two about dreams, but never really making much headway with the subject. One day I was driving on the freeway listening to the local talk radio station, and on came Betty Bethards, giving callers interpretations of their dreams. Betty was a mystic and teacher of meditation and dream analysis, based in the north bay with her organization, the Inner Light Foundation. (Betty crossed over in 2002, but I believe her husband still runs the foundation in Petaluma, CA. Their website is at www.innerlight.org.)

I was fascinated by Betty's interpretation of dream symbols, and found her to be practical, down-to-earth, understandable, entertaining, and convincing. She gave monthly lectures all over the SF Bay Area, and I began attending, and also started devouring her many books and tapes on various spiritual subjects. Also, I met Betty in person one day for an individual reading, which is another story for later. Of course, I started using her meditation method, which resulted in some interesting experiences which I will describe in future posts.

I have since had many of my own experiences and learned new ideas from other teachers apart from Betty, but she'll always hold a special place in my heart.

Here is Betty's method for meditating (from the ILFs site)...

The ILF method of meditation is simple but powerful. Meditation is a deep relaxation of body, mind, and spirit. It should be done on a daily basis for twenty minutes. The easiest way to meditate is to listen to your favorite songs and music. While sitting with your spine erect, you are aligning your energy to the God Force.

1. Sit in a chair with your spine erect, shoulders relaxed, feet flat on the floor. Fold your hands together in your lap and close your eyes.

2. Take three slow, deep breaths, exhaling to the base of your spine, and feel yourself relaxing. Sit with your hands together for ten minutes.

3. After ten minutes, open your hands, palms up, laying them gently in your lap. Keep your focus on the songs and music.

4. At the end of this second ten minute period, when your energy is at its highest, most centered point, you can do your affirmations and visualizations, such as "The perfect career is manifesting in my life now," or whatever you are choosing to create in your life, i.e., wisdom clarity, prosperity. If your buttons were jammed during the day, you can review the situation, see what your positive lesson was, and visualize how you would like to have handled it. This way, next time it comes up, as it will until the lesson is learned, you will handle it with love.

5. After completing your affirmations and visualizations, close your hands into a fist and feel a balloon of white light one block all around you so that you're at the center. This sends love and healing out to the masses and buffers stress and negativity from coming in to you.