Neville Goddard (July 15, 1970)
Questions Asked Following Lecture
Question: Do you believe in the theory of evolution?
Neville: No, I do not believe in evolution as to the creative power of God. I believe in evolution only in the affairs of men. Instead of digging the field with my hands, I now use a tractor. That’s evolution. Instead of walking across the country, I can now take a flight and be there in a few hours. Instead of going across the ocean and large bodies of water on a raft, I go now propelled by atomic power. So, this is evolution in the affairs of men, but not in the creation of God.
God’s plan was “before that the world was.” This is not any emergency thinking. The whole thing is done, and to this day, we have no evidence whatsoever to support the theory of evolution – none whatsoever! It is still a marvelous, glorious, exciting theory, but it remains a theory. There is no evidence to support the fact that a fish became an animal and the animal became man – none whatsoever.
So, they speak of a “missing link.” Well that justifies anything – beautifully written, exciting, and then it is compulsory reading in all the universities and schools of the world, and man has accepted the theory. Yet we cannot read in our schools God’s Word! Call that a theory, too, but they never read it, because you read the other theory. They say you can’t produce any evidence for the historicity of Jesus – and we can’t. All right, read it anyway as theory.
If we are compelled to read as fact what has no fact to support it, then why can’t we read this and then call it theory?
But I do not, for one moment, accept the theory of evolution as fact. It’s not fact. But I do accept evolution in the affairs of man. But don’t tell me that the little tool that is called a hoe in some strange way changed itself and became a tractor. Man changed it from the hoe to a plow drawn by a horse or drawn by an ox, and then he changed that to something even better. Then he changed his way of sailing a boat. He still sails a boat, but the boat didn’t suddenly go through a metamorphosis in itself and become a steamship. No, man’s imagination conceived this strange thing for himself, and we call that “evolution.”
When you stand in the presence of the Risen Lord, you see man, and he’s Infinite Love – Infinite Love. And you will never exercise Infinite Power until you first are incorporated into the body of Infinite Love, because to have such power without love, you could ruin the universe! So, you will never come into such power until you are incorporated into the body of Love and become one with the body of Love. For, he who is united with the Spirit becomes one Spirit with It, and, therefore, you exercise the power through love.
But evolution – let them have it! I would let every man have everything he wants in this world. Let him have it. He has an imagination, and you can’t stop him from using it. Today there are people who love war – the excitement of war. A war correspondent – he wants war. A professional soldier, especially if he is an officer – why, the most boring thing in the world for the professional soldier who is an officer is peacetime! Why, he’s an ambitious man. He wants more things on his shoulder. You can’t get them in peacetime. These fellows live for a long time, unless they die off or resign, or disappear. You can’t promote them. They can have only so many of one rank and another rank. You can’t have numberless five-star Generals! So, they either die off or have another war, or get killed off or something.
So, a man, if he’s ambitious, he wants to transcend whatever he is. If he is in business, he wants to expand beyond what he is. You can’t blame him; that’s what he wants. If he has made a million this year – turned over a million, he wants to turn over two next year. That is part of business. When he turns over two, he isn’t satisfied with that; he wants to turn over four. It is perfectly all right.
Well, the same thing is true if you are trained, not in business, but trained as a professional soldier. When you come out of an academy, you come out as a Lieutenant. You don’t want to remain a Lieutenant. You are either going to quit the service and go into some other thing, or, if you remain in the service, you don’t want to die a Lieutenant! You can’t afford a wife.
But if war breaks suddenly, our President who was a five-star General – Mr. Eisenhower – when the war broke, I think he was a Major. He quickly, in three years, rose to be General of all the Armies of Europe, and then, with that popularity, he couldn’t fail to carry the country when we were all aroused, and then we gave the victory to the one who led the Army. So, who could defeat him running for office? So, he rose from Major to the top rank in the Army, and then from that to the highest position in our country, and he was loved to the very end. He was dearly loved. Everyone loved him, even those who were on the other side of the political picture – they loved him. But from Major to that in a few short years!
So, in peacetime, the most horrible thing for a professional soldier – well, if he’s ambitious – you see, all these things happen in God’s world. You use your mind – your imagination, and have a noble goal, a lovely goal. And don’t let anybody tell you that you aren’t entitled to it. Why aren’t you entitled to it? If you are not born to wealth, why can’t you earn it? There is no reason why you can’t earn it. Some are born to it, and some earn it and there’s no reason in the world – you have the same talent. He gave you a talent and that talent is your own wonderful human imagination.
But have faith in God. If you have faith in God, you have confidence in yourself, for God and man – the true Man – are one!
Verne Hanson: In one of your books, Neville – I think it is “Feeling Is the Secret” – you say that you have to have a change in conception to have a change in feeling, but from the lecture platform you tell us that when we hear others tell us they can’t do this because – and so forth, we should use our imagination to help them.
Neville: Why, certainly. I will repeat that.
Verne Hanson: My question is this: If that person will not change his conception, how can we change it for him?
Neville: If you realize that the great confession of the Jewish faith is, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One,” you look out upon the world, and there seem to be billions of people, but one day you’ll discover it’s only your own being fragmented. There is no other. The whole vast world is yourself “pushed out.” So, if my daughter fell down the stairs, as she did as a child, I don’t scold her. I rush down and pick her up and bring her back and comfort her. I don’t say, “It serves you right. Let her learn her lesson.”
I told her one day, “You want a dog. All right, you’ll have a dog, but you will take the dog out and air it,” and she didn’t want to go down sixteen flights – we lived on the top floor – to the street and walk up the sidewalk to air it, so she was allowed to take it on the outside of the apartment. We had a lovely little garden on the outside, about 30-square with lovely plants. I said, “You may take the dog out and air the dog there, but you have to clean up the mess.” And after about four days it wasn’t clean, so I said to her, “You know, Vicki, I told you, you can have your dog, but that little place has to be clean.”
Well, at the moment it didn’t suit her, but she had to clean it, so she went outside with her broom and her pail, and she was cleaning like mad. We have three long French doors, all glass, and in her anger she struck the glass and broke it. I didn’t complain. I said, “You see what temper does. Learn your lesson. You simply smashed the door. I’ll put it back. But learn your lesson now. Your anger – your emotion – caused this thing to happen. Yet, you are supposed to clean this place. You know that. We gave you the dog; we allowed you to have a dog. All right, but you have to do what we said was your condition on owning the dog.” She understood it. She has never forgotten it.
So, in her case, if she is injured, I don’t blame her. As her father who loves her, I don’t blame her; I paint a mental picture of her as I would like her to be, and persuade myself that she is what I believe and want her to be.
So, help everyone in the world. Tell them the story, that they may stand upon their own feet, but in the end, you are God, and God is One, and the whole vast world is yourself “pushed out.” This is just fragmented Being, the whole vast world. But you do it by starting with yourself just where you are, and then you push out your circle. You start with your family. My wife and my daughter are dearer to me because they are right at my home – my responsibility. But I can’t just limit it to that. I have friends, and then from friends to other friends, and others and others, and then finally it pushes itself out to the whole vast world, taking in races and nations, because I can’t limit it just to one. But you do start with the circle where you are. And it should be in your case, or anyone’s case who has a wife – it should be right where the wife comes. Or if it is a woman, where the husband comes. If an offspring is there, then naturally the children, and then you start spreading it out. If one cannot help himself, I would not say, “All right, it serves you right.” You step in, and you do it. It is yourself pushed out.”
As I brought out the first night, if this hand itches, or the back of it and I say, “All right, you are itching, but this hand isn’t itching, so it serves you right.” Well, all right, if I let it itch and this other one can come to its assistance but I won’t let it, then who is suffering? I am! I am suffering, so instead of suffering because I am stupid about it, I compel this hand to go right over and scratch it, for the whole vast world is myself “pushed out,” and if I cannot, at this moment, do it, then I call upon this to do it. But know a principle. This is a principle of which I speak tonight.
And, so, there are always two within a man, and they are in conflict. The rational mind is always in conflict with imagination.
That letter which you wrote me, which I got the other night and read with great, great interest, for all your things are perfectly wonderful and your interpretations are marvelous, but the quote that you gave of Paul Brunton I thought was perfectly stupid. Here is a man who tells us that the credulous mind is a weak mind. But if you aren’t credulous, what on earth could you ever do in this world? I could not go to the moon if I could not be credulous and believe it. I wouldn’t dare to cut a piece of cloth and believe I could put it into a dress if I wasn’t credulous. So, what on earth does he mean? That’s why I said earlier, 99 percent of the stuff that finds its way into print isn’t worth my eyesight. I can’t read it.
Now, he has a name, and he has written all kinds of things and he speaks of an Oversoul. In quest of something outside of himself, he’ll look forever, and he will never in eternity find it other than himself. But he has books, and they sell because it’s highly publicized. Well, when you quoted that, I said, “My lord!” You quoted it at the very beginning of your letter, but I love you, so I went through your entire letter and loved all that you said about your personal experiences. But that quote at the beginning annoyed me; I would have closed the whole thing up if that was the preface. If that simply determined what followed, I would have closed the whole thing up, but I didn’t in your case because I like you.
A Lady: I am exposed to so many young people right now. How can I correct the way they dress without telling them right to their face? [This question was not very clear on the tape.]
Neville: Well, first of all, I do not know what they have done to displease you. I know many of them dress unlike the way we dress, but I can’t blame you. I mean, if that is their choice of dress, all well and good. I only have to go back a few centuries to find in the western world they all looked that way. If they go back and take the pictures of the western world three or four hundred years ago, they all had beards and long hair, and they never bathed – never bathed! A little bit of perfume here and a little bit of perfume there, and that was the last of it. But they didn’t clean themselves.
I can’t say they are not moving back like a circle into that same state. I, for one, like a daily shower. When I was running a temperature of 104 and 105 last year with that silly flu that I got, I still took my shower every day. I took it unknown by my wife and other members of the family because they would have protested, but I didn’t feel clean until I took my shower. Well, I am not going to say that I am the criterion of what others should do. Who am I to be the criterion? I would not allow anyone to set himself up as the criterion for me, therefore, I would not set myself up as the criterion for another. I like to shave every day. I like to have my hair cut short. But why should I say you should do the same thing?
But when these kids come and they force strange things on you – well, then, be a lady and tell them of the difference between your thinking and their thinking. I was waiting for the bus in L.A., and these two kids came up, 18 years of age, thumbing their way and no car was stopping for them. They were going by like mad, but buses were running every 20 minutes. So, I at least thought of them for thirteen minutes anyway. Then one fellow said to me, “Could you loan me a dime?”
I said, “I do not know who you are. You have no collateral. I do not know where you live. And you want a loan! If you want a loan, you must prove that you are capable of paying it back. You don’t want a loan; you are asking me to give you a dime. Why didn’t you say that?”
He said, “Well, I’ve got to go back to school and study the English language.”
I said, “You’d better do that. Now here is a quarter” and I gave him a quarter. He said, “Man, man! You are a gentle man.” And the other one, he said to me, “Man, man, man! You’re a gentle man.” That’s all he could say. Everything was, “Man, man, man, man.” I said, “You’d better go back to school if you ever went to school, and then come out so you can actually tell me what you want. You want a loan – a loan of a dime, and without collateral!”
Question: Neville, would you talk a little on the 40 days and 40 nights?
Neville: Well, you see, in the Bible, numbers have their symbolical meaning. They have multiple meanings. Forty is the 13th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The letter is “MEM.” Its symbol is the womb of a woman, that which gives birth.
So, here he goes into the period of creativity. Will he accept the test? He accepts the test, but he plays only Scripture in defiance of his own temptation. It’s not a being outside of himself tempting him. The whole story unfolds within the mind of the individual. Will I believe what I have heard tonight? Then the test starts. Will I accept what I’ve heard tonight and bring forth from it, or will I simply go back? So, he said, “If you are the Son of God” – do this, that, and the other. You should not test the Lord. If I believe it, will I accept the tests?
In New York City, I was on a midnight panel that went through the night, and a professor of philosophy from an eastern college said to me, “If what you say is true, that imagining creates reality, then turn this pencil – “It was a yellow pencil. “Turn it into red.” I said to him, on radio – and all his students were listening in because he told them he was going to get the better of me. I said, “Get behind me, Satan. You are a scoffer, and I’m told that the scoffers come in the last days who will deny and say, ‘Where is he who is to come?’ But ever since the world was made, things have gone on just as they did in the beginning of time.”
He blushed and blushed and blushed. I said, “You want me to turn this – I would not turn it into any other color than it is. If you want to turn it into any other color, go and paint it! That’s simple enough. If you want the yellow to turn to red, go and paint it.”
Don’t take the challenge of anyone in the world. It’s all within you. The challenge comes from within you. Do you believe it, or don’t you believe it? Don’t let anyone else challenge you. But they will, only when – within you – there is still that little question mark. But don’t accept it.
If I have a cold – so I have a cold. And many will say, “Why should you have a cold?” I am in the world of Caesar, and the body decays, as all bodies here decay. So, I get a cold, as anyone else here gets a cold. And I have demonstrated – People are always demonstrating something. We came from New York City through Chicago on our way to San Francisco, years ago, and a lady ran ahead of us and knocked my little girl down – she was only three – knocked her down on her way to get a table in the dining room. I picked my little Vicki up and walked quietly forward and sat down at a table. There were lots of seats. And she was a Christian Science practitioner on her way to some convention in Chicago, and she had demonstrated a table. She had demonstrated a seat by almost killing my daughter. Well, I don’t call that demonstration. She was a lovely practitioner, and I learned from the conversation that she would go to the convention and tell them how she had demonstrated a seat in the diner. Lovely, isn’t it?
Well, I don’t go for that. Let them all pass by – there will be a seat there for me, and, if not now, I will wait until they get up. I don’t call this “applying the principle.”
She must live in constant confusion demonstrating. And if she gets a cold, she’ll remain at home where no one will know, and swear by all the bibles in the world she never had one, because they didn’t see it. If she has a headache, she will take a couple of aspirin. No one knows that, you see. No one will ever know she took two aspirin to simply ease the pain, and, so, when she really can’t see, she will go to the oculist, and he will give her good glasses, and she will see with nice glasses. When she has a pain in her mouth and the dentist says, “You know, this has to come out,” no one knows she is going to the dentist, but she will have it out, and get a good tooth put in that God gave the dentist the intelligence to make for her.
So, why try any of these stupid things? I wear this body. It is almost 66 now, and it’s wearing out. It used to be very, very strong – unusually strong, but when it reaches its peak, then it starts going, and it is moving towards complete disintegration.
Well, what am I trying to do? Compete with the young boys of 20? I have no desire to compete with these handsome young fellows in their 30’s and 40’s. I’ve had that!
Then came that day when the energy that went down into generation is turned around and moves up into regeneration, when the serpent within me turned up as a fiery being right back into my skull from which it came. What a joy now!
Just imagine to be able to say, with complete honesty, “If you unveiled the entire world of three and a half billion men and women and put them all before me, they would leave me cold and completely unmoved.” I could not always say that. So, when the attitude is turned down into generation, you don’t have to unveil it all – just one would be enough. But, then, suddenly it turns up, and it is completely turned around from generation into regeneration. Now, unveil the whole vast world before me – it would mean nothing to me. I remain completely unmoved, for the energies have been turned up, where before, they were turned down. They were all turned down – that fiery being, and we simply went berserk, exercising that power in a thousand and one different ways.
All of a sudden came that bolt of lightning that split me in two, and there at the base, the blood of God! And I fused with it, and then I became it, and like a fiery serpent went right up into the interior of my own being; and, from then on, the whole vast thing that formerly disturbed me ceased to be. That’s peace – the only kind of peace in the world.
Question By A Man In The Audience: What is the meaning of the statement, “Down with the bluebloods”?
Neville: What does the statement, “Down with the bluebloods,” mean? Blueblood in Scripture is church protocol, external worship, ceremony; anything that is external is the blueblood. Down with all such worship! No matter how they justify it or tell you that it was in order. I was commanded to clear from my own mind’s eye all external worship. I don’t care how beautiful it appears to be in pageantry, it is not in order. It does nothing for the soul. You go to church and a man prays audibly, and you can’t get into the Silence. “Let us pray,” in a very solemn, solemn voice, he says; and then repeats all these words. That’s not what you want. You went to church to hear about God. And if you are going to pray, you pray for a friend’s recovery or a friend’s good fortune or your own recovery and your own good fortune, and you want something very tangible and right down here. And he’s leading with all this pompous, pompous stuff, and is crossing himself and crossing this, and genuflecting that, and you see all the pageantry. He said, “Down with the bluebloods.” Down with all ceremony, all external rites whatsoever! That’s what I heard.
The word “blueblood” has nothing to do with the social order. If you read the Scripture, he never once tried to change the social structure. Not once will you find in any part of Scripture where there was any attempt on the part of the central figure of Scripture to change the social order. There were slaves in those days. There was no statement as to changes in structure. He only brought the message of Salvation, the message of redemption. And man has missed the thought and built all kinds of peculiar things round about it.
I know, when I was a child in the Episcopal Church, why, the pageantry! All the little boys coming round with their collars, all the little ruffs and the red tunics, oh, undoubtedly they looked very pretty to the mothers who saw them. I recall vividly when someone told my Mother that her boys should be in the choir, so she was persuaded by this very serious and interfering neighbor who was always giving advice to my Mother – she had two children. She couldn’t raise them well, but she thought she could tell my Mother how to raise her ten! So, my Mother said, “All right, you’ve got to go and try out for the choir.”
Well, we didn’t want the choir; we wanted to go and play football or cricket – play all the games, go swimming, fishing; but we had to go and try out for the choir! Well, I was determined I was not going to have a voice, and my brothers, I shared my knowledge with them. I was the fourth one. There were four of us, and so we all agreed that we were going to pretend that we had never heard singing before. So, when he struck a note on the organ, he struck C. We struck everything in the world but a C. He said, “Don’t you have any ear? Try again. We tried this one, that one, the other one – you never heard such caterwauling in your life! He said, “You go back and tell your Mother that I’ve tried my best, and you just don’t have it. That’s all there is to it.”
Well, I thought, Now this is really fun! I am going to have a little fun before I go, too. Now, my eldest brother, Cecil – and so I said to Mr. Taggert, who was the organist; just as we were about to leave, I said to Mr. Taggert, “Oh, Mr. Taggert, my brother Cecil can whistle.”
Well, he could have killed me! We all “broke up,” and Cecil couldn’t whistle unless he started laughing, so Mr. Taggert knew it was a joke, and dismissed us. But when we got out, he really could have killed me! I said, “He can whistle.”
To see myself all dressed in this robe coming down on Sunday mornings – well, I wanted to get out and start whistling. So, we just beat that little neighbor at her own little game.
But I was told in no uncertain terms, “Down with the bluebloods!” And it hasn’t a thing to do with any so-called blueblood in the world. If you want to feel that you are a blueblood, feel it. There are those in every walk of life who feel that they are in the highest of the social stratus. It’s perfectly all right. I wouldn’t change it at all. Leave it alone. I personally have never felt inferior to anyone I’ve ever met. I have never in my life felt inferior to anyone. I admire them if they have money – much more than I have. I have little, and they have much, but that doesn’t mean that I am impressed. Also, there are those who come into the world, and they have all the lovely things in the world. I admire them – go to their homes and admire all the beauty that they can afford, and lovely pieces, but it doesn’t make me feel inferior to them. I feel one with it all!
My maid comes and cleans for me once a week. I like to look upon Doris as a friend. She’s a friend. I talk with her just as I would with a friend. She cleans for me and does all the lovely things that I wouldn’t do for myself, so I treat her as a friend. I can’t see that, because she works for me, she must be below me. On the other hand, I can’t see, because someone has a billion dollars, that I should think him important.
As someone said, I think it was Lloyd George – he tried to put through the House of Commons a bill making some kind of a change in the land ownership of England, and he said to the entire House – he said, “You know, if you are all honest with yourselves, you all know that any Englishman can prove ownership to his land by tracing his ancestry back to the first one who stole it!”
Well, that is just about what you will find in all kinds of fabulous things, but I don’t envy them. I’m all for it! If I have a dollar when I die, I want my wife, if she survives me, to have it. And if I had a million, I’d still want her to have it. If she goes before I do, I want my children to have it. If they inherit it, what’s wrong with that? I see not a thing wrong in that, because it comes within the code of that wonderful law, where it says, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Wouldn’t you like to receive a million dollars? Or, would you give it back? All right, I wouldn’t give it back. I would take it. Well, the same thing is true of all inheritance laws. My father gave us all that he could; he gave the ten of us his entire estate. None of us gave it to the government, although they took much of it without asking.
Question By A Man In The Audience: Will you elaborate on the technique of arresting the action?
Neville: Can I elaborate on the technique of arresting the motion within man? Sir, I can only tell you the first time that it happened in me. I came upon a scene that seemed to be about a hundred and fifty years ago in the New England states. I could tell from the dress of the people that it was about a hundred and fifty years prior to that moment in time that it happened to me.
It seemed to be a Sunday afternoon when they were dining, – I would say about 2:00 o’clock in the afternoon. But I could tell from their dress that it was about a hundred and fifty years prior to that moment in time, which was about twenty-odd years ago, when it first happened.
I came into a restaurant, and there were four people seated at a table, two sons in their early 20’s and their parents, the father and mother. One boy was bringing the food to his mouth to eat it, and the waitress came through a little door, and she was all dressed in the same kind of a dress she would have a hundred and fifty years ago – very stiffly starched; her collar was starched, her sleeves were starched, and she was animated.
Through the huge, big bay window I could see leaves falling. It was the Fall of the year, and I could see the leaves coming down slowly. I could see a bird in motion, and I could see the wind blowing the grass. Here was an animated restaurant. At that moment I knew intuitively that if I could arrest that activity that I felt within me that everything would stand still. And, strangely enough, I knew how to arrest it. Now, you want to know how to do it.
I can only say, at that moment when you come upon such a scene and you know – you will know how to do it. I simply stilled an activity in my own brain, as it were. Yet, I was in Spirit. Here my body was on the bed. I felt something in me stand still, yet my consciousness was alive and completely alert. I knew what I’m doing. But at that moment the boy bringing his food to his mouth couldn’t bring it. The waitress walking, walked not. The bird flying, flew not. The grass waving, waved not. The leaves falling, fell not. Everything stood still. I examined them, and they were all as though they were made of clay. Then I released – in me – the activity, and the bird continued to fly, the waitress continued her intentions to serve the food, and the boy eating the food brought it to his mouth, and everything moved on as it had intended.
That was my first experience of life-in-me. Prior to that moment, I did not understand that statement in Scripture that says, “As the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in himself.”
Then I knew what it meant to have life in myself. The whole vast world, believe it or not, is the individual “pushed out”; and he has animated it, but he doesn’t know how to stop it or change it. He can only change it without stopping it.
You can change it now by bringing into your mind’s eye an individual in your world and changing him for the good. You can change it for the worse if you want to, but don’t. Change him for the good, because “he is yourself “pushed out,” and then let him conceive in his world a change in motivation.
But the day will come that you can still the entire, vast world, and change it, motivationally, and it will be changed. But you do it all within you. You feel it in your head. Everything is felt in the head. It’s a peculiar thing, but I can tell you how to stop it here, but the day will come, you will taste of the power of the Age to come, as told us in the book of Hebrews. He has “tasted of the power of the age to come.” (Hebrews 6:5, RSV1)
And when you are completely “born from above” – because unless man is “born from above,” he cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Kingdom of Heaven is made up of those whose bodies are in complete control by the individual who wears it. And that body has life in itself. That is, it stops and starts anything in the world. It has no fear, because everything is itself “pushed out.” How can it be hurt by its own being pushed out and still be in control of its pushed-out self?
It is in complete control, but you will never completely harness this power unless you are first incorporated into the Body of Love. God, truly, is Love, because to use this power without love, you would wreck the universe. But no one would actually be given the power until he is first called by the Risen Lord and incorporated into the Body of Love. So, you will always be guided by Love.
Question By A Lady: Neville, in the restoration you say everybody is the same. I have never heard you say there were births from the womb of woman in the restoration. [Question was not altogether audible on the tape.]
Neville: The Bible teaches that if you are not resurrected in this section of time, then all the things that you now do in this section of time you will continue doing. That is stated so clearly in the book of Luke when ‘the wise men of the day, the Sadducees, ask the very simple question, “Whose wife will this woman be in the Resurrection?” (Luke 20:33) because she married seven brothers and they left no offspring. And the answer is quite clearly stated, that “the children of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are accounted worthy to obtain to That Age, they neither marry nor are they given in marriage, for they are sons of the Resurrection. Being sons of God, they die no more,” (Luke 20:35-36) which would imply that all they do here they will do there unless resurrected.
So, if they die here, they find themselves restored to life there in that section of time into which they go. But they will age there too, as they age here. But they do not start there from the womb of woman; they start there from the grave. But you don’t go to any grave; you are already in the grave when you are here. These bodies are our graves.
The Lady: Well, this being the lowest form – [not audible].
Neville: This is the most important one. It’s the limit of contraction. This is the complete limit of contraction, the limit of opacity. Here is contraction. Men die. And you and I watch them die. We see them die. We cremate the body. It’s all dust. And, yet, that Being never died – not to himself, not to herself. They are restored instantly; and many of them do not even know that they have departed this world, because to them they haven’t died.
How can you think of a person who is very much alive – you talk with him, he talks with you – and you tell him that he is dead? I don’t tell them they are dead. I will tell them – “You died at a certain point in time and I went to your funeral, and what you wore when I first knew you is now buried or cremated,” depending on what I know of it. They will deny it because they aren’t dead, and they cannot associate what I am saying with anything that they are experiencing, because they never experienced death.
The only ones who ever experience death are those who watch them die. I can watch a man die, and bury him or cremate him. I experience his departure and call it death, but he who went through that state – he didn’t die! When he is restored, he does not know a thing about having died. So, no one ever really experiences death, except those who watch the other one depart, and many of them don’t even know they are gone. They are amazed at me when I say, “I went to your funeral.” They think, Why, he’s insane.
But, you know in Scripture, “The man is mad.” “He has a spirit.” “He has a demon.” (See John 10:20) And there are areas in which all visionary men are accounted mad men, but this is not new to me. I’ve been all over that. When I first started, I came to a book store where they had my books displayed, and two ladies, looking at the picture in the window and my books – a few of my books – one said to the other, “You know who he is?”
She said, “No.”
“Well, he is the mad mystic of 38th Street. You must go and hear him. He’s as mad as a hatter,” she said. She didn’t know I was standing right next to her. She said, “You should hear that man. He is mad, but he isn’t violent.” It’s perfectly all right. So, I have been called mad, and having a demon from the time that I started in with this work, because it is mad if I deny the evidence of my senses and say I will not accept the dictates of my senses. I will not accept reason; it is in conflict with what I want. I will accept my senses if they are confirming what I want in this world, but if they don’t confirm it, I ignore them and assume a state where I want to know all my senses do confirm. And I turn to the Knower, which is my imagination. So, a man who denies his senses, certainly he is a little bit touched.
So, they said of him, “This man, we know his father, we know his mother;” (See John 6:42) we know his brothers and we know his sisters, and he tells us he came from heaven, and he tells us God was his father, and that he and God the Father are one. Well, the man is insane, and he doesn’t know it. Read it in the book of John. It is clearly stated.
Question By A Lady [inaudible on my tape] concerning restoration to life in different time segments.
Neville: You see, we think that death ends something and birth begins something, but time is bigger than the little, small spectrum we call “threescore and ten.” It’s the same world, just like this, and is this world.
The Year Three Thousand exists now, and the Year One Thousand did not pass away. It still exists now. I have gone into sections of time that the world thinks have ceased to be and others the world thinks do not yet exist. But, read the book of Ecclesiastes, “Is there a thing of which it is said, See, this is new? It has been already in ages past. But there is no remembrance of former things, nor shall there be any remembrance of things to come after among those who will come later.” (Ecclesiastes 1:10, 11)
In other words, it has already come. The “Play” is over. The whole thing is finished and has been brought to a climax.
And, so – we came, and come, into human history in that strange, mysterious being we call “Jesus Christ.” And in the end, there will only be Jesus, and you are He. We think, now, this is 1970, and we are looking forward to the Year Two Thousand, and wouldn’t it be wonderful if you lived in the Year 2000, and celebrated the turn of the century? But it is now!
You may depart here, say, in the year 1990. I have no desire to reach any 1990. As far as I am concerned, it could come tonight. But I have no desire, honestly, to go far beyond this moment in time – none whatsoever.
I know, in my own case, I will not be restored to life. I am entering the New Age, clothed in that body with which I am very familiar, which is a perfect body, where – in its presence – nothing will remain imperfect – nothing. You are in need of nothing in that body, and everything is made perfect, because you are clothed in that body of the Risen Lord. But everyone who has not had the experience will be restored, and need not find themselves, if they go tonight, in the year 1970 a day later. They could find themselves in the Year One Thousand, as the environment best suited for the work yet to be done in them, because it can be done better in that environment than it can in the year 1971.
The whole thing is the most glorious, wonderful play, and in the end everyone is perfect. And because “there is only one body, one spirit… one lord… one God and Father of all,” (Ephesians 4:4-6) we can’t brag and beg to be placed one above the other.
And I tell you that your face will be like yours, but raised to the nth degree of beauty. Imagine it, a character that you would never dream of possessing in this world! You will have the human face, as you have. You will have the human voice. You will have human hands. Don’t ask beyond that. I couldn’t describe the form. It is light, fire; it has nothing to resist it. It is, in itself, the life of everything round about you. You give life to it. Nothing remains dead in your presence. A Petrified Forest would burst into flower if you entered the forest. A barren desert would erupt into glorious bloom because of your presence. You are life. But the body itself – well, you can’t describe it. But it will have a human face, human voice, and human hands.
Question By A Lady In The Audience: Will you please interpret the Scripture, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Neville: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34) It appears only in the books of Matthew and Mark; it doesn’t appear in the other two Gospels. Well, it is in the 22nd Psalm. (Psalm 22:1) In other words, God is not pretending that He is you. If He knew that He is God and playing the part that is your part, then He could not be a Savior. He had to completely empty Himself of His entire wisdom and His power and everything to become you!
So, He can’t pretend; He’s not an actor playing the part. He is The Only Actor, but He is so much the part that He ceases to be an actor knowing that He is playing a part. He became you in the most literal form.
So, that’s the cry. But Luke does not use the 22nd Psalm. Luke uses the 31st Psalm; only the whole verse is not quoted. Luke says, “Into thy hands I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.” (Psalm 31:5, RSV)
So, he cried out, knowing that he is already redeemed because he has had the experience of redemption, but the Crucifixion is the first act. It took place in the beginning. It doesn’t come at the end of the drama, as we are told in the story. We are told in Scripture, “We have been united with Him in a death like His; therefore we shall be united with Him in a resurrection like His.” (Romans 6:5, RSV) In other words, see the change in tense. We have been united with Him in a Crucifixion like His; we shall be united with Him in a Resurrection like His.
So, the Crucifixion is over. The Resurrection is taking place. So, he warns Timothy of those who teach that the resurrection is over and past, that they are misleading the people and turning the people from the true faith. He says, Anathema to them for the teaching of the resurrection as already finished.
No, it is taking place in one after the other. But the Crucifixion is over, because that was the beginning of the drama, when God literally became Humanity – not just you individually, but Humanity. He is crucified on the Cross of Man, and individual man is redeemed. Because he was once crucified with The One, he is now redeemed in The One. One after the other, he is drawn back into “the one Body, the one spirit… the one lord… the one God and Father of all.” (Ephesians 4:4-6)
So, that cry is a wonderful cry, and it should not be removed from Scripture, but it is only in Matthew and Mark. Of the seven cries on the cross, Matthew and Mark only considered one, and this is the one. John considered three, and Luke considered three, and Mark and Matthew considered the same words on the Cross.
We speak of the “seven last words” – “words” being not a single word, but a sentence, a thought. They considered one thought which is the prayer that God actually, literally became man to the point where He had to forget He was God, and suffered total amnesia, for if He remained aware that He is God, He couldn’t play the part – a complete and total giving of Self.
As Blake said it so beautifully, “Unless I die, thou canst not live; but if I die, I shall arise again, and thou with me.” [From “Jerusalem”]
He will rise, and you will rise as Him. But He has to die just as a seed. Unless it fall into the ground and die, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit. So, He actually became you, and then He rises in you, and He cries out on the cross of you – for you are the cross that He wears.
I must confess, there isn’t a person in the world that could actually say to me honestly, until he has the resurrection, that he knows he is the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, he is totally unaware of his true identity, and he is crying out to a god outside of himself. Therefore, he is actually saying, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Because he doesn’t know He is God until the Resurrection. And when He breaks the bonds of the tomb, He knows Who He is. Until then, He too is saying, without the use of words, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Every mother who says good-bye to a little child at the gate of death wonders why God did not answer her prayer. You say goodbye to your mother, your father, your brother, your friend, and you wonder, Why God, why –calling to another god. Therefore, that is the cry on the Cross – because this [referring to the physical body] is the Cross. And I will wear this Cross – until the very end, and then, during the wearing of the Cross; I am resurrected from it.
And I tell the story. Some believe it; some disbelieve it, but I will continue to tell the story until He takes it off for the final time, and then I’m clothed in the Divine Body.
Question By A Lady: When you say “coming down,” descending,” “below,” what do you mean?
Neville: Well, these are just figures of speech. Certainly not from heaven, because heaven is within you, as we are told in the 17th chapter of the book of Luke, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” (Luke 17:21)
In Scripture, “above” and “within” are the same, and “below” and “without” are the same. If I point there [indicating], that’s without, and that is, in Scripture, “below.” He said, “I am from above” – therefore I am within you – “you are from below,” (John 3:23) therefore, you are “without.”
So, wherever I point in the world outside, that is below where He stands. He stands “within.” God is within you. His name forever and forever is “I AM.”
When I speak of “coming down,” I mean descending in consciousness to lower and lower and lower levels of awareness to the level called, in Scripture, “death”; because God is infinite in power and can overcome even death. And to become man, the limit of contraction, God assumes the grave to prove the Infinite power that is God, because there is no limit to His expansion. He set a limit to His contraction, to his opacity, but no limit to His expansion or translucency. So, when you reach the limit of contraction, then you start to expand.
If God could not expand beyond what He is, there would be eternal failure, but God is forever expanding, and in His own plan. He creates the plan, fulfills His own plan, and expands. That’s the joy of creation. God is a Creator.
So, I do not mean “coming down” in the sense of coming from the stars – for all the stars, infinite as they are, and trillions of light years away – they are still “without,” therefore, they are “below.” God is “within.”
Question By A Lady [inaudible on the tape, but having to do with the “linen clothes.”]
Neville: The “linen clothes” are the physical body in Scripture. He ran away and he was still naked. He had not yet been clothed with the Divine Body of the Lord Jesus Christ. They can take from you your body, and you will be naked as far as that world goes. You must be clothed. To be really clothed in the “wedding garment” in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven; you must be clothed with the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the end, there is only “one body, one spirit… one Lord… one God and Father of all.” (Ephesians 4:4-6)
So, today many people suffer for the Word of God, and they will take from them their physical bodies, like many of our missionaries who have been martyred. They took from them the “linen clothes” that the mother wove for them, and left them, in a way, naked, because they are not yet clothed with the Body of Jesus Christ, but they will be. They will be.
Question [inaudible on my tape, but referring to the angels, witnesses, et cetera, present at the birth of the Christ Child]
Neville: This is all beautiful imagery. When I rose from the skull and came out from the “linen clothes” – and when I came out, the three brothers appeared, and there were the angels; they came from afar. If you took it literally, they were five thousand miles from here.
If you took the story literally in the Bible, it would be almost impossible for the shepherds to have made the journey in the short interval between the appearance of the angel and the discovery of the child, so they came “in spirit,” as told in the 2nd chapter of the book of Luke when Simeon “came in the Spirit to the temple,” (Luke 2:27) for it all takes place in the Temple of God. You are the Temple of God, because all things exist in the human imagination. So, they came – humanly – “from afar,” but they are always in you anyway.
When the drama is ready to erupt within you, they will come, and the story will reenact itself within you. So, do not give credit to this one or that one or the other; the whole story is within you.
Question By A Lady [inaudible on the tape] about Repentance.
Neville: My Dear, you are invited in Scripture – the very first word put into the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ in the earliest Gospel, which is the book of Mark. In the canonical setup, Matthew comes first, but in the actual, chronological order, Mark is the earliest of the Gospels.
So, the first word put into the mouth of Jesus in the book of Mark is, “Repent.” The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
“The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent, and believe the gospel.” (Mark 1:15)
Well, the word “repent” does not mean to feel remorseful. It hasn’t a thing to do with regret. The word is “metanoia,” which means, by literal translation, a radical, radical change of attitude; a radical change of mind, which tests the individual’s ability to enter into the very opposite of what he sees with his senses.
Now, do it, for you are invited. The very first words of the Lord are to get the individual to use the talent which is in himself, which is his imagination, therefore, use your imagination to bring about a radical change of attitude towards effects – towards the world in which you live. And to the degree that you are successful in changing this attitude of mind, the world will change to confirm it.
That is “repentance” as known by the mystics. It has not a thing to do with regret or remorse. He never demands penance of anyone. The whole secret of Christ is forgiveness. That is repentance. He conquers by repentance. He conquers by forgiveness. That is the secret of Christianity.
You see someone and they are not well. You don’t blame them. You don’t bawl them out because of a former state, which has resulted now in their illness. You simply represent them to yourself in your mind’s eye, as you would like them to be. Suppose that individual who is now a total stranger were your mother, you wouldn’t criticize her, because you love your mother, and you would do for your mother what maybe you would not do for a stranger. Well, learn to do for the stranger what you would do for your mother.
If Mother asked anything of me, she would not ask anything that would not come within the Golden Rule – she wouldn’t! Why, she couldn’t conceive of asking of her son that she loved to do anything that would embarrass her, or in some way bring shame to the name. So, it would always come within the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Well, then, is it a stranger or your mother? Do it, and to the degree that you are self-persuaded of the reality of what you’ve done in your imagination, to that degree they are changed, and the environment in which they live will be changed to conform to the change in them. You do it, and you will bring it about by your imagination and faith.
Faith is the subjective appropriation of the objective hope. What do I want? What do I hope for, for my mother? Well, then, let me subjectively appropriate it, and that is practicing “repentance.” He tells the whole vast world, “Repent,” but believe the story – the Good News, which is called the Gospel. Believe the good news of salvation, for it has come to the world, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Mark 1:15)
So, the climax has been reached. You can forget what the world is talking about. The climax – redemption – is upon us. It has been done, God has completed the act of redemption, and therefore there is no possibility of failure for anyone in the world, because He became all.
Question By A Lady [mostly inaudible on tape] – I want very much to do whatever is necessary for my son to overcome his .
Neville: Well, my Dear, causation is mental. People do not realize it. He teaches that causation is mental. Listen to His words; it is the Sermon on the Mount, “You have heard it said by men of old” – He’s telling you what came down through the ages – “You have heard it said by men of old, You shall not commit adultery.” You have heard that – “But I say unto you” – this is something entirely different now. He now speaks with authority – this is the Lord speaking, “But I say unto you, Any man who looks [concupiscently] lustfully upon a woman has already committed the act of adultery in his heart with her.” (Matthew 5:27, 28, RSV) He puts the whole thing on an entirely different level. It’s mental.
I may not have the courage to go forward and perform the act that I long to do. I may have many reasons for not doing it; I may contemplate the consequences along with the act, and restrain the impulse, but He tells me restraining the impulse isn’t good enough. I am told it isn’t good enough if I restrain the impulse because I am a coward, or restrain the impulse because I am afraid of the consequences that would bring shame to my family or to myself. Well, then, that is still not good enough, if I look lustfully on another.
Therefore all men have committed sin. There isn’t a man in this world who can tell me he is not guilty of that act, but we are told in the 11th chapter of Romans: “God has consigned all men to disobedience, that He may have mercy upon all.” (Romans 11:32, RSV) God is merciful. He has consigned all men to disobedience, that He may have mercy; therefore, no one earns the Kingdom. It is Grace – Grace – Grace, and still more Grace! Our fitness for the Kingdom is the consequence, and not the condition, of this choice of ours.
So, I know, as a man – I’ve been married twice; I have two children (one 46, one 28) and I know as a man that I am not unique. I am guilty of that act. If a man stood before me and told me that he is not guilty of that, I wouldn’t even argue with him. Why call him a liar? It’s such an obvious fact that he is a liar – stupid! And by “man,” I mean generic man. I mean, “Male female made he them, and called their name Man,” (Genesis 5:2) as told us in the 5th chapter of Genesis, so I mean generic man.
So, “He has consigned all men to disobedience, that He may have mercy upon all.” (Romans 11:32, RSV)
“For Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love
Is God, our Father dear,
And Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love
Is Man, his child and care.”
— Wm. Blake, from “The Divine Image”
Question By A Lady: One more thing, when you say this is your last night, I hope you are planning to return to this City.
Neville: Well, my Dear, thank you. I say it is the last night for this year. But do you know, no one knows when the Father will call him. I feel, really, I have finished the work that my Father gave me to do. I have accomplished the story. He did it in me. I take no credit, because He gave me Himself. He who started a good work in me has brought it to completion, (See Philippians 1:6, RSV) and therefore He could call me now; the work has been completed in me.
Now, if I am needed to still tell it to others who are coming who must hear it before I depart from me, then I will be here until they come. I will not go one second before or one second later. But, as I said last night, it would make no difference to me if I went now.
I felt, when I had a little child, uneducated, that I had unfinished business, because she wanted college. Well, now, she has had her college training. She has gone to a lovely college, graduated, and has a lovely job, and she is well equipped for life. I feel that I have left my wife provided for in the world of Caesar. That was my one concern. So, I know today I have left her a sufficient investment in the world of Caesar to live graciously without having to go out and ask for alms. Well, now, that has comforted me, for that was my only concern. My son pulls his own weight. My daughter pulls her own weight. And when my wife eventually goes – I left it all to her; then I have left a condition upon my will that she cannot dispose of it, save to give it to my two children.
So, I feel satisfied that I am qualified to go now. I am not saying I want to. I am enjoying life; I’m enjoying every moment of time. But if tonight was my moment to go – and I am not going to make a conscious effort to go, but if I slept tonight and did not wake here, I know that I will awake in the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ, for I have finished the work. I will not be restored to continue the journey. I will awake in the One Body, with the one Lord, with the one Spirit. That I know, therefore, what could concern me?
But to come back to your question, if it is in the sphere of my Father’s wish that I be here to tell it once more to those who are not now hearing me, I will be here. For, He has used me under compulsion, and yet, He and I are one.
Question By A Lady [largely inaudible on the tape] about some people having more imagination than others.
Neville: Well, first of all, “God is One.” We may not exercise our imagination, but, may I tell you, when we think that one has more imagination than another, it could not be, because “God is One” (Deuteronomy 6:1) – undivided. But one misuses imagination. Who knows if someone tonight in a dungeon feeling themselves wrongfully confined could be using that imagination to start a world conflict? If you know the power of imagination, it could be some woman treading the wine press who starts the conflict in men’s minds. If a man does not use his own imagination, it may be used for him by someone else. And if I confine my imagination to my senses and only what reason allows – well, I would never exercise it.
Someone quoted from a book the other night from some very prominent speaker, who also has written many books, and they are all popular books and very successful books, and he said, “The credulous mind is a weak mind that must be strengthened.” Of all the nonsense in the world!
In almost every particular is the world about us different from what we think. Why, then, should we be thought incredulous? Life calls upon us to believe, not less, but more. The most incredulous story in the world is the Christian story. It’s the most incredulous thing in the world, the story of Christ. And may I tell you from experience, it is the only really true story! All the others are “played,” and that will be forever and forever. It is forever extant in the depths of the soul of man.