Neville Goddard (November 22, 1966)
Tonight’s subject is “Occupant or Inmate.”
An occupant established title to property by dwelling in it and is free to come and go as he chooses. An inmate is confined. Whether it be a prison or asylum, the inmate is restrained by law, yet he is just as free as the occupant, but he does not know it.
Now, Christ is what God means by man, and if you know who Christ is, then you will know that Christ is what Man means by God. “Christ in you is the hope of glory; therefore, let us make Man in our image as Christ is the image of the invisible God.” So Christ, your own wonderful human imagination, is what God means by Man, and when Man speaks of God he is speaking of his own wonderful human imagination, tying them together by saying, God is Man and Man is God. They are truly one, for God is infinite Man and Man, confined to his senses, is finite God. Tonight I am going to try to show you the difference between the two; and how they are both free but do not know it.
In the beginning of the book of John, Jesus is asked, “Where do you live?” and he answers, “Come and see.” Now, if I invite you to follow me as I move toward my dwelling place, you would have to move, so there would be motion. We are always dwelling in and thinking from a state of consciousness. Do you know where you dwell? It is the place (the state) to which you consciously return. That is your dwelling place. A lady calls me time and time again telling me how the people in her office do not like her. She moves to another job only to call again to tell how the people in this office have turned against her. Finding another job the same story is repeated. When I ask how she knows they don’t like her she tells me how they get in a corner and whisper about her. She is so convinced that this is true, that she goes from job to job to job finding only those who dislike her and although I tell her that the world is all imagination, she cannot believe it. But I tell you, the world without, which appears so very real, is a world of imagination. Imagine people are against you, that they are constantly talking about you and you will go from job to job and watch the same experiences repeat themselves, for people are only personifying your thoughts. So where are you dwelling? Tonight I want to show you how to move, how to occupy a state and not be its inmate.
Every state, regardless of what it is, is waiting for occupancy. The great tragedy of the world is perpetual construction, deferred occupancy. Construct your dream state in your mind’s eye and regardless of what the world may tell you, say to yourself “It can be.” You may not have the educational background, be in the proper social circle, have the finances needed to fulfill your desire, but if you move in and occupy the state, in your imagination, thinking from its fulfillment, the world will personify your thoughts and objectify the state you have occupied.
Now listen to these words from the 10th of Matthew. “Do not think that I came to bring peace upon the earth. I came not to bring peace, but a sword to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, for a man’s enemies are those of his own household.” These words are everlastingly true. You have no enemy other than that of your own household. Your father, mother, daughter, daughter-in-law or mother-in-law are not your household, they are your intimates. Your household is your imagination, where all your enemies live. Personified as your fellow workers, neighbors, those you meet during the day, the thieves who steal your purse, their life is in you. Your thoughts are your enemies, for the world is your thoughts pushed out.
May I tell you how wonderful it is to receive your letters, that I may share your dreams and experiences with others? I will share one letter with you now. This lady writes, “Due to a long illness I began to feel insecure, so I went to bed assuming that I am now very secure. That night I dreamed I was with a little child and an elderly woman. Seeing something he desired, the child began to complain, saying it was too expensive and it would cost $250,000. I told him not to be concerned because he already had billions of dollars. As we started to leave the lady resisted saying it was too dark outside, but I told her it would be alright because I had a light. As I spoke the wall opened and we moved into another room filled with a wonderful blue light.
“Then a few days later I dreamed I was in a field of harvested wheat where a few stalks remained. Then I saw three buffalo coming toward me and, although I was not afraid of them I hid, and as I was hiding, I awoke.”
In the 14th and 15th chapter of Deuteronomy we are told, “When you reap your harvest in the field, do not muzzle the ox, but allow him to take what he will. After the harvest do not return for a forgotten sheaf, but leave it for the sojourner, the fatherless and the widow. And if, perchance you beat the olive trees, do not go over the boughs again, but leave them for the sojourner, the fatherless and the widow. Do not harvest to the end, but leave some and remember you were once a slave in Egypt.”
Three, in scripture, represents resurrection. “On the third day the earth rose up out of the deep.” The buffalo, like the ox, eats what it sees and what it needs you are willing to leave behind for them to feed upon, as the symbol of the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. My earthly father took that story in Deuteronomy to such an extent that he would never finish his plate at home. When he had all he desired he would fill his plate once more, take one small morsel and leave the rest for the servants. My mother had instructed the servants not to eat from the table dishes, but from anything that remained on the plates, so my father would make certain they had a full meal from his plate every time. He did the same thing in New York City, and I couldn’t convince him that the waiters would not touch it. He left food for the sojourner whether they ate it or not. That was my earthly father.
And so it was with the lady in her dream. She left the grains for the sojourner and those who may need it, remembering when she was a slave in the land of Egypt. So I can say to her, you are having Biblical dreams, and when these dreams appear you, God asleep, are near the unfolding of Christ. For Christ is what God means by Man, and Christ awake is what Man awake means by God.
When Christ (imagination) begins to stir in you, go all out and completely abandon yourself to a state. Determine to either sink or swim, dare to move from one state into another. Many years ago Blake showed me how to move, how to see infinite Man as one. Telling me to let myself go and fall backwards, I fell, just as I have done from a high diving board into a pool, but this time I fell through interstellar space, and when I came to rest I saw a heavenly being in the distance. At first it appeared as one Man whose heart was like a flaming ruby. As I approached I saw that this flaming heart contained all of humanity, all the nations, all the races. Every being in the world was contained in the heart of the one Man. That is how I learned how to move from one state into another. Just let yourself go and fall backwards into another state… from one of not being wanted to being wanted.
Now, another lady writes saying, “In my dream I came upon scene after scene, each changing as I approached it. I could see the scene and as I thought, the scene rearranged itself to outpicture my thoughts. Then I realized I was the cause of its change. Now I realize that even while I am dreaming, I am doing.” Filled with joy because she had remembered the principle of revision while dreaming she sat at the breakfast table having coffee when she heard a voice within her say, “Move into the state of love.” Then the room began to recede and she felt herself falling backwards. The sensation was so great she broke the feeling and the room returned to normalcy once again. She regretted her action immediately; but confessed, “Now I know how to move.
If you know how to move you are free. So are you occupying your present state or its inmate? If you are its occupant you can move and be other than what you are now. But you must be willing to fall asleep in the desired state and carry it into dream where it becomes natural. Then, dwelling in that new state of consciousness day after day, the world will pick up the atmosphere of your dream and fulfill it. Do not ask anyone to help you; just occupy your desired state, knowingly, not unknowingly as before. Blake saw it so clearly saying, “I do not consider the just or the wicked to be in a supreme state, but to be every one of them in states of the sleep which the soul may fall into in its deadly dream of good and evil.” Now, Blake never used a word in a loose manner. When he spoke of falling into, he meant exactly that. Desiring to see the one Man containing all, he told me to fall backwards, and I did.
Everyone can do it. No one is less than another. Christ in YOU is the hope of glory. Not Christ in a chosen few, but Christ in ALL, for Christ is what God means by Man. Are we not told to bring forth Christ? That he remains with us in labor until Christ be formed in us? When God said, “Let us make Man in our image” he was saying, “Let us make Man who is Christ”; for Christ is Man and when Man knows who Christ is he knows they are one. God became Man that Man may become God. We are not some little thing, but Christ, and we can be anything we want to be if we occupy a state and are not its inmate.
In the November 18th issue of Time Magazine, the official speaker for the Vatican said, “The teachings of the Catholic Church must be considered as certain and whenever they change it is only a change from one state of certainty to another state of certainty.” Now aren’t we living in Alice’s Wonderland? All you do is change from one state of certainty to another state of certainty. May I tell you: truth cannot contradict itself. If it is now false it was always false. In the 8th chapter of Corinthians we read the words, “Food will not commend you to God. You are no better off if you eat and no worse off if you do not.” Yet, for 1100 years the doctrine of not eating meat on Friday was a certainty, inspired by one in whom meat possibly disagreed, but because he spoke as having received the information from on high, no one dared to break it. Now the present pope undoubtedly likes to eat meat, so he changed it from one state of certainty to another state of certainty. Now if that isn’t Alice through the Looking Glass I don’t know what is. Didn’t the Mad Hatter say, “The words that I say mean what I want them to mean” and proceeded to give new meanings to words. But I tell you: truth cannot contradict itself. If it wasn’t true when recorded, it was never true, and if it was true then it will always be true.
Christ defines himself as the truth and Christ is your own wonderful human imagination. With him all things are possible. I don’t care what the world will tell you, if you know who Christ is, nothing is impossible to you. If you feel secure or insecure, loved or unloved, known or unknown, it is only a state whose occupant is Christ. He takes the state of security upon himself and wears it like a garment, knowing he will make it alive. That power is in you, eager to do your will. Deliberately move into the state of being known, of being affluent or famous by falling into it. Clothe yourself with that state, for you are Christ. There is nothing but God in this world and Christ is what God means by Man.
Made in the image of God, Christ is IN you. You will never find him on the outside. When you see Christ you are seeing yourself. On that day you will not lose your identity, but will see a state of beauty, majesty, greatness and strength. Every noble characteristic in the world will be embodied in that state which you will recognize as yourself. When you see your Son he will look exactly like you, but raised to a higher level of majesty. Looking at yourself you see Christ. This I know from experience.
Everything here on earth is but a caricature of the being you really are. But while we are wearing these masks we can apply this marvelous principle, not only for ourselves, but for everyone. The lady who calls tells me that she never does what I ask of her. “Lord, how long, how long O Lord must I forgive my brother? Seventy times seven.” I must continue to put the lady into the state of being wanted and loved until she remains there, even if I have to do it seventy times seven times. I can never give up, never turn my back and discard anyone as hopeless. Nothing is hopeless unless you give up hope. You don’t forgive them 490 times, but until you have actually witnessed the change. When I really succeed in putting her into the state where it is her dwelling place and she occupies it, the world will reflect it. Then and only then can I relax, for she has returned to me. God is one, so there can’t be she and I, as that would make two, so she who is myself extended, returns to me. I will do it and do it and do it, even if the phone rings every day, until she occupies the state she desires.
Yes, we are human enough to say, O Lord, when will they remain in the state into which I have put them? But you keep on doing it; it’s good for you. You do it over and over until suddenly it gels and they remain there. And remember, everyone is yourself made visible, so you can’t discard any being in this world. No one can be lost, because your Father is in all. He is in me and therefore cannot lose me. Were he not in me and only in you, then he could discard me, but he can’t because he dwells in me. And he dwells in you, therefore he can’t discard you and because he is one, we bear one another’s burden. Help everyone who asks. Even if results are not immediate and things seem hopeless remember, nothing is hopeless, it is only a state as is every thing in this world.
And when you see the eternal states you stand amazed for, strangely enough, they are all human. Every state I have ever seen is personified. Hope, love, faith, all personified.
So tonight take me seriously. Occupy a state. Don’t become its inmate. You are wearing a garment of death, and while here you are rooted in hell, aspire to heaven and flower on earth as the entire drama of God unfolds within you. Then the garment is taken off, the burden is removed and you are set free knowing I am in the world, but not of it. So be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
In the world you have tribulation, for you are rooted in hell, the region of fear, but aspiring to heaven, the realm of hope that God’s dream of making you in his image is successful, the two are married producing vision which unfolds within you like a flower as scripture is fulfilled.
The world is made up of states, all states of the soul which sometimes play the part of the fool, other times the wisest of men, but no mortal eye can see the occupant of the state, only the garment he wears. No mortal eye can see the garment I wear, for it is the body of the risen Christ. I am now one with Christ and Christ is God and there is nothing but God; therefore there is nothing but Christ. Fused with that Risen Body you are one forever with the body of love, yet walk the earth as a mortal man until every little bud unfolds.
So tonight learn how to move. It takes no time to move from one state into another, just the willingness to let go. You cannot serve two masters. You either believe me or you don’t. You are either with me or against me. Burn your bridges and completely abandon yourself to the person you want to be. Reason cannot understand, therefore he will say it cannot be. Reason will never find Christ, for Christ comes only through revelation.
Don’t ever be ashamed of being afraid, for who hasn’t been fearful in this world? What person can tell me he hasn’t been afraid of going to hell? Are we not told that Christ went down into hell? But he aspired to heaven and that is his hope. The three great virtues in the world are faith, hope and love. The greatest is love, for when the whole thing flowers there is nothing but love who did it all. In spite of all the horror, love was the guide, for there is nothing but love. So in the end no one will be greater than the other, because there is no other, there is only one, and that one is God.
Try this simple technique of falling back, but know where you are going. Just let yourself go and fall into the state of security. Remain there until it feels natural, then you will find yourself returning to it often as it becomes more and more comfortable. And the state to which you most constantly return constitutes your dwelling place.
Remember, everything remains just as it is unless you move. This room will stay as it is until you move, but if you move the slightest, the room although still the same, will be seen differently. The world is finished, yet seen so different when viewed from another state of consciousness. No one is any greater or more important than you are. They are only a state, and many of them don’t even know it. In fact, most of them know nothing of what you have heard tonight. You are blessed because you have heard as you are told, “Thank you Father that you hid these things from the wise and the foolish and revealed them unto babes, for of such is thy gracious will.”
You will never find Christ in scientific books, but you will hear of him through the hearing of the ear by one who has experienced who he is and you either believe or you don’t. If you believe me you can test me. Lord Lindsay once said to those who came to him, “You ministers are making a mistake. In your pulpit you are arguing for Christianity and no one wants to hear your argument. You ought to be witnesses. Does this thing work? Then share it with the rest of us.” He was speaking of this level of moving from state to state, not the promise, for that comes when the tree begins to flower. It flowers on earth, but until the promise unfolds, share your experiences of moving so all may enjoy freedom and the affluence of the world.
Tonight I hope you heard enough to want to test it. Try falling into a state and remaining there until it feels natural. It feels natural to go home tonight and you’ll feel relaxed when you arrive. I have been living in my home seven years now and no matter where I go it always feels so good to be home again. Now, move into a state and stay there until you feel just as comfortable in it as you do your home. You might not feel at home in a palatial place, but if you will remain there long enough it will begin to feel like home, for you will become accustomed to it and not feel its strangeness anymore.
Choose, this night, where you would like to live, for the world is yours and every state within it. It’s entirely up to you where you live.
Now let us go into the Silence.