In this lecture Neville Goddard explores the idea that both dreams and waking life originate from the same divine source, asserting that the dreamer and waking experiencer are one and the same: I AM. He illustrates this through biblical references—from the Book of Job’s two modes of divine communication to Joseph’s gift of dream interpretation—and personal revelations dating back to 1954. Goddard recounts a vivid nocturnal message: “You do not move in waking any more than you move on your bed in sleep,” emphasizing life as a movement of mind rather than physical motion. He further connects this insight to the resurrection of Christ, portraying spiritual awakening as emerging from the sepulcher of the skull. The lecture culminates in practical advice: to consciously dream noble visions, relax into their gestation, and manifest them in waking reality. Throughout, he challenges reason’s limitations, urging personal experience of truth beyond logical proof.
In the 33rd chapter of the Book of Job we are told that God speaks to man in two ways, but man does not perceive them. It is said: “In a dream, in a vision of the night when deep sleep falls upon men while they slumber on their beds, he opens the ears of men and seals their instructions.” Tell that to a psychiatrist and, because he separates the dreamer from God, he will tell you that all dreams come from the individual dreamer and not from God. But I tell you: God’s eternal name is I AM, and if I asked who is dreaming the dream would the individual not say, “I am?” And are we not told that that is God’s name forever and ever?
You cannot separate the dreamer from God, and all dreams proceed from Him. Some are simple and need no interpretation, while others are revealed in a symbolic language and need an interpreter, as told us in the story of Joseph. His true identity is revealed when he looked into the faces of those who had had a dream and saw they were disturbed, for he said: “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dream.” Then he interpreted the dreams of the butler, the baker, and even Pharaoh himself, and they all came to pass just as he had said they would. Now, if only God can interpret a dream, why tell Joseph? Because he is a personification of God. His name was changed from Joseph (meaning “salvation”) to Joshua, which means “Jehovah is salvation.”
Now back in 1954, I awoke from a dream hearing these words: “You do not move in waking any more than you move on your bed in sleep. It is all a movement of mind. The intensity is determined by the strength of the vortex you create, which is just like a whirlwind with a center of perfect stillness. You only believe that you are moving when you are awake, as you think you move in sleep.” Well, I am a rational being and reason could not accept that statement, but I wrote it down and placed it in my Bible to await further revelation.
Psychiatrists would say this message came from myself. I will not deny that, but I do know that it came from a depth of my own being which my rational mind does not reach. Today our three astronauts returned from a trip of half a million miles. You and I came here tonight in our cars, and throughout my lifetime I have traveled all over the world in ships and planes. And like Blake, in my dreams “I have traveled through a land of men, a land of men and women, too. And heard and seen such dreadful things as cold earth wanderers never knew.” We have all traveled, yet I know what I heard and wrote down. I know that I have traveled in my dreams and yet I know I have not physically left my room, for when I awoke in the morning I was still on the bed upon which I fell asleep. So I ask you: is this waking state no more than a dream? Is there a dreamer in the depths of my being who looks upon this world as a dream, just as I who – having gone to a little lower of the dream at night – awake to find I haven’t left my bed at dawn?
Paul tells us that “We are born anew through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” I remember that night, for I felt myself waking from a deep, deep sleep, feeling a vibration which, although centered in my head, it seemed to be coming from without. Then I awoke within the sepulcher – the skull – in which I was buried, to come out to find all of the symbolism of the Christian mystery surrounding me. I saw the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and the three witnesses to the event. Although unseen, as I was spirit, the witnesses spoke of me as the father of the child – the sign that my savior was born, fulfilling scripture: “This shall be a sign unto you, you shall find a child wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”
That night I awoke from a far deeper level of my being to find the symbolism of my waking from the dream of life, just as day after day I wake from the dream of the night. So, could it be that the revelation I heard back in 1954 is literally true? Reason questions it, reason doubts it, and reason rejects it. So if the vision is true then reason is rejecting Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ defines himself as the truth, saying: “I am the truth…” If the revelation is true, and reason rejects it, is not reason Satan, the doubting one?
This statement cannot be logically proved. Its truth must be experienced. I had completely forgotten it until I discovered my note today while looking in my Interpreter’s Bible, and there it was – the note I wrote on the 28th day of November 1954: “You do not move in waking any more than you move on your bed in sleep. It is all a movement of mind. The intensity is determined by the strength of the vortex you create, which is just like a whirlwind with a center of perfect stillness. You only believe that you are moving when you are awake, as you think you move in sleep.”
Scripture speaks of two ages: this age of darkness and decay, and that age of light and eternal life. This age is one of motion and violence, turbulence and storms, as the dreamer in men is sound asleep and does not know that he is God. In the 44th Psalm, however, he is urged to “Rouse thyself, why sleepest thou, O Lord. Awake! Do not cast us off forever.” While occupying his dream God has the sensation of travel, motion and violence; but when he awakes he will find himself in the sepulcher, the skull of Man, where he deliberately laid himself down to sleep and was buried. God crucified himself on the cross of man and is dreaming this dream of life so that man may become God.
Now I want to clarify a few points. In the Book of John this statement is made: “His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, neither does his word abide in you because you do not believe him whom he has sent.” Many of you have completely accepted the fact that I have been sent. You believe me when I tell you that I stood in the presence of the Risen Lord, who embraced me and I became one with. Having been incorporated into the body of Love, Almighty God sent me to tell my experience. Having accepted my words, many of you have had a sexual experience with me, in vision, and have interpreted this to be a physical experience on this level; but it is not, as this is a shadow world. Your acceptance brought about this union, yet I – the speaker – am totally unaware of it. The true story of Christ which I have brought you has now been made alive in you. It will erupt in time and your experience of scripture will be identical to mine.
The males who have completely accepted my words will not experience a sexual act, but an embrace. Wearing the body of the Risen Lord, who is Infinite Love and with whom I am now one, you will see my face. You will be asked to name the greatest thing in the world and, as though divinely inspired, you will quote the words of Paul saying: “Faith, hope, and love; these three, but the greatest of these is love.” I will embrace you, and you will fuse with the one body of the Risen Lord, and he who is united with the Lord becomes one Spirit with him.
All of these are symbols, telling you that, having believed him whom he sent, you will hear his voice and see his form as his word is now abiding in you. It’s a complete break with the past, as told us in the first words the Risen Lord spoke in the Book of Mark: “Repent and believe in the gospel.” The gospel is the good news that man is not lost; that scripture is not secular history, but divine history, which was plotted and planned before we came out from the Father and came into the world to enter our own creation and play all the parts.
It is God who awakes in you. One man, containing all, fell into diversity as told us in the 82nd Psalm: “I say, ‘You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you shall die like men, and fall as one man, O princes.”‘ (I have quoted the Revised Standard Version in the marginal setup which is the true translation of the Hebrew.) It takes all the sons who fell, to form God the Father; so we are gathered together one by one into that same body which fell into humanity. And from humanity, God extracts himself individually because we are all so unique. No one can be duplicated or lost, because God is buried in all and God is redeeming himself.
Today I watched the exciting touchdown of the astronauts who had traveled to the moon and back. Then I reread what I had written back in 1954: “You do not move in waking any more than you do on your bed in sleep.” Now, reason could not accept that statement. I saw the astronauts return. We have a record of their journey of a half-million miles, yet they did not move? Well, I must confess that I have traveled in my dreams, as I am sure you have; yet we always wake on our bed in the morning, do we not? Could there be a dreamer far deeper than the one who is dreaming this seeming waking state? And when he awakes from the dream of life, would he not look upon it as you look upon the dream of the night?
I know that when I awoke from within, I realised that I had been there for unnumbered centuries, dreaming violence, love, hate, concupiscence, and pain – dreaming everything to be real, just as I did in any dream. I awoke to discover that I had been in that skull for centuries, dreaming I was a man walking the earth, dying, being restored to life to die again. This I continued to do until that moment in time when I awoke in Golgotha, the sepulcher where I was buried in the beginning of time. That’s my Calvary.
I seem to move here. I get up and shave in the morning, bathe, eat, make an effort to earn a dollar to pay the rent, and do all sorts of things; yet it’s all a dream, a dream with a purpose. God limited himself to the limit of contraction and opacity called man and began to dream this world into being. Now believing himself to be you, you can dream noble dreams or ignoble ones. I urge you to dream noble dreams, because when you know you are the dreamer you can make all of your dreams come true.
A dream is a very fluid state. Knowing what you want to dream, bring your inner circle of friends before your mind’s eye and allow them to see you as you want to be seen. When you are self-persuaded this is now a fact, relax in the vision’s gestation period. There is an interval of time between impregnation and birth. Having seen the expressions on their faces and heard the sound of their voices, break the spell and wait for that impregnation to take place in the world of dreams, while you live in the world of Caesar awaiting its coming.
I have told you that the story of Jesus Christ has unfolded itself within me. What I shared with you tonight is not recorded in scripture; but in the very last verse of the 21st chapter of John he makes this statement: “Many other things Jesus did which are not recorded here. Were every one of them to be written, the world itself could not contain the books.” There was no need to record the words which were revealed to me; so it does fit in with the very last verse of the epilogue of John, for John ends on the 20th verse and the 21st is the epilogue. All of these things happened and many more, but only these were recorded that you may believe.
Thank you for sharing your visions with me, as they are showing me that you have completely accepted the story as I have told it. I have shared with you the true story of Jesus Christ. Over the centuries, barnacles have gathered around the ship. Men, in the interest of their own doctrines, have added to the scriptures. In spite of the warning not to add to or take from the words of the prophecies of the Bible, men have added to, to support their own traditions and conventions. When the original text was written, the one who had the vision simply recorded it. He did not understand it, but wrote it down, as I did, knowing that a greater revelation would come.
I could not understand what I heard in 1954; but in 1959 I knew its truth, for I awoke from a profound dream to discover that I was not on my bed, but in my skull and completely alone. I came out of my skull to find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and the witnesses to the event. Seeing the babe, they witnessed the sign of my spiritual birth, but they could not see me as having been born of the spirit. I am Spirit, while they, not yet born of the spirit, are flesh. I didn’t bring forth a little baby; the child is but a sign that God is born. Having begotten himself, he brings forth that which he buried in humanity, for God is redeeming himself, as there is only God in the universe.
The Bible hasn’t a thing to do with any morals as the pulpits teach. It makes no attempt to change the world, as it is a schoolhouse. You don’t turn a schoolroom into a home. This is a school of educated darkness, where we travel towards the light. Scripture does not attempt to change things; rather it urges all to “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.”
To try to make this world a nice, sweet little place in which all are happy and have enough to eat and drink is fine, but that hasn’t a thing to do with the mystery of Christ. Were there no struggle, no effort would be made to awaken from the dream of life. Rather, the sleeper would fall deeper into sleep. So, let them march along telling the world how to become good and kind. It’s all nonsense, for as long as man wears the garment of the animal he must express it. Taking from himself the heart and mind of Love, God took upon himself the body, heart, and mind of the animal, as told us in the 4th chapter of Daniel. This is an animal world, but while in this world of violence Jesus Christ awakes to discover it was only a dream. Were it not that Jesus Christ was in you, you could not breathe, for your very breath is his life.
The day will come when you will awake to know this to be true; for David, the sum total of all of the experiences you have had in your dream of being man, will stand before you and call you “Father”. Then you will fulfill the 89th Psalm knowing, “I have found David. He has cried unto me, ‘Thou art my Father, my God and the Rock of my salvation.’ “Having played all the parts of Man, humanity, fused into a single youth, reveals your Godhood.
As the Father, you will know that your son has always done your will; for you will have found in David, the son of Jesse (I AM) one who has done all your will. You, the Father, dreamed it and you, the son. played all the parts. And when the play is over you awake to come out of Golgotha to be born from above. Peter tells us: “We are born anew through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” While the world worships him as someone coming from without, you will find him rising from within – not as another, but as your very Self, the dreamer of life.
The great poet, Shelley, saw it so clearly when he said: “He has awakened from the dream of life. ‘Tis we who, lost in stormy visions, keep with phantoms an unprofitable strife.” That’s what the world is doing, fighting self-created phantoms. The world is yourself pushed out and you are in conflict with yourself until that day when an unearthly wind possesses you and you awake in your skull with the consuming desire to get out. With your innate knowledge, you will push the base of your skull and something will move. Then you will come out just as a child comes out of the womb of a woman; but this time you are being born, not from below, but from above -from the skull of Self. The word “anothin” is translated “from above.” When Pilate said: “Do you not know that I have the power to crucify you or the power to set you free,” the Risen Lord replied: “You have no power over me unless it were given to you from above.” Here is the same word “anothin.” The power to kill or make alive comes from within.
Everything is taking place from within. Having fallen into a profound sleep, you are the Lord Jesus Christ, dreaming the dream of life. And because there is only one Being, everyone will awaken as Jesus, for everything else will vanish and leave Jesus only. And no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Wind. When that wind possesses you, you awake within yourself. Only then will you know you are the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now let us go into the silence.
The lecture begins with a scriptural foundation, drawing on the 33rd chapter of Job to show that divine instruction comes both in dreams and visions, and that dismissing dreams as mere psychological phenomena overlooks their sacred origin. By invoking Joseph’s biblical role as both dreamer and interpreter, Goddard underscores the concept that God and the dreamer are unified, dissolving any duality between Creator and created consciousness.
Goddard then shifts to his own mystical experience from 1954, where he received the paradoxical revelation that physical movement is illusory—a ‘vortex of mind’ creates the semblance of travel. This insight bridges ancient scripture with modern exploration, juxtaposing astronauts’ half-million-mile journeys with the timeless odyssey of inner awareness. The lecture posits that whether traversing space or slumber, the locus of motion remains the same: consciousness itself.
In the central sections, Goddard weaves the Christian mystery of death and resurrection into his theme, portraying the skull as a sepulcher from which the spiritual self must awaken. The narrative personalizes the Gospel story as an inner drama: Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection symbolize the soul’s emergence from contracted human identity into boundless divine life. He frames doubt and reason as necessary thresholds, yet insufficient for witnessing the truth that must be lived.
Finally, the speaker offers a method for creative dreaming: form vivid mental scenes with emotional conviction, release attachment, and allow these visions to materialize in everyday reality. This practical guidance reinforces his central teaching: the world is a dream fashioned by mind, and by consciously directing that mind one enters the creative act of God. The lecture thus moves from theological exposition to metaphysical practice, presenting a unified path of awakening that merges biblical allegory, personal revelation, and imaginative technique.
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