In this lecture Neville Goddard presents biblical characters—especially Moses—not as historical figures but as eternal states of consciousness buried within each individual. He explains that Moses, whose name means “to be born,” is the germinal plan of salvation hidden in humanity’s mind. God’s redemptive pattern unfolds through successive stages—Moses, Joshua (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit—awakening the divine self within. Goddard emphasizes the creative power of assumption and the name “I AM,” teaching that one must dare to assume the desired state (wealth, health, freedom) to bring it into manifestation. He warns against worshiping external authorities and insists on claiming inner divinity through imaginative faith. Ultimately, the promised land of eternal life is achieved by recognizing and living from these inner states of consciousness.
While reading scripture, always bear in mind that it is a story of salvation and not secular history, that the characters – from Adam to Jesus – are states of consciousness. In Blake’s “Visions of the Last Judgement,” he said: “It ought to be understood that the Persons Moses and Abraham are not here meant, but states signified by those names as they were revealed to mortal man in a series of divine revelations, as they are written in the Bible.” Having seen the entire play, Blake added: “When you see them from afar they appear as one man, but as you approach they appear as multitudes of nations, as the One Man becomes the many.”
The first five books of the Bible are called the Torah, or the Law, with Abraham as the symbol of the beginning of civilisation. But the outstanding character recorded there is the infinite, eternal state called Moses. The word Moses is the old perfected [form] of the Egyptian verb ìto be born; so it is in the state of Moses that something is to be born. Now, at the end of the Torah we are told: “Moses, the servant of the Lord died and the Lord buried him, but no man knows the place of his burial to this day.” (Deuteronomy 34) Why? Because Moses is buried in you.
Today people try to perpetuate the identity of every prominent person in some mausoleum. In our country, daily trips are made to the graves of our presidents. I am told that there is not a day that Kennedy’s grave is not covered with flowers, as people cry and pray there. So we know the burial place of our presidents and heroes – but no one knows the burial place of Moses.
Representing the future of Israel in germinal form, it is in Moses – a state buried in Man – that God’s plan of redemption is revealed. Now, an Israelite is not a descendant of Abraham after the flesh, but the elect of God of any nation. Whether you be a Jew, Christian, or Mohammedan, Moses – the future of Israel in germinal form – is buried in you. And the word ìIsraelî means to rule as God.
Having seen the entire pattern of God’s plan in the mountain, Moses returns and speaks to the people in the first person present tense, saying: “I am the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods besides me.” Having said this, Moses reveals God’s name as I am! He did not say, I am Moses and the Lord, but I am the Lord. Recognising his true identity, Moses begins to do wonderful things, called signs. Giving Moses the rod of God, the Lord said: “Put upon it the fiery serpent, and everyone who sees it, whether he be ill or distressed, if he believes, he is healed.” All of this beautiful imagery is literally true when God’s plan begins to unfold in you.
We are told that Moses could not enter the promised land, that Joshua – filled with the spirit of wisdom – entered and the people followed. Joshua is the Hebraic word for Jesus. Moses could not enter because he is God’s plan in germinal form. Joshua is its unfoldment, as the word says: “I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior and besides me there is no savior.”
The plan unfolds in Joshua in the Old Testament, and Jesus in the New. If Joshua is filled with the wisdom of God, and Christ is defined as the power and wisdom of God, are they not one and the same being? God’s glorious wisdom in germinal form saves Israel by pulling the one being out as the germ erupts. Then the man in whom it happens experiences the signs and wonders recorded in scripture in a literal manner. Who would have thought that the rod of God with a fiery serpent on it was literally true; yet I know it is the state you will experience as you enter the promised land.
I do not care how long you live or how much you own, you will die to this world. But you are destined to move into the land of the promise, a land that is eternal, where you cannot die. The garment of nature you now wear will die, but there is a germ in you called Moses that lives forever. He is buried in Golgotha, the skull of man. And the rod of God is your spinal cord. Having descended into division, God’s creative power has gone down into generation. It is destined to be reversed and turned up into generation and unity.
There is only one creative being, only one God. Being protean, he appears to be unnumbered nations, races, and people; but in the end, one by one he gathers himself into the one body, the one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of us all -yet without loss of identity. You will know you are God. I will know you and you will know me. Having known each other in this violent state by the masks we now wear, we will return to the unity of one made up of others, to be brothers in that heavenly state.
It is Moses who betrays God’s name. Now that you know it, ask for wealth in the name of God by saying: “I am wealthy.” You cannot point outside of self and call upon God’s name. If I am in an impoverished state and desire the state of wealth, I must dare to assume I am wealthy. The Torah is a discussion between Jehovah and Pharaoh, or faith and doubt. You must have the faith of assumption that you are the man you want to be in order to become it. Your desires will never come to pass if you believe the denials displayed by your reason and outer senses. As you walk in the assumption that your desire is fulfilled, you are calling upon the name of God and conjuring that which you are assuming. You must dare to assume wealth, if that is your objective.
If you desire health, you must assume it, even though the doctor’s reasoning world produces proof to the contrary. You must be ever aware that they are not your God, that there is only one God and his name is I am! When you point to another as an authority in your world, you are transferring the power that belongs to God to an idol. Now, if you call for anything with the name of God, and his name is I am, and you say I am – are you not your own maker?
God is, for I am! I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal. I create the light and I form the darkness and besides me there is no other God. Whatever I want, I must assume the full responsibility for it. If I want to conjure health and the doctors tell me I cannot overcome my illness and I believe them, I have made my choice and must accept the responsibility for it. But if I dare to assume health, God is proclaiming it, for he has no name other than I am! This is the grand revelation found in the third chapter, the 14th verse, of Exodus. “Go and tell them `I am has sent me to you.’ “Whatever you declare, is; for God’s name is any form of the verb to be, whether it is I am, I was, or I will be.
Remember: Moses is not a person, but an eternal plan of God. He was shown everything and told to follow the pattern that he saw in the mountain. No one knows who wrote the books of the Torah. They are only signed with the letters J, B, and P. In fact, we do not know the author of any book in the Bible. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are anonymous names of those who wrote their own visions and revelations of God’s eternal plan of salvation. In the state of Moses, I have been leading you into a new and perilous way. I have called you as a group, and explained what has happened to me – the pattern man – in the hope that you will hear me with faith. Not everyone will believe me, just as they did not believe Moses.
It is said that as he led the people through the desert, the majority wanted to go back to their old way of thinking. They felt safer in their old beliefs. It was easier to remain a slave and receive a handout. Many slaves do not want to be freed, because as slaves they are sheltered and fed. To be freed from that state means they would have to enter the state of independence, which is hard but glorious. When you believe God is your own wonderful loving human imagination, you are freed from the slavery of the belief in another. Man has been taught to believe in an external God. To turn to him when in need; and even if he doesn’t respond, man continues to think God is doing his work. But Moses tells us to turn to no other God, saying: “Besides me there is no other.”
The only God who will bring you out of slavery is I am. While enslaved, assume I am free, and have the courage to continue worshiping the only God, for there is no other. God did not promise life without peril, because you are capable of falling back into your former state of consciousness. Thinking you may have made a mistake, you can again bow before man-made icons and go to mass on Sunday mornings. So Moses leads you to the promised land, but he cannot take you in. This you must do by yourself. Moses is the pattern in germinal form that erupts as Jesus. When everything said of Jesus Christ in scripture erupts in you, you stand amazed to realize that you are He! That there never was another. That the one and only God and his pattern of salvation, is buried in all humanity.
Now, you either believe my words or you do not. It’s entirely up to you. I have told you what I saw on the mountain top – the great Mount Sinai where the laws were given in the beginning. Having experienced that which was seen in the beginning, I have come to tell you, my people, exactly what happened, and I have not altered it. In the state of Moses I have led you out of the land of Egypt. And when the time for my departure comes, I – a servant of the Lord – will die and be buried by God Himself. This is the great mystery of the seed. Unless it falls into the ground and dies it remains alone, but if it dies it brings forth much. The pattern, like a seed, is planted in the earth, called Adam. The seed will take root and unfold according to its pattern.
The first eruption is to awaken; for just like a seed, the moment a little shoot comes out you know the seed is alive and has taken root. God is a god of the living and not the dead, so what seemingly was dead awakens, and man resurrects within himself. Awakening within your immortal skull where you were buried, you come out and scripture unfolds before you. A child, symbolising your birth, is present. Three witnesses are there to fulfill scripture. Five months later the pattern erupts again and David stands before you and calls you Father. You will recognise him and proclaim the words of the second Psalm: “Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee.”
The relationship between you and your son cannot be described; yet there is no uncertainty as to his identity or yours. The third eruption occurs four months later, when your body is split by a bolt of lightening. (The lovely hymn, “Rock of Ages,” calls it a cleft, saying: “Rock of ages cleft for me.”) When your body is cleft, you see golden, liquid light at its base. Fusing with it, you become a coiled, fiery serpent and – like a bolt of lightening – you uncoil right into your skull as it reverberates like thunder. These are the first three acts of the unfolding of God in you. Then, after a period of two years and nine months, the pattern completes itself, as a dove – the symbol of the Holy Spirit – gives his seal of approval by descending and smothering you with affection.
Unable to deny your visions, you will share them with others, cautioning them, telling them that the way is perilous, for you are taking them into a new land. And if they follow you, everyone will have a common experience. Because we all differ, no two will experience the pattern in an identical manner, but everyone will meet David. Regardless of the colour of your skin or your gender, you are going to meet a blond, blue-eyed lad who will call you father. David is not looking for a man after the flesh, but the God who is his father, and you will know that you are he! Moses is God’s pattern of salvation in germinal form. Having seen the pattern, Moses does not take you into the promised land, but reveals the pattern to you.
It is Joshua who enters and Jesus who unfolds as the pattern within you. If, in the spirit, David calls you My Lord, and scripture tells you that David called Jesus My Lord, are you not Jesus? Are you not he who said: “I am the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage?” Perhaps you have a friend who desires to enjoy good health. You can give it to him in the name of God by listening to your thoughts and hearing your friend tell you he has never felt better. Who is hearing the words? I am. That’s the Lord. Respond by telling your friend how great he looks in your imagination, and God is speaking. If your friend is unemployed, hear him tell you he now has a wonderful job. Congratulate him and feel the joy that would be yours were it true.
Then ask yourself who is doing it and you, the Lord, will say, I am! All day long man exercises his creative power, unwittingly bringing confusion into his world. Then he rushes to a church and prays to a God who does not exist, for the only God is I am! There is no other God and there never was another God. Practice the law of identical harvest by going to the mountain top. I hope your ambition is to have scripture unfold within you, for that would transcend anything here.
But, perhaps you are one of those who want to leave this world so famous or wealthy that your remains will reside in some huge mausoleum, even though there is no assurance the building and its contents will survive. If so, that’s all right, but you now know where Moses is buried. Throughout the centuries men have been looking for Moses in the wrong place. Thinking he was buried on the outside, they search in vain, for God buried him in the skull of man.
Containing God’s plan of salvation, Moses reveals the pattern which – when it unfolds – saves man. The word Jesus means, ‘Jehovah saves’. When God’s pattern unfolds, God has saved himself. Like a seed which disappears as it becomes what it contained, the pattern unfolds into the tree of life to become one with God, the Father of the seed. Take my message to heart and dwell upon it. Set your mind fully upon this hope that God’s pattern of salvation will erupt in you while you are in this sphere. It must erupt for you to leave this world of sin and death and enter eternity. There you will be a king within yourself, creating – not by reason, but by the life you know to be yourself. There you will no longer be an animated body; but as a life-giving spirit, you are God Himself.
When you read scripture in the future, don’t think of it as records of myth or secular history, but glorious revelations of God as eternal states of consciousness, personified. Moses is the personification of an eternal state containing the perfect pattern God designed for the purpose of saving himself. It is God who became man that man may become God. Knowing that he had the power to die and overcome death, God died. Now he must overcome death, and he will. History tells us of the great Roman Empire and the Chinese Empire. We are living in the day when the great British Empire is vanishing. There was a time when the sun never set on the British Empire, and now it has diminished in size to almost nothing. Every empire dies in time.
People die and dynasties die and all of the great fortunes will die. I understand that Hughes and Getty both have a personal fortune in excess of one billion dollars. If their fortune was invested at six percent interest, they would receive $175 thousand a day, seven days a week. Yet, when they leave this little segment of time, they will not take it with them. That’s this society, so why put your hope in it? Instead, put your hope upon this plan contained in Moses, for buried in you God’s plan will erupt and you will enter the promised land as Joshua, called Jesus.Now let us go into the silence.
Goddard’s re-interpretation of scripture reframes Moses as an inner principle rather than a historical person. By borrowing Blake’s commentary, he insists that biblical narratives are revelations of consciousness, in which characters like Adam, Abraham, and Moses represent stages of self-awareness. In this model, Moses is the seed of divine birth hidden within the individual, buried in the human skull, and awaiting activation through inner imagination.
The lecture uses rich symbolic imagery—fiery serpents, rods, mountains, and three eruptions—to map spiritual awakening onto physiological and psychological processes. The rod of God becomes the spinal cord, the skull becomes the tomb, and the fiery serpent represents creative energy moving upward. These metaphors unite mystical tradition with metaphysical practice, suggesting that scriptural miracles occur as literal inner experiences when one assumes the divine identity.
Central to the teaching is the law of assumption: the practice of declaring “I am” in the present tense to conjure desired states. By assuming abundance, healing, or freedom as already realized, the individual calls upon the name of God—“I AM”—to manifest those conditions. Goddard critiques reliance on external authorities (doctors, systems, idols), advising that true power lies in imaginative faith and personal responsibility for one’s state of being.
The unfolding of God’s pattern within is described in five stages: Moses (the germinal seed), Joshua/Jesus (the manifester of wisdom and power), three dramatic eruptions (symbolizing birth, calling, and transformation), and the descent of the Holy Spirit (the sustaining force). Each stage corresponds to inner awakenings that collectively lead to resurrection and eternal life. Participants are both audience and actors in this cosmic drama, invited to live scripture rather than merely study it.
Goddard concludes by urging his listeners to meditate on these teachings until the pattern erupts in their own consciousness. He contrasts ephemeral worldly empires and fortunes with the timeless kingdom within, where every individual presides as creator. This call to inner sovereignty underlines the ultimate unity of all beings as one divine family, transcending mortal limitations and fulfilling the promise of the land that cannot die.
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