In 'Election and Change of Consciousness,' Neville Goddard explores the notion that divine election is not grounded in human merit but in the love and grace of God, promising eventual universal calling. He illustrates through vivid dream parables how symbols—such as a house, horse, dog, and golden nuggets—reveal the soul’s journey from comfort to divine wisdom. Goddard emphasizes that scripture personifies states of consciousness rather than historical events or figures. He explains that every individual inhabits various states until a personal election calls them from the 'world of death' into an eternal 'age of life.' Finally, he outlines practical methods for shifting from one state to another by assuming the desired emotion or feeling until it manifests in reality.
Election is an act of God, not based upon any inherent superiority of those elected, but grounded in the love and grace of God and in his promises to the Father. Let no one boast who is called. Let no one boast who is elected, for all will be called, but in God’s own predetermined time. So tonight my subject is “Election and Change of Consciousness”.
God speaks to Man through the medium of dream and reveals himself in vision, and we are past masters of misinterpreting his words. A dream is a parable containing a single jet of truth. Don’t try to give meaning to every word or event of the dream. Perhaps there will be several dreams, several stories in a single dream – then each story contains its own jet of truth. Let me share one such dream of a friend. Her dream is in three parts. It is a wonderful dream on the higher level.
The lady states: “I found myself in an old, comfortable farmhouse. Outside an old horse grazed in the sun and an old dog slept under a tree. Suddenly a man appeared at my door and said: ‘You have been chosen and must leave this place.’ For a moment I panicked. What would I do about the house and the animals outside? Perhaps I could sell them or give them away. Then the man, having read my thoughts, said: ‘No, you cannot sell them or give them away. You must leave them as they are, and your leaving must be voluntary.’
The moment I chose to leave, the scene changed and I am in an entirely different world, talking to a man and a woman. They tell me that I must play three games, of which two have been completed, although I couldn’t remember playing them. Now standing in the center of a beautiful green field, I see an enormous mountain in the distance. I am told that I must run across this field, gather anything I can along the way, and reach the top of the mountain in ten seconds. Then I must interpret what I have accomplished along the way. Scooping up a few stones, I began to run, stopping occasionally to gather more stones along the way. When I reached the top of the mountain I discovered my stones had become golden nuggets which had fused together. Extending my hand for those who were there to see, I said: ‘This is my mind of golden wisdom’ and they replied: ‘You have found the way.’
Then the dream changed and I am standing gazing at a child lying in a crib. Its head appeared to be indented, as though it had been lying on rocks or sand. Rubbing the child’s head, I smoothed its skin and it smiled. Then I dressed it, made it more comfortable, and as I was feeding it I awoke, still seeing the smile on its face.”
God spoke to this lady in a glorious dream. A house is the symbol of the state from which you abide. Hers was very comfortable. A dog is the symbol of faith. Called Caleb, in scripture, he is the one who crossed the river with Joshua. He is called the hound of faith. Now, a horse is the symbol of the mind. In her case he represented a comfortable way of thinking.
Then the man appears to tell her she is chosen. (In scripture, God’s messenger is always the Lord himself, for “my name is in him”.) So the Lord appeared, not as some strange creature from outer space or as an impersonal force, but as an ordinary man. He tells her she is chosen. Chosen to leave this age. She cannot sell or give her present state of consciousness away. She must voluntarily leave it for another to occupy.
Entering an entirely different age, she meets two, and there is conflict until she reaches the mountain top where the God in her reveals the mind of golden wisdom. Now, in Paul’s last letter to Timothy, he says: “The time of my departure has come.” Then he mentions three events, saying: “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.” Like Paul, she has fought the good fight and finished the race, for she has kept the faith – just as everyone will – for it’s God who is doing it all.
Then she finds wisdom, personified as a little child, he who said: “Before he created the heavens I stood beside him as a little child. I was daily his delight, rejoicing constantly before him and delighting in the affairs of men. Listen to me carefully. He who finds me finds life. He who misses me injures himself. He who hates me, loves death.” She found the child. She found life. Animating bodies in this world of death, we are destined to become life-giving spirits by finding life. Having won the race, having kept the faith, having fought the good fight, she has found the child. Don’t be concerned about all the little pieces of a dream; simply see the symbols present there.
Now let me repeat once again: Scripture is not history, and the characters depicted there are not persons, but personifications of eternal states of consciousness. We all started this journey into death in the state of Abraham. In the 23rd chapter of Genesis it is said that Sarah dies and Abraham becomes a sojourner in a strange land for 400 years. Called the father of the multitude, God promised Abraham that he would return, bringing all with him. Going to the Hittites, Abraham tells them he has no land to bury his wife, and they say: “Hear us, my lord; you are a mighty prince among us. Take the choicest of our sepulchers; none will withhold his sepulcher from you, or hinder you from burying your dead.”
May I tell you: every child born of woman is God the Father, buried in the sepulcher of the Hittites, called Canaanites. Every black man, every white man, every nationality, race or creed born of woman, is a Canaanite where God the Father is buried. This was a deliberate act, not a punishment. Listen to the words in the 82nd Psalm: “God has taken his place in the divine council where he holds judgment saying: ‘You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you will die like men and fall as one man, O princes.'” We are the ones who deliberately fell into these garments, these sepulchers. A god is entombed in every skull. You didn’t begin in your mother’s womb. You are buried in the body your mother wove for you, and from that sepulcher you will be called in fulfillment of God’s promise.
So let me repeat: Election is an act of God, not based on any inherent superiority of those elected, but grounded in the love and the grace of God and in his promises to the Father. It is to the Father that the promise is made. Everyone has been promised that he will die and will be raised from that state. Everyone will be called from the age of death to once again enter the age of everlasting life. This lady has been called. She has been chosen and all the events recorded in scripture will take place in her.
It thrills me beyond measure to know that in this small circle so many are being called. Everyone will be called, for God is in them and God cannot fail to lift himself up in everyone. Having played all the states, as everyone must, you will have kept the faith and God will keep his promise and lift himself up, in you, just as he laid himself down in you.It is the God in you who said: “No one takes my life, I lay it down myself. I have the power to lay it down and the power to lift it up again.” As God’s power is lifted up in you, you depart this age.
Now, in another’s dream, he is driving his wife’s car over a mountainous road. Suddenly the hair on the back of his head catches fire and he turns and rubs his head against the back of the seat to put out the fire. But in so doing, he loses control of the car and it goes over the cliff in slow motion. Seeing that the fall is about 300 feet, he opens the door of the car and jumps, saying to himself “This is a dream. I AM!” With that thought in mind he descends to the ground below as light and softly as a flake of snow, and awakes on his bed, saying to himself: “I have had this dream three times, and each time I have written it to Neville, but this is the first time I have awakened in the dream.”
What is the single jet of truth in this dream? He is riding in his wife’s car. A wife is that to which I AM [is] attached. A state which bears my name. There are infinite states in this world and when you enter a state you are wedded to it. The state may be one of luxury or ill health, the state of being ignored or famous; but any state is God’s emanation, his wife. The dream denotes a departure from the state in which the God in him has been residing, into an entirely different state. Perhaps he is presently wedded to a state in which he is making $10,000 a year and he desires to live in the state of earning $40,000 or even $100,000. There’s nothing wrong with that. Every state is a garment, ready and waiting for you to slip on, and you’re free to wear – and thereby marry – any state you like.
If you want to be important in the eyes of shadows, you can; but when the God in you awakes all the shadows will vanish and you will return enhanced and glorified to the being that you were prior to your descent into death, for this is the world of death. Everything here appears, it waxes, it wanes, and it vanishes. You do not die when men call you dead. You are still clothed in the same garment, but younger than you were when you made your exit, to again wax, wane, and vanish, to repeat the act over and over again. This is what the Bible teaches. Read the 20th chapter of the Book of Luke: “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore.”
There are two distinct ages. We remain in this age, experiencing states over and over again until we are elected and called to enter that age. And because you are so unique you are called one by one, for no one can take your place. You are a part of the body of God, the God who deliberately fell. The God who, reaching the limit of contraction, buried himself in his chosen sepulcher (your skull), from which he will rise as promised in the beginning. “I say, ye are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you” (not just a few, but all of you). “Nevertheless, you will die like men and fall as one man, O princes.” Now I say to you, O mighty princes: the sepulcher you chose was paid for by 400 shekels of silver. (Four hundred, in Hebrew, carries the sign of the cross. The price God paid to become you.)
When Abraham entered the sepulcher, becoming a Hittite, God died by completely forgetting who I AM. He didn’t pretend, but buried himself in your skull and died, there to remain until I AM born from above. Then memory returns. But until that time, no matter what position he plays in the world, he does not know who he is. You can be the wisest of the wise, the strongest of the strong, and still not know who you are until God awakens in you. “He has taken the foolish to shame the wise. He has taken the weak to shame the strong. He has taken those who are low and despised, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are.”
Jesus Christ is defined as the power of God and the wisdom of God. “He is our source, having been made our wisdom, our righteousness and our redemption.” God’s own power is Christ Jesus. His own wisdom is Christ Jesus, and he has made Christ Jesus your wisdom and your redemption; therefore Christ in you is the hope of glory, for when Christ returns, God has gathered his creative power and wisdom back unto himself – that power and wisdom which was buried in man.
My friend, in her vision, brought her golden nuggets back to the top of the mountain, where all of her experiences in the world of death were gathered together and fused into the one mind of golden wisdom. So God enhances himself; having reached the limit of contraction he expands. Having reached the limit of opacity he becomes translucent; therefore, he is far greater than he was when he fell into the Hittite.
When a little child is born, he lives because God buried himself in him. Do not think that because someone is going to the gas chamber tonight he is less than you are. Do not allow anyone to pull his rank on you either, for no one is important in this world. There is no one but God who is buried in every person in the world, and every person is equal. So let me repeat: election is an act of God, not based upon any inherent superiority of those elected, but grounded in the love and grace of God and in his promises to the Father. Everyone waspromised that he would be redeemed, and God has kept his promise.
Christ Jesus in me is God’s power and wisdom, and when redeemed, I am he, for everything said of him I have experienced. I still wear a garment called Neville, but I have awakened to another age. I am still the same man in the world of Caesar. I still sign my name on my checks, and the shadows who receive them can exchange them for more shadows based on my signature. But the being that is called into an entirely different world was before the beginning, but enhanced now because of the experience. So everyone is richer for coming into this world, for God’s creative power has been enhanced.
The child she saw is a symbol of her transformed creative power. She has experienced a change of age. But the man experienced a change of state. I can tell him tonight that the dream doesn’t mean he is departing this world. He has a wife to support and little children to educate. The dream has nothing to do with breaking his neck here, or divorcing his wife, for he is not married to her, but to a state in this world. He leaves a state and enters another – be it noble or ignoble – for he was driving his wife’s car when he awoke to realise it was a dream.
Now, in the waking dream you can learn to control your imagination so that you can set in motion your status from one level to another, but you cannot change the age. That comes out of the blue. That comes when you least expect it. No one can earn the exit from this age. That comes upon you suddenly, as promised in the beginning. So let no one boast and tell you they earned the kingdom. We are all put through the furnaces for his own sake, for his name he cannot give to another. It is yours, as promised, before the beginning of the world. “I came out from the Father and came into the world. Again I am leaving the world and returning to the Father.” Here is pre-existence, incarnation, departure, and pre-destination. It takes not just three-score-and-ten, but a long, long while. And the pigment of your skin, your social or intellectual position, has nothing to do with your departure from this age.
If you want the shadow of worldly fame you may have it, but it will not aid you in waking from the dream of life. If you will fall in love with what I am talking about, and set your heart fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the unveiling of Jesus Christ in you, you are on the verge. But if that doesn’t interest you, and more money does, then get more money. If you want more cash, more fame, whatever you desire – get them, for they are all shadows. A big home is a big shadow, and a little home a little shadow, so it doesn’t really matter.
But tonight, dwell on these two. Like the lady, you cannot earn, any more than she earned it, for she was called. But like the other, you can leave the state to which you are now wedded. How do you do it? By the act of feeling. Feel the tones of reality that would be yours were you wedded to the state of your fulfilled desire. What would the feeling be like were you the person you would like to be? Feeling moves you from one state to another.
Everything is a state which is real, yet invisible. Not knowing this, and seeing no evidence to support your desired state, you may return to the former one. Expecting the new state to happen now, you don’t remain faithful to it. But if you will remain there until it becomes natural to think from that state, it will be born in your world. There is a period of time between your entrance into the invisible state and its visibility, and it has to come. Everything has an interval of time. The vision has its own appointed hour. If it seems long, wait. It is sure and it will not be late. A little sheep takes five months, a man nine months, a horse one year. All these are fixed intervals of time.
How long will it take for a state to become objective? As long as it takes the nature of that seed to hatch. All you are called upon to do is to go into the state and remain there psychologically. Although you will continue to physically walk the earth as one person, as you think from your desired psychological state, it takes on physical tones and becomes a fact in your world. This is how you move from state to state as you wait for the promise of God to fulfill itself.
On that day you will be called and incorporated into his immortal body to express a far greater translucency and expansion than you knew prior to the start of your journey into the world of death. I can’t tell you the thrill that is in store for you when you experience the embrace of love. There are no words to describe it, but as you embrace, you fuse to become one body, one Spirit, yet without loss of identity. Everyone will be called into that same union. Everyone will experience the end of the journey, for not one will be lost in all my holy mountain.
Now let us go into the silence.
In this lecture, Goddard reframes biblical election as the divine promise that all souls will ultimately be called to transcend their mortal states. He dismantles the notion of hierarchical superiority by emphasizing that election stems from God’s love and predetermined grace, not human merit. This foundational idea sets the stage for a journey of consciousness that is universal, personal, and inevitable.
Goddard then delves into the language of dreams as the medium through which God reveals truths, cautioning against over-literal interpretation and guiding listeners to seek the "jet of truth" within each symbol. The farmhouse, horse, dog, golden nuggets, and child all serve as archetypal markers of states of being, charting the soul’s evolution from comfort and faith to divine wisdom.
Central to the lecture is the concept of "states" as garments or spouses to which the individual soul is wed. Through allegories—such as driving one’s wife’s car or ascending a mountain in ten seconds—Goddard illustrates how feeling the emotional reality of a desired state facilitates a shift in consciousness. Feeling, he argues, is the transformative lever that moves one from fear and limitation to faith and fulfillment.
Beyond personal transformation, the lecture places individual experience within a grand metaphysical narrative. Drawing on Genesis, Pauline theology, and Psalm 82, Goddard argues that the divine self is buried within each person by choice and must be awakened to fulfill the cosmic promise of resurrection and eternal life. This eschatological vision reinforces the idea that God’s creative power is enhanced through human experience.
Finally, Goddard’s practical guidance underscores the immediacy of this work: while one cannot earn the exit from mortality, one can consciously choose and embody new states by living in the feeling of the wish fulfilled. This method aligns seamlessly with meditation practices, offering listeners a precise technique to navigate consciousness and prepare for the ultimate union with the divine spirit.
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