In this lecture Neville Goddard describes a revelatory experience in which he vividly recalls standing on an empty lot and manifesting a stately mansion by saying “I remember when this was an empty lot.” He explains that the same principle of imaginative remembrance can be used constructively or destructively, depending on how one chooses to recall past states. Drawing on scripture, he equates human imagination with the creative power of God and identifies Christ as the inner operative faculty. Listeners are urged to employ the “I remember when” technique to move mentally from unwanted conditions into desired realities. He emphasizes that all change begins within, through faith and persistent feeling of fulfillment. Ultimately, Neville invites his audience to test this law of assumption in everyday life and assures them that creative power has no limits when used with love.
When I receive a great revelation concerning the creative power of God I cannot keep it to myself, but must share it with all that will listen. Here is one I received many years ago. I found myself, in Spirit, in the interior of a stately mansion in New York City. It was the kind of home the great financial giants lived in at the turn of the century. Fully awake and aware, I was visible to the three generations who were present. The son spoke to his children saying: “Your grandfather would stand on an empty lot and say: “I remember when this was an empty lot.’ Then he would paint a word picture of his desire for that lot so vividly that those who heard him could see it completed right before their eyes. This is the grandfather who made the fortune we are now enjoying.”
I awoke, recorded the experience, returned to sleep, and re-dreamed the dream – only this time I was the grandfather. Speaking to those present I said: “I remember when this was an empty lot.” Then I pictured the building placed there so vividly the very stones molded themselves into the form I envisioned.
This principle can be used in a destructive or constructive way. You can say: “I remember when this was a glorious building and look at it now” as you become aware of rubble where once a glorious building stood. Or you can stand on rubble and say: “I remember when this was all rubble,” as you imagine a glorious building. You can say: “I remember when my friend had nothing and now he has much,” or: “I remember when he had much and now he is so poor.” You can say: “I remember when she was healthy,” which could imply she is now ill, or “I remember when they were unknown,” implying they are now famous. So you see what power was in that revelation. It’s entirely up to you how you use your imagination, but the operation of your creative power is completely up to you. You make the decision, and are therefore responsible for its effect on the world.
In the 12th chapter of the Book of Numbers, we are told: “If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision and I will speak with him in a dream.” A scriptural prophet is not one who tells your fortune, but one who hears the Word of God and fulfills it. If you asked me if I were a prophet I would answer in the affirmative. I am not one who prophesies by looking into a crystal ball, teacup leaves, cards, or astrology, but one who has fulfilled scripture. I know I am the central figure of scripture called “the Father.” I came into the world to fulfill scripture and share my revelations, my experiences concerning the power to create.
In this simple way God revealed his power to create, his power to remember when! Having nothing, you can become aware of being surrounded by wealth, and feeling wealthy you can say: “I remember when I had nothing.” Does that statement not imply that the state of poverty no longer exists for you? I remember when I was unknown. I remember when I couldn’t sell a book. I remember when I couldn’t sell anything I wrote. I remember when .Now you fill in the events, the desires and the fulfillments. I remember when. Do not those words imply memory?
In the first vision I heard of memory, but in the second vision I experienced it. As I stood on a vacant lot I remembered, and as I did a fabulous structure took form. And the dream was doubled, affirming that it was fixed, that the law was established by the Lord as told us in the 41st chapter of the Book of Genesis. I tell it to you now in the hope that you will put yourself in an I-remember-when mood and trust your memory, because memory is your own wonderful human imagination, the one and only creative power of God scripture calls Jesus Christ.
When people say Jesus Christ is coming again do not believe them, for Jesus Christ has never left you. Did he not say: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age?” Then how can you look for him to return? Scripture states that Christ was taken up into the kingdom of heaven (which is within) and that he will come in the same manner as he was taken up. If Christ (God’s creative power) is in you, he cannot come from without. Although he seems to be invisible, Christ has never left you, as you cannot detach yourself from imagination.
Yes, Christ will come, but not in the way you were taught. Listen to these words from the 8th chapter of John carefully: “If you remain in my word you are my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Questioning this statement, the people said: “We are sons of Abraham and have never been in bondage to anyone.” To this Christ replied: “He who commits sin is a slave to sin.” You were taught to believe that sinning is when you do something wrong, but I say you are sinning when you miss your mark in life by failing to move! If, tonight you find yourself in a state you no longer desire to express, you must learn how to move into your desired state. If you do not move (mentally) you continue to live your undesirable state, thereby sinning and missing your mark in life! Regardless of what you may desire, persist in feeling its fulfillment, for if you do, feeling will become believing.
As sons of Abraham, the people claimed to have never known bondage, yet Jesus told them: “If the Son sets you free you are free indeed.” This is true, for only when you recognize God’s Son, David, as your son are you really free. When David stands before you doubt flees, and as you feel this wonderful relationship, belief sets you free.
In the beginning of creation the Spirit of God (his creative power called Christ) moved upon the face of the deep. Now, motion cannot be detected save by change in position relative to another object. Unless there is a fixed reference from which an object moves, no movement will appear. Let us use a weak, sick man as our fixed reference and looking into our mind see a strong, healthy man, and say: “I remember when he was weak and sick, but look at him now!” Do that and you have moved relative to the man.
Look at yourself in the mirror and dare to see radiant health and happiness reflected back to you. Then say within yourself: “I remember when my reflection was so different.” Persist in seeing your new image reflected there and you will resurrect that state. Your image, your concept of yourself or of another, is in your own wonderful human imagination who is Christ and Christ is the only God. God the Father and Christ your creative power are the same being, therefore he has never left you!
Tonight, regardless of whether your dreams are beautiful or horrible, you are aware of them because Christ has never left you. And when you awake in the morning Christ (your imagination) awakes with you, or you could not remember your dreams. The human imagination is the God the world honors (as they should) for imagination is the creative power of the world. Learn to control your wonderful imagination and you will discover that the whole vast world is yourself pushed out.
Last night I visited many of my friends, not only those who are here but those such, as my brother, who have gone through that little gate the world calls death. You see, to me this world is no more real than the world I visited last night. My friends, although gone from this sphere, are having the same experiences they had while they were here: hating, liking, loving, disliking. They are the same people, only young, with the same problems they had here. This I know, for being fully aware that I have already died, I can close my eyes to this world and enter that world instantly. I spent my entire night in a world, which is not real to this one, yet so solid and real to those who inhabit it.
Now, in the 14th chapter of the Book of John the central character of scripture said to those who were beginning to fulfill scripture: “You heard me say to you, – I go away and I will come to you!’ If you loved me you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.” This statement appears to be conflicting, but it is not. In the audience tonight are three to whom I made this statement and they rejoiced, fulfilling scripture. Now I say to all: unless I go away I cannot come to you. If you love me you will rejoice in the depth of your soul, for you will know that, although I will be invisible I will never leave you. Becoming invisible, Christ became you, therefore, he cannot return. I have told you I am the Father. That the Father dwells in me and I dwell in you and you dwell in me, so when you find me you find yourself as the Father. This is the unity of our being and there is no other.
Take what I have told you this night to heart and put it to the extreme test in this world of Caesar. There is no limit to your creative power. Simply stand on your new belief and say to yourself: I remember when. See what you want to see in your mind’s eye in place of what you see on the outside.
May I urge you to always use your power in a loving way, for it can be used unlovingly with the same results. It is possible to take a business that belongs to another and tear it down. This is done many times unwittingly, but the effect is the same. A few years ago while in Barbados I asked my brother about the business and he replied quite innocently: “It is doing remarkably well. The man who owns two-thirds of it is a good manager, but his hours are long and I think he is getting tired.” Six months ago the man asked my brother to buy him out, stating that the hours were too long and the responsibility too great. My brother set that whole thing in motion, and because the man wanted out, my brother got the business at his price. Victor has done this many times before, but not from revelation unless my father told him. One day the two of them were standing on fifty acres of undeveloped land, which opened to the beach, when my father said: “You know Vic, this would be a good place to build homes and hotels.” The property was then owned by three sisters who were not interested in selling, but one day when they were ready to sell, the man who had really wanted the property was in Brazil so my father bought it.
The thought expressed by my father seemed to be an idle one, but it wasn’t, for thought only takes a moment of intensity to be made alive. A kettle of water placed on a low flame is slow to boil, but when the flame is increased the boil is assured. I was so intense in my vision of being the grandfather, that I built a word picture so clear that those who heard it saw the building as something objective to them. The key is this: While in a state you no longer desire to express, you must move inwardly by claiming: “I remember when I was in a state I did not like.” If you can remember it you are no longer in it. Instead you are becoming aware of your new state as a present objective fact. And if you will remain faithful to your new awareness, it will crystallise. You will find yourself moving across a series of events which will lead you to the fulfillment of your desired state. How it will come about I do not know. I only know it will unfold.
Start now to remember when your friend wasn’t well by imagining he is healthy. Remember when your daughter was single by imagining she is married. Go through life remembering when. Haven’t you heard people say: “Who does he think he is? I remember when he had nothing and was a nobody!” Now, you may have heard a little jealousy in their tone and that is good because envy adds fire to the statement, which causes the one spoken of to have more! He may never know who caused his success, but it was done by an act of remembrance with intensity.
My vision – although experienced many years ago – was doubled, thereby affirmed and made a principle for all to prove, so I ask you to try it. Compare what you want with what you have. If they differ you must make the effort to move. You must learn the secret of motion. Many years ago my friend Bob discovered this. In his vision he questioned me, saying: “How long have I been here?” and when I replied: “Two years” he asked: “Did I learn anything?” to which I answered: “Yes, you learned how to move.”
You must have a frame of reference by which you can detect movement. Memory is such a frame. Perhaps your friends remember you as poor and unknown. You can move by assuming you have changed so much that they no longer recognise you, and from that frame of reference you can observe the expression on their faces. Those who love you will empathize. Those who do not will show envy. If you see envy don’t try to change it, for their envy will become a resisting force which will help you move forward. Everything needs resistance in order to move. I couldn’t leave this platform without it.
You couldn’t drive your car without resistance, so if you discover one who desires to play the part of envy, let him play it. Dare to assume you are the one you really want to be. Use your same circle of friends, but this time see them from a different angle. Observe their faces and listen to their whispers as they look at the new you and remember when!
This is what I was shown when God spoke to me through the medium of vision and made himself known to me in a dream. If we know that God speaks to us in a dream or vision, is there anything more important in this world? Is there any TV program, movie, radio, or newspaper greater than a revelation which comes from the depths of the soul giving an eternal principle of creation? There is nothing in this world equal to it. I urge you this night to seek the kingdom of God and all these things will be yours!
Do not let anyone tell you that Jesus is coming again, for he has never left you. In you as your own wonderful human imagination, Christ is crucified in all and will eventually awaken in all as he gathers us together into himself, into his one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all.
Now, some of you are having physical and emotional problems. As I told a friend tonight, no one ever promised you that it was going to be easy to bring forth the greatest gift in the world, so don’t expect it. There will be problems, horrible problems; but be of good cheer, for we are told in the 16th chapter of John: “When a woman is in travail she suffers, but when the child is born she forgets everything because of the joy that the child is born.” You are destined to know such joy, for the child to be born in you is Christ Jesus, the creative power of God.
I am not promising you complete relief from all physical problems, but I have given you a law which will cushion the blows of life. Things are going to happen and you will find all kinds of challenges, but you now have a law which states: “Whatsoever you desire believe you have received it and you will.” That’s a law, which will never fail you and there is no limit to your power of belief. It’s entirely up to you as to how and when these revealed laws of God are used, but I do know that you are going to conceive and bring forth the greatest thing in this world which is the birth of God, the birth of joy, as Blake said in his poem, The Mental Traveler:
“I traveled thro’ a Land of MenA Land of Men and Women tooAnd heard and saw such dreadful thingsAs cold Earth wanderers never knewFor there the Babe is born in joyThat was begotten in dire woeJust as we Reap in joy the fruitWhich we in bitter tears did sow.”
Here Blake is telling us what he saw in his mental journey, ending on this lovely note: “All is done as I have told.” And he meant exactly that. Everyone will experience scripture just as it was foretold: the resurrection, your birth from within, finding your Son David, your ascent into heaven, and the descent of the dove. This is your destiny, yours to experience when your memory is restored.
But don’t forget what I have told you this night. It came to me from the depths of my soul, which is God the Father. It is he who speaks to you from within, and when he appears you will know him for you will be just like him. And as he rises in you all impossibilities will dissolve as you will realise that everything is coming into your world from within.
Listen to these words carefully and you will see that the Father never left you: “I came out from the Father.” And where is the Father? In heaven. And where is heaven? Within! So I came out from within. The words “within” and “above” as well as “without” and “below” are the same in scripture. Coming out from within I see a world and “others” who have power over me. Now I want to leave the world and go to the Father. How is that done? By returning within, and since there is only one within where can I go that I can come again to be seen coming from without?
When you return to the source, the cause of all life, you will know that you and I are one. You will know it because there is only one Father and one Son. And when my Son calls you Father, memory will be yours and you will know the truth of what I say now, that I am in my Father and my Father is in me and I am in you and you are in me, for we are One.
Now let us go into the silence.
Neville’s central thesis hinges on the idea that memory and imagination are not passive faculties but the very engines of creation. By framing remembrance as a present-tense affirmation, he transforms nostalgia into an active creative principle. In recounting the dream of the grandfather, he not only illustrates the potency of a clear inner vision but also underlines the doubling effect of repeated mental experience, which cements any imagined outcome into objective reality. This narrative technique bridges the gap between symbolic dream imagery and practical affirmation, rendering the metaphysical accessible.
His use of scripture serves a dual purpose: it validates his insights through traditional authority and simultaneously reinterprets sacred texts mystically. Neville reframes biblical passages about prophets, Christ, and the kingdom of heaven to assert that the divine presence is immanent in every individual’s imagination. By claiming scriptural fulfillment in his own experiences, he positions the listener as both the heir and the active agent of an ancient creative tradition. This radical inclusivity dissolves any separation between the historical Jesus and the modern practitioner.
On a psychological level, the “I remember when” device functions as a reference point for measuring inner progress. As Neville explains, memory offers a fixed frame against which movement—mental or emotional—becomes perceptible. This insight aligns with later theories of cognitive reframing, where changing the internal narrative shifts one’s perception of reality. Neville’s counsel to welcome resistance and envy underscores a paradoxical strategy: allow external forces to mirror your inner movement and thereby amplify it, much like the push-and-pull dynamics in physics.
Ethically, Goddard warns that this power can be used to destroy as easily as to build. The ease with which imagination effects change demands a moral framework, and he urges love as the guiding principle. By recounting the anecdote of his brother acquiring property through his father’s casual vision, he shows how thought, once enlivened by intensity, inevitably produces tangible results. This cautionary note remains vital for modern readers who might otherwise trivialize the law of assumption as mere positive thinking.
Finally, Neville’s broader metaphysical vision integrates dream, waking, and mystical union. He asserts that Christ’s return is not an external event but an inward awakening of the divine imagination. By employing both dream and waking states as laboratories for practicing “I remember when,” he offers a holistic approach to transformation. The ultimate goal is not merely personal gain but the birth of joy and unity in consciousness, reflecting Blake’s vision of creative fulfillment. This layered synthesis of psychology, mysticism, and practical technique constitutes the profound legacy of the lecture.
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