In “Live the Answer Now,” Neville Goddard teaches that every tangible fact is a dream made visible and urges listeners to assume the feeling of their wish fulfilled in the present moment. He explains that states of consciousness are eternal and that by imaginatively occupying a desired state—engaging all senses as if the dream were real—one can externalize that state into objective reality. Through vivid examples, including curing illness and influencing events like the Kentucky Derby, Goddard demonstrates how imagination governs manifestation. Drawing on Biblical references and William Blake’s mystical insights, he shows that every character and story in Scripture represents a state of consciousness to be lived. Ultimately, he challenges readers to persist in the feeling of fulfilled desire, trusting that unseen processes will bring their assumptions into form.
I also know, not only from personal experience but from eternal vision, that the spiritual states of the soul are eternal. That like a traveler, individual man passes through states but the states remain forever.
Without the help of any man or government you could lose everything you possess and become dependent upon society. All you need do is enter the state of poverty. Or again: without asking for help you could assume wealth by occupying the state. Remain faithful to it and you will discover that the state has its own way of externalizing itself. You must, however, give the desired state occupancy.
How do you occupy a state? By asking yourself how you would feel, what you would see, hear, touch, taste, and smell if your dream were real. Take time to set the stage. Being the star of your production, place yourself center stage, then allow a friend to enter and see you in your new state. Write the script – the words he would say when he sees you. Feel his touch.
Clothe yourself with the reality of the state you have just created in your imagination. You need not ask anyone’s permission or help, but moving into the new state in your imagination, simply remain there until you feel its reality. Then let the feeling go its way toward fulfillment.
A friend recently wrote, saying: “Not understanding why I read the Bible but never attend church, a friend brought a group of missionaries from the Mormon church to the house to convert me. Regretfully, I invited them in, and no matter what I said they would not listen. Rather, they expressed their own opinions and would not let me speak.
” That night – while reviewing my day – I thought of these people, and wondered how anyone could give such love, devotion, sincerity, time, energy, and money, to what I called `reverent baloney.’
“Dwelling upon that thought, I fell asleep and dreamed I was in a very strange and barren land, with craters everywhere. Hundreds of people were walking down a long roadway, leaving behind a girl, who was possessed by a screaming voice. Curious there, as I am here, I wanted to see the girl. When I saw her pity poured forth from me. I sat beside her, put my arms around her to offer sympathy, when suddenly the voice began to scream from within me. Then the girl arose, and walked away completely cured as I awoke.”
My friend was shown how discriminating one must become. The moment you contemplate something you become the very thing you behold. Entertaining a state in sympathy, my friend entered it. That night her heavenly Father taught her a great lesson. That no matter how awake one may be in this world, no one is exempt from falling into a state.
Blake understood this truth when he said: “From this I realise that neither the just nor the wicked are in a supreme state, but to be every one of them states of the sleep which the soul may fall into in its deadly dreams of good and evil, when it left paradise following the serpent.” The serpent, the wisest of God’s creations, is the personification of God’s wisdom and power. It was he who told the woman: “You will not surely die, but will become as the gods, knowing good and evil.”
Entering a world of death, you will seem to die to those who cannot follow you – but not to yourself. Instead, you are restored to an unaccountably young body. You may leave an old body with missing hair and teeth, to find yourself in a healthy, new body with your hair and teeth intact. This I know to be true, for my vision is open and I have seen those who have departed this life. I know they are not gone, but are restored to wear a new, young, and healthy body.
Now, a state may be entered either deliberately or unknowingly, but you are going to become what you contemplate. The world’s wise men believe we are heading for the end, but its climax has already occurred. While on the cross, these words were spoken: “It is finished.” This age has already ended and an entirely new and different age – into which we are all moving – has begun.
To Blake, space was a woman, while everything in it was Man, and Man was God. Blake saw the world as a play of six thousand years, with a door opening to Eden every two hundred years. We think we are moving in one direction, yet everything is taking place now, and every two hundred years an individual can enter the New Age.
Let me now tell you of a vision the lady had, who shared the dream of the screaming girl. One night as she was mentally reviewing her day, a long table appeared before her inner eye. A judge, robed in black and wearing a white wig, was sitting at one end holding a gavel. Looking directly at her, the judge raised his gavel, lowered it to the table and proclaimed: “The incurrent eyewitness.”
The word incurrent means giving passage to a current that flows inward, such as a sponge when placed in water. This lady has been conditioned by Divine Providence to receive spiritual communion. Whether she likes it or not she will be compelled to receive it, for she is already awake! She will bring back vision after vision paralleling scripture, for scripture only records finished history.
Blake described the Bible as: “The Divine written law of Horeb and Sinai,” which is the Old Testament. “And such the Holy Gospel of Mount Olivet and Calvary,” which is the New Testament.
Every conceivable part that Man could play is openly described in the Old Testament, for each individual recorded there represents a state of this age. The New Testament describes the entrance into the New Age. It reads as though it happened to one person, as a biography; but the New Testament records states which unfold in the individual.
Blake’s poem, “Little Boy Lost,” records a true revelation:“Nought loves another as itself,Nor venerates another so.Nor is it possible for thoughtGreater than itself to know.And Father, how can I love youOr any of my brothers more?”
When the priest heard this, he took the little boy by the hair, and screamed: “What a fiend is here!” Then he burned the little boy, as he had burned others before.
The little boy spoken of here is everyone in this world. I know, for it is impossible to transcend a thinking being. Therefore, it is impossible for a thinking being to know a thought greater than self.
If God – the creator of all life – wants to be known and loved by you, He must become you, for He cannot discover any other than Self. That is why it was necessary for God to become as you are – that you may be as He is; for if God did not become you, you could never know Him.
Being a thinking being, you are unable to know a thought greater than yourself; for God – the Father of all life – became individualised in order for you to discover that you are He. And because God is a Father, he must have a child. Therefore, one day God’s son, David, will call you Father and your true identity will be revealed. There is no other way to discover your Fatherhood.
I urge you to dream nobly. Although your dream may seem impossible, invite it into your consciousness by feeling it is real. Wear this feeling as you would a suit of clothes, and persist until the feeling takes on the tones of reality. Do that, and in a way no one knows, your desire will appear as an eruption of your continuous thought.
Your desire started in motion when you wore it. Its appearance is simply a hidden continuity which came to the surface. Dwell upon a thought, and you will realise that it is not original. That the thought itself is complete and therefore every thought is Divine plagiarism!
Enter a mood and watch the thoughts that come to you while there. If you want to be known, get into the mood by feeling recognised as you move about. Then as the feeling becomes familiar you will be amazed how things will reshuffle themselves and you will get the publicity you desire. It may not be very flattering, but if you really want to be known, you will be.
“Whatever you desire, believe you have received it and you will.” Knowing what you want, assume you have it and let no one divert you. Do your father’s will, believing in the feeling of your wish fulfilled. Try it, for this simple principle will not fail you. But remember: you are its power, as it does not operate itself. I can tell you how to move into another state, but you must move into it. No one can do it for you. You see, states are permanent and it is up to you to get out of the state you are now in if it is undesirable to you.
One day a lady in New York City came to see me regarding her stomach problems. While she was there we talked of higher things, and after the silence she returned to her home on Staten Island. Arriving there, she went into a favorite German restaurant and ate all the food she hadn’t been able to eat in years, with no ill effects. I didn’t give this lady any pills. I don’t even know what a stomach looks like! I simply got this lady to move from the state that had the bad stomach!
Leave the state containing poverty and move into the state containing wealth, and wealth will take on reality. This room has reality and substance because you are thinking from it. Think of a room, however, and it is but a shadow. Think of a state and it seems a mere possibility. But enter it by thinking from the state, and it is the only reality. Blake said: “If the spectator could only enter into the image in his Imagination; if he could make a friend and companion of his image, he would rise from the grave and meet the Lord in the heavens.”
Now, buried in a state, you are a spectator of other states. But if you will rise from your present state and bury yourself in another, you will express it. If you can be what you want to be, why not become it? Why sit in a state you dislike and argue, when you can move into another state in your imagination? But once you have moved into the state of your fulfilled desire, don’t be like Lot’s wife. Don’t look back at your former state and preserve it, for salt is a preservative.
Every character in the Bible is a state of consciousness that you, an individual, will pass through, for you are immortal. Having descended into a world of death, you pass through states; but you cannot die. Blake tells us: “The oak is cut down by the ax and the lamb is stayed by the knife, but their forms eternal remain forever.
Step out of this garment and you will instantly step into another. Ninety per cent of those who leave are totally unaware of what has happened. Observing their passage, we think they have died, but they do not die to themselves. They do not even recognise the change, any more than you do when you are asleep. The moment you become aware that you are dreaming, you wake up. But if you do not awaken it is because you have passed through the gate we call death, to continue your dream.
In your night dream you take everything for granted – until you begin to become aware that you are dreaming. If you find yourself waking, try to grab a solid object, like a post – but not an animal, no matter how tame he appears to be. Hold the object and will yourself to wake up, and you will awaken in your dream to find yourself in a world which is just as real as this one.
When this happens don’t get panicky, as you will come back. Instead, if you have any red blood in you investigate the world you find yourself in, and you will discover the people there are just as stupid, just as ambitious, and just as sound asleep as they are here. I have been shut out of this world many times, to return to find this body cataleptic for maybe twenty or twenty-five seconds before I could animate it again. If sometime I do not get back, the doctors will cut up the body to see why I died. They will come to some conclusion; but if they are honest with themselves, they will know that there was no physical reason for my death. I simply left and did not return.
But while you are here, why not live well? I think we will all agree that it is easier living when we have wealth than when we are poor. I have no desire to have lots of things, but if anything can be mine by the simple act of assumption, why not assume it? No power on earth can stop you from imagining. The morning paper records what happened, but they do not tell you the cause. Who knows who is dreaming what is happening today?
Two years ago I watched the Kentucky Derby on television. Willie Shoemaker was riding a horse which was favored to win. The night before the race, the owner of the horse had a dream in which he saw Shoemaker – leading by lengths – misjudge the finish line and ride the saddle to ease the horse too soon.
That is exactly what happened. Shoemaker, a truly great jockey, misjudged the finish line, then – realising his mistake – he could not get enough energy again to win the race and therefore lost it. But who controlled Shoemaker’s behaviour? The owner told Shoemaker the dream before the race and he listened attentively; then, in the physical event, he couldn’t do anything about it. Shoemaker took the brunt. He was condemned and received his sentence, which was a financial loss to him; but Shoemaker didn’t have the dream – the owner of the horse did!
You do not have to have a dream of the night to influence the behaviour of others. You can dream during the day and influence them, as everyone is contained within you. “All that you behold, though it appears without it is within, in your Imagination of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.” (William Blake) If everyone is contained within you, you do not need their permission to be used to externalise your dream! The owner used the horse, the jockey and everyone who bet on the event, to externalise his dream. He entered the state unknowingly but couldn’t escape its effect. He lost the race in the same manner in which he had envisioned it.
You can sit quietly and enter a glorious dream. If it’s shadowy, you are not in it. Persist until you enter it, and it will become the only reality. Live in the state of your fulfilled desire now, knowing that in a way unknown and unnoticed by you it will erupt to become an objective fact.
Take the challenge of scripture: “Whatever you desire, believe you have received it and you will.” Dare to believe you have what reason and your senses deny. Persist in your assumption and it will harden into fact. Try it and see! And remember: the Father who became you is speaking to you through the medium of dream and revealing himself in vision, for this world is His play!
One day you will leave this play, knowing you are God the Father who conceived it all. Beginning as the one God, we fell as the gods. But we will return to the one God, for it takes all of us to form the Lord. “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, is one Lord.”
Take the challenge of scripture and assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled – not only for yourself, but for your family and friends. When you imagine for another, you are really giving it to yourself, as there is no other. The whole vast world is only yourself pushed out.
Now let us go into the silence.
Neville Goddard’s lecture centers on the metaphysical principle that imagination is the creative force behind all manifested reality. He asserts that states of consciousness are as real as physical objects, and by entering into an imagined scene with sensory detail and emotional conviction, individuals enact the law of assumption. This approach reframes traditional Biblical narratives and Blakean symbolism as allegories of inner transformation rather than historical events.
Goddard outlines a systematic method for ‘living the answer now’: set the stage in imagination, engage all five senses, and persist unshaken by external circumstances. His emphasis on subjective feeling over objective evidence highlights the primacy of internal conviction. By citing cases of healing and precognitive dreaming—such as the Kentucky Derby example—he illustrates how unwavering assumption can override apparent reality and influence others without their awareness.
The lecture weaves scriptural and poetic references to underscore its universal application. Blake’s notion of states and the New Age aligns with Goddard’s view that human consciousness cycles through archetypal experiences. In Goddard’s interpretation, every Biblical character represents a psychological state we inhabit, and Scripture serves as a manual for traversing these states toward the fulfillment of desire and ultimate self-realization.
Practical implications emerge in the portrayal of everyday scenarios: curing stomach ailments by shifting from a state of illness to one of health, or achieving recognition by dwelling in the mood of being celebrated. These examples concretize the abstract doctrine, making it accessible for listeners to apply immediately in their own lives.
Ultimately, “Live the Answer Now” is both a mystical discourse and a how-to guide. It invites a radical reorientation of consciousness, where life is approached as an imaginative drama to be written and performed by the individual. The lecture’s power lies in its blend of poetic mysticism and clear, experiential instructions, promising transformational results for those who dare to assume and sustain their desired states.
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