In this lecture Neville Goddard teaches that human imagination is the creative power of reality and equates man with God through the intensity of imaginative acts. He reinterprets key Biblical passages from Acts and Matthew, showing that Scripture is not literal history but a series of visionary acts of grace meant to awaken divine consciousness. The ‘cup’ symbolizes the act of imbibing an ideal and the ‘cross’ represents the crucifixion of old perceptions to be resurrected in a higher state of being. Goddard introduces the practice of mental revision—reimagining past events and interpersonal relationships to transform present circumstances. He emphasizes universal redemption: no soul is left behind and every being can be raised by another’s faith in their perfected image. The lecture closes by urging the listener into silent meditation, demonstrating that subjective and objective reality are defined by the level of consciousness.
We firmly believe here that Imagination creates reality. We believe that man is all Imagination and that God and man are one. There is no difference in nature; the difference, which we recognise, is in the degree of intensity of the operative center of imagining itself. We are keyed low. When keyed high, an imaginative act on our part would be an immediate objective fact but keyed low it must be realised in a time process, but it cannot fail, if we remember the act and remain faithful to that act. A man can be what he wants to be in this world. No matter what you have done you are one with God, and you are all Imagination.
We will turn now to the Bible – Acts 5. Peter is made to say, “We must obey God and not man.” And those present were angry to the point of which to do the disciples harm. But there was one among those who heard him – a teacher, a Pharisee, who said, “Do not kill them, for if this teaching or this work be of men it will come to naught, but if it be of God you cannot overthrow it and you may even find yourselves in the position of having to fight against God.” (Name of the teacher: Gamaliel) Here we tell you that the Bible, which is the greatest book in the world, is completely misunderstood, for it is not history; it is a series of visions, which are acts of Grace. It is the unveiling of the great Reality that men call God.
Matthew 26: Oh my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, “What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” And again he said, “If this cup may not pass away from me except I drink it, thy will be done.” And he came and found them asleep again. You think that an individual, 2000 years ago, went through an agonising frightful experience to save the world. No. The story is all about you. You are the being spoken of. The central figure of the gospels is that presence in man, which is man’s own wonderful Imagination. But at the very limit of opacity in which it functions in this world, it is called the “death” of God, for to make man alive, he had to completely forget that he is God. The awakening of man to the height that is God will come, and our purpose for being here is to learn how to awaken. “Cup” means “to imbibe,” and He is called in the Bible “the wine bibber” – he who drains the cup. The man who said, “Do not touch them!” etc. was Gamaliel, which comes from a word meaning to wean, as a child is weaned, so now it is able to go out and feed on other food. We are here to mature and to be weaned from what we have formerly thought was true.
Years ago I was sent to do this work that I am doing. I was told, “Go! And down with the blue-bloods!” It means the traditional state. We speak of blue-blooded horses, blue-blooded people, meaning the fixed and accepted states. I was told to go out and tear down all the traditional misunderstandings of the greatest story ever told to man. It is not history. It did not take place in space or time. “Go and tell them the story of Christ Jesus in man.” “If it be possible for this cup to pass from me, let it pass, but if I must drain the cup I will do so.”
What is it I must do? I tell you that the story I have come to give you is the story of revision. You see a man and he looks as he should not look to anyone in this world. My senses reveal him as he appears to me and others. I am confronted with the cup. Must I accept that appearance and perpetuate it in the world, or must I revise it and nail myself on the revised image? I must. So, “I am crucified with Christ, yet not I, for Christ liveth in me, and the life I now live I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and became man”. So, each time I see another as he should not be, I am confronted with the cup, and I must now imbibe to the fullest and become the “wine bibber” and so yield to the image and so live by it that I see this man now as he should be. I must drain the cup. I must crucify myself on that image, even if I do not live long enough to see it resurrected. For it will be resurrected. Crucifixion without resurrection would be the very triumph of tyranny. There must be resurrection, for I will awaken and so will you; not one will fail to awaken, and then we will take every being in this world and take the ideal of that being, and so yield to it that we nail ourselves to that imagined state, and remain faithful to it, so that no matter how long it takes, it will be done.
That is the cup you and I are called upon to drink. It is offered to you tonight, not 2000 years ago. You drink it for yourself or for a stranger. The man you want to be, that man you will be, if you will nail yourself to that state. That is reality. It seems crazy! Men reject the teaching of Christ and of Christianity, for the churches have no concept of this teaching. It has nothing to do with ritual. We conquer only by the sword of forgiveness. Identify the other with the ideal that he has failed to realise, and to the degree that you do it you have truly forgiven him. Though as yet no one sees him as you now see him, still if you walk faithful to it you will make it real in your world.
Do it for everyone. Everyone is immortal. He is not contained in this little body; I am not, you are not. I am scattered over all my Father’s visible and invisible universe. So, reject me here and you will find me there. So I must in my mind’s eye resurrect you, and you must in your mind’s eye resurrect me. Not one can be left behind, for we are all scattered and we must gather that which is scattered into the perfect body that my Father saw when He became it. So he became alive by nailing Himself here on Golgotha – which means “the skull.” Here is where He is crucified. And the measure of awakening is measured by my awakening you in me. So, no matter what anyone has done, it was only in a nightmare. I will represent each to myself as my Father saw him, and to the degree that I lift each up within me, will the veils be removed and God’s eye will open and I will see the perfection of everyone in the world. There is no place that you are not and I am not, for you are infinite and scattered all over God’s universe. I cannot run away from you, so I must face you here and see you as you should be seen. And, walking in that state, I lift it up. Now we can do it in other ways, the practical ways. What I am telling you now belongs to a higher level of being, but take it on a lower level if you wish: a job, or a home, or money, or health – whatever your need is. We are entitled to it, for God gave it to us. For you and I are citizens of heaven. I was actually sent to this sphere to tell you that no matter what your race or your background is, you are a child of God. “Down with the bluebloods” – the old traditional, fixed beliefs. No matter who tells you otherwise, their concept is completely wrong. Every man living is God made visible – black, white, red or yellow. Man goes through different stages of awakening. Do not think because you are wearing a light pigment that you are more awakened than one wearing a darker skin. “Listen to them” Gamaliel said. And it means to wean, to ripen. “If what they say is of men it will fail; if it is of God you cannot stop it and you may even find yourselves opposing God.”
I know what I say is true. You can prove it. You can take anyone in your world and represent him to yourself, as he would like to be. Take an incorrigible child and bring him before your mind’s eye and see him as you would like to see him and he will embody that state. Revision is the most practical thing in the world. The story of Christ is the story of revision. But the world does not understand because it was told in a parable. It is told in the story of the unjust steward, which I have given you before. I know what the day revealed to me. Change the day. Can you change it? I was just reading this master work on psychology which claims the past has ceased to be, but influences the present through memory. So it is said in this wonderful work that it has ceased to act save through the gathered experiences stored as memory. It cannot be acted upon. It has not ceased to be at all. The sentient are not now in these states. A man who went through a gas chamber is no longer going through it. The forms remain and the day will come when they will see that he never went through a gas chamber. There are many forms of the remembered past. Revise! Go back to your second year if you can remember that far and take any incident and change it and represent it to yourself as you wish it had been and living in it you will change your entire world now. For if the past is influencing the present by the memory of it, you change anything in the past and then change the present. If I miscreate something God gives me, I have the opportunity of finding how to change it. I can stretch back in time and take any incident in my miscreated past and changing it, change my entire present.
God became man and he is in every being. There is no other way that God could become me but by giving Himself in that becoming. Though I call myself Neville, it is still God. You think that is blasphemy? I do not care what you think. Every child born of woman is God and that which became man is Christ Jesus. It bears this cross of man and this state is like a tomb, and as Blake says, “God himself enters death’s door with them who enter it and lies down in the grave with them in visions of eternity until they awaken.” God himself entered this “grave” when I jumped in my mother’s womb. And he will never leave me, for if he should leave me I would cease to be. And then I awake by doing for the whole world what God did for man.
So take any man’s dream and nail yourself mentally upon that cross by imagining he is that being he desires to be, and walk just as though it is true and live in the dream for the other as if it is true, and as it becomes true, you will lift him up. Man saves himself by – and only by – the saving of his fellow man. He who lifts up the world is lifting up the eye of God within himself, and when he is fully awake then he is God.
Do not ask another why he wants something. Give what he asks for. You persuade yourself that he has it as you witnessed it and to the degree that you persuade yourself that he has it, so will it become true. No reward: you want no reward. Whether a man is wonderful or horrible – do not condemn him. All are in states, which the soul falls into in its dreams of good and evil. You make it your business to see that everyone is already the ideal he wishes to embody, no matter what it is. For in this way you are opening up the eye of God. For this is the story of Christ. “If it really is of God, then you cannot stop it.”
All He asks is that I try. Must I drink this cup? Yes. There is no other way than the way of the cross. I must cross one state to another state. We conquer by the cross. It is not a thing hanging on the wall, though as an object it is very beautiful. It is crossing from where you are to where you want to be, from seeing what you appear to see to seeing what you want to see. That is the Passover. I cross from one state to another. Is there any other way? “If it is possible, then let this cup pass from me; if not, then thy will be done.” What is God’s will? “All that You gave me I have kept and none have I lost.” All that he gave me I must lift up again, and He gave me you and you. I meet you and you are a gift from my Father out of the nowhere. I must lift you up for I will meet you beyond all the veils, for you are an infinite Being. You have an Immortal Body and there is no place in God’s universe that you are not. If I do not redeem you here in me, I will meet you elsewhere and still have to redeem you.
Well, the most practical teaching in the world is also the most profoundly spiritual. There is no transforming power in death. Think of your home right now. At this moment it is subjective to you as you are seated here. You do not see it with these physical eyes. It is subjective to this room. But really in your heart you do not think it is subjective as the world speaks of it. It is out of the range of your senses, but you know it is right where you left it. It is the same with all the worlds of my Father. Subjective and objective are determined by the level on which consciousness is focused. Everything is objective to my Father. And when I awake, my dream may seem unreal and therefore subjective, but it is not, if I am interested, for then it should become to me objective, for that is only defined by the level on which consciousness is focused. While my dream lasts is it not objective? I recently told the story that if you can touch something and hold on to it and awaken you will awaken in your dream world and find it completely objective. A lady wrote to tell me she tried it and proved it. I know from experience it cannot fail if you try it and you will prove that subjective and objective are just names.
To the psychologist “objective” is just you from the cradle to the grave. But think of this fantastic universe extending beyond a hundred million light years. It is estimated by a great scientist that if each star represented one tiny grain of sand and only those stars, which are visible to this world were included, this “sand” would cover England to a depth of several hundred yards! If you are only on this little speck, then what are you? They spoke only of the stars, not including the planets. And then someone says they have 1000 acres! The common man, which means us, sees things about us as so solidly real. We feel it is real if we can touch it. But the scientist says it is not solidly real at all, but is only an aggregation of molecules and atoms and electrons moving rapidly in space. They say our experience of a solidly real object is actually what they call “electro magnetic fields” between my fingers and the object. But my finger is of the same material as the object! If both are “all space”, then the one we spoke of just owns 1000 acres of “all space”. Possessions mean nothing. What is important is the awakening of God in man. When man begins to awake he does not desire to possess the earth; he is the earth and he is heir to everything, for his Father gave it to him. Finally you awaken and claim it. Let no one tell you that this person is better than that one.
The sun shines on the just and the unjust. If you salute only your brother, if you love only those who love you, how are you better than another? You are doing nothing that all do not do. But it does not matter. It is only awakening that matters. So take every person in the world and try to awaken him in you by lifting him up. So crucify yourself for him, for that is a little death in the divine image. As you go through these little deaths, seeing what you should see and “dying” to what you formerly saw, then God sees, and then you find nothing to condemn, for no matter who the man is, it is God playing every part. So there is a complete misunderstanding of the greatest story in the world. The Gospel does not tell how Christ came at all, but how he comes. He must come in the mind of every being in the world. If he came 2000 years ago he is now gone, but if he comes in the mind of every man, that is important. He comes as God came to man by so loving him that he became man and “died” by believing that he was man. But man must do the same thing for his fellow man as God did for him, and he yields to the dream for another, and to the degree that he is faithful to it he will make it real in the world and then finally he awakens. Ask me how I know? I know.
Years ago, on a little freighter in the Caribbean I retired early. And then I found myself outside my body, which remained on my bed. I was in a lovely twilight and I found I radiated this twilight, for there was no sun or moon, only this light from myself. I floated in this state; I did not walk. And I heard this heavenly chorus singing, “He is risen!” and I knew they meant me. I found myself beside this vast sea of sick and malformed beings waiting – and I know they waited for me. And as I passed each was refolded and refashioned into the image of perfection. Missing eyes or limbs reappeared. All became perfection because it was so that I beheld it. Then I heard the voices say, “It is finished!” and then I became crystallised again into this opacity called Neville. So when man is lifted up all that is unlovely is lifted up and there is nothing unlovely on that higher level. Raise it up by revision.
For everyone is there and when you raise him within yourself to that level you will find he is completely perfect. On this level you see only scattered portions of his eternal body, but when you rise high enough you will find him perfect. I felt after the experience I have just spoken of that I had a fantastic fight with Death and I had been victorious. What formerly was unlovely I had overcome and in overcoming I had lifted every being with me. I know it is not a unique experience, for on a certain level every being is perfect. You rise to that level as you lift up another within you. For there are no strangers, there is only God. For God became man that man awakening may become God.
You can ignore any being here, call him your servant, whatever you like, but he is also immortal and you will meet him in God’s fabulous universe and then you will understand John 17: “Now return unto me the glory that was mine before the world was. And of all that thou gavest me not one is lost save the son of perdition (the belief in loss), and they dwell in me and I in them, and we in Thee.”
Now let us go into the silence.
QUESTION: What should I do after I have made the mental structure? Is there not something to be done on the outside, such as work, etc?
NEVILLE: Your dream compels physical changes if they are necessary to make it true in this world. It is like a child growing toward the moment of birth; it exerts such pressure that it cannot be held back. For my dream is an unborn child and regardless that child will be born when the time is come. These pressures force physical transformations.
Neville begins by asserting that imagination is the sole creative force, establishing a direct identity between man and God. He argues that when imagination operates at its fullest intensity, it instantaneously manifests objective reality, and when it operates at lower levels, it works through a time process but never fails if one remains faithful.
He then turns to the Bible, treating its narratives as symbolic visions rather than historical accounts. By analyzing Acts 5 and Matthew 26, he uncovers deeper meanings: Gamaliel’s counsel about divine origin warns that spiritual teachings cannot be extinguished, and Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane reveals the inner struggle to embrace divine will by drinking the cup.
Central to the lecture is the technique of revision—mentally re-creating past experiences and perceptions to rewrite present reality. Goddard illustrates this with personal and practical examples, showing how one can see others as they ought to be, crucify old images on the cross of imagination, and await their resurrection into objective truth.
Extending the metaphor, he portrays the cross not as a static symbol but as the dynamic transition from one state of consciousness to another. Each act of forgiveness, each lifting of another’s ideal, is a small death and resurrection, contributing to a collective awakening. On a practical level, this applies to jobs, health, and relationships; on a spiritual level, it ensures that “not one will fail to awaken.”
Finally, Goddard recounts his own out-of-body resurrection experience to validate the teaching: by beholding beings in perfect form, he reaffirms that higher states exist and can be accessed through imaginative faith. He closes by inviting silence and inner focus, reminding us that subjective and objective realities are determined by the level of consciousness on which we dwell.
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