In this lecture Neville Goddard emphasizes the creative power of imagination as the fundamental law governing our reality. He illustrates this with a case history of a woman who, by vividly imagining helping an elderly lady, witnesses the scene unfold in physical reality. Goddard asserts that the external world is a dead mirror until awakened by man’s dreaming consciousness. He redefines repentance as a change of mind or state, rather than a moral judgment, and presents the cross as the intersection of linear time and infinite imaginal states. By consciously enacting desired states and then releasing them, time will manifest them in the world. Ultimately, awakening to our divine status as life-giving spirits allows us to continually create and reshape our experiences.
Take it seriously. Do not go through this with your dream un-acted. It took this lady 30 seconds to enact her drama and another 60 seconds to realise it.
The whole vast world is no more than man’s imagining pushed out. I must qualify that by saying that the world outside of man is dead, but Man is a living soul, and it responds to man, yet man is sound asleep and does not know it. The Lord God placed man in a profound sleep, and as he sleeps the world responds as in a dream, for Man does not know he is asleep, and then he moves from a state of sleep where he is only a living soul to an awakened state where he is a life-giving Spirit. And now he can himself create, for everything is responding to an activity in man which is Imagination. “The eternal body of man is all imagination; that is God himself.” (Blake)
Three wonderful case histories were given to me last Tuesday and I can best describe what I mean by telling you of one of them. Here is this lady driving east on Sunset and she comes to a stop at Laurel Canyon. A bus is to her right, and then she sees this little elderly lady in grey who is running diagonally across the street through traffic, trying to catch that bus. The bus driver sees her but he pulls out leaving her on the street. The lady, who gave me this story, told me that she felt compassion for this elderly lady, but she was not in a lane where she could give her a lift; she had to pull out with her line when the light changed. She said to herself, “I will give that lady a lift just the same.” So in Imagination, she opens her car door and lets her in.
Then still in her Imagination, she hears the lady tell her that she is meeting some friends a few blocks away and if she had to wait for another bus she is afraid they would not wait for her. The lady in the car carried on this imaginary conversation and it took maybe a half a minute until she felt satisfied about it. Four blocks ahead, as she again stopped for a light, someone tapped on the car window, and here stands a breathless little elderly with gray hair dressed in gray. My friend lowered the window and the little lady said “I have missed my bus. Can you give me a lift? Friends are waiting for me and when they see I do not get off the bus they may go on and leave me. “My friend let her get into the car and then six blocks further the little lady said. “There are my friends!” and thanks the driver and gets out.
Now here is a lady whom I say is awake. And may I tell you that in Heaven there was joy because one called a sinner (we are all sinners, for we are all missing the mark, and the mark is to awaken) has discovered that the whole world is responsive to what we are thinking. She could not actually give the first little lady a lift so she did it in Imagination, and then she sees this other elderly lady and gives her a lift. Here she is enacting her imaginary drama, and four blocks later when the dream is completed this little ole lady taps at her car window. In her imagination she gave a lift to a little grey haired lady dressed in gray. Does it matter if it was the lady behind at the last bus stop or this lady dressed in gray? Everyone is responding to what we are doing in our Imagination.
There is no outside world that is really alive. It depends, for its aliveness, on the activity of man who is a living soul. Man named the animals, the birds, the trees, – everything. God became man as a living soul, but He had to forget He was God to become man, and now man has to become a life-giving spirit, where he knows that everything is an imaginal activity.
Here, at that corner where the first part of this little drama took place, half of those who witnessed it would bawl out the bus driver for not waiting for the old lady, and the other half would say she was a fool for running into the street. This lady in the car could have reacted like that, for the dreamer does not know that he is dreaming. It is only when we awake they know they are causing the dream, or even had a dream. The lady in the car saw only someone who had failed to realise an objective, so she enacted a scene for her, implying she had realised it. And four blocks later she meets a little old lady who says to her the exact words she had heard in her Imagination. Her Imaginary dream unfolds in detail. An awakened dream is crystallised in the world. “Real are the dreams of gods, as they slowly pass their pleasure in a long immortal dream. “When man completely awakens he dreams his pleasure and everything responds while he dreams it.
We think everything in the world is completely independent from our perception of it, but the whole thing is dead. I see it, and come upon it, but the whole thing is dead . frozen. Then I start an activity within me and then the world that was dead becomes alive, but not knowing I am doing it, I am sound asleep and then the whole thing takes over and it becomes a nightmare. But I must keep control and know it is dependant on me. The world is infinite response and the thing that makes it alive is the living soul called generic man (male-female). And then God wove Himself into the brain of this generic man, and then He sleeps. As man begins to awaken he controls and takes over, and is no longer a victim of his vision, so he has control of his attention. Everyone is free to create his world as he wants it – if he knows that the whole thing is responding to him.
In Luke 13 we are told the story of five Galileans who have been murdered by Pilate. “And he mixed their blood with their offering, etc. “And the central figure of the gospels which is your awakened Imagination says to his followers; “Do you think these five were worse sinners than the others? I tell you ‘No’. But unless you repent you will all likewise perish in the same manner.”Here on one level we think it served them right, just as those who saw the scene on the Sunset Blvd. would say “It served her right – cutting across the street like that!”In this story in Luke we are told that a man sinned in the past and was murdered by Pilate. It has nothing to do with it. Then Jesus asked them, “Do you think that the eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse offenders than the others who dwell in Jerusalem? I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.
On this level of the dream people think of getting even. It is a dream of confusion and people are reactivating, but man has to awaken and become an actor. On this present level man is always reflecting life, not knowing he is the cause of all he observes. But when he awakens from the dream and then becomes an actor. What percentage would have done what this lady in the car did?
They would have reacted, or feasted on the fruit of the tree of good and evil. They would have had a violent reaction, and then they would have had a violent resistance from this dead universe. But this lady makes her dream and the whole thing comes to pass exactly as she pictured it, even to the number of blocks. You might almost think she had manufactured that little old lady in gray, but I tell you everything comes in response to our own wonderful imaginal activity.
You can be anything in this world but you cannot know it or expect it to come unless you Act. If you react based on the past, you continue in the same pattern. To be the man you desire to be you must create the scene, as this lady did, and the whole world will be convulsed if that is necessary to bring it to pass. There is no other power but God, but God had to “forget”he was God in this state of sleep, and then He awakens and consciously determines the conditions he wants in the world.
So again I say to this lady, the angels rejoiced over your awakening, and – I say this without pride – they also rejoiced because I kept my promise that I would come and awaken this sleeper in the world of men. For I, also, had to forget everything to become man. For when one goes and then returns he has to forget everything to become man. For when one goes, and then returns he has to forget everything, but he promises he will carry out his pledge and help man awaken. Then the living soul becomes a life-giving spirit and then creates.
Take it seriously. Do not go through this with your dream un-acted. It took this lady 30 seconds to enact her drama and another 60 seconds to realise it.You tell yourselves -it must take time- What time?
Read Corinthians 1:18, I could go before men with all the words of wisdom, but know only one thing, the cross. To the wise, it is foolishness, etc. What is the cross? Think of it in this light. You began, seemingly in your mother’s womb and end in the grave. You do not, but you have that picture. Look on the horizontal line of the cross as time. Intersecting this vertical line and call that infinite states, like Jacobs ladder. At any section of time, I can move up or down. Time is flowing and the state with which I am identified still unfolds.
So, while seated in my car I can move up and enact a drama. I acted and remained within that state. It unfolded. It took 60 seconds. There are infinite states intersecting the line of time. We become one with a certain state and it demonstrates itself in actual phenomena. Everyone here, it need not take you more than 30 seconds to bring about a change of state.
What would it be like? And you name your desire. Remain in that state, and that state, by the passage of time, will unfold in your world. You do nothing about it once you have entered the state for the outer must move by compulsion of the inner power.
This little lady in gray had to come to my friend’s car. Every detail of that imaginary act took place. Why not? The universe is infinite response. When you know that there is no one in the whole world could ever faze you, because he is a shadow. I have seen the whole world dead, completely frozen, and then I allowed something within me to start and everything became animated. Then you ask yourself a million questions. Who am I? What is it all about? Why? Everything here is responding to the imaginal activity within man.
When someone who is sick becomes well: when someone who is blind then sees, is that more of a miracle than what this lady told? She is awake. If you make a fortune it means nothing. All the honours of men in a state of sleep are as nothing. You must “repent”. It has nothing to do with the so-called judgement of God. It is only a dream and man is reacting to the dream and he does not know that he is the dreamer and causing all the dream.
The literal meaning of the Greek word translated as repent means “a change of mind. “It has nothing to do with the moral picture. The churches introduced that, but it has nothing to do with it. I don’t care what a man has done if he changes his mind in this meaning of the word “repent” things will change, for he is then on the line of vertical line of states. He stands at a point on the states. There are infinite states and we must learn to distinguish between the state and the individual occupying the state. But I can now change and move into another state. I can in Time, do it in a split second and rise on the vertical line of the states.
So, “I come, only to teach the cross.”, said Paul. I will rise within myself and ignore the former state, and within myself, I will assume that things are as I want them to be. If I remain faithful, the passage of Time will unfold it. So, Blake said, “Eternity is in love with the productions of Time.”I tell you, do not let anyone ever convince you that because of your past accomplishments or your present state in the world that you cannot change your position by rising within yourself, and then see the whole world respond. And I mean NOW!
So, I tell you this lady is awake; the Child is awake in her, the purpose of life is to awake. If the whole vast world or sleeping humanity thought her important, would she feel flattered? If in a dream everyone praised you and then you awoke and found it was all a dream, would you be flattered? One dreamer puts a medal on another dreamer, and they do not know it. It is only the awakening that is important. Awakening and doing the will of God.
God’s will is in you active as your own Imagination, and His will is to realise the imaginal state. To realise something novel as this lady did or to maintain something to maintain in being, or to let things go that you feel are unlovely. I will do it all and only act, and stop re-acting. Then the whole book, The Bible, becomes alive. Leave all the “wise men to mock it or tolerate”. Let them reach the moon or the stars, they are all dead. Nothing lives outside of man. Man is the living soul, turning slowly into a life-giving Spirit. But you cannot tell it except in a parable or metaphor to excite the mind of man to get him to go out and prove it.
Leave the good and evil and eat of the Tree of Life. Nothing in the world is untrue if you want it to be true. You are the truth of everything that you perceive. “I am the truth, and the way, the life revealed.”If I have physically nothing in my pocket, then in Imagination I have MUCH. But that is a lie based on fact, but truth is based on the intensity of my imagination and then I will create it in my world. Should I accept facts and use them as to what I should imagine? No.
It is told us in the story of the fig tree. It did not bear for three years. One said, “Cut it down, and throw it away.”But the keeper of the vineyard pleaded NO”! Who is the tree? I am the tree; you are the tree. We bear or we do not. But the Keeper said he would dig around the tree and feed it – or manure it, as we would say today – and see if it will not bear. Well I do that here every week and try to get the tree – you – me to bear. You should bear whatever you desire. If you want to be happily married, you should be. The world is only response. If you want money, get it. Everything is a dream anyway. When you awake and know what you are creating and that you are creating it that is a different thing.
The greatest book is the Bible, but it has been taken from a moral basis and it is all weeping and tears. It seems almost ruthless as given to us in the Gospel, if taken literally. The New Testament interprets the Old Testament, and it has nothing to do with morals. You change your mind and stay in that changed state until it unfolds. Man thinks he has to work himself out of something, but it is God asleep in you as a living soul, and then we are reborn as a life-giving spirit. We do it here in this little classroom called Earth or beyond the grave, for you cannot die. You can be just as asleep beyond the grave. I meet them constantly, and they are just like this. Same loves and same hates. No change. They will go through it until they finally awake, until they cease to re-act and begin to act.
Do not take this story lightly which I have told you tonight. Take it to heart. Tonight when you are driving home enact a scene. No matter what it is. Forget good and evil. Enact a scene that implies you have what you desire, and to the degree that you are faithful to that state, it will unfold in your world and no power can stop it, for there is no other power.
Nothing is independent of your perception of it, and this goes for that great philosopher among us who is still claiming that everything is independent of the perceiver, but that the perceiver has certain powers. It is not so. Nothing is independent of the perceiver. Everything is “burned up” when I cease to behold it. It may exist for another, but not for me.
Let us make our dream a noble one, for the world is infinite response to you, the being you want to be.
Now let us go into the silence.
In this lecture, Goddard’s core thesis is that imagination is the only true law of creation and that the world responds dynamically to man’s internal states. He contrasts the universal assumption that external reality is independent of the observer with the metaphysical principle that consciousness is the sole creative agent. Through the vivid anecdote of the woman on Sunset Boulevard, he demonstrates a practical example of applied imagination and its material consequences. This story underscores how an enacting of an inner drama completes itself outwardly, revealing the universe’s infinite responsiveness.
Subsequently, Goddard delves into theological reinterpretation, reframing Biblical motifs as allegories of psychological states. He describes repentance not as moral penance but as a shift on the vertical axis of infinite states (the cross), where one transcends habitual identifications and steps into a new imagined reality. By invoking Paul’s teaching and Blake’s poetic vision, he bridges spiritual metaphors with experimental mysticism, making esoteric concepts accessible to modern practitioners.
The lecture further elaborates on the nature of time and consciousness. Goddard emphasizes that time is merely the horizontal line intersected by infinite vertical states, allowing instantaneous transition between different realities. He urges listeners to remain in the imagined state until it crystallizes, cautioning against reactive patterns that reinforce old conditions. This approach presents a radical departure from conventional causality, positioning man not as a passive subject of fate but as an active creator of experience.
Finally, Goddard offers practical instruction and encouragement: to take imagination seriously, enact scenes implying fulfilled desires, and trust the universe’s automatic response. He dismisses reliance on external validation, moralizing, or accumulated facts, advocating instead for a conscious, imaginative life. By consistently practicing this discipline, one becomes a life-giving spirit capable of instantaneous manifestation. The underlying message is an invitation to awaken from the dream of separation and recognize one’s divine heritage as creator and sovereign of one’s world.
The Bible Through Neville
Neville Bible Sparks
Neville Lecture Series
