In this lecture Neville Goddard teaches that the validity of any concept is determined by the feeling of certainty it inspires within us. Using Habakkuk’s admonition to write the vision plainly and wait its appointed hour, he introduces the metaphor of the ‘embrace,’ likening the assumption of a desire to an act of impregnation whose gestation period is unique to each individual. Neville shares a personal story in Barbados where his unwavering inner conviction triggered an immediate external confirmation. He parallels biblical timelines—400 years of slavery plus a 30-year ministry—to illustrate how spiritual processes unfold in perfect timing. Through accounts of visceral dreams and vivid mental imagery, he demonstrates that clear, sustained visualization until a deep inner conviction feels real is the mechanism by which imagination creates reality. The practice requires assuming the desired state, persisting in that feeling until self-persuasion, then patiently waiting for the world to reflect the assumption.
The truth of any concept is known by the feeling which it inspires.I tell you that imagining creates reality and ask you to imagine a certain state which would imply the fulfillment of your dream. Now, it doesn’t really matter what another thinks or anyone thinks in this world, it’s what you think.When you bring before your mind’s eye a scene which implies the fulfillment of your dream, do you remain looking at it until you have that feeling of certainty which it should inspire? If it brings within you that feeling of certainty, what does it matter what another thinks?
What then must you do? Now, let me turn to the Book of Habakkuk. The word means “to embrace.” If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a very short work. In this is said, the Lord is of too pure eyes to behold the evil, the iniquity. And the prophet is asking these strange but important questions, Why? Why are you silent when the wicked swallows up the righteous? Why are you silent? Then said he, “I will take my stand upon the watchtower and I will watch to see and to hear what he will say unto me, and what I will answer” (2:1). Then comes the word of the Lord. The word of the Lord is this, first, “Write the vision upon tablets; make it plain that he who runs may read it.” And then comes the statement, “For the vision has its own appointed hour; it ripens, it will flower. If it be long, then wait; for it is sure and it will not be late” (2:2,3). There are those who try to rush everything into being and will try to force it from conception to birth. They can’t do it. But I will not stand here as a judge of anyone who has had an experience that I have not spoken of here, for there are many things in scripture not recorded. As you’re told in the end of John, they’re just not recorded. And who am I to stand in judgment of anyone’s picture? But I will say, knowing what I know from experience on this level, if you dare to assume that you are what you want to be, not knowing the interval of time between the assumption—this is now Habakkuk which means “the embrace” and the embrace is simply “impregnation” as we brought out last Monday night when he covered, “with his hand he covered Moses” and the word meant “copulation”—so who knows that interval of time?
I know from the major things of scripture intervals of time. But between a simple thing like “I am wealthy” and its fulfillment, I do not know. I know that when I assumed that I was walking up the gangplank of a ship, and everyone told me I couldn’t get out from the island of Barbados for at least, well, this was now in the month of March and I couldn’t get out until September, I walked up the gangplank and in the act of walking up I had that inner certainty. And I knew the truth of this statement that the truth of any concept, I don’t care what it is, comes when one has that feeling of inner certainty. Well, as I walked up, it seemed so natural, so real. Well, I hadn’t even broken the spell before the phone rang offering me passage on a ship and there were over 2,000 waiting to get a ship to take them north. I was singled out; I was at the bottom of the list. They gave me no reason why they singled me out with my wife and my daughter, but they did. That inner conviction! So I know that the truth of any concept…that was only a concept…so the truth of any concept is known by that feeling of a peculiar certainty. It’s just you know it and I can’t explain it other than you know that it’s true.
Now, you can take this same thing through all the levels of being. So I say to everyone here, when you know what you want, you really know, that’s a concept. All right, create a scene which would imply that you have it, that you are now living it, that you are now expressing it. Ask no one if you are entitled to it; and after you’ve done it, don’t ask anyone if you did it, only you know. If they should deny it, what does it matter what they say? It doesn’t really matter, it’s entirely up to you, you did it, it happened to you, and then wait to see it. For the vision has its own appointed hour; it ripens, it will flower. If it seems long, then wait, for it is sure and it will not be late. That’s the story.
Now when it comes to the overall picture of how God is awakening himself within man, let us go back to the Book of Exodus and here we are told that the time that it took the people of Israel to dwell in Egypt was 430 years (Exod.12:40). At the end of 430, on that very day, the whole host of the Lord departed from Egypt. It was a night of watching by the Lord, his night. Then we are told that Israel must now keep this night in memory…this night. It was 430 years. On that night, in one night, all departed and it was a night of watching for the Lord. Now you read it and you wonder “What is it all about?” Here scripture is a mystery: “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of our religion.” That is what we are told in scripture when Paul writes his letter to Timothy, “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of our religion” (1Tim.3:16). Something mysterious, in a way, and yet the word mystery is defined as “a religious truth revealed by God that man cannot by reason alone discover.” He cannot by reason discover it; it’s revealed by God.
Well now, this “great indeed is the mystery of our religion” means “the doctrine of revealed truth.” Here is a doctrine of revealed truth: 430 years. We’re told in the 15th of Genesis, “You will be enslaved, your descendants, for 400 years…after that you will come out” (15:13,14). Then why four hundred and thirty as given in the 12th of Exodus? Here the 15th of Genesis is 400, but in Exodus when they begin to exit is 430. Paul when he speaks of it in Galatians calls it 430, but it is first stated 400 years. Well, 400 years is the symbol of the cross; it’s the 22nd letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the Tau, the cross. I wear this cross and it’s called 400 years. It doesn’t mean 400 years in that sense. Then comes the first symbol. And as long as I am now in this world I am enslaved. As I’m told, “Your descendants will be enslaved in a land that is not theirs. Then, at the end, you’ll be brought out with great possessions”…at the end.
But now, the next book Exodus, the 12th chapter, adds thirty years, so thirty years is added to the 400. “And Jesus when he began his ministry was about thirty years of age” (Luke 3:23). I remain in this world to play my part and I’m being enslaved…the whole world is enslaved. Then comes that moment of the embrace, of the impregnation, and it takes thirty years from that moment to the birth of Christ or the birth of the individual above after my trials and tribulations in this world. So 400 years does not mean 400 in, as I have mentioned, years; the thirty does. The 400 represents the length—you can call it, as Blake calls it, 6,000 years; he also calls it 8,500 years; call it what you will—where man is simply in this world where he is playing his part. He is playing it as he ought to play it, playing it beautifully. Then comes that moment in time when he is elected, he is called, and he’s embraced. Now, stand upon your watch and watch it from this moment on, for it has its own appointed time.
Benny called me today. After all, Benny was only thirty when it happened to him, so he could not have known the embrace. But there are others who are not aware of the moment of the embrace. So watch for it. In my own case, I was old enough to know it, it was 1929, and I am fully aware of that moment of the embrace. Then came 1959 when it happened. So I can say to anyone from my own experience this is how it happens. If you don’t know when, then I can’t tell you. I can’t measure the thirty years if you didn’t know when it began. But after it happens I will then actually state for you when these things will happen.
Now in this world of Caesar the same law holds true. It’s a reflection all the way down in the shadow world. I do not know how late or how long it takes say a little budgie to hatch out. A friend of mine is now breeding them and he called today to say he has three. Well, there were seven eggs the last time I saw them and in a week only three came out. When each one started he doesn’t know. So it’s just like this…I do not know if I now assume that I am wealthy what is the interval between my assumption that I am wealthy to the point where I actually reach that conviction. I must have the feeling of a peculiar conviction that it’s true. When I have it, that is impregnation. I have a conception; the conception is the egg. Now, how true is it? How real is it? Well now, based entirely on my inner conviction that it’s done, if I can assume that I am now the man that I really want to be and know when I did it, I can time it from then on. Because if that is how it happened concerning wealth, it should always happen this way. If it’s that concerning something else, it always happens that way. So that a horse has a year, a cow nine months before it hatches out, a man has nine months, a sheep five months, a chicken three weeks. So there are intervals of time.
But it comes down to that simple thing that the truth concerning any concept is known by the feeling of certainty and conviction which that certainty inspires…you know it…not a thing can disturb it. Well, if I only watch it. I only know in my own case in Barbados while doing it, it happened, the phone was ringing; and at other times, it took a day, a week, a month, sometimes a year. I have known cases where it took for a huge business two years. But we don’t make records, we don’t keep an account of these things to find out how these eggs hatch out. For a concept is only an egg, but it remains an egg unfertilized until I occupy it. If I occupy it and feel the certainty of it, well then, if I know how long it takes I could prophesy. In my own case, I kept a record in ’29 so I knew it happened. What would ever come of that I didn’t know, but I knew it happened then. So wait…1959 I was born from above, raised from within. I knew then that that was an interval of thirty years. Reading back into scripture I found that he was thirty years when he began his ministry; that Israel was 430 years before they came out and made their exodus, their exit from this state of slavery. The 400 was slavery, and the thirty was simply that moment; and then it took thirty years for them to actually bring about the birth…so that this meant the actual birth of Israel.
Now they’re going to celebrate it in the immediate future as Passover. For Israel is called in this 12th chapter to keep this night in memory forever. They must always remember this night for this night was the night of the watching by Jehovah, called the Lord, to bring the entire host of Israel out. But they come out one by one. So I do not know…so if one tells me a story and it’s not part of my experience, I can’ tell you. I only know what I know from my own experience and my experiences parallel to scripture. So I can tell Benny it happens on the 6th…it must happen on the 6th…as I now tell him it’s going to happen on the 8th of July. I’ll go all out on a limb and tell him that because I know exactly the time interval.
And so, to you on any level there are intervals. “Everything has its own appointed time; it ripens; it will flower. If it be long, then wait, for it is sure and it will not be late.” It can’t be late; it will come on time. Then if you know the time interval…but we do not record these things. People have the experience and they don’t make a record of it, there’s no diary. In my case, I have a diary for these things concerning scripture, and I write them in my Bible. “It happened to me this night.” I study the scripture, I find out where the passage is, and I write in that same passage “This happened to me tonight.” Well then, when something does happen I know the interval between that event and the next event…and so I have it recorded that way. But when it comes to the world of Caesar, I only know that I have had things happen while I’m in the Silence and the phone is ringing to confirm what I am doing. I have exploded myself for another and felt the thrill and I knew it had to happen, but I couldn’t tell you when. It would happen sometimes in twenty-four hours, sometimes in a week, sometimes in a month.
Today something happened, a delightful thing happened. Well, it was only about two weeks ago that I exploded, and I knew. That was three weeks. Well, I’m not going to catalogue that in that sense. Because there’s something I desired for an individual and then came confirmation tonight. But I can’t tell you that that particular desire equals all desires, because that could be as different from a chicken egg as from an elephant’s egg, I don’t know. I only know when it comes to scripture that these things do have definite marks, and I have marked them. And when you try to hurry them, forget it. You will not hurry them. This is God’s time and you will not delay it and you will not rush it…can’t delay it or rush it.
Now here came a letter from a friend of mine (she’s here tonight). She said, “I had this dream. I have this most beautiful plate and on it was a raw steak. The voice said to me, ‘Eat it’ and I ate it and enjoyed it. Then the voice said, ‘You have eaten the body of God.’” Well, that’s scripture. Read it in the 6th chapter of the Book of John, the 51st through the 56th verses: “I am the bread of life. My body, my flesh is the bread of life. Eat it.” Well, his body is the doctrine of revealed truth. She has completely eaten the body of revealed truth, she’s eaten it. Now you are told in these verses you have eternal life: “If you’ve eaten my body, you have eternal life.” So she ate the body of God. The voice said, “You’ve eaten the body of God” and that’s told you in the 6th chapter of the Book of John. So she has paralleled… her experience parallels that story. I cannot tell her tonight having eaten the body of God when she will now be called. She’s completely accepted the story of the revealed truth, which is the body of God.
Another one comes, and in this story she’s exhausted—I won’t go back in all the details that precede it—she’s exhausted. She spent the day in sheer, well, she worked on her husband’s books and brought all the books up to date, and it was now 1:00 AM. She’s tired, but at 1:00 AM the house isn’t clean. The chores of the day were neglected and she couldn’t go to bed unless they were all done, like the dishes, the pots and pans and all the things. Well, she’s exhausted, she has no energy left, and she starts to clean them and wash the dishes, and she’s in tears from sheer physical exhaustion. He comes and sees her in tears and pitches in to help. When she went to bed she felt, “Well, what can I do? I can’t take an individual episode; I can only say I want something exactly opposite to all these problems.” She simply imagined a scene that was extremely opposite to all these problems of the day. And she actually could see in the darkness of the room…she saw the whole thing begin to unfold objectively before her mental activity is taking place. And out of the nowhere here comes this fantastic, enormous scene—mountains, trees, a huge, huge scene. And she notices that every change in her mental activity produces a change in this external scene. A tree away in the back comes forward to the right, and the mountain that was in the back comes forward, and the whole thing is adjusting to her mental activity, the whole vast world, and she did not know a thing about that. It’s adjusting as she adjusts her mental activity, it’s adjusting to it. And she came to the conclusion that my God is a God of activity, a God of action. For the whole vast thing is unfolding within her; everything that she imagines is taking place with her own being. She said, “I actually felt the whole vast world was moving in me, like beings moving up and down on parade.”
There is, I think it’s the 8th Zoa where Blake mentions it. I think it is, but I do know it is in the Zoa’s that he mentions that moving within you and the whole thing adjusting itself to what he is seeing on the outside. So that’s how God sees us. We are adjusting to his perfect Eden, and when we by our own mental activity produce the changes in Eden and they superimpose, there you are, you’ve done it. So the whole thing took place within her. As she’s looking out, the whole thing’s unfolding within her.
I ask you to try it. Take the most fantastic thing in this world. If I tell you tonight that, well, I don’t know whether you have had it or not, don’t for one moment just because I do not know stop there. If you have that inner conviction…for the truth of any concept is known by the feeling of certainty which that conviction inspires.So if it doesn’t inspire that conviction, well then, you haven’t had it. If, on the other hand, it inspires that conviction, don’t ask me to confirm it, because should I say I don’t think so, what would it matter? It would be nothing to you if I am not with you on it. So do not be disillusioned if I am not with you because it has not been my experience. So you take it from there and then go forward and trust this inner feeling…because on this level it works. Well, if it works on this level, it will work in the depths of your own being.
If I could climb a gangplank that is not visible and while I’m climbing it feeling that I’m actually doing it and watching all the things, and then put my hand on the rail, and look with nostalgia towards the island that I’m leaving and the family that I’m leaving behind. And yet it’s a peculiar feeling, I’m leaving them and I’m sad, and yet I’m happy in the going. I want to get back to my apartment in New York City and therefore I’ve got to leave them. So there’s a peculiar bittersweet in this feeling. I feel it so naturally. And suddenly the phone is ringing and the call is coming, I’m taking the next boat to get back just in time. So here, I know from experience there is an actual time interval. That happened just like this. But I can tell you how to duplicate it. I only know what I did: I arrived at the point of the feeling of a peculiar certainty. And that certainty was inspired, it was a peculiar inspiration, and it worked that way. I’ve had it not only for myself but others time and time and time again.
So you have a concept. The concept, is it true? Well, you can tell the truth of the concept by this technique: You can always tell the truth of a concept by that feeling of certainty which it inspires. So when I imagine that I am seeing the world as I would see it were it as I desire it to be, so that I’m inspired it’s real, it’s true, well then, it doesn’t really matter what another thinks. What does it matter what he thinks or they think? I tell you it will work that way, it will not fail you. So in this series, on the series of which I’m trying constantly to tell you which is the real thing. For if you just tonight owned the world…you saw the headlines and heard the headlines and this constant confusion tonight about gold, so what. But if tonight you wanted, I don’t care what it is, and the concept…you can contemplate it and so contemplate it that it seems to be real, so natural that it awakens within you that feeling of certainty it’s real, well, no power in this world can stop it. It can’t stop it. If you look out for confirmation from others then you’re not doing it. Don’t ask anyone if what you did is right or wrong. Did you do it…that’s all.
I tell you this is true. When it comes now to the story of scripture, I would go all out in defending my own personal observation of what happened to me. And so when I said to Benny “the 6th” and he wrote me his letter, brought it up last night—I was in bed, but he stuck it in the door. This morning when I went out to get my morning paper here is Benny’s letter, and he confirmed it in his letter. Now let me tell you his letter, he said, “I was invited by a couple, man and wife, they are Negroes, they invited me to a party. I joined them and we went off towards the party. On the way, they said, ‘Let us stop home’ meaning their home, and so we stopped at their home. There was a little party of Caucasians in their teens having fun in their home, all Caucasians. The two who invited me were Negroes. They left the room, the living room, where the party was taking place. I’m enjoying the kids…they’re all young people having fun. They quickly return with their hats and their coats in there hands and announce to me in a very authoritative and indifferent manner, ‘You stay and take care and mind the children.’ Well, it struck me funnily that they would do that to me, invite me to a party…they are going on now to the party and I am left to take care of the children. The children were very sweet and lovely, but I wondered, I don’t have to stay here. Out of the nowhere comes this blond, blue-eyed, fair skinned lad among these Caucasians, and I know he’s David. David looks me in the eye and David said to me, ‘I know that our Father will never leave us.’ I knew here is my son, this is my David, my son, and he knew I am his father. But I also felt I was a part of all of them. I felt that love for all of them. I was the father of David, but I also was the father of all of them.”
Now this was on Wednesday of last week. On Friday, he said, “I was telling some friends of mine how I met, in this wonderful experience of vision, David of biblical fame and David called me Father; and I knew he was my son and I knew I was his Father. Here I’m telling the story…and all of a sudden I am waking and I’m on my bed. It was a dream.” The doubling of a dream is the confirmation as told us in the 41st of Genesis. Here, he thought he was fully awake talking to these friends of his, that David of the Bible is his son and he’s telling them and calling him David, David, David. And suddenly he begins to awake and realizes it was a dream. So here is the story. I tell you, you cannot violate it. It’s right in scripture as he is described in the 16th chapter of 1st Samuel, and you will not change his description no matter who you are. He is described there. The Christ child is not described; that Christ child could be anything. It could be black, pink, white, yellow, it could be anything. But David is described. Jesus is not described in scripture. There is no description of him in scripture, none. But I’ll tell you who he is if you read Daniel and Revelation, that is the closest description to the Ancient of Days; and when you see David, he is simply the youth of the Ancient One. And you…what David sees is the Ancient One.
Benny, who to us wears a very dark skin, in the eyes of his son David was that Ancient One, which, may I tell you, is fair of skin, blond and blue-eyed. And that’s Benny. He is wearing a mask, as we are all wearing masks. We’re all wearing masks. And Benny in the eyes of his son David was that Ancient of Days…that’s the only one that David could see. And he’s fair as they come and Benny is as dark as they come. Here, Benny in the eyes of his son is that one, the Ancient of Days, the risen Lord, that’s Benny.
Now I’m telling him, I’m going out on a limb, the 8th of July…that’s when you’ll be split in two from top to bottom. And you’ll have it just as you had it. He said to me, “You know, I despaired when you told me that. I was a little bit nervous that you would go out on a limb publicly and state such a statement.” And here out of the nowhere it happened, because the vision has its own appointed hour; it ripens, it will flower. If it be long wait, it is sure and it will not be late.
Now here in Ezekiel…Ezekiel opens up the book, “In the thirtieth year…the heavens opened, and I saw visions of God” (verse 1). “And as I looked, behold, a stormy wind” (verse 4). That’s how it opens. It gives you a month and a day meaning nothing. He’s giving you the year: “In the thirtieth year,” is how the whole book begins. In the thirtieth year, he is telling you, “the heavens opened and I saw visions of God…and as I looked, behold, a stormy wind.” That’s exactly what happens. You can’t describe this unearthly wind that comes in the thirtieth year, and in that thirtieth year you are born from above. So we are told in scripture that we are born through what?—the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1Pet.1:3). Well, Jesus Christ is the pattern man in every man. You couldn’t live were it not that Jesus Christ was in you. “Unless I die thou canst not live”—his actual death in the most literal sense took place that you may live, I may live. So God died, but really in the true sense of the word, his death is my life. Now, he has to rise. As he rises, he rises only when he impregnates himself, because the one sent and the sender are one. Now he so loves the one that he sent, he impregnates him in me. He embraces me, and as he embraces me then count thirty years and my mission will start thirty years later. So in thirty years after he impregnates me, that’s the gestation period of God, after my 400, which is not 400, but thousands of years of wandering in the wilderness, this world.
Tonight, what confusion in the world! What horrible confusion when they’re threatening the whole vast collapse of the Western economy! That’s confusion. That’s a horrible concept. But in spite of it, the individual when he’s called and embraced, what does it matter what he has to go through from that moment to the time when he’s awake, when he’s born? So he’s born into an entirely different age; he’s taken out of one age into a new age. But you who come here and you know this law, it doesn’t really matter what the headlines said tonight. You know the principle and the principle is imagining creates reality. And you’ll take a concept…and don’t try to feel that you are better than someone else…you’re the creative power. Forget what’s happened to you or what they’re talking about. Well then, can you stand upon your watch and watch to see what he will say and how I will answer him? Well, that’s the world. Read it in the 2nd chapter of Habakkuk. So I will stand upon my watch and assume that I am the man that I want to be. Now let’s see if I’m actually seeing what I ought to see if my assumption is real. I should see exactly what should reflect this assumption. Now, do I see it to the point of feeling that certainty that inspires me so that I know it’s true? If I can reach that point of satisfaction then it’s true. Let the whole vast world collapse and that will come true. No power in the world can stop it. Gold or silver or anything else goes through the window…it doesn’t really matter.
So I say to anyone, if you have visions that I have not had…and you’re told in the 21st chapter of John, if all things were told, the world would not contain the books. Therefore do not think because I have not had your experience that it is not true. And do not try to force me into accepting the fact that what you tell me is what you tell me it is. I’d say, all right, do you have the inner conviction? Well then, go your way, it is right. I’m only following scripture. My pattern has been a complete scriptural pattern, from the embrace, the birth, the resurrection, the empty tomb, the three who witnessed the birth; everything of scripture I followed faithfully. There’s no deviation in my pattern. But I’m not saying because it has happened this way to me that it is the only way.
So let everyone have their experience. But follow along this line when it comes to the picture that you can be the man that you want to be, I know that you can. But you don’t do it by simply wishing. Can you bring about that inner conviction? You can. Stand still, look at the world mentally and see it reflect you as it would have to see you were you now what you want to be. Then seeing it, remain in that state until there is that conviction that inspires you to explode and you feel thrilled it’s all done. Well then, do nothing.What do you do after pregnancy? You do nothing. You simply wait, for it all has its own appointed hour. So I can’t tell you what to do to help…wait. And if you actually know that you conceived at that moment and the egg is a fertile egg, well then, wait. In a way that we do not understand, when you least expect it, that projects itself in the world and you enjoy, whether it be health, wealth, position, anything in this world. That’s how it works. So you take what I’ve told you this night and treat it seriously. It will not fail you! But you are the operant power; it doesn’t operate itself.
So if I have appeared to treat lightly, and I didn’t intend that, any vision or dream, then forgive me…I did not intend that. I only know that the story of scripture is true from beginning to end. And in my own case it has followed scripture so literally. But I would not go out and say that because it’s not in scripture…scripture tells us that not everything that happened in the life of Jesus Christ, which is the pattern man, is recorded. For, if all were recorded, the world would not be big enough to hold all the books, as we’re told in the 21st chapter of John. But do not try to force me to admit something that I cannot. Those who have had it, I ask you to believe it. It will happen this way.
Now to the one who had this experience the other night, I can tell her—and she wrote me a letter, a lovely letter which I got today, thank you—I know your reaction of impatience to bring it to birth right away, but you can’t bring it to birth right away. But what is thirty years in this fabulous eternity? It seems short, really. It’s so short to wait the simple little interval of time. When you’re awake, mind you, and moving forward, you do not lose your memory. Should you depart tonight you’d find yourself a young lady, twenty, and what is thirty years, that’s at the age of fifty, to find yourself bringing into this world the Christ child rising from within yourself? Then a few, what, three and a half years, the completed pattern, and then you enter a new age which is the world of eternity. You depart from death and enter life; you move from darkness to light. But your reaction was natural, may I tell you, perfectly natural. And I told my friend who called me up because she was terribly concerned after your reaction and reminded me of this story that I had in New York City. This young girl comes rushing into the subway. Of course, in New York City as you know, no one gets up for anything—it’s your seat and you open up your paper without concern for anyone else. And she comes rushing into the subway and she says, “Would you please let a pregnant lady have a seat?” A gentleman jumps right up and he’s very concerned and he wonders, well now, when is this lady expecting? She says, “I do not know. I’ve just had the impression.” She didn’t know. I’ll tell this lady, she knows now it’s thirty years…thirty years. But what’s thirty years for such a joy? You’ve been selected, you’ve been chosen and you’re one of the elect.
Now let us go into the Silence.
Q: (inaudible)
A: For instance, I could tell you that you are now what you want to be, but I may not persuade you. As Blake said in his discussion with Isaiah, he asked Isaiah if a firm persuasion that thing is so makes it so, and Isaiah replied, “All poets believed that it did and in ages of Imagination a firm persuasion removed mountains. But not many are capable of a firm persuasion of anything” (Memorable Fancy).If one could actually become persuaded, they could remove mountains he said. Now, I can imagine that I am…first of all, I must assume that I am what would conjure, what would reflect and bear witness to the fact that I am what I am assuming that I am. We start with an assumption. I assume that I am…and you name it. Well then, mentally you see your world which should reflect your assumption…mentally you see it. Now, remain there until you are self-persuaded, so that you actually feel the thrill of the reality of what you’re seeing, so that when the spell is broken you don’t forget what you saw. That is what you are!Now it has its own appointed hour and it will flower, and eventually it will come into your world. So remain faithful to what you’ve just seen. You feel the thrill of what you’ve seen. Is that clear? It will not fail you, but it won’t work itself. You have to operate it.
Good night.
Neville Goddard’s central thesis revolves around the principle that imagination serves as the creative power, and that the truth of any mental construct is verified not by external evidence but by the intensity of the emotion it arouses. By placing feeling at the core of manifestation, he shifts the focus from analytical thought to visceral conviction. This emphasis on affect over intellect echoes longstanding mystical traditions, yet Neville situates it firmly within a practical methodology: visualize until the inner certainty arises, then release.
Drawing heavily on scriptural archetypes, Neville interprets Habakkuk’s counsel to “write the vision” as a call to clearly define one’s inner assumption and to remain watchful for its fulfillment. He unpacks biblical numerology—400 years representing the conditioned state and 30 years signifying the gestation of divine purpose—to underscore the idea that spiritual processes have precise rhythms. These patterns, he suggests, can be observed personally when one keeps a record of the moments of assumption and subsequent real-world confirmation.
The metaphor of impregnation serves as a bridge between psychological practice and mystical union. Neville describes the moment of assumption as an ‘embrace’ between the individual self and the divine creative force; this union then gestates invisibly until the concept ‘ripens.’ Anecdotes, such as the Barbados phone call or the dream of eating the body of God, function as living case studies, providing concrete evidence that the law operates across different contexts, whether fear, desire, or spiritual revelation.
Neville further explores variations in gestation periods—comparing animals, scripture, and human desires—to emphasize that while the timing may vary, the underlying principle remains consistent: once a concept is energized by feeling, it will manifest in its own perfect season. He warns against impatience or external validation, urging practitioners to cultivate self-persuasion and to trust the unseen working of divine time. This teaching reframes waiting as an active spiritual discipline rather than passive delay.
Finally, the lecture culminates in a practical exhortation: assume the state of the fulfilled desire, sustain the feeling until you ‘know’ it is real, then do nothing but wait. In this way, Neville Goddard offers a synthesis of mystical insight and pragmatic technique—a roadmap for consciously co-creating reality through the law of assumption.
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