In this lecture, Neville Goddard explores truth as a living psychological force that scripture will manifest through belief. He distinguishes baptism with water as repentance resulting in outer change and baptism with the Holy Spirit as an inner union with the divine self. Through vivid anecdotes—repairing a computer by imagining it whole and visiting his deceased friend Jack—he demonstrates how controlled imagination shapes reality. Goddard reframes scripture as a psychological drama, where impulses equal inner acts and literal stories become metaphors for mental processes. He recounts his own mystical baptism with the Spirit, uniting him with the Risen Lord. Extending this to life after death, he portrays resurrection as restoration to a new psychological state. The lecture concludes with an invitation to enter the silence and experience the creative power of inner truth.
If truth could ever be told so that it is understood, it will be believed. It is my hope that I can make the truth of scripture so understandable you will believe it. But whether you do or not, one day you will; for scripture will fulfill itself in you and then you will understand it perfectly.
Scripture speaks of two baptisms, baptism with the water of repentance, and baptism with the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us: “I baptize with the water of repentance, but there will come one after me who is mightier than I. He will baptize with the Holy Spirit.”
Now, repentance means a radical change of attitude towards life. If you change your thinking, and things in your outer world change, then you have been baptized with the water of repentance.
A friend recently shared these experiences with me saying, “I am in the computer business. Every year we hold a convention, and this year our company chose to demonstrate a million-dollar computer. It was delivered on a Friday, giving us three days to be ready for the show’s opening the following Tuesday. On Sunday we discovered that some of the parts were not functioning and others were missing.
“Knowing that our subcontractors were scattered all over the nation, when I arrived Monday morning everyone was in a state of panic. Controlling my thoughts, I began to apply my imagination by claiming it was Tuesday morning and the computer was working perfectly. Then I checked the missing parts list and discovered that the company who manufactured the parts was located only fourteen miles from the Center. They delivered the parts that afternoon and by Tuesday morning the computer was functioning perfectly, just as I had imagined.
“One day an old computer which had been stored in our warehouse for sometime, was sold. No one had checked to make sure it was operating properly, so on the day of the delivery I imagined everything was perfect. But as I checked it out, I discovered that two vital parts were missing and could not be found.
“That afternoon the salesman came in, picked up a little package not more than ten feet from the computer and said, “Here are the parts.’ And he was right! Inside this little brown package were the missing parts that seemingly were not there before.” Here is a man who has been baptized with water by psychologically applying the truth!
Truth first appears as a stone. That is when everything is done literally. The head of a bull is cut off, and sacrifices are made to a God on the outside. Water comes from the stone when the literal facts take on psychological meaning. Then the water turns into the wine of spiritual truth, through experience.
One must see the whole vast world as a psychological drama. You may think you have never committed adultery, but the moment you lust after anything, the stage is set by your imaginal act. Restraining the impulse is not good enough. The moment you have the impulse to steal, the act is committed. The impulse to hurt is the act of hurting. You may be afraid to carry out any act, but when the impulse appears, the act is committed. Once you understand this, you will forgive all, for there is only one son (who you are), doing your Father’s will.
In the third chapter of the book of Matthew, John states, “I baptize with the water of repentance.”Repentance tests your ability to enter into and partake of the nature of the opposite. When you see another in want, you repent by persuading yourself he is affluent. To the degree you can believe this truth you bathe in the baptismal prime waters. Only when you act and prove repentance, in performance, are you baptized in the true sense of the word.
The baptism with the Holy Spirit is something entirely different. While living by the law of repentance, you will be called to unite into a single body, who is God. In the 12th chapter of 1st Corinthians we are told that, “By one spirit we are baptized into one body.”
When this baptism happened to me, I had the sensation of being taken for a long, long journey. I found myself standing in front of the Risen Lord, who asked me the simple question: “What is the greatest thing in the world?” I answered as though promoted from some depth of my own being, saying, “Faith, hope and love. These three, but the greatest of these is love.” With these words, the Risen Lord embraced me and we became one being.
No mortal eye can see the body of God I wear, but I feel it, for I wear it every moment of time. Now, when I tell my story some will resist me, for they are still filled with their own preconceived misconceptions of Christ. But I know that one day everyone will be embraced by this one spirit, thereby being baptized into the one body of Christ.
My wife’s oldest sister is a darling. We love and respect each other, but she cannot believe what I teach. Although she believes in the Bible, and calls herself a good Christian, she could not believe me when I said she would not die. That even the little flower which blooms once blooms forever, for I am a God of the living, not the dead.
Now, Alice would not believe me on this level, so I reached her on another level. In 1948, my secretary, Jack Butler, died quite suddenly. Six or seven months later, fully awake and aware of where I was and what I was doing, I visited Jack. Although he was 50 when he died here, he was a young man in his twenties, there.
Standing beside me, Alice said, “You know, I still don’t believe what you teach,” and I replied, “How can you say that when you see Jack here?” “What does he have to do~ with it?” she asked and I replied, “Don’t you remember, Jack died in August of last year.” With that remark Alice’s face took on an expression of complete amazement. Knowing I was telling the truth, seeing Jack denied her belief in non-survival.
Then Jack spoke saying, “Who’s dead?” and I said, “Jack, you are not dead, but you died. I gave you a good Catholic funeral and your body is buried in a Catholic cemetery.” “Oh,” he said, “You’re stupid. You say I”m not dead but I died. That can’t be.” Then I said to Alice, “Come over here,” and I placed my hand on Jack’s thigh and said, “See, my hand doesn’t go through his flesh. It’s solid. If I cut him right now he would bleed. He would hurt as you would hurt.”
With this remark Jack took my hand and slapped it saying, “Get your hand off me,” just as he would do were he here. You see, there is no transforming power in death, and Jack did not know he had died. Not everyone knows of the transition. Some take years to discover it.
Although Alice was with me at the time, she didn’t remember the incident. If she had, it would have taken on the form of a dream, to her. But, being fully awake, I know exactly what I am doing every moment of time. Today Alice believes in survival, although she doesn’t realize that that experience was the beginning of the subtle change in her.
When you are sent, you will carry the message of the one who sent you. You will tell all who will listen that there is only one body, one spirit, one love who embraces and incorporates the individual into a single body who is the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the meantime, as you test yourself, you are being baptized with the water of repentance. Always creating on this level, when you change your attitude and allow it to become fixed, your outer world will reflect your change. Then one day you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
“Among you stands one who you do not know. I, myself did not know him,” said John. “But I saw the Holy Spirit descend as a dove and remain on him. He who sent me said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.”‘
The word “with” used here, is the preposition “in.” You are not sprinkled with water, but are incorporated into the Spirit of Love Himself; thereby being baptized in the Holy Spirit. At that moment you are no longer another, you are the body of Christ. He who is baptized into Christ puts on Christ and wears this body as his own.
As scripture unfolds in you, you feel yourself to be the being who first called and incorporated you into his body. Then God’s only begotten son calls you father, and you understand the wonderful story of baptism. And when you tell it with understanding, some will believe you, while others will disbelieve. Perhaps, because of prejudice, the engrafting will not be accepted at the moment, but it will come.
Now, if I dwell in you and the Father dwells in me, is not the Father in you? And if you are in me and I am in everyone, is not the Father in everyone? Are we not the same being? Will not the same infinite son call us father? Those who believe that Jesus Christ was a man who lived 2000 years ago cannot comprehend a cosmic Christ, dwelling in all, who is God the Father. But God, the Father of all life, is housed in every individual. And one day He will unveil Himself, not as another, but as the one in whom He reveals Himself!
In D. H. Lawrence’s poem ‘The New Heavens and Earth,’ he said,
“I was so weary of it all and when death came, I died, to discoverI am in a body as of before, onlywith a newness beyond the knowledgeof newness, and unaccountable.”
This is true, for if you do not know that the story of life is psychological, you cannot account for its newness. My friend Jack died at fifty, looking much, much older. But when I saw him six or seven months later, Jack was a young man of twenty, in a body with a newness beyond the knowledge of newness. The decomposition of Jack’s body which he wore while here, had advanced by then, yet Jack did not know he had died.
The body of a two-hundred pound friend can be turned into ash in the matter of an hour; yet when you meet him, he will not understand how he was renewed, for to him his body is solid and real. It breathes and grows old just as yours does here. It has problems there, as you do here; and if he doesn’t hear the story of baptism and awaken there, he will repeat the experience all over again.
While here, Jack did not know the story of life was psychological, and he doesn’t know it there. He attended my meetings only because he was interested in meeting people. He refused to assume any obligation of society. He wouldn’t get married, but loved all the ladies and they all loved him. He still loves them all, and has yet to realize that life is psychological and ever renews itself by the seed of contemplative thought.
Mr. Lawrence called his experience resurrection, but the word is restoration. He spoke of being restored to life with a newness beyond the knowledge of newness. This is true, for teeth or hair that are missing here are instantly renewed, but people do not stop to reflect upon this fact. They do not stop to realize that they were ninety when they died. That they didn’t go through the womb of a woman, yet are restored to life at the age of twenty. And, because life’s problems are upon them, they go blindly on trying to figure out how to pay the rent, eat, and care for their bodies’ needs just as you do here. They are in a terrestrial world, just like this one, but not in this section of time.
But when you are resurrected, you are born into the one body of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is heaven! And when you leave this body of darkness and decay, you enter an entirely different world, wearing a body endowed with creative power. You will no longer wear the limitations of the flesh or have need for food as you understand it. The normal functions of this body no longer exist, as you will wear a body of radiant light – the body you wore before that the world was!
Now let us go into the silence.
In "Truth, The Word of God", Goddard seeds a radical reinterpretation of scripture as a psychological narrative. He positions truth not as external facts but as living experiences that must be believed to materialize. By claiming that "scripture will fulfill itself in you," he invites an experiential hermeneutic, where understanding dawns through inner transformation. This approach foregrounds the mind as the creative substrate of reality.
Central to the lecture is the distinction between baptism with water, symbolizing repentance-driven outer change, and baptism with the Holy Spirit, signifying mystical unity with the divine self. Goddard emphasizes that true repentance transmutes attitude, leading to measurable shifts in the external world. The ultimate baptism in Spirit dissolves individual separation, creating one body of Christ. This dual baptism framework bridges practical self-renewal with transcendent oneness.
Goddard’s anecdotes—repairing a computer through imagination and his post-mortem vision of friend Jack—demonstrate the potency of mental acts in shaping both material and spiritual realms. These narratives serve not as mere parables but as proof-of-concept, illustrating his metaphysical claims in tangible scenarios. By highlighting the immediacy of results, he aims to dissolve skepticism and galvanize faith in imaginative power. The stories underscore his thesis: inner belief dictates outer manifestation.
The cosmic Christ motif culminates in a vision of resurrection as psychological restoration, not physical rebirth. Goddard argues that the universal Father dwells in all, inviting listeners to perceive life as an ongoing creative drama. This inclusive theology challenges traditional temporal and spatial confines, presenting a model for personal empowerment and universal unity. Ultimately, his call to "go into the silence" frames meditation as the gateway to this transformative realization.
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