What Is This Teaching?
Desire And Fulfillment (Neville Goddard) teaches that desire is a signal of your imaginative power and that fulfillment occurs by assuming the inner state of the wish fulfilled. Instead of chasing outward evidence, you create your end by living in the feeling of the completed desire until it externalizes.
Core Principles
- Imagination is creative: the images you live in form your outer reality
- Feeling is the secret: embody the emotion of the wish fulfilled, not the wanting
- Persistence in the state: repeatedly assume and inhabit the end until it hardens into fact
- Mental diet and revision: refuse contradictory thoughts and revise past experiences to support the chosen state
Quick Techniques to Start Today
- Assume the Feeling (Living in the End): a) Choose one short scene that implies your desire is already fulfilled. b) Enter it vividly with sensory detail and, most importantly, the feeling of completion. c) Repeat it daily-especially just before sleep-and carry the feeling through the day
- Mental Diet + Interrupting Doubt: a) Notice negative or 'wanting' thoughts immediately. b) Interrupt them (count, snap, name it) and deliberately replace with a brief fulfilled-state image and feeling. c) Keep replacements short so you can re-enter the feeling quickly
- Resolve Conflicting Desires (State Choice): a) Clarify which inner state (identity) you wish to inhabit. b) Create a single, clear imaginal scene that expresses that state. c) Live from that identity consistently until circumstances align (let external steps flow from the new state)
Key Insights
- Desire alone does not guarantee fulfillment; your inner assumption determines outcome. - Most people confuse wanting (lack) with imagining (possession); shift from desire-as-lack to desire-as-fulfilled feeling.
- Doubt is normal; handle it with a disciplined mental diet and short, repeatable scenes. - Conflicting desires are solved by choosing one state and embodying it, not by balancing opposing wishes. - Fulfillment often arrives through unexpected 'bridges of incidents' once your inner state is fixed-trust the inner change, not the visible route.
Biblical Foundation
“...God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.”
Romans 4:17
Neville's interpretation:
This verse is central to Neville's teaching: imagination (God in Man) calls things into being by speaking them in the inner world. To "call those things which be not as though they were" is to assume and dwell in the feeling of the wish fulfilled.
The scriptural basis shows that faith is active by declaration in consciousness.
“Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”
Mark 11:24
Neville's interpretation:
Prayer is an inner act of assuming the end. "Believe that ye receive" means occupy the state of consciousness that already contains the result. Neville taught that prayer is not petitioning outside; it is the imagining of the fulfilled state until it dominates your consciousness.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Hebrews 11:1
Neville's interpretation:
Faith is present feeling-imagination that gives substance to unseen realities. "Substance" means a living, felt reality in your mind. When you hold this felt reality persistently, it becomes the cause of outer change.
The Scripture supports Neville's assertion that inner conviction precedes outer manifestation.
Step-by-Step Practice Method
- Clarify the Desire (30-60 minutes of reflection) - Write one precise desire in present-tense single-sentence form (e.g., "I am happily receiving $5,000 this month" or "She and I are lovingly reconciled and happy"). - Ensure it is personal, specific, and ethically aligned. Avoid vague or contradictory statements
- Craft the End-Scene (15-30 minutes) - Create a brief 20-120 second scene that implies the desire fulfilled and that you are already in that state. It should be a single moment (a short exchange, a receipt, a physical sensation). Scenes end with the feeling of fulfillment. - Include sensory details: sight, sound, touch, smell, taste, and most importantly the emotional tone
- Mental Diet During the Day - Monitor thoughts. When lack, doubt, or contrary scenes arise, instantly dismiss them and replace with a short affirmative inner scene or phrase that reinforces the assumption (e.g., replay the end-scene, or mentally say "I have it"). - Keep a short list of 3-5 supportive statements to repeat when negative thinking intrudes
- SATS (State Akin To Sleep) - Primary nightly practice (20-25 minutes) - Timing: Practice just before sleep or during a quiet rest period. You want to be relaxed and near sleep so the imaginal act impresses the subconscious. - Physical relaxation: Lie down, relax muscles, breathe slowly, progressively relax from toes to head. - Calm the mind: Count down from 10 to 1 or use simple breath counting until you feel drowsy but still conscious. - Enter the scene: Once relaxed, imagine the chosen end-scene vividly. Do not narrate a long story - enter the scene as a participant or observer and let it play for 20-120 seconds. - Feel the feeling: Evoke the emotional state of fulfillment. Let gratitude, joy, relief or contentment be prominent. - Close: Repeat the scene 2-5 times if possible, then let it go and fall asleep with the feeling retained. No effort after the practice - trust the impression you've made
- Daily Inner Conversation and Living in the End - Throughout the day, carry the assumption: mentally behave as the person who already has the desire. Make decisions, speak, and act from that state. - Use short inner conversations: When faced with outer evidence contrary to the wish, say inwardly the definitive sentence that affirms the end (e.g., "No matter this outward appearance, I remain as I am - fulfilled")
- Revision (for past disturbances) - Each evening (or upon waking), mentally revise unpleasant events of the day by replaying them as you would have preferred, fully imagining the corrected scene. This removes negative impressions from consciousness that block fulfillment
- Stop Seeking Evidence and Avoid Overchecking - After consistent SATS and daytime assumption, stop obsessively checking for signs. Maintain the inner state and allow outer evidence to conform in its time
- Keep Gratitude and Relaxation - Express inner gratitude at the end of each practice and intermittently during the day. Gratitude seals the assumption and reduces anxiety
- Duration and Persistence - Practice nightly for at least 21-40 consecutive nights for substantial desires, shorter desires may show sooner. Persistence until inner conviction, not until a set number of days, is crucial
- Take Inspired Action (when it arises) - If an intuitive or inspired action seems to flow from your assumption, take it. Neville emphasized imagination first; action follows naturally and is prompted by the assumed state
- Troubleshooting (brief) - If contradictions persist, intensify mental diet, repeat SATS, revise daily, and examine hidden beliefs. Seek out the earliest contradictory assumption and re-imagine it as you wish it had been. This method combines SATS, mental diet, revision, and living-in-the-end - Neville's core practical prescriptions for Desire and Fulfillment
Real-World Applications
- Focus on lack: "I need $5,000, bills are piling up." Constant worrying and searching external solutions without inner change. Checking accounts obsessively, asking others for help from a place of desperation.
- Define: "I am receiving $5,000 today and I feel such relief and gratitude."
- End-scene (SATS): Imagine opening an email that says "Payment received: $5,000" or seeing the balance increase and feeling relief, hugging yourself, hearing a friend congratulate you. Hold the exact feeling of relief and gratitude. Repeat nightly for 15-30 minutes. During the day, when anxious thoughts arise, replay the short scene and say inwardly "It is done." Remain open to inspired actions like calling a client, sending an invoice, or accepting an unexpected gift.
- Expected shift: sudden payment, unexpected refund, job offer, or inner calm and opportunity-seeking behavior aligned with the assumed state.
- Begging, pleading, analyzing past faults publicly, replaying painful scenes, trying to manipulate the other through messages or surveillance. Imagining future arguments or trying to change the other from outside.
- Define: "We are together, affectionate, and peaceful at dinner tonight."
- End-scene: In SATS imagine sitting at the table, your partner smiling, a gentle touch or 'I love you' exchanged, the tone of voice, warmth and safety. Feel contentment and gratitude as if it’s real. Repeat nightly and live the day as if reconciliation is done - speak kindly to yourself about the relationship, avoid gossip, and follow intuitive nudges (a calm message or a considerate gesture). Use revision to re-imagine past conversations as loving.
- Expected shift: change in tone between you, a forgiving message, surprising warmth from the other, or inner peace reducing conflict-driven behavior that sabotages reunification.
- Obsessing on symptoms, catastrophizing, constant self-diagnosis, believing the body is failing, or ignoring medical guidance while dwelling on the pain.
- Define: "My back is strong and comfortable; I move easily and painlessly."
- End-scene: Imagine bending down with ease, waking up without pain, feeling warmth and strength in the muscles, walking outside with freedom. Use SATS to experience the bodily sensations of ease and mobility. Maintain a mental diet that excludes catastrophic health scenarios. Combine with appropriate medical care or physiotherapy as inspired action.
- Expected shift: reduction in pain intensity, increased range of motion, better sleep, doctors reporting improvements, or discovery of helpful treatments prompted by your changed behavior and observation.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Fuzzy Desire (lack of clarity) - Mistake: Vague or contradictory wishes ("I want to be wealthy and humble") or multiple conflicting end-scenes. - Avoidance: Define one clear, specific, present-tense statement and one concise end-scene. Make it emotionally unambiguous
- Emotional Contradiction (feeling lack while pretending) - Mistake: Attempting to imagine the end without genuinely feeling it, or saying affirmations while feeling doubt and anxiety. - Avoidance: Build feeling first. Use small believable scenes to generate the genuine feeling, practice relaxation, and grow the emotional reality gradually
- Poor Mental Diet (allowing contrary thoughts to dominate) - Mistake: Letting daily thought-life be dominated by fear, worry, or replaying negative scenes, which undermines imaginal impressions. - Avoidance: Immediately replace contrary thoughts with a brief supportive scene or phrase; schedule revision and protective mental routines; limit media and conversations that reinforce lack
- Impatience and Overchecking - Mistake: Constantly looking for external proof or manipulating outer circumstances to "force" evidence, then abandoning the inner assumption when it does not appear instantly. - Avoidance: Commit to daily SATS and living-in-the-end without obsessing about timing. Trust the process and note small synchronicities rather than demanding immediate big signs
- Misusing Imagination (creating fearful scenarios or trying to manipulate others) - Mistake: Imagining how others should behave with rigid scripts or imagining fearful outcomes "to prepare" for them; using imagination to control rather than to assume. - Avoidance: Use imagination for your own state, not to coerce another's will. If others are involved, imagine the feeling of having your desire fulfilled (e.g., reconciliation), not the exact mental content of their inner process. Rely on love and ethical alignment, and be willing to accept the best expression for all concerned
Advanced Techniques
- Revision of the Past - Advanced application (Neville staple) - Purpose: Remove or transform negative impressions that block present manifestations. - Method: Each evening, replay events of the day or critical past memories that left a disturbing charge. Imagine them as you wished they had been (a loving response, success instead of failure), experiencing the new scene as vividly as possible. Repeat until you feel relief. This rewrites the impression that has been impressing your subconscious and replaces it with a supportive impression that will bear fruit in the present
- "I Remember When" - Deepening certainty through memory construction - Purpose: To create the sense that the desire is already true by making it feel like a remembered past event. - Method: In SATS or quiet day-waking, imagine yourself later (weeks or months ahead) recalling the moment your desire was fulfilled. Use first-person recounting: "I remember when the bank called and said the transfer had cleared. I felt such relief and was so grateful..." The memory-like quality gives the subconscious a conviction that the event belongs to your personal history. Repeat until you can feel genuine nostalgia for that 'memory.'
- The Two-State Transition (advanced living-in-the-end technique) - Purpose: Rapidly shift identity into the assumed state in daily life, even amid contradictory evidence. - Method: Select a simple daily trigger (a doorbell, a phrase, a touch). Each time the trigger occurs, silently and instantly assume a micro-state of fulfillment for 10-30 seconds (smile, breathe, feel the result). Train yourself until the trigger reliably produces the assumed state. This conditions the nervous system and subconscious to the new identity and accelerates outer adjustments. Use discreet triggers so life remains natural. Note on ethics and subtlety: Advanced techniques can strongly influence your subjective world; always use them responsibly and with awareness of other people's freedom. Neville emphasized that imagination is sacred and must express love and rightful desire
Signs of Progress
- Inner Certainty and Calm - The first sign is a shift in your inner tone: you feel less anxious, more peaceful, and confident about the outcome even if nothing external has changed yet. This is evidence the subconscious is accepting the impression
- Sensory Previews and Dreams - Vivid flashes, daydreams, and dreams related to the desire increase. These sensory previews are seeds of the outer event forming. Note recurring images or symbols
- Synchronicities and Small Openings - Unanticipated helpful contacts, a phone call, an email, or a small shift in circumstances that could lead to the full fulfillment. These are the "firstfruits" of the assumption
- Changes in Behavior and Opportunity Recognition - You begin to notice options you didn't see before and naturally take inspired actions. Your conduct aligns with the assumed state (more generous, confident, decisive)
- Tangible Evidence - Financial credits, messages of reconciliation, medical improvements, job offers, or other measurable outcomes appear. They often build gradually from small confirmations to the full result
- Emotional Consistency - The imagined feeling persists without constant effort; replaying the end-scene is effortless and joyful. Expected timeline and troubleshooting: Simple desires can show signs in days to weeks; deeper or collective desires may take months. If no signs appear after steady practice (4-8 weeks), review clarity of desire, quality of feeling, mental diet, and hidden beliefs. Intensify SATS, revision, and the "I Remember When" technique. Keep measures of subtle progress (mood logs, dream notes, synchronicity journal) to maintain evidence of inner change
Frequently Asked Questions
Does desire imply the power to fulfill it?
- Choose one desire and state it simply
- Construct a short, sensory 'scene' that implies the wish is already fulfilled (a single moment that proves the desire has come to pass)
- Enter that scene in imagination with feeling, preferably at night before sleep or in a relaxed state
- Persist without contradicting it by negative thinking; use revision if doubt arises. Common blocks & how to remove them: disbelief, fragmented desires, and negative self-images. Use revision (rewrite past failures as you wish they had been), practice gratitude in advance, and silence inner contradiction. Neville’s unique difference from generic 'law of attraction' is that he locates the creative power not in desire plus positive thinking or external vibration, but in the disciplined use of imagination to assume the state of the wish fulfilled until the subconscious accepts it and projects the outer corresponding world
How do I handle doubt while waiting for fulfillment?
- Recognize doubt as an imaginal act: When you notice doubt, acknowledge it without dramatizing. Say mentally, 'That is only imagination contradicting my assumption.' Then return to your scene with feeling
- Use 'revision' immediately: If an event causes doubt, revise it at night-see the events as you wish they had been. This repairs the imprint on the subconscious
- Employ the state akin to sleep: The last thing you imagine before sleep has disproportionate power. End the day with your fulfilled scene; this calms doubt and impresses the subconscious while the conscious guard is down
- Build evidence with small proofs: Neville encouraged getting small, quick proofs of your assumption to quiet the doubter. Fulfill micro-desires regularly to build the muscle of faith
- Guard the inner conversation: Watch the words you allow yourself to say about circumstances. Neville emphasized that inner speech creates outer conditions; catch negative sentences and replace them with present-tense, felt sentences of the fulfilled state. Spiritual references and reassurance: Mark 11:24 and Hebrews 11:1 ('Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen') support Neville’s position that faith (feeling) precedes manifestation. Neville’s unique view versus generic LOA: he insists that belief is not intellectual assent but an imaginal and emotional state that must be lived in continuously until it becomes the subconscious assumption
How do I move from wanting to feeling the wish fulfilled?
- Clarify the end: Write a concise scene that can be experienced in a minute or two (for example, 'I am signing the contract,' or 'I am embraced by my loved one'). Include sensory details-sight, sound, smell, touch
- Relax and enter the scene: Use a few minutes daily-preferably at night as you drift to sleep (the state akin to sleep Neville recommends). Close your eyes, breathe, and see the short scene as if present now. Feel the emotions you would feel in that moment-relief, joy, gratitude
- Build feeling first, then detail: Feeling must be primary. If you struggle to conjure details, begin with the dominant emotion and let images follow
- Persist without reasoning from current facts: After the practice, go about your life without fretting. Avoid arguments from the senses-do not judge by present appearances
- Use revision and affirmation sparingly: If the day brings contrary events, revise them at night as you would have wished them to be. Common obstacles and remedies: If the feeling fades quickly, shorten the scene and anchor it with one sensory trigger (a phrase, touch, or small gesture). If imagination balks, begin with small, easily provable fulfillments to build faith. Neville’s distinct teaching compared with common LOA: it’s not 'think positive' or 'raise vibration'-it's deliberately assume and dwell in the fulfilled state until it becomes your subjective reality, which then produces objective change
What if I have conflicting desires-how do I choose a state?
- Inventory your desires: Write them down. Distinguish between superficial, ephemeral wants and the one deep desire that most truly reflects your inner longing or purpose
- Test for longevity: The desire that persists and causes you to imagine outcomes most vividly is the one to assume. Temporary cravings will often pass when ignored
- Choose boldly: Pick one end to live in for a period. Neville advised that you cannot serve two masters of feeling. Fully assume the chosen state morning and night until it feels natural
- Suspend the others: Do not deny other wants exist, but place them in abeyance. You can visualize them later if they endure, but not while you are impressing a particular state
- Use 'as if' integration: If two desires are not truly incompatible (for example, career success and love), craft a single imaginal scene that embraces both-what it feels like to have career success while experiencing loving relationships. Addressing inner conflict and guilt: Often conflicts are reflections of internalized beliefs or identities (e.g., 'I want abundance' vs. 'I must be spiritual and poor'). Identify the limiting belief, challenge it by imagining the end that disproves it, and use revision to rewrite past confirmations of the limiting belief. Biblical perspective: Matthew 6:22-23 speaks about the lamp of the body-where your eye (focus) is, there will be light. Neville’s take is practical: your imaginal focus determines which desire becomes real. Choose the state to be the lamp you carry
Can fulfilled desire arrive through unexpected ‘bridges of incidents’?
- Stay relaxed and open: Expectation without anxiety allows you to notice opportunity when it appears. If you’re frantic, you’ll overlook subtle hints
- Do the inner work consistently: The bridges follow the impressed assumption. Keep imagining the end and living in the feeling; do not try to force specific means
- Be grateful in advance: Gratitude in advance aligns you with the outcome and magnetizes helpful incidents. Neville stressed thankfulness as evidence of having received
- Develop practical sensitivity: When a coincidence or lead appears, test it against the feeling of the end. If it harmonizes, act. Bridges are often humble-phone calls, people you meet, nudges of intuition
- Avoid ruling out means: Neville warned against insisting on a particular route. The One Mind supplies what you need, often through surprising channels that would not have occurred to you. A biblical echo: Proverbs 16:9, 'A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps,' suggests the inner purpose is established before the external path appears. Neville’s distinction from common 'law of attraction' is that he doesn’t teach manipulation of externals; he teaches faithful inner assumption and readiness to walk the bridge when it appears. Practically, when a bridge arrives, move quickly but from the feeling of your finished desire rather than from desperation, and treat each small opening as confirmation to continue living in the end
The Bible Through Neville
Obadiah 1:11
Isaiah 23:15
Nahum 2:8
Jude 1:5
Job 18:12
Numbers 19:14
Hosea 5:10
Nehemiah 7:63
Philippians 2:23
Numbers 12:1
Neville Bible Sparks
Jeremiah 44:22
Joshua 5:12
Daniel 5:10
Psalms 27:14
Ezekiel 31:6
Deuteronomy 1:6
Genesis 32:20
2 Chronicles 6:25
Luke 3:27
Revelation 2:29
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