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Neville Lancelot Goddard (1905-1972)

Neville Lancelot Goddard (1905-1972) was an American mystic author who was famous for his writing on metaphysical subjects.[1][2][3] He interpreted Bible from a psychological perspective, i.e. treating it not as a record of historical events, but a collection of parables on how the human mind works.[4][5][6] As he wrote, “Instead of looking upon the Bible as the historical record of an ancient civilization or the biography of the unusual life of Jesus, see it as a great psychological drama taking place in the consciousness of man.”[7] Goddard is often associated with the New Thought Movement,[8][9][10] which promotes metaphysical ideas such as the Law of Attraction,[11][12] and he remains one of the most quoted authors for the subject in the 21st century. [13][14][15]

Biblical Interpretations

Goddard believed that the content of the Bible should be viewed as parables of the human psyche instead of actual historical events. As he wrote, “The stories of the Bible are all mystical revelations written in an Eastern symbolism which reveals to the intuitive the secret of creation and the formula of escape… Man discovered that his consciousness was the cause or creator of his world, so he proceeded to tell the story of creation in a series of symbolical stories known to us today as the Bible.”[16] And thus, “So can’t you see why the millions of prayers are unanswered? Men pray to a God that does not exist.”[17] Therefore, Goddard did not believe in an external God who answers prayers, but rather that “You are the creator. This is the mystery, this is the great secret known by the seers, prophets, and mystics throughout the ages.”[18]

Below are several key items of biblical symbolism as interpreted by Goddard.

The Meaning of Jehovah (יהוה)

The symbolic name of the Creator is known in the Hebrew Bible as Jehovah, or in the Tetragrammaton יהוה (Yodh He Waw He).[19] Goddard believes that each letter represents a metaphysical process of creation:[16]

  • The first letter Yodh (י) represents the absolute state or consciousness unconditioned; the sense of undefined awareness; that all inclusiveness out of which all creation or conditioned states of consciousness come. In the terminology of today Yodh is I AM, or unconditioned consciousness.
  • The second letter He (ה) represents the only begotten Son, a desire, an imaginary state. It symbolizes an idea; a defined subjective state or clarified mental picture.
  • The third letter Waw (ו) symbolizes the act of unifying or joining the conceiver (Yodh), the consciousness desiring to the conception (He), the state desired, so that the conceiver and the conception become one. Fixing a mental state, consciously defining yourself as the state desired, impressing upon yourself the fact that you are now that which you imagined or conceived as your objective, is the function of VAU. It nails or joins the consciousness desiring to the thing desired. The cementing or joining process is accomplished subjectively by feeling the reality of that which is not yet objectified.
  • The fourth letter He (ה) represents the objectifying of this subjective agreement. The Yodh He Waw makes man or the manifested world (He), in the image and likeness of itself, the subjective conscious state. So the function of the final HE is to objectively bear witness to the subjective state Yodh He Waw.


The Meaning Behind “I Am”

Rather, he believes that God in the bible refers to the awareness of oneself. “Moses discovered God to be man’s awareness of being, when he declared these little understood words, ‘I AM hath sent me unto you.’ David sang in his psalms, ‘Be still and know that I AM God.’ … It is clearly stated, ‘I AM the way.’ The awareness of being is the door through which the manifestations of life pass into the world of form. Consciousness is the resurrecting power – resurrecting that which man is conscious of being. Man is ever out-picturing that which he is conscious of being. This is the truth that makes man free, for man is always self-imprisoned or self-freed.”[17]

The Father and the Son

Goddard believes that the Father is the conceiver (awareness of being) and the Son is the conception (being aware of an identity). “So we say Consciousness is God. We say consciousness in action is imagination. And if consciousness in action, or God in action, is the Son bearing witness of his Father, then we come to the conclusion that imagination is that son.”[18] And since a conception cannot exist without a conceiver, the Father and the Son always exist together. “This statement, ‘I and my father are one, but my father is greater than I,’ seems very confusing – but if interpreted in the light of what we have just said concerning the identity of God, you will find it very revealing. Consciousness, being God, is as ‘father.’ The thing that you are conscious of being is the ‘son’ bearing witness of his ‘father.’ It is like the conceiver and its conceptions. The conceiver is ever greater than his conceptions yet ever remains one with his conception. For instance; before you are conscious of being man, you are first conscious of being. Then you become conscious of being man. Yet you remain as conceiver, greater than your conception—man.”[17]

The Virgin and the Widow

Goddard thought that Virgin Mary is a state of awareness instead of a historical person. “Mary is the awareness of being that ever remains virgin, no matter how many desires it gives birth to. Right now look upon yourself as this virgin Mary – being impregnated by yourself through the medium of desire – becoming one with your desire to the point of embodying or giving birth to your desire.”[17] In other words, “Mary is never a physical virgin, but every man or woman in the world is that virgin.”[20]

A similar concept is the symbolism of the widow. Goddard quoted a story of Elijah. “Another story is told us of the widow and the three drops of oil. The prophet asked the widow, ‘What have ye in your house?’ And she replied, ‘Three drops of oil.’ He then said to her, ‘Go borrow vessels. Close the door after ye have returned into your house and begin to pour.’ And she poured from three drops of oil into all the borrowed vessels, filling them to capacity with oil remaining.” As an opposite to the virgin, Goddard believes that the widow represents someone who is unable to bring about their desires by her imaginative power, unless she could bring herself to shut off senses which perceive otherwise (closing the door of the house), and focus on the minimal evidence of success (three drops of oil).[17][21]

The Meaning of YHVH

Freedom for all

Draft

Below are some examples of Goddard’s interpretation of the Bible:

“I Am” as the Awareness of Being

Source Passage (NKJV) Interpretation
Exodus 3:14 I AM has sent me to you. God is man’s awareness of being. The awareness of being is the door through which the manifestations of life pass into the world of form. Consciousness is the resurrecting power – resurrecting that which man is conscious of being. Man is ever out-picturing that which he is conscious of being.[17]
Psalm 46:10 Be still and know that I AM God.
Isaiah 45:5 I AM the Lord and there is none else.
Revelation 22:13 I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Mark 8:29 But who do you say that I AM? This is the eternal question addressed to one’s self by one’s true being. For your conviction of yourself – your opinion of yourself will determine your expression in life.
John 3:7 You believe in God, believe also in me. In other words, it is the me within you that is this God. Praying then, is seen to be recognizing yourself to be that which you now desire, rather than its accepting form of petitioning a God that does not exist for that which you now desire.

“Father and Son” as the Conceiver and the Conceived

Source Passage (NKJV) Interpretation
John 10:29-30 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all… I and My Father are one. Consciousness, being God, is as ‘father.’ The thing that you are conscious of being is the ‘son’ bearing witness of his ‘father.’ It is like the conceiver and its conceptions. The conceiver is ever greater than his conceptions yet ever remains one with his conception. For instance; before you are conscious of being man, you are first conscious of being. Then you become conscious of being man. Yet you remain as conceiver, greater than your conception – man.
Luke 15:20 And he arose and came to his father. It is telling you that he rose in consciousness to the point where he was just conscious of being, thus transcending the limitations of his present conception of himself, called ‘Jesus.’
John 6:44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. Therefore, consciousness is the father that is drawing the manifestations of life unto you.

Law of Attraction

Source Passage (NKJV) Interpretation
Job 22:28 You will also declare a thing, And it will be established for you. In the awareness of being all things are possible. This is his decreeing – rising in consciousness to the naturalness of being the thing desired.
John 12:32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself. If I be lifted up in consciousness to the naturalness of the thing desired I will draw the manifestation of that desire unto me.
John 3:7 You must be born again. If you are dissatisfied with your present expression in life the only way to change it, is to take your attention away form that which seems so real to you and rise in consciousness to that which you desire to be. You cannot serve two masters, therefore to take your attention from one state of consciousness and place it upon another is to die to one and live to the other.
Matthew 6:6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. We have identified the ‘father’ to be the awareness of being. We have also identified the ‘door’ to be the awareness of being. So ‘shutting the door’ is shutting out that which ‘I’ am now aware of being and claiming myself to be that which ‘I’ desire to be. The very moment my claim is established to the point of conviction, that moment I begin to draw unto myself the evidence of my claim. Do not question the how of these things appearing, for no man knows that way. That is, no manifestation knows how the things desired will appear.
Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. The awareness of being, is the way through which the thing shall come. The signs always follow. They never precede. Things have no reality other than in consciousness. Therefore, get the consciousness first and the thing is compelled to appear.
Various Mary gave birth to Jesus. Mary was not a woman – giving birth in some miraculous way to one called ‘Jesus.’ Mary is the awareness of being that ever remains virgin, no matter how many desires it gives birth to. Right now look upon yourself as this virgin Mary – being impregnated by yourself through the medium of desire – becoming one with your desire to the point of embodying or giving birth to your desire.
Isaiah 54:5 For your Maker is your husband, The LORD of hosts is His name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth. It is said of Mary (whom you now know to be yourself) that she know not a man. Yet she conceived. That is, you, John Smith, have no reason to believe that that which you now desire is possible, but having discovered your awareness of being to be God, you make this awareness your husband and conceive a man child (manifestation) of the Lord.


The second, as we are told in the story of Mary, is to “Magnify the Lord.” We have identified the Lord as your awareness of being. Therefore, to ‘magnify the Lord’ is to revalue or expand one’s present conception of one’s self to the point where this revaluation becomes natural. When this naturalness is attained you give birth by becoming that which you are one with in consciousness.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. “In the beginning was the word.” Now, this very second, is the ‘beginning’ spoken of. It is the beginning of an urge – a desire. ‘The word’ is the desire swimming around in your consciousness – seeking embodiment. The urge of itself has no reality, For, “I AM” or the awareness of being is the only reality. Things live only as long as I AM aware of being them; so to realize one’s desire, the second line of this first verse of John must be applied. That is, “And the word was with God.” The word, or desire, must be fixed or united with consciousness to give it reality. The awareness becomes aware of being the thing desired, thereby nailing itself upon the form or conception – and giving life unto its conception – or resurrecting that which was heretofore a dead or unfulfilled desire.
Matthew 18:19 Two shall agree as touching anything and it shall be established on earth. This agreement is never made between two persons. It is between the awareness and the thing desired. You are now conscious of being, so you are actually saying to yourself, without using words, “I AM.” Now, if it is a state of health that you are desirous of attaining, before you have any evidence of health in your world, you begin to FEEL yourself to be healthy. And the very second the feeling “I AM healthy” is attained the two have agreed. That is, I AM and health have agreed to be one and this agreement ever results in the birth of a child which is the thing agreed upon – in this case, health. And because I made the agreement I express the thing agreed. So you can see why Moses stated, “I AM hath sent me.” For what being, other than I AM could send you into expression? None – for “I AM the way – Beside me there is no other.” If you take the wings of the morning and fly into the uttermost parts of the world or if you make your bed in Hell, you will still be aware of being. You are ever sent into expression by your awareness and your expression is ever that which you are aware of being.

Biblography

Neville Goddard had published the following books:

  • At Your Command (1939)[17]
  • Your Faith Is Your Fortune (1941)[22]
  • Freedom for All—A Practical Application of the Bible (1942)[16]
  • Feeling Is the Secret (1944)[23]
  • Prayer—The Art of Believing (1946)[24]
  • Out of This World (1949)[25]
  • The Creative Use of Imagination (1952)[26]
  • The Power of Awareness (1952)[18]
  • Awakened Imagination (1954)[27]
  • Seedtime and Harvest (1956)[28]
  • The Law and the Promise (1961)[29]

References

  1. ^ Walton, Jonathan L. (2011-01-01). "The Greening of the Gospel (and Black Body): Rev. Ike's Gospel of Wealth and Post-Blackness Theology". Pneuma. 33 (2): 181–199. doi:10.1163/027209611X575005. ISSN 0272-0965.
  2. ^ Carter, Frank (2018). Neville Goddard : the Frank Carter lectures. [Place of publication not identified],: AUDIO ENLIGHTENMENT. ISBN 1-941489-37-0. OCLC 1032016258.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  3. ^ Horowitz, Mitch (2018). Miracle : the Ideas of Neville Goddard. New York: G & D Media. ISBN 978-1-7225-2010-6. OCLC 1082981971.
  4. ^ Horowitz, Mitch (2019-11-13). "The New Age and Gnosticism: Terms of Commonality". Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies. 4 (2): 191–215. doi:10.1163/2451859X-12340073. ISSN 2451-8581.
  5. ^ Giurdanella, Marco (2011-11-01). "Neville Goddard (1905-1972) and the "New Thought"". Tesi Online.
  6. ^ Millar, Angel,. The three stages of initiatic spirituality : craftsman, warrior, magician. Rochester, Vermont. ISBN 978-1-62055-933-8. OCLC 1108806570.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Goddard, Neville Lancelot (1939). At Your Command. New York City: Goddard Publications.
  8. ^ Horowitz, Mitch (2018). The Miracle Club : How thoughts become reality. Rochester, Vermont. ISBN 978-1-62055-766-2. OCLC 1020423964.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. ^ Allen, Shanon; Allen, David (2014). The power of I AM. ISBN 978-0-692-23368-9. OCLC 922707256.
  10. ^ Jegede, Katherine (2018). Infinite possibility : How to use the ideas of Neville Goddard to create the life you want. New York, New York. ISBN 978-0-525-50443-6. OCLC 1039079743.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  11. ^ Byrne, Rhonda (2008). The secret. Byrne, Rhonda. (Atria books/Beyond Words hardcover edition October 2016 ed.). New York. ISBN 978-1-4165-5499-8. OCLC 758675550.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  12. ^ Byrne, Rhonda,. The power. Sequel to: Byrne, Rhonda. (First Atria books hardcover edition ed.). New York. ISBN 978-1-4391-8178-2. OCLC 634742461. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ Butler, Anthea (2011-01-01). "Media, Pentecost and Prosperity: The Racial Meaning behind the Aesthetic Message". Pneuma. 33 (2): 271–276. doi:10.1163/027209611X575050. ISSN 0272-0965.
  14. ^ McGee-Chiusano, Laura (2015). Unclouded Mind : Spiritual Insights For Personal Development And Healing. Balboa Press. ISBN 978-1-5043-4579-8. OCLC 1147791856.
  15. ^ Vitale, Joe (2011). The Key The Missing Secret for Attracting Anything You Want (1., Auflage ed.). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-118-03934-2. OCLC 904821360.
  16. ^ a b c Goddard, Neville Lancelot (1942). Freedom for All—A Practical Application of the Bible. New York City: Goddard Publications.
  17. ^ a b c d e f g Goddard, Neville Lancelot (1939). At Your Command. New York City: Goddard Publications.
  18. ^ a b c Goddard, Neville Lancelot (1952). The Power of Awareness. New York City: G. & J. Publishing Co.
  19. ^ Wilkinson, Robert J. (Robert John), 1955-. Tetragrammaton : Western Christians and the Hebrew name of God : from the beginnings to the seventeenth century. Leiden. ISBN 978-90-04-28462-3. OCLC 900439081.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  20. ^ Horowitz, Mitch (2018). Miracle : the Ideas of Neville Goddard. New York: G & D Media. ISBN 978-1-7225-2010-6. OCLC 1082981971.
  21. ^ Jegede, Katherine (2018). Infinite possibility : How to use the ideas of Neville Goddard to create the life you want. New York, New York. ISBN 978-0-525-50443-6. OCLC 1039079743.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  22. ^ Goddard, Neville Lancelot (1941). Your Faith Is Your Fortune. New York City: Goddard Publications.
  23. ^ Goddard, Neville Lancelot (1944). Feeling Is the Secret. New York City: Goddard Publications.
  24. ^ Goddard, Neville Lancelot (1945). Prayer—The Art of Believing. New York City: Goddard Publications.
  25. ^ Goddard, Neville Lancelot (1949). Out of This World. New York City: Goddard Publications.
  26. ^ Goddard, Neville Lancelot (1952). The Creative Use of Imagination. New York City: Goddard Publications.
  27. ^ Goddard, Neville Lancelot (1954). Awakened Imagination. New York City: G. & J. Publishing Co.
  28. ^ Goddard, Neville Lancelot (1952). Seedtime and Harvest. New York City: G. & J. Publishing Co.
  29. ^ Goddard, Neville Lancelot (1952). The Law and the Promise. New York City: G. & J. Publishing Co.
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