Neville Goddard Lectures: “Spiritual States”

22 Jun Neville Goddard Lectures: “Spiritual States”

4/6/65

Tonight’s subject is “Spiritual States,” that the spiritual states of the soul are all eternal; learn to distinguish between man and his present state. When we open the Bible and read any passage whatsoever we encounter men and women, and you might think that they existed in time and space on this earth—-and the whole vast world who accepts the Bible will take it in that light. May I tell you, the Bible has no reference whatsoever to any person that ever walked the face of this earth, to any event that would occur that ever occurred on earth. But man has mistaken these characters, these personifications, for persons; and the gross first sense for the ultimate sense intended; and the vehicle that conveys the instruction for the instruction itself.

In the current issue of Time magazine (I got mine today), under the head of The Church, here was this brilliant man of letters D. H. Lawrence, considered a brilliant writer, a master in the use of words, and here he said, “The resurrection is simply Christ becoming aware of sensual love.” That’s what the resurrection is to D. H. Lawrence. There’s another writer who bears a name that I would call a Greek name—-I don’t know him, never heard of him—-he said, “The last temptation of Christ is simply Christ struck with sexual desire.” Well, here are two men undoubtedly…I know one is considered a great mind. And then in yesterday’s Times, the L. A. Times, I read a little extract from what the Pope had to say the previous day last Sunday, and here is one who is head of possibly 600 million who call themselves Christians, and he said that the Jew killed Christ, but he did it in ignorance because he did not now who he was. Now, here are three men, leaders in their field, who still see this story as taking place on this level. They do not see the mystery at all, in spite of their titles. It either is revealed to you or else someone to whom it has been revealed tells it and you believe it, or you reject it and go along your business on this level. Christ Jesus is a supernatural being housed in everyone or one could not live, one could not breathe.

Now, let us take a state, a spiritual state. I mention the word…anyone instantly thinks of a man. He is the first patriarch as tradition has it. Tradition has it that he lived 4,000 years ago. You can find it catalogued, the very day and month of his birth on earth, and scholars will spend, oh, limitless hours trying to find the exact day and month, because they give him a father. His father is Terah. So here now we have one called Abraham—where real civilization begins—-in Abraham. He is told that he will have offspring more numerous than the sands of the sea. Can you conceive of that, more numerous than the stars of heaven? Here is a man…alright, all will come out of Abraham we are told…but only a certain kind will come out.

So, let us see how it begins in the 12th chapter (Genesis), where he is told to “leave his home, leave his father, leave his kin and go into a land that I will show you” (verse 1). Then we turn over, where now the real beginning starts in a dream, the 15th chapter of the Book of Genesis: “And as the sun was going down, a great sleep fell upon Abram, and a dread and great darkness fell upon him. And the Lord said to Abram, ‘Your descendants will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and they will be slaves there, and they will be oppressed for 400 years’” (verse 12). Now, you read that and you think a presence called God is speaking to a man called Abraham. Hasn’t a thing to do with that. Abraham is an eternal spiritual state, and you and I enter that state and do exactly what we’re told here in scripture: we fall asleep in that state. Then we have the dreams, this dream of horror which is this world.