Neville Goddard Lectures: The Law

Well, here is one…and many of you present heard it a few years ago…one morning, early in the morning, I had this experience. I’m standing in an enormous mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York City and three generations are supposed to be present. One is invisible—-he is spoken of as “Grandfather.” There are two generations, the second and the third, and the second generation is telling the story of Grandfather. The second one tells this story, “Grandfather used to say while standing on an empty lot, ‘I remember when this was an empty lot’ and then he would paint a word picture of his desire for that lot, and paint it so vividly they saw exactly the structure that would stand upon it. But to him it was standing upon it, and they saw it as something present standing upon it.” Well, they told that story in my presence. Then I woke and found myself on my bed…it was around three in the morning. I got out and wrote it out on a big yellow page, the entire story. It was too early to remain up, so I went back to bed and re-dreamed the dream. This time, as I went into the same structure, instead of hearing someone tell the story I’m telling the story. I so absorbed the message of the faith of Grandfather, I told them that I was standing on an empty lot, and standing on it I would remember when it was an empty lot. Then I painted for them the word picture of my desire for that lot in such graphic manner that they all saw it as I painted it in words.

Now, in the 41st chapter of the Book of Genesis, Pharaoh has a dream and no magician can interpret it. So he calls upon Joseph and Joseph is made to hear the dream. This is the dream: “I stood on the banks of the Nile and out of the Nile came seven very fat cows, sleek and fat. Then came seven lean, scrawny cows and they ate up the seven fat cows. And yet, it might have been as though they hadn’t eaten, for they were just as scrawny and as thin as they were before. Then came seven ears of corn on one stalk, lovely blooming, luscious; and then came seven thin, as though they were scorched by the wind, and they ate up the seven fat ones. I asked my magicians to interpret and no one could. Then Joseph said, ‘This is the meaning of the dream. It’s one dream, though you had two dreams, it’s one dream. The seven fat cows and the seven luscious ears of corn are one; the seven thin cows and the seven thin ears of corn are one. You will have seven years of great plenty, seven years, and then seven years of famine so great people will forget they ever had abundance in this world. With seven years of famine you will not even remember there was ever a moment of plenty in the world.’ Then he told me what he would do, how he would save a portion of every year for the next seven years, so he would have a cushion against the seven lean years of famine.”

Then, said he, and these are the words, “The doubling of the dream means that the thing has been fixed by God and God will shortly bring it to pass”…if the dream is doubled. Well, that night my dream was doubled. I awoke, I wrote it out, retired, and re-dreamed the dream. Having re-dreamed the entire dream it is fixed as a law of God. And God reveals himself to man; if he’s the prophet, he reveals himself in vision and tells him, Go and tell it to the world. “For if I say I will not mention it, or speak any more in his name then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot” (Jer. 20:9). So I cannot contain within myself the vision, I must tell it. So the telling of it is this, you can stand here this night (this is the law) and say, “I remember when he or she or they were no one.” Wouldn’t that imply that they are someone else? You can look at someone in this world and say, “I remember when he had nothing.” Well, if I remember when he had nothing, I’m implying he has something today. I remember when he was unknown. If I remember when he was unknown, isn’t he now known?