Neville Goddard Lectures: The New Man (1965)

07 Mar Neville Goddard Lectures: The New Man (1965)

11/9/65

These subjects that seem so spiritual are really in the end the most practical in the world…really they are. Tonight it’s “The New Man.” And by the new man I do not mean that a man who was, say, weak at birth and then became strong, or that he was poor and became rich and mighty. These are only states. I tell you that you can be whatever you want to be in this world by a change of state, which is simply a change of consciousness, that’s all that you do really. But that’s not the new man. Tonight, I’m speaking of the new man—not a state where if you said to me “I want to be” and you name it, well, it isn’t difficult to get into it. And if you’re willing to live in a state, I know from experience it would take you no time to reap the fruit of that state, good, bad or indifferent. I don’t care what it is…you name it. I will show you how to get into that state. It’s easy. You live in the state, and then all of a sudden, like a tree, you bear the fruit of the state. That is simple; that belongs to the world of Caesar.

But tonight I’m speaking of the new man. “You who once were far off are now brought near in the blood of Jesus.” Fantastic statement! You and I were once far off and we’re brought near in the blood of Jesus. “He is our peace who made us one, made us both one, and has broken down the dividing line or wall of hostility…that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace” (Eph. 2:13,14). You read it and you wonder “What is this all about?” You can’t rationalize it. Reason will not help you; reason belongs to this world. We were given reason only in the world of Caesar, and we can use it as best we can. Become so wise in the eyes of the world, so very wise—get all the degrees and all the medals, because we are wise, wise men and women in the world of Caesar.

Just about a year ago in New York City…in fact it was the month of June of ’64…I was there for my daughter’s graduation, and I read this little story in the Herald Tribune by John Crosby. He was then in London and he was interviewing some ex-minister of the Anglican Church, his name was Allen Stewart. He was born in Dublin. His father was an Anglican minister and his grandfather…strangely enough born in Dublin…but, nevertheless, they were all Anglican ministers. He gave up the ministry. So Crosby interviewed him and Crosby said to him, “Why did you do it?” Well, he said—while he was gorging himself with this enormous steak as Crosby entertained him—he said, “Typical Edwardian.” Well, he meant Edward the VII, who was like this, who just indulged himself to the nth degree. So he said, “That no one—as my father said to me, who was also a minister—no one can be a priest unless he’s either a moron or intellectually dishonest.” Well, I am not a moron, said he, and I refuse to continue being intellectually dishonest, and so I’ve given it up.

So Crosby said to him, “Tell me what portions of the Christian faith you cannot accept?” He said, “I will answer you as I did the archbishop. The archbishop asked me the same question and I said, none of it…it’s all nonsense…this is a myth. How could anyone studying physics, astrophysics, biochemistry, biology, and all of these things, ever accept this peculiar allegorical myth? His name is Allen Stewart, a brilliant speaker, brilliant mind. Well, they didn’t want to lose him in the church, because he was so brilliant as a speaker. Well, here is one who expects to find this great mystery through reason, and you can’t do it. It’s revelation—the whole thing is revealed. If God doesn’t reveal himself to man, man remains in the world of Caesar. All he can do is take God’s law, based upon reason, and he has to use some other little angle with it to become this man, that man, the other man in this world.