Neville Goddard Lectures: “The Spirit Of God”

08 Jan Neville Goddard Lectures: “The Spirit Of God”

5/10/1971

We are told: “With God, all things are possible.” I think anyone who believes in God would say “yes” to that. But then we are told that: “God is Spirit, and the Spirit of God dwells in us.” I think any man who believes that should make every effort to find out who God really is who “dwells in us.” He is Spirit, and “the Spirit of God dwells in us.” This God creates all things. “By Him all things were made, and without Him was not anything made that was made.”

So everything in the world, regardless of what it is, — for we are told: “I form the light, and I create darkness; I make the weal, and I create the woe. I am the Lord who do all these things.” Well surely, we should make every effort to find out who He is.

I firmly believe, from my own experiences, that this God of whom the Bible speaks is our own wonderful human imagination; that God and the human imagination are one; that all natural effects in the world, though they are created by the Spirit of God, are caused by Spirit. So, “every natural effect has a spiritual cause, and not a natural. A natural cause only seems; it is a delusion of our” — fading, I would say, “memory.” (Blake, from “Milton”) For here in this world I can’t quite remember when I imagined that which is now taking place in my world. I do not recall it. I can’t quite remember when I set it in notion.

But if this is Law, — and a Law that no man can break, — at some time, somewhere, I imagined what I am now encountering; that my present moment is not really receding into the past; it is advancing into the future to confront me, but I forgot it. And I now think it has a natural or physical cause, and it does not have a natural cause.

“Every natural effect has a spiritual cause,” or the Bible is completely wrong. For we are told: “By Him all things were made,” — without exception; “and without Him was not anything made that was made.” And: “He is Spirit,” and “the Spirit of God dwells in me.” Well, if He dwells in me, I have identified Him with my imagination. Only on this level, I do not remember having imagined it; but along the way, I must have if this is Principle.

Now let me share with you some of my experiences. We are in this room tonight, and the room — at this moment — is more real to us than anything in the world. It has a cubic reality, because we are in it. Think of your home; you know your home far better than you know this room, but your home — at this moment — is not as real as this room. This room now occupies reality to you, and everything else is shadowy as you think of it. Why is this real? Because you have entered it. You are in it. You occupy it.

This I know from experience. Sitting in a chair, suddenly I am seeing what reason tells me I should not see. I am seeing what seems to be the interior of a home. Or lying on my bed, I see the interior, — or it seems to be, — of a great hotel, an unoccupied suite ready for occupancy but not occupied. It was just as vivid as any painting of a great artist. An artist would give us the impression of a three-dimensional picture. We know, for reason tells us, that it is on a flat surface; it is simply depicting three dimensions, but it is all on a flat surface.Well, while seated in the chair or lying on my bed, my consciousness follows vision, and I entered that room. I actually occupied it. I came back to where I was seated, on one occasion, –to where I was lying on my bed on another; and then I went back, and again it took on a cubic reality.

I came back knowing exactly what I am doing, and knowing this whole thing makes no sense whatsoever to the rational mind, but I cannot deny what I am experiencing. Here I have the evidence, — no one to share it with, but I have the evidence. I came back, and then went back into the picture. At the moment I entered the picture, it took on cubic reality; and after doing it maybe a dozen times or more, I said to myself, “I am going to explore. This time I am going to go right into it and remain there and explore,” which I did.