The Second Vision

Neville Goddard 09-11-1959

We make the statement with Blake that, “All that you behold, though it appears to be without, it is within, in your imagination of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.” I mean that literally. The whole of humanity is contained in you, for that is the being you really are, and that is God. “And we exist in Him and He in us. The eternal body of the Imagination: that is, God Himself.”

Did you hear President Eisenhower speak just recently on his reaction to his recent trip? Then he came to what he felt was the very spirit of our land – the freedom of the individual. He said we have two great documents: one, the Declaration of Independence, the other is one that takes precedence over it, and that is the Bible. I wish he spoke for every one of us in the world, but even the majority who accept it as the Word of God do not understand it. It is a series of visions from beginning to end. The Old Testament shows what is taking place in the whole; the New Testament tells what is taking place in the single or individual man. The whole vast vision in both Old and New is actually taking place in the individual.

I told you of the experience that took place on July 21st in San Francisco, and that parallels the first vision in the books of Matthew and Luke. I actually gave birth to this Christ Child as it was enacted in me. I was its father. My reality is invisible, for I held in my hands what I formed as my own son, but I did not need a body. So when God conceives of Himself, He conceives of man. So you are God, conceiving Christ Jesus and forming out of your own being unaided by any other person in the world the only- begotten Son of God.

The vision began to unfold in me and twenty-four days later came the second vision, and the second vision is the death of Herod. The child is taken into Egypt to save him from being killed at the command of Herod. Herod is compiled of two words; one means “Hero” and the other, “Edeos” means to fashion, or “a thing formed.” And the thing formed has to die, for the being you really are is God, which is spirit, without form or figure. But you display this body in every form in the world. So the second vision came. Twenty-four days later, I am seated at a table with friends, and as I rose, my body dropped dead. And then came a manservant and tied it up with a rope as you tie up a piece of beef for the oven. You could see the flesh jump as the cord drew tight. And he said, “You were not sick; why did you die?” And I said “There is a time to be born and a time to die; and a time to plant and a time to reap, and the time has come.” That is the death of Herod, or form. It is when you find that the “form” or “hero” that you thought so wonderful comes to an end. Then the Child comes out of hiding in Egypt. But now Herod’s son, Archelaus, rules in his place; and the word means “mighty political power.” For there is still the danger or the chance that one could sell his soul, become a part of some ”ism” or some great organization for profit or for acclaim of men. But He goes to Nazareth to become a Nazarene. The word simply means, “to separate.” It does not mean humanity being separated into two camps – the sheep and the goats. It only means putting off form and putting on the lamb. It has nothing to do with this meat of an animal called a lamb that we eat. Blake wrote:

“Little Lamb, who made thee?

Dost thou know who made thee?

Gave thee life, and bid thee feed

By the stream and o’er the mead;

Gave thee clothing, wooly, bright;

Gave thee such a tender voice,

Making all the vales rejoice?

Little Lamb, who made thee?

Dost thou know who made thee?

Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee,

Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee;

He is called by thy name,

For he calls himself, a lamb.

He is meek, and he is mild;

He became a little child.

I a child, and thou a lamb,

We called by his name.

Little Lamb, God bless thee!