Understanding Neville Goddard's "I Remember When"

It took me awhile to understand Neville Goddard's lecture "I Remember When." I think I've got it now. Neville dreamed the same dream twice in one night:

In the mansion of a very rich family at the turn of 20th century, the father explained to his children, "Your grandfather would stand on an empty lot and say, 'I remember when this was an empty lot.' Then he would paint a word picture of his desire for that lot so vividly that those who heard him could see it completed right before their eyes. This is the grandfather who made the fortune we are now enjoying."

In the second dream, Neville was the grandfather. "Speaking to those present (with him on the empty lot), I said, 'I remember when this was an empty lot.' Then I pictured the building placed there so vividly the very stones molded themselves into the form I envisioned."

There was no magic in saying "I remember when," or in "remembering" the present. Remembering the present as though it were the distant past is just a device to separate us from the present and to get us to vividly imagine the future we desire. The recollection serves as a frame of reference: it effectively eliminates the present situation and forces us to mentally create a subsequent "new" situation, the state we are "remembering" the present from.

Remembering the present puts us "there," where we want to be, as though we were there. The trick is to picture THERE so vividly that the state you picture there takes form. Keep repeating until it does.

The grandfather wanted to build on a lot. Build what? It was then just an empty lot. FROM that empty lot he filled his mind with imagining the building he HAD BUILT. In his clearly envisioned and "real" fantasy, the grandfather set a clear and definite, achievable goal. Mentally, he had created the building. It was just a matter of time, to him, until the matter had arranged itself in the form of his goal and the building stood on the lot.

Was there magic involved? No. Was there image involved? Absolutely. The Word of God is the Most High's image. It goes forth in intense, vivid, definite and focused imagining. Grandfather got It out; It would not return to him void whether he ever lifted a finger to get it done or not. But "not" takes longer. 

We have to take control of our minds and determine what we want. We have to answer for ourselves what our desire is. The grandfather built a "mansion" in his mind and claimed residence. He wouldn't be denied.

This is the trick to being deliberate in creative thought. Build the "mansion" to which you are going and enter into the life of that house which is your desire. Imagine it so vividly that you are THERE and can only form a two-dimensional memory of what this--whatever your present situation is--was like.

And then expand it--the "building" is real and present to you, now bring in "witnesses"--feel the things there, hear the voices of the people with you there, shake their hands, sense the mood of the place, etc. Be the person you want to be there: feel the emotions and sentiments appropriate to the situation you desire. "Before two witnesses it shall be established." Establish this expanded state by repeating the experience over and over and over in your mind until it takes on "all the tones of reality."

If you are Bible-minded, you will note that :

a) slipping your frame of reference into the future is "resting in the Lord," Noah.

b) defining definitely your desired state's nature is its "name," Shem.

c) your vivid, intense and focused imagining is your "hot" lead from the power source, Ham.

d) sensing the feelings and witnesses of your creation is expansion, Japheth.

Yes, this is the salvation by the destruction of the existing world that Moses was talking about. Build a new world above this one and go there. Escapism? No, we don't just do it for ourselves. We change the whole world for everyone by changing how we see it. Our imaginations are on a mission, and we ARE our imaginations.