I have been working on what Neville Goddard meant in the first three chapters and chapter 17 of his book
Your Faith Is Your Fortune. These say just about everything there is about effecting deliberate change. I'd say read them well a dozen times or more and analyze them thoroughly.
Except the passage I am primarily interested in, up through the last paragraph of page 21, reads like Greek. I find myself wondering how and when is who doing what, and where, to whom?
In chapter one Neville tries to walk us back to who we are, that we each are but a conception of our self, a conditioned consciousness from the unconditioned consciousness, the awareness of being which is the Word of God and God himself. Each is a function of the One Ineffable Being. There is but one Spirit, one Lord, one God. Creation is a party of functions of which we are individuals in action.
Suddenly out of left field comes the phrase (on page 21) "you are crystallizing this formless liquid light that you are into the image and likeness of that which you are conscious of being." I recognize that Neville is referring to what he has said before, but nowhere in what he has said before does he make any mention of our being formless liquid light.
Which piques my interest. Man has known for ages that light is both ray and particle. In 1925 scientists discovered that light is exclusively ray and BECOMES particulate when it is observed (if I am reading my science right). Even if a ray is split into two and one is later observed, they BOTH become particulate at the same time - "Spooky action at a distance," said Einstein.
Anyway, I think
Your Faith is Your Fortune offers a reasonable way to obtain deliberate change: by prayer. I know that people are willing to pray, but do not understand what it is that they are supposed to do. So to help them along, if I may, here is my edited and emphatic version of the first twenty-one pages of the
DeVorss edition of Neville Goddard's
Your Faith is Your Fortune:
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MAN’S FAITH IN GOD IS MEASURED BY HIS CONFIDENCE IN HIMSELF
Chapter 1: BEFORE ABRAHAM WAS
Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I AM. – John 8:58
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
In the beginning was the unconditioned awareness of being, and the unconditioned awareness of being became conditioned by imagining itself to be something, and the newly conditioned unconditioned awareness of being became that which it had imagined itself to be; so did creation begin.
By this law – first conceiving, then becoming that thing conceived – all things evolve out of the Ineffable Most High, the No-thing; and without this sequence there is not anything made that is made.
(Catch below Neville's inner conviction of being the Word of God Itself. This - who we really are - is our first assumption:)
Before Abraham or the world was – I AM. When all of time shall cease to be – I AM. I AM the formless, liquid light of God - Awareness of Being conceiving myself to be man. By my everlasting law of being I am compelled to be and to express all that I believe myself to be.
I AM the eternal No-thingness containing within my formless self the capacity to be all things. I AM that in which all my conceptions of myself live and move and have their being, and apart from which they are not. I AM THAT.
I dwell within every conception of myself. From this withinness, I ever seek to transcend all conceptions of myself. By the very law of my being, I transcend my conceptions of myself, only as I believe myself to be that which does transcend. I AM the law of being and beside ME there is no law. I AM that I AM.
Chapter 2: YOU SHALL DECREE
You will also decree a thing, and it will be established for you; And light will shine on your ways. Thou shalt decree a thing, and it I shall come to thee, and light shall shine in thy ways. – Job 22:28
So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth; it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. – Isaiah 55:11
Man can decree a thing and it will come to pass.
Man has always decreed that which has appeared in his world. He is today decreeing that which is appearing in his world and he shall continue to do so as long as man is conscious of being man.
Nothing has ever appeared in man’s world, but what man decreed that it should (or could). This you may deny; but try as you will you cannot disprove it, for this decreeing is based upon a changeless principle.
Man does not command things to appear by his words, which are, more often than not, a confession of his doubts and fears.
Decreeing is ever done in consciousness.
Every man and woman automatically expresses that which he or she is conscious of being. Without effort or the use of words, at every moment of time, man is commanding himself or herself to be and to possess that which he is conscious of being and possessing.
This changeless principle of expression is dramatized in all the Bibles (scriptures) of the world. The writers of our sacred books were illumined mystics, past masters in the art of psychology. In telling the story of the soul within man, they personified this impersonal principle (the manifestation of consciousness) in the form of a historical document both to preserve it and to hide it from the eyes of the uninitiated.
Today, those to whom this great treasure has been entrusted, namely, the priesthoods of the world, have forgotten that the Bibles are psychological dramas representing the consciousness of man. In their blind forgetfulness, they now teach their followers to worship its characters as men and women who actually lived in time and space.
When man sees the Bible as a great psychological drama, with all of its characters and actors as the personified qualities and attributes of his own consciousness, then – and then only – will the Bible reveal to him the light of its symbology. This Impersonal Principle of life which made all things is personified as God. This Lord God, creator of heaven and earth, is discovered to be man’s awareness of being. If man were less bound by orthodoxy and more intuitively observant, he could not fail to notice in the reading of the Bibles (scriptures) that the awareness of being is revealed hundreds of times throughout this literature. To name a few: “I AM hath sent me unto you.” “Be still and know that I AM God.” “I AM the Lord and there is no other God.” “I AM the shepherd.” “I AM the door.” “I AM the resurrection and the life.” “I AM the way.” “I AM the beginning and the end.”
I AM - man’s unconditioned awareness of being is revealed as Lord and Creator of every conditioned state of being. If man would give up his belief in a God apart from himself, recognize his awareness of being to be God (this awareness fashions itself in the likeness and image of its conception of itself), he would transform his world from a barren waste to a fertile field of his own liking.
The day man does this he will know that he and his Father are one, but his Father is greater than he. He will know that his consciousness of being is one with that which he is conscious of being, but that his unconditioned consciousness of being is greater than his conditioned state or his conception of himself.
When man discovers his consciousness to be the impersonal power of expression, which power eternally personifies itself in his conceptions of himself, he will assume and appropriate that state of consciousness which he desires to express. In so doing he will become that state in expression.
“Ye shall decree a thing and it shall come to pass” can now be told in this manner: "You shall become conscious of being or possessing a thing and you shall express or possess that which you are conscious of being."
The law of consciousness is the only law of expression. “I AM the way”. “I AM the resurrection.”
Consciousness is the way as well as the power which resurrects and expresses all that man will ever be conscious of being.
Turn from the blindness of the uninitiated man who attempts to express and possess those qualities and things which he is not conscious of being and possessing; and be as the illumined mystic who decrees on the basis of this changeless law. Consciously claim yourself to be that which you seek; appropriate the consciousness of that which you see; and you too will know the status of the true mystic, as follows:
I became conscious of being it. I am still conscious of being it. And I shall continue to be conscious of being it until that which I am conscious of being is perfectly expressed.
Yes, I shall decree a thing and it shall come to pass.
Chapter 3: THE PRINCIPLE OF TRUTH
Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. – John 8:32
“Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”
The truth that sets man free is the knowledge that his consciousness is the resurrection and the life, that his consciousness both resurrects and makes alive all that he is conscious of being. Apart from consciousness, there is neither resurrection nor life.
When man gives up his belief in a God apart from himself and begins to recognize his awareness of being to be God, as did Jesus (people like us anointed in the Season of Grace) and the prophets, he will transform his world with the realization, “I and My Father are one,” but “My Father is greater than I.” He will know that his Unconditioned Awareness of Being - his consciousness - is God, and that which he is conscious of being is the Son bearing witness of God, the Father.
The conceiver and the conception are one, but the conceiver - the awareness of being - is greater than his conception. "Before Abraham was, I AM." Yes, I was aware of being before I became aware of being man, and in that day when I shall cease to be conscious of being man I shall still be conscious of being.
The unconditioned awareness of being's consciousness is not dependent upon being anything. It preceded all conceptions of itself and shall continue to be when all conceptions of itself shall cease to be. “I AM the beginning and the end”. That is, all things or conceptions of myself begin and end in me, but I, the formless (liquid light) awareness, remain forever.
Jesus - the anointed in the Season of Grace - discovered this glorious truth and declared Himself to be one with God, not the God that man had fashioned, for He never recognized such a God. Jesus found God to be His awareness of being and so told man that the Kingdom of God and Heaven were within.
When it is recorded that Jesus left the world and went to His Father, it is simply stating that He turned His attention from the world of the senses and rose in consciousness to that level which He desired to express. There He remained until He became one with the consciousness to which He ascended. When He returned to the world of man, He could act with the positive assurance of that which He was conscious of being, a state of consciousness no one but Himself felt or knew that He possessed. Man who is ignorant of this everlasting law of expression looks upon such happenings as miracles.
To rise in consciousness to the level of the thing desired and to remain there until such level becomes your nature is the way of all seeming miracles.
“And I, if I be lifted up, I shall draw all men (the physical) unto Me (the healing).” I.e., if I be lifted up in consciousness to the naturalness of the awareness of the thing desired, I shall draw the manifestation of that desire to me. (Is this a promise?)
“No man comes unto Me save the Father within Me draws him,” and “I and My Father are one." My consciousness is the Father who draws the manifestation of life to me. The nature of the manifestation is determined by the state of consciousness in which I dwell. I am always drawing into my world that which I am conscious of being.
If you are dissatisfied with your present expression of life, then you must be born again. Rebirth is the dropping of that level with which you are dissatisfied and rising to that level of consciousness which you desire to express and possess. (This is done in the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.)
You cannot serve two masters [Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13] or opposing states of consciousness at the same time. Taking your attention from one state and placing it upon another, you die to the one from which you have taken it and you live and express the one with which you are united.
Man cannot see how it would be possible to express that which he desires to be by so simple a law as acquiring the consciousness of the thing desired. The reason for this lack of faith on the part of man is that he looks at the desired state through the consciousness of his present limitations. Therefore, he naturally sees it as impossible of accomplishment.
One of the first things man must realize is that it is impossible, in dealing with this spiritual law of consciousness, to put new wine into old bottles or new patches on old garments. That is, you cannot take any part of the present consciousness into the new state. For the state sought is complete in itself and needs no patching. Every level of consciousness automatically expresses itself.
To rise to the level of any state is to automatically become that state in expression. But, in order to rise to the level that you are not now expressing, you must completely drop the consciousness with which you are now identified.
Until your present consciousness is dropped, you will not be able to rise to another level.
Do not be dismayed. This letting go of your present identity is not as difficult as it might appear to be.
The invitation of the scriptures, “To be absent from the body and be present with the Lord,” is not given to a select few; it is a sweeping call to all mankind. The body from which you are invited to escape is your present conception of yourself with all of its limitations, while the Lord with whom you are to be present is your awareness of being.
(NB: Neville associates "To be absent from the body and be present with the Lord” with "letting go of your present identity" i.e., completely dropping the consciousness with which you are now identified. For the present must be removed to make room for the new and improved. This, I believe, entails invoking the name - nature - of Jesus. Yeshua contains the Hebrew letter shin, which represents teeth for consumption. He takes away the past for the sake of salvation, the introduction of what is desired. Yeshua also contains the Hebrew letter ayin: God will see to it.)
To accomplish this seemingly impossible feat, you take your attention away from your problem and place it upon just being. You say silently but feelingly, “I AM”. Do not condition this awareness but continue declaring quietly, “I AM – I AM”. Simply feel that you are faceless and formless and continue doing so until you feel yourself floating.
“Floating” is a psychological state which completely denies the physical. Through practice in relaxation and willfully refusing to react to sensory impressions, it is possible to develop a state of consciousness of pure receptivity. It is a surprisingly easy accomplishment. In this state of complete detachment, a definite singleness of purposeful thought can be indelibly engraved upon your unmodified consciousness. This state of consciousness is necessary for true meditation.
This wonderful experience of rising and floating is the signal that you are absent from the body or problem and are now present with the Lord - the unconditioned awareness of being. In this expanded state you are not conscious of being anything but I AM – I AM. You are only conscious of being.
When this expansion of consciousness is attained within this formless deep of yourself, give form to the new conception by claiming and feeling yourself to be that which you, before you entered into this state, desired to be. You will find that within this formless deep of yourself all things appear to be divinely possible. Anything that you sincerely feel yourself to be while in this expanded state becomes, in time, your natural expression.
And God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters.” Yes, let there be a firmness or conviction in the midst of this expanded consciousness by knowing and feeling I AM that, the thing desired.
As you claim and feel yourself to be the thing desired, you are crystallizing this formless liquid light that you are into the image and likeness of that which you are now conscious of being.
Now that the law of your being has been revealed to you, begin this day to change your world by revaluing yourself. Too long has man held to the belief that he is born of sorrow and must work out his salvation by the sweat of his brow. God is impersonal and no respecter of persons. So long as man continues to walk in this belief of sorrow, so long will he walk. In a world of sorrow and confusion, for the world in its every detail is man’s consciousness crystallized.
"Before man can transform his world, he must first lay this foundation or understanding: 'I AM the Lord.' Man must know that his or her awareness of being is God" (page 24).
Chapter 17: PRAYER
When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. – Matt. 6:6
What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. – Mark 11:24
Prayer is the most wonderful experience man or woman can have. Unlike the daily murmurings of the vast majority of mankind in all lands who by their vain repetitions hope to gain the ear of God, prayer is the ecstasy of a spiritual wedding taking place in the deep, silent stillness of consciousness. In its true sense prayer is God’s marriage ceremony. Just as a maid on her wedding day relinquishes the name of her family to assume the name of her husband, in like manner, one who prays must relinquish his present name or nature and assume the nature of that for which he prays.
The gospels have clearly instructed man as to the performance of this ceremony in the following manner:
“When ye pray go within in secret and shut the door and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” The going within is the entering of the bridal chamber. Just as no one but the bride and groom are permitted to enter so holy a room as the bridal suite on the night of the marriage ceremony, likewise no one but the one who prays and that for which he prays are permitted to enter the holy hour of prayer. As the bride and groom on entering the bridal suite securely shut the door against the outside world, so too must the one who enters the holy hour of prayer close the door of the senses and entirely shut out the world round about him. This is accomplished by taking the attention completely away from all things other than that with which you are now in love (the thing desired).
The second phase of this spiritual ceremony is defined in these words, “When ye pray, believe that ye receive, and ye shall receive.” As you joyfully contemplate being and possessing that which you desire to be and to have, you have taken this second step and are therefore spiritually performing the acts of marriage and generation.
Your receptive attitude of mind while praying or contemplating can be likened to a bride or womb, for it is that aspect of mind which receives the impressions. That which you contemplate being is the groom, for it is the name or nature you assume and therefore is that which leaves its impregnation; so one dies to maidenhood or present nature as one assumes the name and nature of the impregnation.
Lost in contemplation and having assumed the name and nature of the thing contemplated, your whole being thrills with the joy of being it. This thrill, which runs through your entire being as you appropriate the consciousness of your desire, is the proof that you are both married and impregnated.
As you return from this silent meditation, the door is once more opened upon the world you had left behind. But this time you return as a pregnant bride.
You enter the world a changed being and, although no one but you knows of this wonderful romance, the world will, in a very short while, see the signs of your pregnancy, for you will begin to express that which you in your hour of silence felt yourself to be.
The mother of the world or bride of the Lord is purposely called Mary, or water, for water loses its identity as it assumes the nature of that with which it is mixed; likewise, Mary, the receptive attitude of mind, must lose its identity as it assumes the nature of the thing desired. Only as one is willing to give up his present limitations and identity can he become that which he desires to be. Prayer is the formula by which such divorces and marriages are accomplished.
“Two shall agree as touching anything and it shall be established on earth.” The two agreeing are you, the bride, and the thing desired, the groom. As this agreement is accomplished, a son bearing witness of this union will be born. You begin to express and possess that which you are conscious of being. Praying, then, is recognizing yourself to be that which you desire to be rather than begging God for that which you desire.
Millions of prayers are daily unanswered because man prays to a God who does not exist. A separate, "other" god divided from us. Consciousness - including ours - being God, one must seek in consciousness for the thing desired by assuming the consciousness of the quality desired. Only as one does this will his or her prayers be answered. To be conscious of being poor while praying for riches is to be rewarded with that which you are conscious of being, namely, poverty.
Prayers, to be successful, must be claimed and appropriated. Assume the positive consciousness of the thing desired.
With your desire defined, quietly go within and shut the door behind you. Lose yourself in your desire; feel yourself to be one with it; remain in this fixation until you have absorbed the life and name by claiming and feeling yourself to be and to have that which you desired. When you emerge from the hour of prayer, you must do so conscious of being and possessing that which you heretofore desired.
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Hi. Me again. I hope my comments and bits of editing help you comprehend what it was Neville was talking about. Chapter 19 in Your Faith is Your Fortune, by the way, is about the liquid light. Jesus is not a separate man. He is a real man, but not separate and divided from us. He is us grown up; we are growing up into him. He is that anointing of being the Manifestation of the Eternal Most High -- our destiny per the Holy Scriptures. Kind of scary, actually, except for knowing that Yeshua is that Manifestation. God's love, mercy, and grace. When Neville says to float in the awareness of being I AM, remember it is Yeshua - Eashoa Msheekha - the Life-giving Living Branch of God who you are.
