The Neville Goddard School of Prayer

"I call it prayer," Neville said. What 'it'? Assumption. "You are in Barbados." That is what Abdullah, the old, Ethiopian Jew who mentored Neville in Jewish mysticism, told him when Neville said he had a deep desire to visit his family home in Barbados. Abdullah taught him emphatically: "You are in Barbados, and you went there first class!"

Yeah, right. Neville was penniless - literally - an unemployed dancer in Great Depression New York. But he undertook the mysticism and believed he was in Barbados, feeling he was literally walking tropical paths and lying in his family home bed when he went to sleep.

Then the letter came. All expenses for a trip to Barbados, first class. It had worked.

Coincidence? Neville spent the rest of his life studying the Bible and teaching this type of prayer. By whatever name - revision, I remember when, creative or causative imagining - he called it prayer. Because Jesus and the Bible called it prayer. The idea was assumption that what was desired was already had. Getting the mind to that state became Neville's "technique," and teaching that technique his mission. His life became a school of prayer. That is how he read the Bible, how he practiced his life.

I think the assumption (the peace, rest, trust, faith) of "You are in Barbados" was the "certain place" Jesus was in when his disciples asked Him, "Teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1). Jesus taught them:

"Which one of you that has a relative, and who goes to him in the middle of the night, and tells him, 'Kinsman, I need three loves [of bread], since a relative has come to me from a journey and I have nothing to place before him.' And he replies from inside and says to him, 'Do not bother me. Behold, the door is locked and my children are in bed with me. I cannot rise and give you [the bread.]' I tell you, that if not out of a sense of kinship he does it, then surely because of his integrity he will rise and give him as much as he wants" (Luke 11:5-8 Alexander, emphasis mine).

I read "because of his integrity" as "because of his (the asker's) integrity and trusting rest in assumption." Assumption. Jesus had peace because of his faith in his assumption. That was where he was. Not hocus-pocus, Jesus had been "there," creating where he was going. Assumption was his "importunity." "Teach us to pray like that!" THAT is how to pray. Getting our minds to the state of assumption is the technique we need to learn and then teach from Neville's - Jesus' - school of prayer.

Several years ago I wrote "The Best, Most PRACTICAL Neville Goddard Lectures." There are several good leads there to the School of Biblical Prayer technique.

A nice YouTube e-book: With Christ in the School of Prayer. Listen to at least the intro. Schools of Prayer: that is what we are supposed to be.

And I again endorse the Victor Alexander translations of the Bible from the ancient Aramaic. I think Vic translated having an entirely different worldview than all the other translators. It is not a matter of what version of the Peshitta did Vic translate, but what version of worldview was in Vic's mind when he translated. I believe he was projecting the Aramaic-speaking church of the first century, hearing as if he was one of them. In my humble opinion, if you do not have Victor Alexander's translations, you do not have the Bible. Yes, he was ill for awhile, and he had for a time mind-debilitating treatments. Cut a mortal man some slack. Still the best version available to my mind.

As I am writing this Christmas morning, 2020, Merry Christmas to you and Liv, Vic. Your translation - immortal in its own right - has illumined and inspired me. I thank you very much. The Ancient Aramaic Church thanks you. Stay healthy and warm, and Allaha Ashur bless you richly.

- Dan