A World of Grace and Timelessness

While I believe that God, the consciousness of the Ineffable Being, has developed over time, I have to admit that I do not actually believe in time. As Einstein observed, while it is an exceedingly difficult concept to give up, there is no such thing as time. There is no reason, then, why eternity should be linear. It is somehow easy for me to believe that my "end," the being I shall become (and let me say here, "am"), has assumed that he is me. I will note here also, parenthetically, that according to Young in the introduction to Young's Literal Translation of the Bible, the ancient oracles of the Jews employed no future tense.

I am not one for calling God a liar. If He says He did something, He did, even if it were me, and I haven't done it yet. There may be something here of the vision I had of Jesus being scourged and then crucified, when He turned His face to me and said AUDIBLY in my brain, "Come unto Me." Me to become Him, my end, to be the one crucified? If in eternity He has become me for me to become Him, then we were the child God delighted in from before that the world was in Proverbs chapter 8. "We," i.e., He and I and you, too. He has put all of this in our hearts. So it was written; so it will be (is/was) done.

Heading For Healing 35: "I am a mudman"--THIS Is Assumption: Forgiveness Is In Right Relationship

We ARE what we assume. We operate from THERE. This is the Law.

We are spirit, imagination of the Consciousness of the Ineffable, which is "God." But we are also connected to these physical bodies. The two, the consciousness we are and the physical, BECOME ONE FLESH. Just one. Consider the assumption a done deal. Assumption means that for all practical purposes we ARE what we believe ourselves to be. So while we are imagining, what we assume is to us REAL. And we are thus to "deal with it." The spiritual is to live as if the physical was real, for to us IT IS. Look at yourself. What do you see? Your ASSUMPTION.

I was driving the other day and on the radio they were discussing grace. I pieced together that Disney or someone was making a movie about a C. S. Lewis story from Narnia. Direction was given to the script writers to have a character in the story EARN his forgiveness from Aslan. A Christian writer explained that is not how the grace in the story works, and spent the better part of the day explaining that grace is given; it cannot be earned.

I do not know how the rest of that conversation went, but I thought about how Christ won our forgiveness. Didn't He earn it? How did I earn mine? I remembered the moment I was forgiven: in full and complete submission to God, I had said, "You are Glorious God; I am a mudman. Whatever You tell me to do, that I will do." And then I shut up and listened.

After some minutes in that state the One monitoring me said, "Remember this, and it is all right." What had I DONE? I had recognized and entered a right relationship with God: Him being God, and me and my assumption being a) one, and b) His. That was the "this" I was to remember.

Yes, I--the spirit/imagining part of me--is God, but I for the moment am living in the assumption of this physical body of dissolved minerals--a mudman. I AM a mudman. As such I am God's slave, His manifestation in the process of becoming His Manifestation, my "end"-- the Father as the Son becoming the Father. Or rather the Son of the Father becoming the Father. Was not the ransom "paid" by Jesus Christ (two parties as one!) His obedience, His fulfillment of and His faithfulness to His assumption? He remembered "this," what was right, and it was deemed "all right."

We are obliged to BE what we have assume we ARE. This is the Law. Recognizing our position, our RIGHT relationship to God in our assumed state does not earn us anything, but it opens us up to His grace, which is promised and freely given. "This is my destiny" (Mark 15:34 Alexander), said the Guys on the cross, which is what we ARE.

The Imagining Mass: A Set Destiny

I am kind of stuck with an infinite, ethereal mass that imagines. That blows my mind. The mass has no "thing" to it, no body, shape, or form, but it imagines nevertheless. It imagines a lot. In what Neville Goddard described as an orgasm, it caused the universe to exist. The invisible, thing-less ethereal mass is the font of life. We, the invisible imaginers inside these bodies, are Its sons, whether we be a Jacob or an Israel.

The imagining mass has caused a lot of writing. It takes awhile to realize that the Book of Job is about your life. The other books, too. All the characters, all the stories in the Bible, they are about YOU. It is Man's autobiography. The good guys, the bad guys, all the girls good and bad; it's looking in the mirror. Where we are in the Bible, with whom we identify in it--that's all up to our maturity, wisdom, and attitudes. But it is "my" story. There is a quality in the mass I am both from and am going to become. That is the destiny of each and every one of us--to become that quality of the invisible, infinite, eternal, thing-less imagining mass, for the mass has imagined and willed it.

How to get there? Well, reading the Word helps. Taking it seriously with discerning wisdom does, too. Couple that with self-control, love, reliance upon Him and devotion to Him. Him? Him who? That eternal quality the Mass has determined that we are. Our "end" became us that we might become Him, the Eternal Life-giver, the Living Branch of the Mass we are of. We have neither beginning nor end, for we are of the One Who Is, the imagining Mass.

Requesting Your Help, Please. In What Lecture Did Neville Reject "New Thought" And Say That Our Destiny Is To Fulfill Scripture?

Do you know in which lecture Neville Goddard scorned New Thought teachings? He held that there was nothing new under the sun, a basic philosophy from Ecclesiastes, and therefore no such thing as a "new" thought. Rather than forming new thoughts, he said, we are all--every one of us--destined to fulfill scripture in becoming Jesus Christ. I believe he also said here that he contacted all the New Thought teachers, both those living and those passed from this earth, to correct them.

But I cannot find this specific paragraph in online searches, and I suspect I read it in a pdf printout. I am pretty sure I have also heard it in an audio lecture. If you can inform me of which lecture had this rather emphatic rejection of "New Thought" by Neville, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks.

The Required Man

I think I have a special view on how we are He and He is we. In my mind it is exceedingly simple: the Beginning in Genesis 1:1 is the guy we are becoming. I.e., He--the Beginning--is our end. For we are becoming Him, and when we have become Him, we will be what God intended from before the beginning. We shall be His Wisdom, the Child of Proverbs 8, for He whom we are becoming always was.

As His assumption, the Man/Manifestation-of-God intended was clear and existent to God: "As the beginning, the Son of God creates the heavens and the earth" (Alexander, italics mine). What God was assuming to already exist was our destined end as His manifest Son. God assumes His Son is real, and we shall become that Son. In God's mind, we already HAVE become Him: the assumed state is AFTER. And if we have, then we are--or rather the Son we shall become is--free of the constraints of time and space and have/has presence with God in the past, the present, and the future. The Guy we are becoming was with God at the beginning as the Beginning of what we shall become. We are all ONE, and God is all SIMULTANEOUSLY. There is no hat-switching by God. God is big enough to be all at once and to do all through all. To God we already are what we are becoming; i.e., to Him what we are becoming already is. We are becoming something very special.

I believe in Jesus Christ, a real guy who was here two thousand years ago. Unlike those who are leaving Christianity, I personally have plenty of miraculous evidence that Jesus is alive and well and is seated in Heaven as God. Real miracles experienced are as tangible and evidential as slaps upside along the head with a two-by-four. Sorry about you non-experiencers. I wish you would believe others' testimonies, or go see miracles for yourself. It would be worth the effort. I believe that there was and is a historical Jesus Christ, that he was a real physical human being in what Victor Alexander has called the Season of Grace. I also believe that you are him, and that I am him. He is our ultimate future being. Do not tell me the guy whose hand I am holding does not exist.

I believe that Jesus Christ is, for he was and is historically required--absolutely physically required--in the unfoldment of history (that and the hard head-knocks mentioned above.) For a concretely physical human being was absolutely required for the fulfillment of the Season of Grace which concretely, physically and historically did occur--and that he was, is, and will be . . . us. The Scriptures and the New Testament are about Him AND us. Why do physical history for 93% of a story and then switch to symbolism at its grand finale, especially when its theme is the true reality? Let's see if I can get us there:

Observes Neville Goddard in his lecture "Jesus" (11/20/68), "There is not a truth, or a lie, that does not have a man as its agent, as it takes a man to express either a lie or a truth." That is, to express a truth or a lie, an agent, a man, is required. Says Neville, "Jesus Christ is called the truth. He is not a unique man who was born in four BC and named Jesus Christ, but (he is) God's plan of salvation . . . If truth is to be expressed, it takes an individual man to express it. Therefore, when the story of redemption unfolds in a man, he relates his own experience" (italics mine).

Victor Alexander's Season of Grace refers to the period between the destructions of the two Temples in Jerusalem, basically encompassing the prophecy of four hundred and ninety years in Daniel chapter 9. This was a picture of US, of His process. Seventy sevens of years expresses a perfect time for the accomplishing of a perfect completion of that process. In that Season of Grace our obligations were concluded, our sins were curtailed, our abominations were abandoned, and the Eternal Righteousness (Rightness!) was introduced so that the visions and the prophecies may be fulfilled and to the Anointed One we may commit our blessings (Alexander).

I am simply agreeing with Neville when I say that to express this truth in the physical, historical picture of our lives that the Season of Grace was, a man was required. A man, not a philosophy or symbolic representation of a man, but a historic, physical man who was God's plan of salvation and who related his own experience. Still, as Neville further demonstrates using himself, "This man called Neville is simply an agent expressing truth. It is not good enough for you to just understand it. You must believe, not in Neville, but in the truth he is expressing." The Man we shall become came as an agent...in the physical picture the Season was...to express God's truth that we are Him--God's intended Manifestation in the flesh. In the crucifixion the whole of Scripture becomes one. The intended end we shall be was the Beginning of all. He-who-we-shall-be, the "End-Man," physically appeared at the appointed time to complete the picture as required.

As I mulled this over, I heard that faint, still voice in my imagination say, "Do you believe I did that for you, that 'You-who-I-shall-become' really, physically completed the picture?"

Do I believe that my future form, my end, became flesh in the Season of Grace and literally, actually died for me? Just for me? "Yes. I believe that You literally, physically, historically completed the picture of the truth, of the grace, of the Messiah--the Man of the Season--and that You and I are one."

"Jesus" : Neville Goddard Lecture (11/20/68)

Neville Goddard
November 20, 1968

JESUS

Because the Christian world believes in a man, this question is asked me over and over again: "Do you not believe that a man called Jesus Christ walked the earth?" It is my hope that I will be able to clarify this point for you, that you may know the truth which will set you free.

Speaking of Jesus Christ, it is said that his name shall be called the Word of God. Here we see Jesus as a person with a name, yet he is the truth that sets man free. Confessing that he came into the world to do his Father’s will, Jesus made this statement:

"This is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life" (John 6).

Now, there is not a truth, or a lie, that does not have a man as its agent, as it takes a man to express either a lie or a truth. Jesus Christ is called the truth. He is not a unique man who was born in four BC and named Jesus Christ, but God’s plan of salvation. In the Book of Samuel the story is told of David's son Absalom who revolted against David and tried to take over the kingdom. All during the battle, however, David inquired over and over again,

"How is it with the lad, Absalom?" And when David received the news of Absalom's death he went up to the chamber over the gate of Jerusalem and wept, crying, "Oh Absalom, my son, my son. Would I have died instead of you. Oh Absalom, my son, my son." This, one of the saddest yet poignant statements of scripture, is a foreshadowing of the story recorded in the New Testament where we find that God the Father does what David longed to do, for only God can give his life to save his Son.

Speaking to humanity, Blake put these words into the mouth of Jesus:

"Fear not! Unless I die thou can'st not live. But if I die I shall arise again and thou with me. Wouldest thou love one who never died for thee? Or ever die for one who had not died for thee? And if God died not for Man, and giveth not himself eternally for Man, Man could not exist."

God died by emptying himself of his divinity. He is not pretending to be dead, but actually becomes the very breath of life of every child born of woman.

Now walking in the forgetfulness of man, God has prepared a plan for his return and man's redemption. This plan is Jesus Christ, but because it is personified, man has taken the vehicle that conveyed the instruction for the instruction, and the agent that expressed the great truth for the truth itself. If truth is to be expressed, it takes an individual man to express it. Therefore, when the story of redemption unfolds in a man, he relates his own experience.

In scripture, the words see and know are interchangeable in both Hebrew and Greek. When I paint you a word picture of the plan of salvation, I am showing you God's Son. It does not necessarily follow that you will understand what I am saying and believe me, so the statement is made, "To everyone who sees the Son and believes, is eternal life." I hope you can follow my words, understand and accept them.

Jesus Christ is not a person, but God's plan of redemption which must be discovered and understood. One must wear a body of flesh and blood in order to enter this world, but it takes a spiritual body to enter the kingdom of heaven, and my words are spirit!

No man can set you free. This man called Neville is simply an agent expressing truth. It is not good enough for you to just understand it. You must believe, not in Neville, but in the truth he is expressing.

I am telling you what I have experienced. Jesus Christ, God's story of salvation, has been fulfilled in me. I have experienced the birth, the discovery of God's only begotten son David, the splitting of the temple and the ascent of the Son of man into heaven and the descent of the dove. The majority of the people of the world will not accept my story. They want a person on the outside as their personal savior, unwilling to believe that their savior is a plan of salvation who is God Himself!

Now I ask you. do you believe in scripture? It is said that, "Among those born of woman, none is greater than John the Baptist, yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." If you insist upon believing that Jesus Christ is a man of flesh and blood, and the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist, then John is greater than Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, God's plan of salvation, is a supernatural drama. It hasn't a thing to do with any child which came (or comes) from the womb of a woman. His story takes place in an entirely different area of the mind. Read the 6th, 8th, 18th, and 19th chapters of John to discover the wonderful hiddenness of Christ recorded there.

In the eyes of hundreds of millions of people, Jesus was Joseph's son, but Jesus does not make that confession. He tells you, "I have come down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me," and, "heaven is within." How can Jesus be sent from heaven and be Joseph's--a mortal man's son? When asked who his father was Jesus answered,

"You know neither me nor my Father, for it you knew me you would know my Father also." In other words, if you know Christ in the true sense of the word, you know he is yourself. You will know your Father is he who is called God. Although it takes a man to express God’s plan, Christ cannot be seen by mortal eyes. He can only be known and experienced as God's plan of salvation.

When Pilate asked one who expressed the truth to tell him who he was and where he was from, he did not answer. And when Pilate said, "Do you not know I have the power to release you or to crucify you," truth replied, "You have no power over me unless it is given you from within." The world of Imagination is not this world, and the drama called Jesus Christ unfolds in the world of Imagination. I am sharing with you what I have experienced in that world.

Now, a lady writes: "In my dream I was watching the tape of my recorder move from one reel to the other. As I watched, I realized that if I arrested the activity I observed, it would freeze. As I did, my senses seemed to open and expand. But I soon discovered that I could not start the reel again until I contracted them. This fascinated me, so I repeated the action several times, each time realizing that I could not start the action in my open and expanded state. Only when I had contracted my senses once more would the reel start and move, seemingly independent of my perception of it."

There is only God! God in the eternal state of existence! God in procession and God in return! This experience of hers is a foreshadowing of God’s return to union with himself. Wearing a female garment God, in her, is tasting a power which is completely unknown to man. Man is frightened by his own little devices and thinks they can blast the universe apart, but they are only little firecrackers compared to the power of the Human Imagination.

Our astrophysicists claim there are one-hundred billion galaxies in the universe, with each galaxy containing one-hundred billion stars, yet they can find nothing like our little Earth. The only thing in the universe that could cradle this biological experiment called Man, is right here in our small planet consisting of a sun and a moon, called Earth.

Dwell upon this thought. The entire universe was created by an orgasm of God. Have you ever seen the orgasm of a man under the microscope?

Billions of live organisms are there to attempt the likeness of the man, but only one organism is successful. Here is God's orgasm, of which one system came out which could cradle his experiment of making man in his own image. Nothing here can do it. God had to die in order for man to live knowing, "If I die I shall arise again and thou with me, for if God dieth not for man and gives himself eternally for man, man could not exist."

When God became man he brought his plan of salvation, called Jesus Christ, with him. The churches, however, have organized and personified Jesus. They have painted pictures of him and placed them on the wall. But Jesus Christ is God’s eternal plan of salvation which is expressed by a man.

When I am gone, and you are asked if you believe that a man called Jesus Christ was born of Mary, lived and was crucified on a wooden cross, tell them the true story of salvation, from experience. For, by then you will be witnesses to the truth of God's word. As a witness, you will be the fruit of the tree of life upon which Jesus Christ (God’s eternal plan) was crucified.

Men are looking for that tree in time and space, but Blake tells us,

"The gods of the Earth and Sea sought through Nature to find this tree, but their search is all in vain; there grows on in the human brain."

God's plan of salvation is embedded in the brain. Engrafted there, it will grow and erupt into these four major events. Then the man in whom the eruption has taken place will linger to tell of his experience and encourage his brothers. After which he will depart, not to be restored to this terrestrial world, but to enter that age called the kingdom of heaven where he will exercise a power greater than the wildest dream of mortal man.

When God's plan of salvation is complete, man will have returned to himself. That's divine reunion. Then he will know from experience that he came out from the consciousness of being the Father and came into the world by being aware of its existence. Again he will leave the world and return to the awareness of being God the Father.

This world is not some accident, but a plan to create and expand God's creative power. There is no limit to your expansion, only a limit to contraction which is man. Taking on the limit of contraction and the opacity of man, God unfolds himself in man to know unlimited translucency and expansion! Jesus Christ is God's plan of salvation. When this is clear to you, you will believe in yourself. But if you reject this, you do not believe in yourself. The entire gospel of John tells about faith and lack of belief in self! Telling you a story about himself, John expresses truth and personifies it as a man. It is the truth you should worship, not the man! "Hold onto the truth, for the truth will set you free."

If you accept the word of God that abides in you, you will know its truth and be set free. But if possessing wealth, or being famous is more important to you, I say, "O foolish one, your soul is required of you tonight. Tomorrow I will put you in a sphere where you will have your millions and your fame, but you will have to work for it."

Don't think that because you are now playing a noble part, you cannot move to an ignoble one. Just like an actor, you may play the part of a king on the stage of time and space tonight, and tomorrow be cast in the role of a clown. God only acts and is in existing beings or men. We are cast in role after role until the work we agreed to do is completed in us. And regardless of what we do now, or our social or intellectual position, when we leave here we are cast in our appropriate roles. This I know from experience. Everything is done and everything is perfect. God planned everything as it has come to pass, and as it will be consummated.

This truth must be expressed by man, so a man comes and expresses it. One must learn to let the man go, and hold onto the truth he expresses, for the truth will then engraft itself upon the individual and unfold from within. Then he will know who Jesus Christ really is, from experience. When God's only begotten son David calls you father, are you not God? If it is said that God's body was split from top to bottom and it happens to you, are you not God? As these events happen, the Bible will open up and you will see the wisdom of Blake when he claimed that rivers, mountains, cities, villages, all are you, for in eternity all are men.

Scripture records that the Mount of Olives was split. You will know that it is your own body that is divided. You will discover you are the river Jordan. When you enter into the awareness of being the mountains, the villages and the cities, you will walk in their heavens and earth, just as you now walk in your own heavens and earth, for "All that you behold, though it appears without, it is within you, in your Imagination, of which this world of mortality is but a shadow."

All of the mountains of scripture are within you, as are the cities and the villages, regardless of their names. You become the Jerusalem, the bride who comes down at the dawn. Being God, individualized, you will personify God's plan of salvation called Jesus Christ, for there is nothing but man, and man is God.

Near Death Experiences (NDEs) Like This Experience Are IMAGINARY

The Man I Am Going To Be Already Is: The Perfect Man (Temple In Jerusalem) Of Daniel 9's 490 Years (7 x 10 x 7) Is ME -- "Unless You Believe That 'I' Am He (That Messiah), You Die (Continue In Ignorance) In Your Sins"

Anonymous asked if my purpose has changed. Well, everyone's purpose ultimately is to become Jesus. Jesus is the Progressor of God's manifesting, that quality of the Ineffable Being's nature which acts to convert God's imagination into its manifestation--Jesus Christ. Jesus is its driving force. The word 'Jesus' is "God Saving." He is the ongoing act.

As God has become us that we might become Him, we are destined to become Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God in man--the two having become one. That is our "end." Euaggelion, the Greek word translated as 'gospel' in the New Testament, originally meant "reward." Our becoming Jesus Christ is our reward. He--our being Him--is the Reward if we believe "I am He." We are to assume that our end already exists, because He does. Did Christ come in the flesh? Yes! in yours and mine. From His perspective we--our mudman--DID become Him, and now as the Godman He is beyond the constraints of time, knocking at the mudman's door.

This is the theme of most of Neville Goddard's final lectures. Listen to the lectures and correct the book as you read along, as there are hundreds of "editings" in it Neville did not say. And as God often does, here is a just-discovered-today teaching offered on YouTube that corresponds with this idea: Jesus Showed Me How to Live From Heaven! Listen to it as if Neville was speaking.

Remember THIS--This Frame of Mind You Have, This Relationship, of Who I Am and of Who and What You Are, This Respectful Humble Surrender

Another interesting comment/question from Anonymous, this time related to my post "Stop Misreading the Bible: the Lord's Prayer isn't the Prayer, It is How to Pray the Prayer" (01/02/2014). To make that post a little clearer, I added "i.e., it is the Attitude in Which to Pray It" to the title, which see.

Anonymous' comment/question:
__________________________

Hi Dan,

I find the general sequence below to be funneling towards a crucial point, but at the last moment, I seem to miss it.

“I saw that I was animated by God and had, up until that moment, done whatever I pleased with his life. This was the rebellion of self-lordship.

"I had never so much as thanked God for giving me life, nor had I ever asked for what purpose he had made me. He must have had a reason, and I had not a clue. I might have wondered why at some point, but I had never pointedly asked him and then waited for his answer.

"In the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, I asked. I distinctly remember saying, “This is your life. You animated me with your life by your grace. I belong to you. You had a purpose for making me to live. Whatever you made me for, that is what I shall do…

"I submitted myself to God. Bless God, I didn't fall flat on my face, but still I shut up and waited for his orders…

"After a minute or two in that ominous silence, though, I heard the softest of voices say regarding this relationship, ‘Remember this, and it is all right’…

‘Whatever you want me to do, that I will do.’”

1. What exactly was the “this” that you had to remember, such that it would then be “all right”? Is it everything you wrote in your post up to "Remember this"?

2. Many Christians across denominations have the experience of asking God what was God’s will for their lives, and God would tell them to do this or that, go here or go there, etc. What was yours? At that time in Honolulu, what was the answer? What was your purpose that you were made for and made to live?

3. And ever since that time in Honolulu, has his/your will changed? Has your purpose changed? Or is it something that never changes?

Thank you.
____________________

Thank you, Anonymous, for another great question. I want you to know that at that time I did not know what "this" was either. God does not give us such things; they have to be developed and discovered. I had to ask and find out (what was actually quite obvious) because I am so stupid. I am sorry I confused you also. When I heard God say, "It is all right," indicating that I was forgiven and accepted by Him, I was sooooo stoked and overwhelmed with relief, gratitude and appreciation--not to mention love--that I forgot virtually everything else in the world. The ecstasy of emotion centered in my bowels as the Living Water infused my soul and rose to my throat where it overflowed from me as language 100% under the direction and control of the Holy Ghost. My mouth was speaking, but I WASN'T!! But I digress.

Yes, I said, "Whatever you want me to do, that I will do." But that wasn't the "this." The "this" in the "Remember this" was the attitude in which I had said it, the complete surrender and humble submission of my at-that-moment contrite and broken spirit. I recognized fully and whole-heartedly that I was His possession, a slave and servant of God Almighty--and happy to be owned!!!

Did I mention that I was and am ignorant--a stupid idiot and dumber than mud? I did not know what I was supposed to do. I waited a long time for some spoken or indicated direction. He DID say audibly, "Come unto Me," which I learned was Matthew 11:28. Later, praying with three women, one prophesied, "My son, . . . " followed by Matthew 11:29. So I have been learning. At that time in Honolulu I started looking for a school. In September of 1975 I started at Melodyland School of Theology in Anaheim, California, as a junior in university. That was quite a miracle, as the only qualifications I had for college was I was breathing and God.

Resolve has developed that it is whatever He gives us to do--whatever is right in front of us--to do that in that surrender, with all the strength one has "as unto the Lord." I said in a recent post that ends like-God are good, and ends unlike-God are evil. Whatever "is" this minute, can I contribute like-God-ness to it by doing or not doing anything? by imagining a God-like end? like Freedom Barry imagining the beggar a productive citizen? Is it those who pray for/imagine world peace who are holding back the Apocalypse?

AND THANK YOU, ANONYMOUS, FOR BRINGING THIS UP: I heard the teaching several years ago, by whom I do not know, and whether or not it is true I do not know, that the word 'righteousness' is not actually in the Bible. It is a mistranslation of the word for 'RIGHTNESS.' I.e., we are the RIGHTNESS of God. I have wanted for a long time a place to say this.

I hope, Anonymous, that when you read that post again it will all make sense. Because of the Divine Standing Orders our attitude is one of submission and trust in His faithfulness for like-God-ness--His rightness--to come to whatever is "here." We are not just to manifest Him; we are His Manifestation.

Morality: Neville Goddard, God, and Me--"Like God" Has Its Benefits

It took nearly 10 years, but I finally got a comment on my post "Unpoor By Imagining." Anonymous asks how to reconcile my views on morality--right and wrong--with what appears to be Neville Goddard's broader view that there is no right or wrong.
_________________

Hello Dan,

I refer to this portion of your post:

“The key to success on earth is having conscience and choosing right. Love is right, so let everything you do be done in love. Imagine loving thoughts in vivid 3-D. Be dedicated to the lordship of the Ineffable, be right in relationship with others, with right actions and right thoughts.”

I refer to these words in Neville Goddard’s lecture titled “Divine Signs”, 1 May 1968 (Alt.: https://icebluezen.com/divine-signs-neville-goddard-audio-and-text-lecture-archive/):

“Man, having eaten of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, decides what is right and what is wrong, thereby descending into the mire of confusion. But when he turns around, he discovers that nothing is either right or wrong. On a certain level it is right and on another level it is wrong. So, learn to accept every level, and as you do you will ascend the tree of life, to discover that every level, when viewed from there, is right when you know how to interpret it.”

Perhaps, in short, my comment is about morality. After reading many of your posts, I can see clearly that you do believe in morality. That we are to be like the Ineffable (bold emphasis mine), to love what the Ineffable loves, to do what the Ineffable does, etc. So, there is a moral realm. We are to choose—and to choose best, choose rightly, choose lovingly, etc.

In other words, there is a standard, there are morals, there are “God’s laws”? How then do I reconcile this view with Neville Goddard’s view—as per the quote above?

Also, it is not just the above quote. It is obvious from the entirety of Neville Goddard’s material that we have that Neville does not care much for morality.

The closest he gets to morality is when he quotes the Bible on “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

Other than quoting that verse, Neville Goddard does not instruct or define what exactly are “true,” ‘just,” virtuous, pure, etc. I trust I have made a fair assessment of him in this regard, and I believe you are even more familiar with his material.

For a book (the Bible) that has the mosaic law, the Book of Leviticus; For a book that spawned such a legalistic system as Judaism (for all their errors, they did build their system FROM much of what we call the Old Testament) or even much of Christendom; In a book whom the fulfilment of the OT (Jesus Christ) clearly stated that he came not to destroy the law but to fulfil it; In a book where the epistles continue to instruct on DOs and DONTs, and finally, in Revelations, where it clearly states that all kinds of evil and wicked people will perish directly under the acts of “God”: Why did Neville Goddard not say much about morality other than Philippians 4:8? (bold emphasis mine). I am at a point where I see that you have a morality, but I see that Neville Goddard does not have a morality (other than “his” The Law, which we know to be ONLY about creation: imagination creates reality. And this mechanism does not consider morality, hence justifying the Hitlers and Stalins, and, actually, the ability of all human beings to create all the bad and ugly too.)

I am for you. I am for Neville Goddard. So help me reconcile the two of you!

I know I have asked you about morality before, but my comment here relates more to “you vs Neville Goddard”, rather than “does "God" care about morals?”

I see a distinction between you and Neville Goddard regarding this matter, hence seek clarification.

Thank you very much.
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Thank you for the interesting puzzle, Anonymous. I am not sure the distinction between Neville and myself is our views on morality. I personally do not see any difference between us. I have never heard or read anything of Neville advocating im-morality. We both reject strict legalistic moral codes imposed by clerics, but that is because such obedience is selfish, meritorious - not heart-based, and should be used as examples of what is like God.

Neville started out with Abdullah as a strict ascetic, and returned from Barbados a libertarian. Yet he always held to IMAGINING what was right and good, loving and beneficial, with the prevision that it was GOD HIMSELF who would do all the orchestrative ACTION in manifesting of the good desired. Morality is thus in God's court. THINK what you will, and DO good. E.g., Neville imagined being on a ship which no available berths. Then, mysteriously, someone decided to give up their stateroom, and it went out of order to Neville. I think that perhaps the difference you see between myself and Neville is he is talking about imagining, and I am talking about doing.

You correctly discern that my position is: we are to be like God in all we think, say, and do. That is pretty much my whole theology: we are God's manifestation as He becomes manifest. God, the consciousness of the Ineffable, developed over time. From the Ineffable's first awareness of Its own existence, through Its discovery of Its powers and abilities, to Its resolve to exist in Its mature state in this dimension, the consciousness of the Ineffable has a foremost, primary purpose: to become manifest. What determines good from evil in anything is: is its end like or unlike God? It may be hard, very hard to comprehend, but all the horror and evil in the world, all the sickness, pain, and heartache--hell itself--ultimately gets this dimension into His condition. So nothing is good or evil of itself, but it is going to be progressed from whatever it is to being the Manifestation of God at its end. We are to give whatever we can a head start by both thinking and acting as God would. Jesus Christ is the Progressor in God's nature. Said Neville in Divine Signs:

"He has made known unto me the mystery of his sacred will according to his purpose, which he set forth as a plan in Christ for the fullness of time. I now know that Christ is not a person, and regard no scriptural character from the human point of view, but rather a state of consciousness personified. I once regarded Christ from the human point of view, but now I see him as the creative power of imagination and the wisdom of imagination, with a plan buried in that power" (bold emphasis mine).

I want to thank you, Anonymous, for getting me to see one special little thing Alexander didn't make clear to me. He noted that the Tree of Life yields the knowledge of good and evil. To know good and evil our knowledge of our own Godhood had to die into ignorance. This was "before that the world was." For life our as God has to DEVELOP over time just as it did for the Ineffable. "Good" is like God and going that way; "evil" is unlike God and going that way. All evil will ultimately be "oblivionated" (Alexander). I am not exactly sure what that means, but I am pretty sure it isn't good for evil--"And whoever misleads* (confuses) one of these small ones who believes in me, deserves to have a donkey's millstone thrown on his head and be thrown into the sea" (Mark 9:42 Alexander). That person is guily of bad, unlike-God action. We need to go for like-God action, which has its benefits and promised rewards.

Yesterday (May 7th) was Victor Alexander's Birthday

I understand Vic is 80 years old now. I cannot get over how much I appreciate his translations from the ancient Aramaic with their Eastern Church perspective. Yes, there are some faults in them, but the faults are miniscule compared to the deep insights he has given me. If you do not have Vic's Aramaic New Testament (ISBN 9781456475789) and at least his individual books of Genesis and Exodus, well, frankly I pity you. His Story of Jesus is to me gold, and I was blessed to get his hardbound New Testament when it was available. I am not working for him--he has never paid me (except he did give me an extra Story of Jesus)--I push him all the time in my blog for YOU. I believe YOU need his perspective and his translations, and . . . 

. . . You can wish Vic a happy birthday, if you would, at vicalexander37@gmail.com
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Edit: Vic Alexander single-handedly translated the New Testament and a significant portion of the Old Testament from the ancient Aramaic into idiomatic English. As a native modern Aramaic speaker with training in the ancient Aramaic scribal language, Vic identified many changes and errors made in virtually all other English translations. "They simply didn't understand the language," he said in one post on his now defunct v-a.com blog. In another post he mentioned that he had a hard time finding any verse that didn't have some error in it.

I didn't mention his translation of Jeremiah earlier. I was just reading chapter 6, and noticed his notes on verse 18. That verse says, "That is why the nations shall hear of it and observe the holidays among them." His notes are 1) "Prophecy regarding the false Christianity of the West." And 2) "As with all Scriptures, every word has to do with Jesus." Whoa! The false Christianity of the West. You are not going to find that note in any of your Western versions! Is that what we have from the Roman syncretic absorption of virtually all the Pagan holidays into a POPULAR religion? There is a certain severity missing in the West's Christianity.

As I said above, I prefer the individual books as they are easier to handle. I have most in digital form from v-a.com, also. I do have Vic's Old Testament Scriptures, which contains Genesis, Exodus, the first 24 chapters of Proverbs (Vic doesn't believe the rest were written by Solomon), Qohlat (Ecclesiastes), Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Jonah, Zechariah, and Malachi. I have never seen Qohlat available as a separate book, while the Scroll of Hosea is only available as an individual book.

A key factor in my conversion into a tongue-speaking holy roller Pentecostal was an individual paperback Gospel of John my mother sent me as a big tract. I think it was an early release from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) that had recently come out. After I encountered a for-real deceiving spirit in my occult meditation class, I realized that that book was telling the truth about what is really going on in this world: the invisible world is real and greater! So when I saw that Vic had an individual Gospel of John, I got one as a tract for someone special. Yes, it is exactly the same as the Gospel of John in the Aramaic New Testament I already had, and yes, it actually cost the same as the whole New Testament, but try to give a 516 page New Testament to a non-convert as a tract! "This little booklet? Yeah, I can read this." It isn't the money it costs; God confirms His Word, and for that you can't beat the Gospel of John.

The Finitude of the Infinite and the Great Heresy of Division

We are all imagined, for as far as I can tell the Ineffable Most High can do nothing but imagine. He imagines really well, though. He imagined light, and matter from that light. He imagined structure and form from that matter, massive galaxies of stars and planets our scientists say were impossible to form so early after He imagined light and matter. He has imagined life on those planets, and Himself in that life. He has imagined us, and has imagined us as Him.

The Ineffable is truly eternal. The entire life-span of the universe from inception to final fizzle-out is but a day in the workshop for Him. We are but a moment's diversion. The Infinite is far beyond the universe, but how far? Does the Divine Mind's breadth, Ein Sof--the Endlessness--ever end? And you want to spurn THAT? Are you NUTS? We are only because He is. We are His living, manifesting imagination: no Him, no light and matter. Both come from consciousness, and His was the only around. From then till now He is the constant, the Source of everything WITHOUT DIVISION. We are all His One. He is not "other," but is the source and life of all.

Would You Name Your Son Nothing?

Interesting conversation on perfection. One demands nothing less. The other says what for? For even if perfection is attained, IT WILL NOT LAST. This brings to mind the story of Cain and Abel. According to Bullinger's note in The Companion Bible (verses 4:1 and 2 [page 8]), Cain means acquisition, and Abel means transitoriness. No matter how perfect the acquisition, THE PERFECTION WILL NOT LAST. Where is all previous perfection? In the scrap heap. Forgotten, lost, buried, disintegrated, rotting. Abel actually means "nothing, zero, nada, zip, zilch." Kind of an odd name for a kid. It is actually the nature of time, isn't it? Everything is transitory! The next nanosecond after perfection is reached...it starts going away. Back to zero! Supposedly, the entire universe will eventually disperse, disband, cool to nothing, and disappear--cold, black nothing. Great golden images--perfection attained? Listen to Abel's cry: "IT WILL NOT LAST!" Dust to dust, nothing to nothing.

We are imagined, and are imagining. There is so much "perfection" to be attained. The physical that can be acquired...is NOTHING. The only thing worthy...is the Lamb. After the cooling, He will still be going strong. And so will we...if we be found in Him.

Paul's Name Changed From Saul to Nickname, "Undoer of Sorcery"--Paul

In Acts 13:8 Saul encountered "Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation)." The sorcerer was NOT called Elymas the sorcerer, for that would be "sorcerer the sorcerer." He was just called Elymas, which meant "the sorcerer." Victor Alexander has an interesting note here supposedly related to the Aramaic text, which is that the name Paulus means "undoer of sorcery."

So while the one guy was called "the sorcerer," the other, Saul, was called "the undoer of sorcery"--Paul. Apparently the nickname stuck.

Note: the original Saul was a mad king, as we all are in this sorcery we are born into.

How, Perhaps, To Get To The Proper Feeling Of Oneness With God In Neville Goddard's "State Akin To Sleep"

My post "The Feeling That Is The Secret Is The Feeling Of Immediate Oneness With God" received a question I wasn't sure how to answer:

"How do we get to that pre-SATS stage then? How do we get to 'there'? (You said:)

"'But you have to get there, to having the feeling that YOU are one with God, that there is no separation or division between God and His creation, you, which is His imagination'" (parenthesis mine).
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I got that the question was about how to achieve the feeling of oneness with God for prayer, but I couldn't fathom what a "pre-SATS stage" is. It struck a familiar chord, but I drew a blank as to its meaning. I apologized and responded to the question as well as I could, and waited. I later received this reply:

"The apology should be from my side. Sorry, I used an acronym that is frequently referred to on other platforms. It stands for State Akin To Sleep--as in the sleepy state that Neville Goddard tells us to imagine from. From your original post, it seemed that you were telling us to get to there before the SATS stage, hence my question.

"Thanks for your reply. I want to thank you also for the original post. It reflected similar thoughts in my mind. After many debates on other platforms, I realized that majority of NG readers today are really only interested in the Law and not the Promise. And what is worse is that they are not even interested in the basis of the Law: which is that, in the first place, we are of the ONE, hence we can create!

"How are base minds going to truly believe in the law if they reject our divinity? How are down and out people, battered minds, depressed souls going to manifest a radical change in their circumstances if they reject the power? So I was glad to read your post, and sought clarification on how to get 'there' first.

"I am tempted to ask you to share your 'litany of illuminating affirmations'. But, somehow, I feel that you may not be keen on such a post regarding something to the letter rather than to the spirit, so practical, so Law-of-Attraction-type material! Hahaha. Regardless, I know my Bible--or at least, I have it, so I know I can create my own litany of illuminating affirmations.

"On a, perhaps, sober note:
I have fought between ends and means. I know ends do not justify means. I know physical, material possessions should not be used to determine the value of life (quality of life). I know I cannot succumb to thinking manifestation success rate is the determination of how close a person is to truth. But after all the reading and learning over decades, I just cannot get completely away from the conclusion: my (your/one's) philosophy (belief system) is only as good as what it can produce. Trees and fruits, etc., etc.

"I don't think I have a question here. I am probably just sharing my thoughts with you, to respond to (or not) as you see fit.

"I used to practice SATS and other techniques that Neville taught like revision, inner speech, etc. My success varied. Magical moments, tremendous synchronicities...But somehow, I always felt like that was not the way of life. God cannot be merely a genie in a bottle. God cannot be merely a technique or formula. (At least, not in a very powerful way. I always succeed with the Neville's 'I will not climb a ladder' challenge. But so what if I climbed a ladder?)

"Then I decided to read Neville's lectures again. This time round, actually READING rather than limiting myself to only the Youtube audio lectures. There are so many more lectures in text on websites outside Youtube. And so much more theology that Neville spoke about. And this goes back to your post. Neville was absolutely not a Law of Attraction guru. Neville was far, far more than that. And it is not just dead theology, but theology that helps us know our power even more! Or at least, that is what I seem to think, or hope! And as the saying goes, where the rubber meets the road. Knowledge of God, of us, MUST prove itself in better performance in the world of shadows.

"Thank you"
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Thank you, Anonymous. I hope you do not mind I did a little editing to your response. I appreciate your thoughts and agree. Neville said somewhere that he both rejected and corrected New Thought teachers (those alive and those dead) that there is no "new thought," only the fulfillment of destiny per the Old Testament.

I too get more out of reading Neville. Beware that Horowitz's Final Lectures of Neville Goddard has hundreds of "editings" that are not what Neville said. I have a list of the lectures included that HAVE TO BE LISTENED TO instead of just read. I got a lot out of listening to Neville and correcting the book. Neville's gist in his last year was that we--each one of us--are two people, Jesus and Christ: the Divine Mind as imagination and its physical body. Perhaps I should say, "the works of this physical body," for what we DO is Christ.

I deliberately practice Neville's techniques very little for any sort of gain. I don't think I need to. It's really on automatic, isn't it? I need faith more than voodoo, and find that taking no thought for the morrow but trusting Him to provide all my needs has worked out best. It isn't that I don't do anything; its that I move, but do not lead. What I see is necessary to be done and set to do, He opens the appropriate doors. Often I am looking with hindsight, "How the heck did I do THAT?" The answer, of course, is that I didn't. HE did.

Yes, I guess if one was going to practice floating in the State Akin To Sleep, he or she would want to achieve the feeling of oneness with God prior to that. I meant it 24/7. I do not have a list of affirmations. The litany comes to mind quite naturally when I think of how I am one with God, which I mean to practice 24/7. I'll bet you a dollar to a donut that you already know verses and ideas and insights that will come to mind when you wonder, How am I one with You? E.g.:

I died with Christ two thousand years ago, and yet I live in Him.

Thou in Me, and I in them--He is in me AS me, the Source of imagination behind my imagination.

I create my world by my imagination: the Son of God creates the world by His, er, mine (Genesis 1:1 Alexander).

Nothing is impossible to God; nothing is impossible to he who believes.

Unless you believe, "'I' am 'HE.'"

"The Kingdom of God has to do with attitudes" : "The Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and BELIEVE the Reward." For me the "kingdom" is the powers of the Godhead; the "Reward" is I get to keep them! (From "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into your Master's joy.")

I read that the last word in John 1:18 in the Greek must be translated "revealed."

I will share an experience with you, Anonymous, that I do not often explain. Sometimes I get a little scared when I think of Who it is I am dealing with. Dare I think, speak, act so flippantly? That Eil Shaddai--God Almighty--is here, right now. This is His being. I should be on my face prostrate before Him 24/7. One night aware of His presence, I prepared for bed. Sitting on the toilet for one last pee, the bathroom became the intelligence of God. Every atom, every electron, every quark and quantum particle, the walls, the floor, myself--"we" were the manifestation of the Intelligence of Ineffable assuming It was "us." The building, the world, the air was alive as God. Stoked, amazed, awed, I walked over to my bed.

At that time, I had bone spurs on the edges of my neck vertebrae. Above my left shoulder blade ached like crazy, and as chronic back pain sufferers do, I had just gotten used to living with it. As I pulled back the bed covers, God present or no, I was aware of the throbbing pain. I addressed the Intelligence in my mind as I lie down: "You can heal me." This was an acknowledgement of Its power, not the giving of permission. Before my head touched the pillow, all the pain in my neck and shoulder was gone.

THAT experience is with me all the time. We are not ever apart from Him. The Holy Spirit world is here and real ALL OF THE TIME. He doesn't do tricks for us, but confirms with signs and wonders that HE IS. And by the way, He is a really good teacher. A person practicing Neville Goddard's (or anyone else's) prayer techniques and finding them to work had better consider Who it is Who is doing it, Who answers prayers. The Kingdom of God has to do with attitudes: recognition, respect, gratitude, honor, humility--we have got to find our right place and the right attitude for being with Him.