Neville Goddard's Faint

Continuing from Life is a Lie:

What do I mean by "faint"? Neville Goddard's faint is his technique of relinquishing to God the fulfilling of his desire. Neville was able to pursue, if you would, what he wanted in imagining, while simultaneously exercising self-abandonment as to how what he wanted would be achieved.

One thing that Neville understood clearly was that this world is a lie. Life as we know it is "as plastic as putty," said Neville, to the force of believing, obedient thought surrendered to God. We think, imagine, leaving the doing to the Spirit. Spirit is God's thought. God, who is the Divine's Consciousness, imagines, assumes, and it becomes. This world is wholly subject to that world; it's an illusion. It's a solid illusion - it can hurt like heck, but it is malleable to Divine will, and its hurt can be healed.

Neville knew how to surrender his prayer and action to God. Yes, he imagined creatively, causatively, but then he gave up the fulfilling of the prayer to God. He fainted from doing anything of himself to force the issue. He did do what he could on the course; e.g., he put his name on the waiting list in Barbados when there was no passage available, and he went to the Broadway ticket office when there were no tickets available; but beyond what was necessary for proceeding, he refrained--fainted--from doing anything more his way. I guess you could say he acted in surrender, he was submitted, and waited for God to make able the next step of fulfilling what needed to be done.

This is where you listen to Rabbi Manis Friedman's "Most people miss what the Bible is trying to say here..." on YouTube.com (listen from 3:30 and 7:15). I must say the rabbi has a very interesting Torah. Twenty-four walls of water? I think he is using Rashi's commentary or Midrash or Talmud or some other interpretation of the passage, but the point is that the sea parted for Israel WHEN ISRAEL WALKED INTO IT ON THE WAY TO THE OTHER SIDE. I.e., in what I am calling the fainted state. Like Israel crossing the Jordan River (Joshua 3-4), they were going across come hell or high water--quite literally. We don't do nothing; we do nothing but obey like the priests. Our feet get wet, but we faint from planning to building boats, bridges, etc., from managing things on our own.

Here is my own practical story:

In 1975, I went forward at the House of Praise to get saved. Nothing happened to me, but the guy next to me broke down bawling like a baby and rose up speaking in tongues. Hmmm. Later, asking for the gift of tongues in prayer, I was rejected by God. Nothing happened to me. This time I broke down bawling like a baby. Then God showed me an analysis of my life: I watched myself busy doing and arranging and managing my life the way I saw fit, everything in it was under my direction. Then it struck me: IT WASN'T MY LIFE! I was lording over GOD'S Life--the Life He had in grace given me, i.e., imparted to me, . . . to live for HIM. Doing my own thing in this world, I was living in rebellion, robbing God of whatever purpose He had for me when He created me.

Having just left the practice of occult meditation, I cast self-lordship out of myself, and in complete surrender I submitted to God. "Whatever You tell me to do, that I will do," and then I waited, listening intently in my mind. I heard spoken ever so softly, "Remember this, and it is all right." The living water of God's acceptance rose up in my bowels, and when it reached my lips I was speaking in tongues. (Note: I observed my mouth speaking praises unto God in words I didn't have. I exercised absolutely no control at all over my mouth.) I went to God as far as I could, and fainted. He took me the rest of the way by His Spirit.

For more on this subject, I highly recommend purchasing Mitch Horowitz' book Neville Goddard's Final Lectures ;in paperback form. I say paperback, because I do not know if you can edit a downloaded e-book, and you really need to be able to edit the text of the book--it is of the utmost importance. Get the book, and then read the TEXT of the first lecture, "Faith is Loyalty to Unseen Reality," while listening to the ORIGINAL AUDIO of Neville giving the lecture on YouTube. Mitch has very wisely put hundreds of "tests" in the text that you have to listen for. E.g., in the first line: Neville says, "We are told . . ." The text has "We're told . . . " See the difference? Third line: Mitch ends Neville's quotation of Hebrews 11:1 and 3 after the word 'seen,' but Neville's quote actually goes on to the fifth line, ending after the word 'appear.' On page 24 you will hear that, in the second line, Neville says 'for,' while the text has 'or.' I am not criticizing Horowitz in this, he's making us LISTEN. And the listening is ever so worth it. Loyalty to unseen reality is when you faint--having faith that God makes the way for you in this world.

(I go on about the book:) Neville says in the next paragraph, "Now, if I wanted something in this world, (and who doesn't?), I would formulate an act which would imply that I have it. And then in my imagination, I would simply, having performed that act, I would yield completely to this Being within me to execute it." Neville says to yield completely to this Being within us. I say faint, another says abandon, still others say surrender, submit, even die. We just need to learn to do it all the time.

Neville's pronunciation is not always easy to catch. Page 25 has a good example of catching his past tense. In the sixth line down Neville quite distinctly says, "gave"--past tense. Wait a minute, if 'gave' was past tense, then the proceeding would be in the past tense, also. Neville said, "So do not ask how it is going to be done. All I have to do is to completely yield to this Being within me, for he has ways and means that I, on this level of my being, know not of. I rise then under compulsion, and under this compulsion I go through a series of events, which will lead up to the fulfillment of that to which I yielded. I assumed that it's done. And then I communed with myself and gave thanks within me that it is done." If Neville didn't say 'gave,' I would never have caught his other past tense dictions, 'assumed' and 'communed'. Go down to the eleventh line, and hear Neville's 'for' where the book's text has 'what.' There are hundreds of these tests throughout the lectures. Listen and learn; the review is worth it!

The sea that denies our desire is rolled back in our fainting, in our loyalty to the unseen reality of what God has wrought, for it exists. The big question is: Who is our Lord? Is it our ignorance who lies to us in this world, or is it the Milta, YHWH, who IS the truth? I don't think it is coincidental that the literal meaning of YHWH is "He is.