Disproving Neville, Part II
Neville Goddard, the “Mad Mystic of 48th Street”
"But those who heard and thought, ‘Now, he really is insane,’ and would challenge me from the audience, they became good students.”—Neville Goddard
Can you realize your objectives in life by taking a nap? That’s what Neville Goddard teaches, and yes, it does sound insane.
A spiritual belief that’s based on napping? Sign me up!
“Then relax in a comfortable arm chair, induce a state of consciousness akin to sleep and experience in imagination what you would experience in reality were you already that which you desire to be.”—Neville Goddard
Neville imagining that he’s back home in Barbados.
According to Neville, this is the secret to “changing the future.” And this is the simplest part of Neville’s theory to test. So let’s try it. Climb into your favorite chair, get sleepy, and capture the feeling of being the person you want to be. Neville says the process of creating reality isn’t complete until the world acknowledges you as being who you want to be. So it’s helpful to imagine that someone else seeing you as being successful and to hear that person congratulating you.
Martin Crane’s armchair from “Frasier.” Was Marty a student of Neville’s?
Are you back?
Now that you’ve taken your “Neville nap,” it’s important to spend the rest of the day acting like what you’ve imagined is already true. Neville promises that “if you will remain faithful to that state of consciousness, what is seen only in your imagination will objectify itself in your world.”
“After you have assumed the feeling of the wish fulfilled, do not close the experience as you would a book, but carry it around like a fragrant odor.”—Neville Goddard
Neville says that the whole process will fail if you don’t change your consciousness. In a chapter called “Failure” in his book “The Power of Awareness,” Neville maintains, “You must realize that changes are not caused by caprice, but by a change of consciousness. You may fail to achieve or sustain the particular state of consciousness necessary to produce the effect you desire.”
And so to disprove Neville, I am concentrating on the state of consciousness I would have if I were the person that I want to be. One of Neville’s influences, William Blake, once said, “A fool sees not the same tree that the wise man sees.”
How would the person that I want to be see the world?
A good question to keep asking yourself as you attempt to change your consciousness.
Throughout the day today, I will act like I’m already the one that I want to be.
I want Neville’s philosophy to be true. I want his techniques to work. As Mitch Horowitz writes in “One Simple Idea,” his classic history of the positive-thinking movement: “Any defender or detractor of positive thinking must weigh his perspective against one simple, ultimate question: Does it work?”
But if Neville Goddard’s theory isn’t true, and if his process doesn’t work, I’m going to disprove it. And, as Neville says, “completely discard it.”
But I hope his philosophy works. And if it does ( or doesn’t) I’ll let you know…in my next post, “Disproving Neville, Part III.”
If I follow Neville’s teachings, will I become an aristocrat of the spirit?
Neville Goddard in a Promethean mood.
Neville wants you…to put his philosophy to the test.