The Self in our Culture

The Self in our Culture

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3:24 So what does a knowledge-oriented culture such as ours do about our inherent inability to answer a question so important to us as “What is a self?” We invent things, of course. Since we could first form the question, we’ve been devising theories about what it means to be a self, where a self comes from, where it resides in the body, and where it goes when the body expires. All manner of beliefs have been created, but the fact remains that no one actually knows some of the most essential aspects of life and existence.

3:25 In our culture we’ve long assumed that our “being” is somehow related to our “knowing.” From ancient religions to the growth of philosophy, psychology, and cognitive sciences, we’ve launched a multitude of differing campaigns aimed at comprehending our own selfhood. But what if the idea of being and the experience of being are mutually exclusive? What if we simply don’t know what self is? That idea doesn’t sit well in our culture. With a bit of a shrug, we’re willing to call certain matters “ineffable” for now, but we’re certain it’s only a matter of time before someone discovers what our existence is really all about. In the meantime, we tend to embrace some belief or other and live life according to its dictates.

3:26 Although some beliefs can offer helpful guidelines for living, neither religion or psychology—not even philosophy—is appropriate here. Whether or not these embody any truth is beside the point. For us, the ideas behind them will always remain hearsay and so cannot affect the depth of our being. Instead, what we’re after here is a direct no-frills personal experience. Our task is to grasp what something is, not just what we think or feel or hope about it. We could say we need to look “beyond the limits” of our beliefs and knowledge. But “beyond” sounds even further away, and what we want is in a different direction, closer to us somehow. In order to experience what is so, what we need to comprehend is what’s prior to all of our beliefs and knowledge.

3:27 Think about it; what do you get from your knowing, anyway? Is the experience of “being you” made complete by what you know? Perhaps you get answers, a personal history, some cohesive operating parameters, an identity, clear social status, etc., but is any of that deeply satisfying? Is it you? Knowledge, answers, and identity are all external to you. They are “viewed” by you, perceived and received by you, adopted by you, and maintained by you all day long, but they are not you. From these, you get to be something knowable, fathomable. You get to have a structure and be filled with your own unique set of answers and beliefs. In short, you get to live as a conceptual-self. Is that all there is? In our cultural environment it is just about the only possibility. But do you feel complete and whole?

Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9 percent of everything you do is for yourself —and there isn’t one.

—Wei Wu Wei

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The Book of Not Knowing, Chapter Three, The Cultural Matrix

Peter Ralston

Not-Knowing in Our Culture

Not-Knowing in Our Culture

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3:15 Before the earth was completely explored and charted, one feature of many world maps was this phrase at the edge of what was known:

“Beyond this place be dragons.”

Although it’s not something we normally consider as a culture—especially in the United States, where a “pioneer spirit” is high on our list of values—we still harbor fear and mistrust concerning the unknown, and especially the unknowable.

3:16 One largely unquestioned cultural assumption I’ve already mentioned is that not-knowing is bad. Look into evidence of this in your own life. Have you ever felt embarrassment regarding ignorance, as though it is something to be avoided or denied, like a rash or being caught with your pants down? Most people have. The understanding is that a good or smart person “knows”—knows how to behave, knows the right answers, knows what “it” is all about, knows how to make it in the world, knows how to please the opposite sex, knows what’s funny, knows what’s in and what’s out, and any number of other specifics depending on the group in which he or she lives. Knowing is always preferred over not knowing. At best, the absence of knowing is looked on as a temporary state of the uninitiated, and at worst, as a flaw or defect. We abhor being ignorant and fear being stupid, and we work hard to ensure that no one finds out that we’re either one.

3:17 The issue here isn’t whether not knowing should be allowed to occur—it already does. Our challenge is the ineffective relationship we have to its occurrence. Even using the term “not knowing,” we are drawn to hold it as a negative. Although we have no appropriate term for this state, this tendency of language indicates our cultural values and is not necessarily an adequate expression of what’s there.

3:18 Not-knowing is itself. It is primary. Before knowing can happen, there must first be a space for it, a state of non-knowing. In our culture that doesn’t matter—we avoid not-knowing. We avoid the appearance of it, the awareness of it, the existence of it as a primary state of being. You and I continually experience not-knowing, but our attention is on what we know and perceive, so we don’t discern—and don’t want to discern—the not knowing. Although not-knowing is the “source” of knowing and is indispensable for creativity, it remains a virtually unrecognized principle in our culture.

3:19 Not-knowing isn’t just acceptable, it is “so”; it is true. In every moment of every day there is much that is unknown to us. The very act and nature of knowing means that there must be not-knowing. It is a basic and natural part of our awareness, or consciousness. Not-knowing is a constant, ever-present aspect of “being.” Knowing some answers doesn’t change that or diminish it in any way. For us it may appear as an emptiness, as ignorance, or as a sense of disconnectedness from the source and absolute nature of life and being. It may appear as what’s yet to be grasped, as openness, or as room for understanding and wisdom. Not-knowing appears to people in different forms, and while many of these may seem negative, none of them is a defect.

3:20 Consider for a moment the experience of not-knowing as a state in itself, rather than as the absence of something we value. What if you perceived it as a harmless, even beneficial condition, such as being calm? Without reference to knowing, and so without a “not,” it would just be that fundamental experience, perhaps something akin to openness, or nothing, or freedom. It would be like a clear space or a blank canvas: the basis for what is to come.

3:21 Held in this way, it becomes easier to see how such a state would provide a wider perspective. Without the clutter of opinions and beliefs, we are free of bias, and free to look in any direction. We are no longer stuck in beliefs or conventions, or limited by our cultural histories or individual past experiences. We might even approach real wisdom, since rather than the usual sophisticated juggling of facts and opinions that frequently passes for intelligence, we are now receptive to genuine insight. At the heart of this state we also discover a freedom of being. Here is our primary self, the one that is original, unformed and open, creative but without mental chatter filling in all the blanks. This is the nature of the real-self.

3:22 The state of not-knowing is the mother of openness, questioning, authenticity, and freedom. Its nature is consciousness without form, possibility without limit, honesty without distortion. Not-knowing is a natural and healthy aspect of being alive, but in our culture we have no foundation upon which to understand it. Placing ourselves in a negative relationship to something that is fundamentally true in our own daily experience is a very silly and damaging thing to do. To go through life as though not knowing is bad—when, in every moment of our experience, not-knowing is true and always present—what does that leave us with? It leaves us with a constant struggle. It leaves us with an aberrant relationship to our own condition. And isn’t that what we’ve got?

3:23 As we begin to recognize and challenge the many assumptions we live by, we uncover a new freedom and open possibilities. It becomes clear that we need no longer take any of our assumptions as reality. At any time, we can set them aside, open up to not-knowing, and seek out a more genuine experience.

There is no freedom of thought without doubt.

—Bergen Baldwin Evans

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The Book of Not Knowing, Chapter Three, The Cultural Matrix

Peter Ralston

We are Culture

 We are Culture

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3:1 On some deep level almost everyone feels insecure, afraid, separate, isolated, and unsure of his or her own authenticity and value. We rarely openly confess and share these feelings with each other without attributing it to some specific cause or incident. Sometimes our anguish shows up in works of art or drama, or when it has built up to a point of crisis that can no longer be kept hidden. But about this personal suffering as a constant background condition, we generally keep our mouths shut and our gaze elsewhere.

3:2 To cover up this raw state, we obtain knowledge and adopt beliefs. From these, we fabricate a particular sense of self from which we deal with life. We might feel more “valuable” in the eyes of our community, but this does nothing to change our base condition. The only difference is that we’ve added yet another layer to our sense of “self.” It’s here that we step into an unending struggle with life. We suffer a nagging sense of fragmentation and dissatisfaction, and we lose our sense of real being—the source of our genuineness and innocence. Seeking relief, and unaware of any alternatives, we obtain new goals and possessions or adopt new character traits to bolster our self-identity. With each new attribute or acquisition, we further lose touch with the source of our own power, creativity, and inner peace—the very qualities we desire most, and also the only means to repair our situation.

3:3 How did we end up in such a pickle? The main source of this buried condition is the profound effect that our culture has on our entire frame of mind. Our culture is, in fact, what constructs our frame of mind. We all operate from a set of shared taken-for granted beliefs—the matrix of our culture. This “consensus reality” may unite us in a shared domain of thought and perception, but many of the inherited assumptions behind it actually foster a sense of uncertainty and isolation. Various perspectives of our culture seem to offer solutions to our individual doubts and insecurities, but since these remedies arise from the same assumptions that cause the difficulty, they do not and cannot resolve our deep sense of personal inauthenticity and disquiet.

3:4 For example, we might feel a gain in status when we achieve a personal goal or acquire something we desire, but this is merely an embellishment of our self-sense, and as such it is both superficial and temporary. One of the first steps toward real being is learning to recognize our cultural beliefs and how they lead us into the very struggles, dissatisfaction, and inauthenticity that we want to avoid. In this chapter we’ll look into two of our most damaging core cultural assumptions, and some of the inevitable consequences of assimilating them. Since culture is something we take for granted, let’s first take some time to consider the nature of culture.

3:5 To be “cultured” originally referred to having a refined appreciation for the arts. Over time the word “culture” has come to indicate the collective viewpoint and customs of any group of people. Although we now acknowledge that there are many different kinds of culture, the word can still carry connotations of particular esthetic refinement. So, hearing the phrase “cultural assumptions,” you might have the impression that you could find these down at the museum or opera house. Certainly you will find evidence there—our cultural values are expressed in every piece of artwork, architecture, or anything else that any of us creates. But where exactly is our culture?

3:6 We tend to overlook the fact that a culture exists only within the people who make it up. Instead, we live as though individuals and cultures are separate events, as though somehow we exist apart from our culture. This is a bit like thinking a forest exists independently from the trees. When we look at it impartially, it’s plain that culture is purely conceptual—there is no culture outside the minds of the people who comprise one. Our culture is made up of our collective temperament and values, our assumptions and beliefs, our methods of thinking and our cosmologies. Our culture is found in every building, every word, every idea, every routine, every ritual, every method, every book, every mind, every emotion, every value, every action, every bias—in short, it’s made up of everything we do and are.

3:7 Since we’re born into a culture, we can no more avoid being shaped by it and passing it along to our children than we can avoid being the product of a gene pool. The assumptions of our culture exist in our minds and perception, in our feelings and beliefs. Although they are “merely” conceptual, they live within each of us, as a very basic part of our experience, and they manifest in every activity we undertake and in every place we live. Our culture, our community, our society is you and I—and everyone else. Culture exists in us. It is one of the most basic factors in the framework from which we perceive the world around us.

3:8 Cultural assumptions are part of the foundation for our perceptions. We can’t help but take them for granted. We look out from them, which makes it difficult to look at them. No matter what we encounter, much of our interpretation of the event or object or person is predetermined by the assumptions that unconsciously shape our perceptions. One obvious example is gender stereotype. The bias, beliefs, and programming that exist in a given culture will be superimposed on an individual’s perception of every male and female. Core cultural assumptions bind us all and are as common and natural to us as the air we breathe. These assumptions are shared beliefs adopted not from personal choice but simply as a result of being part of a community.

3:9 Even various subcultures, regardless of their differences, are founded on the same basic assumptions. It may sound as though these assumptions are somehow force-fed into our thoughts and perceptions, but our indoctrination comes about quite naturally in the process of growing up within our culture. These background beliefs are reinforced at every turn and simply fall into place like basic “truths” that dictate the nature of our experience by shaping our interpretation of whatever’s perceived. Since these assumptions are shared by everyone around us, we don’t recognize their considerable influence.

3:10 Since the birth of humanity, people have created many phantom worlds in which to live. In fact, our most powerful inventions are not technological at all; they are conceptual. Every culture needs structure and values in order to function as a cooperative effort, and commonly held beliefs and assumptions provide a central unifying force. In response to the questions of existence, such as “Who are we, and why are we here?” a staggering number of belief systems, values, religions, cosmologies, and worldviews have been invented, lived, and taken very, very, seriously. For the most part these “inventions” occurred organically or collectively over a period of time, but despite their unpremeditated beginnings, they are inventions nevertheless.

3:11 By design, the modern human mind craves knowledge, especially in places where we can find none. When faced with an absence of information, we’ll make something up—we will believe and assume. This tendency appears to be universal—in every culture, some form of beliefs arises to fill in for the lack of absolute “knowledge.” Every subculture with a set of beliefs clamors to have the last word on the subject, claiming themselves guardians of the Truth. Many of the different factions are willing to war over their inventions, but no one is willing to confess that they simply don’t know what the truth is.

We delude ourselves that we want to implant honesty in our children: what we really want is to imbue them with our particular kind of dishonesty, with our culture’s dishonesty.

—Sidney Harris

3:12 Everything we invent in this way and live as if it were real or true will have repercussions. While we might understand and accept that there are consequences to the actions we take, it’s difficult to grasp that our beliefs and assumptions also have a cost. To recognize this, one would first have to forego attachment to his or her own personal opinions and admit that the ideas at issue are beliefs rather than the truth. Acknowledging this point is scary for anyone. It opens the door to doubts, and few people can tolerate the possibility of their whole belief system unraveling before their eyes.

3:13 Keeping that in mind, it becomes easier to understand how difficult it is for us to question any of our beliefs, no matter how subtle or seemingly inconsequential they may be. We’re quite willing instead to accept the consequences. We’ll shoulder all the woes of the world so long as they fit in with our way of holding reality. But what if a great deal of our suffering is based on assumptions that are false? The resulting consequences would be completely unnecessary.

3:14 As you can imagine, there are many kinds of beliefs and assumptions that warrant scrutiny. In working our way toward understanding, however, we need to proceed in layers. At this point we will focus our inquiry on the following two categories of cultural assumption:

1. Our views regarding not knowing: Which result in the veneration of knowledge, an aversion to ignorance, and the adoption of beliefs in place of experiencing the truth.

2. Our assumptions regarding “self”: Which result in the adoption and preservation of a fallacious “conceptual” self.

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The Book of Not Knowing, Chapter Three, The Cultural Matrix

Peter Ralston

Prayer: The Art of Receiving, Chapter 7...The Greatest Prayer

 Prayer: The Art of Receiving, Chapter 7...The Greatest Prayer

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Imagination is the beginning of creation.

You imagine what you desire, and then you believe it to be true.

Every dream could be realized by those self-disciplined enough to believe it. People are what you choose to make them; a man is according to the manner in which you look at him. You must look at him with different eyes before he will objectively change.

“Two men looked from prison bars, one saw the mud and the other saw the stars.”

Centuries ago, Isaiah asked the question;

“Who is blind, but my servant, or deaf, as my messenger that I sent?”

“Who is blind as he that is perfect, as blind as the Lord’s servant?”

The perfect man judges not after appearances, but judges righteously. He sees others as he desires them to be; he hears only what he wants to hear. He sees only good in others. In him is no condemnation, for he transforms the world with his seeing and hearing.

“The king that sitteth on the throne scattereth the evil with his eye.”

Sympathy for living things, agreement with human limitations, is not in the consciousness of the king because he has learned to separate their false concepts from their true being.

To him poverty is but the sleep of wealth. He does not see caterpillars, but painted butterflies to be; not winter, but summer sleeping; not man in want, but Jesus sleeping. Jesus of Nazareth, who scattered the evil with his eye, is asleep in the imagination of every man, and out of his own imagination must man awaken him by subjectively affirming

“I AM Jesus”

Then and only then will he see Jesus, for man can only see what is awake in himself. The holy womb is mans imagination.

The holy child is that conception of himself which fits Isaiah’s definition of perfection. Heed the words of St. Augustine,

“Too late have I loved thee, for behold thou wert within and it was without that I did seek thee.”

It is your own consciousness that you must turn as to the only reality. There, and there alone, you awaken that which is asleep.

“Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born, if He is not born of in thee thy soul is still forlorn.”

Creation is finished.

You call your creation into being by feeling the reality of the state you would call. A mood attracts its affinities but it does not create what it attracts. As sleep is called by feeling “I am sleepy,” so, too, is Jesus Christ called by the feeling,

“I AM Jesus Christ.”

Man sees only himself. Nothing befalls man that is not the nature of himself.

People emerge out of the mass betraying their close affinity to your moods as they are engendered.

You meet them seemingly by accident but find they are intimates of your moods. Because your moods continually externalize themselves you could prophesy from your moods, that you, without search, would soon meet certain characters and encounter certain conditions.

Therefore call the perfect one into being by living in the feeling,

“I AM Christ,”

for Christ is the one concept of self through which can be seen the unveiled realities of eternity.

Our behavior is influenced by our subconscious assumption respecting our own social and intellectual rank and that of the one we are addressing. Let us seek for and evoke the greatest rank, and the noblest of all is that which disrobes man of his morality and clothes him with uncurbed immortal glory.

Let us assume the feeling

“I AM Christ,”

and our whole behavior will subtly and unconsciously change in accordance with the assumption. Our subconscious assumptions continually externalize themselves that others may consciously see us as we subconsciously see ourselves, and tell us by their actions what we have subconsciously assumed of ourselves to be. Therefore let us assume the feeling

“I AM Christ,”

until our conscious claim becomes our subconscious assumption that

“We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory.”

Let God Awake and his enemies be destroyed. There is no greater prayer for man.

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Neville Goddard, Prayer: The Art of Receiving

Prayer: The Art of believing, Chapter 6...Good Tidings

Prayer: The Art of believing, Chapter 6...Good Tidings

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“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation.”

A very effective way to bring good tidings to another is to call before your minds eyes the subjective image of the person you wish to help and have him affirm that which you desired him to do.

Mentally hear him tell you he has done it.

This awakens within him the vibratory correlate of the state affirmed, which vibration persists until its mission is accomplished.

It does not matter what it is you desire to have done, or whom you select to do it. As soon as you subjectively affirm that it is done, results follow.

Failure can result only if you fail to accept the truth of your assertion or if the state affirmed would not be desired by the subject for himself or another. In the latter event, the state would realize itself in you, the operator.

The seemingly harmless habit of “talking to yourself” is the most fruitful form of prayer.

A mental argument with the subjective image of another is the surest way to pray for an argument.

You are asking to be offended by the other when you objectively meet. He is compelled to act in a manner displeasing to you, unless before the meeting you countermand or modify your order by subjectively affirming a change.

Unfortunately, man forgets his subjective arguments, his daily mental conversations with others, and so is at a loss for an explanation of the conflicts and misfortunes of his life. As mental arguments can produce conflicts, so do happy mental conversations produce those corresponding visible states of good tidings.

Man creates himself out of his own imagination.

If the state desired is for yourself and you find it difficult to accept as true what your senses deny, call before your mind’s eye the subjective image of a friend and have him mentally affirm that you are already that which you desire to be.

This establishes in him, without his conscious consent or knowledge, the subconscious assumption that you are that which he mentally affirmed, which assumption, because it is unconsciously assumed, will persist until it fulfills its mission.

Its mission is to awaken in you, its vibratory correlate, which vibration, when awakened in you, realizes itself as an objective fact.

Another very effective way to pray for oneself is to use the formula of Job who found that his own captivity was removed as he prayed for his friends.

Fix your attention on a friend and have the imaginary voice of your friend tell you that he is, or has that which is comparable to that which you desire to be or have.

As you mentally hear and see him, feel the thrill of his good fortune and sincerely wish him well. This awakens in him the corresponding vibration of the state affirmed, which vibration must then objectify itself as a physical fact.

You will discover the truth of the statement,

“Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.”

“The quality of mercy is twice blessed . . it blesses him who taketh and him who giveth.”

The good you subjectively accept as true of others will not only be expressed by them, but a full share will be realized by you.

Transformations are never total.

Force A is always transformed into more than a force B.

A blow with a hammer produces not only a mechanical concussion, but also heat, electricity, a sound, a magnetic change and so on.

The vibratory correlate in the subject is not the entire transformation of the sentiment communicated.

The gift transmitted to another is the like the divine measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, so that after five thousand are fed from the five loaves and two fish, twelve baskets full are left over.

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Neville Goddard, Prayer: The Art of Believing

Prayer: The Art of believing, Chapter 5...Law Of Thought Transmission

Prayer: The Art of believing, Chapter 5...Law Of Thought Transmission

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“He sent his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.”

He transmitted the consciousness of health and awoke its vibratory correlate in the one toward whom it was directed. He mentally represented the subject to himself in a state of health and imagined he heard the subject confirm it.

“For no word of God shall be void of power; therefore hold fast the pattern of healthful words which thou has heard.”

To pray successfully you must have clearly defined objectives. You must know what you want before you can ask for it. You must know what you want before you can feel that you have it, and prayer is the feeling of the fulfilled desire.

It does not matter what it is you seek in prayer, or where it is, or whom it concerns.

You have nothing to do but convince yourself of the truth of that which you desire to see manifested.

When you emerge from prayer, you no longer seek, for you have, if you have prayed correctly, subconsciously assumed the reality of the state sought, and by the law of reversibility your subconscious must objectify that which it affirms.

You must have a conductor to transmit a force. You may employ a wire, a jet of water, a current of air, a ray of light or any intermediary whatsoever.

The principle of the photophone or the transmission of the voice by light will help you to understand thought transmission, or the sending of a word to heal another. There is a strong analogy between a spoken voice and a mental voice. To think is to speak low, to speak is to think aloud.

The principle of the photophone is this:

A ray of light is reflected by a mirror and projected to a receiver at a distant point. Back of the mirror is a mouthpiece. By speaking into the mouthpiece you cause the mirror to vibrate. A vibrating mirror modifies the light reflected on it. The modified light has your speech to carry, not as speech, but as represented in its mechanical correlate. It reaches the distant station and impinges on a disc within the receiver; it causes the disc to vibrate according to the modification it undergoes . . and it reproduces your voice.

“I AM the light of the world.”

I AM, the knowledge that I exist, is a light by means of which what passes in my mind is rendered visible.

Memory, or my ability to mentally see what is objectively present, proves that my mind is a mirror, so sensitive a mirror that it can reflect a thought. The perception of an image in memory in no way differs as a visual act from the perception of my image in a mirror.

The same principle of seeing is involved in both.

Your consciousness is the light reflected on the mirror of your mind and projected in space to the one of whom you think. By mentally speaking to the subjective image in your mind you cause the mirror of your mind to vibrate.

Your vibrating mind modifies the light of consciousness reflected on it. The modified light of consciousness reaches the one toward whom it is directed and impinges on the mirror of his mind; it causes his mind to vibrate according to the modification it undergoes. Thus, it reproduces in him what was mentally affirmed by you. Your beliefs, your fixed attitudes of mind, constantly modify your consciousness, as it is reflected on the mirror of your mind.

Your consciousness, modified by your beliefs, objectifies itself in the conditions of your world.

To change your world, you must first change your conception of it.

To change a man, you must change your conception of him. You must first believe him to be the man you want him to be and mentally talk to him as though he were.

All men are sufficiently sensitive to reproduce your beliefs of them.

Therefore, if your word is not reproduced visibly in him toward whom it is sent, the cause is to be found in you, not in the subject.

As soon as you believe in the truth of the state affirmed, results follow. Everyone can be transformed; every thought can be transmitted; every thought can be visibly embodied.

Subjective words . . subconscious assumptions . . awaken what they affirm.

They are living and active and

“shall not return unto me void, but shall accomplish that which I please, and shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent them.”

They are endowed with the intelligence pertaining to their mission and will persist until the object of their existence is realized; they persist until they awaken the vibratory correlates of themselves, within the one toward whom they are directed, but the moment the object of their creation is accomplished they cease to be.

The word spoken subjectively in quiet confidence will always awaken a corresponding state in the one in whom it was spoken; but the moment its task is accomplished it ceases to be, permitting the one in whom the state is realized to remain in the consciousness of the state affirmed or to return to his former state.

Whatever state has your attention holds your life. Therefore, to become attentive to a former state is to return to that condition.

“Remember not the former things, neither consider things of old.”

Nothing can be added to man, for the whole of creation is already perfected in him.

“The kingdom of heaven is within you.”

“Man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.”

Heaven is your subconsciousness.

Not even a sunburn is given from without. The rays without only awaken corresponding rays within. Were the burning rays not contained within man, all the concentrated rays in the universe could not burn him.

Were the tones of health not contained within the consciousness of the one whom they are affirmed, they could not be vibrated by the word which is sent. You do not really give to another, you resurrect that which is asleep within him.

“The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.”

Death is merely a sleeping and forgetting. Age and decay are the sleep, not death, of youth and health.

Recognition of a state vibrates or awakens it.

Distance, as it is cognized by your objective senses, does not exist for the subjective mind.

“If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me.”

Time and space are conditions of thought; the imagination can transcend them and move in a psychological time and space. Although physically separated from a place by thousands of miles, you can mentally live in the distant place as though it were here.

Your imagination can easily transform winter into summer, New York into Florida, and so on.

Whether the object of your desire be near or far, results will be the same. Subjectively, the object of your desire is never far off; its intense nearness makes it remote from observation of the senses. It dwells in consciousness, and consciousness is closer than breathing and nearer than hands and feet.

Consciousness is the one and only reality. All phenomena are formed of the same substance vibrating at different rates. Out of consciousness, I as man came, and to consciousness, I as man return.

In consciousness all states exist subjectively, and are awakened to their objective existence by belief. The only thing that prevents us from making a successful subjective impression on one at a great distance, or transforming there into here, is our habit of regarding space as an obstacle.

A friend a thousand miles away is rooted in your consciousness through your fixed ideas of him. To think of him and represent him to yourself inwardly in the state you desire him to be, confident that this subjective image is as true as it were already objectified, awakens in him a corresponding state which he must objectify. The results will be as obvious as the cause was hidden. The subject will express the awakened state within him and remain unaware of the true cause of his action.

Your illusion of free will is but ignorance of the causes which make you act. Prayers depend upon your attitude of mind for their success and not upon the attitude of the subject.

The subject has no power to resist your controlled subjective ideas of him unless the state affirmed by you, to be true of him, is a state he is incapable of wishing as true of another. In that case it returns to you, the sender, and will realize itself in you.

Provided the idea is acceptable, success depends entirely on the operator not upon the subject who, like compass needles on their pivots, are quite indifferent as to what direction you choose to give them. If your fixed idea is not subjectively accepted by the one toward whom it is directed, it rebounds to you from whom it came.

“Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.”

“There shall no evil happen to the just.”

Nothing befalls us that is not of the nature of ourselves.

A person who directs a malicious thought to another will be injured by its rebound if he fails to get subconscious acceptance of the other.

“As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”

Furthermore, what you can wish and believe of another can be wished and believed of you, and you have no power to reject it if the one who desires it for you accepts it as true of you.

The only power to reject a subjective word is to be incapable of wishing a similar state of another . . to give, presupposes the ability to receive.

The possibility to impress an idea upon another mind presupposes the ability of that mind to receive that impression. Fools exploit the world; the wise transfigure it.

It is the highest wisdom to know that in the living universe there is no destiny other than that created out of imagination of man.

There is no influence outside of the mind of man.

“Whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever are of good report; if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

Never accept as true of others what you would not want to be true of you. To awaken a state within another it must first be awake within you. The state you would transmit to another can only be transmitted, if it is believed by you.

Therefore to give is to receive.

You cannot give what you do not have and you have only what you believe.

So to believe a state as true of another not only awakens that state within the other but it makes it alive within you.

You are what you believe.

“Give and ye shall receive, full measure, pressed down and running over.”

Giving is simply believing, for what you truly believe of others you will awaken within them.

The vibratory state transmitted by your belief persists until it awakens its corresponding vibration in him of whom it is believed.

But before it can be transmitted it must first be awake within the transmitter.

Whatever is awake within your consciousness, you are. Whether the belief pertains to self or another does not matter, for the believer is defined by the sum total of his beliefs or subconscious assumptions.

“As a man thinketh in his heart”

in the deep subconscious of himself

“so is he.”

Disregard appearances and subjectively affirm as true that which you wish to be true.

This awakens in you the tone of the state affirmed which in turn realizes itself in you and in the one of whom it is affirmed.

“Give and ye shall receive.”

Beliefs invariably awaken what they affirm.

The world is a mirror, wherein everyone sees himself reflected. The objective world reflects the beliefs of the subjective mind.

Some people are self-impressed best by visual images, others by mental sounds, and still others by mental actions. The form of mental activity which allows the whole power of your attention to be focused in one chosen direction, is the one to cultivate, until you can bring all to play on your objective, at the same time.

Should you have difficulty in understanding the terms, “visual images,” “mental sounds” and “mental actions,” here is an illustration that should make their meanings clear:

‘A’ imagines he sees a piece of music, knowing nothing at all about musical notations. The impression in his mind is purely visual image.

‘B’ imagines he sees the same piece, but he can read music and can imagine how it would sound when played on the piano; that imagination is mental sound.

‘C’ also reads music and is a pianist; as he reads, he imagines himself playing the piece. The imaginary action is mental action.

The visual images, mental sounds and mental actions are creations of your imagination, and though they appear to come from without, they actually come from within yourself. They move as if moved by another but are really launched by your own spirit from the magical store-house of imagination.

They are projected into space by the same vibratory law that governs the sending of a voice or picture. Speech and images are projected not as speech or images but as vibratory correlates.

Subjective mind vibrates according to the modifications it undergoes by the thought and feelings of the operator. The visible state created is the effect of the subjective vibrations. A feeling is always accompanied by a corresponding vibration, that is, a change in expression or sensation in the operator.

There is no thought or feeling without expression. No matter how emotionless you appear to be, if you reflect with any degree of intensity, there is always an execution of slight muscular movements.

The eye, though shut, follows the movements of the imaginary objects and the pupil is dilated or contracted according to the brightness or the remoteness of those objects; respiration is accelerated or slowed, according to the course of your thoughts; the muscles contract correspondingly to your mental movements.

This change of vibration persists until it awakens a corresponding vibration in the subject, which vibration then expresses itself in a physical fact.

“And the word was made flesh.”

Energy, as you see in the case of radio, is transmitted and received in a “field,” a place where changes in space occur. The field and energy are one and inseparable. The field or subject becomes the embodiment of the word or energy received.

The thinker and the thought, the operator and the subject, the energy and the field are one. Were you still enough to hear the sound of your beliefs, you would know what is meant by “the music of the spheres.”

The mental sound you hear in prayer as coming from without is really produced by yourself. Self-observation will reveal this fact.

As the music of the spheres is defined as the harmony heard by the gods alone, and is supposed to be produced by the movements of the celestial spheres, so, too, is the harmony you subjectively hear for others heard by you alone is produced by the movements of your thoughts and feelings in the true kingdom or

“heaven within you.”

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Neville Goddard, Prayer: The Art of Believing

Prayer: The Art of believing, Chapter 4...Controlled Reverie

Prayer: The Art of believing, Chapter 4...Controlled Reverie

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Everyone is amenable to the same psychological laws which govern the ordinary hypnotic subject. He is amenable to control by suggestion.

In hypnosis, the objective senses are partly or totally suspended. However, no matter how profoundly the objective senses are locked in hypnosis, the subjective faculties are alert, and the subject recognizes everything that goes on around him. The activity and power of the subjective mind are proportionate to the sleep of the objective mind. Suggestions which appear powerless when presented directly to the objective consciousness are highly efficacious when the subject is in a hypnotic state.

The hypnotic state is simply being unaware, objectively. In hypnotism, the conscious mind is put to sleep and the subconscious powers are exposed as to be directly reached by suggestion.

It is easy to see from this, providing you accept the truth of mental suggestions, that anyone not objectively aware of you, is in a profound hypnotic state relative to you.

Therefore,

“Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in the bedchamber; for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter”

What you sincerely believe as true of another you will awaken within him.

No one need be entranced, in the ordinary manner, to be helped. If the subject is consciously unaware of the suggestion, and if the suggestion is given with conviction and confidently accepted by the operator as true, then you have the ideal setting for a successful prayer. Represent the subject to yourself mentally as though he had already done that which you desire him to do. Mentally speak to him and congratulate him on having done what you want him to do. Mentally see him in the state you want him to obtain.

Within the circle of its action, every word subjectively spoken awakens objectively, what it affirms. Incredulity on the part of the subject is no hindrance, when you are in control of your reverie.

Bold assertion by you, while you are in a partly subjective state, awakens what you affirm. Self-confidence on your part and the thorough belief in the truth of your mental assertion, are all that is needed to produce results.

Visualize the subject and imagine that you hear his voice.

This establishes contact with his subjective mind. Then imagine that he is telling you what you want to hear. If you want to send him words of health and wealth, then imagine that he is telling you

“I have never felt better and I have never had more,” and mentally tell him of your joy in witnessing his good fortune.

Imagine that you see and hear his joy.

A mental conversation with the subjective image of another must be in a manner which does not express the slightest doubt as to the truth of what you hear and say.

If you have the least idea that you do not believe what you have imagined you have heard and seen, the subject will not comply, for your subjective mind will transmit only your fixed ideas. Only fixed ideas can awaken their vibratory correlates in those toward whom they are directed.

In the controlled reverie, ideas must be suggested with the utmost care. If you do not control your imagination in the reverie, your imagination will control you. Whatever you suggest with confidence, is law to the subjective mind; it is under obligation to objectify that which you mentally affirm.

Not only does the subject execute the state affirmed but he does it as though the decision had come of itself, or the idea or the idea had originated by him.

Control of the subconscious is dominion over all.

Each state obeys one mind’s control.

Control of the subconscious is accomplished through control of your beliefs, which in turn is the all-potent factor in the visible states.

Imagination and faith are the secrets of creation.

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Neville Goddard, Prayer: The Art of Believing

Prayer: The Art of Believing, Chapter 3...Imagination and Faith

Prayer: The Art of Believing, Chapter 3...Imagination and Faith

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Prayers are not successfully made unless there is a rapport between the conscious and subconscious mind of the operator. This is done through imagination and faith.

By the power of imagination all men, certainly imaginative men, are forever casting forth enchantments, and all men, especially unimaginative men, are continually passing under their power.

Can we ever be certain that it was not our mother while darning our socks who began that subtle change in our minds? If I can unintentionally cast an enchantment over persons, there is no reason to doubt that I am able to cast intentionally a far stronger enchantment.

Everything, that can be seen, touched, explained, argued over, is to the imaginative man nothing more than a means, for he functions, by reason of his controlled imagination, in the deep of himself where every idea exists in itself and not in relation to something else. In him there is no need for the restraints of reason. For the only restraint he can obey is the mysterious instinct that teaches him to eliminate all moods other than the mood of the fulfilled desire.

Imagination and faith are the only faculties of the mind needed to create objective conditions.

The faith required for the successful operation of the law of consciousness is a purely subjective faith and is attainable upon the cessation of active opposition on the part of the objective mind of the operator.

It depends on your ability to feel and accept as true what your objective senses deny.

Neither the passivity of the subject nor his conscious agreement with your suggestion is necessary, for without his consent or knowledge he can be given a subjective order which he must objectively express. It is a fundamental law of consciousness that by telepathy we can have immediate communion with another.

To establish rapport you call the subject mentally. Focus your attention on him and mentally shout his name just as you would to attract the attention of anyone. Imagine that he answered, and mentally hear his voice. Represent him to yourself inwardly in the state you want him to obtain. Then imagine that he is telling you in the tones of ordinary conversation what you want to hear. Mentally answer him. Tell him of your joy in witnessing his good fortune.

Having mentally heard with all the distinctness of reality that which you wanted to hear and having thrilled to the news heard, return to objective consciousness. Your subjective conversation must awaken what it affirmed.

“Thou shalt decree a thing and it shall be established unto thee.”

It is not a strong will that sends the subjective word on its mission, so much as it is clear thinking and feeling, the truth of the state affirmed. When belief and will are in conflict, belief invariably wins.

“Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.”

It is not what you want that you attract; you attract what you believe to be true.

Therefore, get into the spirit of these mental conversations and give them the same degree of reality that you would a telephone conversation.

“If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. Therefore, I say unto you, what things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that ye received them, and ye shall have them.” 

The acceptance of the end wills the means. And the wisest reflection could not devise more effective means than those which are willed by the acceptance of the end. Mentally talk to your friends as though your desires for them were already realized.

Imagination is the beginning of the growth of all forms, and faith is the substance out of which they are formed.

By imagination, that which exists in latency or is asleep within the deep of consciousness is awakened and is given form.

The cures attributed to the influence of certain medicines, relics and places are the effects of imagination and faith. The curative power is not in the spirit that is in them, it is in the spirit in which they are accepted.

“The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”

The subjective mind is completely controlled by suggestion, so, whether the object of your faith be true or false, you will get the same results.

There is nothing unsound in the theory of medicine or in the claims of priesthood for their relics and holy places. The subjective mind of the patient accepts the suggestion of health conditioned on such states, and as soon as these conditions are met proceeds to realize health.

“According to your faith be it done unto you for all things are possible to him that believeth.”

Confident expectation of a state is the most potent means of bringing it about. The confident expectation of a cure does that which no medical treatment can accomplish.

Failure is always due to an antagonistic auto-suggestion by the patient, arising from objective doubt of the power of medicine or relic, or from doubt of the truth of the theory. Many of us, either from too little emotion or too much intellect, both of which are stumbling blocks in the way or prayer, cannot believe that which our sense deny.

To force ourselves to believe, will end in greater doubt. To avoid such counter-suggestions the patient should be unaware, objectively, of the suggestions which are made to him.

The most effective method of healing or influencing the behavior of others consists in what is known as “the silent or absent treatment.” When the subject is unaware, objectively, of the suggestion given him there is no possibility of him setting up an antagonistic belief. It is not necessary that the patient know, objectively, that anything is being done for him.

From what is known of the subjective and objective processes of reasoning, it is better that he should not know objectively of that which is being done for him. The more completely the objective mind is kept in ignorance of the suggestion, the better will the subjective mind perform its functions.

The subject subconsciously accepts the suggestion and thinks he originates it, proving the truth of Spinoza’s dictum, that we know not the causes that determine our actions.

The subconscious mind is the universal conductor which the operator modifies with his thoughts and feelings. Visible states are either the vibratory effects of subconscious vibrations within you or they are vibratory causes of the corresponding vibrations within you. A disciplined man never permits them to be causes unless they awaken in him the desirable states of consciousness.

With knowledge of the law of reversibility, the disciplined man transforms his world by imagining and feeling only what is lovely and of good report. The beautiful idea he awakens within himself shall not fail to arouse its affinity in others.

He knows the savior of the world is not a man but the manifestation that would save.

The sick man’s savior is health, the hungry man’s is food, the thirsty man’s savior is water. He walks in the company of the savior, by assuming the feeling of his wish fulfilled.

By the law of reversibility, that all transformations of force are reversible, the energy or feeling awakened transforms itself into the state imagined. He never waits four months for the harvest. If in four months the harvest will awaken in him a state of joy, then, inversely, the joy of harvest now will awaken the harvest now.

“Now is the acceptable time to give beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified.”

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Neville Goddard, Prayer: the Art of Believing

Prayer: The Art of Believing, Chapter 2..Dual Nature Of Consciousness

Prayer: The Art of Believing, Chapter 2..Dual Nature Of Consciousness

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A clear concept of the dual nature of man’s consciousness must be the basis of all true prayer.

Consciousness includes a subconscious as well as a conscious part. The infinitely greater part of consciousness lies below the sphere of objective consciousness. The subconscious is the most important part of consciousness. It is the cause of voluntary action. The subconscious is what a man is. The conscious is what a man knows.

“I and my Father are one but my Father is greater than I.”

The conscious and subconscious are one, but the subconscious is greater than the conscious.

“I of myself can do nothing, the Father within me He doeth the work.”

I, objective consciousness, of myself can do nothing; the Father, the subconscious, He doeth the work. The subconscious is that in which everything is known, in which everything is possible, to which everything goes, from which everything comes, which belongs to all, to which all have access.

What we are conscious of is constructed out of what we are not conscious of. Not only do our subconscious assumptions influence our behavior but they also fashion the pattern of our objective existence. They alone have the power to say,

“Let us make man . . objective manifestations . . in our image, after our likeness.”

The whole of creation is asleep within the deep of man and is awakened to objective existence by his subconscious assumptions. Within that blankness we call sleep there is a consciousness in unsleeping vigilance, and while the body sleeps this unsleeping being releases from the treasure house of eternity the subconscious assumptions of man.

Prayer is the key which unlocks the infinite storehouse.

“Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

Prayer modifies or completely changes our subconscious assumptions, and a change of assumption is a change of expression.

The conscious mind reasons inductively from observation, experience and education. It therefore finds it difficult to believe what the five senses and inductive reason deny.

The subconscious reasons deductively and is never concerned with the truth or falsity of the premise, but proceeds on the assumption of the correctness of the premise and objectifies results which are consistent with the premise.

This distinction must be clearly seen by all who would master the art of praying.

No true grasp of the science of prayer can be really obtained until the laws governing the dual nature of consciousness are understood and the importance of the subconscious realized.

Prayer . . the art of believing what is denied by the senses . . deals almost entirely with the subconscious. Through prayer, the subconscious is suggested, into acceptance of the wish fulfilled, and, reasoning deductively, logically unfolds it to its legitimate end.

“Far greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.”

The subjective mind is the diffused consciousness that animates the world; it is the spirit that giveth life. In all substance, is a single soul . . subjective mind. Through all creation runs this one unbroken subjective mind.

Thought and feeling fused into beliefs impress modifications upon it, charge it with a mission, which mission it faithfully executes. The conscious mind originates premises. The subjective mind unfolds them to their logical ends.

Were the subjective mind not so limited in its initiative power of reasoning, objective man could not be held responsible for his actions in the world. Man transmits ideas to the subconscious through his feelings. The subconscious transmits ideas from mind to mind through telepathy.

Your unexpressed convictions of others are transmitted to them without their conscious knowledge or consent, and if subconsciously accepted by them will influence their behavior.

The only ideas they subconsciously reject are your ideas of them which they could not wish to be true of anyone. Whatever they could wish for others can be believed of them, and by the law of belief which governs subjective reasoning they are compelled to subjectively accept, and therefore objectively express, accordingly.

The subjective mind is completely controlled by suggestion.

Ideas are best suggested when the objective mind is partly subjective, that is, when the objective senses are diminished or held in abeyance. This partly subjective state can best be described as controlled reverie, wherein the mind is passive but capable of functioning with absorption. It is a concentration of attention. There must be no conflict in your mind when you are praying. Turn from what is to what ought to be. Assume the mood of fulfilled desire, and by the universal law of reversibility you will realize your desire.

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Neville Goddard, Prayer: The Art of Believing

Prayer: The Art of Believing, Chapter 1... Law Of Reversibility

Prayer: The Art of Believing, Chapter 1... Law Of Reversibility

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“Pray for my soul, more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of” (Tennyson)

Prayer is an art and requires practice. The first requirement is a controlled imagination. Parade and vain repetitions are foreign to prayer. Its exercise requires tranquility and peace of mind,

“Use not vain repetitions,”

for prayer is done in secret

and

“thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”

The ceremonies that are customarily used in prayer are mere superstitions and have been invented to give prayer an air of solemnity. Those who do practice the art of prayer are often ignorant of the laws that control it. They attribute the results obtained to the ceremonies and mistake the letter for the spirit.

The essence of prayer is faith; but faith must be permeated with understanding to be given that active quality which it does not possess when standing alone.

“Therefore, get wisdom; and with all thy getting get understanding.”

This book is an attempt to reduce the unknown to the known, by pointing out conditions on which prayers are answered, and without which they cannot be answered. It defines the conditions governing prayer in laws that are simply a generalization of our observations

The universal law of reversibility is the foundation on which its claims are based.

Mechanical motion caused by speech was known for a long time before anyone dreamed of the possibility of an inverse transformation, that is, the reproduction of speech by mechanical motion (the phonograph). For a long time electricity was produced by friction without ever a thought that friction, in turn, could be produced by electricity.

Whether or not man succeeds in reversing the transformation of a force, he knows, nevertheless, that all transformations of force are reversible. If heat can produce mechanical motion, so mechanical motion can produce heat. If electricity produces magnetism, magnetism too can develop electric currents. If the voice can cause undulatory currents, so can such currents reproduce the voice, and so on. Cause and effect, energy and matter, action and reaction are the same and inter-convertible.

This law is of the highest importance, because it enables you to foresee the inverse transformation once the direct transformation is verified. If you knew how you would feel were you to realize your objective, then, inversely, you would know what state you could realize were you to awaken in yourself such feeling. The injunction, to pray believing that you already possess what you pray for, is based upon a knowledge of the law of inverse transformation.

If your realized prayer produces in you a definite feeling or state of consciousness, then, inversely, that particular feeling or state of consciousness must produce your realized prayer. Because all transformations of force are reversible, you should always assume the feeling of your fulfilled wish.

You should awaken within you the feeling that you are and have that which heretofore you desired to be and possess. This is easily done by contemplating the joy that would be yours were your objective an accomplished fact, so that you live and move and have your being in the feeling that your wish is realized. The feeling of the wish fulfilled, if assumed and sustained, must objectify the state that would have created it.

This law explains why

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”

and why

“He calleth things that are not seen as though they were and things that were not seen become seen.”

Assume the feeling of your wish fulfilled and continue feeling that it is fulfilled until that which you feel objectifies itself.

If a physical fact can produce a psychological state, a psychological state can produce a physical fact. If the effect (a) can be produced by the cause (b), then inversely, the effect (b) can be produced by the cause (a).

Therefore I say unto you,

“What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them”

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Neville Goddard, Prayer: The Art of Believing

Feeling is the Secret...Feeling

 Feeling is the Secret...Feeling

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“Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, 

saith the Lord of hosts.”

Get into the spirit of the state desired by assuming the feeling that would be yours were you already the one you want to be. As you capture the feeling of the state sought, you are relieved of all effort to make it so, for it is already so.

There is a definite feeling associated with every idea in the mind of man.

Capture the feeling associated with your realized wish by assuming the feeling that would be yours were you already in possession of the thing you desire, and your wish will objectify itself.

Faith is feeling,

“According to your faith (feeling) be it unto you.”

You never attract that which you want but always that which you are. As a man is, so does he see.

“To him that hath it shall be given 

and

 to him that hath not it shall be taken away…”

That which you feel yourself to be you are, and you are given that which you are. So assume the feeling that would be yours were you already in possession of your wish, and your wish must be realized.

“So God created man in his own image, in the 

image of God created he him.”

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 

who being in the form of God, thought it not 

robbery to be equal with God.”

You are that which you believe yourself to be.

Instead of believing in God or in Jesus . . believe you are God or you are Jesus.

“He that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also”

should be

“He that believes as I believe the works that I do shall he do also.”

Jesus found it not strange to do the works of God because he believed himself to be God.

“I and my Father are one.”

It is natural to do the works of the one you believe yourself to be. So live in the feeling of being the one you want to be and that you shall be.

When a man believes in the value of the advice given him and applies it, he establishes within himself the reality of success.

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Neville Goddard, Feeling is the Secret

Feeling is the Secret...Sleep

Feeling is the Secret...Sleep

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SLEEP, the life that occupies one-third of our stay on earth, is the natural door into the subconscious.

So it is with sleep that we are now concerned. The conscious two-thirds of our life on earth is measured by the degree of attention we give sleep. Our understanding of and delight in what sleep has to bestow will cause us, night after night, to set out for it as though we were keeping an appointment with a lover.

“In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumbering upon the bed; then he opened the ears of men and sealed their instruction”, Job 33.

It is in sleep and in prayer, a state akin to sleep, that man enters the subconscious to make his impressions and receive his instructions. In these states the conscious and subconscious are creatively joined. The male and female become one flesh. Sleep is the time when the male or conscious mind turns from the world of sense to seek its lover or subconscious self.

The subconscious – unlike the woman of the world who marries her husband to change him – has no desire to change the conscious, waking state, but loves it as it is and faithfully reproduces its likeness in the outer world of form.

The conditions and events of your life are your children formed from the molds of your subconscious impressions in sleep. They are made in the image and likeness of your innermost feeling that they may reveal you to yourself.

“As in heaven, so on earth” [Matthew 6:10; Luke 11:2]. As in the subconscious, so on earth.

Whatever you have in consciousness as you go to sleep is the measure of your expression in the waking two-thirds of your life on earth.

Nothing stops you from realizing your objective save your failure to feel that you are already that which you wish to be, or that you are already in possession of the thing sought. Your subconscious gives form to your desires only when you feel your wish fulfilled.

The unconsciousness of sleep is the normal state of the subconscious. Because all things come from within yourself, and your conception of yourself determines that which comes, you should always feel the wish fulfilled before you drop off to sleep.

You never draw out of the deep of yourself that which you want; you always draw that which you are, and you are that which you feel yourself to be as well as that which you feel as true of others.

To be realized, then, the wish must be resolved into the feeling of being or having or witnessing the state sought. This is accomplished by assuming the feeling of the wish fulfilled. The feeling which comes in response to the question “How would I feel were my wish realized?” is the feeling which should monopolize and immobilize your attention as you relax into sleep. You must be in the consciousness of being or having that which you want to be or to have before you drop off to sleep.

Once asleep, man has no freedom of choice. His entire slumber is dominated by his last waking concept of self.

It follows, therefore, that he should always assume the feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction before he retires in sleep, “Come before me with singing and thanksgiving” [Psalm 95:2], “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise” [Psalm 100:4]. Your mood prior to sleep defines your state of consciousness as you enter into the presence of your everlasting lover, the subconscious.

She sees you exactly as you feel yourself to be. If, as you prepare for sleep, you assume and maintain the consciousness of success by feeling “I am successful”, you must be successful. Lie flat on your back with your head on a level with your body. Feel as you would were you in possession of your wish and quietly relax into unconsciousness.

“He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep” [Psalm 121:4]. Nevertheless “He giveth his beloved sleep” [Psalm 127:2].

The subconscious never sleeps. Sleep is the door through which the conscious, waking mind passes to be creatively joined to the subconscious.

Sleep conceals the creative act, while the objective world reveals it.

In sleep, man impresses the subconscious with his conception of himself.

What more beautiful description of this romance of the conscious and subconscious is there than that told in the “Song of Solomon”: “By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth [3:1]… I found him whom my soul loveth; I held him and I not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me” [3:4].

Preparing to sleep, you feel yourself into the state of the answered wish, and then relax into unconsciousness. Your realized wish is he whom you seek. By night, on your bed, you seek the feeling of the wish fulfilled that you may take it with you into the chamber of her that conceived you, into sleep or the subconscious which gave you form, that this wish also may be given expression.

This is the way to discover and conduct your wishes into the subconscious. Feel yourself in the state of the realized wish and quietly drop off to sleep.

Night after night, you should assume the feeling of being, having and witnessing that which you seek to be, possess and see manifested. Never go to sleep feeling discouraged or dissatisfied. Never sleep in the consciousness of failure.

Your subconscious, whose natural state is sleep, sees you as you believe yourself to be, and whether it be good, bad or indifferent, the subconscious will faithfully embody your belief.

As you feel so do you impress her; and she, the perfect lover, gives form to these impressions and out-pictures them as the children of her beloved.

“Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee” [Song of Solomon 4:7] is the attitude of mind to adopt before dropping off to sleep.

Disregard appearances and feel that things are as you wish them to be, for “He calleth things that are not seen as though they were, and the unseen becomes seen” [Approx., Romans 4:17]. To assume the feeling of satisfaction is to call conditions into being which will mirror satisfaction.

“Signs follow, they do not precede”.

Proof that you are will follow the consciousness that you are; it will not precede it.

You are an eternal dreamer dreaming non-eternal dreams. Your dreams take form as you assume the feeling of their reality.

Do not limit yourself to the past.

Knowing that nothing is impossible to consciousness, begin to imagine states beyond the experiences of the past.

Whatever the mind of man can imagine, man can realize. All objective (visible) states were first subjective (invisible) states, and you called them into visible by assuming the feeling of their reality.

The creative process is first imagining and then believing the state imagined. Always imagine and expect the best.

The world cannot change until you change your conception of it. “As within, so without”.

Nations, as well as people, are only what you believe them to be. No matter what the problem is, no matter where it is, no matter whom it concerns, you have no one to change but yourself, and you have neither opponent nor helper in bringing about the change within yourself. You have nothing to do but convince yourself of the truth of that which you desire to see manifested.

As soon as you succeed in convincing yourself of the reality of the state sought, results follow to confirm your fixed belief. You never suggest to another the state which you desire to see him express; instead, you convince yourself that he is already that which you desire him to be.

Realization of your wish is accomplished by assuming the feeling of the wish fulfilled. You cannot fail unless you fail to convince yourself of the reality of your wish. A change of belief is confirmed by a change of expression.

Every night, as you drop off to sleep, feel satisfied and spotless, for your subjective lover always forms the objective world in the image and likeness of your conception of it, the conception defined by your feeling.

The waking two-thirds of your life on earth ever corroborates or bears witness to your subconscious impressions. The actions and events of the day are effects; they are not causes. Free will is only freedom of choice.

“Choose ye this day whom ye shall serve” [Joshua 24:15] is your freedom to choose the kind of mood you assume; but the expression of the mood is the secret of the subconscious.

The subconscious receives impressions only through the feelings of man and, in a way known only to itself, gives these impressions form and expression.

The actions of man are determined by his subconscious impressions.

His illusion of free will, his belief in freedom of action, is but ignorance of the causes which make him act. He thinks himself free because he has forgotten the link between himself and the event.

Man awake is under compulsion to express his subconscious impressions. If in the past he unwisely impressed himself, then let him begin to change his thought and feeling, for only as he does so will he change his world. Do not waste one moment in regret, for to think feelingly of the mistakes of the past is to re-infect yourself. “Let the dead bury the dead” [Matthew 8:22; Luke 9:60]. Turn from appearances and assume the feeling that would be yours were you already the one you wish to be.

Feeling a state produces that state.

The part you play on the world’s stage is determined by your conception of yourself.

By feeling your wish fulfilled and quietly relaxing into sleep, you cast yourself in a star role to be played on earth tomorrow, and, while asleep, you are rehearsed and instructed in your part.

The acceptance of the end automatically wills the means of realization. Make no mistake about this. If, as you prepare for sleep, you do not consciously feel yourself into the state of the answered wish, then you will take with you into the chamber of her who conceived you the sum total of the reactions and feelings of the waking day; and while asleep, you will be instructed in the manner in which they will be expressed tomorrow. You will rise believing that you are a free agent, not realizing that every action and event of the day is predetermined by your concept of self as you fell asleep. Your only freedom, then, is your freedom of reaction. You are free to choose how you feel and react to the day’s drama, but the drama – the actions, events and circumstances of the day – have already been determined.

Unless you consciously and purposely define the attitude of mind with which you go to sleep, you unconsciously go to sleep in the composite attitude of mind made up of all feelings and reactions of the day. Every reaction makes a subconscious impression and, unless counteracted by an opposite and more dominant feeling, is the cause of future action.

Ideas enveloped in feeling are creative actions. Use your divine right wisely. Through your ability to think and feel, you have dominion over all creation.

While you are awake, you are a gardener selecting seed for your garden, but “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” [John 12:24]. Your conception of yourself as you fall asleep is the seed you drop into the ground of the subconscious. Dropping off to sleep feeling satisfied and happy compels conditions and events to appear in your world which confirm these attitudes of mind.

Sleep is the door into heaven. What you take in as a feeling you bring out as a condition, action, or object in space. So sleep in the feeling of the wish fulfilled.

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Neville Goddard, Feeling is the Secret