The Potters House--Neville Goddard

8/6/2019 The Potters House--Neville Goddard

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!HE PO!!ER'S HOUSE.---~. Tonight's title is "The Potter's Hou.e." Thi8 story ia told1n the 18th chapter of the Book of Jeremiah, "The Word of the Lordcame to Jeremiah, 'Go ,down to the potter'. hou.e, ..d there I willlet you hear my word.,' So, I went down to the potter' .hou.e, andthere he wa. worting at hi. wh.el. And the v l he ... making otclay was spoil.d in the potter'. hand, and he reworked it into an-

other ve el, a. it med good to the potter to do" [Jeremiah 18.1-4].Now, a. we told you laat w.et, these storie. are parable You have to estract the meaning from the story. In the 64th chap-ter of the Book of Iaaiah you read. "0 Lord, thou art our Father.we are the clay, and thou art our potter, .e are Bllthe work ofthY hand." [Iaaiah 6418] Here he equate. the Lord our Pather withthe pott.r, and it i tated quite clearly that.!!. are the clay,If I am to go down to the potter'. houae, I need not movefrom where I am. For am I not told. We are the temple of God .and the Spirit of God dwell. in u."? [I Corinthian. )116] So, where

could I go, other than ju.t where I am? So, this [indicating thebody] i. the "potter'. house."Theworc! "potter" mean. by definition 1n the Bible -- if youtake Jame. Strong'. Concordance -- it mean. "imagination." Itmean. lito determine, to form a re.olution." Well, now, I determineto be a .ertain man which, at the moment. reason tell e that Iam not. My n.ea tell me that I am not. Nonethele , I wouldlike to be that.If I l U l l not the man that I would lite to b e . then the claythat I am u8ing -- Which i. the being that I am, for 1'* told weare clay -- then that v e1 i poiled in my own Bight, but in-

.t.ad of di.carding it, I .hould rework 1t into another v 1.aa it seem8 good to me to do. Wel.l, h ow will I go about reworkingthi8 clay?Fir.t of all, I must know what I would 11te to be, for it.ean. lito determine... I must make that deci.Ion. Wha.t w ould Ilike to be? I do not modit.y i t. I know the Lord i. going to doit. Well, I know exactly what I would like to be,Let IDe a.k a very 8impl. que.tiona Suppo.e it "ere true?How would I .ee the world? What would I f.el like? What would Ih.ar if it w.re true? Th.n let me a.aume that it i. true. that Iam the-man that. I would like to be. Th.n let me look tor confirma-tion in my imainat10n and .ee my friends as I would have to .eethem, were it true. Let them .ee me a. they would have to .ee meit it were true. Now I am rework ing the ve el inQwn imag-ination, for that i. the potter,Will it work? I tnow from esperience it doe. work. All Ia.k other. to do 1. to try it. Don't judge itJ try it. And youwill .ee that w. ax:- living 1n a world 0'1 imagination, that theh um an i ma gi na ti on I.God.


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When Blake id, "I know of no other Chri.tlanity and no oth-er Gospel, other than the liberty of beth body and lIlindto exercil.the divine arts of ima$ination'" then he add.. "The Apostle. knew -~of no other Go.pel." lWm. Blake, "Jerusalem - 'To the Chri"stlanll'M].Thie my.tery ha. been told in the ferm of a tale be~au.el

"Truth bodied in a taleShall enter in at lowly door "

Man find. it difficult to think abetractly, . 0 he tate. the creattruth and he tell. it in the form of tory. You and I were toldthe .tory, but we haven't gotten beyond the .tory to di.cover ex-actly what they ~ trying to tell u.. What they are trying to tellu. i.. Our own wondertul human i.agination is God. Why .tand wehere treablingaround, calling on ~ for help and not oureelves,in whom God dwell.?If He dwells with1n .e, I've got to find out where He 1e. WhenI find that He 1. the only creative power 1n the world, I find thatto b f m y imac1nation. I w111 not always be in control of my imag-ination. In the couree of a day I a m . . a ha m ed , po i " t i ly ,o f u n -numbered thing. that I have imagined, but a. I am told in ScriDturel"I am the Lord, and there 1. no other aod beside .e, I kill and I~e alive, I wound and I heal" [Deuteronomy ) 2 . 3 9 ] . I cr.ate theevil and I have formed the good, the weal and the woe, for the~ isno other creative power in the worldl~ cannot turn to an evil being and call it God and 'turn to agood thing and call that another God. It 1. the ._e creative power.-- !he light that illuminates the room, it could electrocute meif I ..iause it,and yet it serves to il1_inate the room. I canput it to a thou.and purposes, or I could misuse it. That is the

8ame thing that we do with our imagination. The human imaginationi. God.-Man i. all imagination, and God is man, and exist. in us, andwe in Hi ~ ~Wm. Blake, from -Annotations to Berkeley'. 'Slrl.']"The Eternal ody of san is the imagination, and that i. God Him- If.'' [Blake, from -The Laocoon, 'The Angel of the Divine Pres-ence'''' That is the Divine Body that we call Jesu., and Jesus 1scrucifIed upon .all, and i8 buried in man, and i. awakening in manas the human imagination that every man aches for. And when itawake. wi thin man, man will know W h o Jesus i.. 1 1 ! . w i l l , ~ !h2~.a.So, hen the "potte.r'. hou.e- i8 juat where you are .eatedright now. You don't have to go any place to find it. In fact, be-cau.e you are one with God, God could never be .0 far off even tobe near, because neame implie eparation, and He i. not .epa-rated from man. There is no place where you can go and .eparateyour.elf trom your ia-sination.You can divorce your.elf fro. the body. You can .eparateyourself from the baty, but you can't .eparate yourself from youri. .. .in at io n, tilt.-. "God o.iteral~ bec .. e a. we are. that we may beas He i- [WID. B lake, from "There I. No Natural Religion"l] He'.not pretending that he i. UB, he literally became a. w . are, and

He i. our own wonderful hu.an imagination.- 2 ..


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Weare told.1 -By H.i. all thing ere mad.,.and without Himwas not anything _d. that was _d.- [JOhn 1.)]. Well, you name80lle thing that wa. not tirst only iaq;ine4. There isn't a thingthat you can naJII.ethat _8 not first only imagined-. And11"HbyHimall thlngs .ere made, and .i thout Himwasnot aD7thing._de thatwas mad.,- then have to tind HilD. And you will tind. Himae yourownwondertu1 hUlWliraaginat1on. That i. GodlThe worship ot God18 simply us.!ng Hi. gitt. Hi. litt 1 .8Hi elt. He gave .a Hi e1fl That 1.the true and real worshipof God,-- not to ,at be.tore aom.ethingthat humanhand. aad. andput up on the wall an.d then cro hlas.lt tor luck. bu.t that i.what t h e world do... _ T h e y aU. 801ll. 1ittl. thing and then. worship'II--hat which 1. _de with the human hand.No, the God1worship, and the Godthat the whole vaat worldwillwor.hip, -- to worship Himl._laply usinl.Hi. tal.nt.He 8aid,-To one he gave tiv. talent., to another two, to another one, to ch according to hi. ablll ty. Then he w.ntaway, - a. .e are told .in tha2Sth Ohapter.0.t the Bookot .Matthe. rMatthew.25.15]. Hewent away, -- in other word., He became .invIsible. Weare told. HebeCOII.1InYillible. 110He i_ not objective tora. to war_h.ip. H8tate. H.i. reaidence in.!!. He became a. I a m . and I'v. sot to ac-tually l!!!. that tal.8nt ,and u... .it W1118.1.1.I u it wi.sely.very t1.e I exerci my i_gination lovingly.I don't eare whether Ido 1.t tor IlYsel.:tortoray lt, pushed out.The whole vast world i. my.elt pushed out, 80 it I ,ncounter an -pect ot ay.elt -- a triend.or a relative or a. total .trang.r. andIs.e the nd, wlthouthl11 con.ent I can .imply exerei.e my i.-agination .1"1ngly on behalf othi. and it Ican take that. in-.tead of discarding it, and remold it-and llhap. it into a bettertonneWhatdol "think h. would like to be? Well, I could allk him,Are you ti .fi.d with l.ii.? Maybehe tell e. No. he would likemore money, & greater inco , .ecurity, 1I0re health; -- h. namesit. Then without raiaing a f.inger or allking any one to help .e,I could, by the u of my talent which .1. lIlY illagina.tion,repre-.ent him to IIYaelfa. ha woul.dbe an by .e it. it were true. andwithout _1ing tor confirmation, let me aa.ume that 1 .i8 true,knowing 1 . n my heart that M.Thei.ion [which i.ow.at. ...s.1on1 hasits ownappointed hour.. It r.ipena. and. it .ill flow.r. It! tae.m. long. then[l IIU.~ wait, for .it i. sure., aM. it wl11 not belate.M [Habakk\llr:2.3] It _111 not be late for th.-thing. that Ihave done, tor all li ttl. d. have their ownappo.int.d hour. A

aan COme.torward!n nine .onthll, the horae in tw.1..... anthll, howlong the .lephant take., I don't know. but a chlcken ln twenty-onedays. So, e.,.e1"Y1tt.1e a.ed has 1a own appointed hour.So, that peculiar .eed that Ihaye just plan.ted for .tr.iendor tor my_elt. -- howlong .1 t 1.going to take, IdoD~ know. bu.tImu.t actually believe it. Andwhen! bel.i.veit,. I d r a p it. A.e.dllu8t fall into the ground and rot if It 18 iO be 11& e iIlve.I cannot hold it in ay 111nd'. ey.. it I take .it and do not drop 1t,then lt remaln. just a s.ed. I .ust drop 1t into the earth and let1trot. And_hen 1t rots, it mean. that I have dropped it trom.lIlY

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mind. I've done it. That'. all I can do. And then, 1n its ownwonderful appoInted hour it will ripen,. . ~.Now you tr.J it and .e. how it work.. 1 .ill wager that itwill work. It i. working morning, noon and night ~w~. We aretotally 1maware that we are doing it, but all day long you and Iare harve.ting what we have done' Wey. iaagined it, and then thething is don., but w. do not recognize our own h ar T t when it

co up, because our .e.ory 1_ very taulty, and w. can't remem-ber when .e ever did a thing like that. And.,wt, 1t couldn't pos-aibly come up u n l at aoa. moment, .ome one taagined it.So, -00 clown to the potter'. house. - - I'm always inthe pot-t er'_ hous e.- ~d'.ih.N I .ill let you hear my words,- [Jeremiah18.2] In a vi_ion -- in a dream of the.night, a deep sl.ep tallsupon a man wh11e he 1. upon his bed, and He opens the ears ot menand He a 1 8 th.ir instruction., Thi. you will r e a d in the ))dchapter ot the Book of Job [ ) ) . l S , 1 6 ] ell .any years ago I had thi.vi.ion. I was taken in .pir-it in what would be the turn of the Century in Ne. York City on

Pifth Av.nue, when they had the huge palatial hom , fully .tatfed,for the.e great financial giant_ of the day. !his w a . before incometaxes took it from them. If you made ten million, you kept tenmillion. You .pent it, but you didn't pay anything in income taxes.So, th e palatial homes .ere all on Fifth Avenue, and they kepttheir _table_ on the We.t Side, They .ere enormous home.. A tewwere left when 1 came to New York City in 1922. The Vanderbl1ta "\and the A.tor. -- they were still there. But 1 wa. taten 1n spir-it i.nto the interior of one of the.e palatial plac , and here therewere three generations. The olde.t of the generations was not pres-ent. The man speaking spoke of him as -Pa ther" I but he was thegrandfather ot those addre_sed. There was the grandfather, thefather who was Bpeaking, and the child.ren whom the father addressed.and he was telling the secret ot hi. tather to hi. children, andhe Baid, -Pather u.ed to Bay, whire-standing on an empty lot, .~remember when this was an empty lot.' Then he would paint a wordpicture so Yivid that you could actually .ee it a. he painted it.with the building standing upon 1t, although it was an empty lot.And he believed in the reality of what he did. And now you and Iare enjoying the fortune. that he lett behind. That was hi. sec-r et . " I rem ... er when -- and then he painted the word picture.He knew exactly what he wanted for that lot.-Now, that wa. the .ecret. 1 awoke and wrote it down. Then Itell a.leep again and redre .. ed the dream, but this time, instead

ot eave.dropping and hearing a man telling his children what hisfather did to become sucoe tul, 1ecame the grandfather. 1 wasnot talking to others, I was .imply communing with ., If. AndI was Baying to myself. -I remember when this, thing was only anempty lot. Well, look at it nowl-Well. you could take that .ame technique and do it conc.minganything in the world. -I remember when I didn't have a job.- -Iremember when he had no money.- If 1 Bay, -I remember when he hadno aoney,v-that would iaply that now he ba_ money. -I remember

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when he couldn't contribute to any c ha ri ta bl e c au ae in the world.In fact, he was on the receiving endS" That would imply that to-> day he can contribute and he ia on the receiving end.Well, that was 8le on that was revealed to .e. Por.e aretold, "In a dream, in a vision ot the night, he opens thee.ars o f men, and .ealeth their instruction" [Job )).15,161 in the~orm ot a vision. It was told me 80 vividly. so I share It with

you. It you can stand pertectly still and assUII. that things areall you would 11k. them to be, but at the mom.nt they are notl .el1,then. you can say, "I remember when."Now, remain taithful to the vision and torget the appearance01 the Iloment. The appearance tells you 1 .t cannot be. Reason de-nie. it, and your n deny it. But it you take this rev.lattonwhich was giv.n to me as it 1s to every one -- because all thesedreams come trom. the d.pths of a man' s soul. it is speaking to thesurtace mind. Th. surtace mind i8 now telling you what it h.ardin the depth. at its own aoul. And the depths ot my .oul 1s onewith me. Your sou11s one with you, for there i. only one God.But it .eema to be fragaent.d wh.n it come. to the surfacebecause there are unnumbered individuals in my world. But in tfiedepth. at ray being there i. only God. In the depths ot your b.ingthere is only God. And because God i. one, and only one. that depthis .peaking to the surtace mind in allot us.So, here you can try it. Be perfectly still, and just re-member when -- "I remember when I couldn't go into that club,"or " -- when I could not din.1ilthat place," which imp1i.s I cango there now, and I can dine where I want to now becau.e I have them.ans. Well. just do that.Anything in this world that you desire, tate that techni.~. andtry it. Here is the story conceming the potter. he i. reshaping.he doesn't discard the v l. Man will di.card a ~ri.nd if thefri.nd cannot make it. He do.an' t want a further friend.hip, be-cause he is always asking to be helped. Well, instead of di.cardingthe triend, you reshape the y l. In.t.ad of di.carding ~ onein this world, you reshape it in your mind.'s e ye. and you wIll beamaz.d, tim. go on. He find. himself -- in a lucrativ. manner,h. ti.nd8 h im lf doing all the things he couldn't do be~ore, andhe doesn't know that YOU did it. You need n.v.r tell him that youdid it. It doesn't really .atter.What do.s it matter if he knows that you plant.d the .eed forhim? Par in the end, we are one anyway. There 1. only really onebOdy. one Spirit, one hop., on. taith, one Lord, one baptism, oneGod and 'ather of all [See Ephe.ians 114]. In the end, w6.n mandiscovers who he really 1s, h. i. going to find on. body, and thatone body i8 the one Lord. And w. call that Lord " J u. Christ."And Jesus Chri.t is your own wonderful humaniaagination, which isthe Divine Body ot God. But.an beats 1 .t morning, noon and nightby the misuse of his talent. He literally lave Hia lf to u., --not in any uncertain manner. "He ~it.rall~ became as we are, thatwe lIlaybe He is" ( w m . . Blake, "There Is No Natural Religion"].

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Thi. i. the story ot the Bible a8 I read it, so when I .eeit, 'I.not see it a ecular history. I cannot .ee it 8 ecularhistory, tor I have e%perieneed Scripture. The more man experi-ence. Scripture, the more he integrate. wi thin h1 elt Je.ua. Heis eating of the body of Jesus and drinking the blood a. he ezper-iences Scripture, tor it'. all about this One Being. The One Being1. crucified on HUllanity and buried in man. He rell.ain_buried inman until He awakes in man, and when He awake. In .an, He i_ the.an 1n whom He awake.. He ia not another coming from without, aathe world thinks.

The great and popular evangelist_ of the 4ay depict the Christas coming from without in order to aave the world. Well, they willwait forever. If they wait till the end. of time, He cannot cometrom without. Ia he not within? Are we not told. "Teat yourselvesand .ee. .Do'ZOU not realize that Je.us Christ i_ in you?" rII Cor-inthian. l)'''JI Well, if He i8 !n me, what a m . I looking on the out-aide tor?

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What signa am I trying to find in the world for His coming?You could find all kind. of aigns. He isn't coming by th6.e signa.Hi. signa are spelled out for ua in the story of Je.u. in Scripture.Everything _id of Him i. lIterally true, and. you are going to ex-perience it. But in the meanwhile, we can exereise the talent, forthe one who had the five .ade five more, and he highly commended himand 8aid, "Enter into the feast of the Lord" rMatthe. 2 5 . 2 1 ] , whichIs the glory of God. The one who had two dou~led itl he made tour,and he was highly commended. .~

But the one who buried it because he was afraid to use it -- hewas condemned. The talent waa taken from him. So, do not l!!!t thetalent and say, -Well, now, this may be stupid, but w.'ll trY it.-And when you. t ry it. it will prove i t.elf in the t. sting I and whenit proves itaelf ln the performance, what doe. it matter what oth-era .ay, or how unBound it may .eem to the rational mind? If itprove. it_elf in the testlng, then uae it. But to bury it, .a somany people do, -- they wlll not even l!..!.! it. Well, I ask you totest it, and you will find Who God is.He'. not even nearer than handa and fee t, for you can. severthe hand. you can't .ever God. You can .ever the toot, but youcan't .ever God. You can take out all aort ot parte of the body tyou can take out a lung. You can take out all kinds of things.They have even taken out a heart and put another heart lnl but youcan't do that with God, becau.e He 1. your actual being. He lit-erally became a. you are, that you may be as He ia.(Ae some one enters the room) I Come right in. Be my guest.You're late. We are just discu.sing the techn1que here, and you'llcatch up in just. moment. Blake claimed that God i.man's humanimagination, called in Scripture "the Father." And w. are moldingand molding within our own mind'_ eye everything that i. happeningin our world I that the world ill simply man'. imagination pushed out .'--And In.te.d of discarding objects in our world, we simply remold it~And the object is aimply a man, any man, anything at all 1n theworld that is ~ world, ~~ w~.dontt d~sca~ t~em_any more~ but we

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discover who we are. We take the ves8el made of clay -- and w. arethe clay. We are the potter.- The potter 1. our own wonderful hu-aan illlaginatIon. And we 8imply reshape it. We don't discard it,we reshape it, and then let it, in it_ own good time, come into be-Ing. -The vi8ion -- as you and I have now reshaped it -_ -haait. own appointed hour, and it rip.na and it wl11 flow.r. If it to us a long time in coming, be patient, -- it is sure, a nd1 i8 not going to be late." [Habakkuk 2.)]The.e thing. alwaYs work. If .oa.thing i8 great, it may taltetwo years or a year or even longer. What doe. it satter? It willcome if I am confident that it will cOile. I'.elling you it doeswork this w a y . - - - - - ~ .Now. return to another aspect of Scripture. It is not strangeto me. though it .ay be to others, but it'. not 8trange it you andI .eem to have a tar great.r confidence in the s.n.e of touch. Weare aore thoroughly convinced by the _en.e of touch than w. are with.ight or hearing or .ell. Thi_ i. _told us in the 21th chapter ofthe Book of Gen l.. If you are not tamiliar with this .tory, let

.e jU8t refresh your mind. if you've heard it once but you may h.aveforgotten it. It is the atory of Isaac and hi. 80ns. He i. aboutto die. or he thinks he 1 _ .H. says. 1 have very 11tle time lett. but I don' t konow thedate of my death. and I am blind. My eye is dim. and I cannot .ee."And he wanted to taste 80m avory food. 80 he called hi. aon Esauand sent him into the field to hunt, to get him 80me game and pre-pare it in the aavory manner that he lites. that he m~ eat. Nowhere 1a tood.His wife overheard what he sa1d to .au, but .he loved Jacob,80 when B.au went hunting for game to prepare it tor his father, ah.

then turned to her .on Jacob and told him what the tather had _aid.Now ahe .aid. You do what I tell you. You go into the floct. andyou take two kids and prepare them tor .e. I'll do the cooking andlUke them savory .8 your father like. the and I will give you acoat that belongs to ... . When you co to him. he wll1 feel thehair on it -- on you. I will take the skina trom the tids and coveryour handa and the .. ooth part of yournltck."So. when he came with the food prepared aa hi other had pre-pared it for hla, the father .aid to him. "Come near, my 80n. thatI may feel you. Your voice i. the voic. of Jacob, but co nearthat I .ay teel you. And when he felt him. he a.ld. -The arethe hands of Eaau. and then he gave him the bl 81ng. The whole

thing was determined by touch. He could teel hi.. He heard thevoice, but he wasn't tru8ting what he heard. He wanted to touchhb. '. '" - ..We find that aame .ena. of touch carried through the Bible.When Thomas doubted the resurrection. he a.id, -If I could but touchyou." He .aid. "Put your hailda 1n and feel." [see John 20.21] Heheard the voice, but he didn't believe it. He 8aw. but he didn'tbelieve it.

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Then, when the glrl touched Him, He said, Whohas touched 1fte?Par I perceive virtue has gone out of [S.e Luke 8146] -- allb.sed upon touch.So, it i.n't .trange that you and I have. tar greater confi-denc. and aore thoroughly bell.ve in the .en.. ot touch than we do1n .1ght or hearing or .e1l. So. here is this .tory, and now 1na .1.pl. way this i. ho.w we apply it.'l'binltt .om.thing that 1. di.tant _ ...anything. I don't carewhat it is. It could be a place, it could b e a condition that youthink 1. going to take tilDe to do 1 t. Now. draw near. He .. ld,Oome near, my 80n. .W.ll, it you think of .o thing, that 1.your offspring -- your ide.. You think ot a trip, s a y , to New YorkOi ty. It is three thousand _il.. away. How would I draw it and.ake 1 t near? Well, I stand right here where I am., and th.n I-draw 1 t near." I draw 1 t nearer and nearer, and then I occupyit. Man'. great we&tne 1, that he 1. always building and build-ing, but he doesn't occupy. Perpetual construction but no occu-pancy. He doesn't go in and occupy it and give it what I would call.en.ory vlvidne and a 80rt of cubic reality. It 1. always like

a sketch to him in hi. _ind'. eye.As you occupy it, it surrounds you. I can't be in San Pran-ci.co and New York at the Bam. tim., but to prove that I am in NewYork, then let .e think at San Prancisco. I muat .e. it to the w.stof by three thou.and 1Iile.. I can't e it"'iiiict.erD . or aroundme. I muet 'tum my lDind'8 ey. to the .est -- three thou.and .1le.to the .e.t. Then I give this -- now N.w Yort -- all the .ensoryvividn all the tone. ot reallt,y that I ean auster.Then I op.n my eyea, and what happens? Well. San Franciscoreturns. Well, that 1s the .tory aa told coneeming Beau and Jacob.Suddenly h. relftelllb.rs,nd Jacob now vani.hea. This objective atatethat I have just appropriated when I returned to my consciou.,ra tlonal .ind. haa vanished, and thi II eIll8the only reality. butI .ay I cannot take back my ble.sIng. I gave that state my bles-.ing. the right to be born, and I cannot tate it bact. It is calledthe birthright. So, he gave it the birthright. the rlght of birth.So, when this atate" complains that he was robbed, then thefather .ay -I have given it the birthright and I cannot removeit, I cannot take it back. In other worda, having actually feltmyself ~ Ne. York, when I op.ned my eyea in thia room and find Iam kiddIng my.elf, that whole thing was aimp1y If-d.ception. Isay to myaelt.havinc don. it tlme and tlme again, "It doe 1 1 1 \ t ma t-ter~ It that I am selt-deceived. but I know from .xperienc.that now a bridge at incidents .111 .tart to b e built. I do notconscioualy build it, but .0 ri of event. w11l occur, and Iwill p a over this bridge of incident. that will "take trollwhere I am now to where I was in IIY iaaginationl and I cannot re-aiat it.I aak you not to try it unl a 70U are .eriou becau.e itwill work. And many a ti.e you will try it in an idle mo.ent notknowing this thing i. going to work, and wh.n you le t expect it,when you've .ade plana tor other things, you will have to canc.ltho plana beeau it i. going to wort.

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I .ill t.ll you_of an exp.ri.nc. of min Back 1n 1941, itwas the month of Pebruar.y, and Ihad co.e out .1th the book call.d----.. "Your Palth I.Your Fortun " My audience in tho ~. in NewYork Clty nUllb.red, Bay, thousand. people three ti s a .. ek. It h ou g ht ' E "w o ul dh a ve a fair au4ienc., but that m&ht 1t snod andlInow.d. It started about noon, ,and kept on miowmg. I began .yleotures ,in those days around quarter of nlne, and eu.ddenly no onec.... I had not more than a hundred. people, when Iwas accustomed1 :0 a thousand people. Th.y couldn't get through. We IIlU8thave hadbetween fourteen and sixt.en inches of IIftOW, and no on. could getthrough. So, when I went home I .a. a 11ttl. bit disappoint.d I nthe attendance because Ibrought ., new book out, and Iwanted tohave at lea.t a g ood -. iz ed a ud ie nc That night, this 18 what I did. In an idle mo nt -- I didn'tlnt.nd it consciou.ly, but 1"4i4 it, I went to sleep in ay bedroom,and, I umed that I W I l . in Barbados, two thousand. . iles away acrOSBthe .ater to the little island called Barbado.. I dropped off to.leep fe.ling I w a . In my .other'. home, I could hear the coconutleave. spinst the woodwork, Icould .ell the odor that com.. onlyfrom the tropics. I could teel the entire ataoaph.re of Barbado.,

and I thought of Ne. York C~and ..w it to the north of .e. twothousand mile. away, and I fell sound .sl.ep In that assumption.When Iwok. in the momine, the IIftOW was .till on the ground.say, fourt.en-or tifteen inch at snow, I de plans tor myiwifeand myself to go to Maine in the month of August for a vaoation andsent off a deposit to hold my place tor .e, In the month of August-- late August -- I got a oable from Barbadoa saying that Mother wasdesperately ill, and they didn't want to tell anything about itbecau.e war .a. on, At leaat, England was at war, And there wasno transportation. just a couple at ahipe moving out, and they didnot want to di.turb Mother was de.perately lll, and it wast.rminal. There .. a no po.sibili ty of any recovery. And if it wasat all posalble to make the trlp, ahe wanted to e me before ahedied. A ll the others re present. I ... the only one who was mi.s-ing,In 24 hours my wife and I sailed for Barbados, The 8hip waslea.ing that night, and .e couldn't have gotten tog.th.r all thething. necessary. but .e 8&11.d for Barbado. instead of going toMaine. I had no plans to go Barbado., but here .uddenly cue thecable revealIng the ne.d to go to Barbados, and .e went to Barbados.and we did not go to Maine.What I did in February took approximately seTen months to ma-

ture, I did it -- consciou.ly did it, not thinking tor one mom.nt- .. I did it only to relax and to put ayself into that aood becauseI w a . di.appointed that the orowd did not come out and ,.t IlY newbook, Your Faith I. Your Fortun.,- So, I tell you fro. experlence,don't do it U1:l. beoau.e when you plant 8omethine. that ls stillcomlng"1nto HIiig, It i8 going to come into beine and di.turb yours oca ll ed c on ac lo u8 pl_-. It work. that way, So, I do know thatwhen it come. back into this world, it do.sn't really matter. Istand here just per1'ectly simply now and do 80aething in my lIlind'eye and give it neory vividness and gi.e it the tone. of realit.y,and then I open .y eye., and this shock e, because this tells m.that what I just did. was self-a.c.ption. You dec.ive youreelf. It- 9 ..


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is all in your imagination. But 1 know now that my imagination isthe only reali tyl that thia world 1. still the world of imagina-tion, and that all the things that 1 s.e as an objective tact in.y world -- they a r e all pushed out" because ' a t my im ag ina l a ct a.To try to change circUIIstances betore I change my t.aginalactivity i. to work against the v.ry nature of things. It can'tchange at itself. It can only ohance a. I c~ the taaginal ac-tivity. so, it I now actually know the .an that Iwould like to'be, though at the lIoment re.son denie. it and ay .en.e. deny it, --it I really mow wbat I'd like to be so that 1could write it out,name it, sta~t. -- well, then, in my mind'. eye .saume that I.. that man. And to prove that 1m that man, look at ra y triend.'taeea, look at the people in my world and let them see me &a theywould l!&I!. to e me it it were true. Then it I want to carry ona conversat1on with them, carry on the conversation tram the premise

o.t my wi sh tul fi ll ed, and. then haTe them say to me what they wouldhave to say. And I BaY to them what I would say,were I such a man,and then s.e what happens. And you mold yourselt into that being.Por you are not discarding yourselt. You do not jump ott the bridgebecau.e you do not like yourself a8 you are. you simply remold your-selt. so. the vessel in the hand ot the potter was spoiled, but hedidn't discard the vesBel. He reworked it into another vesael asit .eemed good to the potter to do.. And the "potter" waa hi. ownw on de rt 'u l h um an i ma gi na ti on . And that ia addressed in Scriptureas God.

Thou art our Potter. We are the clay. And. "'!'hou"we diacove.rto be I AM. "Go and tell th.m that my name torever and foreveri. I AM." [Exodus )115] You can't get away trom I AM. How areyou going to get .way trom it? Where would you go that you are notaware of I AM? I d o n ' t care where you go, you cannot go any placeand not be aware that you are. That is God.' a name forever and for-ever.

When you ua. the word "God, you might think of something oth-er than I AM. Well, ,that'. not Hi. name. Hia,name is I AM. Wegive it the .name "God, we give it the n ame Lord". we give it allthe name.. As I id to you earlier last week, if the n .. e"God" or the name "Lord" or the name "Je.us Christ" conveys to you.ome exi.tent soa.thing outside of man, that i. a fal god. Youhave the false Je.us ChrIst In that caae. It you think for oneIDoment Jesus Chriat ia something other than your own wonderful hu-aan imagination, you have the fal.e Je.us Christ.That may seem sacrilegious. blasphemous, but I am telling youwhe t I know trom experienoe'. One day He will awaken in )"ou, a ndHe'll .waken in yqu !!you. Then you will know the truth ot it.No longer wilryou look tor Him as coming trom without. He canonly awake trom within. He is already !a you, and He 1. buried 1nyou. The Crucifixion 1. over. A. Paul id, 1 have been cruci-fied with Christ. JUtverthele.s I live, yet not I, but Christ liv.t~---1 n me." and the lit. Which I now live in the flesh I live by thetaith of the Son ot God, who loved me, and gave hiID.elf for me" [Ga-lations 2120]. He literally bec .. e .e just aa I am, with all myw eak n. s. e., a llo t my limitationa. He took upon Him.elt allot

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theae, and waita upon me juat aa quickly and as lndl~ferently whenthe will in me i8 evil aa when it 1 8 good. He became a alave weare told in scripture, and this [indicating the physical bOdy~ isthe garment of a elave. He took upon Himself the garment of aalave -- empt1ed Himself of a l l that He truly 1a, and took uponHim.elf the garment of a slave. And this body i. the garment of aalave, tor you are enslaved by it. You have to ~eed it, bathe it,wash 1, and p.rform all the normal, natural functions of that body.No matter how much mon.y you have in the world, you can't pay any. u m of money to another to perform the natural function. for you.You haye .to do them all by yourself. So, h.re._ t his 1.a slave. --the garment that H. w.arB. And on. day you wll1 take it off. whenHe ..ak within it. Then H . will take it off and return to thegarment that waa His -before that the world waa.- And wh.n Hedoes, you are told in Scriptur., H . transforma my lowly form to beone form with Hi. glorious form. Don't try to ev.n conceive whatthat .form is. It ia not thia [indicating the bodyl at all. Itbasn't a thing to do with the weun and the limitations of thisgarment of fl h.

It i. -- well. -fire,- I could call it. It ls human, I grantyou that, -- at least, the face is, the voice is, the hands are.But do not try to ev.n c9nc.lve of the body its.l~. I only knowfrom exp.ri.nc. that it i. a fi.ry being of the night. That is theB.ing that it iB.

Wherever you &re, cloth.d in that body, i. H.aven. In thatbody, i~ you walk through the p.trifi.d foreat, it will burat intofoliag.. If you stood in the d.Bert. it would bloom like the roae.So, Heaven is not a location. It 1 8 not Bome area or r e a l m r it1s the Body th~you wear. Wherev.r you go, clothed in that Body.everything is perf.ct. Wh.n you are not clothed in it. -- well, asMilton had his Satan say.

"Which way Ifly is helll myself am hell.-[Milton, "Paradis. Lost-]Wherever you are in this garment -- the Christ garment -- whereveryou go. it is perfect. Th.re is nothing inharmonious wherever youare.

That happ.ned to m. back in 1946. I was coming through theaaribbean Sea on the way to Mobil Alabama, and sudd.nly this mo-tion took place within my head. and I ~ound mys.lt actually clothedin thia beautiful garm.nt o~ light. I thought at the mom.nt thatI had overcome d.ath. and a heavenly chorua waa singing, -Nevillei. ria.n. Neville is ris.n." And then I aaw this tntinite sea ofhuman imperfection, and I knew th.y were waiting tor me. I glided-- I didn't walk, I aimply glid.d. And when I got to this .normouscrowd. the blind, the deaf, the halt. -- every one of them wastransformed into perfect beings. Eye. that were miaaing cam. outot the nowhere andfll1.d the empty sock.ts. Arma that w.re mi.singcame out of the nowhere, and every on. was perfectly _rv.10UB.And, y.t, I didn't raise a finger to make it so. I .howed no com-pa.aion. No one aaked any~hing of me. Just as I walked by, b.-cau P.rfection was within me in ita fulln.as. ev.rything in myworld had to be per~ectl And when I got to the very end, that same

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choral group that began by singing my praise , liNeville is risen,Neville is risen," -- when I got to the end it exulted and sang,-It 18 tinished,- And .at that moment I crystallized and came back ~~into this little body that was on the bunk on the ship,That whole thing waa altogether so vivid in my .ind~a eye.I had a manu8cript that would have been, say, a book ot )00 pages.I tore 1up and threw it away and wrote the little booklet calledliTheSearCh,- ba d upon that experience. Out ot the blue, ithappened I So, I do know troll my own experience that when you areclothed in that garment, aa you will be one day, you are 1n Heaven.It is your Heavenly Body. I.t cannot die. It is your IlIIDortalSelf.Wherever you are, it's pertect. If you went into hell, hell wouldceas. to be hell and it would be heaven. Wherever you go. every-thing 1s transtormed in harmony with the Pertection that is spring-ing within you.So, Heaven 1s not a realm, as our evangelists are talkingabout. Iwent to a party last Saturday. and this man -- a retiredgentleman -- has studied them all. He has them all catalogued.No. " No.5, No.2, No.1. he has millions who will never get toheaven. He has some peculiar concept in his mind's eye. He's allthere. Then this sweet lady with her two little girls -- she hadone, I presume, five months old, and then one, Idaresay, oh, ayear and a halt -- sweet little children, and he said to her, in-cluding the two of us who are here tonight -- a gentleman here waswi th me, and ha knows euc tly what was Baid. No one had asked any-thing of him, but he aaid, You know, .I have the virility and the --.aex lite ot a youth eighteen and a h alf ye ar s" , and this motherot these two little girls very innooently said to him, "But youlook 80 old. 1I What ailencel Dead eilence. No one had ever hadthe courage to tell that m an before, "Why do you loot 80 old if youare this virile thing that you are talking about?" Then, ot course,

he got up and walked away.People go through this marvelous world of ours with the atrang-eat concepts of heaven and hell. It'. all within the man. Whenyou are clothed in this wonderful garment, -- and I am speakingtrom ~ own experience, -- everything is pertect. Forget the so-called second heaven, third heaven, fourth heaven, -- just forgetit. You are clothed in that garment I the ganaent is pertect, andwherever you go, it is pertect. There i8 no hell when you areclothed in that garment. There i. no roo. tor it. No man couldbe blind in your presence. No man could have an arm mis.ing 1nyour presence. Not a thing could be impertect 1n the pre.enc.of the Pertect One. You are Life Itselfl You are the Resurrectionand the Lite. You resurrect all things, -- yes, the petrified tor-eat won't be petrified in your presence. The whole thing willburst into bloBsom. The desert would begin to blOom if you walkedinto it. That'. Heaven!

So, you don't have to go to place. You simply have to bereclothed.We are told, "He will transform our lowly bodies to .~be ot one form with His Glorious Body,- Which is the Body of Chris~So, here tonight, you take me seriously and know that yourown wonderful human imagination i 8 the Divine Body ot the LordJesus. New, try to us. it lovingly whenever you UBe it, and you

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are using it morning, noon and night. whether you are conscious ofit or not. Whenever you are in d.oubt, do~ the loving thing. thenyou have d.one the right thing. Whenever you are in doubt as towhat you .hould do, do the loving thing, and it'. the right thing.So, let me now gather it together. If tonight you know whatyou would li.ke to be but you are not that person, don't despair,Be honest with yourself, and aak yourself, What would I like to

be? What sort of an income would I llke? Where would I like tolive? Don't do these things baaed upon what you think you are cap-able of doing. Juat what would you like to be? Then ~ !2~-sume that YOU are itl And, then, 8es-the world from that aS8ump-trOri.--oare tousUiiie it, and thenVI'ew the world from that, andtry to give it .ensory vividness and the tones of reality. And thenbelieve what I told you. The vision that you have made 80 real inyour m1nd"8 eye haa its own appointed houri and it will definitely.in its own good time. appear 1.nyour world in a way that you do notconsciou81y know. It build. itaelf the bridge of incidenta, thebridge over which you walk to ita fulfillment.Now, we can go into the Silence.Are there any questions, please? If' you have never heard thisbefore, it might have shocked you, but I wouldn't-apologize. Wegrow by shocks anyway. No one in my audience at any time, I don'tcare who he i., can tell me that he i. more -- I would say, "rooted"1n the Chrilltian faith than the speaker. I am rooted in the Chris-tian faith. I was born and raised in a Christian home, and learnedthe story at my Mother's kne.. If I was ever beaten in my lite,I was beaten in a Bible claBS in Bchool when I was a child. Cor-poral punishment was allowed in those days. And I quoted correctly,but I was asked to produce my Bible to verify the quote. The quotewas. -Take up thy bed and walk". and my sadistic head master asked

me to produce the Bible. Well, I didn't have it with me. I amone of ten in the family, nine boys and a girl, We didn't have tenBibles, So, when I couldn't produce the Bible, -- .ell, he was al-lowed by law to give me all the beating he wanted. He was a sadist.So. he brought out a long cane and tapped on a little bench tor meto kneel on it, and he proceeded to simply cut me in half. Whenmy father saw what he did. to me, my father that night intended tokill him. It took the nextdoor neighbors to restrain lilYfatherfrom going straight to his home, and he would have killed him. Iwas just a lad. And the next day he took me out of that school. Iwas bleeding ~rom my buttocks to my knees.I had quoted the Bible correctly, but it had been changed from-bed" to "couch." He said his Bible 8aid "couch." Of all the non-.enae in the world I But he was a aadist, and he blew his brains outthat_year, He was simply a peculiar sadistic creature.So, I know my Bible, tor I have studied it. But it happenedthat the whole thing occurred to IDe, not as secular history, but

' salvation history. The whole thing is true, but it's not secular.It is salvation history.Now, are there any questions?

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MR. BYERS, [Not distinguishable on my tape.]NEVILLE. Well, Ken, as tar aa I am concerned, Iwould not denywhat I have said. I still would repeat it, because all day long,ev ery moment ot time we are oreating, . 0 one should be watchful a.to what they are imagining. But some definite thing that you areworking on now, -- it perchance thia very moment I lot a call from,Bay, my brother in Barbad08, and he said, -Nevill., I have juatmailed you or wired X number ot dollars,- I would truat him -- trusthim implicitly. If it doesn't come tomorrow -- the bank doesn'toall me tomorrow, I am not going to be concerned. I w ould b elieve.hat he .. id. At the moment I have no evidence that it is true,but I believe it.

Well, now, ImU8t believe in God even beyond that. Well, ifI believe that God i. my own imagination. and I have no doubts aboutthat, Imust believe in !!X imaginal act a.8 an act ot~. So. if Ireally-belIeve It. Iiiinot concemedaboutltOr worrIid about it.If I aSSWDe now that thing. are as I desire them to be, and I be-lieve that that a8sumption will harden into fact. Iam not going tobe oonoerned about it. I will go along believing that it doe. haveits own appointed hour.MR. BYERS. You are not worried about it?NEVILLE. And you are not going to drop back, because you believein it. You actually accept it. But Imust still be watchful. nottor il. ~~t'. coming. Imust be watchful a8 to what use I amgoing to make with my talent trom then on. We must watch the UBe .,.2! lh!! talent. It I bury it and do not uae1t:-rt's tikeiifrOiii"'me.

Take the talent ot muaic. itIIdo not practice every day. --well, I've heard it .aid of great musician. that if they do notpractice every day, they can't give a concert. It may b. all righta8 far a. those who are not tamiliar with the music, but to h1mselthe ian' t all right. And. tho.e who really under.tand mu.ic w111know he isn't right. Whether he h as a concert schedule o r not. --Aldous Huxley told me that whether he had a commitment to write, hewrote. He wrote everything. He just couldnlt let one day paS8 by,and he would get up -early in the moming and write. He couldn Ittype becau.e of his eye.. He was nearly blind. But he wrote. a n dhe wrote and wrote and wrote, always every day. He could not getout ot the habit ot writing, whether he waa committed or not.

I n m y own ca , I read the Bible .even d a y . a week. I donltthink that I put in 1e than six hour. a day in reading the Bible.And I don't read just the Bible. Iread itwlth my Concordance. Ihave James Strong'. Concordance, and I take nothing tor granted.I read it, and then I take worda that ae.. . 0 familiar -- wordschange their meaning. So, I try to go back to the original meaningot the word. "and.not a8 it 1.now underatood in the 20th Century.What was the meaning when they used that word? Port we have changedthe mean ing. ot words. _.--

Any other que.tions, pl.ase?A LADY, [Question not audible on tape.]

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NEVILLE. Weare told in the 12th chapter of the Book of Numbers,God apeaksto man through the mediumo.t dreams, and makes Himself'known.in. vision" [Numbers 1216J. There.fore, every dream haa itsown 8ignl.ticance, but .e are past mastera at mi.interpretation, be-caus. most of them are highly symbollcalr and everything In thisworld contalnswithin it.elf the capacity ~or qmbol1.c 8ignificance.So. you take it just .e it i., and 1.won' t make 'any .en... Evena simple ll.ttle dream could be very" very 81gnit.lcant .if God apeaksto .e through the language otdreama. But JUn baa complet.ly tor-gotten this language of symbolism -- completely .forgotten 1 .t.

Por in.atance, here 1s a 8imp1:elittle dream. that I had justabout --oh, it might have been, a ay ix or .even months ago. 1 . w a Ii ttle dog --it appeared to me to be a dog -- on a leash.Dogs 1n Ne.York City are trained to be curbed. they go to thecurb when you want to air the 4.ogon the .1dawalk.. Here they runwild. Well, all doga in NewYox-kare curbed. There are signa atevery lamp post. Curb your dog." And people do it. Youput yourdog on a leash and you take it into the atreet an.d you curb it.Well, I saw this Ii ttledog with whoever had it on the .leaah.Well, then, the dog had to go,and right on the .idewalk. Itmovednot 1Il0rethan, say, three or tour inches, and again 1tdetecated.and then moved on ~d .1.tdefecated qal.n.Now, that a8ems to bea very ailly llttle dream that would haven.omeaning to th8 average person _hohad! t. But having had thedream, I said. to mywife, "Darling, I amgoing to get an unexpectedlarge awn of money, and right away." I told the dream to my wite,because in the 41at chapter 0 . 1 ' Gene.iswe read that ita dream re-pe.ts 1 .tee.lf, 1 .t meana the thing has been. fixed by the Lord, andthe Lord ahall shortly bring it to pass if it repeats it.elf. Well.it repeated l tself right on the aidewalk. ,. It waa a very startlingthing.Well, .forty-elght hours later I got a call tram the bank, ask-ing me i.f I waa expecting Bomemoney, and 1. Bald,"We1l, I amalwayseXpecting money." She said, "Well, trom whomwould you expect it?"I Baid., "I don't know, it could come from my brother or slater.""Wh.erewoul.d it come from?" 1 aaid, "MaybeBarbados." Then .heaaid, "What reaaon would they have to give you money?" I aaid,"Well, the chances are they made more than they can. spend, and. theywanted to share it with their poorrelatlveB." That amused her, soshe sald, "Comeon downand get the money." Well, there was acheck _ai ting tor m.efor $3,000. 1 didn' t reque.st it. I didn'task fO.r it, and he aentme a check tor $3,000. It waSDlore thana divldend. check. Thataymbolism meant a large, unexpected.sUDl

o .t money being Bent in the lmmedlate p.resent.Now, the average person would ha.e said, "Wasn't t,!lat a hor-r.ible drap." And they would have been di.guated withthe1DBelvesto have en such a. thing. Well, I look. at my own dream., usingthe languag. ot symboli.am , and it revealed. my good.fortune comingto me un.ezpectedly. I thought that was very nice news to receive.,They can defecate all over the world n.ow as tar as I amconcemedl

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The Potters House--Neville Goddard

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