I'm not sure it this is a true condensed version of the earlier lecture. Both are equally instructive. Thanks for reading. GlendaA (PDF)
Eternal States
Neville Goddard, September 9, 1968
(Comments by GlendaA, Feb 2025)
Sit quietly and ask yourself who you are, where you are and what you are. Your answers will reveal your state of consciousness: your body of belief. Paul said, “We do not look to the outer things, but to the things unseen, for the outer things are transient, but the unseen things are eternal.” Your beliefs, seen by the mystic, are personified. They form a state, which completely controls your behavior. Any modification within your body of belief will result in a change in your outer world.
(If I change my beliefs, I change my outer world. True, so far as I can see. I changed my belief that my childhood religion was serving me - and my outer world changed so that I no longer go to that church. Through a "bridge of incidents" I found Neville's lectures, found Mr. TT's insights on the lectures, moved to a new city, stopped attending that church and felt I could no longer believe all they taught.)
Blake tells us, “Eternity exists and all things in eternity independent of creation which was an act of mercy. By this you will see that I do not consider either the just or the wicked to be in a supreme state, but to be everyone of them states of the sleep which the soul may fall into in its deadly dreams of good and evil when it leaves paradise following the serpent.”
(There are no "supreme states". They are just states. We are all "asleep" and our dream-states are different. As we learn the ways of our universe, God expands. Some day we may actually grow and expand with Him.)
Now, Blake uses the word “mercy” only as one who sees that states are eternal; that in God’s mercy he created all things, not just a few, so that any situation which can be conceived, already exists in eternity. When Blake said, “Eternity exists and all things in eternity independent of creation which was an act of mercy,” he meant that everything you see is dead, a part of the eternal structure of the universe. You are its operant power. When you enter a scene it becomes animated. Then you become lost in your own animation and think it is independent of your perception. Looking at it, you cannot believe you are causing the animation, but you are.
(Every situation that can be conceived, already exists in eternity. The state I am in now - and the state I want to be in exist. All I have to do is "move" into that state. All I have to do is believe I can do it. Have I seen people move from one state to another in a heartbeat - yes, when they are converted to a new religion - they move, now believing in something new. They change their lives to live the new rules and they become. Do they become a new person and then believe or do they believe and then become a new person. The belief comes first. You caused the change by believing)
You and I are living souls, buried in a world of death. We are destined to be life-giving spirits through an act of mercy, but until that time we animate what we perceive. Questioning self, Blake asks: “O miserable man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?” May I tell you, no earthly power can do it, only God.
Peter tells us, “Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” This is true, for only by God’s act of great mercy can we be born anew.
(It is only through God's mercy that I can change, If this were not so I would be forever condemned to one state - and never be reunited with Him.)
Now buried in a world of eternal death, you are animating dead forms, believing they are independent of your perception of them. This you will continue to do until God’s great mercy awakens Jesus Christ within you. If Christ was not buried in you, he could not awaken in you, and if he is not in you he could not emerge from you. Therefore, like Paul, you carry in your body the death of Jesus. It is the tomb in which he is buried. His awakening delivers you from a body of death, but until that time you must live in, and adjust to, the dead body you wear.
(Believe that He is within me - not outside of me)
Now, until you are born from above, you operate the power which gives life to this world. For the world is a dream filled with dead scenery, while you are Proteus. As you enter the scene you cause the parts to be made alive. Not knowing this, you think there are others, and fight the shadows of your own being.
All things exist in the human imagination, and all phenomena are solely produced by imagining. Where there is no imagining, everything vanishes. If lack is now in your world, and you cease to be aware of it by imagining plenty, lack disappears; therefore, any modification in your body of belief will cause a change in your life.
(This is the hope - but the "how do I do it" is the question? How do I stop believing in the lack when I see it all around me? When I feel it, smell it and hear it?)
Now embedded in death, we resurrect into life by the act of mercy. Scripture calls this transformation Jesus Christ, for it is he who is buried in us; and when he awakens and rises, we are born from above, thereby setting us free from this body of death. Until that moment in time you can enter a state, partake of it and move on to another.
(When Jesus Christ arises in me I am saved. But I practice this by entering a state, partaking of it and moving on to another. I don't need to be stuck in one state and I don't need to be confined to any state. I can move from one good state to another at will. I can also move into a state of injury or sickness and then move to a state of wellness.)
This is how it is done. Although I am living here in Los Angeles, I desire to be in New York City. While lying on my bed tonight, I close my physical eyes to the room surrounding me and assume I am in New York City. Then I ask myself these questions: If I were now in New York City, what would I see? Would I think of Los Angeles as three thousand miles to the west of me? Where are my friends and loved ones? How are my finances now that I am here? Then I would answer these questions carefully and fall asleep in New York City.
(If I were in my home on the west side of town, what would I see? I would see the mountains relative to the other side of the river. I would see the river valley in the near distance. I would be surrounded by juniper trees and sage. My friends would be miles closer. My finances would be abundant and secure in order to live in this place. My walls would be adobe rather than plaster. My warmth would be by passive solar and fireplace. I would have friends and family around me because it would be a gathering place.)
Now, an assumption is an act of faith, and without faith it is impossible to please God. “By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that things seen were made out of things that do not appear.” Someone looking at my physical body would see me sleeping in Los Angeles, yet I would be sleeping in New York City, for I am all imagination and must be where I am imagining myself to be. By this action I am adjusting myself imaginatively to a state I desire to objectively realize. And if I have imagined with conviction, by giving New York City all of the sensory vividness of reality, things will immediately begin to happen to compel me to make the journey. I do not imagine lightly anymore, because I now know every imaginal act will come to pass.
(If I imagine with conviction, things will begin to happen.)
When I first stumbled upon this principle, I thought it was stupid. The idea that imagining creates reality was nonsense. How could anyone believe a thing into being without any external evidence to support it? How could any imaginal act be the causative fact, which fuses and projects itself? Although I did not believe it could, I imagined, and got that which I did not want! So I acquaint you now with what I know about this principle of imagining and lead you to your choice and its risk. There is always a risk, for you may not want what you have imagined after you get it, so I warn you to select wisely.
(If I can be in a situation I do not want - because I imagined it. In fact, I imagined it out of desperation and need. Then I can imagine what I do want and create that as well - or rather move into that new state.)
Do you know what you want from life? You can be anything you want to be if you know who you are. Start from the premise, “I am all imagination and pass through states,” for eternity (all things) exist now!
(I start by believing that I am all imagination and that because of that I can pass through states. Do I remember a time when it happened before? Yes. Just like Neville, I imagined divorce all through my marriage to R. It took 17 years, but in reality I was living the divorce for many years before it happened. I was in the state of divorce before I got divorced. So I start by believing in my imagination and the states that it creates.)
Having experienced a state and moved into another one you may think the former state has ceased to be, but all states are eternal, they remain forever. Like the mental traveler that you are, you pass through states either wittingly or unwittingly, but your individual identity is forever.
(I don't create the state, I just move from one to another. I also must believe that I am doing it whether I believe it or not, so I may as well believe and do something about the state I am in - rather that just wallow in it.)
Whether you are rich or poor, you retain the same individual identity when you move from one state into another. If you are not on guard, you can be persuaded by the press, television, or radio, to change your concept of self and unwittingly move into an undesirable state. You can move into many states and play many parts, but as the actor, you do not change your identity. When you are rich, you are the same actor as when you are poor. These are only different parts you are playing.
You annexed your physical body for the experiences you are now having, but you are not the body you wear. The day will come when you will awaken to this fact. Then, like Proteus, you will assume any shape for the part you want to play. If it takes a fish, you will be a fish. If it takes a man, you will be a man, for that is who God is. Learn to adjust your senses to what you desire to be. Just as I moved to New York City, you can move into the state of wealth, fame, or any state you desire. Determine what it would feel like, and adjust your thinking by assuming you are feeling it now.
(I am not the body that I wear. I am an eternal spirit - a child of an eternal Father. I can be anything I want to be - anything I imagine myself to be - anything I desire to be. I can move into any state I desire. I must determine what "living in an adobe on the other side of town" would feel like and feel that feeling now. Accept that truth now.)
Look at your world mentally. Your present level of objective fact may be the same as it was before, but in your imagination hear your friends congratulate you on your good fortune. Then believe in the reality of this unseen experience.
(Hear my family congratulate me on my good fortune - then believe in its reality. Believe in the power of God in me. Believe in the power of my imagination.)
Like Paul, look not to things seen, but to things unseen; for the things seen are temporal, while the things unseen are eternal. Two hundred years ago Blake made the statement, “Eternity exists and all things in eternity, independent of creation which was an act of mercy.” Three thousand years ago the unknown writer of Ecclesiastes said it even more beautifully: “There is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing for which it is said, ‘This is new?’ It has been already in ages past, but there is no remembrance of things to come after, among those who will come later.”
(There are no new states. We cannot add to creation - it is finished. We can only move into a new state already created for us - those many mansions.)
This past year one of our great physicists, Professor Richard Fineman of Cal Tech, said the same thing, yet not as beautifully as Blake or the unknown author of Ecclesiastes. This is what Professor Fineman said: “The entire space/time history of the world is laid out and we only become aware of increasing portions of it successively.” For this Professor Fineman received the Nobel Prize and maybe $50,000, while Blake, who saw it mystically and recorded it poetically, went to an unmarked pauper’s grave. Professor Fineman based his conclusion on his study of the disintegration of the atom. Noticing the peculiar behavior of a little positron when placed in fluid, he realized that the entire space/ time history of the world is already laid out, and man only becomes aware of portions of it successively.
(Creation is complete - we only become aware of the parts as they follow what we have already become aware of. Line upon line, precept on precept.)
I have seen the same thing in vision and know that the world is dead. I have entered a room such as this, to discover that I am the spirit animating it. By arresting the activity in me that caused the scene to become alive, everything froze. The waitress walked not. The birds flew not. The diners dined not. Then I knew that when I released its activity in me, everything and everyone would continue to complete their intention. Releasing my power, the waitress completed the serving, the bird flew to the limb of the tree, and the grass began to wave, as the leaf which was arrested in space fell to the ground. Now I know I am the center of creative power. The day will come when you, too will awaken and exercise your creative power, knowingly. That is our destiny, for we all will awaken as God and use this power to create in the true sense of the word.
(I can awaken and exercise my power to move to the state I desire. This is practice for when I will awaken as God and create in the true sense of the word. Not sure how that works, yet - because we cannot create something from nothing. Baby steps! I start with what I can do and progress on to what God can do.)
Try to remember that there is no limit to God’s creative power, or your power of belief.
(There is no limit to God's power - that's a given. I begin be believing that although I do not yet have unlimited power - I do have unlimited belief. I can believe anything I want to. I know this because I have believed many things and continue to change my beliefs as I learn new things.)
Persuade yourself that things are as you desire them to be. Fall asleep in that assumption, as that is your act of faith.
(Neville says that I only need to persuade myself for a moment, over and over, and this still works. 5 minutes at a time. 5 seconds at a time. Persistent assumption is how he puts it. That is what faith is - to believe that I can do this and not be wishy-washy. Not waffle in my faith.)
Tomorrow the world will begin to change, to make room for the garment of your assumption. If it takes one person or ten thousand to aid the birth of your assumption, they will come. You will not need their consent or permission, because the world is dead and what would be the purpose in asking dead people to help you? Simply know what you want, animate the scene and those playing their parts will begin to move towards the fulfillment of your desire.
(I don't need anyone else's consent. I don't need to persuade anyone else of what I am doing. I keep it to myself and God. My desires will be granted even if they don't believe. I can bless them by believing for them as well.)
Try it before you pass judgment upon it. I know it doesn’t make sense, but it will prove itself in performance and then it will not matter what the world thinks. If there is evidence for a thing, does it really matter what someone else thinks about it? I encourage you to try it, for if you do you will not fail.
Now let us go into the silence.
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