Neville Goddard Lecture, Three Propositions

Three Propositions

Complete Neville Goddard Lecture Audio Available in Members Area

THREE PROPOSITIONS

Well, my first proposition is this one. The individual state of consciousness determines the conditions and the circumstances of his life. The second proposition is that man can select the state of consciousness with which he desires to be identified; and the third follows naturally–therefore, man can be what he wants to be. If the first proposition is true that the individual’s state of consciousness is the sole cause of the phenomena of his life, then the normal, natural question that is asked “Why doesn’t he change it to a more desirable state if he could change it?” Well, that is not as easy as it appears. Today we hope to give you a technique to make it easier but man finds it very hard to leave the things to which he has grown accustomed. We are all grown stuck in the habitual. It may seem strange but a very sordid cartoon appeared years ago, that is during the last war; you might have seen it, it came out in the “New Yorker” and it was one by George Price. In it is one single little room, a sink piled high with unwashed dishes, plaster falling from the walls, and these two middle-aged people, she sitting on a chair reading a letter, disheveled, matted hair, and he with torn clothes and feet stuck upon the table and socks exposing holes, and the caption of the picture is this. She is reading a letter from her soldier son abroad: “He says he’s homesick.”

Now you should see the interior of this house–one room, completely disheveled-but the lad was homesick! Now man finds it difficult to detach himself from the habitual; so this morning we have brought you these three propositions, and I hope I can make it clear that you can with this knowledge apply it so that you can realize your every objective. It is the height of folly to expect changes to come about by the mere passage of time, for that which requires a state of consciousness to produce its effect could not be effective without such a state of consciousness. So if I must be in the consciousness of the thing that I am seeking before I find it, then the only thing to do is to acquire that state of consciousness. Most of us do not even know what we mean by state of consciousness. To those who are here for the first time it is simply meant by state of consciousness the sum total of all that a man believes and accepts and consents to as true. Now it need not be true; it may be, but it need not be true, it could be false, it could be a half truth, it could be a lie, it could be a superstition, it could be a prejudice, but the sum total of all that a man believes constitutes his state of consciousness.

It is the house in which he abides, and as long as he remains in that house similar problems will confront him, the circumstances of life will remain the same. He may move physically across the ends of the earth but he will encounter similar conditions; he can’t get away from the house in which he abides. The Bible speaks of these houses as mansions of the Lord, it speaks of them as cities, it speaks of them as rooms, as upper rooms, all kinds of words are used to describe individual states of awareness. And the appeal in the Bible is always to move out and occupy the upper story, meaning to move up to a higher level within one’s self. Now, if you do not know the state in which you abide, it’s a very simple technique you may employ to discover that state: for the man dwelling in a state, and we all dwell in states, could easily discover the state by listening within himself and observing his own internal mental conversations, for the state is singing its own song and it reveals itself in man’s inner speech. If you will listen attentively and uncritically to what inwardly you are saying, you will discover the state. And it will not surprise you that things are as they are for you will hear within yourself the cause of the phenomena of life. So that what you are inwardly saying and doing is far more important than what you outwardly know or seemingly outwardly express; so when a man knows what inwardly he is doing then he can change it. If you have never uncritically observed your reactions to life; if you are totally unaware of your subjective behavior, then you are unaware of the cause of the things in your world. But if you become aware of the state, then you simply go about changing it. Now here is a technique I have found most helpful and I find that it works like a miracle; anyone can do it.

I know that some of you here possibly come from extreme orthodox walks of life and it may seem strange to you even to be here, but I assure you you are not alone, many of your leaders in the orthodox field seek an audience with the speaker; many a rabbi has been in my home, many a priest, and many a Protestant leader. Many of them. They come to my home for interpretations of the book that publicly they wouldn’t dare give any interpretation other than the most extreme literal interpretation. So don’t be surprised if you hear things here that might startle you; your leaders are startled; but this is a technique I have found most helpful. First of all, man stands forever in the presence of an infinite and eternal energy, from which energy all things proceed but it follows definite patterns: it just doesn’t move out of man and crystallize in things in some strange haphazard manner. It follows a definite track and the track it follows is laid down by the man himself in his own internal conversations. So though man is called upon to change his thinking that he may change his world, for we are told “Be ye transformed by the renewal of your mind”, man can’t change his thinking unless he changes his ideas for he thinks from his ideas. So if I would change and become transformed, I must lay new tracks and the tracks I lay are always laid down in my own internal conversation. So what am I saying now when seemingly I am alone? I can sit in that chair, or stand here, or walk the streets and I can’t stop talking. Man does not realize that he is talking, because he is never still enough to listen to the voice speaking within himself, but inwardly he is whispering what outwardly is taking place as conditions and circumstances.

End of Sample, for Complete Audio of this lecture click on the links above to access Members Area or Join Us Today!