Bennie experiences the child emerging from his skull

Neville reports that his friend Bennie, lying cataleptic, heard the cry of a child, felt a wind in his skull, saw a star explode from it and a child in swaddling clothes fall into his arms, and was left with a photograph of the child; Neville judges this to be the birth from above and predicts David will come to him five months later.
Date (happened)
20 October 1967
unresolved
  1. 20 October 1967 stated · preferred
    Source "Last Friday morning", told in A Lesson in Scripture (nid 1294)
  2. 20 October 1967 estimated
    Source passage 536228 (lecture nid 1294, delivered 1967-10-23): 'Last Friday morning my friend Bennie found himself cataleptic... This happened on the 20th day of October.'
    Reasoning The passage names the day of month directly ('the 20th day of October') and separately calls it 'Last Friday'. The lecture's own delivery date is certain at 1967-10-23, a Monday; the Friday immediately before that Monday is 1967-10-20, matching the stated day-of-month exactly, so the year 1967 is fixed by this internal consistency rather than imported.
  3. 20 October 1967 estimated · probable
    Source passage 536228 in lecture 1294: 'Last Friday morning' and 'This happened on the 20th day of October.'
    Why Date of Bennie's vision, not merely the date Neville retold it.
    Reasoning The passage explicitly supplies October 20 and calls the experience last Friday morning. The containing lecture is independently dated Monday 1967-10-23 by a catalogue claim and a Pass-0 chrome dateline, making the preceding Friday 1967-10-20. The year is inferred from the telling lecture, hence estimated rather than stated.
Place
Los Angeles
Persons
Bob
Neville Goddard
Benny
Told
  1. 23 October 1967 stated
    Source A Lesson in Scripture (nid 1294), telling 1294-0, told 1967-10-23
  2. 23 October 1967 estimated
    Source delivery claim on lecture nid 1294, 'A Lesson in Scripture'
    Reasoning This is when Neville related Bennie's cataleptic vision to the audience, three days after it happened; the lecture's delivery date is certain (catalogue #377 agrees with the transcript byline).
Sources

Source

  • A Lesson in Scripture (Second Version) ¶6 (Last Friday morning my friend Bennie found himself cataleptic. Unable to open his eyes or move his body, Ben could hear within himself the cry of a child as he felt an unearthly wind in his skull.)