Neville Goddard

Confirmed NOT the same as
Other names
Neville Lancelot Goddard
Birth date
Death date
Spouse
Catherine Willa Van Schmus
Mildred Mary Hughes
Children
Victoria Goddard
Joseph Neville Goddard
Relatives
Cecil Goddard
Victor Goddard
Lawrence Goddard
Fred Goddard
Collin Goddard
Art Goddard
Carl Goddard
Bruce Goddard
Daphne Batterson (Neville's sister)
Joseph "Joe" Goddard (Neville's father)
Wilhelmina Goddard
Wikidata QID
Q343517
Wikipedia URL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Goddard
Summary

Barbadian writer (1905–1972)

Events involving this person

before 1961
unresolved
Neville's own vision confirms Blake's account of eternity
with William Blake
1 source
1 tellings, oldest first. A date in brackets shows how it is known; "circa", "after" and "possible" dates are rough.
Date Lecture or book Telling Passage
1963-05-03 [exact/certain/final] The Shaping of the Unbegotten Now, what does he mean by it? Well, I have had the vision, and I know that Blake is telling the truth. For I am telling the truth based upon my visions. Everything in this world is forever. What you now see, what former people saw, what they are going to see, everything is forever. These are parts of the eternal structure of eternity. This body, this little lectern, this—everything in the world is but a little part of the eternal structure of eternity. It didn’t come into being at all; it always was—all the stars, everything, everything on earth, all part of the eternal structure of eternity. 550837
before 1961
unresolved
Neville owns and uses James Strong's Concordance
with James Strong
1 source
1 tellings, oldest first. A date in brackets shows how it is known; "circa", "after" and "possible" dates are rough.
Date Lecture or book Telling Passage
1963-05-03 [exact/certain/final] The Shaping of the Unbegotten And so he takes man and he makes man into his image. Now we go back into the Book of Genesis and see what he’s done with man. A word is used in the book, it’s called the tree, the tree of life. The man in some strange way is expelled because he may eat of the tree of life before he’s prepared. Well, if you have a concordance—I have James Strong’s Concordance; it’s an excellent biblical concordance—and the word tree is defined as “the spine, the backbone, the carpenter, the gallows.” Who is hanging on the gallows? It’s called the gallows, this word called the tree. It’s the gallows; it’s the… 550847
before 1961
unresolved
Neville sees a man eternally emptying coal
1 source
1 tellings, oldest first. A date in brackets shows how it is known; "circa", "after" and "possible" dates are rough.
Date Lecture or book Telling Passage
1963-05-03 [exact/certain/final] The Shaping of the Unbegotten So Creation is an act of mercy. This is—you can’t claim [...] of a creator—it was always part of the eternal structure of the universe. As those who have taken certain drugs have seen a certain act and recorded it to those who would record what they were seeing, I am seeing a man emptying coal; and strangely enough on this level of my being he was always emptying coal. There was never a time in eternity he was not doing what he’s doing, though at the moment it seemed to be he’s doing what he’s doing because someone ordered coal only at that moment in time. And yet, he was always doing what he… 550854
before 1961
unresolved
Neville writes of David in The Law and The Promise
Los Angeles possible
with David
1 source
1 tellings, oldest first. A date in brackets shows how it is known; "circa", "after" and "possible" dates are rough.
Date Lecture or book Telling Passage
1966-02-15 [exact/certain/final] The Name of God Is the Key to Understanding the Bible And I know that when I was writing the last chapter of The Law and The Promise, when I came to that experience of mine I wrestled with it for days. I finally concluded I would say man matures when he becomes his own father’s father. I was sticking to scripture, yet he matures when he becomes his own father. But the Bible begins, in the New Testament, “This is the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David.” But then when David calls you Lord—which is the name used by every son of his father, “my lord”—having seen David and David calls me Father, and scripture tells me I was his son, well then, I… 548979
before 3 May 1963
unresolved
Neville freezes and releases an animated restaurant scene
1 source
1 tellings, oldest first. A date in brackets shows how it is known; "circa", "after" and "possible" dates are rough.
Date Lecture or book Telling Passage
1963-05-03 [exact/certain/final] The Shaping of the Unbegotten Then at that moment in time, I knew that if I could arrest in me an activity that then at that moment, I felt everything would cease. So I arrested the activity and it froze. The whole vast scene; it was arrested. And through the window, a huge big black tree, a tree—the leaves were falling, they couldn’t fall, and they were arrested in space. The birds trying to fly, they were arrested in flight, and everything froze. And there I am observing this part of the structure of the universe. Anyone prior to that moment would have thought they were completely independent of anything external to… 550864
c. 1961
probable
Man in Barbados questions Neville about his mystical experience
Barbados
1 source
1 tellings, oldest first. A date in brackets shows how it is known; "circa", "after" and "possible" dates are rough.
Date Lecture or book Telling Passage
1963-12-17 [exact/certain/final] What Shall You Ask of Me My dear, as far as the great mystery of the Bible goes, I feel that comes in its own good time, I really do. I firmly believe, as you’re told in Habakkuk: “The vision has its own appointed hour; it ripens, it will flower. If it be long, then wait; for it is sure and it will not be late.” So God’s vision for us has its own appointed hour and it will not be late. It may seem late to us. Because others will say of me, I am from a very, well, business-like family. We have no ministers in our background, we have no artists in the background, no intellectuals in my background; we’re sheer down-to… 530736
before 1961
unresolved
Neville experiences God begetting himself within him
1 source
1 tellings, oldest first. A date in brackets shows how it is known; "circa", "after" and "possible" dates are rough.
Date Lecture or book Telling Passage
1963-05-03 [exact/certain/final] The Shaping of the Unbegotten So I create from these eternal forms, and they exist forever. Now, God is actually in you, in me, begetting himself. As I stand before you, and this is not arrogance on my part, for I did not do it, and yet in another way, I did. For when he begot himself in me, I am he. And so all the suffering that I have gone through throughout unnumbered centuries up to this moment, which in his infinite mercy, he keeps from me, so I would have no memory of the past, all the suffering. “For whom God afflicts for secret ends, he then comforts and heals and calls them friends.” 550874
before 1961
unresolved
Neville beholds golden radiant light at the base of his spine
1 source
1 tellings, oldest first. A date in brackets shows how it is known; "circa", "after" and "possible" dates are rough.
Date Lecture or book Telling Passage
1963-05-03 [exact/certain/final] The Shaping of the Unbegotten So he puts us through all these sufferings. But, my Lord, the gift! The gift is the gift of creativity. He gives us himself. So when I beheld at the base of my spine, this golden radiant light—if you want to read it, read it in Ezekiel 1:27 and 8:2—here, I beheld it had the appearance of man; but at what appeared to be the loins, there was a glow of light that rose; and then, at what appeared to be the loins, going down, was light, just radiant light. That’s exactly what it is, right at the base of the loins, and you see it; and strangely enough, you know it is yourself. 550875
1961
certain
Neville discusses his Goddard business family in Barbados
Barbados
with the Goddard family
1 source
1 tellings, oldest first. A date in brackets shows how it is known; "circa", "after" and "possible" dates are rough.
Date Lecture or book Telling Passage
1963-12-17 [exact/certain/final] What Shall You Ask of Me My dear, as far as the great mystery of the Bible goes, I feel that comes in its own good time, I really do. I firmly believe, as you’re told in Habakkuk: “The vision has its own appointed hour; it ripens, it will flower. If it be long, then wait; for it is sure and it will not be late.” So God’s vision for us has its own appointed hour and it will not be late. It may seem late to us. Because others will say of me, I am from a very, well, business-like family. We have no ministers in our background, we have no artists in the background, no intellectuals in my background; we’re sheer down-to… 530736
c. 1961
unresolved
Neville recalls writer friend's death
1 source
1 tellings, oldest first. A date in brackets shows how it is known; "circa", "after" and "possible" dates are rough.
Date Lecture or book Telling Passage
1968-02-08 [exact/certain/final] The Last Days But you are told that those who will come after will not rejoice in him. This is true. You can tell the world of this beautiful Father/Son relationship and yet those who listen will say: “What? Oh, I want more money and some fun first.” A friend of mine, a very successful writer who was five years my senior, would not listen to me, for he was afraid. He was not interested, and therefore did not rejoice in the story of David. Stating he wanted some fun first, he did not care for anything of this nature. My friend died about three years ago while watching T.V., so now he is restored to life as… 531893
c. 1961
unresolved
High-rise development surrounds Neville's home
1025 Carol Drive
1 source
1 tellings, oldest first. A date in brackets shows how it is known; "circa", "after" and "possible" dates are rough.
Date Lecture or book Telling Passage
1965-05-28 [exact/certain/final] The Law: Self-Circumcision How do you know that what you’re demonstrating is the best thing for you? Well, my dear, I don’t really care whether it’s the best or not. If I want it today and getting it tomorrow I discover I don’t want it then give it away. I’ve done that with a suit, with a hat, with a pair of shoes. I thought I must have them, so I got them, and then I wondered what possessed me when I thought I wanted them. I gave it away. So it is the joy of getting them and, may I tell you, the equal joy in giving them away. Those who received them from me thought, “Oh isn’t it marvelous!” They were thrilled to… 533227
between 20 January 1961 and 22 November 1963
certain
Neville publicly recounts his fall
1 source
1 tellings, oldest first. A date in brackets shows how it is known; "circa", "after" and "possible" dates are rough.
Date Lecture or book Telling Passage
1961-01-20 [between/certain/bound] Job - Your Biography: Questions and Answers Certainly! If tonight I found myself COMPLETELY behind the eight ball because that is part of my training, then let me use God’s law, and exercise my talent to come out of that pit. I don’t accept it as final. I don’t even accept it as temporary. But I mustn’t blame myself when I find myself in the pit. That is told us so clearly in the gospel: Do you think that when the tower fell and killed eighteen, they were greater sinners than the others in Jerusalem? I tell you not! But unless you repent, you shall have the same fate. “Repent” means “change your attitude.” Everything is a [...] for man… 555269
between 20 January 1961 and 22 November 1963
certain
Neville uses imagination to overcome his injury pain
1 source
1 tellings, oldest first. A date in brackets shows how it is known; "circa", "after" and "possible" dates are rough.
Date Lecture or book Telling Passage
1961-01-20 [between/certain/bound] Job - Your Biography: Questions and Answers Certainly! If tonight I found myself COMPLETELY behind the eight ball because that is part of my training, then let me use God’s law, and exercise my talent to come out of that pit. I don’t accept it as final. I don’t even accept it as temporary. But I mustn’t blame myself when I find myself in the pit. That is told us so clearly in the gospel: Do you think that when the tower fell and killed eighteen, they were greater sinners than the others in Jerusalem? I tell you not! But unless you repent, you shall have the same fate. “Repent” means “change your attitude.” Everything is a [...] for man… 555269
12 May 1961
probable
Neville witnesses the fire that destroys Huxley's home
Ebell Theatre
with Aldous Huxley, D. H. Lawrence
1 source
1 tellings, oldest first. A date in brackets shows how it is known; "circa", "after" and "possible" dates are rough.
Date Lecture or book Telling Passage
1970-05-05 [exact/probable/final] The Secret of God He assumed it had none. But one night I came out of the Ebell Theatre, having given my lecture there, and I looked into the hills of Hollywood, and here the whole hill is aflame. Houses—how many? I think there were 40 burned that night. One of the 40 was Aldous Huxley, his home. In it he had these priceless manuscripts. He had manuscripts not published by D. H. Lawrence that were given to him by Lawrence. He had his own manuscripts, and a priceless library, plus lovely pieces of art that members of his family had done. He had so many intellectual giants in his family tree, both on the male… 555281
between 6 November 1961 and 26 May 1962
probable
Neville witnesses his whole being as the burning bush
New York City possible
1 source
1 tellings, oldest first. A date in brackets shows how it is known; "circa", "after" and "possible" dates are rough.
Date Lecture or book Telling Passage
1962 [circa/probable/preferred/estimated] Is Causation Imaginal I am telling about the burning bush. If you’ve never witnessed it, I can tell you, your whole being becomes a flame, and you see it. I have seen it in subways, I’ve seen it on the stage. I have seen — I AM — suddenly the whole is, though you were fire, and you wonder why you are burning. So — as with this bush, it burned and yet it did not consume, it burned and the tree was not consumed. I have been in the subway, and the whole area is ablaze — it’s burning, but the burning is something like spirit-burning. If I took alcohol and burned it, the whole thing is alive — it’s not like a gas jet… 545620
6 November 1961
probable
Neville visits the ruins after Aldous Huxley's house burns
Los Angeles
with Aldous Huxley
1 source
1 tellings, oldest first. A date in brackets shows how it is known; "circa", "after" and "possible" dates are rough.
Date Lecture or book Telling Passage
1962 [circa/probable/preferred/estimated] Is Causation Imaginal But when I went to see the home, and the brush all over the place burned, that was the night that Aldous Huxley’s house went right down to the very ground. Aldous Huxley himself, in one of his books, said that he had reasons for not wanting the world to have meaning — consciously he assumed that it had none, and without any difficulty found all the reasons in the world to support his assumption. So he wrote in his book that the world had no meaning — he didn’t want it to have meaning. So he had this most valuable library — first editions, not only his own, but publishers had given him first… 545627
between 6 November 1961 and 26 May 1962
probable
Neville solicits audience case histories for his May 26 class
Los Angeles
1 source
1 tellings, oldest first. A date in brackets shows how it is known; "circa", "after" and "possible" dates are rough.
Date Lecture or book Telling Passage
1962 [circa/probable/preferred/estimated] Is Causation Imaginal But tonight, try and do with me — or do for me — what that gentleman did unsolicited. I’m going to solicit your letters, your case histories, that may come from this platform, and talk about them, to encourage everyone who comes here to believe in the only God — the God that cannot die, the God of the living — that you may know you cannot die, you cannot even pass away. This is a being that is awakening in the depth of your soul, and when he awakens he is God, all wild God. But because of this wonderful experience, and there is no limit to his expansion — it expands all the more — there is… 545636
c. 25 December 1961
probable
Neville receives a doubled dream of the invisible grandfather
Los Angeles
1 source
1 tellings, oldest first. A date in brackets shows how it is known; "circa", "after" and "possible" dates are rough.
Date Lecture or book Telling Passage
1963-05-10 [exact/certain/final] Incubate the Dream Well now, let me share with you my doubled dream. I’ve told it before, and maybe everyone present heard it. Well, this is the technique by which you can induce a dream and make it something that is intentional. It was a year ago last Christmas, when I found myself in a mansion. There were three generations present but one invisible. The invisible one dominated the visible state. He was called grandfather. They were telling the story of grandfather: The grandfather would stand on a vacant lot and grandfather would say, “I remember when this was a vacant lot,” and then he would paint a word… 544116
25 December 1961
unresolved
Neville has doubled-grandfather and vacant-lot dream
Los Angeles
4 sources
4 tellings, oldest first. A date in brackets shows how it is known; "circa", "after" and "possible" dates are rough.
Date Lecture or book Telling Passage
1963-05-10 [exact/certain/final] Incubate the Dream Well now, let me share with you my doubled dream. I’ve told it before, and maybe everyone present heard it. Well, this is the technique by which you can induce a dream and make it something that is intentional. It was a year ago last Christmas, when I found myself in a mansion. There were three generations present but one invisible. The invisible one dominated the visible state. He was called grandfather. They were telling the story of grandfather: The grandfather would stand on a vacant lot and grandfather would say, “I remember when this was a vacant lot,” and then he would paint a word… 544116
1964-04-24 [exact/certain/final] The Friend of Sinners That was shown me so vividly a couple of years ago where I saw this fantastic story. I was taken in Spirit into this palatial home, and here I saw this family, two generations and a third, they spoke of a third, but the third was the oldest, unseen by the eye of man. He had gone from the world, but he left a fortune that they now enjoyed. It was well invested, and they lived on this fortune. They would speak of this one who had made the fortune and they called him Grandfather. They said, “Grandfather used to say while standing on an empty lot, ‘I remember when,’ and then he would paint a word… 531764
1964-09 [exact/probable/final] The Spirit Gives Life So here if you are not with us when I tell my vision They’ve disapproved. They don’t want me to bring you Christ this life. But I have found him. Having found him, I figured whether they approve or disapprove. So many many months ago I had this experience to confirm the 41st chapter of the book of Genesis. For in the book of Genesis, we are turned. If a dream doubles itself, but then the thing has been fixed by God and God will shortly bring it back. And this is what happened to me again. I felt myself move in the spirit and move back in time. Not that far back 200 years, but only say to the… 554365
1965-02-16 [exact/certain/final] Law, Story-Telling, Picture-Taking I absorbed the message. The message was that while standing on an empty lot, I painted a word picture for my lot as I desired it to be, not as it appeared to be; I denied appearances. Yes, I was learning a lesson. The lesson is that wise grandfather used to say while standing on an empty lot, “I remember when this was an empty lot.” Then, while still standing on it, he would paint a reality as though it were true. Then I woke, wrote it out, went back to sleep, and re-dreamed it. But I had absorbed the lesson so I told the story. So you can stand on an empty lot for anyone. 532754
c. 1962
unresolved
Six-Hour / Overnight Radio Marathon
New York City
with Rabbi Silver
4 sources
4 tellings, oldest first. A date in brackets shows how it is known; "circa", "after" and "possible" dates are rough.
Date Lecture or book Telling Passage
1963-04-12 [exact/certain/final] The Resurrection “Touch me not as I have not yet ascended.” That statement… I heard it by Wilberforce, who was once Dean of Canterbury. He said the true translation of the phrase is, “Hold me not back by your tears and your sorrow because of my going. That you, by your emotional upheaval because of my exit, are holding me in your sphere.” So do not by your sense of loss of me hold me back because mind communes with mind. So free me. Let me go. For if I do not go, the Holy Spirit cannot come, so let me go. But if by one’s sense of loss you’re always thinking of the departed with a sense of heavy loss, you’re… 530193
1963-12-08 [exact/certain/final] What Is Truth This past month in New York City, I had one of these marathon radio… it ran five hours through the night. I had two of them, really. But this night, my opponent was Rabbi Silver and Kylie [...], the actor, and then, [...] Oursler, the son of Fulton Oursler who wrote The Greatest Story Ever Told. He’s quite a successful writer in his own name. They were my opponents and the moderator was [...] John. Well, the Rabbi said to me, “Don’t you tell your people to give to certain charities, to give to this, to give to that, to give to the other?” I said, “No, I don’t.” “Then what sort of a teacher… 530618
1968-12-02 [exact/certain/final] God's Almighty Power and Wisdom So I say, no matter what you are this night and how you are behind the eight-ball, the nature of that eight-ball, can you actually meet that third test? There are three tests given. The first is the hunger not for earthly things but for the hearing of the word of God, can you become that hungry? Well, that’s his first test. The second test, when “Cast yourself down. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” I was on a marathon one night in New York City, six hours on radio from midnight until six in the morning with a panel of five and a moderator. This professor said to me when I was speaking… 548652
1969-06-06 [exact/probable/final] The Nature of God Is Revealed in Us Then comes the challenge: Well, if that is so, why don’t you command these stones to be made bread? Why don’t you throw yourself down? Is it not written he gives his angels power to support you? Why don’t you get down and worship me and I’ll give you the world? And to all of these, “Get behind me, doubter” . So everyone will put you to the test. You make a statement that imagining creates reality and one fella on radio one night…he’s a professor of psychology in an eastern college…and he said to me, “Turn that yellow pencil into red.” So I said to him quite innocently, “You are fulfilling… 543941