By Imagination We Become Radio Lecture by Neville Goddard (1951)

Neville Goddard, radio lectures number two. By imagination we become. July, 1951. Radio talk station KECA, Los Angeles. Neville Goddard. How many times have we heard someone say, oh, it's only his imagination. Only his imagination. Man's imagination is the man himself. No man has too little imagination. But few men have disciplined their imagination. Imagination is itself indestructible. Therein lies the horror of its misuse. Oh, boy. Daily we pass some stranger on the street. And observe him muttering to himself, carrying on an imaginary argument with one not present. He is arguing with vehemence, with fear or with hatred, not realizing that he is setting in motion by his imagination an unpleasant event. Event which he will presently encounter. We've all seen it. If you drive a car, you've definitely seen it. He's talking about walking down the road here. The world as imagination sees it is the real world. Not facts, but figments of the imagination shape our daily lives. It is the exact and literal minded who have. Excuse me. Who live. It is the exact and literal minded who live in a fictitious world. Only imagination can restore the Eden from which experience has driven us out. Imagination is. This is the sense by which we perceived the above. The power by which we resolve vision into being. Every stage of man's progress is made by the exercise of the imagination. It is only because men do not perfectly imagine and believe that their results are sometimes uncertain. When they might always be perfectly certain, determined. Imagination is the beginning of all successful operation. The imagination alone is the means of fulfilling the intention. The man who at will can call up whatever image he pleases. Is by virtue of the power of his imagination. Least of all subject to caprice. The solitary or captive can by intensity of imagination and feeling affect myriads. So that he can act through many men and speak through many voices. We should never be certain, wrote William Butler Yeats in his Ideas of Good and Evil, that it was not some woman treading in the winepress. Who began that subtle change in men's minds. Or that the passion did not begin in the mind of some shepherd boy. Lighting up his eyes for a moment before it ran upon its way. Let me tell you the story of a dear friend of mine at the time. The costume designer of the Music hall in New York. She told me one day of her difficulty in working with one of the producers. Who invariably criticized and rejected her best work unjustly. This is Neville Goddard's wife. That he was often rude and seemed deliberately unfair to her. Upon hearing her story, I reminded her, as I am reminding you, that men can only Echo to us that which we whisper to them in secret. I had no doubt but that she silently argued with the producer, not in the flesh, but in quiet moments to herself. She confessed that she did just that. Each morning as she walked to work, I asked her to change her attitude toward him, to assume that he was congratulating her on her fine designs. And she, in turn was thanking him for his praise and kindness. Just change what you're thinking. This young designer took my advice, and as she walked to the theater, she imagined a perfect relationship of the producer praising her work, and she, in turn responding with gratitude for his appreciation. Then she did, morning after morning, and in a very short while, she discovered her for herself that her own attitude determined the scenery of her existence. The behavior of the producer completely reversed itself. He became the most pleasant professional employer she had encountered. His behavior merely echoed the changes that she had whispered within herself. What she did was, by the power of imagination, her fantasy led his, and she herself dictated to him the discourse they eventually had together. At the time, she was seemingly walking alone. Let us set ourselves here and now a daily exercise of controlling and disciplining our imagination. What finer beginning than to imagine better than the best we know. For a friend there is no coal of character so dead that it will not glow in flame if but slightly turned. Love that phrase so. It's such a colorful, pictorial, imaginative phrase, that phrase. I've heard it in other places. And here it is for the third time. I think we've read it in all these lectures so far. There is no coal of character so dead that it will not glow in flame if but slightly turned. Don't blame, only resolve. You could rest with just those four words. Don't blame, only resolve. Life, like music, can, by a new setting, turn all its discords into harmonies. Represent your friend to yourself as already expressing that which he desires to be. Let us know that with whatever attitude we approach another, a similar attitude approaches us. You can bet if you're talking about somebody else in the negative, they're talking about you. You can bet it. But you change it. You don't blame, you only resolve. If the negative comes up to the surface, you change it. Like she did walking to work. She felt the praise from him over her fine works, her designs, congratulating her. You feel negative about somebody else. You change into one of congratulations. You congratulate them, they congratulate you. How can we do this? Do what my friend did to establish rapport. Call your friend, mentally focus your attention on him, and mentally call his name Just as you would to attract his attention were you to see him on the street. Just mentally, you can. You can believe the person you're seeing mentally and you're calling their name. They are aware. You can believe it. Imagine that he has answered. Mentally hear his voice. Imagine that he is telling you of the great good you have desired for him. You, in turn, tell him of your joy in witnessing his good fortune. Having mentally heard that which you wanted to hear, having thrilled to the news heard. Go about your daily task. Your imagined conversation must awaken what is affirmed. The acceptance of the end, wills, the means. And the wisest reflection could not devise more effective means than those which are willed by the acceptance of the end. However, your conversation with your friend must be in a manner which does not express the slightest doubt or as to the truth of what you imagine that you hear and say. If you do not control your imagination, you will find that you are hearing and saying all that you formerly heard and said. If you do not control your imagination, you will find that you are hearing and saying all that you formerly heard and said. We are creatures of habit. And habit, though not law, acts like the most compelling law in the world. With this knowledge of the power of imagination, be as the disciplined man and transform your world by imagining and feeling only what is lovely and of good report. How hard is that to do? The beautiful idea you awaken in yourself shall not fail to arouse its affinity in others. Do not wait four months to the harvest. Today is the day to practice the control and discipline of your imagination. Man is only limited by weakness of attention and poverty of imagination. The great secret is a controlled imagination and a well sustained attention firmly and repeatedly focused on the object to be accomplished. Now is the acceptable time to give beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified. Now is the time to control our imagination and attention. By control I do not mean restraint by willpower, but rather. Excuse me. By control. I do not mean restraint by willpower, but rather cultivation through love and compassion. With so much of the world in discord, we cannot possibly emphasize too strongly the power of imaginative love. Imaginative love. That is my subject next Sunday morning when I shall speak for Dr. Bell's. While he is on this holiday. While he is on his holiday, the services will be held as always at the Fox Wilshire Theater on Wilshire Boulevard near La Cienega at 10:30. This might be a second lecture in the same day of the previous one. Because it sounds like it's again the 8th of July again. Considering he's announcing that next week. As the world is, so is the individual should be changed to as the individual is, so is the world. There's a. There's a great Earl Nightingale. If you haven't heard Earl Nightingale, then you need to get the tape or the, the tape. That's how I bought it when I, when I bought it off Amazon seemed like 2007 or eight. Maybe 2006. No, 2005 or six. We were having classes in my living room and I got the six tapes and it was called the Strangest Secret. And it was a great audio program. I converted to cd. I gave it to all my friends. I saw so many lives change over that one audio program in there. There was a story of this kid that the parent took a picture out of the magazine and it was a picture of the world. And he tore the paper up to make a puzzle for the child. And he gave the. The child the puzzle to put together and was very, very surprised to see that the child accomplished the puzzle. I think he taped it together and I think it was the father who asked the child, how did you do? How did you do this? It seemed like an impossible task the way the picture was of the world. Well, the child simply said, well, there was a picture of a man on the backside. All I simply did was put him together. And then Earl Nightingale made a point, isn't that it? Once you put the man together, the world comes together. Such a wonderful perspective. And Earl Nightingale is a very, very amazing orator. He has the number one selling spoken word record ever. And I think it was the Strangest Secret. As I said before, he used to shop at a bookstore that I used to spend many hours of my life in called Acres of Books on Long Beach Boulevard. They've since recently torn it down and put up a megaplex of living quarters. It was this amazing bookstore. And Neville Goddard also spoke of shopping in Acres of Books on Long Beach Boulevard. I think it's right off of Third, as a matter of fact, or Broadway between Broadway and 3rd used to be Neville Goddard mentioned a couple different books to get there and see a certain person who was in Neville Goddard's time. The guy was already in his 80s or 90s and didn't know if you could find him. Still Neville mentioned him. Earl Nightingale mentioned going to the Long Beach Public Library for the first time and trying to find books on success and they had none. And he was like why. Why don't you have books on success? But Earl Nightingale also, I believe, mentioned acres of books. But acres of books was there a long time. I'm sure Earl went in there. I don't remember if he mentioned that bookstore. I thought he did. I think. I think I might be crossing wires with the Long Beach Public Library, which was a block or two away. So I'm sure Earl was in there. I've spent a lot of hours in that bookstore and I am here to tell you, the back section, there was a building behind the front building that was just the hit books. They called them hit books. They were small paperback books. They went in your hip pocket. There was a back building behind acres of books that was another building that was literally just fiction. I pried this door open one time. Me and a friend of mine went back there, and it was unimaginable how many books of fiction were back there. And they were all small hit books. It was a huge warehouse full of just those. And at that time I walked into that room, I would think it was approximately 95, 1995. Ish. When I walked in that back building, I could not believe it. Anyway, excuse the. Excuse that. Here we go. As the world is, so is the individual should be changed to. As the individual is, so is the world. And I hope to be able to bring to each of you present the true meanings of the word, of the words Zechariah. Speak ye every man the truth of his neighbor. Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor. And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor. What a wonderful challenge to you and me. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. As a man imagines, so is he. Hold fast to love in your imagination. By creating an ideal within your mental sphere, you can approximate yourself to the ideal image till you become one and the same with it, thereby transforming yourself into it, or rather, absorbing its qualities into the very core of your being. Never, never lose sight of the power that is within you. Imaginative love lifts the invisible into sight and gives us water in the desert. It builds for the soul, its only fit abiding place. Beauty, love and all of good rapport are the garden. But imaginative love is the way into the garden. Sow an imaginary conversation, you reap an act. Listen to what he's saying. Sow an imaginary conversation. Hear the angels speak in your mind. Sow an act, you reap a habit. Let me go from the beginning and I won't interrupt. Excuse me. Sow an imaginary conversation, you Reap an act. So sow an act, you reap a habit. Sow a habit, you reap a character. Sow a character, you reap your destiny. By imagination, we are all reaping our destinies. Whether they be good, bad or indifferent. Imagination has full power of objective realization. And every stage of man's progress or regression Is made by the exercise of imagination. I believe, with William Blake. What seems to be to those who it seems to be and is productive. Of the most dreadful consequences to those to whom it seems to be, even of torments, despair and eternal death. By imagination and desire, we become what we desire to be. Let us affirm to ourselves that we are what we imagine. If we persist in the assumption that we are what we wish to be. We will become transformed into that which we have imagined ourselves to be. We were born by a natural miracle of love. And for a brief space of time our needs were all another's cure. We were born by a natural miracle of love. And for a brief space of time, our needs were all another's care. In that simple truth lies the secret of life. Except by love, we cannot truly live at all. Our parents, in their separate individualities, have no power to transmit life. So back we come to the basic truth that life is the offspring of love. Therefore, no love, no life. Thus, it's a. It's. It is rational to say that God is love. Love is our birthright. Love is the fundamental necessity of our life. Do not go seeking for that which you are. Those who go seeking for love only make manifest their own lovelessness. And the loveless never find love. Only the loving find love, and they never have to seek for it. Mmm, mmm, mmm. Imagine turning the radio dial and bringing that one in. Wow. Oh, man. Oh, man. It just. It. You know, I mentioned that acres of books downtown Long beach, where it used to be. There it just got demoed and a new building put in its place just recently, within a year or two. And the Earl Nightingale material, again, just to close with that. That. That strangest secret. Is a very good, Very good tape set or CD set or audio. Whatever. Whatever you get. They used to have audio stores or CD rental stores. Audiobook stores. Audiobook stores. I used to love those stores. Used to go in there and rent a whole set. Like 6 cds, 12 CDs, whatever. Put them in your car, listen to them while you drove. Wonderful stuff. Now you can just stream it. Much more convenient. All right, we're going to see you in the next one.