The Art Of Dying - Neville Goddard (01-26-1965) | Full Reading + Commentary

Neville Goddard 1965 lectures the Art of Dying January 26, 1965. We know this is going to be good. Tonight's subject, the title may seem strange. I call it the Art of Dying. If it seems to you at the moment too spiritual, may I tell you, whatever is most profoundly spiritual you will find in the end to be most profound. Directly practical. There's nothing more practical in this world than that which is most profoundly spiritual. And tonight, this is the art of dying. The art of dying. In the Book of John, we're told greater love has no man than this. That man may lay down his life for his friends. 15 13. Many people have taken this passage and interpret it as a man going into battle and offering his body to protect his friends. It's a noble gesture and certainly marvelous. But that hasn't a thing to do with this passage. Not a thing to do with it. When I did. When I lay down my life for my friends I do not step before the knife or the gun and give my body in place of theirs. Think of something. I'm sorry. This is something entirely different. Tonight we will show you the inwardness of this law. I love this example man. Oh, it's going to be so good. Paul said, every day I die. First Corinthians 15:31. Well, if every day I die and if today I gave this body, I couldn't tomorrow die. But every day while I wear this body, I die. Well, how do I do it? Let us turn now to Blake, one who had a clear, clear, perfect vision. In his 96th plate of Jerusalem, he made the statement, every kindness to another is a little death in the divine image. Nor can man exist without brotherhood. Can't exist but by brotherhood. Well, how do I do it? Every kindness to another is a little death in the divine image. Man is only the sum of all of his beliefs, all of his impressions. That's what I am. That's what you are. If you want to know a man, you've got to get behind his words, even his thoughts, to the beliefs from which they spring. So I am the sum total of all of my beliefs. So I meet you on the street, or I hear of you. So I meet you and you don't look well. Or someone writes me and they tell me you're not well, that's an impression. So thereafter, if I think of you, that impression comes into my mind's eye. I must learn the. I must remember, whenever Neville is saying the word must, it is a must. You might as well see that. We'll hear that word in capitals, all caps. It's something you must do anytime he uses the word must. We had that same rule with the Seth material. Anytime Seth was saying must, you stopped and paid attention. It's more deeper than we're already in the deep end of the pool with Neville period. But now this means hold your breath. Even better yet. So thereafter I think of you. So thereafter if I think of you that impression comes into my mind's eye. I must learn the art of dying to that impression. Remember now. He heard a rumor. You were not well. I must bring you into my mind's eye and put you into an entirely different light and see you as I ought to see you were you the one I would love you to be when I am self persuaded that you are that new impression I have died to the other impression. So every kindness on my part, every little kindness is a little death in the divine image. That divine image is death. It must die and die all through love. For what is the divine image? Listen to it carefully as Blake defines it. Mercy, pity, peace and love. God our Father dear and mercy, pity, peace and love. Is man his child and care? So was it a merciful thing to do? Yes, it was merciful. Prompted by pity? Yes. Was it done lovingly? Yes. And now am I at peace because of it? Yes. Then I fulfill the divine image. Mercy, pity, peace and love. So I took all these aspects of the divine image it was merciful to do. Why leave him distressed when I could exercise this power? And so every time that man exercises this creative power of his lovingly he is simply performing this little act of death. Every kindness to another is a little death in the divine. The divine image that is. This is called in Scripture, repentance. Repentance means to become another person. Didn't I become another person? Because if I am made up of all my impressions, all of my beliefs and I believe you to be injured and that injury need not be physical in the same. Excuse me, in the sense that you are physically hurt it could be that you are financially hurt. It could be that you are now being disgraced. It could be in a thousand ways. So if I believe this, because here are the facts I am confronted with facts I'm called upon to exercise my talent and put something in its place. Therefore, if I put something in its place I've got to give up that impression I hold of you giving it up. If I am the sum total of all of my beliefs I'm giving up any belief. I die. I die by giving up any belief That I am, that I now entertain. I die by giving up any belief that I now entertain. And so every kindness to another is a little death in the divine image. Nor can man exist but by brotherhood. So if I don't consider the whole vast world, this fragmented world, as myself, everyone, my brother, and gradually all being gathered together, reassembled into one being that is God the Father, and then I am he. For I am a fragmented being. You are, we all are. While we are fragmented in this state, we are brothers. And by practicing this art, we prepare the way to be called back into the unity that is God. In the oldest of our gospels, which is Mark, the first words put into the mouth of that central figure. The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. Mark 1:15. Repent. We are called upon to repent. And. And repent means a radical change of attitude towards life. A radical change towards anything in this world, but radical right down to the root. So I meet someone in this world and they tell me their story. Having heard their story, they've left their impression on me. Because I trust them, I believe them, having heard exactly what is taking place in their life. And if it isn't pleasant, they left me with some other aspect of my own being, for they've given me another impression. Every impression adds to my being. Every belief is my being. I am the sum total of all that I believe. Well, now, as I leave them and they go their way and I go my way, it is entirely up to me, not to them, to me, to change my being and bring it back into another state. For we are told in the 51st Psalm, against thee, thee only have I sinned, O Lord. I can't sin against anyone but myself. Who took that impression, I did. Well, what is his name? I am well. I am believing that against Thee, Thee only have I sinned, O Lord. Therefore thy judgment was just. Everything you do to me thereafter is just. I can't complain, for I have only sinned against God, and God is I am. Because I took the impression, I saw it, and seeing it, I believed it. And believing it, it's part of my world now I must live with it. So from there on, I either live with it and bear the fruit of that impression, or I change it. I change it by becoming another. So repentance in a lovely way means to become another person. Because that was my being. That's the being that I am become another person. I don't see him that way. I don't see her. That way I change it in my mind's eye. And changing it, I persuade myself of the reality of that imagined act, imaginal act. I represent the individual to myself as what I would like him to be. And seeing him in that light, I believe in the reality of that imaginal act. Then time proves that it's true. She or he conformed to this imaginal act of mine. If that is true, I keep my body balanced, as it were, And I'm being called by my father back into that fall from the fragmented state. State, so we are told. Go into the world and tell the story. Tell to every being in the world how they're really living in a world made up of only. How they're really living in a world made up only of their beliefs. That all that I behold, though it appears without it, is within. In my imagination. Of which this world of mortality is but a shadow. The whole vast world is myself pushed out, myself objectified. What self? The self made up of all of my beliefs. I believe I was this, that and the other. So today, may I tell you, take everyone in this world that you know cost you nothing. And may I tell you, you don't need to be graduated from any institution in this world to practice this art. You don't need a degree. You don't need any permission of anyone to say you are this, that or the other. You can do it just as you are here. You need no one's consent to do it because you're doing it anyway. You're walking the earth just as a compulsive being made up of all the things that you believe and. And then you out picture them in your world. Here we have tonight a preparation for the most fantastic funeral possibly that are that our generation has ever seen. We saw one which was really sheer Fantasy back in 63 when our President was assassinated. And it was solemn and majestic. Really marvelous. If you want drama. No question about it. I think he's referring to Churchill. I don't know the exact date, death date of Churchill, but I'm sure it's. We've been talking about it over a couple lectures. I'm pretty sure that's what's going on here. But this thing you're going to see beginning on Saturday. Will be the most fantastic thing that this generation has seen. He wrote it back in 43 when he came down with double pneumonia and he was in Cairo. He wrote the kind of funeral that he wanted. He revised it 10 years later. He wanted bands. He wanted a state funeral. He wanted all these things. All right, he'll get it. He imagined it. He's a commoner. He actually imagined this entire thing. So he outlived them all. He is the last of the Big Three. So they called him the Big Three. So they called them the Big Three. Roosevelt went first, Stalin followed. And all were younger then he, the oldest of them all, and he makes his. At the age of 90. He wrote it in detail, what he wanted, and he's going to get it. He wanted to go as Wellington, as blank space as Nelson. Everything that they did in that day today will be far, far bigger. They now estimate that 400 million will view this pageant. He conceived it well. I have words for the great man, a truly great man. But God played that part, and he plays your part. The one who came and cleaned my house yesterday, the one who played that part was God. Same God that is going to play this part. And these words that rang out from Scripture, of those born of woman. Excuse me. Of those born of women, none is greater than John. Yet I tell you that the least in the kingdom is greater than John. Luke 7:26. No greatness in this world means anything whatsoever. Nothing. Exclamation point. That vision of Blake in the vision of the Last Judgment, when he saw this character Araunah, mentioned in the second Samuel, the 24th chapter, and he had this threshing floor. And David bought it. Araunah, A R A U N A h. When the plague struck Israel, it came right up to that area and stopped. So he bought it and there he built his altar. The word Araunah means chief or ruler. Who could be the chief or ruler but God? And he saw Araunah with a basket, pouring out all the vanities of riches and all the worldly honors. All worldly honors. All the medals that are pinned upon you like this pageantry that will begin on Saturday. He wrote it. A great man, but he was only playing a part. He doesn't realize that the least in the kingdom is greater than John. But the very least and the least in the kingdom could walk this earth. Completely unknown. Well, who would be the one who would be the least in the kingdom? Unknown. Christianity is based upon the affirmation that a series of events happened in which God revealed himself in action. For the revelation, excuse me, for the salvation of man. And every act was known only to the one in whom it happened. It could not be seen or heard by another. That one in whom it took place could be believed or disbelieved. Makes no difference. But he walks the Earth. And if these events happen in him or in her, he is in the kingdom. No one born of woman is greater than John. Yet I tell you, the least in the kingdom is greater than John. So the one in whom it happened has entered. So the one in whom it happens has entered the kingdom. And it need not even be known where he places the little body. I am told today that no one really knows where Blake was buried. They know where he was born because his father was a milliner. And so he knew the house where the children were born. But where Blake, 70 years later was buried, no one knows. Possibly in some unknown, unmarked grave of poverty. But he saw in this perfect vision the casting out of all the vanities and riches and. And all worldly honors. So what would concern you about a great, great funeral. But if you are given that way, it's perfectly alright. And I'm quite sure you will look at it. I will. And so on Saturday, undoubtedly, I'll turn the whole thing on as though I'm in a theater and watch the whole grand pageant. You can't take anything from him. Perfectly marvelous. Wonderful character that was played by God. God played the part. Wonderful part. But he's also playing your part. Don't forget for one second that God is one, God isn't two. So the God that played that part is not less God than the God that plays your part. So all you can hope for is to pray that this series of events marking your entrance into heaven will take place in you. Because no matter how great you are in the eyes of man, it doesn't compare to the least in the kingdom of heaven. So let everyone seek only the kingdom. And you're told in the beginning it starts by prayer, practicing revision. The world is not. Excuse me, the word is not revision. It's called repentance. And repentance simply means revision. The world is not. Excuse me. The word is not revision. It's called repentance. And repentance simply means to become another person. Another person. And as I stand here, if I have any impression that's unlovely and I change it, and I put in its place a lovely impression at the very. At that very moment, I am another person. For I am the sum total of all of my beliefs, all of my impressions. So any one change in my life, no matter how small it is concerning another, and. And I see him as I would like to see him, or I see them as I would like to see them, or I hear other than what I heard and make it something lovelier. If I persuade myself of the reality of this change of attitude. I am another person. And in that other person, all right, I became a new being after much multiple changing within my own world. As I exercise this talent, then I am called. I can't tell you what moment in time we're called because no one knows how far back we really go. You and I didn't begin a few years ago in the mother's womb. And we don't end in the grave. No one ends in the grave. But we began away back. And then we. And then when we began, everything was perfect. A fragmented being, but everything was perfect. But where. No earthly good has powers beyond this world unless we have freedom of expression. And so as that was granted to man, he makes mistakes and he tries to overcome the other on the outside. He does all things against his fragmented self until he hears the story. That's why it's so very important that everyone should hear the story. The story of God becoming man, that man may become God. So we all hear it and we're told the beginning of it. The change is repentance. Then you're told repentance means a change of attitude. And the change of attitude should be radical. May I tell you, you can start now, this moment, and start doing it. It takes itself into your dream world. As I told you a couple times recently, if you watch these videos in order, these Neville videos from the law and then now the law and the Promise, all these lectures, you watch them in order and your dream world will change. There is no doubt about it. You just simply got to put this lecture on and listen to it. You don't have to watch it, just listen to it. Your dreams are not the normal dream they're after. You find yourself in a dream not allowing yourself to be carried with the wind, not allowed in any way to be simple will change. There is no doubt about it. You just simply got to put. Put this lecture on and listen to it. You don't have to watch it, just listen to it. Your dreams are not the normal dream. Thereafter you find yourself in a dream not allowing yourself to be carried with the wind, not allowed in any way to be simply a thing moving across the world. You are in control of everything that you do. The opening up of a book in dream, you know exactly what you're doing. You know the title and you read it and you know everything is taking place in dream. It becomes that controlled by you. You're not a victim of your wandering attention. You are in control. You are the. You are master and director of that attention, it goes right into that state. And when you end, when you depart from this world, after these experiences take place in you, you leave it forever. Yet everyone left is your fragmented self. And everyone has to be redeemed. You can't let one be lost. Nothing can be lost in all my holy mountain. So when you depart, having had those experiences, these experiences, excuse me, don't think for one second that you have been detached from your world. It's your world. You are the God that fragmented himself in this world. So everyone has to be redeemed. But then you will be in that controlling world, as it were, as we are told. And this is the new translation in what is known today as the New English Bible. You've heard the words and the first man Adam became a living soul, and the second Adam became a life giving spirit. First Corinthians 15:45. But that's not the translation today. The first man Adam became an animate being. Mark the words, an animate being. The second Adam has become a life giving spirit, the first an animate being. How true that translation is. This whole vast world is animated and therefore not to be condemned. Any condemnation is to the being animating it, not to the thing animated. So the first man Adam became an animate being. The second Adam has become a life giving spirit. After the series of events, you become the life giving spirit. So you will be above and you'll understand the words, you are from below. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. John 8:23 he's telling you by the series of events within him, that he becomes part of the controlling life giving spirit. And thereafter he could cry, father, forgive them, they know not what they do. Luke 23:24 Forgive every being in this world for whatever he's done and whatever he is doing. And knowing this, change it. Forgive everyone. And then in your own mind's eye, change him. He can't help it. He just can't help it. For if there is any condemnation, said he, you have no power over me unless it were given to you from above. So he who delivered me into your hands, and he has the Greater sin. John 19:11 so no one can condemn me were it not given to him from above, and he takes this whole vast world and forgives it. Now look upon the cross in this sense tonight, for this is the art of dying. Don't see a man on a wooden cross 2,000 years ago, hanging for three hours and then rising three days later from a grave. See yourself in this manner, and I'm quoting now from the sixth chapter of the Book of Romans, if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. Romans 6:5. See the change in tense. If we have been united with him in a death like his, that's past, that's all over. Our crucifixion is over. Now comes the future. We shall be united with him in a resurrection like his. The resurrection is taking place. As he said in his letter to Timothy, those who teach that the resurrection is over and past are misleading and turning people from the true faith. Second Timothy 2, 18. As he said in his letter to Timothy, those who teach that the resurrection is over and past are misleading and turning people from the true faith. Second Timothy 2, 18. It isn't over. It has started and is taking place well, we're all united with him in a death like his. All were crucified with God. Now God has risen. The first took place. And in all God is rising. In all, everyone is rising as God, not another little being. Only God is rising. So here everyone has gone through the act of being crucified with God, and everyone shall rise as he has already risen. He rose in one, he's rising in all but one, and after one, after one, and all gathered into one being. So this is the story of death, the art of dying. So he's now on the cross, your cross, and the three days or the three hours, and mark it well in the first chapter of the book of Genesis, on the third day, the earth rose up out of the deep. 1:9:3 is the symbol of resurrection. You're rising up by practicing the art of revision. You are rising every moment in time that you die. Every little kindness done to another is a little death in the divine image. So every time that you see someone in distress and you revise it and persuade yourself of the reality of the revision, you die. This is death. And so everyone is on the cross and he's crying out, forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do. And every time you actually revise any being in this world and believe in the reality of your revision, you die. So every kindness to another is a little death in the divine image. Nor can man exist but by brotherhood. So it's one grand, fragmented being. And these are the brothers when all are put together again and brought back into one. We are the fathers, we are the Father when united, we are the brothers in conflict. When we don't understand it, when we begin to See the vision. We are brothers in love and take care of everyone and lift him up in us. As we are lifted up in ourselves by revising it, we are gradually being called back into that unity that is our unity. And that unity is God the Father. So everyone is called upon to practice it. Tonight I invite you to start it. Because no matter how great you are in this world, you could be the richest of the rich, the most honored of the honored. And yet, if you have not had the experiences as described in scripture concerning Jesus Christ, you are not in the kingdom as we are told. No one born of woman is greater than John, yet the least in the kingdom is greater than John. Because all are the honors of the world are poured out. Because all the honors of the world are poured out. All the riches of the world are poured out. No matter what you see, they are completely poured out. Men today, not knowing this, they will plan to survive the grave by building monuments to themselves, libraries to themselves, and all kinds of indulgences to themselves to perpetuate that memory in the minds of men. And all this is poured out means nothing poured out like pouring only those who enter the kingdom of God. For that means life to become a part of the life giving power of the world. So this new translation is true. You can read it in the New English Bible. The first man, Adam, became animate. I stepped into a room just like this and saw animate beings. And I thought they had life in themselves. I thought so at that moment I knew that their life was in me. They didn't have it in themselves at all. Looking at them, I arrested in me that which I felt. And they were not animate. All the animation was in me. They were completely still. And I examined these clay forms. Everything known to man in this world was not so at all. Even the law of gravity. Things didn't fall that should fall. Birds in flight remained still, still. And not one thing could bring them down. Just simply still. And when I released in me that which I had arrested, they moved on and contained and continued a seeming life in themselves. And it wasn't there at all. So I tasted in that moment the power of the age to come. So he speaks of the two ages, this age and that age. This age is the animate age, the first atom. And we're all moving toward that age where we are the operant power. And we taste it from time to time. That was a great tasting that night. But before you get to that point and taste it that way, you can experiment this way and prove you can operate it by changing within yourself attitudes. A complete change of attitude results in corresponding changes in the outer world. And when you prove it, then you are on the way. And eventually you reach that point where you will be called one night to taste of the power. Here you do it without really knowing it. But that night you will taste it when you see some man stand before you who is walking. And he intended to walk outside of the house. And you arrested him. Not by putting your hand on him. You didn't shoot him. You didn't command him to stand still. You simply stopped something in yourself. As you stopped it. He stopped and he couldn't move. Then you examine him, and he isn't alive. He isn't alive at all. He's dead. He was only at that moment an animate being. And you didn't realize until that moment you were the cause of his animation. Today you are the cause of your whole vast world round about you. You're animating everything in your world. And so you can try it. Take someone who is distressed in your mind's eye, bring that into your own mind and represent him to yourself as you would like him to be. And see him in time, conform to that representation. Well, didn't you do it? If this is the lowest level and you do it with another, then you do it with another. Every time you do it with someone for the better of the other. You died because before you did it, you lived to that limitation. It's all in you. If someone is unemployed and you know of it well, then in you, that's an image, that's a belief. And man is the sum total of all of his beliefs. So you die to that belief. Now you represent him to yourself as gainfully employed. He's never had more. He's never. He's never been better. And then he becomes gainfully employed, and he's never had more. At that moment, you gave up one thing. As you gave it up, you died. And so every kindness to another is a little death in the divine image. Nor can man exist but by brotherhood. So this is brotherhood, taking everyone and transforming everyone within yourself. For all that you behold, though it seems to be on the outside, it isn't really. It's all within, in your imagination, of which this world of mortality is but a shadow. All then will come that moment. Excuse me. And then will come that moment in time that you'll be called to taste of the power, real power. And then you will see why the cry on the cross is so true. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do, they don't know it. They are living in a world of impressions, a world of beliefs. They are the sum total of all their beliefs. And they don't know how to overcome it because they have not heard the story, or having heard it, they did not believe it, or they do not believe it. Rather. And the story begins on the statement, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. That's how it begins. Repent. Repent means to become someone else, to become another person. And you always become another person at any moment in time that you change your opinion about anything in this world. If you change, if the change of opinion sticks, if it sticks, then you died to what you formerly believed, and you don't believe what you don't want to believe. Believe in it, you externalize it. Externalizing it. You live in an entirely different world, experiencing this change of beliefs. One day you are called, and being called, you go through all of the experiences as described in scripture about Jesus Christ. If you read the story carefully, there isn't one thing said of Jesus Christ that was heard or seen by another all within himself. The drama unfolds. Then he goes back into scripture and he finds confirmation for that which is taking place in him. And he tells it to the world. But he doesn't look at the type. He's not the majestic being that they thought. But he doesn't look the type. Excuse me. He's not the majestic being that they thought one should look like when he comes into the world. They are looking for him in this world and they can't understand the words. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. First Corinthians 15:50 hasn't a thing to do with flesh and blood. What I look like physically hasn't a thing to do with the being that is wearing this garment. You don't see the being wearing this garment. No one can see the being wearing this garment. You may see flashes, you may see a moment, but you don't see the unmasked being wearing the garment. So if you judge by appearances, then you aren't going to see not the real being. So when he comes into the world, he's a normal person as we are. Nothing really to rave about, nothing to write home about. No background. He. He doesn't leave a monument today. They can't find any sepulcher where he was really buried. They're looking in the wrong place. No matter what they build in the little area called the near east, they haven't found any spot where he walked. So he walks in this world clothed in garments that would disguise him. And when that moment in time is right, these experiences happen in him as they happen in him. He knows exactly who he is, and he waits and marks his time until that moment in time when he departs and departs for the last time. No returning. But he can't leave his fragmented self. He joins the world of controlling the power. And not one will be missed, not one will be lost. And everyone will be brought back and redeemed into the one form which is God the Father. So tonight, this little art of dying is a true art. And everyone must practice it. If tonight you took any one person in your world and actually changed him in your mind's eye, and believed in the reality of this imaginal change, and then tomorrow, or next week or next month, he conforms to it. Not only he, he has changed in your world. He changed because you changed. For there is nothing on the outside. So when he becomes the man you want him to be, it is only because you changed first. Then you understand the words. We love him because he first loved us first. John 4:19. So we start the act of doing it within ourselves and then only respond. And they only respond. They reflect, they can't help it. And all reflect the changes in us.