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Neville Goddard (1905-1972) offered a compelling explanation of the human condition and an intriguing and empowering path of self-discovery. Join your host Ed to explore from the ground up this most essential mystery: the human imagination.
This is E6, review of techniques and methods.
I started this podcast by saying that I wanted to take the ideas and see if I could present them in some sort of an ordered series. And I still think that's a good idea because I want to use the time people use to listen to this show efficiently. At the same time, the whole thing is kind of artificial because you can't take a textbook approach to this sort of thing. It takes an individual approach to work with the ideas.
So in this episode, what I want to do is just take a pause and review a lot of concentrated material that we covered in episodes one through five, and in particular to go through the methods and techniques that I had mentioned. I made a list of these methods and techniques that you can download. Just check the show notes for that list.
In one of his lectures, Neville mentioned that it takes many restatements and reformulations of new ideas before they start to gain currency of thought. Not only that, but with regard to practice -- although we're trying to establish good habits, so that we do things on a regular basis -- at the same time, paradoxically, we don't want to become too mechanical. We don't want to have the techniques simply become an end in itself that is dry and without real fervor and intent, because then it simply becomes by rote; it becomes automatic and it won't be effective. It just means you're going back to sleep again. And so that is my reason for basically flooding you with all kinds of information with regard to techniques and practices and pointers, which, as I say, I've summarized in this one page download. It consists of 32 points. It's the sort of thing you can print out and then just put in your desk drawer and refer to from time to time to kind of refresh and re energize your practice.
So let's go through this list point by point and I'll add a little bit of new material here and there; so the whole thing will be, in a sense, fresh.
E1
In episode one, I introduced, first of all, the self awareness exercise by Dr. Rolf Alexander. It's hard to overstate the importance of that exercise for our approach to Neville Goddard's ideas -- that's one. Secondly, it's hard to overstate the stature of that book, compared to its peers; that is, the other literature on self hypnosis, self suggestion, and so on. The reason is: the author’s express intent is to lead the reader to embrace objective consciousness as the goal. And that's something that other authors who are just steeped in, let's say, Western psychology, don't quite understand. Alexander does understand it because, as I pointed out, he made the effort to go to the East and find esoteric information. He also had contact with the founder of the Fourth Way, that's Gurdjieff, who himself had brought a system of Eastern origin into the West.
If you do order the book by Alexander -- it's called Creative Realism -- you'll find that his whole program of study takes you through a series of exercises to simply normalize the function of the body, the mind, the emotions, and so on, and try to achieve a balanced state. By achieving this balance, you're not fighting yourself any longer and your mental resources are freed up.
The second exercise that I mentioned in episode one was the article by Neville called Fundamentals, where he states the order of operations is: 1. to do self observation; 2. definition of aim and 3. non-identification. Well, the reason that I selected that one from Neville is because it really is a statement of the highest purpose of his whole program of thought. And I'll quote here. He says the purpose of metaphysics is “to bring about a rebirth or radical psychological change”. In spiritual or Biblical terms, that would be union with God, or God awakening within us. At the same time, his program here (self observation, definition of aim, non-identification) is perfectly complementary to Rolf Alexander's exercise.
All right, so let's move on to episode two.
E2
There I mentioned a daily meditative session, along the lines of what Neville Godard himself is constantly recommending, and it has to do with trying to appropriate the state of the wish fulfilled. There's nothing to add here. I'll just put a link in the show notes, though, to a YouTube channel, which is called 100 kilowatt, where the guy posts a whole series of Neville's own lectures, that is, the original recordings. And that way you can get his advice from many different angles on how to approach this meditative practice.
E3
In episode three, we talked about difficulties. And of course, I didn't mean difficulties in life directly. I meant difficulties in applying the ideas and trying to become proficient in the spiritual practice. So I had eight specific solutions to respond to, I think, three or four categories of difficulty. I'll just go through the list here.
The first one is commitment to an aim, and I've heard a few comments on the nature of this aim. It could simply be an aim in life. It could be for another person, along the lines of what you need to do to get along in ordinary life. But I remember, too, Neville says, why not formulate an aim that has something to do with your own spiritual practice, so that you're able to overcome some barrier or get some answer that you're seeking?
The next on the list is vigilance over the information sources, forms of entertainment, and the company you keep.
Then we talked about cultivating good habits, that is, using mindfully points during the day; directing internal chatter to deliberate positive inner conversations; and learning the nature and the operation of the subconscious. There I gave a couple of references to Neville's writings.
Practicing observation, witnessing: that's exactly the same exercise as Neville's Fundamentals exercise we talked about back in episode one.
Next is working with yourself. That is, when you experience a negative state, falling into despondency or doubt or something like that, it's simply the subconscious saying, what should we do with this? How can we deal with this and get rid of it?
Finally, we had the solution of identifying authority figures or institutions that might have had an effect on your life, and composing counter affirmations to build back your self-esteem, build back your confidence.
E4
Well, in episode four, we talked about affirmations. Really, it's a series of techniques and methods to retrain the subconscious, and to get us thinking more habitually along positive tracks.
The first two techniques mentioned were the card technique and the mirror technique. Those are both from Claude Bristol's book called The Magic of Believing. I do recommend you check that out.
The next one was reflective control over thoughts, speech, emotions: don't dwell upon the shortcomings of yourself or others.
Next, reverse the mental vector. In other words, we're always seemingly at the mercy of the suggestions coming at us, whether those suggestions are coming from within or coming from without. And so the affirmation is a way to turn that around and say, no, we're going to tell you what we want you to respond to. We're going to tell you (the subconscious) what we want you to respond to. Keep in mind the subconscious... well, in one book that I read, it characterizes it as sort of a slave of the conscious. But Neville is much more subtle. He says, no, it's more like a wife, in the sense that we want to use a gentle persuasion. And I think that's probably a more realistic attitude towards the subconscious. If you force the subconscious, it will simply rebel against you. That's its nature.
Next, we talked about the lengths of affirmations that are possible. He mentions one meaningful sentence and gave an example, I think, from Milliken. And secondly, we have elaborate long form descriptions. And third, we could actually just use single keywords. So when those keywords are infused with enough mental energy and meaning significance, they can really be effective. And these single keywords can be especially helpful at times when you just don't have the time or mental energy to come up with something that is more elaborate.
Now let's stay on this topic for just a second, specifically on the idea of elaborate or long form affirmations. What I noticed in literature, let's say a passage from one of the Tibetan texts that I read. Another example would be the introduction to chapters in his book (I can't remember the name of it) by Krishnamurti. They're both using the same technique, and that is to give an elaborate description of some event in nature, or, let's say, a beautifully laid out and well functioning city or town -- something like that. It seems to have no bearing at all on the actual content that follows, but what it does is it sets you in the right frame of mind. It puts you into a certain state. So there's no reason why we couldn't, as aspiring writers, create these brief vignettes or descriptions that reflect the state of our wish fulfilled.
Now that's exactly the same advice that you get in Christian scripture in that passage from Philippians where he says, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good report, whatever is just, whatever is true... think on these things.
Well, still in episode four here, the next thing that I mentioned was to go directly to the feeling. Go directly to the mental atmosphere that you're aiming at with any particular affirmation. If you can skip over the words and simply go to the state, then do that.
Next, if you're in a particularly difficult negative state where you can't wrap your mind around an affirmation properly, then just repeat the words mechanically to start out with as a way to pull yourself out of that state. Eventually your feeling will align with the words that you're pronouncing.
The last three items.. Affirmation types: Don't forget that words in any form are going to be effective, whether they're written, spoken aloud, recorded, and then listened to, etc. Affirm the power of your word. Don't forget that magical quality of the word. “It shall not return unto me void”, but it actually has a creative impulse behind it.
And then the last bit of advice in that episode was to keep an even balance. Do lots of listening to information, podcasts and lectures and so on, but don't let it overwhelm your practice. Keep your practice up to the same level as you're learning.
E5
Finally, in episode five, we talked about the twelve disciplines of mind. I'm just going to read through them to see if it's helpful to hear them all at once, because in a sense, they should be working as a team.
First, one, disciplined hearing, allowing only that which is worthwhile to impress itself upon the consciousness.
Secondly, courage.
Third, correct judgment of others based on remembering the idea that they're simply acting, usually unconsciously, based on the state that they have fallen into, perhaps unwittingly.
Next, disciplined hearing with regard to people. In other words, see and the seeming other, only the highest and best you can conceive for that person.
Next, Union with God. I have pure awareness of being so I have God, and yet I'm aware of being conditioned into some state or other. So I and my father are one.
The human imagination is the next one. (number six). And that's the very causal principle itself. I remember a lecture by Neville where he talks about purity of heart, but he points out, purity is not a moral connotation. It has to do with seeing clearly that the human imagination is the only causal principle. It's the only causal force.
Next, disciplined denial -- quite different from conventional denial. No, disciplined denial is seeing the falsity of negative suggestions, and then removing your attention from them to deprive them of their reality.
The next one is to accept all desires as God-given, arising from your own state and therefore showing you a way forward.
The next is discernment: to see consciously, not projecting.
The next one is gratitude. Be in a thankful state much more frequently and also in advance of the things that you wish to have materialized.
The next is good news. The secret of imagining is the answer. It's the object of people's search throughout the ages.
The last one is die to the old. Leave behind, on a frequent basis, the attributes of the old attitude, and put on the new.
Addendum
Well, in case you haven't had enough of techniques, I'm going to recommend another resource, and that is a remarkable book by psychologist Roberto Assagioli called Psychosynthesis - A Manual of Principles and Techniques. Just the table of contents for the section on techniques is three pages long, and he gives techniques and methods in seven different categories. I'll just pick one out of that entire list, which is symbols.
You might find that necessity is the mother of invention. If you're doing a session and you've got several things to remember, what I found, is it's helpful just to make up create your own graphic symbol that you could visualize. That helps you remember all the facets of the affirmation that you wanted to cover. In the meantime, I'll put a link in the show notes to Assagioli’s book.
Now, when I was reviewing all of these methods and techniques, a few things occurred to me that I just want to mention, by way of extra content in today's episode.
First of all, with regard to state, we keep using the word state, and it means, of course, state of mind. But it's not limited to just a momentary emotion or an attitude or something like that. It's actually a whole set of conditions. The way Neville talks about it: it's complete unto itself. It even has the causal elements in it to bring about its own conditions and external manifestation. So “state” is a much broader concept than what we might normally have thought.
The next thing is motivation. If you want assistance with motivation, I can suggest that you go to the Interview with the Devil by Napoleon Hill, and the link is in the show notes for episode three. It's the most ingenious bit of writing and characterization of the Devil, of course, not taken in literal terms, but in psychological terms. And what it does is to set out elaborately all of the destructive aspects of the psyche that distract and mislead a person for long periods of time, even years, decades.
So I recommend that you just check that out, and especially you'll find it helpful, as I say, if you're having trouble just getting motivated and defining aim.
Next is something that I think bears repeating, as Neville so often does. It's the quote from Blake where he says, “all that you behold, although it appears without it, is within”. But I'm bringing it up now just to point out that this includes, according to Neville's comments, not just natural phenomena like trees, hills, and mountains, but also man-made phenomena, things that you might not have thought reflect the psyche... cities, towns, villages, and so on. They're all human in character, and they're all rooted in Man's psyche. So in that sense, the external world is not so foreign and hostile as we might have thought.
Well, finally, I want to leave you with a few thoughts today about trying to wrap our minds around the idea that the external world, the seeming external world, is simply our own psyche, pushed out.
I mentioned in one of the earlier episodes to those who might think this is all nonsense from the point of view of science, material science itself and its seeming quality of absolute truth are nothing more than constructs of the mind. So the trouble is that the scientists or the materialists will say that the scientific method arrives at absolute material truth.
Well, there are two problems to that. The first one [is] that what is arrived at through scientific experimentation is only the validation of a theory. And of course, that's only good until it's disproved by a later set of experiments and a new theory.
But the other problem, which is very telling, is that it doesn't accurately reflect the actual scientific process. It doesn't account for the process of revolutionary discoveries. So Neville himself quotes Einstein saying, “Imagination is more important than knowledge”, and he quoted that in the foreword to one of his books.
Another example comes from the book that I had recommended called Scientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method. Let me quote from that book: “As historians delve deeply into details of the past, it becomes abundantly clear that the classical understanding of scientific activity is far from the whole story. “
Then he goes on to describe what happened when Copernicus discovered that the Earth goes around the sun, instead of vice versa. He [the author Henry Bauer] says: “the Copernican revolution was no simple triumph of evidence over preconception, for the simple reason that it could not have been at the time. There were no decisive, technical or computational advantages to Copernicus's approach over the long standing Ptolemaic one. The Copernicus venture was significant in subtler but also more deeply far reaching ways. For example, enduring to make an individual intellectual choice in the face of a long established authority.”
So there you might argue whether Copernicus was simply discovering a pre-existing reality, or whether he was creating the reality. But one thing is for certain, and that is: it's the imaginal activity that allows people to even conceive of what might be possible and then to go out and discover it and prove it.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this review of techniques and methods. I'll talk to you again soon.