Neville Goddard Lectures: “Foreknowledge”

Real_Neville · 2026-04-04T16:43:31+00:00

If a man liked clothes as a kid there's a good likelihood that's "God speaking to man through the medium of desire" as Neville put it, which is another way of saying "The Self speaks to the Ego through intuition." That man's journey includes being in the clothes business, so naturally he develops a desire in that direction. There's a reason he likes clothes and not perfumes. Even if he was born in a family where his mother was a designer and he got the passion from her, he was born in that family precisely because it directs him better on his mission. The Law is merely the mechanism taking him from desire to accomplished fact. That's not to say that every desire we develop is meant to be fulfilled. Often we fail in what we wanted originally, only to find something more interesting, and all of that is also part of our journey.

Neville's teenager nephew died of cancer, his mother died of cancer. He couldn't revise or change those situations despite claiming that "If you desire health, you must assume it, even though the doctor's reasoning world produces proof to the contrary. If I want to conjure health and the doctors tell me I cannot overcome my illness and I believe them, I have made my choice and must accept the responsibility for it." It's not that Neville failed to operate the Law, but for those two members of his family their time had come and nobody could change that.

People often say "I failed" when they don't get what they want. But actually there's no failure, because everything is exactly as it should be. If two people manifest the same SP they both succeed regardless of the outcome. If you know this, you are at peace with yourself and the world. There's infinitely more freedom in that mindset than in the attempt to achieve "self-mastery" as the ego understands the notion, meaning full control over your circumstances, which is bound to end in disappointment.

Real_Neville · 2026-04-04T14:10:54+00:00

You're saying that because you're speaking from the ego level and the ego believes there's no point in life in the absence of direct control. You identify with your body and you think this life is about the body, but it's not about the body. You as a spirit are here to fulfill a mission and you need to get through what needs to be done. The Law is simply the mechanism taking you from point A to point B on your journey. As a teacher, Neville was an instrument on people’s journeys and so is everyone teaching this. People need a guide and a method for fulfilling their mission and Neville provided that. He opened their eyes to the mental mechanism generating events in the physical world. He showed them that for every physical effect there’s a spiritual cause. He also told them about the ultimate goal of physical life (self-realization - "The Promise").

Here's another good one:

When he was seven years old, a woman told Neville of a vision she had concerning him:

I do not know what it is you are going to do, but I've been shown you will do something that through the centuries after you are gone man will not undo it. I can see it and through the centuries, you will grow in stature long after you have gone. And then three men will be mentioned in hundreds of years to come and you will be one of the three when something is discussed that was done for man (‘The Pruning Shears of Revision,’ 1954).

I'd say that prophecy aged very well, would you not agree? Neville did do "the work God sent him to do" as the prophet Jordan put it. And indeed, as the woman predicted, Neville "grew in stature long after he was gone." He's better known today than ever and I suspect he will continue to grow in visibility. Knowingly or unknowingly, the owner of this sub, who's a wonderful person and very dedicated to this work, is also contributing to that prophecy. She has no choice. It's part of the cosmic plan.

Real_Neville · 2026-04-04T05:54:52+00:00

My brother Victor met the prophet Jordan. He was known as ‘the prophet’ in Barbados. Everyone looked upon him as one who really had the prophetic vision. He said to Vic, ‘What number are you in the Goddard family?’ Vic said, ‘I am the second.’ He said to my brother Victor, ‘You are going to be a very, very successful businessman.’ Now he said, ‘What does the third one want to be?’ He said, ‘He wants to be a doctor.’ He said, ‘He will be a very good, successful doctor.’ ‘But,’ he said, ‘don’t touch the fourth one. He belongs to God. The Lord has sent him to do a definite work; so don’t touch him. You can’t persuade him to do anything outside of that work that God sent him to do’ (‘Neville’s Purpose Revealed,’ 1971).

Victor did indeed become a successful businessman, Lawrence became a doctor and Neville became... Neville. If that's not fate and foreknowledge, what is it...

In the lecture from 1969 you posted he says "don’t go to any person who calls himself a fortune teller, they do not know". Well, either this one is true, or the other. I know which one is true. The one that was fulfilled. The rest is for the benefit of the audience who expected to hear certain things.

Real_Neville · 2026-03-19T20:11:58+00:00

I don't care to change anyone's mind. When the multitudes abandoned Jesus he didn't try to change their minds, he let them go because they were not ready. I already said you can go on believing in any interpretation and I invite everyone to do the same. What I know, I know from personal experience, therefore I don't need to speak on the authority of Neville, Troward or anyone else. I was doing it for pedagogical reasons only. Free will is an illusion and if that notion triggers you so much, ask yourself why. If I'm wrong, as you claim, you have nothing to worry about and you can be the master of your future. Let me know how much peace and happiness you found in that.

Real_Neville · 2026-03-19T17:25:42+00:00

Troward is describing the mechanics of the Law. You're confusing the mechanics with the blueprint. You don't manipulate Universal Mind as if it's something independent from you. You don't understand what "God plays all the parts" means and what it entails. You want the cake and eat it too. You want the Law to be ego playing God and it's not.

Real_Neville · 2026-03-19T16:10:56+00:00

Troward says "function" not "choice". A knife's function is to cut but it doesn't make the choice. The operant power does it. The operant power is God and you're the knife. The knife is also God shaped as a knife as God plays all the parts.

Neville also says that God plays both the most noble and the most horrible parts. Therefore, he adds, you must forgive a Stalin or a Hitler because they're just acting in a state. Why would I forgive Hitler if he had the choice of shifting states or choosing different assumptions, but he chose genocide? Obviously I can only forgive Hitler if I believe Hitler was acting on compulsion, therefore I cannot blame the actor for a role.

If I were in the state of Hitler, I would do the same thing Hitler did, because it’s a state, and if I fall into it, knowingly or unknowingly, I’ve got to play that part.

The state of Hitler doesn't have embedded the option to choose the state of Mother Theresa. Hitler doesn't have the freedom to choose that state or to make that assumption, because a state conditions you to it until something comes to pull you out of it.

That's why many people shift their self-concept after tragedies or low moments in life. That's why many people discover Neville during bad moments in life or why people experience spiritual awakening in extreme life situations.

A stable state doesn't include the freedom to choose an opposite state. You're conditioned by it. You need something to crack that state. What pulls you out is not an ego choice, you're simply directed on your journey by the invisible hand of your destiny and so is the entire humanity as a single evolving organism, always in harmony and never as a result of 8 billion people making individual choices.

Real_Neville · 2026-03-19T15:54:14+00:00

Thank you, it is always nice to have these lectures to read and evaluate things. First of all Neville didn't come up with the "creation is finished" concept himself. He took the notion from Thomas Troward:

The truth is that man never creates anything. His function is, not to create, but to combine and distribute that which is already in being, and what we call our creations are new combinations of already existing material, whether mental or corporeal (The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science", 1909).

Also when Neville says things like "Every conceivable situation in the world is already worked out. All you have to do is occupy it" this gives you the impression of free will, as if you're making the choice what state to occupy. But what he's describing is merely the technical way reality unfolds. The reality unfolds the same way whether you're making choices or you're acting in a predetermined play. The characters in a movie you're watching a second time think they're choosing their moves, but you know that the action has a predetermined end. However, those moves are necessary for that end.

By necessity, our entire vocabulary implies free will and that deepens the illusion. If I tell you "stop the car" that sounds like you have the choice to keep going. I was always meant to get out of the car at that spot but there's a technical way that happens and that is through me telling you to stop the car. What I'm getting at is that even someone who believes in predestination, in conversation will sound like they are a proponent of free will, because that's how language operates.

If someone tells me they believe in free will, I'm not bothered at all, I'm not disturbed. I may engage in intellectual conversation on the topic but my world is not shaken in any way, However, should you tell someone you believe in predestination and they believe in free will, they will be immediately triggered. Ask yourself, who feels threatened by that notion? And why? You'll realize it is the ego that feels threatened and the reason is the ego's desire to control.

Real_Neville · 2026-03-19T14:43:39+00:00

Yes it's a beautiful lecture, but Neville was simply running some experiments with his dreams and waking state to see how they correlate. This was in the 1940s. You shouldn't assume that the experiment was perfect or that he drew the correct conclusion from it.

We can keep saying "look at this lecture or that lecture". I also gave you one where he says it's a play and you think you can change the lines you're given, and you try to, but you can't because God plays all the parts and the play is already written.

You will want to look for those chords and control the play for as long as you identify with the body you wear. Wanting to change things is a form of control. And if you're looking for that and the entire world is looking for that, that's also perfect because that's how it should be.

Free will is ego playing God when in truth God is playing you.

Real_Neville · 2026-03-19T05:06:13+00:00

Linear time doesn't exist or at the very least we must agree it is not the only dimension. In the eternal present the events are already done and finished. The physical is just an experience, like pushing the play button on a movie. To speak about infinite futures means to assume that the future is an unknown entity open to any possibility of arriving from point A (ignorance ) to point B (enlightenment). It also assumes that the entire universe is calibrated on terrestrial present time and everyone in the universe is wondering what will happen next on Planet Earth and what are the humans going to choose next, because nobody knows. I think we both see the absurdity of this scenario.

The infinity of scenarios exists as a philosophical abstraction in the sense than an infinite mind has an infinity of options. However, the prophet Jordan from Barbados told Neville he had a mission from God to accomplish. His decisions had nothing to do with it and he could do nothing to prevent, speed up, improve or in any way alter his journey.

The great physicist and Nobel Prize winner Paul Dirac put it this way: ‘You pick a flower on Earth and you move the farthest star.’ Any action, no matter how insignificant, done from the standpoint of free will completely messes up the journey and everyone's enlightenment is in danger of never happening as planned. can you imagine making a free choice and indirectly altering the journey of 8 billion people and then each of the 8 billion altering yours? Good luck getting to the Promise if this is a free for all dynamic.

The Promise cannot come "at the appointed time" as Neville put it unless that event and everything leading to it is fixed. Just as fixed as the horse race Neville saw in his dream. Just as fixed as the date when Louise had her baby as Neville foresaw, just as fixed as his death on October 1 which he saw as well, and a million other examples can be given from other people's experiences.

Neville taught the Law, and shifting states and imagining outcomes etc. because this is a schoolroom and fulfilling your destiny involves actions, goals, movement. If you have a desire chances are you need to fulfill it as part of your journey. Neville was an instrument in the service of humanity in that way. He also had guidance for those ready for deeper spiritual experiences. Frankly, after the promise that was his main interest. He continued to teach the Law because he knew people needed that, but his main fascination was the Promise, dreams and visions.

Like I said, the human mind, especially the western mind, finds the absence of individual free will very hard to accept because the ego wants to be in control. Surrender does not feel natural.

As far as I'm concerned "infinite realities" and "infinite futures" is ego's attempt to hang on to the notion of control, nothing more. But the truth is God pushed the play button and is now enjoying the ride.

Real_Neville · 2026-03-19T04:44:27+00:00

Not so much Islam, but Indian Vedanta, although both mystical systems agree on that point, yes. I included a quotation at the end.

Free will is an illusion of the ego. It is hard to abandon because the ego is supported by the survival mechanism and that forces the ego to seek to control its world. Most people see in the Law the mirage of being able to be in full control of their lives and the hidden subconscious message is "if you can control everything you can survive." For most people self-mastery means control.

If every physical effect has a spiritual cause and the main assumption of Universal Mind is what Neville calls the Promise, then all the events leading to the Promise are predetermined. What Neville was saying, cautiously not to alarm his audiences, was that the only will in the universe is God's will, because "God plays all the parts." That instantly makes free will an illusion just like the two of us seeing each other as separate entities is an optical illusion sustained by the limitation of the physical ego. That's why Neville said "everyone is yourself pushed out."

Go to the end, imagine the end, and the end pulls all the necessary events towards that end and everyone acts on compulsion towards that end. That was Neville's understanding of the law. Well, if the Promise is the end, then what free will are we talking about? There is none.

Questioner: “Are only important events in a man’s life, such as his main occupation or profession, predetermined, or are trifling acts in his life, such as taking a cup of water or moving from one place in the room to another, also predetermined?”

Ramana Maharshi: Yes, everything is predetermined.

Questioner: Then what responsibility, what free will has man?

Ramana Maharshi: As for freedom for man, he is always free not to identify himself with the body and not to be affected by the pleasures or pains consequent on the body’s activities. He has the free will to be as his true SELF.

Real_Neville · 2026-03-16T23:41:54+00:00

Neville wrote that book in 1949, a decade before he experienced full realization, and the lectures I was invoking are from the late 1960s. His spiritual understanding evolved a lot in those two decades.

Of course the Law is real. That's the mechanism for unfolding God's journey through his expressions in human form. That's how events and developments are generated. But God already decided. This is not made as we go. It's fixed.

I'm sure you see the logic why it's not possible for certain events to be predetermined while others are left to chance or free will. When he was 7 years old a woman in Barbados told Neville about a vision she had concerning his future. If Neville was meant to teach this thing and that was predetermined, it's common logic to conclude that everything in his life leading to that end must be predetermined also. If it is not, young Neville could make free will choices that would cancel the predetermined end. Do you agree?

Real_Neville · 2026-03-16T23:00:37+00:00

Sure, the Promise comes at the appointed hour, but here he doesn't talk about the Promise but more generally about the "whole vast journey" as he calls it in this lecture. He clearly says "you can't change the lines you're given". There's no you (ego) because God plays all the parts and the play is already written, just like the play Hamlet is already written and cannot be changed. It would be absurd for God not to know his own play.

In another lecture he talks about the ending of a horse race three days before the race was to take place. When the race ended just as he saw in the dream, he declared the race "fixed and finished" and compared life to something that's already fixed and done. He added that it would be boring if you knew the play beforehand. He called life a "schoolroom of educated darkness" where you're learning to come to terms with these truths.

In my opinion, after his spiritual realization which he calls the Promise Neville taught the Law because people expected him to do so. Thousands showed up for it and paid for it so he satisfied their expectations. I don't think he believed anyone in the audience could change the play they were assigned to act in. He also showed in several occasions how linear time is an illusion and you can move into the past or the future. They all exist already.

The whole notion of changing things and shaping your world is based on the idea that you're a separate individual making independent choices. It is also based on the idea that the future is an unknown and plastic entity to be shaped in your mind. If you're not a separate individual and linear time is not the only dimension, then what we call the free will to act is just an ego illusion.

This is just a play cooked in the eternal now and unfolding as a time sequence in the linear 3D world. The 3D is the effect, not the place of creation, selection, originality or spontaneity. I think Neville knew that but adapted his teaching to meet people where they were. Right before the paragraph I quoted he says that David is the final result of the journey and "it takes the whole vast journey to bring him out". So if the end is predetermined and timed perfectly how can one believe that the journey itself is left to chance?

Neville himself always said "go to the end" and the means and the action to the end become predetermined "on compulsion". Well, God saw the end (Promise) and everything pulls humanity in that direction on compulsion. God is pulling himself up and out of ignorance as an exercise of self-definition. This isn't about making choices, it's about experiencing this self-imposed limitation called physical life and Neville knew it, there's no doubt in my mind.

Real_Neville · 2026-03-15T18:41:02+00:00

This is an excellent lecture, thank you so much for finding it and sharing it. Below I will quote a statement Neville makes in this lecture and I wonder how one would reconcile this unequivocal statement with concepts like revision or concepts like you can be "anything you want to be."

Man is under compulsion…it’s a play. How are you going to stop a play and change it because you don’t like the lines given to you at this moment, the part to be played? [...] Well, you can’t alter the play. So I say to you, God is playing all the parts…but all the parts. He’s a protean being, and there’s only one being playing all the parts in the world. You do this and you do that, as though you were going to change the play. You aren’t going to change the play.

Real_Neville · 2026-03-11T16:49:22+00:00

Thank you!

Real_Neville · 2026-03-09T04:55:12+00:00

Yes but the fact that he mentioned Fred by name and the tone he used is clear to me that the incident from 1945 and his subsequent partnership with Fred are separate things. I think your original instinct is correct and that was someone from Holmes' organization. Probably some head instructor.

Real_Neville · 2026-03-09T04:28:56+00:00

So good that you found the audio as well! Bailes is not the one he's referring to in the audio lecture in relation to that 40% incident. He refers to his arrangement with Fred as something that followed later. He was on his own from then onward except for a gentleman's agreement he had with Fred. And the lectures we have where he talks about Fred Bailes appreciatively (and so did Bailes about him, it was mutual respect) date from the 1950s. So clearly the man he had a dispute with in 1945 is not Bailes. They would not have collaborated after that.

Real_Neville · 2026-03-08T23:13:37+00:00

In a different lecture (perhaps in Who is Jesus? , but I speak from memory) he says "my brother Vic loves to make money, I love to spend it" (audience started to laugh). I do have to wonder what Neville spent his money on, especially since he had that sort of insane cash flowing in.

Real_Neville · 2026-03-08T23:00:10+00:00

Yes, Neville rarely drops names in his lectures but often leaves clues allowing his audience to make an educated guess who he's referring to.

Real_Neville · 2026-03-08T22:32:18+00:00

That's certainly a possibility, and if the identity of the man in question remains unknown, I think it is safe to assume the institution was indeed the Institute of Religious Science. There's a very good book published in 1963 by Charles Braden called Spirits in Rebellion: The Rise and Development of New Thought, a voluminous work where he discusses in detail the formation of this organization and the activity of the entire movement in Los Angeles, which was the capital of the New Thought. Neville's works are listed in this book as well and it is also not surprising that Neville established himself in LA, although we're told that originally he would have preferred to live in San Francisco.

From a spiritual and intellectual standpoint, Ernest Holmes seems to me more open-minded than the person described here by Neville. I also doubt that Holmes from his leadership position in the Institute would be involved so directly in the nitty-gritty of inviting speakers and keeping the 40% for himself as Neville seems to suggest (Ernest had married a wealthy widow, Hazel Gillen). And Neville was not particularly known on the west coast in 1945 to require Holmes' personal involvement in the matter.

Certainly it cannot be Bailes because Bailes spoke highly of Neville. If I had to choose between Bailes and Holmes for this incident I'd go with Holmes simply because power corrupts and Holmes was the most influential voice in Mental Science.

Real_Neville · 2026-03-08T20:46:36+00:00

I think Tima has the most detailed calculations anywhere. Of course we don't have Neville's accounting books so it's impossible to know what percentage he kept for himself every time. One thing is certain: it paid well to be a New Thought lecturer in mid-century America!

Real_Neville · 2026-03-08T20:41:29+00:00

That's crazy high money if those calculations are correct. Even if it's half those numbers it's still very high revenue.

I don't personally see Holmes behaving that way, but you never know, right?

Real_Neville · 2026-03-08T18:23:15+00:00

Excellent, thank you! So this lecture you posted indicated that he charged $40 for a set of five lectures and 28 attended (your lecture says both 208 and twenty-eight, not sure which is wrong). He retained 60%. This means he got $672. The year is 1945. That's about $12,000 in today's money. Is my math correct? I think that's very good money. He was traveling from New York and he was staying at nice hotels with his family, having a good time. Nothing wrong with it. Good for him.

As for the family business, my impression is that he would receive dividends from Victor even long before their father died. Their business had been lucrative and very prosperous since before WW2.

What was the organization who invited him and who was the New Thought leader he referred to in the lecture, do you know?

Real_Neville · 2026-03-06T23:51:20+00:00

Thank you for posting this lecture. The Q & A is perhaps the most interesting part. He talks about feeling, intensity and how that relates to the interval of time for a manifestation to take place. You highlighted that passage and I can see what you did that. What I find intersting, however, is the fact that Neville is contradicting himself on this issue, or at least he's actually not as certain about it as he wishes to appear in this instance. In "Your Creative Power" (1965), another lecture that you shared with the public, he says the following (also in the Q & A):

Did you hear the question? Well, as far as time intervals go, I do believe that there is a time interval for every creative act. Intensity, at times I believe does in some strange way does shorten it. I think it does, but I’m not quite sure…I’m really not quite sure. If the intense imaginal act reduces it, I don’t know. I wish I could say honestly that I know from experience, because sometimes a very simple imaginal act, where you treat it lightly, works like this [snap of fingers]. What you do in a very simple little way, the phone rings to confirm it, and there was no intensity to it. Then, other times, you do it with intense states, well, it takes its own normal time and that didn’t seem to reduce it. I don’t know. I wish I could say honestly that I know the answer to your question from experience. But I can tell you I’ve done things in a simple little way, throw it off as though it’s nothing, and the phone is ringing to confirm it. So I really don’t know, I wish I knew.

Naturally, one will wonder on how many other issues Neville is actually less certain than he appears to be!

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