Consciousness

What Is Consciousness in Neville Goddard's Teaching?

Consciousness, in Neville Goddard's framework, is not merely awareness or mental activity. It is the fundamental substance of reality itself. Everything you experience in the physical world, every person, object, circumstance, and event, is consciousness made manifest. Neville's entire teaching rests on this single principle: consciousness is the only reality.

Neville stated: "Consciousness is the one and only reality. The world and all it contains exist in your consciousness and are projected by it."

This means that changing your consciousness, what you are aware of being and feeling yourself to be, is the only way to change your experience. You do not need to manipulate external conditions, convince other people, or wait for circumstances to shift. You change consciousness, and everything else follows.

Consciousness as the Creative Substance

To understand Neville's use of consciousness, imagine a projector in a movie theater. The film is your state of consciousness: the assumptions, beliefs, feelings, and images you hold within. The screen is the 3D world. The light is awareness itself.

You cannot change the movie by reaching up and touching the screen. You can only change it by changing the film. Similarly, you cannot change your reality by manipulating external circumstances directly. You can only change it by changing the consciousness that is projecting those circumstances.

Every attempt to fix your life by changing the outside first is like trying to rearrange the images on a movie screen. It may produce temporary shifts, but the underlying film has not changed, and the old patterns will reassert themselves.

States of Consciousness

Neville frequently spoke about "states." A state is a particular configuration of consciousness, a way of being that includes specific assumptions, feelings, and beliefs. You can think of states as garments that consciousness wears.

For example:

• The state of wealth includes feeling abundant, seeing opportunities, assuming money flows to you easily
• The state of poverty includes feeling scarce, seeing lack everywhere, assuming money is hard to come by
• The state of being loved includes feeling worthy, assuming others care about you, seeing kindness in people
• The state of being unloved includes feeling unworthy, assuming rejection, seeing hostility in others

You are always in a state. The question is whether you are in a state of your conscious choosing or one you have fallen into by default. Neville taught that most people occupy states unconsciously, determined by their past conditioning and habitual reactions. The practice of manifestation is about consciously choosing your state.

Entering a New State

Entering a new state does not require changing your physical circumstances first. You can be in the state of wealth while your bank account shows little. You can be in the state of love while currently single. The state is an inner condition, not an outer one.

To enter a new state, you use your imagination to experience reality from that state. You think from the state, not about it. You feel what you would feel if you were already in that state. With persistence, the new state becomes your dominant state, and the 3D world reshapes to match.

Consciousness and the "I AM"

Neville connected consciousness directly to the Biblical "I AM." He taught that "I AM" is the name of the creative power, your pure awareness before it is clothed in any particular state. When you say "I am," you are making a creative declaration. Whatever follows, whether "I am rich" or "I am poor," "I am loved" or "I am alone," becomes the instruction your consciousness executes.

Pure "I AM" awareness, consciousness without any specific content, is what Neville called God. It is the creative power in its unlimited form. When you rest in pure I AM before choosing a new state, you are connecting with the source of all creation.

The Primacy of Consciousness Over Matter

Neville's teaching directly contradicts the materialist view that consciousness is a product of the brain and that the physical world is the primary reality. Neville taught the opposite: consciousness is primary, and the physical world is secondary. Matter does not produce consciousness; consciousness produces matter.

This is not a philosophical abstraction in Neville's system. It is a practical principle. If consciousness is primary, then changing consciousness changes matter. If consciousness produces the physical world, then a new consciousness produces a new physical world. This is the basis for all manifestation.

Practical Implications

You Are Never Stuck

If consciousness is the only reality and you can change your state of consciousness at any time, then you are never truly stuck. No matter how dire your circumstances appear, they are only a reflection of a state you can exit. Enter a new state, persist in it, and new circumstances must form.

External Conditions Are Symptoms

Every unwanted condition in your life is a symptom of a state of consciousness. Treating symptoms (trying to fix external problems directly) without changing the underlying state produces only temporary relief. Changing the state produces permanent transformation.

Other People Reflect Your Consciousness

The people in your experience are reflections of your states of consciousness. When your consciousness changes, your experience of others changes. This is not about controlling others but about recognizing that your reality, including the people in it, is a projection of your consciousness.

Common Questions

Can consciousness create anything, without limits?

Neville taught that imagination, which is the creative aspect of consciousness, has no limits. The only limits are the ones you accept. If you can conceive of a state and dwell in it as though it were real, it can be expressed in your physical experience.

Is each person's consciousness separate?

Neville taught that there is ultimately one consciousness manifesting as many. At the deepest level, there is no separation. However, in practical terms, each person experiences reality through their own state of consciousness, and changing your state changes your experience of the whole.

How do I become more conscious?

Become aware of your inner states. Notice your habitual assumptions, feelings, and reactions. Observe your inner conversation. The more aware you become of what you are projecting, the more power you have to consciously choose what to project.