Imagination

What Is Imagination in Neville Goddard's Teaching?

For Neville Goddard, imagination is far more than a cognitive function for daydreaming or creative thinking. It is the fundamental creative power of the universe, the very power that religious traditions call God. Neville's most radical claim was that your own wonderful human imagination is God, and everything you see in the physical world was first created in someone's imagination.

Neville stated: "Imagination creates reality. Man is all imagination, and God is man and exists in us and we in Him. The eternal body of man is the imagination, and that is God Himself."

This is not metaphor in Neville's teaching. He meant it literally. Your imagination is not a lesser or fictional version of reality. It is the primary reality from which all physical things emerge.

Imagination as the First Cause

Every object, institution, relationship, and circumstance in the physical world began as an image in someone's imagination. The chair you sit in was first imagined by a designer. The city you live in was first imagined by its founders. Your current life circumstances were first imagined by you, mostly unconsciously, through your habitual thoughts, fears, and assumptions.

Neville taught that imagination is the first cause and the physical world is always the effect. When you change the cause (what you imagine and feel), the effect (your physical reality) must change to match. There is no other way it can work, because the physical world has no independent creative power of its own.

How Imagination Creates

The creative process through imagination follows a specific sequence:

1. An Image Is Formed

You create a mental image, a scene, a scenario, a picture of what you desire. This can be deliberate (as in SATS practice) or habitual and unconscious (as in worry and fear).

2. Feeling Gives It Life

The image alone is a blueprint. Feeling brings it to life. When you feel the reality of what you are imagining, the image crosses from the conscious mind into the subconscious. As Neville taught, "An imaginal act that is not felt is without creative power."

3. The Subconscious Accepts It

The subconscious mind receives the felt image as a fact, an instruction, a reality that needs to be expressed outwardly. It does not question whether the image is "real" or "imagined." It simply goes to work.

4. The Bridge of Incidents Unfolds

The subconscious begins arranging circumstances, events, and encounters that naturally lead to the physical realization of the imagined scene. This is the bridge of incidents.

Imagination vs. Fantasy

There is an important distinction between imagination as Neville taught it and mere fantasy or daydreaming:

Fantasy is passive. You observe images as an entertained spectator. There is no feeling of reality. You know it is "just pretend."

Imagination in Neville's sense is active and immersive. You are in the scene, experiencing it through your own senses, feeling it as real. The line between imagining and experiencing blurs.

The test is simple: does your imaginal scene feel like something you are watching, or something you are living? If you are watching it like a movie, it is fantasy. If you are living it from the inside, feeling the textures, hearing the sounds, sensing the emotions, it is creative imagination.

Practical Applications

SATS Practice

The State Akin to Sleep is Neville's primary technique for harnessing imagination's creative power. In the drowsy state, imagination operates without the interference of the rational mind, and impressions sink deeply into the subconscious.

Throughout the Day

You do not need to wait for bedtime to use your imagination creatively. Throughout the day, you can mentally rehearse conversations going well, imagine receiving good news, or simply hold the inner feeling of your desired state. These casual but consistent uses of imagination throughout the day contribute to the overall impression.

Revision

Imagination can also be directed backward. Through the revision technique, you use your imagination to rewrite past events, replacing negative impressions with positive ones. This demonstrates that imagination is not bound by linear time.

Imagination and Scripture

Neville interpreted the Bible as an allegory of the creative power of imagination. He taught that every miracle, prophecy, and promise in scripture is really describing what imagination can do when properly directed. "Christ" in Neville's interpretation is not a historical person but the creative imagination within each human being, waiting to be awakened and consciously directed.

This interpretive framework led Neville to see imagination not just as a useful manifestation tool but as the most sacred and profound aspect of human existence.

Common Questions

Is imagination the same as visualization?

Visualization is one aspect of imagination, the visual component. But imagination is broader. It includes all inner senses: what you hear, feel, touch, smell, and taste in your mind. A person who cannot visualize clearly can still use imagination effectively through inner dialogue, feeling, or other sensory modalities.

Can imagination really change physical reality?

Neville dedicated his entire teaching career to demonstrating that it can. He shared hundreds of examples from his own life and his students' lives where imaginal acts produced specific, verifiable physical changes. The mechanism is the impression on the subconscious mind, which then arranges physical circumstances accordingly.

What if I have a "weak" imagination?

Imagination is a faculty that strengthens with practice, like a muscle. If your imaginal scenes feel vague or fleeting, that is normal for beginners. Practice regularly and they will become more vivid. Remember that feeling matters more than visual clarity. Even a vague scene accompanied by genuine feeling is creative.