Law of Assumption

What Is the Law of Assumption?

The law of assumption is the central principle in Neville Goddard's philosophy. It states that your assumptions about yourself and the world, when held with conviction, will inevitably become your lived reality. Whatever you assume to be true, whether positive or negative, conscious or unconscious, will harden into fact.

Neville expressed this principle clearly: "An assumption, though false, if persisted in, will harden into fact." This means you do not need your assumption to be currently true. You do not need evidence to support it. You simply need to hold it with feeling and persistence, and reality will reorganize to match.

This law operates whether you are aware of it or not. Every person is always assuming something about themselves and their circumstances. Those assumptions are constantly creating and reinforcing their experience. The only difference between unconscious creation and conscious manifestation is awareness.

How the Law of Assumption Differs From the Law of Attraction

While the law of attraction, popularized by "The Secret," focuses on attracting things to you through positive thoughts and vibration, the law of assumption operates differently. You are not attracting something external. You are assuming an inner state that then reflects outward as your reality.

With the law of attraction, you might think positively about wealth while still feeling poor inside. The law of assumption requires that you become the person who is wealthy in consciousness. The shift is internal and total. You do not attract a new reality. You assume one, and your world conforms.

Neville did not teach about vibration or cosmic ordering. He taught that your consciousness is God, and that imagining creates reality directly. The law of assumption is the mechanism by which this creation occurs.

How the Law of Assumption Works

Your subconscious mind accepts whatever you impress upon it through vivid imagination and feeling. Once accepted, the subconscious works to bring that impression into physical expression through what Neville called the bridge of incidents: a natural chain of events that connects your current circumstances to the fulfillment of your assumption.

The process works in three stages:

Assumption: You decide what you want and begin to assume it is already true.

Impression: Through techniques like SATS, affirmations, or inner conversations, you impress this assumption on your subconscious mind.

Expression: Your subconscious creates circumstances, events, and experiences that match your assumption.

How to Apply the Law of Assumption

1. Identify Your Current Assumptions

Before creating new assumptions, recognize the ones that are currently running your life. What do you assume about your health, your relationships, your career, your worth? These existing assumptions have created your present circumstances.

2. Choose Your New Assumption

Decide what you want your reality to be and formulate it as a present-tense assumption. Not "I will be successful" but "I am successful." Not "I hope to find love" but "I am in a loving relationship." The assumption must be stated and felt as a current fact.

3. Impress It on Your Subconscious

Use your preferred technique to make the assumption feel real. SATS is Neville's recommended method: as you fall asleep, play a short scene that implies your assumption is fulfilled. Feel it with all your senses until it has the vividness and naturalness of a real memory.

4. Persist in the Assumption

This is where most people falter. Your current reality will not change overnight. You will wake up to the same circumstances for a while. The old assumptions will try to reassert themselves. Your job is to persist in the new assumption regardless of what your senses tell you.

Neville was emphatic about persistence: "To be conscious of being poor while praying for riches is to be rewarded with that which you are conscious of being, which is poverty."

5. Live From the Assumption

Do not just practice your assumption during SATS and then spend the day in your old state. Carry the assumption with you. Make decisions as the person you have assumed yourself to be. Think thoughts consistent with your new state. When old thoughts arise, gently redirect without force.

The Role of Persistence

Neville repeatedly emphasized that persistence is essential. An assumption held briefly will not produce lasting results. But an assumption maintained with conviction, even in the face of contradictory evidence, must eventually manifest.

The three-dimensional world always lags behind consciousness. What you see today is the result of past assumptions. What you assume today will become tomorrow's reality. Understanding this delay prevents discouragement and keeps you focused on the inner work.

Common Questions

Does the law of assumption work for everyone?

Neville taught that this law is universal and impersonal. It works for everyone, all the time, whether they are conscious of it or not. The question is not whether it works but whether you are willing to take control of your assumptions rather than letting them run on autopilot.

How long does it take for an assumption to manifest?

There is no fixed timeline. Neville said the assumption will harden into fact when it feels natural, when it has moved from something you are trying to believe into something you simply know. For some desires, this happens quickly. For others, especially those that challenge deep-seated beliefs, it takes longer persistence.