Revision Technique

What Is the Revision Technique?

The revision technique is one of Neville Goddard's most practical and transformative tools. It involves taking an event from your day that did not go as you wished and mentally replaying it in your imagination, but this time, revising it to match your desired outcome. You reimagine the conversation, the reaction, or the situation exactly as you would have preferred it to happen, and you feel the revised version as real.

Neville taught this technique as a nightly practice. Before falling asleep, you review your day and revise any moments that were unsatisfying or negative. Over time, this practice not only heals the emotional charge of past events but also reshapes your future, because your subconscious does not distinguish between an imagined event and a physical one.

How Revision Works

Neville's teaching rests on the principle that consciousness is the only reality. Your subconscious mind holds impressions from all your experiences, and these impressions generate your future circumstances. When something negative happens, it creates an impression that, if left unrevised, will perpetuate similar experiences.

Revision works by replacing the negative impression with a positive one. When you vividly reimagine an event with the desired outcome and feel it as real, your subconscious accepts the revised version. The original negative impression loses its creative power, and the revised impression begins to influence your future experience.

As Neville stated: "Revision is the key to changing the past, and the past is the only thing that determines the future."

How to Practice Revision

Step 1: Identify the Event

At the end of your day, or whenever you have a quiet moment, identify an event that you want to revise. It could be a difficult conversation, a rejection, a moment of embarrassment, or any experience that left a negative impression.

Step 2: Relax and Enter a Meditative State

Close your eyes and relax. You do not need to be in full SATS, but a relaxed state makes the practice more effective. Take a few deep breaths and let your body settle.

Step 3: Replay the Event as You Wish It Had Happened

Now reimagine the event from the beginning, but this time, it unfolds exactly as you would have preferred. If someone was rude to you, imagine them being kind and supportive. If you stumbled in a presentation, imagine delivering it flawlessly. If you received bad news, imagine receiving wonderful news instead.

Make the revised scene as vivid as possible. See it from your own perspective, in first person. Hear the words, feel the handshake, notice the smiles. The more sensory detail you include, the more real it becomes to your subconscious.

Step 4: Feel the Revised Version as Real

This is the essential step. You must feel the emotional reality of the revised event. Feel the satisfaction, the joy, the relief, the gratitude. Let these feelings fill your body just as they would if the revised version had actually happened.

Step 5: Let It Go

Once you have fully experienced the revised version, release it. Do not keep going back to compare it with "what really happened." The revised version is now your operative memory. Trust that your subconscious has received the new impression.

Nightly Revision Practice

Neville recommended making revision a nightly habit. Before falling asleep, mentally review your entire day. Any moment that was less than ideal gets revised. Over time, this practice creates a cumulative effect:

• Your emotional state improves because you are no longer carrying the weight of negative daily experiences
• Your self-concept strengthens because you are consistently impressing your subconscious with positive experiences
• Your future circumstances shift because the impressions generating your reality are increasingly positive

Revision for Deeper Healing

Revision is not limited to daily events. You can revise significant past experiences, even those from childhood. Traumatic memories, painful relationships, and formative negative experiences can all be revised. The process is the same: reimagine the event as you wish it had happened, feel the revised version as real, and release it.

Neville shared accounts of people who revised serious childhood traumas and experienced profound shifts in their present-day patterns and circumstances. The principle is the same regardless of how far back the event occurred.

Common Questions

Does revision change what actually happened?

Neville taught that there is no fixed, objective past. Your memory of an event is already a subjective construction. Revision works on the level of consciousness, changing the impression and its creative influence on your future. Whether the physical event itself changes in some metaphysical sense is less important than the practical result: your inner state improves and your outer circumstances follow.

Can I revise events involving other people?

Yes. When you revise an interaction, you are changing your assumption about that person and that relationship. Since others in your reality reflect your assumptions, revising how they behaved in the past can shift how they behave toward you in the future.

How long before I see results from revision?

Many people notice emotional shifts immediately. The heaviness of a negative event lifts after genuine revision. Changes in outer circumstances typically follow within days to weeks, depending on the depth of the impression and your consistency with the practice.