Wonderful Human Imagination

What Is Wonderful Human Imagination?

"Wonderful Human Imagination" is a phrase Neville Goddard used repeatedly throughout his lectures and books to refer to the creative power that resides within every person. For Neville, this was not a casual expression. It was a declaration of the deepest truth he taught: that your imagination is God, and it is the sole creative force behind all of reality.

Neville often opened or closed his lectures with some variation of: "Let us go into the silence and feel the wonderful human imagination that is God." He used the word "wonderful" not as casual praise but in its original sense: full of wonder, miraculous, awe-inspiring. The human imagination, in Neville's teaching, is literally the most powerful force in existence.

Neville's Radical Teaching: Imagination Is God

Neville Goddard's most controversial and central teaching is that God is not an external being sitting in judgment but the imagination living within every person. When the Bible speaks of God creating the world, Neville interpreted this as imagination creating reality. When it speaks of God's power, he saw the power of imagination.

He stated plainly: "Man's imagination is the man himself. The human imagination is the divine body of the Lord Jesus." And: "Imagination is the only reality. The world around you is imagination pushed out."

This teaching placed immense responsibility and power in the hands of every individual. If your imagination is God, then you are not a powerless creature hoping for divine favor. You are the creator of your own experience, and your imagination is the tool through which all creation happens.

How Imagination Creates

Neville taught a specific mechanism for how imagination creates reality:

You imagine a state. Through visualization, inner conversations, or assumed feelings, you create an experience in your imagination.

The subconscious accepts it. When imagined with vivid feeling, especially during the drowsy state before sleep, the subconscious mind accepts the imagined state as real.

The subconscious externalizes it. The subconscious then works through what Neville called the bridge of incidents to bring the imagined state into physical expression.

This process operates constantly, whether you are conscious of it or not. Every daydream, every worry, every mental rehearsal is an act of creation. The difference between unconscious creation and deliberate manifestation is simply awareness and intention.

The Distinction Between Imagination and Fantasy

Neville was careful to distinguish between productive imagination and idle fantasy. Not every passing thought creates reality. The imagination that creates is characterized by:

Feeling. Neville taught that "feeling is the secret." An imaginal act without feeling is mere fantasy. An imaginal act with deep, genuine feeling is creation.

Assumption. The imaginer must assume the state is real, not entertain it as a possibility. There is a vast difference between daydreaming about wealth and assuming you are wealthy.

Persistence. A brief imagination may not leave a lasting impression. Persistent imagination, returning again and again to the assumed state, is what solidifies creation.

Idle daydreams that you do not feel or believe generally do not manifest. It is the imaginal acts accompanied by genuine feeling and sustained assumption that shape your reality.

Developing Your Imagination

Neville taught that imagination is like a muscle: it can be strengthened through practice. He recommended several approaches:

Sensory Vividness Practice

Practice imagining with all five senses. Do not just see a scene. Hear the sounds, feel the textures, smell the air, taste if relevant. The more senses you engage, the more real the scene becomes and the deeper the impression on the subconscious.

SATS Practice

Regular practice of the State Akin to Sleep technique trains your imagination to function powerfully in the most receptive mental state. Even if you do not have a specific desire to work on, practicing SATS with any pleasant scene strengthens your imaginal ability.

Inner Conversation Awareness

Become aware of your habitual inner conversations. These are acts of imagination happening constantly. By noticing them, you gain the ability to redirect them consciously.

Revision

The nightly practice of revising your day is excellent imagination training. It requires you to reconstruct and reimagine real events, which builds both your imaginal skills and your ability to feel scenes as real.

Imagination in Neville's Biblical Interpretation

Neville interpreted the entire Bible as a psychological and mystical drama occurring within human consciousness. In his reading:

God is your imagination

Prayer is the act of imagining your desire fulfilled

Faith is sustained assumption

The Promised Land is the state of consciousness where your desires are fulfilled

Jesus is the awakened imagination in every person

This interpretation was central to everything Neville taught. He read scripture not as history but as a guide to using imagination as the creative power it truly is.

Why "Wonderful" Matters

Neville's consistent use of the word "wonderful" was deliberate. He wanted his students to feel awe and reverence for their own creative power. In a world that often teaches people to feel small, powerless, and dependent on external forces, Neville's message was revolutionary: the most powerful force in the universe is already within you. It is your imagination. And it is wonderful.

This reverence was not abstract theology for Neville. It was practical. When you approach your imagination with wonder and respect, you use it more deliberately. You stop wasting it on worry and complaint. You begin to treat every imaginal act as the sacred creative event it truly is.

Common Questions

If imagination is God, why do bad things happen?

Neville taught that imagination creates whether directed consciously or not. Negative experiences are the result of negative imagining, often unconscious. Worry, fear, and negative expectation are all acts of imagination that produce unwanted results. The solution is not to blame yourself for past unconscious creation but to become conscious of your imagination and direct it deliberately going forward.

Does this mean there is no external God?

Neville taught that God is not absent from the world but is present as the imagination in every person. This is not atheism but a radical form of immanent theology: God is not somewhere else. God is here, as you, creating through your imagination. Neville often said that one day you will awaken to the full realization of this truth, and that awakening is the ultimate purpose of human experience.