Kind of talk
Lecture
Collections
Delivered
1972
unresolved
Participants
Source file
Neville_Goddard_The_Messenger.json
ASR model
large-v3 (faster-whisper, batched — pod run 2026-06)

The Messenger

Thank you. Thank you. We have but two left tonight and Monday. So I thought this one must be important to all of us to gather the pieces together and try to explain what I have tried over the years, really, ever since it happened to me.1099 ¶1

No background to a man’s thinking is complete which does not contain the story the Bible tells. But have we told the story as the Bible tells it? No, we have not. It has not been clearly stated at all. We have merged the messenger in his message and then made an idol of the messenger. And now we stick him on the wall and cross ourselves for luck. That was the very last thing that was intended when the messenger came. So he sends another messenger. And I hope that no one will stick him on the wall and cross themselves for luck. For this story is eternal. Has nothing to do with a man. That man is simply a messenger telling the eternal story.1099 ¶2

Now here none of us should boast, for as we are told, what have you that you did not receive? If then you received it, then why do you boast as if it were not a gift? We’ll read that in the first Corinthians, the 4th chapter.1099 ¶3

Now we will turn to Jeremiah, the 9th chapter. “Let not the wise man rejoice or glory in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in his riches. But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, for I am the Lord.” You’ll read that in the 9th chapter, the 23rd and 24th verses of Jeremiah.1099 ¶4

The word Jeremiah means Jehovah will rise. If you have anything to glory about, glory in the fact that you understand and you know the Lord. And the Lord is your own wonderful I Amness. Your sense of awareness. When you say I am, that is God. That is the Lord. Don’t look out to any individual man in this world. Although he could be the messenger sent, he is not the Lord. The Lord resides in you as your own wonderful human imagination. That is God. So let him who rejoices rejoice in this, that he understands and knows me, for I am the Lord. Do you really believe that?1099 ¶5

If you believe that, then you can take the story and apply the whole thing to yourself. Take this thing off completely, this little garment, and believe that all things are possible to God. And having understood and found him as your own wonderful human imagination, then give him the depths that he possesses on the surface of your being. All right? You can’t do it. You’re not supposed to do it. But you can have faith in your own being, which is your own wonderful human imagination, and believe that an imaginal act is at that moment a fact. All right? That’s a vision.1099 ¶6

Now the vision has its own appointed hour. It ripens. It will flower. If it be long, wait, for it is sure, and it will not be late.1099 ¶7

You simply imagine the act by boldly assuming that you are already the one that you would be. If you dare to assume it, well, then you would persist in that assumption. If you call my name tonight and you call it a month from now, I would respond, because I have assumed that I am named Neville. Now there are millions of Nevilles possibly in the world, but I am still Neville. So if you call Neville, there may be in the same room others who have — well, then we can single out the one you intended. But nevertheless, I am going to respond. If someone pages me in a lobby and they only use the word Neville, and there may be others Neville, but I will simply hold my hand to the page boy or whoever he is and try to identify myself as Neville.1099 ¶8

Well, now here in this world of ours, do you really believe that your own wonderful human imagination is God? If you do, you will not turn to anyone in this world on the outside. Not one thing in the world is going to lead you. No progress of civilization. Man does not advance by any external march of things. When you go back to the awakening of the story in a man, they were digging the earth with a hoe using their hands. So the progress of man now to a plow, and man in those days — he took, if he had a donkey, if he could afford it, he rode on a donkey, or he had to walk. Today we fly. But there is no advance in the external march of things for man. For when it happened in a man, he simply tried to tell of an entirely different age. Something that was entirely different, and he called it the kingdom of heaven. And he tells us the kingdom of heaven is within you. It’s all within you. So seek not things on the outside, as you see them marching forward, getting seemingly better and better and better. Better ways of killing. Instead of killing a few, now we can kill millions. So we have progressed. We call that the progress of civilization.1099 ¶9

That is not what the messenger came to tell. He came to tell of an entirely different world. A world where you are eternal. A world where you are God when you awake from this dream of life.1099 ¶10

Now a letter came this week. In fact she is here tonight. She said, “I found you” — just the two of us alone — “and you were trying to show me, in fact, you did succeed in showing me how to get in and out of your own skull. It was so easy for you to move in and out of your skull.” And then you took my hand and placed it on the skull, and the hand, as I felt that skull, it felt and looked like the skull of a lamb. It was pliable, but it was a lamb’s skull. And in and out you went with such ease, no effort whatsoever. And then I wondered, where is Bill? Bill being my wife. And I thought to myself, she should be here. And I inquired about her. And I said to her, “Bill is fine.” And she said in her letter to me, “I knew that you meant it.” And then I turned to her and said to her, “Remember, try to remember that your only concern is the skull. Don’t be concerned about Bill, about anyone in this world. Your only concern is the skull. That is the secret of it all. That’s the kingdom of heaven within you. So try to find out how you get in and out with the greatest of ease.” Then she felt, that she — as she was about to awake — that I had at some time gone in and out of that lamb’s skull with similar ease. And then she said, “I awoke.”1099 ¶11

Now you know the story of the lamb in scripture. The word first appears in Genesis, in the 22nd chapter, when he is called upon to sacrifice his son. And Isaac turned to his father and said, “Father,” and Abraham answered, “Here am I.” He said, “Father, I see the fire and I see the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And Abraham replied, “The Lord will provide himself the lamb.” Then we find the lamb symbol used all through the New Testament, when the messenger comes and John — meaning now John the Baptist — he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world.” When he passed by and again he replied, “Behold the Lamb of God.” Then Andrew, having heard it, he followed him. And you know the story, he turned and asked, “What do you want?” And he answered, “Where do you live?” Said, “Come and see.” And he followed him. In the very last book, the very last chapter of Revelation, we speak of the lamb.1099 ¶12

Truth is literal. The words employed may be figurative. Not always, but in this case it is figurative. Yet she, in feeling the head of the lamb, the pliable head that I wore, she felt the lamb, the symbol of the risen Lord, that which was sacrificed. She saw correctly. She saw exactly what she should have seen.1099 ¶13

It’s all within one’s own wonderful skull. And the lamb is simply the symbol of he that was sacrificed. Who is sacrificed? Amen. No. The universal power of God. The cosmic Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. And it is buried in every child born a woman.1099 ¶14

To single it out and put it as a man and call it by any name, you’re simply making an idol, in violation of the second commandment. Make no graven image unto me. Yet there are tens and tens of millions of images of the one they call the Christ. Make no graven image unto me.1099 ¶15

Yes, I yield all blessing to the name of the one who took these great truths and gave them current coin. Current, I would say, currency. No one understood it until the messenger came. No one understood the great adumbration, the foreshadowing of his plan. Then he sends — when the time was right — he sends a messenger to experience it, that he could speak from experience. So he comes and he experiences the scripture. The scripture is the Old Testament. There was no other scripture. And he completely fulfilled the Old Testament. And then he told — who did he tell? He told those in the synagogue. So in the synagogue they passed him a book, the 61st chapter of Isaiah. He opened to that chapter and he said, “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me.” He said, “This scripture has been fulfilled this day.” And then, having read just one verse and a half of the second verse, he closed the book and returned it to the attendant, and all eyes were glued upon him. But then within a matter of moments they began to stone him, because now he is bringing something entirely different to the world. They were looking for a man, and in a man they knew so well. Knew his father, his mother, his brothers, his sisters, knew his whole background. And here now he is telling them what is happening within him, and they can’t take it. So they rejected him.1099 ¶16

And then those who came to organize the story of the fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation turned around and merged the messenger in his message and made an idol of him. There is no one on the outside to whom you should bow. No one. For the God of whom I speak, the God of whom the scripture speaks, is your own wonderful I Amness. It is his name forever and forever. So whenever they ask you his name, don’t say Jesus. Don’t say God. Don’t say the Lord. His name forever is I Am. So when you go unto the people of Israel and they say, “Who sent you?” Just say, “I Am has sent me unto you.” This is his name forever, and by this name he shall be known throughout all generations.1099 ¶17

So every child born a woman is first aware that he is before he is aware of being anything in this world. Don’t take away from him that awareness of being — that is the creative power of his own being — and then anchor it on the outside and point to some being hanging on a cross on the wall. So for hundreds of years, man has gone astray from the truth. They’ve left the true God and they’ve made an idol and worship a false god.1099 ¶18

Then he sends another, and he will send another, to actually explain his plan of redemption to his sons that are scattered.1099 ¶19

Now I have brought one message which is all in scripture, but it’s not in any current book or any ancient book that I have ever read, and that is the story of David. That is the message that I have been sent to tell. Sent to tell it only because in being sent I did not know what it was. I was sent to tell until I experienced it. And having experienced it, that the son of God, which is the resultant state of a man’s journey throughout this dream of life, stands before him personified. But now I must not worship David. He is the resultant state of the individual’s journey through this horrible dream of life. But when he stands before you, there is no doubt in your mind as to who he is and the relationship between yourself and what you’re looking at. And there’s no doubt in his mind as to what he is looking at.1099 ¶20

Now, who is he? We are told in scripture, “I made him a witness to the people.” Now, let us go into the first chapter of Revelation, the fifth verse, speaking now of Jesus Christ: “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of all kings of earth.” Now we go to the 55th chapter of Isaiah: “My steadfast, sure love for David. I have made him a witness to the people.” Now we go to the 89th Psalm, speaking now of David: “I have made him the firstborn, the ruler of all of the kings of earth.”1099 ¶21

He comes only now to fulfill scripture. And the only scripture is the Old Testament. And we are told in the 30th chapter of Proverbs, every word of God proves true. Do not add to his words, lest you be called a liar. Do not add one word or in any way modify his word, lest you be called a liar. Read it in the 30th chapter of Proverbs. Well, if it cannot be added to, and the promise is made to David — “I have made him a witness to the peoples. I have made him the firstborn of the dead. I have made him the ruler of all the kings of earth.” And now all this is now stated in the New Testament, given to the messenger. And then the messenger is ballooned up to be worshiped.1099 ¶22

No. The word Jesus, which means Jehovah in everyone — when the story really unfolds, he is the Lord Jesus. He doesn’t change his identity. He still remains Mary, Jan, Stan, whatever name you bear. But the story itself unfolds in the Lord. And the Lord is the Lord Jehovah, which means Jesus.1099 ¶23

So he is now bearing witness to the truth of God’s word, which is in the Old Testament. So he is a witness to the peoples. And then they take the witness, who is the messenger, and merge him with the message. Bury him in his own message and then personify it. Cut it out of wood and make an image out of it in defiance of the second commandment. Make no graven image unto me. So make no graven image. How are you going to see your own wonderful human imagination? You will see it in action if today you change your attitude towards life. A change is going to take place in your world. You will see the results of this change of activity in you. But the one who caused the change, you aren’t going to see him, but you will see him outfitted in the result.1099 ¶24

So no one has ever seen God. Only the Son sees him. Only the personification of that resultant state, having gone to the very end and awakened within yourself, taking all of these shadows and giving life to them and giving a true pattern, the real pattern. And then he comes before you and he stands before you and he calls you father, in fulfillment of the 89th Psalm. “I have found David, and he has cried unto me, ‘Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.’” For he stands right before you. But don’t now personify him. Look upon him as a resultant state. But man has taken all the characters of scripture and treated them as persons. They’re not persons. They’re personifications. And he’s taken the gross — first sense that conveyed the instruction — for the instruction. That is not it. Don’t take any of these persons — they are not persons. They are simply personifications of the eternal states of God’s plan of redemption.1099 ¶25

So the reality is your own wonderful human imagination. That is God. That is the Jehovah of scripture. That is the Jesus of the New Testament. And so, if you’re going to boast, if you’re going to in any way remember these things of the 9th chapter of Jeremiah: let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, for I am the Lord. If you really understood that and believed it, you could not turn to any other being in the world. And the day will come you’ll believe it, and you rather drop than turn to anything you cannot. It’s entirely within you.1099 ¶26

So I could say to my friend quite innocently and truly, let not your concern be about Bill. She’s fine. She’s going through the furnaces, as you have and must. All of us must pass through the furnaces. But as Paul said, “I consider the sufferings of this present time not worth comparing with the glory that is to be established and to be revealed in us.” And the glory is God himself. When God unveils himself within us, and he unveiled himself only when his son, which is the resultant state, appears to reveal us as the one we’ve been seeking. So you find what you’ve been seeking when the resultant state stands before you, personified, and that is power and wisdom personified, but your own power and wisdom, that glorious being called David. David, in the true literal sense of the word, is the son of God, and you are his father.1099 ¶27

Now, I’m telling you that from my own experience. But do not think, because I’m the first one to tell it, that you’re going to merge me, the messenger, in my message, and then stick me on the wall. No, don’t do it. I am no more than you are. We are all one. Let no one brag.1099 ¶28

Today, there are many people who are bragging their scholarship, of their position in the world, of their descent. I have some friend back east. She called me from New York two days ago. Why on earth she called me? Well, here it is. She feels so for these people who can only think in terms of an extra $25. Why? She had to tell me that she just received the check from the government where she had overpaid her taxes in 1971, and they refunded 10,500. She gloated. She gloried in that. And yet I rather have the company of someone tending bar or serving the drinks than this lady’s company, because I cannot talk one thing with her. I can’t discuss anything concerning the realities of life.1099 ¶29

All she can think of, she came down from the Adamses. She is a direct descendant of our president. We had two in the presidency, and she’s a direct descendant. So here are all these old portraits on the living room — picture, or living room walls. That’s her only claim. She is a descendant of the Adams. So she named her third son Adams. And one day, innocently, I called him Adam, and she corrected me. She said, “No, Neville, not Adam. Adams.” Well, how could Adams be greater than Adam? When you go back into genealogy, if you take it in a literal sense, as given us in the book of Luke, and there comes now Seth, the son of Adam, who was the son of God. Now she corrects me: “No, don’t call my son Adam. He is not a Jew. He is Adams.” And so what can you do with a person like that? She has to call me long distance to tell me she got 10,500 back from an overpayment in 1971. Who cares? She didn’t send me a check. I didn’t notice any letter coming, bringing me a part of that 10,500. But she has to let me know. So she boasts of these things.1099 ¶30

And yet the background behind it all inherited from her husband, who was a descendant of one of the bishops of the Episcopal Church of New York State. And when he died, he could leave an estate, the bishop, the old bishop, of $11 million. Now that’s really serving the people. He was a shepherd, all right — going out to fleece the sheep. But that’s spoken of in Ezekiel. You should read the Bible. He speaks to these false shepherds who take his sheep and then they fatten themselves and their sheep go hungry. So he leaves $11 million in the days when there were no taxes, no income tax, and it simply piled and piled. So the grandson got it, and she in turn got that much from the grandson when she divorced him after 21 years, only ran into millions, because in the meanwhile it grew and grew and grew.1099 ¶31

So let him who glories glory only in this, that he understands and knows me, for I am the Lord. There is no other closing within a matter of days. I do hope you will not forget it. But it takes reiteration, reiteration over and over and over, because so many will come claiming all kinds of things.1099 ¶32

Many will come saying, “I’ve just heard of the most marvelous being. He is Jesus the Christ.” Yes, he is Christ. Come, going to hear him. They’ll come from all over the country to hear one who is claiming he is Jesus the Christ. And there is no man outside of that resultant state, which is only seen in spirit, that is the personification of the power and the wisdom of God. And his name is David. That is the Christ. But you will never know him until the last moment, when he reveals you as his father. And his father is the Lord. For as he said in the second Psalm, “And the Lord said unto me, thou art my son, today I have begotten thee.”1099 ¶33

Now that had to be fulfilled, for every word of God proves true. Is that true? Well, now wait — I am telling you it is true. I am speaking from experience. It has happened to me, and I am not unique — unique only in the sense that we all are — but I do not differ from any child born a woman. Everyone is going to have that experience until the story as told in the New Testament repeats itself in us individually. Then that cosmic Christ buried in us remains in his grave. The grave being that skull, the skull of the lamb. And the day will come you will know how to get in and out of it just with such ease, no effort whatsoever to get in and out. And it will be pliable, just as she said: “I put my hand upon your skull, and it was the lamb’s skull, and it was so pliable, so easy for you to move in and out.” It’s no effort whatsoever.1099 ¶34

Can try it now. You all came through either that door or the front door. You’re familiar with the front door. Most of you come through the front door. Well, you can assume now, by closing your eyes, that you’re standing on the street and looking at this place from the exterior rather than from the interior, and see it quite clearly in your mind’s eye. You want to go someplace and you can’t afford it, put yourself there. It’s all in your imagination. And having gone there in your imagination, and then seeing the world from that point, you’re going to go there. But you say, “Well, I can’t afford it.” Who’s asking you if you can’t afford it or not? Who’s asking anything about how you got there? If you’re there, then you are there. If man is all imagination, he must be wherever he is in imagination. So you go in imagination, and having gone there and prepared it by viewing the world from it, then you return here, wherever you were physically, and then you are carried across a series of events which you do not consciously divide, and across this bridge of incident you move under compulsion to fulfill the place where you are standing in your imagination.1099 ¶35

You do that in business. You want to go beyond where you are in business? Well, go beyond in business. Fill the office that you want to fill. Sit there. You don’t fire the one who occupies it now. Let him get a better job. Let him go elsewhere to a still greener pasture. Grant him that. But don’t deny yourself what you’re doing.1099 ¶36

You are actually God, but imprisoned in this body of flesh and blood. But do not forget who the true God is. And so when you hear the word God, the word Lord, the word Jehovah, the word Jesus Christ, do not let it in any way take your mind and let it dwell on something external to yourself. The minute that happened, come back — you’re following the wrong God. If in any way it conjures the sense of an existence, something outside of you, well, then you’ve got the wrong God. But when you hear these words, they’re only reminders of your own wonderful I Amness, your own wonderful human imagination. That is God.1099 ¶37

And you can test it. Test it in the simple things of life. And then from there, put your hope completely upon the unveiling of this mystery within you.1099 ¶38

It’s not going to happen on the outside. You will wait from now to eternity for some Jesus Christ to come from the outside, as all of our evangelists are teaching. They’re waiting impatiently, hoping that they’ll be in the first rank when he reaches them and shake his hand. Well, I have news for them. They’re all going to the cemetery before that, and all will return to little dust, these little garments that they’re wearing. But they will not die. The being that is waiting will find themselves restored to life in a world just like this. And nine-tenths of them will not even know that they died, because really they haven’t died anyway. Nothing died. But they’ll find themselves in a world terrestrial just like this and still carrying on the old nonsense.1099 ¶39

But here you have been called. Called because no one comes unto me except my father calls him. And if you can take it — not everyone can take it, as you’re told in the sixth chapter of John. At the very, very end of the sixth chapter, they all began to leave him. Very few remain. And those who left say they will leave him and never walk with him again. And he turned to the few who remained. He said, “Would you go also?” And Peter became the voice of the few who remained. He said, “To whom would we go? Hast thou not the words of eternal life? And where would we go? It’s hard. What you are teaching is hard, hard to believe, hard to accept. But if true, where are we going to go?”1099 ¶40

Well, I am telling you what I am teaching you is true. I am not speculating. I’m not theorizing. When I was sent, I did not know what it was I had to tell until it began to unfold within me. That’s what I had to tell. Tell it just as it happened to me. And the outstanding thing was the discovery of David as the son of God. He is the son of God. We are the gods that came down, and collectively we form the God, the great I Am collectively. So in the end, not one will be lost. All will be redeemed, because not one can be lost and God remain God. So everyone is going to be redeemed, and everyone’s going to have this experience, to see David.1099 ¶41

So that is the one story I have come to tell you. Oh, tell you the story of how to get things. Everybody wants something that he has not now possessed but still longs for it. You can all get it. That’s not important. The progress of civilization and the external march of things will do nothing. It’s simply finding the kingdom. And yet day after day, a new invention, a new billion is made from this, that, and the other. And they think, “No, we’re really on the way. We went to the moon. We’ll go to this. We’ll go to that.” None of this in any way changes you.1099 ¶42

And as you get older and your thoughts get deeper and deeper, you realize that the progress of civilization and the external march of things did not in any way change you, because you’re turned on the outside, watching another gadget, another gadget, and all the lovely things that you and I do enjoy. But you have to turn on the inside, for the kingdom of God is within, and that’s where the whole drama takes place.1099 ¶43

So all things exist in your own wonderful human imagination, and all objective reality is solely produced by your wonderful human imagination. And one day you’re going to find the drama taking place within you. It’s not something that took place thousands of years ago. It’s something that is taking place. If you read the Lord’s Prayer as it’s really written, which cannot be translated into English from the Latin, because the Latin does not possess the words to couch the thought of the evangelist — it’s written in the imperative passive mood: thy will must be being done, thy kingdom must be being restored, thy name must be being held. It’s not something that was done or to be done. It’s something that is taking place, and we are drawn like a magnet into that which is always taking place. And then, because it’s within us, it unfolds within us, casting us in the central role. And the central role is the father. And because he is father, there must be a son. And that son is David.1099 ¶44

So don’t forget it. You who have taken a tape this night, play it back, because you may think, “I’ve heard it,” or “I’ve heard that,” like someone even — that wonderful little story of Jonathan Seagull. You say, “Oh, I’ve read it.” Don’t say, “I’ve read it.” Put it aside in your library and reread it and reread it and reread it.1099 ¶45

Friend of mine wrote me today. She isn’t here. Many of you know her. Was in the hospital recently, had two discs removed, and she took that book to the hospital with her, and all the neurosurgeons and all the other surgeons came in. They couldn’t understand why she didn’t have the pain that she should have after such an operation. And she took the third chapter of this book and reread it, almost committed it to memory, and lived it from wing to wing as Jonathan Seagull became one with the White Seagull, who was the lord of all gulls. And so he knew exactly through practice how to do what formerly he almost broke his neck trying to do.1099 ¶46

Now, one day it’ll be just as easy for you as it was to my friend, when she saw how easy it was for me to get in and out of the lamb’s skull, which is the symbol of the skull of God. For that’s where we are. We’re all contained within the one grand skull. He’s like one grand dreamer. And we but brain cells in the mind of the dreamer, dreaming strange dreams, fantastic dreams. One day we will awake to discover we have never been asleep, save in our dream. That we have never died, save in our dream. That we were never born, save in our dream. And we will awake and we will be what was the dreamer, who will now be awake.1099 ¶47

So read the 78th Psalm. “I will open my mouth in a parable and speak dark sayings from of old, sayings that our forefathers told us.” Now he tells it, that the children who hear it now will tell it to their children, and their children will tell it to their children, without stop, to all unborn generations. Then we come to the end of the 78th Psalm, and “the Lord awoke as one out of sleep,” and he called David and appointed David the shepherd of his people Israel. He tells you the whole thing was a parable, a story with a tremendous significance, profound meaning. But all these wonderful works of leading Israel out of Egypt into the land of promise, all these mighty acts, were all parables. Find the parable. But when it happens within you, you know the parable.1099 ¶48

When the serpent within you begins to rise like a fiery serpent, you know the parable of lifting up the serpent in the wilderness. That was all a foreshadowing of that reality that one day must take place within you. So all of these take place within you, and you give meaning to the shadows. But he tells you, “I will open my mouth in a parable and speak dark sayings from of old, sayings our forefathers told us.” And then you must tell the next generation, the next generation, and the next, and so on and so on. But in the end, “and then the Lord awoke as one from sleep” — that one who was heavy with wine, he drank to excess — and then he woke from that state, and then he called David from the flock and appointed him shepherd of his people of Israel. And that’s how it ends, the 78th Psalm. Now let us go into the silence.1099 ¶49