Like Youve Never Seen Him Somewhat Striking Costumes

Long before Neville Goddard stood at a podium, preaching the power of imagination, he was on a very different kind of stage—practically naked, wrapped in straps and sequins, striking dramatic poses for European high society. Yes, before he became the metaphysical legend we know today, Neville was a professional ballroom dancer, performing with his partner Amerique at Ciro’s in London, the Wintergarten in Berlin, and the Ambassador in Paris. And, as the photo proves, he was not afraid of a little, let’s say, artistic exposure. From the lecture Speaking From Experience: So you take it this night and take a large sum. If anyone had told me when I worked at Macy’s for, what, eighteen dollars a week and did everything in the place for eighteen bucks, if anyone told me then that I would in the not too far future be making five hundred dollars a week, why, I would have laughed at them.n2216 ¶1

But I did. One day I quit Macy’s. I don’t mean fired. I was fired from Penney, J.n2216 ¶2

C. Penney. So I worked for J. C.n2216 ¶3

Penney and they gave me twenty-two dollars a week, and one day they fired me. I asked them why, what have I done that’s wrong? They said, “Nothing wrong, but we have an economy in this country that when things are slow we let people off. You’ve been working here for a year and a half, and so we just simply have to economize, and so you have to go. I said, “Where I come from you fire a person because he’s done something that is wrong…that if I’ve stolen or if I’ve done something that is wrong causing the company loss, fire me, but don’t fire me because of certain strange trends in this world.n2216 ¶4

“But that’s how we operate,” they said to me. Well, they thought, well, this man, he’s a boy and he’s stupid and he’s foolish, we’ll give him a letter, and send him over to Macy’s. So they did. He wrote me a little letter and sent me to his friend who was the employment agency at Macy’s, so I moved to Macy’s and gave my little letter.n2216 ¶5

They said, “We can’t start you at any twenty-two dollars and fifty cents a week, we’ll start you at eighteen. So alright, I have to pay rent, so they started me at eighteen. So I worked there for a year, and one day I said to myself, “You’re getting nowhere fast, still making eighteen dollars a week, and doing everything that they ask you to do because you don’t want to be fired. So I had the courage to quit without a nickel in my pocket, and six months later I was making five hundred dollars a week as a dancer. Went off to England; five hundred bucks a week.n2216 ¶6

I never danced in my life before, save ballroom dancing. I told my dancing partner when she said “Can you dance? “Certainly I can dance! She said, “Alright, let me see. Well, I said, “I danced with someone else, I’ll dance with you.n2216 ¶7

And so, that’s how it started. So off to England; we got a hundred pounds. In those days, a pound was worth four dollars and eighty-four cents, not today’s two, eighty; and I got a hundred pounds a week dancing in London for three months …from Macy’s eighteen dollars a week. So I say, you take a challenge, you simply throw yourself out completely and walk on the water, and either go down and drown, or simply live better.n2216 ¶8

It was during these travels, from November 1925, that Neville was first introduced to psychical research and mysticism. According to Israel Regardie’s The Romance of Metaphysics, while in England, Neville met Arthur Begbie, a man knee-deep in the world of seances, spirits, and the paranormal. Neville gave it a try, sat in a dark room while people called on the dead, and walked away sunimpressed, though something had been set in motion. From Neville Goddard: A Portrait by Israel Regardie: “He has had a wide and varied experience for a young man, this Neville. In 1925 he sailed for England with a dancing partner, and travelled widely in that country. It was there that he became openly interested in the study of the occult and mysticism. Whilst in England, he met Arthur Begbie who introduced him to the world of psychical research, giving Neville his first taste of the spiritualistic seance. It left him, I should say, a little bit flat, but nonetheless, he knew afterwards, that he was definitely embarked upon a long journey. Of that he was sure, in spite of his dislike of the atmosphere and the procedure of the seance. Shortly after his return to America in 1926, to continue his theatrical career, his interest in mysticism became keener and keener, coinciding with a waning interest in the theatre. By 1926, Neville returned to America, still dancing, but the pull of the mystical world was strong. His fascination with the stage began to fade, and he started the long journey that would lead him to Abdullah, the Law, and The Promise – the kind of teachings that would later be mistaken for New Age philosophy.n2216 ¶9

More from Regardie: It was around this time that he became associated with one of the several so-called Rosicrucian bodies. I should like to write at length on this subject of Rosicrucians and Rosicrucian organisations. However, I shall have to leave that for another occasion despite the fact that it is a fascinating subject for research, and a lovely topic for a disquisition on the foibles of human nature. Anyway, he not only became a member of this body and studied with it, but embarked upon a definite spiritual and moral discipline, imposing upon himself a regime of abstemious living, sexual continence, and a vegetarian diet.n2216 ¶10

It was enough surely, to break a stronger person than him. From a husky strapping fellow of 176 pounds, he rapidly fell in weight to about 135 pounds. Not only was his efficiency impaired, but he became subject to fainting fits, and had long spells of weakness and languor. At the same time, probably because of the dietary and this irrational mode of life, and undoubtedly because of the neurological disturbances which would accompany such a procedure, a number of psychic experiences occurred to him, including involuntary astral projection and momentary clairvoyant glimpses.n2216 ¶11

His was a successful theatrical career. I repeat this and emphasise it. He had featured in six Broadway plays, and had travelled all over the country from one theatre to another, and his income ran into several thousand dollars per year. But because of his mystical predilections, and his declining interest in the theatre, he finally withdrew from the theatrical career that he had so laboriously struggled to build up. It became a closed episode of his life. Yet the experience of the theatre gave him something that enabled him in later years to succeed in his newly-chosen work. His personality and his teaching are both highly dramatic.n2216 ¶12

I have watched Neville dance. He is superb. He has a magnificent body. I have already remarked that he has charm and is very handsome.n2216 ¶13

When he dances, his muscles move with that lithe suppleness which one associates with the trained athlete. His every movement suggests power in repose, the effortless ease of the cat, with its undisguised sensuality and force of movement. As an artist, he knows the value of alternate relaxation and tension. Above all, he knows the dance. His metaphysics and his system, are a dance,—a dance of words, a dance of mind, a dance of feeling. And unless you can dance with him, his system is likely to be unproductive. His system is in reality strictly personal—an offshoot of his own personality.n2216 ¶14

To make it work as he has done, you too must become like him. An artist in every fibre of his being, he has the capacity to sink himself whole-heartedly and imaginatively in the task at hand. He is an artist, and has passion and fire on hand at every moment. The artist in him is truer than his desire to expound publicly the system he does expound. He has the ability spontaneously to apply his own teaching. It is quite another story, however, to teach the practical elements of his system to those who are not artists, who have not his imaginative or emotional capacity to engage in this ecstatic dance of the mind which evidently means so much to him. Possibly, in his audiences, there are individuals here and there having the necessary artistic and mystical temperament—identical, really—not only to absorb the truth as Neville presents it, but make immediate application of it. To “demonstrate” successfully, as the cliché goes. The average person with his commercial prosaic mind, his unimaginative sterile attitude to life, uninspiring employment and home, is incapable of realising that inner-spiritual being, which Neville implies by “I AM. Such a person cannot evoke that intensity of feeling, that temporary madness that Neville demands of all those who would apply his teaching successfully. A fiery white-hot passion is but a phrase to them. Consequently, in being unable to whip themselves into such an emotional frenzy, which can be focused in certain pre-determined directions, his words fall on barren ground.n2216 ¶15

Yet, in one sense this is not their fault. Life has dealt hardly with them, I do not blame them in any way. I am full of sympathy for them in their plight.n2216 ¶16

Of all the metaphysical systems with which I am acquainted, Neville’s is the most evidently magical. But being the most magical, it requires for that very reason, a systematised training on the part of those who would approach and enter its portals. It requires a dynamic alteration of viewpoint—a revolutionary turning around of the mind. An entirely new and radical attitude to life and living must be developed, not merely intellectually, but emotionally. Above all, it demands that the student must learn the gentle art of relaxation—not by turning the back on body and ignoring its demands, but by learning the simple technique of so doing. Neville knows the art of relaxation instinctively. He is a dancer, and a dancer must, of necessity, relax. Hence I believe he does not fully and consciously realise that the average person in his audience does not know the mechanism of relaxation, does not know how to “let go. It is true he speaks of relaxing. “Close your eyes and feel yourself to be faceless, formless and without figure. Approach this stillness as though it were the easiest thing in the world to accomplish. This attitude will ensure your success.n2216 ¶17

But for the average person, this is hardly adequate. A little more detailed scientific instruction is imperative. Not only so, but the average individual does not know how to evoke powerfully his feelings and emotions. He does not understand the means whereby he can arouse this passionate intensity so necessary to complete identification with or recognition of the Unconditioned faceless, formless consciousness of which Neville speaks.n2216 ¶18

More Resources Neville Goddard Research: Neville & Amerique – Broadway Shows and Theaters. Neville Goddard: Marriages, Children and Family Tree: Research Notes. Where Neville Goddard Lived and Lectured in West Hollywood and New York Part #1 “About Abdullah”. Neville Goddard Research (New York) Part #1. Part #2: “Abdullah’s Real Name” Neville Goddard Research (New York) Part #2. Part #3 About Abdullah: “The Wall Street Priest David B” Neville Goddard Research (New York).n2216 ¶19

See all historical research. See all lectures and books.n2216 ¶20