one of my erst-patients from Christian Science days got me a library copy of by one called Neville, and said “I know you read everything now, and this is nothing but manipulation and hypnotism, but I wonder what you think of it. [...] I spent the night reading it, and at 4:00 o’clock in the morning, I was walking my cocker spaniel up and down Vespers Avenue in Van Nuys, looking through buildings, looking through trees. Everything was so transparent, I could see it all. And I thought, where have I been?

I asked them if there were any other books, because Your Faith Is Your Fortune was his first book, and this library copy didn’t list any others. I said, “Where can I get more of these books, are there any more? They said, “Oh yes, and Neville lives here now; he doesn’t live in New York any more; he lives in Los Angeles, and he lectures twice a week at the Wilshire on Mondays and Thursdays. You can get his books there.

Well, the very next Thursday, I went the first chance I could, and I could hear his voice coming over the loud speaker, but I would not go in. I bought one book because that’s all I could afford to pay for it. [...] I was reading all of Neville’s books seeing where he was going to trip himself up. And I couldn’t find a place that he did. So, when I had read them all, the next Monday, I went to the lecture, and there I began kicking myself up and down all the hills that I wasted the opportunity, because this began to unfold.

I went back to see him after the first lecture. I said, “Do you teach privately? He said, “No. As short as that. He said, “You are the operant Power. Not meaning my person, although I’m afraid I must have thought at that time that was what he meant. “You are the operant Power. He said that it’s a Principle that proves itSelf in performance. “I no longer take individual students.

Neville (as quoted): "No. [...] You are the operant Power. [...] I no longer take individual students."

Well, I continued going; this was then in June until he closed. I heard him five or six times before he closed and went for his two weeks in San Francisco. When he came back from San Francisco, I gave him two case histories of where I had put it to work. He was delighted. So, I never missed a single lecture from then until the calendar had come around another year, and he went to San Francisco

In fact, someone in his audience… I was there one night and she said, “Neville, I have heard it said that you drink. Do you drink? He said, “Do I drink?! Of course, I drink. And he said, “May I tell you I do nothing in moderation.” (Laughter) He said, “They used to tell me, ‘You’re just like your father,’ and I am. My father finished a fifth of gin every morning of his life before ten o’clock.

Neville (as quoted): "Do I drink?! Of course, I drink. [...] May I tell you I do nothing in moderation. [...] They used to tell me, ‘You’re just like your father,’ and I am. My father finished a fifth of gin every morning of his life before ten o’clock."

He fixed me the most potent double scotch. Neville adored a good martini. I’ve seen him finish a pitcher of martinis and go right on the platform without… he said, “I just like the lift it gives me. He was never “under the influence. But he certainly did love it.

Neville (as quoted): "I just like the lift it gives me."

he went to San Francisco, and that was where he had this “Birth from Above,” which changed the entire direction of his teaching. And that hall was full when he opened. It held three hundred people there in the Fine Arts Auditorium at the Wilshire in Los Angeles. That hall was full, and he told this shocking story in the most literal terms of being born through the skull of his head as a womb opens. And the next night, that was on Monday, the next Thursday, there were thirty people. The next Monday, there were twelve. He kept telling it

So I wrote to Neville about it, and his wife always wrote the letters, I have the letter he wrote back to me. “Let no one dissuade you. My vision has never lied to me. If you could not do it, I would never have been told to send you. Period. That’s Neville. He could be brief.

Neville (as quoted): "Let no one dissuade you. My vision has never lied to me. If you could not do it, I would never have been told to send you."

1960. I moved there on New Year’s Day. Bernard and his mother drove me and my cocker spaniel to San Francisco, and I said good-bye to the south land I thought forever. Encouraged by Neville’s great vision that everybody that had come to him, and he had filled the Scottish Rite Auditorium, they would all be there for me. That’s what he felt sure would be the case.

My gratitude to Neville is immeasurable, for it was he who wisely encouraged me to conduct my own spiritual investigation, and to speak only from conclusions my personal experience would yield.

When Neville came back from his stay in Barbados, he had gone home to die; he was in terrible shape. Everybody had told him he was going to last, and he, himself, didn’t believe he was going to, so he wanted me to take over his Los Angeles audience. That was when I came to Cambria, because it was half way between Los Angeles and San Francisco. [...] the night he introduced me to his Los Angeles audience, they were there in full force at the Women’s University Club, and it was full. O.K. The next day, he, Bill and their daughter went back to Barbados, and the next time I had maybe fifteen people there.

You remember how Neville used to say in his books about lie flat down with your head on a level with your body, not on a pillow. [...] I spoke to him about that later, probably five or six years later. He says, “Well, I never do it that way anymore.” (Laughter)

Neville (as quoted): "Well, I never do it that way anymore."

he had his wife ask me when I bought my ticket to go in, he said, “Ask him if he will give us a ride home tonight, because Neville never drove in his life; he never owned a car; he never had a driver’s license; neither did his wife. I was so delighted to have those people in my car; they were the stars. I even washed the car. (Laughter) Drive them home – boy would I!

Neville (as quoted): "Ask him if he will give us a ride home tonight"

Anyway, he asked me that night if I would go to San Francisco and teach. I said, “I don’t know anything about teaching. [...] He said, “The principle proves itself in performance. I can’t give you a nickel, but you’re presentable and articulate. You understand this obviously from the case histories you’ve sent me. And when you write, it’s literate. I don’t have to rephrase it. I can put this just as you wrote it. I can put it in a book. [...] I would like you to go there. I’ll give you my list. He said, “Do you have a list? I said, “A list of what?

Neville (as quoted): "The principle proves itself in performance. I can’t give you a nickel, but you’re presentable and articulate. [...] I would like you to go there. I’ll give you my list. [...] Do you have a list?"