Prayer is an act of Imaginative Love

We must act on the assumption that we already possess that which we desire, for all that we desire is already present within us. It only waits to be claimed. That it must be claimed is a necessary condition by which we realize our desires. Our prayers are answered if we assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled and continue in that assumption.

One of the loveliest examples of an answered prayer I witnessed in my own living room. A very charming lady from out of town came to see me concerning prayer. As she had no one with whom to leave her eight-year old son, she brought him with her the time of our interview.

Seemingly, he was engrossed in playing with a toy truck, but at the end of the interview with his mother he said, "Mr. Neville, I know how to pray now. I know what I want – a collie puppy – and I can imagine I am hugging him every night on my bed."

His mother explained to him and to me the impossibilities of his prayer, the cost of the puppy, their confined home, even his inability to care for the dog properly.

The boy looked into his mother’s eyes and simply said, "But, Mother, I know how to pray now."

And he did. Two months later during a "Kindness to Animals Week" in his city, all the school children were required to write an essay on how they would love and care for a pet. You have guessed the answer. His essay, out of the five thousand submitted, won the prize, and that prize, presented by the mayor of the city to the lad – was a collie puppy. The boy truly assumed the feeling of his wish fulfilled, hugging and loving his puppy every night.

Prayer is a controlled waking dream. If we are to pray successfully, we must steady our attention to observe the world as it would be seen by us were our prayer answered.

Neville ~ ANSWERED PRAYER ~ Radio Talk – (July, 1951)

TRUTH is within ourselves; it takes no rise
From outward things, whate’er you may believe.
There is an inmost centre in us all,
Where truth abides in fullness; and around,
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,
This perfect, clear perception—which is truth.
A baffling and perverting carnal mesh
Binds it, and makes all error: and, to KNOW,
Rather consists in opening out a way
Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,
Than in effecting entry for a light
Supposed to be without.

— Robert Browning

AWAKENED IMAGINATION

This past May(1954) in New York City, there sat a lady who had been coming for years and I made a simple observation that people must become doers of the word and not mere hearers only. For if a man only hears it and never applies what he hears he will never really prove or disprove what he has heard; and then I told the story of a lady who had only heard me three or four times and how she transformed the life of another, and this lady hearing what one who came only three times and this miracle took place in her life, she went home determined that she would really apply what she had heard over the years, and this is what she did.

Two years before, after a violent quarrel, she was ordered out of her son's home by her daughter-in-law. Her son said "Mother, you need no proof from me that I love you: it's obvious: I think I have proven that every day of my life, but if that is Mary's decision, and I regret it, it must be my decision, for I love Mary and we live in the same house and it is our house: it is our little family, and I am sorry she feels this way about it, but you know these little things that culminate in an explosion as took place today. If that is her decision, it is mine".

That was two years ago. She went home and she realized that night after night for over two years she had allowed the sun to descend upon her wrath. She thought of this wonderful family that she loved and felt herself ostracized from it, expelled from the home of her son. She did nothing about revising it and yet I had been talking revision to my New York audience for the past year.

This is what she did now. She knew the morning's mail brought nothing. This was a Wednesday night. There had been no correspondence in two years. She had sent her grandson at least a dozen gifts in the two years. Not one was ever acknowledged. She knew they had been received for she had insured many of them; so she sat down that night and mentally wrote herself two letters--one from her daughter-in-law, expressing a great kindness for her, saying that she had been missed in the home and asking her when she was coming to see them; then she wrote one from her grandson in which he said "Grandmother, I love you". Then came a little expression of thanks for the last birthday present, which was in April, and then came a feeling of sadness rather because he hadn't seen her and begging her to come and see him soon.

These two short notes she memorized and then, as she was about to sleep, she took her imaginary hands and held these letters and she read them mentally to herself until they woke in her the feeling of joy because she had heard from her family; that she was wanted once more. She read these letters over and over feeling the joy that was hers because she had received them and fell asleep in her project. For seven nights this lady read these two letters. On the morning of the eighth day she received the letter: on the inside there were two letters--one from her grandson and one from her daughter-in-law. These letters were identical with the letters she had mentally written to herself seven days before.

Where was the estrangement?
Where was the conflict?
Where was the source of the displeasure that was like a running sore over two years?
When man's eye is opened he realizes all that he beholds,
though it appears without,
it is within--within one's own imagination,
of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.
Neville Goddard 1954

The art of revision.

I take my day and I review it in my mind's eye. I start with the first incident in the morning.

I go through the day; when I come to any scene in my unfolding day that displeased me, or if it didn't displease me if it was not as perfect as I thought it could have been, I stop right there and I revise it.

I re-write it, and after I have re-written it so that it conforms to the ideal I wished I had experienced, then I experience that in my imagination as though I had experienced it in the flesh.

I do it over and over until it takes on the tone of reality, and experience convinces me that that moment that I have revised and relived will not recede into my past.

It will advance into my future to confront me as I have revised it.

If I do not revise it, these moments, because they never recede and they always advance, will advance to confront me perpetuating that strange, unlovely incident.

But if I refuse to allow the sun to descend upon my wrath, so that at the end of a day I never accept as final the facts of the day, no matter how factual they are, I never accept them, and revising it I repeal the day and bring about corresponding changes in my outer world.

AWAKENED IMAGINATION Neville Goddard 1954

"All the world's a stage": Watching ourselves from the audience." ACIM Workshop Excerpt

AWAKE, O SLEEPER

In the fifth chapter of the Book of Ephesians we are told to: "Awake O sleeper and rise from the dead."

Now, reason could never comprehend these words, but the Bible is calling upon Imagination to awaken, telling Him that he is sleeping, dreaming his world into being.

But Imagination, now a rational being, does not know this and therefore cannot believe it.

Everyone will awaken in time, but not by any effort on their part while here. Your awakening was predetermined and it will happen on time, regardless of whether you are shining shoes or employing a million people. Our government undoubtedly has a million people on its payroll, with the president as its head. So in a technical sense he employs a million; yet tonight the one who shines his shoes could awaken, while the president continues to sleep, yet no one can die. That is the glorious part!

AWAKE, O SLEEPER Neville 01-08-1968
http://pvrguymale.blogspot.com/2010/07/dream-of-unreality.html

If only …

In our early stages we are apt to think that if our life were made more harmonious, and our circumstances became easier, we would then find heavenly harmony. “If my life were different, and if I had not so many troubles, and if I had more time to give to spiritual things, then I would be able to live this higher life of which you speak,” is how many of us are tempted to think.

But this is a mistake. If our life were made easier we should become weaker, morally, and less inclined than ever to advance in spiritual things. If we cannot make progress in the spiritual life, in our present circumstances, then we shall never ever be able to make any progress at all. Our present circumstances are best for us at the time, for in overcoming them and in rising superior to them, we become god-people, and having passed through our time of tribulation, we enter the liberty of the Sons and Daughters of God. In the heart of our experiences we discover God, and God is harmony and order. And so we find the eternal symphony which is for ever being played.

Early Mistakes, by Henry Thomas Hamblin

The Hamblin Trust
Dedicated to enriching people's lives through positive thinking
http://www.thehamblintrust.org.uk/index.htm

"If we were completely surrendered to the Divine Will,
then Heavenly powers would be able to work on our behalf,
and in so doing manifest order and harmony"
HT Hamblin

Whether you read Henry Wood, Neville Goddard or Henry Thomas Hamlin their message is the real deal.

The “Secret” and “Abraham” teachings appeal to the talk show hosts.

If Imagination creates Reality and I walk in the direction of my image, then I will predict my future.

No matter what it is, start with a job or a house that seems beyond your reach, and then live in the feeling that you have it. In the degree that you are faithful to these images you are preparing the way for the coming of the Child. I place my image in a garden (Eden), and then out of it comes a river and it parts into four sections. It is not actually water. If I wanted to realize my dream, what must I do to make it real so I can share it with this, my shadow world called man? I must know the taste and touch and sight and sound of what it would be if it were true. If I could see what I would see if my dream were true, and remain faithful to that imagery, I would make it real in the world of shadows. The only risk is that after it becomes real, man is likely to lose himself in the thing he created in the world of effects and deny his faithfulness to the image that produced it. So then he goes sound asleep once more. So many people do that. It is nice to meet, now and then, someone who has not forgotten.

You want a job? Could you drive your car into the parking lot and occupy that space which would be yours were you the vice president, or any position you wish to occupy? Then do it mentally and do it over and over until it seems natural. Then the shadow world will rearrange itself and make way for the car in a physical manner. But then don’t forget how it happened, for then you will go sound asleep again, and then it might take you a very long time to again live by faith. When you have too much of the world in focus, you do not live by faith. How can you, if you can write a check for anything you want? Jacob is the eternally beginning one and I am called on to bring Him, and I can only do it through faith. So today, no matter what you desire, if you know that Imagination creates Reality then you can bring about a change of attitude and following this change in this shadow world around you. When you react, actually you penetrate. But when I change something within myself, I am acting, and only God acts in existing beings and men. Satan is that aspect of mind that reacts to life instead of affecting life. So do not argue but decide what you want in place of what you have or see. Until I can change a thing I can tolerate it, for I know I can change it, for when I change within, it will have to change outwardly, no matter what it is. All that you behold, though it seems to be without, it is within, in the Imagination, of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.

The whole vast world is the world of Imagination.

If you would today transform your life, all you need are sound and sight and touch and taste. These are the four Rivers that flow out of Eden these are the senses and you water your Eden by these, and if you are faithful to your image it will flow into what you call reality, but it is the shadow, only the idea is the real.

What seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be, and is productive of the most dreadful consequences to those to whom it seems to be, even of torments, despair, eternal death. ~ William Blake [1]

[1] William Blake (1757 –1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry has led one contemporary art critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced". Although he lived in London his entire life except for three years spent in Felpham he produced a diverse and symbolically rich corpus, which embraced the imagination as "the body of God", or "Human existence itself".

"Awake, you who sleep, and Christ shall give you light!"

Walter C(lemow) Lanyon (1887 - 1967) was the author of more than 40 books on New Thought spirituality. His message of self-reliance and the seeking of "Christ consciousness" within is consistent with New Thought writings. All his books are about Christian maturity for the Body of Christ (the Church).

Little is known about Lanyon's personal life except that he was an Englishman of Cornish stock born in the United States in 1887. He was educated in the USA, France, and England, and served as interpreter and foreign correspondent. For decades he traveled all over the world, investigating and studying the various presentations of Christian-based mystical teachings. He traveled and lectured all over the world. His lectures were based, he said, "solely on the revelation of Jesus Christ." 
 

His parents were Abel H. & Rebecca Allen.

Abel H. Allen ( 1803 - 1873 ) was among the early pioneers of Hardin County. He was born in the year 1803, in Hardy County, W. Va., and when seven years of age came with his widowed mother and family to Ohio and settled in Coshocton County, where a portion of his boyhood was spent. He afterward moved to Pickaway County: thence to Franklin County, remaining there until 1832. He was married in 1831 to Rebecca Mackey, and, the following year, came to Hardin County, residing for a few months on the Wheeler farm. six miles east of Kenton. In the spring of 1852, he removed east to the adjoining farm, where he died on the 24th of December, 1873. He had a family of six children, three boys and three girls, who still reside in the county. His widow resides with her son, A. L. Allen.

 

The History of Hardin County, Ohio: Containing a History of the County, Its ... (http://books.google.ca/books?id=aNQ4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA759&lpg=PA759&dq=Abel+H.+Allen&source=bl&ots=UvWOJ2Gx_B&sig=ezfavO-4L2xbsiXy7c2bGJg8mIQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ToOQU9r5I8HG8QGStIGABw&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Abel%20H.%20Allen&f=false)

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=80957072

In addition to his books, Lanyon was credited with having written two light operas as well as several secular stories, plays and articles, all of which are now lost. This is also true of paintings he is said to have exhibited in Europe and the USA.

Lanyon died in California on July 4, 1967 at the age of 79.

4 Free PDF’s http://www.freehealingbooks.com/be-great-15.htm

From “The Father Within”
When you are speeding through the air at hundreds of miles an hour, the radio is able to catch and broadcast a concert without difficulty; yet this feat is past comprehension as far as the average person is concerned. So too is it difficult for man to understand the presence of God in and through all things. The radical reliance (faith) necessary to establish this state of inner consciousness comes only when man leaves all books, teachers, organizations, etc., and goes within, recognizing God and praising. Once he has found God within, he can find Him without, and in every circumstance of life. Nothing happens without His express will, for He rules over all and "by Him all things hold together." Can you begin to comprehend that?

Beloved, the most important message in the world may be broadcast and fall unheeded upon the diaphragm of the unadjusted machine; and though you can find no place which is not filled with God's inspired radiating presence, without recognition of inner union with Him you "receive" nothing!

If you find it in the nature of your radio to pick up a foreign station, all you have to do is to adjust to that station and what follows is natural, not miraculous. When you stop taking the name of the Lord in vain by attributing all sorts of limitations and evils to yourself, you will begin to know the unafraid condition of mind which functions from the reality of the indwelling divinity of Jesus Christ. This is to "walk by faith."

Once you become aware of the One who indwells you, at that moment you receive "whatever" you "ask for" in His name, whatever He has inwardly authorized you to ask as if He were the One asking. And it is no miracle or demonstration, but a natural movement of the unseen into the place of manifestation. But if what you are endeavoring to bring out is not natural, and is still shrouded with the sleight-of-hand consciousness which is trying to work wonders or "signs," nothing will happen.

"Awake, you who sleep, and Christ shall give you light!" Recognize that you are one with the Father -- the transcendent God -- through Christ, and live your life from a fixed consciousness of that union.
by Walter Lanyon

PROSPERITY
After we have come this far, we are still reluctant to turn the matter of hard cold cash over to a mental process. There is something too uncertain, something which constantly reminds us that we must "work it out by the sweat of our brow." But the fact is that we must resolve the whole thing into the mental realm if we are to gain the financial freedom that we are seeking.

Going back a little in history we find that what we today call dollars and cents were not known, and that men traded work for something to eat, and the Indians traded skins for manufactured goods. The state of Pennsylvania was purchased for a few skins which were not redeemable for much in actual dollars and cents.

Today we think a thing is worth so many dollars and cents, not stopping to realize that it is the mental valuation which we place on the dollars that makes the value of the thing we are buying. If you do not readily grasp this just look at the present situation in the European money market. The mark for instance is identical in size and shape, or. color of ink and quality of paper, as it ever was, and yet today people in Germany know that the mark is only worth a fraction of its former, value. The mark has not changed, it is the peoples idea of values, and so it is with our dollar. During the world war it was a common thing to hear it said that a dollar would not buy much more than a quarter's worth in normal times, and yet, there was and is no scarcity of money; on the other hand there is an ever increasing inflow of it from every mint. Is it not then strange that when the standard remains unchanged that we should suddenly find it changing in value and at one time becoming scarce and at another time plentiful? Does it not resolve itself into the mental attitude back of it? The standard remains the same and it is just what we, the people, determine it is worth that makes its value. Then dollars and cents in reality simply stand for a mental value. Now then if this be true, we know that our mental capacity is not limited, we are not shut off from thinking as much as we want, and it is thru this simple little rule that we shall demonstrate prosperity. When we begin to realize that value is mental, then we also realize that we have access to the real substance of things hoped for, thru thinking, and we stop seeking the effect and look for the cause, which is mind. We begin to know that "As a man thinketh so is he" is a very trite and true saying in regard to his financial affairs, as well as everything else.

It would be well then for us to adopt a prosperous way of thinking right now. Never again allow yourself, for a single moment, to think poverty never again acknowledge a limited condition or state of affairs, but realize that since the whole thing is mental that you have the power to bring into manifestation anything that you need or desire.

I do not mean to say that you can sit down and think a million dollars into your lap without an effort. In the first place you cannot easily gain the million dollar consciousness, so it is better to begin by placing yourself in a state of consciousness which you can more readily imagine yourself in. Once you have set about correcting the poverty thought you will find that new and unthought of avenues of supply will open to you.

A person who spends five minutes a day in meditation on abundance and then goes about his work thinking, "I cannot afford this or that because I am poor," or "I do not see my supply," etc., etc., cannot expect to demonstrate that state of finance which he should have, because his negative thoughts offset the positive to such a degree that he repulses the very thing he would attract.

Once you have decided to take the stand of thinking prosperity and refusing to see poverty or limitation in anything, you will find that the battle is half won.