This post is a review of The Power of Awareness by Neville Goddard. First published in 1952, the book contains ideas that were ahead of their time – even now they may seem far-fetched to some. It is all based on what you connect to and believe about ‘I am’. His books have influenced contemporary writers such as Rhonda Byrne and Wayne Dyer.
Neville proposes that the concept ‘I am’ is not separate from consciousness and as such is infinite. By extension, this means that man’s concept of himself determines the world in which he lives. In other words, to access the infinite everything depends on the self’s attitude towards itself.
Furthermore, since existence occurs through consciousness, changing consciousness changes existence. This means you can realize your dreams by rearranging your concept of self. Or, stated another way, you can change the outer world by changing the inner state of consciousness. You do this by assuming that your future dream has already occurred through the application of desire, imagination, and focused attention.
Creating a designed life through the power of awareness
All that has ever been or will be exists ‘in the now’. As you create you are just becoming increasingly aware of what already is. You perceive according to the assumptions you are making. If you want a different experience, then change the assumptions leading to this experience. You can choose your self-concept, consequently, you can also choose to intervene in your course to bring a higher experience. In order to reach a higher level of being you must assume a higher level of self.
Neville teaches how to create happiness through the applied use of consciousness. You deliberately identify with what you want so that it can find expression through you using these three steps:
1) Yearning desire
You submit your whole self to your wish being fulfilled. This psychological assumption creates a bridge for physical manifestation. Assumptions have the power to change apparently immutable circumstances. Make your assumption the happiest noblest cause for good and persist in a state of feeling ultimate fulfillment.
If you resist what you don’t want, your attention remains targeted on what you don’t want. If instead, you choose to renounce what you don’t want, your attention shifts to what you do want. Claim this as your truth and also take time to renounce anything else in opposition.
2) Imagination
Imagination is the instrument of this commitment by assuming that you already are. You choose to radically psychologically transform the self in order to imagine that you are already your ideal. This means abandoning yourself to the ideal such that you are possessed by it. You are being it in order to experience doing it.
You are either a slave to your assumptions or the master. Mastery occurs through deliberate conscious control of your imagination. You concentrate attention on the person you want to be as if you are already that person. Your creative experience depends on the naturalness of your feeling of already being what you what to be. It becomes more natural the more you imagine.
When you can imagine knowing that you are what you desire to be in a still, meditative state, you support the least time and energy to realization.
3) Focused attention
Concentrate on the already fulfilled dream. If you are not conscious of already being then you are just engaging in futile daydreaming. Place intentional narrow focus on the feeling of your wishes fulfilled such that no other aspects occur in your consciousness. Engage with confidence that your desires are predetermined.
By having faith in what is possible you come to know it is possible. This leads you to reverence and awe for the miracle of your experience.
In coaching, this is about the client engaging with what they want. Many times people are reticent to detail what they want or to go big in scope. There is much to be said for daydreaming and committing to continually imagining your possibilities. This is like a jigsaw that you are continually working on. Once you have some clarity around what you want the looking back technique is great for motivation as it places you in the future, as if it is the present, having already achieved all that you set out to do. According to Neville it does even more than this, it serves to create this as a reality.
Check out my Self Alignment Program to learn more about up-leveling your own use of the Law of Attraction.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
