CONCEPTION – March 11, 1968 Free Neville Goddard Lecture
Courtesy of FreeNeville.com
Tonight’s subject is on conception, both on this level and the highest level. The Bible is vision from beginning to end. Words such as Jesus, Moses, Abraham, and Isaac are used, but their stories are visions. Jesus is the fulfillment of scripture, so when I speak of Jesus, I am speaking of you raised to the level where you can make the same bold statement. Jesus’ declaration that he was the fulfillment of scripture required a spiritual maturity of which most who heard his claim were not capable of understanding, but the purpose of life is to fulfill scripture.
Tonight I will speak of conception which leads to scripture’s fulfillment, as well as the shadow it casts in this world, for the same technique can be used to realize your objectives here.
There is only one Spirit. The Spirit of Man and the Spirit of God are the same. God’s first great conception is recorded in the Old Testament as a foreshadowing of the event described in the first chapter of the Book of Luke, which tells the story of an angel of the Lord who speaks to Mary, saying: “Fear not, for you have found favor with God. You will conceive and bear a son and call his name Jesus.” Wondering how this could be, since she had no husband, the angel explains the theory of supernatural conception, saying: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born of you will be called holy, the Son of God.” Now, the phrase, “come upon” and the word “overshadow” are the same by definition, and mean “superimposition; to be superimposed upon leaving your imprint, your seal.”
In the 33rd chapter of the Book of Exodus, the Lord speaks to Moses, saying: “I will put you in a cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand, and when I have passed by I will remove my hand and you will see my back. You cannot see my glory, but you will see my back.” This is the identical story of the angel and Mary. “I will put you in a cleft of the rock.” In Hebrew the word “cleft” means “to bore; to penetrate; to pierce a quarry.” And the phrase “I will cover you with my hands” means “copulation.” Here is the creative act stated in the New Testament as: “The power of the Most High will overshadow you” for this act is “superimposition of oneself upon a being.”
To illustrate my point let me share an experience of a friend who is here tonight. On the 5th day of March, just a few days ago, she said: “I found myself awake within a dream, sitting on a slab in a huge room, sterile and brilliantly lit. I knew it was a morgue, for I could see many girls to my right, each lying on a slab, appearing to be dead. A door opened and you, Neville, dressed as a physician and your nurse, a lady with very black hair, entered.
As our eyes met I knew that you had had union with every one there, even though they appeared to be dead, and I also knew that I was next. Then a vivacious young girl entered the room and placed herself on a slab next to mine. Questioning her as to the whereabouts of your wife, I was told that she was sleeping in the next room.
Upon hearing this, the nurse smiled and I recognized her as your wife, but wearing a wig. Embarrassed because of the knowledge of what was about to take place, I turned to the girl, who said: ‘If you don’t want him, I’ll take him,’ and with that the embarrassment turned to anger, and I said: ‘Oh no! It is my turn.’ Then union took place and I said to myself: ‘He is like a stallion. How does he do it?’ and the vision came to its end.”
This vision has tremendous meaning, for God speaks to man in dream and reveals himself in vision. This was vision, for she was awake in the dream.
It is difficult for man to understand that God’s creative power is personalized; that anyone raised from the dead and incorporated into the body of love is Jesus Christ, creating! In her vision everyone appeared to be dead, yet union had been consummated. All things are possible to God! By burying his creative power in them, he turns death into sleep and sleep into wakefulness and wakefulness into resurrection.
Now, those who slept on the marble slabs were as Moses on the rock. The world “cleft” used in this statement means “to bore; to pierce; to penetrate a quarry.” God sends his creative power into this world of death to penetrate the dead. They will conceive and bear his child and call him Jesus. The words Jesus, Joshua, Jehovah all have the same root, which means “salvation.” And if the child to be born of you will be called holy, the Son of God, then God must have fathered him. He cannot be the Son of God were he not fathered by God. People think that Man is not God, but I tell you that Man is all Imagination and Imagination is God. And when your Imagination is raised from this world in which it is buried, your creative power is used to impregnate the dead and bring them out as God.
It seems insane on a certain level, but I am telling you what I know from experience, and just as God impregnates the dead on a higher level, you can impregnate a dead state on this level. Think of a state and you are its spectator. And the state will remain dead relative to you until you penetrate it, until you approach it on your fiery chariot of imaginative power. An egg, whether it be human or that of a chicken, is dead and will remain so forever until the sperm penetrates it. The sperm must penetrate and occupy the egg in order to fertilize it, and then in its own given time the shell is broken and out comes that which was the sperm that penetrated it.
A state is penetrated through the act of assumption. Assuming you are now in the state you want to externalize, you think from it and no longer of it. Thinking from, you have penetrated the state. This penetration is still the mystery of all mysteries. Man has discovered how to go to the moon, place cameras in space, yet no matter what he knows concerning the mysteries of the universe, man cannot understand how an egg can be penetrated without a hole either before or after penetration. Well, your imagination is that sperm. You do not have to open doors to get into any room; you simply enter by assuming you are in it. Look at the world from it and feel what you want to feel, and the room has been penetrated. Now remain there until you feel relief. Of all the pleasures of the world, relief is the most keenly felt. So when you enter into (penetrate) a desire, remain there until satisfaction is felt, until you have expelled the sperm right into the state.
The Lord told Moses he would cover him with his hand, which is his creative power. To cover is to copulate. Having covered you with his creative power, you are told that he removes it. In other words, you don’t have to remain in that state. You are to go in and fertilize it, then remove your hand by returning your creative awareness to the former state.
Now it is said that you only see the back of God, but not his face. The lady who wrote the letter saw God’s face, for she was awake. All of the others were apparently dead, totally unaware of what had happened to them; so when the child is born it will come suddenly, as they will have no knowledge of conception. But they have conceived, because God never fails in his penetration, and they will all bring forth the child called the Son of God, as the symbol of their individual birth.
The lady who wrote the letter was awake when union took place, so she knows when it happened. I urge her to record this experience in her Bible next to the 35th verse of the 1st chapter of Luke. Mark it down: “On this day I conceived of the Holy Spirit.” It will take thirty years! Should she drop dead now, it will not stop the conception. Rather she would find herself clothed in a body just like her present one – young, new, wonderful, with nothing missing, for she has not conceived physically, but in her soul. The soul is God’s emanation, his wife ‘til the sleep of death is past. That’s where conception takes place, and from my own experience I say: birth will come about in thirty years. We are told Jesus began his ministry when he was about thirty years of age.
Everyone is fulfilling scripture, for everyone is Jesus Christ, he who comes only to fulfill what he foretold he would do. Taking upon himself the limitations of man (the limit of contraction and opacity) God fulfills scripture. It doesn’t matter what the individual does for a living – whether he is a mason, a carpenter, a lawyer, a banker, a billionaire, or a pauper; the question is: is he fulfilling Scripture, for only as he fulfills scripture can he leave this world of death and enter the kingdom of heaven. God foretold what he was going to do, and then he became it. Scripture is the recordation of vision from beginning to end. It is not secular history. The characters recorded there did not live as you and I do. They are the personifications of states in which you and I, the immortal being called God, pass through as we fulfill scripture.
The story told in the 33rd chapter of Exodus is a foreshadowing of that which is fulfilled in the 1st chapter of the Book of Luke, as the angel explains the theory of spiritual or supernatural conception. In the Old Testament it is said: “I will cover you with my hand.” If you take a good Hebrew dictionary you will discover this means copulation.
I know in my own case, when I stood in the presence of the Risen Lord, as we embraced we fused together. In the vision of this lady, everyone (save the physician) was female, so the fusing took place in a way that is normal for woman; but the union is not physical. Being the power of God, the image of God (which is the seed within him) is buried in the soul. Everyone appeared to be dead, and by this act God awakens the dead. We are urged to “Rise! Awake, O sleeper and rise from the dead.” In this statement the dead and the sleeper are equated. In her vision the ladies were so asleep they seemed to be dead, but she knew union had taken place with all of them. This is the part the Risen Christ is sent to play. It does not take place on this level, for his energies are turned up into regeneration. The part he plays takes place in a remote area of the soul.
Now on the 20th of October, my friend Benny experienced the birth of the child. Last night Benny called to tell me that he saw David on the 6th day of March, the very day I foretold it would happen. He has promised to write the dream in detail to me, but this is what he told me over the phone: “In my dream I was invited to a party attended by many children and their parents. Suddenly the parents disappeared, leaving me alone with the children. As I looked around I noticed a lad about fourteen years of age walking toward me. Instantly I recognized him as David, and as I looked into his eyes I knew that he recognized me as his Father. Speaking directly to me, he said: ‘I know our Father will never leave us.’ Then the dream ended.”
Here is the fulfillment of scripture. You see, God does not imitate, he does not repeat himself. In each case the same story is fulfilled, but is unique to the individual and never duplicated. Scripture says: “I go unto my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Here is the plural: “Our Father will never leave us.” The earthly fathers left, but the Spiritual Father will never leave us. Now I will prophesy for Benny. On the 8th day of July he will be split from top to bottom and ascend into heaven in serpentine form!
I tell you: we are only here to fulfill scripture. I don’t care what you do in this world. If you sit in the White House tonight as the president of our great country you will exercise enormous power, but it would be as nothing compared to what you will experience when you have fulfilled scripture, and of this fulfillment you cannot fail! What can it matter what you accomplish in the outer world when you leave it all to go through the little gate called death? And no one knows the furnaces still to be experienced before the birth of the child!
But may I say to my friend who wrote the letter: you may depart this world in less than thirty years, but you will not falter. Benny is only about thirty years old now, so he has no memory of the conception; but no one can choose the time, for everyone is chosen. “You did not choose me, I chose you, for no man comes unto me save my Father calls him and I and my Father are one.” No one can tell the secret of God’s elective love, but when you are full of power, you are called. You don’t volunteer, but are drafted, drawn into the state to reach its climax in thirty years!
To tell this to a vast audience would be the height of insanity, as they would not understand what I am talking about. But I tell you: your dreams, visions and experiences are symbols which you either accept and interpret or reject as an illusion, for there is nothing but God, who is your own wonderful human Imagination! There is only one Spirit in this wonderful universe. The being that maintains it all is the same being that maintains you! There is no other. “Man is all Imagination and God is Man and exists in us and we in him. The Eternal Body of Man is the Imagination and that is God Himself.” (William Blake)
And all things are possible to God! Just as an egg is penetrated, conceives, and is raised from the dead into a living state by bringing forth the express image of its person, if you bring forth the Son of God, you must have been fathered by God! My friend was awake within the dream, so she is aware of her marvelous conception. If she departs this section of time before the thirty years it will make no difference, for unlike the children here, where a miscarriage is possible, she cannot lose the child!
I have read books on sex symbolism in the Bible where these great scholars consider this passage in Luke to be pornography. If you read it on that level you will see God as a creator, creating. Every child born of woman is God creating, for he is the creator of all. But when he calls you from above, your energies are reversed and spring from above, while the energies of this world spring from below, so you move from generation to regeneration.
Now let me come back to this level and show you how to go about realizing your objectives. What you want, be it health, wealth, or fame, is only a state. Think of the state as an egg containing everything necessary to externalize itself, but dead and must be penetrated and fertilized in order to break the shell and become what the world calls reality. Let me illustrate. As I stand here before you, I desire and will assume that I am in San Francisco, approximately 500 miles from here. (I think I know this city well, but I don’t have to know a city in order to assume a state.) Putting myself in a familiar hotel lobby, I sit there and think of the world relative to the lobby in which I am now seated. While I am here I feel its reality; I feel the satisfaction of being here, the very place I wanted to be. The moment I feel the relief of being here, I have released the necessary sperm, or energy, into that dead state. Then I return to Los Angeles, but in that short period of time I have gone and prepared the experience. Now I will move across a bridge of events which will compel me to go to San Francisco. I may have no desire to go, but I will; for I have prepared the place, occupied it, and although I returned to where I was and later may resist the going, I cannot stop it, for I have created it and I will fulfill what I have done.
Now you can do this with everything. An objective, a desire, is an egg, which you can penetrate and occupy. You can move right into it and view the world from it. Don’t think of it; view the world from it, which implies that you are in it. Then feel the relief, the satisfaction, of being there. Do this and no power in the world can stop you from realizing that state. You may regret what you did, but you will fulfill it anyway. Learn your lesson and try not to do that which you do not want to experience in the future.
Everything is waiting for you to penetrate, as everything is in the cleft rock. Your desire is just as dead as a rock, so you penetrate it by going right into it, occupying, and viewing the world from it. Then, feeling the relief of being in it and the satisfaction of accomplishment, turn your back on it knowing you have done it, and allow it to objectify itself in your world.
That is a creative act on this level, just as my friend saw the creative act on another level. It frightens people just to think of this, because our moralists have the strangest concept of God. When two people love each other deeply and that love is consummated, is that something apart from God when God is love? I wish everyone would read Blake and see what he thinks of the so-called moral virtues, of those who distort the vision of Jerusalem, this wonderful being of liberty.
Tonight, know what you want and go right in and occupy it. Don’t ask anyone’s permission; just put yourself into the state you desire to experience by asking yourself this question: “How would I feel if I saw the world from that state?” Do you know you can put yourself into any state? My son actually put himself into the state of war by reading a book about Guadalcanal and falling in love with the pictures of the natives there! He certainly didn’t enjoy his experiences while there, but he asked for it. You see: nothing happens by accident. Everything that happens in the world does so because you and I set them in motion, whether we do it wittingly or unwittingly.
Again, I wanted to share my thrill with all of you in Benny’s wonderful experience of seeing David, and this lady’s vision of being sired. I promise her it will take thirty years – but what is thirty years in eternity? What is thirty years when you bring forth the Christ child? May everyone have it! God doesn’t have just one stallion; he has a wonderful stable full of those who are the resurrected Christ, those whose power has been raised from the dead and turned around from generation to regeneration. He selects those who are to be saved and sends them, under command to play the part of the creative power of God.
Believe me, God is Man. “Thou art a Man, God is no more. Thine own Humanity, learn to adore.” Everything is Man. About 4:00 o’clock this morning I saw a six-story, stark white building in vision, and as I looked at it, it became a Man. It took on the human face. All the mountains, rivers, valleys -everything is Man, and when you are awake you commune with them as friends. You walk into all the areas of the world to discover that everything is God and God is Man.
Now let us go into the silence.
Another work of art. Thank you Mr. 2020 and V