The Secret of Imagining

The world around us is different than we understand it to be in almost every situation. So why should we be so skeptical and incredulous? Life calls on us to believe not less, but more. The Secret of Imagining is the greatest of all problems. Supreme power, wisdom, and delight lie in the solution to this mystery.

Neville Lancelot Goddard (1905–1972) was a prominent and highly influential teacher in the New Thought movement, best known for his philosophy on the creative power of the human imagination. Born in St. Michael, Barbados, Goddard moved to New York City in 1922 to study drama. While working as a dancer and actor, his interests shifted toward mysticism after meeting an eccentric Ethiopian rabbi named Abdullah, who mentored him in Kabbalah, esoteric Christianity, and the psychological interpretation of scripture.

Leaving the theater behind, Neville dedicated his life to teaching what he termed "The Law of Assumption"—the principle that one can manifest their desires by vividly assuming the feeling of the wish fulfilled. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he taught that the Bible was not a historical record but a psychological drama mapping the evolution of human consciousness, asserting that the divine creator is the human imagination itself.

Throughout the mid-20th century, he delivered hundreds of unscripted lectures across the United States and authored foundational metaphysical classics, including Feeling is the Secret and The Power of Awareness. Today, Goddard’s visionary teachings continue to experience a massive resurgence, profoundly shaping modern self-help, spirituality, and manifestation philosophies.

The Secret of Imagining


In almost every particular is the world about us different from what we think it. Why then should we be so incredulous? Life calls on us to believe not less, but more. The secret of imaging is the greatest of all problems, to the solution of which everyone should aspire, for supreme power, supreme wisdom, supreme delight lie in the solution of this mystery.

If you have solved the mystery of imagining you have found Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is defined for us in scripture as “The power of God and the wisdom of God” (First Corinthians 1:24). As we are told in the eighth chapter of the Book of Proverbs,—and Wisdom is speaking now, personified as a little child:

 

“When He laid out the foundation of the world
I was beside Him like a little child
I was daily His delight,
rejoicing before Him always
rejoicing in His inhabited world,
delighting in the affairs of men.
He who finds me finds life
He who misses me injures himself;
All who hate me love death.”

—Proverbs 8:29-31, 35, 36

 

So find that child that is the symbol of Jesus Christ, who is the creative power and the wisdom of God. Believe me when I tell you that this Jesus Christ of scripture is your own wonderful human imagination. “By him all things were made, and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3). He is in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knows Him not.

Look into the world and name one thing that wasn’t first imagined. You name one thing that does not now exist in your imagination—just name it. Name anything in the world that does not now exist in your imagination: “All things exist in the human imagination.” (from “Jerusalem” by William Blake)

“God is man, and exists in us and we in Him” (from “Annotations to Berkeley” by William Blake). The eternal abode of man is the imagination; and that is God Himself. Try to disprove it.