Study of every instance of "Persist" in the work of Neville Goddard

 

This subject is primarily about the restoration of the body and life after death.

 

A Lesson in Scripture - 1967

"Only a couple of days before this happened to Bennie, he said:, “In the spirit you were teaching the word of God when someone said: ‘Tell us the story of Jesus’ and you replied: ‘The story of Jesus is a persistent assumption that you are what you want to be, that things are as you desire them to be.’“ This is true, for unless you believe that you are the being you now worship on the outside, you remain desiring and die in your sins of unfulfilled desires. You’ve got to begin to believe that you are Jesus Christ, the Word of God, which . . having gone out will not return empty, but will fulfill your purpose and accomplish that which you sent yourself to do. What is that? To fulfill scripture. That’s all you are here for.

On this level you can be rich if that is your desire, but remember the story of Jesus is persistent assumption. You can persist in the assumption that you are wealthy. I have many friends across this country who are very, very wealthy, yet I would say ninety-nine percent of them are miserable; but they will all tell you the same thing. I think of one in particular now. She has a fortune in diamonds. Tiffany, who sells diamonds marked up 300-400%, offered her $100,000 for one piece. When she joins us for dinner in New York City she wears a broach, a ring, and a pendant, worth a half million dollars. Ruth was born a very poor girl and . . desiring wealth . . she persistently assumed she was married to tremendous wealth. She had no money. Her only claim to any social status was that she was a descendant of the Adams who were in the White House. He, on the other hand, came out of a line of rascals. His great-grandfather was a bishop in New York; therefore, had good advice as to his descent and how to guard it. Ruth married and lived in hell for twenty-odd years, bearing him three sons. Now well into her seventies, her only desire is to marry more wealth and have more diamonds."

"That is all right. The story of Jesus is a complete and undeviating persistence in the assumption that you are what you want to be. If you haven’t experienced wealth and that is what you want, persistently assume “I AM wealthy.” If you have not experienced fame, assume you are famous, but “The day will come,” saith the Lord “when I will send a famine upon you. It will not be a hunger for bread or a thirst for water, but for the hearing of my Word.” If that hunger hasn’t come to you, then take the same story of Jesus and fulfill your every desire."

"Now, to encourage those who are not interested in that aspect of the truth, let me go back to what Bennie heard me say in the spirit: “The story of Jesus is a persistent assumption.” This is true in every aspect of your life. You want to be rich? That’s the story of Jesus, which is a persistent assumption in the conviction that “I AM rich,” for unless you believe that “I AM rich” you die in your sins and continue to claim “I AM poor.” You want to be known? Then persistently assume: “I AM known.” Want to be healthy? “I AM healthy!” Regardless of what you want to be, you must declare you already are it and persist in that assumption. An assumption is an act of faith, and without faith it is impossible to please God. Your reasoning mind may deny wealth. Your senses deny it too, but if you have faith you will dare to assume wealth, thereby becoming the man you want to be.

Maybe, tonight you would rather continue to worship a Jesus Christ on the outside. Maybe you would rather continue to walk with the sheep of the world and not be the shepherd, but you would like to feed on green pastures by still waters, instead of climbing the steep hills of doubt and fear as most people do. You can, if you will persistently assume: “I AM well fed. I AM wanted. I AM known and everything is as I want it to be.” But remember: to bring all these things into being, there must be a persistent assumption. That’s the story of Jesus."

"You who are here are hungry for the Word of God. You are thirsty for the Word of God. You could be at home this night watching TV and it would cost you nothing, but you have given up your time and your money to be here because of your hunger. I have been sent to tell you not only that you become God when he is fulfilled in you, but how to cushion the blows in this world of reason by delighting in his law. His law is simply a persistent assumption in the claim: “I AM what I want to be.” Do not judge one who does not have the hunger for the Word of God, but tell him how to become what he wants to be.

Tell him that the story of Jesus is a perpetual, persistent assumption in whatever he wants to be. That Christ in him is the power of God and his imagination is that power and wisdom. Tell him that imagination knows how to bring his assumption to pass, but that he must persist.

Now I ask you: are you willing to persist in the assumption that you are what you want to be? Or are you going to go home tonight and say: “That was a nice little talk he gave, but after all he has a million dollars in the bank and I have nothing.” If you think that, you are disobedient, for by that thought you have lack of faith in “I AM He!” That’s the fundamental sin of the universe. There are only two sins recorded in scripture that offend God. One is: “Unless you believe that I AM He you die in your sins,” and the other is eating of the fruit of tree of knowledge of good and evil. Ask our generals tonight if it would be good to stop bombing Vietnam and they would say No. Go across the ocean and ask the Vietnamese and they would say Yes . . so what is good and what is evil?"

A moment within God - 1967

"But tonight as you sit here, you can mentally shut out the facts of life and move anywhere in your imagination. Do that and no one looking at you physically can tell where you have mentally moved. And if you dwell in imagination where you would like to be, and see what you would see were you there, you will have moved within your own being. Persist and everything here will die because of your move within God."

A parabolic revelation - 1969

"I tell you: imagination will not fail you if you are faithful. What could I say when I was confronted with the negation of my assumption? Nothing. I simply would not give up, and when the time was right my assumption became a fact. I urge you to set your goal high. Assume the feeling it has been reached and sleep in that feeling. Persist and I promise you that not one thing in this world can rob you of that which you have assumed. But the most important thing is to know that which is housed within you is God’s plan of redemption, and he only redeems himself. God came down into the world and housed himself in you. Now he is going to discover who he is, for it is in you as a person that the nature of God is revealed."

A prophecy - 1968

"Now, in this world a man who wants to be a success in business can sit down and map out a pattern (a scene) which would imply he has the success he desires. Then if he enters the scene and believes its truth, the pattern of success will unfold and the world will confirm it. But he must persist in the image of success, just as God has persisted, for the day will come when God will awaken and express the success he believes himself to be."

All that is divine - 1969

"Now, he gives you a cushion by telling you that, through the act of assumption, you can fulfill every desire of your heart. Knowing what you want, you must assume that you have it in the same sense that the Christ child is assuming he is what he is beholding. You must behold yourself as secure if that is your desire. You must behold yourself as healthy if that is what you want. You must feel yourself into the state desired with the same persistence as Christ in you is feeling himself into the image of the Father, for he never deviates from that wish."

"But while you are here, take his wonderful precept and believe that you can have anything you desire. There is no restriction placed upon the power of belief. There is no need to first consult some holy man to see whether you should have it or not. You be the judge. Choose your desire and, to the degree that you are self-persuaded that you have it, you will get it. And, because we are all one, if it takes one million people to aid the birth of your assumption, they will do it, without their knowledge or consent, so you don’t have to ask anyone to aid you. They will do it not even knowing that they are. All you are called upon to do is to assume that you have it. An assumption, though false, if persisted in will harden into fact. That is the principle."

All things are possible - 1967

"Believe every precept literally, for it will be fulfilled literally. Believe that all things are possible to you and that you are what you want to be. Persist in that assumption and it will harden into fact. Having assumed the life you now live, no one can take it from you but yourself! You have the power to lay it down by no longer being conscious of it, and the power to pick it up again through consciousness."

All things are possible - 1969

"I am not saying it’s easy, but it becomes easier with practice. If I gave a Stradivarius to one who had mastered the violin he could lift me to the nth degree of joy, but if I put the same violin in the hands of one who could not play it, he would shortly drive me insane. It’s the same violin, yet one brings harmony while the other brings discord. You kill and make alive out of the same instrument, which is your own wonderful human imagination. You may make many discords until you 1earn how to play. We are here in this world of educated darkness learning to play the instrument which is God. You may not know anyone who would give you $10,000 right now, but if you believe all things are possible to God and you know that God is your human imagination, you can imagine you have the money, persist in your belief and you will have it. How, I do not know; I only know that according to your belief will it be done unto you."

"Everything I am telling you is from the Bible. “I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. I, even I AM He and there is no God besides me. I AM the Lord your God, the holy one of Israel, your Savior and besides me there is no savior.” These are the words of God, revealed through his prophets of old. Their prophecy is fulfilled in the New Testament as: “Whatsoever you desire, believe you have received it and you will.” That’s how easily you apply it, for an assumption, though false and denied by your senses, if persisted in will harden into fact."

All that you behold - 1969

"When you imagine something it is as though you struck a chord, and everything in sympathy with that chord responds to bear witness to the activity in you. If the world is the responding chord to what you are imagining, and David is a man after your own heart who will do all your will . . is David not the outer world? This is not “will” as the world uses the word. You do not will something to be so, but imagine it and become inwardly convinced that it is so. And if, through your persistence, the world responds, you have not only found David, you have found the Lord as your own wonderful human imagination."

"Persist and the world will respond. You will get the money needed to live there. The world does not cause, it only responds to your imaginal acts, for only God acts and God is in you as your own wonderful human imagination. Now, before you judge it, try it. If you do, you cannot fail, and when you prove imagination in the testing, share the good news with your brothers. Tell everyone you meet how the world works. You do not have to have a proper educational or social background to apply this principle; and you cannot fail, for an assumption, though false, if persisted in will harden into fact."

Answered prayer - 1951 radio lecture

"Prayer is an act of Imaginative Love which is to be the subject of my message next Sunday morning at 10:30 at the Fox Wilshire Theater on Wilshire Boulevard near La Cienega. It is my desire, next Sunday, that I may explain to you, how you, like the young boy; can yield yourselves to the lovely images of your desires and persist in your prayer even though you, like the lad, are told that your desires are impossible."

"The necessity of persistence in prayer is shown us in the Bible.

“Which of you,” asked Jesus,

“shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him: Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine is come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him”:

and he from within shall answer and say,

‘Trouble me not; the door is now shut and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.’ I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will arise and give as many as he needeth.”

The word translated as “importunity” means, literally, shameless impudence. We must persist until we succeed in imagining ourselves into the situation of the answered prayer."

"One must persist until he reaches his friend on a higher level of consciousness. He must persist until his feeling of the wish fulfilled has all the sensory vividness of reality.

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."

Arise - unknown date

"You must know, like Dr. Millikan did, that your assumption, though false to the outer world, will harden into fact by your persistence. The perfect man judges not after appearances, but judges righteously. He hears what he wants to hear and sees only the good. Knowing the truth that sets him free, he is lead to all good."

Awake, O sleeper - 1/8/1968

"When someone born into poverty persists in dreaming he possesses great wealth and his dream comes true, his wealth seems perfectly natural to those who do not know his dream. You are dreaming. If you try to make your dream come true while doubting its possibility, you are heading toward a nervous breakdown. But if you go all out in your wonderful claim, you will fulfill it, for all things are possible to the God you are, for you are the God of whom the Bible speaks."

Awake, O sleeper - 7/25/1968

"“Therefore, do not grow weary in well doing,” (Gal 6:9) for if we persist in it, in due season we will reap if we faint not, or lose heart."

Be imitators of God - unknown date

"God began the good work in you and when he brings it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ, you will reflect the glory of God and bear the express image of his person. If God will not stop until that wish is completely realized, then you must be equally persistent. Regardless of things to the contrary, persist until your dream is completely realized."

"I know those who have fallen in love with the story which awoke within me. One who departed last July saw me as the Lord. Another lady here saw me as the Risen Lord. They did not see me as a man of flesh and blood, but as spirit, God’s power and wisdom raised out of the physical world and into the kingdom of God. Just as God has deluded himself and lives as one possessed by a dream to bring it to fulfillment, you can imitate him while you wait for his work to be completed in you. And if you are equally persistent in your dream, no power can stop it from coming to fulfillment. But you cannot deviate. You cannot turn from the dream to see what others are doing, or what they think about it; you must be willing to lose yourself, to be possessed by your dream. No man of flesh and blood is Christ. “If anyone says: ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is’ believe him not.” (Mark 13) When Christ comes, it is from within and its knowledge is without uncertainty. No one can ever deny the truth of what this lady saw. The man who stands before you now is full of weaknesses and limitations of the flesh. Tomorrow this lady could hear of some unpleasant happening in my life, but it would not disturb what she saw and heard when . . in vision . . she saw me as the Risen Lord and I gave her the voice of authority. From now on she will have the courage to speak out when she intuitively knows she is right."

"Imitate God as a dear child, by having a controlled dream. Make a composite picture of what you want. Ask no one to aid you or if it is right for you. Desiring life to be full, do what God does. Make a wish and possess it. Turn neither to the left nor the right, but persist, just as God is doing, and nothing can keep you from expressing it."

Be what you wish to be, be what you believe - 1951 radio lecture

"Character is largely the result of the direction and persistence of voluntary attention."

Believe in him - 1969

"The law will not fail you here or in the world of God, for you must believe both stories. I tell you: an assumption, though false, if persisted in will prove itself in the world of Caesar, as it did in her case. I also tell you an incredible story: that you will awaken in your skull and experience a spiritual birth as described in scripture; for you are the one spoken of there."

Believe in it - 1969

"To say: “I AM going to be rich,” will not make it happen; you must believe riches in by claiming within yourself: “I AM rich.” You must believe in the present tense, because the active, creative power that you are, is God. He is your awareness, and God alone acts and is. His name forever and ever is “I AM” therefore, he can’t say: “I will be rich” or “I was rich” but “I AM rich!” Claim what you want to be aware of here and now, and . . although your reasonable mind denies it and your senses deny it . . if you will assume it, with feeling, your inward activity, established and perpetuated, will objectify itself in the outside world . . which is nothing more than your imaginal activity, objectified. To attempt to change the circumstances of your life before you change its imaginal activity, is to labor in vain. This I know from experience. I had a friend who hated Roosevelt, yet wanted him to change. Every morning while shaving, my friend would tell Roosevelt off. He found great joy and satisfaction in this daily routine, yet could not understand why Roosevelt stayed the same. But I tell you, if you want someone to change, you must change your imaginal activity, for it is the one and only cause of your life. And you can believe anything in if you will not accept the facts your senses dictate; for nothing is impossible to imagine, and imagining . . persisted in and believed . . will create its own reality."

"Now, if you keep this law, you don’t have to broadcast what you want; you simply assume that you have it, for . . although your reasonable mind and outer senses deny it . . if you persist in your assumption your desire will become your reality. There is no limit to your power of belief, and all things are possible to him who believes. Just imagine what an enormous power that is. You don’t have to be nice, good, or wise, for anything is possible to you when you believe that what you are imagining is true. That is the way to success."

"It is not what you are, but what you trust God to do, that saves you. And to the degree that you trust God to save you, you will be saved. But he has given us a psychological law to cushion the inevitable blows of life. The law is simple: “As you sow, so shall you reap.” It is the law of like begets like. As you imagine, so shall your life become. Knowing what you want, assume the feeling that would be yours if you had it. Persist in that feeling, and in a way you do not know and could not devise, your desire will become a fact. Grandfather made his fortune by standing on an empty lot and saying to himself: “I remember when this was an empty lot.” Then he would paint a beautiful word picture of the structure he desired there. This is a wonderful technique. You can remember when you were unknown, penniless, and ill, or a failure. Remembering when you were, implies you are no longer that, and your power is in its implication."

Blake: four types of vision - 1968

"If I could become now intense from that three-dimensional or threefold thing and dream intensely and enter my dream, that’s fourfold vision…if I could now start with my images and dream so intensely that I step into the dream. But if I don’t, it doesn’t mean it will not work. If I persist in it so that the dream obliterates what was and becomes the reality, that’s fourfold vision. Now this [world] is fourfold vision. Man has forgotten when he started this dream and he’s entered his dream. As Thoreau said, “The truest life is to be in a dream awake.”"

"So I tell you, you have the power to create and the power to uncreate. So you won’t have to live with an unlovely thing that you’ve brought into the world if you are willing to persist in your dream. One day the dream will become four-dimensional…not four-dimensional, I mean fourfold. Because this world is three-dimensional and this is simply a fourfold vision where what was only a dream has now become the stream of reality. So here in this world of ours now I am looking at you (??) and therefore in a fourfold manner. But if I can see you as images in my world so that when I meet you in Beulah’s night you represent to me not just simply Jan and Bill and so and so, but you represent something else…you are images. For all things transient are but images. And so what when I meet you at night what are you in my dream? What are you trying to tell me?"

"Tonight, you take these four types of being and start on this premise: It is within your experience if you want to experience them. You have experienced two, everyone has. Unless you’re blind you can see, well, that’s single vision. If what you see has another meaning than the one it appears to be, you’re beginning to have twofold vision. If you ever had a dream, you’ve had threefold vision. Now take your images…and one day it’s going to happen. May I tell you, it’s the thrill of thrills to sit down and conceive a thing, and as he said, “The words, the voices, and the scenery began to become alive”…began to become alive. At that he fell asleep, and then the whole thing began to project itself and he became fragmented: All the characters, all the girls came to congratulate him, himself now made visible as a youth, for he is young anyway. All things being relative in this world, he’s younger than my son. I call that young. So here, he’s having…it’s just himself. Now persist in it. Don’t think for one moment it was another. Your desire has been fulfilled, but all things have an interval of time between that and their coming through into the stream of life that we call reality. And it’s breaking upon you suddenly…and then you too will be congratulated on this major to you important thing that has happened in your life. It will happen that way."

Brazen impudence - 1968

"Jesus was not teaching a disciple on the outside how to pray. He was telling you how to adjust your thinking so you will not take No for an answer. In the story the friend knew what he wanted. He assumed he had it and continued to assume he had it until his assumption took on the feeling of reality and he got it. This is how you find God in yourself, by being persistent in your assumption.

Then this story is told to show how you should pray and not lose heart: “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor regarded man. There was a widow in that city who came constantly, asking him to vindicate her against her enemies. At first he refused, then he said to himself, ‘Although I neither fear God nor regard man, yet because this woman bothers me I will vindicate her before she wears me out.’” Again we see the need for persistence in prayer."

"When I decided to marry the lady who now bears my name I applied this principle. At the time I was terribly involved. I had married at the age of eighteen and became a father at nineteen. We separated that year, but I never sought a divorce; therefore, my separation was not legal in the state of New York. Sixteen years later, when I fell in love and wanted to marry my present wife, I decided to sleep as though we were married. While sleeping, physically in my hotel room, I slept imaginatively in an apartment, she in one bed and I in the other. My dancing partner did not want me to marry, so she told my wife that I would be seeking a divorce and to make herself scarce . . which she did, taking up residence in another state. But I persisted! Night after night I slept in the assumption that I was happily married to the girl I love."

"Now, the two stories from scripture that I have shared with you show the importance of persistence. When you pray, do not get down on your knees and pray to any unknown God. Instead, go to bed and dare to assume you are now who you want to be. Fall asleep assuming it is true and you will be on the road to success, for this is how things are brought into being."

Born from above, John 3 1968

"Well, if this statement is true in the Book of Mark, then all I have to do is simply believe it and walk as though it were, and that assumption though at the moment false because it is denied by my senses, it will harden into fact. If I persist in it, it will simply harden into fact. I don’t care what the world will tell you, it works this way. All these precepts must be accepted and taken literally, and they’ll be proved literally. Someone dares to believe. What person in this world can tell me he was born to be what he is? He might have been born into great wealth and was so surrounded by it that he took it for granted, well, that’s an assumption. So he grew into it and he actually believed this is what I’m entitled to. Perfectly all right! But go back in his family, maybe his father wasn’t, maybe the grandfather wasn’t, and they had the vision. If they don’t know the principle that supports it and they lose the money, they will never regain it. But if they know it’s all based upon an assumption that the assumption though false if persisted in will harden into fact, then you can’t take a thing from a man that he really wants. Take it, take the symbol from me, but don’t take from me the knowledge of how it’s done. So take the thing, confiscate everything that I have, but leave me with the knowledge of how I did it, well then, I will still reproduce it. You can’t take from me unless you take from me the knowledge of how it is done."

"It’s stated so clearly in the 11th chapter of the Book of Mark, “Whatever you desire, believe that you have received it, and you will.” That’s how it’s stated in the Book of Mark. Well, if that is true and these are the words put into the mouth of one called Christ Jesus… he said, “I am the truth”… so if this is true and he can only therefore speak truth, well then, take him literally. Is that true? I don’t have to ask myself, “Does something in this world confirm it? Would it be allowed?” In other words, will my friends say maybe, maybe he could or maybe she could? No maybe! I don’t need anyone to (??). Let me go to the Bible. I am told to search the Bible and then try to live according to what I find in the Bible. What I don’t understand accept on faith until I do understand it, and what I do understand apply it. Anyone can understand this, anyone: How would you feel if it were true? How would you feel? Well, I know how I would feel if it were true; well then, feel it, just feel it just as though it were true. I promise you from my own experience, in a way that no one knows, if you persist in that assumption as though it is true, it will become true in your world. Therefore, every man can be made free if he knows this principle.

But I could give you tonight all the money in the world that you think you now need for this month’s expenses. If you don’t know this principle, I would not be rich enough to persist in the giving. So, everyone wants something for nothing, so you give them…and they will not assume that they have, that they are the power that is God…so you keep on giving. Well, no country in this world is rich enough to give and give and give. They can’t do it unless those who receive it are told as they receive it, you don’t have to be on the receiving end; you can become the giver. You can assume that you are important, that you are wanted in this world, and you dare to assume that you are wanted and that you actually can contribute to the world. All of a sudden you move yourself out of one level into another level. But unless man is told that, and if politicians will not tell people that, but tell them, “I’ll take care of you. Vote for me,” they know that they can’t really take care of them, they know that, they know they’re lying. But the average person conditioned as he is, he will accept these gratuities, and you can’t continue it."

By imagination we become - 1951 radio lecture

"By imagination and desire we become what we desire to be. Let us affirm to ourselves that we are what we imagine. If we persist in the assumption that we are what we wish to be, we will become transformed into that which we have imagined ourselves to be. We were born by a natural miracle of love and for a brief space of time our needs were all another’s care. In that simple truth lies the secret of life.

Except by love, we cannot truly live at all. Our parents in their separate individualities have no power to transmit life. So, back we come to the basic truth that life is the offspring of love. Therefore, no love, no life. Thus, it is rational to say that, “God is Love.”"

By water and blood 1956

"For you cannot see it . . you don’t see me in the house, you don’t see me actually occupying and enjoying the life that you know I desire to enjoy. So if I persist in that assumption, to you (if you should know my persistence) you might think I am headed towards a form of insanity. But if tomorrow the house becomes an embodied fact and I the occupant, then you look at it passively and you will still try to justify it by tracing its appearance back to a visible cause. You will see that in some way, unknown to you, my resources were lifted up, that in some way I became more eligible for that house and you will trace it back to a change in my fortune. You will trace it back to a change in something in my world, but you won’t trace these changes back to the unseen assumption in which I dwell."

Call the next witness - 1946

"So no one can fail. How could you fail? Nothing can fail! I only ask everyone to recognize it for what it is and dream nobly. So I would say to everyone tonight, regardless of headlines and all the rumors in the reports, if you have a real urge to bring about a certain objective, don’t give up because of rumors. Just simply persist in your controlled waking dream."

Changing the feeling of I - 1953

"You can start now from scratch and choose the being you want to be. You aren’t going to change the pigment of your skin but you will find your accent or the pigment of skin or your so-called racial background will not be a hindrance, for if a man is ever hindered it can only be the state of consciousness in which he abides that hinders him. Man is freed or constrained by reason of the state of mind in which he persists. If you persist in it, well, then I will say, “persist in it”, but I warn you no one cares and that is an awful blow when a man discovers that no one, no one but himself really cares. So we find ourselves weeping with ourselves in the hope of getting others to weep with us. And what an awful shock when the day arrives we discover that no one really ever cared. They will give us some little listening ear for a moment just as they were passing by, but they really didn’t care."

Christ bears our sins - 1969

"You can put God to the test, and if He proves himself in the testing then you will know God is your own wonderful human imagination. If you want the joy of marriage, a love affair, or a romance, you can test God by assuming the one you desire is with you now. And to the degree you persist in that assumption, it will be yours to experience. Do not be concerned as to how or when it will happen; simply persist in the assumption that it has happened, and when it does you will know who God is."

Christ in man - 1966

"It was so easy for me to create out of nothing, but when I came upon a scene out of the past, that I know to be a fact, I couldn’t change it, for I couldn’t let go of the past. But I persisted and persisted and I was eventually rewarded, as the house was turned into a glorious new hotel and the streetcar into a streamlined bus."

"When you see anything in a dilapidated state it is a past state, old and fixed. But you can change it by throwing the ball. If, at first the ball will not leave your hand because of the obvious facts before you, persist. “How long, O Lord, must I forgive the brother who sins against me? Seventy times seven.” Do it and do it and do it until you succeed in letting go of the past and seeing what you wish in its place. Persist and persist and persist until you can actually let it go.

Jesus tells the parable of the woman who comes to a constable who, although he didn’t fear God or respect man, rose and gave her what she wanted because of her persistence. Her constant comments forced him to give her what she desired. The story is also told of a man who came at midnight wanting something to feed a stranger in his house. The man from above said, “It is late and my children are in bed and I cannot come down and open the door,” but, because the man persisted, he was given what he wanted.

You may think there is no way out of your present turmoil, but I don’t care how fixed that seeming turmoil is, if you persist and persist and persist, he who is from above has to come down and grant your request. Practice repentance on this side of the veil while the work is going on in a hidden manner on the other side, and the wall will become thinner and thinner until the shell is broken and Christ is born. And who is he? I AM. After you break the shell it’s not Jesus and you, there is Jesus only. And on that day the Lord shall be one and his name One.

It was so easy for my friend to create out of nothing. When he threw the ball in the vast desert of emptiness a beautiful home and lawn instantly appeared in Technicolor. Another ball and another beautiful home and yard with people all around, then a golf course and a gate through which he and his friend passes. Now he views pictures of the past . . a home decayed beyond repair and an ancient streetcar. Desiring to change them he discovered that he couldn’t let go of the past. But he persisted and eventually succeeded. He realized that it only took five seconds for him to create out of nothing, but it took so long for him to change the past. Although the ball had left his hand, he felt that it wasn’t going to work, but it did, as the house became a beautiful hotel and the streetcar a streamlined bus. Then the transformation was easy along Miracle Mile, for he had succeeded in taking that which was ancient and having transformed it, he changed the boys and girls into ladies and gentlemen without hesitation. That’s what you and I are called upon to do."

"God is not condemning any man, for they are only states, and we must learn to distinguish between the occupant of the state and the state he occupies. God does not reject man, but the state, and puts man into another state. I know that since this man heard my message years ago he has been daily practicing revision. Revision is repentance and revision results in repeal. When you revise a memory that is fixed you have repealed it. He repealed the dilapidated home and streetcar. Here is the new man fulfilling the 22nd chapter of Isaiah. Although the word “golf ball” is not there, the word “ball”, that which turns upon itself and repeats a memory image, is. But, holding the ball in his hand (the symbol of God’s power and wisdom) he persisted and exercised his power.

You have that power. Test it by bringing a seemingly hopeless case before your mind’s eye and revise it. Persist in revising it until you can let go of that ball by feeling the breath of relief because it is done. If tomorrow does not bring the confirmation, or next week, wait, for it is done. And in a way that no one on earth could devise, it will come into your world and you will see the results of what you did."

"Have you ever lived in an apartment where the walls are so thin you can hear your neighbors whisper? Practice repentance and you wall will become so thin you will hear God, the eternal I AM in you; proclaim what He is. “I AM the everlasting! I AM eternal! I AM self-sufficient! I AM self-contained! I AM God!” He heard the voice so loud and so persistent that he decided to test this power, which symbolized itself as the hand where the ball was placed. Then he created, changed and revised all demonstrations of God’s power that he now knows himself to be."

Christ in you - 1969

"An imaginal act is a creative act, for the moment it is felt, the seed (or state) is fertilized. It will take a certain length of time to be born, so start today by assuming you are the man (or woman) you would like to be and let the people in your mind’s eye reflect the truth of your assumption. Be faithful to your assumption. Persist in this thought, for persistence is the way to bring your desire to pass. You don’t persist through effort or fear, rather knowing that your imaginal act is now a fact; wait for its birth, for it will come."

Christ is your life - 1968

"Everything now formed and called a fact was once only an image in the mind of someone who persisted in that image and projected it onto the screen of space. So do not give up the responsibility of revision, and . . as to influencing others . . may I say you cannot help it. As you walk the street you unwittingly influence people there. You simply cannot stop it."

Control your inner conversations - 1971

"As he read the so-called letters that implied that the family owned the building, he was repeating within himself as he read it. And it took two years. He persisted, and at the end of two years the family owned it; and from then on, you couldn’t stop them. And they are still growing and expanding and expanding and expanding, because he never forgot how to apply the principle. So, he was among those who didn’t come within it. He found it just as easy to do it as to know what to do. And others can find it easy to know what to do but difficult to do it. I’ve seen it time and time again."

Divine signs - 1968

"Now, believe your assumption has its own appointed hour to flower. Persist in your belief and no power on earth can stop it from hardening into fact. This is Christianity!"

Every natural effect - unknown date

"Neville: Now are there any questions?

Question: …a physical upset? Upset when something goes wrong?

Neville: Well, as far as I am concerned, my body is an emotional filter and bears the marks of my prevalent emotions. That’s what bodies are, they’re filters. Emotional filters. And so if you persist in a certain emotion, one of despondency, one of this, one of that, eventually it will take its toll and you’ll find it leaving its mark on these filters. For they are emotional filters. To know, first of all, to know that it is so. And then to stop or try to change these prevalent emotions. You know you have friends who, whenever you meet them, they complain, always complaining. Well, that is almost a permanent state with them. Now, discriminate between the state that they occupy and the occupant. The occupant is not that.

But if they remain in a state long enough, they feel at home in that state. If you pull them out, they’ll feel ill at ease. They want to actually feel that no one understands them, that they are this, they are that. And they delight in feeling that they’re misunderstood. If you try to pull them out, they don’t want it. They revel in it. And there are people who live that way. Well, don’t you follow suit. Tell them what to do, and if they do it, they’ll come out of it. There are people who will call you on the phone and who will say, “Now look here, I want so and so.” Thank you, that’s enough. Oh no, but wait, “I must tell you the facts.” And they’ll hold you there, if you let them, for one solid half hour, giving you all the facts why it can’t be done. So they voiced what they wanted and then they proceed to tell you why it’s impossible. And so they live that way. They go through life that way."

Faith - 1968

"Nature! Define it for me. So, I tell you tonight, you take your dream . . your noble dream, not only for yourself, but for others. What do you want? Ask them. Now, don’t argue the point, what do you want? Well then, in your mind’s eye dare to assume that they have what at the moment their reason and their senses deny and everything about them denies; but you remain faithful to the assumption, and your assumption relative to them. Though false at the moment, if you persist in it, it will harden into fact. Now, you try it. I could give you unnumbered cases, but why repeat them over and over?"

Falsehood is prophetic - 1965

"Falsehood is prophetic. If there is evidence for a thing, does it really matter what others think or wish about the matter? If I could present the evidence that a lie if persisted in will become a fact? This is based upon the simple, simple claim that imagining creates reality. So you could dream this night, not based upon fact, not based upon anything the world will tell you, just based purely upon a wish; and if you can succeed in persuading yourself of the reality of the state imagined, I tell you from experience it will become a fact. That’s why I claim falsehood is prophetic."

Family portrait - unknown date

"But while we are here, we can use the Law that was given us. It’s a simple law, and it will not fail you. But you must believe in Him. And you cannot believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, believing in someone other than your own wonderful human imagination . . not the real Lord Jesus Christ. If you want results, believe in the true Jesus, and the true Jesus is your imagination. And all things are possible to the human imagination, therefore, all things are possible to Jesus Christ, So, imagine yourself (and you name it). Believe in the reality of what you imagine. Persist in that assumption, and that assumption, though at the moment that you made it, it is denied by your senses, if you persist in it, it will become a fact. It will actually harden into some objective state."

"Now, we can make it more sensible: “Before Abraham, was I AM.” All right, that’s perfectly all right, but this changes it somewhat. “Unless you believe that I AM is He, you die in your sins.” (John 8:24) That is, you remain to miss the mark. Well, if you believe that I AM is your own wonderful human imagination, then you can’t miss the mark, because, “All things are possible to Him,” (Mark 9:23) and you simply imagine the state desired, persist in that imaginal state, and it will come to pass."

Feed my sheep - 1956

"Then you will understand the drama when truth faces what is called fact or reason, and when asked: what is the truth . . truth remains silent. He would not answer because fact or reason thinks that a true judgment must conform to the external reality to which it relates. If I say: “Aren’t these lovely” and I mention something that no one present can see, you say my judgment isn’t true, for if it isn’t on something on the outside. Then what I say has no reality. I must be suffering from some illusion. If I persist in it, and you cannot see it, then it is hallucination. But I know from experience that I can take an illusion, and through the medium of an illusion I can relate myself to reality or “Is Real” by walking faithful to what you call my illusion. I simply assume a state knowing I have found it; it is scattered in the nations of the world and finding it in myself as a desirable state, I appropriate it. Walking faithful to my appropriated state I gradually become it. Disentangling myself from that state eventually, I cease to be it, for that which requires a state of consciousness to embody itself cannot be embodied without such a state of consciousness."

Feel deeply - 1969

"Now I urge you to put his teaching into practice. He taught you to simply appropriate a subjective state which is your objective hope, and know it must externalize itself in your world. Do that and it will. Ask in faith, without a doubt, for those who doubt are like the wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. They are double-minded, for they know what they are while desiring to be something else. You must be single-minded by dropping what you believe you are and assuming that you are already what you desire to be, for you cannot desire something you already possess. Look into the wonderful law of liberty which sets you free, and you will see your freedom in the faces of your friends. Persist in your assumption and it must come to pass."

Feeling is the secret - 1951 radio lecture

"The Eye of God makes the future dream a present fact. Not four months to harvest . . look again, If we persist in this seeing, one day we will arise with the distance in our eyes, and all the staying, stagnant nearby will suddenly be of no importance. We will brush it aside as we pass on to our far-seen objective."

Follow me - 1968

"These dreams are foreshadowings . . healthy experiences to encourage her to persist. She has now found the one and only way to the Father. That way is I AM! Believing in the Father, she will find him, and when she does she will find her very self!"

Follow the pattern - 1968

"We are called upon to exercise this power that sacrificed itself and became us. As Blake said: “I know of no other Christianity, no other gospel than the right both of body and mind, to exercise the divine art of Imagination.” By exercising the divine art of imagination, you can prove to yourself that you can go beyond what your eyes, reason, and senses dictate. Exercise this art by daring to assume you are what your reason and senses deny you. Persist, and to the degree you are self-persuaded of its truth, the outer world will change, for it is forever conforming to the belief housed within you."

"In the third chapter of Genesis, wisdom (the serpent) speaks, saying: “Did God say you would die? You will not surely die.” And in that same chapter God declares: “Behold, man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil.” Now, knowing good and evil, the serpent promised that if you would descend and partake of this knowledge, you would awaken like the gods. Simply automatons, knowing nothing, you lived in a dreamlike state until infinite wisdom said: Follow me. So you left the world of innocence, and entered the world of experience to return to the world of Imagination, from whence you started. And when you return, you are all Imagination, and nothing is impossible to you. But before you do, you can test your creative power knowingly. Do you know someone who is in need? Bring him before your mind’s eye and see his need fulfilled. Lose yourself in the thrill, the feeling of joy for your friend. Do nothing on the outside to make it so, simply persist in seeing him in his new state, and no power on earth can stop it from being so. If you think he can oppose you, you are looking at the world of Satan, for there is no physical other. God is one. There is no opposition save that which you create for yourself!"

Fourfold vision - 1968

"We bring all kinds of unpleasant things into our world and live with them until we discover we can un-create them. Just as my friend uncreated the blemishes he had placed there and he cannot tell you the moment they disappeared. You have the power to create and un-create. Having brought something unlovely into your world, you can un-create it if you are willing to create something in its place, and persist until your desire becomes fourfold."

God given talent - 1971

"You can’t just say, I would like to be it; you must assume that you are it, and sleep in the assumption that you are it, for the assumption, though at the moment denied by your senses . . denied by everything round about you, if persisted in will harden into fact. So, you dare to assume that you are the man . . the woman . . that you want to be, and day after day live in that assumption as though it were true, and that assumption will become a reality in the world. Even if you go hungry, it doesn’t matter. No matter what happens, go hungry; but persist in the assumption, and that assumption will objectify itself and become a reality in your world."

God is light - 1967

"On this level you can start from here, right now, and fulfill any dream. May I tell you: you are going to live the life that you are imagining, so imagine well! Imagine the most glorious thing in the world and . . no matter how wonderful it is . . may I tell you it is nothing compared to the being that you really are. Nothing in this world can come close to the being you really are. This world of Caesar is only a tiny section of your infinite being, but while you are here, dream nobly. Dream lovely dreams, for you can realize everything if you are willing to imagine that you have them now. Begin now to imagine you are the man (the woman) you would like to be, and regardless of what happens tomorrow, next week, or next month, if you persist in the assumption that you already are that which you want to be, you will become it in this world of flesh and blood. Everything here will vanish, yes . . but why not test your creative power? Then you will begin to taste the power latent within you, and you will discover that you can conjure out of your own depth things that are seemingly impossible, conjured by the mere act of assumption. If you dare to act and persist in acting as though it were true and it becomes a fact, then you will know the truth of your creative power."

God's almighty power - 1968

"One night in New York City I was on the radio from midnight until 6:00 o’clock in the morning, with a panel of five men and one moderator. When I spoke of imagination creating reality, a professor said: “If that is true, turn this white pencil into a yellow one.” I said: “All right. Bring me some yellow paint and I will do it.” Wanting me to use my imagination and change the pencil instantly, I said: “You know, you are the scoffer of the Bible. I tell you, you shall not tempt the Lord your God.” Then he questioned: “Are you my God?” and I replied: “I didn’t say that. You must find the Lord your God, because you are tempting him. You do not know it, because you haven’t found him yet, but you will.” Every child born of woman will reveal himself as the Son of God, and know he is God’s power and wisdom. And since all things are possible to God, all things are possible to him. Then, confronting himself, when his adversary says: “Turn this pencil into a yellow one,” he will imagine it yellow. If the pencil remains white when he thinks of it, he has not trusted the Lord. But if he persists in having a yellow pencil, by trusting the Lord completely, someone he may admire or does not want to offend, will give him a yellow one."

Good Friday Easter - 1954

"Now this is how a man is born of water and of the spirit. If I told you now that an assumption, though false, if persisted in, will harden into fact, that is a truth, that is water. But water is not enough. You must catch the spirit of it and apply that truth. Well, if I know that if I assume that I am the man I want to be and persist in that assumption, I would gradually become that. If I have that knowledge, that’s marvelous. But not to DO it is to try to bring this being to birth by water only. We are told this is the one who came by water and the blood. Not by water only, but by water and the blood. In other words, I have the knowledge, but I cannot bring to birth my ideal by bare knowledge. I must put it into action, I must DO it. Then when I DO it, I take my savior and I crystallize him by the doing. This is the story of our wonderful Easter."

Grace vs law - 1963

"So I warn you of the law and leave you to your choice…and its risk, because you can use it unwisely. But my hands are now washed of that. I cannot stop it. I can’t be like a mother over you, stating that you should not do this. As you are told in the Book of Deuteronomy: “I place before you this day good and evil, life and death, blessing and cursing; choose life.” He suggests you choose life but he can’t take from you the right, having set you free, to choose anything you want; it is all spread before you. If you imagine something unlovely of another, he’ll come to that. It will boomerang too, but it will come to pass, for you are entirely free to imagine anything in this world, for imagining creates reality. A man imagined . . if he imagines it and persists in that imaginal act, it will come to pass. And that’s the law."

His purpose - 1971

"And so, you need money? No, you don’t. I share with you what I have discovered. All you need is to assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled. That’s all that you need to do, because He is within you. Though asleep, He still grants the wish, for that is His Law. Assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled. Though reason denies it, though your senses deny it, don’t waiver in that assumption. You assume it. Persist in the assumption, and that assumption will harden into reality, if you call reality these concrete things in the world. But really, these are the shadows. The reality was the invisible state that projected itself into what we can the “reality”; but the real Reality was invisible. Have faith. Have confidence in that invisible state. Assume it, “wear” it; it will externalize itself."

I AM the cause - 1969

"And the day you dare to remain faithful to your assumption, it will begin to externalize itself. And when it does you may return to sleep, just as you do in your night dreams. Becoming possessed by the dream you created in your sleep, you observe your own creation; and if it is a noble dream, you can become so puffed up in your own concept that you forget its creator. Or you can create something ignoble and become so immersed in it you believe in its reality. Anything can be created by a mere assumption. When I dared to assume I was the man I wanted to be, I did not discuss it with others; I simply persisted in my assumption and watched it harden into fact. That persistent act taught me that this world was a dream."

"He persisted in this act for two years, when one day a total stranger bought the building for the family, trusting them to pay him back over a period of ten years. That building, which became the foundation of our family’s growth, started in my brother’s imagination. Having nothing on the outside to turn to, my brother had the guts to imagine and believe that his imagination would create his reality. Today, I don’t think you could buy the family out for multiple millions, because their gross business last year exceeded $30 million."

"When the politicians promise change, don’t argue; smile as you have through the centuries, knowing they aren’t going to change anything. The world is made up of infinite states which man falls into unwittingly, or deliberately, as my brother did. He was a poor boy who deliberately moved into the state of wealth. Not knowing how it was going to come about, he simply persisted in his assumption and it hardened into fact."

"Do you like what the mirror reflects back to you and your background tells you? If it is not what you would like to live with, don’t accept it. Rather, look into the mirror of your mind and assume that you are what you would like to be. Declaring that you are now it, don’t look away and forget the image reflected there, but persist in your assumption. Live in that awareness morning, noon and night as though it were true, and no power can stop you from experiencing its truth."

I AM the Lord - 1969

"It’s entirely up to you what you think. If you want to hate someone, you can augment it through intensity and persistence. The same thing is true if you want to love someone; for your human imagination is the only God you will ever know, and he is in his temple . . that temple you are!"

I remember when - 1968

"Yes, Christ will come, but not in the way you were taught. Listen to these words from the 8th chapter of John carefully: ‘If you remain in my word you are my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Questioning this statement, the people said: ‘We are sons of Abraham and have never been in bondage to anyone.” To this Christ replied: ‘He who commits sin is a slave to sin.” You were taught to believe that sinning is when you do something wrong, but I say you are sinning when you miss your mark in life by failing to move! If, tonight you find yourself in a state you no longer desire to express, you must learn how to move into your desired state. If you do not move (mentally) you continue to live your undesirable state, thereby sinning and missing your mark in life! Regardless of what you may desire, persist in feeling its fulfillment, for if you do, feeling will become believing."

"Look at yourself in the mirror and dare to see radiant health and happiness reflected back to you. Then say within yourself: ‘I remember when my reflection was so different.” Persist in seeing your new image reflected there and you will resurrect that state. Your image, your concept of yourself or of another, is in your own wonderful human imagination who is Christ and Christ is the only God. God the Father and Christ your creative power are the same being, therefore he has never left you!"

If you really can believe - 1970

"All I have to do then is to persist in that state. As Shakespeare said in his “Anthony and Cleopatra”:"

"So, can you tonight believe that you are what at this moment everything denies? I don’t care what it is . . can you believe it? Will you persist in that belief as though it were true, and walk tomorrow, though you haven’t a thing to eat, just as though it were true? And persist in it. You don’t have to raise a finger to steal anything in this world, or to do anything of which you would be ashamed. Just simply persist in the belief that you are the man . . the woman . . that you want to be. It will come to pass!"

"An assumption, though false, if persisted in, will harden into fact.

This whole vast objective world was produced by imaginal activities. I don’t care what the world will tell you . . there isn’t a thing you see now in the world that was not once only imagined. The clothes you wear, your haircut, the house in which we are now housed . . everything was once only imagined. And then it was persisted in, and it became a reality."

Imagination - 1969

"I know this much: if you believe to the point of acceptance, life will be marvelous for you, perfectly wonderful for this is the one secret in the world that everyone should aspire to solve, for God is that pure imaging in ourselves. He underlies all of our faculties including our perception, but he streams into our surface mind least disguised in the form of productive fantasy. I sit here and have a daydream. Well, that’s God in action, but then someone breaks it and I forget it. I didn’t occupy it; I simply had a daydream but without occupancy. That’s one of the greatest fallacies of the world, ‘perpetual construction’. It’s a daydream, deferred occupancy. I don’t occupy it, I don’t go in and possess it and make it mine. If I, in my Imagination, could go right in and possess it and make it mine…If I, in my Imagination, could go right in and possess it and clothe myself with the feeling of the wish fulfilled, actually clothe myself with it by assuming that it’s done now, until I feel natural in that assumption and that assumption though at the moment denied by my senses, if persisted in will harden into fact. [a statement made by Anthony Eden at the Guild Hall when he was Prime Minister of England]. So, this is our great secret concerning imagining."

Imagination creates reality - unknown date

"Finally, you must be persistent in attaining your desire. Continue to imagine what you want until you have actually obtained it. You do nothing else to obtain your desire. If it is necessary to take some action, you will be led to do so in a normal, natural manner. You do not have to do anything to “help” bring it about. Remember that it is God, Himself, who is doing the work and He knows exactly how to accomplish it. If you think of your desire during the day, give thanks that it is already an accomplished fact . . because it is!"

"Appearances confirm our former habitual patterns of thought. That which you imagine yourself to be today will project itself in your world tomorrow. Persistence in assuming that you are the person you wish to be, despite your present circumstances, is the only condition imposed upon you to embody that ideal."

"All of us are mentally speaking within ourselves every waking moment. Our inner conversations must match the wish fulfilled if we would realize our desire. If our desire is for a better job and we imagine ourselves being congratulated because we are gainfully employed in a wonderful position, we must also make our inner conversations conform to that end. We must be certain that we are not saying within ourselves something like, “That boss of mine doesn’t believe in promoting people;” or “It would be difficult to find any job at my age, never mind a better one,” or similar statements that would imply that we do not have that which we desire. We must persist in the feeling of our imaginal act by making our mental conversations conform to what we would say had we already realized our aim."