REVIEW - Neville Lecture hall

Tigersoap

The Living Force
The site hxxp://www.xmission.com/~bravo/ is now hxxp://www.nevillelecturehall.com/

This is in big bold letters in case you would have missed it on the old site.

I IMAGINE WHAT I WANT AS REAL IN MY WORLD
I had never heard of his works before so I searched a bit of background on who is Neville Goddard , It’s a bit long (although I shortened it a bit) but it’ s worth reading to understand who the guy was.

Neville Lancelot Goddard was born on 19 February 1905 in St. Michael, Barbados in the British West Indies, to Joseph Nathaniel Goddard (a merchant) and Wilhelmina Nee Hinkinson; Neville was their fourth child in a family of nine boys and one girl.

He came to the United States on board the S.S. Vasari to study drama at the age of seventeen (September 1922) and whilst touring with his dance company in England he developed an interest in metaphysics, after striking up a conversation with a Scotsman who lent him a series of books on the powers of the mind. On his return he gave up the entertainment industry to devote his full attention to the study of spiritual and mystical matters. His interest deepened after he met an eccentric Ethiopian Jew, named Abdullah, who lectured on Esoteric Christianity. Neville went to hear Abdullah, somewhat under protest to satisfy the constant urging of a friend. Neville claimed he was seated in the auditorium waiting for the lecture to begin, when the speaker, whom he had never met came down the aisle from the rear of the auditorium to approach Neville and say - "You are late, Neville!, six months' late! I have been told to expect you." From this introduction, Neville studied with Abdullah seven days a week for seven years, teaching him Hebrew the Kabbalah, and the hidden symbolic meaning of Scripture.)

In his lectures and books, Neville dealt solely with what he called The Law, the technique of creating one's physical reality through mental imagining,….

In his use of The Law, he related how he made a sea voyage from New York to see his family in Barbados during the Depression, without any money of his own. He related how, by the use of imaginal power, he was honorably discharged from military service to continue his lectures during World War II. He gave his audiences in San Francisco in the 1950's and ‘60s accounts of how others had made use of The Law. He discussed it on television in the Los Angeles area, "Learn how to use your imaginal power, lovingly, on behalf of others, for Man is moving into a world where everything is subject to his imaginal power," he taught…
From Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Goddard

His biography already tells a lot about the person and the material.
I have the impression that his biography is faked in parts so he would appear more credible and mystical than he really was.

Also the fact that he was Honorably discharged from military service to continue his lectures by the help of his imagining seems too good to be true but I haven't found another more reliable version of the story yet.


THE MATERIAL

He was probably deeply influenced by the NEW THOUGHT (hxxp://www.sacred-texts.com/nth/index.htm) writers of the beginning of the 20th century.

Basically it’s a YCYOR technique called the LAW where your imagination holds the key to everything you wish for (money, fame and so on…).
It is deeply rooted in Christianity and he often quotes the bible to reinforce the idea.
It’s along the lines of thinking positive thoughts only and banishing the negative ones.
It does not encourage you to do anything except imagining your reality, thus everyone will be happy.

He wasn't channeling anything, he sounded more like a cross breed between a predicator and a new age guru imho.

Man truly is all Imagination, and God is man and exists in us as we in Him - we are the operative power!�
Until we awaken and make this discovery, we are privileged to use a Law, given by God, to "cushion the blows of life." The Law, stated succinctly is this, In Neville's words: "Imagining creates reality,"
THE WEBSITE

Created to pursue the spreading of the NG wisdow.
It started first on Yahoo forum where lectures started to appear in 1992.
From then on new material restored from the original lectures appeared and keeps being unhearted.

The goals of the Nevillelecturehall.com are to keep the legacy of NG alive, to “assist people in workshops, seminars and ‘and other avenues’ and I quote :

To maintain businesses, products, and lectures with positive cash flow, so the models will go into the future hundreds of years with very little or no outside help.
MERCHANDISING

Nevillelecturehall.com is selling anything you desire (probably because you imagined it), from mugs, thongs to T-shirts for dogs.

I particulary like the Boxer short for men called "Invisible Things Are Made Visible"

The lectures are also available in a wide variety of audio formats.

We at the The Neville Project are so excited for you to apply these principles to make your life more fulfilled and happy. We sincerely appreciate each purchase of the products we offer and every donation you give gets us closer to making this world a better, happier, and more fulfilled place within all of us!
LINKS

They all redirect to Yahoo groups within the same community

one fine example is this one :

ImaginalNewsNetwork : This group is for persons who will participate in imaginal activity on a daily basis as they examine events reported in the general media, whether newspapers, TV, radio, Internet or other formats. The aim is to alter the course of observed events that fit the description of horrors of the world of Caesar. You must be ready to participate on an active level.
TESTIMONIES

Well, everyone seems happy to have found such wisdom and it also changed their lives for good.
They deal mostly with material gain (cars, wedding ring, cash flow...).

One caught my attention because it deals with winning the lottery through positive thinking.
It made me think of those spam emails where you're asked to pass it along so your dreams come true.
More on this below.

I looked for other sites about NG and found this one hxxp://www.nevillegoddard.com


OTHER SITES

hxxp://www.nevillegoddard.com is quite new, it was created around 1995 and also wish to share the wisdow of NG

This one site looks more serious, professional and also offer texts from NG.

They offer books from NG which are published by Devorss and company a publisher of numerous new age and Christianity themed books.

In the beginning of the company, Douglass Devross crossed the path of Baird T.Spalding(http://www.devorss.com/spalding.htm) and published his books of his travels to India (LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF THE MASTERS OF THE FAR EAST), which seems to be still considered has a must read book.

So...I looked at the forum and the same Lottery winning through positive thoughts is there which originally appeared on the yahoo group but Different from those proposed by Nevillelecturehall.com.

Who wrote it ? The Moderator of the site himself (his online location states "The Land of Oz")

Looks like anyone (?) can piggy back on the neville's teachings and start a website, forum and start making business then ?!

I can't prove it but I have the feeling that, this particular website is better backed up than the the other one.

Amongst links to other sites or articles we find :

Mitch Horowitz

(hxxp://www.mitchhorowitz.com/) editor in chief of Tarcher/Penguin for the religion, esoterica and metaphysical dep. in New York. He also contributes regularily to various magazines online or not.
From what I gathered he is probably influencial because he is considered knwoledgeable on the occult.

Check out his interview for Coasttocoastam.com where in the middle of the page (Ouija Boards: Caveat Emptor?) he speaks about OUIJA board

hxxp://www.mitchhorowitz.com/understanding-the-occult.html

It is interesting to check it out mainly to understand who that person is, through his articles (The BONO profile cracks me up) and also because the Penguin group is quite a large publisher which is available worldwide.

hxxp://www.blakesociety.org.uk/

I've seen The poet linked with NG on some other page but I still don't understand why, maybe a missed some connection ?!



MY REMARKS

Neville Goddard seems to be a pre-new age figure because many of his ideas (and the NEWTHOUGHT school) is present in many other new-age techniques.
I suppose it attracts people who have a religious background but are interested the metaphysical.
People behind the sites are eager to keep pushing his ideas into the open, not only to make some money but also, promote the YCYOR ideas. Obviously it still has power, to obfuscate, that is.
 
Nice job with this one. So, not only are the practitioners turning this "power" to self-serving, 3D concerns, it's actually encouraged? And advertising even leads with a testimonial of victory for self-service? Wow.

This, again, is not only reminiscent of the goals of magick, but seems to be leading some people directly away from the STO pole and toward the STS. It also reminds me of the "pure of heart" concept I tried to get across in my channel watch articles on Ra. Yes, powers may be there for all to use, but tapping them for self-serving purposes seems to take one further and further away from the possibility of higher STO guidance.

I don't know if Neville himself was into such STS usage of visualization (though his study of Kaballic mysticism might be a clue) or if he was really sincere at any time about his overture to use the power "lovingly, on behalf of others." Regardless, I'm reminded of a corrupt karate master who says publicly, "karate is for defense only," appearing to uphold the art's philosophical code, but actually encourages students to go out and "kick ass" as a kind of advertisement for his dojo.

It may be a case of followers corrupting the master's teaching, like the stereotypical Hollywood storyline of a student who perverts the master's teachings and uses them for "evil." I don't know.
 
Thanks Adpop.

I am not suprised that we can find techniques for STS ideas being promoted.
I mean it's what people are looking for in the first place : comfort, security, money and so on.

I haven't read a lot of Neville's work in it's full because it is quite boring to be honest but I doubt he was really that innocent to what he was lecturing about, it's just a feeling but when I read his works I always have that predicator voice coming up. Just my opinion obviously.
 
Hello,

To answer some questions -

The reason there is a link to the William Blake Society on nevillegoddard.com is due to both of those individuals sharing the same core philosophy: which is that our I AMness, or awareness of being is God in action. They also shared the belief in the transforming and creative power of the human Imagination. Neville also constantly quotes William Blake in his books and lectures.

The lottery winning testimony, which is not the only one btw, originally appeared on the first Neville Goddard group and on nevillegoddard.com, and as far as I can tell, is genuine. I know the individual in question (only thru long term internet communication btw, not personally) and I can vouch its authenticity.

Mitch Horowtiz is an excellent writer/publisher of occult material and is now the editor of Tarcher/Penguin.

Best wishes,
Olaf S.
 
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