AWAKE, O SLEEPER

Neville Lecture #21                          Neville Goddard                               Date: 01/08/1968

252 Neville Lectures to Change Your World

The Bible is addressed to the Imagination - which is spiritual sensation - and only immediately to the understanding, or reason.

In the fifth chapter of the Book of Ephesians we are told to: "Awake O sleeper and rise from the dead." Now, reason could never comprehend these words, but the Bible is calling upon Imagination to awaken, telling Him that he is sleeping, dreaming his world into being. But Imagination, now a rational being, does not know this and therefore cannot believe it.

All of the commands of scripture are addressed to and fulfilled by the Lord, who is all Imagination! It is your own wonderful human Imagination who is called upon to "Rouse thyself! Why sleepest thou, O Lord? Awake!" (Psalms 44)

The greatest confession of faith man has ever received through revelation is called the Sh'ma. It is recorded in the 6th chapter of Deuteronomy as: "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one." The Lord spoken of here is the Elohim, which is a compound unity of one, made up of others. I know, for I have stood in His presence. He embraced me and incorporated me into His body. Since that day back in 1929, I have been one with the body of the Risen Lord.

I believe we are the gods spoken of in the 82nd Psalm, which is quoted in the tenth chapter of John as: "God has taken his place in the Divine Assembly. In the midst of the gods he holds judgment, saying: 'You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you shall die as men and fall as one man, O princes.'" You will notice that this statement begins in the past, claiming men are gods, sons of the Most High. Then the future is prophesied as: "You will fall as one man."

This fall was not a punishment, but a plan - a pretense by an assumed appearance in order to conceal the real intention, which is an expansion of further existence and ultimate birth! Having chosen us in Himself before the foundation of the world, one man fell, fragmenting itself into the unnumbered men that now appear. We are the gods in disguise who do not recognize our brothers, or ourselves.

In the beginning of Genesis it is said: "The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon man, and while he slept took one of his ribs. God made a woman from the rib and brought her to the man who said, 'This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, for she is taken out of Man.' Therefore, man must leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, as they become one flesh."

This statement is myth when viewed through the eyes of reason, but it is true. You will understand it perfectly when it is revealed in you.

Having had the vision, I say you have no body distinct from your soul. The body that scripture calls Eve is a portion of the soul discerned by the five senses. The physical body you wear, be it male or female, is emanated by Eve. She is the Jerusalem from above, who is the emanation of the Lord.

Although hidden from view, you are so one with Eve that if you were struck and felt pain, you would proclaim, "I am in pain," and I am is God's name. Imagination is joined to you and you are joined to me by our emanated Jerusalems. The Jerusalem from below bear's sons into slavery, and the Jerusalem from above bears sons into freedom

When questioned by the Jews, Jesus said: "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again." Not understanding, they said, "It has taken us forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days?"

That's how the mind of man thinks. Thinking of an external thing made with human hands, they did not know that Jesus was speaking of the temple of the soul. Paul knew this, for he questioned the Corinthians, saying: "Do you not know that you are the temple of the Lord and the spirit of God dwells in you?"

Eve is your temple, your emanation, and your wife till the sleep of death is past. She is your soul, which God (Imagination) cleaves to and has become one with. There is no other Eve.

Falling in one body, you entered your cave and met your savior in the grave. Some found a female garment there and some a male, woven with care. I found a male garment. My wife found a female garment, but she is not female and I am not male, for in Christ there is no male or female, no bond or free, no Greek or Jew, no black or white. Being one with Christ, you - all imagination - are above the organization of eternal death.

In his great work called "Jerusalem," Blake speaks of the sleep of Albion and his passage through eternal death - which is life as we know it. This world seems to be endless and without purpose, for when a rich man dies, he leaves his wealth behind. And when a poor man dies he is placed in a pauper's grave. But given the same length of time, their bodies will turn into dust and bones, and no one will be able to distinguish one bone from the other.

Regardless of what man seems to achieve here, the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of the Lord. And the strength of man here is the weakness of God. Yet this world has purpose, for man has to pass through it in order to enter into eternal life.

In Blake's poem, "Jerusalem," he tells of the sleep of power as it passes through eternal death, and of its awakening into eternal life, saying: "This theme calls me in sleep night after night and every morn awakens me at sunrise. Then I see the Savior over me, spreading his beams of love and dictating the words of this mild song."

In his letter to Mr. Butts, Blake spoke of this poem, saying: "I can praise it because I dare not pretend to be anything other than the secretary whose authors are in heaven. It's the grandest poem this world contains, for the spirit of truth dictated it morning after morning, sometimes twelve, sometimes twenty or fifty lines at a time. What now seems to be the labor of a long life was produced without labor or study and quite often against my will."

This is how the poem begins: "Awake! Awake O sleeper in the land of shadows, wake! Expand! I am in you and you in me, mutual in love divine."

The being in whom we were contained deliberately fell into this state called death, for the purpose of expansion into glorious life. His story is told in the parable of the grain of wheat, which unless it falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much. Here is the story of the mystery of life through death. Being all Imagination, if I want an extension of reality, I must contract and die. I must empty myself of the glory I had with the Lord, and enter the one body, which falls.

The world tells us the fall was a mistake but that is not so, for God planned everything as it has come out and as it will be consummated. One day you will awaken, your mask will come off, and you will be enhanced beyond your wildest dreams as you awaken to eternal life. And when we all awaken, we will know each other more intimately than is possible to know one another here. My wife and I often think the same thoughts; but no matter how intimate we may be, we cannot know the intimacy that will be ours when these garments are taken off and we are once more awakened into eternal life.

Everyone will awaken in time, but not by any effort on their part while here. Your awakening was predetermined and it will happen on time, regardless of whether you are shining shoes or employing a million people. Our government undoubtedly has a million people on its payroll, with the president as its head. So in a technical sense he employs a million; yet tonight the one who shines his shoes could awaken, while the president continues to sleep, yet no one can die. That is the glorious part!

Your body is your emanation. Cut off its head and - believing you are it - you will instantly renew the same body, but with no missing parts. You will step out of the garment you now wear and men will call you dead; but you will have just stepped into another garment with no bridgework, no fillings in your teeth, no gray hair, no need to wear glasses or a hearing aid, to discover you are a young man (or woman) about twenty years of age. You will be in a terrestrial world just as real as this one, and continue your journey until you awaken.

I have awakened and know that when this garment is taken off I will no longer be in this world of death. This world, however, does not terminate at the point where the senses cease to register it.

You cannot follow those who are called dead, because of your limitation. But your friend who emanated the body you knew here is not dead to himself. Rather, he now emanates the same body, only young, where he continues to dream his world into being, not even knowing that he has gone through the door called death.

It's like leaving one room and entering another. Your friend is in the same fabulous, terrestrial world which the mysteries call eternal death, and from which he will one day awaken into eternal life. Having descended and entered the world of death, one day he will awaken to discover he has expanded and fulfilled his purpose. God made a limit to contraction and opacity, but not to translucency or expansion.

In the 1st chapter of Genesis it is said: "God made man in his own image. Male and female made he them." The 2nd chapter changes this somewhat, but it is not a contradiction if you see it through imagination.

"The Lord God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his mouth the breath of life, and man became a living soul."

Man's destiny is to become a life-giving spirit, not just to remain an animated body. The purpose of your fall is to transform you into an entirely different world, one where you are a life-giving spirit, animating everything around you. There you will stop time at will and start it again. That is your destiny. Now, reason cannot understand this, and you can't blame anyone who has not had the vision. Scholars believe the Bible is all myth, and certainly it is. If you take my body apart you will find no rib that is missing, yet scripture tells us one was removed.

The word rib is the Hebrew word "tselah," (TSAY-la), which literally means, a portion of the soul that emanates, that leaves everything and cleaves to his emanation until they become one flesh.

You have cleaved to and become your emanation so completely you believe you are it. When you introduce yourself you always say, "I am" before you give your name. And if you are hurt you say, "I am in pain." Always calling upon the name of God, you don't say, "God is in pain," but "I am," and that is God's name forever, because the gods came down.

Now let me repeat: I not only believe in God, I believe that all men are gods and that collective Man is God. I believe that when you hurt men, you hurt God. And when you hurt men you hurt yourself, because you are God and there is no other.

In spite of the horrors of the world, God is love! When you stand in His presence you can't feel anything but love. And when love embraces you and you become one with God, you will know an ecstasy you have never known before. And with this union, you are incorporated into His body and know yourself to be all love!

"He who is united to the Lord becomes one Spirit with him." (Romans 6) When you are incorporated into the body of love, you are united with the one body, the one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all, knowing that you are He. Then you will awaken as the one who commanded the fall, for you will have fulfilled your purpose.

You will awaken in this world of death knowing you are God, the Father of God's only begotten son, David. It is recorded that in the spirit David called Jesus "Adonai", which is the Hebrew name for Father (Lord). (In Hebrew the name YAD HE VAU HE [pron. "YOD HEY VAV HEY" is so sacred the word "adoniyah" [corr. adonai, pron. "a-do-NAI"] is substituted.) In the spirit, David will call you father, and you will have fulfilled the 2nd Psalm. It is David who says: "I shall tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, 'Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee.'"

One day when your time here is fulfilled, you will awaken and be born from above. Then David will appear and the entire drama of scripture will unfold within you, revealing your true identity. Then you will know you are one of the gods who agreed to dream in concert.

Now dreaming in concert, you and I see a building identically. You may see it through the eyes of one who would like to own it. I may see it through the eyes of one who admires it with no desire of possession, but we see the same building. We see the same streets and recognize the same number so we can go where we want to. But the world is a dream and we are the gods who agreed to dream in concert in order not to have any confusion. Had we agreed to dream individually and all play solo parts, this would be the wildest, maddest play possible!

I invite you now to go all out and imagine you really are the man or woman you want to be. But do not doubt, for the minute doubt steps in, a mental division descends, as doubt is the devil. If you will believe that regardless of what the world tells you, you are the man you want to be, you won't go mad. Instead, you will become that man. Your dream world will rearrange itself to fit your new image into it without any difficulty or help on your part.

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.

When the gods came down in the likeness of men, some found a female garment and some a male. Entering death's door with those who enter, and lying down in the grave with visions of eternity, the gods are dreaming the dream of life until they awake and see Jesus and the linen clothes which were woven with the cooperation of a male and female. These were emanations of the soul which is neither male nor female.

"As it was appointed for all men to die once and after that comes the judgment, so Christ was offered once for the sins of many and will appear a second time, not concerning sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." (Hebrews 9)

You may hear of someone's death, but he has not died to himself, as it was appointed that all men would die only once. We died when we left our heavenly home to come down and assume the limitations of the flesh. At that moment we were united with Christ in a death like his, with the promise that we would be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Your death is over. When you go through the gate called death, you don't die, but instantly emanate a young, unaccountably new body. Most of those who go through the gate do not even know it. They simply take their young body for granted, just as they do everything here.

All day long a miracle goes on in your body. Unknown to your conscious reasoning mind, tonight's dinner is being converted into blood, tissue, and bones. No man can make a drop of blood, grow a new heart, or make one hair on his head.

The other day it was recorded that a doctor had stated that his patient could not live three weeks without a heart transplant. He operated on the man, gave him a new heart, and the man lived 18 days! No matter what the doctors do, no man will live one hour beyond his span of time as told us in the Sermon on the Mount. "Who by being anxious can add one hour to his span of life?" Yet man goes blindly on believing he can. All he is doing is publicizing his surgeons and the medical world. You are not the body you wear, so when its heart, liver, or lungs wear out, you will simply step out of it and emanate a new one.

Made in the image of God, you are God's prodigal son who came out from the Father. You have cleaved to the body you wear so tightly, you have become one flesh with it, so that whenever it is hurt, you are hurt. That is the Adam and Eve of scripture, therefore, it is not a myth. Your emanation does come out of you, but not from a rib. You have no body distinct from your soul. Your called body is a portion of soul discerned by the five senses, the chief inlet of soul in this age. You are now a living soul, destined to become a life-giving spirit.

Having fallen, you emanate a body, which is necessary to function in this world, and you automatically do it with not one part missing. I meet those who have left this time/space and do not even know they have died.

If I told you right now that you are not only sound asleep but you are also dead, you would think me mad and the possessor of a demon. That's what they said of the Risen Christ. "Why listen to him, he is mad and has a demon." Taking up stones to stone him they said, "We stone you for blasphemy, for you being a man claim you are God." Then he replied, "Is it not written in your law, 'I say you are gods?' If he calls you gods to whom the word of God came, then why do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world that he blasphemes?" (John 10)

Jesus never claimed he was greater than another. Those who heard him did not know they were God, and he was only trying to awaken them to the memory that they were the sons who came down. He said: "Go tell my brothers that I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."

He never claimed that his Father differed from theirs or that his God was different, but they could not understand the mystery. They tried to grasp it with the reasoning mind, yet everything takes place in the Imagination, which is God. "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)

Now let us go into the silence.

www.NevilleLectureHall.com
Preserving Neville's Wisdom and His Words
The Neville Project