TLDR;
This video summarizes Neville Goddard's teachings on prayer from his book "Prayer: The Art of Believing." It emphasizes the importance of controlled imagination, faith, and understanding the dual nature of consciousness to effectively manifest desires through prayer. The key takeaways include the law of reversibility, the power of subconscious assumptions, and the ability to transmit thoughts and feelings to influence oneself and others. The ultimate prayer is realizing and assuming the feeling of "I am Christ" to transform one's reality.
- Prayer is the master key to earthly problems, requiring a controlled imagination and faith.
- The law of reversibility states that if a realized prayer produces a feeling, that feeling can produce the realized prayer.
- The subconscious mind is crucial for manifesting desires, as it reasons deductively and objectifies results consistent with its assumptions.
- Imagination and faith are the only faculties needed to create objective conditions, attainable when the objective mind ceases active opposition.
- Thought transmission allows for influencing others by mentally representing them in the desired state and engaging in subjective conversations.
- The ultimate prayer is assuming the feeling of "I am Christ" to transform one's behavior and external reality.
Law of Reversibility [0:14]
Prayer is an art requiring practice and a controlled imagination, devoid of vain repetitions. The essence of prayer is faith, which needs understanding to be effective. The universal law of reversibility is the foundation of answered prayers. This law suggests that all transformations of force are reversible. If heat can produce mechanical motion, mechanical motion can produce heat. Knowing how you would feel upon realizing your objective allows you to identify the state to realize. Awaken the feeling that you already possess what you pray for, living in the feeling that your wish is realized. The feeling of the wish fulfilled, if assumed and sustained, must objectify the state that would have created it. This explains why faith is the substance of things hoped for. Assume the feeling of your wish fulfilled until it objectifies itself. A psychological state can produce a physical fact. Believe that you have received what you desire when you pray, and you shall have it.
Dual Nature of Consciousness [4:21]
A clear understanding of the dual nature of consciousness is essential for effective prayer. Consciousness consists of both a conscious and a subconscious part, with the subconscious being the greater and more important aspect. The subconscious is the cause of voluntary action and represents what a man truly is, while the conscious mind represents what a man knows. The subconscious is where everything is known and possible, and it is accessible to all. Our subconscious assumptions influence our behavior and shape our objective existence. Creation is asleep within man and is awakened by his subconscious assumptions. Prayer is the key that unlocks the infinite storehouse of the subconscious. Prayer modifies or completely changes our subconscious assumptions, leading to a change of expression. The conscious mind reasons inductively, while the subconscious reasons deductively, objectifying results consistent with its premises. Mastering the art of prayer requires understanding the laws governing the dual nature of consciousness and realizing the importance of the subconscious. Prayer, the art of believing what is denied by the senses, deals primarily with the subconscious. Through prayer, the subconscious accepts the wish fulfilled and logically unfolds it to its end. The subjective mind is the diffused consciousness that animates the world, and thoughts and feelings fused into beliefs impress modifications upon it. The conscious mind originates premises, and the subjective mind unfolds them to their logical ends. Ideas are transmitted to the subconscious through feelings and from mind to mind through telepathy. The subjective mind is completely controlled by suggestion, and ideas are best suggested when the objective mind is partly subjective, a state described as controlled revery. There must be no conflict in your mind when praying; assume the mood of fulfilled desire, and by the law of reversibility, you will realize your desire.
Imagination & Faith [9:16]
Successful prayers require a rapport between the conscious and subconscious mind, achieved through imagination and faith. Imaginative individuals cast enchantments, and even unimaginative people are influenced by them. Intentional enchantments can be even stronger. Imagination functions in the deep of oneself, where every idea exists independently. The only restraint is the instinct to eliminate all moods other than the mood of the fulfilled desire. Imagination and faith are the only faculties needed to create objective conditions. The faith required is a purely subjective faith, attainable when the objective mind ceases active opposition. It depends on your ability to feel and accept as true what your objective senses deny. Telepathy allows immediate communion with another. To establish rapport, mentally call the subject, focus your attention, and imagine their response. Represent them inwardly in the desired state and imagine them confirming it. Mentally answer them, expressing joy in witnessing their good fortune. This subjective conversation must awaken what it affirmed. Clear thinking and feeling the truth of the state affirmed are more important than a strong will. You attract what you believe to be true, so get into the spirit of these mental conversations. The acceptance of the end wills the means. Mentally talk to your friends as though your desires for them were already realized. Imagination is the beginning of growth, and faith is the substance out of which forms are created. That which exists in latency within consciousness is awakened and given form through imagination. Cures attributed to medicines, relics, and places are effects of imagination and faith. The curative power lies in the spirit in which they are accepted. The subjective mind is completely controlled by suggestion, so whether the object of your faith is true or false, you will get the same results. Confident expectation of a state is the most potent means of bringing it about. Failure is due to antagonistic auto-suggestion. To avoid counter-suggestions, the patient should be unaware objectively of the suggestions made. The most effective method of healing or influencing behavior is the silent or absent treatment. The more completely the objective mind is kept in ignorance, the better the subjective mind performs its functions. The subject subconsciously accepts the suggestion and thinks he originates it. The subconscious mind is the universal conductor modified by the operator's thoughts and feelings. Visible states are either vibratory effects of subconscious vibrations within you or vibratory causes of corresponding vibrations within you. A disciplined person transforms their world by imagining and feeling only what is lovely and of good report. The beautiful idea awakened within shall arouse its affinity in others. The savior is not a man, but the manifestation that would save. Walk in the company of the savior by assuming the feeling of your wish fulfilled. The energy or feeling awakened transforms itself into the state imagined. The joy of harvest now will awaken the harvest now.
Energy & Power [16:53]
Everyone is amenable to the same psychological laws governing hypnotic subjects and is controllable by suggestion. In hypnosis, objective senses are partly or totally suspended, but subjective faculties remain alert. The activity and power of the subjective mind are proportionate to the sleep of the objective mind. Suggestions that appear powerless when presented directly to the objective consciousness are highly efficacious in a hypnotic state. The hypnotic state is simply being unaware objectively. In hypnotism, the conscious mind is put to sleep, and the subconscious powers are exposed to direct suggestion. Anyone not objectively aware of you is in a profound hypnotic state relative to you. What you sincerely believe is true of another, you will awaken within him. No one needs to be entranced to be helped. If the subject is consciously unaware of the suggestion and if the suggestion is given with conviction and confidently accepted by the operator as true, then you have the ideal setting for a successful prayer. Represent the subject to yourself mentally as though he had already done what you desire him to do. Mentally speak to him and congratulate him on having done what you want him to do. Every word subjectively spoken awakens objectively what it affirms. Incredulity on the part of the subject is no hindrance when you are in control of your revery. Bold assertion by you while in a partly subjective state awakens what you affirm. Self-confidence and thorough belief in the truth of your mental assertion are all that is needed to produce results. Visualize the subject and imagine that you hear his voice to establish contact with his subjective mind. Then imagine that he is telling you what you want to hear. If you want to send him words of health and wealth, then imagine that he is telling you, "I have never felt better and I have never had more," and mentally tell him of your joy in witnessing his good fortune. A mental conversation with the subjective image of another must not express the slightest doubt as to the truth of what you hear and say. If you have the least idea that you do not believe what you have imagined, the subject will not comply. Your subjective mind will transmit only your fixed ideas. Only fixed ideas can awaken their vibratory correlates in those toward whom they are directed. In the controlled revery, ideas must be suggested with the utmost care. If you do not control your imagination in the revery, your imagination will control you. Whatever you suggest with confidence is law to the subjective mind, which is obligated to objectify that which you mentally affirm. The subject executes the state affirmed as though the decision had come of itself. Control of the subconscious is dominion over everything. Each state obeys one mind's control. Control of the subconscious is accomplished through control of your beliefs, which is the all-potent factor in the visible states. Imagination and faith are the secrets of creation.
Law of Thought Transmission [20:43]
He sent his word and healed them by transmitting the consciousness of health and awakening its vibratory correlate in the one toward whom it was directed. He mentally represented the subject to himself in a state of health and imagined he heard the subject confirm it. To pray successfully, you must have clearly defined objectives. You must know what you want before you can ask for it and before you can feel that you have it. Prayer is the feeling of the fulfilled desire. You have nothing to do but convince yourself of the truth of that which you desire to see manifested. When you emerge from prayer, you no longer seek because you have subconsciously assumed the reality of the state sought, and by the law of reversibility, your subconscious must objectify that which it affirms. You must have a conductor to transmit a force. The principle of the photophone, or the transmission of the voice by light, helps understand thought transmission. There is a strong analogy between a spoken voice and a mental voice. To think is to speak low; to speak is to think aloud. The principle of the photophone involves reflecting a ray of light by a mirror and projecting it to a receiver at a distant point. Speaking into a mouthpiece causes the mirror to vibrate, modifying the reflected light. The modified light carries your speech as a mechanical correlate, reaching the distant station and impinging on a disc within the receiver, reproducing your voice. "I am the light of the world." The knowledge that I exist is a light by means of which what passes in my mind is rendered visible. Memory proves that my mind is a mirror sensitive enough to reflect a thought. The reperception of an image in memory is similar to the perception of my image in a mirror. Your consciousness is the light reflected on the mirror of your mind and projected in space to the one of whom you think. By mentally speaking to the subjective image in your mind, you cause the mirror of your mind to vibrate. Your vibrating mind modifies the light of consciousness reflected on it. The modified light of consciousness reaches the one toward whom it is directed and impinges on the mirror of his mind, causing his mind to vibrate according to the modification it undergoes, thus reproducing in him what was mentally affirmed by you. Your beliefs, your fixed attitudes of mind, constantly modify your consciousness as it is reflected on the mirror of your mind. Your consciousness modified by your beliefs objectifies itself in the conditions of your world. To change your world, you must first change your conception of it. To change a man, you must change your conception of him. You must first believe him to be the man you want him to be and mentally talk to him as though he were. All men are sufficiently sensitive to reproduce your beliefs of them. If your word is not reproduced visibly in him toward whom it is sent, the cause is to be found in you, not in the subject. As soon as you believe in the truth of the state affirmed, results follow. Everyone can be transformed. Every thought can be transmitted and visibly embodied. Subjective words, subconscious assumptions awaken what they affirm. They are living and active and shall not return void but shall accomplish that which I please. They are endowed with the intelligence pertaining to their mission and will persist until the object of their existence is realized. They persist until they awaken the vibratory correlates of themselves within the one toward whom they are directed. But the moment the object of their creation is accomplished, they cease to be. The words spoken subjectively in quiet confidence will always awaken a corresponding state in the one in whom it was spoken. But the moment its task is accomplished, it ceases to be, permitting the one in whom the state is realized to remain in the consciousness of the state affirmed or to return to his former state. Whatever state has your attention holds your life. Therefore, to become attentive to a former state is to return to that condition. Nothing can be added to man because the whole of creation is already perfected in him. The kingdom of heaven is within you. Man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven, which is your subconsciousness. Not even a sunburn is given from without; the rays without only awaken corresponding rays within. Were the burning rays not contained within man, all the concentrated rays in the universe could not burn him. Were the tones of health not contained within the consciousness of the one whom they are affirmed, they could not be vibrated by the word which is sent. You do not really give to another; you resurrect that which is asleep within him. Death is merely a sleeping and forgetting. Age and decay are the sleep, not death, of youth and health. Recognition of a state vibrates or awakens it. Distance, as it is cognized by your objective senses, does not exist for the subjective mind. Time and space are conditions of thought. The imagination can transcend them and move in a psychological time and space. Although physically separated from a place by thousands of miles, you can mentally live in the distant place as though it were here. Your imagination can easily transform winter into summer. Whether the object of your desire be near or far, results will be the same. Subjectively, the object of your desire is never far off. Its intense nearness makes it remote from observation of the senses. It dwells in consciousness, and consciousness is closer than breathing and nearer than hands and feet. Consciousness is the one and only reality. All phenomena are formed of the same substance, vibrating at different rates. Out of consciousness, I as man came, and to consciousness, I as man return. In consciousness, all states exist subjectively and are awakened to their objective existence by belief. The only thing that prevents us from making a successful subjective impression on one at a great distance or transforming there into here is our habit of regarding space as an obstacle. A friend a thousand miles away is rooted in your consciousness through your fixed ideas of him. To think of him and represent him to yourself inwardly in the state you desire him to be, confident that this subjective image is as true as it were already objectified, awakens in him a corresponding state which he must objectify. The results will be as obvious as the cause was hidden. The subject will express the awakened state within him and remain unaware of the true cause of his action. Your illusion of free will is but ignorance of the causes which make you act. Prayers depend upon your attitude of mind for their success and not upon the attitude of the subject. The subject has no power to resist your controlled subjective ideas of him unless the state affirmed by you to be true of him is a state he is incapable of wishing is true of another. In that case, it returns to you, the sender, and will realize itself in you. Success depends entirely on the operator, not upon the subject. If your fixed idea is not subjectively accepted by the one toward whom it is directed, it rebounds to you from whom it came. Nothing befalls us that is not of the nature of ourselves. A person who directs a malicious thought to another will be injured by its rebound if he fails to get subconscious acceptance of the other. As ye sow, so shall ye reap. Furthermore, what you can wish and believe of another can be wished and believed of you, and you have no power to reject it if the one who desires it for you accepts it as true of you. The only power to reject a subjective word is to be incapable of wishing a similar state of another. To give presupposes the ability to receive; the possibility to impress an idea upon another mind presupposes the ability of that mind to receive that impression. It is the highest wisdom to know that in the living universe there is no destiny other than that created out of imagination of man. There is no influence outside of the mind of man. Never accept as true of others what you would not want to be true of you. To awaken a state within another, it must first be awake within you. The state you would transmit to another can only be transmitted if it is believed by you. Therefore, to give is to receive. You cannot give what you do not have, and you have only what you believe. So to believe a state as true of another not only awakens that state within the other, but it makes it alive within you. You are what you believe. Give and ye shall receive full measure pressed down and running over. Giving is simply believing. For what you truly believe of others, you will awaken within them. The vibratory state transmitted by your belief persists until it awakens its corresponding vibration in him of whom it is believed. But before it can be transmitted, it must first be awake within the transmitter. Whatever is awake within your consciousness you are. Whether the belief pertains to self or another does not matter. For the believer is defined by the sum total of his beliefs or subconscious assumptions. As a man thinketh in his heart, in the deep subconscious of himself, so is he. Disregard appearances and subjectively affirm as true that which you wish to be true. This awakens in you the tone of the state affirmed, which in turn realizes itself in you and in the one of whom it is affirmed. Beliefs invariably awaken what they affirm. The world is a mirror wherein everyone sees himself reflected. The objective world reflects the beliefs of the subjective mind. Some people are self-impressed best by visual images, others by mental sounds, and still others by mental actions. The form of mental activity which allows the whole power of your attention to be focused in one chosen direction is the one to cultivate until you can bring all to play on your objective at the same time. Visual images, mental sounds, and mental actions are creations of your imagination. And though they appear to come from without, they actually come from within yourself. They are projected into space by the same vibratory law that governs the sending of a voice or picture. Speech and images are projected not as speech or images but as vibratory correlates. Subjective mind vibrates according to the modifications it undergoes by the thought and feelings of the operator. The visible state created is the effect of the subjective vibrations. A feeling is always accompanied by a corresponding vibration, that is, a change in expression or sensation in the operator. There is no thought or feeling without expression. This change of vibration persists until it awakens a corresponding vibration in the subject, which vibration then expresses itself in a physical fact. Energy is transmitted and received in a field, a place where changes in space occur. The field and energy are one and inseparable. The field or subject becomes the embodiment of the word or energy received. The thinker and the thought, the operator and the subject, the energy and the field are one. The mental sound you hear in prayer as coming from without is really produced by yourself. The harmony you subjectively hear for others, heard by you alone, is produced by the movements of your thoughts and feelings in the true kingdom or heaven within you.
Good Tidings [35:30]
A very effective way to bring good tidings to another is to call before your mind's eyes the subjective image of the person you wish to help and have him affirm that which you desired him to do. Mentally hear him tell you he has done it. This awakens within him the vibratory correlate of the state affirmed, which vibration persists until its mission is accomplished. As soon as you subjectively affirm that it is done, results follow. Failure can result only if you fail to accept the truth of your assertion or if the state affirmed would not be desired by the subject for himself or another. In the latter event, the state would realize itself in you, the operator. The seemingly harmless habit of talking to yourself is the most fruitful form of prayer. A mental argument with the subjective image of another is the surest way to pray for an argument. You are asking to be offended by the other. When you objectively meet, he is compelled to act in a manner displeasing to you unless before the meeting you countermand or modify your order by subjectively affirming a change. Unfortunately, man forgets his subjective arguments, his daily mental conversations with others, and so is at a loss for an explanation of the conflicts and misfortunes of his life. As mental arguments produce conflicts, so happy mental conversations produce corresponding visible states of good tidings. Man creates himself out of his own imagination. If the state desired is for yourself and you find it difficult to accept as true what your senses deny, call before your mind's eye the subjective image of a friend and have him mentally affirm that you are already that which you desire to be. This establishes in him, without his conscious consent or knowledge, the subconscious assumption that you are that which he mentally affirmed, which assumption, because it is unconsciously assumed, will persist until it fulfills its mission. Its mission is to awaken in you its vibratory correlate, which vibration, when awakened in you, realizes itself as an objective fact. Another very effective way to pray for oneself is to use the formula of Job, who found that his own captivity was removed as he prayed for his friends. Fix your attention on a friend and have the imaginary voice of your friend tell you that he is or has that which is comparable to that which you desire to be or have. As you mentally hear and see him, feel the thrill of his good fortune and sincerely wish him well. This awakens in him the corresponding vibration of the state affirmed, which vibration must then objectify itself as a physical fact. The good you subjectively accept as true of others will not only be expressed by them, but a full share will be realized by you. Transformations are never total. The gift transmitted to another is like the divine measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.
The Greatest Prayer [39:14]
Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire and then you believe it to be true. Every dream could be realized by those self-disciplined enough to believe it. People are what you choose to make them. A man is according to the manner in which you look at him. You must look at him with different eyes before he will objectively change. The perfect man judges not after appearances but judges righteously. He sees others as he desires them to be. He hears only what he wants to hear. He sees only good in others. In him is no condemnation, for he transforms the world with his seeing and hearing. Sympathy for living things, agreement with human limitations, is not in the consciousness of the king because he has learned to separate their false concepts from their true being. To him, poverty is but the sleep of wealth. He does not see caterpillars but painted butterflies to be, not winter, but summer sleeping. Jesus of Nazareth, who scattered the evil with his eye, is asleep in the imagination of every man. And out of his own imagination must man awaken him by subjectively affirming, "I am Jesus." Then and only then will he see Jesus. For man can only see what is awake in himself. The holy womb is man's imagination. The holy child is that conception of himself which fits Isaiah's definition of perfection. It is your own consciousness that you must turn as to the only reality. There and there alone you awaken that which is asleep. Creation is finished. You call your creation into being by feeling the reality of the state you would call. A mood attracts its affinities, but it does not create what it attracts. As sleep is called by feeling, "I am sleepy," so too is Jesus Christ called by the feeling, "I am Jesus Christ." Man sees only himself. Nothing befalls man that is not the nature of himself. People emerge out of the mass, betraying their close affinity to your moods as they are engendered. Therefore, call the perfect one into being by living in the feeling "I am Christ." For Christ is the one concept of self through which can be seen the unveiled realities of eternity. Our behavior is influenced by our subconscious assumption respecting our own social and intellectual rank and that of the one we are addressing. Let us assume the feeling "I am Christ," and our whole behavior will subtly and unconsciously change in accordance with the assumption. Our subconscious assumptions continually externalize themselves that others may consciously see us as we subconsciously see ourselves and tell us by their actions what we have subconsciously assumed of ourselves to be. Therefore, let us assume the feeling "I am Christ" until our conscious claim becomes our subconscious assumption that we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory. There is no greater prayer for man.
