Our Real Beliefs

As we explore one of Neville Goddard’s most insightful lectures, we discover a profound truth about the nature of belief and its direct relationship to our experiences. Neville’s message challenges our conventional understanding of belief, showing us that what we truly believe shapes the reality we experience, whether we’re conscious of it or not.

The Nature of Our Real Beliefs

“Our real beliefs are what we live by,” Neville declares, emphasizing that genuine belief and knowing are fundamentally the same thing. This isn’t about what we claim to believe or what we wish we believed – it’s about the deep-seated convictions that govern our daily experiences and shape our world.

Consider the difference between intellectual acceptance and genuine belief. Many of us might intellectually accept certain ideas or principles, but our real beliefs are revealed through our experiences and reactions to life’s circumstances. These are the beliefs that operate below the surface of our conscious awareness, influencing every aspect of our lives.

The TV Writer’s Story: A Testament to Real Belief

One of the most compelling examples Neville shares is the story of a television writer whose experience beautifully illustrates the power of real belief. Initially earning $2,500 per script, which later increased to $3,000, the writer’s mother casually mentioned that she always assumed he was earning $35,100 per script. What’s fascinating about this story isn’t just the end result – that the writer eventually secured a contract for exactly that amount – but the mechanism by which it occurred.

The mother’s assumption, her real belief, worked behind the scenes, bypassing all apparent obstacles and limitations. She didn’t strategize or network; she simply held an unwavering belief. This demonstrates a crucial principle: our real beliefs operate independently of our conscious efforts or strategic planning.

The Hidden Power of Assumption

The lecture reveals how assumptions, when deeply held, become our reality regardless of current circumstances. The writer’s story continues with his own experiments in changing his producer’s behavior through assumption. He managed to transform a reserved producer who rarely offered praise beyond the word “good” into someone who enthusiastically proclaimed scripts as “great, just great,” “terrific,” and ultimately “absolutely sensational.”

This transformation wasn’t achieved through external manipulation or improved writing techniques. Instead, it came through the writer’s persistent inner hearing of the desired praise, demonstrating how our inner experiences eventually manifest in our outer world.

The Egypt Story: Delayed But Not Denied

Another remarkable account involves a woman who desired to visit Egypt but lacked the means to do so. Seven years after hearing about the power of imagination and belief, her desire manifested in an unexpected way – through winning a fully paid trip that included Egypt in its itinerary. This story illustrates several important points:

1. The timing of manifestation isn’t always immediate
2. The way our desires manifest may differ from our expectations
3. Real belief persists even when external circumstances show no sign of change

The Simplicity of True Belief

One of the most striking aspects of Neville’s teaching is illustrated through the story of a young boy and a broken television antenna. While adults struggled with the “reality” of a non-functioning TV, the child simply placed his hands on the television, declared his imagination would fix it, and the picture appeared. This demonstrates how uncluttered belief, free from adult complications and doubts, can produce immediate results.

The Scientific Nature of Belief

Neville’s approach to belief isn’t mystical or mysterious – it’s practical and demonstrable. He encourages testing these principles, starting with simple experiments. The story of the writer who resolved his cat’s destructive behavior through imagination provides a perfect example of this scientific approach. Within 48 hours of imagining a new scenario, the cat’s behavior completely changed, demonstrating that even seemingly fixed problems can be resolved through the proper application of belief.

Breaking Through Mental Barriers

Understanding our real beliefs often requires us to confront uncomfortable truths about what we actually believe versus what we think we believe. The lecture points out that many people claim to believe in certain principles but their experiences tell a different story. This disconnect between proclaimed beliefs and actual beliefs is often the root of our frustrations.

The World as Response

Neville emphasizes that the world is essentially infinite response – an echo of our real beliefs. This concept challenges the common perception that external circumstances dictate our experiences. Instead, he suggests that our experiences are always conforming to our real beliefs, even when we’re not consciously aware of what those beliefs are.

Beyond Surface Understanding

The lecture points out that everyone present will hear the same words but at different depths of understanding. This multi-layered nature of understanding reflects how our real beliefs operate at various levels of consciousness. Some grasp these principles at a surface level, while others experience them at deeper, more transformative levels.

Practical Implications

Understanding our real beliefs has profound practical implications:

• It shifts responsibility for our experiences from external circumstances to our own consciousness
• It provides a practical method for changing unwanted conditions through belief revision
• It explains why some of our conscious efforts at change fail while other changes seem to occur effortlessly

The Ultimate Freedom Perhaps the most liberating aspect of Neville’s teaching about real beliefs is that it places the power of change firmly in our own hands. We’re not victims of circumstances but creators of our experience through our real beliefs. This understanding offers true freedom – the freedom to choose and change our beliefs and, consequently, our reality.

The Natural State

Tonight, before you sleep, try this new perspective: everything is always working out for you. Not because you’re forcing it to, but because – like every story shared in this lecture – that’s simply how life unfolds when we align with our real beliefs. Your only task is to hold this truth as naturally as you hold the belief that the sun will rise tomorrow.

Conclusion

Neville Goddard’s lecture on “Our Real Beliefs” provides a comprehensive framework for understanding how our deeply held beliefs shape our reality.

By recognizing that our experiences reflect our real beliefs rather than our professed ones, we gain the power to create meaningful change in our lives.The various stories and examples he shares serve as practical demonstrations of this principle in action, offering both inspiration and instruction for those seeking to apply these teachings in their own lives.

Understanding our real beliefs isn’t just about positive thinking or wishful hoping – it’s about recognizing the causal relationship between our deeply held convictions and our lived experience. When we grasp this fundamental truth, we begin to see that changing our lives isn’t about fighting against external circumstances but about examining and adjusting our real beliefs.