FREEDOM 

Neville Goddard 10-28-1968 

When asked: “What is the greatest of all the commandments?” God answered: “Hear O Israel,  the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Accept this commandment! Live by it and you will be free  from all secondary causes. There is only one God. He is the father of us all who is above all,  through all, and in all. He is a universally diffused individuality whose name forever and ever is I  AM. You may not be aware of who you are, what you are, or where you are; but by being aware,  you are mentally saying I am. Every conscious being says I am; and if there is only one I am,  then I am one individual – diffused! I am the sole cause of all that is. All things were made  through imagining, and without awareness was not anything made that was made. 

In the 8th chapter of Matthew, one of the miracles of scripture is recorded as an acted parable. It  is said that when he entered the boat, he fell asleep and a great storm arose; so they woke him  saying: “Lord we perish, save us.”And he said: “Why are you afraid, O men of little faith?” Then  he rose and rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm. If there is only one cause,  then he who quelled the wind and the sea is the one who caused the storm. There cannot be  another. If there is confusion in your life, and you resolve it in your imagination, and the world  bears witness to what you have done – you caused the change. And since there is no other cause,  then did you not cause the confusion also? There is only one God and Father of us all who is above all, through all, and in all. If He is in every being who says I am, and there is only one  God, no one can accuse another; for God’s name is not he is, but I am. No matter what appears  on the outside, I am its cause. Assume full responsibility for the things you observe, and if you  do not like what you see, know you have the power to change them. Then exercise that power  and you will observe the change you caused. If you are truly willing to assume that  responsibility, you are set free. 

If this universal diffused individuality is in all, then the incarnation must be regarded in a  different light. We were taught that the incarnation took place 2000 years ago by a unique  individual, who was the incarnate God. But I tell you: humanity is the incarnation. The central  figure – personified as Jesus Christ – is the perfect archetypal figure everyone must express. He is  called the true witness, the first-born of the dead. Now incarnate in your body of flesh and blood,  you are dead in the sense that you have forgotten that you are the creator of all things, and do not  see yourself creating anything you observe. The morning paper tells of what she, he, and they,  are doing, and you cannot relate their actions to anything you have done; yet there is only one  cause, only one God, who is resident in you as your awareness, your own wonderful human  imagination. 

The parable tells us that God entered a boat and fell asleep. Humanity is that boat, the ark where  God the Father creates as he slumbers. Even though you do not know the people you read about,  if the reading disturbs you, you are the cause of that conflict. All imagination, I am dreaming,  causing the misfortune and unhappiness of those whose lives I have touched with feeling. When  you awaken and recall your dream, do you always know the people there? Do you know the  children that were yours in the dream? The people who frightened you? You never saw them  before, so how could they be other than that which you caused? You do not recognize them, yet 

you – the dreamer – caused them to do what they did. The same thing is true here. If the actions  of a seeming other cause a motor response in you, even though you do not know him, your  awareness is the cause of the storm. But when you awake, memory will return and there will be a wonderful calm. 

God, the universally diffused individuality, is asleep in everyone. His transcendent revelation is  personified as one called Jesus Christ. Thus personification awakens the memory in you as to  who God the Father really is. God did not break up the I am and give each one of us a portion of  himself. He gave each one, individually, his whole being. I am cannot be divided, and I am God  the Father. If you haven’t yet discovered this, I am still asleep. In order to discover your  fatherhood, you must find God’s son, foretold to be yours. While asleep in the state of Saul, you  do not recognize him; and when you ask: “Whose son are you, young man?” he answers: “I am  the son of Jesse, the I am.”When you awake and recognize God’s son, David, are you not Jesse?  Are you not God, whose name forever and ever is I am? 

It takes David to reveal you to yourself; yet you were his father before you fell asleep. Now  dreaming your life into being, you fight against seeming others, calling them devils and Satan.  You endow your shadow world with causation, thereby becoming a divided being, when God is  not divided. There is no devil. There is no Satan. There is no being outside of your own  wonderful human imagination. 

“I, even I am he. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal and none can deliver out of my  hand.” (Deut. 52) “I am the Lord and there is no other God. I form the light and I create darkness.  I make the weal and I create woe. I am the Lord and there is no other; besides me there is no  God.” (Isaiah 45) He who creates the evil, creates the good, the weal and the woe, the light and  the darkness. He who kills is he who makes alive, and he who wounds is he who heals and there  is no other God. If you really believe you are the one spoken of here – that it is you who create  the evil, the good, the weal and the woe; that none can deliver out of your hand – then you are set  free. You will never again believe in another, but know that your life is self-created. That you  create the storms, as well as the peace and the calm. No longer will you believe he, she, or they,  did it, for you will recognize them as reflections mirroring either the storm or the peace and calm within you. 

Having entered the boat (called the ark) God fell asleep and there he remains until the dove  brings him word that the flood of illusion is over. Dramatized as an acted parable, it is said that  Noah put forth his hand and brought the dove into the ark with him. This is beautiful imagery  and true. In my vision the dove descended through what appeared to be crystal clear water. He  seemed to float, using his wings like a swan. Lighting upon my extended finger he smothered me  with kisses as the vision came to its end. 

Because everyone is the whole God, everyone will personify the perfect archetypal specimen  called Jesus Christ. Lost in confusion, not knowing that humanity is the incarnation, men think of  this archetypal specimen as the incarnate God. Yet the one grand commandment is: “Hear O  Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” The word Israel means: the man who rules – not like a  god, but as God, because he knows he is God. And the word translated “Lord” is I AM. Now let  me translate it for you: Hear, O man who rules as God, the I AM, our I am is one I AM. We are 

not a bunch of little I am’s. Our I am is the one I AM who is God the Father. If this is true, then  God cannot be divided; and the whole of him is wherever you are, wherever I am. There is no he,  she, or they, in I am! 

If you will completely accept this, you will set yourself free. You may not immediately see the  effect of what you have done in your imagination; but it must come, because there is no other  creator to stop it. All things are made through awareness, and without it is not anything made  that is made. It is imagination who claims: “I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal. I form the  light and create darkness. I form the evil and I make the good, the weal and the woe, and there is  no other.” 

When the Jesuits speak of Satan, devils, and demons, it is because they do not know the greatest commandment. All of the Ten Commandments are based upon the negative thou shall not,  except one, which is: “Love thy father and mother.” The commandment found in the 6th chapter  of Deuteronomy, with ten words, contains all Ten Commandments in an entirely different  presentation as: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” 

Maybe you cannot accept my words now. Perhaps you feel the need to blame another – to have a  scapegoat and believe the cause to be something you ate or drank – but why did you do it? What  caused you to do exactly what you did? A disturbance in you! The storm in you caused the gland  to be out of kilter. The gland cannot be the cause of your distress, but your dream can. The  world, not knowing the single cause, will try to find something on the outside; but there is no  secondary cause! 

I received a letter this week from a lady who shared this self-revealing dream, saying: “I am in a  place totally devoid of comfort. There are no curtains at the windows or rugs on the floor. My  sons – in clean overalls – are sitting in straight back chairs against one wall, while my daughters – in starched, long cotton dresses – it opposite them. Looking much like the Quaker children here,  my children appear to be without emotion, without feeling, or creative abilities. We are waiting  for father! A young boy enters with a message stating that the work which had to be done in the  children is finished, and therefore the father is not returning. “Then the scene changes and we are  in a farm house. I look out the window to see fields of golden grain ripe for harvest. My eldest  son, now radiantly happy, comes running into the house exclaiming that, for the first time, he has  created for himself. His entrance was like magic, transforming the room, as all of my children  began to use their talents – creating, laughing, animated, and alive. Before, like automatons, they  had only obeyed the father by executing his will; but now that his work is finished, he has  withdrawn himself, and they have become creators in themselves. 

What a beautiful experience. She saw the world in miniature form. The father’s withdrawal is  recorded as his death. He tells us: “Unless I die thou canst not live, but if I die I shall arise again  and thou with me. A little while and you will see me no more; again a little while and you will  see me as yourself.”Having withdrawn to dwell within, it is from there that you move, and not  from without. All that I – the father – am, you will know yourself to be. If God is the father of all  life, then you are the father. If he is a creator, you are a creator. Whatever God is, you will know  yourself to be.

Now, God comes out of the desert with signs and wonders. The most outstanding sign is that of  the fiery serpent, for everyone who sees it, lives. As your journey out of Egypt begins, the fiery  serpent is released when the curtain is torn from top to bottom and all of the rocks are split. You  are destined to fulfill scripture and, like me, know from personal experience that you are God the  Father. I have shared my visions with you, telling you how true and wonderful the story of  scripture really is and that there is only one way of salvation. Although unnumbered volumes  have been written giving you many ways of redemption, there is only one. I am the way, and  there is no other way. 

Matthew tells the story of his awakening in dramatic form. Claiming “they” awoke, saying:  “Lord, we perish, save us.” It is the unearthly wind which awakens you, and you are its cause.  Awakening within your boat (your ark) you leave it behind as you enter an entirely different  world as God the Father. Having purposely imposed the restriction of death upon yourself,  knowing that you had the power and the wisdom to overcome it, you laid yourself down and fell  asleep in the ark. And when the time is fulfilled, you awaken within that ark, come out, and  witness the symbolism of your birth from above. A few months later you fulfill the 89th Psalm as  you find David and your memory returns. 

In the Book of Samuel, Saul (the demented king) made a promise to anyone who would bring  down the giant opposition to Israel that he would set his father free. (This is done by discovering  the father of the son.) So Saul asks David to identify his father, and David says: “I am the son of  Jesse, the I AM.” So the father is set free when David brings down the giant, who – in your sleep  of death – opposes you, and your memory returns as to who you really are. 

Although I answer to an earthly name and sign my checks with it, I know who I am! I can tell  you who I am in the hope that you will believe me; but in truth, I am only addressing myself, for  I am in you and you are in me, and we are one. Everyone will have the same experience and in  the end we will all return to the one body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father. We will  all return from the victorious march through death as the same God, but expanded beyond our  wildest dreams because of this excursion of the mind into a world of death which seemed so  final. I cannot promise that, if you accept this one hundred per cent you will not have a headache  tomorrow, or that the boss will not fire you. But if you accept this, you will know that your boss  had no choice in the matter. You will know that you caused the firing. Maybe your dreams transcended your present limited position in that business, and only by being fired could they be  realized. 

One day I was fired from J. C. Penney Co. Working for a year and a half, running their elevator  and being their errand boy, making $22. a week and paying $5. room rent, I could not understand  it when they let me go. But my dreams, my desires, transcended my position there, so they had to  do what they did in order for my desires to be realized. Believe me, you are the cause of the  phenomena of your life – be it good, bad or indifferent. If, to you the news is distasteful, you are  the dreamer of that distasteful storm. But the day will come when you will awake to discover that  the storm is over. That there is only one cause, and that is awareness! I know it is easier to give  advice and show the other person where he is wrong, than it is to acknowledge that he is only  reflecting the wrong in you. It is difficult to accept the concept that the world is bearing witness 

to your thoughts, but it is true. If you do not like something or someone, do not look at it or them; look within to the one who is causing the image. 

There is only one God, one cause of all life. He is not only above all and through all; he is in all.  The universally diffused individuality is in each one of us in his fullness. Dwelling in each  individual bodily, the father sleeps until the storm is over. Then he awakens and rebukes the  storm that he created during his sleep, and there is a great calm. If you will accept this as your  philosophy of life, and not turn to the left or the right, but claim you are solely responsible for  the phenomena of your life, you will find it much easier to live. But if, at times, life seems too  hard to bear, and you find a secondary cause, you have created a devil. Devils and satans are  formed from man’s unwillingness to assume the responsibility of his life. To see another other  than self, is to build a golden image. Asking a priest for forgiveness. Calling him father in spite  of being told to call no man on earth father. Seeing him as an authority, man goes whoring after a  man-made false image. 

So what is freedom worth to you? If you stop short of the ultimate, you do not really want  freedom. If you were enslaved, what do you have that you would not willingly give – in its  entirety – to be set free? Do you really believe there is only one God, who is in you in his  entirety, and his name is I am? You do, although you have forgotten who you are, where you are,  or that you have a son; one day the wind will awaken you during a storm, and as you come out of  the ark the storm will abate. Then memory will return, as he who has always been your son  stands before you and calls you father, as scripture unfolds within; and then you will know that the eternal story was always there. It was a sealed book until it unfolded from within. 

Let the world remain in the storm if they want to, but if you accept my words you will be set free  from any secondary cause, and you who have been causing your storm will find peace and be  truly set free. 

Now let us go into the silence.