Today, we turn our sights on New Thought teacher Neville Goddard and a portion of his small book entitled The Power of Awareness. Within that book, he references something called “the Power of Assumption”.  He describes the great power that comes when we “assume” something.  I want to look at what that means from both the material world and the spiritual world and see what insights that might hold for us.

Neville Goddard was a 20th century spiritual teacher who taught via books and lectures the power of creating what we desire through the purposeful use of our imagination.  He is usually known simply by the name “Neville”.  Our resource page [CLICK HERE TO GO TO IT] has a short biography  and links to a lot of free resources available from him (including a free eBook and audiobook of The Power of Awareness). As you can see, there is a fair amount of Neville content out on the internet that you can tap into.

Neville sees the power of assumption as an important tool towards attaining those things in life that we desire. The first step, of course, is to recognize the desire. But then he writes, “then you must make your future dream a present fact. You do this by assuming the feeling of your wish fulfilled.”

Now, when we start to “assume” something, this can be seen in one of at least two ways.  The first aspect of assuming is to look out there at the world and “make assumptions” that things are going to work out just as you desire.  Generally, we tell ourselves a story of all the things in the material world (in others words, the “relative world”) that are going to line up just perfectly “in relation” to one another so that they will bring about our desired outcome.  This is similar to how a scientist or a mathematician outlines certain “assumptions” that must be stated before they describe the logic of their argument or proposition.

For example, let’s say you wanted a promotion at work.  You might believe that you would receive the promotion only if certain factors were met such as if you got a good rating, that your bosses don’t hire someone from the outside for the job, that the company continues to be financially viable that promotions are possible and so on.  You place certain worldly conditions on your “assuming” the promotion.

The second method involves breaking down the feeling that things are “out there” separate from you and instead you realize that you and the thing you desire are one.  This involves your “assuming” the identity of the thing that you desire.

Using the same example of desiring the promotion, this time you take on in your mind the role of being in the promotion.  You “assume” the role. You see and feel yourself in it. You become one with it. No outer worldly conditions need to met, rather you have taken your conscious awareness and taking on the role of being promoted in every aspect of your being.

There is a subtle distinction here that I want you to see clearly.  We live in the material world but we also live in the spiritual world.  I frequently say we live in two realms simultaneously. Another way of thinking about it is to realize that we live along a sliding scale of various “frequencies” with the physical/material realm on one end of the spectrum and the spiritual realm on the other.  Each day, in our awareness, we move and slide along the continuum from the material to the spiritual depending upon “how we see and experience things.”

When we look out at the world “out there” and see and experience ourselves “in relation” to all the things and actions that we sense going on, we are in the relative world. Here, our assumptions are made “in relation” to things out there going a certain way.

On the other hand, when we meld our consciousness with The All, when we shift our focus away from being “in relationship” with things separate from ourselves and rather see ourselves as part of the vast dance of Oneness, then we are in the world of Spirit….of the Absolute.  It is in our “assumption” of the realization that we are indeed as aspect of the One that we can use the power of the One by using the power of assumption.  We “assume” the feeling and experience of Oneness where anything we desire is possible.

Neville writes, “This is a point that is truly understood by probably not more than one person in a million. You know a thing by looking at it from the outside, by comparing it with other things, by analyzing it and defining it; whereas you can know a thing spiritually only by becoming it. You must be the thing itself and not merely talk about it or look at it.”

Side note: This is true of reading Neville’s words or my words or any book, for that matter.  We can take the words we are reading and “be in relation to them”.  We can from our outside perspective consider them and if we agree, “assume them to be correct”.  Or we can find a deeper truth by melding our consciousness with the spiritual nature of the truths in the written word, we can become those truths and begin to teach them, model them, use them to guide our lives.  Think about that difference. One is reading and agreeing with it but still holding them at “arms length” in our minds, the other is emboding the truths in who we are.

So what is it that you desire?  Once you have identified it, then it’s time to manifest it.  Yes, you can start by believing that the outer world is going to line up just exactly in the way that you see is necessary for you to attain it.  Or you can simply “become” that which you desire.

Want to write a book?  Become a person in your mind that writes books. Visualize what that person is like and “become it”.

Want to have a lot of friends?  Become a person in your mind that is friendly to everyone and attracts friends into their circle. Visualize what that person is like and “become it”.

Want to be happy?  Become a person in your mind that is consistently happy. Visualize what that person is like and “become it”.

Assume the mask and persona of the person that you want to be, know that at the spiritual realm of your existence you are already one with that person and then allow it to come into your experience here in the material world.

And, of course, enjoy it!

Mark Gilbert

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