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Hear, O Israel

A 46-minute talk by Neville Goddard, restored from an archived recording

Neville Goddard interprets the commandment "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one" as identifying God with your own I AM awareness. He describes three earth-shaking events: Old Testament prophecy, New Testament fulfillment, and the personal experience of awakening. He recounts his own visionary experiences and explains that Jesus Christ is the pattern or way back to the Father, not a historical person outside yourself.

Filed under I AM, The Promise and Self-concept.

Key passages

“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

at 0:15

“"Hear, O Israel, the Lord, that word, translated the Lord, is I am."”

at 1:24

“So those who choose another God multiply their souls.”

at 17:22

More Neville quotes on God →

0:00 / 46:18 restored original recording

Transcript

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The Greatest Commandment Defined

But this victim retells he was asked to name the greatest commandment that there is. And he said, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your might, with all your soul, really as one; and love your neighbor as yourself." There is no other commandment greater than these." He said, "Now the psalmist tells us, "Those who choose any other God multiply their sorrows." We'll read that in the 16th Psalm. Those who choose any other God multiply their sorrows.

Now what is the God of whom he speaks? All translations are paraphrases. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord, that word, translated the Lord, is I am." That's the definition in Scripture. Your God is the same: I am. So "Hear, O Israel, the Lord, that is the I am, that is your I am, is the only God. There is no other God."

Now to ask you to love your I am, how can I love my very self? That is the very core of my being. You can. I am aware. Before I am aware of being Neville, I am aware. But can I really believe that the sense of awareness is the core of all that I am going to experience, because I'm going to become aware of something? Becoming aware of it and accepting the state of which I am aware as fact, I then must experience it. And there is no other cause in my world.

God as Your Own Imagination

"Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one." He's quoting from the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy. Me. If I've only come to fulfill Scripture, there's no other purpose for my being. So here I am fulfilling Scripture. Will I really choose this God, the only God? Or am I going to have someone in my world that I think now isn't important? Or aren't they important? Or that nation, isn't it important? Or am I going to go back to the only God in the world, which is my own wonderful human imagination? That's the God that creates my world and sustains my world and changes the conditions of my world.

Now the Bible speaks of three great earth- shaking movements. The first is the Old Testament. It's all prophetic. It's an active prophecy. Everything is simply "shall be." These things "shall be." Now comes the New Testament, where it makes the claim that these things have taken place. It's based on the affirmation that a series of events happened in which God revealed himself in action for the salvation of man. But that God is man's own wonderful human imagination. It happened in man.

So the one in whom it happened told the story. And it was rejected because they knew the earthly history of the man in whom it happened. They were looking for it in some other way, to come in some other direction. Not a man, a simple man, whose parents we know, whose daughters we know, whose sisters we know, whose back and has some thing to warrant what he is claiming happened in him. Yet he claims it happened in him. And then he takes, in his most unlearned manner, he takes Scripture and shows them in Scripture what was foretold that happened in him.

Three Earth-Shaking Movements

Now the last great earth- shaking movement is how it happens. What's going to happen? That's the Old Testament; it's all in the future. The New Testament is what happens, and then comes the third great movement of the earth, the magnitude of the earth is how it happened. And I am telling you how it happened. Everyone in this world is going to experience it. And I am qualified today to tell you how it happened. Here, you've just had a shake. Or what's a shake? There'll be a numbered shake. There were three great earthquakes. It all takes place within man. You should rejoice if it took place. If you're living on the grand series of thoughts, seemingly thoughts, because the whole thing is shaking from within man.

There isn't one event in this world that is in itself causative. Causation is virtual. Causation is all mental. It's all within man. And the effect on the outside is that you see now what is actually produced by something that took place within man. And here, this whole vast world on the outside only reflects that which is taking place on the inside of man. And man is the only reality. God is man. And man is God. In 1960, December the 21st, I had a series of visions in the one night. And here I am, and here is the 13th chapter of the book of Mark. But you know the story. He came out of the temple.

As he came out of the temple, one disciple said to him, Look, teacher, what great stones. What great buildings. and Jesus said to him you see these great buildings not one stone will be left standing upon another what will be shaken down like in my vision I saw this fabulous city and I knew in advance which was going to fall one after the other, they fell one after the other, all symbolic what fell, all the belief within me by which I live, I live in the belief of a historical Jesus, I was trained and raised that way, and then it collapsed, as it did in the story of Paul; here Paul said, I no longer regard anyone from the human point of view, even though I once regarded it Christ from a human point of view, I regard him thus no longer.

Vision of the Temple Collapse

He saw the whole mystery unfold within himself. And these huge buildings simply represented the belief by which he lived. And he got not even left forever. I believed in the historical Christ. I believed in this. I believed in that. I believed in the other. Everything outside of myself. And And suddenly the whole thing collapsed, one building after the other. And I just thought, that's going to go next. And before my eyes, it collapsed. Not one stone was left upon the other. I saw that one, that collapsed. The other one, that collapsed. Every building came down. But everything was done, and not one stone was left upon the other. Then I woke in this world. Here was the 13th chapter of Mars, completed within me.

I have come only to fulfill scripture fully aware to fulfill it within me now in the same chapter; if any man tells you, Look, there is Christ, or look clearly do not believe it. Many will come in and say in my name, and say, I am Christ; the word Christ is added. Many will come and say, I am. Forget it. There's nothing outside of you. I can't say I am. I'm using points to something other than yourself. It's yourself. self. Here, O Israel, the Lord our God, that is the I Am, is the only I Am. The supreme I Am is one with the I Am that is seated here now, who is calling itself Tan, calling itself Red, calling itself Jan.

That which is now calling itself this, that is one with what what you probably believe to be a supreme being outside of yourself. And there is no other God. That is the cause of everything in your world. It is nothing but God.

So here there are three great earth -shaking events in the world. One was the Old Testament. The second is the New. One told what's going to happen, one told us what happened, and the third is how it happened.

When I was a boy, just 11, this weird strange woman, no one knew her background. She came up from England and lived on a little pension that came through the bank. Who sent it? No one really inquired or if they did, the bank would never devolve even a small amount. But he lived in a windswept area in Barbados, where a constant breeze from the sea brought the salt in them. And not a thing could be done with metal there. All the nails were wooden nails. All the shingles were nailed was wood. The hinges were all wood. If you drove a car in those days, people didn't really have cars in those days, even a carriage, any metal thing would corrode with itself. The wind would drive it in them, maybe almost a mile. The trees were baked always at an angle.

and one day I sat with this boy, maybe I was seven or eight and this weird creature said to me you know you're going to leave this island and make your home in a far, far country you'll be the first to be married and one of ten children, I was the fourth you'll be the first to be married and you're going to have two children and then you're going to tell a story And the story will reach an enormous crowd. She thought I was telling something. You're going to tell something. But long after you're gone from this world, here you're talking to a child, only seven, and he's telling you, be on your exit from this world. And long after you're gone, ten seasons, ten days after you're gone, they will tell a story and you'll be numbered amongst who have told the story or did the same thing I know now what it is one will tell you what's going to happen one told you what happened and I'm telling you how it happened it's going to happen to everyone in this world that is what I came to tell you

The Story Told and Fulfilled

Well, I was the first to get married. I do have two children. I have been telling this story since 1938 to tens and hundreds of thousands of people. More little audience than I, that means nothing. 26 weeks on TV, I read quite a few millions. Many times on radio, who knows what number. through the books I've written who knows what number when one has already gone over 100 ,000 in printing. So who knows how much now, but it's not now, it's unborn tomorrow for I'm telling you how it happened.

This earth shaking thing has nothing to do all this is chatters on the outside so if it shakes again you're not been shaking all day anyway you must have felt it. But that has nothing to do with the real earth's shape of the Bible.

In that 13th chapter of Mark, it is telling you there will be earthquakes, there will be wars and rumors of wars. All these things must be. But don't let anyone defeat you and point to someone outside of you who is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the true identity of every child born of one. that no one tells you there he is or here he is or point to anyone he is in you and one day there will be a quake within you may I tell you a real quake that this if you felt last Tuesday morning is just nothing compared to that quake when it starts you wonder what on earth is taking place your head vibrates as not a thing in this world could ever vibrate you.

You shake all over. And you think, no, this is it. In my own case, I thought, this is a massive hemorrhage. And I can't survive it. That's what I thought. That's almost 12 years ago, the 7th of July. And I thought that every little bone in my body is going to separate. Instead of that, I walked within my body. And then I realized, well I have been here how long? I do not know. Who put me here? I do not know. But here I am in a tomb and my body was the tomb. It was my skull that was the tomb. I had the innate wisdom to do what I had to do to come out.

As you will have it the moment you shake to death. That is it. It's called in scripture. The last trumpet. And the word trumpet means. A reverberation. It is so intense. That you can't withstand the vibration. And you wait. It's a call. And you wait within you. And then you come out. And then everything said of him. You are going to expose. And then you'll know who Jesus Christ is. to anyone who tells you of another Christ, forget it. If they point there to the greatest man in the world, forget it. He is nothing compared to the being that you really are. That being is God. And no mask in this world did he ever walk and compare to the wearer of the mask.

So do not believe anyone who tells you there he is or there she is or so and so. Forget it. He is all within you and he is dreaming this dream of life. So those who choose another God multiply their souls. So tonight if you think that the cause of what happened is in thoughts, if you think it is in something outside of yourself, well then you have another God. you're multiplying your mysteries in this world there isn't one thing in this world that is caused by another God it is God in you causing everything in the world that you are experiencing and you will experience and it's not caused by any other causation in the world so name the greatest here or is there The Lord, our God, is wonderful.

Now you love that. I heard some very famous art bishops say, any man who could actually put himself up at certain states, he is mentally deficient. He needs a psychiatrist. He needs this, as he goes on to the food thing, long talk about it. that's what they said of the one in the tenth chapter of John why listen to him he's mad he has a devil why has he a devil because he dares to claim that God is my father and I and my father are one he dares to claim there's only one way to the father and I am the true and living way to the Father. And no one can ever come to the Father except by this one and only true and living way.

There is no other way. So look upon Jesus Christ not as a person, as a way. The early Christians were known as the people of the way. It was the way. You are the person who travels the way. And so I meet you. And you say, do you know the way? And I said, the way. And then you tell me where. Well, if I know the way, I will tell you. Now, in this case, they want to know the way. And they wanted to know the way to the Father. You say, well, I will show you the way. There is no other way but the one way. There are two ways, only one way. One day you will feel an earthquake.

The Earthquake and Awakening

An earthquake that no one on earth has ever heard or felt before. It's not an 8 .5 or a 10 .10. is something that no one has ever experienced until you've finished it. For every little bone of your body vibrates, especially the head, and you think it's going to explode. It begins with an earthquake. And then you, within that tomb, awake. That's the beginning of it. And then you You come out of your own being, which is your skull. When you come out, the story is told to you in Matthew and Luke, surrounded. The story of the birth of God. And you are the God that is being born. For there is nothing but God in this world.

You are being born now to a higher level of your own being, for there is only God, finding And the symbolism perums you is that which is told you in scripture. And then the next step on the way to the Father is a glorious step, and you think this one, this is it. You thought the other one, the earthquake, was it? But when this happens, you know now your head is completely gone. It's an explosion. And you wonder if someone could have got in on the inside of it. And set off a bomb for in your head and your head explodes. It literally explodes as far as your sensation goes. And when the whole thing explodes and then it's quiet.

And you find your son. And the son is God's son. His name is Jesus. and call you father. And then you know who you are. Then you know the world. And David will be their prince forever. David died. David said, you will not leave my soul in hell. So he raises up his son for the purpose of God. He cannot in any way, as he explains, God is made up of all of his sons and we are the sons and the purpose is expansion. Well, he can't expand. Thus we expand and the purpose now is to give himself to this level of himself. He's giving himself. How could he give me himself? Well, if he gives me himself as father.

The Son and the Father

He is father. To expand beyond the present level, he has to make me the father. and then everyone becomes the same father. Here, O Israel, the Lord, that is I am, the I am. Our I am is one. He's going to prove it now. We have a son, and the son is David. And I've got to become aware of actually being the father of David. Well, if David is my prince, that I am king, in that day, the Lord will be king over all the earth and his name will be one and the Lord one that's the day and the third one the 14th chapter of Zechariah and it's told in the most glorious manner because when you go back to the 13th chapter of Mark he comes out of the temple this is not taking place in the temple he comes out of the temple he's in the courtyard when he turns to look to the building he's on the outside of the temple now see those great stones and the great building and all the temples that one stone has been left upon another now he goes into the third verse of that chapter and as he enters into the third verse he is standing on the Mount Tiberias And of course, as you're told, an opposite to the monkly body, there was the temple.

¶Now we go back to Zechariah. Zechariah, the 14th chapter. Here, I'm standing on the Monkly Body. The Lord is standing on the Monkly Body. And the month was split in two from east to west and a great valley divided them. The two parts and one moved north, the other moved south, and then in the faith and the Lord and all the holy ones followed of him. It isn't called him. The Hebrew word is you, not him. And your footnotes in the Revised Standard Version will show you that pronoun is not, as it's used in both the King James and the Revised Standard Version, it is you. ¶All the holy ones will follow you. and then it goes on, in that day the Lord will be king over all the earth, and then the Lord will be one and his name one, which is I am.

That's one: I am, fulfilling only scripture. Now on that day when the monkey is split, what monkey is split? You are straight. You are standing looking at it. And your body is straight from top to bottom. From the head to the base of your spine. And then you look at the base of your spine and you see this golden, lovely, powerful, big, sweet light. And you know it's yourself. It is your own wonderful Redeemer and Creator, and it is yourself. Your self redeems. No one else redeems you. No one else created you. It's only God. And you fuse with him. And, like the fiery serpent, flying serpent, you move up into heaven. And again it reverberates.

as you are told. And when they're ending, they're ending with this intensity, this force says, take it by it, and that is another stage in the way to the Father. You find him in the second stage: first is explosion. When you have the vibration which is an earthquake, the second, fantastic explosion, then comes the third, like a fiery serpent, you go up, and then the fourth stage, which is the final stage, is when the seal of approval is upon you in the form of a dove. And then the dove descends upon you and remains upon you, mothers you with love, and there you see the seal of approval of the work you have done. You did it.

The Way Back to the Father

There is nothing but you. There is nothing but God in this world. ¶So the first is what's going to take place, the second earthquake is what took place, and the third is how it took place, and I've been trained to tell you how it takes place, and to ask you to put your faith completely not on an external Christ, not on any external God, but on the pattern. Pattern. Christ is the pattern man. Christ is the way. So show me the way to the Father. I'll show you. ¶One night when you least expect it, he will come with a sudden chopping of his head, and a face will take place within you. Not on the outside as the one last day of the morning, but within you.

And that will seem like a little thing compared to what's going to take place. But that's a shadow. It's a poor shadowing. Be happy that you're here. All these things are taking place because we are on the verge of the awakening. And all are going to awake. And when they awake, they awake as God. Everyone who is awake as God. There's nothing but God. There's no room in this world for anything but God. but it seems such a horrible thing. Forget it. So 62 people got killed. All right. It's part of an unfolding plan. They're restored already, restored to life in a world just like this, to continue the journey. One day the quakes will not kill them and crush them.

The quake will take place within them, and they will awaken, and all that took place here in the past two when 62 were killed will be as nothing. You've gone through it. I've gone through it. All the horrors of the world you and I have gone through. But joy and woe are woven fine. A garment for the soul divine. Everyone has gone through it, and we're going through it. But in the end, an expansion beyond the wildest dream of anything known to man, and a power that no one fears. So we sent a man to the moon on three occasions. We've done it, and we'll send them elsewhere. That is nothing compared to the power that you will exercise tomorrow.

You will have the power to stop time, actually stop time. Nothing can move when you stop it, and then when you stop it, you can change the motivation of the things that you observe. Rearrange the entire thing, and change the motive, and then release time, and see it come out differently. That's the power that you will exercise tomorrow. For you are the power of God because you are God. And you are the wisdom of God because you are God. And Jesus Christ is defined in Scripture as the power of God and the wisdom of God. You are to read it: the first chapter of 1 Corinthians, and Jesus the power of God and the wisdom of God, and all the promises of God find their yea which means fulfillment in him: first chapter of 2 Corinthians.

But all the promises and the promises are all in the Old Testament. It's all written in the future, and he comes only to fulfill it, and in a simple, simple manner he fulfills it. But it was not what the world was expecting, so they denied that this thing had been fulfilled. Alright. So he said, I fulfilled it, and he told those who could relate it, and who could tell it, so they related the experience of one in whom it happened. Now will come one who will tell you how it happened. Now I'll tell you the way as I've told you for Jesus Christ is simply the way to the Father, and when you go to the Father, you don't see another as Father; you're taking yourself back to yourself.

You prepared a way for yourself to return when you came down in this way of death. He prepared the way for himself to go back, and the way back is called Jesus Christ. And people think it is simply a little man on the outside of himself. No, it is a way. There were calls of people of the way. And so there aren't two ways about it. There's only one way back. And so it's not through diet, it's not through being good, it's not through being rich, it's not through being socially prominent. Of all the nonsense in the world. I have a friend of mine back east, and she comes out of the so- called family of the Adam who is our president, and his son of president, and so her son is named Adam.

But I grew happy. The word Adam to me is far lovelier than Adam with an S on it, and so I called him Adam, and he's O- level. His name isn't Adam. His name is Adam. His forefather is a president of our country. And so he's named after his forefather. I thank her. Her name grew, by the way. So I thank her for correcting me. But through habit, again, I called him Adam. Again, she corrected: His name is not Adam, Neville. The name is Adam. He's so proud of that ancestry. And I am telling you, you are the father of God's son. And his name is David. Can you conceive of any greater ancestry? Is there anyone walking the face of this earth?

Has any greater ancestry than you when I tell you who you are: you are the father of God's only begotten son, and his only begotten son is David, and when you see him after that second stage in the journey back, you know who you are: is there anyone of the faith to the earth greater than the being that you discover yourself to be, when you discover that you're God? So she wants to be an Adam. I'm telling you, you are far greater than all the things of earth, for you are God. And one day, the second stage back to the store is going to reveal the truth of what I'm talking about. You're going to find that you really are God, because you're going to find your son and your son is the son of God, and there's only one God.

No God Outside Self

Hear, O Israel: the Lord, our God, the Lord is one Lord, not two. So when you see the son, there's only one, and you know he is your son, you know who you are, and you know your God, and there is nothing but God's evil world for this is the story I've been sent to tell you, and should I drop now this very second, makes no difference, I've told it, and you've recorded it, and it is here, and someone will have the capacity and the ability to write it as they wrote that story two thousand years ago, and told it of well, forget the word Neville. System tells us: only tell how to go back to the source, and you are the source, you are the cause of the phenomena of life.

For 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. That's your immortal being. There is nothing but God. So when you read it, should you read it tonight, bear in mind what you heard this night. Those who choose another God multiply their sorrow. I don't care what name you give it. You can call it Jesus Christ. If he's something other than you, you're multiplying your sorrow. Call it God. That does not mean yourself. You're multiplying your sorrow. Call it Jehovah. And not mean self. You're multiplying the solid. Call it by any name. No matter how sacred the name is to you.

It means something other than you. If you hear the word God, the word Jehovah, the word Jesus, the word Jesus Christ, and it conveys the sense of an existence, something outside of man, then you're multiplying the solid. It has to convey your own wonderful imagination. That's God. The only God. And all these little shakes and friends of mine in the audience tonight, they had these shakes prior to it, and in the week of it, and they were all perfectly wonderful. Their visions were perfectly heaven. I can't thank you enough for sharing it with me. But here if you read it tonight that 13th chapter of the book of Mark, the related chapters are the 22nd of Matthew and the 10th of Luke.

But I like the one as Mark presents it. He does it in a very primitive manner, but it's so beautiful to show in Mark. It's simple and very very clearly stated: that's the one that asks not to believe anyone who points outside to Jesus Christ. It should anyone say, look, there he is, for here he is, believe him not. For many will come saying, I am he. Do not believe it. Let no one make the claim and you believe it. Let it be revealed. If he really has had the experience, there are those within his world who will see it. He doesn't ask anyone to see it; he doesn't care. He knows it has to be seen by those within his world who are related to the picture.

He knows Peter must come, and in my case Peter came. He's a beautiful, beautiful Peter too proud and she saw it. Everyone will see it. So I don't have to ask anyone to see it or try to persuade. So don't believe the nevel is. I'm not speaking of nevels. I'm speaking of the source. I'm speaking of now a series of events. Man must be free to take him back to the source. And that series of events that takes him back to the source is called the way. So when you read in the 14th of John, I am the way and the truth and the light. No one comes unto the Father except by me. He is telling you of the only way back to the Father, which is the source, the cause of the phenomenon of life.

So forget a man and just simply see the way. He is called the way, the true and living way, and there is no other way. But the most difficult thing in the world for man is to completely give up at one fell swoop his fixed belief when he's been trained as he has been trained to believe in preaches outside of himself. And so he believes in a historical Jesus, in a historical Moses, in a historical Jacob, and all these things. When the old is simply an actual prophecy, the new an actual parable. And what I'm telling you acted too. I'm telling you what I know from experience, but I've been sent to tell you the way.

Testing the Power of Assumption

Sent to tell you how you go back to discover your only who is God the Father. And there is no other. So tonight you can put it on this apple to a test: the power of which I speak you can assume that you are now the one that you would like to be, and remain faithful to your assumptions, and to the degree that you are faithful to that assumption, you will become it, because you really are the creator of all the things in your world, and you create it by simply assuming certain states, entering into that state, living in the state, feeling it to be natural, and then you project it on the screen of space.

No matter what you project, it is nothing to the being that you really are, who is doing the projecting, and the purpose of life is to find the thing that is projecting. That is God, but in the world of Caesar, one would like more money, more this, this, more the other. You can do it. One day you'll get tired of all the things you're projecting. And then you will know that statement in the book of Amos. In that day I will send a famine upon the land. It will not be a hunger for bread or a thirst for water, but for the hearing of the word of God. You get so tired of singing, you get satiated and you want to hear the word of God.

But you are God. You want to hear what you foretold in the beginning and what you meant by it and what someone claimed it fulfilled itself in and then how. And you become so hungry that a thing of the outside will enter to you. Only this, the word of God. And you let everything drop and put all of your interest is simply the word of God. For you really are not only God but you are his word because the word and God are one. In the beginning was the word the word was God and the word was God. So he is fainted and his word cannot return unto him void. He must accomplish that which is purpose and foster in the thing for which he is fainted.

Or else he is faint himself he has no one else to faint who else to know? Can you conceive of a moment when a father, the all -out son, billions of us, but because he is omnipresent, he's present to all. Because he's omniscient, right, and he is omnipotent, and he tells us a story, that he is going going to become invisible. Take a good look at me now. I'll become invisible, he tells us. For one purpose, in becoming invisible, I'll become you. And you will become as I am. And when the drama is over, you will be as I am. And my father tells me that. And And he shows me the result. He shows me a son.

It's the one dearest and nearest to his heart. Son. And then my father becomes invisible. And I think as I start to journey, I never more will teach my father. Not knowing is built in from eternity within me. But he is faithful. and steadfast in love and he keeps his place to me and one day I don't see him, I see his son and his son is my son and I know he kept his promise, he told me he would give himself. Thank you.