Modern systems: the author

Neville Goddard:
life, books, method

Neville Goddard (1905-1972) was a Barbados-born dancer who became a lecturer in New York and Los Angeles, teaching that to assume a wish already fulfilled shapes what happens next. He published as plain “Neville”. The exercise is here.

Who was Neville Goddard?

Neville Goddard was a Barbados-born stage dancer who left the theatre in 1932 and spent the rest of his life lecturing and writing on imagination and the Bible, first in New York, then in Los Angeles. His publishers’ biographies add that he came to the United States at seventeen to study drama (DeVorss back cover; Penguin Random House, 2018, also 1932; Wikipedia says 1929), and DeVorss that he gave television talks in the late 1950s and for years filled the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles.

Library records give only “Neville, 1905-1972”. The exact days (19 February 1905; 1 October 1972, West Hollywood) are Wikipedia’s, which cites his death certificate via Mitch Horowitz (2022); we have not seen either.

What books did Neville Goddard write, and when?

Neville wrote about ten short books over some thirty years, by his publisher’s count, starting with At Your Command in 1939. Dates are from Library of Congress records where one exists:

Also Freedom for All (1942) and Seedtime and Harvest (1956); some lists date Prayer to 1946. Shorter titles include Out of This World (1949) and Resurrection, dated DeVorss 1966 by Wikipedia and booksellers; the Library of Congress has it only in a 2005 reader of earlier writings. Much sold under his name was compiled later: Five Lessons recreates a 1948 Los Angeles class (Tarcher, 2018), and single lectures circulate as e-books.

Who was Abdullah, Neville’s teacher?

Abdullah is the teacher Neville credited with his method; what is known of him comes from Neville, one other student and a 1929 certificate signed “Abdoullah” that Wikipedia reports and we have not seen.

In Awakened Imagination (1954) Neville credits “the teachings of my friend Abdullah” and dates one lesson to autumn 1933 in New York, when Abdullah told him to fall asleep imagining himself in Barbados. Lectures add an Ethiopian origin and Hebrew lessons, details that shift between tellings (Vlasto, 2025).

Mitch Horowitz, who has introduced several Neville editions, leaves it open whether Abdullah was one man, a composite or a real man dramatised, like Castaneda’s don Juan (2019). For the method it changes nothing: an exercise holds up when tested, whoever taught it.

What did Neville Goddard teach?

Neville taught that what the Bible calls God is your own consciousness (“awareness” in 1941, imagination by 1954), and that a state you assume and hold, feeling the wish already fulfilled, becomes fact. His terms in plain words, from Feeling Is the Secret (1944) unless dated:

He calls the Bible “a great psychological drama” (1941); on our reading his books are commentary on scripture first. He named it himself: “the law of assumption” runs through The Power of Awareness (1952), though not his earlier books. More on the law of assumption.

In his last years he added the Promise: after visions he dated from July 1959, he taught that the Law (imagination used for earthly ends) leads to a spiritual birth, Christ rising in the individual (1961).

Where does Neville stand between New Thought and the Hermetica?

Neville stands at the late, Bible-centred end of New Thought, the American current of mental law that grew out of 1840s mind-cure; he quoted the Hermetica, but he was not a Hermetic author.

Neville shares its talk of law, vibrations (1941) and attraction, turned round: you attract what you are, not what you want (1944). We know of no document that he read Atkinson or the Kybalion: family resemblance, not documented borrowing (see Transurfing and the Kybalion; the 1906 date is checked on Ask for the date).

He did read real Hermetica: Awakened Imagination (1954) quotes Walter Scott’s translation (1924), life as the union of Word and Mind (Corpus Hermeticum I) and speech as an image of mind (XII), for his own teaching on “inner talking”. A third ‘Hermes’ line has no reference we could trace. See Who was Hermes Trismegistus?, and for Vadim Zeland, Transurfing and Neville Goddard.

Why is Neville Goddard popular again?

Neville returned to mainstream print in the 2010s, and by 2021 a method drawn from his books had spread on TikTok as the “law of assumption”. Library of Congress records show reissues by DeVorss (2005), Tarcher (2012-2018) and St. Martin’s (2019-2024).

On 14 September 2022 Bustle called the law of assumption “TikTok’s latest manifestation trend”, without naming Neville (Beringer). Rhonda Byrne and Wayne Dyer have said he shaped their views (Horowitz, 2019, per Wikipedia).

Does imagining the wish fulfilled work? What the research says

Research does not support imagining the outcome alone: rehearsing the steps helped, dwelling on the fulfilled wish went with less effort and energy. No study we found tests Neville’s exact method.

• Pham and Taylor, 1999. Freshmen imagined, for 5 to 7 days before a midterm, how they would study or getting a good grade. Imagining the process raised study time and grades, via planning and lower anxiety. Abstract only; no sample size given.
• Oettingen and colleagues, 2002 and 2016. Eight studies, followed up to two years: positive fantasies predicted less effort and success (2002), and fewer depressive symptoms at the time but more later (2016). Correlational; abstracts only.
• Kappes and Oettingen, 2011. Four experiments (164, 50, 49 and 80 students assigned): induced positive fantasies lowered energy (blood pressure, self-report). Small, short-term lab effects.
• Wang, Wang and Gai, 2021. Meta-analysis: 21 studies (24 effect sizes), 15,907 people: wish, inner obstacle, if-then plan gave a small to medium effect on goals (g = 0.336), perhaps smaller given some publication bias.

So Neville outruns the evidence when he writes (1954) that “continuous imagination is sufficient for all things”. Better: a short fulfilled scene, then the steps and the obstacle.

How do you try it in five minutes without skipping the work?

To try Neville’s assumption in a form the research supports, spend one minute in the fulfilled scene, three on the steps and the obstacle, and the last on one dated action. Steps 3 to 5 carry the weight.

1. Pick one wish. One line, partly up to you, due within weeks.
2. Assume it (1 minute). Eyes closed, one small scene just after it has happened, seen from inside, as Neville advises. Name the feeling in one word.
3. Rehearse the process (2 minutes). Run the next step as a short film: where, when, your first sentence.
4. Name the inner obstacle (1 minute). Write “If [obstacle], then I [action]”.
5. Date one action (1 minute). Put the first step in your calendar for today or tomorrow.

Example.
Wish: an interview at studio X by 30 November.
Assume: Monday, I walk into their office. Feeling: relief.
Process: tonight at 20:00 I rewrite portfolio page 1; tomorrow at 9:00 I email Anna.
Obstacle: if I am still polishing at 21:00, I send it as it is.
Today: 20:00-21:00 blocked in the calendar.

Why it should help. Our design from the studies above, not a tested package: the scene gives direction, the rehearsal and if-then plan supply planning, the date turns a mood into a task (more on human agency). His evening revision works the same way if the replay ends with one thing you will do differently tomorrow.

Where it stops. It does not make anything happen; if you keep the scene and skip step 5, drop the scene.

What does this not promise?

Neville’s method, in his version or ours, does not promise money, health, love or a reshaped reality; at best it helps you aim, plan and start.

• Not a law of nature. No study we found shows an assumed feeling changing outside events.
• Not a treatment. If you feel low most days, or the daydream has replaced the day, talk to a doctor or a licensed therapist.
• Not a verdict on you. If something does not happen, you did not “assume wrong”; outcomes also depend on other people and chance.
• Not a ruling on faith. His reading of the Bible is one interpretation; we describe it, without endorsing or mocking it.

Key facts

Born	1905, Barbados (19 February, per Wikipedia)
Died	1972, Los Angeles area (1 October, per Wikipedia)
Career	Dancer; left the stage 1932; lecturer until 1972
Books	About ten, from At Your Command (1939)
Teacher he named	Abdullah; identity unconfirmed
Research	Rehearsing steps helps; fulfilled-wish fantasies lower effort
Checked	10 November 2026

Fair questions

Who was Neville Goddard?

A Barbados-born writer and lecturer (1905-1972) who came to New York at seventeen to study drama, left the stage in 1932, and taught that assuming a wish as already fulfilled makes it real. He published as Neville.

Was Neville Goddard's teacher Abdullah a real person?

Possibly, but it is unconfirmed. Neville and Joseph Murphy both said they studied with him in 1930s New York; Wikipedia reports a 1929 certificate signed “Abdoullah”, which we have not seen, and an independent researcher proposes a candidate from 1920s records. No identification is confirmed.

What is the law of assumption?

It is Neville’s own phrase for his method, used many times in The Power of Awareness (1952): assume the feeling you would have if your wish were already fulfilled, and hold it.

Does Neville Goddard's method work?

No study tests it directly. Related research finds that imagining the steps toward a goal helps, while dwelling on the fulfilled outcome tends to lower effort and energy, so keep the fulfilled scene short and then plan the next step.

Which Neville Goddard book should I read first?

For the method, Feeling Is the Secret (1944) is the shortest statement; for his reading of the Bible, Your Faith Is Your Fortune (1941). Awakened Imagination (1954) adds revision and his account of Abdullah.

Sources & further reading

• Neville, Feeling Is the Secret (1944), reprint text dated 1951, Internet Archive.
• Neville, Awakened Imagination (1954), later edition, Internet Archive.
• Neville, Your Faith Is Your Fortune (1941), DeVorss edition and back-cover biography, Internet Archive; At Your Command (1939), reprint scan; Out of This World (1949) and The Law and the Promise (1961), e-text reprints.
• Library of Congress records cited in the book table, and reissues 2005, 2012, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2024; The Law and the Promise, DeVorss edition record; Five Lessons (2018), publisher’s page with author biography.
• Wikipedia, Neville Goddard, Arnold Josiah Ford (read 10 November 2026): exact dates, the 1929 certificate and Cantin 1987 on Murphy (not seen by us).
• Mitch Horowitz, Magician of the Beautiful (2019), preview, paraphrased; the preview was not readable to us on 10 November 2026.
• Tima Vlasto, “Which Abdullah?”, Cool Wisdom Books (2025, updated 2026), online; independent, not peer-reviewed.
• H. W. Dresser (ed.), The Quimby Manuscripts (1921), Internet Archive.
• Studies linked in the text: PSPB 25(2), 1999; JPSP 83(5), 2002; JESP 47(4), 2011 (author manuscript); Psychological Science 27(3), 2016; Frontiers in Psychology 12, 2021. All but 2011 read as abstracts.
• B. Beringer, Bustle, 14 September 2022, online. The five-minute sequence is our own arrangement, not a tested treatment. Neville is quoted briefly; copyright status not established.