Revision: the unsung hero in life

I will be the first to admit that when I first stumbled upon Neville Goddard I missed all the ways he clearly points to revision as a very important gift we been given. I was told of the lecture, Pruning Shears of Revision, but used it here and there without what I felt was much luck. But, as I grew into my own journey, my own self-discovery, my own let's test this shiz and see what is what, I have found revision to be remarkable.

And not surprisingly, the more I test it, the more curious I am, I am finding SO much of Neville's work speaks to this remarkable power of revision.

A trap I find in myself is that, even though I try not to, I often feel my visualizations to be future events. When I realized this it hit me like a ton of bricks. I may be seeing an end but I would see that end as in the future, not yet realized and feel as if 'if I do this, I will get that'. That is not the answer, you do the inner work to actually experience it - it not to get something, that inner work is giving you that gift of experiencing that event at that very moment. I still have to catch myself and refocus myself and it is easy to tell the difference in what I am doing - feeling it FROM and enjoying having it or feeling of it as a future event.

And yes, I have had success in this - relationships improving, finances improving, my work environment changes are all areas I have been able to test and see changes in.

But, back to revision, which means it has already happened. You revise to alter those events as already happened that will display as such in your current/present life.

Something I do believe is some we no longer know. I have events I have revised that my memories seem fuzzy now or things I question the 'story' to them now. If we move from one state to another and our inner thinking and belief truly shifts, I firmly believe we may lose the memories of the "original event".

Back to Neville. Below I am going to share just some of the quotes from various books and lectures on revision - open your mind to the possibilities of what he is sharing in these.

Chapter 3 The Law and the Promise: Turn the Wheel Backward

"Oh, let your strong imagination turn the great wheel backward, until Troy unburn." [— (Sir) John Collings Squire, "The Birds"]

The question may arise as to how, by representing others to ourselves as better than they really were, or mentally rewriting a letter to make it conform to our wish, or by revising the scene of an accident, the interview with the employer, and so on — could change what seems to be the unalterable facts of the past, but remember my claims for imagining: Imagining Creates Reality.

This is only one of a few quotes I have found that Neville plainly states the facts of the past only seem to be unalterable. Which, in my experience makes sense, an example is my burned hand. I laid my hand flat in a stove that was 400F and man oh man did it hurt, looked terrible too. Yet, I revised. Within 24 hours I no longer had pain and within days the burn was gone, I don't even have a scar.

See other images of the burn in the comments.

My hand today

But this hand experience and the things I have been reading has opened my eyes that we can revise anything, even if it may first be difficult.

From the lecture, The New Man (which I have in a book, have only found online in YT format), from his 1966 lectures series. Neville is sharing a vision from his friend, who started his vision throwing a ball to create - he would throw the ball into a blank area and poof! the most amazing house would appear, creating from nothing was remarkably easy. Then the friend came upon a horribly run down site and was trying to throw the ball as he did before but he struggled to let go, the ball would not leave his hand.

“Here, I could not,” said he, “change or let go of the past. I couldn’t let go. I came upon the past. It was so easy to create out of nothing. Yes, out of nothing I could create anything. But when it comes to something I know to be a fact, I couldn’t change it. I couldn’t let go of the past. But I persisted and persisted and persisted, and persistency was rewarded. Eventually it turned into this glorious new, very modern hotel and a new streamlined bus, which drove off.”

How often do we find ourselves limited to what is the seemingly fixed past? Recreating, re-giving life to events of the past because they feel more real to us than what we can imagine? From the same lecture:

I don’t care what the turmoil is, how fixed that seeming past is, you simply persist and persist and persist, and he’s got to come down and grant your request.

So I ask everyone here to practice revision. Revise the past. I don’t care what it is, revise it, and the past will conform to your dream of what it ought to have been, and suddenly it will appear before you.

From The Law and the Promise:

What it makes, it can unmake. It is not only conservative, building a life from images supplied by memory — it is also creatively transformative, altering a theme already in being.

Lecture: What Must We Do? Believe!

I hope in the meanwhile you have been practicing the art of forgiveness, which is called repentance, changing yourself, changing the world, changing your friends, and making them conform to more idealistic states in your own mind’s eye; for they will ultimately conform to it if you remain faithful to your change of concept relative to them. They will change, so keep on practicing and practicing, called now, repentance.

...there is no condemnation in God: “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Because you are causing the behavior…if you know how to control your Imagination, you are actually causing the behavior of all the people you are meeting. You are in control.

From Our Real Beliefs:

Try to realize what a severe test of belief action is. I say I believe, but I don’t act upon it. If I really believe, I couldn’t restrain the impulse to act, I couldn’t. If I believe that imagining creates reality and I’m faced with a problem, it doesn’t take me long to conceive the solution of the problem. I don’t care what it is, what the problem is. If I have a problem, I need not wait to ask anyone, I could conceive the solution.

The New Man:

Repentance is not to feel remorseful, not to feel regretful. I don’t care what someone has done! You don’t feel remorseful because you did something; the state in which you were caused you to do it. That is not repentance. Repentance is simply practicing the art of moving into the opposite state as though it were not. That’s repentance.

The Congregation of God:

“So the night of the 18th, having heard your lecture on the new man, I felt myself in communion with God and I said to God, ‘Why do certain desires take so long and others so short and still others never? Why so long for some to be fulfilled and others short and others are never fulfilled?’

God said to me, ‘All your desires will be granted. The difference in the time between your desire and its fulfillment is this.’” Now, here is what God said to her and she had it all written down on paper as she had that night communed with God and the words came back audibly, as you are hearing my words. And these are the words, “It depends upon the state you were in when you desired and the state you are now in because you have not practiced revision.”

Can you imagine that? It depends on the state you were in when you desired plus the state you are now in because you haven’t practiced revision. Are we not told in scripture, “Whatever you desire, believe that you have received it, and you will” (Mark 11:24). Well now, if I desire something, it’s a confession that I don’t have it. So I know the state that I am in when I desire, that’s obvious. But now, I must move from the state desiring to the state where the desire has been granted. And that brings about the state called revision. I must revise it.

You could have shortened that distance instantly had you actually practiced revision and believed what you’re told, to assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled. If I believe that I have what I am desiring, haven’t I assumed the feeling of the wish fulfilled? And an assumption though false—because scripture teaches this—if I persist in it, remaining faithful to that state, it will harden into fact.

I could go on but I encourage to seek the same answers I have when it comes to revision. And then to test it, no one here can tell you what is right or wrong, what you should or should not. Turn inward for all the answers you seek and take from this post what seems to resonate with you and leave the rest.

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