Neville Goddard, The Dancing Prophet, pt 1

A strikingly handsome Broadway dancer, his bankrupt but good-natured friend, and a mysterious African Jew in a turban... These characters, set in New York City during the 1920s, might sound like the cast of a campy comedy, but in actuality, they were real people who came to have a profound effect on popular thought and spirituality in America over the course of the century that followed.

Neville Goddard, who later wrote many books as simply Neville, was born on Barbados in 1905 to a large family without wealth or position at the time. His life story is a colorful one, well-documented in his numerous recorded lectures and books for anyone interested in his personal background. In brief, he was at various points in time a Broadway dancer, an astrologist, a student of Hebrew and Kabbalah, an adherent of the Rosicrucian Order (according to a contemporaneous biographical essay by Israel Regardie,) and a successful lecturer.

Neville, as he is most commonly referred to today, is known not for his dancing and theatrical abilities nor for his studies in various aspects of occultism, but for his extraordinary interpretation of Christianity and the Bible. According to Neville, during the 1920s a financially strapped friend dragged him to a lecture given by Abdullah, the African Jew who became Neville's mentor and greatest teacher. This fateful meeting heralded a transformation in Neville's life, in which his thought evolved from a literal interpretation of spiritual truths to a metaphysical one. Neville credited Abdullah with teaching him more about Christianity than anyone had previously taught him, and went as far as saying that Abdullah understood the Christian faith better than any Christian Neville knew.

While many contemporaneous and modern day observers have referred to Neville as a New Thought teacher, he scoffed at the term and stated there was nothing new about what he was teaching. What distinguishes Neville from most writers and speakers of the New Thought Movement is the stark simplicity of his message and his absolute conviction of one simple truth: the imagination of Man is God. From this premise Neville never departs, and throughout his many written and recorded works he choreographs a magnificent dance of study, reason, practice, and belief that guides the aspirant through understanding the various stages of spiritual evolution to the ultimate goal of full God-realization, or Christ consciousness. This, Neville asserts, can't be earned, but by Divine grace will eventually be given to everyone.

Please feel free to share your experiences and observations concerning the teachings of Neville in the comments section. Check out our next post for Part 2.

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