Naturalness: Going from Manifestation Failure to Consistent Manifestation Success

15–04–2022

Today’s writing is about naturalness. In the use of the law that Imagining Creates Reality, Naturalness is the unconscious and voluntary occupancy of a state by the imagination of man. It is imagination loving a state of consciousness, getting used to it or becoming habitually associated with the state. Within naturalness is single-minded faith or intense self-persuasion, within it is persistent assumption and within it is duration or how long it takes for your imagining to become fact. When you have done everything there is to do concerning the use of the law and you still fail to produce the result that you seek, there is only one thing missing in your use of imagination: Naturalness. Thus, ‘The fact that it does not feel natural to you to be what you imagine yourself to be is the secret of your failure. Regardless of your desire, regardless of how faithfully and intelligently you follow the law, if you do not feel natural about what you want to be, you will not be it.’ (Neville Goddard, Failure in The Power of Awareness)

There are various reasons for which naturalness could be absent in your imaginal work. The desire could be ‘strange’ to you, perhaps because of your ethical and moral codes, your past beliefs and experiences, your culture and environment, etc. You could keep postponing the particular imaginal act of living in the end but continue to construct how the end would be, perhaps because it is a complicated end. You could be using a technique that makes you incapable of living in or staying in the end without distractions (e.g. trying to ‘see’ when you could more easily assume you hear, using a technique that is too complex for you to operate or that complicates the end, etc.). You could be using a technique that totally takes your attention away from concentrating your imagination on the desire by replacing itself as the power to cause your reality. Fortunately, although there are various reasons for which naturalness could be absent in your imaginal work, there is only one way to make naturalness present. Yes, just one way, my friends. ‘How can this feeling of naturalness be achieved? The secret lies in one word — imagination.’ (Neville Goddard, Failure in The Power of Awareness)

So, how do you attain the feeling of naturalness using your imagination? Again, we started with the meaning of naturalness. It is ‘the unconscious and voluntary occupancy of a state by the imagination.’ When you look at the states which you unconsciously occupy today, you will find that at some point, they were unnatural to you. For instance, the state of speaking your language was unnatural at birth; but you grew natural to it by constant return to it. Now, it is completely natural. Naturalness comes by constantly revisiting and acting in the end using the imagination. Even if your technique isn’t comfortable for you, so long it lets your imagination actually act in the end repeatedly, your repetition will still create operational mastery. As a friend is fond of saying, ‘Every master was once a disaster.’

Now, let me share some words of Neville in his various lectures about Naturalness. I will frame it into his answers to questions about naturalness.

Question: Neville, how much do I need to persuade myself that I am already whom I’d like to be before my desire is externalised?

Answer: ‘To what degree are you lost in your dream of success? Your world is your dream pushed out. When you can persuade yourself 100% that you are successful, success is yours! You must become so intense that you completely forget it was only a desire. You must tame the wild, new state you have entered until its naturalness causes you to forget all else. That is how God became you.’ (Neville, A Prophecy)

Question: Neville, I truly believe in this law. But I’ve been trying to manifest something for the last five months and it’s not happening. How long do I need to keep imagining it before it happens, Neville?

Answer: ‘So, the changing of the feeling of “I” is a selective thing because unnumbered states are infinite states, but the “I” is not the state. The “I” believes itself to be the state when it enters and fuses with it, so he was presented with a state and without the faculty of discrimination in his youth, he fused with the state and believed these restrictions were true, and it took him three years to disentangle the “I” from these fixed ideas with which he had lived for so many years. Now you may take only a moment or you, too, may take your three years. I can’t tell you how long it’s going to take you but I’ll tell you this much. It can be measured by the feeling of naturalness. You can wear a feeling until it’s natural. The moment the feeling becomes natural, it will begin to bear fruit within your world.’ (Neville, Changing the Feeling of I)

Question: How do I make a desire feel natural to me, Neville? I’m not clear exactly how to do that.

Answer: ‘You can test God through the act of assumption. By assuming you are now what you desire to be, and wearing that belief as you would a suit of clothes, you will become it. I can remember buying a new hat and walking down the streets of New York City thinking everyone knew my hat was new. I was very conscious of my hat and a little embarrassed because of its newness. But when I had worn it long enough to throw it in the closet and unconsciously pick it up again, it was an old hat and I could wear it normally. You may deny this, but if you are honest with yourself you will admit that you are very conscious of a new suit or dress, even though those who meet you may not know or care whether your clothes are old or new. Only you are aware of the clothes you are wearing. The same thing is true of an assumption. At first your reasoning mind and your outer senses will deny its existence, for your thoughts are new and haven’t been broken in yet. But when you wear your assumption long enough, it becomes comfortable and you feel its naturalness, then it will externalize itself as the world reflects the truth of what you have assumed.’ (Neville, The Incarnate Revelation)

Question: Okay, Neville. I now really understand this naturalness. But I’m not able to bring myself to be consistent with an imaginal act long enough to feel it is natural. What do you suggest I do about this?

Answer: ‘Now most of us, knowing what we want, construct it in our minds eye, but never occupy it. We never move into the state and remain there. I call this perpetual construction, deferred occupancy. I could dream of owning a lovely home and hope to go there one day; but if I do not occupy it now, in my imagination, I postpone it to another day. I may wish my friend had a better job. I may have imagined him having it; but if I don’t occupy that state by believing he is already there, I have merely constructed the state for him but not occupied it. All day long I can wish he or she were different; but if I don’t go into the state and view him from it, I don’t occupy the state, so he remains in the unlovely state relative to me. This is the world in which we live. You can’t conceive of a thing that is not part of a state, but the life of any state is in the individual who occupies it. Life cannot be given to a state from without, because God’s name is “I am.” It is not “You are” or “They are.” God’s eternal name is I Am! That is the life of the world. If you would make a state alive, you must be in it. If you are in a lovely, gentle, kind state, you are seeing another as lovely, living graciously, and enjoying life to the utmost. Now, to make that state natural, you must see everyone in your world as lovely, kind, and gentle. Others may not see them in that light, but it doesn’t really matter what they think. I am quite sure if I took a survey of what people think of me, no two would agree. Some would say I am a deceiver, while others I am the nearest thing to God. I would find a range stretching from the devil to God, all based upon the state in which the person is in when called upon to define me. You can be what you want to be if you know and apply this principle, but you are the operant power. It does not operate itself. You may know the law from A to Z, but knowing is not enough. Knowledge must be acted upon. “I am” is the operant power in you. Put your awareness in the center of your desire. Persist, and your desire will be objectified.’ (Neville, The Perfect Image)

Now, Naturalness comes in certain cases instantly. In other cases, you must practise with persistent assumption. When it becomes natural, you will really ‘forget’ the desire and walk in its fulfilment. Amongst all things, I would suggest you have a very specific scene which actually IMPLIES that your desire is fulfilled. Don’t procrastinate entering into it. Don’t put it off to another day, you can do it now. Now is the appointed time.

Naturalness is really the secret of failure, and to make a fulfilment natural is the only way to success.