Lessons in Neville Goddard’s book “Feeling is the Secret” Teach Us That Your Emotions Can Create Your Future
By Carole Dean
In our bi-monthly Film Funding Guidance Class, we study books by brilliant authors that teach us how to use our mind to improve our lives and fund our films.
Recently, the focus of the class was on the work of writer Neville Goddard and his book, Feeling is the Secret. I chose this because “feelings” are powerful manifestors. Learning how to use our feelings in a proper way can help us create the future we want.
The law of consciousness
Neville opens his book stating, “The world, and all within it, is man’s conditioned consciousness objectified. Consciousness is the cause as well as the substance of the entire world so it is to consciousness that we must turn if we would discover the secret of creation.
“Knowledge of the law of consciousness and the method of operating this law will enable you to accomplish all you desire in life. Armed with a working knowledge of this law, you can build and maintain an ideal world. Consciousness is the one and only reality.”
As a class, we learned this from studying the works of Amit Goswami and Dean Radin. They both said, “Consciousness is the one and only reality.”
“This reality may, for the sake of clarity,” Neville continues, “be likened unto a stream which is divided into two parts, the conscious and the subconscious. In order to intelligently operate the law of consciousness, it is necessary to understand the relationship between the conscious and subconscious.”
The subconscious believes that which the conscious impress on it
Neville believes the conscious impresses the subconscious while the subconscious expresses all that it impresses upon it.
“The subconscious does not originate ideas but accepts as true those which the conscious mind feels to be true and in a way known only to itself, it objectifies the accepted ideas. Therefore, through his power to imagine and feel and his freedom to choose the ideas he will entertain, man has control over creation.”
This information gives us so much knowledge to use to improve our lives.
We need to know that the subconscious does not originate ideas but accepts as true those which the conscious mind “feels” to be true. The important word here is “feels,” what feels to be true. Meaning, our emotions are creating our reality.
Feeling successful can create your success
Neville goes on to say, “control of the subconscious is accomplished through control of your ideas and feelings. The mechanism of creation is hidden in the very depth of the subconscious. The subconscious transcends reason and is independent of induction.”
As Neville says, it does not have to be true. It needs to be what you want your life to be, what you want to “feel” daily. Perhaps that feeling is success or confidence or joy. All these wonderful emotions are there for you to choose from. Please take some time to find the emotion you need to bring your future into being. Using your subconscious to create the “feelings” you want in your everyday world.
Neville says, “the subconsciousness contemplates a feeling as a fact existing within itself and on this assumption proceeds to give expression to it.”
He says that ideas “are impressed on the subconscious through the medium of feeling. No idea can be impressed on the subconscious until it is felt, but once felt, be it good or bad or indifferent, it must be expressed. Feeling is the one and only medium through which ideas are conveyed to the subconscious. Therefore, man who does not control his feeling may easily impress the subconscious with undesirable states. You need the discipline to entertain only such feelings as contribute to your happiness.”
Controlling your feelings can lead to a happy life
That controlling your feeling is the most important thing you can do for a happy life. Neville instructs us to “Try not to entertain an undesirable feeling or think sympathetically about wrong in any shape or form. Do not dwell on the imperfection of yourself or others. When you do this, you impress the subconscious with limitations. This is the whole law of a full and happy life. Every feeling makes a subconscious impression. He says, “do not dwell on the imperfection of yourself or others.”
The author gives an example: “’I am healthy’ is a stronger feeling than ‘I will be healthy.’”
Remember, it is what you feel you are that dominates. Feelings are creators and what you feel is what you can achieve.
A change of feeling is a change of destiny
We need to be careful of our moods and feelings because there is a direct connection between feelings and your visible world. Neville instructs us that our body is “an emotional filter and bears the unmistakable marks of your prevalent emotions.”
He says that, “you should be able to feel the state that you want to be living in. You should be able to feel joy or happiness or success or achievement. Living and acting on that conviction is the way to achieve it. He says all changes are brought about through a change in feelings. A change of feeling is a change of destiny. All creation occurs in the domain of the subconscious.”
So you need to get control of the operation of the subconscious and realize that control is needed with your ideas and feelings. You have to be controlling your feelings to send it to the subconscious to a create the life you want to live.
To create through feelings a happy life, a successful life, a creative life, Neville says that the subconscious doesn’t care if what you are thinking is truth or false. “It will accept as true that what you feel to be true.”
This sounds easy to do but you need to pay attention. I have been paying attention to my “feelings” and it’s easy to slip into fear or uncertainty in today’s world. So, I had to catch myself and keep turning things around so that I am saying I am happy. I am prosperous. I am inspired.
Getting the feelings, you want to create in your life are important. You may want to think of what feelings make you happy so you can send these feelings with your thoughts directly to the subconscious.
The subconscious receives ideas from the feelings we send it
“We should not be dwelling on difficulties or delays,” Neville writes, “or what possible barriers might come to our lives. When we start having very strong feelings of any kind, we must remember that these are being impressed on the subconscious.
“It’s important to recognize that the subconscious is the place of creation. It receives the idea from the feelings we send it. It doesn’t change the idea, but it gives it form so “the subconscious out-picture is the idea and the likeness is received.”
The subconscious serves us by giving form to our feelings, and it does not like compulsive thoughts. Neville says “it responds better to persuasion than to command.”
And one of the most important things he notes is “your desires are not subconsciously accepted until you assume the feeling of their reality; for only through feeling an idea subconsciously accepted, and only through this subconscious acceptance is it ever expressed.”
Stay away from “what ifs”
Getting your desired outcome connected to the feelings is what produces your desires. Stay away from the “What if’s?” What if I can’t raise the funds? What if the new director is not the right person? These both would bring up the feeling of fear and that’s not what you want in your life.
You want to feel success. I suggest you get that “feeling of success” implanted in your body so you can activate it on request. Neville says that all things come from within from this subconscious. He says we can’t see anything else except what is contained in our subconscious. That “your world in its every detail is your consciousness objectified.”
We need to remember, “The subconscious accepts as true that which you feel is true, and because creation is the result of subconscious impressions, you, by your feeling, determine creation. You are already that which you want to be and your refusal to believe this is the only reason you do not see it.”
That is a shocking statement. In other words, we all contain the possibilities of the success with the future we want. We just need to stop feeling emotions that we do not want to bring into our life.
Your subconscious accepts your feelings as reality
We need to recognize those feelings of anger, guilt, fear, unhappiness and loss and replace them with success. Success seems to be the key. We need to learn how to keep feeling successful and confident and keep imprinting these feelings on our subconscious.
We want to remember is that the most important thing to recognize today is that the subconscious plays a major part in our consciousness, in our reality.
What we feed into the subconscious is what we see and experience in our consciousness. Getting control over our feelings is the number one key and recognizing the power of the subconscious is the second key to achieving a successful and rewarding life.
Carole Dean is president and founder of From the Heart Productions; a 501(c)3 non-profit that offers the Roy W. Dean Film Grants and fiscal sponsorship for independent filmmakers. She hosts the weekly podcast, The Art of Film Funding, interviewing those involved in all aspects of indie film production. Her new class “How to Fund Your Film” is available on Vimeo on Demand. She is also the author of The Art of Film Funding, 2nd Edition: Alternative Financing Concepts. See IMDB for producing credits.