Feeling Is The Secret

Have you ever wondered why some people effortlessly manifest success while others struggle despite endless effort? In Feeling is the Secret, Neville Goddard argues that the key to creation lies not in sheer willpower or logical planning—but in mastering your inner feelings. Goddard contends that your emotional states, not your external circumstances, generate every condition of your life. What you truly feel to be real becomes real, because consciousness itself is both the cause and substance of the world.

His deceptively short book provides a complete metaphysical map of human creation, centering on the relationship between the conscious and the subconscious mind, the role of feeling as the medium of manifestation, and the use of sleep and prayer to imprint new realities within the subconscious. Goddard breaks down complex mystical principles into practical techniques you can use—what he calls the law of consciousness. Mitch Horowitz’s companion essay enriches this framework with historical insights and examples, connecting Neville’s ideas to broader spiritual movements and scientific concepts like neuroplasticity and quantum observation.

Consciousness is the Foundation of Reality

According to Goddard, consciousness is not a passive awareness of things—it is the creative power that produces them. The world you experience is your consciousness objectified. Every event, relationship, and physical condition begins as a feeling impressed on the subconscious. The conscious mind generates ideas and desires; the subconscious mind expresses them outwardly into form. Goddard calls the conscious mind the male (generator) and the subconscious the female (receiver). The two create as one, through the union of feeling and belief. This mechanism explains why positive thinking alone often fails—it’s not about repeating affirmations, but about feeling their truth deeply and sincerely.

Feeling as the Medium of Creation

For Goddard, feeling is the fertile soil of creation. You cannot impress any idea upon the subconscious until you genuinely feel it as true. Once felt, the subconscious accepts it and begins to orchestrate outer conditions to match. This principle turns emotion into power: if you feel abundance, you'll attract abundance; if you feel failure or regret, that reality will manifest. As he writes, you must discipline yourself not by suppressing emotion, but by gently training yourself to feel only those states that uplift and fulfill you. Every change of feeling is a change of destiny.

Sleep and Prayer as Gateways

Neville identifies two gateways that lead directly into the subconscious: sleep and prayer. Just before falling asleep—when your rational mind relaxes—you can vividly imagine and feel your wish fulfilled. This hypnagogic state blends consciousness and subconsciousness, allowing impressions to sink deeply. Similarly, prayer is not begging for outcomes but assuming their reality in a relaxed, receptive state. You must “believe that you have received”—which means entering the feeling of possession now. Both sleep and prayer bypass the resistance of logic and allow feeling to do its creative work.

Why These Ideas Matter

The importance of Goddard’s teaching lies in its radical simplicity: it shifts creation from effort to awareness. Mitch Horowitz emphasizes that Neville gave nothing to sell—no organization, no membership—just a direct challenge: test these ideas for yourself. His insights have inspired generations, from spiritual teachers like Wayne Dyer to experimental psychologists exploring mind causation. In the age of neuroscience and quantum theory, Neville’s idea that observation and feeling shape reality seems less mystical and more scientific. Ultimately, Feeling is the Secret calls you to master your inner world. Once you learn to feel the state you desire—health, peace, success—as already real, the outer world rearranges accordingly. Your life becomes not a struggle to get, but a revelation of what you have become.

Neville Goddard begins with the first principle: Consciousness is the one and only reality. Everything you see and experience is a reflection of the states within your consciousness. In the chapter “Law and Its Operation,” he portrays creation as a dynamic interplay between the conscious and the subconscious mind. The conscious mind is personal, selective, and known as the “male” aspect. The subconscious, by contrast, is impersonal, receptive, and feminine—the womb of creation.

How Creation Works

The conscious mind impresses ideas upon the subconscious through feeling. The subconscious then expresses these impressions outwardly into form. You cannot exercise real control over your life until you manage what you impress upon this internal creative partner. It does not reason; it accepts whatever you feel to be true as absolute reality. This means accidents and fate are illusions—your outer world only mirrors your inner assumptions.

Neville uses vivid metaphors to clarify: the subconscious is not a servant obeying commands; it responds lovingly to persuasion, like a beloved partner. You must gently assume the feeling of being already in possession of your desire—whether health, love, or success—rather than forcing it with effort. Command fails; persuasion through feeling succeeds.

Managing Feelings as Creative Causes

Every feeling leaves an imprint. The dominant among competing feelings is the one expressed. “I am” is stronger than “I will be,” because the latter admits lack. Goddard insists that you never dwell on imperfections or negative states—doing so reinforces them within the subconscious and returns them to you multiplied. Emotional disturbances, he adds, are the causes of disease; suppressed emotions create physical and environmental dis-ease. You must train yourself to think and feel only toward wholeness.

Transformation Through Assumption

The secret lies in assuming the feeling of the wish fulfilled. When you feel it, your world reorganizes around that assumption. The subconscious begins immediately to construct circumstances that mirror your new inner pattern. This process transcends reason—its workings are mysterious but exact. Neville concludes that to achieve mastery, you must learn reflective control over your ideas and feelings. Until you do, the world will simply repeat your old subconscious impressions. “To him that hath it is given,” he reminds—your visible circumstances always correspond to what you feel yourself to be.

(In modern psychology, this mirrors the principle of self-concept formation described by cognitive theorists like Albert Bandura and Carl Rogers: the self you emotionally believe yourself to be determines behavior and outcomes.) For Goddard, understanding this law of consciousness is the first step toward deliberate creation. Once you grasp that everything unfolds from feelings impressed on the subconscious, you begin living as the cause—not the effect—of your world.

Neville calls sleep “the natural door into the subconscious,” transforming it from a passive nightly event into a creative ritual. One-third of your life, he says, is spent in this state of inner communion between the conscious and subconscious mind. Understanding sleep as a sacred appointment with your creative self transforms how you end each day. It becomes not an escape from life but a rehearsal for creation.

Preparing the State Before Sleep

Before falling asleep, you enter a zone where the conscious mind relaxes and the subconscious opens. Neville teaches you to use this moment deliberately—to feel the reality of your wish fulfilled. He calls this the attitude of thanksgiving and praise: enter sleep feeling satisfied, as if your desires are already accomplished. This prevents the subconscious from embodying feelings of failure or frustration, which would otherwise materialize as struggle the next day.

He suggests a physical posture: lie flat on your back with your head level, and relax until you approach drowsiness. At that gate, imagine the world as if everything you wanted is already real. Feel appreciation. “Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee”—take this as your final thought before sleep. The subconscious never sleeps; while the conscious mind rests, the creative feminine continues working on the impressions received.

The Hypnagogic State

Neville explains that the drowsy, hovering state between waking and sleeping—known scientifically as hypnagogia—is especially powerful. In this moment your rational defenses fade and feeling dominates, making the mind deeply receptive. He calls this the “chamber of her that conceived me,” referencing the mystical union between conscious and subconscious. Whatever attitude you carry into this state becomes tomorrow’s reality.

Cause and Effect in Dreaming

Every night you plant seeds—your final feeling becomes the subconscious mold for the next day’s experiences. If you fall asleep discouraged, you wake into circumstances confirming that discouragement. But if you fall asleep feeling accomplished, cheerful, and thankful, your outer world reorganizes to affirm that belief. “Sleep is the door into heaven,” Neville affirms. The feeling you take into sleep becomes the condition you meet on earth.

This technique parallels what Emile Coué later called autosuggestion and what modern neuroscience labels neuroplastic conditioning—repetitive thoughts and feelings literally rewire your brain’s pathways while you sleep. By understanding sleep as creation, you transform an unconscious habit into the most sacred part of your practice: when you sleep in the feeling of the wish fulfilled, you join the creative God within.

In Neville’s philosophy, prayer is not pleading—it’s participation. He redefines it as the act of assuming the feeling of the wish fulfilled. When you pray correctly, you move beyond effort and enter receptive awareness, a meditative state akin to sleep. “When you pray,” Jesus said, “believe that you have received.” For Neville, that means to feel as though the desire is already yours. The moment you accept the end as real, the means unfolds.

The Closet of Secrecy

Neville refers to the Biblical line, “Enter into your closet and shut the door.” That closet is your inner consciousness. Shutting the door means turning away from the senses—ignoring appearances that contradict your wish. Most people sabotage prayer by trying to overcome what their eyes confirm as lack. Attempting to “force faith” creates resistance. True prayer is effortless yielding—relaxing into the feeling that what you desire is already accomplished.

Creating a Passive State

Neville instructs you to lie comfortably, close your eyes, and imagine yourself sleepy. Allow the body to relax until you feel pleasantly immobile. In this state, imagine one simple scene that implies fulfillment—a handshake, a smile, a word of gratitude. Feel the emotions accompanying it. This reverie brings the soul and the subconscious into alignment. As soon as the feeling dominates, you have prayed successfully. “All you can possibly need or desire is already yours,” he explains. Once the end is accepted, you become indifferent to obstacles, because the creative law now operates invisibly on your behalf.

Effortless Receptivity

Effort, paradoxically, blocks realization. The harder you try, the more you affirm separation from the desired state. Instead, surrender to the feeling of being already fulfilled. In his teachings, Neville equates faith with feeling: “According to your faith—your feeling—be it unto you.” Once you touch the emotional state of completion, prayer is complete. The subconscious begins its work instantly, finding pathways that reason could never plan.

This concept echoes the meditative practices found in Buddhism and mystical Christianity, where surrender replaces striving. In psychological terms, Neville’s passive prayer resembles visualization under relaxation therapy—where relaxed focus creates suggestibility. By practicing this kind of prayer, you move beyond anxiety into creative faith, discovering that all answers were within you from the start.

“Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,” Scripture says—and Neville translates “spirit” as feeling. To live in the spirit of your desired state is to embody its reality emotionally. This revelation connects inner mood with external manifestation: when you feel yourself to be what you desire, life externalizes that feeling as fact.

The Creative Identity

Neville challenges conventional belief in an external God. Instead, he teaches that you are God expressing through imagination. Believing “in” God keeps creation distant; believing “as” God activates it. Jesus did miracles not because he worshiped God but because he believed himself to be one with God. Likewise, when you believe and feel yourself to be the person you aspire to—healthy, wealthy, peaceful—you naturally act and create in accordance with that belief.

Faith Equals Feeling

Faith is not intellectual belief—it is sensory conviction. You must capture the feeling associated with your realized wish. Through that emotional embodiment, Neville says, “you are relieved of all effort to make it so, for it is already so.” Once you adopt the internal vibration of fulfillment, manifestation becomes automatic. This mirrors modern understandings from neuroscience that emotional focus activates neural pathways more effectively than abstract reasoning.

Living as the One You Want to Be

The call is radical: don’t just believe in Christ-like power—live as it. “He that believes as I believe, the works I do shall he do also.” Neville reminds you that it is natural to perform the works of the one you believe yourself to be. If you identify with limitation, you live that. If you identify with divine creative power, you live that too. The lesson culminates in radical acceptance: to change the world, change your conception of yourself. Capture the spirit of your desire—its mood, its tone, its emotional frequency—and you merge with the creative source that shapes all things.

Mitch Horowitz’s essay “Chariot of Fire” expands Neville’s system into a three-step formula: desire, immobility, and visualization. These simple but profound methods allow you to test Neville’s philosophy directly—no membership, no doctrine, just experiment.

Step 1: Honest Desire

Neville insists that creation begins with sincere, passionate desire—free from guilt or denial. Horowitz recounts how he once avoided acknowledging his own desire for power because it felt unattractive, only to realize that denying desire denies divine expression. In Neville’s thought, desire is the language of God. When you feel a burning longing, it’s not sin—it’s the spark of creative potential urging realization.

Step 2: Physical Immobility

Next, you enter a state of physical stillness, ideally just before sleep. This twilight zone—again, the hypnagogic state—is where imagination operates with maximum elasticity. Neville would meditate around 3:00 p.m. or right before bed, settling into drowsiness without crossing into sleep. In that delicate balance, the rational mind quiets, and the creative mind awakens. This same state is used in hypnosis and relaxation therapy to bypass conscious resistance and install new beliefs.

Step 3: Visualization from Within

Finally, picture a brief, natural scene that would occur if your desire were fulfilled. Horowitz shares Neville’s example of a woman longing for marriage: she imagined the feeling of a wedding band on her finger. The scene must be simple yet emotionally charged. Crucially, you see from inside the experience, not as a spectator. Feel your hand touch the ladder—not watch yourself climbing it. This internal perspective transforms imagination into creative reality.

Persistence and Emotional Alignment

Horowitz emphasizes Neville’s missing piece: emotions. True visualization demands emotional congruence—you must feel as though it’s real. This parallels Stanislavski’s Method Acting: embodying emotions transforms imagination into tangible experience. Horowitz himself tested this formula when fighting professional frustration, visualizing a satisfying outcome and achieving an unexpected new contract without external effort. Psychological realism meets metaphysical law: when thought and feeling align, reality obeys. This triad—desire, immobility, visualization—constitutes Neville’s repeatable experiment in creation.

Neville’s credibility lay not in theory but in demonstration. He challenged listeners: “Try it tonight. Prove me wrong.” His life offered examples where imagination reshaped circumstance. The most famous was his 1943 discharge from the U.S. Army. Drafted during WWII, Neville nightly imagined himself back home in Greenwich Village, walking freely through Washington Square Park. Within four months—against all wartime protocol—he was honorably discharged. Records later confirmed his timeline exactly. Coincidence or correspondence? Goddard said it was law in action.

Personal Experiments and Modern Parallels

Mitch Horowitz tested this same principle decades later. Facing career rejection, he envisioned his success as already real. Within weeks, events rearranged leading to a new contract he had not initiated. For Neville, these weren’t miracles—they were natural results of impressed feeling. He encouraged everyone to become their own laboratory: live the assumption until reality reflects it.

The Challenge of Belief

Neville’s system is radical because it demands personal proof. You don’t join a school or follow rituals—you test consciousness itself. He borrowed ideas from mind science pioneers like Emile Coué, who proved that repetitive suggestions during hypnagogic states changed physical and mental health. Today, neuroscience calls this neuroplasticity—the ability of thoughts to reshape brain pathways. Neville’s principle predicted it by decades.

The essence is this: whatever you can imagine and feel as true already exists in potential. By accepting it internally, you select that version of reality. “Your assumption will harden into fact,” Neville said. Through deliberate inner feeling, you prove that imagination is God—not metaphorically, but creatively.

Neville's teachings bridge mystical tradition and modern science. Mitch Horowitz traces this evolution from ancient Hermeticism to quantum physics. Each era rediscovered the same truth: mind is causative, imagination is divine.

From Hermeticism to Mesmerism

Hermetic philosophy taught that the individual could be “permeated by divine forces.” Franz Anton Mesmer’s experiments with hypnotic trance rediscovered this mechanism in physical form. Later, Phineas Quimby in New England found that confidence and mental excitement could heal disease—what became the Positive Thinking movement. Mary Baker Eddy, Emanuel Swedenborg, and Warren Felt Evans further developed these insights into Christian Science and mental healing.

Scientific Parallels

Horowitz contextualizes Neville’s ideas with psychical research and quantum observation. Experiments by J.B. Rhine and Charles Honorton showed that enthusiasm and emotional expectation correlated with increased ESP accuracy in controlled trials. Quantum experiments revealed that observation collapses probabilities into actualized events—meaning consciousness determines material outcomes. Neville reinterpreted these principles spiritually: time moves slowly enough that we forget our creative acts, but every impression we make eventually manifests.

A Serial Universe and Infinite Possibilities

Neville described reality as infinite and serial. Every imagined possibility exists now; to feel something as real is to claim it from among infinite outcomes. This aligns with quantum interpretations of parallel reality and confirms Neville’s statement: “Nothing comes from without; all things come from within.”

Horowitz closes with Neville’s practical legacy—his radical openness. He copyrighted nothing, charged nothing, and urged only one action: try. His voice continues to inspire seekers and thinkers across disciplines. From psychology to physics, Neville’s law of feeling anticipates a unified theory of consciousness—where imagination, emotion, and observation are not mystical curiosities but the true formula of creation.