Feeling the Reality— Why Thinking and Desiring Is Not Sufficient for Things to Materialize
Practical Thoughts from Feeling is the Secret, by Neville Goddard
I recently had a terrible trading session. I lost half my account in one night. My mistake: I traded emotionally. More specifically, I traded with unresolved and unexpressed emotions. I had thoughts I was undecided about, they were unresolved, they were speculated, they were flying from one extreme possibility to another. They were bouncing back and forth, fueled by heavy emotion. The more I dwelt on them, the stronger the emotions became. They were bottled up, a dangerous potion looking for an outlet. And when I started my trading session somehow they were being released subconsciously. I ended up losing a lot.
I decided to do something about emotions and feelings. Find a hack. I remembered a hack I once used. Last time I used it, I got a car, a Toyota Camry, by doing practical exercises inspired by the book. So I went back to that book, pulled it off the shelf and started reading. It is Neville Goddard’s book, Feeling Is the Secret. The book focuses on feelings, and the control of feelings and its relationship to the sub-conscious, the conscious, and reality. Not everything in this book is true. Neville has his own way of interpreting truth. But I did find some helpful hacks that I tried and they indeed worked. So in this post I will only note the practical thoughts I found to be helpful to adjust how I handled feelings. I found a lot of value in this.
This hack is most helpful for situations where we desire and confess one outcome, but our feelings betray us with doubt or fear.
These are some notes from the book verbatim:
Feeling is the one and only medium through which ideas are conveyed to the subconscious. Therefore the man who does not control his feelings may easily impress the subconscious with undesirable states. By control of feeling is not meant restraint or suppression of feeling, but rather disciplining of self to imagine and entertain only such feeling as contributes to your happiness. Control of your feeling is all important to a full and happy life. Never entertain an undesirable feeling, nor think sympathetically about wrong in any shape or form. Do not dwell on the imperfection of yourself or others.
Every feeling makes a subconscious impression. And unless it is counteracted by a more powerful feeling of an opposite nature, must be expressed. The dominant of two feelings is the one expressed.
“I am healthy” is a stronger feeling than “I will be healthy”. To feel “I will be…” is to confess “I am not”. “I am” is stronger than “I am not”. What you feel you are, always dominates what you feel you would like to be.
Therefore, to be realized, the wish must be felt as a state that is, rather than a state that is not.
Be careful of your moods and your feelings. For there is an unbroken connection between your feelings and your visible world.
Your body is an emotional filter and bears the unmistakable marks of your prevalent emotions. Emotional disturbances especially suppressed emotions are the causes of … disease. To feel intensely about a wrong without voicing or expressing that feeling is the beginning of dis-ease in both body and environment. Do not entertain the feeling of regret or failure for frustration or detachment from your objective results in disease.
Think feelingly only of the state you desire to realize. Feeling the reality of the state sought and living and acting on that conviction is the way of all seeming miracles. All changes of expression are brought about through a change of feeling.
The subconscious does not concern with the truth or falsity of your feeling. It always accepts as true that which you feel to be true.
The subconscious never alters the accepted beliefs of man. It out-pictures them to the last detail whether or not they are beneficial.
To impress the subconscious with the desirable state, you must assume the feeling that would be yours had you already realized your wish.
In defining your objective, you must be concerned only with the objective itself. The manner of expression or the difficulties involved are not to be considered by you. To think feelingly on any state impresses it on the subconscious. Therefore if you dwell on difficulties, barriers, or delay, the subconscious by its very non-selective nature accepts the feeling of difficulties and obstacles as your request and proceeds to produce them in your outer world. To feel a state as hopeless or impossible is to impress the subconscious with the idea of failure.
By assuming the feeling that would be yours where you are already in possession of your objective the subconscious has moved to build the exact likeness of your assumption.
Your desires are not subconsciously accepted until you assume the feeling of their reality. For only through feeling is an idea subconsciously accepted and only through this subconscious acceptance is it ever expressed.
It is easier to ascribe your feeling to events in the world than to admit that the conditions of the world reflect your feeling. However, it is eternally true that the outside mirrors the inside.
Your world in its every detail is your consciousness objectified. A change of impression results in a change of expression.
The subconscious accepts as true that which you feel to be true.
To seek on the outside for that which you do not feel you are is to seek in vain. For we never find that which we want, we find only that which we are. In short, you express and have only that which you are conscious of being or possessing.
Denying the evidence of the senses and appropriating the feeling of the wish fulfilled is the way to the realization of your desire.
Mastery of self-control of your thoughts and feelings is your highest achievement.
Two of the most powerful tools for this:
- Sleep
- Prayer
These are the two gateways into the subconscious.
I will just mention one practical hack:
- Note down the thing you desire to possess or to achieve.
- After you’ve done everything else, committed to prayer, got God’s word concerning the matter, spoke to those you need to consult etc., now you work on your feeling of the reality.
- Imagine the feeling you would feel when you possess or achieve your objective. Try to lock that in and feel it as long as you can while you are awake during the day. Try to feel it at different places and different times. Feel it in the kitchen, in shower, at work, in the office, try feeling it when you are conversing with friends and family. Is the feeling wanting to burst out of you with excitement like it wants you to tell people? Try to feel it as much as you can.
- The next thing is when you lie down to sleep at night, imagine that satisfying feeling you will have. There is a day when you will possess or achieve your objective. It will be a long day, you will get to celebrate. But imagine going to sleep on that night. Imagine the feeling you will have that night after it is done, and you are now laying your head on your pillow to get some sleep. And these amazing feelings and thoughts just wash over your whole being. You smile to yourself and just say to yourself “Wow!” I finally have it. I finally did it. It’s surreal.
- Okay, take that feeling. And lock it in when you sleep.
I did this last year. When I went to sleep, I slept with the feeling that a car was parked outside my house, and the car key was on my table. This is now a reality! You are pulling a feeling from the future and bringing it to your present night’s sleep.
There are so many applications of this. I could do it for so many objectives.
- Continue doing this until your subconscious is overwhelmed with this feeling and just takes it as a reality.
- The same feelings can be activated and felt when you pray and give thanks to God. You express gratitude for something that is already given to you and you pour your expression of thankfulness. Again, you try to do the same, pull those feelings from the future into the present and feel them in real-time. Just intoxicate yourself with those feelings until they are so overwhelming.
