The Power of Thought

Neville Goddard, Earl Nightingale, James Allen

Earl Nightingale
Throughout all history, the great wise men and teachers, philosophers, and
prophets have disagreed with one another on many different things. It is only
on this one point that they are in complete and unanimous agreement. We
become what we think about.
The human mind is much like a farmer’s land. The land gives the farmer a
choice. He may plant in that land whatever he chooses. The land doesn’t care
what is planted. It’s up to the farmer to make the decision. The mind, like the
land, will return what you plant, but it doesn’t care what you plant. If the farmer
plants too seeds and one a seed of corn, the other nightshade, a deadly poison,
waters and takes care of the land, what will happen?
Remember, the land doesn’t care. It will return poison in just as wonderful
abundance as it will corn. So up come the two plants — one corn, one poison as
it’s written in the Bible, “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”
The human mind is far more fertile, far more incredible and mysterious than the
land, but it works the same way. It doesn’t care what we plant ... success ... or
failure. A concrete, worthwhile goal ... or confusion, misunderstanding, fear,
anxiety, and so on. But what we plant it must return to us.
Every one of us is the sum total of our own thoughts. We are where we are
because that’s exactly where we really want or feel we deserve to be — whether
we’ll admit that or not. Each of us must live off the fruit of our thoughts in the
future, because what you think today and tomorrow — next month and next year
— will mold your life and determine your future. You’re guided by your mind.
So find that child that is the symbol of Jesus Christ, who is the creative power
and the wisdom of God. Believe me when I tell you that this Jesus Christ of
scripture is your own wonderful human imagination. “By him all things were
made, and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3). He is
in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knows Him not.
Neville Goddard
God. Believe me when I tell you that this Jesus Christ of scripture is your own
wonderful human imagination. “By him all things were made, and without him
was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3). He is in the world, and the
world was made by Him, and the world knows Him not.
Can you imagine what it would be like if it were true?
Can you feel what it would be like if it were true?
Well, then, that is power! Now, can you be persistent in it? Can you remain
faithful to that end as though it were true?
So, if I exercise my Imagination and it proves itself in performance, and then you
exercise your imagination and it proves itself in performance, it’s the same
imagination – individualized as Neville, individualized as you, regardless of your
name. Then you share it with another, and you tell it to others. Well, if I can
tell it to the point where they are persuaded to try it, and in trying it, it proves
itself in the testing, then we have found him.
So when you read in Scripture, “I have found him,” (John 1:45) – found whom?
“I have found the one of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write,
“Jesus of Nazareth.” Well, the word “Jesus” simply means what “Jehovah”
means; it means “salvation.” It means, “to save.”
If I save someone from poverty by putting him into a state of affluence, well,
then, that’s Jesus. I amexercising the same power. If someone is unwell and I
represent him to myself as being the embodiment of health and he conforms to it,
then that’s Jesus. Imaginal acts are sowing, but we do not recognize our own
harvests when we see the imaginal act projected on the screen of space. We say, I
could never have imagined a thing like that, but we must have or we could not
encounter it.
So, the act of imagining is sowing, and in its own good time, it crops out from
that unseen journey and appears on the screen of space, and you see it – but
you don’t always recognize your harvest. But I’ll tell you one thing, do not
concern yourself with the means. Always go to the end. Dwell in the end, and
you will hurt no one.
The aphorism, "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he," not only embraces the
whole of a man's being, but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every
condition and circumstance of his life. A man is literally what he thinks, his
character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.
-$-
James Allen
As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, so every act of a
man spring from the hidden seeds of thought, and could not have appeared
without them. his applies equally to those acts called "spontaneous" and
"unpremeditated" as to those which are deliberately executed.
Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits; thus does a
man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry. Of all the
beautiful truths pertaining to the soul which have been restored and brought to
light in this age, none is more gladdening or fruitful of divine promise and
confidence than this - that man is the master of thought, the molder of character,
and maker and shaper of condition, environment, and destiny.
As a being of Power, Intelligence, and Love, and the Lord of his own thoughts,
man holds the key to every situation, and contains within himself that
transforming and regenerative agency by which he may make himself what he
wills. A man's mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently
cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must,
and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of
useless weed seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.
The outer world of circumstance shapes itself to the inner world of thought, and
both pleasant and unpleasant external conditions are factors which make for the
ultimate good of the individual. As the reaper of his own harvest, man learns
both by suffering and bliss.