#148: The Consciousness of Having

The Consciousness of Having

A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard

You have been taught from your earliest days that to have you must first get. You must strive, you must earn, you must somehow wrest from the world that which you desire. This teaching has filled the world with restless seekers who never arrive, for they seek where possession cannot be found. Possession is not an act of acquisition. It is a state of consciousness. You have only that of which you are conscious of being the possessor. This is the changeless law, and it operates whether you know it or not.

When you are conscious of having, you do not feel the need to get. The straining, the anxious planning, the constant looking to tomorrow all cease. You rest in a quiet certainty that what you desire is already yours. This certainty is not a mood that comes and goes with outer conditions. It is a fixed state, a living conviction in the depth of your being. From this state all things flow outward to confirm it. The world you see is always the out-picturing of the state you are conscious of being.

Many look upon the possessions of others and wonder why they themselves remain empty-handed. They see no difference between themselves and those who seem to have. Yet the difference is not in favor or in luck. It is in consciousness. The one who has is simply conscious of having. The one who lacks is conscious of not having. Life does not give to the deserving. It gives to the conscious. To him that is conscious of having, it is given and pressed down and running over. To him that is conscious of not having, even that which he seems to have is taken away. This is not punishment. It is the merciful working of the law that frees you from all striving.

You cannot have what you are not conscious of being. This statement seems too simple to the wisdom of the world, yet it is the very foundation upon which all manifestation rests. You may surround yourself with the symbols of possession, but if you are not conscious of having, those symbols will slip from your grasp. You may labor long and hard to build a fortune, yet if the consciousness of having is absent, the fortune will vanish as surely as it appeared. For nothing is kept except that which is claimed in consciousness.

The consciousness of having is felt, not reasoned. It is not a conclusion reached after weighing evidence. It is a direct, immediate feeling that the thing is already yours. When you feel this, you do not argue with appearances. Appearances are always the shadow of some prior state of consciousness. They have no power to create. They can only reflect what you are already conscious of being. Therefore, when you assume the consciousness of having, you are not denying reality. You are simply shifting to the only reality there is — the reality of your own awareness.

You ask how this consciousness will externalize itself. You do not need to know. The ways of consciousness are past finding out. Your responsibility is not the how. Your responsibility is the assumption of the state. When you assume the feeling of having, you have done all that is required of you. The outer world, being but the shadow, must rearrange itself to match the light you have kindled within. This rearrangement may come through avenues you never imagined. It may come quickly or slowly. The time and the means are not your concern. The consciousness is your only concern.

Many who hear this truth attempt to use it as a method of getting. They say within themselves, “I will assume the feeling of having so that I may get.” This is to miss the mark entirely. The assumption is not a lever to move the world. The assumption is the very possession itself. When you truly feel that you have, you are no longer looking for confirmation. You are at peace. You are satisfied. And it is this satisfaction, this inner rest, that draws to you the outer evidence. The evidence always follows the consciousness. It never precedes it.

Consider what it means to be conscious of having health. It is not the longing for health. It is not the hopeful statement that health will come. It is the quiet, unargued feeling that you are already well. In this feeling there is no room for the symptoms that formerly occupied your attention. Those symptoms belonged to the old consciousness of not having health. As you persist in the new consciousness, the symptoms lose their support and must fade. The same law holds for every desire. The consciousness of having love is not the desire to be loved. It is the feeling that you are already loved, that love is your natural state. From this feeling the world must produce the evidence.

You will find, as you dwell in this consciousness, that your entire attitude toward life changes. You no longer push or pull or plead. You simply assume the naturalness of possession and go about your affairs in that state. Decisions are made from the feeling of having. Words are spoken from the feeling of having. Actions are taken from the feeling of having. And because you are living from the end, the end is compelled to appear. This is not forcing. This is simply allowing the law to operate without interference from the old state of lack.

The old state will, of course, attempt to reassert itself. The senses will present their evidence. Friends may question your changed attitude. Doubts will arise within you. These are the natural reactions of the former consciousness. They have no power except the power you give them by returning to them in attention. When they appear, you do not fight them. You simply return to the consciousness of having. You remind yourself that you are not trying to get. You are already in possession. This gentle, persistent return is the very act that dissolves the old state and establishes the new.

You cannot serve two masters. You cannot be conscious of having and conscious of not having at the same time. One or the other must be chosen. The choice is made in the inner silence where no one sees. It is made by the feeling you entertain in the quiet moments of your day and especially in the moments before sleep. In those moments you are free to assume any state. Choose the state of having. Feel it to the point where it seems natural. Fall asleep in the feeling that your desire is already fulfilled. In this simple act you have given the command, and the command cannot return to you void.

The consciousness of having is the true meaning of the statement that to him that hath shall be given. It is not a reward for good behavior. It is the inevitable out-picturing of a state. When you are conscious of having, you are in the position to receive. When you are conscious of not having, you are in the position from which all things are taken. There is no injustice here. There is only perfect justice, for life gives every man the exact equivalent of his own consciousness.

You may wonder whether you are worthy of this possession. Worthiness has nothing to do with it. Life does not weigh your merits. It simply reflects your consciousness. The saint and the sinner alike receive according to their consciousness of having or not having. Therefore, lay aside all questions of worthiness. They belong to the old state. In the consciousness of having there is no room for such questions. There is only the quiet certainty that what you have assumed is already yours.

As this certainty deepens, you will discover that you are no longer moved by appearances. You walk through the same world, yet you see it differently. Where you formerly saw lack, you now see the evidence of your own consciousness. Where you formerly felt the need to struggle, you now feel the naturalness of receiving. This change in seeing is the true transformation. The outer world has not yet fully conformed, but you have already changed. And because you have changed, the world must follow.

The consciousness of having is not a special gift given to a few. It is the natural state of the one who knows who he is. You are the awareness of being. All things exist within this awareness. When you claim a thing as yours in consciousness, you are simply acknowledging what is already within you. You are not creating something new. You are simply becoming aware of what has always been yours in the realm of consciousness.

Many attempt to reach this state by affirming words. Words are useful only as they awaken the feeling. The feeling is everything. When the feeling of having is alive within you, the words may be forgotten. The feeling carries its own conviction. It needs no repetition. It simply is. And in its being, all things are.

You will find that living from this consciousness removes the feverish quality from your days. You no longer rise in the morning wondering how you will get what you need. You rise knowing that what you need is already yours. This knowing does not make you passive. It makes you free. You move through your affairs with a quiet confidence that was formerly absent. And this confidence itself becomes part of the consciousness that draws to you the fulfillment of your desire.

The world will call this confidence presumption. It will say you have no right to feel that you have what you do not yet see. But the world judges by appearances, and appearances are always the past. You are living from the future made present in consciousness. Therefore, you cannot be judged by the standards of those who live only in the shadow. Your standard is within. It is the feeling of having. As long as this feeling is maintained, you are safe. You are already in possession.

When the outer evidence finally appears, you will not be surprised. You will simply recognize what you have long known in consciousness. The joy you feel will not be the joy of acquisition. It will be the joy of confirmation. You will see that nothing has been added to you that was not already yours when you assumed the consciousness of having. This recognition is the final seal upon the work. You have proved the law in your own experience.

And so you see, the whole question of possession is settled within you. You do not look to the world to give you what you desire. You look to your own consciousness. You assume the feeling of having, and you persist in that feeling until it becomes your natural state. From this natural state the world cannot withhold anything. It has no power to withhold. It can only give what you are conscious of receiving.

Tonight, as you prepare for sleep, turn from every evidence of lack. Do not argue with it. Simply assume the consciousness of having. Feel the relief that comes with possession. Feel the quiet satisfaction that the thing is already yours. Let this feeling be the last thing you are aware of as you enter sleep. And in the days that follow, return to this feeling whenever the old state attempts to reassert itself. In this simple, persistent assumption you will find the secret of all possession. You will discover that you have never lacked anything except the consciousness of having. And when that consciousness is yours, all things are added unto you.

You are the one who has. You have always been the one who has. You have only to claim it in consciousness and the claim is honored. This is the law. This is the promise. And this is your freedom.