#153: The Inner Substance

The Inner Substance

A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard

Can man give substance to an idea that has not yet taken form in his world? Most decidedly he can. The substance is not found in the outer things that men chase and measure and weigh. The substance is feeling. Feeling alone gives body and reality to the unseen idea. Without feeling the idea remains a shadow, a wish drifting in the mind, formless and powerless. With feeling the idea takes on the solidity of fact. It is no longer something hoped for; it is something already possessed in the only place where possession is real—in consciousness.

You have formed many ideas. You have desired health when the body seemed broken. You have desired abundance when the purse seemed empty. You have desired love when the heart seemed alone. These ideas were real to you as ideas, yet they remained unseen because they lacked the one thing that could clothe them. That one thing is feeling. Feeling is the inner substance. It is the living material out of which the unseen is made visible. When you truly feel yourself to be what you desire to be, the idea ceases to be a picture in the mind and becomes a fact of consciousness. The subconscious, which is the womb of all creation, receives the idea only when it is wrapped in feeling. It then proceeds to fashion the outer world in the likeness of that feeling.

Consciousness is the one reality. Everything that appears in your world is consciousness objectified. The idea you hold is a state of consciousness. Until that state is felt, it has no substance. It is like the word in the beginning—formless, void, without the moving power that brings it into expression. Feeling is that moving power. Feeling is the spirit that broods upon the face of the waters of the unseen and says, “Let there be.” And there is. The moment you feel the idea as true, the creative act is finished. The outer world may still show the old form, but the substance has already been given. The manifestation must follow, for the law is changeless. What is felt as real in consciousness must appear as real in form.

Many have sought the secret of creation in outer techniques, in affirmations repeated without feeling, in frantic effort to make something happen. These leave the idea still without substance. The idea remains a guest in the mind, never taken into the heart where it can be quickened. Only feeling quickens. Only feeling says to the unseen, “You are no longer unseen. You are now my living reality.” When this is done, the idea and the one who feels it become one. There is no longer a separation between the desire and the desirer. The two have agreed, and the agreement is established.

Consider the mystery of feeling as it is told in the ancient story of the blind father who blessed his son. The father could not see the rough, hairy surface of the present world. He could only feel. And by feeling he transferred the blessing, the substance, the right of birth to the smooth-skinned son who represented the desired state. The father did not argue with appearances. He did not wait for the outer world to confirm what he felt. He felt, and in feeling he gave the unseen idea the substance of reality. The blessing, once felt, could not be withheld. So it is with you. Your consciousness is the blind father. Your present circumstances are the rough, hairy son—the world you know by the evidence of the senses. Your desire is the smooth-skinned son—the state not yet seen but capable of being felt. When you close the eyes of sense and feel the desired state as true, you do what the father did. You give the blessing. You give substance. And the desired state supplants the former one.

This is not a matter of pretending. Pretending is the effort of one who does not yet feel. Feeling is the natural, effortless acceptance that the thing is so. It is the quiet, inner knowing that needs no outer proof because it carries its own proof within it. When you feel yourself to be wealthy, you do not argue with the empty purse. The purse is the outer son. The feeling is the inner son. The feeling has already received the blessing. The purse must in time bear witness. When you feel yourself to be loved, you do not plead with another to love you. You have already given the unseen idea of love its substance. The other is but the mirror that will presently reflect what you have felt.

The world has taught you to look for substance in things. It has taught you that an idea is real only when it can be touched, counted, or spent. This is the great reversal of truth. Things have no reality except as they are the out-picturing of feeling. An idea without feeling is barren. It may be beautiful in the mind, yet it produces nothing. Feeling without an idea is blind force. But the union of the two—the idea embraced by feeling—brings forth the child, the manifestation. This union is the spiritual marriage spoken of in the ancient texts. Two shall agree as touching anything, and it shall be established. The two are the idea and the feeling. When they agree, the establishment is inevitable.

You may ask how long this establishment takes. Time is not the measure. Feeling is the measure. The moment the feeling is established, the creative act is complete. The interval that appears between the feeling and the visible proof is only the time required for the outer to catch up with the inner. It is the bridge of incidents that the feeling sets in motion. You do not build the bridge. You do not plan the incidents. You simply remain faithful to the feeling that has already given substance to the idea. Faith here is not belief in something far off. Faith is feeling. It is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. When you feel the substance, you have the evidence, though the senses have not yet confirmed it.

Many grow weary because they feel for a moment and then return to the old feeling of lack or illness or loneliness. The old feeling reclaims the substance. The idea is once more left without clothing. It is not that the law has failed. It is that the substance was withdrawn. Feeling must be sustained until the outer conforms. This sustaining is not effort. It is the natural dwelling in the state that has been felt as true. You dwell there by returning again and again to the feeling, especially in the quiet hours when the outer world is stilled. In sleep the feeling is most readily impressed, for sleep is the door into the deep where all form is fashioned. As you relax into sleep, feel the idea as already accomplished. Let the last waking sensation be the substance you have given to your desire. Then the deep of you, which never sleeps, will take that feeling and out-picture it.

The body itself is an emotional filter. It bears the marks of the feelings that have been impressed upon it. Disease is the out-picturing of feeling. Health is the out-picturing of feeling. Poverty is the out-picturing of feeling. Abundance is the out-picturing of feeling. There is no other cause. When you change the feeling, you change the substance that is being given to the idea of your body, your circumstances, your world. The change may seem gradual, yet it is as certain as the law itself. The subconscious does not argue. It does not judge whether the feeling is wise or foolish. It simply receives what is felt and gives it form. Therefore choose with care what you feel. Never feel the reality of that which you do not wish to experience. Never give substance to the idea of failure, of loss, of separation. These ideas, when felt, become clothed and appear as surely as the idea you truly desire.

You are not asked to deny the evidence of the senses forever. You are asked only to give the higher evidence of feeling. The senses report what has already been felt in the past. Feeling now reports what shall be. When the two seem in conflict, the greater evidence—the feeling—prevails. The senses are compelled to change because consciousness is the only reality, and consciousness has already been impressed.

Tonight, before you sleep, take the idea that has lingered unseen in your mind. Do not argue with it. Do not wonder how it can come to pass. Simply feel it as true. Feel the substance of it. If it is health, feel the ease and strength and vitality of the body already whole. If it is abundance, feel the security and freedom and generosity of one who possesses. If it is love, feel the warmth and certainty of being cherished. Let the feeling fill the inner place where ideas are quickened. Do this quietly, without strain. The feeling itself is the doing. When the feeling is established, you may rise from your bed or from your chair and go about your affairs knowing that the substance has been given. The unseen idea is no longer unseen in the only place that matters. It is real in consciousness. And because it is real there, it must become real everywhere.

You may be tempted to look for signs before the feeling has done its work. Signs follow. They do not precede. The first sign is the change in your own inner world—the quiet satisfaction, the absence of anxiety, the naturalness with which you now think of the fulfilled desire. This inner sign is the proof that substance has been given. The outer signs will come in their own order, often in ways you could not have devised. The feeling sets in motion events and encounters and circumstances whose sole purpose is to bear witness to what has been felt.

There is no one to change but self. The world you see is the world you have felt. When you change the feeling, you change the substance you are giving to every idea. The stuck places in your life are places where feeling has been withheld or misdirected. The idea of freedom was present, yet the feeling of imprisonment was sustained. The idea of success was present, yet the feeling of failure was fed. Now you know the secret. You withdraw the substance from the unwanted idea by refusing to feel it as real. You give the substance to the desired idea by feeling it as true. This is the whole art. It is simple because it is true. It is powerful because it is the way creation works.

You stand this night at the threshold of a new understanding. The ideas you have carried for years need not remain formless. You possess the power to give them substance. That power is feeling. Use it consciously. Use it consistently. Use it tonight. Feel the idea you most desire to see made visible. Feel it until it feels natural. Feel it until the question of how or when no longer arises. In that feeling the inner substance is given. The unseen idea is clothed. And clothed, it must appear.

You are not a victim of conditions. You are the giver of substance to conditions. You are not waiting for the world to change. You are the one who changes the world by first changing what you feel to be true. This is the dignity and the power that belong to you as man. This is the secret that was hidden in the ancient stories and is now revealed to you in the living moment. Feeling is the inner substance. Give it to the idea you love, and the idea will no longer be unseen. It will be your living reality, known first within, then without, and forever established in the only place where anything is ever established—in consciousness.

Tonight you can do this. Tonight the substance can be given. Tonight the unseen idea can be made flesh. And when it is done, you will know, as all who have known it have known, that there is no fiction in consciousness. There is only the reality you have felt into being. This is the truth that sets you free. This is the inner substance by which all things are made.