#64: Detachment from the Old Story

Detachment from the Old Story

A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard

You are held fast only by your emotional loyalty to what was. That is the entire secret. The old story you keep telling yourself in the silence of your mind, the old conception of yourself that you still feel to be true, the old conditions you continue to accept as real—these are not imposed upon you from without. They live solely because you give them the breath of your attention and the warmth of your feeling. Release that loyalty and the old story dissolves as though it had never been.

Consciousness is the only reality. What you are conscious of being, you out-picture. When you remain emotionally loyal to the old story, you are consciously being the man or woman you were yesterday, and yesterday’s world must therefore continue to appear. You do not have to fight the old story. You do not have to argue with it. You do not have to analyze why it came or how long it has lasted. All that is required is that you withdraw the one power that keeps it alive—your awareness of being it.

Take your attention away from that which seems so real to you and rise in consciousness to that which you desire to be. This is the act of detachment. Not a cold indifference, but a living, breathing withdrawal of loyalty from the old state so that the new state may be born. You must be born again. Except you leave behind your present conception of yourself, you cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven, for Heaven is simply the fulfilled desire, the new story made visible.

Right now, in this moment, you are conscious of being something. That something is your present self, your old story. It may be a story of limitation, of lack, of illness, of conflict, of delay. Whatever its details, you have clothed yourself in it with feeling. You have said in the depths of your being, “I am this,” and because you are this, the world bears witness. But I AM is not bound. I AM is the awareness of being, and that awareness can withdraw from any conception and assume another.

The old story survives only while you remain conscious of being its central character. When you cease to be conscious of it, it has no life. Out of mind, out of sight. This is not theory; this is the changeless principle upon which all things rest. You are at this very moment drawing into your world that which you are now conscious of being. Therefore, to change the world you must first change the consciousness to which you are loyal.

Detachment is the quiet, majestic act of taking your attention away from the old conception of yourself and dwelling upon just being. Not being this or that yet, but simply being. Feel yourself faceless and formless, free of every label the old story placed upon you. In that formless deep you are the pure awareness, the I AM that was before the world was. From that deep you can then assume any new conception, for all things are possible to the awareness that has loosened its hold upon the old.

You cannot serve two masters. You cannot be loyal to the old story and loyal to the new at the same time. To attempt it is to remain divided, to remain in the wilderness of confusion and delay. Choose this day whom you will serve. Withdraw your emotional loyalty from the old and give it wholly to the new. The moment you do, the old story begins to lose its substance. Its evidence may still appear for a little while, but it has no future. Its roots have been severed in the only place roots can live—in your consciousness.

Feel this truth deeply. The old story is not something happening to you; it is something you are happening to. You are the conceiver, not the victim. When you release emotional loyalty to what was, you stop feeding the old conception. You stop giving it the sap of your attention. And without that sap the branch withers. Things have no life except you be conscious of them. Just as a branch dies when the vine ceases to flow toward it, so does the old story die when your awareness ceases to flow toward it.

This is the true meaning of revision in its deepest sense—not merely changing a single scene, but withdrawing the entire emotional loyalty from the old narrative so that a new narrative may take its place. You do not patch the old garment. You put off the old man entirely and put on the new. You die to the old self and live to the new. That death is not painful; it is the sweetest release you will ever know. It is the freedom of the prisoner who suddenly realizes the cell door was never locked.

Tonight, while you sit here, practice this detachment. Turn your attention gently but firmly away from every detail of the old story. Do not fight it. Do not resist it. Simply cease to be conscious of it. Let it drop from your mind as a garment you no longer need. Feel yourself rising into the formless awareness of pure being. Rest there in the silence. Then, from that high place, assume the feeling of the new story as already true. Feel it naturally, normally, as though it were the most ordinary thing in the world. That is detachment in its living expression.

You will know you have detached when the old story no longer stirs emotion in you. When the former limitations no longer arouse fear or regret or longing or anger, you have truly released your emotional loyalty. The signs of the old story may linger for a moment like the last leaves of autumn, but they have no power to remain. Consciousness is the resurrecting power. What you are no longer conscious of being cannot resurrect itself.

Many imagine they must wait for outer evidence before they can detach. This is the great error. You detach first in consciousness, and the outer evidence follows. The manifestation knows not how it shall appear. Your only concern is to be the new man, to be loyal to the new story with the same quiet certainty with which you were once loyal to the old. Give the new story your emotional allegiance. Live in it. Walk in it. Feel it as natural. Then the old must vanish as the new solidifies.

I AM the way. The awareness of being is the door through which all things pass into manifestation. When you are loyal to the old, you are saying “I AM” to limitation. When you detach and assume the new, you are saying “I AM” to fulfillment. The I AM never fails. It cannot express two contradictory things at once. Choose, therefore, the new story, and let the old dissolve in the light of your new allegiance.

This detachment is not a once-and-for-all act performed and forgotten. It is a continual, gentle returning of the mind to the new awareness whenever the old story attempts to claim your attention. Each time you refuse the old and reaffirm the new, you deepen your loyalty to the desired state. Each refusal weakens the old and strengthens the new. Gradually the new becomes your natural dwelling place, and the old story fades into a dim memory that no longer moves you.

Feel the profound peace that comes with this release. When you are no longer emotionally loyal to what was, you walk through the world lightly. Circumstances that once disturbed you lose their power. People who once triggered the old reactions no longer reach you. You have withdrawn the fuel of attention and feeling, and without fuel the fire dies. This is freedom. This is the kingdom of Heaven entered while still in the body.

You are the operant power. No one else can detach for you. No outer condition can force the release. The act is entirely within. It is the silent, sovereign choice to stop being the old man and to start being the new. In that choice lies all the power of creation. For when you have released emotional loyalty to the old story, the new story is compelled to appear. It has no choice. Consciousness must objectify itself.

Let this truth sink into your being tonight. You are not the victim of your past. You are not chained by yesterday’s decisions. You are not bound by any story except the one to which you still give the breath of your awareness. Release that loyalty now. Withdraw your attention. Rise in consciousness. Assume the new. And watch as the old story, once so solid, dissolves like mist before the rising sun.

The awareness of being as God is stated again and again. I AM the shepherd. I AM the door. I AM the resurrection and the life. When you detach from the old and identify with the new, you are exercising this same creative power. You are resurrecting the new story and allowing the old to remain in the tomb of forgotten things. Nothing is lost. Everything is transformed. The energy you once poured into the old story is now free to clothe the new.

In the quiet hours before sleep, practice this detachment again and again. As you lie down, feel yourself completely free of the old conception. Let every detail of the former life fall away. Feel only the new story as natural, as true, as already so. Sleep in that assumption. Wake in it. Carry it through the day. Whenever the old story knocks at the door of your mind, answer with the calm certainty of one who has detached: “I am no longer that. I am this.” And the old will depart, never to return with the same force.

This is the way of the mystic. This is the way of the one who has discovered that consciousness is the only reality. You do not change the world by changing the world. You change the world by changing the consciousness to which you are loyal. Detachment from the old story is the first and greatest step. It is the master key that unlocks every door.

You are greater than your present conception of yourself. You are greater than any story you have ever told about yourself. When you release emotional loyalty to the lesser, the greater is free to express. The I AM that you are will never leave you nor forsake you. It waits only for your allegiance to shift. Give that allegiance wholly to the new and the transformation is certain.

Tonight, as you leave this place, carry with you this one living truth: the old story has power over you only so long as you remain emotionally loyal to it. Release that loyalty and the power returns to you. The old dissolves. The new appears. And you walk in the freedom that was always yours.

You are the awareness of being. You are the conceiver of all things. Conceive the new story now. Withdraw from the old. Give it no further feeling. Give it no further attention. Let it go completely. In that release you will discover the peace that passes understanding and the power that moves mountains. For when you have truly detached from the old story, the new story is no longer a hope. It is your present reality, objectified in the world round about you.

This is the gospel. This is the good news. You need not wait for tomorrow. You need not struggle or strive. Simply release your emotional loyalty to what was and assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled. The rest is done unto you according to your new consciousness. The old story fades. The new story shines. And you, the eternal I AM, stand revealed as the author and finisher of your own experience.

Go now in this understanding. Live in it. Breathe in it. Let every moment be a quiet affirmation of your new allegiance. The world you see tomorrow will be the world you are conscious of being tonight. Make that consciousness one of freedom from the old. Make it one of complete detachment from what was. And the glory of the new story will be made visible in your life.

You have heard the truth. Now live it. Detach. Release. Rise. Assume. And it shall be done unto you as you have believed in the new and released the old. This is the law. This is the promise. And this is your freedom, here and now.