#35: Highways of the Inner World

Highways of the Inner World

A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard

You have been wandering, have you not? Lost in the endless byways of your own mind, retracing the same old mental roads of yesterday’s failures, today’s fears, and tomorrow’s doubts. You think the outer world holds you captive, yet the real captivity is here, within. Most men drift aimlessly through the inner world, never choosing their path, never arriving at the state they long for. They move, yes, but without direction, and so their outer life remains unchanged, a mirror of their unconscious travel.

Hear this truth now, and hear it deeply: the journey is in yourself. You travel along the highways of the inner world. Every moment of your life you are moving upon these inner highways, whether you know it or not. The outer scene you call reality is only the echo of your inner movement. Nothing comes into being without that movement. Without inner movement it is impossible to bring forth anything. This is the great secret placed before you this night.

Man is dual. Within you lives the outer man of the senses, bound to what the eyes see and the ears hear. But deeper still lives the inner man of imagination, the true traveler, the one who alone can chart a new course. The outer man is compelled; the inner man is causal. The inner movement determines the outer which is joined to it. When the actions of your inner self match the actions the outer self must take to fulfill desire, that desire is realized. This is law. This is the highway.

The inner world is not formless chaos. It has its own structure, its own highways and paths, leading to every conceivable state of being. Every desire, every possible fulfillment, has its own road within you. Most men wander the old roads of limitation because they have never learned to direct the inner body. They let their thoughts ramble like sheep without a shepherd. But you need not wander any longer. You can take the highway deliberately. You can map the road to your desire and travel it now.

How do you do this? You construct mentally a drama which implies that your desire is already realized, and you make that drama one which involves movement of self. You do not merely think about the desire. You do not stand still in imagination and wish. You move. You act. You live the scene that would take place if your wish were already true. Then you immobilize the outer physical self. You relax completely, as though preparing for sleep, and you start that predetermined action in imagination. You enter the scene. You feel it. You see it. You hear it. You touch it. The vividness of the action is the beginning of the action itself.

At first your thoughts may stray. They may return to the old highways of worry and memory. Do not despair. Bring them back. Seventy times seven, if necessary, return your attention to the inner journey. The inner road must never be without direction. When you take to the inner highway it is to do what you have already done mentally before you started. You go for the prize you have already seen and accepted. Persist until the scene takes on the tones of reality, until the inner movement feels natural, until you are actually there in consciousness.

This is not fantasy. This is the exercise of the inner body. The inner world of thought and feeling to which the inner body is attuned has its real structure and exists in its own higher space. When you travel these highways with purpose, with feeling, with the emotion of the wish fulfilled sustained, something moves within you that the outer world must obey. The inner self moves along the predetermined course best when the emotions collaborate. Ideas only act if they are felt. If they awaken inner movement. Inner movement is conditioned by self-motivation. Feel the reality of the journey. Feel the fulfillment. Let the emotion of the thing desired flood you as you move through the inner scene.

Tonight, before you sleep, choose your highway. Whatever your desire, whatever state you long to occupy, construct the simple drama that implies you are already there. See yourself moving in that state. Feel the naturalness of it. Hear the words that would be spoken. Touch what you would touch. Then, in the relaxed state, enter it fully. Let the outer body grow still while the inner traveler walks the highway. Do not force. Do not strain. Simply be the one who is already there. The length of the sleep is not important. A short journey is sufficient, but carrying the action into sleep thickens fancy into fact.

You have been traveling the highways of the inner world all your life, but unconsciously, following the grooves of habit. Now you know. Now you can choose. You can leave the old roads of lack and limitation and take the highway that leads straight to abundance, to health, to harmony, to the fulfillment of every longing. The journey is always within. The highway is always open. No outer force can block it, for the inner movement is the cause, and the outer is only the effect.

Do not look for signs in the outer world while you are traveling. The signs follow. They do not precede. Keep your attention on the inner action. Center your imagination in the action and feeling of fulfilled desire with such awareness, such sensitiveness, that you initiate and experience movement upon the inner world. When you do this, the outer world will rearrange itself. It cannot help but conform to the inner journey you have taken. This is the law operating beneath all physical appearances.

Many will tell you that imagination is mere fancy, something unreal. But I tell you the inner body is as real in the world of subjective experience as the outer physical body is real in the world of external realities. The inner body expresses a more fundamental part of reality. It must be consciously exercised and directed. When you practice this deliberate travel along the highways of the inner world you develop unusual powers of concentration and quiescence. You achieve waking consciousness on the inner and dimensionally larger world.

You travel the highways of the inner world. That is the simple, eternal truth. Every desire has its highway. Every state has its road. You do not have to wait for outer conditions to improve before you can travel. The highway is within you now. The moment you decide to take it, the moment you enter the scene with movement of self, you are on your way. The outer self will follow. It has no choice. It is joined to the inner movement and must bring forth its likeness.

Do not be concerned with how the outer change will come. That is not your concern. Your concern is the inner journey. Your concern is to travel the highway faithfully, feelingly, until the feeling of the wish fulfilled is so natural that you cannot return to the old road even if you tried. When the inner traveler has reached the destination in consciousness, the outer world must reflect it. This is the way it has always been. This is the way it will always be.

Tonight, as you close your eyes, remember this. You are not a helpless wanderer in the inner world. You are the traveler who chooses the highway. You are the one who maps the road by the scenes you build in imagination. You are the lord of the inner movement. Whatever you desire, construct the drama now. Enter it now. Travel the highway now. Do not wait. The inner world is waiting for your direction. The highways are there, clear and open, leading directly to the fulfillment of every dream.

You travel along the highways of the inner world. Let that truth sink into the very depth of your being. Let it become your constant awareness. When you rise in the morning, when you move through the day, when you lie down at night, know that you are always traveling these highways. Choose them wisely. Choose them with feeling. Choose them with the certainty that the inner journey alone determines the outer life.

The duality within you will always exist, but the inner man of imagination can and must assert supremacy. The younger must reign over the elder. The imaginative self must take the highway while the outer self follows in obedience. This is the eternal enterprise. This is the war in heaven that ends in victory when you deliberately direct the inner movement.

My friends, the power is yours this night. You need not wander any longer. The highways of the inner world are mapped in your imagination. The road to your desire is open. Take it. Travel it. Live upon it until the outer world declares what you have already declared within. You are the traveler. You are the way. You are the fulfillment.

Go now, in this quiet moment, and begin your journey. Construct the scene. Enter the action. Feel the movement. Sustain the emotion of the wish fulfilled. And know, with unshakable certainty, that as you travel the highways of the inner world tonight, so shall your outer world be transformed tomorrow. This is the truth. This is the law. This is the great awakening.

You travel the highways of the inner world. And because you do, nothing shall be impossible unto you.