#20: Inner Conversation Creates Reality

Inner Conversation Creates Reality

A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard

Can man decree a thing and have it come to pass? Most decidedly he can. Yet many of you walk through your days unaware that the very power shaping every circumstance of your life is already active within you. It is not the loud voices of the world that determine your tomorrow. It is the quiet, ceaseless conversation you carry on with yourself in the secret places of your own mind.

What you silently say to yourself creates your reality. Your inner conversation is constant prayer. Every moment you are speaking the Word that molds the conditions round about you. You may not hear it with the outer ear, for the noise of the day often drowns it, but in the stillness it is audible. It is the inner speech that fashions your world in its exact likeness.

You are the author of these mental conversations. Whether they are inaudible while you move through the activities of the day or clear in the quiet of meditation and dream, you are their creator and you fashion your world according to their pattern. The whole manifested world goes to show you what use you have made of the Word—your inner speech. Look around you. The happenings, the people, the events, the circumstances—all of them are the outpicturing of what you have been saying to yourself.

Inner talking mirrors your imagination, and your imagination mirrors the state with which it is fused. If the state with which you are identified is the cause of the phenomena of your life, then you need no longer wonder what to do. You have but one task: to identify yourself with your aim, and inasmuch as the state with which you are identified mirrors itself in your inner speech, then to change the state you must first change your inner talking.

It is your inner conversations that make tomorrow’s facts.

Put off the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Put on the new man. That is the instruction. The old mechanical, negative inner talking must cease. In its place must come the new, positive, constructive inner speech that springs from the premise of fulfilled desire. This inner speech is the beginning, the sowing of the seeds of future action. To determine the action you must consciously initiate and control your inner talking.

Observe it now. Right where you are, listen to what you are saying within yourself at this very moment. What thoughts and feelings are you consenting to? They will be perfectly woven into the tapestry of your life. If you would change the pattern, you must change the conversation. For life, it has been said, is the union of Word and Mind. When your imagination matches your inner speech to the fulfillment of your desire, there will then be a straight path in yourself from within out, and the without will instantly reflect the within, and you will know that reality is only actualized inner talking.

You put on the new man whenever ideals and inner speech match. In this way alone can the new man be born. Inner talking matures in the dark. From the dark it issues into the light. The right inner speech is the speech that would be yours were you already the one you want to be. It is the speech of fulfilled desire.

Construct within yourself the sentence that implies the fulfillment of your aim. Let it be something simple, natural, direct—such as would naturally arise from the state of the wish fulfilled. Repeat it over and over until you are inwardly affected by it. Let it become the natural flow of your thought. Our inner speech represents in various ways the world we live in. In the beginning was the Word, and that Word is your inner conversation.

Man attracts what he is. The art of life is to sustain the feeling of the wish fulfilled and let things come to you. Observe your inner talking and remember your aim. Do they match? Does your inner talking match what you would say audibly had you already achieved your goal? The individual’s inner speech and actions attract the conditions of his life. Through uncritical self-observation of your inner talking you discover where you stand in the inner world, and where you are in the inner world is precisely what you are in the outer world.

You put on the new man whenever ideals and inner speech match. The circumstances and conditions of life are outpictured inner talking, solidified sound. Inner speech calls events into existence. In every event is the creative sound that is its life and being. All that a man believes and consents to as true reveals itself in his inner speech. It is his Word. It is his life.

Try to notice what you are saying in yourself at this moment. To what thoughts and feelings are you consenting? They will be perfectly woven into your tapestry of life. To change your life you must change your inner talking. When imagination matches your inner speech to fulfilled desire, the without will instantly reflect the within, and you will know reality is only actualized inner talking.

Because man does not perfectly match them, the results are uncertain, while they might be perfectly certain. Persistent assumption of the wish fulfilled is the means of fulfilling the intention. As you control your inner talking, matching it to your fulfilled desires, you can lay aside all other processes. Then you simply act by clear imagination and intention. You imagine the wish fulfilled and carry on mental conversations from that premise. Through controlled inner talking from premises of fulfilled desire, seeming miracles are performed.

The future becomes the present and reveals itself in your inner speech. To be held by the inner speech of fulfilled desire is to be safely anchored in life. Your lives may seem to be broken by events, but they are never broken so long as you retain the inner speech of fulfilled desire.

All happiness depends on the active voluntary use of imagination to construct and inwardly affirm that you are what you want to be. You match yourself to your ideals by constantly remembering your aim and identifying yourself with it. You fuse with your aims by frequently occupying the feeling of your wish fulfilled. It is the frequency, the habitual occupancy, that is the secret of success. The oftener you do it, the more natural it becomes. Fancy assembles. Continuous imagination fuses.

It is possible to resolve every situation by the proper use of imagination. Your task is to get the right sentence, the one which implies that your desire is realized, and fire the imagination with it. All this is intimately connected with the mystery of the still small voice. Inner talking reveals the activities of imagination—activities which are the causes of the circumstances of life.

As a rule, man is totally unaware of his inner talking and therefore sees himself not as the cause but the victim of circumstance. To consciously create circumstance, you must consciously direct your inner speech, matching the still small voice to your fulfilled desires. He calls things not seen as though they were. Right inner speech is essential. It is the greatest of the arts. It is the way out of limitation into freedom.

Make your inner conversation match your fulfilled desire. What you desire to hear without, you must hear within. Embrace the without within and become one who hears only that which implies the fulfillment of your desire, and all the external happenings in the world will become a bridge leading to the objective realization of your desire. Your inner speech is perpetually written all around you in happenings. Learn to relate these happenings to your inner speech and you will become self-taught.

By inner speech is meant those mental conversations which you carry on with yourself. They may be inaudible when you are awake because of the noise and distractions of the outer world of becoming, but they are quite audible in deep meditation and dream. But whether they be audible or inaudible, you are their author and you fashion your world in their likeness.

There is a God in heaven—and heaven is within you—that revealeth secrets. Your inner speech from premises of fulfilled desire is the way to create an intelligible world for yourself. Observe your inner speech, for it is the cause of future action. Inner speech reveals the state of consciousness from which you view the world. Make your inner speech match your fulfilled desire, for your inner speech is manifested all around you in happenings.

If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth. The whole manifested world goes to show us what use we have made of the Word—inner speech. An uncritical observation of our inner talking will reveal to us the ideas from which we view the world. Inner talking mirrors our imagination, and our imagination mirrors the state with which it is fused.

If the state with which we are fused is the cause of the phenomenon of our life, then we are relieved of the burden of wondering what to do, for we have no alternative but to identify ourselves with our aim. And inasmuch as the state with which we are identified mirrors itself in our inner speech, then to change the state with which we are fused we must first change our inner talking. It is our inner conversations which make tomorrow’s facts.

Stop all of the old mechanical negative inner talking and start a new positive and constructive inner speech from premises of fulfilled desire. Inner talking is the beginning, the sowing of the seeds of future action. To determine the action you must consciously initiate and control your inner talking. Construct a sentence which implies the fulfillment of your aim, and repeat such a sentence over and over until you are inwardly affected by it.

Our inner speech represents in various ways the world we live in. Ends run true to origins. Man attracts what he is. The art of life is to sustain the feeling of the wish fulfilled and let things come to you, not to go after them or think they flee away. Observe your inner talking and remember your aim. Do they match? Does your inner talking match what you would say audibly had you achieved your goal?

The individual’s inner speech and actions attract the conditions of his life. Through uncritical self-observation of your inner talking you find where you are in the inner world, and where you are in the inner world is what you are in the outer world. You put on the new man whenever ideals and inner speech match. In this way alone can the new man be born.

Inner talking matures in the dark. From the dark it issues into the light. The right inner speech is the speech that would be yours were you to realize your ideal. In other words, it is the speech of fulfilled desire. The circumstances and conditions of life are outpictured inner talking, solidified sound. Inner speech calls events into existence. In every event is the creative sound that is its life and being.

All that a man believes and consents to as true reveals itself in his inner speech. It is his Word, his life. Try to notice what you are saying in yourself at this moment, to what thoughts and feelings you are consenting. They will be perfectly woven into your tapestry of life. To change your life, you must change your inner talking, for life is the union of Word and Mind.

When imagination matches your inner speech to fulfilled desire, there will then be a straight path in yourself from within out, and the without will instantly reflect the within for you, and you will know reality is only actualized inner talking. Every stage of man’s progress is made by the conscious exercise of his imagination matching his inner speech to his fulfilled desire.

Because man does not perfectly match them, the results are uncertain, while they might be perfectly certain. Persistent assumption of the wish fulfilled is the means of fulfilling the intention. As we control our inner talking, matching it to our fulfilled desires, we can lay aside all other processes. Then we simply act by clear imagination and intention. We imagine the wish fulfilled and carry on mental conversations from that premise.

Through controlled inner talking from premises of fulfilled desire, seeming miracles are performed. The future becomes the present and reveals itself in our inner speech. To be held by the inner speech of fulfilled desire is to be safely anchored in life. Our lives may seem to be broken by events, but they are never broken so long as we retain the inner speech of fulfilled desire.

All happiness depends on the active voluntary use of imagination to construct and inwardly affirm that we are what we want to be. We match ourselves to our ideals by constantly remembering our aim and identifying ourselves with it. We fuse with our aims by frequently occupying the feeling of our wish fulfilled. It is the frequency, the habitual occupancy, that is the secret of success. The oftener we do it, the more natural it is. Fancy assembles. Continuous imagination fuses.

It is possible to resolve every situation by the proper use of imagination. Our task is to get the right sentence, the one which implies that our desire is realized, and fire the imagination with it. All this is intimately connected with the mystery of the still small voice. Inner talking reveals the activities of imagination, activities which are the causes of the circumstances of life.

As a rule, man is totally unaware of his inner talking and therefore sees himself not as the cause but the victim of circumstance. To consciously create circumstance, man must consciously direct his inner speech, matching the still small voice to his fulfilled desires. Right inner speech is essential. It is the greatest of the arts. It is the way out of limitation into freedom.

You who listen tonight, I tell you this truth is already at work within you. The inner conversation you are holding right now is determining the form your tomorrow will take. If it is a conversation of lack, of limitation, of doubt, of fear, then those are the seeds you are sowing, and the harvest cannot be otherwise. But if you will now, in this very moment, begin to speak the words that would naturally flow from the fulfillment of your desire—if you will make your inner conversation match the fulfilled desire—then you are sowing the good seed, and the harvest is certain.

Make your inner conversation match your fulfilled desire. What you desire to hear without, you must hear within. Embrace the without within and become one who hears only that which implies the fulfillment of his desire, and all the external happenings in the world will become a bridge leading to the objective realization of your desire.

Your inner speech is perpetually written all around you in happenings. Learn to relate these happenings to your inner speech and you will become self-taught. By inner speech is meant those mental conversations which you carry on with yourself. They may be inaudible when you are awake because of the noise and distractions of the outer world of becoming, but they are quite audible in deep meditation and dream. But whether they be audible or inaudible, you are their author and you fashion your world in their likeness.

There is no other cause. There is no other creator. The world you see is the outpicturing of your inner conversation. Change the conversation and you change the world. It is as simple as that, and yet it is the greatest of all revelations. For in this truth you discover that you are not the victim of circumstance; you are the creator of circumstance. You are not bound by the past; the past is bound by your present inner speech. Renew the inner speech and the old man passes away; the new man appears.

Tonight, while you rest in bed, before sleep claims you, listen carefully to the inner conversation. Let it become the conversation of the wish fulfilled. Let it be the gentle, natural, effortless speech of the one who already possesses what he formerly desired. Carry on imaginary conversations with yourself and with others from the premise of the wish fulfilled. Let the words flow easily, naturally, as they would if the desire were already an accomplished fact. Do this with feeling. Do it with conviction. Do it until the inner speech feels true, until it feels natural, until it feels like the only speech you could possibly be speaking.

And as you move through the activities of tomorrow, continue to watch your inner talking. Whenever you catch the old conversation creeping in, gently, firmly, replace it with the new. Do not fight it. Do not condemn it. Simply withdraw your attention from the old and place it upon the new. For attention is the life-giving power. What you attend to in your inner speech grows and outpictures.

You will find at first that the old patterns try to reassert themselves. That is natural. They have been habitual. But you are the master. You are the one who decides what shall be spoken within. You are the one who chooses the conversation that shall be woven into the fabric of your life. Persist. Persist in the new inner speech. Persist until it becomes effortless, until it becomes the natural flow of your being. For it is the frequency, the habitual occupancy, that is the secret of success.

The oftener you do it, the more natural it becomes. Fancy assembles. Continuous imagination fuses. Soon the new conversation will be the only conversation you know. And when that happens, the outer world must conform. It has no choice. For inner speech calls events into existence. It is the creative sound. It is the Word made flesh.

You who feel stuck, who feel that your world is fixed and unyielding, I tell you it is not fixed at all. It is fluid. It is responsive. It is waiting for the new Word. It is waiting for the new inner conversation. Begin it tonight. Begin it now. Speak the words that would be spoken by the one you want to be. Speak them silently, inwardly, with feeling, with certainty, with the quiet unshakable knowing that this is the Word that creates.

What you silently say to yourself shapes your world. Your inner dialogue is constant prayer. Let that prayer be the prayer of fulfillment. Let it be the prayer of the wish realized. Let it be the conversation that would naturally arise from the state of the desire fulfilled. Then watch. Watch how the outer world begins to rearrange itself. Watch how people, circumstances, events begin to move in harmony with the new inner speech. They have no power to do otherwise. They are the outpicturing of what you are saying within.

This is the great secret. This is the law. This is the way. Your inner conversation creates reality. Change the conversation and you change everything. There is no other way. There never has been. There never will be. The world is the mirror of your inner speech. Let your inner speech be the speech of heaven, the speech of fulfillment, the speech of the one who already possesses all that he has desired.

And as you walk in this new conversation, you will discover that you are no longer the victim of your past. You are no longer bound by old limitations. You are the creator. You are the author. You are the one in whom the Word dwells, and that Word is now made flesh according to the new conversation you are holding.

Tonight, in this very moment, the power is yours. Use it. Speak the new Word. Let the inner conversation match the fulfilled desire. And you will know, beyond all doubt, that what you silently say to yourself is indeed creating your reality, that your inner dialogue is constant prayer, and that prayer is always answered in the exact likeness of the conversation you have been willing to hold.

You are the Word. You are the speech. You are the creator. Let your inner conversation be the conversation of God—the conversation of the wish fulfilled. Then shall all things be added unto you, and your world shall reflect the glory of the new man you have put on.

This is the truth. This is the law. This is the way. And it is already within you, waiting only for you to speak the new Word. Speak it now. Speak it tonight. Speak it forever. And you will see the kingdom of heaven appear upon the earth—your own earth, made new by the power of your inner conversation.

For reality is only actualized inner talking. And you are the one who talks. You are the one who creates. You are the one who has always been creating. Now create consciously. Now create from the premise of the wish fulfilled. Now let your inner conversation be the conversation of the fulfilled desire.

And it shall be so. It is so. It is done.