#31: Self-Imprisoned or Self-Freed

Self-Imprisoned or Self-Freed

A Lecture in the Voice & Spirit of Neville Goddard

You are always self-imprisoned or self-freed by what you are conscious of being.

This is the eternal law. Not one thing has ever appeared in your world but what you decreed it should, and you decree it not by words spoken aloud, but by the silent, living awareness you accept as true of yourself. Man is ever out-picturing that which he is conscious of being. This is the truth that makes man free, for man is always self-imprisoned or self-freed.

Look around you. The circumstances that seem to bind you, the walls that appear so solid, the lacks that press upon you—these are not imposed from without. They are the perfect out-picturing of your present consciousness. You are not a victim of conditions. You are the creator of the conditions you accept as real. Every detail of your world is consciousness made visible. You are now drawing into your experience exactly that which you are conscious of being. This is not theory. This is the changeless principle operating in you and through you at this very moment.

You may protest that the prison is real. You may point to the evidence of the senses and declare that the limitation is objective fact. But I tell you that the evidence of the senses is only the out-picturing of what you have accepted in consciousness. The dumb man is conscious of being dumb and therefore remains dumb. The poor man is conscious of being poor and therefore remains poor. The imprisoned man is conscious of being imprisoned and therefore remains imprisoned. Not one thing has ever appeared in man’s world but what man first became conscious of being it.

Consciousness is the only reality. Your awareness of being is God. When you say “I am,” you are declaring the presence of the only power that exists. Before you are conscious of being anything in particular, you are first conscious of being. That unconditioned awareness is the Father. Then you become conscious of being man, conscious of being limited, conscious of being in want. Yet the Father remains greater than the son. Your unconditioned awareness of being is greater than any conditioned state you accept. But until you deliberately withdraw your attention from the present state and place it upon the new state you would embody, you remain self-imprisoned in the old.

You are at this very moment drawing into your world that which you are now conscious of being. If you are dissatisfied with your present expression of life, the only way to change it is to take your attention away from that which seems so real to you and rise in consciousness to that which you desire to be. You cannot serve two masters. To take your attention from one state of consciousness and place it upon another is to die to the one and live to the other. This is the birth from above. This is the resurrection.

Man is always self-imprisoned or self-freed by what he is conscious of being.

See it clearly. Your world is a magnified mirror magnifying everything that you are conscious of being. Stop trying to change the mirror. Change what you are conscious of being, and the mirror will change of itself. The man who is conscious of being imprisoned does not need outer forces to keep him bound; his own consciousness supplies the bars. The man who is conscious of being free walks in freedom even though the outer world has not yet caught up with his new awareness. Consciousness is the door through which all things pass into expression. Become conscious of being free and you will draw freedom unto yourself. Become conscious of being wealthy and wealth will flow to you. Become conscious of being healthy and health will clothe you. It is not a matter of wishing. It is a matter of being.

You are now conscious of being. That is the great “I AM.” Now, if it is freedom you desire, before you have any evidence of freedom in your outer world, you begin to feel yourself to be free. The very second the feeling “I am free” is attained, the two have agreed. Awareness and freedom have become one, and this agreement ever results in the birth of the child—the thing agreed upon. Because you made the agreement, you express the thing agreed.

This is the truth that makes man free. Man is always self-imprisoned or self-freed by what he is conscious of being.

Do not look outside yourself for the cause of your prison. The cause is always within. Your present conception of yourself is the only cause. Your consciousness is the Father who does the works. Nothing comes into your experience that you have not first accepted in consciousness. You are the operant power. You are the Lord. You are the awareness in which all states exist. The state you dwell in determines the world you see. Change the state and the world changes.

You may say, “But the problem is so long-standing. The limitation has been with me for years.” I tell you it has no reality save the reality you give it by being conscious of it. Things live only as long as you are aware of being them. Withdraw your awareness from the problem and it has no life left in it. It withers and dies for lack of the sap of your attention. Your attention is the life-blood that sustains every condition in your world. Remove your attention from the prison and the prison dissolves. Place your attention upon freedom and freedom solidifies around you.

Man is always self-imprisoned or self-freed by what he is conscious of being.

Let this sink deep into your being. You are first conscious of being, then you become conscious of being a particular state. Before you became conscious of being limited, you were conscious of being. You can return to that unconditioned awareness at any moment. You can rise in consciousness to the naturalness of being the thing desired. In the awareness of being all things are possible. You shall decree a thing and it shall come to pass when you rise in consciousness to the naturalness of the thing desired.

The Bible is the greatest scientific book ever written when read in this light. It is not a record of historical events. It is a great psychological drama taking place in the consciousness of man. Every character is a state of consciousness. Every story is the out-picturing of what man is conscious of being. Moses discovered God to be man’s awareness of being when he declared, “I AM hath sent me unto you.” David sang, “Be still and know that I AM God.” Isaiah declared, “I AM the Lord and there is none else.” Jesus discovered the same glorious truth and declared himself to be one with God. Not a God fashioned by man, but the awareness of being itself.

You and your Father are one. Your consciousness of being is the Father. The thing you are conscious of being is the son bearing witness of the Father. The conceiver is ever greater than his conceptions, yet ever remains one with his conception. Before you are conscious of being anything in particular, you are conscious of being. Then you become conscious of being limited, conscious of being in want, conscious of being imprisoned by circumstance. Yet you remain the conceiver, greater than your conception. Rise now in consciousness to that which you desire to be. Become conscious of being free, conscious of being abundant, conscious of being whole. Then you will out-picture the new state as naturally as you now out-picture the old.

Man is always self-imprisoned or self-freed by what he is conscious of being.

You are at this very moment calling out of the infinite that which you are now conscious of being. Not one word or conviction will fail to find you. Your secret convictions of yourself are the words of the God within you, and they cannot return unto you void. They must accomplish whereunto they are sent. You are the vine and your conceptions are the branches. Just as a branch has no life except it be rooted in the vine, so things have no life except you be conscious of them. Withdraw your consciousness from a condition and it withers. Maintain your consciousness in a new state and it lives and grows and bears fruit.

To be conscious of being poor is to be poor. To be conscious of being sick is to be sick. To be conscious of being bound is to be bound. These are not punishments sent from without. They are the perfect expressions of your present consciousness. Life makes no mistakes. It eternally rewards you with that which you claim as true of yourself. The measurements of right and wrong belong to man alone. To life there is nothing right or wrong. Life simply objectifies what you are conscious of being.

You may have prayed for release from your prison. You may have affirmed and denied and struggled with all your might. Yet if you remained conscious of being imprisoned, you were rewarded with that which you were conscious of being—imprisonment. Prayers to be successful must be claims rather than petitions. To pray for freedom while remaining conscious of bondage is to be rewarded with bondage. The only effective prayer is the claim: I am free. Feel it until it is natural. Then the outer world must conform.

Man is always self-imprisoned or self-freed by what he is conscious of being.

Tonight, right now, you can begin to live in the new consciousness. Take your attention away from the evidence of the senses. Become indifferent to the old state. Turn your back upon the prison bars that seem so real and fix your attention solely upon the feeling of freedom. Feel yourself to be free. Feel it to the point of naturalness. Do not ask how it will come to pass. Consciousness has ways that you know not of. Its ways are past finding out. Your only responsibility is to become conscious of being the thing desired. The rest is automatic.

You are now in the silence of your own being. No man knows how the thing desired will embody itself. Only consciousness knows the way. You have but to assume the consciousness of the thing desired and let it objectify itself in its own way. Do not condition the desire. Do not speculate as to the how. Simply accept it as it comes to you. Give thanks for it to the point that you are grateful for having already received it. Then go about your way in peace.

Such acceptance is like dropping fertile seed into prepared soil. When you can drop the thing desired in consciousness, confident that it shall appear, you have done all that is expected of you. To worry or concern yourself about the how is to hold the seed in a mental grasp and never drop it into the soil of confidence. Drop it. Let it go. Trust the law.

The world is a mirror. It magnifies everything you are conscious of being. Stop fighting the mirror. Change what you are conscious of being and the reflection changes instantly. The man who is conscious of being free walks through the same circumstances that once imprisoned him and finds them powerless. The bars dissolve because he is no longer conscious of being imprisoned. He is conscious of being free.

Man is always self-imprisoned or self-freed by what he is conscious of being.

You have placed too little value upon yourself. You have accepted the limitations of the senses as final. But I tell you that you are the Lord of your world. Your awareness of being is the only power. All things are possible to him that believes—not believes in an external God, but believes in his own consciousness of being. Become conscious of being that which you desire to be and you will express it. There is no other way.

Every urge, every desire that springs within you is the voice of the Father urging you to rise to a higher level of consciousness. Do not deny it. Do not distort it by trying to fulfill it on the level of the old state. Rise in consciousness to the naturalness of the thing desired. Then it will objectify itself without effort on your part. The signs always follow. They never precede. Get the consciousness first and the thing is compelled to appear.

You are the good shepherd. What you are conscious of being are the sheep that follow you. So good a shepherd is your awareness that it has never lost one of the sheep you are conscious of being. You are a voice calling in the wilderness of human confusion for all that you are conscious of being, and never shall there come a time when that which you are convinced that you are shall fail to find you. Your consciousness is an open door for all that you are to enter.

Man is always self-imprisoned or self-freed by what he is conscious of being.

Tonight, choose freedom. Choose abundance. Choose wholeness. Do not wait for tomorrow. Do not wait for conditions to change. Change your consciousness now. In the quiet of this moment, withdraw your attention from everything that would deny the new state. Feel yourself to be that which you desire to be. Feel it vividly. Feel it naturally. Let the feeling clothe you completely. Lose yourself in it. Then the outer world will rearrange itself in harmony with your new consciousness.

You do not have to struggle. You do not have to force anything. Consciousness is the effortless way. It is the only way. All you do is assume the consciousness of the thing desired and let it objectify itself. The world is forever out-picturing your consciousness. Change the inner picture and the outer picture changes. It is as simple as that.

This is the great secret. This is the pearl of great price. This is the truth that sets you free. Man is always self-imprisoned or self-freed by what he is conscious of being. You are now conscious of being. You are now the Lord. Claim your inheritance. Claim your freedom. Claim your abundance. Claim your health. Claim it in consciousness. Claim it until it is natural. Then walk in the certainty that it is done.

The day you claim these qualities to the point of conviction, your claims will be honored. There is nothing covered that shall not be uncovered. That which is spoken in secret shall be proclaimed from the housetops. Your secret convictions of yourself will be shouted from the housetops in your world. For your convictions are the words of the God within you, and they must accomplish whereunto they are sent.

You are the vine. Your conceptions are the branches. Feed them with your consciousness and they live. Withdraw your consciousness and they die. Choose this night what you will be conscious of being. Choose freedom. Choose life. Choose the kingdom of heaven within you.

Man is always self-imprisoned or self-freed by what he is conscious of being.

Tonight you stand at the door. The door is your consciousness. To open the door is to become one with that which is knocking by feeling yourself to be the thing desired. Feel it until it is natural. Then the manifestation is inevitable. The Lord is your shepherd. You shall not want. Your consciousness is the Lord. It leads you beside the still waters of peace. It restores your soul to the awareness of its true being. It prepares a table before you in the presence of your former limitations. Your cup runs over with the consciousness of fulfillment.

You are now that which you desire to be. You have always been that which you are conscious of being. The only difference is the level of your awareness. Rise now. Rise in consciousness. Become conscious of being the freedom you seek. Then you will know the truth that makes you free, and you will be free indeed.

This is the end of your imprisonment. This is the beginning of your freedom. You are self-freed the moment you become conscious of being free. Nothing can stay your hand. Nothing can question your authority. You are the Lord. You are the awareness of being. You are God.

Go now in the consciousness of your freedom. Live in it. Walk in it. Sleep in it. Wake in it. Let every breath affirm: I am free. I am abundant. I am whole. I am that which I desire to be. And the world will confirm it.

Man is always self-imprisoned or self-freed by what he is conscious of being.

Tonight you have chosen freedom. Tonight the prison doors have opened. Tonight you walk out into the light of your own consciousness. And nothing shall ever bind you again unless you return to the old consciousness. But why should you return? You have tasted the truth. You have seen the light. You have claimed your inheritance.

You are free. You have always been free. You were only dreaming the dream of imprisonment. Now you awake. Now you know yourself as you really are—the eternal awareness of being, clothed in whatever state you choose to assume.

This is the truth that makes man free. This is the truth you have heard tonight. This is the truth you will live from this moment on.

You are self-freed.

You are free.

And so it is.