#57: The Subconscious Accepts Feeling

The Subconscious Accepts Feeling

A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard

You have tried so long with the full force of your will to make things happen. You have repeated words, you have strained and labored, you have pushed against the seeming walls of circumstance, and still the change you seek has not come. The reason is simple and eternal. The subconscious accepts feeling. It does not accept force. It never has and it never will.

The conscious mind may generate ideas, may select and choose what it would like to experience, but the subconscious—the deeper mind, the womb of creation—receives only what is felt as true. It is impersonal, it is non-selective, and it is utterly faithful. Whatever you feel as true, it accepts as fact existing within itself, and then it proceeds without argument or delay to give that feeling form and expression in your outer world. Force cannot reach it. Effort cannot compel it. Only feeling moves it, because feeling is the one and only medium through which ideas are conveyed to the subconscious.

Consider what this means for you right now. You are not at the mercy of conditions. Conditions are at the mercy of your feeling. The world you see is nothing but the objectified form of what you have felt to be true. Your body, your environment, your relationships, your supply—all of it bears the unmistakable marks of your prevalent feelings. Emotional disturbances, especially those you have suppressed without ever resolving them in feeling, become the hidden causes of every limitation you now experience. Yet the same law that seems to bind you is the law that will set you free the moment you turn your attention to the feeling of the wish fulfilled.

The subconscious does not originate ideas. It does not reason, it does not discriminate between good and bad, desirable and undesirable. It simply accepts as true that which you feel to be true. Therefore, when you attempt to impress it by force of will or by loud affirmations that contradict your actual feeling, you are speaking to empty air. The deeper mind remains unmoved. It waits for the feeling that matches the claim. Until that feeling is present, no impression is made. But once the feeling is alive within you, once you have assumed the consciousness of the thing desired as an accomplished fact, the subconscious receives it without question and begins at once to objectify it in your world.

This is why so many who strive with great determination remain stuck. They believe that intensity of effort is the key. They think that if they only push harder, repeat more often, or visualize with greater concentration, the result must follow. Yet the result does not follow from effort. It follows from feeling. The creative process begins with an idea, moves through feeling, and ends in manifestation. The feeling is the middle term, the secret bridge between the unseen desire and the visible fact. Without that bridge, nothing is made that is made.

You may ask yourself in this moment, “How then shall I impress the deeper mind?” Not by force, never by force. By the quiet assumption of the feeling that would be yours had the desire already been realized. You do not command the subconscious; you persuade it through feeling, as a lover persuades the beloved. The relationship between the conscious and the subconscious is not that of master and servant in the tyrannical sense. It is the relationship of husband and wife in the most intimate and loving sense. The conscious is the head, yet it leads not by compulsion but by love. When you assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled, you are loving the deeper mind into expression. You are moving it gently, irresistibly, toward the likeness of your assumption.

Every feeling makes a subconscious impression. Unless it is counteracted by a more powerful feeling of an opposite nature, it must be expressed. The dominant feeling always prevails. To feel “I am healthy” is stronger than to feel “I will be healthy.” To feel “I am wealthy” carries more power than “I hope to be wealthy.” The wish must be felt as a state that is, not as a state that is not. Sensation precedes manifestation. Your feelings are the foundation upon which all outer expression rests. Change the feeling and you change the destiny.

The subconscious is the womb of creation. It receives the idea through your feelings and gives it form in the image and likeness of that feeling. It never alters the accepted belief. It out-pictures it to the last detail, whether the belief is beneficial or not. Therefore, to impress the desirable state, you must assume the feeling that would be yours were you already in possession of your objective. You must be concerned only with the objective itself, never with the manner of its expression or the difficulties that seem to stand in the way. To dwell feelingly on difficulties is to impress the subconscious with the very obstacles you wish to remove. The deeper mind accepts that feeling as your request and proceeds to produce it in your world.

This is the law in its operation. It is not a law that rewards struggle or effort. It is a law that responds only to feeling. You cannot force the subconscious any more than you can force a seed to grow by shouting at it. The seed receives the impression of the soil and the moisture and the warmth through its own nature, and then it grows. So with the deeper mind. It receives the impression of your feeling and then it grows the outer world in exact correspondence.

You who are listening to me tonight may be facing what seems an immovable barrier. You may feel trapped in lack, in illness, in discord, in limitation of any kind. The conscious mind sees the barrier and tries to batter it down. It reasons, it plans, it struggles. Yet the barrier remains. Why? Because the subconscious has not been moved. It is still accepting the old feeling of limitation. Only when you withdraw your attention from the seeming reality of the barrier and place it fully upon the feeling of the desired end will the deeper mind receive a new impression. Then the barrier dissolves of itself, not because you forced it, but because you no longer sustained it in feeling.

Control of feeling is everything. Not restraint, not suppression, but the disciplined choice to entertain only those feelings that contribute to your happiness. Never dwell on the imperfection of yourself or others. Never entertain regret or failure. To do so is to impress the subconscious with limitation and to see that limitation objectified. What you do not want done unto you, do not feel that it is done unto you or to another. This is the whole law of a full and happy life. Everything else is commentary.

Think feelingly only of the state you desire to realize. Live and act on the conviction that the state is already yours. Feeling the reality of the state sought is the way of all seeming miracles. All changes of expression are brought about through a change of feeling. A change of feeling is a change of destiny. All creation occurs in the domain of the subconscious. What you must acquire is reflective control of its operation through the control of your ideas and feelings.

Chance and accident have no place in your life. Predestined fate is not the author of your fortune or misfortune. Your subconscious impressions determine the conditions of your world. The subconscious is not selective; it is impersonal and no respecter of persons. It is not concerned with the truth or falsity of your feeling. It always accepts as true that which you feel to be true. Feeling is the assent of the subconscious to the truth of that which is declared to be true. Because of this quality of the subconscious, there is nothing impossible to man. Whatever the mind of man can conceive and feel as true, the subconscious can and must objectify.

Your desires are not subconsciously accepted until you assume the feeling of their reality. Only through feeling is an idea subconsciously accepted, and only through this subconscious acceptance is it ever expressed. It is easier to ascribe your feeling to events in the world than to admit that the conditions of the world reflect your feeling. Yet it is eternally true that the outside mirrors the inside. As within, so without.

You are the operant power. You are the one who decides what feeling shall be impressed upon the deeper mind. You do not do this by force. You do it by the quiet, persistent assumption of the feeling of the wish fulfilled. Tonight, as you lie down to sleep, do not review the troubles of the day. Do not carry into sleep the feeling of lack or limitation. Instead, enter the state of the wish fulfilled. Feel the joy, the relief, the naturalness of having that which you desire. Let that feeling possess you completely. The subconscious is most receptive in the interval between wakefulness and sleep. In that drowsy state, the conscious mind relaxes its vigilance and the deeper mind receives the impression without resistance. Plant the feeling there, and it will grow while you sleep.

The subconscious never fails to express that which has been impressed upon it. The moment it receives the impression, it begins to work out the ways of its expression. It accepts your feeling as a fact existing within itself and immediately sets about to produce in the outer world the exact likeness of that feeling. Therefore, be careful of your moods and feelings, for there is an unbroken connection between your feelings and your visible world. Your body is an emotional filter. It bears the marks of your dominant emotions. Emotional disturbances are the causes of all disease in body and environment. To feel intensely about a wrong without resolving it in the opposite feeling is the beginning of dis-ease.

Yet you need not remain in any undesirable state. You have the power to change your feeling at any moment. You have the freedom to choose the idea you will entertain and the feeling you will assume. Through this power to imagine and to feel, you have control over creation. The mechanism of creation is hidden in the very depth of the subconscious, the female aspect, the womb of creation. The subconscious transcends reason and is independent of induction. It contemplates a feeling as a fact existing within itself and on that assumption proceeds to give expression to it.

Ideas are impressed on the subconscious through the medium of feeling. No idea can be impressed until it is felt. But once felt—be it good, bad, or indifferent—it must be expressed. Feeling is the one and only medium through which ideas are conveyed to the subconscious. Therefore, the man who does not control his feeling may easily impress the subconscious with undesirable states. By control of feeling is meant the disciplining of self to imagine and entertain only such feeling as contributes to your happiness.

Every feeling makes a subconscious impression. The dominant of two feelings is the one expressed. What you feel you are always dominates what you feel you would like to be. Therefore, to be realized, the wish must be felt as a state that is rather than a state that is not. Sensation precedes manifestation and is the foundation upon which all manifestation rests.

The subconscious is the womb of creation. It receives the idea unto itself through the feelings of man. It never changes the idea received, but always gives it form. Hence the subconscious out-pictures the idea in the image and likeness of the feeling received. To feel a state as hopeless or impossible is to impress the subconscious with the idea of failure.

Although the subconscious faithfully serves man, it responds to persuasion rather than to command. It resembles the beloved wife more than the servant. The conscious mind is the head and dominates the subconscious, yet this leadership is not that of the tyrant but of the lover. So, by assuming the feeling that would be yours were you already in possession of your objective, the subconscious is moved to build the exact likeness of your assumption.

Your desires are not subconsciously accepted until you assume the feeling of their reality, for only through feeling is an idea subconsciously accepted and only through this subconscious acceptance is it ever expressed. It is easier to ascribe your feeling to events in the world than to admit that the conditions of the world reflect your feeling. However, it is eternally true that the outside mirrors the inside.

You who hear these words tonight are being given the secret of creation itself. The subconscious accepts feeling. It does not accept force. Therefore, cease from your laboring. Cease from your straining. Turn within and assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled. Let that feeling become so natural to you that it feels like memory rather than hope. In that assumption, the deeper mind is impressed. In that impression, the outer world must rearrange itself. The change will not come by your effort to make it come. It will come because the law is faithful. The subconscious never fails to express that which has been impressed upon it.

Tonight, before you close your eyes, enter fully into the feeling of your desire fulfilled. Feel it with all the naturalness of a memory recalled. Sleep in that feeling. Let it possess you completely. The subconscious will take it as fact and begin at once to objectify it. You need do nothing else. You need plan nothing, force nothing, struggle with nothing. The law operates perfectly when the feeling is right.

This is the great secret. This is why feeling, not force, impresses the deeper mind. The conscious mind may select the idea, but only feeling gives it life. Only feeling makes it real to the subconscious. Only feeling causes the deeper mind to accept it as true and to proceed to give it expression. You are the operant power. You decide what shall be felt. You decide what shall be impressed. And what is impressed must be expressed.

Go now into this night knowing that the subconscious accepts feeling. Know it with such quiet certainty that no contrary appearance can shake you. Feel the reality of your desire as already accomplished. Live in that feeling. Act from that feeling. And watch as the world, without effort on your part, reshapes itself in harmony with your assumption.

The subconscious accepts feeling. It always has. It always will. And because it does, you are free. You are the master of your fate the moment you master your feeling. You are the creator of your world the moment you choose the feeling you will entertain. Nothing can prevent the objectification of that feeling except a stronger feeling of the opposite nature. Therefore, choose wisely. Choose happily. Choose the feeling of the wish fulfilled and rest in it.

This is the law. This is the truth. This is the secret that has been hidden from the foundation of the world, waiting for you to discover it tonight. The subconscious accepts feeling. Feel it now. Feel it deeply. Feel it as the most natural thing in your world. And as you do, the deeper mind receives it, accepts it, and begins to express it.

You are not the victim of circumstance. You are the molder of circumstance through the feeling you dare to assume. The power is within you. The law is within you. The creative womb is within you. All that is required is the right feeling. Not force. Not effort. Not struggle. Only feeling.

Enter now into that feeling. Let it be your last conscious thought before sleep. Let it be the atmosphere in which you move tomorrow and every day thereafter. The subconscious accepts feeling. Therefore, what you feel, you become. What you feel, you see. What you feel, you live.

This is the gospel of creation. This is the good news that sets you free. The subconscious accepts feeling, and you are the one who decides what that feeling shall be. Decide it tonight. Decide it with conviction. Decide it with joy. Decide it with the quiet certainty that the law cannot fail. The deeper mind is already moving in response to your feeling. The outer world is already beginning to reflect it. You need only remain faithful to the feeling, and the manifestation is assured.

You have heard the truth. You have felt the truth. Now live from it. The subconscious accepts feeling. Let that be your eternal guide. Let that be the rock upon which you stand. And from this night forward, your world will never be the same, because you have chosen the feeling of the wish fulfilled, and the deeper mind has accepted it as true.

The subconscious accepts feeling. It accepts it now. It is expressing it now. Rest in that knowledge. Sleep in that knowledge. Awaken in that knowledge. For the law is perfect, the law is faithful, and the law responds only to feeling. You are the law in operation. You are the feeling that creates. Live as that feeling, and all things are possible unto you.

This is the end of striving and the beginning of being. This is the secret of creation revealed in its simplest and most majestic form. The subconscious accepts feeling. Feel it. Be it. And it is done.