One thing that Neville Goddard often said is “What you choose to HEAR determines your destiny.”
This is the way he referred to the inner voice that each of us listens to, whether we realize it or not. This is our own inner voice going through its thoughts and concerns at any given time. Within the idea of self-control exists the reason it is ever so important to not only be aware of what your inner voice says habitually, but to learn to control what that voice says, as the more often it repeats a thought or perception of a thing, the more one comes to feel in a way that identifies with that thought, and this brings about our own creation of that thing. One factor that is not often stated is that if that thought is a thing we fear having happen to us, the feeling that we have about that fear is the key that unlocks the creative state within, which brings about the manifestation of that fear. In short, things that we feel very strongly against, if thought and felt about often enough, will indeed come to manifest in our outer lives, and there is none other than ourselves to blame for this. It is borne of a lack of self-control.
Neville often spoke about his "Holy Hearing" method of manifestation. This is a way of controlling what your inner voice states, to the extent that even if outer life gives you so called lemons, you have the ability to change what happened by changing your memory of it and persisting in that changed belief and feeling. Neville says this:
“If you don’t want unlovely things to happen in your world then you must watch what you are thinking in the course of a day. You need not wait until the day’s end to change a thought to fulfill a desire. Why not do as my friend does and revise the conversation as you hear it. If the words are not what she wants to hear she does not listen, but puts on that same wire the thoughts she wants to hear come through. She hears what she desires to hear and believes it will come to pass.” – Neville Goddard
Note where he says " …then you must watch what you are thinking in the course of a day." If one's thoughts run amok and uncontrolled, that does not allow you to be in an aware state of control and manifestation, and in that way, one can often and easily manifest the things they fear rather than that which is actually desired.In the paragraph above, he then follows with instruction of how to make the desired change, by changing the storyline the thought tells within the mind. Revise, revise revise!
You have already been listening to your inner voice as you read what is above. It is not always obvious, but we all do this constantly, day after day. Considering that, along with the fact that most are completely unaware of it, shows why we live in a society where so many play the role of a victim. That role is not only false, but it is completely irresponsible, because it blames everyone else for the states of being that person exists in, when in reality they alone have created a majority of it for themselves.
Realizing that Soul, the inner Divine Being, has the ability to manifest Its desires at any and all times, and that is the position of not only choice, but also of control and self-responsibility. Because one knows that their own habitual thoughts and feelings are the factors that create their outer lives! This can become a great way of responsible freedom once it is realized! Remember about HOW you listen to your inner voice:
Passively listening – because you believe what is said has power – creates the state of you being the victim – the response – to what is being spoken.
Being the response to what is being spoken, is always to be the effect, when the better position is that of being the cause. Two completely differing sides to te same coin.
One who reacts to what others say is the effect, and by being so has no control over their own life or circumstances, whereas amore spiritually liberated individual will not react, but will instead consider the options, and then act upon what they know, thereby being the cause, which is a creative action.
Now, more about Neville's "Holy Hearing method" :
“If the morning’s mail brings bad news don’t call the person and tell him he shouldn’t have written the letter, but revise it. Change the letter completely. When you answer the telephone test yourself again and hear only what you want to hear. Do as my friend does, for her telephone technique never fails her.” – Neville Goddard
Revise the manner of your thought and feeling processes! Make the positive changes that you wish to have, rather than settling for the lousy negative and undesired news! You have a choice in the matter! Either react, or act upon!
And now for another aspect of revising events so as to change them.
“As you review your day, it is important to revise each negative reaction so that you can remember it as what you wished had happened rather than storing that memory as it did occur. What you think of with feeling or emotion is an actual fact. That which you experience in the physical world is merely a shadow, reflecting the reality of your imaginal activity. Therefore, when you revise a conversation, an unhappy experience, or a quality about yourself, you are literally experiencing it in reality (your consciousness).” – Neville Goddard
In Neville's words, the things in your consciousness are reality, while the outer world itself is the shadow of reality. So which will you choose to listen to? Reality or shadow? What you think often, with feeling, is the "real world" And it is this that brings about manifestation. That which one places their attention (consciousness) upon, becomes enlivened, so the more often this happens with feeling, the faster it will be brought to manifest outwardly in your life!
“The outer world is a delayed reflection of the inner and is confined to a dimension of space where events occur in a time sequence. Revision, then, literally changes the past. It replaces what occurred in the outer world with the revised version. The revised scene then gives off its effect by going forth to change future events.” – Neville Goddard
Notice he says that the outer world is a "delayed reflection of the inner…" . And by revising the memory of things that happened or were said that were unfavorable with those that reflect the desired state, can go forward to change what approaches in the future. Everyone reacts to memories,so if one changes the nature of a memory, they literally change the past so that it can go forward to manifest the desired state. One must learn to completely ignore the five outer senses and the message they bring and instead replace them with the thought and feelings of the desire already attained, and these actions will manifest that desired state of being.
What is a memory? A memory is nothing other than an imagined act. You can allow whatever happened in the physical world of "shadow" dominate your life, or you can create with an imagined memory in the realm of consciousness, where all mystics state is the REAL World! The choice is yours.
On a Related Note…