Breaking Down the Wall of Hostility | Neville Goddard

Hostility is heavy. Whether it lives between nations or between neighbors, between family members or within your own mind, it creates a wall that blocks the flow of life. Neville Goddard understood that this wall is not built with bricks but with assumptions, and in this lecture, he shows how it can be dismantled from the inside out.

Neville approaches the problem of hostility not as a social issue to be solved through negotiation but as a state of consciousness to be revised through imagination. The wall exists because you have built it, through judgments you hold about another person, through memories you replay, through expectations of conflict that become self-fulfilling prophecies.

This is one of Neville’s most compassionate teachings. He does not blame you for the hostility in your life, but he does empower you to dissolve it. The method is disarmingly simple, though it asks something profound of you: the willingness to see another person differently than your evidence suggests.

In This Video

• How Neville defines the “wall of hostility” and where it actually resides
• The role of assumption in creating and sustaining conflict with others
• A specific imaginative technique for dissolving resentment and restoring harmony
• Why revising your inner image of another person changes the outer relationship
• Scriptural parallels for the breaking down of walls between people

Key Teachings

Neville locates the source of all hostility within consciousness. The person you resent is not the cause of your suffering, your image of that person is. You carry an inner representation of everyone in your life, and it is this representation, not the flesh-and-blood individual, that determines the quality of your relationship.

“To reach a higher level of being, you must assume a higher concept of yourself.”

– Neville Goddard

This applies to your concept of others as well. When you revise your inner image of someone (imagining them as kind, supportive, or simply at peace with you) you are not engaging in self-deception. You are exercising the creative power of consciousness, and the outer relationship will shift to match the inner revision.

“Everyone is yourself pushed out. There is no other.”

– Neville Goddard

This is perhaps the most challenging aspect of the teaching. If everyone is yourself pushed out, then hostility toward another is hostility toward yourself. The wall you build against them imprisons you on both sides. Breaking it down is an act of self-liberation as much as reconciliation.

Questions & Answers

Does this mean I should not set boundaries with difficult people?

Not at all. Neville’s teaching is about inner revision, not outer passivity. You can maintain firm boundaries while simultaneously revising your inner image of another person. In fact, when you stop holding someone in an adversarial light internally, your boundaries often become clearer and more effective. You act from clarity rather than reactivity, and the other person often responds differently as a result.

What if I revise my image of someone but they continue to behave hostilely?

Neville would ask you to examine the revision honestly. Are you truly holding the new image, or are you reverting to the old one whenever evidence appears to support it? Revision requires persistence, especially when the old pattern is deeply established. Stay with the new assumption consistently, and give it time to express. Consciousness works through natural bridges, and some situations take longer to shift than others.

How do I revise my image of someone who genuinely harmed me?

Begin by acknowledging the pain honestly. Revision is not denial. Once you have processed the hurt, you can ask yourself: what would it look like if this person and I were at peace? You do not need to condone what happened. You are not rewriting history; you are choosing a new direction for the relationship from this point forward. Imagine a brief, peaceful interaction (a nod, a kind word, a sense of mutual respect) and let that image replace the old one in your consciousness.

Can this approach work with groups, not just individuals?

Neville applied the same principle at every scale. Whether it is a family feud, a workplace conflict, or a broader social division, the mechanism is identical: the outer condition reflects the inner assumption. One individual revising their assumptions can have a disproportionate effect on the collective dynamic. You do not need everyone to participate. Your own inner shift is sufficient to begin the change.

Practice

Think of one person with whom you currently feel tension, resentment, or distance. Sit quietly and close your eyes. Bring this person to mind. Not as you have been seeing them, but as you would like to see them. Imagine them smiling at you. Imagine them saying something genuinely kind. Imagine yourself responding warmly, without guardedness.

Let this scene play out for two to three minutes. Feel the naturalness of it, as though this is simply how things are between you. When you finish, release the image and go about your day. Repeat this practice each evening for one week. Do not try to orchestrate an outer change, simply maintain the inner revision and observe what happens in the relationship. Many who have practiced this report changes ranging from subtle shifts in tone to complete reconciliations they did not think possible.