Follow Me: Imagination and Spiritual Birth | Neville Goddard

When Christ says “Follow me,” most people picture a man walking ahead and a disciple trailing behind. Neville Goddard hears something entirely different. For Neville, “Follow me” is an instruction from your own deeper self (from your imagination) calling you to trust it, to act on it, to let it lead you where your rational mind would never dare to go. This talk explores what it means to follow that inner voice all the way to spiritual birth.

Spiritual birth, in Neville’s framework, is not a physical event. It is the moment when you awaken within the dream of life and recognize yourself as the dreamer. It is the birth of Christ in you. Not as a religious figure but as the creative, imaginative power that has been operating in you all along, now finally recognized and claimed.

This is one of Neville’s most intimate talks. He speaks from personal experience, describing his own moments of inner awakening, and he does so with a tenderness that invites rather than instructs.

In This Video

• Neville’s interpretation of “Follow me” as an invitation from your own imagination
• What spiritual birth actually means, and why it is not limited to one lifetime or one tradition
• How the story of Christ’s birth is a symbolic description of inner awakening
• The relationship between trusting your imagination and the unfolding of spiritual experience
• Neville’s personal account of mystical experiences that confirmed these teachings

Key Teachings

Neville understood that following your imagination requires a kind of courage that the world does not often reward. When the evidence of your senses contradicts what you have imagined, the temptation to abandon your inner vision is enormous. But this is precisely the moment where spiritual growth occurs, in the gap between what you see and what you know to be true within.

“Follow me means follow your imagination. Let it lead you into states that your reason would reject. Trust it as you would trust the most faithful friend you have ever known.”

– Neville Goddard

This reframes the spiritual path entirely. You are not following a person, a doctrine, or an institution. You are following the living, creative force within your own being. And when you follow it faithfully, something begins to stir, something Neville calls the birth of God in man.

“The birth spoken of in scripture is not the birth of a child in Bethlehem. It is the birth of awareness in you, the moment you discover that you are the creative power of the universe.”

– Neville Goddard

That discovery changes the texture of everything. You stop looking for permission. You stop waiting for circumstances to cooperate. You begin to move from within, and the outer world begins to rearrange itself around your inner conviction.

Questions & Answers

What does “Follow me” mean in Neville’s teaching?

It is the voice of imagination speaking to your conscious mind. Your imagination (which Neville identifies as the Christ within) is always presenting you with possibilities, visions of what could be. “Follow me” is the invitation to trust those visions, to enter into them fully, and to let them guide your actions rather than being governed solely by appearances and circumstances.

What is spiritual birth?

Spiritual birth is the awakening of God within the individual. It is the moment when you shift from believing that you are a limited human being in a vast, indifferent universe to knowing that you are the creative power that conceived that universe. Neville described it as an actual inner experience (vivid, unmistakable, and life-changing) not merely an intellectual realization.

Do I need to have a mystical experience to make this real?

Neville shared his own mystical experiences openly, but he was equally clear that the practical application of imagination is available to everyone right now. You do not need to wait for a dramatic inner event. Every time you assume a state in imagination and persist in it until it hardens into fact, you are exercising the same power that eventually leads to full spiritual awakening. The mystical experiences come in their own time, often as a natural result of consistent practice.

How does following imagination differ from wishful thinking?

Wishful thinking stays on the surface of the mind. It says, “I hope this happens.” Following imagination goes deeper. It says, “I will enter the state of the wish fulfilled and dwell there as though it is already real.” The difference is in the commitment. Wishful thinking is passive. Imaginative living is active, deliberate, and sustained. The results reflect the difference.

Practice

Today, pay attention to the gentle nudges of your imagination. At some point, an image or feeling will arise, perhaps a vision of something you would love, a sense of what your life could become, a flash of creative insight. Instead of dismissing it as impractical or unrealistic, follow it. Sit with it for a few minutes. Let it become vivid. Ask yourself: what would it feel like if this were already true? Enter that feeling and stay with it. Write down what you experienced. Do this daily for two weeks, following where your imagination leads, and keep a brief record of what unfolds, both inwardly and in your external circumstances. You may be surprised at how faithfully the outer world begins to reflect the inner one.