Neville Goddard tells the story of a vision he had in 1934  in many of his lectures. He has his eyes closed, there’s a golden light, a shattering crystal and a glowing figure that turned out to be himself. When he told his audiences, “If you try it, you’ll find it very, very easy to do,” he leaves us wondering what “it” actually entails. Closing your eyes isn’t the entire practice, which is why most people who attempt the experiment are met with nothing but darkness and a wandering mind. After we recap what Neville said, we’ll take a look at an older esoteric manual that mirrors his method so a more complete picture of this “inward-light practice” emerges.

What Neville Actually Described

Across Neville’s accounts in his lectures, the setup is consistent. In his 1968 lecture The Fathers, he gives details on the posture and the visual unfolding:

“Now, let me start first with a vision, for God speaks to man through the language of dream and makes himself known unto man in a vision. If God speaks to me in a dream and makes himself known to me in a vision, there’s nothing important than I record that vision. Well, here is a vision that I had in 1934. I was alone in my living room, my eyes were closed, I was meditating but not on anything in particular…just meditating. I love to just turn my eyes inward and then watch the liquid golden clouds form. If you try it, you’ll find it very, very easy to do. You turn your eyes inward, close the lids as though asleep, but you aren’t asleep you’re alert, and suddenly all the dark convolutions of the brain grow luminous and they pulse. As they form themselves into these clouds around your head, they go off in pulses. Well, here I am simply observing them…not thinking of anything in particular…when suddenly before my vision comes a huge quartz…about that size, roughly. As I look at it, it fragments itself and numberless little pieces fall apart. And then as I look at these little pieces, some magnetic hand or invisible force took all of these and gathered them together and molded them into the human form. Here is a man seated in the lotus posture in deep, deep meditation. As I looked at him, I saw myself…here I am meditating in a profound manner and I am observing myself meditating. As I watched it, it began to pulse, it’s alive. It began to glow, glowed like the sun, and when it reached the limit of intensity it exploded. Then I broke the silence and returned to the normal state in this world.”— Neville Goddard, “The Fathers” (1968) 

He expands on the internal mechanics of this attention in the 1963 lecture He Is Meditating Me: The Rock:

“Well, many years ago, 1934 to be exact, I was sitting in the Silence, not thinking of anything in particular, just simply contemplating this interior structure of the brain as it were. If you turn your eyes, mentally turn them inward and just let them rest upon the interior of your skull, in a little while all these dark convolutions of the brain grow luminous and they fascinate you. The whole thing becomes liquid and golden liquid light. So while watching this wonderful golden liquid light, suddenly out of the nowhere came a stone, a rock. There’s nothing more sterile, nothing more opaque, nothing more contracted as far as imagery is concerned than a rock. So here was a rock, this quartz. As I looked at it, just simply looking at it, not wondering why it’s before me, but there it is before me, and suddenly it became fragmented, broken into unnumbered pieces. Then all these little pieces were gathered together, but not re-formed into the rock (the original form) but into a human shape. And here it takes human form. Here, I am seeing a man seated in the lotus posture. I became intrigued. As I looked closer, I’m looking at myself. I am the being that I’m contemplating. Here he is seated in the lotus posture and just the very image of the being I knew myself to be. As I looked at him, he began to glow and he increased in luminosity until he reached the limit of intensity, and then he exploded. Then I returned to this level with only the memory of what I had experienced.”— Neville Goddard, “He Is Meditating Me: The Rock” (1963)

In the same lecture, he clarified that this was an ongoing practice and not a spontaneous, isolated event:

“One day I found him, I accepted him, and then came the unfolding of all this wonderful symbolism as recorded in scripture, all the imagery, and it’s all imagery. Who would have thought on reading that that you were in conflict in the depths of your own soul and really encounter the symbol of the stone? But who saw it? I saw it. Well, where did it come from? It came out of my Imagination. For if all dreams proceed from God, and I know exactly what happened to me… I sat in the Silence thinking of nothing in particular, turning my attention inward into my brain and contemplating these dark convolutions of the brain, and as always happens they grew luminous. As they grew luminous, I am simply looking at this luminous cloud forming in my head, and suddenly out of nowhere, comes this quartz, this enormous stone. I didn’t do a thing, just simply looked at it. And it fragmented, the whole thing broke into unnumbered pieces. Not a piece was lost but re-gathered by some invisible hand. As it was re-gathered, it was not the original form, now it takes the form of man.”— Neville Goddard, “He Is Meditating Me: The Rock” (1963) 

Neville remembers the physical setting of the vision in The Mystery of Life (1969) showing the timeline and his daily dedication, :

“I lived in a basement apartment on 75th Street in New York City, not knowing where the next dollar was coming from. I did not despair, however, but sat in the silence and quietly closed my eyes. I was not thinking of anything in particular, just resting with my eyes shut, watching the golden clouds which always come, as all the dark convolutions of the brain grow luminous. As I contemplated this golden, liquid light, a quartz approximately 20″ in diameter suddenly appeared, then fragmented itself into numberless parts. As I watched, they gathered themselves together into a human form seated in the lotus posture. Startled, I realised that I was looking at myself – but a self containing such majesty of face and beauty of features, that I could never have believed possible. There was nothing I could have added to that perfection to improve it.”

“I was looking at myself in deep meditation, not as a piece of clay, but a living statue. Then it began to glow and increased in luminosity until it reached the intensity of the sun and exploded; and I awoke to find myself still seated in my chair in my little basement apartment in New York City. Turning to scripture, I read the 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy: ‘Of the Rock that begot you, you are unmindful and of the God who gave you birth you are unaware.'”

“By 1934 I had already gone through five years of the depression, so I wasn’t worrying about my next meal, or my next job for that matter. I was just resting, for by this time depression was a state of mind. So, as I daily did, I sat in my chair and turned my attention inward, into my brain, and contemplated within.”

“Then, as always, the clouds began to appear, grow luminous, and move in lovely, billowy, golden liquid light. Then came the rock. The perfect imagery of scripture. And the Rock was Christ. He formed himself into me, but me as a perfect being.”— Neville Goddard, “The Mystery of Life” (1969)

He mentions an earlier, undated version of this inward-light exploration in The Search (1946):

“Once, with closed eyes made radiant from brooding, I meditated on the eternal question, ‘Who Am I?’ and felt myself gradually dissolve into a shoreless sea of vibrant light, imagination passing beyond all fear of death. In this state nothing existed but myself, a boundless ocean of liquid light. Never have I felt more intimate with Being. How long this experience lasted I do not know, but my return to earth was accompanied by a distinct feeling of crystallizing again into human shape.”

“At another time, I lay on my bed and with my eyes shut as in sleep I brooded on the mystery of Buddha. In a little while, the dark caverns of my brain began to grow luminous. I seemed to be surrounded by luminous clouds which emanated from my head as fiery, pulsating rings. I saw nothing but these luminous rings for a time. Then there appeared before my eyes a rock of quartz crystal. While I gazed upon it, the crystal broke into pieces which invisible hands quickly shaped into the living Buddha. As I looked on this meditative figure, I saw that it was myself. I was the living Buddha whom I contemplated. A light like the sun glowed from this living image of myself with increasing intensity until it exploded. Then the light gradually faded and once more I was back within the blackness of my room.”— Neville Goddard, “The Search” (1946) 

He reiterates the visceral reality of the crystallization in The Congregation of God (1966):

“I saw that so clearly one night when I saw this quartz smashed, fragmented. Then quickly all the little fragments were gathered together into a form, and the form was that of a meditating Buddha. Here was this being sitting in a lotus posture. As I looked, I’m looking at myself. But I had never seen myself so glorious. I can’t describe the beauty, the handsomeness, the majesty, the strength of character in that face. Everything you could think of in the superlative that face contained…in deep meditation. And as I looked at it, it became flesh, it became alive, and it began to glow and glow and glow. When it reached the apex of intensity—here I am glued to it—it all exploded. And then I woke here. I had gathered the fragments together and formed them into one form, and I was it.”— Neville Goddard, “The Congregation of God” (1966)

Where He Learned It

The 1934 vision wasn’t an isolated incident. It happened during a period when young Neville was steeped in esoteric, Kabbalistic, and Buddhist texts. In Living Water (1963), he  connects the imagery of his meditation to his reading material:

“Because, looking into it, the strangest things happen. One day, reading or contemplating a similar image that was in the book that I read that night when I fell asleep—for I was reading The Life of Buddha when this first happened to me. And then this night in question—not reading the book of Buddha but contemplating Buddha—as I did so, before my eyes came this huge big flint. And then without effort on my part, it broke into many small fragments, and then invisible hands molded it into the most beautiful meditating figure that was like a Buddha, meditating. As I came closer and looked at it, I was looking at myself. I was the thing that I’m contemplating. And the thrill that was mine! Here I saw this Eastern figure sitting in the same posture as you find a Buddha, the little statue of Buddha, made of this flint. As I looked at myself and saw I was the figure that I contemplated, it glowed and glowed and glowed. When it reached the intensity of light it exploded, and then I was back where I was before.”— Neville Goddard, “Living Water” (1963) 

A Method in Older Manuals

Neville recounted his experience and tells us to try it, but older esoteric texts outline more of the mechanics to achieve it. The Secret of the Golden Flower, a Chinese meditation manual translated by Richard Wilhelm with commentary by Carl Jung in 1931, details an inward-light practice. It shifts the focus from a spontaneous experience of inner imagery to a deliberate, disciplined circulation of attention:

“The work on the circulation of the Light depends entirely on the backward-flowing movement, so that the thoughts are gathered together (the place of Heavenly Consciousness, the Heavenly Heart). The Heavenly Heart lies between sun and moon (i.e. the two eyes). The Book of the Yellow Castle says: In the field of the square inch of the house of the square foot, life can be regulated. The house of the square foot is the face. The field of the square inch in the face: what could that be other than the Heavenly Heart? In the middle of the square inch dwells the splendour. In the purple hall of the city of jade dwells the god of utmost emptiness and life. The Confucians call it the centre of emptiness; the Buddhists, the terrace of life; the Taoists, the ancestral land, or the yellow castle, or the dark pass, or the space of former Heaven. The Heavenly Heart is like the dwelling place, the Light is the master. Therefore when the Light circulates, the powers of the whole body arrange themselves before its throne, just as when a holy king has taken possession of the capital and has laid down the fundamental rules of order, all the states approach with tribute; or, just as when the master is quiet and calm, men-servants and maids obey his orders of their own accord, and each does his work. Therefore you only have to make the Light circulate : that is the deepest and most wonderful secret. The Light is easy to move, but difficult to fix. If it is allowed to go long enough in a circle, then it crystallizes itself: that is the natural spirit-body. This crystallized spirit is formed beyond the nine Heavens.”— Richard Wilhelm (Translator), p. 24

The book says to strictly regulate the physical gaze to prevent the mind from wandering outward or sinking into unconscious reverie:

“The Light is not in the body alone, neither is it only outside the body. Mountains and rivers and the great Earth are lit by sun and moon; all that is this Light. Therefore it is not only within the body. Understanding and clarity, knowing and enlightenment, and all motion (of the spirit), are likewise this Light therefore it is not just something outside the body. The Light-flower of Heaven and Earth fills all thousand spaces. But also the Light-flower of one body passes through Heaven and covers the Earth. Therefore, just as the Light is circulating, so Heaven and Earth, mountains and rivers, are all rotating with it at the same time. To concentrate the seed-flower of the human body above in the eyes, that is the great key of the human body. Children, take heed! If for a day you do not practise meditation, this Light streams out, who knows whither ? If you only meditate for a quarter of an hour, you can set ten thousand aeons and a thousand births at rest. All methods take their source in quietness. This marvellous magic cannot be fathomed.”— Richard Wilhelm (Translator), p. 36

“What is really meant by this? The expression, ‘end of the nose,’ is very cleverly chosen. The nose must serve the eyes as a guiding line. If one is not guided by the nose, either one opens wide the eyes and looks into the distance, so that the nose is not seen, or the lids shut too much, so that the eyes close, and again the nose is not seen. But when the eyes are opened too wide, one makes the mistake of directing them outward, whereby one is easily distracted. If they are closed too much, then one makes the mistake of letting them turn inward, whereby one easily sinks into a dreamy reverie. Only when the eyelids are sunk properly halfway, is the end of the nose seen in just the right way. Therefore it is taken as a guiding line. The main thing is to lower the eye-lids in the right way, and then to allow the Light to stream in of itself, without trying to force the Light to stream in by a concentrated effort. Looking at the nose serves only as the beginning of the inner concentration, so that the eyes are brought into the right direction for looking, and then are held to the guiding line: after that, one can let it be.”— Richard Wilhelm (Translator), pp. 37-38

Once the physical anchor is set, the attention gets localized internally:

“To protect the yellow middle with the fire of the spirit, that is the work of building. Therefore the Master makes especially clear the method by which one enters in the cultivation of life, and bids people look with both eyes at the end of the nose, to lower the lids, to look within, sit quietly with upright body, and fix the heart on the centre in the midst of the conditions. Keeping the thoughts on the space between the two eyes allows the Light to penetrate. Thereupon, the spirit crystallizes and enters the centre in the midst of the conditions. The centre in the midst of the conditions is the lower Elixir-field, the place of power (solar plexus). The Master hinted at this secretly when he said: At the beginning of the work one must sit in a quiet room, the body like dry wood, the heart like cooled ashes. Let the lids of both eyes be lowered; then look within and purify the heart, cleanse the thoughts, stop pleasures and conserve the seed. One should sit down daily to meditate with legs crossed. Let the light in the eyes be stopped; let the hearing power of the ear be crystallized and the tasting power of the tongue diminished;”— Richard Wilhelm (Translator), p. 40

The practice relies a lot on harmonizing the breath to stabilize the restless heart:

“The chief thought of this part is that the most important thing about the circulation of the Light is making the breathing rhythmical. The further the work advances, the deeper becomes the teaching. The pupil must bring heart and breathing into relationship during the circulation of the Light in order to avoid the burden of laziness and distraction. The Master fears lest, during the séance, when the beginners have lowered their lids, confused fantasies may arise, because of which, the heart will begin to beat so that it is difficult to guide. Therefore he teaches the work of counting the breath and fixing the thoughts of the heart in order to prevent the power of the spirit from flowing outward. Because breath comes out of the heart, unrhythmical breathing comes from the heart’s unrest. Therefore one must breathe in and out quite softly so that it remains inaudible to the ear, and only the heart quietly counts the breaths. When the heart forgets the number of breaths, that is a sign that the heart has gone off into the outer world. Then one must hold the heart steadfast. If the ear does not listen attentively, or the eyes do not look at the back of the nose, it often happens that the heart runs off outside, or that sleep comes. That is a sign that the condition is going over into confusion and absent-mindedness, and the seed-spirit must be brought into order again. If, in lowering the lids and taking direction from the nose, the mouth is not tightly closed and the teeth are not clenched firmly together, it can easily happen that the heart hastens outward; then one must close the mouth quickly and clench the teeth together. The five senses order themselves according to the heart, and the spirit must call the breathing-power to aid, in order that heart and breath are harmonized.”— Richard Wilhelm (Translator), p. 49

If this is sustained, the book describes signs that closely parallel Neville’s own experience of the golden light and the crystallized figure:

“The second part refers to the building of the foundation on this. The great world is like ice, a glassy world of jewels. The brilliancy of the Light is gradually crystallized. That is why a great terrace arises and upon it, in the course of time, Buddha appears. When the Golden Being appears who should it be but Buddha? For Buddha is the Golden Saint of the Great Enlightenment. This is a great confirmatory experience. Now there are three confirmatory experiences which can be tested. The first is that, when one has entered the state of meditation, the gods (20) are in the valley. Men are heard talking as though at a distance of several hundred paces, each one quite clear. But the sounds are all like an echo in a valley. One can always hear them, but never oneself. This is called the presence of the gods in the valley. At times the following can be experienced: as soon as one is quiet, the Light of the eyes begins to blaze up, so that everything before one becomes quite bright as if one were in a cloud. If one opens one’s eyes and seeks the body, it is not to be found any more. This is called: In the empty chamber it grows light. Inside and outside, everything is equally light. That is a very favourable sign. Or, when one sits in meditation, the fleshly body becomes quite shining like silk or jade. It seems difficult to remain sitting; one feels as if drawn upward. This is called: The spirit returns and pushes against Heaven. In time, one can experience it in such a way that one really floats upward. And now it is possible to leave all three of these experiences. But not everything can be expressed. Different things appear to each person according to his gifts. If one experiences these things, it is a sign of a good aptitude. With these things it is just as it is when one drinks water. One can tell for oneself whether the water is warm or cold. In the same way a man must convince himself about these experiences, then only are they real.”— Richard Wilhelm (Translator), pp. 55-56

Neville, Jung, and Some Caution

Carl Jung also experienced a profoundly similar vision in 1944. Neville recalls the alignment between their encounters in his lecture, but he noted a difference in their subsequent psychological reactions. As Neville explained in The Fathers:

“Now, I know Carl Jung told his and his happened in 1944, ten years after mine. But his frightened him—which would tell me he’s not at the end of the journey. He saw himself in the lotus posture in a little chapel as he went hiking. In his vision, he saw this man. As he looked it’s himself. But he was afraid because he knew when he awoke, he, Carl Jung, would be no more. He didn’t see the projection that was the dream of himself, the real self, who could not enter this sphere. He has to dream…but he has to make it so real he can’t pretend it, for incarnation, complete incarnation is essential to individualization. It’s a tragedy yes; it’s separation from the Father. But I was looking at him.”— Neville Goddard, “The Fathers” (1968)

Neville further details Jung’s realization in He Is Meditating Me: The Rock:

“Now, last year a book was given to me. I read the review and my daughter and my wife said, ‘What do you want for Father’s Day?’ Well, we don’t share presents for Father’s Day and Mother’s Day and all these things. But they said it to me in a kidding manner and I answered in the same manner, I said, I have just read a review of a book. It’s Carl Jung’s latest work and so I would like to have it. So I gave them the title Memories, Dreams and Reflections. He died in 1961 and the book came out in 1961. So it’s not only his latest, it’s his last work. It is really an autobiography; although it is not claimed to be one, it is written in the first person. Well, in this, Jung made this observation. Mine happened in 1934, what I’ve just told you. His happened in 1944—not the full vision, only the middle section of the vision. He found himself in 1944 in a dream, but in a dream awake. And true vision is when you are in a dream awake. This, you may not know it, this is a vision. But because you are completely awake, you don’t call this a dream because you are in it and you are awake. For when you are really in a dream and you awake in it, it’s just like this. So a vision is in a dream awake; what Blake called ‘fourfold vision.’ So this is the four-fold vision of Blake. But we are now completely awake in it and it has continuity, so we don’t even realize it is still a dream.”

“But this is the vision of which I speak. So, he found himself in a dream, walking along a little country road, and he came upon this wayside chapel. The door was ajar so he stepped in. As he walked into this little chapel, he walked toward the altar. And to his amazement there was no image of the Virgin and there was not anything that would remind him of a Christian chapel, yet it was. There was no crucifix and no image of the Virgin, but in place of these images, this wonderful display of flowers. And then, looking down below the altar he noticed a Yogi seated in the lotus posture; and looking closer, this figure had his face. It startled him; and he awoke frightened, and said he to himself: ‘So it is he who is meditating me. He has a dream and I am it.’ Then said he to himself, ‘And I knew that when he awakened I would no longer be.’ Then said he—being the great analyst that he was—’This is a parable and what is its message to me? For here I am being confronted with something from the very depths of my soul, what is it trying to tell me?’ And said he to himself, ‘The central jet of truth that this thing is trying to convey to me is this: on this level of my being I think this is causation and that is effect; and here now it’s revealed to me, that is causation and this is effect. That myself retired in meditation, and meditated this human form to have the experience in three dimensions of space and time; and then by this experience, I would increase my awareness, and this increased awareness would further my realization. So the whole story is to reverse in me my thinking about causation: causation isn’t here; it is there. And I saw the being who is meditating me.’ He didn’t see the light.”

“So Jung makes the statement that ‘I myself retired in meditation, and meditated me in human form.’ But he does not mention the fact that his dream encompassed the stone and the light. That out of this dark opaque state suddenly came light, light beyond the wildest dream of man. But I tell you, you have meditated yourself and brought yourself right into being right here in this world, that you may increase in experience and by this increase of awareness further your own wonderful self-realization. And that is forever. There is no limit to translucency. There is only a limit to contraction, to opacity, and the stone is the symbol of the limit of sterility, the limit of opacity, the limit of contraction. But there is no limit to man’s expansion, man’s translucency. So when I saw this thing reaching seemingly a limit, it exploded, proving to me that there could never be a limit to the expansion, to the translucency of my own being. So, everyone is simply on the way, expanding, after he sees this wonderful thing taking place within him.”— Neville Goddard, “He Is Meditating Me: The Rock” (1963) 

While Neville celebrated the boundlessness of this expansion, Jung’s formal commentary on The Secret of the Golden Flower highlighted some psychological risks involved when the boundaries of the conscious mind are dissolved:

“Danger arises whenever the narrowly delimited, but intensely clear, individual consciousness meets the immense expansion of the collective unconscious, because the latter has a definitely disintegrating effect on consciousness. According to the exposition of the Hui Ming Ching, this effect belongs to the peculiar phenomena of Chinese yoga practice. It is said there: Every thought-fragment takes shape and becomes visible in colour and form. All the powers of the soul reveal their traces. One of the illustrations accompanying the book shows a sage sunk in contemplation, his head circled with fire, out of which five human figures emerge: these five split up again into twenty-five smaller figures. That would represent a schizophrenic process if it remained a permanent condition. Therefore the instructions, as though warning the adept, say : Figures formed out of the fire of the spirit, are only empty colours and forms. The Light of the essence streams back to the primordial truth. It is understandable then why the protecting figure of the ‘enclosing circle’ was seized upon. It is intended to prevent ’emanations’, and to protect the unity of consciousness from being split apart by the unconscious. Moreover, the Chinese concept points a way toward lessening the disintegrating effect of the unconscious ; it describes the ‘thought-figures’ or ‘thought-fragments’ as ’empty colours and shapes’, and thus depotentializes them as far as that is possible. This idea goes through the whole of Buddhism (especially the Mahāyāna form), and, in the instructions to the dead of the Bardo Thödol, it is even pushed to the point of explaining both favourable and unfavourable gods as illusions still to be overcome.”— Carl Jung (Commentary), pp. 106-107

Jung finally understood the culmination of this practice isn’t an erasure of the self, but a prealignment of identity or a shifting of the ego into a larger, indestructible framework:

“Our text gives us a metaphysical concept of this kind, that is, one which must be understood psychologically; it is the idea of the ‘diamond body’, the indestructible breath-body which develops in the Golden Flower, or in square-inch space. This body is a symbol for a remarkable psychological fact, which, because it is objective, appears at first projected or expressed in forms furnished by the experiences of organic life, that is, as fruit, embryo, child, living body, etc. This fact could best be expressed in the words : It is not I who live, it lives me. The illusion as to the superior powers of the conscious leads to the belief : I live. If, by the recognition of the unconscious, this illusion is shattered, the unconscious appears as something objective of which the ego is a part. The attitude toward the unconscious is then analogous to the feeling of a primitive man to whom a son guarantees continuation of life. This is a thoroughly characteristic feeling which can even assume grotesque forms as in the case of the old negro, who, in a rage, called out to his disobedient son : ‘There he stands, with my body, if you please, but does not even obey me!’ The fact that the unconscious is looked upon as something in which the ego is contained, brings about a change in inner feeling similar to that experienced by a father to whom a son has been born, a change known to us through the confession of the Apostle Paul : ‘No longer do I live, but Christ liveth in me.’ The symbol ‘Christus’ as the ‘son of man’ leads to an analogous psychic experience. It is as if a higher spiritual being of human form were invisibly born in the individual as a spiritual body which is to serve us as a future dwelling, a body which, as Paul expresses himself, is put on like a garment (‘Ye who have put on Christ’). Obviously it is always an unfortunate thing to express, in intellectual terms, subtle feelings which are none the less infinitely important for the life and well-being of the individual. In a certain sense, the thing we are trying to express is the feeling of having been ‘replaced’, but without the connotation of having been ‘deposed’. It is as if the leadership of the affairs of life had gone over to an invisible centre. Nietzsche’s metaphor, ‘In most loving bondage, free,’ would be appropriate here. Religious speech is full of imaginative expressions that picture this feeling of free dependence, of calm and devotion.

In this remarkable experience I see a phenomenon resulting from the detachment of consciousness, through which the subjective ‘I live’, becomes the objective ‘It lives me’. This condition is felt to be higher than the earlier one; it is really as if it were a sort of release from compulsion and impossible responsibility which are the inevitable results of participation mystique. This feeling of release filled Paul completely. It is the consciousness of being a child of God which then frees one from the spell of the blood. Also, it is a feeling of reconciliation with what is happening, and that is the reason that the glance of ‘one who has attained fulfilment’, according to the Hui Ming Ching, returns to the beauty of nature.”— Carl Jung (Commentary), pp. 131-133

If you choose to “try it” with this lineage of meditation, the book suggests sitting regularly and quietly, softening the physical gaze, and resting your attention steadily inward without forcing visual results. Neville told the story plainly and insisted you test it yourself. What you do with the light afterward, and whether you understand the resulting figure as an inner Christ, a Buddha, or the primordial self, is up to your interpretation.

Resources

• Goddard, Neville. The Search (1946). Cool Wisdom Books.
• Goddard, Neville. He Is Meditating Me: The Rock (1963). Cool Wisdom Books.
• Goddard, Neville. Living Water (1963). Cool Wisdom Books.
• Goddard, Neville. The Congregation of God (1966). Cool Wisdom Books.
• Goddard, Neville. The Fathers (1968). Cool Wisdom Books.
• Goddard, Neville. The Mystery of Life (1969). Cool Wisdom Books.
• Wilhelm, Richard (Translator) and Jung, C.G. (Commentary). The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., London, 1931.

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