WHO IS NEVILLE?

The untold story of KTTV’s new and controversial personality

By Jack Holland

There is a man over KTTV way who is creating a good deal of talk. He is definitely offering something new and provocative—and something loaded with dynamite. His name is Neville.

This very interesting man appears on Channel 11 at one o’clock on Sundays. Those who have listened to him have been more than intrigued. Many remember him when he was here last year and did one telecast—from which the station got 5000 letters. KTTV was so impressed with him that they brought him back for a series of talks this year.

It’s hard to classify the kind of work Neville does. For want of a better definition you could call him a metaphysician. He also deals in thoughts that go along with the power of positive thinking, although his approach is somewhat different from that used by the popular Norman Vincent Peale. Peale himself explained the difference when he was asked for an opinion about Neville. The renowned minister remarked that Neville was undoubtedly a fine man, but said, “However, bear in mind that he is a one hundred percent metaphysician, whereas I am a minister.”

Neville has one main philosophy. It is the power of affecting life rather than reflecting it.

“There is a wide difference in thinking of what you want and thinking from what you want,” Neville explained recently. “Supposing there is something you want to accomplish, some situation you want to be in. I believe that instead of thinking how much you’d like that certain something, think of yourself as actually having it, of being in the middle of that desired situation. In other words, actively put yourself into the reality of a fulfilled desire.

“In all the lectures and classes I have given I have stressed this philosophy—and I know it works. I have had countless people tell me how it has worked for them, and I know what it has done for my life. I always tell those who come to me with a problem to picture themselves in the situation they desire, to lie in bed before going to sleep and actively bring into focus what they most want. For instance, a girl in New York wanted to go to Europe—Paris specifically. She had no money. I told her to get a real picture in her mind of her walking along the Left Bank in Paris, to think of the people there, to hear the sounds of the city, and to concentrate on that picture. Well, just a little time ago I got a letter from her—in Paris. She had been there six months.

“Another woman I know had been told by her daughter-in-law to leave her house and never to return. For two years this woman hadn’t seen her son or her grandson and had been carrying bitterness in her heart. She had sent the grandson repeated presents on every occasion but had received no acknowledgment. I told her that instead of concentrating on bitterness she should actively put herself in the middle of the situation she desired. I advised her to write little letters each night to herself as though they had come from her grandson and daughter-in-law and to write the very things she most wanted to hear. Each night for a week she did this. She wrote notes which said how much she had been missed at her daughter-in-law’s home and asking her to come to see the family. Before she went to sleep each night she kept this picture in her mind—of her walking into her son’s home again. On the morning of the eighth day she got an envelope in the mail in which were two notes—from her grandson and her daughter-in-law asking why she hadn’t been to see them, how much she had been missed, and would she please come for a visit.

“These are only minor examples. But this same thing can happen to you and your problem if you’ll try my way.”

Neville is unlike most people who deal in new theories. He asks no funds, he depends on no one for support. He earns his living by his lectures, which are always attended by packed houses, and by the eight books he has written. A friend of his wrote to the Library of Congress asking to have Neville’s books placed there under the “New Thought” department, but after checking the volumes the Library replied that because of Neville’s bold use of the imagination the books would have to be placed along with those of Emerson and other philosophers.

Neville became interested in this theory of his—which he calls an aroused interest in the use of the mind—in 1925. At the time he was a successful dancer. After eleven years on the stage he quit. His whole life had been taken over by this powerful new thought.

“I really learned the most about it from Abdullah, one of the greatest mystics of all time,” Neville said. “He changed my life. I have had no obstacles in my life since then.

“Of course, I have met opposition. There are those who have called me a heretic. Ministers have stormed out of my lectures on occasion. But most of those who oppose me are those who don’t want to outgrow what they have already learned and who are afraid to learn anything challenging and new.

“I have only one thing to say to the doubters—try what I believe in. It won’t fail any of you. You can’t fight something you haven’t tried for yourself.”

Neville is apt to blow up a storm here, but he’s not one to dodge any fight.

See Also:

Is There Video Footage of Neville Goddard? The Lost KTTV Broadcasts, Joe Pyne and the Hunt for Video Evidence