Reality Shifting is an Inner Stand

Recently I have been thinking about reality shifting and some of the ways those who developed the idea, worked with it. One of the earliest proponents of it was Neville Goddard. In the early and mid twentieth century, Goddard taught extensively that we could shift into a new reality by knowing and feeling that we were there now and allowing ourselves to be as sensually immersed in it as possible. One of Goddard’s most famous quotes is, “You are already that which you want to be, and your refusal to believe it is the only reason you do not see it.”

In an earlier essay I began to explain the difference between changing reality and reality shifting. I want to expand on that distinction now by pointing out that changing reality implies that there is only one reality even though it is malleable. Reality shifting rests on the assumption that there are different, simultaneously existing realities that we choose between.

This difference is profound and it reveals what is arguably the most challenging stumbling block for those wanting to learn how to shift into a different reality. Namely this stumbling block is the almost overwhelming tendency to assume that there is only one reality. We have been taught that what we experience all around us is the one and only reality and it only changes with strenuous effort over long periods of time.

Goddard believed that there are multiple, co-existent realities and he often equated different realities with different states of consciousness. Shifting realities, according to Goddard, is accomplished by moving your attention to a higher state. In his book, Your Faith is Your Fortune he asserts the following:

“Your present level of consciousness will only be transcended as you drop the present state and rise to a higher level. You rise to a higher level of consciousness by taking your attention away from your present limitations and placing it upon that which you desire to be. Do not attempt this in day-dreaming or wishful thinking but in a positive manner. Claim yourself to be the thing desired. I AM that; no sacrifice, no diet, no human tricks.”

The big challenge we face is the overwhelming tendency to assume that our experience of reality must change before we can believe in a new one. Goddard defines faith as “loyalty to the unseen reality,” and it is the key to reality shifting. We must be able to believe in the shift we have made without direct evidence. Stepping into a new reality means knowing without question that we are in that reality now and allowing ourselves to feel it as deeply as possible. We must be able to step into a sensual knowing of the new reality before we have external evidence of its existence.

When you step into a new reality your experience may not change at all, but you know and feel that the experience you’re having is arising in a new reality. Your experience may not have changed, but you know you are in a new reality. At the end of his book Out of This World, Goddard states.

“There is nothing to change but our concept of self. As soon as we succeed in transforming self, our world will dissolve and reshape itself in harmony with that which our change affirms.”

The inner change in self is our felt conviction that we have shifted into a new reality. Now it is time for the world to dissolve and reshape itself. The inner shift happens instantaneously, the dissolution and reconfiguration of the world outside takes time. The challenge is to hold steady in the new reality long enough for a new world to take shape. It is easy to give up too soon.

A couple of years ago I articulated my soul purpose, or sankalpa, as, “I am fully embodied, awake and alive in all dimensions of being.” Nothing felt different immediately afterward or for a long time, but now I can see how the outer world has been continually reconfiguring around me to conform to the reality I have steadily occupied inside. There is further to go. The world will change more. All I have to do is continue to stand firm in the conviction of my soul’s purpose.