Neville Goddard, Deity Yoga, and the Visuddhimagga

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Matthew, modified 4 Years ago at 10/31/19 11:53 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 10/31/19 11:53 AM

Neville Goddard, Deity Yoga, and the Visuddhimagga

Posts: 92 Join Date: 10/31/19 Recent Posts
I recently came across the following audio tape by Neville Goddard, a granddaddy of the New Thought/New Age Law of Attraction types:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKS_QIPet-k

The basis of the technique is devastatingly simple, but, ime, effective. You visualize what you want having already occured, and permeate this visualization with the emotional tone of having already accomplished it. He advises doing this in a hypnagogic state and ending the "ritual" by falling asleep. That's it. So, for example, if I wanted a raise at work, I would imagine myself holding a letter from my boss, maybe congratulating me, and detailing my sweet sweet salary increase. I would then infuse and marinate this image with a feeling of accomplishment and pride in my work. Then I'd fall asleep. With any luck I'd soon find myself holding such a letter.

This is almost the exact generic process of deity generation in the Vajrayana, done backwards! In Goddard's method you create the form and then permeate it with the feeling like soaking a sponge in water. In deity yoga you create (or naturally find yourself in) the feeling, and the form arises out of that "substance" like a hand filling a glove. The marriage of energetic nebulousness, which here is emotion, with defined form, which here is visualization and/or mantra, is the key in both cases. It's like projecting a hologram - filling form with light.

So what I'd like to discuss is, how similar is this to Theravadan magic a la the Visuddhimagga? The general technique there seems to be to make a resolution, achieve fourth jhana, and then fire off that resolution with your now-focused mind. Is that accurate? In that case it would seem like the mechanism is more like firing a laser rather than projecting a hologram.

Interested in hearing your thoughts!
John, modified 4 Years ago at 11/3/19 5:28 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 11/3/19 5:28 AM

RE: Neville Goddard, Deity Yoga, and the Visuddhimagga

Posts: 51 Join Date: 7/11/14 Recent Posts
sounds good, doesn't work
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Matthew, modified 4 Years ago at 11/3/19 10:17 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 11/3/19 10:17 AM

RE: Neville Goddard, Deity Yoga, and the Visuddhimagga

Posts: 92 Join Date: 10/31/19 Recent Posts
John:
sounds good, doesn't work
Could you be a bit more specific? There are three techniques mentioned here, which are you saying doesn’t work? 

The two out of three I have experience with, the Goddard one and deity yoga, do work for me, but if you have other experience feel free to share.
James Matthews, modified 4 Years ago at 11/4/19 9:49 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 11/4/19 9:32 AM

RE: Neville Goddard, Deity Yoga, and the Visuddhimagga

Posts: 15 Join Date: 1/16/19 Recent Posts
Research by Gabriele Oettingen has shown that positive thinking doesn't lead to achieving goals and may in fact may it less likely that the goal will be achieved. She has developed a method called mental contrasting though that does lead to a higher achievement of goals but only if you believe you can attain the goal. 

This link summarises her work quite well: https://positivepsychology.com/mental-contrasting/
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Matthew, modified 4 Years ago at 11/5/19 3:33 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 11/5/19 3:33 PM

RE: Neville Goddard, Deity Yoga, and the Visuddhimagga

Posts: 92 Join Date: 10/31/19 Recent Posts
James Matthews:
Research by Gabriele Oettingen has shown that positive thinking doesn't lead to achieving goals and may in fact may it less likely that the goal will be achieved. She has developed a method called mental contrasting though that does lead to a higher achievement of goals but only if you believe you can attain the goal. 

This link summarises her work quite well: https://positivepsychology.com/mental-contrasting/

Thank you for sharing, very pragmatic and interesting!

However, again, my goal here is broader than just talking about the merits (or lack thereof) of Goddard's method, especially as some kind of psychotherapy technique. My goal here is to talk about it as a magical technique, in relation to magical techniques within Buddhism, which exist in the Theravada as much as they do in the Maha- and Vajrayana. That's why the three part title - going for compare and contrast.
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Noah D, modified 4 Years ago at 11/5/19 11:30 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 11/5/19 11:30 PM

RE: Neville Goddard, Deity Yoga, and the Visuddhimagga

Posts: 1211 Join Date: 9/1/16 Recent Posts
In addition to OP offering multiple perspectives on Buddhist magick , Berzin (studybuddhism.com) writes about a Buddha’s ability to manipulate matter & perform other siddhis as being demystified when viewed from a multidimensional perspective , akin to the movie flatland.  Similar to how 2d beings would see us as gods of sorts, we would see the actions of a being perceiving in multiple dimensions also as a god.  So the magick of an advanced bodhisattva or Buddha does not require Spiritual Mind Treatment (ala goddard) or 4th jhana (ala visudhimagga) , but comes about naturally as a result of perception of emptiness paired with compassion.
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 11/5/19 11:42 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 11/5/19 11:42 PM

RE: Neville Goddard, Deity Yoga, and the Visuddhimagga

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
My impression is that intentions work more effectively if they focus on doing the job rather than having it done, both in magick and in psychology. 
haig, modified 4 Years ago at 11/7/19 12:10 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 11/7/19 12:10 PM

RE: Neville Goddard, Deity Yoga, and the Visuddhimagga

Posts: 6 Join Date: 3/4/17 Recent Posts
Noah D:
In addition to OP offering multiple perspectives on Buddhist magick , Berzin (studybuddhism.com) writes about a Buddha’s ability to manipulate matter & perform other siddhis as being demystified when viewed from a multidimensional perspective , akin to the movie flatland.  Similar to how 2d beings would see us as gods of sorts, we would see the actions of a being perceiving in multiple dimensions also as a god.  So the magick of an advanced bodhisattva or Buddha does not require Spiritual Mind Treatment (ala goddard) or 4th jhana (ala visudhimagga) , but comes about naturally as a result of perception of emptiness paired with compassion.

Yes, I've also found that, IMHO, a transdimensional model is the most conducive to placing these things into a rational framework from which to analyze while remaining compatible with what science/math/reason so far has told us about consensus reality.  However, that does not necessarily negate the concepts of spirituality or magic found in spiritual traditions or modern thinkers like Goddard, in fact it just adds more conceptual evidence to take those ideas seriously. Just because we can now conceptualize spiritual ideas as having a multi-dimensional reason for existing does not make them any less spiritual or magical.
David Kyle Spencer, modified 4 Years ago at 11/30/19 5:12 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 11/30/19 5:06 PM

RE: Neville Goddard, Deity Yoga, and the Visuddhimagga

Posts: 48 Join Date: 11/21/19 Recent Posts
This is essentially Clavicula Salomonis stuff in terms of Ceremonial Magick with a bit of Woo Woo New Age thought (The Secret) thrown in. It can work, just not on the level of "Eat, Pray, Love". 
Edward Prunesquallor, modified 3 Years ago at 2/19/21 1:30 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 2/19/21 1:30 PM

RE: Neville Goddard, Deity Yoga, and the Visuddhimagga

Posts: 55 Join Date: 10/11/14 Recent Posts
Visualization and manifesting techniques are probably more effective and have more reports of success than ceremonial magick.

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