How to Put the Law of Attraction to the Test with Neville Goddard’s Ladder Technique
Neville Goddard, aka “The Mad Mystic of 48th Street,” was a fascinating figure, a self-described prophet who claimed to be bringing back the true esoteric teachings of the Bible that the ancients knew. The Mad Mystic packed a fool-proof philosophy that even the most skilled, well-versed metaphysician would find difficult to poke holes in. And with that, Neville has given us a way to prove his brand of the law of attraction, by putting to use the ladder technique: time tested and approved.
The Law of Attraction
Hearing and reading about the law of attraction is fun stuff. A part of us is fascinated by the possibility that life could be more magical, more on-our-side than our five senses pick up on, that it’s way easier than all of the effort that we throw into it. More importantly, I believe that there is a part of us that knows this magic to be real, whether or not anyone truly knows how to operate it with 100% accuracy.
Neville’s Metaphysics
Barbados-born Neville Goddard is an old school metaphysician in every sense, suit and tie, articulate, and confident. You have no choice but to assume that what he was talking about was proven science. But what set Neville apart from other mid-century teachers of the same genre was his metaphysics. Neville believed that nothing exists outside of consciousness, an idea that’s not too controversial nowadays and one that’s been practiced by certain Yogic and Buddhist schools for centuries.
Neville saw consciousness as synonymous with God, the ground of all-being and also what we are at the core. This is no different than the Hindu conception of Brahman, the godhead, which Neville talked about going back to frequently. Neville, similar to the philosophies of the East, taught that this was the goal. That we keep reincarnating in dimensions that are like this one until we finally “get it.”
One of the ways that Neville proposed that we execute this was through the use of our imagination, which is forever intertwined with consciousness and is also, what he claimed, the creator of everything. Therefore, it’s easy to see why students of the law of attraction have jumped all over Neville Goddard in recent years, and why the majority of his teachings were geared towards creating more ideal circumstances for ourselves and for others. It’s what people wanted to hear about then. And that’s fair. Because it’s what I’d like to hear about now.
I Will Not Climb the Ladder
The story behind Neville Goddard’s ladder technique has become legendary and the practice of it still carries on into today with much-reported success.
Sometime during the mid-1900s (presumably), Neville was giving a lecture to a group of would-be students in Los Angeles whom he gave some parting homework to. He told the group that upon falling asleep at night that they’re to imagine themselves climbing up a ladder from the first-person point of view. He told the group that those who found themselves on a ladder to meet back for the next lecture.
He further instructed that they write down on a piece of paper, “I will not climb the ladder,” and place it somewhere they would see it throughout the day. This was done — unknowingly to the students at the time — to prove that the subconscious mind doesn’t understand such commands, that it only accepts what we focus on, whether we say we want it or not.
The ladder was chosen because climbing one is not something that was out of the range of their perceived possibilities, yet it’s something that most people don’t find themselves on typically (trade aside).
The purpose of imaging this before sleep is because in the moments before we drift off our brain is in the hypnagogic state — the state between waking and sleeping — making us susceptible to subconscious programming, as the line between the conscious and subconscious minds begin to blur.
Neville told the group to imagine for three nights in a row and then to drop it. This was to prove that once the seed is planted that there is nothing left to do, it all unfolds on its own accord.
The group members who found themselves on a ladder met back with Neville when he famously told them, “you could have just as easily imagined a million dollars for yourselves,” something many group members went on to do (see surviving members EO Locker and Lindell Warden’s accounts on YouTube).
Despite that phrase, Neville didn’t preach a prosperity gospel. Rather, it was to prove a point: imagination creates reality.
My Take on Neville and the Takeaway
Neville has become widely popular over the last couple of years, with no shortage of groups on Facebook and Reddit popping up to discuss (mostly positive) experiences with his teachings. How he resurfaced with such a strong adoration beats me. But it seems like the new generation of law of attraction practitioners are more concerned with working with the subconscious mind than they are with vibrations or anything else.
I haven’t wound up on a ladder because I’ve never imagined it. Yet, I have studied Neville in-depth for some time and practice his teachings with varying degrees of success. But to state that nothing happens outside of our imagination is, I believe, an over-simplification, something that humans can’t help but do with our existence to feel more secure about it. My take is that it’s simply unknowable.
The above is only a sliver of Neville Goddard’s teachings. His work is quite extensive and worth looking into, made available for free all over the internet. He offers a lengthy list of detailed techniques that we can all use to manifest specific things in our lives. And whatever our two cents is on the Mad Mystic, he’s someone who’s undoubtedly secured a spot for himself as a notable figure in the history of metaphysics.
