The Power of Awareness

The Power of Awareness is Neville Goddard’s compact treatise on imagination as the operative faculty of consciousness. Across thirty short chapters Goddard argues that what one assumes oneself to be — held with feeling, in the first person and the present tense — is what one becomes. The book is structured as variations on that single claim: assumption is the mechanism, awareness is the field in which assumption takes hold, and the felt sense of already being what one wishes to be is the “Law of Assumption” that Goddard treats as a hidden teaching running through the Bible.

First published in 1952 by the small G. & J. Publishing Co. and later reissued by DeVorss & Company in 1993, the book was largely out of print for decades and rediscovered in the 2010s through manifestation-focused YouTube and TikTok, where Goddard has had a posthumous viral revival. Contemporary New Thought readers consider this the cleanest statement of his system; sympathetic critics note that Goddard’s mysticism is asserted with biblical certainty and resists engagement with anything outside its own frame. The teaching is essentially a single idea elaborated across his many short books.

Contents

Reception

Long out of print and then rediscovered in the 2010s through manifestation-focused YouTube and TikTok, where Goddard has had a posthumous viral revival. Penguin/Tarcher reissued a Goddard collection in 2022, and the title is now one of his most-read works. Contemporary New Thought readers consider this the cleanest statement of his system. The durable critique, even from sympathetic readers, is that Goddard’s mysticism is asserted with biblical certainty and resists engagement with anything outside its own frame; his work is essentially a single idea elaborated over many short books. Within manifestation and Law of Attraction communities, Goddard is treated as a more rigorous precursor to Esther Hicks and Rhonda Byrne; outside those communities, his work is rarely read.

Frequently asked

What is The Power of Awareness about?

It is Neville Goddard’s short treatise on imagination as the operative faculty of consciousness. Across thirty short chapters he develops a single claim — that what one assumes oneself to be, held with feeling in the present tense, is what one becomes — into what he calls the Law of Assumption.

How does Goddard’s Law of Assumption differ from the Law of Attraction?

For Goddard, the operative act is not attracting an external outcome but assuming the inner state of already being the person who has it. The shift is from desire-and-receive to a present-tense identity claim, held in the imagination with sensory feeling until it is felt as fact.

Why did Neville Goddard become popular again in the 2010s?

Manifestation-focused YouTube and TikTok creators rediscovered Goddard’s short books in the late 2010s, and clips of his 1950s lectures circulated widely. Penguin/Tarcher published a Goddard collection in 2022; The Power of Awareness is now one of his most-read titles.