In Neville Goddard’s teaching, the Bible is not a record of historical events but a psychological blueprint — a symbolic account of the inner workings of consciousness. Every character and incident plays out not in the world, but within you. When read in this light, the story of Abraham, Lot, and Lot’s daughters becomes a striking revelation of how assumptions shape experience — and how the mind divides and re-integrates itself in the process of transformation.
Abraham and Lot: A Division Within You
Abraham represents the awakened imagination — the self that walks by faith, not by sight. Lot, by contrast, symbolises the outer man — the part of you still tied to appearances, logic, and the five senses.
When Abraham and Lot part ways in Genesis 13, it isn't merely a geographic move — it’s an internal separation. The imaginal self must break from the reactive self if it is to dwell in the unseen. Lot “lifts up his eyes” and chooses the fertile plains of Jordan — a decision grounded in visible advantages, not inner vision:
“And Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the plain of Jordan… then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan.” — Genesis 13:10–11, BBE
This is the opposite of what Neville teaches: the Law of Assumption requires you to choose the unseen reality, not what appears sensible. Lot’s choice is a rejection of the imaginal act — it is to live by fact, not by faith.
The Visitors: States of Consciousness Approaching Birth
In Genesis 18, three messengers visit Abraham. In traditional theology they’re called angels, but Neville would say they are states of consciousness — ideas felt as real. When you entertain a new concept with full belief, you're visited by an “angel.” You’re on the edge of creation.
Abraham’s act of receiving and feeding them symbolises your openness to a new assumption — a new inner state. The announcement that Sarah will conceive isn't about biology — it’s a symbolic affirmation of the law: what you assume and persist in must externalise.
“Is there any wonder so great that it may not be done by the Lord?” — Genesis 18:14, BBE
(Or in Neville’s terms: Is anything too hard for imagination?)
The so-called “bargaining” over Sodom is not Abraham negotiating with an external deity — it’s a symbolic act of inner revision. It represents your own ability to alter what you believe to be true, and therefore what you experience. Abraham speaks as consciousness shaping outcomes through persistent assumption.
Sodom and Gomorrah: The Collapse of a Sensory State
Sodom and Gomorrah represent a state of mind ruled by outer evidence — a way of living so far removed from imagination that it must collapse. Lot, as a symbol of the sense-dominated self, ends up trapped in this world of reactivity and appearance. But he’s spared — not because he earns it, but because the imaginative self (Abraham) still intercedes. This reflects a core Neville teaching: the higher state can redeem the lower through recognition and revision.
Lot is not at peace in Sodom. He is tormented — caught between two worlds. As the New Testament later puts it:
“And if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard);” — 2 Peter 2:7–8
This is not about external wickedness, but a psychological unease — a deeper knowing within you that the outer world no longer satisfies or reflects who you truly are. Lot represents the part of you that knows it's time to change, but hesitates.
Lot’s Wife: The Death of Looking Back
The story warns that you cannot rise while looking backwards. Lot’s wife turns to a pillar of salt — a powerful image of emotional and spiritual paralysis. This is the opposite of the call to action in Genesis 2:24 and the opposite to the essence of the Song of Solomon. Salt preserves — and in this case, it preserves the past. She becomes stuck, not because of external punishment, but because her attention remains fixed on what was.
But this fixation doesn’t just paralyse her — it influences what comes next. The state of consciousness she represents still lingers in Lot. Her backward gaze — her attachment to the external — creates the psychological environment for what follows.
Lot in the Cave: When Old Patterns Reassert Themselves
After Sodom falls, Lot hides in a cave with his two daughters — a desolate image. Here, the story symbolises the subconscious attempting to survive by repeating old patterns, even after the visible world built on them has collapsed.
Lot may have left the city, but not the state of mind that built it. His wife’s fixation on the past — her refusal to look forward — is still present within him. And so, the same survival-based consciousness creeps back in.
The daughters (children born of limiting assumption), fearing extinction, intoxicate Lot and lie with him — a symbolic act of the unconscious mind trying to preserve habitual states, even when they’re destructive. What is born from this is not fresh vision, but fear-based thought loops. The offspring — Moab and Ben-Ammi — become the symbolic ancestors of mental states rooted in panic, reactivity, and self-preservation. This 'spiritual violation' is repeated in the story of Reuben 'going up to his father's bed', because it goes against the initial Bible premise set up in Genesis 2:24:
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”
These are not historical nations, but persistent assumptions born from backward-facing awareness. When the outer world collapses, and the imagination is not awakened, the mind may revert — clinging to old emotional patterns in the name of survival.
The Core Message: You Are Always Dying and Rising
Neville often said: you are always in the process of dying to one state and rising into another. Every moment is an invitation to assume something new — but if you continue to identify with past states, you're frozen, like Lot’s wife.
“You are always in the process of dying to one state and rising to another. But if you look back, you turn to salt—a lifeless pillar, stuck in the past.”
To be Abraham is to live by imagination — to choose what cannot yet be seen, and to receive ideas as if they are already real. This story reminds you: the lower self may hesitate, but the higher self always moves forward. And when it does, reality reshapes itself around that new assumption.
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