Golgotha: The Place of the Skull

To read the Bible through the eyes of Neville Goddard is to awaken to a startling yet liberating truth: it is not a book of ancient history, but a psychological drama playing out in the mind of every individual. Golgotha, often described as the place where Jesus was crucified, is not a hill outside Jerusalem—it is your own skull.

“The Place of the Skull”

The name Golgotha literally translates to “the place of the skull,” and Neville draws our attention immediately to this symbolism. He teaches that all the events in Scripture unfold within the imagination, which he defines as God in man. The crucifixion is not an event to be mourned in the past but a process to be understood in the present.

This is not about a man dying on a wooden cross two thousand years ago—it is about the fixation of a desire in consciousness, within the skull.

“The drama of the crucifixion is the history of man’s imagination.” — Neville Goddard

Crucifixion as Fixation

According to Neville, to be crucified is to be fixed in a state. When you assume a desire to be fulfilled, when you say “I am” and persist in it, you are nailing that assumption into the mind. You are crucifying your old self by denying its limitations, and giving life to a new identity.

This act of fixation is not passive. It is deliberate and powerful. It is imagination held in place, withstanding all contrary evidence, until the assumed reality begins to stir and come alive.

Death and Resurrection in the Same Place

The Gospel notes that “in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid” (John 19:41). This is one of many clear evidences that the entire Bible happens in the mind, not in history. The crucifixion and the resurrection take place in the same location: the skull—Golgotha. It is in the imagination that the old man dies, and from that same inner garden—the subconscious—arises the new state of being.

Neville insists this is no accident. The tomb is not beneath Golgotha—it is Golgotha. Your transformation begins and ends in imagination.

The idea must first be buried—impressed deeply in the subconscious. This is the death. But from that same burial ground emerges the manifestation, the resurrection of the assumed state into objective experience.

The Skull as the Womb of Creation

Neville calls the skull “the divine womb of creation.” Every assumption—every act of imagining—takes place there. It is both cross and cradle, tomb and birthplace.

To crucify Jesus is to crucify your awareness of a new state. To rise with Christ is to rise in a new concept of self, one that no longer bears the marks of the old man.

“You are buried with Christ in the skull and raised with Him through the resurrection of your assumption.” — Paraphrasing Neville’s teaching

Practical Application

If you would experience your own resurrection, begin with the skull. Choose a new state to occupy. Nail yourself to it—emotionally, imaginatively, and with conviction. Let the old identity fall away, and remain fixed in the new.

The entire process—crucifixion, burial, resurrection—happens not in history, but in consciousness.