The Hatred of the Brothers: Imagining Against the Current

Consider:

"Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more.."

There is a striking moment in the Genesis 37:5 where Joseph dreams a dream—and the very act of sharing this inner vision causes his brothers to hate him even more. In the literal telling, Joseph is simply a young man who shares a dream of symbolic dominion. But if we read this as Neville Goddard would have, the entire scene is an inward experience: Joseph is not just a person; he is the embodiment of imagination itself.

Neville often described Joseph as “the dreamer,” the state in us that dares to imagine a greater life and accept it as already true. In his lectures, Neville said, “Dare to believe in the reality of your assumption and watch the world play its part relative to its fulfilment.” Yet, the moment we dare to assume a new state, we feel a curious backlash. That opposition is not from others per se—but from the aspects within ourselves that feel threatened by change.

The brothers represent those lesser states of mind, the habitual patterns of thought that have grown comfortable in the old story. They hate the dream because it disrupts their hierarchy. In Neville’s terms, these brothers are old self-concepts, and their hatred is resistance. When we set our imagination on a new state—wealth, love, freedom—it is almost always followed by an inner uprising of doubt, contradiction, and circumstances that appear to mock the assumption.

The dream itself is a seed of transformation. But as Genesis 1:11 says, every seed bears fruit after its own kind—the dream is sure to unfold. Yet between the imagining and the fulfilment, there is the testing ground: the brothers' betrayal, the pit, Potiphar’s house, prison. These are not punishments but symbolic phases. Neville would call this the bridge of incidents. It is the reshuffling of the outer world to make room for the inner reality we have claimed.

So why do they hate Joseph more after the dream is shared? Because the dream introduces dominion. It threatens the rule of the former state. This is the law of consciousness: the moment we assume a new identity, all that is not in harmony with it begins to fall away—and falling, often, looks like chaos.

Neville’s wisdom offers reassurance: imagination creates reality, and resistance is not a sign to turn back—it’s a sign you’re on the right path. When you imagine boldly, the "brothers" in your own mind—those old beliefs—may rise up in protest. But hold firm. Joseph’s story ends not in betrayal, but in authority. The dream was true all along.