The Ego and the True “I AM”

In Neville Goddard’s teachings, the word ego is not a central term, but the concept behind it plays a vital role in the journey of spiritual awakening. The ego, as commonly understood, is the sense of self built on appearances — a mask shaped by memory, environment, fear, and belief in separation. It is the name we give ourselves based on the roles we play: mother, student, failure, success, sinner, saint.

But Neville urges us to move beyond this constructed self. “I AM,” he says, is the root of all being. Before any description — before you say I am tired, I am poor, or I am unworthy — stands the pure awareness of being: I AM. This is the name of God in man.

The ego says, I am what the world says I am.
Imagination says, I am what I choose to be.

To awaken is to strip off the garments of the ego and return to the original, creative identity — the “I AM” that creates reality by assuming states. You are not the character you’ve been told to play. You are the author, the dreamer, the Word made flesh.

The ego fears change. But imagination is not afraid to die to one state in order to rise in another. This is the mystery of Christ in you — the hope of glory — the power to lay down one self-image and take up another.

So long as man clings to the ego, he walks in limitation. But the moment he dares to believe that his imagination is the voice of God, he begins to live from the inside out. He begins to transform.