"You Are In Barbados": The Neville Goddard Story That Changes Everything
#NevilleGoddard #LawofAssumption #SelfHelp
Have you ever had a dream that felt so out of reach, so impossible given your current circumstances, that you dismissed it as pure fantasy? What if the very act of dismissing it was the only thing standing between you and its realization?
There’s a story, a simple yet profound teaching tale from mystic Neville Goddard, that challenges everything we believe about reality, cause and effect, and our own power. It centers on five words that, when truly understood, can dismantle a lifetime of limiting beliefs:
"You are in Barbados."
This isn’t a travel suggestion. It’s a radical instruction for living—and the key to manifesting what seems impossible.
The Impossible Wish: New York, 1933
Picture Neville Goddard in the winter of 1933. He’s a young man from Barbados living in a cramped New York City apartment, scraping by during the Great Depression. Christmas is approaching, and a deep, homesick longing washes over him. He desperately wants to go home to his family in Barbados.
The problem? He was broke. The rational facts were undeniable: empty pockets, no ticket, and the Depression in full swing. The evidence of his senses screamed "IMPOSSIBLE."
In his distress, he went to his teacher, a wise Ethiopian mystic named Abdullah.
"Ab," Neville pleaded, "I need to go to Barbados for Christmas, but I don’t have the funds."
Abdullah, without a moment’s hesitation, looked at him and declared:
"You are in Barbados."
Neville was baffled. He began to argue, listing the mountain of logical reasons why he was, in fact, very much not in Barbados but in a cold New York apartment.
Abdullah cut him off. He wasn’t discussing geography. He was stating a spiritual fact.
Abdullah said, "You are not going to Barbados. You are in Barbados. Stop seeing yourself here in New York. Begin to assume you are already there, in your desired end. Live from that assumption. It will harden into fact."
The Mental Shift: "Sleeping In Barbados"
Abdullah’s command wasn't about positive thinking or affirmation. It was an order to shift states of consciousness.
Neville began to practice, night after night, using the drowsy, receptive state before sleep, when the conscious mind is quiet.
He didn't imagine packing his bags or boarding the ship. Those are actions of getting there. He imagined being there.
In his imagination, he would feel himself in his old bed in his family home in Barbados. He felt the familiar weight of the tropical quilts. He saw the mosquito netting. He heard the distant sounds of the island night. He immersed himself in the sensory reality of being home.
He did this until the feeling was completely natural, until the imagined bed felt more real than his New York mattress. He would fall asleep in the feeling of being in Barbados.
He wasn't hoping. He wasn't wishing. He was occupying the state of the wish fulfilled.
The Bridge of Incidents: How the "Impossible" Unfolded
Neville didn’t know how he would get to Barbados. He simply persisted in the knowing that he was there. Then, something remarkable happened. Life began to arrange itself.
First, a letter arrived from his brother Victor in Barbados. Inside was a draft for $50 and a note saying he had already instructed the steamship company to issue Neville a ticket. The funds—the "impossible" obstacle—had appeared.
But there was a catch. The shipping line told Neville they were fully booked until after New Year's. He went back to Abdullah, who simply walked away, saying, "Who is talking about going to Barbados? You are in Barbados."
The next morning, the shipping line called. A cancellation had occurred. He was on the ship.
He called this series of events "the bridge of incidents." When you assume the end with conviction, the Universe—or your own awakened subconscious—orchestrates the means. Your job is not to build the bridge, but to stand firmly on the other side and let it appear beneath your feet.
Why This Story Changes Everything
The "Barbados story" isn’t about manifesting a vacation. It’s a blueprint for conscious creation.
Consciousness is Primary: Abdullah taught that your state of consciousness is the only reality. If you are conscious of being poor, you will have poor experiences. If you are conscious of being in Barbados (or having your dream job, ideal partner, or perfect health), that state must eventually objectify itself. The 3D world is merely a shadow—a lagging reflection of your past thoughts.
Live in the End, Not the Process: We constantly visualize the struggle, the journey, the lack. Neville’s practice was to skip to the final scene. Feel the relief, the joy, the naturalness of the desire already fulfilled. The middle is none of your business.
Faith is Persistent Assumption: Faith isn't blind belief in something external. It is loyalty to your assumed state. It’s persisting in the feeling of "I am" even when your senses deny it. Neville felt the New York cold but persisted in the feeling of the Barbados heat.
The Feeling is the Secret: The intellectual thought "I am in Barbados" does nothing. It is the feeling of naturalness, the embodied sensation of it being true right now, that does the creative work. "Isn't it wonderful?" is the attitude.
Your Barbados Awaits
So, what is your Barbados?
Is it financial freedom? A healed relationship? Vibrant health? Creative success?
The instruction remains the same. Stop begging the universe for it. Stop planning from a place of not having it.
Assume it. Feel it. Live from it.
Climb into the mental bed of your fulfilled desire every single night. Feel the relief, the joy, the normalcy of it being yours.
As Neville learned, the moment you truly occupy that state—the moment you can say "I am" instead of "I wish I were"—you have, in the only reality that matters, already arrived.
You are there. Now, let the bridge appear.
P.S. The journey begins not with action, but with a quiet, internal knowing. Tonight, before you sleep, ask yourself: What is my Barbados? And then, dare to feel what it’s like to already be there.
What's your 'Barbados'? Share one thing you're choosing to 'live from the end' with this week in the comments below.
Aaron Rose is a software engineer and technology writer at tech-reader.blog and aaronrose.blog.
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