Neville Goddard Like Youve Never Seen Him In Somewhat Striking Costumes
15 Mar Neville Goddard Like You’ve Never Seen Him – In ‘Somewhat Striking’ Costumes at Ciro’s London
Long before Neville Goddard stood at a podium, preaching the power of imagination, he was on a very different kind of stage—practically naked, wrapped in straps and sequins, striking dramatic poses for European high society.
Yes, before he became the metaphysical legend we know today, Neville was a professional ballroom dancer, performing with his partner Amerique at Ciro’s in London, the Wintergarten in Berlin, and the Ambassador in Paris. And, as the photo proves, he was not afraid of a little, let’s say, artistic exposure.
From the lecture Speaking From Experience:
So you take it this night and take a large sum. If anyone had told me when I worked at Macy’s for, what, eighteen dollars a week and did everything in the place for eighteen bucks, if anyone told me then that I would in the not too far future be making five hundred dollars a week, why, I would have laughed at them. But I did. One day I quit Macy’s. I don’t mean fired. I was fired from Penney, J. C. Penney. So I worked for J. C. Penney and they gave me twenty-two dollars a week, and one day they fired me. I asked them why, what have I done that’s wrong? They said, “Nothing wrong, but we have an economy in this country that when things are slow we let people off. You’ve been working here for a year and a half, and so we just simply have to economize, and so you have to go.” I said, “Where I come from you fire a person because he’s done something that is wrong…that if I’ve stolen or if I’ve done something that is wrong causing the company loss, fire me, but don’t fire me because of certain strange trends in this world.” “But that’s how we operate,” they said to me.
Well, they thought, well, this man, he’s a boy and he’s stupid and he’s foolish, we’ll give him a letter, and send him over to Macy’s. So they did. He wrote me a little letter and sent me to his friend who was the employment agency at Macy’s, so I moved to Macy’s and gave my little letter. They said, “We can’t start you at any twenty-two dollars and fifty cents a week, we’ll start you at eighteen.” So alright, I have to pay rent, so they started me at eighteen. So I worked there for a year, and one day I said to myself, “You’re getting nowhere fast, still making eighteen dollars a week, and doing everything that they ask you to do because you don’t want to be fired.” So I had the courage to quit without a nickel in my pocket, and six months later I was making five hundred dollars a week as a dancer. Went off to England; five hundred bucks a week. I never danced in my life before, save ballroom dancing. I told my dancing partner when she said “Can you dance?” “Certainly I can dance!” She said, “Alright, let me see.” Well, I said, “I danced with someone else, I’ll dance with you.” And so, that’s how it started. So off to England; we got a hundred pounds. In those days, a pound was worth four dollars and eighty-four cents, not today’s two, eighty; and I got a hundred pounds a week dancing in London for three months…from Macy’s eighteen dollars a week. So I say, you take a challenge, you simply throw yourself out completely and walk on the water, and either go down and drown, or simply live better.
It was during these travels, from November 1925, that Neville was first introduced to psychical research and mysticism. According to Israel Regardie’s The Romance of Metaphysics, while in England, Neville met Arthur Begbie, a man knee-deep in the world of seances, spirits, and the paranormal. Neville gave it a try, sat in a dark room while people called on the dead, and walked away sunimpressed, though something had been set in motion.
From Neville Goddard: A Portrait by Israel Regardie:
“He has had a wide and varied experience for a young man, this Neville. In 1925 he sailed for England with a dancing partner, and travelled widely in that country. It was there that he became openly interested in the study of the occult and mysticism.