Self-Teaching Works

Season 2 of Neville On Fire is all about the ideas and principles of Neville Goddard. Season 1 (30 episodes) was an experiment in self-teaching. I want to point out lessons learned.

My goal, in part, was to present an ordered progression of ideas on a vast theme. In the early episodes, at least, I did accomplish that by explaining the foundational practice – awareness of being. From there, episodes followed to address techniques and personal motivation.

My main motive, though, was to better establish Neville’s worldview within myself. The podcast experiment has proved to be worthwhile. Looking back, I would say this method of self-teaching can actually work. When on a path that is meant to be life-changing, making a record (of both ideas and associated efforts) accomplishes a few things: it self-defines the practitioner, prevents drifting and enables learning. It sets up an effective counter-force to the constant static of life distractions and the loss of memory of important ideas.

Obstacles to creative work

I learned that doubt is the first enemy to overcome. As Eric Maisel points out, in any creative act, the writer or artist faces negative inner voices (mirrored outwardly) insisting that he is self-inflated. Actually, ordinary self-doubt indicates a healthy measure of modesty, but it should not be debilitating. It must be met with a healthy measure of self-esteem. Neville points out that we do not sufficiently value ourselves.

Another self-imposed limitation is that we have no credibility. Gurdjieff complained rather sarcastically that anyone whose rent is paid three months in advance writes a book. The onus is on readers to discern what is valuable. But the other side of that coin is the fact that those who know something valuable in a given field are often not good at articulating it for others. It took an Ouspensky – a master of verbal recall and written exposition – to make the ideas of Gurdjieff known to the vast world.

All learning is self-teaching

It gets to the point where a self-teaching person takes the responsibility to use critical questioning, realizing, in effect, “The teacher knows something I don’t know – but doesn’t actually know how to communicate this to others.”

Refinement

No matter how we self-teach, it is constantly a question of discernment. Ezra insisted that a continual culling of material is needed: only a few lines in a poem, or books on a shelf, need be kept. Neville kept only two books as his constant companions. Continual sifting and refinement is a guiding principle. This leads to my next point learned.

Self-teaching requires making a record of quality

We’ve all heard that keeping a journal or diary is beneficial. That in itself is much better than letting significant ideas and the benefit of their influence, which may be found only once in a lifetime, fall through our fingers like sand.

Probably heard less often is the notion of creating an audio or video series, book, poem, or painting – aimed primarily at oneself. The benefit of that, apart from satisfying narcissistic tendencies, is to make a finished product worthy of communication. Heaps of disorganized notes either collect dust or, if reread, have only an ephemeral effect. By contrast, a carefully conceived record of your best formulations serves your own development and amounts to a personal method.

Please go to S02 E01 of Neville On Fire, where I go into more detail on this. You can either read the full transcript, or listen to the audio.