Member-only story
Neville Goddard Timeline
The extraordinary life of a modern mage
To facilitate research and study into the life and ideas of mystic Neville Goddard (1905–1972), I am providing this timeline, assembled from census, immigration, travel, and death records, as well as Neville’s own books and lectures. — MH
1905 — Neville Lancelot Goddard is born on February 19 to a British family in St. Michael, Barbados, the fourth child in a family of nine boys and one girl.
1922 — At age 17, Neville relocates to New York City to study theater. He makes a career as an actor and dancer on stage and silent screen, landing roles on Broadway and film, and touring Europe as part of a dance troupe.
1923 — Neville briefly marries Mildred Mary Hughes, with whom he has a son, Joseph Goddard, born the following year.
1929 — Neville marked this as the year that commenced his mystical journey: “Early in the morning, maybe about three-thirty or four o’clock, I was taken in spirit into the Divine Council where the gods hold converse.” (Undated lecture, “Gathered One by One,” from Immortal Man, 1977.)
1931 — After several years of occult study, Neville meets his teacher Abdullah, a turbaned black man of Jewish descent. The pair work together for five years in New York City.
1938 — In February, Neville begins his own teaching and speaking.
1939 — Neville’s first book, At Your Command, is published.
1940–1941 — Neville meets Catherine Willa Van Schumus (1907–1975), also known as Bill, who is to become his second wife.
1941 — Neville publishes his longer and more ambitious book, Your Faith Is Your Fortune.
1942 — Neville marries Catherine, who later that year gives birth to their daughter Victoria. Also that year, Neville publishes Freedom for All: A Practical Application of the Bible.
1942–1943 — From November to March, Neville serves in the military before returning home to Greenwich Village in New York City. In September 1943, Neville is profiled in The New Yorker.
1944 — Neville publishes Feeling Is the Secret.
