How to use revision in everyday life

We’ve said previously that the purpose of revision is not to change external events or circumstances, but rather to change how we ourselves feel about a certain event, circumstance, person, or even about ourselves. In other words, if we change our energy towards it, that in itself will then prompt external circumstances (including other people) to reflect a change back to us. In this post, we are going to explore a few different practical ways through which we can use revision in everyday life, always keeping in mind that the first goal is to change how we feel about whatever we are revising.

  • Neville’s way, aka re-imagine the scene a different way: In “The Pruning Shears of Revision”, Neville encourages us to re-imagine an incident that didn’t go as we had hoped or wanted in a different way that reflects a different development, aligned with what we actually want to have happened. For example, let’s say you got an email with disappointing news. In Neville’s way, you would go within and imagine that email to say what you wish it said instead. You do this as many times as needed until you start feeling better about the unwanted incident, i.e. until your energy starts to change from frustration, sadness, anxiety, disappointment, anger to that of calmness, relief, confidence, gratitude or other similar energy. In some cases, the shift in energy may even take the form of indifference, i.e. you are no longer bothered by what happened, and that is also a good sign. Depending on the level of resistance you have to the new story, it may take several repetitions until you start feeling the effect of your energy changing. Keep at it. In some cases you may only do it once or twice and immediately feel the shift. In other cases it may take days or even weeks of repetition. Both scenarios are fine and normal. It is not necessary to actually forget what happened initially, but remember you are going for a change in attitude and feeling towards what happened. You need to be able to not dwell on it anymore with pain and hurt attached to the memory of it.
  • Give the story a different meaning that aligns with your desired outcome: Remember that everything and everyone is you pushed out, so this is actually a very effective way to deal with an unwanted event, as what you think, believe and assume is literally what you end up seeing in your reality. In this technique, you do not change the facts of what has occurred, but you change the interpretation of the facts and your perception of them to something desirable or at least neutral. For example, let’s say your specific person took hours to respond to your message and that has upset you. Instead of giving it the meaning that they are ignoring you, don’t care about you, don’t love you, don’t want to talk to you, and this entire negative spiral of thoughts, feelings and self-pity, you give it a different meaning that suits you. For example, you may instead convince yourself that they have lost their phone, that they are sleeping, that they are swamped with back to back meetings, or even that they are actually on their way to your home to surprise you with a visit, but that in any event, you will be hearing from them shortly and that you are on their mind regardless. The new meaning in itself doesn’t matter as long as it’s something that feels good to you. The more you’re able to believe the new meaning you assign to the story, the better, because the easier it will be for your subconscious to accept it. So make sure it’s something believable to you that you can get behind and repeat to yourself until you feel your grip loosening and your desperation going down and you stop dwelling negatively on the fact.
  • Everything is a bridge bringing you closer to your desired outcome: In this method, you don’t even need to revise any of the facts, but it is important to stay neutral about what has happened (it’s ok to acknowledge that it wasn’t what you ideally wanted, but don’t dwell on it) and to not pass any judgment to the best of your ability. Instead, you observe the event as it occurred – if you’re a more advanced practitioner, feel free to do some reverse engineering and connect the event that was mirrored back to you with your inner beliefs or assumptions where it came from – and reassure yourself that, even if it looks bad at first glance, it is still working in your favor and it is still a bridge working for you, not against you, with the sole purpose of bringing your desired outcome to you. The folk story of the young peasant who broke his legs and whose whole village pitied him for his misfortune, only for him to find out a few days later that war had broken and that his disability had saved him from being drafted as a soldier to the war is a perfect example of that. Something seemingly bad or negative turns out instead to be a big blessing in disguise. Assume that everything is working in your favor no matter how it may look like at first. Believe that everything and everyone in the world is a bridge bringing your desire to you, even if it you can’t immediately tell how it connects to it.
  • Accept it and persist in your desired outcome: Another effortless way to revise something unwanted, similar to the point above, is to accept that it happened but persist in the inner knowing that your desire is yours regardless and will be made manifest in your world anyway. Losing a battle doesn’t need to mean that the war is lost – in fact the war is never lost unless you decide it is – so don’t blow any hiccups in the way out of proportion and continue to believe that things are going to turn out the way you want them to anyway, no matter what may come in the way. Accepting an event doesn’t mean accepting that it will or can never change. All it means is that you observe it, drop any resistance to it having happened, and persist in your end result regardless, knowing that your desire is indeed yours come rain or shine.

All the above methods are valid and equally ‘correct’, and you may find yourself having a favorite one or choosing to implement a different one each time depending on the circumstance, your own levels of resistance to it, and how you generally feel at each given time. My only advice is to choose what feels best and most natural to you, so there really is no right or wrong way of doing revision. There is also no right or wrong way of implementing the revision. Some people prefer to script it and read their new story over as many times as needed. Others prefer to visualize or imagine using their senses. Others prefer to construct a short scene or inner conversation that reflects their new story. Yet others like to affirm or rampage to themselves, either on a loop until they feel better, or every time the story comes to mind, or even intermittently as they feel like it. Again there is no right or wrong way other than what feels right to you. Be bold and go for what feels most natural, and you will soon start feeling the shift within, which is where the outer magic that shifts things in the external also begins.

Revision and what it’s all about

“Revision is of greatest importance when the motive is to change oneself, when there is a sincere desire to be something different, when the longing is to awaken the ideal active spirit of forgiveness. Without imagination, man remains a being of sin. Man either goes forward to imagination or remains imprisoned in his senses. To go forward to imagination is to forgive. Forgiveness is the life of the imagination. The art of living is the art of forgiving.”

Neville Goddard

Neville Goddard was a big proponent of revision. He taught that it’s the tool by which we are able to move forward into the future by removing the emotional and mental burdens of our past and present. He even argued that, without revision, a hurtful past event does not actually stay in the past, but is carried into the present moment, perpetually re-infecting our present reality every time it’s revisited as a painful memory.

But how does revision actually work and what is it’s actual purpose and mechanism? The concept of revision can be somewhat confusing, especially to those just starting out, because it can be easy to assume that what we’re doing with revision is straight out changing actual past events. While this isn’t necessarily inaccurate, the mechanism by which revision works merits some clarification. While me may choose to revise an unfavorable event or situation by imagining it transpiring in a different, more favorable way, the way Neville taught it (and it’s worth mentioning here that there isn’t only one way to revise – but this is beyond the scope of this article and we will go into more depth in a future post), the first and main purpose of applying revision is to change our own thoughts, feelings, and energy surrounding said event or situation.

“Change the way you see things, and the things you see will change.”

Wayne Dyer

The above quote from Wayne Dyer captures the essence of revision. We do not apply revision to change the actual event, but to change the way we see this event internally. Change always starts within and is then projected out. It’s never the other way around. This is how the Law works and there are no exceptions. Changing your energy regarding a specific event or situation that has hurt or triggered you in the past or the present — your thoughts, feelings, assumptions, inner emotions, opinions — will inevitably cause you to see this event in a completely new way, under an entirely new light, and to feel very differently about it. It will remove feelings such as being triggered, hurt, annoyed, angry, upset, jealous, or feeling like a victim — all these low energies that keep us stuck in unwanted states of being. Now what happens after that change has occurred in a genuine, sustained way is when the true magic begins. Just like Wayne Dyer implied in his quote, things (and this includes people, circumstances, events and situations) begin to change as well in all sorts of exciting ways. For example, you may notice that someone in your life starts treating you much better than before after you have revised the way you perceive them and have allowed that new perception to become dominant in your consciousness. You may find that a circumstance you previously thought to be insurmountable all of a sudden shifts or disappears or stops mattering. You may even experience people remembering past events differently after you’ve shifted your state in relation to those events. For example, someone may no longer remember a fight they had with you or the hurtful words they might have said to you and are now behaving in a completely different way that’s aligned to your revised state. These are all proper quantum shifts in your reality, brought about by your shifting your state in connection to a person, event, or circumstance. All this happens because you, the observer of all things in your reality, have shifted, and as a result, your world, being your mirror at all times, has to shift with you. This is the Law.

So don’t take revision to be a tool to change external events and circumstances you don’t like. It all goes back to you before anything can change in the external. Through revision, you shift yourself and your perception of things in your reality to allow a new reality to emerge. It is then that you will experience the material world shifting in ways that you may never have thought possible. But for this to happen, YOU need to change first and the change in your energy has to be genuine, sustained and consistent for the seeming miracles to start pouring in. Revision is an excellent tool that can allow that to occur.