New York to Bridgetown, 1933
The Barbados story: every version Neville told
In the fall of 1933 Neville Goddard, broke and out of work in New York, told his teacher Abdullah he wanted to go home to Barbados. Abdullah said he was already there. Neville went to sleep each night as if he were, and in early December a letter from his brother brought him a passage on the last ship before Christmas. He told this for 23 years. We lined up nine tellings to see which parts hold and which ones drift, then checked the ship.
The synopsis
Nine tellings, one grid
Bible scholars print the Gospels in parallel columns to see what each writer keeps and what each one changes. Neville spent his life on those texts, so we gave him the same treatment. Each column here is a telling, oldest on the left, and each row is one detail. Tap a row to read his words for it, or tap a year to read that telling from top to bottom.
- Most common form
- Differs
- Not mentioned
Every cell as a table
| Detail | Telling | His words |
|---|---|---|
| What set it off | 1948 Lesson 3, 1948 | Seeing his parents off. “The ship pulled out, and as I came up the street, something possessed me with a desire to go to Barbados.” |
| What set it off | Awakened Imagination, 1954 | Abdullah asks him, “What do you want?” |
| What set it off | How to Use Your Imagination, 1955 | “At the time I wanted to make a trip to the island of Barbados” |
| What set it off | Esau and Jacob, Nov 13, 1959 | “When I wanted to go to Barbados and did not have a penny” |
| What set it off | One Greater Than John, Jan 9, 1964 | Abdullah brings it up. “So you’re going to Barbados? You want to go to Barbados?” |
| What set it off | Abdullah, How We Got Together (Q&A), 1964 | “a hungry desire, a haunting desire” |
| What set it off | The First Principle, June 9, 1969 | “I wanted a trip I could not afford” |
| What set it off | The Creator, Oct 27, 1969 | “Desiring to visit my family in Barbados” |
| What set it off | Gifts Bestowed by God, June 4, 1971 | Seeing his parents off. “a peculiar feeling came over me” |
| When he asked | 1948 Lesson 3, 1948 | November 1933, the month his parents sailed |
| When he asked | Awakened Imagination, 1954 | “in the fall of 1933” |
| When he asked | One Greater Than John, Jan 9, 1964 | “late October through November” |
| When he asked | Abdullah, How We Got Together (Q&A), 1964 | “in the month of October, late October” |
| When he asked | Gifts Bestowed by God, June 4, 1971 | “This was, now, late October.” |
| Abdullah’s reply | 1948 Lesson 3, 1948 | “You are in Barbados, Neville.” |
| Abdullah’s reply | Awakened Imagination, 1954 | “If you will imagine yourself to be in Barbados” |
| Abdullah’s reply | How to Use Your Imagination, 1955 | Told as a method, to assume “that I was sleeping in my earthly father’s house” |
| Abdullah’s reply | One Greater Than John, Jan 9, 1964 | “Well then, you are now in Barbados.” |
| Abdullah’s reply | Abdullah, How We Got Together (Q&A), 1964 | “You are in Barbados.” |
| Abdullah’s reply | Gifts Bestowed by God, June 4, 1971 | “You are in Barbados.” |
| Where he put himself | 1948 Lesson 3, 1948 | On the street, in daylight. “Now you walk as though you were there.” |
| Where he put himself | Awakened Imagination, 1954 | Asleep “in my father’s house in Barbados” |
| Where he put himself | How to Use Your Imagination, 1955 | Asleep “in my father’s home in Barbados” |
| Where he put himself | Esau and Jacob, Nov 13, 1959 | “I slept in my Imagination in Barbados” |
| Where he put himself | One Greater Than John, Jan 9, 1964 | “I fell asleep in the assumption I am in Barbados.” |
| Where he put himself | Abdullah, How We Got Together (Q&A), 1964 | Asleep “in Barbados in my mother’s home” |
| Where he put himself | The First Principle, June 9, 1969 | Aboard. “I was on a ship sailing towards Barbados.” |
| Where he put himself | The Creator, Oct 27, 1969 | “I slept in New York City as though I were in Barbados” |
| Where he put himself | Gifts Bestowed by God, June 4, 1971 | Asleep “in Barbados in my mother’s home.” |
| New York, seen from there | One Greater Than John, Jan 9, 1964 | “I saw it 2,000 miles to the north of me.” |
| New York, seen from there | Abdullah, How We Got Together (Q&A), 1964 | “it was north of me, about two thousand miles.” |
| New York, seen from there | The Creator, Oct 27, 1969 | “thought of New York City as 2,000 miles to the north.” |
| New York, seen from there | Gifts Bestowed by God, June 4, 1971 | “I saw New York City two thousand miles to the north of me,” then he corrects himself to northwest and gives the latitudes. |
| How long he waited | 1948 Lesson 3, 1948 | November to December 4 |
| How long he waited | Awakened Imagination, 1954 | “Within a month” |
| How long he waited | How to Use Your Imagination, 1955 | “For one month, night after night” |
| How long he waited | One Greater Than John, Jan 9, 1964 | Late October to December 4 |
| How long he waited | Abdullah, How We Got Together (Q&A), 1964 | “days go into weeks, and the weeks went into a month” |
| How long he waited | Gifts Bestowed by God, June 4, 1971 | Late October to December 3 or 4 |
| The slammed door | 1948 Lesson 3, 1948 | “went towards his study and slammed the door” |
| The slammed door | One Greater Than John, Jan 9, 1964 | “he walked towards his studio and slammed the door in my face.” |
| The slammed door | Abdullah, How We Got Together (Q&A), 1964 | “went into his little library and slammed the door.” |
| The slammed door | Gifts Bestowed by God, June 4, 1971 | “walked towards his bedroom, and slammed the door” |
| Who wrote | 1948 Lesson 3, 1948 | “The letter was from my brother Victor” |
| Who wrote | Awakened Imagination, 1954 | “a letter from my brother” |
| Who wrote | How to Use Your Imagination, 1955 | “an invitation from my family” |
| Who wrote | Esau and Jacob, Nov 13, 1959 | “through the efforts of my family” |
| Who wrote | One Greater Than John, Jan 9, 1964 | “My brother Victor writes me” |
| Who wrote | Abdullah, How We Got Together (Q&A), 1964 | “a little letter from my brother Victor.” |
| Who wrote | The First Principle, June 9, 1969 | “a letter from the family” |
| Who wrote | The Creator, Oct 27, 1969 | “a letter from my brother” |
| Who wrote | Gifts Bestowed by God, June 4, 1971 | “a letter from my brother Victor.” |
| When the letter came | 1948 Lesson 3, 1948 | “On the morning of December 4th” |
| When the letter came | Awakened Imagination, 1954 | Two days before he sailed |
| When the letter came | One Greater Than John, Jan 9, 1964 | “On the morning of the 4th of December” |
| When the letter came | Abdullah, How We Got Together (Q&A), 1964 | “on the morning of the fourth day of December” |
| When the letter came | Gifts Bestowed by God, June 4, 1971 | “on the morning of the 4th or the 3rd of December” |
| The money | 1948 Lesson 3, 1948 | “a draft for $50.00,” for “a few shirts or a pair of shoes” |
| The money | One Greater Than John, Jan 9, 1964 | “a little draft to buy shirts” |
| The money | Abdullah, How We Got Together (Q&A), 1964 | “a draft for fifty dollars” |
| The money | The First Principle, June 9, 1969 | “they would take care of all of my expenses” |
| The money | The Creator, Oct 27, 1969 | “a draft to cover my personal expenses” |
| The money | Gifts Bestowed by God, June 4, 1971 | “a $50 draft to buy a suit” |
| The ticket | 1948 Lesson 3, 1948 | Waiting at the line. “I have cabled Furness, Withy & Co.” |
| The ticket | Awakened Imagination, 1954 | In the envelope. “the enclosed steamship ticket” |
| The ticket | One Greater Than John, Jan 9, 1964 | In the envelope. “enclosing in that letter a ticket for Barbados” |
| The ticket | Abdullah, How We Got Together (Q&A), 1964 | Waiting at the line. “I’ve notified the Furness Withy Line” |
| The ticket | The Creator, Oct 27, 1969 | “notified the steamship company to issue me a ticket” |
| The ticket | Gifts Bestowed by God, June 4, 1971 | “I’ve notified the Company to issue you a ticket” |
| Class offered | 1948 Lesson 3, 1948 | “The only thing available is 3rd Class between New York and St. Thomas.” |
| Class offered | Abdullah, How We Got Together (Q&A), 1964 | “You can go Third Class, and use the facilities of the First.” |
| Class offered | Gifts Bestowed by God, June 4, 1971 | “We can accommodate you third class.” St. Thomas drops out. |
| The first-class decks | 1948 Lesson 3, 1948 | “walk the decks of the 1st Class” |
| The first-class decks | Abdullah, How We Got Together (Q&A), 1964 | “use the facilities of the First” |
| The first-class decks | Gifts Bestowed by God, June 4, 1971 | “all the other areas of first class” |
| The upgrade | 1948 Lesson 3, 1948 | “There has been a cancellation and you are going 1st Class.” |
| The upgrade | Abdullah, How We Got Together (Q&A), 1964 | “Someone has cancelled, and you’re going First Class.” |
| The upgrade | Gifts Bestowed by God, June 4, 1971 | “We have a cancellation, and now you can go first class, but you will share it with two others.” |
| Sailing day | 1948 Lesson 3, 1948 | “the noon of December 6th” |
| Sailing day | Awakened Imagination, 1954 | “two days after I received my brother’s letter” |
| Sailing day | How to Use Your Imagination, 1955 | “the early part of December” |
| Sailing day | One Greater Than John, Jan 9, 1964 | “on the morning of the 6th” |
| Sailing day | Abdullah, How We Got Together (Q&A), 1964 | “on the morning of the sixth day of December” |
| Sailing day | Gifts Bestowed by God, June 4, 1971 | “the morning it sailed, on the 6th of December” |
| The ship’s name | 1948 Lesson 3, 1948 | “the old Nerissa”, his only use of the name |
| Time on the island | 1948 Lesson 3, 1948 | “three heavenly months in Barbados” |
| Time on the island | Awakened Imagination, 1954 | “a wonderful winter in Barbados” |
| Time on the island | How to Use Your Imagination, 1955 | “to spend the winter in Barbados” |
| Time on the island | One Greater Than John, Jan 9, 1964 | “I was there for one solid three months.” |
| Time on the island | Abdullah, How We Got Together (Q&A), 1964 | “three heavenly months in Barbados.” |
| Time on the island | Gifts Bestowed by God, June 4, 1971 | “I was there for three months” |
Reading the grid
What holds and what drifts
The bones never move. Abdullah refuses to discuss how, Neville keeps sleeping in the wish, and a letter comes that he did not ask for. He is careful about that last point every time he gets near it. In 1964 he says “I made no request,” in 1969 “I had not written my brother,” and in 1971 “I did not ask him or any member of my family.” The whole argument of the story depends on it, and it never changes.
The part most people remember is rarer than you would guess. The third-class ticket, the first-class decks and the cancellation at the dock sit in only three of the nine tellings, and his own book Awakened Imagination leaves them out. In that version the ticket is simply in the envelope and he sails two days later. One Greater Than John tells the whole trip with no mention of class at all. That talk is about appetite and what he calls the state of John the Baptist, so the voyage home gets the attention.
His parents appear in two tellings of nine. Where they do, the urge to go comes as the ship pulls away. In 1971 he adds that they had begged him to come and offered to pay, a detail that makes the sudden wish stranger and that he left out in 1948. Abdullah gets the same treatment: the door he slammed opens onto a study, then a studio, then a little library and at last a bedroom.
One number fails on its own terms. He says “three heavenly months,” and also that he sailed December 6, spent ten days at sea each way and was home in February 1934. Those dates leave about nine weeks on the island at the very most, so three months is a round figure for the whole trip.
The record
The ship was real, and it was on that run
He names her once, in 1948, as “the old Nerissa.” She was seven years old when he boarded. Here is what we could confirm about her and the December 1933 sailing, and where the paper runs out.
- BuiltWilliam Hamilton & Co., Port Glasgow, launched March 31, 1926
- Size5,583 gross tons, 349.5 feet
- Berths163 First Class, 66 Second Class
- Built forBowring’s Red Cross Line, New York to Halifax and St. John’s
- In 1933Furness Withy’s Bermuda & West Indies Steamship Co., sold to them around the start of 1929
- EndTorpedoed by U-552 on April 30, 1941, with 207 lost, carrying Canadian troops among others
Straight legs between ports, 2,245 miles in all. We worked this out from coordinates, using the ports listed for her October 11, 1933 sailing. A straight line from New York to Bridgetown is 2,096 miles, and Neville says two thousand.
Ports and miles as a table
| Port | Miles from New York |
|---|---|
| New York | 0 |
| St. Thomas | 1,636 |
| St. Croix | 1,680 |
| St. Kitts | 1,825 |
| Antigua | 1,884 |
| Montserrat | 1,920 |
| Guadeloupe | 1,974 |
| Dominica | 2,040 |
| Martinique | 2,093 |
| St. Lucia | 2,134 |
| Barbados | 2,245 |
| What he said | What we found | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Furness, Withy issued the ticket | Furness took over the Red Cross Line ships around the start of 1929 and ran Nerissa on what it called the Trinidad Line. | Fits |
| She called at Barbados | A sailing on October 11, 1933 lists Barbados after St. Lucia. A New York import list printed December 11, 1933 shows 50 bags of manjak, the island’s asphalt, landed from “Nerissa, Barbados.” | Confirmed |
| Third class only as far as St. Thomas | St. Thomas and St. Croix were her first two calls south of New York, in either order, so the split makes sense. That first leg is 73 percent of the way. | Fits |
| She sailed December 6, 1933 | We found no sailing notice for that day. The sailings we can date are October 11, 1933 and January 3, 1934, both Wednesdays, twelve weeks apart. December 6 was a Wednesday that falls on a four-week step between them. | Likely |
| It was the last ship to arrive by Christmas | The next Nerissa sailing we can date is January 3. We did not check rival lines. | Not checked |
| Third class existed on board | Published descriptions of the ship give two classes, First and Second, with Second aft on the poop and C deck in cabins of three to six. His “third class” may be loose speech for Second, or for a berth outside the plan. | Doubtful |
| He was aboard, and came back in February | We did not find a passenger list for either voyage. | Unverified |
The lesson in practice
Living from the state
He reduced the whole story to a preposition. You can think of Barbados all day in New York and remain in New York. He says to think from it.
“not as an onlooker thinking of the end, but as a partaker thinking from the end.”Awakened Imagination, 1954
Treat it as settled
Abdullah put it in the past tense: “If you want to go Neville, you have gone.” The instruction only works that way, which is why Neville found it so irritating.
Turn the map around
This is the test he kept returning to. From his bed on 75th Street he thought of New York and placed it to the north of him. When New York feels far away and in a direction, you have moved. “Then I had succeeded in clothing myself with Barbados.”
Sleep there
His word is sleep, night after night, “in my mother’s home.” He gave the same advice for years afterward and called it living in the end.
Stop discussing how
Abdullah closed the door on the subject and meant it as instruction. In the January 1964 talk Neville gives his teacher’s logic: if you are clothed in the feeling of being there, “how could you and I sit down and discuss” the route?
Refuse the cheap version
When he came back thrilled with a third-class berth, Abdullah would not take it. “Who told you that you are going 3rd Class?” Neville’s conclusion in 1948 was that his teacher “taught me the importance of remaining faithful to an idea and not compromising.”
Do not mix these up
Three trips, three stories
Our index finds the island in 81 separate texts, and two other trips get told in almost the same language. Retellings online blur them.
| Year | What happened | Told in |
|---|---|---|
| 1933 | The story on this page. Abdullah, the letter from Victor, the ticket and the Nerissa. | Nine tellings above |
| 1941 | Snowed in at a poorly attended book launch, he idly slept in Barbados. Months later word came that his mother was dying, and he sailed at once. | Faith, July 22, 1968 |
| 1946 | Stuck on the island with a long waiting list, he imagined walking up the gangplank with his family. A cancellation from New York opened a cabin, this time on Alcoa’s ship. | Catch the Mood, undated, and Seedtime and Harvest, 1956 |
Questions
The Barbados story
Did Neville Goddard really sail on the Nerissa?
The ship is real and was on the Barbados run that winter, and December 6, 1933 fits her sailing pattern. We did not find a passenger list that shows him aboard. He names the ship only once, in his 1948 lessons.
How much money did Neville's brother send?
A draft for 50 dollars, in the 1948, 1964 and 1971 tellings. In 1948 it was meant for shirts and shoes, in 1971 for a suit. The passage itself was paid separately, through the shipping company in most tellings.
How long did Neville stay in Barbados in 1933?
He usually says three months. His own dates, leaving December 6 and home by February 1934, leave about nine weeks on the island. In his 1954 book he says only that he spent the winter there.
Was there a third class on the Nerissa?
Published descriptions list First and Second Class only, 163 and 66 berths. Third class is Neville's phrase in all three tellings that mention it. It may be loose speech for Second Class, and we could not settle it.
Why does the story change between tellings?
He told it from memory across 23 years and shaped it to the talk at hand. A talk on faith stresses the slammed door, a talk on diet stresses the voyage home. The core events stay fixed.
Sources
What we read
Quotes are short and each one was matched to the telling it sits under. Talk transcripts are typed from tape, so a word here or there may be misheard.
- Neville: 1948 Lesson 3, Awakened Imagination, How to Use Your Imagination, The First Principle, The Creator.
- Neville: merged archive for One Greater Than John and the 1964 question and answer, and Gifts Bestowed by God.
- Wikipedia, SS Nerissa (1926), for dimensions, builder, ownership and loss.
- History of the SS Nerissa, ssnerissa.com, for the build and the sale to Furness.
- Wanted on Voyage, “Red Cross and True North: R.M.S. Nerissa,” 2023, a newspaper-based service history, for accommodation, the 1933 sailings and the ports.
- Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter, December 11, 1933, New York Imports list.
- Wikipedia, Furness Withy, for the Bermuda and West Indies service.