I recently had the chance to interview Mitch Horowitz, vice president and executive editor at Tarcher Perigee, a division of Penguin Random House. He is an occult enthusiast and has the rare gift of making the esoteric accessible to discerning masses. With several books under his belt, he is the recipient of a PEN award and has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Salon, and Time. The Washington Post says Mitch “treats esoteric ideas and movements with an even-handed intellectual studiousness that is too often lost in today’s raised-voice discussions.”
Neville Goddard is one of the founding fathers of today’s new age movement and has influenced leaders such as Wayne Dyer and Rhonda Byrne with his notions that thoughts can shape reality, and someone very close to Mitch — so close that Mitch has a tattoo of Neville on his arm! Mitch recently edited Neville’s earliest work and revamped the early 20th century book for the modern reader. It draws from a mystical interpretation of biblical passages and encourages readers to expand their understanding of biblical spirituality and learn how to practically apply these teachings to everyday life.
Why did you decide to get a Neville tattoo?
I tend to get interested in ideas first through the person representing them. I always found Neville’s persona very appealing. He spoke with a clipped British accent, was intellectually razor-sharp, and had movie-star good looks. He is as opposite a figure as you could imagine from the Stuart Smalley sendup of a New Ager. So, I decided to get a tributary tattoo. It’s based on a design by artist Tim Botta. On my opposite arm is Buddy Holly, who I also regard as an exemplar of self-creation.
Where did Neville get his ideas?
He described being by tutored by a mysterious turbaned figure named Abdullah, a black man of Judaic descent. I’ve researched that question and can’t say whether it’s fact, metaphor, composite, or some combination. Neville also spoke of his philosophy coming to him through personal revelation—and he demonstrated an encyclopedic command of Scripture and an extemporaneous speaking ability like none I’ve ever witnessed.
Isn’t it a bit far out to say our thoughts are God?
It’s an article of experimentation. We routinely scan media for opinions, usually those that comport with what we already believe, but we neglect individual experimentation in the moral and religious realm. Testing the causation of thought is something to try, in private. If you seriously work with it, you will almost certainly learn something.
Why is he becoming popular just now?—he died in relative obscurity in 1972.
For years Neville’s name and books were underground phenomena—he slowly began gaining mainstream notice after I wrote a widely circulated essay about him in early 2005; matters took a great leap forward in 2012 when the late Wayne Dyer used Neville’s ideas as the basis for one of his last books.
How does Neville relate to new ideas in quantum theory?
Neville articulated the most compelling mystical analog to quantum theory. As early as the 1940s, long before popularizations of quantum theory began to appear, Neville spoke of concepts—including multiple worlds and serial universes—that later became popular among quantum theorists.
What would you tell someone approaching Neville’s work for the first time?
Let no one dictate religious or ethical ideas to you—or decide for you what’s possible and what isn’t. We have lost the art of private moral experimentation in our age. If Neville’s ideas intrigue you, then try them. You don’t have to join anything, pay anyone, or tell anyone what you’re doing. In fact, it’s probably better not to. You have the opportunity to search—use it.
