Neville Lancelot Goddard, also known as Neville Goddard, was a Barbadian New Thought author and mystic who wrote on the Bible, esotericism, and other subjects. He is regarded as one of the founders of the "law of assumption" and lived from February 19, 1905, to October 1, 1972. Goddard was born to Joseph Nathaniel and Wilhelmina Goddard on February 19, 1905, in Barbados. Around 1922, he moved to New York City, where he started out as a ballet and ballroom dancer. He was a dancer who also dabbled in acting. "For ten years I was a dancer," he writes in "Consciousness is the Only Reality, "dancing in Broadway shows, in vaudeville, in nightclubs, and in Europe." Goddard gave a talk about religion at The Town Hall in the early 1950s. Goddard passed away from a brain aneurysm on October 1, 1972, at the age of 67. He had lived in Los Angeles for over twenty years.