SATS: how to do Neville Goddard's state akin to sleep

By Joanna · Published 23 October 2026

SATS, short for "state akin to sleep", is a method Neville Goddard set out in his 1949 book Out of This World : you relax until you are drowsy, then live one small scene that would follow if your wish were already fulfilled, over and over, until it feels real. It takes a few minutes in bed, and the whole skill is staying drowsy enough to imagine freely without dropping off.

Key takeaways

• SATS stands for "state akin to sleep", Goddard's phrase for a drowsy, relaxed state in which you picture a wish as already fulfilled.
• His method has three parts: know what you want, build one short scene that would follow if you had it, then relax into near-sleep and act the scene out in your imagination until it feels real.
• Keep the scene to a single action of a few seconds, with you inside it doing something, instead of watching yourself from a distance.
• In his 1948 lessons Goddard also gave a phrase version, a short line such as "Thank you", repeated "like a lullaby".
• Stay drowsy without falling asleep. If you drop off every night, try it sitting up, earlier in the evening, or in the minutes after you wake.

What is SATS?

SATS is Goddard's name for the drowsy state you pass through on the way to sleep, used on purpose. In Out of This World he describes keeping the body still and inducing "a condition akin to sleep", then feeling yourself into an imagined action as if it were happening now. The community shortened his phrase to SATS, and it is now one of the core practices of the law of assumption .

The state itself has a name outside Goddard's books. Hypnagogia is the transition from waking to sleep, when images and fragments of sound often drift in on their own, and Thomas Edison and Salvador Dalí both credited it with creative ideas, according to Wikipedia's article on hypnagogia . Goddard's instruction is to fill those minutes with one scene you chose in advance.

How do you do SATS, step by step?

Goddard's method in Out of This World has three parts, and the steps below follow them in order, split into the moments of a first night.

• Decide what you want, in one plain sentence. Goddard's first step is to "know definitely what you want", and "I am confident at work" is enough.
• Build one short scene that would happen if it were already true. He asks for an event you would expect to meet after the wish is fulfilled, with you as the one acting, such as a colleague asking your opinion first and you answering without rehearsing.
• Get into bed, lie still and let yourself grow drowsy. Breathe slowly, let your body go heavy and stop shifting about. This is the "condition akin to sleep".
• Step into the scene and do it, here and now. Hear the question and feel the chair under you. Goddard is clear that watching is not enough, because you take part in the action.
• Repeat the same scene over and over. When your attention wanders, bring it back to the one action, and keep going "over and over again until it has the feeling of reality", in his words.
• Let sleep come when it comes. Goddard described keeping the action going right up until sleep, so drifting off inside the scene is part of a night's practice.

What scene should you use for SATS?

Use a scene that would follow once the wish has come true. A scene of "being confident" gives you nothing to do. A friend saying "you seem so sure of yourself lately" has a voice and a moment in it, which is what Goddard means by an event.

Three tests keep a scene usable:

• It is short enough to replay in a few seconds.
• You are in it, hearing or doing something, instead of watching yourself from across the room.
• It is ordinary. Pick a small moment you can believe over a grand one, the same idea behind believable manifestations .

For exams, the scene might be putting your pen down on a finished paper and walking out calm. For a habit you are building, it might be lacing up your trainers on a cold morning without arguing with yourself. Keep the same scene for many nights before you change it, since repetition is the whole method.

What if you fall asleep straight away, or your mind wanders?

Falling asleep too fast is an easy trap, and Goddard saw it coming: he warned against sinking so deep into drowsiness that you lose control of your attention. If you are asleep within a minute every night, try the practice sitting up against the headboard, or earlier in the evening before you are tired. You can also try the drowsy minutes after your alarm instead of the ones before sleep.

A wandering mind is the other half of the same skill. Every time you notice you have drifted into tomorrow's plans, go back to the one action without scolding yourself. Goddard's instruction is to return to the scene, and returning is most of what a session is.

What is the phrase version of SATS?

Goddard also taught a version with no scene at all. In the fifth of his 1948 lessons, he suggests relaxing into the same sleepy state and repeating a short phrase that implies the wish is already fulfilled, such as "Thank you", over and over "like a lullaby", until one feeling of gratitude fills your mind.

The phrase version suits people who find scenes hard to hold. Pick a few words that would only be true if the wish were already fulfilled, and say them silently in rhythm with your breathing. Present-tense lines suit it, and our list of 100 "I am" affirmations has examples sorted by goal.

Can you do SATS with affirmations or a recording?

Yes, and the phrase version is already halfway there, since it is one line repeated as you fall asleep. You can also record your phrase, or a line describing your scene, and play it quietly as you settle, as something to come back to when your attention drifts. The imagining is still yours to do, and the recording is only a cue.

In Subliss, a short list at 1x keeps every word audible, with your voice above a low, steady sound, and the builder saves it as a five-minute looped track. You can record the lines yourself, or with Premium have an AI voice read them, including one described as "a gentle sleep whisper". Either way it is audio designed to play while you fall asleep, made from your own words.

How long does SATS take to work?

Goddard's emphasis was on persisting, and in Your Faith Is Your Fortune (1941) he wrote that an assumption "if persisted in, will harden into fact". What you can count is the practice: the nights you went to bed with your scene, and how long you stayed with it before sleep. How long subliminals take to work makes the same case for listening, with the timeline of a daily habit as the one worth watching.

Frequently asked questions

What does SATS stand for? State akin to sleep. It comes from Goddard's instruction in Out of This World (1949) to induce "a condition akin to sleep" before imagining.

How long should a SATS session last? Start with a few minutes. If you hold the scene for five minutes and then fall asleep inside it, that is a full session.

Can you do SATS during the day? Yes. Goddard's instruction is a still body and a drowsy, relaxed mind, so you can do it in a quiet lie-down in the afternoon too.

Do you have to feel it real? Goddard thought so, and he asks for the imagined action to have "the feeling of reality". If feeling is hard at first, add one sense at a time: a sound in the scene first, then something you can touch.

Is SATS the same as scripting? No. Scripting is writing out your wish as if it has happened, while SATS is living one scene in a drowsy state. You can write a script during the day and take one moment from it into SATS at night. For where both fit in Goddard's teaching, see the law of assumption .

Start with one scene tonight

SATS asks for little: one sentence, one small scene, and the drowsy minutes you already pass through on the way to sleep. Goddard's instruction is to live that scene until it feels real and to come back to it night after night. Choose the scene now, while you are awake, so that tonight the only thing left to do is step into it.

Write your phrase or your scene line at subliss.app/create and make it a quiet track from your own words to settle to. The free plan includes 3 subliminals in total.