Here’s how it started: last week YouTube recommended me a video on the benefits of shutting up 🙃. I clicked.
The audio quality was grainy, as if it was digitized from an old tape. The voice of the lecturer was charismatic and poised. Who is this guy?
I googled "Neville Goddard”.
Neville Goddard
A XX-century mystic famous for interpreting William Blake? I sure want to hear what he had to say about silence.
And so off I went.
I listened to the lecture on a walk across town. I was engrossed by it. As someone who tries to be more efficient with my use of language, the message resonated with me.
Consider the mighty oak tree. Does it announce its intentions to grow? Does it proclaim its future height? No! In perfect silence it grows.
If you check out the 🎞️ clip , notice the emotion in “No!”. Goddard sounds like a charismatic motivational speaker of its time.
The catch
I only realized something was off when Goddard, who died in 1972, started talking about smartphones. (🎞️ clip)
Choose a space where you won't be disturbed. This space should be free from all distractions: no phones, no electronics; nothing that can interrupt your silence.
Then I checked out the comments:
…
It was bound to happen one day. I fell for an AI-generated fake 🥲.
The text was generated by an LLM. The voice was synthesised, likely using the recordings of the actual Neville Goddard.
YouTube automation
The Infinite Motivation channel has 300 fake Neville Goddard lectures:
It turns out that I stumbled upon “YouTube Automation”, one of the new internet hustles of the GenAI era.
People use generative AI tools to generate synthetic content at volume. They use catchy titles, that are often twists on existing videos that went viral. They make money on clicks.
(Proponents claim that this works great, but usually people saying that have something to sell, like paid courses or tools.)
Conclusion
The year is 2024 and we’re living in a science fiction movie.
Mistaking AI output for human work is a practical concern, not a speculative point in an academic debate.
Now I'll get back to satisfying my curiosity about what the actual Goddard actually had to say… by listening to his lectures on a channel that uploaded them in 2012. 🥲
Postcard from Paris
Dramatic sky over Montmartre.
The days are short, sunny and bright. Looking forward to the December end-of-year-reflection season!
Have a great week 💫,
– Przemek
Also the fake used the word "literally" in the way that people are overusing it incorrectly these days, and I have listened to enough real Neville Goddard to know he would never do that.