Manifestation: BS? A Cult? Sorta for Real? Scam?

I wrote a several-part series about manifestation a while ago. I am hoping you don’t mind reading posts that are not about grammar or words. I have written about every grammar issue at least once, and I will continue to write posts about words and language (and grammar).

Manifestation has been a significant part of my life for the past over-three years. My interest started long ago though. In 2006 The Secret by Rhonda Byrne came out. It became a movie about the Law of Attraction, which states you could have anything just by matching your vibration with what you wanted, and feeling as if you already had it.  The whole “law” contains bits of quantum physics, potentiality, and parallel universes. The movie What the Bleep Do We Know? came out before that in 2004 and posits a spiritual connection between quantum physics and consciousness. Esther Hicks came out with some books channeling “Abraham,” Jane Roberts channeled Seth in the Seth Books, and now Darryl Anka, whom you can find on YouTube, channels an alien called Bashar. And let’s not forget about that weird film Everything, Everywhere All at Once. I watched it twice, but I think I need a third go round.

Shakti Gawain published a very popular book,  I believe in 1980, called Creative Visualization, which is a rather sensible and inspiring book, republished many times. I have read it twice. It is part spiritual, part self-help.

And some of you have probably created vision boards, where you make a poster (or a virtual board) of things you would like to bring into your life. You place it someone you will frequently see it. These days a virtual board could be viewed on your phone. It is kind of like a Pinterest Board.

Let’s take the sensible and obvious parts of manifestation that we understand:

1. You are seeking a better job, Your friend is also seeking a better job. You have a well-designed resume, a ready answer to interview questions, the confidence that you are qualified and a good employee, and you are systematically applying for jobs and attempting to make personal connections. You present well both in your appearance and your speech. You arrive to interviews on time and keep track of your job hunt. Your friend is depressed and doesn’t think they are qualified to do much of anything. They avoid eye contact when interviewing and are unprepared. They don’t seem to care or want the job. They mumble their answers and don’t dress appropriately for the interview. They assume they won’t be chosen. They maybe arrange one interview a week, whereas you set up three or four. But you and your friend have basically the same background and experience and are likely just about equally competent. Who is going to get a job first?  That is manifestation: In manifestation you receive who you are. And you do need to put in the work. Ever notice how some people drag around a black cloud; they worry about everything, are frightened of everything? They make positive things negative? And other people are grateful for what they have, make lemons into lemonade, and feel good about themselves. That self-concept is crucial in any type of manifestation.
2. Athletes are out practicing on the field, or in the gym, or in the court, or on the ice. And then they often do cross-training. But they do something else as well. They go over their routines and their moves in their imagination over and over again. Studies find that the subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between real moves and moves made in the imagination. That is manifestation.
3. You are looking for a love partner.You dress up in your own style, you feel good about yourself, and you feel worthy of love. Yes, we all have things from our past that help make up our story. and we need to somehow deal with those so they don’t have such a negative effect on our self-concept. And that is not always easy. But if we give off an aura of confidence and happiness, it’s going to be a lot easier to find a loving partner.

Manifestation tells us we get not what we want, but who we are.

This brings us to the more WooHoo side of manifestation. We want to increase our business revenue by 50% this coming year. There are two roads to take. 1. Make a plan to increase revenues by cutting expenses or  raising prices, or expanding services, or devising a new advertising plan.  2. Make a vision board and look at it every day. Make no changes to your business, but picture yourself raising your revenue. I guess it could happen by luck, but that is the kind of manifesting I personally doubt: the kind where you are trying to manifest some money, and a surprise $1000 shows up in your account. I am not quite sure that was a manifestation.

Enter Neville Goddard, the most well-known guru of The Law of Assumption (pretty similar, if not the same, as the Law of Attraction).  Neville lived from 1905 to 1972 (why didn’t he manifest a longer life????). During that time he had a large following to whom he gave regular lectures. The lectures can be found on YouTube, but most of them have been doctored with AI voices. However you can find some originals. He also has many books of his works including his complete works. He was from Barbados but moved to the United States. He had been a dancer and an actor. He studied with the rabbi Adbullah and became a mystic. So his credentials are questionable although he is greatly respected even by skeptics. Most would say at least some of his teachings are of value. He quotes the Bible often, but not as a religious book as much as metaphor.

His ideas are universally being taught by the YouTube manifestation coaches. Here are some of the basic tenets. Some coaches take them to further extremes than others.

1. All creation is finished. Infinite versions of you exist as possibilities in the quantum field. You need to become that version that matches what you want. Much of manifestation is the SP journey – specific person. A specific person can be any person, family member, a friend; it doesn’t need to be love interest, but it usually is. I would say people get interested in manifestation because they really want something and they don’t know how else to get it. So they think this is the magic wand. Most SPs turn out to be exes that people want back — possibly in a different version. Some people manage this, but I have always figured that a certain number of couples always get back together anyway, so who knows if this is manifestation. My special person, whom I will talk about next week, was not an ex. Also not a stranger or an unknown person (whom you can also manifest). Mine was a acquaintance/sort of friend whom I wanted as a romantic partner.
2. There are no coincidences. When things happen, they are all intended. They could be signs; they could be part of a manifestation.
3. There is no time. Time is a construct so that we can manage our lives. There is no past and no present. There is only the ever-changing present. 
4. There is no OUT THERE. Our consciousness is our universe and we are its God.  Everyone “out there” is us pushed out, meaning people in the apparent 3D world will behave as you assume they will. We create everything in our universe.
5. There is nothing and no one to change but self. You cannot change or manipulate others. They are in their own universes. You can change yourself and only then will the “outside” change. In other words, we expect things to change in our 3D and then we will change. It is the opposite. Let’s take an example: You are looking in the mirror at yourself. You think your outfit would look nice with a scarf. Do you put the scarf on the reflection of you in the mirror? No, of course not. You put it on yourself (you change your appearance) and then it is reflected in the mirror. And they say that is how manifestation works, You must assume the feeling that you already have what you want (living in the end), and if you do it right, it will outpicture in what appears to be the 3D world.
6. Whether or not this works is a big question, but regardless, it is NOT EASY TO DO. If you think about manifesting it, you are actually saying you don’t have it, which isn’t going to help bring it. You have to assume you already have it to get it. Yep.
7. There are techniques to help you get to this point, but you don’t need to use them. They are tools to help you “live in the end.”

• Robotic affirming – saying affirmations to yourself over and over and over again for let’s say 10 minutes five times a day. Just ramble on. They are robotic. Example: “Joe wants to be with me. We are happy together,” over and over again. 
• Lullabye Method: Repeat over and over again,  “everything is wonderful.”
• Have inner conversations with your person or anyone that shows you already have what you want.  Those are kind of fun. Basically they are daydreams. However you need to distinguish them from daydreams by assuming they are true.
• Scripting: Same as inner conversations, but writing them down.
• Imaginary scenes: Thinking up a short scene that shows you have what you want. Make it contain all the senses you can, and loop it over and over again, best done in a sleepy state. It is called SATS (state akin to sleep).
• Revision:When a past event of any kind from anytime in the past is blocking your amazing self-concept, change the memory into something pleasant, You may have to do it over and over again until the painful feeling is gone, and you either feel neutral or there is a new story you have substituted. Some swear by this. I haven’t had much luck, It confused me. 

My three-year-and-some-months manifestation journey yielded nothing and ended last week. Actually, I had a little progress three years ago when I didn’t really know about the Law of Assumption and was using more the Law of Attraction by “raising my vibration.” But then I had too much doubt about 3D circumstances and too much doubt in general. I was spending too much energy (and money) and while it was fun at first, it was fun no longer. On a positive note, I completely changed my outside and my inside as well. I feel so much better — yet what I discovered is that while I thought I had changed my self-concept, I had instead changed my self- confidence more. The old story from childhood and the ensuing decades was still the story playing in my head, so even if manifestation were real, I was not going to get what I wanted. I heard a manifestation coach put it exactly the right way yesterday: I had changed my software, but the same hardware was running!

There are some “coaches” who tell you to just say what you want and it is yours because everything is yours because you are God. Let’s skip them for now.

Next week, I will  go over my journey — and its end, most likely. It is a hard thing to completely let go. I listened to a whole lot of content and read a lot of books.

 

Til next week….