“Why Can’t I Manifest?” – Part III ©
By Dennis Dossett
Two months ago we examined this question from the perspective of blockages or resistance to the natural flow life energies in terms of the necessary conditions for manifesting that allow and/or promote manifesting what you want in your life. In short, without learning (or having already learned) particular life lessons and/or balancing karmic energy (as revealed in your astrological natal chart), all the effort you can muster is unlikely to manifest what you want.
Last month we discussed two techniques of manifesting—specifically, managing your beliefs and expectations and also reprogramming your subconscious mind.
As I noted last month, manifesting, like any other area of life, requires that you take responsibility for creating your life. Conscious intention to manifest is critical and the necessary conditions are essential, but these have to be followed by the right kind of effort or else little (or nothing) happens. Let’s continue that discussion.
Focus on What You Want
Have you ever noticed how many people spend their time complaining about something they don’t want or about not having something they really do want (lack) rather than talking positively about what they do want? The Law of Attraction is absolutely straightforward and really quite simple in this regard. What you think about expands in your life and what you take your attention away from begins to diminish.
So, “Why can’t I manifest?” In short, your thoughts create your reality—and quantum physics proves it! So if you are frustrated with not being able to manifest, check to make sure that you focus on what you do want rather that what you don’t want. It is so very simple, but even more easily forgotten and violated. Energy flows where attention goes, so make sure that your attention is consistently and constantly pointed in the right (positive) direction.
The “State Akin to Sleep”
In your normal “waking state” (daily activities, thinking, conversing with others, etc.), your brain waves cycle about 20 times per second, or about 1200 cycles per minute. This is called “beta consciousness” by brainwave researchers. Then there is “alpha consciousness” when your brainwaves cycle around 14-15 times per second. This level is characteristic of a state of light meditation, hypnosis, and past-life regression. It is also the “zone” we sometimes hear athletes and artists talk about—actually, anyone who performs a task in a state of relaxed but alert concentration or focus. It is that aspect of Spirit known as “the muse” that sometimes takes possession of both the mind and the body during creative activities. Alpha is also the state of consciousness that Neville Goddard (one of Wayne Dyer’s teachers) calls “the state akin to sleep,” and it occurs at least twice a day just as you are drifting off to sleep and just as you are beginning to arouse from sleep. Normal sleep (theta consciousness) typically occurs at about 5-7 cycles per second. In “deep sleep” (delta consciousness) your brain slows to around 1-2 cycles per second and lasts only a very short time each night if indeed you ever go there (many people do not).
Neville Goddard taught that manifesting activities/exercises are best conducted in the “state akin to sleep,” a state of relaxed (but focused) awareness, that twilight zone between wakefulness and sleep. Why? The answer is really quite simple: alpha consciousness is a state of “allowing” (a.k.a. “non-resistance”), a central tenet of manifesting according to Abraham (collective consciousness of Spirit as channeled by Esther Hicks). This is important for reprogramming the subconscious—as well as the conscious—mind. If you try “too hard” to manifest by “pushing” to “make” something happen or by placing conditions on the way in which you want (or demand) that your manifestation will occur, you are not allowing.
Since you are already quite experienced with the alpha state of consciousness, all that remains is to train yourself to “drop into” (allow yourself) to enter that feeling place at will and almost instantaneously. It isn’t difficult, but it does require some practice. Whether you are trying to manifest something or not, it is a very useful skill to develop because it allows you to more easily manage your emotional states throughout your day. It doesn’t require that your eyes be closed (athletes in “the zone” don’t close their eyes), but that may help while you are learning to do it (much as you might typically do when trying to meditate). In short, don’t try so hard to manifest. Instead, get yourself into the feeling place of the “state akin to sleep” and allow it to happen. In doing so, you are much more likely to have success.
“Feel It Real” Technique
In his book, Wishes Fulfilled, Wayne Dyer tells us to “assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled.” In other words, get yourself into the feeling place of what it would feel like when your desire is actually manifested. This is another basic principle of the Law of Attraction. Neville Goddard called it the “Feel It Real” technique:
• “That which you feel yourself to be you are, and you are given that which you are. So assume the feeling that would be yours were you already in possession of your wish, and your wish must be realized. . . . So live in the feeling of being the one you want to be, and that you shall be.” ~ Neville Goddard (1905-1972; Metaphysics teacher & New Thought/New Age author)
So why the emphasis on feeling?
• “
Everything that everyone desires-whether it is a material object, a physical condition, a financial situation, or a harmonious relationship—is wanted for only one reason: they believe they will feel better in having it.” ~ Abraham (The Vortex: Where the Law of Attraction Assembles All Cooperative Relationships, 2009, p. 164)
Nothing is more real in any situation than feeling the emotions associated with that situation. Feeling it real makes it much easier to believe that it will happen than anything else. It is, in essence, another way of managing your beliefs as we discussed last month. Actually experiencing the pleasant emotions of something you have already accomplished or received makes the probability of manifesting it at 1.0—you can’t get any more certain than that!
Goddard is very specific here. Do not visualize yourself as an “actor” in the scene you are imagining; visualize yourself as you would actually see it through your own eyes. That is the only way to really “feel it real” and to experience the conviction that it not only can happen, but that it will happen (managing your beliefs). So what is the problem here? Most people focus on the wish itself rather than focusing on a scene which implies that the wish has already been fulfilled. If you want that shiny red sports car, don’t focus on manifesting the car. Focus on how it feels (present tense) when you hear your friends “oohing” and “ahhing” as you take them for a ride in your brand new racy red sports car. That is feeling it real!
Law of Reverse Effort
We have already discussed the importance of allowing and the state akin to sleep, but Neville Goddard went even further in his manifesting techniques:
• “Now before we go into our moment of silence [the “state akin to sleep”] there is something I must make very clear, and that is this effort we discussed last night. If there is one reason in this whole vast world why people fail [to manifest] it is because they are unaware of a law known to psychologists today as the law of reverse effort. When you assume the feeling of your wish fulfilled it is with a minimum of effort. You must control the direction of the movements of your attention. But you must do it with the least effort. If there is effort in the control, and you are compelling it in a certain way you are not going to get the results. You will get the opposite results, what ever they might be.” ~ Neville Goddard
Goddard here is reiterating the earlier point about not trying too hard to make things happen. That is simply another form of resistance, and is totally counterproductive.
There are, of course, more details which I will reveal in my forthcoming book, but these are the major points. So if you ever wonder “Why Can’t I Manifest?” start with the things we discussed in this and the previous two newsletters. Part I of this series is critically important. And don’t forget to practice regularly until you can do Parts II and III without thinking. These are learned skills that only improve with exercise. And be patient! Good Luck, and Happy Manifesting!