Disclaimer: Read with an open mind. (Original here.)
Not one Law Of Attraction teacher has taught you the definition of the words they use.
I don’t want to rag on any teachers, but I couldn’t help but notice a huge issue. Most LOA teachers hurl words at their audiences without explaining them.
- Has anyone told you exactly ‘believe' means? No.
- Has anyone told you exactly what ‘let go' means? No.
- Has anyone told you exactly what ‘manifest' means? No.
You’re simply left in the dark about this stuff.
So… like people speaking different languages, the teachers ‘talk’ and the students ‘listen’, but few people actually understand what’s being communicated, and even fewer make noticeable progress on their dreams and manifestations.
Most teachers toss around phrases like ‘belief’, ‘let go’, and ‘manifest’, then just assume you know what's what.
But most people don’t really know what these things mean.
Because even those who study it for ages often get it wrong. And why wouldn’t they? I mean, only poor explanations (if any) have been offered up. So LOA students end up confused about key terms. “What’s the big deal about being confused on one or two words?” you may ask. Well, that minor confusion in someone’s mind means they’re unable to effectively apply any concept involving them. Which means they’re unable to ‘manifest’ the desires they want. Which leads to them giving up on the law and LOA teachers in general.
All because teachers rarely bother to define their terms. (And also because students don’t bother to ask for definitions.)
So I’m writing this post to remedy that.
‘Beliefs’, ‘believe’, and ‘thought.’
Do you know what LOA teachers mean when they say ‘believe it and you can achieve it?’ If you’re like most people, you probably think of ‘believe’ as dictionary word like:
“Believe: To hold (something) as an opinion; think or suppose.”
But this definition doesn’t do the term justice, at least as far as leveraging the law of attraction is concerned.
Abraham-Hicks, one of the best LOA teachers, has a catchy way to sum up what belief is: ‘A belief is just a thought you keep thinking.’
This is essentially correct, but very inadequate for teaching purposes. This catchy line won’t teach people much. They won’t ‘get it.’ Most people who hear the above definitions understand little about the spectrum of belief that’s possible, or the nuances of a belief, or ‘how’ to believe, and so on.
'Belief’ is a deep, nuanced, vital topic for law of attraction, and all you’re given is one-sentence explanations of it, when what you really need is a freakin’ essay worth of info on it.
So here’s a step towards the real scoop on ‘belief.’
There’s more than one kind of belief.
In fact, there are ‘infinite’ levels of belief, but I’ll divide them into four categories to make things simple. Here are the 4 basic levels of belief:
- Thought.
- Belief.
- Conviction.
- Knowing.
The former are ‘weak’ beliefs, while the latter are ‘strong’ beliefs. (Some call ‘knowing’ your ‘subconscious mind’ or ‘unconscious competence.’) Unfortunately, no one explains these 4 levels of belief, and so most students think they’re ‘believing’ in their dream, but are actually only tapping into weak beliefs, not strong ones.
And weak beliefs usually take ages to manifest.
So when a LOA teacher tells you to ‘believe in your dream’, or ‘believe it’s already done’, or ‘believe it and achieve it’, they’re basically all talking about ‘conviction’ or ‘knowing.’ They’re talking about strong beliefs, because it’s strong beliefs that manifest in a reasonable time and with reasonable reliability.
But even though that’s what they mean, I ask you, do these teachers ever say you need ‘conviction’ or ‘knowing?’
Nope. They just talk on and on about belief.
Rarely, Abraham-Hicks will use the word ‘expectation’ or 'knowing' instead, which shows there’s a difference in degree, intensity, or strength between it and belief. (‘Expectation’ is somewhere between conviction & knowing, I’d say.)
Anyway, the upshot of all this is that many people stay on the low-end of the belief-spectrum. They ‘think’ about their goals or ‘believe’ in their dream, but go nowhere with it. Why? Because there’s a whole second-half of the ‘belief-spectrum’ that they’re supposed to be tapping into, but was never made clear to them.
It was never explained.
Yes, LOA teachers say ‘all you need to do is believe’, but a low level of belief (thought) is akin to crawling. It’s agonizingly slow at manifesting, and you’re likely to give up at how slow it is, or even head away from your manifestation in despair.
Yes, if you think enough about something, it may evolve into a ‘belief’, but this is still only about as fast as shuffling towards your goal.
A medium level of belief (conviction) is like power-walking towards your goal, and you’re likely to ‘see movement’ and not give up once you’re at this belief-level. You’ll see signs of your manifestation as you carve a path through life towards it.
Finally, a high level of belief (knowing) is like racing towards your goal. Hit this level of belief and watch manifestations happen miraculously fast.
Does this make sense to you?
This is why LOA teachers say ‘increase your belief’ and you’ll get your dreams. But increase it to ‘what?’, that’s the real question. And the answer that you’ve not been given until now is… increase your belief beyond expectation, to one of deep ‘knowing.’
Which brings us to the matter of ‘how.’
How do we raise our belief to a deep knowing? Well, the ‘naturally gifted’ among us can often just think more about it, or meditate, or affirm what they want.
But for most people, the only way to turn a belief into a knowing is with structured, focused, enthusiastic practice, and we’ll get to that later.
For now, I hope this clarifies the concept of belief for you.
This all raises another question though… how come some people seem to manifest even if they don’t ‘believe strongly’ in something?
Well, it’s because there’s three main factors in whether your dream manifests or not, (rarely explained by other LOA teachers), and we’ve only discussed the first… So let’s discuss the second.
‘Desire’, ‘Dream’, ‘Goal’, and ‘Want.’
- “You can manifest anything you want.”
- “The universe will give you the essence of your desire.”
- “You can only manifest if you write down your goals.”
If you’ve heard the above before, you know there’s lots to unpack regarding wants, dreams, and desires.
Can we really manifest ‘anything’ we want?
If so, how? Can we fly, teleport, and turn lead to gold all at the same time? If we desire a specific person, can we make them do what we want? Do we have to write stuff down? What if someone has no arms or can’t write? Is there a difference between a dream and a desire? Is [goal X] something I really want, or is it something ego, TV, society, and peer pressure put into my head? And on & on.
Do you see how confusing a word like ‘desire’ or ‘goal’ can be? Well, some version of this word is used everywhere in the LOA-world by everyone. (Unsurprisingly) it's rarely explained or defined.
And it confuses the hell out of people.
So I was determined to figure out what it meant for myself. And here’s the best explanation I can offer.
A desire is a ‘guiding light’ that springs out of ‘contrast.’
Joe can have a desire for heat, but that springs out of cold. Sam can have a desire for touch, but that springs out of loneliness. Carmen can have a desire for money, but that springs out of feeling lack.
A dog can have a desire for food, fresh air, or whatever, but it generally springs out of a contrasting experience.
Even a single-celled amoeba can have a desire, guiding it towards environments and stimuli that suit it more… especially once it has encountered something that suits it less.
Is this clicking for you? A desire is basically a guiding light, birthed from a sub-optimal experience.
An entity (you, your dog, an amoeba, etc.) encounters ‘contrast’ (a sub-optimal experience) of some kind, and from inside the entity arises a ‘desire’, (which is now a ‘guiding light’) that they’ll be seeking as best they can, until said desire is satisfied.
This process is a constant foundation of life, never stopping.
Which means you have desires now, and even if they’re satisfied, you’ll continue to have desires as a guiding light until you die (and beyond?)
And each desire (guiding light) you have will be somewhere on the ‘general-to-specific’ spectrum.
Meaning you may have a desire calling you to ‘be warmer’, which is an extremely general desire that can be satisfied in plenty of ways, such as a blanket, new clothes, better insulation, human warmth, a heater, etc.
Or you may have a desire calling you to ‘obtain and wear a Merino 250 Crewneck’ which is a much more specific desire that can also be satisfied in many ways, such as receiving the shirt as a gift, purchasing it yourself, finding one somewhere, winning one in a contest, etc.
Or your desire can be somewhere midway on the spectrum, and it can gain specificity as time goes on as well, but --I repeat-- it can’t go away or be 'let go' until it’s satisfied. The best you’ll manage to do is ‘forget about it’ for a while, until it pops back up months, years, or decades later.
But there’s something else important LOA teachers rarely mention.
You can trick yourself into absorbing other's desires.
Mom and Dad may have tricked you into the false desire of ‘pleasing them.’ (While there’s nothing wrong with aiming to be helpful and pleasant to our parents, if our parents want us to be doctors, but our ‘true desire’ is to be a rockstar, it's counterproductive to cater to their whims.)
Or maybe TV has convinced you that fame & fortune are your desires, but actually your soul ‘truly desires’ a peaceful life in nature with farmland and lots of personal space and privacy. (It’s very easy to get swept up in societal cues and start chasing the money and fame, even though it’s not really your desire.)
Or maybe you ‘think’ your lover wants you to make book sales for them, but your real desire is to start a kink clothing line. Many people would quash their kink-dreams without even being asked to… simply because they imagine their lover wants book sales. (The universe will be slower to respond to such poorly prioritized and ‘fake’ desires.)
The reason this happens is because…
…most people are out of practice at tuning into their true desires.
Most people are out of practice of listening to their gut, heart, instincts, or conscience. This makes most people extremely easy to persuade, condition, and train away from their true desires. Then they pick up the desires of others (peers, the media, authorities) as their own, and ‘swear’ that these are their true desires, when they really are not.
Basically, many people don’t actually know what they want.
Which can make manifesting drawn-out, long, & awkward, because the universe doesn’t respond well to ‘feigned desires’ picked up from others. It still does, but as there are levels of belief… There are also levels of desire-- some stronger and more effective for manifestation than others. (There are ‘infinite levels’, I just summed them up into four for simplicity):
- Feigned desire.
- Surface desire.
- True desire.
- Core desire.
And on this spectrum, feigned desires picked up from others are weak and manifest slowly & unreliably, if at all. The universe responds most powerfully and quickly to your truest/core desires.
Do you know what your truest and most core desires happen to be?
It’s unlikely, because most people never take an honest, soul-searching look at their desires.
Most people don’t check if their desires are coming from an overactive ego, are inculcated by society, are dogma from authority, or are a facade to keep the peace & fit in… or if they really are a resonant desire from our true self.
“The truth shall set you free.”
And it’s common for people to ‘think’ they want something society has programmed them to want for years, only to discover the reason the universe never delivered it is because the opposite was far more fulfilling for their ‘true’ selves.
This can sound like a cop-out, but the truth is many live an unexamined life and don’t really know what they want.
And it’s why I teach my students to self-assess well and take stock of themselves before they go claiming ‘I want this’ and ‘I want that’ like a spoiled child.
Annnnnnnyyway…
It mostly happens because people think their desires are something they can ’figure out’ with their brain, but desires actually come from your gut, soul, inner-child, heart, instincts, conscience, etc. And most people will say “Oh yeah, I’m listening to my gut,” when they’re actually not. And they have so little practice listening that they couldn’t tell the difference between their inner-voice and society-instilled dogma anyway.
But as a child, we were all great at tuning into this part of us and knowing our desires properly.
Sadly, as adults, most people are so out of practice at tuning into their true desires, that they can barely notice them anymore.
The universe is listening mainly to your true desires.
It pays little attention to feigned ones you lie to yourself about. So it’s vital that you practice tuning into this. Jenna Zoe teaches this well. Her stuff's a bit ‘woo-woo’, but it gets the job (of listening to your inner-authority) done well. And once you’re good at it, manifesting is smoother, because you’re in tune with your true, core desires.
I hope you understand ‘desire’ more clearly now, so that the next time you hear an LOA teacher talking about desire, you understand the nuances behind it enough to take a look at your own desires and move your belief towards them effectively.
Interestingly, whenever desire is brought up, there’s usually someone who wants to ask about…
‘Free will,’ ‘EIYPO,’ ‘spells,’ ‘magick,’ ‘control.’
They’ll say “OK, J, what if I desire my ex-girlfriend who hates me to love me again? My friend Tara says to cast a love spell on my ex with Wiccan rituals, and my other friend Bella to use black magick or sex-magick to do the same.”
Ah yes, ‘can I control my ex against their will?’, a classic LOA riddle that often polarizes the LOA community pretty strongly.
Well, here are the possibilities.
- Yes, LOA can control others against their will.
- No, LOA can’t control others against their will.
- Yes and no, LOA won’t control others against their will, but LOA* will find a way for you to experience anything you truly desire without trampling others’ free will,* because the universe is masterful at reconciling conflicting desires in creative, expansive, jaw-dropping ways.
Those three things are each possible answers, but let's view this LOA riddle in a new light. View it in the light of ‘levels of desire’ (and belief) I mentioned earlier.
Ask yourself: Are you 100% sure you have an appropriate level of belief to back up your answer to the ‘control my ex’ conundrum? Like are you sure you have ‘knowing’ beyond conviction, beyond expectation, regarding your ability to control others?
And even if you are, are you also 100% sure your true desire is to control someone else? Are you sure that out of all 8 billion people on the planet there’s not someone better queued up for you? Are you sure we’re talking about a true/core desire, rather than a surface desire or feigned desire? Are you sure you’re not attached and obsessed for the wrong reasons, and completely out of tune with your soul’s core desire?
Most people don’t even stop to think, they just blurt out “Yes! I’m sure!”
And it’s a bit sad.
Because an instant “yes I’m sure” response usually ain’t a healthy dose of critical thinking. It's often just a knee-jerk, triggered response from someone who’s not at peace with the flow of life. It’s not a sign of someone who’s open-minded, who trusts the universe, and who’s willing to take a hard, honest look at their beliefs, their desires, and themselves.
But anyway, let’s say that by some fluke, you know better than the universe on how to deliver love into your life, and you know it’s this 1 person out of all on earth. Let’s say that even though the universe knows all the humans, and knows which ones are best for you, that you’re ‘stalker-level-obsessed’ with this one specific person but it’s totally correct, healthy, and a true desire. (‘Swear she's my soulmate!’)
Can the universe fulfill your desire to make your ex-girlfriend reunite with you?
Well, even if the answer was ‘yes’, it’s still a tall order.
“What? I thought the universe could do anything, big or small, J!”
Oh, the universe can, sure. I meant that it’s a tall order for… you, my dear manifestor. Because you have tons of history/baggage with this ex. You have tons of ‘limiting beliefs’, doubts, triggers, insecurities. And you’re not the only one with baggage, doubts, and limiting beliefs… your ex has the same, or worse. You and she are not a ‘blank slate’ on this topic.
The point is, it’s a tall order to manifest, because stuff like that requires a high level of belief, a high level of desire, and a low level of resistance... But baggage means a lot of resistance. And so, you have a lot of practice needed in all three of these areas (on this topic.) Plus it all still hinges on whether or not you believe in free will.
ie: If you believe in robbing people, you must also believe you can be robbed. If you’re completely self-interested, then you believe others are too.
So… Do you believe you have free will? Yes? Then you must ‘give’ free will to others.
Do you believe you can control others? Then, you believe they may control you as well.
(It also opens you up to being controlled by ‘fate.’) What’s possible for one human is possible for another, at least in our present shared reality. So it’s a safe bet you don’t currently have enough belief-strength or desire-strength to manifest you being rich and everyone else is poor, just like you don’t have the belief-strength to manifest that you’re the only free-willed human, and everyone else is a puppet you control.
A fleeting comment on the net or playing devil’s advocate with an LOA teacher isn't enough desire. With low levels of desire/belief, you can’t manifest shit, especially 'big' things like controlling others.
Weak desire & weak belief manifest almost nothing, so they’re hardly worth discussing.
But if you did hone your LOA skills, the universe could still deliver such an experience to you in ways you might not expect. Maybe the universe would make you rich and everyone else poor through a vivid lucid dream.
Or may the universe would put you into a coma, living out a fantasy that feels real in your mind.
Or maybe the universe would help you convince yourself that the only real wealth is spirituality, and you’re the most spiritual, and others aren't, so they are the 'poor' ones and you’re the only rich one (of course, they'd be experiencing a different reality, one where you’re a poor crazy person and they’re all still as rich as ever.) Or maybe the economy changes drastically when Elon Musk reaches Mars and you’re left holding the world’s wealth.
So it may not be technically ‘you controlling everyone else to become poor’, but it may be a ‘real experience’ for you, so that you end up with the manifested reality you wanted, and others get the reality they wanted.
The universe is extremely good at reconciling seemingly conflicting desires in creative ways.
Anyway…
The same challenge applies to ‘controlling your ex against their will’ that applied to ‘controlling everyone else to be poor.’ You’ll need significant levels of belief & desire, plus low levels of resistance.
(And most free will is just a ‘clash of beliefs’ anyway. Whoever has the stronger beliefs ‘wins’ and sets the frame for reality. In these cases, the other person’s ‘manifestation’ crumbles in the face of stronger beliefs, then they wonder why they "can’t manifest" what they wanted. And it’s like… “Duh dude, because the other person had stronger desires/beliefs than you.” — You see it in sports teams all the time. Both teams believe they can ‘manifest’ a victory, but who actually wins? The team/players with the higher overall belief-level for a more sustained amount of time.)
So… Can you control others? LOA teachers still debate this, but the whole thing is kind of silly. Do you honestly think you came to a diverse planet with billions of people, in order to control them all? And everyone else came here with the same purpose, to control you?
C’mon, think about it.
When your soul took a human body, it agreed that ‘we are all one,’ and that what's available to one is available to all. In the game of life, you agreed to play by some basic rules, (at least to start,) like the law of gravity, and having ‘free-willed’ others around. Although it may be possible to beat these rules, or to influence others to act against their will… it's Jesus-Level stuff. It’s a ridiculously high-bar to reach, and for most reading this, infinitesimally likely this lifetime.
Questions like “Can I manifest Britney Spears" becoming a serial killer?” are kind of like asking, “Can I bench press a twenty-ton weight unassisted?”
If we leverage quantum realities, it might be technically possible, but it’s something that only two expert manifestors should bother discussing. Because even if technically possible, it’s so impractical for you that’s it’s nearly pointless to talk about beyond some fun philosophy. Like… If you don’t currently have the strength to bench press even 200lbs., why even devote airtime to theories on lifting twenty tons?”
Another example: The Wright Brothers manifested human flight by inventing an airplane, but they weren’t in the town square asking “Think we can manifest circling the globe at Mach 5?” because that’d be silly considering their ‘belief-level’ and ‘desire-level.’ Instead, they bit off what they could chew, belief-wise and desire-wise. They just wanted to get a few feet off the ground sustainably.
Humans traveling at Mach 5 manifested generations later.
So even if it is possible to trump someone else’s free will, why not stop debating weird philosophical questions and instead just improve your manifestation abilities? Why not just work on your own belief-strength and desire-strength and see what you personally can accomplish. Why not make things easier on yourself? Why not approach manifestation in a ‘healthier’ way? Why not think something more like…
“My true desire is for a fulfilling romantic partnership. The universe knows the right partner better than I even imagine. I’m open to it being my ex –IF THEY’RE AMENABLE–, but I’m also open to it being any other human. I may make a list of traits I’d like in a partner, but I’m not gonna get too picky & attached to any one specific person. I’m not gonna chase anyone, I’ll simply do my LOA work, raise my beliefs and energy on this topic, then be excited to see which incredible person Source matches me up with.”
Some of our most finicky desires and hot-button dreams can manifest so much easier if we…
Approach them in a gentler way, with gentler thoughts, & less limitations on how the universe delivers.
Relax more about which ‘exact’ person you’ve suddenly decided it ‘absolutely must be.’
Because while you’re thinking ‘I WANT MY EX & ONLY MY EX, AND NO ONE ELSE BECAUSE I KNOW BEST!’ The universe may be thinking ‘I know you want [person A] but [person A] is going to commit suicide soon’ or ‘[person A] has STDs you don’t know about and crazy ex-boyfriends who will bring drama’ or ‘[person A] will crush your ambitions and derail your career. I’m gonna guide you to [person B] who’s just like [person A], but better and without the downsides.’
So I believe I’ve covered ‘free will’ better than most teachers. I know this sheds some light on the topic and will help you soothe any pain of not understanding LOA vs. free will.
Speaking of pain, let’s talk about…
‘Contrast,’ ‘variety,’ pain,’ ‘experience,’ ‘life,’ etc.
So earlier we discussed how desire's born from ‘contrast.’
But what is contrast? Well, contrast is basically… ‘life.’
It’s what people mean when they say ‘hey man, life happens.’
Contrast is manifestations the universe delivers to us, but usually we don’t see them as ‘manifestations’ because they’re something we don’t recall choosing intentionally. Instead we see them as ‘pain’, ‘discomfort’, ‘negatives’, ‘contrast’ or just call them ‘life.’
And the universe delivers it to us for a reason.
The universe keeps serving up ‘life’ to us to birth ‘desires’ in us.
Then once we have desires calling us, then we have a purpose (or reason) to bother ‘aligning’ with them. We have a ‘reason’ (satiating desires birthed within us) to ‘live’
Contrast → Desire → Purpose (A reason for us to bother ‘humaning.’)
But here’s something funny. A surprising number of people think they can eliminate contrast from the earth.
They want to eliminate poverty for all, or hunger for all, etc. They want to eliminate the contrast that life serves up in order to spark desire in each individual.
This is counter-productive at best & soul-crushing at worst.
Why is it counterproductive? Because there’s no light without darkness, no sunshine without rain, no pleasure without pain. You can’t eliminate contrast. It’s the way the whole universe is set up. People who live great lives are the ones who are a) most accepting & at peace with contrast, and b) most able to align to their desires whenever contrast pops up… so that they quickly manifest joyful solutions.
Making peace with contrast takes practice for 99% of people.
But it’s one of the most worthwhile things in the world that you can practice.
I highly recommend it, because ‘the system’ of life we're all experiencing will continually serve up ‘unwanted manifestations’ to you in the form of contrast, because that’s what births new desires, spurs you to create new solutions, and causes the expansion and evolution of life.
And that contrast generally won’t ‘feel good’, so we’d best dig deeper into…
‘Feelings,’ ‘emotions,’ ‘mood,’ ‘attitude.’
Every human being is blessed with emotions for a reason. We don’t have ‘feelings’ because of random chance. Feelings are one of the incredible powers of being human. They’re a purposeful evolution by nature, because nature (the universe) knows what it’s doing.
Abraham-Hicks says your emotions are like your ‘fuel gauge,’ letting you know whether you’re running out of gas on the journey to your manifestations.
I think a better analogy is that your emotions are your compass.
Because you never run out of gas on your journey towards your dreams (unless you’re dead), but you can end up ‘turned around’ in the wrong direction if you fail to listen to & adjust your emotions.
And just like a compass always points ‘north*’, your emotions always point towards ‘feeling better.’
If you feel ‘powerless’, emotions point you towards ‘more power’, and so if you were to get ‘angry’ or ‘fired up’, it’d be a step in the right direction. But if you instead thought dark thoughts and ended up feeling worthless & suicidal, you'd have gone opposite your emotional pointer.
Your emotions point you towards (at least) the ‘next best emotion’, and it’s on you to take a step in the right emotional direction.
Another example: Say you felt ‘bored.’ That 'boredom' is pointing you towards ‘more interesting things’, so if you were to decide to paint, walk, play a game, or write a blog, it’d be a step in the right direction. If instead you choose to act as if there’s no cure for boredom, you'll end up feeling frustrated & annoyed. You’d have gone the opposite direction of your emotional pointer.
Your emotions are always pointing you up (or ‘north’, or towards ‘better’) on the emotional scale.
The scale looks like this:
Like the other two spectrums I’ve explained, this one has infinite levels as well, I’ve just simplified it to just a few emotions here.
And your emotions can apply to any topic with varying intensities.
You’ll have certain emotions about money, and certain emotions about relationships, and certain emotions about health. Your feelings will be marked at different points on the scale for each topic, but they’ll all be ‘calling’ you upwards, no matter how high or low they happen to be at the moment.
It’s human nature to rise, uplift, or elevate in vibration.
Remember my analogy is that emotions are mainly an indicator, like the needle of a compass. But at the same, like Abe says, your emotions do also act like ‘gas,’ pouring fuel on to your manifestations too.
This is where the intensity of your emotions comes into play. The intensity of your emotions depends on how ‘important’ your desire or topic is to you. (You probably won’t have intense emotions about ‘getting breakfast’, but you’re likely to have intense emotions about ‘injustice’, for example.)
*I’m aware compasses point differently when discussing magnetic north vs. geographic north or true north, etc., but the analogy still works.
They also depend on your focus and intentions, because you can intentionally get fired up about any topic if you want to. And that fired-up intensity of your emotions can affect how fast you manifest things. In other words, if you feel intensely positive about money, you’ll have a much easier time manifesting it. If you feel vaguely positive about money, it’ll manifest but probably not with jaw-dropping results. If you feel intensely bad about money, you’ll manifest poverty, bankruptcy, etc.
But your emotions don’t actually ‘create’ your reality.
Here’s an excerpt from /u/klepperx on the LawOfAttraction subreddit:
Science confirms that emotions come AFTER thoughts. LOA agrees and teaches that emotions are indicators of alignment with your inner being’s thoughts. For example, if you think, “I am dumb, I’m so stupid, I am never going to get this.” You will receive an indicator of negative emotion – why? Because your inner-being doesn’t agree with that thought, AKA it’s not true.
If you think, “I hate that person and want them to die” You’re also going to receive a negative emotional indicator, you THINK it’s because that person did something mean to you or what not, but that feeling you feel is actually because your inner-being loves that person, and is not in agreement with the thought that they are dumb…
Let’s say your intention is to get someplace fast. So you hop in your car and start driving. Your car gives you the INDICATOR of low fuel. Is this negative and unwanted – a sign that you “failed” and are bad? NO! It’s extremely helpful and positive! You LIKE having those indicators that let you know: IF you continue on this path, without changing something, it will not end up where you want to be*. So now you can stop and get some more fuel, and go along your merry way.
Although I disagree with klepperx on a few other LOA-related subjects, the quotes above are a pretty good explanation of your emotion’s place and purpose.
But I’ll also add that intentionally adjusting your emotions will ‘add juice’ to the reality that your desires & beliefs (convictions/knowings) are creating. It’s your desires & beliefs that are the ‘mold’ for your reality, and your emotions are mainly helpers guiding you on the way. Just know they can also be ‘used’ to ‘juice up’ (or slow down) the speed of your manifestations.
I’ve seen an LOA teacher here or there say ‘your emotions don’t matter’ and all you need to manifest is desire, and well-programmed beliefs. And while that may technically be true, it’s kind of like saying ‘a power-drill doesn’t matter, you can build a house with just a hammer & nails,’ — while technically true, it’s really foolish to ignore an incredible tool in your toolbox.
Pay attention to your emotions and use them well.
Your emotions are super-important, and have a major impact, but for many people that impact is negative because they haven’t practiced getting in tune with their emotions. And they haven’t practiced managing their mood. And someone who is unpracticed at mood management, is more at the mercy of their mood, than the master of it. Some people are best served by meditating and relaxing their emotions, because most of their emotions are so intensely negative.
So please, practice navigating your emotions well. Learn where they’re pointing to and do what it takes to ‘feel better.’
Use your emotions well to orient yourself towards alignment, use them to guide you on your journey, use them to live a great life.
And most importantly, use them to amplify the speed and reliability of your deliberate manifestation.
Which brings us to the next word people are confused about. 🙂
‘Manifestation,’ ‘reality,’ ‘realization.’
What is a ‘manifestation?’
Well, above, I explained how ‘contrast’ is a manifestation from the universe. And I explained it’s generally unpleasant experiences served up to us by life that we swear we didn’t create intentionally. And you’re probably here to learn how to a) minimize those kinds of experiences as well as b) create more desirable experiences of your own.
So basically, a manifestation is anything you experience.
- Can you experience a situation? Yes? Then it’s a manifestation.
- Can you experience an emotion? Yes? Then it’s a manifestation.
- Can you experience a thought? Yes? Then it’s a manifestation.
A manifestation is anything you experience in your own individual, physical reality.
Some of them you manifest intentionally, others are manifested and delivered to you by the universe.
According to ‘parallel realities’ and ‘quantum theory’…
…every single moment is a manifestation…
…and you can technically ‘step into’ any reality you want, moment-by-moment with enough mental strength and conscious mastery.
“Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves. Here’s Tom with the Weather.” – Bill Hicks
When it comes down to it, you, as an individual extension of source / god / the divine / the universe… have the power to ‘realize’ anything you can imagine, but the exact details of how such imaginings manifest may often be outside your awareness or conscious decision.
(Note: ‘Realize’ in LOA terms usually means ‘to make something real’ or ‘manifest’ it, but be careful because someone might be using a more traditional definition of the word where it means to ‘understand’ something instead.)
All of this delivers us (unsurprisingly) to another misunderstood concept.
‘Create’, ‘Allow,’ ‘Manifest’, ‘Receive.’
You ‘realize’ (or ‘materialize’, or ‘manifest’) manifestations by condensing them into physical reality from a greater ‘energetic’ reality (or from a soul-reality, or dimensional-reality, or quantum-reality, the vortex, your ‘subconscious mind’, etc.)
So, if you’re deliberately manifesting, then your manifestation must manifest from ‘somewhere’, and the process of summoning something from an energetic reality into a physical reality is generally what people are referring to when they talk about creation.
Simpler said, you make things go from imagination to reality.
Technically though, it’s more like this:
- You experience contrast, which produces a desire in you.
- In response to that desire, you imagine a solution or improvement.
- That solution or improvement has now been ‘created’ in an energetic realm.
- But it has not yet manifested in your personal physical reality, so you must…
- Help or allow it to manifest by adjusting your belief-levels, desire-levels, and resistance-levels.
- Assuming you’ve done so and gotten into alignment with your desire (‘receiving mode’)…
- You can now ‘allow’ your manifestation into your experience (or ‘receive’ it.)
- This is the growth of a seed-idea into a full-fledged realization (or manifestation, or experience.)
This growth process happens just like a plant’s growth does.
When the seed of your desire (your ‘dream’) is watered with enough belief (‘knowing!’), while you hold minimal resistance (‘pests’)… then you’ve created a healthy ‘mental environment’ for your desire (dream) to manifest.
I like to think this is the clearest explanation of ‘thoughts become things.’
Be aware though, that in the above outline, I mentioned ‘resistance,’ which is yet another LOA topic most people are confused about, so let’s clear it up.
‘Resistance,’ ‘unbelief,’ ‘doubt’, ‘limiting beliefs.’
Imagine your desire’s a seed you’re nurturing to blossom into a flower (or fruit.) Resistances are like insects that eat away at the plant, continually slowing its growth or even killing it, forcing you to start over from a seed again.
Some LOA teachers call resistance ‘doubt,’ or ‘unbelief,’ or ‘limiting beliefs,’ or ‘energy leaks,’ or ‘emotional obstacles.’
Every teacher seems to use their own language.
Anyway, your manifestations hinge on three key factors: The strength (and consistency) of your desire, the strength (and consistency) of your belief, and the amount (and consistency) of resistance you have around it.
The difference between an expert deliberate manifestor who’s great at creating the result they want and a newbie, is that the expert has a solid handle on these 3 things, and consciously manipulates them in their favor.
Now, it’s common for newbies to have a strong desire (like they really want something.) It’s less common for newbies to have strong beliefs (like they really believe they can have their desire,) but a decent chunk of newbies do manage it. But it’s extremely rare for newbie manifestors to consciously drop their resistance.
For example, a newbie manifestor may want a better body. They desire it strongly and believe they deserve it strongly.
But they have tons of hidden resistances around this goal.
- They believe getting a great body takes hard work, and they hate hard work.
- They imagine creeps will hit on them when they get their bod, and they avoid creeps.
- They believe their skin will be loose from transforming, and they fear loose skin.
- They believe they’ll have to buy a new wardrobe, and fear they don’t have the money.
And often the resistance goes on and on. Can you see how much hate, fear, doubt, uncertainty, hesitance, and avoidance they have wrapped up in their desire for a better body?
And do you see how it’s usually hidden resistance? Like they have all these secret fears but they never express them or own them or write them or share them. Instead when people ask how it’s going they just say “Oh, I’m working on my dream body, I’m sure I’ll get it soon.”
Bullshit.
Anyone with that much resistance (or doubts, or unbelief) is extremely unlikely to manifest. It’s simple logic. That much intense, heavy, consistent resistance isn’t a healthy environment for manifesting. I mean, it’s technically possible with enough desire and belief to trump all that resistance, but good luck pulling that off.
And the same thing applies to money or relationships too.
The wisest and fastest path to manifestation is to uncover any hidden resistance you have, then relax or ‘let go’ of as much as possible, because neglecting this key ‘lever’ just sets you up for a bumpy, slow ride.
Next up?
‘Energy,’ ‘vibe,’ ‘mindset,’ ‘alignment,’ ‘setpoint,’ ‘offering,’ ‘harmony.’
Because every thought you think (broadcast), or every thought you receive from the universe (as a manifestation), pings your ‘emotional radar’ (or compass,) that means… Every thought carries an emotion attached to it.
You could think “I love money”, and it could come with an attached emotion of joy because you’re spending it on yummy food, or it could come with an attached emotion of hopelessness because you believe you’re running out of cash.
You could think “Oooh, I hate so-and-so”, and it could come with an attached emotion of joy because you’re pulling off a hilarious joke and don’t really mean it, or it could come with an attached emotion of rage because you haven’t made peace with the target of your thought and really do hate them.
And you could think (and feel) any of the above, all while making choices that go against them. You could think (and feel) that you love money, then choose to be a miser. You could think (and feel) that you’re ‘just joking around’ about hating someone, but then choose to treat them poorly anyway.
Your thoughts, moods, and choices can either harmonize into alignment towards your goals, or not.
Same goes for your desires, beliefs, and resistances. You can have a high level of desire and belief with a low level of resistance alongside, or vice-versa, or some other blend of the three. Your desires, beliefs, and resistances can harmonize in alignment, or not.
When LOA teachers talk about your ‘vibration’, ‘alignment’, ‘harmony’ or ‘overall energy’, they’re usually referring to the average (of your particular blend) of all these things, for any given topic.
When LOA teachers tell you to ‘raise your vibration’ or ‘get into alignment’ in order to manifest, it’s their shorthand way of telling you to consciously elevate your thoughts, moods, and choices. They’re telling you to make sure your desires and beliefs are high, while your resistance is low.
They’re telling you to align all these aspects of yourself as best you can, because if they’re in disharmony or discord, manifestation will be quite difficult, no matter what methods or techniques you’re using.
Speaking of which, time to talk about…
‘Methods,’ ‘techniques,’ ‘processes,’ or ‘exercises.’
(Other terms: ‘protocols’, ‘tools’, ‘exercises’, etc.)
When a LOA teacher suggests methods, techniques, exercises, tricks, programs, courses, and so on…
They are simply giving you practical approaches for elevating your moods, beliefs, and desires, (or to help lower your resistances.) They are recommending methods to help you achieve increased alignment with your dreams / the universe.
But please understand…
No matter how great these teachers are…
…the approaches they recommend may or may not work for you personally.
Yes, it’d be great if there was a one-size-fits-all approach that LOA teachers could recommend for students. It really would, it’d make everything so much simpler.
But the truth is that you’re an incredibly unique ‘blend’ of vibrational offerings on the millions of topics life holds. You have a ‘high, success vibe’ in some areas, a ‘low, struggle vibe’ in other areas, and also have ‘appallingly low blocked vibes’ in others still.
And these change over time.
Which means, the method(s) that work for you will be unique as well. And they may also change over time. So life will ‘call’ you to various methods, in various ways, at various times to help navigate around your particular hangups, and integrate organically into your specific situation.
They will be methods that suit your budget, culture, economy, resources, access, beliefs, attention span, etc. And the only way such specifically tailored methods are going to show up for you is the Universe delivering to you a ‘customized plan’ flawlessly crafted for you. This is why people pick up and put down various methods during their ‘life journey’, until they find their favorites.
Maybe the universe will ‘call you’ towards subliminals for a bit, only to quickly make you bored of them, so that you move on to meditation. Maybe the universe will have you skip subliminals and meditation and go straight to appreciation and ‘positive-aspects’ lists. Maybe the universe will make you ‘pissed off’ at one teacher’s methods, just to nudge you towards a better teacher for you. Maybe the universe will help you invent your own method.
This is why it’s not really about which method is better than another, it’s about you experimenting with life, following your true impulses, guidance, and emotions, then playing with the methods that resonate with you most and that you find get you satisfying results.
There are so many methods:
- ‘passing over’
- ‘blueprinting’
- ‘3-6-9’,
- ‘mind movies’
- ‘act-as-if’
- ‘going general’
- ‘affirmations’
- ‘cups of water’
- ‘releasing resistance’
- ‘lullaby mantras’
- ‘gratitude’
- ‘focus wheels’
- ‘positive aspects’
- ‘meditation', etc.
Stop analyzing methods all like some kind of forensic examiner.
Stop debating over them like a bunch of nerds in a debate club. Don’t just poll people and try whatever others say are effective for them. Instead explore whatever methods call you. Play with them. Experiment with them. Give whichever methods the universe is directing you towards a ‘proper try’ and find whatever works for you.
Because ultimately, even if you were trapped in a desert with ‘zero methods’ available, you can still manifest and use the law of attraction.
Methods aren’t 100% necessary.
They’re just helpers. You can use them if you want, but don’t get too attached to them because the one who has the power to manifest anything is you.
All that said, I know the feeling of ‘desperately wanting a practical method’ to start with, so here are the three ‘best’, ranked by popularity/efficiency/results/whatever.
- Meditation (Best for releasing resistance.)
- Appreciation / Gratitude (Best for elevating energy.)
- Visualization (Best for leveraging imagination.)
Most techniques, exercises, and LOA tricks you come across are actually just a variation of the 3 methods above.
Google any of them and you’ll see for yourself that at the core of most methods, is some version of the above three things. So again, it’s not the method that matters, it’s you finding your own ways to meditate, appreciate, and visualize so that your desires, beliefs, and resistances are aligned well, creating a healthy environment for your dreams to pop into reality.
Remember from above: your emotions guide you towards ‘feeling better’ in every moment, and they guide you similarly as you explore any method.
Look deep inside yourself and tune into your emotions to see how you really feel about any particular method. No one external can tell you what’s best for you. But your feelings are always guiding you towards ‘feeling better’, which means they’re guiding you towards methods that suit you. On the flipside, any action you take from a feeling-place of lack, or that lowers you on the emotional scale will backfire. So if a method isn’t joyful in the practice of it, it’s not the right one for you at that time.
Now, I’ll touch on one specific method that gets brought up a lot:
‘Act-As-If,’ ‘Live In The End,’ ‘It’s Already Done,’ ‘Assumption,’ etc.
This is a ‘famous’ vibration-raising (or alignment) method that combines visualization and appreciation. It’s often recommended as a reliable method because all of us, as children, were able to ‘pretend’ or play ‘make-believe.’** This means we all have an innate, natural knack for pretending.**
That said, a lot of adults and LOA-newbie’s imagination-muscles are rusty, so this method is best for people with a comfort or inclination towards acting and imagination. This method may not be the best place to start for people who’ve let their imaginations atrophy. As I mentioned above, for any method, check with your inner-guidance, your feelings, and emotions, to determine which method is best for you to focus on in any given moment.
Caveats aside, if you do find true joy in this method, it’s exceptionally effective as it combines two of the three most effective ingredients of vibration-raising at once. I can’t stress enough though that just because me or someone else has made this method ‘sound good’ to you, is not a reason to try it.
The only reason to try any method is because your gut, instincts, conscience, or some other form of emotion is nudging you to.
You’re meant to explore any method that calls to you, and I don’t mean methods that speak to your intellect, I mean methods that speak to your heart, your gut, your emotions. Explore the methods that really, truly feel good to you. (Life’s guidance comes in the form of cellular impulses, not your ‘logical, rational, ego-focused’ mind, and the world’s wisest teachers have agreed upon this for centuries.)
And it may feel ‘weird’ to do this at first.
Because a huge part of this LOA stuff takes practice, it takes you applying yourself. And you’ll only sustainably practice methods that you’ve been called to and that are part of your particular life-journey. And in order to do that, you absolutely must practice tuning into your inner-guidance early and often.
And on that note:
‘Source,’ ‘soul,’ ‘inner-guidance,’ ‘vortex,’ ‘subconscious,’ ‘god,’ ‘infinite,’ etc.
These are all people’s way of referring to something that we don’t really have language for. The all-encompassing, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient ‘source’ of everything. The infinite pool of ‘energy’ responsible for the expansion of our reality, our universe, our evolution, our selves.
Language is almost useless here since it’s just a bunch of individual beings with individual perspectives trying their best to describe the ineffable, infinite collective that all manifestations spring from.
It’s like an ant trying to understand Einstein, then re-explain it to an amoeba.
The best way I can explain Source (or infinite, or the vortex, or whatever) is a giant sentient ocean of energy, where every manifestation is a frozen, solidified, ice pellet made from an individual drop.
It’s still not the greatest explanation for Source, but I believe it’s better than everything else I’ve heard, and hopefully it helps enlighten you.
Because the game of life is one of summoning source-energy through you in order to ‘realize’ your dreams.
And like any game, it takes practice.
‘Effort,’ ‘Work,’ ‘Practice.’
I emphasize practice a lot.
Actually, I believe I emphasize it more than any other LOA teacher. I’m fairly certain you won’t find one who’s more passionate about practice than I am. I’m obsessed with it.
Because, while other teachers focus so much on theory, philosophy, debating methods, explaining the universe, and all that stuff…
I focus on getting you results.
I focus on ‘practical’ law of attraction. Because while they serve you up candy-coated feel-good philosophies that keep you binging their channels for dopamine hits… I serve you up just enough explanation to kick you in the ass and get you practicing.
And while they tell you to love yourself, be gentle with yourself, and take as long as you want… I tell you to step-up and really master this stuff, asap. Yes, your soul is eternal and you can’t get it wrong. Yes you can reincarnate and do it again better. But honestly…
Don’t let years go by with you barely manifesting anything you want. Apply yourself, practice, master it, and get what you want this lifetime.
Because you deserve it. And it’s possible. And you already know how.
Teachers like me are just here to remind you.
All you need is need proper, honest, heartfelt, enthusiastic, passionate, real, hardcore fucking practice.
But there’s something to know about practice.
You have to make practice fun.
I’ve written multiple times about practice, so I won’t go into it deeper here, but I will reiterate… you must make it fun, or it backfires.
Like a kid practicing a video game, sport, or dance… your practice must be something fun that you look forward to.
- Effective practice isn’t ‘hard work.’
- Effective practice isn’t ‘a grind.’
- Effective practice isn’t ‘a chore, responsibility, or obligation.’
- Effective practice IS FUN!
I hope this resonates with you.
Just be careful with anything that feels like ‘hard work.’
Hard work is a sign to change something.
For example you lose something, it might be good to look for it, but it might be better to avoid looking for it. Because if you avoid looking for it, it figuratively “could be anywhere”, this allows the universe to guide you toward it organically. Similar things can happen with tech. Many people are able to ‘leave their computer alone’, and return to find it has fixed itself. The point is some effort must be applied in life, but it’s a fine balance between that and over-effort.
Effective practice is always and only… something you do for fun. Because it feels good.
And it’s on you to ‘make it fun’, like someone who whistles while they wash dishes or someone who reads a book on a long commute.
Yes it takes ‘some effort’, the same way ingesting food or visiting a friend or ‘shooting some hoops’ takes ‘some effort.’
But it doesn’t take ‘crazy effort’ to practice.
It’s not a burden. It’s fun. It’s you getting better at manifesting, leveraging the law of attraction, and living life on your own terms. Your practice is you applying yourself proactively, and progressing towards your dreams.
So yes, love yourself, of course. And yes, be gentle with yourself, of course. But don’t get so obsessed with these two things that you neglect the most important thing of all…
Applying your personal efforts towards fun, effective, practice.
Oh my god, I can’t believe I made it to the end of my confused-LOA-terms list.
(LOL, best manifestation ever.)
When this project started, it was going to be a quick explanation of ‘desire & belief,’ but with every inspired word I wrote, more ideas popped up and I thought “Oh, it’d be great to include ‘this’”, or “it’s huge value to include ‘that.’”
And don’t get me started on proof-reading, heh.
So, the project just kept growing and evolving, and I began to wonder when it would end. (Not in an anxious way, simply in a “I’m curious where all this inspiration will take me” way.)
And we’ve just about wrapped it up.
Except there’s one thing I’d like to express, and it’s this:
I, J-Ryze, can’t make you understand any of these terms.
If you want to skim it, you will.
If you want to misinterpret it, you will.
If you want to go back to binging LOA content on YouTube, you will.
But I hope you know you’re in for a hard time applying any LOA content if you don’t have a firm grasp on the terms and concepts above. And I hope you can tell I’ve poured epic amounts of love into explaining them ‘better’ than others, here for you. And I hope you apply the understandings above towards getting what you want in life.
Thank you.