The think I’ve been noticing more and more is the debate that has cropped up as to whether or not hard work is required to bring about manifestation. I first noticed this debate on Andy Wibbels’ blog post which was basically a rant about The Secret. The main focus of the post was about the marketing of “The Secret“. I’ll be the first to admit that, while I overall enjoyed the DVD, a bit of the marketing behind it is over-the-top.

What is interesting, however, is that in the ensuing comments thread on the post, the debate of hard work vs. affirmation/prayer cropped up. I’ve since noticed this debate being discussed on many other venues.

Basically, the debate is this: On one side of the proverbial fence, we have the group which maintains that hard work is the only way to bring about (manifest) change. I agree with this view, to a certain degree.

On the other side is the belief that prayer/visualization/affirmation is enough to bring about (manifest) change. I agree with this view, to a certain degree.

You may have noticed that I agree with BOTH views, to a certain degree. This is because, since I am a believer in the LoA, I must realize that both views are correct from their own points of view.

The reason that hard work is necessary for manifestation to occur on the one side of the fence is the BELIEF that it is necessary.

The reason that hard work is NOT necessary for manifestation to occur on the other side of the fance is the BELIEF that it is NOT necessary.

In my own experience, I have had situations where hard work was necessary, whereas other times, I have brought about awesome change with only mental work on my part. No physical action required.

Interesting how that works.

Anyway, please realize that my beliefs in this matter are just that…MY beliefs. You may not agree with my beliefs on this, but that’s OK. In the paraphrased words of Morpheus, “My beliefs do not require you to.”

For some interesting reading about the LoA:

Steve Pavlina’s posts about Intention & Manifestation

Andy Wibbels’ post about The Secret

I’m interested in hearing in the comments about YOUR experiences with the LoA and whether or not it works for you.

Spent the majority of the dream walking around in a suburban neighborhood, looking at all the houses. Totally amazed I was, that this entire dream world was being created by ME.

This post is my submission to Nneka’s call for posts telling “What we’re grateful for“.

I realized the other day, as I was observing this happen to me, that this analogy of traffic lights is a perfect illustration of how to keep the proper mindset if we expect our intentions to manifest as we intend. Let me explain.

I’m driving down the street (which could be taken to mean life in general), and I approach an intersection (crossroads, decisions, etc). I decide how I want the light to be (the intention). Ideally, as I get closer and closer to the intersection (decision), I should be able to keep the intention firmly in Mind, and simply KNOW that it will happen. This usually works. Sometimes, however, the light (life circumstances) doesn’t appear to be switching as soon or timely as I would like. I begin to panic (doubt my own intentions), and the Law of Attraction simply gives me more of what I think about. By allowing doubt to creep into my intention, I begin thinking of the very situations I do NOT want to happen. By thinking about these “negative” situations, I bring more of the same. I need to figure out HOW to stop doing that.
So, that’s the problem. But what’s the solution?
Rather than doubting my intentions, because of the APPEARANCE of what is going on, I should TRUST that the intention will manifest. This manifestation occurs, to borrow from the affirmation by Steve Pavlina’s Million Dollar Experiment, “in its own perfect time, for the highest good of all”. Just simply focus on the WHAT and WHY of what you are intending, and not so much on the HOW. If your WHY is big enough, the how will take care of itself.

As far as the traffic light analogy goes. Think of this way. If your desire about the intention is strong enough, then you must be resolved to the point that you are willing to speed through the intersection EVEN IF the light stays red. Once you can put yourself in that place of awareness and knowing, the light will change.

I’d be interested in hearing anyone else’s take on this, and also if anyone has some experiences which might serve as examples.

I understand what Steve Pavlina described like this: The reason that it takes TIME to manifest new intentions is that the stream of intention that you are constantly putting out is the combined average of all you’ve ever thought before now. So, while you may be constantly bombarding your subconscious mind with positive intentions NOW, it still takes time to sway the average subconsciouis intentions you put out. It takes TIME.

Terry McBride, as I gather, said it like this: No amount of prayer, affirmation, or intention ever changes anything or causes anything to become manifest. All you ever do, through prayer, affirmation and intention is alter your BELIEFS. Your BELIEFS are what causes the subconscious mind to offer out new streams of intention.

I really resonate with what McBride says about belief. After some long hard thought, I came to realize that beliefs are really nothing more than habitual patterns of thought. I’ll explain.

Thoughts are what ultimately cause the Law of Attraction to manifest, because, through such techniques as meditation, affirmation and autosuggestion, the thoughts alter the content of the subconscious mind’s programming.

Have you ever wondered why it seems to take so long to get an affirmation to stick? I remember reading somewhere (multiple places, actually) that it takes at least 21 straight days of doing something for it to become habit. The first 3 weeks may seem like hell when it comes to remembering to do the new thing you are trying to adopt. If you can push through that hump though, you’re pretty much there, programming-wise.

Now, the subcoscious mind, and the brain in general, rely on finding patterns and associations. When you first learn to drive, it is a daunting thing. Get in, buckle in, key in, start engine, check mirrors, etc… Who can remember all that stuff? The key, however, is when the brain is exposed to the actions in the proper sequence enough times (through Spaced Repetition), that eventually the subconscious mind is able to take over the actions automatically. That is why sometimes we drive somewhere, and don’t remember driving there. The brain, having done it enough times, doesn’t see fit to bring every detail of the driving to our conscious awareness. Want some of the best meditation in the world? Drive a fairly long route you are used to taking. It works wonders.

So, the same applies to all things learned by the brain. Let’s say you want to develop the habit of remembering your dreams, which is a personal favorite of mine. Erin Pavlina tells us in the podcast she did with Steve about Lucid Dreaming, to lie still in bed after waking up. Keep eyes closed to remember the dream, by noticing which emotions come up as you think about the parts of the dream you remember. I know this is very difficult at first, as I’m still playing with it. It is difficult because most of us are trained (a habit) to wake up with the alarm clock and instantly jump out of bed into out busy lives. What if you took the extra few minutes for 3 weeks to a month, to just wake up a few minutes early and remember what you dreamed about? Eventually, that habit will overpower the previous habit of jumping out of bed on the first beep of the alarm.

So, does it not stand to reason that if we think a specific thought or group of thoughts enough times, that the thought will eventually get taken over by the subconscious mind as a habitual thought?

Now, the tricky thing is, beliefs aren’t always made up on just one thought. I mentioned before that the brain is a thing of association. Think two or more thoughts TOGETHER, and the thoughts will become habitual TOGETHER. If you get into a situation that fires off one of the thoughts, the other thought will automatically fire with it.

Beliefs are tricky things, and we need to find better and better ways to change out bad beliefs for better ones.

Two methods I recommend are the post I wrote about called How to Eliminate Negative Thought Patterns or Steve Pavlina’s article How to Squash Negative Thought Patterns.

As far as finances and money go, your spending habits either make or break you financially. What if you took 3 weeks to simply write down the different things you spend your money on? The very act of observation will help find out where your money leaks are, so you can plug them. Wouldn’t it be nice if that happened without you realizing it? Just like the “how did I get here when I don’t remember driving the last 200 miles?”, you just might wake up and say “Where did all this extra money come from?”

Over the past few days, I’ve been giving Subjective Reality more thought. I keep coming back to the part about how each person in my/your subjective reality is really no more than a projection of some aspect of your consciousness that, at the present time, seems better delivered in the simulation as a separate, fragmented “external” person. I mentioned in the last post that as you work to improve the lives of all the other “people” in your life, that you are actually working on bringing all these aspects of your own consciousness back into alignment with each other.

I took the title of this post from the line Ben Parker says to Peter Parker in “Spiderman”. He said, “With great power, comes Great responsibility.”

If you come to accept the Subjective Model of Reality as being accurate for you at this time, the implications are literally mind-blowing.

By being the projector of all these different “fragments” of your consciousness, you are repsonsible to make sure that all these fragments come into alignment. To take an Ego-based “This is my reality. I can do with what I will”, can be downright dangerous, from a personal growth standpoint.

By spreading bad will to others, you are in essence, not taking responsibility for what happens in your universe. In order to enrich the simulation, the only sustainable kind of energy is one of loving and compassion. Only love and compassion are capable of building the interlink relationships between all of these aspects of consciousness, to let them be as one. What would the world be like if everyone got along, because they each had reason to do so?

The prospect of such a world seems impossible to most people, as evidenced by the state of affairs. I hope to help change that somehow.

Have you genuinely tried to be nice to someone, or compassionate, and had that person treat you as being less than the dirt you’re standing on? I believe that comes down to habit and beliefs, which I’ll be covering in the next article.

In the subjective reality model, there is only one consciousness, and this consciousness is what “runs” the world. Each “other” person in the reality of the consiounessness is a manifestation of some apsect of that conscousness.

What this means, briefly, is that any time you are mean, disruptive or just downright nasty with someone else, just stop and remember that you are, in a sense, speaking to yourself.

If, however, you work on building more meaningful relationships, and, in Steve’s words, “Be more loving all around”, you will bring more and more love into your life, as the other people come into alignment with your purpose.

In light of that, I’ve decided to focus on my blogging in this manner. I want to not only help as many people live better lives, I want to make it as duplicatible as possible and teach those people to also teach others to do the same. This way, I intend to create an epidemic of Goodwill that will positively impact the world as a whole seemingly overnight.

I’m a huge fan of Steve Pavlina, simply because Personal Development is a field of study which requires courage to be able to face down our own self-imposed limitations and expand our awareness.
Here are a few links to some of Steve Pavlina’s writings about subjective reality.

Articles

• Subjective Reality Q&A
• More Subjective Reality Q & A
  
• Subjective Reality Q&A 3
• Reprogramming Reality
• Your True Identity: Ego or Awareness

Audio

StevePavlina.com Podcast #016 – The True Nature of Reality