I’ve been immersed in the manifesting community and Law of Assumption space for around 18 months now, and I’ve coached others in their conscious creation process. Back when I started immersing myself in this space, I was so green and enthusiastic that I didn’t see the potential harms of using the Law of Assumption to consciously create.

Now I want to state what I see as potential harms and how they can be avoided on your path of conscious creation. There is a clear way to manifest positive outcomes in your life while maintaining excellent mental health. Use the tips below to avoid taking yourself down an unhealthy path.

1. Thoughts on their own don’t manifest powerfully

One of the things that can sometimes scare people about getting into conscious manifesting is the idea that our thoughts create our reality.

I do not believe that thoughts are a powerful way to manifest, on their own.

I believe that for something to manifest in your world, it needs to combine both thought and feeling. Emotionalised thoughts manifest. Thoughts that we identify with (as meaning something about us) manifest.

Let me give you an example of what I mean:

If you are checking your bank balance and you think “oh, my balance is low. I hope I have enough money to pay my rent this month.”

Acknowledging that you don’t have enough money this month is not going to manifest more poverty.

If you check your bank balance, see that it’s low and then tell yourself you’re a loser because you have no money and you’re in debt, that’s a thought you’re identifying with, and it means something about you. That’s what manifests — who you believe yourself to be and what you feel the low bank balance means about you.

Or if you check your bank balance, see it’s low and then go into a full-on panic which lasts a while, that is a reaction. It’s a combination of a thought and a strong emotion. It’s an emotionalised thought. When you do it repeatedly and consistently, that is what manifests your world — what you are reacting to and resisting.

This is also the most powerful way to manifest something good — through emotionalised thoughts. In visualisations and affirmations, we have thoughts and we allow those to elevate our emotions while we’re using those techniques. When practised consistently, this is what leads to positive conscious manifestations.

2. If you have certain tendencies with your mental health, hold those in mind while manifesting and ensure the techniques you use are right for you

For example, if you have OCD or you’ve had symptoms of OCD in the past, be wary around obsessive, robotic affirming. This is probably not the right technique for you.

Also be cautious with your mental diet — don’t obsess over it. If keeping a mental diet makes you feel obsessive or upset, just drop this idea altogether for now.

If you have anxiety and a manifesting technique makes you more anxious, step away from it. Choose the technique that really feels good to you and improves your mental health. If it doesn’t feel good, stay away from it (this applies to everyone; not just those who have anxiety).

You can find a list of manifesting techniques here.

3. Don’t view manifesting techniques as helping you to get something in the outside world — instead do them for enjoyment

Let’s be real. We are interested in manifestation because we want something in the 3D world. We want more love, more money, more freedom, more peace, more joy, better health, or whatever it is.

However, when we view techniques in a transactional way: if I do X, I will get Y, it doesn’t work so well. We’re forever fixated on the 3D world and whether it is yielding what we wish to see. We get impatient and frustrated if it doesn’t shift.

The paradox here is that even though we usually start out doing techniques to get something in the outside world, it doesn’t work that way.

The reason that conscious manifesting works is this:

If you are looking for something in the outside world, you cannot see it in your world until you have found it on the inside.

This is the absolute essence of what Neville Goddard taught.

An example: If you feel unloved and unwanted in your life, you will not find love in the 3D. Or if you do, it will be with someone who doesn’t satisfy your desire to be loved. You won’t feel loved by that person even if they love you.

Everything you want in the 3D can be found on the inside and must be found on the inside first. Only then can it be found on the outside. You are the source of all. God/Source is the source of all. I believe, and Neville Goddard taught, that all human beings are a piece of God. We all have a soul or a higher self (which is a piece of God) that takes us on a path towards what we want to create, starting with our imagination.

If you see the good stuff of life — love, freedom, wellbeing, abundance as existing outside of you, and things that life is withholding from you, that you need to GET, you will not succeed in your conscious manifesting.

Learn to enter states of feeling loved, feeling abundant, feeling free, feeling vital and healthy. Learn to cultivate these states within by having new positive thoughts, new positive feelings and a new level of wellbeing, and when you do that consistently, that is when your 3D reality will shift to reflect these energies in your life.

4. Be discerning when it comes to Law of Assumption teachers and content creators

I have been immersed in the LOA space for 18 months, as mentioned, and I’ve come across what I would consider maladaptive manifesting behaviours and recommendations during that time.

New thought philosophy has been repackaged by many on YouTube and online (and I include myself in this category). But the problem I see with this is that the titles of videos and articles have people running around in circles with the manifesting process.

I see video titles like these:

“This is the ONLY manifestation technique you will ever need”

And the next day:

“If you don’t do this, you won’t get your manifestation.”

And the next day:

“Use this technique to manifest what you want instantly”

(From the same video creator.)

When people see titles like these, they start to get anxious about whether they’re missing something in their process. This creates thoughts and feelings of lack, and makes people more likely to purchase a course from one of these creators to see what they’re missing and why they aren’t getting their manifestation instantly. It turns out the person was not missing anything — in fact, you can find everything you need in Neville Goddard’s and Joseph Murphy’s teachings. (As an aside, Neville Goddard said that every manifestation has its own timeline to appear in the 3D and it’s not within our conscious control.)

You don’t need to spend a lot of money – or in fact, any money – to learn about the Law of Assumption. All of Neville Goddard’s work is in the public domain, and you can read it for free here. (It does take time to get used to his slightly archaic writing style but if you do immerse yourself in his work, I think you will be richly rewarded.)

5. The Law of Assumption isn’t about controlling people, it’s about changing yourself

Neville Goddard taught that when using the Law of Assumption to manifest for someone else, we must assume the best for that person. We must see them happy, healthy, loved, healed (if applicable) and with everything they need financially.

From this place, positive outcomes manifest for those we love, and for us.

In addition, Neville taught that everyone is you pushed you – the entire world is your mirror. If you want to see change in another person, it’s not about changing them and controlling that person to behave a certain way. You need to change yourself. You need to dissolve the part of you that is “holding them in gridlock” (as spiritual teacher Agnes Vivarelli puts it) and seeing them in a way that is less than ideal. As Neville said, there is no-one to change but self.

Having said that, I don’t ever recommend using these spiritual principles with people in your life who are behaving in an abusive manner. It’s too risky and can result in physical or emotional harm.

6. Using the Law of Assumption is a lifestyle — not a magic trick

Practising the LOA is a lifestyle. It means a dedication to bringing more positive thoughts, emotions and behaviours into your life. It’s also about shedding what doesn’t serve you and allowing for more possibility. And it’s about observing your thoughts and challenging the negative ones. In some cases, this can take tremendous inner work and a lot of rewiring of neural pathways — this is not usually a magic trick that you can insert into your life to get a desire as a one off. People who use it like a magic trick and manage to manifest what they want, often can’t sustain what they manifested. If you want a new outcome in your life, you have to change who you are being on the inside.

Don’t use the LOA simply to get something on the outside — instead, change on the inside, and your outer world will reflect the change.

7. Don’t invalidate your emotions or resist them, thinking negative ones will manifest.

Remember that it’s the combination of a thought and an emotion (aka a reaction) that manifests an outcome — and this needs to be repeated so that the subconscious mind is impressed. 

Emotions on their own do not manifest. Let negative emotions pass through you and meet them with acceptance. What you resist, persists.

Using the Law of Assumption is not about invalidating your emotional experiences.

8. Be realistic

Sometimes it can take months, or a year or longer for someone to do the inner work required to manifest what they desire. If you started off from a very bad place in your life, it might even take you a few years to manifest the life you want. Again, this is not a magic trick. This is about making a change to your self-concept that lasts so that your outer world can change.

Neville Goddard said: “There’s no-one to change but self”. Your current self has been years in the making. Your slightly different self, that has a slightly different reality, may take time to bring into being.

9. Pick and choose your own beliefs

My personal belief is that we are manifesting all of the time — for better or worse — and that our state of being (thoughts, feelings, beliefs, assumptions, etc) are perfectly reflected in our lives – I wrote more about this concept in this article.

As an aside, Neville Goddard taught that the only exception to this is that people die when it is their time, and we do not manifest the deaths of people around us.

Some people don’t believe that we manifest everything in our lives and think this is victim blaming.

You get to decide. If you don’t believe in EIYPO or if you don’t agree that we manifest everything in our lives, discard these ideas.

If you want to use visualisation/SATS and affirmations, but you don’t believe you have manifested everything in your life, go for it and use the techniques anyway. You don’t have to subscribe wholesale to the New Thought teachings in order to successfully manifest a new outcome in your life. You could just use the techniques to improve your mental health and emotional state. You can discard the beliefs you don’t ascribe to.

I have seen that good things will happen as a result of consistently applying Law of Assumption techniques, regardless of what you believe.