Why I Prefer the Law of Assumption to the Law of Attraction

If you follow my blog, you will have noticed that I’ve written a lot recently about the Law of Assumption, which is a technique for manifesting that is an alternative to the popular Law of Attraction. 

In this article I’m going to talk about my experiences with the Law of Attraction and why I do not like this method for manifesting as much as I like the Law of Assumption. I will also provide some insights into what I feel is the most effective way to manifest the life of your dreams. 

Please note that in this article I am only writing about the Law of Attraction, as I learned, understood and practised it back in 2006-2008. It’s possible that your interpretation of the Law of Attraction is different from mine. But I will do my best anyway to elucidate what I see as the differences between these two modalities for manifesting.

My History with Using the Law of Attraction

I watched ‘the Secret’ movie in 2006 and I studied the Abraham-Hicks materials on the Law of Attraction between 2006-2008. I loved the Secret movie, and as I understood it, the Law of Attraction was about coming into alignment with my desires by feeling really good. So I went to work feeling as good as possible, as often as I could.

The biggest change in my life during this period was that in 2007-2008 I learned to read the Akashic Records and I opened my business, and it became successful. So, you could say that perhaps the Law of Attraction changed my life, but I’m not sure I can attribute this change to that because I think I practised the Law of Attraction quite inconsistently and badly.

The reason why I practised inconsistently was because I found that using the Law of Attraction was ultimately unsustainable for me. I had trauma from my childhood and adolescence and I suffered from Seasonal Affective Disorder (AKA winter depression) and some degree of depression outside of the winter. Feeling good as much as possible was not working for me and I actually felt a lot worse because of the pressure to feel good. There was also the sense of being sabotaged by my own limiting beliefs, which were sometimes creating the feeling of having to wade through mud, so to speak. This was a long-term pattern that was ongoing in all life areas and no amount of pretending to feel good was going to change this.

In addition, after 2008 when I abandoned the Law of Attraction practices, I did often set intentions by writing them down and putting them in a box, which I wrote about here. So, I was setting intentions and hoping for them to show up in my 3D reality, but I wasn’t using any techniques and although some of them did come to pass, others didn’t. 

Does any of this sound familiar?

Then in 2022, after a bad period in my life, I came across the Law of Assumption. 

It immediately resonated with me and I put it to work. The changes that resulted from applying it were so much more significant than the results I had had from using the Law of Attraction.

Here’s why I believe using the Law of Assumption was so effective for me where the Law of Attraction wasn’t…

Neville Goddard is one of the main teachers of the Law of Assumption, and he taught that it is our expectations, assumptions, beliefs and identity in life that creates our 3D reality. Therefore, if we want to change our lives, we change our beliefs, assumptions and identity. 

Abraham-Hicks (the leading teacher of the Law of Attraction) may also teach this to some degree, but the main thrust of their teaching is about changing your feelings, in order to change your 3D reality.

Changing your feelings to change your reality is a low-level way to create, because your feelings are a downstream consequence of who you are being.

It is much more effective to change your self-concept and identity, and this will change your beliefs, your feelings and your thoughts. 

Neville Goddard stated: 

“Change your conception of yourself and you will automatically change the world in which you live. Do not try to change people; they are only messengers telling you who you are. Revalue yourself and they will confirm the change.” 

Note that in order to change your self-concept, your beliefs and your assumptions about life, you will need to work with the subconscious mind to change. This can be tedious work and it can take time. It can be deep work. It may require healing and it takes self-discipline. You will probably need to use techniques in a sustained way over the long term. 

The Law of Assumption is about becoming someone new, using your imagination and repetition.

It’s not about flicking a switch from “feeling bad” to “feeling good”, for no reason. 

The way I saw it, Abraham-Hicks espoused feeling good for no reason and I often felt like I was trying to push myself into a kind of happiness that I didn’t genuinely feel. It felt like toxic positivity. 

Neville Goddard on the other hand teaches that you should rest in the state or the feeling of your wish fulfilled, in order to manifest. People often take this to mean that you should feel how you would feel if your desire manifested, but it doesn’t have to mean that. It can mean that you just rest in the assumption that your desire is already here, to the point where it feels natural to you. It can be more of a psychological concept rather than an emotional concept. Or it could be both. But the main thing is that you change your self-concept so that it feels natural to you that your desire is here. So, as an example, if you desire to be married to the person of your dreams, you become an adored wife or a husband in your self-concept and in your imagination. You tell yourself “I am the kind of person who is happily married” and “I was always meant for great love” until you naturally feel relaxed and secure in that truth, over time.  

But you can leave your feelings alone.

You don’t need to go round feeling super happy that you’re finally married, like the Law of Attraction teaches. Nor do you need to engineer the feelings of being relaxed and secure in the truth that you are married. With the Law of Assumption, this happens on its own as a downstream consequence of changing your identity and self-concept.

And what if you happen to feel bad one day? When this happened to me (and I had a lot of bad days back in 2006-2008 when I was using the Abraham-Hicks teachings) I would feel like giving up because the way I understood it, our feelings create and I couldn’t control mine. 

The Law of Attraction teaches that our feelings create our lives, but the Law of Assumption doesn’t. The Law of Assumption says that it is thoughts that create, and the combination of a feeling and a thought that create. The combination of a feeling and a thought is a reaction. A negative reaction or a positive reaction creates powerfully. So, if you are always reacting negatively to circumstances in your life, this can create more of the same, if you’re doing it consistently.

But if you are just having a bad day where you’re feeling grief over an old loss, or you’re upset about something as a one off? This isn’t necessarily going to mess up your manifesting, according to the Law of Assumption.

It’s your identity, self-concept and beliefs that manifest, much more than your feelings. 

So using the Law of Assumption for me has taken the pressure off from always feeling good. 

Don’t get me wrong — feeling good is excellent. But I no longer feel it is a requirement for my manifesting, and it isn’t. 

EIYPO

Before I finish this article, I do want to point out one more difference between the Law of Assumption and the Law of Attraction, which is that the Law of Attraction teaches that there is a higher power out there in the Universe (Source/God or whatever you want to call it) whereas the Law of Assumption teaches that YOU are the higher power. 

Essentially when you are using the Law of Attraction, you are handing your intention over to Source or the Universe. You are intending to attract your desire, but only if it is in your highest good and the highest good of all. If your intention doesn’t come to pass, you may conclude that it wasn’t meant to be.

The Law of Assumption does not accept this. Instead it teaches that your imagination is God — it literally creates your world. Your 3D reality is a product of your consciousness. Everything is you pushed out (EIYPO) and you live in a multiverse, where many parallel worlds exist and where you place yourself in one of them by sheer force of intention and decision. The Law of Assumption says that you decide. You take back your power by deciding what you want and that’s it. There is no higher power or God outside of you denying you what you want. Only you can do that.

This also means that because everyone is you pushed out, you can manifest good things for other people, too (more on this here) and you can also get as specific as you like, with your desires.

Some Law of Attraction students do not like this concept of manifesting for others, and do not believe in it. If it doesn’t resonate with you, you can still use the Law of Assumption but discard this piece of Neville Goddard’s teachings. 

Personally I use about 90% Law of Assumption methods and 10% Law of Attraction methods. I combine the 2 to my own liking.

I hope that clarifies why I prefer the Law of Assumption. 

What do you think of this article? Have you found the Law of Attraction or the Law of Assumption helpful?

Further Resources:

And you can find Neville Goddard’s books on the Law of Assumption here: Neville Goddard: The Complete Reader

Meet Anna

Hi, I’m Anna Sayce! My purpose here on this website is to provide practical techniques and information to help empaths to understand, and fix the root of their energetic overwhelm & also to help sensitives to embrace and develop their intuitive gifts. I believe that developing our spiritual & intuitive side is very powerful and allows us to improve our own lives, and if we wish, even make the world a better place for others. Discover more >

4 Comments

  1. Ali

    Hi Anna!

    Thank you for this knowledge, always revealing.

    I was about to start writing and more so asking why esoteric or much of the mainstream mysticism comes from North America and why most of it is focused on manifesting. I have my doubts with many of these philosophies as many times we don’t look at the root of it – who is the person who preaches it and where did that person live/come from, etc. And by living in North America I can say that a lot of it is focused on image and ego.

    Anyway, then as I was reading the New Testament (in my native language), I came across this small verse from Jesus, which has some Goddard swag to it …. this is a translation:

    “And that’s why I tell you: all that you ask by praying, believe that you have received it, and you shall have it”.

    And the verse before that talks about believing in our hearts what we are saying and it shall be done.

    I was baffled. Was Jesus the first one to talk about the law of assumption? Or one of the firsts?

    Thank you, Anna.

    PS: on eclipse day I made a decision.

  2. Angie

    Excited to learn more!! I, too was frustrated with the Law of Attraction after awhile. I’ve appreciated all of your insights over the years more than you’ll ever know. ❤️

  3. Anna Sayce

    Hi Ali,

    That quote you read sums up the Law of Assumption perfectly doesn’t it.

    I’m not sure who was the first to talk about the Law of Assumption. I believe that Buddhism and Hinduism in their essence also teach the Law of Assumption.

    I expect that since humans have had the capacity to analyse and examine philosophical questions, a few people will have noticed that our imaginations create reality and that this truth has been transmitted throughout history. I think Jesus was the one whose message was most impactful.

  4. Anna Sayce

    Angie – I’m glad to hear that! 🙂

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