Why Is Manifesting Reality Always About Money?

Money, Money, and More Money

Why is manifesting reality so often about getting rich? Probably because spending lots of money is the quickest and easiest way most of us can imagine to change our circumstances for the better, and manifestation is always about getting something that will make our lives better.

We hope…

Yes, we hope, because the truth is most of us have no actual idea if being rich will make our lives at all better. It is a hypothesis, a prediction based on the freedom that come from the short term buzz of spending money, the secure feeling of having a bigger bank balance, and all the evidence society showers on us in adverts and dramas and celebrity lifestyles. Wouldn’t it be much better to manifest happiness, or inner peace and self fulfillment? Isn’t that what having money is all about ultimately – to get us to a place of happiness?

Manifesting reality is also always about money because lots of people get rich teaching manifestation, recommending manifestation, and constructing manifestation techniques. This means the easiest way for these people to get their paycheck is by promising you that you will get an even bigger paycheck by following their advice. If you were to manifest inner peace, well that might be great for you, but not very profitable necessarily, and so you might run short on paying your manifestation Guru.

The Law Of Attraction

Still the Big Kahuna of the manifestation world is the law of attraction. For an overview of the history and some variations of the law of attraction, Wikipedia’s article here, does a good job. I’m not going to repeat that info but I do want to be clear – The “Law” of Attraction is definitely not a law. It is a theory often perpetuated as a law.

Though there are masses of variations, all boil down to believing that whatever you want to happen, (usually get rich), will happen as long as you believe it will happen. Most commonly this belief is demonstrated by acting as if what you desire has already happened. Like attracts like, (proponents of the law of attraction say), so acting as if you are already wealthy will bring wealth to you.

There are so many people giving accounts of their success in life coming from the law of attraction that it is hard not to ask the question – does manifesting reality & the law of attraction have any validity? Perhaps it does, but mainly in a general self-fulfilling prophecy, placebo way. If I start a business, and believe that I will attract clients, and believe that I will generate wealth, and visualise myself in the kind of reality where this has already happened then, yes, I will be much more likely to do the research, perfect the attitude and put in the hours to go get those clients, and make my business a success.

Will it just come to me if I sit back and, mostly, think it into existence. Doubtful. Having started my own business twenty years ago, and running it now, I know first hand this just doesn’t happen without putting in the work.

However, after saying all that, one of the clear implications of the theory of Infinite Existence, (emphasis on theory, not law or fact), is that manifesting reality would be possible, or at least that you can live a reality of your own choosing. However, would it be possible to do this accurately? And, even if it is was possible to accurately manifest/live the reality of your choosing, would this bring you peace, happiness and freedom?

Infinite Existence & Manifesting Reality

In his book Parallel Universes of Self¹ self development author and proponent of the law of attraction, Frederick Dodson promotes the idea that anyone can manifest their own reality, based on what they desire, by essentially moving into a new, parallel universe, where a future you is wealthy. I came to Dodson’s book when looking deeper into the idea of parallel universes, and how there could not be only one universe, or even a select few, and so it was more likely that an infinite amount of universes exist,² and that this meant that all possibilities must already exist, somewhere, in another universe.

Where I take this to mean that all possibilities already exist for us, regardless of the determined nature of each universe, Dodson’s approach to multiple universes is focused on leveraging the idea to make gains in the here and now.

Dodson’s technique for manifesting reality is very similar to others in the law of attraction world, in that he asks the reader to inhabit fully the person they want to be. Though Dodson talks at times about the importance of inner peace, the book is ultimately about gaining material possessions.

So if you want to be rich, then you must feel rich already, even if you’re penniless. Now, rather than attracting wealth to you, he says, that because there are multiple versions of our universe, then there will be a set of those universes where you become rich. By feeling rich already, you will somehow slide into one of those universes, and inhabit the wealth you have decided to gain.

What exactly the mechanism for sliding into a different universe would be is hard to imagine – does your consciousness, and the consciousness of the rich you that already exists in the other, more desirable universe, somehow change places? None of this is in anyway provable of course, though that is not necessarily a criticism, just a fact.

In the theory of Infinite Existence, an infinite amount of parallel universes does exist, meaning every possibility does exist, including universes where you are rich, or become rich. You even win the lottery in some of them. Now admit it, you want me to tell you how to get into that universe where you win the lottery!³

However, I cannot see how an infinite amount of parallel universes means there can be any moving of “You,” which is really your World Identity, into anywhere at all. I suggest that there is only one link between all these universe and this is Universal Consciousness. However, Universal Consciousness doesn’t care about money, and even if it did, it has already experienced winning the lottery in multiple World Identities, in multiple universes.

However, what you do have is possibility. Because you don’t know which universe you are in right now, then maybe this is the universe where tomorrow you buy a winning lottery ticket, or meet the girl or guy of your dreams, or any other World Identity fantasy which Universal Consciousness is witness to. In this way, living in an infinite amount of universes is no different to living in one singular universe – you have, or at least feel you have, complete free-will and infinite possibilities.

Does Infinite Existence, with multiple universes and multiple “You’s” mean the You here and now reading this can make certain events happen, with the kind of manifestation techniques taught by law of attraction advocates? Maybe? It is impossible to give an answer either way. No one really knows.

Though we all know that wanting something doesn’t just make it happen, there are also many accounts of a strong belief seeming to lead to, or at least influence, that belief being fulfilled. And here I don’t mean through hard work and enterprise, some people do have money, for example, seem to drop into their laps, out of nowhere. There are also the many anecdotes and stories of strange coincidences and synchronicities that we have all experienced. Are we influencing these events, making them happen in our current reality, are we manifesting reality?

Anecdotal Evidence & Manifesting Reality

Just the other day I was walking on a quiet beach near dawn with my dog Bean, who loves chasing a tennis ball. That day I had forgotten the tennis ball, and Bean wasn’t pleased. I got lost in thought when halfway along the beach, due to Bean still bouncing around at my heels I thought about how maybe someone might have left a ball on the beach that I could use? That did happen after all, as lots of dog walkers used the beach.

A few seconds later I saw what looked like a bright pink golf ball. Not much use for Bean to chase but when I picked it up I saw it was actually a hard rubber ball. Very bouncy, but again no good as it was small, and could get stuck in her throat. I turned around to see where Bean was and there at my feet was a bright green, nearly new, tennis ball.

Now, I must have walked past it when I spotted the pink ball. But how did I miss it? Lots of studies show that the brain is not a camera,⁴ and that we are often guilty of confirmation bias.⁵ Basically we make up a lot of reality, and the mind sees what the mind wants to see. However, in the example of the tennis ball, maybe I somehow chose to be in one of the universes where there was a tennis ball right where I wanted it to be? You decide. There is no way of proving any of these scenarios.⁶

Anecdotal evidence and stories aren’t enough to prove anything, hence there is no actual “Law” in the law of attraction. But, even if manifesting reality is possible, if it is possible to create external reality through force of will, how accurate could this really be? Whatever universe you decide to be in, which then comes true, (because they all exist somewhere), this is still a universe, and universes are hugely complex and messy.

Then there is the question of how we really would know what it is that is good for us? We all know the saying, Be Careful What You Wish For, and we all know that getting three wishes from a Genie usually ends in disaster, (and yes, I know you think it would be different if you got the three wishes). Also, sometimes in life it is the very events we don’t want to happen that teach us the most valuable lessons.

In my own life I had my entire large bowel removed on my thirtieth birthday – a horrible experience, but if that had not happened, perhaps I would not have found my way to the life I have now? It can be the hardest paths that lead to the greatest joys.

So life is complicated, nothing new there, but reality is even more complicated when you’re trying to create it in specific detail. And think for a minute, even if you could create and slide into the universe you think you want, with all the cash and sex, what is it all for anyway?

What Do You Really Want?

This is the real question I want anyone to ask who is obsessed with manifesting reality or just chasing down society’s dreams. What are you doing it for? What is the cash and sex going to give you? Happiness? Peace? Freedom? Maybe in the short term, but not in the long run.

Long lasting happiness, peace and freedom are not going to come to you with techniques. They will come when you let go of techniques, like manifesting reality, and the law of attraction, and gain a sense of why you want all the money and the sex in the first place – because you are scared to die. And why are you scared to die – because you think you will cease to exist. And why do you think you will cease to exist – because you don’t feel yourself connected to Infinite Existence. Follow the stages of The Roadmap for more of what I’m talking about.

Techniques also take you away from the present moment. If you are focused on a way to inhabit a different reality then you are at some level always denying where you are now. Focusing on manifesting reality means you are rejecting reality in a sense. This can lead to ignoring or repressing your emotions, and this can lead to mental and physical health problems, as discussed in the article Mind Body Healing. Also discussed in this article is the danger inherent in trying to think yourself to good health, or manifest health, using some version of positive thinking. Positive thinking also runs on the same fuel as the law of attraction – if I want it enough I will get it.

On a lesser level, most people will experience a sense of failure as the techniques that are promised to provide so much, fall so flat. Perhaps there is another You, in another universe, where the techniques succeeded, but I wouldn’t want to bet on it. Parallel universes doesn’t mean throwing out the laws of Physics and Logic. Just because we have all won the lottery in multiple universes, doesn’t mean the odds of winning the lottery actually change in any one universe.⁷