Gazing in the Mirror

December 6 - Pretend and Make It Happen

Settle for nothing less and
behave as if you knew your
success was inevitable. ...
the only other thing required
of you is that you show up,
taking action in the general
direction of your dreams so
that you can meet with
'accidents' and 'serendipities'
that will allow the Universe's
plan to unfold without a hitch.
~ Mike Dooley,
"Manifesting Change"

If we are to draw from Life
what we want, we must first
think it forth into Life. It
always produces what we think.
In order to have success, we
must first conceive it in our
thought. This is not because
we are creators, but because
the flow of Life into manifestation,
through us, must take the form
we give it, and if we want a thing
we must have within ourselves the
mental equivalent before we get it.
~ Ernest Holmes

Practitioners of metaphysics often will advise a person trying to manifest something or other to just pretend it is so, even though it clearly is not. Although it can be difficult to do that it is a crucial point. We cannot demonstrate our belief that all that we desire is what the Divine also desires for us and proves it is so by giving that to us if we attempt to demonstrate it in the past or the future. Now that is probably pretty obvious to most people. Why the heck would anyone want to demonstrate some aspect of the Life that they were desiring in the PAST ? Doh ! ! It would be pointless and happily that is fairly clear and obvious. How could we experience anything in the NOW if it had already happened in the past ?

Likewise we cannot treat for what we desire as though it is coming in the future. We do not live in the future even though we as human beings often wonder about what the future will be like and sometimes for very practical reasons "plan" for the future. It is certainly necessary to plan for certain kinds of journeys. For example, if we must book an airplane flight or hotel room. That is a practical use for taking care of the future before it actually happens. Yet even that activity of planning for the future is still occurring in the present moment. It is truth that the only place that we are actually able to experience anything is in the present moment. Therefore when we are making metaphysical affirmations and declaring our intentions or utilize the methods of the Science of Mind philosophy, for example in using the technique of Spiritual Mind Treatment (which is a form of affirmative prayer) – we make ALL of our declarations in a present tense. If we make these in future tense then the law cannot bring them to us because the future is never in the now. Our manifestation will always be "coming" but un-arrived and will never actually BE in the now if our focus is someday in the future.

Do you feel funny declaring the opposite of what is ? – as I've been attempting to do because I have a cold developing within me for the last 24 hours. Try as I might to deny it, that ill feeling has been determined and persistent. Certainly I know my intention regarding any experience of it clearly enough. For many days now during the last two weeks since my husband and younger son became ill with a mild cold-like illness, I have been giving myself mega-doses of pure crystalline Vitamin C to support my immune system. I have actively participated in denying the cold illness any "welcome" into my own body. Yet in hindsight as I write about this now, I see that the possibility of acquiring a cold from my family members remained "a possible reality" within my own personal beliefs. Therefore I must admit to you that I now have the unmistakable indications of the "irritation" of a cold-like illness but happily without really "suffering" from it.

It is interesting to notice that in my respiratory illness during the summer of 2012 and once again with this mild illness now, I notice these as "curiosities" that are affecting my physical body without feeling any undue suffering within me. That is not how I would have experienced these kinds of illness previously. The manifestation of symptoms would have been unbearable to me and even though I cannot claim that they are delightful and a whole lotta fun at the moment, I've had no desire to reach for any over the counter cold medicines because I know that the side-effects of those remedies would only add their own experience of "illness". Still if the symptoms were actually causing a lot of true suffering in me, I would utilize whatever I had available to me including medical advice and prescriptions or medications in order to feel well again.

So what do I pretend now that the reality is unmistakable ? Perhaps the easiest thing to do first is not to really "pretend" at all. I can know that already the illness is progressing to that new state of being gone. I know that an end to it is going to happen and is inevitable. So I can easily know that it is happening already even as I write this. There is no passage of time in the realm that we draw our physical manifestations from. It is the timeless void of the Taoist perspective that what does appear to have come through comes from a place that does not appear visible to our physical senses. From where does the soul that inhabits a newborn infant come ? It did not arrive from any individual person yet to form. So that individual personality must have existed as a pattern even before the body that houses it fully develops.

Did you pretend when you were a child ? If you can remember how that felt then you can utilize that skill now. You can "pretend" that whatever you desire already exists in this very moment. You can make a game of it. I am often surprised by the details of a manifestation (whether happy or undesirable) once it has become a reality. The details of the manifestation have a lot to teach any practitioner about their true beliefs. "If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all" – my first and now ex-husband used to say that frequently. And it is no surprise to me that he did have a lot of bad luck all the time – including losing me as his wife (or at least I'd like to believe that my leaving was actually something he would have regretted the manifestation of). So the next time you are affirming a desire for some good thing to be made manifest in your experience simply believe it is so now. I'm believing that the truth of my own self even at this very moment is a definite feeling of being "well". It is easy to believe it is so.

~ perspective

In order to manifest anything, I have
to believe in its possibility because if
I don't really believe it is possible for
me to win $1 million, then it just ain't
gonna happen.
When I truly have the sense of knowing
that the energy of manifestation is
occurring, I understand this as an
indication that the creative law is
operating to produce my desire.
When the desire actually begins to
manifest there occur indications that
it is happening but the demonstration
is still fragile enough that I am able
to reject possibilities that I don't
actually want to experience.
If I don't believe that it is possible
to "stop" a manifestation that is
beginning to show itself, then it is
actually already too close to reality
to stop it and I might as well prepare
myself for the experience.
When there is something that I really
want I can play "Let's Pretend" and
go through some physical motions as
though what I am desiring is actually
happening in the present moment
because I have found that this assists
my belief to be receptive to the
energies and cooperate with them to
make it so.

#belief #illness #imagination #intention #medicine #possibilities #remedies #suffering #time #void