Manifesting comes in two varieties: scientific and New Age

Before I started to write another post (this one) about James Doty's book, Mind Magic: The Neuroscience of Manifestation and How It Changes Everything, I Googled "critique of manifestation" to see what critics of this fad were saying about it.

And fad it is, something I hadn't realized. I'd figured that after The Secret had been decried by thoughtful people as a New Age book full of cosmic B.S., where you can get whatever you want by aligning yourself with the esoteric Law of Attraction, people had stopped believing in this crap.

But no, the crap has made a comeback in the form of manifestation. I learned this by quickly looking through a bunch of articles just now, including "The Problem With Manifesting," "Is 'manifesting' dangerous magical thinking or a formula for success?," and "Shut up, I'm manifesting!"

What I learned from this peek into the New Age variety of manifesting is that I'm grateful I bought Doty's book, which is founded in neuroscience rather than woo-woo. Here's part of the New Scientist review by science writer Kayt Sukel that spurred my interest in the  book.

Ever since Rhonda Byrne’s bestselling self-help book The Secret came out nearly 20 years ago, manifestation, or the idea that you can transform desire into reality by thought alone, has gone mainstream.

While many have deemed it nothing more than new-age nonsense, two brain experts – James Doty, a neurosurgeon and founder of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University, California, and Sabina Brennan, a neuroscientist and psychologist at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland – have written books exploring how to use the brain’s own design to help guide your thoughts and perceptions to better achieve your goals.

In Mind Magic: The neuroscience of manifestation and how it changes everything, Doty kicks off with what he calls the “real” secret: “The universe does not give a fuck about you.” This sets the tone for the book, letting readers know that the following chapters won’t offer any advice on how to make the universe bend to our will.

Instead, Doty offers a unique primer – and a six-week plan – to help us learn how to adjust our thoughts to better activate parts of the brain to cultivate “a fierce belief in possibility”. In doing so, he argues, we can become more resilient, open and intentional.

Doty offers a step-by-step approach to demonstrate that manifesting isn’t magic, per se, but a way of clarifying what you truly want, embedding your intention in your subconscious and then releasing your expectations to allow that intention to take root. Along the way, he explains why introducing positive, goal-directed thoughts can help rewire important brain networks to help us pay better attention to the opportunities that will help us realise our potential.

While a good bit of Doty’s six-week plan reads like a meditation guide, complete with instructions to scan your body and let go of unnecessary attachments, he takes the time to explain why manifesting is really about focus. By directing your attention (as well as your time) to what you want, you can get into the right mindset to achieve the things you want most in life.

In his "Networks and Vibrations" chapter, Doty discusses the physiology of manifesting, which has nothing to do with anything supernatural or outside the realm of science. Yesterday I wrote a post for my HinesSight blog that was inspired by what Doty had to say about the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.

I included some quotes from Doty's book in "Constant worrying about Trump is a threat to your health." My basic point was that our brain and body are basically unchanged from prehistoric times when physical dangers such as being attacked by a saber-toothed tiger were what early humans had to worry about.

Now, we're mainly stressed not by life-or-death dangers, but by other sorts of problems, including the result of the recent United States presidential election -- if someone was firmly opposed to Trump winning. 

Doty says that moving from the fight, flight, or freeze response of the sympathetic nervous system, which enables us to quickly respond to both actual and imagined dangers, to the rest-and-digest response of the parasympathetic nervous system...

Brings with it the ability to process our emotions, memories, and plans, which then allow us to be much more thoughtful and discerning in our reactions to our experience. This spacious processing ability is the key to claiming your agency to change how you are going to react to the world itself. When we have choices about how we are going to act, those choices affect our physiology, which then affects how we respond to our environment.

He calls this the Green Zone of well-being, "in which we are calm, focused, in the flow, and able to care responsively for others. The Green Zone is also the state in which our consciousness can be mustered most effectively to visualize and pursue goals."

So one of the first practices Doty recommends is familiar to most meditators -- relaxing the body through a body scan. Breathing deeply. Focusing on different parts of the body and letting tension in them go. Simply being.

Imagine your body in a state of complete relaxation. See if you can bring your awareness to a sense of simply being as you slowly breathe in and out: nothing to do, nowhere to go, no one to be. Do you feel a sense of warmth or stillness or contentment? You might feel as if you are floating and be overcome with a sense of calmness.

Use your intention to take in the feelings of pleasure and peace and install them in your nervous system so you can recall these feelings in the future. Let your nervous system know that this state of relaxation is possible, desirable, and accessible when you need it.

From what I've read so far, Doty's book is about getting out of our own way when it comes to achieving our goals. Or, to use the trendy language, manifesting our goals. This takes it out of the realm of New Age ridiculousness and into the realm of psychology and neuroscience. 

Comments

[sant64]

Getting out of our own way? Achieving our goals?

I guess this new kick is based on employing our free will. Surely has to be. But what happened to the gospel of hard determinism, of no free will? The idea that everything that happens is inevitable, and our control of destiny is only an illusion?

After recent political events, I'm starting to understand how to properly employ the philosophy of hard determinism. First, you forget all about that philosophy as you stew endlessly about who will win the election. Then when the election doesn't go your way, *bingo* you're a hard determinist again. "The election wasn't lost because of a thousand ill-conceived things our party did; no, it was meant to be lost because the universe decreed it so from the Big Bang."

One problem with this newfound acceptance and serenity is that it's fleeting. For one is very soon right back to fretting about the election results and accusing the other side of"authoritarianism before they've even taken office. Hard determinism -- and the definition of democracy -- are forgotten.

I've always felt that a philosophy is only as good as one's fidelity to it. There's something wrong with a philosophy that can't be practically lived, or one that toggles back and forth with another philosophy. It means the philosophy doesn't make sense or is impractical. Or insincere. By the same token, there's also something quite impressive about someone who demonstrates that he practices what he preaches.

I'm sure there are such people out there, somewhere. Like in those Tales of the Mystic East stories, the sage who views disaster and fortune with the same equanimity. Or someone who subscribes to being a hard determinist and a liberal but who had zero emotional investment in the outcome of the recent election.

Please, understand, I don't think hard determinism is objectively bad. It's a very ancient philosophy that has survived to the present day. That says something. Also, you find varieties of hard determinism in most religions. Charan Singh espoused determinism, as did Ramana Maharshi. Arguably, so did Jesus and Mohammed. Whether it's the physics of the universe or God doing the determining, there's something undeniably comforting about accepting things and events as inevitable. As fated, and beyond anyone's control.

But I do think hard determinism is harmful in instances like these:

1) Where the hard determinist excuses objectively immoral behavior because "the universe made me do it." That is, he uses the philosophy as a license to follow his own selfish will.

2) Where the results of failure are explained away, blamed on the universe, or blamed on those troglodytic citizens who were fated to do something illogical, like voting the wrong way. That's the easy way. The better, truly scientific way would instead be a rigorous appraisal of why things didn't go the way we expected or wished; most particularly, where we were wrong.

"Wrong" is a word that doesn't get much play in the woo New Age sphere. But you rarely hear "wrong" in this bailiwick either. And that seems to go against the basic principles of that thing we hold so dear, science. Discovery and progress depend on a process of admitting wrongs and amending them, and not immediately assigning their cause to strumpet Fortune.

[Ron E.]

As I mentioned on the previous post about James Doty’s take on ‘manifesting’ which is: - “. . . defining an intention such that it gets embedded into our subconscious, which functions below the level of consciousness.” My only reservation is the use of the terms sub conscious and consciousness – but that’s an old bug of mine, perhaps not relevant to Doty’s ‘manifesting’.

Anyway, there seems to be a lot of merit in Doty’s ideas. As expressed in ‘Lisa Fieldman. Barrett’s Seven and a half lessons about the brain’. “It’s impossible to change your past, but right now, but with some effort, you can change how your brain will predict in the future. You can invest a little time and energy to learn new ideas. You curate new experiences. You can try new activities. Every-thing you learn today seeds your brain to predict differently tomorrow.”

As I pointed out previously, all this entails conscious choices, choices we are aware of and make on the basis of need, logic and perhaps compassion (so definitely not free will!). Free will demands a separate entity that makes choices whereas the choices Doty and Barrett talk of are all dependent on the brain, how it ‘stores’ information, accrues more information and experiences and uses this new info.

[sant64]

Speaking of manifesting, we have the current LOTFW, on his own, even though he's about to leave office, effectively trying to start WW III by giving long-range missiles to Ukraine. This might be the most reckless foreign decision of our lifetimes. It eclipses even our wars in Vietnam and Iraq.

The attempted wrecking of the Supreme Court, the open borders, the 2 years of our freedom needlessly stolen by Covid fanaticism, the crazed Title IX policies, and so forth. Excuse me if I'm not alarmed by Gaetz and RFK Jr as harbingers of authoritarian doom. Your side has manifested quite enough despotism.

[Jim Sutherland]

@sant64,…all of Trump’s picks are loyal to him this time, not back stabbing RINO Moles working behind his back to make him fail, as they did in his first time around. It’s going to be much different this time. He needs to get Bannon and Alex Jones some positions, also, along with some of those J/6 Guys who have been rotting in Jail , after Trump pardons them! Starting on day one, after he is sworn in, if we haven’t been nuked by Russia yet, because of the clear INSANITY of the current Administration's strangle hold on Conservatives opposing Wokism, Wars, and all the other crap thrown at us for the last 4 years, in addition to 8 years of Obama and 8 years of the Clinton WH…….Ore House, ……it’s now our turn to back up Trump and watch his Administration really drain the stinking Swamp this time, because he knows where all the skeletons are buried!
Jim Sutherland

[Appreciative Reader]

"Excuse me if I'm not alarmed by Gaetz and RFK Jr"

No. You are not excused.

You are not excused for unleashing onto a sane and, dare I say it, a great country, the vile lowlife Trump, and in his wake this whole host of orcs, vile scum all of them. You are not excused for definitively leeching out all that was good and great off of this once proud nation.

When you are old, your sons and grandsons will slap you in the face and spit on you. When you are dead and gone, your young will go to visit your grave in order to piss on it, and to take a dump on it, as you do here, and as you've done to this once great nation, that much of the world once looked up to.

The Basest Generation. A generation of vile halfwits and lowlifes. That authored the end of the USA as we know it, and birthed in its place Mordor. That will be your epitaph.

[Karim W. Rahmaan]

"Ore House"

Posted by: Jim Sutherland | November 20, 2024 at 01:27 PM

?WTF u mean?
Good luck with all of that

Bub

[Jim Sutherland]

@Karin,…..I meant the White House was a Whore House during Clinton’s administration. Remember Monica, and all Clinton’s Concubines?
Jim Sutherland

[Karim W. Rahmaan]

..Jim Sutherland

Posted by: Jim Sutherland | November 22, 2024 at 05:29 PM

Right

Param Sant Sutherland www3

[7]

Seems difficult to be inaugurated
The climate side has 300 Tr$ against t's tiny porte-monnaie

I guss biden will go Pearl Harbour

[777]

Jim
Nice to observe but

We Satsangis should not be so judgemental
but is difficult

Tp judge Wr must know how the wind was blowing on creation Day (Mirdad)

Eterniy is a long time
much more than a Zillion^Zillion big bangs
Hubble shows where the cruel go
as Hubble & LWST shows so clearly for the seein g
DO NO HARM. is best
after LOVE

777

[Jim Sutherland]

@777,….for a different perspective. It could even solve the mystery of why Anami Purush would, and is, allowing not only genocide in the Gaza by Jews, but in Lebanon, Ukraine, and every other war torn places that has always existed, and will keep existing , as long as Brahm keeps creating species to keep The Wheel of 84 rolling. But what has all that have to do with the Marked Elect, who have incarnations on different Missions, as I have been?

Food for though! I wrote the following immediately after coming out of Meditation one morning! It solves many of my mysteries.
we should never assume just because we have never experienced Multidimensional lives in our Meditations, Dreams, Astral projections, that no other present existing humans do. In fact, I experience some, several times each night, not only while dreaming, but during Meditation. But they are only meaningful to me, and no one else. Meditation unlocks many of those Simultaneous Multidimensional lives.
Simultaneous Incarnations have Zero memories of past lives, because they are incarnated only once, by their Higher Self to balance Karmas. They will not reincarnation back to earth after physical death. Also, they have never existed in ANY lower species, or arrived in human bodies by Evolution.
Only those humans who have incarnated in human bodies by Evolution through lower species are bound to The Wheel of 84, i.e., Charausi by Sequential Incarnations. Many of those present incarnated humans have been lower species in the past, because they operated under a different spiritual law than humans do who are Simultaneous Incarnations.
Its not that complicated, once we recognize that Lower species are animated by Gaia, or the Earth Planetary spirit, whereas Marked Souls are animated by The Word of God, as in John 1:1, which is Christ in us, Shabd, and hundreds of different Names depending on Language and Cultures.
As for me,…..at age 82, and trying to figure out where I stand,….I have concluded that I , as Jim, have never been here in any past life on earth at all, either as a human or lower specie, yet I experience other, or Multidimensional lives presently, as other Males in similar lives, other than as Jim. But no matter which life, I, we, i.e. our Higher Self Soul group, have our combined, up to date, memories and Consciousness of our present lives,….on earth in human bodies only. There are Zero memories of ever have been incarnated in any lower species.
You’ll have to figure out where you stand in the Grand Scheme. I can’t do it for any one else.
Jim Sutherland

[777]

So nice You reacted so spontaneously
but to really know, . . .
Ramana Maharshi said: "YOU MUST BE HIM"
and Soami Ji said the same !

Once you created this Univers
next you wanted to look how it's going being /with full amnesia

Where ever U came from
actually U are initiated
I was once a killer and have
no idea Why
The most sense and remembrance°° is that Seth Shiv Dayal came to me
and made a deal I couldn t refuse
I explained that in earlier comments

You aren t really against the idea to ever have
been a nice doggy, ; . . aren t You

Happy to hear you meditate a lot and it makes you happy

U are a Charan Disciple, . . isn t it?
Incidentally today Quote of the day is from HIM

Radha Soami

779

[Karim W. Rahmaan]

U are a Charan Disciple, . . isn t it?
Incidentally today Quote of the day is from HIM

Posted by: 777 | November 23, 2024 at 09:42 AM

That was an awesome quote by Maharaj Ji, I read it yesterday too. The type of words one could use 'the New Age variety of manifesting" alike to urge one to meditate all the way up to Par Brahm!

:)

As for this Sutherland character, he couldn't be a real Charan Singh initiate because from his old blog it said that HE himself was a Sat Guru, or as he coins it one of the 'Bounty Hunters for lost souls' (2006 post quote, and link below):

"..But, if the Hindu teaching that consciousness is bound to “The Wheel of 84”, i.e. a possible 8,400,000 physical species, I am grateful to the Power that is, that I have been assigned a human form this time, as a Bounty Hunter for lost souls.

There are many Holy Writings, or Scriptures to guide us, left by former Bounty Hunters of lost souls, but where should we start, or which Scriptures should we read first, if any?

Is the world getting better, or more Spiritual, or is it getting further away from Spirituality? Have you ever wondered why the good die young, while the criminals seem to live forever? Why are you here, and what is your purpose in life?

Regardless of where we live, or where we were born, it remains a mystery of why we were born male or female, in a race and culture, or country, to the parents who brought us into this world.

As a Bounty Hunter for lost souls, ( My Bounty will be collected in Heaven), my blog will offer some of my conclusions, based on the various Scriptures and teachings I have been privy too.." (full omitted)

https://eternaloasisofsouls.blogspot.com/2006/08/citizen-of-time.html

[Jim Sutherland]

@Karim, …you just don’t understand. My last post explains why I was sent here , as a Bounty Hunter, on a Mission to balance karmas. Those “lost souls” are those members of my own Higher Self/Causal Body, that are lost! I am the Bounty Hunter for THEM, but have attracted a few other lost souls along TheWay, by various conversations. Never once, have I EVER said I was a Guru, or Master, as far as how Sant Mat teaches. But I was an ORDAINED Minister, Licensed to preach the Gospel of Good News! I have also identified as a Prophet, which is also explained on my blog, of just what a Prophet is, in this present age. What have you got to offer , as your personal words of wisdom, that is Good News that will help, or enlighten others? Other than just being a Critic ?
Jim Sutherland

[um]

MANIFESTING
Lie zi, Chapter 3, King Mu of Zhou, par. 2

2
Laochengzi studied magic from master Yin Wen, who told him
nothing for three years. Laochengzi asked what his fault was, and
requested permission to withdraw.

Master Yin Wen saluted him and showed him inside.
Dismissing everyone else, he said to him, “When Lao Dan went
West long ago, he looked back and told me, ‘Whatever has created
energy and specific form is illusory. What Creation initiates and what
yin and yang transmute is said to be born and said to die. What is
altered in terms of form by finding out processes and understanding
change is said to be a transformation and said to be illusory.
“The agency of Creation is subtle in its skill, profound in its
effect, certainly hard to fathom, hard to comprehend. Working on
form is obvious in its skill, shallow in its effect, so it readily appears
and disappears. When you know that illusion and transformation are
no different from birth and death, then you may learn magic. I and
you are both illusions—why do you need to learn?”

Laochengzi went home and contemplated master Yin Wen’s
words deeply for three months. Eventually he could be present or
absent at will, and cause the four seasons to interchange, producing
thunder in winter and ice in summer, making birds run and beasts
fly. For the rest of his life he never revealed his art, so no one in the
world passed it on.

Master Lie said, “Those who are skilled in effecting
transformation use their science secretly; their apparent merit is the
same as others. The virtues of the Five Emperors and
achievements of the Three Kings were not necessarily due to the
power of intelligence and courage—some were magically
accomplished. Who can fathom this?”

[umami]

A friend of mine once observed that people need a degree of pain in their lives for mental health. If they don't get enough, they'll seek it out. Consider the company CEO who turns to whips, chains and humilation at the feet of a dominatrix. Consider the superstar actor or record artist who loses everything to drugs and alcohol.

In that light the election makes more sense...and all the meat making Americans rajasic. Karmies are Mind robots. Steer clear.

[umami]

Spence,
Speaking of which, could it be that behind closed doors Ayaz was master and King Mahmoud the slave?

[Jim Sutherland]

Karim wrote,…….”As for this Sutherland character, he couldn't be a real Charan Singh initiate because……”

Are there ANY readers here, who can give me an example of WHO IS, or even WAS a REAL Charan Singh Initiate, and just how they still qualify to be more REAL than me?

Would it be YOU, Karim ? If so, what qualifies you to be a REAL Charan Initiate ?

Or, are there any REAL Charan Initiates here, and if so, what qualifies them, other than, like me, they were initiated by PROXY by one of Charan’s area Representatives, who read them the Initiation instructions, and shared the 5 Name Mantras, and demonstrated the Indian squat position to listen for the Sound?

What makes YOU a Real Charan Initiate, or any one else here, ……..who can demonstrate by example, that you, or they, are REAL Charan Initiates, whereas I am a fraud?

Who, other than me, will admitted they have ever met Charan Singh’s Radiant Form, inside, as I have, who has manifested in full body firm, a foot away, and spoke to them, using his familiar sound of words with his identifiable accent, plus touched them, as he did me?

Or, should I just follow how other REAL Charan Initiates like Brian Hines and you give examples of, rather than the examples I have given, and have spread the Gospel of Sant Mat in to the Jungles , where natives had never heard of Charan Singh, nor Sant Mat, or ANY Sant Mat Master, where there were no Choirs singing Shabds?

Will REAL Charan Initiates step up to the plate, and identify them selves?

Thanks,
Jim Sutherland

[umami]

MCS realness: "Slow and steady wins the race."

[7]

Jim
Perhaps you err and it s to experience Love
so to say being hardened to be able to unite with it
I mean able to stand

Unman
Thanks for the socks ) it still works
Cayenne Pepper also

It is of course karma when
people want to be beaten
and pay for it
Difficult to imagine

7

[777]

A Charan Singh disciple become Charan
next What and where Charan is
which normally synchronizes, interfere , associate unite, fall in hyper love with theShabd Frequency 25/7

[Jim Sutherland]

@777,….Here you go. This is for you.

https://youtu.be/RfBEqiEhCgM

Jim Sutherland

[Karim W. Rahmaan]

Will REAL Charan Initiates step up to the plate, and identify them selves?

Thanks,
Jim Sutherland

Posted by: Jim Sutherland | November 24, 2024 at 02:19 AM

I've always said I was initiated by Gurinder Singh Ji, Charan Singh Ji's true successor.

But ALL the Sant Mat teachings tell us NEVER to compare our works to the work of Sat Guru.

Mr. Prophet you say of yourself?

For His work is unblemished nishkam karma.

[Jim Sutherland]

@Karim,…..then, as an Initiate of BBJ, you should respect me, and ALL Charan Initiates, as your Elder Brothers, not inferior to you. Just sayin.
Jim Sutherland

[Karim W. Rahmaan]

should respect me, and ALL Charan Initiates, as your Elder Brothers, not inferior to you. Just sayin.
Jim Sutherland

Posted by: Jim Sutherland | November 24, 2024 at 03:10 PM

Point taken.

Just, I have brothers (one in his 70s) and sisters possibly older than anyone here visiting this blog.

And not even they are always the maturest of the siblings, son.

[umami]

7,
Glad I could help. Cayenne, interesting, makes sense.

[umami]

I find it odd when souls of higher skies fixate on owning the libs.

Fly the Friendly Skies of United.