The Law of Attraction (LOA) has been a popular topic in the West for over a century but became popular again after the book and movie The Secret. So why do so many people struggle with manifestation?

In this episode, spiritual teacher, John Moore breaks down his experiences with the law of attraction. This includes one time when manifesting went horribly wrong for him.

John gives you the lowdown on the secret behind the secret, the ego, and gives you some of his best tips - he's used to create money, jobs, relationships, cars, etc.

Finally, he explains why manifestation is an important practice for spiritual development.

Announcer 0:28

Hello, and welcome to speaking spirit where we talk about all things spiritual. Your host, john Moore is a shamanic practitioner and spiritual teacher. And now his john.

John Moore 0:45

you know, when we hear the word manifestation or manifesting, in relationship to spirituality, we tend to think about things that are miraculous, you know, you know, I sit down and I pray, and a box of money drops out of the sky into my lap or something. Or I sit down and pray and I'm cured of some disease or what have you. And you know, that true those things would be forms of manifestation. However, I want to explain to you that we are constantly manifesting, we're just not conscious of it. At a very real level, so let me, you know, let me explain. So you're, you're hearing, you know, you're hearing me speak some words, and those words are, you know, maybe creating pictures in your mind, or you're just, you know, in getting the meanings of the words, but are you really hearing me speak, what's happening is some, you know, I'm, on my end, I'm creating some vibrations in the air, with my vocal apparatus, right, with my vocal cords, and my mouth and my tongue. And then those go into a microphone, which translates those vibrations into, into electrical signals, and those electrical signals are being recorded digitally. So that's those are being translated into a series of ones and zeros. And, gosh, a whole bunch of other things happen, you know, they go online, you download them, and sort of a reverse process happens, those ones and zeros are changed into an electrical signal that is, creates vibrations in the air, they hit your eardrums. your eardrums translate those into electrical signals into your brain. And your brain creates words, sentences, meanings, perhaps pictures out of that. So out of this your consciousness, your consciousness is manifesting my words and voice out of thin air out of out of vibrations. That doesn't mean I didn't speak these words, it doesn't mean there's not this reality, but you are, you are creating your internal experience of me speaking these words and anything that you see touch tastes, here, your entire experience of the universe is within your consciousness. Right. we overlook that because we live this on a day to day basis, but that in itself is a miracle, right. Some electrical signals can come in, create some vibrations in the air and your consciousness can experience a symphony. You some you know, electromagnetic waves can strike your retinas in your eyes. And your consciousness can create a sunset or a butterfly or a painting or what have you. So you are creating everything. Everything that you experience you are creating inside your consciousness, you just aren't aware that you're creating it most of the time. Right because our, our what we consider our conscious mind the you know, the awareness, the little voice inside our head, our ego, right or ego which is the little AI that thinks we are separate from the world and not connected to it, separate from the universe and not connected to it. That experience of I tells us that we are separate from the world that the world we're experiencing is objective. And, you know, everything we're, we're the subject and everything we experiences is the object. And we're not, we're not creating any of this, we are experiencing objective reality. But ask two people who witnessed the same thing, the same event to describe it. And you will get two very different descriptions of that, because they have different viewpoints, if different aspects of consciousness, they have different experience, filters, through which everything,

everything comes in. So I think what I want to express fully here is that you are a co Creator of the universe, you are, there's a divine part of you, that is creating your entire experience of the universe. And that is happening. Using this field of attention or field of awareness, we might call consciousness. And you are manifesting constantly, everything you experience, you're just not necessarily doing it. You know, I can, you know, I may or depending upon how flexible I am with my attachment to my ego reality. You know, if I look at I'm holding, you know, holding a cup of coffee here, have a little sip. If I stare at that cup of coffee hard enough, and I play with my brain enough, can I manage it? Can I change that into something else? Can I? You know, what, we might call hallucinate that into something else? And probably I could, um, would I be able to hold, you know, make that stable? Would I be able to turn that into a bag of gold? For example, we'll use an you know, old alchemical thing, can I turn my coffee cup into a bag of gold? and have it stay that way? permanently? Probably not. If I you know, I probably, I'm not saying that's not possible. Because ultimately, ultimately, everything is possible. It's another idea I want to express. Ultimately, everything is possible. And I could hallucinate and I, you know, use that word sort of loosely, because we're constantly hallucinating the outside world. Right? We have no, we have no real idea of what the outside world is actually, like, we just have the ideas that are created in our, our consciousness. Okay. And I'll give you some, I have some examples. And we could break it down into physics and physiology and all kinds of stuff and study it and measure it and do all of these things. ad infinitum. Okay, so I, I studied martial arts for my whole life. And when I was younger, in my, my youth, and up through college, I studied the Japanese martial art, karate, right empty hand way, cut out the dough. And one of the things I might have to do from time to time is to break a board, you know, punch through a board or chop through a board or kick through a board or whatever. Okay. And so, on a conscious level, if I aimed my fist to say I was punching, to break a board, but aimed my fist at the surface of the board, my body and everything else aligned with that would not you know, we'd pull back or stop, or, you know, however it worked out, it would not break the board, and it would probably hurt my hand pretty badly. But if I was able to, and this is the real, this is the real reason why they break boards in martial arts, if I was able to focus through the board, as if the board was not there. My fist could pass through it relatively effortlessly. You know, yes, I would have to punch it, I would have to hit it pretty hard. You have to use proper technique. All of those things are important. But the most important thing was the change in consciousness, the change in focus and attention that's required to do that. And there's, you know, there is you know, there's all kinds of things we do to train that to hit through a target, and that sort of thing. So that's the secret. Don't go out punch boards without learning the proper techniques. Please. But yeah, proper technique is important. But even with proper technique if you don't have the correct, so proper technique, the physical aspect, and then just proper technique, the mental, emotional, spiritual aspects. So I want to recognize that we are beings of pure spirit that are expressed in physical reality, I'm not going to say that physical reality isn't real. But our experience of physical reality comes 100% through our consciousness. And I'm using that term over and over again, consciousness awareness.

But if I turn my eyes in a different direction, as I'm doing that, if I'm not looking through the target, it's not going to work. It's a weird thing have demonstrated this to students with, not with having them hurt themselves on a board, but with different different techniques. When I've been teaching, I'm like, Okay, do this, now just turn your eyes in a different direction. Um, and the energy just changes and the technique becomes weaker. And because there's no focus there. So my point is to truly manifest things to truly get things to work, we want to get all of our systems working together. We want to get body mind and spirit working together. And I realize that many people's ideas of miracles or manifestation, have to do with stuff just happening without, without doing without physical interaction. And that is, that is true. And that does happen. I'm just saying, in the beginning, it requires a lot of discipline, efforts, focus, that sort of thing. So give yourself a little, you give yourself a little advantage. By taking we're called divine action or inspired action. In the beginning, so many people think law of attraction is about sitting on the couch and thinking real hard and a box of money dropping into your lap. And again, that's possible, it's very possible. Is it probable, no. So what we want to do is increase the probability of what you want to manifest. So I'll give you an example of a time when I was looking for work, and I was looking for I was looking for a job and I wanted to have a, I want to have a good job. And I had certain criteria, it had to have certain types of benefits and all this, it was very, very specific. And, you know, I went out and I tried just the physical route, right? I sent out 200 resumes and contacted all these companies, and nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing happened for months. close to four months, maybe. I don't know if it was the economy, or, you know, whatever, my resume was terrible, I didn't change my resume. So, you know, and I'm getting more and more frustrated, I'm trying to force things and then I remembered my manifestation work that I'd done years before and worked on getting into a state of allowing this to happen. And within a couple of weeks, I had gotten four job offers, um, two of which I had to, you know, wound up being close enough that I had to decide between two of them. They both had amazing benefits. One of them was more money than I ever made in my life and more, but it was what I intended. So intention is key here, what I intended to manifest and so so I accepted it and took that job. So what happened was I got into a space of allowing, I used some of the techniques, but I had also taken physical action. In other words, when and they will also say that all of these companies came to me I didn't apply. I didn't apply actually apply to any of them. They all came came kind of Looking to me through, you know, online sources or whatever. And, you know, it was amazing because I, I, as things started to align, I sort of said, I would like to get four offers, I got four offers, I would like to get an, you know, an offer of at least this much, I got an offer of that much I would like to have these benefits and, and received those benefits.

But it didn't happen until I sort of let go, but I did have to, you know, obviously, when they contacted me, I had to take some physical actions, I had to respond or, or they, it wouldn't have happened, you know, I had to send my resume I had to interview has to do all of those things. I had to take all those follow up actions. But it started with my intention. And it started with letting go. And I will give you, you know, I don't know if this is a technique, you know, or not, but I will, I will give you a technique that I use sometimes when I'm trying to manifest things that works. It works wonderfully for me. So I, I sit in and I think about I think about the thing that I want to manifest, let's say it's in, you know, it's a job, let's say, um, and I will say to myself, remember when I got that job, and I will imagine that I got the job in the past that I already have, what it is that I'm trying to manifest. And how and then I asked myself, how did I feel when I got that? How did I feel when that manifested. And that that little technique I find really aligns mind and spirit in the spirit world, time is really flexible. Time is really our experience of time is really attached to matter. You know, and so, in, in a non material, non material world time is sort of loosey goosey, very flexible. So, again, I think this is you know, part of law of attraction is you have to act as if you have already or, you know, imagine or generate the feelings of in the feeling is important, the emotion is important of already having the thing that you're trying to manifest. Remember, when that's the, that's the technique that I used. Remember, when I got those four job offers, and how did that feel, and I imagined, made up a little story scenario in my head felt really good. Now imagine when one of those offers, remember when one of those offers was this much money and you accepted it. And then I, you know, I go in and imagine that and then release attachment to the outcome. That's a big step. Attachment tends to push things away a little bit. So let me give you a couple of hints and a couple of caveats when it comes to manifestation and law of attraction. So, one hint that, you know, when I've worked with students, or I've worked with people on a mentoring or coaching basis, and they're working on manifesting stuff, is that need to allow the universe to work out the details of what you're manifesting. Um, you don't need to, but if you do, it's going to happen quicker in ordinary reality, and it's going to be easier. I'll give you an example. Let's say that I wanted to manifest 100,000 US dollars. And I say, I will receive a check from the bank for 100,000 US dollars on Tuesday, in June on you know, such and such a day at you know, 345 in the afternoon. And, um, you know, the reason I'm going to get it is this and that and this and that when all I really want to do is manifest $100,000 so better intention is you know, remember when I received $100,000 out of the blue unexpectedly. And you you know, the spiritual teacher Lester Levinson used to say let go and learn God, you make your intention and you let go and let God I'll use the term the universe because I think that the word God can be sort of loaded. But I'm talking about the same thing, the all pervading consciousness, and manifester of the universe, god or goddess or the universe. Um, when we let go of the details, things manifest easier, because if you think about all of the things that have to happen,

the universe will follow kind of a path of least resistance, right. So every condition you put on something creates more resistance. And this is not, doesn't create resistance in the universe, but it creates resistance in your ego in your interface, like, becomes less and less possible for you. You know, unless you completely undo all of your conditioning, from the time you were born, until now, every condition you place on something you're trying to manifest will make it more challenging for you. Not to say that it isn't possible. Again, everything is possible, everything is possible in consciousness, you could get that check from the bank for $100,000, on Tuesday. And the reason could be the bank, you won an award at the bank or something, something something something. The problem is, if any of those things, if you don't perceive any of those things as being true, like the bank doesn't have an award, the bank doesn't hand out $100,000 checks just at random, that sort of thing. Again, you're not getting your body, mind and spirit into alignment, your belief is not going to get to be there. So that being said, you can manifest, it is possible to manifest very specific things, very, very specific things. Um, I'll give you an example of a caveat though. So here's, you know, here's, here's something from my own life. So I had a relationship with someone I knew this person, they were my friends. They were, well, I won't get, I won't get into more detail than that, because they don't want to, I don't want to give away an identity or anything like that. But I knew I had a, there was a woman who was who was a good friend of mine, and I'd become single again, and I wanted to have a relationship with this person, she was I found her attractive and intelligent. And we had very similar ideas about spirituality, and similar practices, and, and all of these things, and I'm like, I am going to manifest a, you know, a love relationship with this person. And boy, did I, you know, I'm head over heels in love. We moved in together for a short period of time. But the relationship was a disaster, the relationship was tumultuous. This person had what I think is a very severe undiagnosed mental illness. One that is sort of easy to easy to hide sometimes, but, you know, then comes out in relationships and just ended horribly, disastrously kind of messed up my life for a period of time as well. Right? Because what I didn't manifest was I didn't manifest a loving, kind, wonderful relationship, what I manifested was I want a love relationship with this specific person. And you know, so, you know, it happened and it was an important thing for me to learn to, to understand to learn about the power of these things. So, one has to be careful when manifesting about being really specific about things and you can manifest something specific but you know, it might not have intended consequences. You know, and we can always tack on for the highest good to our intention right for everyone's highest Good. I would like to manifest $100,000 in a way that is for my highest good. You know, and maybe this relationship was for my highest good, maybe I needed to learn something about trust and boundaries and that sort of thing. But that being said, you know, so the tip then is to,

really, like, if you're trying to manifest something, Uber specific, and you're trying to control the details of how it's manifested. That's, that's very egoic. And the ego is the part of you that doubts manifestation happens, that doesn't think you're creating the universe every second of every day. That's your ego that says, You're separate from the world, that you're not connected to everything. And, you know, the ego is not evil, it's just not necessarily correct. And everybody has an ego, I don't care how enlightened you are, you still have an experience of the eye as a separate being, you might have more of an experience of, of non duality, of interconnectedness, that can, that can sure happen. But I don't think the sense of AI as a separate self goes away. While you exist in a physical body, but you have a physical body. Even you know, you might not identify with the ego as much. And that's kind of a weird thing, right? identifying, you identify as the separate self, because the thing ultimately, it's, you know, I'm getting a little deep here, but ultimately, it's the consciousness that provides the identity of who you are. And so moving towards spiritual wholeness and spiritual alignment, alignment, and I don't necessarily like to use the word enlightenment, because that has very different meanings for very for different people. And in some worlds that has a very technical meaning. So I could potentially be using this word wrong, but moving towards enlightenment, part of that is, dis identifying with the ego. So you understand you have an ego. And some people don't understand that they have an ego, but first you understand you have an ego, you have a sense of I as a separate self, but then you dis identify from that, you say that sense of I is not who I am. I have a sense of I, but I am not the sense of I am the thing that perceives the sense of I am the conscious field that proceeds the sense of I, I have a physical body, but I am not the physical body. I am the field of consciousness that perceives the person, the physical body, I have a mind and I have emotions, and I have thoughts, but I am none of those things. I am a field of consciousness that perceives those things. So the more you identify with what we'll call beingness, beingness is that field of consciousness that just exists. Your sense of existence, not as a separate self, just as, as being, the more you identify with that the easier manifestation becomes, because you're not as tied to the ego as a separate self. And the ego as a separate self is the part of, you know, has been trained since birth that, you know, magic and miracles, you know, happen, maybe they maybe you were taught from birth, that they don't happen, that they're not possible. And that's the thing too, right. So all of these beliefs are tied up with the ego. Everything that you hold to be true. Even if you look at your hand in front of your face, and you say, this hand exists because I can see it that's a belief. It may be true. But your experience of that as truth is a belief. Once we start breaking these things down and dis identifying manifestation becomes more effortless. The more we identify with the ego, the more we say, I am a separate self, completely separated from the universe. And I am just a receiver of the world as it is around me instead of a creator. You know, instead of the entire world that I experience existing inside my consciousness, the more I identify with the ego, the the

more challenging, you will, the more challenges you will experience when trying to manifest or use law of attraction or perform miracles or perform real magic change in the universe according to will,

on a, on a very real level, you are, you know, as a, you know, as a separate self, you are a spark of divinity, you have this spark of divinity within you, I shouldn't say you are I should say you have the spark of divinity within you. So, you are a co Creator of the universe. The more you understand that the more you identify, we identify with being this and identify that you have this divine spark and that you are not separate from God, the universe, the creator, the field of consciousness. Brahman in Sanskrit, right in some, in some traditions, some advisory traditions, they say Atman is Brahman. So Atman is the individual soul and Brahman is the over soul of the universe. And in some traditions, they say, there is no difference. And I honestly believe that I do believe that I've had some experience with that, that we are not separate, that we are all connected, we are all one. So you know, just to just to wrap up, you know, remember to get ego out of the way a little bit, as much as you can. So as much as you can identify with consciousness. Get body, mind and spirit in alignments take divine inspired action, if you know. And again, manifestation isn't about necessarily doing nothing, it's just recognizing that doing is happening. And that doing is in alignment with, with being and having you know, that it could be a little confusing, I understand, being doing and having, you can't stop being, you can stop doing and you can stop having, but you can't stop being. So start from the place of being identify with your beingness identify with your existence, understand that the quality of your existence has consciousness or the ability to perceive to be able to pay it, you know, have attention is sort of volitional consciousness where you place your intent, attention. And where attention goes energy flows. So wherever you place your attention, that's where your energy is going to go again, there's the the, you know, the karate analogy, focus through the target and the target it's almost like the target isn't there, the board break the board as much as you can get the ego out of the way. You do that by identifying with beingness by identifying is the field of consciousness that you are and then you can play the remember when game remember when suddenly $100,000 came to me, how did I feel when that happened? and generate those feelings inside your field of consciousness that sort of aligns everything that makes you know, it's sort of like you know, clearing the tracks clearing the train tracks so the train can pass past you know, unimpeded. So that's those are my hints and and caveats and little You know, technique for law, law of attraction work. It's important stuff. And it might seem mundane. But it's important to understand why we manifest when we focus on manifesting beyond the fact that I'm going to get stuff, I'm going to get stuff I want, I'm going to have a life that's comfortable, and happy and have everything I want and be rich and whatever. Beyond that, because those are all worldly concerns. And all of those things, relationships, everything else are temporary, everything is temporary. Right? What does not temporary, anything that is not temporary is your beingness. Is that

when you manifest, you're demonstrating to yourself to all parts of yourself that yes, you are your beingness Yes, you're a conscious co creator, and an intimate part of this universe. And that is a direct experience of spiritual truth. There are lots of ways to directly experience spiritual truth, this is one of them happens to be an important one. This is a return to your divinity. This is a movement again, away from ego. Again, it's a movement away from identifying with the small eye, the small eye, which is our sense of maybe I am the body, maybe I'm really identified with my body, or maybe I'm really identified with my thoughts. Both of those things are super temporary. How long does the thought last? Right? How often does our body change and someday, we will die and her body will go back to the earth or maybe we get cremated or, or what have you, but the body components will be broken down. But that essential, immortal part of you. That is divine. That's the that's the important part to identify with. And doing manifestation work. Helps that along. It's a lesson that you probably if you are listening to this podcast and you're trying to do these things, it's a lesson that you're here to learn. You're here to learn how how you are a co creator, how you how you are part of divinity split off just so divinity can experience things and learn and grow. So with that, I hope that you'll take some of this to heart I hope that you'll practice I hope that you'll manifest great things. Contact me contact me through my website, which is main ma i n e, shaman sh a ma n.com. If you have any questions for topics you would like me to talk about in a future podcast. I would be happy to do that. I would like to get back to having some guests. take a short break from that for a period of time. But we'll have some more guests because I think it's fantastic to have some different perspectives out there. Anyway, I love you all. I wish you well and we'll talk to you next time.

You have been listening to speaking spirit with your host, John Moore. For more info or to contact john go to MaineShaman.com that's ma i n e s h a m a n.com