Practical Guide to Creative Visualization: Manifest Your Desires [Paperback]

2.Do not specify a source of supply in the material world for what you want: a.Because the real source is at the spiritual level. b.Because what appears to be the most obvious material source may not, in fact, be the right one.

3.Avoid cluttering your emotional nature with false wishes. a.False wishes rob you of time, energy, attention, and concentration. b.False wishes rob you of some part of your power of decision resolution. c.False wishes rob you of patience.

4.Never offer a price in your creative visualization work. a.Expect what you need from the plenty of the universe. b.Any concept of "bargaining" for what you want limits your creative visualization work to a level below the higher self. c.Be confident in knowing you will attain your wishes. Any self-limitation (fear, anxiety, denial of self-worth) shuts the door upon the higher self.

Where does everything come from that you obtain by means of creative visualization?So far as the material world is concerned, one thing comes from one source and another from another; but, for the purposes of your creative visualization activity, you need not be, and should not be, concerned with anything but the spiritual source of supply. And it will make your practice simpler, and therefore more effective, if you think of the source of supply as being that one which does indeed bring these various benefits into your life. There are, as we have indicated, various ways in which you can conceive of, and name, this source. It has to designate the high being with whom you personally have a direct and profound relationship.

Throughout the rest of this book, we shall, for brevity's sake, refer to this simply as the higher self.

Whatever you decide is the immediate thing to visualize for, whether a material or a nonmaterial objective, it is in full confidence to be visualized as coming to you from that spiritual source.

Truly, by the power of this source channeled through the conscious and unconscious levels of your own psyche, the action takes place on the corresponding levels of the external universe, to bring about the presentation to you on the earthly level of what you have imaged. That is why you can truly affirm that what you visualize is yours now.

Astrally it is yours, because you have implanted it in astral reality; mentally and spiritually it is yours, because you are activating those levels by means of your own mental and spiritual forces so that what you create astrally shall be realized materially.

If you have read any other works on creative visualization, whether old books or more recent, you will have noticed that there is almost always a warning against specifying or visualizing a source of supply in the material world for what you want; but scarcely ever are you given a reason for this warning. There are two reasons for it, both very important.

The first reason why you should not specify or visualize a material source of supply for what you are seeking is that by so doing you could easily obscure your perception of, or even your faith in, the spiritual source of supply. The second reason is that what seems to you the most obvious material source of supply may not, in fact, be the right one, and so you might be causing delay and wasting effort by "barking up the wrong tree."

Some years back, in London, England, a self-taught scholar was delving into his own line of research in traditional alchemy, a difficult subject in any circumstances. He had found a vital clue that pointed to the writings of one of the less-understood medieval philosophers, but, though he searched carefully through his own collection of books and through the catalogs of many public libraries, he could find no means to pursue this line of inquiry any further. In fact, every librarian he spoke to on the subject stared at him as at someone who had just stepped from Noah's ark. He resolved to try creative visualization.

What he really needed was information on the medieval philosopher (whom we can call "Doctor Susconditus"). What the scholar asked for, by sheer habit of mind, was a book on the teachings of Doctor Susconditus. Now, books are often excellent things, but there are books and books; and sometimes a subject is better approached in other ways.

A few weeks after he had begun his practice of creative visualization, one of the librarians he had contacted sent him a circular from a European publisher, announcing an offset edition from an early folio of one of the doctor's major works. Our friend took this leaflet to a bookstore, where a clerk worked out how much a copy would cost him. It would be very expensive, and he would have to pay in advance; nevertheless, he decided to place an order.

When the book arrived some months later, to his dismay he found it was so much reduced in size from the original as to be practically illegible anyway, aside from the fact that Doctor Susconditus' Latin, notorious even among medievalists, was very different from the classical Latin of our friend's school days. In fact, he had wasted both time and money to no purpose.

One thing seemed clear, however; his creative visualization had certainly worked. He began again, with a different pronouncement: "I want to learn of the teachings of Doctor Susconditus."

The next weekend, taking a walk by the river in the early...(Continues)