Have you ever visualized the perfect day, and it didn’t happen how you wished it to?
It could have been a birthday, a date with a friend, the sale of a home, or a vacation day.
Maybe you visualized it as sunny, but it was dark and rainy. Maybe the person you wanted to call didn’t. The buyer decided not to buy your house.
Maybe nothing at all happened the way you visualized it.
What happened next?
Did it get worse?
Did you feel angry or depressed because your wish didn’t come true? At least once, this has happened to all of us, and sometimes it happens to some of us all the time.
What’s wrong with this picture?
We visualized it.
Yes, I know. This goes against the “law of attraction.” Yes, it does.
Why? Because it is a dangerous and ill-conceived idea, but before you get either mad or depressed, I promise there is a way that actually works.
Give me a minute, though, to explain why visualization is hazardous.
First, it proceeds from the idea that we are the cause and creator of what happens to us.
Even if this were true, it would still be a dangerous idea because if we cause and create good things, we also have to accept responsibility for causing and creating bad ones.
Second, because it is only possible to visualize within the paradigm of what we already know.
Sure, we can pretend to visualize things way outside of what we know, but if our belief system doesn’t believe it, it will never, ever happen.
So, to begin with this premise, we must expand what we perceive to be true.
This takes more work than we think.
We must first discover what we perceive to be true and then shift that perception to a larger one, both as a point of view and a state of mind.
Sometimes, this happens quickly. However, most of the time, it is a process that involves time, learning, and expanding.
But wait.
You might think there are people for whom this works. Yes, because their perception is larger (in that area), and they believe what they visualize.
However, it is still dangerous because they are beginning with the wrong premise, and no matter how big their perception is, it will never be as expansive as doing it differently.
Let me give you a better way.
Imagine it instead.
See, you already knew right away that this is a better way. However, let’s lay the foundation for why this process works and is not dangerous but glorious instead.
We begin with the right premise. We are not the cause and creator—the Divine is.
This eliminates the need to humanly believe what we are imagining.
This allows our thoughts to expand into previously unknown realms.
We give up control of how we want it to be and allow it to be much better.
Here’s an example.
Del and I were driving my mom around to do errands. On the car's back seat, Del had placed a bag with his iPod and all the stuff that goes with it. On returning home, he noticed the bag was missing.
Of course, we looked everywhere in the car and around it, but it wasn’t there. Neither Del nor I got upset.
We both turned to the Truth of the situation.
I might have visualized how it would turn up if I were visualizing.
However, really—humanly, it was impossible. Since it wasn’t there, it must have fallen out on one of our many errands that day.
Instead, I imagined.
I imagined that God exists outside of material laws—that no matter what my small mind was thinking, nothing could change the fact that nothing is ever lost within God's law.
I didn’t visualize the bag’s return. I simply imagined this idea and fell asleep in the peace that awareness brought.
The next morning, we went to the car, and the bag was sitting on the hood of the car, unharmed and complete.
I said, “Thank you,” not for the return of the bag, but for that momentary, complete awareness that we do not live in a material world, but that everything and everyone is the spiritual idea of God.
Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
He imagined riding a beam of light to discover what he could never have visualized within his current perception or knowledge.
He felt what that would be like, and answers to questions previously unasked appeared.
Visualization keeps us in the material realm.
Sometimes it works to improve a situation, and sometimes it doesn’t.
However, even when it works, it is hazardous because it tightens the chains to a material state of mind, which will always disappoint and from which prison we must eventually escape.
The law of attraction belongs only to God.
For this, we give thanks. It leaves our imagination free to soar into boundless freedom, safety, and unlimited abundance in perfect harmony with all of Its creation.
It truly exemplifies how to “Let go and let God.”
Yes, I have a book that will help you improve your imagination. Become an Imagination Master!
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This shift from visualization to imagination is life-changing. When you explained it in the IMAGINATION MASTERY book and course, I had one of the most significant aha moments. You're the best! So grateful to you!
I llove that you gave an example! It's too easy to stay in the clouds with this kind of retraining.