The Most Powerful Manifestation Technique
The goal of this powerful manifestation technique is to turn your airy, fanciful ideas and desires into tangible, physical form.
Sometimes there are concepts whose literal meanings are perfect for practical application, but they've become so ubiquitous that people refrain from using them out of fear of their beliefs or intentions being mistakenly categorized. Manifestation is one of those concepts that has lost the essence of its true meaning because it has been hijacked by pseudoscientific movements. However, it is just too good of a term to be owned exclusively by the New Age crowd.
What is Manifestation?
Manifestation refers to the process of bringing thoughts, desires, or intentions into reality through focused attention and belief. It is often associated with the law of attraction, where individuals believe that positive or negative thoughts can bring corresponding experiences into their lives. Manifestation involves clarifying goals, maintaining a positive mindset, and using various techniques to align one's thoughts and energy with the desired outcomes.
While some view manifestation as a powerful tool for personal growth and goal achievement, others approach it with skepticism, considering it more as a psychological phenomenon than a mystical force. Regardless if you embrace spiritual views and believe in the law of attraction or are a rational thinker and skeptic who needs sound logic to back up any concept you consider, the concept of manifestation is free for all to use.
A Powerful Manifestation Technique
The key elements of manifestation can be broken down into a creative framework we’ve developed called VAPOR. The word vapor means haze, mist or that which is shapeless or formless. And the goal of this framework is to help you turn your airy, fanciful ideas and desires into tangible, physical form.
This is in adherence with the literal definition of manifestation which, according to Oxford Dictionaries, means an event, action, or object that clearly shows or embodies something abstract or theoretical. Below are the elements that make up the VAPOR manifestation framework:
Vision — a detailed mental image of what you want your future to look like (what you want to manifest)
Aim — the intention you set to actually pursue your vision (focused aspiration)
Process — a step-by-step plan or blueprint that guides your actions in pursuit of your vision
Operation — the mechanism or means by which you execute the process to achieve your vision
Result — the outcome of following all the preceding steps in the framework to see your vision manifested
Here on Earth there are three states of matter — gas, liquid or solid. It takes energy to form matter and transform it from one state to another. Likewise, it took some work (energy) to form your ideas and desires and it will take even more work to transform them from invisible vapor to visible objects or experiences in your life.
Nowhere in the framework do you see anything about just thinking positive then expecting something to magically appear out of thin air. Happy thoughts without a logical game plan lead to spectacular failures. Each element of the VAPOR framework includes a specific technique that will actually turn thoughts into things and help push you towards your goal.
Manifestation Technique 1: Vision
A vision is more than just the random thoughts you conjure in your head or the fleeting ideas and wishes that come and go in daydreams. A vision is a highly detailed mental image (i.e. visualization) of what you want your future to look like. If in your manifestation research thus far you were told all you needed to do was create a mood board with pretty pictures, sorry to break the news that you that must go beyond that.
One of the best examples of a thorough and meaningful type of visualization process is a thought experiment. Thought experiments, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, are devices of the imagination used to investigate the nature of things.
They are used across a number of disciplines and, irrespective of the goal, they all entail a methodical way of thinking that is designed to explore, explain and express ideas and theories about the unknown in an efficient and effective way. A thought experiment includes three parts:
A clear idea, hypothesis or theory that has yet to be manifested into reality.
A process of deliberation about the idea in question or imagining of how it might work in real life.
An experimental component where the idea is brought into tangible form through prototypes.
The all-time master of visualized thought experiments was Einstein. In fact, they were the hallmark of his career and directly contributed to his monumental theory of relativity.
“The creation of quantum mechanics and relativity are almost unthinkable without the crucial role played by thought experiments.” — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Therefore, as it pertains to manifestation, visualization via thought experiments are intensive exercises designed to shape an idea and prepare it for movement beyond the boundaries of imagination into reality.
Manifestation Technique 2: Aim
Once you have a detailed vision in place, the next step is setting an intention around it: is it an idea you will actually pursue? Intention is a commitment to follow through on a specified goal. It is not the passive state of simply hoping, but of actively and deliberately readying yourself to do what you aim to do.
It is critical that you incorporate vision work into your daily routine so you can consistently commit to it. The most meaningful way to be intentional is to create time and space for working on your vision. For instance:
designating a dedicated place in your home or office where you can work, without distraction, on your vision
allocating and protecting a block of time each day that is exclusively for vision work specifying
directing a set of resources towards the development of your vision
You can think about your vision all day long, but if you are not intentional about bringing it forth, it will remain nothing more than an idea.
The Manifestation Journal
We’ve incorporated the VAPOR framework into a journal format. Use this research-backed manifestation method to bring forth your desires now.
Manifestation Technique 3: Process
With your intention set and the conditions created to begin work on manifesting your vision, it is now time to develop a step-by-step plan that guides your actions. This is the point where failure becomes imminent for many ideas.
The vision is clear, the intention is set, but there is no plan (or the plan is bad). You've got to be strategic about how you manifest your vision. This requires a detailed action-oriented blueprint that outlines how you are going to get from A to Z.
As you move through the process, you are sure to encounter obstacles and will have to make adjustments to your plan along the way. It is important to be flexible and agile in order to deal with unforeseen challenges. Still you will need to depend on your plan to establish the general direction and give you a sense of orientation. Otherwise manifesting your vision could end up feeling more like running around in a maze.
Manifestation Technique 4: Operation
One thing you will quickly learn as you shift from one step in the process to the next, is that there are always tools and tactics you end up needing to employ that you didn't realize you would need. For instance, if your vision is to live in Europe you will understand that getting a Visa is part of the process.
But it's not until you actually start working on that step that you realize how cumbersome getting a Visa actually is. What you may have assumed would entail booking an immigration appointment and bringing in a few documents, might actually turn into several appointments, reams of paperwork, bringing a translator so there is no confusion and maybe even hiring a lawyer to increase your odds of success.
If you've ever worked in a large organization, you may have noticed that they have different parts of their core processes divided up into different teams. Most notably, strategy is typically separated from operations because they require different skill sets. Strategists are high-level, big picture thinkers and take a long-term view.
Operational specialists get into the nitty gritty of a specific part of the process and are highly skilled at execution. Without them, the strategy would fail. As both the creator and project manager of your vision, you'll have to get comfortable wearing these different hats. You will especially have to develop resourcefulness which is key to efficient and effective execution.
Manifestation Technique 5: Result
The final part of the manifestation framework is the outcome of following all the preceding steps. But what's noteworthy about the result is that it may not be exactly what you visualized. You may have had a dream of going to law school and could see yourself walking around the corridors of Yale waxing eloquently about the U.S. Constitution.
But in reality, despite getting into the all the top law schools, you decided that studying for three years on the sunny lawn of Stanford's campus would be much more inspiring than in the dreary East Coast. In abstract form, your ideas are uninhibited and unbounded. As you begin to manifest them, they meet with friction as they take shape and cross over into reality.
Often, the most significant cause of friction are the other ideas, desires or commitments you have that may conflict with your vision. For example, you want to go to a top law school and Yale was your first choice. But you'd rather be in a warmer climate plus your partner is from the West Coast, so you choose Stanford instead. In most cases, what you visualize is only a best guess or representation of what it will actually end up being in tangible form. And this is a good thing.
Remember as a savvy project manager your goal is to stay true to the essence of the vision while adapting to the forces of reality so you can bring it forth expediently. If you learn to do this successfully, over time you will become a master at consciously creating the change you want to see in your life and will be delighted at the outcomes, even though they may differ from the initial idea.
Just don’t forget to reflect on your journey and practice gratitude for accomplishing what you set out to achieve as this helps you develop a growth mindset and become even better at directing your thoughts and actions toward tangible results.
There are many claims and practices in law of attraction theory that inspire skepticism for good reason: because they seem to defy the laws of nature. But regardless of your spiritual or philosophical beliefs, it's important to remember that you are still playing in the realm of the physical, and will find life easier if you respect its ground rules.
Read
You can read or listen to this New York Times story about the rise of manifesting — an ages old practice that is increasingly becoming the preferred method for getting what you want out of life.
Fast Company explores the pros and cons of a key pillar of manifestation which is visualizing and "acting as if", that is, faking it until you make it in order to send a cue to the universe that you are serious about your desires.
If daydreaming feels a bit too delusional for your taste, there's another form of visualization that is much more specific. Thought experiments, favored by great thinkers such as Albert Einstein, are advanced means of turning ideas into reality.
In the Art of Living, Thich Nhat Hanh explores how mindfulness meditation is key to manifesting a more happy life.
Visualizing what you want to accomplish is only part of the equation, to manifest what you want you need to master goal setting.
An accountability partner is a great way to stay true to the goals that you set for yourself, as external support makes it much easier to manifest them.
For those who prefer a more rational approach to navigating life, Theory and Reality by philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith discusses how to understand the universe using logic and scientific theory.
