See - this is the key point that most people miss.
Why do I say that it's a key point? Because what keeps most of your negative thoughts from manifesting
is the same as what keeps most of your positive thoughts from manifesting.
Let's take two examples - the Negative Example Negated and the Positive Example Negated.
Positive Example Negated
The person begins with a few positive thoughts.
"I want to be healthy. I am going to exercise regularly. I'll work out in the gym! I'll go running three times a week. I'll look great and feel great .."
Why this doesn't manifest - the positive thoughts is countered by subsequent negative thoughts. For example: "I just don't have the time to exercise. I need to stay a little late in the office today. I'm just too tired now. I hate going to the gym anyway, I look so flabby and all those muscle types are all around - it's embarrassing."
Therefore the person has no time. He stays a little later in the office. He's tired and therefore goes home to watch TV and sleep. In his mind, the idea that it's embarrassing to go to the gym when you are flabby, has been slightly reinforced, once again by him thinking such thoughts.
Net effect: Reality stays unchanged. He remains fat and unhealthy, and never makes it to the gym.
Negative Example Negated
The person begins with his irrational fears (I use MR's example): "I am so afraid of shark attacks. I even get nightmares about being eaten by a shark."
Why this doesn't manifest - the thoughts are neutralised by other thoughts. Eg:
"I am afraid of shark attacks, therefore I do NOT go swimming in the ocean. I will only swim in a swimming pool". Effect on reality - the person will never be bitten by a shark.
Some of My Personal Fears
When I was a kid, around seven or eight years old, I played soccer and another kid kicked the ball straight into my face, smashing my spectacles. I was pretty scared (because these were new spectacles and they cost money and my parents were not rich people and I thought that my parents would be furious).
Looking back, I see how this developed into a kind of irrational fear for me. I had this idea that
if I played contact sports, something bad would happen.
This thought never manifested into reality. Reason is that I avoided contact sports for the rest of my life. Instead I ran, swam, played table tennis and badminton.
If you analyse this in LOA terms, you could set out the thoughts as follows:
This thought - "if I played contact sports, something bad would happen"
has been neutralised by this thought:
"if I avoid playing contact sports, then no such thing will happen."
So the reality is the non-event. The bad thing never happens, because it is counteracted by another belief that if I simply avoid playing contact sports, then I can suffer no damage or losses related to playing contact sports.
As for this point:
Quote:
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My point was that bad things happen to people all the time that they never were afraid of, that they didn't worry about, that came completely out of nowhere.
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... actually, I'd already explained them. You see, Event A does not necessarily occur because you are thinking of Event A. Event A occurs instead because you are thinking thoughts X, Y and Z, and the net effect of thoughts X, Y and Z is that Event A occurs.
Therefore Event A can be a real surprise to you. But it is merely the net result of your different thoughts X, Y and Z.
This is the same process WHETHER Event A is positive or negative.
For example, suppose I manifest for money. I do not know where it will come from - I could strike the lottery, or a new job offer could come, or someone will give me money, or I could pick it up on the street, or I could suddenly be promoted or someone may repay a debt I'd long forgotten about.
When it happens - it is a surprise ("Oh, how come the company is promoting me at this time of the year!? Usually no one is promoted until December"). I may not have thought about getting promoted at all. I just wanted money. Nevertheless Event A (the promotion) has come.