BF1983, I understand what you mean when you say that IM seems to be shown as the end-all and be-all.
ALG is making a point that is practical to him at his skill level but may not be to you. I, too, spent a long time oscillating back and forth between belief and doubt so here's some general tips from someone who's been through that sorta thing.
1. Relax. If IM is correct, yipee, means you can start to figure out many things. Even if you do or do not believe how the folks in Africa are doing, you can still help them out through practical means. Making more money can mean that you have more to give to help others. In fact, giving money is supposed to be excellent from an IM perspective,too, but its best done without expectation of reward.
2. We often tend to externalize ourselves and project these things outwards. Perhaps you are afraid that if you said that you believed in IM and someone did coem up to you and asked you if you really thought that the kids in africa were creating their situation and how horrifying a thought that is, perhaps you would react very harshly.
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/200...relationships/
3. Don't worry about other people and their reactions. This was a biggie for me. You can still remain anonymous and not tell anyone about your IM adventures.
4. You don't have to dive in completely and belive IM 100%. Take your time to test it. Think about it this way: IM is simply an intention and its manifestation. That intention can manifest a whole number of ways, through magical action, synchronsity or simple direct action. The law of least effort (as Chopra calls it) or just the path of least resistance applies here. You can keep physical action as your primary method of goal achievement but remain open to the possibility of extra-physical action. Allow the extra-physical action.
5. Don't let your intention to figure out if IM is real or not contaminate all your other intentions. Don't limit your "intentions" to manifest only through magical actions. This may not provide unequivocal proof, of course, until you are better at IM because it is only until later can you reliably use just IM because there is a learning curve to go from creating by default to conscious creation.
6. IM is not easy. Let me be clear about this. It is marketed that way, but it does take some effort, both to understand it and to apply it.
7. Think about it this way: If IM is correct then your thoughts create reality and you can have anything you want. If IM is not correct, then you wasted a bit of time and perhaps some money. However, PD is a bit like investing and not all your investments will pay off. The risk-reward, in my mind, works out.
8. Intend things that you really want, instead of artificial excersizes.
9. Have fun with it! This is a whole new area of exploration. Whether it turns out to be fruitful or not. Get used to being wrong, otherwise you'll never learn aynthing.
10. Applying IM is decently simple. My favourite method is this:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/forums/i...ick#post115962
Its best to do this as you're falling asleep or right after waking up. Meditation seems to work well for IM.
11. Even if the magical aspects of IM are not real, the non-magical aspects are still excellent. Open up any regular PD book (such as Goals! by Brian Tracy) and you'll find many of the things we discuss in there, including visualization, committed decisions, being open and willing to change your plans when a new option presents itself, focusing on what you want and not on what you don't want (which doesn't make any sense, period), etc.
12. Like ALG suggests, take little steps to get "there" from "here". You may not be able to believe instantly htat IM works, but you can believe that intentions are the beginning of all goal-achievement. Then the possibility of extra-physical action is the only sticking point in your new model.
13. Again, have fun, read up a bit on it. Good books you can find at the libary include:
Read the Steve Pavlina posts on IM.
The Law of Attraction by Michael Losier
Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra. Much wisdom is in this book.
The Abraham-Hicks material
Whatever else ALG recommends.
14. Think about how beliefs and reason work. The idea that you can only believe in things that have been verified is not a limit of the human mind, but of the dominant philosophy of our time: logical positivism. For a formulation of it, look up AJ Ayer. The scientific method doesn't really apply here because it fundamentally assumes that there is an observer and an observed and that the two are independant and one does not necessarily have to affect the other. However, if IM is correct than there is no dichotomy and they are one and the same (depending on which version of IM you believe). But you still need some sort of criterion to measure this by, otherwise I could go about believing whatever I wanted regardless of proof or evidence (which a lot of people,including me, do). The yardstick here is creation and the ability to create. If your beliefs are coming more into alignment with the nature of reality, you should be able to create what you desire better. Is this objectively verifiable? Hard to say. For example:
Since I got back into IM last year around october on a serious basis, my income has gone up. If I am offered this new job, it would represent a four-fold increase in my yearly income (which isn't that much, just so know) but it would be quite amazing for someone with my age and background. However, objectively its hard to say whether there is a causation there, or even a strong correlation. But I'm inclined to keep doing whatever I'm doing, because it seems to be working until it seems to stop working.
ALG has had the same sort of experience as has Pavlina.
Have fun! HTH.