The LOA Experiment (DIY)

[Nikaia]

So, the visualization thing didn't work too well. Maybe it's because I didn't clear off my meditation chair and instead just "nested" a corner of the bed instead, and since I associate bed with sleep...yeah. I didn't sleep, exactly, though, I just kept drifting away from the focused visualization I'd wanted to do. Although on the plus side, I could feel energy just vibrating throughout my body, which was an interesting sensation. I may try again this evening.

But, for the second day in a row, I chanted affirmations in my head as I dropped off to sleep and lo and behold, I actually woke BEFORE my alarm this morning and waited eagerly for it to go off, as if I needed permission to get out of bed. So that's something, anyway. And my workout last night, hard as it was, left me feeling pleasantly exhausted instead of just bleh.

[Acting Like Godot]

Jawillie scores a success while doing the DIY experiment.

Synchronicities are exciting!

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Nikaia

So, the visualization thing didn't work too well. Maybe it's because I didn't clear off my meditation chair and instead just "nested" a corner of the bed instead, and since I associate bed with sleep...yeah. I didn't sleep, exactly, though, I just kept drifting away from the focused visualization I'd wanted to do. Although on the plus side, I could feel energy just vibrating throughout my body, which was an interesting sensation.

Hi, it is good that you can feel that the energy vibrating.

Once we all get the hang of this stuff, it should become quite common to feel the energy, in one form or another. If you don't feel it, it's not a sign that you're not on the right track, but if you do feel it, it's a sign that you are.

I think that different people experience the energy differently. Commonly, you may see lots of colours even with your eyes closed; or you may experience tingling sensations in your arms and/or legs. Or you may feel it physically, like a ball that you can actually touch and hold.

I don't feel very qualified to comment much more than that, because my personal experience of this energy stuff is not extensive. I'm still learning along the way. This week I just started reading Stuart Wilde's book "Sixth Sense" where he discusses what you can do with all this energy. It's pretty mind-blowing stuff, but so far I personally have not ever experienced more than 5% of what he talks about in the book.

Here is one entry from my blog, where I record one occasion when I was feeling (and playing with) energies a lot:

More Developments On The Job Front - Mind Session 41/2008 « A Little Magic Everyday

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Malazan

I think I recall you mentioning Michael Losier's book in that list of books on LOA/IM and it just so happens to be that I picked it up yesterday. It kept popping up in three different book stores I visited (How's that for a first synchronicity ^^). Do you have any thoughts on his technique of using affirmations in combination with your exercises?

I do like his exercise to find out what you want by using contrast but do you think just stating affirmations like: I love the thought of always having money in my wallet, I like knowing that money flows into my life constantly.. etc etc. Will yield any results? Unless you can create a lot of emotional intensity while you say it, it seems to be inferior to visualizing.

Well, I think that it is useful to explore a range of different techniques. Reason being that different techniques work better under different sorts of circumstances.

For example, there will be times when you just can't get your concentration together, to do a deep visualisation session. Or you can't get to a place that's sufficiently peaceful and quiet for it. Then you can use some other form of visualisation.

I think Losier's written exercises are also good for working out what you want. One thing about visualisation is that you won't know what to visualise unless you know what you want. Whereas Losier's exercises actually are quite good in helping you to work that out.

[Acting Like Godot]

Jawillie scores success while doing the DIY experiment:

Synchronicities are exciting!

[robc]

even if my progress doesn't get monitored in this thread I will start the experiment on my own, start a journal and perform the exercises as outlined.

I've read these posts for quite a while, don't know why I didn't want to start it previously (possibly alot of self-doubt), but I'm starting it now and I'll let you know how it goes. Thank you ALG for getting this ball rolling, I'm glad to be a part of it.

Good luck to all!!!
May all your IM's come true!!!

[jawillie]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

Jawillie scores success while doing the DIY experiment:

Synchronicities are exciting!

Thanks, ALG. I am a little concerned when I write about "representing" LoA in an incorrect manner. So, if you ever see me going way off course, don't be afraid to say so.

Energy has been my word of the day. I see it everywhere and I have been thinking about it a lot the last few days. And, I look here and there it is a few replies up!

I am not just saying this, because if something doesn't work for me I feel no obligation to pretend it does: my life is radically different from where I was just a mere three-four weeks ago. Do I contribute this to LoA. Hell yeah.

Along with LoA I feel "conscious" for the first time in my life. I am looking at situations and "seeing" more sides than just my old usual "cloudy" perspective.

I really want to stay this way. I was so down in January and Febuary and most of March. I do not want to go "back there" you know?

My energies are high, and truly wonderful things are happening.

My question: what do you do if you get low again? I just want to prepared so I don't ever slip waaaaay down again.

Thank you, thank you!!!

[kellykellz123]

Ahh, I think it's way too late to join now but I'm going to do it anyway, lol. I'm new to this and this experiment seems like a good way to get started. Hope you'll still support me

[Rose of Cairo]

I just discovered this thread. Thank you so much ALG for sharing this with us

I'd like to join the experiment and do something about my career, unfortunately I don't know what to visualize. I just don't know what career I'd like to have!

[RT Wolf]

Here's a trick that I've known about for a while but haven't applied till now. It's based on an NLP belief-changing trick that never worked for me until I applid it in deep meditation:

1. Go deep into meditation
2. State your intention and see how it feels (or hear or whatever).
3. State something you know absolutely to be true (such as "I breathe") and see how that feels. If you don't get the same sense of surety from your intention as this, it means you don't absolutely believe it yet.
4. This process is a little different for everyone: What I do here is feel my intention going "down" and deep within me, until it is planted inside me as firmly as my belief in that I breathe. For some people, the two images of your intention and your belief may overlap and pick up the properties of each other, or your intention is said in your mind with the same confidence and surety that your belief is. Essentially you change the submodalities of the intention, if you're familiar with NLP.

I recently used this to plant the belief that I get what I think about in life (ie confirm belief in IM) and I've been a lot less doubtful. You can also use this to believe in your intentions, like, "I'm getting to x", and/or visualizations.

Remember: you may hear a lot of confidence when you say I breathe, or you may want to imagine yourself breathing with the same sort of confidence or belief as your intention, or you may do as I do and feel it the same way. Everyone has different modalities, including sight, auditory and kinesthetic.

Not to confuse what ALG is saying, some of you may be interested in trying this out if/when you're done with ALG's wonderful trial.

[seeker5]

Hey, this is a great thread! Loved the SC description, and am going to pratice putting myself into Alpha state so I can put it to pratice. I'd love to let my future mate know I'm here and ready.

[robc]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

Original post here. This is what you need to do:

1. Get a file, notebook or blog, to keep proper written records of your experiment. Choose one or two areas of your life, for the purposes of this experiment. For example, "Career"; "My Hobby"; or "Health".

2. Suppose you choose "Career". Now do a writing exercise, to describe the reality of your career as you currently see it. A very simple framework could be as follows:

(a) five things you like best about your job, and why
(b) five things you dislike the most about your job, and why
(c) what you expect your job situation would be like, in 2 months' time, if you just carry on with your life pretty as usual.

3. Date your piece of paper, and keep your paper somewhere safe. Note: You will not be looking at this piece of paper again, until the experiment is over in two months' time.

The paper is just to record your current reality as it is, and your current thinking as it is. In 2 months time, you will revisit this piece of paper and see what kind of changes your use of LOA has created, over a 2-month period.

I chose 2 areas, I won't go into specifics on each one but I've chosen my areas as relationship & health. I went through the exercise in step 1, wrote up a page on both areas as per the above, taped the pages so that I can't peek at them until the end of June 2008 and we'll see how it goes.

I've been reading about the silva method of getting into an alpha state, sounds exciting, it also sounds like this is the goal, to get into your alpha state and maintain your intention into that state and access our higher self. My current understanding for myself (may not apply to others) is that negative things & my negative thoughts have an easier time of getting focus, thoughts & energy attached to them, that's why LOA is successful at manifesting them easily into my current reality. I'm going to switch that around, start believing that my good thoughts have just as easy an ability to do the same thing. I will journal the process as much as I can, that way I can go back & review what I'm doing, make note of positive/negative occurrences and track & improve my progress that way.

This is very exciting, ALG you have a friend in me!!!

[Acting Like Godot]

Aha, this gets fun - we have so many participants.

Now today, we're going to do a one-off exercise. It's something you won't repeat again, or at least, it's not the kind of exercise you will do very often at all.

This exercise does take some planning, however. First you'll need to find an appropriate intention, within your chosen life area, to use for this exercise. And the intention should meet the following criteria:

1. It is something that would really make you very happy, if it came true.

2. It is something that could theoretically or possibly happen within your chosen time-frame for your DIY experiment (eg 2 months)

3. It is something that seems so amazing and/or so unlikely that you haven't been striving towards it or working on it at all. It basically has never been a goal for you.

4. It is something that you wouldn't feel disappointed about at all, if it didn't happen. In other words, it's so unlikely to happen that you'd never have expected it to happen, therefore you won't be disappointed if it doesn't.

5. It is something that, if you were to set it as a personal goal or target, would logically require very little or perhaps no action on your part at all. In other words, in a "conventional" sense, it is quite beyond your control - there's logically nothing much you can do about it.

What might such an intention be? Just some examples. Suppose you've just suffered a broken relationship. You've not been looking for a new partner - you just don't feel ready and so you've taken no action whatsoever to go dating etc and you really don't feel like it. Now, the intention you could use for this exercise is that the most perfect new partner for you will just spontaneously show up in your life.

Another example. Suppose you don't really like your current job. You don't mind it that much, but you don't love it either. Unfortunately you don't even know what kind of job you would really enjoy, so you haven't gone out there to start looking. Now, the intention you could use for this exercise is that a new job opportunity will just suddenly, spontaneously show up in your life, and when it comes, you will realise that this kind of job is exactly what you want to do.

Now ......... for the actual exercise.

Having decided on the intention you want to do, proceed as usual. Set 20 minutes for this exercise, and make it a really, really good one.

Go deep ... deep .... deep ... deep, and when you're there, use a combination of positive words, positive images, positive emotions to express this intention to yourself.

If there are aspects of the intention which aren't clear to you (for example, you still don't know what kind of job you really want, or what kind of person would make a perfect partner for you), just "fill in the gaps" in whatever way feels natural to you. For example, you could use:

(i) positive emotion (just imagine and "feel" how happy you would be, if that job or that partner came to you);

(ii) positive general language ("she's the most perfect person for me ..."; "the job makes me feel so excited to get up every morning and go to work" etc) without going into specifics.

Go really, really deep. Spend 20 minutes there. Then get out. Forget the intention. Let it go. Detach. Don't fuss about it any more (this should be easy - remember, I asked you to choose an intention that "you wouldn't feel disappointed about at all, if it didn't happen".).

Proceed with life as usual. If nothing happens, nothing happens. You wasted half an hour of your time - no big deal.

If something happens, oh .... you will be SOOOOO happy.

And who knows, maybe the universe is about to surprise you.

[seeker5]

ALG - sounds like you wrote this post specifically for me!

[Acting Like Godot]

I've just started my own DIY experiment as well, with a few variations:

1. It's only for one month. I call it the "May Project".

2. I'm not confining myself to any one or two particular areas of my life. Instead I seek to manifest a very wide range of intentions in all aspects of my life. The intentions will range from the very important to the not-so-important to the "just for the heck of seeing if I can make it happen" type of intentions.

3. For the whole month, I'll be following very closely the tips, ideas, methods and suggestions in three particular LOA books that I have. By doing this for a month, I hope to understand these three authors' take on the LOA topic really, really well, and basically milk all three books for what they're worth.

[uberinquisitive]

Originally Posted by RT Wolf

Here's a trick that I've known about for a while but haven't applied till now. It's based on an NLP belief-changing trick that never worked for me until I applid it in deep meditation:

1. Go deep into meditation
2. State your intention and see how it feels (or hear or whatever).
3. State something you know absolutely to be true (such as "I breathe") and see how that feels. If you don't get the same sense of surety from your intention as this, it means you don't absolutely believe it yet.
4. This process is a little different for everyone: What I do here is feel my intention going "down" and deep within me, until it is planted inside me as firmly as my belief in that I breathe. For some people, the two images of your intention and your belief may overlap and pick up the properties of each other, or your intention is said in your mind with the same confidence and surety that your belief is. Essentially you change the submodalities of the intention, if you're familiar with NLP.

I recently used this to plant the belief that I get what I think about in life (ie confirm belief in IM) and I've been a lot less doubtful. You can also use this to believe in your intentions, like, "I'm getting to x", and/or visualizations.

Remember: you may hear a lot of confidence when you say I breathe, or you may want to imagine yourself breathing with the same sort of confidence or belief as your intention, or you may do as I do and feel it the same way. Everyone has different modalities, including sight, auditory and kinesthetic.

Not to confuse what ALG is saying, some of you may be interested in trying this out if/when you're done with ALG's wonderful trial.

Thanks for this tip! I'm totally using this to confirm my belief in IM, and to confirm that I have can do IM easily and effortlessly (my limiting belief is that IM is effective but difficult, and that I always have to be vigilant).

[Mags]

Originally Posted by RT Wolf

3. State something you know absolutely to be true (such as "I breathe") and see how that feels. If you don't get the same sense of surety from your intention as this, it means you don't absolutely believe it yet.

Hi everyone

As I was walking home from the supermarket today (5 minutes from my apartment), I decided to see if I could manifest something instantaneously. I've been incorporating ALG's wonderful advice into my usual techniques, and today also decided to make use of RT Wolf's technique given above - in this case, all applied as best as possible while walking along the road (kind of a walking meditation, I guess!).

As there was much discussion on the forum recently about manifesting red hats, I decided to pick that as the object to manifest . About a minute later, as I walked over the bridge near my home and could then see what was on the other side, who should be standing there but a construction worker wearing a bright red hard-hat! They are currently building a new apartment block one away from ours, but the construction workers I usually see are always wearing yellow or white hard-hats. I've never seen a red one until today.

Today red hats, tomorrow...?!

[All Is Well]

I have been doing exercise regularly so far. Nothing major has happened yet. But I do notice some unusual things, which do not seem related to my intentions.

I also started listening to the Silva Method CDs and do exercises following the instruction. Yes, it takes practice to get into deep meditation state where the visualization/affirmation works best.

By the way, I saw a red hat too last Saturday ...

[Nikaia]

An update on my progress -

I've been trying to keep up on my as-I'm-falling-asleep mantras, and keeping focused on my visualizations during quiet moments of the day.

And over the past three days, I've been extraordinarily productive, cleaning most all of my house (which has been on my goals list for MONTHS). I've gone to the gym eight times in three weeks, and have lost four pounds already. Given that my two areas of testing with I-M were personal productivity and physical fitness...well, I'm fairly impressed with how this is going.

Part of what I've done includes clearing my meditation chair and cleaning/resetting my altar that sits beside it, so tonight I'm going to celebrate that by trying ALG's "way out there" experiment. I'm going to focus on the world showing me a job that can lead to a career for me, given that I'm just out of college and at that "What now?" stage and don't know what I want to do for a living. If I don't get anything, whatev, I'll just work on getting a job that pays the bills and live with that, but I would be so, so pleased to find a direction to focus in. I'll report on how it went in a few days!

[All Is Well]

Congratulations on your progress, Nikaia!

[Bitsy]

Can someone tell me, how do you know when you are in the alpha state?