This is 1 of the 10 topics from Richard van der Linde's – Bukuru founder – research into superhuman skills.The main source to be credited is www.dmtquest.com. At the bottom of the page is a link to the other topics.

“It is a vibrational shift that you are craving, not the ability to purchase something.”

~Esther Hicks

Is there a natural law, like that of gravity, which ties the contents of our minds to the unfolding of events in life? In other words, do our thoughts affect the probabilities of scenarios? According to some rather successful people (in financial terms), there is such an effect, and they are willing to teach you how to make this law work in the favor of anyone who’s willing to make an investment, which makes them not the best sources to rely on.

In the chapter on telekinesis, we already saw how students in a controlled environment could influence their odds when rolling dice. This example slightly stands out from the other examples in that chapter, since one wouldn’t have as clear an idea of how a die would roll compared to envisioning how a spoon would bend or how something would be tipped over with mental force.

With dice, one would foresee the outcome, but not the event that leads up to it. Instead of pushing something in a direction, it seems that it is rather an envisioned outcome that pulls the actions into the right direction, without the mind's awareness of the slight adjustments it makes in controlling the hand that throws the dice.

But this is all just philosophy and speculation, of course. Let’s look at some anecdotes.

In the early 1990s, Jim Carrey was a struggling actor trying to make a name for himself in Hollywood. He was relatively unknown and had yet to experience the massive success he would later achieve. In an act of desperation and determination, he wrote himself a check for $10 million for "acting services rendered" and dated it for “Thanksgiving 1995”. He carried this post-dated check in his wallet.

Jim Carrey's intention behind this symbolic gesture was to use the law of attraction to manifest his success as an actor. He visualized himself receiving such a substantial sum for his acting work. He even drove to the Hollywood Hills and visualized himself living there as a successful actor.

Before the date on the check arrived, Jim Carrey secured a role in the movie Dumb and Dumber. He was paid $10 million. This marked a turning point in his career and he went on to become one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood.

Then, there is the case of Helen Hadsell. She claimed to have won more than 5,000 contests and sweepstakes during her lifetime and credits books about the law of attraction with much of her success.

How and when it supposedly works

There is a great number of different protocols and courses for learning how to manifest what you want. While some schools of thought compare the universe with a webshop where you can order anything you desire for free, others emphasize that there is a price to pay later on for the fulfillment of merely egoic desires. You could call this karma. Their message is that the true value lies in understanding the mechanism of how physical reality manifests, so that you can use your direct experience outside of you as a mirror for learning what are the true passions, as well as unresolved emotions, inside of you. As without, so within.

Regardless, the common factors in the formula for consciously manifesting are:

1. Develop a genuine belief in the mechanism, for example, by reading anecdotes or the (hypothetical) scientific models;

2. Develop the ability to calm the mind and remain fairly undistracted by outside noise, for example, through daily meditation practice;

3. Develop the ability to visualize desired circumstances clearly, either a chosen outcome or something that appears in the mind organically. This can be achieved by practice mainly or with guidance. The key element seems to be that you can feel the feeling you expect to feel when you are already in the visualized circumstances.

4. After visualizing, let go of the desired outcome – with a genuine trust that the act of letting go will set in motion the mechanism of manifestation. This ability is established with step 1.

5. Part of the mechanism is that the world can already perceive the potential plant of the seed you planted in your energy field and with immediate effect will notice it if you believe in it yourself; this can be assumed, but takes some practice, as old thought patterns are habitual and take a little time to erode.

6. Finally, all should be done from a general feeling of love, it is presumed. This could also be described as a deep belief that the universe is friendly and always works in your and every person's best interest.

Like with telepathy, the heart is considered a strong amplifier, as it has a much stronger energy field emission than the mind alone. Alignment of the heart and mind is considered to be most effective for creating the desired result.

You can imagine how much effort it would take for skeptics to develop the ability to change things about their lives through this mechanism, should it be real. They would be stuck creating the same circumstances over and over. Or, they might be right and the people who invest time and effort on conscious manifesting are delusional. Who knows?

Why it supposedly works

A leading figure in the field of conscious manifestation is neuroscientist Dr. Joe Dispenza. He argues that everything in the universe is connected through a quantum field, a concept somewhat similar to the "field" in quantum physics. This field is said to contain information and energy related to all possibilities. Our thoughts and emotions are considered to have a vibrational frequency. They emit energy and information that interact with the quantum field. The Law of Attraction suggests that the frequency of your thoughts and emotions will resonate with energy on a similar frequency in the quantum field, which will then lead to a subatomic manifestation of energy in accordance with the mechanisms of quantum physics, which subsequently lead to atomic, molecular, and ultimately larger formations of physical existence. Through the mainstream scientific concept of quantum entanglement, it is also supposed to be possible to influence outcomes and events from a great distance.

A useful analogy is that of a tuning fork. A fork will start to resonate and produce a sound when it catches the vibrations of another fork with the same pitch. If the pitch is slightly different, the fork will not resonate. Similarly, it is considered that energy can behave like waves and particles at the same time and react to observation. It can make a wave collapse into a sub-atomic particle.

The famous Weizzman experiment in 1998 showcased the strange nature of the “observer effect” in which beams of electrons changed when under observation. When observed by a person, electrons behaved like particles and when not observed, electrons behaved like waves meaning that the mere act of observation affected the experimental findings.

Like with a tuning fork, it is considered that the quality or frequency of the thoughts and emotions we emit affects the how, what, where, and when of the collapsing of energy waves. Just like how meditators seem to affect how water molecules organize in patterns, in the experiments of Dr. Masaru Emoto.

Figure: Directed intentions and the subsequent structuring of water molecules

Slightly different is the approach of cellular biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton, another proponent of the conscious manifestation industry. Lipton's central idea is that the cells in our body have the ability to perceive and respond to their environment. He emphasizes that our beliefs, thoughts, and emotions can influence our biology at the cellular level. Lipton suggests that our beliefs are like "programs" stored in our subconscious mind. These beliefs are formed through our experiences and upbringing and can profoundly impact our behavior and biology. He places a strong emphasis on the subconscious mind, as it can override the intentions and frequency generated with the conscious mind. Lipton's connection to the Law of Attraction lies in the idea that our beliefs, thoughts, and emotions emit vibrational frequencies. These frequencies, according to Lipton, can influence both the behavior of our cells and even attract or repel certain life experiences.

As far as I know, no acclaimed scientist has put the alternative idea forward, but it has also been suggested that the ability of some might not be to create reality, but rather to have a premonition of what is about to happen. Or it might just be coincidence, although I find that the latter hard to believe, given some first-hand experiences:

Back in 2006, I had been playing records regularly as a disc jockey for a few years and was invited to play at the smallest room in the then-largest club in the world, Privilege in Ibiza. After dinner my friend and I went back to our hotel to take a shower and change for the evening. When I was packing my bag with records, he jokingly put a video camera in front of me and started interviewing me. I played along and I told him that it had been an amazing night as the headliner in the main room, an Italian deejay called Marco Carola, had cancelled and I was asked to fill his spot in the main room. We joked around a little more and then headed for the club. When we arrived, it was still early in the night (about half past midnight, a time I nowadays only make awake on New Year’s Eve!) and when we got to the entrance of the small backroom I was playing, the door was closed. Heavily packed with records, we looked around if someone might be able to help us out and indeed there seemed to be someone on its way to us. But instead of opening the door for us, he hastily asked me if I was able to play the kind of music that was playing in the main room. As it turned out, Marco Carola hadn’t showed up yet and they had put on a cd that was running out!

What are the odds of coincidentally bringing up such an unlikely event for the first time ever on the night such a thing happens for the first time ever? Not very large. Yet, if not a coincidence, did I manifest the event or did I somehow tune in on what was bound to happen?

In case you are now wondering how the night ended: by the time I got to the dj booth of the main room, Marco Carola had just arrived. Nonetheless, I fairly enjoyed playing in the small room and the excitement of what had happened earlier. But, Marco, if you ever read this: I did envision to actually play a few records!

A final implication of conscious manifestation is the possibility that magic – the kind performed, for example, by entertainers such as Derren Brown, David Copperfield and longer ago by Harry Houdini – is based not (entirely) on illusion and sleight of hand, but (also) on abilities associated with the realm of conscious manifestation. 

Conclusion

Besides the striking examples, many people have had experiences that are difficult to dismiss as sheer coincidence. Consider the case of the actress Helene Sust, who mainly performs in small theatrical plays. Back in 2018, she was really struggling to pay due rent, when she suddenly received a booking for a tv commercial. One hour’s work instantly solved her financial problems. It was her first-ever tv booking, as well as her last.

The challenge with researching this process in a scientific manner is that it appears impossible to control for the effect of the researchers' intentions and expectations. Moreover, when you decide to invest time in developing the ability and you suddenly win a huge prize at a lottery, how would you prove that this wouldn’t have happened without your training in conscious manifestation? You can’t.

Another challenge is that skepticism would affect any personal experimentation; the more skeptical one is, the larger their investment will be, whereas their willingness to make such an investment would be very low.

If you want to give conscious manifestation a try, at least make sure that you cross the doubt barrier before you draw a conclusion, or else you would be manifesting the thing you don’t really desire. Or, you might just disregard this altogether. Again, that is up to you.