Steve Pavlina

Steve is one of the most thoughtful commentators on manifestation and the Law of Attraction. (The Law of Attraction expresses the spiritual and practical principles which control manifestation.)

He has raised some interesting questions about certain aspects of Law of Attraction theory that most people tend to avoid.

For example, what happens when people put out conflicting intentions? What will manifest? This might be when, for example, two people want the same objective but apparently only one of them can have it.

And another question that many people wonder about is whether or not children who are abused are being abused because they intended this in some way. (After all, isn’t that what Law of Attraction says – you get what you think about?)

And what about a situation where you’re trying to improve, let’s say, your relationship with your partner – but he or she doesn’t seem very interested in manifesting a better relationship.

Does That Negate Law of Attraction? 

To answer that question, Steve refers to a concept he calls “subjective reality” to explain these challenges with the Law and how it attracts reality to you….

What he means by subjective reality is that there’s only one source of intentions in your universe – and that’s you.

Here’s the basic (and radical) idea behind this theory: all the people you interact with in the world,  and all the things you observe,  exist inside your consciousness – which, if you think about it, is exactly how dreams operate.

Steve makes it clear that he is referring to “you” as the single consciousness in which your entire reality is currently taking place.

To understand this better, think of a dream which occurs during your sleep – as you know the entire dream occurs within your consciousness.

In the same way, “your” entire world (as you perceive it) is occurring within your consciousness during everyday life.

So how does this explain the idea of two people putting out conflicting intentions, both trying to use Law of Attraction principles to get what they want (e.g. the same job)?

The answer seems to be that this is an entirely internal conflict within you.

To put it simply, while you hold the image in your mind (or the thought if you prefer), that both people want the same thing, and at the same time you believe only one can have it, the overall intention you’re putting out to the universe is now competition.

And therefore what you’re actually creating and manifesting with the Law of Attraction in this situation is competition – because, as you know, in its simplest form the principles of attraction mean your thoughts attract similar energies.

Therefore if you put out thoughts of competition, that’s what you get back. 

This point of view puts the responsibility for whatever is manifested in your world firmly and squarely on you. To the extent, perhaps, that if you think about war, poverty, and disease, that’s exactly what YOU are manifesting.

Yet at the same time, in some way this is obviously true: when you think about those things you REALLY are manifesting them in some way in your consciousness.

What about the situation where you want your relationship to improve, but your partner doesn’t seem to be very interested in that happening?

Well, Steve says that here you’re projecting one intention for yourself and one for your spouse, and these intentions are not compatible. (You want harmony, but he or she is not interested. Result – conflict.)

And so the principle here is that because you attract what you think about, you will create conflict with your spouse by thinking about this very outcome.

So what’s the solution? How can you manifest what you want?

The answer rests on you taking responsibility for your thoughts.

For example, if you want peace in the world, then it’s necessary for you to think of peace in everything that occurs in your consciousness.

If you want abundance, then it’s necessary to create thoughts of abundance for everyone in your consciousness.

And to stop any further creation of things you don’t want, you have to take 100% responsibility for everything you’re experiencing in your reality right now and then assume that you can change that by redirecting your thoughts.

Phew! This really is a far out view of the responsibility you take on when you’re creating reality with Law of Attraction.

For me, it brings to mind the old saying “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem”.

The essence of this theory is that you can begin creating the reality you actually want in your life by making clear decisions and holding clear intentions about what you desire.

At the same time, you MUST avoid paying any attention to the things you don’t want in your consciousness or your reality.

And to do that, you need to pay attention to your thoughts and emotions equally.

Not only do you have to change your thoughts, but when you feel negative, you have a responsibility to change any bad feelings into something positive. So you substitute optimism for fear, hope for despair, pure energy for anger, and so on.

If you want to read more about this you can do so here.