A lesson inspired by Neville Goddard’s teachings.
The length of time a desire takes to manifest depends on how natural it feels for you to experience it. That is the straight to the point answer.
So yes, you can make a desire manifest faster by making it seem natural NOW via your imaginal acts.
You, yourself determine the interval.
Thinking Fourth Dimensionally – Neville Goddard
Here is a breakdown down of what typically affects “naturalness.”
Your Conception of Self
There is nothing to change but our concept of self. As soon as we succeed in transforming self, our world will dissolve and reshape itself in harmony with that which our change affirms.
Out of this World – Neville Goddard
Your “conception of self” consists of beliefs about yourself. Those beliefs and how normal your desire seems for you to experience affect how quickly a desire manifests. You must feel you are such a person NOW, not that you WILL BE, or else you keep it in the future and delay it.
But when you forget the tense, and you say ‘I will be’, ‘I was’, or any other way, you delay the journey.
The Unalloyed – Neville Goddard
Assuming you are NOW the person who naturally experiences the desire is the fast-track to the manifestation. This doesn’t mean being delusional about your current physical reality; it means claiming yourself to be the person who experiences such things. Most of us don’t deliberately manifest mundane stuff that’s already normal to us because we easily assume it is attainable whenever we want it, even if we don’t currently have it. If I want a banana, I don’t do an imaginal act. My self-concept is such that any action I take to get a banana will easily result in success. Neville said a manifestation often feels like it would’ve happened anyway. That’s naturalness.
But may I tell you: if you use your creative power by imagining a desire is already fulfilled, when you get it, the circumstances will seem so natural that it will be easy to deny your imagination had anything to do with it, and you could easily believe that it would have happened anyway.
Believe It In – Neville Goddard
The conception of self is THE most significant factor which will speed up the other factors, which are detailed as follows.
Your Assumptions About the Desire Itself
Your assumptions about the desire and how easily and quickly it can be acquired affect how long it takes to manifest. Many of us have ideas about how long everything takes. Neville illustrates this by comparing the time to a gestation period for different animals.
The length of time between my desire and its conception depends entirely upon my inner conviction that it is done. A horse takes twelve months, a cow nine months, a chicken twenty-one days, so there are intervals of time; but it comes down to the simple fact that the truth concerning every concept is known by the feeling of its certainty. When you know it, not a thing can disturb your knowingness!
An Inner Conviction – Neville Goddard
For example, if you want a wonderful, committed, romantic relationship, you could meet the love of your life at any minute, but you probably expect a relationship to develop over some time, whether it’s days or weeks or months. Technically the meeting is part of the bridge of incidents, and your manifestation isn’t actually complete until you feel your relationship has the desired status and dynamic. Then there’s the “how.” You could meet someone at any minute, but maybe you assume you have to do something and that may take time and effort (e.g. leave the house). This relates to your conception of self, as any action from you flows from it.
This time period CAN be adjusted if you see your manifestation as a “different type of animal.” If you assume it’s BIG and DIFFICULT, well then it will likely feel more natural to have a longer “gestation” period after planting the seed. If you assume it’s relatively small and easy, then it’s already fairly natural to you, and thus it will probably manifest as quickly and effortlessly as your beliefs about reality allow. And that brings us to the next factor.
Your Beliefs About Reality
Your beliefs about reality, particularly physical reality, affect how long a desire takes to manifest. If you want to lose 50lb., you probably have ideas about biology so that it takes time to healthily lose that much weight. Most of us have deeply rooted beliefs about what’s physically possible or probable, and this will affect manifestation time.
You certainly can assume differently about physical reality, and no, that doesn’t mean rejecting modern science. New discoveries, new understandings, new technology are increasingly made in our shared reality, so why not assume it is all in your favor?
These beliefs about reality are also related to Neville’s comparison of “what kind of animal” it is. Again, you CAN change your ideas about “what kind of animal” it is and what “gestation” period is realistic and reasonable to expect. But this ALL connects to your conception of yourself, because everything appears in relation to how you view yourself. It’s not merely what feels possible, but what feels probable, or even inevitable, for you. To make a desire a “smaller animal,” make yourself “bigger.” So if you want to lose weight, and you now conceive of yourself as a naturally thin and fit person with a fast metabolism, then losing weight can happen faster than what you previously may have assumed. You just made yourself “bigger” than your perceived problem, causing its solution to come more quickly and easily. This “bigger” conception of yourself solidifies when you remain mentally loyal to it.
Your Faithfulness to Your New Assumptions
As noted, the most significant new assumption is “who you are.” We transform our reality by BEING someone new internally and remaining faithful to that new state of consciousness. Doubt about who you are is the worst doubt. You can stumble with a thought here and there, but commit to the new identity and make the desired state habitual and stable.
However, your ordinary imaginal alterations as you pass from one state to another are not transformations because each of them is so rapidly succeeded by another in the reverse direction. But whenever one state grows so stable as to become your constant mood, your habitual attitude, then that habitual state defines your character and is a true transformation.
The Law and the Promise Chapter 1 – Neville Goddard
Neville notes we can have a “mental miscarriage” where we uproot the planted seed of our desire by frequent negative inner talk, daydreams which oppose it, or with a poor self-concept. Don’t be unduly afraid of this, but also don’t be lax in your mental diet; stop an unwanted thought stream immediately. In practice, use this “mental miscarriage” to your benefit.
And if perchance you catch yourself imagining what you do not wish to experience, stop it, stop it right there and then, and don’t give it an extra second. It may be you are in the midst of an emotion and you’d like to complete the emotion and tell him off completely. Don’t. Stop it. Break it. And that causes a sort of a mental, well, a mental abortion, a mental miscarriage. If you break it without exploding the emotion.
Feel After Him – Neville Goddard
When we fail to be faithful, Joseph Murphy (another teacher of the Law) said this is like pressing the up and down button at the same time on an elevator. We are giving our subconscious two opposing directions and wondering why nothing is moving. Really, we only need press that up button once, or plant the seed successfully once, and then we will be on our way as fast as our other ideas allow.
If we don’t uproot the planted seed of our desire, then we will successfully neutralize longing and enter the “Sabbath” which is essentially the same as the “gestation period.” What to do in this interim?
When you are self-persuaded this is now a fact, relax in the vision’s gestation period.
A Movement of Mind – Neville Goddard
Note: Regarding the interval of time, some people take Neville’s three day statement literally, but it’s not. Although he asserts this is a maximum if you have a perfect “mental diet,” he’s primarily making a reference to Jesus’ death and resurrection as an illustration for the manifesting process. Once your old self “dies” (Friday, the day of the crucifixion), you enter the gestation period (Saturday the Sabbath, no more work, just relax and keep faith), and then you rise again in a glorious new state (Sunday, the resurrection, or manifestation). Sometimes Neville talks about this time period being six days, with the seventh day as the Sabbath or day of rest when creation is done, because again, it’s symbolic. But the real-time interval could actually be much shorter – as little as 3 seconds, not days!
The Path of Least Resistance
The subconscious manifests as fast as we allow it, like water flowing into whatever groove is next in its path. Sometimes “partial manifestations” are the subconscious giving us the desire in the fastest form our current state can accept. As it takes the path of least resistance, we often just need to get out of our own way. And this is what naturalness is — something which flows effortlessly. It is preferable to NOT speculate on the how, when, or why because we don’t unwittingly assume any obstacles that way; we won’t create conditions for the desire to manifest. But in addition to getting out of our own way, we can also create a faster path with new assumptions about how reality works and how easy and big the desire is.
Along the lines of least resistance travel spiritual as well as physical forces.
Answered Prayer – Neville Goddard
Can You Set a Specific Time for a Manifestation?
Yes, of course. There is no limit here. However, Neville advises not to rush it, but to choose a time that feels natural for the desire. This is because rushing usually implies a desperation which admits you are NOT in the state of the wish fulfilled. If you were in the right state, then you’d be relaxed and assured the timing will be just perfect.
Again, let me remind you not to shorten the interval of time because you are anxious to receive your desire; make it a natural interval. No one can give you the time interval. Only you can say what the natural interval would be to you. The interval of time is relative; that is, no two individuals would give the same measurement of time for the realization of their desire.
Your Faith is Your Fortune, Chapter 15: Interval of Time – Neville Goddard
But how would you imagine a particular time or date anyway? Neville said to feel “there” to be “here” or “then” to be “now.” In the Chapter “Interval of Time” in Your Faith is Your Fortune, Neville advises on how to imagine a specific day: if it feels natural to happen on Sunday, and today is Wednesday, then in the imaginal act, feel it is Sunday.
But this doesn’t have to be days of the week nor even months or seasons. Human ways of tracking time don’t need to be specified in the imagination (your subconscious hears and knows all and the “deadline” is in your consciousness already). You simply need to enter the feeling you’d have if you met the deadline. Be in the state of getting it on time.
I was once driving to an appointment in worker’s traffic, and I started to get nervous it would delay me. I imagined myself sitting calmly in the waiting room, implying I’d actually arrived early (and quickly found close parking!). I felt relaxed as I drove, because that’s how I feel when I have plenty of time. And of course I manifested getting there with plenty of time, despite the appearance of a traffic jam.
So if you imagine a time in the near future for your desire to manifest, and it feels real enough in imagination, it feels natural to happen at that time for you, then you’ve sped it up by preparing the place in advance; and then, your desire must manifest “on time.”
In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
John 14:2-3