Decoding The Self

Many people, at least when they first discover Neville Goddard’s work (or visualization work in general), get obsessive about their SATS and the nitty-gritty details of the scenes they school to visualize. This makes sense, as we’re all trying to create very specific objects and experiences for ourselves — why wouldn’t we take care to make sure that our visualizations contain as many little specificities as possible?

Now, just for the record, I’m not about to suggest that vivid visualizations are a bad thing — they aren’t, and when you understand how to craft them correctly, they can be the most incredible aid. But crafting your visualizations correctly is the critical part of this equation and the one a lot of us need to work on.

Imagine for a second that you’re trying to manifest a promotion at work and one of your friends suggests you create a SATS scene wherein your boss is shaking your hand and congratulating you on landing the new job. Perfect right?

Well, except when it isn’t perfect. What if your boss is a jerk, and the mere sight of his face triggers feelings of anger and upset? Your dislike of him is conditioned to the point that you feel small and unworthy just by being in his presence.

And despite being hyper-diligent in your SATS practice, you aren’t seeing a payoff. You haven’t gotten the promotion you wanted, and, if anything, your boss has become more of a condescending jerk to you.

So what’s the deal?

Everyone communicates with themselves using a complex inner language. Our self-language is unique to us (some elements of it might overlap with the languages used by others, but still, on the whole, it’s unique), and it is not something we ever think about or assess.

In essence, though, what all of us are doing all of the time is translating feelings into images, then taking in images and translating them in reverse back into feelings. Thoughts and images are just how our feelings look in the mind.

For example, imagine that you’re swimming around in a vast expanse of water. Depending on who you are and what your life experiences are, this imagined experience will have a different feeling connected to it. If you’re from a landlocked country and have spent years dreaming of taking a tropical vacation, the daydream of swimming around will be associated with feelings of peace and happiness. If you’re a former deepsea fisherman whose last boat capsized and left you stranded alone in freezing cold ocean water, the visualization of swimming around all alone is sure to trigger fear and anxiety.

And that’s the exact point I’m getting at.

The feeling is the secret. And, because this is the case, one always has to be mindful of the consequences of working with “stock” visualizations. Somebody may tell you to imagine shaking your boss’s hand if you want a promotion, but if you hate your boss and he’s condescending toward you, visualizing his smug, smiling face over and over again is going to reinforce your negative feelings about him. You’re going to be in the wrong state of feeling for what you’re trying to manifest simply.

Your SATS scenes should be personal to you and should be specific as pertains to FEELINGS, not as pertains to imagery. If you want a promotion at work because it’ll make you feel more financially secure and like you’ll have more free time to relax in the new position, you’re better off imagining yourself sitting at home on the couch because you can afford to take a random day off. Yes, this isn’t specific to the exact outcome you’re trying to manifest — but it is specific to the feeling you’re trying to create via the manifestation.

Again, feeling is the secret.

Whenever you have some object or experience you’d like to create, it’s worth taking some time to investigate what feeling/feelings are being represented via the object or experience. Instead of jumping into a SATS practice that focuses on the actual real-life experience you need to happen, consider creating a visual scene that communicates your desired state of feeling as precisely as possible.

I call this process “Decoding The Self.” It’s a strategy for figuring out how the things we want are linked to the feelings we seek to experience so that we can more easily decode the language we use to represent things to ourselves. And once you’ve become adept at your own language, manifestation will become much much easier because you can almost entirely disregard the visual specifics of whatever it is you’re trying to manifest and spend all your time accessing the feelings you desire — however those feelings might be represented in your mind as pictures or thoughts.

Then, you can start to get creative in your practice. Your SATS sessions can consist of scenes that are totally metaphorical — if you want a new job because it’ll provide you a sense of freedom, you can imagine yourself flying over a mountain or running through a field of flowers. If you want a new relationship, instead of imagining yourself on a date (which might make you feel anxious), you can imagine yourself sitting at your desk writing out a funny Valentine's Day card to the person you love, or sitting alone in a bar and not feeling compelled to talk to any of the beautiful people around you because you know your heart already belongs to someone.

Because the scene doesn’t matter — what a scene means will differ from person to person. The feeling is all you should concern yourself with.

As always, good luck.