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This is the collection in the app that most needs a plain statement before anything else, so here it is. Nothing about this practice changes your circumstances, and no mechanism by which a meditation could has ever been shown.
What this practice is
What the practice involves is holding a desired situation in mind, in detail and with the feeling attached, for a sustained period. That is the whole of it. The claim usually made for it, that holding something in mind draws it toward you, is not a claim this app makes or supports.
What can be said is narrower and is about you rather than the world. Spending time with a clearly specified want tends to make it specific, and a specific want is one you can notice opportunities for and act on. People commonly report becoming clearer about what they were actually after, which is a genuine and unmystical thing.
It is also worth naming what makes this style of practice risky rather than merely ineffective. Where it implies that outcomes follow from mindset, it implies the converse too, which is that people who do not get what they need failed to want it properly. That is false and it is cruel, and no session here should be heard that way.
The tradition contains practices of intention and resolve, and treats them as directing effort rather than as causing events. That is the register this belongs in. Anything beyond it would need evidence that does not exist, and it is not claimed here.
When to use it
Use it when you have a vague sense of wanting something to change and cannot say what. Sitting with it until it becomes specific is the part of this that does something.
It suits a period of deciding rather than a period of doing. Once you know what you are after, the work is the work, and the practice has already given what it has.
Do not use it in place of action, and be honest about whether that is happening. This is the practice most easily mistaken for progress.
The sessions
Manifesting Abundance, one practice at three lengths, 11 to 24 minutes. Every session in this collection needs Premium. Four other meditation collections have a free session in them, and the free tier covers twelve guided sessions across the app.
| Length | Tier |
|---|---|
| 11 min | Premium |
| 16 min | Premium |
| 24 min | Premium |
How long to practise for
The shorter session is enough to get specific, which is the useful part. Length adds dwelling rather than clarity.
The longer ones suit an occasional sit when something large is unresolved and you want room to find the shape of it, rather than a daily habit.
The general version of this, and what a longer session actually adds, is in How Long to Meditate For: Choosing a Session Length.
How to use it
Get specific. A general wish for more is the version that does nothing; a particular change you could describe to someone is the version worth sitting with.
Notice what the wanting is actually about. People sitting with a wish for money often find it is a wish for security or for time, which is a more answerable thing.
Then do something about it. The session is a way of clarifying and it is not an instrument.
Stop if you catch yourself believing the sitting is the mechanism. That belief is the part with a cost attached.
What usually goes wrong
Treating it as causal. Holding something in mind does not bring it about, and a practice used that way displaces the effort that would have.
Staying general. Wanting more of everything produces nothing to act on. Specificity is the entire useful output.
Concluding that a bad outcome means you wanted it wrongly. This is the harmful version of the idea and it is worth refusing outright. Circumstances are not a report on anyone's mindset.
Using it instead of doing something. It feels like progress, which is exactly what makes it a good substitute for progress.
Clarity, not causation
PanchPrana includes this practice without the claim usually attached to it. What it is good for is working out what you actually want, which is worth half an hour and is not a substitute for doing something about it.
Who should take care
This is a gentle sitting practice with no physical demand. The cautions here are about the ideas around it rather than about the practice, and they matter more than usual.
Nothing here treats a financial, medical or personal difficulty, and no meditation should be used in place of advice on any of them. If money is the problem, a debt adviser is the intervention. If health is, a doctor is.
Be careful with any teaching that suggests outcomes reflect mindset. Applied to illness, poverty or loss, that idea causes real harm, and it is not what this collection is for.
Stop if a session leaves you more anxious about an outcome than clearer about what you want. Persistent worry about money or the future is worth taking to a doctor or to someone qualified in the specific problem.
See our full Health & Safety Disclaimer.
Common questions
Does manifesting work?
Not in the sense usually meant, and nothing here claims it does. What can be said is that sitting with a want tends to make it specific, and specific wants are easier to act on.
Why is this in the app if it is not claimed to work?
Because the practice underneath it is useful once the claim is removed. Sustained attention on what you actually want is a reasonable thing to do for half an hour.
Is this the law of attraction?
That is the framework the phrase comes from, and this collection does not adopt it. There is no evidence for the causal claim and it carries a harmful converse.
What should I actually expect?
Greater clarity about what you are after, and occasionally the discovery that it was not what you thought. Nothing about circumstances.
Is it wrong to want things?
No, and the tradition is not against wanting. It is against confusing wanting with doing.
