Track Changes
On the way to my B.A. in Psychology about 30 years ago, I took a course in memory—how it works, how to improve it, how it impacts our personality. The bulk of the grade for the course came from a thesis-like term paper, in which we had to put forth a theory of memory using an analogy to an ordinary object or set of objects.
I chose a big gyrating bowl of cherries. My theory was that the system of neurological connections that handle memory was like this bowl in that each memory was a new cherry dropped into the moving bowl. As the bowl churned the contents, the cherries agitated, and the new, whole cherries (new memories) got broken down over time. Eventually they became bits and juice and pits. The bits, I suggested, were those snippets of memory we have that are incomplete, that we can’t seem to connect with other things. The juice is all of our memories, most of it not accessible by our conscious mind but there nonetheless. The pits are long term memories, the ones that we can easily pull up.
I believe I had some theory about how to keep the cherries whole for longer periods of time, but that theory turned into juice in my own bowl of cherries. Of course, I made all this up, but it must have made some sense because the professor gave me an A+.
My own personal bowl of cherries spit out the pit of this paper several days ago when I was thinking about how to make my visualization time feel more real and therefore more enjoyable. As I’ve written about before, visualization can do more harm than good when it isn’t done right. And despite knowing this, I’ve felt recently that I haven’t been doing it right … still.
I know that effective visualization must have two aspects:
- We must feel like we already have whatever we’re visualization.
- We must enjoy doing it.
I’ve been having trouble with both these aspects of visualization. My visualizations have felt blurry and indistinct, and they haven’t left me feeling all that good. When I pondered what to do about this, I remembered my bowl of cherries term paper, and I immediately understood that if visualizing what I desire is going to have an impact, I need visualizations that are as bold, plump, and juicy as the whole cherries in my memory bowl.
How do I do that?
A Little Red Ink
When I work with my writing coaching clients, I use Microsoft Word’s Track Changes feature. If you haven’t used this feature, the way it works is that once it’s turned on, any changes you make in the document show up in underlined red (or if you’re the second or third editor, in a different color).
In Track Changes mode, you can’t possibly miss the revisions. They jump off the page … like bold, plump, and juicy cherries.
Aha!
My cherry bowl and some editing I did for a client finally gave me the answer I needed regarding visualization. The way to make the visualization feel more real and more enjoyable is to use revision.
Revision
I first encountered the concept of revision about three years ago when I discovered Neville Goddard’s books. Neville, an author and speaker who had his heyday in the 1950s, applied Abraham-Hicks-like concepts, from a Biblical perspective, to teach people deliberate creation. One of Neville’s main messages was that we need to think from what we desire, not think of what we desire. In other words, he taught what I’ve often written about—we must visualize or think about what we want as if we already have it.
One of the methods Neville taught was the process of revision. Neville said we should never accept the physical “facts” of our lives if they don’t please us. He recommended that if something happened that we don’t like, we should revise it in our minds to fit our ideal and then remember it as if it happened that way. He also advised that at the end of each day, we revise our day to have it be exactly the kind of day we wanted it to have been, even if it wasn’t as we desired.
For a time, I followed Neville’s advice. It made sense to me. I can’t tell you why I stopped. I don’t remember, but the advice turned into little cherry bits, I guess.
Last week, combining my awareness of my bowl of cherries and Track Changes, I realized that revision could turn my visualizations into those bold, plump cherries that would hop about on the surface of my bowl and remain vivid in my consciousness throughout the day.
So I’ve changed the way I visualize. Instead of pretending that the vision in my mind is something happening now or something I’ll do in the future, I see the vision as a memory, something that has already happened.
I do this when I visualize the big scenarios, like having the financial security and the body I want; and I do it for little stuff too. I revise each day and have it play out the way it would have done if I already was living the life I desire.
And finally, my visualizations have the two aspects they need—when I visualize, I feel like I already have what I want AND I feel good.
Why does revision create this feeling?
I don’t know why humans are wired this way, but memories have a powerful impact on us. We have the same physical responses to a memory as we do to the actual event.
We mold our personalities and beliefs around our memories. We make our decisions based on memories. We cling to memories as if they’re more valuable than diamonds or gold.
Because memories have this kind of power, when we create a visualization as a memory, that visualization becomes a big, fat cherry that dances in the spotlight of our conscious mind without any effort to sustain it. A memory has more credibility for the human mind than a vision of something that hasn’t happened yet. A memory is like the glaring red changes on a manuscript. It’s there, commanding attention.
Memories are the way we “track changes” in our lives. Turning visualization into remembrances is a way of tracking the changes we’ve already made in our virtual reality so they can more easily manifest in physical reality.
I can’t point to any grand results I’ve enjoyed because of revision, but I can say visualization has become easier, more real, and a lot more fun; so the results are likely on the way.
If you would like to get more oomph from your visualization, give revision a try. I’m having a blast remembering all the great stuff that’s already happened to me. You will too.
Note: If you’d like to find out more about Neville Goddard, I recommend The Neville Reader. It’s a collection of several of his works. Although much of what he says doesn’t resonate for me, much of it does, and the case studies alone make the book well worth reading. Neville doesn’t use the words, law of attraction, but it’s clear he understands that the universe functions by the law, and his explanations of how to use the power of thought are inspiring.
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Photo by Basykes on Flickr.
Tags: Abraham-Hicks, creating reality, deliberate creation, Law of Attraction, memory, neville, neville goddard, power of thought, revision, Visualization
May 28th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
I’m so on board with this and do revision type visualizations quite a bit. I’ve got one going on now in which I look back on Mark’s grandson’s upcoming graduation party that I’m putting together, and I feel so pleased and thankful about how it turned out and how everyone in Mark’s family got along with each other swimmingly.
I don’t do much public speaking, but one time I gave a talk at an area library about Abraham-Hicks. I envisioned Mark and me driving away after it was over, discussing how well it went and feeling great satisfaction. It turned out exactly that way.
I became acquainted with Neville Goddard’s work while attending meditation classes in Oregon. The leader would sometimes read tidbits from Neville’s slender volumes, and I always felt they were spot-on — one of the sources that paved the way for my later encounter with Abraham.
Karen´s last blog ..Kids and Drugs
May 28th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
I do this type of revision too, Karen, but lately, I’ve been doing more of actually going back and remembering things that have already happened differently than they actually happened. It feels good to change my memories of past events I didn’t like.
May 28th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
I LOVE Neville; have read most of his books and wrote a hub about his “assuming the feeling of the wish fulfilled.” Thanks so much for reminding me about this process. I’ve been struggling with visualizations as well, so I’m definitely going to give this a try.
Late in Neville’s career, he changed his focus to some spiritual ideas that just didn’t make sense to me (something about “Golgotha” where Jesus was crucified), so this may be the parts of his work that didn’t resonate with you, Ande.
Patrice´s last blog ..Why the Law of Attraction Has Not Worked For Me
May 29th, 2010 at 5:43 am
I think all visualization must be from the past. Think about visualizing in the present and its really a lil bit in the past already. When I pray in the am for my marriage, daughters, business and future, I see things that are slightly in the past, they have already happened. Believe you have receivED and you shall have them. I guess if I visualized something for the future it would just reinforce that I dont already have it now and that would be counterintuitive. I think all viz is past viz and enjoying it now.
May 29th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Yes, Patrice, those are the parts that didn’t work for me. But, like you, I love much of what he’s written. Lots of gems there.
May 29th, 2010 at 10:46 am
I agree, Greg. What I mean by revision is to go back and rewrite what has happened as if it happened differently–actually replacing the physical past with a virtual past.
May 29th, 2010 at 10:58 am
I really like the concept of going back and remembering the past differently, the way I would’ve wanted it to turn out. I can imagine how healing that can be! And then to create new memories of the reality I want to create…. a great way to start a three-day weekend!
May 29th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
I find it very comforting, Lauri. It makes me feel good, like relishing a treasured memory. So if it feels good, it must be good for us, right?
June 29th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Hi,
Loved your article.
I hope someone can answer this. I have tried Neville’s revision method a couple of times without results. So I am going to take your approach and use it with visualizations. So that would mean that I can’t change the script and run the same scenario or event that would imply the fulfillment of the desires. In the revision, are we allowed to change the script at some point? Otherwise the visualizations become like a chore and not to mention noticing what I’m desiring is not here. My situation is a tough one as it has taken such a long time. So I can’t not notice that it’s not in my current reality. In all Neville’s stories, people had results within days of using revision method and we know in most of our cases it may not be true and I’ve already mentioned my dilemma. Thanks in advance for your response.
June 29th, 2010 at 6:29 pm
I’m with you, Mary, that doing the same script over and over becomes a chore, and that defeats the purpose. It’s not the specifics of the visualization or thought–it’s how it makes us feel. That’s why we can see ourselves getting something we want a million times and not get it–because just seeing it in our mind’s eye isn’t enough. It has to feel good while we see it, and we have to be able to take the feeling place of having what we want into our lives–so the bottom line is how does the revision or script make you feel? Change it as many times as it takes to create something that feels good while you’re thinking about it. And I’ve come to realize that because it’s impossible not to notice the what is reality, what we need to do is just keep reaching for a thought that feels good. Where we get hung up is trying to pretend the specifics of something–for example, I want to be slender and yet I’m very overweight. If I try to pretend I feel slender, it doesn’t work for me–it just reminds me that I’m not. I do better if I don’t think about weight at all. I have moments when I’m totally immersed in something enjoyable like watching my dog play and I have no awareness of my weight. We need to find those moments.
So my long-winded answer is that yes, we can change the script. We can “remember” things the way we want in a thousand different ways. Tonight I might remember how I sold a screenplay. Tomorrow night I might remember a trip Tim and I took. Or I might remember different specifics of each. (All in my virtual reality.)
And yes, sometimes results can come very fast. I had such a thing happen when Tim and I got together. We were communicating from a distance, and I told him he had to get the details of his divorce worked out before we could continue. I was SO sad because he said it would take some time, and I thought we wouldn’t be together in years. I revised it in my head to imagine that he’d said he had gotten it together and he was leaving to come live with me. And less than a week later, that’s exactly what happened. So it CAN work that fast. I think what gets in the way–and it sure has with me and money–is how much resistance we have built up. I had none regarding Tim. I didn’t have all the drama built up. For money, I am dragging all this resistance so the revision is stopped.
I think the feeling good thoughts help release the resistance. So we combine the two. Visualize as if what we want has happened–in as many different ways as we want AND while moving through the day, forget the thing we want and find reasons to feel good.
Hope that helps. We’re here to help each other.
June 30th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
Hi Ande,
Thank you so much! Feels like you’re Godsend. Without you giving me details, I can really use help in the same area where success came to you so fast. It’s been so long for me and there is no reason for it not to happen, but it’s not happening. Two people are free and one (him) has a fear of commitment due to past failures. I’m not able to contact him but he can anytime. Also he is up on the age, so the desperation to have a loving woman (this one for certain) is there but the fear of losing her down the line is more powerful. And I have tried everything, forgiveness, Neville techniques, and regular prayers to God. I have reached a stage that I’m pathetically waiting for God to bring my soulmate to me as I have lost faith in me that I have the power of God in me to alter the situation in my favor so that by a shear miracle he calls or appears at my door or through something it happens. I’m open to hows. But this is I want to do and can do use Neville’s way of doing nothing and use the Law of Liberty. I’m not able to take any action on the outside for this, but Neville says we need do nothing but pray in his style.
Can you help me? I’ve lost faith, but when visualize I can make it real. But don’t believe I can have your results. Any tips to lift me up and bring in my results without further delay would be appreciated. It’s been long and none of us is getting younger and the love is there and it’s deep. So it’s not like making someone love me or anything.
Blessings,
Mary
July 1st, 2010 at 12:24 pm
Of course, Mary, I can only tell you what has worked for me and not worked for me and how that might apply to your situation, but here are my thoughts. What I hear in your words is a longing for the outcome you desire, and I believe you are consistently, even when you pray and visualize, unknowingly activating the lack side of what you want. You are far too aware that you don’t have it yet. You say that you’re pathetically waiting and have lost faith in your own power, so I know you are on the longing side and not the excited anticipation side. I recognize this because that is where I’ve been about money for many months, and my money situation has gotten worse and worse even though I REALLY want money. I am on the lack side of that subject.
I believe i got the fast results I did with Tim because I was vibrating on the excited anticipation side of the equation instead of lack. In other words, when I thought about being with my soul mate, I felt happy about it, not a sort of longing. I was able to be perfectly content with the way things were in my reality at the time (happily single) and also have a joyful vision of what I wanted. So I was a vibrational match to getting what I wanted. I don’t have that same vibrational match with money … yet. And I think for similar reasons, you don’t have it for what you want.
I have heard Abraham say that when we’ve been wanting something for a long time and it hasn’t come, and we’ve been very aware that it hasn’t come, it is nearly impossible to think of what we want without activating a vibration of the lack of it, so we keep getting the lack of it. They say when this is the case, we need to remove our attention from the topic completely and just find ways to feel good.
The thing to remember is the minute you got the desire for what you wanted, it because REAL in your nonphysical reality. It is THERE. You don’t have to restate it or visualize it or use revision or anything. The universe knows what you want. All you have to do is become a vibrational match to it. All the techniques like revision and visualization and prayer are ways of getting that vibrational match, but if they don’t work (and they usually don’t if you’ve been wanting something a long time), the way to match it is to find ways to feel good in general. When you feel good, you get in the nonphysical vicinity of all you desire. You become a match to all you desire, and it must come to you.
So, for example, if you never gave another thought to this desire of yours but you went around doing whatever it took to feel happy, you would match up with the vibration of what you desire, and it or something even better must come to you.
This is what I have just started doing with regard to money. I am just doing whatever it takes to feel good and paying as little attention to my money situation as possible.
When you can find reasons to feel good–find things in your life you love NOW–you will match up with what you want.
July 1st, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Ande,
“I believe i got the fast results I did with Tim because I was vibrating on the excited anticipation side of the equation instead of lack. In other words, when I thought about being with my soul mate, I felt happy about it, not a sort of longing.”
On January 2009, the last time that I saw him and a few weeks before that, late 2008, I started getting the feelings of completion. There were lovely dream connections (which I had for many years, now fading) and telepathic connections as well that during one of the love-string meditations as I dozed off for a second, I saw him in the shadow and heard him call my name. It was so real that I jumped up to see who was calling. I was sleeping alone in a hotelroom and he was elsewhere probably asleep at that time. After the last enocunter, when he left, I was filled with anticipations that I clearly saw and felt his guards down and that was needed I thought that finally my prayers and all the spiritual works paying off and that we indeed have the power. I can’t explain the joy I was feeling then. No contact and here I am not knowing what to believe? The signs, the powerful dreams, coincidences because where I had been and if those meant nothing then how will I know what are right signs and feelings and if prayers worked? So it’s not so much the longing, but the teachings and techniques, faith that true love could never fail or true anything could never fail, God, you get the idea. If I have a new desire for something else, I can’t make it manifest because I will be reminded each time how I failed in something so important and beautiful from the place of joy.
He is not with anyone (3 yrs that he has been alone) and we don’t know why because he craves love and loving companion and now almost 70, he is showing the world that he doesn’t need any woman and doing everything to avoid me. He never was a strong, macho type but very sensitive and fearful in general. If he is crying in his private moments, I don’t know. But he looks happy (seen from photos and other sources) I didn’t even have a chance to do anything to push him away. Last August I thought he still had strong love and desire for me when I had another one of those dreams when I thought he has forgotten me, etc., and was feeling sad. That was so real that it wasn’t even dream (like soul traveling or something)! He came to tell me, standing right next to my bed, looking sad and almost angry at himself, telling me that I’m the one he wants and thinks about all the time, but he has failed 3 times in relationships. So he now goes here and there, reads, does things to deal with it and without looking at me or waiting for me to say anything, he walked away. Next day I was so happy and believed how Neville would say ‘It was done’ that it is now really getting to him and he has begun to miss me strongly! So I kept on visualizing and feeling good and months went by when I realized it wasn’t the done deal like Neville’s way. I was certain at that point that he was receiving my thoughts and love and came to tell me that he is lost and afraid, but when I see his photos, I do not see this person. That was the last such powerful dreams. So now fear is settling in that perhaps he has finally overcome the desire for me and has decided not to pursue? And what power do I have to turn it around?
I totally understand what you’re saying but if I could only do it? I’m so afraid to even hold any new desire for anything and this one, it seems to be completely dead. And that miracles can’t happen for me as it didn’t in all those years? So if I want to experience this, I have to restart my intention and desire thinking this is a new thing I want. But that can’t be done when I have now heartaches and feeling of rejections. So yes I have been there where you were to get Tim, but for me it didn’t work. I thought I could still try Neville, but I can see it is not possible from where I am. I guess to use Neville, one has to be strong and positive to begin with. But he made all sound easy as he would ask people to experiment without believing in it and they succeeded. He really was my one and only hope. I really wanted to believe all those miracle stories. Several people used the revision techniques from the point of devastations that there was no way out for the situations or the relationships to be mended and they did! That one woman who was kicked out by her daughter was able to reunite with more love 2 years later. I thought I had hopes because love and deep connection between me and my love exists (well existed till last August that I know).
Thanks again for your tips and i wish that your money situation turns around sooner than you expect.
Best wishes,
Mary
July 1st, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Mary, I want you to know that I truly do understand what you’re saying about not feeling like you can hold a new desire because one you had that you felt extraordinarily joyful about didn’t manifest. I get it. I’ve been there. I also know that looking back, it’s truly impossible to gauge how in alignment we consistently were with what we wanted. For all we know, we were just on the verge of it showing up and then we got out of alignment because of a series of thoughts/feelings. If you look back at failed manifestations, taking hasn’t happened, you remain out of alignment.
What I am suggesting is that you let go of what you felt you needed, accept that it isn’t here, and then find alignment (feeling good) JUST for the sake of alignment and feeling good–not to attract anything. Think about it–whether you have this man in your life or not, would you rather be happy or sad? The reason you want him is because you believe it will make you happy. If you find ways to feel happy, you won’t need him. And THEN the resistance is released and all that revision (and yes, I do believe the Neville stories, and I do believe it can be that easy when there’s no resistance) will work.
I wish I had a magic wand, but I don’t. I do know, though, that the law of attraction (which is what Neville’s process refer to) isn’t a belief system. Neville’s right that you don’t have to have faith for it to work. The law of attraction is working in your life right now with no effort on your part. What you can control is how you feel. Get that in control and practice revision and see what develops. Blessings to you.