“Manifesting,” A Synonym for Prayer (or, The Secret To Transformative Prayer)

The new-agey idea behind manifesting is actually tapping into an immensely deep truth, a truth we Jews have understood for thousands of years. The practice of manifesting holds that like is attracted to like. If you embody a feeling of lack, you attract more lack. If you embody a feeling of abundance, you bring more abundance.

What does embody mean? It means to feel. If we want to manifest something not yet present in our time-based reality, we must access our capacity to feel beyond what is currently “real.” Want to be rich? Feel rich. Focus on the feeling of freedom, access, power, generosity, security, and approach everything with that feeling of abundance.

Or in other words…pray for it. But perhaps not in the way we normally think about prayer.

I believe that there is an optimal time to spend on each prayer of the Amidah. 19 prayers, each tapping into a different “lack” you may feel. The goal of the Amidah is to cycle you through 19 “embodied states,” beyond what you might normally feel, until those feelings become so normal, so engrained, that you begin to live them. Until reality (i.e. God), begins to shift in accordance with that feeling.

How long should you pray each prayer? Until you feel it. Usually, we say that about 15 seconds of sustained feeling is long enough to shift your emotional momentum. It’s about the time until the feeling takes hold and you no longer have to put any effort into feeling it…it kind of just takes you up in it. It’s like surfing. You need to paddle just until the wave sweeps you into its momentum.

Imagine feeling each of these blessings deeply as you move through them. First you feel what it is to feel intimately aware and connected to God. Then you feel holiness, gratitude, abundance, healing, peace. You do this three times a day, resonating again and again and again in a new state, a new awareness, beyond the confines of your habitual thinking. To me, that sounds like the most powerful manifestation exercise imaginable.

You see, to request something is to jump through time and feel its deliverance. So to pray for something is also, in that moment, the reception of it – the introduction of something new. The breaking of a limiting belief (of mochen d’katniyut). It is the power behind the concept of Ani Tefilati. I am my prayer. My prayer is me. When I pray, I become that which I pray for. The idea of a berucha is the breaking of the block we have inside of us. Prayer bestows berucha.

As Rav Kook said, “A person who thinks that prayer changes God’s Will is blaspheming, while a person who thinks that prayer only changes oneself undermines the worth of prayer and all types of religious acts. However, a person who believes that by changing oneself, one changes the world – since all of existence is influenced by the transformation of one of its elements – this understanding of prayer will bring blessing to one’s soul and the entire world.” $^1$

Pray. Feel what it would feel like to have what you pray for, thus creating the kli. Then live as if your prayer was received (bitachon), and watch how Hashem (reality, the Universe) responds. Rav Kook further extrapolates: “Prayer causes an actual transformation inside a person, and one’s inner transformation eventually builds up and leads to a revolution in the entire world.” $^2$

This is why bitachon leads to joy. Because through prayer we actually use our “lack” to come closer to God, recognize his infinite love, and surrender to ourselves to Him to provide for our lack. Then we trust wholeheartedly that it is coming, experiencing peace and joy along the way.

What does it mean to surrender to Him? Surrender to your Inner Being. Surrender to Him inside of you. Surrender to doing things that spark your passion and joy. Do what feels right not because you think you’re supposed to it, or that’s what’s expected, but because you trust that Our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Yaakov, gave you an internal compass that rings strongly anytime you’re walking the right way. That ring sends vibrations of joy, trust, gratitude, and excitement to your very core.

I think Maishiach will come when we all live as though Mashiach is already here, as though the Beit Hamikdash is already here. We can create such a momentum within us, each on our own, but powerfully together, that reality will actually change. Besides, the leap from everyone living and feeling the presence of Mashiach is not so different from the Mashiach being here. If we go deeper and understand that spiritually, beyond the confines of our linear time, Mashiach is already here. So in many ways, an awareness of Mashiach is actually much more true than our current, distorted reality. Make sense?