Thanks to books and movies like “The Secret”, a lot of people know and practice the Law of Attraction. Much fewer have heard about “the Law of Assumption”, yet this is what Neville Goddard taught. Neville never actually used the term “attraction” to describe this Law he so intimately knew, taught and practiced for himself and on behalf of others. Neville also occasionally used the term “the Law of Consciousness” which is just as accurate. So which is it? Attraction, assumption, both, something else?

My answer is: all of the above, plus more. The name isn’t of that much importance as are the principles behind it. Now there is often a lot of heat around the Law of Attraction from those practicing the Law of Assumption and Neville’s teachings because LOA (as Law of Attraction is also known) often emphasizes using techniques – admittedly sometimes ridiculous ones, like drinking from two glasses of water or the 55 x 5 method – in order to manifest your desires. This is by no means necessary, but what both kinds of teachings are trying to do in reality is to train your subconscious mind to accept your desire as done and already true in the objective world. This is one of the main principles of conscious manifesting and ultimately, how one chooses to do it is up to them. The methods by which this can be achieved are numerous and are beyond the scope of this post.

LOA also teaches vibrational alignment with your desire – in simpler terms, LOA proponents believe that, by aligning your state of being with what you desire to experience, which will produce corresponding vibrational frequencies that will attract what you want, is needed to bring you your desire. This isn’t technically wrong and it isn’t actually in opposition with the Law of Assumption either, at least the way Neville taught it.

“Speech and images are projected not as speech or images but as vibratory correlates. Subjective mind vibrates according to the modifications it undergoes by the thought and feelings of the operator. The visible state created is the effect of the subjective vibrations. A feeling is always accompanied by a corresponding vibration, that is, a change in expression or sensation in the operator.”

Neville Goddard, “Prayer, The Art of Believing”

But what LOA gets wrong about this is how things actually work for one’s desires to manifest in the 3D world. You see, there is no Universe outside of you waiting for your vibration to match your desire in order to bring it to you, but rather YOU ARE the Universe. In other words, the Universe and everything in it is already within you. This means that your manifested desire is already within you in your infinite imagination and the way to bring it forth into the objective 3D world is to decide that you want it and focus your state of being on already having it, being it. First you become the person who already has their desire within and then the 3D world matches that inner state and brings that state forth for you to experience as you commanded internally. This is probably the main difference between LOA and the Law of Assumption, but aside from that, the teachings of both are very similar and it would be unfair to discredit LOA as overall wrong or generally inaccurate.

I personally use the term “Law of Assumption” when explaining what I practice, but I see both terms as similar and almost identical. The term “Law of Consciousness” as used by Neville is also very accurate as everything is consciousness and consciousness is the beginning of all, so it follows very naturally that we get to experience what we are conscious of, aware of in each given moment. I personally believe that another very fitting term would be “Law of Perception”. It is our perception of everything we experience, what meanings we give it, how we interpret it, what stories we build around each fact that plays out in our world, that determines what we think, how we feel, how we act or react, what we decide, etc. It is therefore very important that our perception of everything that happens remains aligned with our desired reality – remember, facts are neutral, it’s the stories we build around them that are often emotionally charged with meanings that may or may not serve us. So it’s essential we make a conscious effort to interpret and perceive everything as working in our favor, because it is. Even when we cannot see it, even when we think we are seeing the opposite of what we want (emphasis on “think” – the 3D world can sometimes be very deceiving), things are still working in our favor and for us, not against us. I will make a dedicated post about this in the future to go into more depth, but for now suffices to keep in mind that how you perceive anything that happens in your 3D reality can determine how fast your desires can manifest for you, so remember to treat everything as a bridge bringing you closer to your desire, because this is what it actually is.

To wrap this up, whatever name you prefer you use for this Law is beside the point. The point all of us need to be focused on is what mental and emotional states – what states of being – we occupy in each given moment, on each given day, and how these states aid or hinder our desires from becoming visible in the 3D world. Only by focusing our energy on the states that align with what we want to experience, by accepting and allowing the heaven within us to blossom, will we be able to shift our outer reality to what we prefer to be experiencing, regardless of what name we use for this universal Law.