Alan Seale is a highly sought after leadership and transformation coach. He has led workshops and keynote presentations at the Kripalu Center in Lenox, MA; the International Coach Federation annual conference in St. Louis, MO; the South Bay Organizational Development Network in Silicon Valley, CA; and similar events nationally. He is the author of Intuitive Living and Soul Vision;Life Mission. He lives in Rochester, New York.

CHAPTER 1

How Manifestation Works

If we were not making such an immense effort to separate ourselves from life, wemight actually live life day to day, minute by minute, as a series ofpredictable miracles.

–Peter Senge, from his introduction to Joseph Jaworski'sSynchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership

Manifestation is a process of transforming and aligning energy for dynamic andsustainable results. It occurs when purpose, potential, thought, intention,belief, and action are in perfect alignment. This alignment engenders a processof co-creation with the energy and potential available through the greaterConsciousness.

Consciousness is the unseen and as yet unexplained source of all of creation. Itis the creating and sustaining force of all that is seen and unseen, known andunknown, and the web of energy that connects it all. It is pure energy. It's theglue that holds everything in the seen and unseen worlds together. Depending onyour belief system, you may call it God, Spirit, or Great Mystery. Here, I callit simply "Consciousness" and capitalize it to differentiate it from anindividual's or group's consciousness. For example, the mass consciousness ofthe society or an individual's consciousness is not the same as Consciousness,the creating and sustaining force of the universe.

In our culture, when you have a goal or a project in mind, the first questionyou ask yourself is usually: How am I going to do it? You start figuring outwhat you need to do, to whom you need to talk, and what you must have in orderto make it happen. You start from your current situation or circumstance and useyour skills, intellectual knowledge, and understanding of how life works toaccomplish your goal or complete the project.

The art of manifestation, on the other hand, engages your intuitive mind, whichincludes your intellect and rational thought process, but extends to the unseenworld of energy and potential. It transcends linear time and space, greatlyexpanding your awareness and opening the door to a whole new world ofinformation. In the manifestation process, while you must take certain steps andconsider certain facts to achieve your desired outcome, you draw on anintellectual and intuitive understanding of energy and potential that guides youto each subsequent step. Your actions flow from a sense of "knowing" and lettingthe future show you the way, rather than being locked in to an intellectual planfor getting where you want to go. The manifestation process is very organic andnot always methodical. You just know intuitively what needs to happen next.

Manifestation works with energy to create form rather than trying to change oneform into another. It doesn't "fix" things or solve problems. It gives birth toa whole new reality or circumstance in which the problem no longer exists or isirrelevant. It's a co-creative process of unfolding potential. The potential iswhat wants to happen; you partner with it by creating the optimal conditions forits unfolding.

Have you ever done all of the right things to make something happen, yetcouldn't get the result you wanted? And have you also wanted something to happenand in fact it did happen without taking the steps you thought were going to benecessary? Why did you succeed in one instance and not in the other? The answeris alignment of energy. Intentional manifestation aligns your thoughts, beliefs,emotions, decisions, and actions–all forms of energy–with what you desire orwith potential wanting to unfold. This alignment sets up a vibrational frequencythat attracts the circumstances and conditions for the potential to becomereality. You can take all of the right steps and heed the advice of all of theright people, but if your thoughts, beliefs, emotions, decisions, and actionsare not in complete alignment with one another and with what you desire, you maynot get the result you want–at least not in its full potential.

Quantum Physics

Quantum physics tells us that, at its most fundamental level, everything is madeup of vibrating energy. That includes objects, organizations, situations,thoughts, and people. And this energy cannot be created or destroyed. It canonly be transformed. The quantum field consists of energy that is purepotential. It is a dynamic, invisible web of inseparable vibrating energypatterns that encompasses the entire universe. All of creation is born out ofthese energy patterns, and through this invisible web everything is connected toeverything else.

At the quantum level, this energy has no set form. It exists as pure potentialand has the ability to take any form. Therefore, the quantum field is anenergetic field of potential and possibility. Leading-edge physicists,philosophers, and spiritual teachers now acknowledge that the quantum field maybe related to Consciousness. Consciousness may, in fact, be the web thatconnects everything within the quantum field. Some physicists acknowledge thatthere appears to be an unexplainable intelligence operating within the quantumfield—an intelligence that moves us forward in an evolutionary process. In a1944 lecture, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Planck said:

As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to thestudy of matter, I can tell you as the result of my research about the atomsthis much: There is no matter as such! All matter originates and exists only byvirtue of a force which brings the particles of an atom to vibration and holdsthis most minute solar system of the atom together ... We must assume behindthis force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is thematrix of all matter.

This "conscious and intelligent Mind" is what I call Consciousness. Likewise,Albert Einstein once said: "Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit ofscience becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe—aspirit vastly superior to man." This "spirit" I also call Consciousness. Therelationship between Consciousness, or the "intelligent Mind," and the quantumfield can help us begin to understand how some of the techniques and tools ofthe ancient traditions work.

The tools and techniques of the ancient traditions were, in fact, theirtechnologies. We tend to think of technology as applied to machines andindustry. But the sages of the ancient traditions were masters at using thetechnology of energy. Quantum theory is now showing us...