I started intentional manifesting probably before I knew that is what I was doing.
When I was sixteen years old I was in a car accident and hospitalized. I experienced the NDE but there was no white light. I was never really close to death. However, I was in and out of consciousness and remember witnessing the event from above. I remembered the accident as if I was viewing it on a television screen. I saw firemen in the video I played in my mind, and later found out that firemen were there.
All that was broken was my pelvis and I was in the hospital for about three weeks. During that time, a girl from my math class came to visit me. I hardly knew her but when she heard I was in the hospital she decided to visit since she too once had a broken pelvis. She was a buddhist and introduced me to a practice and lifestyle I would begin for four solid years.
While life is a spiritual journey in and of itself, this was the concrete beginning of mine. This is when I joined the organization Nichiren Shoshu of America. I would become a bodhisattva which entailed a chanting practice twice daily. The chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo was a part of my daily existence. Not only was it a practice, it was something that I could draw on in times of stress or danger. The chant worked for everything. When we chanted in unison at the large meetings that filled NYC lofts, the individual chants turned into a buzzing noise.
How does manifesting come in? We chanted for what we wanted. The idea that peace on earth would be achieved through individual happiness was key. So each day we went to our altars with pieces of paper denoting what we wanted to achieve. For example, if someone wanted a job, he would write that on the list. If he wanted to meet a new friend it would go on the list. Whatever it was, it would be the focus of attention and it was uncanny that chanting for what we wanted actually worked.
Down the road, I gave up the buddhist ritual, but I never doubted its power. In retrospect, it seems as if I had my first taste of manifesting at the time.
Several years ago, I started to use Summer McStravick’s Flowdreaming technique for manifesting and have made strides there, but I use other methods as well. It seems that intention, meditation, and action is key to creating a good life. Manifesting is a New Age term, but it is one that simply means that someone is playing a part in making a life they want.