What Obstacles Prevent Your Desires from Manifesting?

by Maryjane Osa

“Your thoughts create your reality.” “Change your thinking, change your life.” “What you focus your attention on, you will attract into your experience.”

These statements are popular expressions of the law of attraction. Many spiritual seekers embrace them without exploring their history or assumptions. The disadvantages, or obstacles, of accepting these ideas uncritically is that discouragement follows when meditations, affirmations, and vision boards don’t “work.”

Spiritual Pioneers and the Law of Attraction

A nineteenth-century movement of spiritual but not religious Americans encountered similar frustrations. Drawing on New England transcendentalism and teachings of the mind-cure meta-physicians, practitioners of New Thought sought to use the law to manifest good in their lives.

New Thought spiritual leaders of the early twentieth century combined mystical and intellectual wisdom. Influential writers, Florence Scovel Shinn and William Walker Atkinson, are two such examples. They taught that personal experimentation and empirical discovery paved the path to spiritual discovery, rather than doctrine or dogma.

Correcting Misunderstandings

Many spiritual seekers benefited from these teachings. But, there were also those whose prayers were not answered, whose illnesses were not cured, and whose prosperity never materialized. Skeptics pointed to such obstacles as evidence that the law of attraction was bunk.

One of the brilliant writers of the day, Horatio Dresser, also realized that the law of attraction was often misunderstood. In Handbook of the New Thought, Dresser observed that the power of thought received “undue emphasis” in many books and teachings. This led people to accept a simplified version of causality in their understanding of life. They believed that thoughts had great power to manifest in physical reality, and that proper thoughts could lead to increased prosperity or the perfect loving relationship.

Obstacles in Developing the Spiritual Mind

The belief, “I create my own reality in the manner of my choosing,” implies that life is under a person’s direct control. It presents a world-view in which “the human self is the decisive agent.” But this ignores the fact that the planet is populated by millions of living beings interacting in all sorts of ways. Hence, a complex world cannot be under a single individual’s control.

To overcome this obstacle, Dresser proposes an alternative: to assume instead that there is a creative intelligence within life. This intelligence (universal spirit, higher power, God) is causality. It is truth. The divine works through impersonal principles such as the law of attraction to serve the good of all. The spirit within does the work. Hence, the individual who seeks to manifest what is in their highest good is tasked with learning to be receptive to this good.

A New Conception of the Self

Cultivating receptivity may be difficult because the ego wants to hold onto its pre-eminence. A belief in supreme human agency supports the ego. The ego resists surrendering its small wants and needs.

According to Dresser, this calls for a new conception of the self. This involves an awareness of a higher consciousness. It embraces spiritual surrender, accepting that “all spiritual life is a sharing of power with its cause.” Thus, the ego’s foundational belief in a supreme human agency is transcended by asking for and accepting divine guidance.

Rather than fixating on thoughts, Dresser suggests a deeper dive. Beneath churning thoughts and emotions lies the spiritual mind, “the inmost region which lies open to the inflowing divine life.” Once one attains inner stillness through prayer, meditation, yoga, or just walking in nature, the quiet voice of spirit can illuminate the next step on someone’s path.

Guided Towards Happiness

Humans who seek to expand their consciousness face a two-fold challenge. On the one hand, cultivating receptivity and spiritual discernment requires inner focus. On the other hand, serving the good in ourselves and others also requires an outward, positive openness to the world.

When we ask for and receive inner guidance, each person faces a choice. Should they allow a habitual reaction to take over, disregarding the inner voice? This obstacle is the ego’s preference, as it maintains a psychologically comfortable status quo. Or, should they change in order to act in accordance with spiritual perception? This is the moment of opportunity. Accessing one’s inner guidance and acting upon its truth is the road of spiritual progress.

Must We Surrender Individuality?

Does spiritual surrender mean giving up individuality? Not at all. Dresser emphasized that the authenticity and worthiness of each person is fundamental. We should all bear in mind “that each individual has a right to be, has a work to do.”

We realize individuality in relationship to wholeness. Each individual thereby is “contributing their measure of service to the world, while all the time remembering that they are one among many, that we are ‘all members of one another’ through [the creative power] which realizes heavenly purposes for all.” When we are in alignment with source, the law of attraction works for and through us. In conclusion, it surmounts obstacles and brings forth the desires of our heart, if not our mind.

About the Author

Maryjane Osa, PhD, is a sociologist, speaker, and educator. She is writing a book about the “spiritual but not religious” cultural trend in American society. She is a spiritual practitioner working in the New Thought tradition. Connect with Maryjane on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/dr.maryjane.osa. Or, check out her website and blog at: www.maryjaneosa.com.