The Man and the Mirror: A Lesson in the Law of Assumption

#NevilleGoddard   #LawofAssumption  #SelfHelp

It was a Tuesday evening when Leo found himself staring at a face in the mirror he didn't recognize. The face staring back was exhausted, the eyes dim, the mouth set in a hard line of resignation. At thirty-five, Leo felt like a ghost haunting his own life.

He had spent the last decade chasing success. He had asked bosses for promotions, asked partners for love, and asked the universe for a break. He had pleaded, bargained, and visualized until his head hurt, yet the world remained cold and indifferent. The mirror in his hallway reflected only struggle.

That evening, desperate for a change, Leo wandered into an old lecture hall in the city where a man was speaking about the power of the mind. The speaker’s voice was calm, unhurried. He looked out at the weary crowd and spoke a sentence that stopped Leo cold.

"The world is yourself pushed out."

Leo shifted in his seat. The idea was offensive, wasn't it? To suggest that his bad luck, his lonely apartment, and his mounting debts were all his doing? He wanted to blame the economy, his upbringing, or the cruel nature of luck.

But the speaker continued. "Most of you treat the world like a vending machine. You put in a prayer, and you wait for the soda to drop. But the world is not a vending machine. It is a mirror. If you stand before a mirror and say, 'I want a smile,' the mirror will not give you one. It will only reflect the face you are making right now."

The quote lingered in the air: 

"Ask yourself what you want and then give it to yourself. Do not ask for it."

Later that night, back in his small apartment, Leo sat in his armchair. He thought about the "Asking." He realized he had spent his entire life asking from a place of emptiness. When he asked for money, he felt the anxiety of having none. When he asked for love, he felt the stinging pain of solitude. By asking, he was constantly reinforcing the very state he was trying to escape. He was showing the mirror a picture of lack, and the mirror faithfully pushed out more lack.

"Change the film, not the screen," he whispered to himself.

Leo decided to try an experiment. He decided he would not ask for anything anymore. Instead, he would give it to himself.

He closed his eyes. He didn't just want a better job; he wanted to feel the security of a man who is valued. He didn't just want a partner; he wanted the intimacy of a man who is loved. Leo began to construct a scenario in his mind. He imagined himself sitting in a plush office, the smell of polished leather and old wood in the air. He felt the texture of the velvet chair beneath his fingertips.

But he went deeper. He asked himself: How would I feel if this were true right now?

He caught the feeling. It was a subtle lifting of the chest, a sense of profound relief, a quiet confidence that hummed in the background. He sat there in the dark, giving that feeling to himself. He didn't ask the universe to provide it; he accepted that it was already done. He created the state of its fulfillment.

For the first time in years, Leo fell asleep not wanting, but being.

The next morning, the world hadn't magically transformed. The bills were still on the counter. But something inside Leo had shifted. He walked out the door not as a beggar looking for crumbs, but as a man walking through his own kingdom.

Because his internal state had changed, the expression of the world began to shift to match it.

When he walked into his local coffee shop, instead of looking at the floor to avoid rejection, he caught the barista's eye and smiled. The "world"—which was just the barista—smiled back warmly. When he got to work, he didn't shrink into his cubicle. He walked with the assurance of the man from his imagination. His boss, noticing the change in his demeanor, stopped by his desk. "You look... different today, Leo. Put together. I've been meaning to ask, how would you feel about leading the new project?"

Leo blinked. The mirror was beginning to push out a new reflection.

Over the coming weeks, the law proved itself relentless. As Leo maintained the state of fulfillment—refusing to slip back into the old feeling of lack—the external world scrambled to rearrange itself. He met a woman at a bookstore who laughed at his jokes. The promotion came with a raise that cleared the debts. The circumstances changed, but the cause was the shift in his consciousness.

Leo realized that the world had never been against him. It had been neutral, waiting for instructions. He had been broadcasting a signal of "I am not enough," and the world had faithfully projected "You are not enough" back at him.

Now, he was broadcasting "I am loved and secure," and the world had no choice but to push out people and events that confirmed that truth.

The mirror was finally showing him the man he knew he could be. He hadn't asked the world for it. He had given it to himself, and the world had simply agreed.

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Aaron Rose is a software engineer and technology writer at tech-reader.blog and aaronrose.blog.