What’s the Difference Between Fantasy and Manifestation?

What is the difference between fantasy vs. actual manifestation? This is a point that many people get confused on… they find themselves fantasizing about a certain desire but never actually getting it. Why is this?

This week, Teresa has asked this very question. Here it is:

“My question is: can you explain the differences between the focus necessary to achieve something, and simply fantasising? I have an awkward feeling that all I do is fantasise, and although my emotions while doing this are good, I simply never achieve anything I set out to achieve. Only unwanted things…”

Check out the video below for my answer to her question.

One of the things I learned very early on is that emotions are not the whole equation, as many LOA teachers might suggest. They’re of course very important, but not the full story.

A lot of law of attraction teachers will say, “Just feel good, and the things will come.” That’ll happen sometimes, but only if it’s a current level goal.

Quite a while ago I made the distinction between current level goals, next level goals, and ultimate level goals. To me, it became obvious that there is a difference between manifesting $20, and doubling your income. One is easy and can be done effortlessly almost without thought, while the other requires a total change in your subconscious structures.

For example, recently I wanted to sell my iMac, to have more money for our upcoming vacation. So I applied a bit of focus, and pretty quickly we had sold it for $850. This was a perfect example of a current level goal.

Current level goals are desires where you have very little resistance— you believe that they are possible with very little effort. So, when you apply just a bit of thought, they manifest almost instantly within a matter of days, if not hours.

With those kinds of goals, feeling good is enough. Your subconscious mind won’t put up a fight, so just feeling the emotion of the goal is enough to bring it into reality.

But a next level goal is different. For example, I’ve doubled my income twice now, and that took quite a bit more focus than a current level goal. It wasn’t enough to just feel good.

This is where fantasizing isn’t enough, yet it’s what a lot of people try to do when faced with a seemingly impossible goal. For example, my mother has been fantasizing about winning the lottery for years and buying a house, yet that’s never happened. She’s won smaller amounts, but never the big jackpot she’s fantasized about.

Instead, for a next level goal, you need the will. When you can balance will and love (positive emotions), you can manifest anything you want.

Will is the force of volition—of deciding “This is what I want.” It’s more than mere intention: it’s making a deliberate choice.

But this deliberate aspect is missing from fantasy. It’s pure emotion, but totally void of will.

In fact, you can easily feel the difference. If you fantasize about a seemingly big goal you have, it feels nice. But now if you introduce the element of will, saying something like “I choose to have this goal,” suddenly your subconscious mind flares up because it knows you’re serious now. Your subconscious resistance begins to come up to the surface.

So to use your will is to really start to create change in your reality. That’s what it takes to get a “bigger” goal.

Again, certainly positive emotions are important, even with bigger goals. One of my most common techniques I use is what I call the “positive what if” technique, or also called “wouldn’t it be nice if”. But that only comes after you have exercised your will and decided on this goal.

The one thing that got me all the things I’ve manifested is when I started deciding “It’s not acceptable that I don’t get this.” I used to call this making your goal “non-negotiable.”

Now there’s a difference between making it non-negotiable, vs. really feeling a need and desperation for it. The first comes from a place of confidence and fullness, while the latter comes from a place of weakness and lack.

After you’ve made that decision and made the goal non-negotiable, then you can use positive emotions just as before. But it’s no longer just fantasy, because now there is an element of will to it.

However, it’s worth noting that if you are actually feeling very good in your fantasies, but you’re not getting positive manifestation— and in fact getting negative manifestations— then you are probably not feeling good the rest of the time.

This is a trap that many people fall into. They feel good about their manifestation for the 5 minutes or so when they visualize their goal, but the rest of the day they feel negative. Then they wonder why they are getting negative manifestations.

The Universe doesn’t just listen for those 5 minutes when you are visualizing your desire. It’s listening all day, every day, as long as you are awake. And whatever vibration is predominant throughout your day, it is exactly that which you will get in return.

Abraham-Hicks says there are two ways to know what your vibration is: the way you are feeling, and what you are actually manifesting. If you miss the signal from your emotions, then your physical manifestations will tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt the vibration you are in most of the time.

Sometimes this happens to me as well where I get sloppy with my vibration. Abraham also says that if you don’t notice your resistance, don’t worry, it’ll get bigger.

In my own case, the “bigger” was a large credit card bill that I hadn’t intended to pay the entire balance on, but accidentally had anyway thanks to autopay. It wasn’t cripling or anything, but inconvenient enough that it got my attention, and I started being more careful about my money vibration.

Since then, everything has improved. Dark Ascent profits are rising substantially, I was able to sell my iMac as I mentioned above, and many other things have been falling into place. It’s all because I’ve been focusing far more deliberately on feeling good about money.

So you’ll know when you’re not on the right path, because the Universe is going to hit you over the head harder and harder until you get the picture, and change it.

Stay tuned for next week’s followup to this question where Teresa asks what to do once you’ve taken that step of using your will to decide what you want.

How About You?

Now I’d love to hear from you. Have you noticed this difference between fantasy and actual manifestation? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.