The Law of Assumption is the idea that what you assume to be true about yourself and your life tends to become your experience. It was taught most clearly by Neville Goddard, a twentieth century teacher who told his audiences that an assumption, held with feeling and persisted in, hardens into fact.

If you are new to manifesting, this is the best place to begin, because almost every technique you will hear about is a way of doing one thing: changing what you assume.

The Law of Assumption in one sentence

You do not attract what you want; you experience what you assume you are. Change the assumption, and your experience follows.

Where the idea comes from

Neville Goddard (1905 to 1972) lectured and wrote in New York and Los Angeles for more than thirty years. In books such as Feeling Is the Secret (1944) and The Power of Awareness (1952) he argued that imagination is the creative power in every person, and that the outer world reflects the inner state a person lives in. You can read more about him in Who Was Neville Goddard?.

What counts as an assumption

An assumption is not a wish, and it is not a sentence you repeat. It is what you take for granted. Notice the difference between these two:

  • A wish: "I hope I get the job."
  • An assumption: "Of course they chose me. I am good at this."

Most of our assumptions were never chosen. They were absorbed from family, school and old disappointments, and they run quietly in the background: "I always struggle with money", "people like me do not get chosen", "good things do not last". The Law of Assumption says these are not descriptions of reality. They are instructions to it.

How to begin using it

  • Decide what you want to be true. Be specific about the end result, not the route to it.
  • Ask what you would assume if it were already true. How would you see yourself? What would you no longer worry about?
  • Feel that for a moment. Not as hard work. A minute of real, relaxed feeling is worth more than an hour of forcing.
  • Return to it. When the old assumption speaks up, notice it and come back to the new one.

That last step is the whole practice. The method we teach is built on short, repeatable moments, which is why this site is called One Minute Manifesting. See the one minute practice for a way to do it.

What the Law of Assumption is not

It is not pretending problems do not exist, and it is not a promise that nothing difficult will happen. It is not a replacement for medical, legal or financial advice. It is a way of working with your own mind, and it asks for honesty: you cannot change an assumption you refuse to look at.

Common questions

Is it the same as the Law of Attraction? No. They overlap, but the emphasis is different. See Law of Assumption vs Law of Attraction.

How long does it take? There is no fixed time. What changes first is usually how you feel about the subject, and that is the sign that the assumption has moved.

Do I need to visualise well? No. Feeling matters more than pictures. A sense of relief, of "it is done", is enough.

Working on it with someone

Assumptions are hard to see from the inside, which is where coaching helps. In a session we find the assumption underneath the situation and practise the new one together. If you would like to try, the Intro Session is a 30 minute first conversation.