The brain-based explanation for why manifestation stops working

Visualization and positive thinking (core LOA techniques) often improve optimism but alone produce very limited results unless combined with deliberate practice or planning. Use these tools is not enough to erase the social conditioning and social reality that keeps reinforcing the negatives.

Key evidence / data: Imagery does help performance, but the best effects appear when imagery is used with other psychological skills and active practice (i.e., imagery + training). (PMC) Researchers found that visualization alone reduces motivation because the brain confuses the fantasy with achievement. (PMC)

We know it matters because if clients only visualize but don’t plan for obstacles or build implementation pathways, they often feel motivated briefly then fail when reality demands action — producing shame and learned helplessness.

Problem: LOA focuses on conscious desire and feeling states, but money beliefs are often embedded into the subconscious mind via family modeling and early life experiences (money scripts). These internal beliefs are like scripts that reliably predict adult financial behaviors (spending, saving, avoidance).

Key evidence / data: Money scripts are likely to be transgenerational and condition us with unconscious money beliefs (e.g., money avoidance, money worship, money status) that correlate with poorer financial outcomes (lower net worth, more revolving debt). Practitioner/academic summaries show clinically meaningful links. (Financial Planning Association). Now the lyrics from a popular song start to make perfect sense .... "Them that got shall get, them that not shall lose, so the Bible says and it still is news. Mama may have, daddy may have, but God bless the child that has its own". We must do take actions free ourselves from social and family belief systems about prosperity that were entrained into us when we were young.

We know it matters because if the core problem is an internal script accepted by the subconscious mind (e.g., “money is dirty” or “I don’t deserve wealth”), repeating affirmations won’t disconfirm decades of experiential learning — the subconscious continues to drive decisions.

Problem: LOA rhetoric often implies that failure to manifest equals inner failure; that fosters shame and powerlessness, negative emotions. The very emotions that are likely to negatively affect our biology and behaviors are activated when we buy into these superficial and incomplete models.

Key evidence / data: Reviews and commentaries document potential psychological harms when LOA is taken as moral law → increased self-blame, reduced help-seeking, and worse mood for some people. (Psychology Today)

We know it matters because shame is a powerful motivational brake: it reduces approach behavior, increases avoidance, and lowers self-efficacy — directly counterproductive for goal pursuit and entrepreneurship.

Problem: Manifestation frameworks rarely treat stress physiology — yet chronic and acute stress impairs the parts of the prefrontal cortex that are necessary for planning, risk-taking, goal-setting, being resilient, seeing opportunities where others see problems, and executing projects.

Key evidence / data: Comprehensive meta-analysis shows stress impairs activities associated with the prefrontal cortex, our higher cognitive abilities. (PMC)

We know it matters because if clients are chronically stressed out or anxious about money habituates the survival-mode response in our nervous system. In this state of mind and body, clients cannot reliably plan, take calibrated risks, or sustain the flexible thinking required to pursue opportunities — no amount of “affirmations” will fix neural arousal patterns.