What Is This Teaching?
The Law of Non-Resistance is the practice of refusing to mentally argue with or feed attention to unwanted outer circumstances, while inwardly assuming and feeling the desired end as already accomplished. By removing inner contradiction and sustained attention from the undesired, you allow the imagined reality to unfold into experience.
Core Principles
- Inner Assumption Precedes Outer Form: your sustained feeling-state seeds experience
- Attention Creates Reality: where you place attention strengthens and extends what you experience
- Non-Engagement with the Negative: mentally engaging, arguing with, or amplifying undesired facts sustains them; withholding attention lets them dissolve
- Feeling Is the Mechanism: persistent feeling of the fulfilled desire (not intellectual wish) aligns subconscious activity to bring it about
Quick Techniques to Start Today
- Living-in-the-End (5-10 minutes nightly): Sit quietly, form a short scene that implies your desire is already fulfilled, enter it sensory-first (sight, sound, emotion), hold the feeling for 2-5 minutes, then let go without replaying doubts
- Revision (before sleep): Review any moment from the day that disturbed you; mentally rewrite it exactly as you would have preferred, feel the relief/joy of the corrected scene, and then release. This clears resistance held in memory
- Soft Redirect (in the moment): Acknowledge a negative fact without getting emotional → deliberately shift attention to a small image or feeling of your desired outcome → take one calm, inspired step if prompted. Repeat until the inner state stabilizes
Key Insights
- Non-resistance is active inner work, not passivity - you still choose and assume a state.
- You don't ignore facts; you simply refuse to empower them with attention and feeling.
- Constant arguing with present conditions prolongs what you oppose; stop feeding it.
- Small, repeated imaginal acts (living in the end + revision) remove built-up resistance faster than forceful external effort.
- Inspired action emerges from a settled assumption; wait for that alignment rather than acting from anxiety.
Biblical Foundation
This verse teaches the principle of inner non-resistance. "Turning the other cheek" is not passivity in the world but the deliberate refusal to meet outward assaults with inner contradiction. Neville reads it as the instruction to stop contesting the facts with your imagination.
Instead of arguing with appearances you silently assume the state that corresponds to your wish fulfilled. By not resisting the seeming adverse event you allow the imaginal act (the creative word within) to operate unimpeded.
"Be still" points to the necessity of quieting the conscious mind so the subconscious (which he identifies with the divine creative faculty) can receive the impression. Stillness is the posture for SATS (State Akin To Sleep) and for the mental diet.
To "know that I am God" is to realize the imaginative I AM - the acting consciousness which creates. The verse supports entering a restful, receptive state where non-resistance replaces mental argument.
Leave the outer world (appearances) to the divine action within. "Leaving it to God" is Neville's perennial counsel: do not attempt to force outcomes by concern, worry, or counteraction. Instead, assume the inner outcome as already realized and let the subconscious effect it.
This verse undergirds the discipline of non-resistance - the refusal to retaliate with fear, worry, or reactive imagination - trusting the inner creative power.
Step-by-Step Practice Method
- Preparation (5-10 minutes before practice) - Choose a single, specific wish (short, present-tense scene showing the wish fulfilled). Keep it sensory and outcome-focused (not the means). Example: "I receive the cheque" or "She and I are happily reconciled, smiling over coffee." - Set time: last thing at night (SATS) and 1-3 brief refreshers during the day
- Mental Diet (ongoing) - Immediately upon waking and during the day, monitor inner conversation. When worry, complaint, or arguing about facts arises, refuse it. Gently replace it with a short affirmative sentence that reflects the end accomplished (e.g., "It is done," "I am provided for"). - Use a watchword or short mantra to stop resistance: e.g., "No argument" or "I am still."
- SATS - State Akin To Sleep (primary imaginal technique) Step A: Relaxation (5-15 minutes) - Lie down, breathe slowly, and progressively relax body from toes to head. Aim for the edge of sleep - body heavy, mind clear. Step B: Enter the Scene (2-10 minutes) - Bring up the short scene chosen. Make it vivid: see, hear, feel, smell, taste if relevant. Keep it brief and repeat it like a movie clip. You are the experiencer, not rehearsing how it happens. Step C: Assume the Feeling of the Wish Fulfilled (2-5 minutes) - Evoke the emotional state you would feel if the wish were already true - relief, gratitude, joy, peace. Hold that feeling as long as possible without straining. If emotion wanes, return to sensory detail until feeling returns. Step D: Release without Forcing - When drowsiness comes, gently stop. Do not question results. Say a short closing affirmation once (e.g., "It is accomplished") and sleep in the assurance
- Revision (daily or as needed) - When you experience a negative event during the day or recall an unpleasant memory that continues to cause resistance, do a revision before bed: replay the scene as you wish it had occurred and feel the new outcome as real. Then enter SATS and fix this revised scene into the subconscious. Revision changes the mental record that is producing resistance
- Living in the End (ongoing practice) - Throughout the day, act and speak from the state of the fulfilled desire. Small practical cues: choose mannerisms, words, or attitudes that belong to the fulfilled state (calm voice, confident posture, productive scheduling). Do not fake actions that contradict your inner state; instead, allow your outer actions to naturally flow from inner assumption
- Handling Contradictions (real-time non-resistance) - When confronted with contrary evidence, do not argue. Use a two-step response: (a) accept the current fact without emotional battery (e.g., "So it appears"), and (b) immediately recall and feel your imaginal scene for 30-120 seconds. Do not try to explain why the scene should be true; simply re-enter the reality you prefer
- Repetition and Patience - Practice SATS nightly for at least 21 consecutive days for a significant wish; shorter wishes may change faster. Never measure by external time alone; measure by inner conviction and diminishing resistance
- Integration with Scripture (optional) - Use a selected verse as a closing anchor before sleep (e.g., "Be still, and know that I am God"). Let the verse deepen the state of non-resistance and rehearse your inner identity as the creative I AM
- Record Keeping - Keep a short journal recording your scenes, feelings, contradictions encountered, and subtle changes in circumstances or mood. This helps refine the mental diet and identify persistent resistances
Real-World Applications
- Reaction: Panic, detail-arguing with the facts ("I can't pay these bills; this is unfair"), frantic job applications or pleading, compulsive checking of bank balance.
- Result: More anxiety, scattered actions that contradict the wished-for state, possible burnout.
- Immediate step: Acknowledge the fact without emotional fight: "So it appears I have a bill due."
- SATS scene: Short sensory scene of receiving confirmation that the money has come - e.g., "I open my email and see the payment confirmation; I smile and feel relief." Hold the feeling of relief and gratitude for 2-5 minutes in SATS before sleep.
- Mental diet: Replace worry thought with a short affirmation during the day: "I am provided for." If anxiety rises, pause and feel the imaginal scene for 30-60 seconds.
- Practical outer action: Take calm, sensible steps (call creditor once from the secure state to ask for a plan if needed).
- Result: Inner calm attracts ideas, opportunities or unexpected help; you act from clarity rather than panic.
- Reaction: Argument, trying to force apology, stalking social media, arguing with self about injustice. Rehearsing the negative story nightly.
- Result: Greater estrangement; you vibrate complaint and antagonize impressions.
- Immediate step: Do not retaliate or attempt to coerce. Quietly accept the current state without inner accusation: "We are apart now."
- SATS scene: A vivid, closed scene: "We meet at a café, she reaches across the table with a smile; we hug; we talk calmly." Feel reconciliation - warmth, relief - for several minutes in SATS. Repeat nightly.
- Mental diet: Throughout the day, avoid re-running the argument. When memory arises, replace it with a 10-20 second replay of the reconciled scene.
- Outer action: If prompted to contact them, do so only from the assumed state (a single calm, grateful message), not from need.
- Result: Your changed inner state softens both your behavior and the impressions you send; the other may respond differently or circumstances may shift to bring a meeting.
- Reaction: Worry, constant symptom-checking, arguing with the body about its condition, catastrophizing medical results.
- Result: Heightened symptoms through attention; resistance strengthens the problem.
- Immediate step: Stop protesting the body. Acknowledge the sensation without emotional escalation: "This is how it seems now."
- SATS scene: Short, specific scene: "I wake up refreshed. I feel energy in my body as I put on my shoes and walk easily." Focus on sensory details and the sensation of vitality for 3-7 minutes.
- Mental diet: Avoid health-obsessing media or language. When intrusive symptom thoughts arise, redirect to a 20-30 second image of healthy functioning.
- Practical outer action: Follow sensible medical guidance but do so from settled inner conviction rather than fear.
- Result: Stress decreases, immune and healing processes are supported; you become collaborative with treatment rather than adversarial.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Forcing the Outcome (Trying too hard) - Symptom: Straining during SATS, repeating scenes in a mechanical way, trying to coerce immediate evidence. - Why it fails: Force creates inner tension, which contradicts the state you are trying to impress upon the subconscious. - How to avoid: Aim for relaxed assumption. Quality of feeling > quantity of repetition. Stop when emotion fades; rest in the assurance
- Arguing with Appearances (Continuing resistance) - Symptom: Mentally debating facts, rehearsing complaints, ruminating on how things "shouldn't be." - Why it fails: Each argument strengthens the contrary impression in the subconscious. - How to avoid: Use the mental diet. Name resistance when it appears and immediately switch to a short affirmative or a brief imaginal scene
- Inconsistent Mental Diet - Symptom: Practicing SATS at night but allowing negative talk, news bingeing, or associative complaint during the day. - Why it fails: Night impressions are undermined by daytime counter-impressions. - How to avoid: Monitor your inner conversation. Limit exposure to media and people who feed doubt. Use frequent 10-30 second refreshers of the assumed state
- Confusing Desire with Belief (Wishing vs. Assuming) - Symptom: Saying the scene mentally but feeling doubt or using future-tense phrasing ("I will have"). - Why it fails: The subconscious responds to feeling and the present-tense assumption; a mental wish with no conviction remains ineffective. - How to avoid: Phrase scenes in the present as already fulfilled, and cultivate the corresponding feeling. If you find doubt, work on smaller, believable steps to build conviction
- Impatience and Premature Testing - Symptom: Constantly looking for external proof, trying to manipulate others to get evidence quickly. - Why it fails: Testing signals disbelief and restarts resistance. The subconscious waits for the feeling to be unbroken. - How to avoid: Refrain from active testing. Maintain your inner state until it becomes natural; watch for subtle evidence and acknowledge it rather than demanding grand proofs
Advanced Techniques
- Revision + Future-Revision (Advanced Clearing) - Purpose: Remove deep-rooted resistances formed by past traumatic or repeatedly negative experiences and re-implant a new mental record that supports your wish. - Method: Before SATS, recall a past scene that produces resistance. Play it over exactly as it happened but then mentally edit it to the desired outcome. Make the revised end convincing and feel the new result as true. Afterward, do a separate SATS scene for the present wish. Repeat nightly for several days. - Result: The subconscious treats the edited memory as the operative record, changing present impressions that derived from the old memory
- Inner Conversation Technique (Targeting Specific Persons/Situations) - Purpose: Change how you unconsciously talk about people or situations so the imaginal atmosphere around them shifts. Neville taught that our inner conversations shape outer events. - Method: Identify the habitual inner dialogue about a person/situation. Consciously create and rehearse a new inner conversation consistent with the fulfilled end (5-10 lines is enough). Use SATS to anchor this new script into feeling. During waking hours, when you notice the old conversation, repeat the new one silently and feel it. - Application: Especially effective for relationships or negotiations
- The Ladder/Stepladder Method (Graduated Assumptions) - Purpose: For very large or seemingly impossible wishes, this method helps build conviction by creating intermediate states that feel believable. - Method: Create 3-5 short scenes representing incremental, but emotionally true, steps toward the final desire (e.g., for a major career shift:
- calm interview
- receiving a positive email
- celebrating first client
- fully established in new role). Enter each scene in SATS for a few minutes across days until feeling naturally rises, then proceed to the next rung. Finish each session with a short taste of the final end state. - Result: Builds momentum and reduces resistance by scaffolding belief
Signs of Progress
- Inner Change First - Signs: You experience increased inner peace, less agitation when contradictions appear, and your self-talk shifts from complaint to expectancy. This is the earliest and most reliable sign that non-resistance is taking hold
- Subtle Shifts in Outer Circumstances - Signs: Small coincidences, helpful ideas, unexpected suggestions from others, or slight changes in people’s attitudes that align with your assumption. These may be quiet and incremental
- Reduced Frequency of Contradictory Thoughts - Signs: The mental diet becomes easier; you catch yourself less often in negative rehearsal and resist less. The automatic behavior of arguing with facts diminishes
- Dreams and Intuitive Hits - Signs: Dreams that dramatize your wish, or sudden intuitive nudges and solutions that appear when you stop forcing. These are subconscious confirmations
- Tangible Evidence Arrives - Signs: Financial checks, reconciliations, medical improvement, job offers - the external manifestation follows inner change. Often the evidence appears in unexpected forms, so remain attentive
- Time Frame and Expectations - Practical note: There is no universal deadline. Small, believable desires may manifest in days to weeks; larger or habit-bound conditions may take months. The key metric is uninterrupted feeling of the wish fulfilled and steady decrease of resistance
- What to Do When You See Signs - Action: Acknowledge and give thanks inwardly. Do not immediately test or ask for proof. The safest response is gratitude and further non-resisting affirmation, which consolidates the manifestation and prevents relapse
Frequently Asked Questions
- and “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:
- . Neville’s unique point versus the generic Law of Attraction is that non-resistance is an imaginal discipline: you do not attempt to change the world by outward force or by hoping the universe will rearrange itself; you change your consciousness first. As your consciousness changes, outer circumstances must correspond. This is not magical avoidance of responsibility but the most effective way to bring about true change: change the cause (inner assumption), and the effect (outer life) will follow
- Revision: Rewrite the day’s negative events in imagination as you would have preferred them to be, thereby removing their power to resist your end
- Persist in the end: Rehearse one clear scene that implies the fulfilled desire until it feels real
- Stop arguing with facts: When you encounter opposing evidence, immediately withdraw attention and reassert the desired state
- Emotional fidelity: Cultivate the feeling of the wish fulfilled (not mere wishfulness)
- Maintain a strict mental diet against contrary talk, media, and self-talk. The Bible supports the idea of faith affecting results: Jesus said, “According to your faith be it unto you” (Matthew 9:
- . Neville’s distinction from generic LOA: many LOA techniques focus on visualization plus trying to ‘attract’ via positive thinking; Neville emphasizes sustained assumption - an inner identity - and the removal of resistance as the primary accelerant
- Active imagining: Daily spend 5-20 minutes in a vivid scene that implies your wish fulfilled - not future hoping but present-tense living in the end
- Mental diet: Catch and stop negative streams of thought; replace them immediately with the chosen assumption
- Sleep-assumption: The last feeling before sleep should be the wish fulfilled; this impresses the subconscious
- Inspired action: When an action naturally arises from your inner state, take it. Neville taught that action flows from the imaginative state - it will be calm, certain and purposeful, not frantic or anxious
- Practical checks: Set tasks and do ordinary responsibilities; non-resistance applies to your inner assent to outcomes, not to your competence. Biblical resonance: “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:
- - inner renewal produces right action. In short, non-resistance is active inner work that produces aligned, effective outer behavior, not laziness or avoidance
- Acknowledge factually: Briefly note the outer situation without emotional agreement (e.g., “This is what’s happening.”)
- Feel, then redirect: Allow yourself to feel once if needed, but do not dwell. Then deliberately shift to an imaginal scene that implies the solution or the desired state
- Use Revision: If a past event creates ongoing resistance, revise it in your imagination to how you would have preferred it to occur. Neville taught that revision changes memory’s hold and neutralizes resistance
- Inner conversation: Stop engaging in remorse or blame. Speak internally as though the desired solution already exists (“Everything is working out for me; I am guided.”)
- Take calm, appropriate steps: Solve what is in your control from the quiet assumption of the end. This keeps action effective rather than reactive. Biblical guidance: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:
- - change your inner story and the outer will be influenced. Common blocks: habit of blaming, addiction to drama, fear of responsibility. Use short, repeated imaginal practices and revision at night to dissolve these blocks
- Choose one definite scene that indicates the end (not a list of conditions)
- Enter that scene daily with feeling - see, hear, touch, and especially feel the completion
- Whenever the outer world contradicts it, immediately refuse to argue with it - return to the scene
- Keep a consistent mental diet; avoid entertainment of opposites. Neville’s unique perspective: unlike many LOA teachers who advise positive affirmation plus action, Neville says the imaginal act - the inner assumption of having already won - is the creative act. Non-resistance is the refusal to negate that act. Scripturally, this aligns with promises of faith and identity: “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:
- and the apostle Paul’s instruction to put on a new self by renewing the mind. Together they form the practical pathway: become that which you desire to be within your consciousness, and do not resist by agreeing with the present sense-evidence
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