Ever felt stuck trying to manifest your desires? I get it, and I’ve been there. That’s why I want to share with you a technique that’s been a game-changer for me: the SATS technique, created by Neville Goddard.
In my opinion, this is one of the absolute best manifestation techniques out there because of its ability to make really strong impressions on the subconscious.
Here’s what you need to know:
- SATS stands for “State Akin to Sleep,” a passive mental state where you’re more receptive to new ideas.
- To do the SATS technique, you first go into this passive state, and then you imagine a mental scene where the specific desire has been accomplished. Feel the reality of the scene, as if you were actually there. Ideally, you drift off into sleep while imagining.
- Doing SATS correctly will cause the particular thing imagined to manifest in your reality.
Take it from me, this technique actually works (if you do it correctly and on a consistent basis!). I constantly do it, and I’ve had countless manifestations with it. If you’re ready to manifest whatever desires you may have, keep reading. I promise, it’s worth your time.
Also, I highly recommend you read my article “Neville Goddard: How To Manifest.” where I focus more on the general principles of how to impress the subconscious. Read that after this one.
What is Neville Goddard’s SATS Technique?
The term “SATS” is an abbreviation of the phrase “State Akin to Sleep.”
Neville used the phrase “State Akin to Sleep” when referring to the relaxed mental state you need to be in when impressing thoughts upon the subconscious mind, but we will just use SATS to describe the whole technique.
The reason I particularly like this technique is that it’s like you’re previewing your desire before it has manifested, as if you’re peeking into another reality. Getting results with this can often feel like pure magic.
Let’s now look at what SATS consists of. I’m going to divide it into three parts:
We will take a more detailed look at this in the “how to” section. Here, you’ll just get a general overview of the steps involved.
Part 1: Relaxation (being in a “State Akin To Sleep”)
This is the part where you go into the relaxed, passive mental state — the “state akin to sleep” as Neville called it.
According to Neville Goddard, Consciousness is the fundamental reality. If you impress your desire on Consciousness, you will cause the desire to be created in external reality. This how manifestation works.
In his book “Feeling Is The Secret,“ Neville talked about the subconscious and the conscious mind. The conscious mind is the the part of you that you think you are, and the subconscious is the underlying power itself. As you relax, you move from the surface level of your mind into the depths of the subconscious, from where you can direct it toward the accomplishment of anything that you desire.
So, the first part is going into a relaxed mental state. Let’s look at the second part.
Part 2: Imagining
The second part of SATS is imagining a scene that would take place after your desire has been fulfilled. The scene has to imply that your desire has been accomplished. It also has to take place AFTER the accomplishment of the desire and not WHILE the desire is in the process of happening.
As an example, let’s say you wanted to be wealthy. You could imagine a friend congratulating you on your new found wealth, you traveling on a dream vacation, or you buying something really expensive. It doesn’t really matter what you choose to imagine as long as the particular scenes you choose 1) imply to you that you are now wealthy and 2) feels like they would naturally follow as a consequence of having attained your desire.
It is also not restricted to a single scene. You can have multiple scenes surrounding the same desire.
When you imagine, use all your senses; sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch to really immerse yourself in the imagined scene. Feel the reality of it. I will explain this in more detail later on.
When you’ve looped the scene for a while, you’ll often get a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction, telling you “it is done.” This is a good sign that you have done it correctly. You can now wake up from your slumber.
Part 3: Letting it happen
The third part is letting it happen. Yes, that’s really it! When you’re not doing SATS, you can just live your life normally. You are now to await the so called “bridge of incidents” — the series of events that will lead you toward the attainment of your desire.
Neville emphasized what he called personal impotence. The conscious mind cannot do anything to make the desire manifest — that is the job of your subconscious.
This is the SATS process in a nutshell. There are no hard and fast rules for how to do it, and you’ll need to find your own way of doing it.
Does Neville Goddard’s SATS Technique Work?
First of all, it’s important to remember that any technique you may use when manifesting is only a tool. The purpose of the tool is to help you impress the desire on the subconscious mind.
When you do SATS, when the scene feels “real” you can be sure that an impression of some sort is made in the subconscious mind. The idea of “feeling it real” is the essence of this technique, because when it feels real, your mind is fully immersed in that thought completely. And this ensures acceptation into the subconscious.
Also, many other manifesting techniques do not emphasize that you have to go into a relaxed state, which can often cause the idea to never really “set roots” deep in consciousness. The first and probably most important step of the SATS technique is all about going into a trance-like state of consciousness.
All in all, the only reason that the SATS technique is so effective so because it allows you to make a strong impression on the subconscious mind.
The Secret Sauce to Making SATS Work
All manifestation methods work the same. The object is it implant a new idea in that unlimited power within us that we call the subconscious mind or imagination.
So often we do these techniques in vain and get no results. I can attest to this! I remember doing SATS every day at the beginning of my manifestation journey and got no results at all. Well, why? It was because my desire never penetrated into the subconscious and took root. I made no changes in my state of consciousness, and thus, no results were manifested externally.
Your job in manifestation is to convey your desire to the subconscious, and through powers beyond your comprehension, the desire will materialize itself in your reality. But what is the secret to doing this? How do we ensure that our desire gets accepted into the subconscious?
Well, you cannot force an idea to be internalized. But there are ways to provide the optimal mental conditions for the internalization to happen.
The first thing is to ensure that, while in SATS, your mind is permeated completely by the state imagined. You cannot have two thoughts in your mind at the same time; one must crowd out the other. If you successfully immerse yourself in the scene, if you “feel it real,” you cannot simultaneously entertain contrary thoughts. This manner of complete self-persuasion almost guarantees a strong reaction from subconscious.
Secondly, do not use effort. As I will explain in a bit, effort is counterproductive. If it’s not easy to imagine, you’re not doing it right.
Thirdly, a meditative state clears the path to the subconscious and it becomes more reactive. Becoming better at meditating will make it easier for you to work with the subconscious.
In my view, these are the three most important principles that make SATS work. If they’re missed they can be fatal to your success. Particularly with the one regarding effort, if you use effort you might even impress the idea of struggle and strain as opposed to the idea of the desire fulfilled.
I will mention these three “ingredients” again in the next section where will look at how to actually do the SATS technique.
How To Do SATS Effectively (Practical Guide)
Let’s now look take a more detailed look at how to do the SATS technique in the right manner to get the best results possible. I will also give some extra tips that I’ve personally found helpful.
Step 1: Picking a Goal
The first thing to do is to pick your goal. It can be something you deeply desire, or you can simply make a test manifestation by going for something small.
It can be as broad or as specific as you want. If you want more money you could imagine an exact amount, or you could simply just imagine that you are rich.
Since you’re here, you probably already have a goal in mind.
Step: 2 Making a Scene
The second thing you’ll need to do is conjure up one or more scenes that would take place after your desire has been fulfilled.
Let’s say you want to get a job. An example of a scene could be you being at the workplace hanging out with your new co-workers. Another scene could be someone congratulating you on getting the job. The specific scene doesn’t really matter as long as it implies to you that you have got the job.
The amount of scenes and the length of each scene you imagine during a SATS session is up to you.
Some like to have one short ten-second scene that they can continually loop over and over, and some like to make a scene that they can freely move around in. There are no definite rules for this. You’ll simply have to figure out what’s most natural for you. Just make sure that the focal point of the scene is that the desire has been accomplished.
Remember that the scene has to be AFTER the desires have been accomplished. That way you don’t “mess with the middle,” and the desire is free to manifest in its own way.
Step 3: Getting Into a “State Akin To Sleep”
The next step is meditation — going into an altered state of consciousness. Generally speaking, the deeper the state of consciousness the better, but you also don’t want to be so deep that you cannot control your attention or that you fall asleep.
There are a few reasons why you need to go into this state before imagining:
- The subconscious becomes more responsive to your thoughts.
- Visualization is more effortless.
- Immersing yourself into the scene becomes easier.
Don’t rush this step or brush it off as unnecessary. Take your time. Make sure that you don’t try and force relaxation as this is simply impossible.
A good strategy is to go into SATS right before bed as your conscious mind is naturally winding down for sleep, enabling the always awake subconscious to receive your suggestions unhindered.
If you have an off-day where you don’t feel like you can get into a relaxed state, simply just close your eyes, slightly relax your mind, and imagine your scene. This will also work well enough, though not as effective in my experience.
When you’re in the SATS state, you’re ready to imagine.
Step 4: Imagining Your Scene
When you’ve entered SATS it’s time to imagine the scene (or scenes) you have chosen for this session. The scene should be laid out clearly beforehand so you don’t need to spend too much energy remembering what to imagine.
The idea is to be in your mental scene as if it were actually surrounding you.
This is the part where most questions arise. You’ll very easily think “Am I doing this correctly?” if you’re not careful. To this I say: don’t worry so much about whether you’re doing it right. Focus on doing your best and let that be enough! The important thing is to immerse yourself into the desired state of consciousness, and you cannot do this while at the same time holding thoughts saying “Am I doing this right?” or “Is my visualization vivid enough?”
With that in mind, let’s now look at how to most effectively imagine the scene so as to make the strongest impression on the subconscious.
How often should you do this?
I recommend you do this technique once or twice a day, preferably in the evening before bed and right before rising in the morning. While you can manifest through simply doing SATS a single time, it’s generally speaking not enough, and definitely not a strategy I’d advice beginners to employ.
If you’re interested wrote an article called “how often you should do SATS” where I look more into the importance of consistency and repetition.
Being in The Scene
Go into the imaginary scene and look at it from a first-person point of view. It should be as if the environment in the scene actually surrounds you, like in the real world.
It doesn’t matter how good you are at visualizing. If everything is unclear and shadowy, that’s fine. Simply pretend that you’re actually looking around in your scene. It’s not the clarity of the visualization but the mental state you’re in that’s important.
Then begin to get your other senses involved. This will connect your mind more to the scene, and it will begin to feel more real. Briefly use your imaginary sense of touch, smell, taste, and hearing.
Mentally get lost in the scene. Think from it not of it; think what you would think if it were actually happening. Do not think that you will manifest this; think as if it’s already manifested and that you now have it. In a sense, it’s already manifested and, perhaps, if your imagination was more developed the state would manifest instantaneously.
Also, another tip for immersing yourself in the scene is to focus on small details. Feel the surface of the table in front of you. Look at your fingerprints. Notice the small intricate details of the objects around you.
It’s important to let the objects in the scene surround you. Think of them as existing independently of you.
As you do these things, you “fuse” with the underlying reality behind the scene. Even if the “qualia” is not perfect, you are actually still fusing with the underlying state of consciousness. A complete fusion with a state of consciousness means a complete manifestation.
Effortlessness
You should not feel like you’re using effort and willpower to imagine. It’s very important that it is easy for you to do this!
A good tip is to try and get a “reactionary” mindset when imagining your scene. When you look around in the physical world, you react to the environment. You don’t have to create or conjure up the surrounding objects with your mind because they’re simply just there!
You don’t think, “This table looks unclear” or “That wall doesn’t look real enough.” Just look at it through your imaginary eyes as if the objects were actually real no matter how blurry your visualization is. Do not spend any time judging the clarity or coherence of the scene. If you can’t actually “see” the objects, just pretend that they’re there — this is equally as effective.
In the outer world, you don’t need to put any mental effort into being there. Right now, you are simply just here, and you’re probably not even thinking about it. Therefore, you should not use any mental effort into being in your imaginary scene.
So, don’t constantly focus on making the scene clearer or more vivid as it is counterproductive and will just cause you to take the role of an “onlooker” (thinking of the scene) rather than of the role of an “occupant” (thinking from the scene).
This principles of using the least amount of effort is called “the law of reversed effort.” I talk more about it in this article.
Repeating the Scene
When your feel like you are ready, begin playing the scene in your mind. Let yourself react to the scene as if it were actually happening.
By doing this, the scene will begin to feel real. Almost like you connect to something that’s actually there.
You don’t need to do it perfectly. You are more likely to get short glimpses of “realness,” and this is good enough for planting the seed.
Once you’ve enacted your scene, then loop it over and over again. If you get bored with a scene, pick another one. Just remember that whatever scene you choose needs to IMPLY the desire and be AFTER the desire has been fulfilled.
Emotions
when imagining bring in emotions though they’re likely to appear on their own. Feelings of gratitude and satisfaction are very common. Ideally, you should feel like you actually would if the desire were actually manifested. Emotions acts as a catalyst. If you can get emotionally involved in your scene the more deeply it will affect your subconscious. Though again, beware of using effort!
How long to do this for
I recommend you do it anywhere from 2 minutes or longer. Do it until you feel that you’ve in some way been affected by your scene.
In all honesty, the ideal length of a session is something I am not really sure about, and perhaps it varies from person to person. Sometimes I do longer sessions of 30+ minutes, sometimes I do 15-25 minutes sessions, sometimes I do short sessions of around 2-5 minutes. On the rare occasion I might do it for more than an hour.
Regardless of the ideal length, each session is sure to give power the desire in the subconscious, strengthen and guarding it against contrary beliefs and concepts fighting against it.
What To Do After Doing SATS
Most people agree that the best thing to do is do SATS every day.
The desire will begin to “grow” in the outer world even though you may not see any signs of it. It will happen by a power acting independently of you.
The means for the achievement of the desire is entirely beyond the scope of your control. It will happen automatically.
The only thing that is in your control when manifesting is what the desire is, and how often you choose to imagine it.
If you try to desperately force it to happen by outer action or give up all hope, it means you’re in an opposing state of consciousness. This basically just stunts the manifestation.
The manifestation of your goal is the job of God, the subconscious self, and not of the conscious self.
After a while, you might (though not always) see signs and synchronicities — smaller happenings that in some way seem to be related to your desire. These are indications that your desire has partially been impressed on the subconscious mind, and serves as evidence that you’ve done something correctly.
Keep persisting in doing SATS without constantly obsessing over your goal, and before you know it, things will change and your manifestation will appear.
Recap
- What is SATS?: SATS stands for “State Akin to Sleep,” a technique developed by Neville Goddard for effective manifestation.
- Why SATS?: It allows for a strong impression on the subconscious mind, making it a powerful tool for manifesting desires.
- How to Do SATS:
- Picking a Goal: Choose what you want to manifest, whether it’s something big or small.
- Making a Scene: Create one or more mental scenes that would occur after your desire has been fulfilled.
- Getting Into SATS: Use meditation to enter a relaxed state; the deeper the state, the better.
- Imagining Your Scene: Visualize your chosen scene while in this relaxed state. Make it as vivid as possible, involving all senses.
- How To Make SATS Effictive
- Frequency: It’s recommended to practice SATS once a day for consistency.
- Duration: Each session should last at least 10-15 minutes, but feel free to extend as needed. For both frequency and duration — quality of each session beats quantity.
- Effortlessness: The process should be natural and not forced; aim for a “reactionary” mindset.
- After SATS:
- Continue to practice daily without obsessing over the goal.
- Let the subconscious mind do its work; your role is to set the intention.
- Signs and Synchronicities: These may appear as indicators that your subconscious mind has been successfully impressed.
Conclusion
The reason SATS is so powerful is that allows you to make strong impressions on your subconscious mind, which is how your desires get turned into external realities. However, reading about it is not enough. The only way to truly understand and benefit from manifestation is to practice it yourself. So, why wait? Start applying this technique in your life today. Trust me, if you learn this, you can truly live your dream life. You will have opened the floodgates of the hidden power within you, and you’ll be able to do and experience things you would have never thought possible.
I hope you found this article helpful. Thanks for reading!
