Personal Development Blog

Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires

For almost 20 years Jerry and Esther Hicks have been presenting workshops, producing tapes and writing books to help people create the life they desire. And desire is no small word in this agenda. According to the teachings of “Abraham”–a collective name for the spiritual entities that are channeled through Esther–desire is a good and natural force within us. In fact, we are all here to fulfill our desires, according to Abraham. Yet the reason so much of us feel frustrated, is that we have difficulty knowing how to ask and receive whatever we want to be, do or have.

Although Jerry and Esther are listed as the authors, Ask and It Is Given is actually a collection of channeled messages from Abraham. Fans of Abraham and the Hicks may not find new information, but will probably be delighted to have an inspiring, updated book that speaks to the familiar conversation of attracting the life we want. Newcomers may also be intrigued by this excellent, in-depth discussion on how to change one’s life by matching the vibrational energy of one’s desires–taking the power of positive thinking to a whole new level.

Because this material is channeled, it often reads like The Power of Now or A Course in Miracles–not a fast food book to be devoured in one sitting. Rather, this is a book to be read in passages, with a soothing gestation period in between. It includes much advice on working with energy and emotions as well as specific chapters on increasing prosperity, reclaiming health, working with meditation, and clearing clutter for clarity. For those who are onboard with the “Laws of Attraction” and the “Art of Receiving” that Abraham speaks of, this could be one of those deliciously mysterious books that you can open to any page and it seems to offer the exact advice or insight you need right now.–Gail HudsonAsk and It Is Given, by Esther and Jerry Hicks, which presents the teachings of the nonphysical entity Abraham, will help you learn how to manifest your desires so that you’re living the joyous and fulfilling life you deserve.

As you read, you’ll come to understand how your relationships, health issues, finances, career concerns, and more are influenced by the Universal laws that govern your time/space reality - and you’ll discover powerful processes that will help you go with the positive flow of life.

It’s your birthright to live a life filled with everything that is good—and this book will show you how to make it so in every way!

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Just like that, huh?
The book is built on the premise that one creates life though your thoughts and emotions. If these are changed for better or worse, so the life is changed accordingly. Your life is the sum total of your thoughts and emotions which create a positive or negative reality.

This book teaches a good sort of self/mind control. It has a workbook of exercises that shows how a person may be able to create a desired reality. One suggestion is to live life segment by segment, suggesting to yourself how you want each segment to play out through positive suggestions such as “I’m having a smooth and easy day at work” or I’m getting a deep and refreshing sleep”. Then you should feel or anticipate the emotion of well-being behind your desires to create that reality. Another exercise is to write a script about how you want your life to turn out in the future. It’s fun to write such a script and supposedly your life will start to come out like the script. Or you can imagine that you are given a $1000 dollars each day. How would you spend it? This gets you into the feeling of being prosperous, which will create that reality. If you are down, you should focus on the positive things that are going on in your life. Look around your surroundings and be grateful for the good things you have. This will create positive thoughts, which will create a good mood, which will create a better reality. You should focus on how you want your life to be, not on how you think life really is. You should then expect what you wanted and feel that it is coming to you. Meditation can also uplift thoughts and break old patterns. Change your life; don’t try to change others or the world.

There aren’t many anecdotal stories that the techniques actually work, but they are fun mind games anyway. I will check back in if the book helps me in any way. I tried making lists about desired outcomes at one time, which is a similar technique, and it didn’t work. Supposedly, I would be resisting the outcome in some subtle way, according to the book. This is a channeled work coming from higher beings called Abraham. Esther Hicks gets into a meditative state to receive such messages.

Creating reality through thoughts and emotions is harder to justify when some extremely bad things happen to relatively innocent people such as wars, torture, kidnappings, impoverishment, exploitation, and enslavement. How do such realities get created, especially on a mass scale?

5 Stars a true classic on the topic of Law of Attraction
Even before the Secret, there was Abraham. Am so glad that more people have found out about this book and Esther Hicks thanks to that movie. This is a book that I go back to time and time again. While the first half of the book can seen daunting and complex, the exercises in the second half of the book have been extremely valuable to me when it comes to manifesting.

From what I have seen, most Law of Attraction teachers are teaching these same things in their own words. This book is the foundation, if you ask me, since it comes direct from source. This is a much have for any Law of Attraction student.

3 Stars Driven by Promise or Carried by Providence?
As of today about 390 5-star reviewers are enthralled by an unseen character’s promises “dictated” to a woman writer. So few have told us with conviction, exactly how those words have significantly impacted their lives. There’s a vast difference between getting jazzed over provocative and compelling ideas, and actually experiencing a permanent (or even temporary) positive life-change.

It’s been said; “For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not, no explanation is possible.” What I believe to matter most, is to be open to possibilities, yet require reasonable and authentic explanations before they become True for me.

The dilemma for most of us is not how to get what we want, but how to KNOW what we want. It’s no “secret” that natural inspiration comes only with absolute certainty. When that happens, we’re no longer driven by promises, but carried by providence - straight into a life we had only imagined could be possible. That qualifies us to write a book of our own.

“When Spirit rises and commands, the gods are ready to obey.”

- James Allen, “As a Man Thinketh.”

3 Stars Interesting
The book is interesting. But Esther hears voices talking to her, the voices in her head are called Abraham. Isn’t hearing voices diagnosed as schizophrenia. Interesting that people are so into this book.

5 Stars Glad I Finally Read This Book
I’ve had this book sitting on my desk for about a year now. I knew I bought it for some reason, just never got around to reading it until today.

I’m extremely thankful that I finally opened up this book today… I knew right from the start that this wasn’t your standard fluffy self help book that’s a good read, but doesn’t change your life in any way whatsoever.

The things the author writes about in this book really make sense. I’m naturally skeptical when it comes to anything that lacks hard evidence, but whether or not the Law of Attraction is real, I can already tell it’s based on proven psychological and linguistic principles.

I’m a slow reader and this book took me only a couple or a few hours to read. I’m not even sure how long it took to read actually, I was completely absorbed in what I was reading. I have not yet started the worksheets provided (about to start after I finish this review) but I’m very much looking forward to seeing results, namely with my business venture that only has 2 weeks worth of work left but I haven’t been able to quit procrastinating due to my own self doubt.

That’s one of the key areas of this book that really caught my attention. Michael talks about how to remove the self doubt from our lives that stops us from realizing our goals and desires. His remedy looks highly workable, so I’m gonna go ahead and get started on it right now…

If I can figure out how to update this review, I will try to give an update after going through the worksheet and actually exercising the principles offered in this book. Nonetheless, a very good, solid read.

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Filed under: Personal Development Book Reviews