(Originally posted 29th April, 2004)
A lot of traditions — particularly the New Age ones — have the idea that there is an energy that flows through us all and it can be used to achieve all sorts of things. Some people might call it magic; others might call it the Hand of God.
The principle of Mana is closely related to the first and third principles. If the world is what we think it is and energy flows where attention goes, then Mana is the energy that helps to create the world that we see.
I don’t think that it’s worth arguing that mana is a measurable energy force like electricity or heat. It may just a case that we haven’t actually developed an instrument that you can measure it with yet.
I find it much more useful to think of mana as faith or confidence in something. People who have a lot of faith in their own abilities are able to achieve wonderful things. If someone else is lacking in self-confidence, they will tend to give up before they achieve whatever it was they set out to do.
If you’ve ever met someone who has a lot of passion for something, you can usually sense the energy that they have. They seem to be almost radiate power and confidence, and it’s often infectious. Anthony Robbins is a good example. So is Adolf Hitler, who was a master orator and who’s energy could whip a crowd into a frenzy, albeit with a very negative focus.
This is what I think Serge means when he says that all power comes from within. Faith comes from a revelation that something is possible and the more you believe that, the easier it is to achieve something. It’s faith that sustains you when things aren’t going the way that you want them to.
Faith is not something that can be given; it must come from inside you. Other people might say or do something that triggers that initial realisation that you might be able to do something, but in the end, it’s still all up to you.
What often happens though is that people choose to believe what other people tell them. To the individual, it makes more sense to trust someone else than it does to trust their own intuition and instinct. When this happens, you’re handing the power to someone else, particularly if the influence is negative. One of the meanings of the Hawaiian word “mana” is, after all, authority.
It’s also important to realise that when more that one person believes something — particularly if they all believe it passionately — then it’s even more likely that the goal is going to happen. Look at the Apollo moonshots in the late 1960s. JFK promised the American people that an American would walk on the moon by the end of the 1960s. Enough people believed that message and got to working together and in July 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin achieved that goal.
So how do you get this confidence and energy? Simple: through choosing to have it. The more you can convince yourself that something is possible, the more likely it is that that thing will eventually come to pass. Your subconscious mind will eventually put all of the right pieces together in the right order to allow you to do something.
Of course, you’re going to run into a whole bunch of other beliefs that are going to make it harder to keep your focus on your goal. Some of those beliefs come from other people who can’t accept that you’re actually going to achieve what you’re setting out to achieve. Some of the limitations are going to come from within your own subconscious mind, as you start to run into your limiting beliefs that have held you back in the past.
The first problem is easier to overcome; be careful who you choose to share your vision with. By listening to the wrong people at the wrong time, you can often strangle your faith before it’s had a chance to take root properly. Overcoming your own doubts and negative self beliefs is a lot harder, and that’s when it’s good to have someone else who is on your side who is willing to offer support and encouragement when you need it the most.