Law of Assumption vs Law of Attraction: What's the Difference?

What is the law of attraction?

The law of attraction is the idea that your thoughts and feelings draw matching experiences to you. Positive thoughts bring positive things, negative thoughts bring negative ones.

In practice it usually means vision boards, affirmations, gratitude lists, and "raising your vibration." The universe, or source, does the delivering. Your job is to stay in a feeling that matches what you asked for and watch for signs that it's on its way.

What is the law of assumption?

The law of assumption is Neville Goddard's teaching that whatever you assume to be true, and keep assuming, becomes your experience. Neville (1905–1972) lectured on it for over thirty years. He used the phrase himself in Believe In Him: "apply the law of assumption. Assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled and let God's law work for you."

The line he repeated more than any other is in Persistent Assumption: "an assumption, though false, if persisted in will harden into fact."

For Neville, the creative power isn't out in the universe. It's your own imagination, which he called God. You don't ask for something and wait. You imagine the end, feel it as real now, and live as the person who already has it. For a fuller introduction, start with the law of assumption guide.

Law of assumption vs law of attraction: the main differences

Topic	Attraction	Assumption
Source	The universe	Your imagination
Focus	What you want	Being the one who has it
Practice	Positive thinking, visualizing	Assuming the end, thinking from it
Signs	Watch for them	Don't look; they follow
Others	Their free will limits you	They reflect your assumptions
Proof	Trust the law	Test it yourself

1. Who delivers it

In the law of attraction, you line yourself up and the universe sends what matches. There's a giver outside you.

Neville put the cause inside. In Fundamentals he said: "Remember, always – it is your state of consciousness that attracts your life." He did use the word "attract." But what attracts isn't your request or your vibration. It's the state you're living in.

2. Wanting vs. being

This is the difference that matters most in practice. The law of attraction starts with what you want and asks you to focus on it. Neville said wanting was the problem. In Prayer:

You never attract that which you want, but always attract that which you are conscious of being.

He says the same thing in Prayer The Art Of Believing: "It is not what you want that you attract; you attract what you believe to be true."

If you spend your days wanting a relationship, you're living in the state of not having one. So the question Neville would have you ask isn't what you want. It's who you would be, and how you would feel, if you already had it.

3. Thinking of it vs. thinking from it

A lot of law of attraction practice is picturing the thing you want: the house, the car, the person. Neville drew a line between that and his method. In Imagination he said: "Thinking from it differs from thinking of it. I must learn to think from it." His example was a man who has just come into a million dollars. He isn't thinking about a million dollars. He's walking around as someone who has it.

It's also why feeling good in general isn't enough. In Prayer The Art Of Believing he wrote: "You call your creation into being by feeling the reality of the state you would call. A mood attracts its affinities but it does not create what it attracts." A high vibration is a nice mood. The law of assumption asks for a specific one: the feeling of this particular wish, already fulfilled.

4. Looking for signs vs. not looking

Law of attraction culture is full of signs: angel numbers, a song on the radio, a stranger saying the right word. They're meant as encouragement that something is on its way.

Neville told people to stop looking. "Signs follow, they do not precede," he wrote in Sleep: Feeling Is the Secret. "Proof that you are will follow the consciousness that you are; it will not precede it." In Thinking Fourth-Dimensionally (Lesson 3) he describes the right attitude as being "not anxious, when you are not looking for results, knowing that signs follow and do not precede."

Checking for signs is a quiet way of telling yourself it hasn't happened yet. If you've already assumed it's done, there's nothing to check.

5. Other people

A common law of attraction belief is that other people have their own free will, so you can't decide what they do. That makes a specific person feel off-limits.

Neville taught the opposite, and it's the part that draws so many people with a specific person in mind. In All Things Are Possible he said: "You do not have to persuade others to help you; all you need do is believe you are what you want to be and then let the world – which is nothing more than yourself pushed out – go to work to make your assumption possible." He went as far as calling free will an illusion in Assumptions Harden Into Fact (Lesson 2): "Our illusion of free will is but ignorance of the causes which make us act." The freedom he did leave you is the choice of what to assume. In Sleep: Feeling Is the Secret he called it "your freedom to choose the kind of mood you assume."

This doesn't mean you control people like puppets. It means you change how you see them inside, and the outer relationship follows. That idea has its own name: everyone is you pushed out.

6. Trusting vs. testing

The law of attraction is usually presented as a universal law you trust, like gravity.

Neville kept asking people to try it and see. In Christ In You: "If you will but test this power within you, it will prove itself in performance." You don't have to believe a word of it up front. You run the experiment and look at what happens. The ladder technique is the classic low-stakes test.

Is the law of attraction the same as the law of assumption?

Not quite, though they share a root. Both say your inner world shapes your outer one. Some people say they're one law with two names, and you can read Neville's line that you "always attract that which you are conscious of being" as his own version of the law of attraction.

The difference is where you stand. The law of attraction keeps you on this side of the wish, feeling good and receiving. The law of assumption puts you on the far side, already there, and asks you to stay there until the world catches up. If you search the transcripts in the lecture library, you won't find Neville using the phrase "law of attraction" at all. He was teaching something more specific.

Which is better, law of assumption or law of attraction?

Neither one works if you don't practice it, and switching every two weeks is the surest way to get nothing from either.

That said, I'd choose the law of assumption, and this site obviously leans that way. Here's the honest reason: it gives you a concrete thing to do. Not "stay positive," which is hard to hold for long, but "build one short scene that implies your wish is fulfilled, feel it real tonight, and think from it tomorrow." You know whether you did it or not.

The law of assumption is probably a better fit if:

• You've felt good about a wish for months and still feel like you're waiting for it.
• You catch yourself checking for signs, or getting anxious when none show up.
• You want something involving another person, and "you can't affect their free will" has stopped you.
• You'd rather test something than take it on faith.

You don't have to throw out what you learned. Gratitude, for instance, fits both. Neville said in No One To Change But Self (Lesson 4) that one of his own ways of praying was "simply to feel thankful," as you would for something already done. The difference is that you're thankful for having it, not for its being on its way.

How to switch from the law of attraction to the law of assumption

Neville laid out the whole method in a few sentences in The Spirit Within:

Now, in order to prove that the law works, you must try it. Have a goal. Your goal may be peace of mind, health or marriage. You name it. Knowing your own wonderful human imagination is the one and only cause of your life, conceive a scene which, if true, would imply the fulfillment of your goal. Do not allow yourself to observe the action, but put yourself in the center of the scene and allow your friends to congratulate you on your good fortune. Accept their congratulations without embarrassment. Enter into the spirit of the scene and remain there until it feels real, then drop it in confidence that the imaginal act was performed by God.

Step by step:

1. Name the end, not the wish. Ask what would be true if it were already done. Neville put it this way in Christ In You: "ask yourself what you would be aware of hearing, seeing and experiencing if your desire were now fulfilled."
2. Pick one short scene that implies it. Something that would happen after the fact: a friend congratulating you, a hand on yours, one line of dialogue.
3. Enter it as you fall asleep. "Use wisely the interval preceding sleep. Assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled and go to sleep in this mood," he told his class in Assumptions Harden Into Fact (Lesson 2). That's the SATS technique.
4. Be in the scene, not watching it. Feel it from your own eyes until it feels real.
5. Think from it during the day. Notice your inner conversations. Would the person who already has this be talking to themselves this way?
6. Drop the sign-checking and persist. "Persist in your assumption as though it were true, and it will harden into fact," Neville said in The True Knowledge Of God.
7. Revise what contradicts it. When the day hands you evidence against your assumption, change it in imagination that night with the revision technique instead of arguing with it.

Example: the same wish, both ways

Say you want a promotion.

With the law of attraction, you might put the new title on a vision board, repeat "I am attracting my promotion," try to keep your mood high, and watch for signs that it's coming.

With the law of assumption, you'd do what Neville described in Remain Faithful To Your Idea (Lesson 5). Being congratulated is something that would happen after you get the promotion. So you relax into a drowsy state, "visualize a friend standing before you. Put your imaginary hand into his. Feel it to be solid and real," and carry on a short conversation about your new role. Then you go to work the next day as the person who got it. For more on career wishes, see manifesting a job with Neville Goddard.

The first approach keeps the promotion in the future. The second treats it as done and gives you a scene to return to every night.

If you're not sure what your scene should be, describe your situation to NevilleAI. It will suggest a scene that implies your wish is fulfilled and show you the lecture passages it's drawing on.

What to do next

• Read the law of assumption guide for the full teaching.
• Build your first scene with the SATS technique.
• Test the law first with the ladder technique.
• If you've been at it for a while, read why manifestation might not be working.

Frequently asked questions

What is the main difference between the law of attraction and the law of assumption?

The law of attraction says you draw in what you focus on and feel good about, with the universe doing the delivering. The law of assumption says you experience what you assume is already true. You don't focus on wanting something; you assume you already have it and think from that state until it shows up.

Is the law of assumption better than the law of attraction?

Neither works without practice. The law of assumption gives you a more concrete practice: one scene that implies the wish is fulfilled, felt as real before sleep, and lived from during the day. People who have felt stuck waiting with the law of attraction often find that easier to stick with.

Did Neville Goddard teach the law of attraction?

Not by that name. Neville used the word "attract," but he said you attract what you are conscious of being, not what you want. He called his own teaching the law of assumption.

Can you use the law of attraction and the law of assumption together?

You can keep habits like gratitude, but don't mix the core stance. Wanting something and assuming you already have it pull in opposite directions. Pick the law of assumption for a set period, practice it nightly, and see what happens.

Is the law of assumption real?

Neville said not to take his word for it and to test it on something small first, like the ladder technique. For an honest look at the evidence and the criticism, read does Neville Goddard work.

Did Neville say to let go of the outcome?

Yes, in his own way. He called it the Sabbath: once you've assumed the wish fulfilled, you rest, "not looking for results, knowing that signs follow and do not precede," as he put it in Thinking Fourth-Dimensionally (Lesson 3).