When my friends over at Hay House Publishing offered me the chance to review a copy of Wayne Dyer's "Wishes Fulfilled," I jumped at the opportunity. After recently watching Wayne on YouTube and after seeing his film, "The Shift," I had a strong desire to read one of his books. Well the universe answered that desire when they aligned me with Hay House, so how could I say no?
Wayne promises that after reading his newest book, Wishes Fulfilled, you will be able to tap into the amazing manifesting powers that are already hidden within you and that you will be able to create a life in which all you imagine for yourself becomes a present fact. Wayne states that you can achieve this by using your imagination and by practicing the art of assuming the feeling of your wishes already fulfilled. In this review, I will take an in-depth look at Wishes Fulfilled to see if it lives up to his claims.
Dr. Dyer starts out his book with a few stories and reflections from his own personal life. These are stories where Wayne used the principles found within, Wishes Fulfilled, to manifest his desires. Wayne talks about the mentors who had a strong impact on him as well as the importance of having an active imagination. Dr. Dyer says, "When you are able to passionately feel whatever it is that you wish to have or become, as long as it is aligned with your highest self - that is God, you become it and it becomes you."
I enjoyed the opening to his book and found reading his stories very interesting, however I found one of them to be a little far fetched. In one story Wayne tells us that he was giving a lecture to a group when he could actually feel Saint Francis enter his body and give him power. "I experienced him, not only by his words and not only around me, but in me - as me - while speaking," said Wayne. He then goes on to share a letter from a member of the audience, stating that she actually saw Wayne transform into Saint Francis. I enjoyed the message behind the story, and well, only Wayne and this lady could say what really happened that day, but I personally had a hard time swallowing this tale.
After the intro, Wayne goes into details discussing the importance of changing your concept of yourself, which is created by your beliefs. Chapter one is all about getting the reader ready to enter into a realm where all of their wishes are guaranteed to be fulfilled. Wayne tells us, "there's a plane of awareness that you can opt to live at wherein you can, if you are willing to change your concept of yourself as an ordinary being, find yourself fulfilling any and all wishes that you have for yourself."
Wayne then introduces readers to their connection with Source. He says that our higher-self, the one that is not held back by ego, is free to expand, is full of greatness, and is completely turned on by the idea of expanding without limits. "Your invisible self is extraordinary because it is a fragment of the universal soul, which is infinite. The part of you that knows you have greatness, and is stirred by the idea of you expanding and removing any and all limitations is what I am addressing here in Wishes Fulfilled. This is your new self-concept, one that is inspired by the soul," tells Wayne.
In chapter two Wayne goes into further details about how we all have a higher, divine self. He informs us that there is a spark of God within all of us that we can expand. To prove his point of view that we are all really spiritual beings enjoying a human experience, Wayne shares a very interesting idea. He says that we are not really our bodies because we are constantly outgrowing our bodies and growing into new bodies, yet the "I" that is you still remains, your consciousness, your divine self, your soul.
"It's become absolutely clear that you are obviously not your body. Why? Because the "I" has remained, though it continually sheds the body that it occupies," says Wayne. This chapter helped me look at my divine self in a new way, the example he used was cleverly put together and afterwards I was left feeling a deeper sense of connection to my higher self.
Next is the chapter that may scare some people. With chapter three he builds upon the concept of your higher self and helps you evolve into your highest self - God! Yes, Wayne wants you to recognize that you are God. He wants you to say it loud and proud, I AM GOD! This is the chapter in the book where I can see a lot of controversy starting since most religions teach that God is a separate and mysterious external force. But Wayne, like many other great spiritual teachers emphasize, all things are one, all things are God.
Wayne then opens our eyes to some passages in the Bible that show us that Jesus was trying to share the same message with the world when he said, "Let his mind be in you," and "Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?" Wayne assures us that saying I AM GOD, is not blasphemy and shares many more stories and examples why in the book.
After helping us overcome our limiting beliefs that were brought on from our self-concept by recognizing that we are all God, Wayne begins the journey of sharing his secret to manifestations with his five wishes fulfilled foundations. Chapter four is where you will find his first foundation, imagination. Wayne says, "the greatest gift you were ever given was the gift of your imagination."
I completely agree with this statement because before anything can be created, it must first be imagined. Your imagination is the source of all-being. Wayne explains to us that, "if you live from those imaginings, the universe will align with you in bringing all that you wish for." Wayne then further tells us that anything which is placed in our imagination and held their, will ultimately become our reality.
Basically what Wayne is teaching us is the law of attraction. The biggest problem most people have with the law of attraction is that they usually spend most of their time imagining what they don't want, instead of what they actually want. Thankfully, Wayne also addresses this issue in this chapter as well. He also shares four golden rules for maintaining a healthy imagination.
With the second foundation, "you are going to be retraining your imagination so that it accepts the idea that anything placed there isn't for a future experience, but represents your reality, right here, right now," Dr. Dyer says. This chapter of the book is all about seeing the end as if it is already here. Act as if.
Wayne shares a fun story of how he uses this principle himself whenever he writes a new book. Wayne will have the book jacket for his finished book made before he even begins to write a single word. He then places the book jacket around the spine of another book so that he can see and act as if the book is already done. Wayne then leaves the book on his desk and begins to write, seeing the book as if it is finished. He claims that this allows the words to flow through him with great ease.
I can relate well with this story because I have done many similar things in the past. In fact, just the other week I had plans on creating a new online self-help training program for my website readers. Instead of creating the product first, I created the website first. This ended up helping me visualize my finished product better and pushed me forward in my writing. I had been putting off writing that project for months, but once I could see the end game, I was able to finish it up in just a few short weeks.
During the third foundation you will discover how to make your dreams come true by assuming the feeling of the wish already fulfilled. Here you are being encouraged to not only act as if, but to actually feel as if your wish is fulfilled. "By literally feeling the reality of the state that you seek, which is firmly in your imagination, you have the means of creating miracles," says Wayne.
For us to be able to assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled, requires a fundamental awareness of how our subconscious mind works. Wayne uses a great quote to explain it, "The subconscious mind is the womb of all creation. It receives the idea unto itself through the feelings of man. It never changes the idea received but always gives it form."
What Wayne is teaching here is that the subconscious mind accepts as true whatever you feel to be true. Your feelings will determine your reality because they're impressed on the subconscious.
With the forth foundation Wayne discusses the importance of keeping your attention on your manifestations despite what others may say or think. "You can do everything right in the first three foundations of a wishes fulfilled life, but if you allow your attention to be diverted by outer stimulus and abandon even for a moment the I AM in your imagination, you will delete the entire project," warns Wayne. This chapter reminded me of the talk by Steve Jobs at Stanford University where he said, "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life." Which is exactly what happens when you lose your attention and stop focusing on your wishes.
The fifth foundation I kind of expected to be about taking action or maintaining persistence with your manifestations but instead, the last foundation focuses on getting ready for sleep. It is still a good chapter though, with a lot of good advice that I have already incorporated into my own life a few years ago so I didn't take many notes here.
One important note that I did write down however, was the fact that Dr. Dyer says the last five minutes of your day are the most important. This is because, "throughout the hours while your conscious mind is resting, your subconscious mind is receiving and processing all that you've downloaded onto it, and getting ready to turn it's impressions into form and circumstances," informs Wayne.
The final chapter is when Wayne pulls it all together. It was written to help assist you in "achieving that immensity that your soul is seeking." It is comprised of seven questions for you to reflect upon and explore as you begin your wishes fulfilled life.
Wayne then closes the book with three personal stories of manifestations. While I enjoyed the last two stories, Wayne should take a photography class before calling a lens flare, created by the sun in the background, an orb.
The book was great, but I was a little disappointed that Wayne never gets into acting on your desires, intentions and wishes. Instead, Wayne wants us to believe that if we just align ourselves with Source, miracles will happen and everything will fall into place. I understand that there is truth to this because I have witnessed it in my own life, but you still have to understand when to act or react to your wishes. The fact remains that Wayne still had to take massive action to fulfill his Dharma, but he glosses over this in his writing.
You see, it has been my experience that when you take action, you will inevitably trigger all kinds of things that you would have never even imagined. It allows you to declare to the universe that you are serious in your intentions. Other people with similar goals will begin to show up, take notice and become aligned with you. Things that once seemed confusing begin to become clear. Things that once seemed difficult begin to get easier. All manner of good things begin to flow in your direction once you begin to take action.
So, since I enjoyed this book but felt it was missing that one ingredient to finish it off, action, I was going to give it a three star rating. But after sitting on this review for a few days and letting the teachings sink in, I noticed something, a new found awareness. I have become much more aware whenever I am about to use the phrase I AM. I instantly take notice and make sure that I do not take the Lord's name is vain by saying something congregant with love. Since I now feel like this book is going to have a life-changing impact on me long-term, I have increased my rating to a four out of five stars.
Oh, by the way, Hay House Publishing was nice enough to send me this book for free in exchange for my thoughts. This has in no way effected the outcome of my review and I received no compensation to write this review. This book was great read!
