58 pages • 1-hour read
Ask And It Is Given: Learning To Manifest Your Desires
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Themes
The Law of Attraction as the Main Universal Truth
A central theme of Ask and It Is Given is the Law of Attraction, a theory first proposed in the 19th century during the New Thought movement. The law posits that the universe is made of pure energy and that specific forms of energy attract similar energy. Believers hold that positive thoughts and emotions will bring positivity into one’s life, while negativity likewise causes negative things to manifest. To the authors, the Law of Attraction is not a tool to be used at will but a constant, universal force that governs the unfolding of life. Abraham teaches that this law is always in effect, responding to each individual’s vibrational output. These outputs are determined entirely by a person’s thoughts and emotions. Unlike other spiritual systems that may rely on the concepts of divine intervention or fate, this model places the power entirely within the individual’s hands.
What distinguishes Abraham’s version of the Law of Attraction from other interpretations is its neutrality. Unlike some versions of the law, Abraham’s model is not a moral system that rewards virtue and punishes vices. Instead, it responds impartially to whatever vibration is offered. If a person focuses on scarcity, more scarcity is manifested. If a person cultivates a vibration of abundance, more of that flows in. This idea is presented as empowering, suggesting that all experiences, whether joyful or painful, are ultimately generated by each individual through a consistent vibrational match.
The practical consequence of this theory is a reorientation of personal responsibility. It lessens emphasis on action and effort and places it instead on inner alignment. This is why much of the book is focused on emotional tuning and mental focus rather than on strategy or goal-setting. Processes such as “Segment Intending,” “The Focus Wheel,” and “Virtual Reality” are all aimed at helping individuals to understand the Law of Attraction and focus their vibration on what they want and on how they want to feel.
The Abraham version of the Law of Attraction is based upon the idea that one’s truest desires should flow naturally, without particular effort or force of will. Abraham insists that Well-Being is the natural state of humans, and that the universe never intentionally withholds anything. If something is not manifesting, the authors claim that the individual’s often unconscious resistance is at fault, not external circumstances. Overall, the authors present the Law of Attraction as a foundational principle of existence, although little empirical evidence is offered to verify this claim.
Improving Personal Vibrations through the Emotional Guidance Scale
Ask and It Is Given presents the Emotional Guidance Scale, which is presented as a tool for recognizing one’s emotional state and is reinforced through a series of associated processes. The authors believe that emotion is the most reliable form of guidance available to any individual. Abraham presents emotions as precise indicators of a person’s vibrational relationship to Source Energy. Within this framework, every emotion contains information; positive emotions indicate alignment with one’s true self and true desires, while negative emotions signal that the person has strayed from that alignment.
The Emotional Guidance Scale model is marked by practicality. For example, the process called “Which Thought Feels Better?” encourages users to shift their perspective in real time, using their emotions as the sole metric for inner progress. Another process, “Moving Up the Emotional Scale” provides a clear path out of lower, negative vibrational states through continuous emotional honesty.
Abraham emphasizes that emotions should be viewed as feedback from the broader, non-physical part of oneself that they refer to as Source. Abraham contends that when one feels joy, it is because one’s thoughts are in harmony with the way that Source views the situation in question. Likewise, when one feels fear or doubt, it is because Source holds a different, more loving perspective. Abraham compares emotion to an inner GPS system that guides each person toward their optimal path. Rather than looking to external sources of guidance, Ask and It Is Given teaches that the most important knowledge is felt rather than learned. The authors claim that by learning to interpret and follow the signals of each emotional state, individuals can navigate life with greater authenticity and autonomy.
While this framework is designed to grant people a greater sense of control over their inner psychological landscape, it also displays the chief flaw with which many critics of the authors take issue: the idea that each person is solely responsible for their emotional state, and that external factors do not play a significant role. For those who may be experiencing clinically diagnosed mental health conditions such as depression, the idea that they are solely responsible for the continuation of their emotional suffering is a fundamentally damaging idea that perpetuates depression rather than lifting it. The Hickses’ philosophy also ignores the fact that in some cases—as with clinical depression—there are physical factors involved that cannot be improved by simply wishing the condition away.
Ultimately, the guidance in this particular section is designed for more everyday circumstances, in which a person’s conscious efforts to shift their response to external events will also improve their outlook—and according to the Law of Attraction, improve the quality of the things that manifest in their lives. The book also contends that the emotions listed on the scale will not precisely match those of each individual’s personal scale. Instead, the framework presented in the book can be used as a general indicator of how the scale should function, indicating the relative levels of various feelings.
The Practice of Deliberate Thought and “Allowing”
A core message throughout Ask and It Is Given is that deliberate thought blended with emotional “allowing” is the most powerful creative combination that an individual can pursue. Abraham repeatedly stresses that reality is not shaped primarily by action, circumstances, or effort, but by the thoughts that one has and the feelings that one cultivates. In this view, manifestation is the byproduct of vibrational alignment, which is itself a byproduct of deliberate thinking. This idea informs the distinction that Abraham makes between “trying” and “allowing.” Trying often involves resistance because the person tends to focus on the absence of a desire, rather than on the desire itself. Allowing, by contrast, requires a relaxed state of emotional openness through which the universe can more easily grant one’s desires. Simply put, when a person feels good, thinks positively, and expects well-being, the desired manifestation is said to flow naturally.
The authors believe that the idea of deliberate creation runs counter to the reactive, problem-oriented thinking that they portray as dominating daily life. Many of the processes in Part 2, such as “The Creative Workshop,” “Scripting,” and “Segment Intending,” are all presented as tools to train attention in a direction that supports desired outcomes. Importantly, Abraham argues that most people are not used to thinking deliberately. Instead, most thoughts are shaped by culture, memory, or fear. Throughout the book, the authors provide structured, incremental examples and processes to help people shift their existing patterns of thought and belief.
Crucially, the practice of “allowing” also requires releasing control over how and when things will happen. Abraham teaches that timing and details are best left to the mechanisms of the universe. They write that when people fixate on outcomes or obsess over specific paths, they accidentally activate resistance. If Abraham’s theories are taken as truth, deliberate thought and allowing are the two main tools of conscious creation. The book attempts to convince people that one does not need to change their world in order to feel better. Instead, one should focus on feeling better, which will naturally change their experience of the world.
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