Mantra, affirmation & visualization

Mantra, affirmation and visualization are three potent practices to enhance spiritual development – bringing a greater sense of peace and wellbeing, and also making us better channels for spiritual energy when we pray or give spiritual healing.

Dr. King manipulates energy invoked by pilgrims through mantra on a holy mountain.

Mantra

Mantra is the chanting of sacred Sanskrit sounds, Sanskrit being an ancient Indian language. Mantras have meanings, but, for the beginner at least, it is the correct pronunciation of the sound which matters, not an understanding of what the sound means. It is not necessary to know the meaning of a mantra at all in order for it to work for you, because the sound itself has spiritual power.

A mantra should only be given by someone who has mastered the mantra in question, or to use more metaphysical language, by someone within whom the mantra “lives”. Such people are rare – and very advanced. Mantras are extremely powerful and very holy, hence it is important to treat them with the utmost reverence. There are books and even audio-recordings of classes which teach mantras. This is a valid way to be given a mantra, but only if the book or lecture is by someone within whom that mantra lives. Dr. George King was such a person.

Mantra is a way of spiritualizing ourselves and our environment – of raising vibration. It is also a way of invoking power which can be directed to bring about spiritual healing. It has a profound affect on those who practice it; it can bring great joy and peace, elevated inspiration and even deep compassion. It also increases personal magnetism, and it is an excellent way of enhancing psychic abilities and the intuition.

Affirmation

Unlike with mantra, with affirmations it is the meaning which matters – not the sound. Hence affirmations, unlike mantras, can be in any language. Also unlike with mantra, affirmations can be shared with, and by, anyone.

Repeating an affirmation is a way of feeding the subconscious a positive suggestion to enhance wellbeing. One of the most famous of these was devised by the French psychologist Émile Coué (1857-1926) and is as follows:

Every day in every way I am getting better and better.

While the purpose of affirmation is self-improvement, it should be noted that an affirmation should always be a suggestion, and never a lie. If you had a broken leg and repeated to yourself “my leg is not broken” – this is a lie, the result of which could be a kickback from your subconscious making the condition even worse.

An example of a more spiritually-oriented affirmation is as follows:

I am the Divine presence which is creating perfection throughout my whole life.

This doesn’t mean that everything in our lives is perfect in the way that the materialist would think of as being perfect. It affirms the spiritual truth that, however much it may seem to the contrary, in essence we are all God – and that the essence of everything around us is God – and that the whole of creation is governed by the all-pervasive and perfectly just law of karma.

Visualization

What a man visualizes, so he becomes!

Dr. George King

Visualization is key to many spiritual practices – and is absolutely essential in spiritual development.

We should always recognize truth for what it is, whether we like it or not. And if a situation is bad, we should not pretend that it isn’t. But – we can, through positive visualization, make a positive impact on that bad situation. In prayer we should always visualize the people or situations we are trying to heal or uplift, as being filled with white light, and as being better than they currently are. Thoughts are things; every time we think a thought it has an effect on our environment – for better, worse or indifferent. Positive thoughts have a positive effect on everything and everyone around us.

Visualization goes hand in hand with imagination, and Dr. King has described imagination as our “only creative faculty”. All great inventions and works of art begin with a thought before they can be manifested. As Michelangelo famously said: “I saw an angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” And so it should be with our own lives: we should see the potential of the angel within, and chisel away at our limitations until this potential is realized.