Many writers about Manifestation- that is the practice of helping to fulfill your desires through consciousness- make a real point about these desires being strong and real.  In their view, a strong prayer is mightier than a weak prayer. God- or the Cosmic- as Lewis calls him, according to these exponents, loves a strong prayer much better. He wants to give you what you truly want.

            It is not surprising then that Lewis makes a big point about not focusing on money unless it is a direct need. For instance, if you have to pay a traffic fine- and you know you are guilty and believe you deserve the penalty, but just don’t have the funds to pay, then you might ask the Cosmic for money for that specific purpose. You couldn’t for instance, ask him for three chickens to pay the judge or arbitrator, as you might in a tribal culture. No, in our culture- only money will do.  In other cultures, perhaps a bit more in touch with the Earth, perhaps chickens would be better. You don’t have to go out and buy something and waste all the time. Take the chickens home and stick them in a coop so they can lay eggs for you or get the frying pan ready.

            Now, if you needed some organic produce and you couldn’t afford it, but other channels were open, you would not necessarily ask God for the money directly. In Lewis words, you would not demand God to get you the money, you would ask for the produce.  If you think about lucky Katie, you can see that she really didn’t want money at all. She simply wanted to eat better.

            Following my own former example, you can’t eat money, but you can eat chicken eggs. Money doesn’t make your mouth water. For some people, a delicious omelet certainly can have that effect.

            But what she got from her manifestation was so much more than chicken or eggs.

            First, she would have seen that the event was a wonderful manifestation from a Higher Source because the good fortune of her walking that day on that specific route or that her older friend would be there on that specific day were beyond any measurable odds.  So, she could see the miraculous or “synchronistic” aspect of the event more clearly. She may have not really had a clear concept of this kind conscious intervention but it might point her in the direction of thinking about it.

            So, according to Lewis, her direct request for the object would have been preferred. Why should God give us something we don’t really want? Maybe you would really be asking for it because your parents wanted you to do it (like going for a specific profession which you really didn’t want to go to). Or perhaps because it was socially acceptable and you thought you needed it (like being invited to a party with upper class colleagues you felt pressured to be involved with so you asked for it). Not good enough reasons, perhaps- if God truly cares about “the real you” not “the socially or culturally programmed you.”

            I might point out here how, as I mentioned previously, things like this happened to me when I was in AMORC- but I reframed them, pointing to the Order as the Source instead of looking at these mysterious events as pointing to a Source, but not necessarily the AMORC Order or its interpretation of Source. Yes, miracles can happen while you’re in a cult, but they would have you give the cult credit for it.  So, by encouraging us to “reframe,” the Order was contradicting the point of view developed in this chapter on “Securing Money.”