The 17 second manifestation technique is a technique that has been adopted from the teaching of Abraham. Abraham is ‘being’ that is been channelled through Ester Hicks and is one of the most prominent law of attraction teachers in the world.
The idea of 17 seconds to manifest something does sound very appealing but the idea is more far reaching than simply manifesting something in 17 seconds.
It refers more to aligning your thoughts for long enough to invoke the power of the law of attraction. Most people simply can not hold a single thought for long enough to really kickstart the law of attraction.
Is 17 seconds enough to manifest what you want?
Definitely not!
You will not manifest anything you want by simply offering 17 seconds of pure thought.
What it does do however is that the 17 seconds allow you to reach a vibrational state that is aligned with what you DO want. That then sets the law of attraction in motion.
Hold a thought for just 17 seconds and the Law of Attraction kicks in. Hold a thought for 68 seconds and things move; manifestation has begun.
– Abraham Hicks
Keeping that thought and remaining focussed and aligned with that vibration allows the law of attraction to gain momentum which eventually harnesses enough energy to manifest the thought.
Some argue that the 17 seconds is just an arbitrary number. There certainly is no proof of this other than trusting the authenticity of what is being channeled through Ester Hicks.
Regardless of these views, there is a lot to be gained from practising this technique. After all, who can’t dedicate a few minutes a day to that which they really want to manifest?
What Is The 17 Second Manifestation Technique?
The 17 second manifestation technique, is a technique that was adopted from the teachings of Abraham (Ester Hicks) that is based on the premise that it takes 17 seconds of pure thought (focussed and undivided thought) on any subject to activate the law of attraction.
Whatever thoughts you hold consistently will manifest in your life through the law of attraction. The problem for most people lies with their habitual and unconscious thoughts.
You may want more money or a better relationship in your life but the vast majority of your thoughts are offered in response to your daily life and are reactionary thoughts.
These are not thoughts of deliberate creation and you can not manifest anything other than you currently have.
To deliberately change what you have and create something new and/or different you have to deliberately offer new thoughts that are aligned with what you DO want.
What Abraham is suggesting is that it takes 17 seconds of focus on a thought to activate the law of attraction. By focusing on a thought for 17 seconds you change your vibration and when you change your vibration you change what is attracted to you.
When you change your vibration, you immediately allow similar thoughts to join in and before you know it that 17 seconds have transformed your vibration.
Abraham goes on to suggest that if you can hold 4x the 17 second increments of a single thought you invoke the power of manifestation.
That 68 seconds of focus and offering thoughts of what you DO want may not sound like much but for most people it is almost impossible to think a single positive thought for a whole 68 seconds.
This is not because you can not do it. It is simply because your mind is trained to be distracted.
Those who take the time to practice and learn to focus and direct their minds and their thoughts are those who learn to truly tap into the power of the law of attraction.
17 Seconds Of Pure Thought
Can you offer 17 seconds of pure thought to any single idea? I dare you to try. It seems like a very short time frame and it is but when you sit down and do it, that 17 seconds can feel like an eternity.
Take your phone out and set the timer to 17 seconds.
Then, close your eyes and just focus on your breathing. The first thing you will notice is how quickly your mind starts wandering away from your intention to focus only on your breathing.
The second thing you will notice is how long that 17 seconds feel. Now, try the same exercise but this time set your timer to 68 seconds.
This can feel like an eternity.
It takes Yogi’s years of dedicated practise to be able to meditate for 1 hour without breaking focus.
Doing it for 17 seconds is absolutely achievable for anyone with just a bit of practise. It is also very powerful because if you can do it for 17 seconds you can allow similar thoughts to be attracted and to achieve 68 seconds.
Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.
– Alexander Graham Bell
The best way to think of the 17 seconds of pure thought is with the analogy of a magnifying glass in the sun. Once you can focus the sun’s rays on a piece of paper for long enough, it can ignite and set the paper on fire.
Abraham-Hicks describes this 17 seconds as the ignition point for manifestation.
Like focusing the rays of the sun for long enough to ignite the paper, you focus your thoughts for long enough to ignite the law of attraction.
How To Do The 17 Second Manifestation Technique
There are essentially two ways to do the 17 second manifestation technique. The first is to hold any positive thought for 17 seconds and practise holding it for as long as you can – preferably until you get to 68 seconds.
The second is to hold the thought of one single thing you want to manifest for 17 seconds.
1. Holding a Positive Thought for 17 Seconds:
This is much easier than trying to hold a thought of what you want to manifest because there are a lot of attachments around these thoughts.
You can use your phone to set a timer and use the vibrate function instead of a loud alarm to gently remind you when 17 seconds passes. You can do this for 10 to 15 minutes and ‘reset’ yourself every time the timer goes off.
The Law of Attraction is so very powerful that when you hold a thought for as little as 17 seconds, another thought like it will join in. And as those thoughts come together, there is a combustion that occurs that makes your thoughts even more powerful.
– Abraham Hicks
I find a timer to be too much of a distraction. I put the stopwatch on my phone and just leave it where I can see it out of the corner of my eye.
You can pick any thought to focus on. One easy one is to pick love. Try and focus only on loving thoughts for 17 seconds. Pick someone you love unconditionally and really allow love to flood your being.
Gratitude is another great one to use. Gratitude has an energy that opens your mind and spirit and vibrates on the frequency of receiving.
Think of everything you are grateful for and stay with it for at least 17 seconds.
With just love and gratitude most people will be able to do 17 seconds which often leads to you attracting similar thoughts.
Reaching 68 seconds of thoughts on love and gratitude should not be that hard.
2. Holding Thoughts of What You Want To Manifest For 17 Seconds:
This one is much harder. The real challenge is that if you want to manifest something that you do not already have, you tend to have a lot of fear and anxiety around those thoughts.
You may think about having more money but often the very thought of money reminds you of your reality and that you do not have enough.
It may take a lot of practise but anyone can reach the point where they can easily focus on already having what they want for 17 seconds.
Getting in that state of mind and reaching that vibration of already having what you want AND holding on to those thoughts for as long as you can is really powerful.
According to Abraham, the threshold of 17 seconds is vital though because that is the ignition point for manifestation.
Using both strategies together can be very helpful. You may dedicate 10 to 15 minutes by focusing only on positive emotions of love and gratitude.
That in itself will change your vibration.
Moving on to the things you want to manifest then becomes much easier because your vibration is aligned with love and gratitude.
Improving Your Concentration and Focus
The 17 second manifestation technique is all about concentration and focus. It is about teaching your mind to eliminate all thoughts other than the one you choose.
Concentration and focus is a mental faculty and is something that anyone can learn. Some people are better at this than others because they have practised it and they have trained their mind to do it.
Here are 5 powerful ideas to help you improve your focus and to get better at the 17 second manifestation technique:
1. Clarity
Getting very clear on exactly what you want in life is more than just a law of attraction teaching. While having clear ideas and goals help to direct your mind, it also helps you to focus.
People who do not have clarity usually have a lot of conflicting ideas. They tend to jump from one idea to the next and never really use the power of their mind to truly focus on something for long enough.
It takes time and energy to get clear on what you want. It is not always easy but it is time well spent. Take the time to get clear on what you want.
You do not need to map out every detail of the rest of your life. Just pick one or two areas of your life that bother you the most and get very clear on exactly what you want.
2.Simplicity
Simplicity is frowned upon by many. The idea of having excessive ‘stuff’ has consumed our society.
Simplicity however is an art. Can you live with less? How much less can you live with?
That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.
– Steve Jobs
This is not an argument for living with nothing but it does help you to align with simplifying your life to the point where you have less to worry about.
The more you have, the more you want. This tends to breed complexity which only acts as a distraction from what is really important to you.
3. Distraction
We live in a world of distraction. Your phone is probably the biggest distraction there is. It is not just the fact that you have access to everything but the fact that distractions act as a drug.
When you feel bad, it is easy to let social media distract you from your feelings. Instead of dealing with your emotions you look for a distraction.
Everybody and everyone seems to want our attention. It is attention that has become the currency of life more than money.
Removing distractions from your life will help free you from all the demands that are pulling you in all directions.
The less distractions you have the more focussed your mind will be.
4. Practise
The ability to concentrate and to focus your mind takes practise. For younger people this has become a real challenge.
Growing up with the technologies we have today never allowed them to learn any form of focus or develop the skill of concentration.
It seems like actively focussing on one thing for any extended period of time has become synonymous with ‘boring’.
It takes a lot of practise to learn how to focus your mind.
Focus is simply the ability to disregard all but one single thought at a time. One great exercise that I have seen professional golfers use is to sit in front of a wall.
Take a pen and make a dot on the wall. Then, try and focus only on that dot and nothing else.
5. Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a meditation practise where you focus intensely on the present moment. It often involves breathing methods and guided imagery to help you relax your mind and body.
Through mindfulness you learn to really be in the moment and to be free from judgement or interpretation.
Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them. They stay focused on their past successes rather than their past failures, and on the next action steps they need to take to get them closer to the fulfillment of their goals rather than all the other distractions that life presents to them.
– Jack Canfield
Mindfulness teaches you to focus on the present moment and to let go of the two biggest distractions in life- your past and your future.
Now is all you really have. Being able to fully be here now is the secret to serenity and once you start learning this, focusing becomes much easier in your life.
