Should I play the lottery today?

I’ve been looking into scripting and manifesting lately—Law of Attraction stuff—the idea is in both traditional and ancient religious texts and has a lot of spins on YouTube. So much of it—at least the YouTube stuff—has to do with manifesting money. Gobs of it. Beautiful people telling stories of how a few weeks ago they were living out of their cars after their boyfriend/wife/dog ran out on them, and this morning they woke up in a luxury penthouse with six figures in their checking accounts being hounded with text messages from models. All they had to do was visualize it happening.

And poof!

Now they are being interviewed by some guy with a trustworthy-sounding foreign accent (probably British) sitting in full lotus (because yogis are always truthful) about the incredible good fortune that they got just by telling the concierge at the universe’s front desk that they wanted it.

But I don’t think it works that way. Perhaps my underlying doubt prevents me from manifesting my lake house or white Volvo XC90 or wallet bursting with cash. But I’m thinking it is more likely my inability to clarify what I want. While those things I just listed seem specific, other than the lake house, I’m not really all that interested in luxury stuff. That doesn’t mean I don’t like creature comforts or have no use for money—please, Universe, don’t hear that—but I only list the car and cash because I think I’m supposed to. Seem to be the easiest things to get.

But what I want to materialize is actually much more difficult—at least for me, but perhaps not for the universe. For the universe, there’s no difference between connecting me with a steady income from writing and teaching that allows me to buy a lake house and host summer writing retreats than say putting the world’s most amazing peanut butter and jelly sandwich in my path. The universe doesn’t discern or judge, it just listens.

So today, materialize your fantasy. The real one—the big one you want—not the one you kind of wish or hope for or vaguely desire. See what you want so you recognize it when it comes your way.