Imagination · “Feel It Real”
Collier's See Yourself Doing It
Build one clear, vividly detailed mental picture of the desired thing — seeing yourself already in possession of it and going through the actions it implies — and hold it steadily until the subconscious accepts it as fact.
Take the one thing you most want. Close your eyes and see yourself already having it, in full detail, going through the very actions it implies. Day-dream it with purpose, to the exclusion of all else. Hold it as already yours, enjoy it — then act. Visualize only what you want.
What it is
This is Robert Collier’s core visualization practice, set out in the chapter “See Yourself Doing It” (The Secret of the Ages, Vol.
III). You take the one thing you most want and build it up in imagination, complete in every detail, seeing yourself already in possession of it — not wishing for it at a distance, but day-dreaming yourself into the finished scene and going through the moves it would require.
Collier’s premise: “From the beginning of time, nothing has ever taken on material shape without first being visualized in mind,” so you deliberately supply the mental “model” or “blueprint” and let the subconscious (“the Genie-of-your-Mind”) reproduce it.
His most quoted line: “Visualize this thing you want. See it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blueprint and begin.”
The Method
- Pick the one thing — and make it concrete. “Make a clear, distinct mental image of what it is you want.” Not a vague wish for “success” but a specific, picturable scene (the manager’s chair, the home, the car).
- See yourself in it, doing it. “See yourself — just as you are now — sitting in the general manager’s chair. See your name on his door. See yourself handling his affairs as you would handle them.” Collier is emphatic: “You must see yourself doing it.”
- Fill in every detail; build the scene step by step. “VISUALIZE it first in your mind’s eye, see it in every possible detail, see yourself going through every move it will be necessary for you to go through when your wish comes into being. Build up a complete story, step by step, just as though you were acting it all out.”
- Day-dream — but with a purpose, and to the exclusion of all else. “Close your eyes and make clear mental pictures. Make them look and act just as they would in real life. In short, daydream — but daydream with a purpose. Concentrate on the one idea to the exclusion of all others.”
- See it as already yours, and enjoy it. “See the things that you want as already yours… Think of them as YOURS, as belonging to you, as already in your possession.” Extract real pleasure from the scene: “Get from it every ounce of pleasure and satisfaction that you can.”
- Hold it; refuse the counter-picture. Keep returning to the image and “be sure to visualize only what you want. The law works both ways. If you visualize your worries and your fears, you will make them real.”
- Then act. Collier never made the picture a substitute for doing — see his “faith with works” teaching (lineage and Collier’s own insistence that “you have got to start things”). (Sourcing note: quoted phrases are verbatim from the “See Yourself Doing It” and adjacent chapters of The Secret of the Ages; the step list is a faithful paraphrase of his taught method.)
Source & Lineage
Robert Collier (1885-1950), American New Thought writer; The Secret of the Ages (1926), originally in seven small volumes. Collier drew directly on the Troward/Behrend “thought-mould” idea and on Wattles.
His phrasing fed later prosperity literature and, via Wattles, Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret.
Common refinements
Picturing the wanting, not the having. Collier wants the thing seen “as already yours,” not chased.
- Vague or shifting images. “Make your mental image clear enough, picture it vividly in every detail.” A fuzzy picture does little.
- Scattering across many wishes. “Concentrate on the one idea.” Many mild pictures cancel out (see his “Magic Secret,” ).
- Accidentally visualizing fears. The same faculty builds worry-pictures; guard the image.
- Picture without works. Collier paired vision with action — “you have got to start things.”