Imagination · “Feel It Real”
Working with the Law of Receiving
Apply the definite mental Law of Receiving: open yourself to abundance by first giving freely (priming the circulation of supply), then mentally picture your desired good as already received and accept it with gratitude — so the Law can ‘materialize after its kind.’
Law of Receiving in brief: Become a good receiver. Give first, freely, to start the flow. Then quietly picture your desired good as already received, in vivid completed form, and accept it with gratitude — “thank you, it’s done.” Hold calm faith, release strain, and act on what comes. Picture only what you want; the Law reproduces the picture you give it.
What it is
Raymond Holliwell’s Working with the Law (1964) treats success as a matter of cooperating with definite mental laws — eleven principles that “work” as reliably (he claims) as physical laws.
The Law of Receiving is one of them, and it carries a counter-intuitive emphasis: most people, conditioned to think giving is virtuous and receiving slightly shameful, block their own supply by never truly opening to receive. Holliwell’s practice therefore has two coupled moves:
(1) give freely to start the circulation of good, and (2) mentally picture and gratefully accept the desired good as already received, since the Law “takes the picture you offer and proceeds to materialize it into visible form.” It’s a visualization-plus-generosity discipline rooted in the conviction that receptivity, not striving, is what completes the flow of abundance.
The Method
Drawn from Holliwell’s treatment of the Law of Receiving (and the visualization he teaches across the laws):
- Recognize the law. Accept that supply circulates — giving and receiving are two halves of one flow, and refusing to receive (false modesty, unworthiness, “I shouldn’t take”) chokes it. Decide to become a good receiver.
- Give first, freely. Prime the circulation by giving — money, service, appreciation, encouragement — without anxious calculation. Giving opens the channel; it is the “seed.”
- Form the mental picture, as already received. Sit quietly and visualize the desired good as a present, accomplished fact — see it vividly and feel it. Holliwell stresses that “every idea and mental picture must produce after its own kind”; the Law does not judge the picture, it reproduces it — so picture only what you want, in completed form.
- Accept with gratitude. Inwardly receive it — say thank you as though it has already arrived. Gratitude is the receptive attitude that lets the good land; resentment, doubt, and unworthiness repel it.
- Hold faith, release strain. Maintain quiet conviction without anxious effort. Strain and doubt re-impress lack; calm expectancy lets the Law work. Then act on any practical leadings that come. (Sourcing note: faithful paraphrase of Holliwell’s teaching, with short identifying phrases quoted; no extended copyrighted passages reproduced.)
Source & Lineage
Dr. Raymond Holliwell (1900–1986) was an American New Thought teacher and minister whose lessons were compiled into Working with the Law (1964).
The book has had a long afterlife as a study course (notably promoted by Bob Proctor, who taught it for decades). The lineage is New Thought / Science of Mind: the “definite laws” framing, mental picturing, and “as already received” gratitude restate Thomas Troward, Ernest Holmes, Wallace Wattles (The Science of Getting Rich), and Charles Haanel.
The give-to-receive emphasis echoes biblical “give and it shall be given” and Emerson’s law of compensation.
Common refinements
Giving in order to extract a return. Transactional “giving” to manipulate the Law misses the point and breeds resentment; give freely, then separately picture and receive.
- Picturing the lack or the wanting. “I need money” pictures need; picture the completed good as already here.
- Blocking the receiving. Many do steps 1–3 and then refuse help, deflect compliments, or feel unworthy — undoing the practice. Practice accepting.
- Strain and doubt. Anxious effort re-impresses lack; hold calm faith and release.
- No action. Visualization without practical steps is the classic trap; act on leadings.