Imagination · “Feel It Real”
Image-Making
Use the imagination as a deliberate faculty to construct a vivid, multi-sensory image of yourself already in possession of the goal, then impress it on the subconscious with feeling and daily repetition.
In 5 lines: Treat imagination as a tool, not a daydream. Sit and build a clear first-person scene of the goal already achieved, using all senses. Don’t just see it — feel the emotion of having it now. Return to the same image daily and reinforce it. Then act: use imagination to direct effort, not replace it.
What it is
Proctor taught that the imagination is not idle daydreaming but one of six higher mental faculties (imagination, will, intuition, reason, perception, memory) — and the one with which you literally build your future.
His instruction: through your senses and your imagination, form a clear, concise image of yourself already in possession of the goal, treat the imagination as a “workshop” where you construct the new model before it exists in the world, and impress that image on the subconscious.
His banner line: “Everything you see was once an image in someone’s mind.” The practice is the deliberate, daily making of that image — and crucially, feeling it as already real, because Proctor held feeling is what turns a picture into a conviction.
The Method
- Decide on the end result. A specific goal or state you want — the finished outcome, not the steps.
- Go to the workshop. Sit quietly and use imagination as a tool, on purpose. Proctor’s stance: you are not wishing, you are constructing — building the goal in mind first, the way an architect builds a building in the imagination before a brick is laid.
- See yourself already in possession. Build a first-person image of the goal achieved — not “approaching” it, but having it now. Engage all the senses: what you see, hear, touch, the setting, who is there.
- Don’t just see it — feel it. The operative step. Generate the emotion of already having it (satisfaction, gratitude, ease). Proctor: feeling is what “turns fantasy into faith” and impresses the image on the subconscious.
- Hold it as present, not future. Dwell in the completed scene as a current reality, however briefly, rather than narrating it as something coming later.
- Impress it daily. Return to the same image every day, and reinforce it with the other modes Proctor recommended — affirmations, vision board, scripting — so it is repeatedly impressed until it feels natural and inevitable. (Sourcing note: short quoted phrases are attributed to Proctor’s teaching; the protocol is a faithful description of his consistently-taught method.)
Source & Lineage
Proctor took “imagination as the workshop of the mind” and the six faculties directly from his foundational study of Wallace Wattles, Napoleon Hill, and especially Charles Haanel’s The Master Key System.
The instruction to picture the end “already in possession” with feeling is classic New Thought visualization, sharpened by Proctor’s faculty framing.
Common refinements
Picturing the goal as future (“someday”). Build it as already-in-possession, in the present.
- Cold, emotionless imagery. Without feeling it barely impresses; the emotion is the active ingredient.
- Outcome-only fantasy. Imagining only the win can sap motivation; also mentally rehearse the doing and obstacles, then act. Proctor coupled imagination with will.
- Vague, shifting images. A clear, concise, consistent image beats a sprawling vague one; return to the same scene daily.
- Treating it as a substitute for work. Proctor used imagination to direct effort, not replace it.