I don’t know about “instantly,” but at times I’ve seen results (often of unwitting manifestation) within a day or two.

That’s why my roommates in Sedona used to call me “the manifestation queen”: I would think of something and put a lot of emotion into it, and voilà! it would pop up the next day.

The secret to that: practice, practice, practice.

At the time, I was so in tune with Spirit and so “in the flow” that I had to be careful what I was thinking about because it would manifest like a swarm of fruit flies on a banana peel.

For example, I loved cats but couldn’t have one because my roommate D., who was the lessee of the apartment, was scared for the lives of her two iguanas.

At some point, our next-door neighbors’ cat had a litter of kittens. The neighbors went away over the weekend and asked me to cat-sit. The little ones were so adorable that I found myself desperately longing to have a cat of my own.
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The next day, I was reading Tarot cards at the Earth Mother Father Foundation when one of my clients, a tourist from Australia, walked up to me with a cat carrier in her hand that contained the cutest little kitten.

She said she and her daughter had found it near their vacation rental and fed it for a while, but now didn’t know what to do with it since they were going back home the next day.

She practically begged me to take it, and of course I caved.

When I got home, D. freaked out on me and gave me an ultimatum to get rid of the cat. She said it needed to be gone within the next week and until then had to stay in my room where it couldn’t "threaten" her iguanas. (Though considering the size of the little critter, the iguanas could have quite easily defended themselves.)

I realized I had manifested the kitten and now needed to “un-manifest” it. I didn’t want to bring it to a shelter, so I focused my intention on finding a good home for her.

Two days later, I went to my improv theater group, and one of the members was crying because she had lost her beloved cat. It had somehow gotten out of the house and had been missing for a few weeks already, but this was the first time she talked about it.

She said she had hoped the cat would show up again, but at this point it was likely that it had been eaten by coyotes (there were a lot of them around) and that she had given up hope.

She had never mentioned the missing cat before (or even that she owned a cat). I persuaded her to adopt the kitten, and as far as I know, they lived happily ever after.
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Just one of many examples. So, yes, (almost) instant manifestation works… but once you get to that point, you really have to learn to rein in your thoughts, or you end up with a lot of unwanted results.

No. I do believe, though, that intention is important. Your intentions should be pure and not be powered by greed, arrogance, and ruthlessness.

Unlike some LoA disciples, I also believe that God/the Creator/Great Spirit plays a role in manifestation and should be acknowledged, thanked, and—most importantly—listened to.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that some “spiritual teachers” who were featured in the book/movie The Secret had such streaks of bad luck, if that’s what you want to call it when someone goes to jail for killing three people in a sweat lodge or if someone who is all about amassing a fortune can’t get their million-dollar house sold when they try to.

I try to practice “sustainable manifestation,” which means:

a) staying humble and not assuming you’re God Himself now that you’re this great manifestor

b) not manifesting “stuff” for stuff’s sake but only what you need and what your heart truly desires (and that doesn’t include private jets or yachts)

c) being considerate of the people around you, society, the environment, etc.

I think the LoA is a dangerous weapon in the hands of someone who only cares about themselves… not a danger to others, but to the immortal soul of that person him/herself.

Add-on: I did experience the loss of some things and circumstances that I had manifested, but not because the LoA backfired, but because I stopped consciously manifesting.

Make no mistake, conscious manifestation requires focus, and it’s very easy to lose focus in the daily grind. Combine your 9-to-5 schedule, taking care of the household, the kids, the pets, and paying the bills—I’m by no means perfect, so I know very well how easy it is to drop the ball. It takes willpower to pick yourself up and start over again.

Yes, I have. My (now ex-)husband of 15 years who I’m still good friends with. I wrote a manifestation list with 72 attributes I wanted my SO to have, and he ended up matching 70 of them.

I don’t have time to get into detail about the list and how exactly to do this. You need to be careful what you wish for, though, so make the list as detailed as possible.

Before I manifested my husband, I made some mistakes that backfired. For example, one time I had just come out of a relatively one-sided crush, and the guy had frustrated me to no end by never allowing any closeness. He was a complete gentleman but would never talk about personal things.

So I wrote a soulmate list saying that I wanted someone who “can talk about himself and share his deepest emotions.”

The result was that I got together with a hypersensitive poet who did nothing else but talk about himself and his oh-so-tender and easily hurt feelings. After three weeks, I kicked him to the curb because I couldn’t take his constant whining and his pity parties anymore.

The next time, I wrote that I wanted “someone who can talk about his feelings but is strong and masculine at the same time, and knows when to shut up.”
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So yeah, being specific helps.

Happens all the time. My biggest manifestation was when I wanted to move from Germany to Sedona, Arizona. I visualized my arrival in Sedona and, upon seeing the Red Rocks, getting out of the car and shouting, “I’m home!” I visualized this so vividly and with such gratitude that I regularly started crying while doing so.

The odds were very slim because immigrating to the United States is not easy, despite what most people think. Usually, you can only get a three-month tourist visa, and that’s it.

However, suddenly my little boutique copywriting business in Germany got a publisher of magazines and tabloids as a new client. The publisher wanted to launch a soap opera mag like the ones that are so common in America—and US soaps like Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place would be featured too.

We didn’t just write copy for the client, but also did interviews with German soap stars, so I got a press ID… which in turn I could use to get a six-year journalist visa to the US, becoming the “US correspondent” for the soap mag. SIX YEARS… a dream come true.

Once I was in the US, after about two and a half years I met a man I deeply fell in love with, my soulmate at the time (whom I manifested too, by the way), and married him. We were married for fifteen years and have a wonderful teenage son who is super-smart, funny, and the absolute best kid I could wish for.

I manifested my house, my dogs, my cat, my job, various opportunities that just fell into my lap… just about everything I have was consciously manifested (and many of the things I don’t have anymore, like my husband, were consciously de-manifested).

Am I perfect at this? Of course not. I’m only human, so sometimes I sabotage myself by sending out mixed messages or not really knowing what I want.

But if you work on acquiring deeper knowledge of your Self, you’ll see after a while what you did to “make this or that happen.” And the more you realize how you contribute to things manifesting in your life, the better you’ll get at conscious manifestation.

Ask Spirit/God frequently for guidance and help. That might add an element of surprise into the equation, but often you’ll get “blessings in disguise,” like the time when I was fired from a horrible job and in hindsight, it was the best thing that could have happened to me.
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Just experiment and keep your eyes open. Awareness is everything and will teach you how to manifest successfully.