What manifesting actually is, I think, is much more tricky to define than it might first seem.

Yes, we all think it's about getting the new car, the new house, better job, lots of money, loving relationships, supreme health etc etc ...but once you get past all the materially-focused stuff ("yes folks, all the hidden secrets of the universe, online now for just $39.95, for a limited time only"), it starts to become more difficult to pin down.

The issues with defining it include (just off the top of my head):

• Because someone else cannot perceive something in your reality that you can, does that mean it hasn't manifested? (I think paranormal and alien encounters often fall into this category)

• We all create our own realities but we are co-creators of this physical platform (for most of us, that means Planet Earth) so where do you draw the line between what I created and what you created?

• We are all one consciousness anyway, experiencing itself from different perspectives, so is everything you manifest actually my manifestation? If so, can you or I ever really take the credit for manifesting anything by ourselves?

• The Universe (or God, or whatever your favorite label is) creates the vibrational potential for the thing you want in the instant you wanted it, so is that actually an instant manifestation (that you cannot yet perceive) or not?

• Life is ever-changing so who decides at what moment a manifestation has occured? Today I might drive in my car down a clear empty road and congratulate myself for manifesting such an easy journey. But a few minutes later, I could encounter a traffic snarl-up and sit in a jam for an hour. Was the traffic jam a new manifestation or was the clear road not a proper manifestation yet?

• If it's true that you don't have to do anything to manifest whatever you want in your life but Get Happy, where did all the physical effort and hard focus that so many seem to think is required disappear to?

I'm still not sure I can articulate clearly myself what manifesting is in a way that is easily understandable by others. But I've had a few stabs at it on this website over the months, mainly with the help of ideas from reality creation teachers like Abraham and Bashar.

A few of my past attempts at getting close to defining Manifesting are within these answers (or at least the ones I can remember at the moment)...

• Why do I always fail in manifesting?

• If what I desire is already created - then what is my energy flowing towards?

• What should I tell the ‘concerned’ people around me when things have not yet manifested?

• Am I responsible for the Gulf Oil Spill, from a Law of Attraction perspective?

• Where is the line drawn between “Law of Attraction” and the non-existent “Law of Assertion”?

• Is this really my manifestation?

...and probably many others :)

I guess what I'm driving at is that it seems to me that the words manifesting and manifestation are ultimately value judgements rather like the words good or evil.