The
Modern Occultist
Interview #6
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Brittaniee Donals is a long-time manifestation
coach, with an emphasis on teaching Embodied Identity Manifestation. Through
her social media channels on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and others, she teaches
manifestation philosophy “very much from a place of self-concept, and how your
identity creates your reality”—as she explained in her exclusive interview with
Modern Occultist…
MODERN OCCULTIST
Your own method of teaching emphasizes manifesting
not “what you want” but rather, “who you are.” To those unfamiliar with
Embodied Identity Manifestation (EIM), it all may sound a bit mystical. How do
you explain it to new students?
BRITTANIEE DONALS
Personally, I’ve run the gamut of all the different ways to look at manifestation. To me, reality filters through you like a colander that you've used to drain spaghetti. Reality itself is sifting through those holes in the colander, but it’s only going to allow things to fit through the holes [such as] your identity or your self-concept—which are terms I use interchangeably.
MO
Are identity-based manifestations similar to umbrella affirmations in the sense of repeating “I’m so lucky” or “My life is so easy”—which would then produce a reality where you are so lucky, or your life is so easy?
BD
Yes, I would say that for umbrella affirmations, my favorite of which is “everything works out for me.” That one works to make life feel less stressful. When I say, “everything works out for me,” it can trickle out into other areas of life. You example, someone could say, “I have an unexpected bill—but everything works out for me,” meaning something unexpected could also make the bill go away, such as a loan or a bonus or a few extra hours at work. That concept could also work out for love, or it could work out for success—anything. Umbrella affirmations cover overarching themes.
But in general, when I talk about identity, it's more so when someone is specifically trying to manifest a specific thing. So, money, as an example, would be a person within whom money is able to flow through. Yes, umbrella affirmations work for that as well But identity-based affirmations, to me, are a little bit more honed in when you're trying to manifest something specific.
MO
What is manifestation to you?
BD
I have a twofold answer for this: manifestation, at its core, is calling in what you desire. That's all it is. The term “reality creation” comes up often, and I've used that terminology because it's easy for people to understand that reality is already created. It's already done. Everything is already here. Every timeline is available to you right now in this moment. All you are doing is calling that timeline to you here in the present moment.
MO
So, it’s a matter of selecting the timeline?
BD
Correct—that's what I consider manifestation at its core. It's not creating reality in the sense of, “Oh, you have to go out and create something, start to finish.” Rather, it’s a matter of selecting the timeline of your chosen manifestation—already existing—there in that moment. With that being said, this is probably not a popular thought with a lot of [other]coaches or a lot of teachers, manifestation gurus. We're all out here, honestly, teaching the same thing. We are all out here trying to convey the same principles to everyone.
But, for example, let’s say you have a preference in music, and you know what kind of music you like, and you enjoy a certain artist and their music hits you. It feels good, the lyrics are great to you. That's the same thing with any manifestation coach, guru, author, teacher—we're all trying to give you the same information to teach the same info, and it comes across in a variety of ways, in different teachings.
When you find a teacher that you resonate with, stick with that teacher. You are meant to find that person at that time. Your quest for learning is being met with a teacher that you can connect with. Now, that doesn't mean you have to stay with them forever, that you can't find somebody else that you're interested in or take in information from multiple people. That information is out there and it is available to you. Just be sure to find a teacher that you think you can relate to, somebody that talks at a more basic level, somebody that talks at a more advanced level, somebody who talks about frequencies and alignment and those things, or somebody that talks about identity and energy, whatever that is that you resonate with. Find somebody that you click with and stick with that person.
The information is all the same. It's just being rebranded and I think that's where a lot of complication comes into play regarding manifestation.
MO
So when under a video about XYZ technique,
there are success stories and at the same time people saying, this didn't work
for me, actually things got worse and the same person under another video with
a different method says, oh my god, I manifested in a few days.
What it means is just manifestation is not one size fits all.
BD
Correct. Because here's the thing: your belief in any technique and method is all that matters. I've made multiple videos of this over the years. Your belief and intention behind the technique or the method is all that matters. If you think that eating grape Jello every day at 5pm is going to manifest you your dream life, it will. It might not work for a single other person out there, but if you believe, than that's what it takes—that’s all it takes. So, it's not that somebody has the secret, somebody's got this special thing. They all work if you believe they work.
I have manifested doing all different kinds of techniques, all different kinds of methods, and I like to teach them because—just like certain music that hits for certain people—certain methods hit for other people. That's all that it is. So yes, you are correct.
MO
Such the Law of Assumption?
BD
Yes.
MO
Have you read Dr. Joseph Murphy's book, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind?
BD
Yes—I really like that book. I've read a few of his books and yes, I agree [with him]. I mean, it's whatever you decide to believe in a given moment that’s true for you in that moment—and our beliefs change all the time. But that's okay because what used to work for me, or what I thought I had to do to manifest, is completely different than what I think I have to manifest now. [Methods] can change all the time.
MO
Can you talk about your own manifestation journey a little bit?
BD
Well, consciously manifesting came into my life around 2017. I was working in corporate America as a recruiter and I was miserable. It didn't work for me—I didn't like the people; I didn't like the work. I was coming home crying every day. [The situation] was too much for me, and I had just started meditating. Then, “manifestation” just sort of popped up online. I had come across Manifestation Babe, Kathrin Zenkina. She's very successful now, but this was earlier in her career, and she was doing a challenge for “working on your mindset.” But then I slowly started doing my own research. At the time, I was trying to get a new job, and it wasn't working—so I decided to try manifesting. I started by thinking about something small—like a feather. I was going to manifest a feather, right? And I had just ordered crystals for the first time, and the crystal order came, and the person included a feather in the package. So, after a little while, I had [manifested] little things, like a free coffee—but I still couldn’t get a job. Well, this has all been happening over a few months; in the meantime, my husband and I decided to leave where we were living in Kansas City and move back to his hometown, which is in the country. I looked at it like, “Well, I can’t necessarily figure out the job situation—so I’m going to manifest a new place for us to live.” We both wanted land, and I wanted a certain location—at least three bedrooms, on five acres. We had been constantly searching online, but we still weren’t finding anything that we liked. Then randomly, I began thinking and saying to myself and my husband, “It’s okay, we’re going find it" and “If we don’t find it, we built it—but it’s going to happen and we don’t need to stress about it. It’s coming.” Then, a day after my conversation with my husband, his best friend told him about a house he’d heard about, not even on the market yet, and asked if we’d want to see it. Long story short, it’s the house we now live in. We ended up with twenty acres, perfect location—everything we wanted and more.
The catch was that, now, we had to move almost immediately. I still hadn’t figured out the job situation when I had to put in my two weeks’ notice where at my then-current job. But again, I thought to myself, “I’m done with this job, I’m out of here, it’ll work out.” Two days after that, my husband got a text from an old co-worker asking, “Hey, would Britt like to come and work for us? It’s remote.” So, we moved, I took the job, and those were my first times “stepping into” some pretty big things I manifested. But those experiences really opened things up for me and were, you know, the beginning of my real journey.
MO
From your videos, it seems some of your manifesting techniques included “Robotic Affirmations” and “EFT [Emotional Freedom Techniques]” tapping.
BD
Definitely. Robotic Affirmations were the big bulk of it. But it’s not so much the way that I teach now. When I first started, I was using Robotic Affirmations as a means for cancelling out any contradictions within my mind, or any other kind of limiting beliefs that could come up. Now, though, I kind of dismantle the limiting belief when it comes up, and work through it. Back then, I didn’t really have the tools to do that—but I thought to myself, “Well, if there’s literally no room in my brain for this negative thought, then all that can be left are the thoughts that I want. So, when you have something like, “You’re never going to find that dream job,” I would replace it with, “I’ve got my dream job, I’ve got my dream job,” over again. I didn’t think of it as a Robotic Affirmation; I just considered that I was filling my mind with so much good stuff that the bad stuff would be cancelled out.
In the long term, you do end up reprogramming your identity into one who has their dream job, because your subconscious mind can’t reprogram off repetition—it's just how it's operating, how it's meant to run. But I realized some other things—like through EFT tapping—that just getting rid of that belief may be something to work on. I use EFT tapping to kind of neutralize those beliefs, or work through them.
MO
So, the aim of robotic affirming to avoid thinking against your desire?
BD
Personally, I believe the aim of using Robotic Affirmations is to actually reprogram your subconscious mind. Take, for example, when a child first learns that two plus two equals four; they learn that because of a variety of different exercises. You may have one teacher using flash cards, another may have the child count objects in front of them—like that. And they learn from repetition. Then, that knowledge is embedded into their brain and, at a certain point, becomes subconscious to them. That's what I think Robotic Affirmations are in the long term.
However, I do think that if you say what you want, you are putting your desire out there. Then, if you fill your head with everything that makes you happy, it's not to contradict your “I want $1,000” [affirmation]. If you spend all of your time creating art and dancing and watching your favorite shows and cooking an amazing meal and you keep your brain completely full, I do think you can manifest that way. Being happy and having joy in your life is one of the easiest ways that you can manifest.
Maybe that’s why so many people come back from vacation having successfully manifested something while they were away and come back with these amazing stories and adventures. It's because they're in the present moment, and not worrying about what's happening at home, or how work's going to go next week. They're in the moment and it's why you end up with those crazy things that happen on people's vacations, good things, because they're in that moment and they're able to magnetize quickly.
But with Robotic Affirmations … If it’s something, for instance, that you want to be able to manifest—such as $1,000 a month if you’ve never made $1,000 in your online business, then using Robotic Affirmations makes it become as easy for you as two plus two for you becomes for the child.
MO
Could you then talk just a little bit about EFT tapping?
BD
I came across EFT tapping in about 2018, through Brad Yates. I think he's kind of the gateway for a lot of people to get into EFT tapping. At the time, I was really working on my money mindset, and I had come across some different videos of him. I realized how stressed out I felt just to check my bank account, or to see what my credit card bill was. I came to learn about calming your nervous system, and being comfortable around money.
The thing is, being stressed about what's in your bank account doesn't change what's in the bank account.
Now, I use EFT tapping for a wide range
of things. Since I first started using it, studies have come out for improving
PTSD, anxiety, stress-related symptoms. I mean, there's dozens of studies out
there, scientific studies and journals, about how
it calms your nervous system. And when your nervous
system is calm, that’s when information can be input into your subconscious
mind. That's why they don't try to teach children addition while they're
playing and swinging on the monkey bars; even if the nervous system isn't
upset, it's active.
It is overactive when a kid is swinging on a swing, going down the slide. You must be in a meditative state—almost like the viewing state of watching a movie or television show, when you're kind of like, okay, “I'm taking this information in and that's why it's easy to implement.” That's what EFT tapping does—it neutralizes the stress that's in your body so that the information that you want to get in there has the ability to get in there. It's almost that kind of like free flow of information that's able to enter because you're no longer stressed out.
MO
What do you think are the mistakes that most beginners make, and what advice or recommendation would you give to someone struggling with a specific type of technique?
BD
Everyone gives up too fast on manifestation, myself included. I have done this time and time again, using the “thousand-dollar example”: someone begins to use EFT tapping or Robotic Affirmations, and they’re excited that they’ve learned about manifestation and excited about the possibility. They may get something simple that they didn't realize—like a free lunch or coffee—and that will excite them, and they’ll continue on for a day, maybe two days, and they'll kind of keep it and then they'll realize, like,” Oh, I haven't gotten anything else. I haven't seen any movement—I haven't gotten another refund, I haven't had a new customer.” And they'll kind of start doubting themselves and then something silly that wouldn't have mattered before may come up, like a bill past due, and they will immediately give up. They’ll stop right away. And the thing is, when I talked about the colander and the strainer of life, the stuff that's been building up that life has been kind of coming through you is already in that strainer. It’s already set in motion. It's already there and you are opening up your strainer to receive more. Sometimes some things are going to come through that you didn't really want, that you didn't care about, and you won’t realize. Instead of realizing that right behind that thirty-dollar bill was their “thousand dollar” manifestation—because it's coming right down the same pipeline … but they’ve already stopped. They’ll give up, allowing for that one limiting belief that was kind of right there at the end.
Scientifically, this is proven through neuroplasticity—when you don't give energy to old brain pathways, they start to collapse. They start to die off, and you build a new pathway. But that dying off pathway is important enough to start focusing on it again. People stop focusing on what they want; letting it die off, you know, shrivel away instead of harnessing and strengthening what they wanted. And I think most people say, when they hit that wall, “Oh, my gosh, it's never happening”—of course, not realizing that that's just their own self-sabotage coming into play to keep them where they're at. Remember, that thirty dollar bill won't kill you. Your brain knows how to survive that. You might not enjoy it, but it knows how to survive that. It doesn't know how to survive in the new timeline yet of you receiving your thousand dollars. And so self-sabotage is just misdirected self-love. That's all it is. It is keeping you safe. It is keeping you alive. And if you can just get on the other side of that hurdle of your own self-sabotage--of listening to that limiting belief—everything changes on the other side. And so, I always, always tell people, don't give up. Don't give up—because if you had to put in a month of everyday work for what you wanted, but you knew without a shadow of a doubt you were guaranteed to have it at your front door on day thirty-one, you'd have no problem doing thirty days of work.
As soon as I was on the other side of that personally, I had my biggest, biggest breakthroughs. I can vividly remember having a breakthrough in this bed a few years ago, wanting to manifest a large sum of money. And I had visualized and I had been doing the [other techniques], but I thought, “It's not going to happen.” But I stopped myself there and thought, “Yes, it is. Even if it doesn't happen tomorrow, it's happening.” And literally two days later, we had a big chunk of money that we used to buy an investment property.
So, you just have to get on the other side of it. I understand how believable that little gremlin in your voice and your brain is, but you don’t have to feed it and let it go. Just put the gremlin away and decide what you want—then stick to it.
MO
What would be one book, author, or perhaps film that you would recommend to someone studying manifestation techniques?
BD
It's super basic and it's an older book, but The Power of Awareness by Neville Goddard is a huge, huge book for me. I want to preface, however, because I'm not a religious individual, that there are religious verses and Bible verses in it. Yet he teaches from the state of the Bible being a manifestation manual, if you will. So, you have to be able to get past that a little bit. Your thought management is the most important thing you can do when you're manifesting, period. So, I think The Power of Awareness is a phenomenal book because that's kind of what it hits on throughout the whole book.
MO
I'm currently reading Dr. Joe Dispenzia.
B: Which one?
MO
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself.
BD
Everyone always talks about Becoming Supernatural, but I think Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself is his best book. That's my personal favorite. Basically, it’s about self-concept—literally breaking the habits of being your old Self, your old personality. Within the book, Dr. Dispenza writes that your personality is your personal reality—and I think that’s, again, just another way of knowing who you are being and what your reality will be. I think that the whole book is really in tune with that.
MO
Is there a daily activity that you think everyone should do if they wish to manifest a desire?
BD
I'd say give yourself twenty minutes a day to brainwash yourself into your new desire—and that can be in a wide variety of ways. For instance, I worked out this morning and I have a playlist called “Identity Upgrade”—which is a bunch of different artists and musicians who create, kind of, a manifestation vibe music. I hear those lyrics and I work on my self-concept that way. I also think, you know, rampages and subliminals are a great way to do that. Reading a book, any of the books that we've talked about, but just spending 20 minutes kind of taking care of your mindset with what you're wanting to call in.
If you don't have twenty minutes a day to put
towards your dreams, your desires, your manifestations, you don't really want
it. You can't tell me that you really want it if you can't figure out twenty
minutes driving to and from work playing a podcast that's beneficial for you or
listening to a subliminal off of YouTube while you're in the shower. So twenty minutes a day, whatever, whatever feels good in that moment.
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