I have mixed feelings about AFL. I don't think we create our own realities in an absolute sense from our "energies." Reality does not "manifest" from our true wills. We do, however, create our realities from our "energies" in a very real sense. Our deepest feelings and experiences are the seeds of our actions, and because our actions affect our environments, dealing with these "creative energies" in healing ways does affect our realities in positive ways.
The system of influence presented therein can be found in other sources. It's quite manipulative, or can be. One technique in particular involves an elaborate version of what is called "pseudo-orientation in time."
You basically ask a series of questions that builds a strong representation of your client having all kinds of experiences you want them to have. If, for instance, you want the client to buy a car, you might ask, "What do you think will dissatisfy you about owning this car, having owned it for some time? What sort of dissatisfactions do you think you'll have a month from now vs. a year? Five years? Ten years? Do you think you'll still own the car after ten years or will you sell it by then? What do you think you'll have done to remedy or simply deal with the problems with it you will have had now?" While you are asking the client to specify dissatisfactions, which may seem counter-productive, you are getting the client to presuppose he or she will own the car. You don't ask the questions in a machine-gun like fashion, but rather let the client ruminate and discuss each one.
After asking a lot of different questions of this nature, the client will get used to the idea of owning the car and having a variety of experiences with it. Used artfully, it can be very compelling and actualy make a the client very willing to purchase the car. A complex and detailed representation of having owned a car for a very long time can make you feel you already have a relationship with it.
Also, if you pay attention to the kinds of words your client or persuade-ee uses and find out the equivalence for those terms in more detailed descriptions, and feed back the exact words, you will find yourself being very persuasive and the persuade-ee feeling understood and being very agreeable.
In finding the equivalences, you can also offer alternatives. If "freedom" is a value, and the equivalence to freedom is "doing whatever I want with it" you may ask about other evidences of freedom that may be more in line with what you are trying to sell and use those. Again, the client may re-word what you say, and if so, use the client's words.
Going back to the pseudo-orientation in time and including the values, you may ask, "How will having owned this vehicle for a year increase your sense of freedom? Do you think it ill impede on your freedom in some way? How do you think others will experience more freedom because you own this car?" Etc. Enrich the representations in every way you can. Use multiple time frames, multiple perspectives (self and other). "Imagine you are your significant other, from this perspective, how has your spouse (you, from their perspective) experienced increased freedom by owning this car? What do you hear your friends saying about it? How does he look owning that car?"
There will also be a hierarchy of values and values that interact in certain ways. A nasty person can be very manipulative here. The good thing about it is, when someone has been screwed on this level, the retribution for it can be extremely venomous and the sin unforgotten and unforgiven for a long time.
The upside of it is that if you're ethical, this method will lead to more satisfaction and more respect of what the other person really wants, versus what you think they want. That is, you'll be thinking about their values instead of yours.
But the persuasion aspect of this program is just one.
All in all, I am very glad I bought the program, even though I disagree with some of the philosophy or world-view in it.
