A Short Guide to SATS

posted • 2/June/2025

#SATS IS ... A state akin to sleep. That covers a lot of things: meditative states, when you wake up in the morning, right before you drift off to sleep ... and so on.

My point is you experience SATS every single day. It isn't anything special that you need to 'learn' to do.

Literally get comfortable, maybe take a couple deep breaths to settle yourself and ta-da — you are now in a relaxed state, perfect for imagining things.

#Step-by-Step Process (for absolute beginners)

1. Get comfortable and close your eyes. (If you don't want to close your eyes, you can unfocus your vision or just stare at an object and zone out.)

2. Imagine a short scene which implies your desire has been fulfilled. Ideally, you should be imagining in a 1st-Person Perspective.

3. Loop this short scene over and over until you simply 'feel' like you can stop. With each repetition, try to feel your scene with a sense (ex. sense of touch).

4. Repeat steps 1-3 day after day.

#When should I do SATS? In his 1961 radio talk 'Meditation', Neville said the subconscious is most easily impressed at two points: right before we fall asleep and just after we wake up.

Outside of this, you can do SATS at any point durng the day. I myself imagine quick vignettes while I'm brushing my teeth or in the shower.

Play around and see what works for you best. If you struggle doing SATS before bed, then do it right when you wake up.

#Common points of failure ... Giving up too soon: The point of SATS is to impress your subconscious, and sometimes that takes more than a day. So, keep going!

Unfavourable inner conversations: Doing SATS for 15 minutes once a day, when you spend the rest of the day affirming the exact opposite of your desired scene will not help you. Your Imagination travels along the line of habit. If it is your habit to affirm the unwanted, then you will get the unwanted until you can impress otherwise (which is what SATS aims to do).

Making the scene too long/too detailed: Every component you imagine is another component you are training yourself to believe. Don't give yourself all of that work, it often just makes you mentally exhausted which is no bueno.

Less trying, more reading: Everyone's experiences will be different. What worked for someone else may not work for you — so, genuinely just do SATS. A lot of your questions are answered by simply attempting it on your own.

Overemphasising visualisation or 'vividness': Visualisation is just a tool, and 'vividness' is irrelevant. What matters is making your scene feel real to you. We have at least 5 senses: choose your strongest one and go from there.

#Imagining your scene in first-person is not necessary BUT ... It goes a long way towards making it feel 'real'. When we live our lives, we see the world from a first-person perspective. Some senses are easier to imagine from this POV: for example, the sense of touch.

As you get more practice, you can experiment with different POVs and see what works for you. When you are just starting out, though? Try to view your scene from first-person.

#You don't have to loop your scene BUT ... Loop it anyways. Especially if you are just starting out. Reason being: you do not have the mental focus to constantly be switching between scenes.

It'll tire you out, for one thing. For another: it takes some practice to depart from your scene and not have your mind completely wander off.

You can train your mind to go along with your scene by gently guiding it back to the start of your vignette every time it strays. Eventually, your mind will stop fighting you.

If you do not want to stick to just 1 vignette, come up with a couple, all of them from the perspective of having fulfilled your desire. Switch them out every SATS session (so, no doing multiple scenes in 1 session).

#Curious things I've noticed ...

• Sometimes your subconscious may begin to produce scenes which imply your desire was fulfilled on its own, without any conscious prompting from you. These subconsciously-generated scenes tend to be 'easier' to step into.

• Narrating your scene out to yourself a few times can help you imagine it better. So, if you cannot imagine a sense (ex. touch, smell, etc), you can try narrating it out to yourself.

ex. "I am walking to my classroom. (Imagine doing that). I see the metal door handle and I touch it (Imagine feeling that it is cold to the touch)." (and so on)

• Your vignette does not have to be photorealistic. Once you can capture even the vaguest feeling of 'being there', you're golden.