Manifesting Reality

I recently found myself reflecting on the mysterious connection between vision and manifestation; how what begins as a dream, spoken aloud with conviction, can take form and structure.

Nearly fifty years into it, the transformation of the abandoned Highland School into the enlightened City Club community feels like a dream realized. Once I learned to align vision with intention, it became natural to manifest the St. Julien Hotel across the street, launch the Highland Institute, help land the Sundance Film Festival, and envision a performing arts center on the grounds of the old library across 9th Street.

The next phase of the Highland Institute will build on the principle that thought, when aligned with language and action, can manifest reality.

Most of us first heard the word Abracadabra in Disney films. In truth, it is a Hebrew word with Aramaic roots meaning, “I will create, as I speak.” Modern science even suggests that our very DNA responds to the vibration of language—a poetic echo of Abracadabra.

The twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, each mathematically weighted, reflect the Jewish belief that words have power, that through them, we shape our reality. A-bara (“I will create”) and ke-dab’ra (“as I speak”) are daily reminders to monitor one’s speech. 

Even the agnostic among us senses that prayer’s power does not lie in pleading with a higher force, but in using words to define the reality we seek to manifest. Like the blind man touching an elephant, I have spent nearly a decade writing this column to help articulate the soul of City Club and the mission of the Highland Institute. We recently asked AI to study these columns and distill their essence into a concise vision of what we strive to build.

Take five minutes to listen to this vision—and if it resonates, join us in speaking it into being.

— Sina.

For Another Angle, read The Light Will Prevail by Kubs Lalchandani, Esq.