Seraphis1: you said "I may have at some deep level opened myself up to receive"

That's exactly what I think you did.

A few years back, when I started to dabble in setting intent, my wife and I were in the carribean.  I went into the cascino there (I usually don't gamble).

As I walked through the doors, I set intent.  I was unusually calm.  I saw myself playing a slot machine and winning.  I imagined the emotions of it all, felt the certainty and joy of it, and went in.

I started putting quarters into a machine.  Within about 10 minutes, I was drawn to a machine that had 7s and cherries on it - not sure why.  I put in about $1, and suddenly, hit the jackpot.  1000 quarters came out (ok, no a huge jackpot, but still....).

It fascinates me that I haven't used setting intent for personal gain since then (must have been 5-6 years ago at least).  I've set intent many times in a general sort of way, asking for the highest good, for my patients, protection of my children/family, etc. I've seen intent work over and over. 

I suppose that it just really struck me that if one is just about personal gain, without following the real driving force (love), that one may become materially rich, but not spiritually satisfied.  I have nothing against wealth, by the way.  I do think that wealth and love or loving intentions are not at all mutually exclusive, and those who say "money is the root of all evil," set up that reality for themselves.

I think the key thing is to be comfortable, prosperous and charitable, so that the personal material gain side of it doesn't take over.


Matthew

Perhaps it's not necessarily the intensity of emotion which generates the manifestation of a specific intent, but rather, the intensity of the underlying belief from which the emotion stems.  The parking space guy you bring up didn't feel any intense emotions(the way you described it), but rather held a strong belief that his intent was manifesting.  Of course, a strong belief will more likely cause strong emotions, so they are connected- but the belief is the source.