Dream Align Rewire

New Thought · 1881-1960

Genevieve Behrend

Genevieve Behrend was the only personal student of Thomas Troward. She wrote 'Your Invisible Power,' teaching mental visualisation and the law of attraction. She emphasised that mental images held with feeling must manifest into physical reality.

About Genevieve Behrend

Who was Genevieve Behrend?

Genevieve Behrend was born in 1881 in France and was living in London when she discovered the work of Thomas Troward. So moved was she by his Edinburgh Lectures that she determined to study directly with him - a goal that required considerable practical resources she did not have. Her account of how she applied Troward's principles to manifest the necessary funds and arrange the introduction is the founding story of her first book, and it established her authority before she had written a word of teaching.

She became Troward's only personal student, spending three years under his direct guidance in a relationship that was, by her account, rigorous and transformative. After his death in 1916, she spent years lecturing in the United States and Canada on the mental picture method she had learned and tested. 'Your Invisible Power' (1921) is the product of that experience - part memoir, part practical manual, structured around the specific visualisation technique Troward taught and the results she observed from applying it consistently.

Behrend's teaching is distinctive in the New Thought canon for its emphasis on the mental picture as a physical force. Where other teachers described thought as the primary creative power in abstract terms, Behrend specified the mechanism: form a precise mental image of the desired condition, hold it with calm feeling - not desperate wanting but settled expectation - and the image will use the law of attraction to draw the physical conditions required for its realisation. The calm feeling component was, she insisted, what distinguished effective practice from wishful thinking.

Modern neuroscience confirms the mechanism. The brain processes vivid mental imagery using the same neural pathways as actual perception - which is why elite athletes and surgeons use mental rehearsal to build real competency. The emotional component Behrend emphasised is the critical factor: emotion signals to the nervous system that the imagined scenario is relevant, which triggers the consolidation of neural patterns associated with it. Behrend was the practitioner who made Troward's theoretical framework usable for ordinary people, and her books remain among the clearest guides in the New Thought tradition to the practical use of mental imagery.

My mind is a center of Divine operations.

— Your Invisible Power

The Dream.Align.Rewire Perspective

The neuroscience behind Behrend's teaching

As Troward's only personal student, Behrend translated complex mental science into practical visualisation methods. Her emphasis on the mental image as a creative force aligns with what neuroscience now confirms: the brain cannot distinguish between a vividly imagined scenario and a real one in terms of neural activation patterns. Mental rehearsal is used by elite athletes, surgeons, and musicians for exactly this reason. The requirement to hold the image with 'feeling' is the critical component - emotion is what converts mental rehearsal from passive fantasy into active neural rewiring.

To make your mind a center of Divine operation is to make it receptive to all good things, for the Divine is the all-good.

— Your Invisible Power

Who This Is For

You'll get the most from Behrend's work if…

  • ✓You want a practical visualisation method that goes deeper than vision boards and affirmations
  • ✓You're already familiar with Neville Goddard or Thomas Troward and want to go further
  • ✓You find modern manifestation content too vague, commercialised, or anxiety-inducing
  • ✓You want to understand the feeling component — why calm certainty works and straining effort fails
  • ✓You're drawn to stories of real application: Behrend manifested $20,000 before she wrote a word of teaching
  • ✓You want the original 1921 text with a modern neuroscience and somatic lens

The Works

Behrend's classic works

Your Invisible Power

First published 1921

Behrend's account of her own transformative work with Troward's principles, combined with a practical guide to the mental picture method. Written after she successfully manifested the resources to study with Troward himself.

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Attaining Your Desires

First published 1929

A follow-up that deepens the mental science approach, with practical instruction for moving from desire to reality through the disciplined use of imagination and feeling.

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Hold your mental picture, and remember that it is a prototype of the thing itself.

— Your Invisible Power

The Annotated Edition

Read the original - with Christie's annotations

Written under Lesley Christie's pen name Christie L. Russell, the annotated edition of Genevieve Behrend's key works adds the neuroscience, NLP, and CBT commentary that places each passage in its modern context - making century-old wisdom immediately actionable.

Annotated edition - coming soonJoin the list to be notified when it publishes.

As an Amazon Associate, Christie L. Russell earns from qualifying purchases.

Questions Answered

Questions about Genevieve Behrend

How did Behrend use visualization to attract $20,000?+
Her method was sensory-specific and practiced twice daily. She sat quietly each morning and evening and counted out twenty imaginary $1,000 bills, physically feeling the texture of each. She supplemented this with written mental pictures: the experience of buying her steamer ticket, walking the ship's deck, and being received as Troward's student. She anchored the practice with a single affirmation - 'My mind is a center of Divine operations' - and maintained it without emotional strain. When an unexpected financial avenue appeared, she treated it as the natural first sprout of her mental seed rather than reacting with excitement. Practical follow-up steps secured the full sum within six weeks.
Why does strenuous effort defeat the visualization process?+
Behrend is precise on this: effort during visualisation somaticizes a state of lack. When you strain to hold a mental image, the muscular tension and shallow breathing tell the nervous system you are in threat-mode - fighting something. The subconscious then acts to protect you from the thing you are reaching for, reinforcing the very limitations you are trying to escape. Effective visualisation requires a parasympathetic state: relaxed, safe, settled. The feeling should be quiet expectation - the calm certainty of someone who knows what they ordered is already on its way.
What is the difference between Your Invisible Power and Attaining Your Desires?+
Your Invisible Power (1921) is Behrend's foundational text and the better starting point. It introduces the basic laws of visualisation through her own personal story - including the $20,000 account - and provides a practical guide to the mental picture method. Attaining Your Desires (1929) is for practitioners who have mastered the basics. Written in a Platonic dialogue format between a 'Sage' (representing Troward) and a 'Pupil' (representing Behrend), it addresses advanced application: overcoming serious adverse conditions, strengthening personal will, and aligning individual thought with universal creative principle. Start with Your Invisible Power; return to Attaining Your Desires when that first book has become practice rather than theory.
What was Troward's 'Revelation Test' and why does Behrend describe it?+
Troward gave Behrend a test about Revelation 21:16, which describes a heavenly city of equal length, breadth, and height. The correct answer - that the city represents truth, and that truth is non-invertible (identical from every angle) - was not a test of biblical knowledge but of metaphysical comprehension. Behrend recounts it in Your Invisible Power to establish that her approach to Mental Science is not superficial or ritualistic. Non-invertibility means that true spiritual and physical laws operate consistently regardless of the perspective or era from which they are accessed. Passing the test demonstrated that she understood metaphysics as a logical, stable system of cause and effect - not a collection of magical techniques.

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