The past has not happened yet. More important than manifesting the future one should manifest the past. Everybody loves to visualize what will happen to them, but they never think to intentionally visualize what has occurred. In this life so much shit happens to you that your brain narrativeizes a story to justify what has happened. In order to bear the weight of absurdity it creates a plot, and the plot of this narration creates the character of your identity. You currently are what you have told yourself you were. The past only exists so far as it is confirmed in the present. If everybody got amnesia of an event, and everybody acted as if it never even happened, then it never even happened. And so in a sort of computational mathematical sense, this is hysteresis error, in which previous inputs affect present readings. In short, previous states affect what is perceived in the present, and so if you walk around thinking to yourself, I'm a punk, I'm a loser, I'm a bitch, then the present is going to confirm you're a punk, you're a loser, you're a bitch. But you can just as easily change the story you tell yourself and become something different. That's why in Fight Club, you know, he talks about going to all these different locations. And if so, if you're an insomniac, you change your cities, can you not just become an entirely different person? That's all that means. Same thing when you go to a bar in a different city, an invent a name in a backstory and become a different character for a night. You can change your identity at any point. You change your identity by changing the narration of your life. Acting like it's already happened makes it happen. Take advantage of the hysteresis. That's what people say your reputation precedes you. Or when they say he's on a roll or he has motion, it implies that he's already in transit from a previous state and he has momentum. The first million is the hardest of start with the second million. The first key to success is assuming a previous successful state. Your memory is malleable. The 2am urge to get your life together is the soul trying to escape hysteresis error. The terror you feel in the middle of the night, the shame, mixed with hope, and excitement and fear. That is the feeling of absolute presence, of total freedom to be whatever you want to be. In the middle of the night, you can be whatever you want to be. So before inventing your future, invent the past that that person would already have. The man who believes that everything has gone right in his life, even if it has gone wrong, is infinitely stronger than the man who is convinced that he is doomed and that the world was out to get him. The past has not happened yet. The past is up for grabs. The past is where the future is won. Everybody's larping all the time while larp as a loser. People larp as losers. They tell themselves about that story because then they never have to change.
Miller inverts manifestation culture: "The past has not happened yet. More important than manifesting the future one should manifest the past." Most visualize the future, but never intentionally visualize what has occurred — yet the brain already narrativeizes what happened into a plot to bear absurdity, and that plot creates identity ("You currently are what you have told yourself you were"). Past exists only as confirmed in present — "If everybody got amnesia of an event, and everybody acted as if it never even happened, then it never even happened" — which he frames as hysteresis error (previous inputs affect present readings). So walking around thinking "I'm a punk/loser/bitch" makes the present confirm it, but the story can be changed at will, as Fight Club's insomniac becoming different people in different cities, or inventing a name in a bar for a night, shows — you change identity by changing narration, acting as if already happened makes it happen, taking advantage of hysteresis, reputation, and momentum ("he's on a roll"). The 2am terror/shame/hope/excitement is not pathology but absolute presence — total freedom to be whatever you want, before inventing a future, invent the past that that person would already have. The man who believes everything has gone right, even when it hasn't, is infinitely stronger than the man convinced he is doomed — because past is up for grabs, and future is won there.
Miller's "past is up for grabs" risks gaslighting — some past did happen, with witnesses and scars, and telling yourself "everybody got amnesia, so it never happened" can become denial that bypasses accountability and grief. Not every punk/loser/bitch story is a hysteresis error to be re-narrated; some are accurate descriptions of pattern that need skill, amends, or healing, not just a new story at 2am. The past where the future is won still needs to be true enough to act on.