Did you know that you can manifest more money by bending the quantum field? Or that if you see yourself living in abundance, you will attract it? These are some of the claims I’ve seen floating around social media about “manifesting”, which is the idea that if you want something to happen for you, you can believe it into occurring.
Each new claim seems to get more bizarre than the last – one recent Instagram post I saw featured a young, high-energy spiritual teacher claiming that writing down a certain symbol would lead to people manifesting “a ton of money”. “Let’s get to the science bit,” he enthused, before detailing information that certainly wasn’t science. It was so weird that I thought it was a parody, and searched through his account for evidence of a comedy genius at work. But no. It was real, and I felt alone in my cynicism when I saw the 1,500-plus likes on the post and overwhelmingly positive comments.
Manifestation is a burgeoning part of current social media wellness trends, with manifesting influencers selling courses, books and private consultations that they claim will help people get the life they desire. They didn’t invent the phenomenon – you probably remember Rhonda Byrne’s book on manifestation, The Secret, which was published in 2006. It attracted a lot of criticism, but it also sold tens of millions of copies (undoubtedly manifested by Byrne). This book took the idea of manifestation, which has its roots in the New Thought spiritual movement, and thrust it into the mainstream.
Interest in manifesting has grown in recent years – Google searches for “manifesting” peaked in May 2020, right when we were in the throes of the early havoc caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. They dipped a little before rising again this summer. As a result, you’ll find influencers and social media users spouting manifesting slogans such as “we attract the energy we put out”, or talking about getting into a “high vibrational frequency state”.
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Here in Ireland, a book by Iraqi-British life coach Roxie Nafousi called Manifest, and its follow-up Manifest: Dive Deeper, have featured in the bestseller charts for months. Nafousi told Harper’s Bazaar that manifesting is a “combination of quantum physics, neuroscience, philosophy, spirituality and wisdom”. As strange a combination as that sounds, it seems to have actually helped her change her life. And alongside her quantum physics spiel, inside her books you’ll find a lot of self-inquiry that can be genuinely helpful.
It’s not a surprise that manifesting is back on the rise this year, with the punitive cost of living, continued issues with housing, climate crisis and geopolitical disaster
Yet I feel uneasy about manifesting. This is partly because what some people call manifesting is just setting goals, but with a fancier name. Indeed, an Instagram post by that very same spiritual teacher I mentioned earlier shared the following steps to making manifestations a reality: choose a reasonable manifestation, decide on three things you can do to make it happen, and do them. Makes sense, right?
Unfortunately, he doesn’t stop there, describing this goal-setting as “collapsing the quantum field”. It’s these murkier claims that make my hackles rise, when manifesting involves talk of bending quantum fields, or using quantum physics to “essentially collapse time” or claiming the law of attraction gives us control over subatomic particles (seriously). Is it not enough to encourage people to have dreams and do their best to achieve them? Not all manifesters believe in this side of things, but to see these scientific claims spouted at big audiences without evidence feels misguided at best.
It’s not a surprise that manifesting is back on the rise this year, with the punitive cost of living, continued issues with housing, climate crisis and geopolitical disasters. So much is out of our hands; no wonder people want to try to take control over what’s happening in their own lives. I can’t blame someone for seeing manifesting as an escape hatch from a world where every year seems to bring even more grim news.
But if you promise people that anything can happen if they just want it to (and that it requires having a positive attitude, which is a big part of manifesting), you’re missing out on the fact that the odds are stacked against some people more than others. The world isn’t an equal place – much as some people might be fighting for it to be – and not everyone has the same access to the money, power and social systems that can actually help you make a “ton of money”, or progress in the workplace. As one meme put it: “Maybe you manifested it. Maybe it’s white privilege”.
I’ll admit that I’ve felt envious of manifesters and their positive, go-get-em attitude to achieving their dreams. Do they know something I don’t? Have I just not achieved some things because I haven’t put the work into manifesting them? Underneath my envy is often a wish to make things happen without too much striving, or to have something to blame when I don’t get what I want.
I’m not a manifester. I’m just a human who wants to make the most of her life. I reckon I’ve got a lot in common with manifesters on this latter point. But there are plenty of manifesting gurus online who want people to part with money in order to sell a wish and a dream. If you think manifesting is for you, the key is knowing whether you need to buy what they’re selling – or if it’s a load of pseudo-scientific bunkum.