Manifesting a lie

Not a day goes past without me coming across someone babbling on about 'manifesting' their future with damp eyed rapture, as if they have discovered some incredible, new, secret-sauce. It's changed their lives, and can change yours too for £4.99 per month! Ignore the fact it's just focusing on doing something with passion, manifesting will get you exactly that with the warm feeling of pseudo-religious connectivity thrown in. Are we being sold down the river and manifesting a lie as just one in another long-line of ideas regurgitated onto the internet as a marketing gimmick? Welcome to my TED Talk - let's have an unreasonable debate.

The concept of manifesting desired outcomes has roots in various ancient cultures and spiritual traditions. While the term "manifesting" as we know it today is relatively recent, the underlying principles can be traced back to the ancient Greek philosophers, Hinduism and the ancient Egyptians to name but a few. The concept of "manifestation" is closely related to the Hindu concept of "sankalpa," which refers to a resolve or intention formed in the heart and mind. This intention, when combined with focused action and belief, is believed to bring about desired results. Taking away the religious framework, philosophers like Plato and Pythagoras explored the idea that the mind could shape reality. They emphasized the importance of aligning one's thoughts and actions with desired outcomes to bring them into fruition. No matter how hard I imagine I live in a tidy house, as I doze off on the couch, when I awake, I'm still covered in crisp crumbs and my better half is scowling at me for not having hoovered something. Mostly myself.

If there is an outside force attached, it's not your fault, or is it?

While I am firmly in the camp of not believing in space monsters in togas, it is undeniable that taking a simple concept like focusing on creating a desired outcome and wrapping it in some pseudo-mystical, wibbly-wobbly packaging not only gives the idea of manifesting a get out clause (you didn't manifest enough/in the right way/let your Twitch subscription lapse) but also introduces a powerful and seductive level of community that we, as herd animals, are always on the lookout for. Slap the power of social media onto any concept, and you can quickly find an audience for anything. Stir in a soupçon of growing personal isolation, manufactured and real fears, growing inequality between rich and poor and climate breakdown, and it's not hard to see why something like manifestation becomes a desirable short-cut to solving all ills.

As a human animal, we are highly susceptible to herd instinct and our 'reasoning' helps us attach outside forces and intentions to the choices we make, whether they are a success or failure. That is, when you think about it, manifesting at its core - our way to shape our perception of the reality we find ourselves in that Plato was close to articulating, while skirting close to some kind of Dr. Who time and space manipulation. If we set our goal on being a millionaire within a year and two years later we have debt collectors at the door, we are perfectly capable of attaching all sorts of blame to the failure. The fact that we made terrible financial decisions, such as not paying for house insurance because we manifested a perfect life not involving an electric scooter fire, is harder to accept rather than we didn't manifest enough. Social media super-charges this by providing echo-chambers for groups to gather in, reinforce each others thinking and encourage greater and greater commitment to the cause. It's a phenomenon that all content creators, companies and social media platforms exploit to varying degrees. Ironically, rather than being in control of our future, we immerse ourselves in collectives to try and protect ourselves psychologically.

Hang on - are saying Socialism is bad?

No! Collective effort is much more preferable to everyone trying to be Elon Musk and caring only about themselves. There is a lot to be said for the concept of thinking globally and acting locally. However, social media fuelled groups such as Reddit, Discord etc. have undoubtedly brought a new challenge for humans to navigate as they make their way through life. We are still assimilating the effect this tech has on us - being always on, more connected, but less able to connect in person. If you walk down any street in the UK now, everyone is glued to a phone in some way, whether it is hunched over the screen as they walk, with headphones linked to a podcast/music or talking loudly to people in thin air or with the phone held flat like a hallowed wafer, just out of reach of the first bite. It has never been easier to act collectively, and that's a good thing in the face of the challenges we are all tackling. I do wonder if enough attention is being paid to the corrosive elements of this technology being so prevalent in our lives, and 'manifesting' is one example of how those who are clever enough shape the lives of millions with careful repackaging of ancient ideas.

The modern resurgence of 'Manifesting' can be largely attributed to the popularization of the Law of Attraction through the book and film 'The Secret' in 2006. While the principles behind the Law of Attraction were not new, "The Secret" presented them in a simplified and accessible way, feeding into popular discussion on social media platforms. The online movement sparked renewed interest in the concept of manifestation, leading to a surge in books, workshops, and online groups dedicated to the topic. While I am not personally aware of any content creators that solely focus on manifestation, the ability of humans to take a worthy concept, short-cut it and twist it is as old as time itself and a quick search of YouTube showed just that - the second video is the only one worth watching, in my opinion.

Now, here is where I double back on myself a bit, though I hope I have caveated my argument enough that it's not so much of a handbrake-turn to give you whiplash. Manifesting is a worthwhile approach when done from a psychological viewpoint, and you discard all that shit about 'the consciousness of the universe' and other crap. It's all about convincing yourself to take steps towards your goals and not spending all your time day-dreaming about increasingly unrealistic outcomes to your goals. Keta Kokhtashvilli describes it well in this TED Talk but, like everything, it only works if you put the effort in and are happy to fail. Like anything in life, there are rarely any shortcuts worth it, and expecting the 'Universe' to give you what you want because you talk about or journal it is one of them. Have a serious goal and put your energy into achieving it, however, and you just might shape your universe into what you want it to be.

Happy goal-setting, ghosties.