Manifestation Works

I am skeptical of most new age practices and products that hotter, younger women try to sell me on the internet. I would like to only consume their content while battling my feelings of extreme jealousy and inadequacy. I don’t want to buy their products in an attempt to achieve what they have. A common theme among these savvy business people focuses on self-love and manifestation. While I can get behind their prompts to love myself, I’m reluctant to buy anything that requires that you believe in its abilities to work, like manifestation. I understand the placebo effect, but if this is what is needed of me for making manifestation effective, I don’t know if I have what it takes. I’d like what they’re touting to speak for itself. 

I worry about the young, less disillusioned people absorbing these lessons and not being able to explain why it doesn’t work. Or thinking they’re somehow flawed should it not yield the results they’ve been promised. Another frustrating development in manifestation is that you can manifest anything you want, but it might not look like what you had originally anticipated. This is an annoying argument. Isn’t that just what eventuates in life generally? You wanted a car when you were younger, but manifesting that car now would be insane because you have responsibilities and you don’t want to own a Camaro anymore so you buy a Honda Civic. That’s not manifestation, that’s just the passage of time. This theory justifies its own existence by insisting that whatever you end up with is what you had asked for originally, just in an iteration that you weren’t expecting. Why can’t I just get what I want now? I’m tired.  

These young women create TikTok videos that are eventually posted to their Instagram accounts, where they point to floating words by their heads indicating what they’ve manifested in the past year/month/day. Moving to LA, 100,000 followers on TikTok, the love of their lives, a fail-proof business idea that they’re beginning to monetize. This all sounds pretty pure-hearted in my book. It feels a bit crass to openly request and expect a specific dollar amount from the universe. Like it’s some sort of interplanetary bank. And these people tend to avoid outright saying that they’ve successfully manifested x amount of money. Instead, they skirt this topic by insisting they manifested their dream jobs or they paid off their mortgages in less time than they had originally expected. I appreciate their avoidance of saying that you can manifest money into your life because doing so might hold them accountable in a way they aren’t prepared for or that is unrealistic. I believe them, for the most part.

My favourite manifestation story happens to be the first time I ever heard about it as a teenager. Oprah was featuring guests on her show who participated in the production and filming of the documentary The Secret. Oprah believed she had been practising The Secret for years, without knowing what it was or attributing it to anything specifically. They called it the law of attraction and the basic message relayed was that you attracted what you thought about. Simple, straightforward, easy to understand for the average viewer. I ate it up. Then Oprah began her story of how strong her manifestation skills were. During her birthday month, gifts had been accumulating in her office for weeks leading up to the big day. Her birthday came and went but her pile of presents kept growing and it became overwhelming so she just stopped opening them. Lol, I love Oprah so much. 

One day, she had a show where she invited talented sleight of hand people like magicians and pianists to show off their skills. I had seen this episode, because I watched every episode of Oprah daily after school so I knew which guy she was talking about when she mentioned the bubble man. He created enormous bubbles that floated through the audience and seemed to never fall or pop. He used huge instruments and what could be best described as a kiddie pool full of soapy water to form his giant bubbles and Oprah was fascinated. Everyone was. She remembered how she wished she could make her own giant bubbles like this man had on her show. The same day the episode was filmed, she returned to her office and started doing some work post taping. She decided that she would open one present as a break in her work and the one present she opened was a giant bubble maker. She informed the audience that it wasn’t from the man, it was randomly gifted to her for her birthday weeks before his episode. It had to have been The Secret.

I love this story. It’s so wonderfully random and delightful. I love that what Oprah wished for most in that moment was “I want to do that too.” And then she was immediately rewarded for her efforts. I believe that Oprah has powerful manifestation skills that most people won’t ever be able to achieve. I also believe that Oprah is Oprah and the idea that anything she’s earned or achieved by being the best at literally everything (hosting, producing, acting, most jobs she’s had) could be unfairly attributed to her manifesting that success? Preposterous. Unfair. Wrong. Now, I know that Oprah is aware of these non-manifestation related skills. But I worry that some people, myself included, may confuse working hard towards manifesting our goals and working hard in general. It’s because it’s confusing. I have read studies sent from trusted colleagues and friends who present the benefits of creating vision boards in productivity and goal achievement. The science exists and it makes sense. Having a visual representation of your goals and desires makes it more likely for you to fulfil these goals. In the same way that speaking about them to others (feeling a sense of accountability for your goals and outward motivation and encouragement), writing them down, and creating a plan to achieve them also supports their coming to fruition. It isn’t far-fetched to believe that manifestation could and would help you. But it can be difficult to determine what to attribute your dream fulfilment to. Was it the manifestation that worked or was it your hard work? Did your manifestation enable or assist you in making the work less hard? Was the promise of realizing your goals successfully what helped you or the efforts themselves? Is working hard at manifesting something you want the same as working hard for that thing?  

What about manifesting people or specific behaviours from friends and family? Is it morally questionable to write down that you want your ex to get back to together with you? What if their manifestations dictate that they want to meet someone new? Does wanting to manifest someone you know acting a certain way for your benefit make you a controlling person who believes they should be able to realize their dream life at any cost?

Ultimately, manifestation is still a catchall argument that I think encourages you to work more forcefully on your beliefs than the required actions to make them successful. It overemphasizes the importance of thoughts and unwavering positivity and optimism rather than just doing the labour yourself to make what you want to happen, happen. 

 I confuse myself often with my manifestation beliefs. What are you supposed to do if you don’t believe that your beliefs dictate your reality? Your actions and thoughts rendered pointless? Or you can’t ever manifest successfully because you doubt its existence? There are many goals that I strive towards that I know are impossible to achieve. Not because of any failure or lack of effort on my part, but more having to do with the fact that these goals are literally out of the realm of possibility or accessibility to me. Manifestation would have me believe that everything is attainable and that it’s my beliefs that are preventing me from achieving these supposedly unreachable objectives. Even writing this feels as though I’m dooming myself to failure. The absence of any conceivable room for lamenting our setbacks or considering defeat is disconcerting. I’m not that positive. 

For me, for the manifestation to work successfully, it should be quick. But most manifestation professionals will insist that it takes years to hone your skills and even longer to manifest your dream life. I can acknowledge that certain aspects of a great life don’t shift like good health, having energy, love from friends, family, and romantic partners, money, security and a sense of purpose. So if I’m manifesting these, then I’d like to say, I’d want them to continue for me, in perpetuity. But, my opinions on what constitutes a great life are constantly changing. I don’t want the life I wanted for myself five years ago. I want the life I want now, now. What use is it otherwise? The only way this works is if I’m able to somehow manifest wild dreams for myself and make them appear overnight then continue to manifest change as my feelings and needs change.

I’m certain that I have successfully used these internet versions of manifestation in my life. I’ve manifested time speeding up when I was uncomfortable or bored. I’ve manifested good sleep after days of unrest. I’ve manifested meals that I’ve craved by living in a city with a bounty of great places to get takeout. The other day, as I was going for a walk alone, I thought, “I want a sandwich” from this place where I had ordered a sandwich from before. Their system is you text them your order and they’ll tell you when to come in to pick it up. Being on the move, I looked up the last text message I sent this sandwich place and resumed the conversation. “Hi, do you have any eggplant and smoked ricotta sandwiches left by any chance?” “We do! Is 15 minutes okay?” “Yes, thank you!” Then I picked it up. Was this manifestation at work or a food craving realized? Or both? I think this perfectly encapsulates my belief that manifestation can be attributed to many other factors at play but it demands all the credit. As if manifestation is responsible for all our successes. As if manifestation got me that eggplant and smoked ricotta sandwich. I’m too selfish and vain to give this credit away so easily. I did something too.

The last time I successfully practised manifestation, I went out for a morning walk at my parents’ house. My mom slept and my dad got groceries and I didn’t have to work for a couple of hours. I left the house and walked through a park with no real destination in mind. Was there coffee at home? Did I want to be outside while it rained? I considered these questions while I thought about my many blessings and how fortunate I was to be walking at 7:30 a.m., undisturbed by anyone around me. What else could I want or ask for? To manifest more when I didn’t need anything was selfish and greedy. Despite this, I thought I’d try, as an experiment. Without any idea of what I needed in this moment, I manifested abundance by repeatedly saying abundance in my head to test out my theory. Abundance, abundance, abundant abundance, everywhere. It continued to rain around me and as if I had conjured it out of thin air, I threw up in my mouth.