Manifesting a reality check
Is Gen Z’s new religion up for a reformation?
“He’s so in love with me,” I said aloud to no one while simultaneously placing a drop of honey under my tongue, “He can’t stop texting me.” This was going to result in getting a text from a boy I liked. Well, at least according to TikToker and manifestation guru @valeriafune. “The honey method” makes someone obsess over you instantly, apparently.
This was a last resort — I had already tried all the other manifestation practices I’d seen on TikTok. I had written down what I wanted as if it had already happened – from the more practical “I have my dream job affirmation” to delineating how I’d go viral. I watched the YouTube videos recommended to me by the algorithm, including subliminals that would clear my skin overnight if I listened to them. I scripted apology texts from my exes that I’m still waiting for. I was down the rabbit whole of internet manifestation culture to fix my issues with magic —my year of manic manifestation — it didn’t work.
Manifestation and law of attraction, the theory that we can craft and change our reality through our thoughts, has succeeded among Gen Z as a trendy form of spirituality. On TikTok, #manifestation boasts over 21 billion views, the law of attraction trailing behind with a mere 4 billion. Online, anyone without a degree in psychology can become manifestation coaches, giving rise to multiple practices like the 3-6-9 method, the whisper method, pillow method, and so on. TikTok users demonstrate how the contents of their visualization boards came to life through before and after shots, a testament that the powers of manifestation truly work.
Like Y2K and quiet quitting, manifestation isn’t a Gen Z invention. Its origins can be traced to ancient Hindu teachings. It entered mainstream pop culture around 2006, with the publishing of Rhonda Byrnes’s The Secret, a book that inspired praise from the likes of Oprah Winfrey and a movie starring Katie Holmes. The Secret’s philosophy is that to properly manifest, you just have to ask for what you want, believe the universe has your back, and then voila, you receive what’s rightfully yours. Since its publishing, oodles of celebrities and influencers have attributed their seemingly perfect lives to the law of attraction. Through manifestation, the ladder to success is equal for all. Becoming rich and famous has never looked so easy.
Promoting positive thinking to Gen Zers, who are experiencing the highest rates of burnout due to dissatisfaction in the workplace and uncontrollable factors (oh, I don’t know, a pandemic, climate change, rising costs of living) isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But internet manifestation culture can encourage a toxic form of positivity centered around extreme individualism and victim blaming. In turn, it can exacerbate low self-esteem, stress, and hopelessness among those that buy too much into it.
Common answers to failed manifestations include: you’re not aligned with what you want, you're not being specific, you care too much, or you had a negative thought. When a manifestation tactic doesn't work or something unwanted occurs, the rhetoric blames us and the fact that our brains weren’t powerful or disciplined enough to manifest our desires into reality. Stephanie Najjar, a political theorist who goes by @itsclassicsteph on TikTok, explains that there are social barriers that go unaddressed when talking about the law of attraction’s powers. “Manifestation ignores and creates this erasure of the resources, the capital and the privilege that takes in order for certain things to materialize,” she says.
I replaced therapy with manifestation, believing that only I could save myself from pain. When I needed to process hurt the most, I suppressed it in order to avoid welcoming more negativity in my life. Emotional suppression does us more harm than good – studies show that it can lead to aggression, depression and anxiety, memory problems, and even cancer and early death. Long term negativity in exchange for short term positivity.
Model and manifestation enthusiast Taylor Tookes writes on Twitter that the law of attraction and those that teach it should not be encouraging emotional suppression in service of maintaining a positive mindset. “It should NOT be taboo to feel. It should not be taboo to be SAD and CRY. The law of attraction encourages EXACTLY THAT. It’s TOXIC.” Tookes writes.
Giving the law of attraction so much power over our lives not only cultivates an unhealthy mindset but disregards the systematic and lived traumatic experiences that can hinder us from a certain outcome. We have to take manifestation content with a grain of salt, understanding that it isn’t magic that’ll forever save us from negative experiences and thoughts. Manifestation and positive thinking can help us achieve our goals, alongside other factors like hard work, available resources, and yes – luck. But you can’t simply manifest yourself out of trauma the way you can’t heal a broken bone through positive thinking.