Understanding Manifestation: A Critical Perspective
1,252 words, 7 minutes read time
“Manifesting” is a spiritual practice that involves using thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and actions to make an idea a reality. It’s based on the idea that positive thoughts and emotions can lead to tangible change in life. Some techniques used in manifesting include visualization and affirmations.
The term “manifesting” is based on the word “manifestation”. It’s become popular with Gen Z social media users, who say it’s changing their lives.
The idea behind manifesting is that believing you have the power to turn something theoretical into reality will help it happen. For example, if you want to become a professional author, you could imagine what it would feel like to finish your first manuscript or sign a book deal. ( Without ever writing a book…Ha ha, good luck!!!)
The law of attraction is one of the underlying ideas of manifesting. It’s the belief that like attracts like.
{end quote} (Introduction and images generated by AI)
The explanation of something by a man, typically to a woman, in a manner regarded as condescending or patronizing. example…”your response is classic mansplaining”
Disclaimer:
This article was originally published as a comment to Quantouch’s comprehensive blog post about ‘The techniques of manifesting one’s dreams”. It is not meant as an attack on the article itself, which is not making any claims to be Gospel.
For reference and BEFORE we get started: Subscribe to Quantouch’s blog; the blog post is an effectual articel for manifesting more eyeballs…
There are a lot of hucksters and shady figures in the business of selling gullible people their shitty life situations as being a consequence of their ‘disciples’ not believing hard enough in themselves.
While I do have confidence that a loving and empathetic world view is essential to gain a footing in whatever wild water life has decided to throw us in, telling people that they just need to believe in themselves more is a great recipe for taking their money and leaving them stranded with a ‘well, I told you it might not work for everyone’.
At some point the victims, followers, believers come to realize that they have spent hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on another murky theory that essentially comes down to a modern version of reading ones destiny in the bottom of a teacup.
Manifesting is like the female version of mansplaining : Just keep talking about a million dollars and it will magically show up. Please excuse this analogy, ladies, nothing personal.
I don’t mean to be pissing on anyone’s parade here, but I am also genuinely fed up with hearing about ‘the law of attraction” as a viable source of information on how to turn your life around. It irks me that people are getting rich by going around and concocting theories of magic and wonder, underline it with outlandish claims of science ( Quantum healing, anyone,lol) and then to go out and sell their mesmerizing, wordy hypnosis scripts as ‘genuine research’ that has been proven, because a million housewives can’t be wrong! Yes, they can be wrong. Period.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed that article by Quantouch, it is fairly neutral, they not charging anyone money for their ‘information’ and have put in the necessary disclaimers. And they threw me a curveball that I am intending to hit dead center and right out of my home team’s ballpark, if you permit me to mansplain this in any more detail.
A few choice words about the Manifestation Industry
The manifestation industry is mostly about generating money for traveling snake-oil salesmen (and women) of hope. In that way they are a lot like commercial churches with their luxury-SUV-driving preachers and regular collections schedules. They are the Bhagvan’s of our day and age. Cultish figures that demand obedience to their outlandish claims, read the small print for where to get your money back kind of operations.
Have you ever seen a few people standing around a cardboard box downtown, playing a shell game? If you did, I hope you have noticed that the trickster moving the three shells with the single marble under it is only part of a team. One person is there to pretend like they won something (to convince you to try it yourself), and the burly scary looking dude that is telling you you can not ask for your money back is part of the team too.After the game they meet around the corner and divide up the loot.
Prayer is talking to God. Meditation is LISTENING to God! Ru Paul
I’ll just leave it with that, otherwise this would not amount to proper mansplaining.
Stick with me if you feel like actually getting some downloads on how you can really influence the course of your destiny.
If you want to dive deeper into how much influence we can and cannot take on the course of our lives and what is really possible for people in terms of how much of a say we actually have in ‘designing our destinies’, I highly recommend a recent book by the brilliant Stanford Professor for Neuro-biology, Robert Sapolsky.
‘Determinded’
Sapolsky is well known for his bestselling book on anxiety and human behavior called “Why Zebra’s don’t get Ulcers”.
His Stanford lectures on human biology are available on YouTube and his entertainment value can keep up with any Tony Robbins or Deepak Chopra, he just put in a little more time ‘in the field’ before spouting his delightful sense of wonder out into the world. He is not motivated by getting rich, but genuinely sharing knowledge. And he is full of compassion for his students and his readers, full of love and wonder for this planet and every bird and bee that might be busy trying to manifest the preservation of their habitats. So we have that loving kindness part covered while we keep our feet firmly planted in reality.
In ‘Determined’, he dissects the possibilities of a well lived life and describes how little options we have to ‘just make the best of it’. While the outlook is kind of bleak, knowing how little we can actually achieve by sitting on a ‘holier than-thou pedestal’ can actually be very motivating for figuring out one’s capabilities for change, for making a plan and getting to work on those dreams.
Yes, it is important to speak kindly to ourselves. But it can also be very disappointing when our prayers do not seem to get heard; when we feel that we didn’t get that ice-cream. That extra scoop we were trying to manifest just by asking mom really kindly and sweetly, over and over and so on and so on…..ad infinitum.
That all being said, I wish everyone the best and hope that you all go after what’s rightfully yours: A happy and accomplished life. And allow yourself that extra scoop every once in a while. IF you can afford it, don’t be buying it on credit. Cheers!
Let me know in the comments if you would like to know more about Robert Sapolski and his work on human biology: how stress relates to our longevity, and all the interesting stuff that you might come across once you get really deep into a subject matter, ask lots of questions and go out into the world to find the answers that just leave you with more wonder and questions….
I think I have exhausted what I have to say about manifesting for today, gotta go and manifest myself some breakfast right now.
Have a wonderful day, ladies and gents and do not take yourselves too seriously, it gets in the way of manifesting the wealth that really matters. Inner peace.
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