Reliant on the Universe: The Dangers of Manifestation

Photo by Christopher Ruel on Unsplash

What is manifestation? People gravitate towards the belief that desire itself bends the cosmos, that wanting becomes a force. Manifestation culture has become it’s own unofficial religion, especially for the ambition driven, using daily affirmations, gratitude journals and vision boards; when it’s wanted hard enough, the universe will provide. Yet there are dangers present, a truth of the repercussions of overconfidence in one’s own personal power, not through competence but through belief, and that there are powers beyond our control that govern the outcomes of the people. With as many as one in three people in recent research believing that manifestation is real, it’s wiggled its way into the mainstream with very real consequences.

In a recent study by Dixon and colleagues, using a rigorously constructed ‘Manifestation Scale’ to measure what people believe and how strongly, two main themes emerged:

• Personal Power: Belief that their thoughts, emotions and attitude directly influence outcomes

• Cosmic Collaboration: The belief that the universe, or some other metaphysical force, is working with them to achieve what they want

  
  

These themes may feel harmless, but these believers also felt more confident, more optimistic and more certain of their future success…without ‘tangible’ successes like income or education or status. This leads to the hidden truth behind manifestation; it is not changing what happens around a person, but the very way that person views themselves. In some instances, this is positive, who doesn’t want to live their life through an optimistic lens? The risk is posed by the dangers of blind trust.

People who believe strongly in manifestation are more likely to engage in risky behaviour, especially taking financial risks. They are more likely to believe that they’ll reach high levels of success quickly, engage in riskier investments, be more likely to have already experienced past financial losses and most importantly, be susceptible to overpromises (the ‘get-rich-quick’ ones). The line has been blurred between competence and overconfidence, the psychological repercussion of believing in ‘magic’. The stronger the belief, the less risk looks like risk, but instead is destiny fed by delusion – ‘this was meant to happen’.

So why do people turn to manifestation in the first place?

It’s so prevalent for human nature to seek out a shortcut when everything surrounding us is unpredictable, the economy, the job market, relationships. The age old belief of karmic justice to make right of the wrongs, a desire for control where there is chaos, and the placement of hope in those without official religious spirituality. Manifestation is not believed in out of naivety, but as an alternative to the unjust system, and when belief in something that promises control without demanding action or accountability, it’s a very seductive trap.

If success or failure stops being due to one’s own abilities or understanding of their immediate environment and, instead, is a product of ‘how strongly you believed’, then there is even more lack of control. On top of this, the gurus and influencers pushing for manifestation belief can blame the individual if they didn’t achieve what they wanted to; it’s their fault, they didn’t believe it enough. The people that are looked to for inspiration are doing well; by profiting off the culture thanks to everyone else buying into it.

Whilst manifestation poses these threats, there are psychological benefits to the nature of belief in oneself and to optimism; it promotes a stronger sense of agency, reduces stress and motivates more. The issue does not lie within manifestation itself, but the overreliance and culture that replaces critical thinking with intuition, encouraging hope without humility or risk without realism.

The consideration should not necessarily be whether or not to believe in manifestation, but how much of the psyche is given to it, how consciously it’s believed. It can be a positive tool if there is balance of aspiration and action, because the universe might support people, but it also might just be a bystander.

Take the depth psychology perspective; manifestation is not just a mindset, but a negotiation with the unconscious. ‘Manifesting’ a future may actually be a projection of the disowned part of the psyche outward, expecting the universe to do the hard work in our place, connecting to the things a person is yet to integrate with. Being allured by overnight success may be shining a light on one’s own fear of insignificance, a need to feel achieved or important. When the universe is believed to be the supporter, the entity that protects and has a person’s best interests in clear view, it could be revealing a lack of support that person may have suppressed from their past. Manifestation becomes the symbolic language of unmet needs, a way to soothe the psyche’s deeper anxieties. The danger isn’t wanting to dream, it’s mistaking the dream for destiny when instead, the invitation needs to be extended to the shadow material driving it.

To read the full study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2023, find the link here: (PDF) "The Secret" to Success? The Psychology of Belief in Manifestation

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